John was born in Berlin in 1926. In 1939, he was evacuated to Britain on a Kindertransport. Some years later, he found out that his parents had been murdered in Auschwitz. By the end of the war, John felt at home in Britain.
John was born in Berlin in 1926 into a middle class Jewish family that had roots in East Prussia. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, life became increasingly difficult for John’s family. After Kristallnacht in November 1938, John’s parents made plans to leave Germany.
‘…my first recollection that I was different from the other…boys and girls, was going to junior school...’
They wanted to emigrate to America but due to immigration quotas, they could not go for another four years. So John and his brother were sent to Britain on a Kindertransport in 1939. The family hoped to reunite in America in 1943.
John quickly settled in Britain and was happy at school. He was glad to be away from the hostility he had experienced in Germany.
‘The one thing that was completely missing, happily, was the animosity and the fear that we experienced in Germany. Nobody was against you.’
But John lost touch with his parents, last hearing from them in 1943. After the war, he found out that they had been murdered in Auschwitz.
After school, John worked at a transport firm where he gained valuable knowledge for his future career. By the end of the war, John felt completely assimilated into British society.
‘Certainly by 1945, I was totally in the mainstream of what my contemporaries were doing and they were non-Jewish, and Jewish, and continental, and British born.’
John set up a road haulage firm after the war. He has been very successful in his career and was awarded the OBE for his part in resolving a road haulage strike in 1979. He is pleased with the opportunities he has had in Britain.
‘We must remember that Britain is a country of great tolerance and opportunity if you use it right and try not to get a free ride.’
But his early experiences have continued to impact on his Jewish identity. And he continues to seek compensation for the loss of his family’s property during the Second World War from the German government.
‘Whenever I meet people I’ve not meet before, or I get into a situation with total strangers, I seem to find it necessary… desirable, to bring out that I am Jewish, quite early on.’
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