Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Leaving Austria
So what were the circumstances under which you managed to get out?
Well uh, my father found that uh, they needed nurses in England. And so we wrote to them. And I didn't speak English at the time but I had a friend help me write a letter saying I wanted to be a nurse in England. And they took me. They said, "Okay, you'll come to Exeter and we will train you." That's what they were looking for. And so I was able to leave because then I had a visa. And, and my brother went to Argentina because they needed someone to clear uh, the forest.
Do you think there was anything else to it? I mean, you two were just lucky?
Oh I think it was just luck. I uh, don't think anything, anything else there was luck. It was blind luck.
You don't think there was any, any um, possible working with the bureaucracy, maybe bribing somebody here and there.
No.
Just random.
Yeah, it was random. My father was busy. He went around and he went to the Jewish community and he looked at possible leads because we didn't really have these close relatives. And so he was checking for leads when he came across this thing with England. And the affidavit was only for my parents, not for my brother and me as far as, at least. And, so.
[interruption in interview]
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