Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Train Station
so when he heard of this possibility of gettingout, he said go. And in Austria when a father says to an eighteen-year-old go,you go. It was never any question. I'm surprised how unquestioning I must havebeen, but that's what he said and that's what we did.
So what did go mean?
Pack your bags and go to England. Leave.
Well, so you went to atrain station first and then.
Yeah, we went to this train station and my motherwas near collapsing. And then when we came to the German border they took offall the Jews and uh, they did a body search. They were looking for gold, whichI didn't have. And then they made us miss the train. So I was in Aachen. Imissed the train. So when I finally did get the train to go over to go to Brusselsto get the boat to go to England. And when I got to the station in Englandthere was nobody there waiting for me because the train I was supposed to havecome on I missed. And so I wandered around London and a policeman pick me up.And he thought I looked foreign, of course, and I couldn't speak English, so hetook me to the HIAS, the home there.
Hebrew Immigrant AidSociety.
Yes.
Yeah.
And then they uh, they found out where I wassupposed to go and they gave me a ticket and put me on the train.
Now you were alone onthis train.
Pardon?
You were alone on this train.
Oh yeah.
And traveled through Germany.
Yes.
Were you frightened?
Well, I was looking out to see if there wassomething I could see. But I, I knew that the critical point was the border. Soit-just holding my breath until I got to the border and when I got out toBelgium it was such a feeling to be free again that I didn't have any money soI couldn't even buy a cup of coffee, but it was such a relief to be away fromthat, to not have to look over your shoulder. And then of course, you worry aboutthe rest of the family that's left behind. My brother left the next day.
So you-but you knew whatwas going to happen to your parents.
No, I didn't know until uh, we could correspondagain. Once I got to my, my place in Exeter there was a letter waiting for me.They had written me.
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