Hanna Ramras - January 26, 2008
Finding Transport
Do you know how your--your mother must have found out that Winton was setting up these transports.
My grandfather and my mother knew everything and I knew nothing. But you see, Winton brought a lot of youngsters from Germany too. His transport was all through the railways--trains. He was a man who worked in, I think, in the Ministry of the Interior if I'm not mistaken. And uh, he traveled a lot in Europe and he saw what was going there--on there before the war and it troubled him and he came back and he said that uh, "We have to do something." And he went to the, to the Foreign Ministry and to the, to the Ministry of the Interior, he went everywhere and they said, "Look, the thing is transportation can be arranged but the families who will take in these children, that you'll have to do--you will have to do that with your friends, with you acquaintances. That's up to you." I didn't come on his transport. I came on somebody else's transport. That Air Force office was called uh, Chadwick.
Oh, so it wasn't a Winton...
There were others too but on a smaller scale. Winton is the one that really did the heavy work there but he got documentation, he got permission to bring the children in. And Chadwick who lived in Swanage approached Mr. and Mrs. Style, "Would you take a little refugee?" "Yes." He said, "Take your pick. Here are the ages and the names," and they picked me.
Do you remember the first time you met them? How did it feel?
Well, I met them--they were waiting for me in Croydon at the airport.
Were you frightened? Were you...
Frightened, frightened to death and--very throwing up all the time, it was awful. And I remember that they had such pity in their eyes. Their eyes spoke. English people are not demonstrative people but you could see and read pity in their eyes there and uh, then I was, I was treated like a princess. Someone from an orphanage into a home where you have a governess and you're suddenly taken care of. Mrs. Style made it a point that I should--she should wash my hair in rainwater. We collected rainwater in a big barrel and that was what they thought would uh, would do the trick for your hair in Victorian times before the invention of all these shampoos, right? So, I had my hair washed in rainwater and all sorts of little things that made all the difference.
Do you remember the governess' name?
No, no. She was Australian.
And she was also kind to you?
Very kind, but she was always sort of with Jesus.
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