Baruch Spergel - February 4, 2008
Experience on Kindertransport II
Well, let's go back to you then. So you were, you were a small child, your mother put you on this train...
BS: Mm-hm.
ZF: Yes, yes.
...and did it-did the other children watch after you on the train do you remember?
ZF: I really-I don't remember them, I don't. I don't remember anything. I remember there were bigger peo...bigger children in there but I didn't know anybody and, uh...
Was there food and drink?
ZF: I don't remember anything except what ??? said and ??? didn't go with me, she went with him so I don't know.
BS: One thing I do remember...
ZF: But I'm sure there was somebody who was responsible...
BS: One thing I do remember-first of all this incident about spitting on German soil and another thing I remember is that we got sandwiches in Holland. Wonderful white, white bread and with cheese. It was very, very good. We never ate white bread in Czechoslovakia.
It was all black bread.
BS: Huh?
It was all black bread.
ZF: Yeah. So, I don't have these memories. They don't uh, no, I can't, I can't...
Arrival at the station? Do you remember arri...
ZF: Huh?
Do you remember arriving at the station?
ZF: No, I, I remember sitting in the train, I remember sitting in the train and my mother outside and then this cousin came along ???...
BS: Hmm.
ZF: ...came along and he-with that, with that ball the last minute before the train, the train moved.
What happened to the ball? Lost?
ZF: Most probably lost. I didn't uh, I was uh, I have no memory of it. It's just disappeared, it disappeared right away. I never had a memory of it.
Who met you at the train?
ZF: This I have-not at the train. We were taken-all children were taken together to this huge cinema, whatever it was, in London. And uh, they called out from the stage the names of the children and the children were there and somebody would come down to pick them up. I mean the people who were there-not, not all-most of the people didn't have their relatives there. Most of the people had-they had sponsors who came. Some of the sponsors didn't come. There were all kinds of cases so I'm talking about mine. I saw my brother and my aunt, my aunt, my aunt and uncle not-the other children, I saw them when I, when I was on the stage. I saw them so I knew that they were-that somebody was coming to pick me up.
And then where did they take you?
ZF: Well, they took us to the flat of my aunt and uncle at the beginning...
In London.
ZF: In London, yes. In, in-I think they were already in Golders Green at that time.
BS: Hmm?
ZF: They were in Golders Green at that time.
BS: Yeah.
ZF: They lived in Golders Green or not?
BS: They lived in Golders Green and Hampstead...
ZF: In Hampstead at the beginning?
BS: Hampstead. They lived in Hampstead. They had that ??? down by the street.
ZF: Afterwards they were Golders Green.
BS: Later on they were Golders Green.
ZF: Golders Green. Well, this aunt-we lived there for a long time because the war started and they sent all the children out to a place called Exminster.
BS: Yes.
ZF: You remember Exminster?
BS: We went to Exminster, there we stayed near Exeter and, uh...
ZF: It was a dance hall. It was a huge wooden building.
BS: In Exminster we were told that the war had broken out. That was in Exminster. In Exminster they-my aunt or this uncle had said, "Well, so, now we've got war."
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