Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Kurt Stern - February 11, 2008

Moving Back to England

And then what?

Uh, I got a job as a pastry chef. I mean, I, I was a well known pastry chef. Today by the way I'm tourist guide for the last thirty years. I uh, worked um, at the ??? Hotel, which was the newest hotel in Israel--I'm talking about 1952. I met my wife just before that uh, who is--her name is ??? and she is sixteen generations in Israel. Uh, and we got marr...as I said I worked in the ??? Hotel and um, she was wo...she used to work at the ??? Hotel in ???. She also has a very interesting history. Um, and uh, then uh, yeah I worked at the ??? Hotel until we decided--or I decided...

[interruption in interview]

...uh, I decided I want to improve my knowledge of pastry cooking so we decided to go to Switzerland where I worked one season at the ??? and my wife ran the Jewish or the Israel--the Israeli--Swiss student club in Zurich and then we carried on to England. We sent some stuff to England, where we stayed a week or two with my uncle and then we got an apartment and I worked at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London as chef and second uh, assistant pastry chef at the Ritz Hotel in London. And uh, my son was born in England. He's a Londoner. We all have British passports but he's the only true British...Britisher, um...

What do you think about the British?

Queer people. Unbelievable. Funny people. They're good people but um, strange in their laws and the way--I mean, they can curse their queen or king up to the roof but if a foreigner says something against the queen they're up in arms. That's just an example.


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