Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Malka Sternberg - January 31, 2008

And I went to--wanted to go to the kibbutz all the time because I liked these people from England. I waited for that group and of course he wouldn't let me. He came--it was just terrible when I went. In the end I did go, four years I stayed there and, and in the end I did go too because I stayed seven years there. I was very happy in the kibbutz.

How did you meet your husband?

Oh, that's a story. Have you heard of the Rabbi Schoenfeld from England?

I have.

You have. You know who he is?

Well, I, I just know the name.

But he brought--he was a, a--not a unique in a generation, unique in a century. He brought over all by himself hundreds of children and grownups. He had a special relationship in the Home Office, he had a special relationship in the ??? Office and he managed to get people out into England and all sorts of ideas how to rescue them. There's a book about him--one book, there's a lot of books written about him. He never had an assistant. Not only for ??? project or something but he single handedly never talked about what he did, never. Hundreds and later on became thousands after the war--he took out children. Anyway, that's ??? but that's his first cousin. I worked for him for three years in the schools--I was in England for three years after the kibbutz. My brother got married and I wanted to see the new sister-in-law and I saw her exactly twice when my, when my visa expired and I couldn't get another visa unless I was employed for something English girls couldn't do so uh, Hebrew was the one thing. Anyway, I got to him and he employed me in the school. I was there for three years and when he came over--he was on the--sent to, to chicken farming--opening farms afterwards in whole of Europe he was doing this with shaliach for the, for this whole summer for summer groups--children, not chickens. And he was nearly in England--it ended in Holland so he said, "I've got so much family in England, I'll go there for the Yomim Tovim," and because at that time you had to pay a lot of money to get out of Israel and once we were out people gave him jobs. So sending another shaliach for payment and he was good. He came to England for, for Rosh Hashanah and to cut a long story short he met his cousin there among others--he had lots of cousins there--and he met his cousin there and he said, "What are your plans?" and he told him he's going to, to open chicken farms here and somewhere there and be a shaliach there--they all want him, he's got lots of offers for jobs. So he said, "No you're not, you're going to go back to ??? and you're going to marry ??? there beforehand. You're going to go back with her, you're going to marry her."