Anita Soer – “Hope for mankind against a vast sea of evil”

My married name is Anita Rosel Soer, but when my brother Manfred, then eleven, sister Astrid, nine, and myself, ten, came to England in July 1939, my name was Anita Zydower. We left Berlin saying goodbye to our parents to travel to England with the Kindertransport, hoping our parents would follow us, but, unfortunately, this was not to happen. My parents survived as far as we have been told until the summer of 1944, but were then taken away where as far as we know they died. My parents owned a shoe and clothes shop, but the shop was pulled down before our very eyes, and from that day life was never to be the same again, and our lives changed completely.

We were met and saved by an elderly lady, Mrs Freeman, on Liverpool Street Station, who had initially said she would only take my sister and myself, but when she saw my brother holding our hands tightly she could not part us and took the three of us to her house in Sheffield. Mrs Freeman’s own children were all at different universities at the time, and two of her children could speak some German which was very helpful. The Freeman family saw us through school and college, and my sister Astrid won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, and became a famous sculptress and artist, who sadly died in 2005 at the age of 75.

To us, Mrs Freeman seemed one of those rare human beings whose sense of goodness and wanting to help those in need made one feel there was some hope for mankind against a vast sea of evil.

Writing and remembering the past has brought back so many feelings we had at the time, but we were fortunate that we had the chance to start a new life in England, sadly, of course, without our beloved parents.

Anita Soer
Broxbourne, Hertfordshire