Hildegard Brooker – “the Quakers’ finest hour”.

I left Vienna in March 1939, aged 15 ½. I and many other children boarded a train that was destined for Great Britain. It was a Children's Transport train taking Jewish children to safety in England. My father was Jewish, not my mother, but our situation was perilous.

Parents and relatives saw me off. An Aunt, who lived in Hungary, had bought me fantastic going-away clothes. A friend pinned a small bunch of violets on me. I felt important but I don't think I really appreciated the seriousness of the occasion. A long train journey and then a sea crossing and on to London. My destination was to be an au pair to the family of a Methodist minister. They lived in Wells, Somerset.

It was quite a considerable culture shock. Different attitudes, different food, quite a different way of life. Although I had a knowledge of the English language, it took me 2 months before I could think in English and not translate, then you feel the language.

My parents arrived in England on the day war was declared. They had been found work as domestics to the Gladstone family in Hoylake, Wirral. All this had been arranged by the Society of Friends (Quakers). Eventually I could join them there and work there. As I was in my teens it was arranged I should study fashion design as I had a gift for it. I went to Liverpool Art School.

As the war progressed there was a fear of espionage. All Friendly Enemy Aliens, as we were called, had to move from the vicinity of Liverpool - an important port. We found ourselves quite suddenly in Manchester, where we were gathered at the Quaker Meeting House. From there we were allocated to stay with kindly Quaker families who generously offered their hospitality.

My parents and myself went to Cheadle Hulme staying with the Brown family. Eventually, Quakers and other charitable organisations rented a large house in Cheadle Hulme, furnished it, and opened it as a hostel for refugees. My Mother and Father were appointed as Wardens. We had people from all over - from Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria. We had teenagers, myself included and two very elderly gentlemen (one from Poland the other from Germany). One night the police called and got them out of bed. They came down without their false teeth in to have their identities checked. We had to observe a curfew. No one allowed out after 10pm.

As I recall it was a happy place. We used to gather in the evenings and have long discussions. For a period during this time my Father was interned for a while on the Isle of Man. In the camp there was considerable cultural and artistic activity and it was there that the Amadeus Quartet was formed.

The young residents of the hostel did eventually find work - usually engineering in various factories.

I do not recall how long the hostel existed. My parents went to live in Canada. One of the young residents became a very successful business man. Another, my friend Ruth Windmuller, is a renowned potter, exhibiting all over the world. I have not heard of any other such hostel like this during the war.

The Quakers did wonderful work to save and settle so many Jewish families. It was their finest hour.

Hildegard Brooker
Manchester