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Freddie Boxer

FB: A statement of turnover and tax, for the coffee house business, Vienna, 1935

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Arrived in Britain:

Place of Birth:

Born:

January 1948

Vienna

To Shanghai, China. Repatriated post-war

Mode of Arrival:

Freddie (Friedrich) Boxer was born in Vienna in 1920, the son of coffee-house owners. He was the only member of his family to escape Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938. He travelled alone to Shanghai. He was interned by the Japanese in a Jewish camp after Pearl Harbour until 1945. He married a non-Jewish Russian woman in 1945 and returned to Vienna in 1947. He emigrated to England in 1948, where he worked for a match factory and imported matches from Russia. He worked for Firestones and built up his own import/export business with Russia, Romania and Poland.

I bring my kids up to be tolerant, to be understanding with any religion and to forgive. But it’s very difficult. I can’t forgive the Nazis for what they did. I can’t. Not with the best will in the world.