John Gilbert

John Gilbert, born Hans Goldstein in March 1929 in Vienna, Austria, was the only child of a Jewish middle-class family with parents Viktor and Maria née Schnobel. His mother wasn’t Jewish but converted when his parents married in 1928. They lived at 44 Neubaugürtel in Vienna’s seventh district. The family was not Orthodox but maintained Jewish traditions and a comfortable home supported by his father’s business and a domestic servant named Anna, who John remembers fondly.

He remembers Sunday trips to the Wienerwald, Schönbrunn and the Prater. He attended a local primary school where Jewish and non-Jewish children mixed freely. For the Jewish children, a rabbi came to lead them in the morning prayer. Following the Anschluss in March 1938, daily life changed dramatically. He recalled incidents of public antisemitism, including humiliation of Jewish pupils and restrictions on Jewish citizens. His father lost his business and was subject to increasing persecution. He fled to Prague where he was originally from.

In 1938–1939, Gilbert’s mother began seeking emigration possibilities. She wrote to numerous contacts abroad requesting assistance. A response came from an English couple in London they had met in Venice in 1936, who organised a visa for her to work as a domestic servant for an eye surgeon in Truro. Through her persistence, she also secured a visa for her ten-year-old son. Gilbert described visiting the British Consulate in Vienna, where an official stamped his passport, an act he later regarded as saving his life. His father who had been involved in a law suit was advised by his lawyer to flee the country to avoid concentration camp and he joined his relatives in Prague.

In January 1939, Gilbert and his mother left Vienna via Prague, where they met John’s father and extended family. Then they travelled on by air to Croydon Airport in England. He remembered the journey as both frightening and exciting, as it was his first time on an airplane. On arrival in London, they were temporarily housed in a Jewish refugee accommodation in Whitechapel. He remembers overcrowded conditions and a horrible smell. His mother began work as a domestic servant in Truro. John had to live with a missionary couple, the Walbridges in Camborne where he did not have enough food. He was very happy when his father came to take him away from there to another family, the Blameys. His father had left Prague via Katowice and Gdansk from where he got on a boat to Harwich.

When his father found work with a druggist in the East End of London, John and his mother came to stay with him and his mother worked as a tailoress. With the beginning of the Blitz, he remembers using Russell Square tube station for shelter. In 1940 he was evacuated to Camborne, Cornwall and taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Blamey again. They didn’t have children but treated him like their own.

During his time in Cornwall, Gilbert decided to change his first name from Hans to John, after consulting a dictionary. At his mother’s request, he was baptised in the village church at Risby. After the war, his father formally changed the family surname to Gilbert by deed poll to avoid antisemitic prejudice and integrate more easily.

Returning to London after 1945, Gilbert continued his education and later attended Hull University, where he studied economics and met his future wife, Pam. They married in 1953 and had three children. Gilbert entered business and trade, pursuing an international career that included contacts with Austria and Germany. He attributed his success to determination and favourable post-war opportunities in Britain. In later life he lived in Yorkshire, maintaining close family ties and an active social life.

Keywords:

Goldstein. Schnobel. Vienna. Prague. Anschluss. Zuckerwahn (chocolate factory). Sturm am Plattensee. Domestic visa. Croydon airport. Bloomsbury House. Camborne. Truro. Redruth Grammar School. Walbridge. Byers. Blamey. Blitz. Hull University.