This week we were very sad to hear of the deaths of two of our interviewees. Henry Ebner was a lawyer and AJR member who was involved in restitution claims with Germany and pensions claims with Austria. Born in Vienna in 1937, Henry's parents were cinema proprietors of Admiral Lichtspiele and Johann Strauss Kino. While his father was arrested and sent to Dachau, his mother managed to arrange domestic visas to the UK. The family came to the UK in August 1939. Henry’s father was interned at Central Promenade Camp on the Isle of Man for two months. From the age of eight to eighteen Henry went to Stoatley Rough School in Surrey.
Gerta Vrbova, born in present-day Slovakia, was an eminent neuroscientist and memoirist who survived deportation, hiding, escape from Czechoslovakia and the murder of close family.
We are very grateful for their testimony.
This week we also concluded our long look at some of the domestic service experiences of our interviewees. While these were often painful, some people had good experiences, including Anita Morris, whose employers helped her family come to Britain, and whose son Anita later married: