Original photo is marked “November 1935”. I’m front row, second from right. My cousin Hanns is behind second boy from left. My Mother always said, “Of the eight children, you, Hanns and one other boy are the only ones that survived.”
I remember first living with my Mother and Father in a large block of flats in Dresden. I remember there were other Jewish children there and we all played together. Some time later my parents and I moved to Henzestrasse 15, a three-story villa that my grandfather had built. I remember that my parents and I lived on one floor, my mother’s sister Hilde, her husband Arthur and their son Hanns (my cousin) lived on another floor and my Grandmother Selma Nussbaum, by then a widow, on another floor.
On 6 January 1939 I was sent alone to England by airplane (Q. from where; Berlin, Dresden?) under the auspices of the Kindertransports. My sponsor in England was Mr. Samuel Epstein (his memory is a blessing) of Albert Drive, Southfields, London SW. He picked my name from a list because his first name was the same as my family name and his son Peter’s middle name was Ralph.
I arrived at Croydon Airport with a sign round my neck “Ralph Samuel to be picked up by Mr. Epstein”.
