Escaping Nazi Germany: One Woman’s Emigration from Heilbronn to England by Joachim Schlör

Author:Joachim Schlör
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Figure 18 Liesel Rosenthal, photographed by Jack Paynton, London 1939 © Baroness Julia Neuberger, Private Collection

The Rosenthals themselves received a version of this letter (without the name of the sender). On 26 October Hermine asked Liesel:

Today we received a very nice letter & we would be so grateful to you if you would let us know immediately who it is who wrote us such a charming letter, at the top it says “The Vicarage, East Molesey”.

Barbara wrote from Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 31 October:

My dear Liesel, I have been wondering how this nightmare has affected you, if you are still at Hampstead and remain at your job of work. I do sincerely hope all goes well with you and that you are as happy as these dismal circumstances will permit us to be. In any case please do remember the services of a friend are always available, and I shall be happy to do anything I can at any time. […] How is your brother, Liesel? And your parents? I hope comfortable. Do write to me. It’s so nice to hear from everyone.

Joan and Barbara were two of the ‘many friends’ who Hermine and Ludwig (and also Gerhard Gabriel) had once warned Liesel about. They, too, had had to either move or look for new jobs, as their employer had been evacuated or had closed down. Jack Paynton had been moved to Wimbledon, and Olive, who wrote on 16 November 1939, was ‘frenetically busy with Tribunals’. What would become of Helmut (Jack)? Hermine was making plans. He could learn to be a cook or a baker, or perhaps he could work in a bank; she had met someone who worked for Australia Bank ‘in London & here’. And how were Hermine and Ludwig going to manage financially? Uncle Jakob wrote from Zürich ‘that he can’t help any more & now it’s your responsibility’, which was very bad timing as Liesel herself did not know if she would be able to keep her job. Meanwhile, Liesel’s ‘degree of loyalty’ was being tested. R H Morgan wrote a letter of recommendation for her:

To Chairman, Alien Tribunal. Miss Alice Rosenthal of 25a Thurlow Road London N.W.3 has been well known to me for the last three or four years. I am glad to be able to say without any reserve that she has proved to be an alien of a most excellent type. Well educated, of good character, she has worked in business firms of high standing with marked success. Banned from her own country, she is working patriotically and strenuously in her newly adopted country. She can be trusted in every way. Signed, R.H. Morgan.

‘An alien of a most excellent type’ – this commendation was a result of Liesel’s dedication to both her work and her support for other refugees. Her relatives had advised her against the latter often enough, but her determination had won through.

With this, 1939 came to an end. In England the weather was, unsurprisingly, very cold. Hermine and Ludwig

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