Audio clip from an interview with Ellen Kerry Davis, a Jewish refugee who lives in Swansea, conducted by the USC Shoah Foundation on 6 May 1996: Her arrival on a Kindertransport

Description

This audio clip from and oral history interview with Ellen Kerry Davis was recorded by the USC Shoah Foundation on 06 May 1996. In the clip, Ellen talks about her arrival on a Kindertransport.

Ellen Kerry Davis - a short biography

Ellen Kerry Davis was born on 1 September 1929, in the town of Hoof in Kassel, Germany.

She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and her father worked in the family’s business (a Jewish butcher). The anti-Jewish laws of the Nazi government during the pre-war period barred the family from running this business and earning a living . Ellen’s home was seized by the Nazis and the family was forced to live in one room in the town’s synagogue. In 1937, when Ellen was eight, a group of Nazi youths burnt down the synagogue at night and attacked the family with bricks. They were rescued and hidden by a local non-Jewish family. Ellen’s father was imprisoned in the Dachau Concentration Camp but subsequently escaped and joined the Pioneer Corps and later lived in Australia.

On 30 June 1939, Ellen boarded the Kindertransport to the United Kingdom and was adopted by an elderly, childless couple in Swansea.

In December 1941, Ellen’s mother and six siblings (the eldest was aged 11, the youngest two) were deported to Riga and were shot and killed on arrival.

Transcript

Anyway, we arrived in Southampton. And there was another enormous train. And on each seat of this train, there were little boxes. And I vividly remember, at home the only fruit you ate was what you picked off trees. I had never seen a banana. And there was I, trying to eat this banana with the skin on, because I had no idea what it was supposed to do. And there was an orange. And I was trying to eat that. And people came along and showed us what to do.

And another long journey, and this time we arrived in London. It was absolutely terrifying. I knew nobody else. And we all had big labels on us, with our names on it. And we arrived at -

Interviewer: Did your parents explain to you?

No. No one explained anything. No one ever explained anything.

Interviewer: So you had no idea what this meant?

In those, in those days, one did not explain to a child. And I was supposedly a child. And at 10, my father was too busy trying to cope, my mother trying to cope with a babe - again, very pregnant. And the orphanage would tell you nothing at all.

We arrived in this enormous, enormous hall in London, which was set in tiers - you know, platform. And we were all sort of spread out. And as your name was called, you'd have to go all the way down all these steps and meet a complete stranger.

Now with my luck, my name was Wertheim, so I was tail end again. I walked - my name was called. I walked down these steps. And I looked up at this man. To me he looked about eight-foot tall. And he held out his hand for me. And I put mine in his. And we walked away. He couldn't speak a word of German and I couldn't speak a word of English.

We got to Paddington, which is the station to bring me to Swansea, where I eventually lived. And he was so desperate. He didn't know what to do. And there was a little kiosk who sold sweets and chocolates. And there were some peaches. Now, I knew about peaches, so I pointed to the peaches. And he went and bought such an enormous bag of peaches.

On the journey from London to Swansea, where I eventually lived, in those days took about six and a half hours. And this poor man didn't know what to do, so he kept on feeding me peaches and wiping the juice off my chin. And then I would smile at him, because I didn't know what to say or do. And this poor man and I sat for six and a half hours with not one word between us.

Sources:

Davis, Ellen Kerry, Kerry’s Children (Bridgend: Seren, 2004)

USC Shoah Foundation, Ellen Kerry Davis, interviewed by Helene Elkus, video testimony, Visual History Archive, 6 May 1996
https://vha.usc.edu/testimony/14724?from=search [11 December 2023]

Depository: USC Shoah Foundation.

• https://collections.ushmm.org/search/ (link opens in new window)