A Jewish family's escape from Berlin

Willy Friedlander was born in Berlin in 1878. Although he was Jewish, he felt himself to be a loyal German citizen, and fought in the German Army in the First World War. For this he was awarded the Honour Cross 1914-1918. This is sometimes known as the Hindenburg Cross because it was not awarded until 1934 when the Third Reich were trying to promote national pride.

Willy and his wife Lilli had two daughters, Dora and Gerda. Willy was a jeweler and owned a beautiful shop in Berlin. When Hitler came to power in the early 1930's they began to realise that life for Jews was going to become difficult, and after Willy's shop was destroyed on Kristallnacht in 1938 they decided they would have to leave.

Their elder daughter Dora managed to travel to London to work as a nanny for some distant relatives, and then they made the decision to send Gerda to join her on the Kindertransport, not knowing whether they would ever see her again. Fortunately Willy and Lilli did manage to leave Germany in August 1939 and were reunited with their daughters. They couldn't bring much with them, and the precious items they chose included Willy's 1914-18 medal, and the beautiful engagement ring that he had made for Lilli. This was eventually passed to Dora's son, my late husband, and I now wear it every day.