Flight from Germany

These documents belonged to my grandmother Ruth Iffland. Her father had been born in Germany to Jewish parents. At the age of 15, his father died leaving his mother destitute, he renounced his Jewish faith and converted to Christianity. His family denounced him and he left for England where he trained as a doctor, became a Christian missionary and also became a British citizen. He married an Englishwoman and had two daughters, one of whom was my grandmother.

Because of his missionary work the family was living in Greece where my grandmother met and fell in love with a German national who was working there as a teacher. In marrying a German she acquired German citizenship and lost her British nationality. She had two children and was expecting her third in September 1939. At this time the family was living in Germany and her parents were back in England.

As war threatened, Ruth was persecuted because of her Jewish heritage. She was denied pregnancy care. She was forced to flee Germany for fear of what may happen to her and her children. She travelled by train and ship to England arriving in August 1939. She was registered as an alien and as such she was not allowed to go within 20 miles of the coast. This meant that she wasn't allowed to go to her parents' home and she and the children had to stay in London. She was granted naturalisation in 1945.

Her husband did not keep his promise to follow her to England. The eldest child never saw his father again. My father saw his father once when my father was 21. The youngest child born in England at the outbreak of war also never saw his father.