“I remember it so well,” Inge Gershfield recollected of the morning that changed her childhood for ever.
“Nazis in uniform were laughing and throwing things at Jewish shops”, while neighbours stood by and watched.
“I didn’t understand at all; I was a child walking to school, it was a normal day.”
Inge had been travelling towards her Jewish middle school when she emerged from the station to see the synagogue that she and her family would attend regularly set ablaze.
“It was burning,” she recalled. “The flame [was] on the left, and a whole group of Nazis on the right.”
Ahead of the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht next Tuesday, Holocaust survivor Inge, now 98, spoke to the JC this week in her flat in Marylebone.
Inge Gershfield holds a picture of her younger self, November 2, 2026 (Credit: Gary Manhine)[Missing Credit]
Growing up in Bielefeld, Germany, Inge was just ten years old when she witnessed the destruction of her synagogue during the November 1938 pogroms.
When she arrived at school, teachers told the pupils that “terrible things have happened” and instructed them to go straight home without speaking to anyone.
By then, the violence had spread across the north-west German city. Synagogues had been set alight and Jewish businesses systematically destroyed. Inge’s father had been arrested and taken to Dachau concentration camp.
Fortunately, he returned the following day, having “had the foresight to take the Iron Cross” he had been awarded for his service during the First World War.
For Inge, the atmosphere in Germany had “changed overnight”. She remembers Nazis “parading around the streets” which was “frightening” to witness.
Inge Gershfield as a young girl in Germany (Credit: Gary Manhine)[Missing Credit]
Having spent some years before Kristallnacht living with her aunt in Dortmund while her parents were abroad, she “wasn’t aware of antisemitism” in the city, she explained. “I lived a sheltered life.”
Her parents eventually returned to Germany in 1937. Inge’s father secured employment through his brother, who owned a factory in the east of the country, before opening his own shop, above which the family lived, before it was destroyed during Kristallnacht.
Although she was “very conscious of Hitler” and remembers hearing his speeches on the radio while living with her aunt, she says that aged six or seven, “it didn’t mean much [to her] at the time, but I knew terrible things were going on”.
Following Kristallnacht, the growing persecution of Jews prompted Britain to open its doors to refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, including through the Kindertransport rescue scheme.
For Inge’s family, they were able to escape through an uncle living in Birmingham, who helped secure them visas.
On January 14, 1939, Inge, her parents and paternal grandmother left Germany. They arrived in Birmingham on Inge’s 11th birthday.
The family’s visas were signed by Frank Foley, the British passport control officer in Berlin who was later officially recognised as a British Hero of the Holocaust and as a Righteous Among the Nations.
“[Foley] signed more visas than he was scheduled to do and saved a lot of people, including my parents, myself and my paternal grandmother,” Inge says.
Inge Gershfield, 98, speaks to the JC in her flat in London, November 2, 2026 (Credit: Gary Manhine)[Missing Credit]
Arriving in Britain with “absolutely none” of the English language, Inge was nevertheless “very jubilant” to begin learning. She was “very determined” to attend school and, having already experienced seven different homes by that stage of her life, was accustomed to starting again.
She was keen to make friends and “integrate” into her new surroundings.
There were no other Jewish children at her school in Birmingham, but she remembers being welcomed warmly. The other pupils were “very eager” to get to know her, were “nice” and even “invited [her] for tea”.
However, the outbreak of the Second World War brought further upheaval. On September 1, 1939, Inge was evacuated to Wellington, Shropshire, resulting in yet “more separation from [her] family.”
Despite the disruption, Inge remembers enjoying her teenage years in Britain. Towards the end of the war, when she was 16 and 17, she “had a great social time”, joined her synagogue’s hospitality committee and enjoyed “dancing and table tennis”.
She went on to study physiotherapy at university in Birmingham, where she met her husband, Alfons, and, in 1951, moved with him to Muswell Hill, where she has remained part of the local community.
Although she returned to Berlin twice as part of German and Austrian reparations initiatives, she says she “felt like a tourist” and “didn’t feel German”.
Inge Gershfield as a young girl in Germany (Credit: Gary Manhine)[Missing Credit]
Today, Inge remains active, enjoying bridge, which she took up with her husband and at which they won several trophies before his passing away just over a decade ago.
“We were pretty good,” she laughs. Although she no longer plays competitively, she still enjoys what she describes as “a wonderful social”.
“Learn it while you’re young!”
Despite the painful memories of her childhood, Inge’s outlook remains optimistic.
“Look forward, don’t look back,” she says. “We have to survive through resilience. We suffered, but we got through it.”
Inge will speak at the Association of Jewish Refugees’ (AJR) annual Kristallnacht commemoration on Tuesday, November 10, an event expected to welcome around 150 Holocaust refugees, survivors and their descendants.
She admits she is “nervous”, explaining that she is “not a public speaker”. But with “few eyewitnesses” left to share their experiences, she believes she can’t let the opportunity go to waste.
Michael Newman OBE, chief executive of the AJR, said: “Kristallnacht was a turning point in history that left an indelible mark on those who lived through it. Remembering the terror of that night and what ensued is vital – not only to honour the victims and survivors like Inge Gershfield, but also to educate about the dangers of antisemitism in the hope that it will never be repeated.”
For more information and to sign up as a member visit ajr.org.uk
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