A 98-year-old eyewitness to Kristallnacht has said she is “fortunate to tell the tale” as she shared her “painful” memories of the Nazi pogrom.
Inge Gershfield is regarded as one of the last remaining eyewitnesses to Kristallnacht, a wave of Nazi-coordinated violence against Jews across Germany and Austria beginning on November 9, 1938.
The survivor recalled seeing Nazis “laughing” and “singing” as her synagogue in Berlin was burnt down and Jewish businesses were ransacked.
She shared her story at a commemoration service at Belsize Square Synagogue in London on Tuesday, which marked 88 years since Kristallnacht.
Translated to “Night of Broken Glass”, Kristallnacht resulted in the destruction of hundreds of synagogues and Jewish properties.
Speaking to PA before the service, Gershfield said November 10, 1938 started as a “normal day” for her as she travelled on the underground and walked to school.
She said, however, that five minutes into her walk she passed the Oranienburger synagogue, which was “alight” with “flames coming out of the dome”.
“I couldn’t understand it,” she said.
“On the right-hand side just opposite the synagogue was a Jewish shop and Nazis were surrounding it, laughing, singing, singing a Nazi song and throwing everything out of the shop onto the pavement.”
The eyewitness said when she arrived at school, her teachers had told her that “terrible things are happening” and she should “go straight home”.
Gershfield said she rushed back to find her father was missing and had been taken away to Dachau, which was Nazi Germany’s first concentration camp.
She said he had the “great foresight” to take the Iron Cross he had been awarded in the First World War with him.
He was met by a “friendly, humane Nazi” who had fortunately arranged for him to be taken home the following day, Gershfield said.
Gershfield said after that, she and her mother took “daily trips” to the British consulate as her family “wanted eagerly” to escape to England and join her uncle, who had emigrated a year earlier to Birmingham.
She explained they were able to secure a visa thanks to diplomat Frank Foley, who worked undercover in the British Embassy passport office in Berlin.
The “valued” document came through in early 1939, and she and her family fled Germany for England, arriving at Liverpool Street in London on her 11th birthday on January 15, which was “the best birthday present anybody could ever wish for”.
Gershfield said her father’s Iron Cross is “somewhere at the bottom of the Channel” as he did not want to arrive in England with a German war medal.
The family travelled by train to Birmingham and stayed with Gershfield’s uncle, aunt and cousin while her parents arranged work and accommodation.
The pensioner said she “insisted” on going to school with her cousin the day after arriving as she was “very eager to become an English schoolgirl” and “adopt the English way of life as soon as possible”.
Asked why she thinks it is important to share eyewitness accounts of such events, she said: “It’s a very, very painful period and I consider myself very fortunate I’m here to tell the tale.
“And one is, of course, very apprehensive at this time of rising antisemitism.
“I myself am happy to say that I have not encountered it, but, of course, the need for such strong securities is very hard to perceive.”
As a result of the violence, the British government began to allow unaccompanied Jewish children into the country as refugees, a movement that came to be known as the Kindertransport.
The service on Tuesday honoured the memory of victims and paid tribute to the courage and resilience of refugees who found refuge in Britain.
One of those included Austrian Kindertransport refugee Gabriele Keenaghan BEM, who celebrated her 100th birthday on the day of the service.
During the service, Austrian ambassador Bernhard Wrabetz announced the official return of her Austrian citizenship, telling her that he had the “honour to return something that was brutally robbed from you”.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.