Anti-Semitism was rife in Austria for generations, and during the thirties, there was an underground Hitler movement. Like everywhere else, the Jews were the scapegoats for everything. Most of the wealthy people were Jewish, a lot of the academics were Jewish, and there was a lot of envy. There was a saying “the Jews and the bicycle-riders” meaning it’s always their fault.

After the Nazis took over in Germany in 1933, the Austrians knew what was going on, but everyone thought “it can never happen here”. Even in Germany, the Jews themselves thought it would all blow over in a year or so. Then in March 1938 the Germans broke into Austria, and they were received with open arms. Then what the Germans had been doing to the Jews, the Austrians also did, but much better. This was the chance for the Austrians to show how much they hated Jews. Jews were picked up in the streets, in shops, on public transport and taken away and forced to do menial tasks such as scrubbing the footpath, picking up horse shit, and that kind of work. More prominent Jews were taken away to Gestapo headquarters and a lot of them were never heard of again.

When the Germans arrived my parents had no plans to leave, but by the end of June my father realised that we couldn’t stay.

He packed up and went to Czechoslovakia which was the only country where you didn’t need a permit. From there he flew to Switzerland, so he didn’t have to touch German soil again because he had a principal that he worked for in Switzerland and managed to get us an entry visa for a fortnight into Switzerland. My mother and I started packing and we took with us whatever we could carry and were very fortunate not to be molested any more and gave a big sigh of relief when we crossed the Swiss border without any further incident. We had to leave everything behind, except what we could carry.