R.: “there is a story, which should not be lost.”

R. (z”l) lives in the Midlands, UK. She was born in Germany in 1923. Alluding to the rise of Nazism and the impact this would have on her life, she observed that this was before the “terrible things” that “happened in Germany.”

“I was always a tomboy. I never wanted to conform. I was the naughty one,”

After fleeing the Holocaust via Poland, Palestine, and Bagdhad, R. marries an Englishman and has a daughter. After the marriage breaks down, R. comes out as a lesbian and finds love that lasted forty years. Only when her partner passed away, R. decided to come out publicly and tell her story.

When asked what inspired her to contact Rainbow Jews, R. explained that when she turned 90 she saw the Rainbow Jews adverts, and one of her friends was going to be interviewed, and it occurred to her that “there is a story, which should not be lost.”  R. concluded that this “needs to be put on the record.” R. hopes that her life story will be of use and interest to others who hear about it, in the same way that she has found reading the life stories of other people interesting.

Transcript only with permission only.

Please contact the London Metropolitan Archives.