An elderly couple movingly told of their childhood flight from fascism, their new life in a strange country, and the destruction of their families in one of the worst atrocities in recent history.

Bob and Ann Kirk, 92 and 89 respectively, were born in Germany as Rudolf Kirchheimer and Hannah Kuhn. Bob was born in Hanover, Ann in Berlin.

They came to Britain in 1939 as child refugees via the Kindertransport, a humanitarian act that saw approximately 10,000, predominantly Jewish, unaccompanied children under 17 removed to Britain nine months prior to the Second World War.

Ann: “We were on the move constantly, hoping to avoid the Gestapo."

Borehamwood Times:

Their flight followed the appalling violence during Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, in 1938, where Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalised Jewish homes, schools and businesses, killing nearly 100 Jews and sending 30,000 men to concentration camps.

After their escape, Bob and Ann would never see their families again.

Ann, an only child, living with her parents in a large flat in Cologne, recalled that, due to anti-Semitic laws, the family had to relocate to Cottbus, to much smaller accommodation.

Her father retrained in Berlin as a chiropodist to improve their chance of emigration.

“During Kristallnacht I woke up to find my family very upset,” she said, “The next day I saw shattered glass everywhere, and the police doing nothing.

“We were on the move constantly, hoping to avoid the Gestapo. I saw burning synagogues in every district.

“That memory haunts me to this day. We spent the night in a flat above a police station, where we stayed for ten days. We never put on the lights.”

Bob was 13 at Kristallnacht. He said conditions changed rapidly from 1933 on, and school became difficult with pupils exposed to much indoctrination.

“Increasing anti-Jewish legislation excluded Jews from economic and social activity, and the Nuremberg race laws of 1939 deprived us of all civic rights,” he said.

On the morning after Kristallnacht Bob went to school as usual, but was sent home by a kind teacher who told him about the night’s events, warning him not to return.

“That was the end of my education”. He went to his father’s office and found him hiding there.

Bob and Ann each made their escape in 1939. Ann’s parents told her they would join her as soon as possible. She boarded the American ship, Manhattan, in Hamburg, arriving in Southampton on April 21.

In May, Bob left by train, travelling via Hook of Holland to Harwich and on to Liverpool Street.

When the war began, communication with their parents was restricted to 25-word messages once a month each way via the International Red Cross.

For Bob, these ceased in December 1941, for Ann in January 1943. After the war, they discovered that Ann’s parents were murdered in Auschwitz, and Bob’s perished in Riga.

Ann received a good education thanks to her sponsors, and became a senior editor in a medical publishing house. Bob, after working in a factory, joined the Army serving as interpreter in a prisoner of war camp.

They met at a club for young refugees and married in 1950. Bob eventually became a company secretary and finance director.

Ann and Bob have spoken to schools and adult audiences about their experiences for over 25 years. “Of course we get tired, but it’s important that people should understand the consequences of prejudice.”