The Road to Liberation: Trials and Triumphs of WWII

by Marion Kummerow

  “She is going to Palestine. She says she’s heard rumors Izsak is with Gavriel. She wants me and Ruth to go to Palestine too.”

  Sally glanced at Maggie who was staring at her shoes. Losing the girls would break Maggie’s heart in two.

  “Palestine? How will you get there? Will the Red Cross help?” Sally asked.

  Rachel stood up and threw the letter on the table. “No, they won’t. I already inquired, as I wanted to go even before I heard Mother was going there. The British Government doesn’t want to send any Jews from here to Palestine. They are afraid of upsetting the Arabs. Palestine is our promised land.”

  “When did you inquire?” Maggie shouted. “I thought you liked living here.”

  “I do Maggie. I love you but when they took Heinz away, I got scared. Then Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Shackleton-Driver kept saying things and I didn’t feel safe.” Rachel took a deep breath, but it didn’t stop her sobbing. “I’m sorry. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Maggie.”

  “You didn’t do anything to me, Rachel. I should have protected you more. I should have kept those women away from you.”

  Maggie was crying too. Sally stood and gathered Rachel to her.

  “Rachel, you’re bound to be emotional. Your mother survived the war and you should be over the moon. It’s horrible you won’t be able to see her for another while. I understand you’re frustrated but maybe you could see this as a chance for you.”

  “How?” Rachel looked at her suspiciously.

  “You said you wanted to be a doctor or a nurse. Now you have found your mother and know she is safe you can concentrate on achieving your dream.”

  Rachel stared at her. “You mean, study here?”

  “Why not? I’m sure Maggie and the Reverend would look after Ruth if you had to go away to study. You have good experience from working at Botley’s Park. Have you thought about asking the Matron for help in getting started?”

  Rachel’s eyes widened, her deep sadness fading. “You really think I could?”

  “Of course Sally does. I do too. So does the Reverend. We’ve been making inquiries for you.” Maggie pulled Rachel back to her seat. “I’m thrilled your mother survived, love, but we were so worried she wouldn’t. We wanted to make sure you had a future no matter what the news from Germany was.”

  A tear slid down Rachel’s face. “I am so ungrateful. You have done so much for me and all I could do was moan about Palestine. You must think I am horrible.”

  “Never. I think you are a very brave, wonderful, young woman who can achieve her dreams. All of them. If you want to qualify as a doctor, do it. Palestine will need doctors and if they don’t, your people surely will. It is going to take years to help those poor creatures who survived the war, either in the concentration camps or elsewhere. I’m sure you could volunteer to help in the camps now with your VAD training.”

  “I never thought of doing that.” Rachel’s eyes lit up. “Maybe that’s what I should do. There is plenty of time later to choose a career.” Then her face fell. “What about Ruth? She’s too young to travel to Palestine.”

  “Ruth can stay here for as long as she wants.”

  “I want to stay here forever. I don’t want to go to a new country. I want to say with Maggie.”

  The adults turned at once to see Ruth standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips.

  “I am almost twelve-years-old and nobody thinks to ask what I want. I’m really glad Mama lived through the war but if she really wanted me, she would come here. She put us on that train and sent us away. She only cares about the boys. If you want to go to her, Rachel, go. Leave me alone. I don’t care.”

  Maggie’s eyes glistened. “Ruth, darling come here and sit down.”

  “I’m not a child.”

  “I know that, love, you are a young woman. But come and sit down anyway. You have the wrong idea about your mother. When she put you and Rachel on that train, she made the most difficult decision any mother could make. You are not my flesh and blood, yet I don’t think I could bear to put you on a train to another country even if I knew it was to save your life. I love you, child, but you are part of your mother. She did what she did because she loves you more than she loves herself.”

  Ruth hiccupped but didn’t say anything.

  “Rachel has protected you and loved you, in your mother’s place, ever since that train pulled out of the Berlin platform. She’s done a wonderful job and I hope you will always be as close as you are. But it’s time for Rachel to live her own life, Ruthie.”

  Maggie’s use of her pet name made Ruth lean into the older woman. Maggie put her arm around her and pulled her closer. “Rachel has to make her choices but even as she makes them, she is still thinking of you. She wants you to be safe and happy.”

  “I am safe and happy here. I don’t want to go away. Not again.”

  Maggie looked to Rachel.

  “Ruth, Mama loves us both. She knows we are safe, that’s why she has to look for the boys. She doesn’t know what happened to them, if they are even alive. That’s why she is going to Palestine first. You’re her baby, if anything, her favorite.”

  Ruth looked mutinous. Her voice shook, as she insisted, “I don’t want to go.”

  “I am not forcing you to go to Palestine, but I think you should write to Mama and ask her if you can stay here.”

  “What if she says no?”

  Rachel took her sister’s hand in hers. “I don’t believe she will. She won’t want you making that journey on your own. She will want you to finish school.”

  At Ruth’s face, Rachel laughed. “Do you think Maggie will let you leave school?”

  Ruth glanced at Maggie.

  “Not on your life, child. Education is the key to freedom, particularly for girls. You will finish school and then head to university, if I have my way.”

  “Maggie! I hate school,” Ruth protested. “I want to leave and get a job as soon as I turn fourteen.”

  “Not on my watch, love. You will stay in school for as long as they will have you. Agreed Rachel?”

  Rachel nodded.

  Ruth stood up. “Maybe I will go to Mother after all,” she announced, as she flounced out the door.

  Rachel rose to follow her, but Maggie held her hand.

  “Let her go, love. She doesn’t know whether she is coming or going. She knows your mother saved her life, but she feels abandoned. That will take some time for her to figure out. You’ve done your best for Ruth. It’s time to concentrate on Rachel now.”

  “Listen to Maggie, Rachel. She’s a wise, old woman.”

  “Less of the old, thank you very much, Sally Matthews.”

  37

  Near Grosvenor Square, London, October 1945

  “Evening Mother.” Derek stood in front of the fire, in the main drawing-room. He’d been released from St Thomas’s earlier in the day.

  “Darling, why didn’t you let me know you were coming. I would have arranged a dinner with friends. It’s much easier to go out these days. Rationing is such a trial. Goodness knows when the staff will supply a decent meal.”

  Derek let his mother’s complaints roll over him. He’d already eaten in the kitchen, much to the consternation of Cook. As far as he could see, his mother and her staff wanted for little. There was plenty of gin and whiskey in the decanters. Mother must have good contacts on the black market.

  “It’s so difficult to find good staff these days. Those munitions factories have ruined it for everyone, with the wages they paid. Do you know, I interviewed a young girl to come in as a daily maid, she wanted half a crown an hour! When I asked her what her rate would be if she were to live in, the young madam said it would be £3, 10 shillings, provided she got food and board. Well, I can tell you, I sent her on her way with a flea in her ear. Honestly, I don’t know how I will manage. The money your father left me doesn’t rise every day, unlike the prices of everything else.”

  Derek didn’t comment. His mother had a beautiful home, w
hen more than half of London was a bombsite. She looked well-dressed and well-fed. She was doing just fine.

  “Derek, you must have some other clothes. Those look like rags. I know you like to pretend you are a common villager, but must you act like one? It would scandalize my friends to see you dressed like that.”

  Derek looked down at his demob suit. “Courtesy of the government, Mother dear. The only suit that will fit me now.”

  “Yes, you are far too thin, and you look so old.”

  Derek lit another cigarette. The doctors had warned him about smoking so much. “Thanks, mother. Charming as always.”

  “I say it as I find it. I am glad you are home. Now you get on with divorcing that common trollop of a wife and finding someone more suitable. Lady Lancashire’s daughter, Penelope, lost her husband in the war. Has two young boys but they are off to boarding school shortly. She would be perfect.”

  “I have a wife, mother.”

  His mother muttered something.

  “Mother, Sally said you’d been to visit her. Something about selling Rose Cottage.”

  “Well, I wasn't letting her have it. That cottage has been in our family for years and it's bad enough those Jewish brats had to live there during the war. But now, they will go back to where they came from and you can pay Sally off. It’s rather charming, isn’t it? Or at least it would be if that wife of yours hadn’t dug up the whole lawn and planted vegetables. The woman has no class.” His mother took a drag of her cigarette before continuing, “The village is much bigger than I remember. I met a wonderful woman, Jane Shackleton-Driver at the Women’s Institute. She lives on a large spread just outside of Abbeydale. She filled me in on your wife’s antics, during the war. Imagine carrying on with a man barely out of short trousers. Thankfully, Winston had the right idea and arrested the enemy aliens. They shipped him off before too much damage was done.”

  “Heinz, or Harry as they call him now, was a sixteen-year-old boy on the run for his life. He is now serving in the British Army. I rather think he lied about his age to get in.”

  His mother sniffed. “It’s not decent for a young widow to parade her by-blows for everyone to see.”

  “You mean the children rescued by the Kindertransport?”

  “Who rescued them? We have enough children in Britain already. Mrs. Shackleton-Driver had to take in five of them. Unruly lot they were, covered in lice and not one toilet-trained among them. Makes me feel faint to even think about it.”

  Derek coughed to hide a laugh. He doubted his mother had ever felt faint in her whole life.

  “I didn’t know Mrs. Shackleton-Driver took in refugees.”

  “She didn’t take in foreigners. She took in some evacuees from London, the worst parts of the East End. She got rid of them fairly fast. Sent them back as soon as she could, and I don’t blame her one bit. Horrid little creatures.”

  “The war devastated the East End. Sending those kids away probably saved their lives, not that that would trouble you much, Mother.”

  She turned her glacial stare on him.

  “Be careful, Derek. I’ll make allowances for your mood based on your considerable suffering in that camp. Now, sit down and tell me your plans. With Ronald dying, you’re now heir to a vast fortune. Give up this army business and take your rightful place in the business. Harold, you remember Harold Echols, he’s been with us for donkey’s years and will show you all you need to know. First, I will call your father’s tailor and have him make up some new suits. You can’t be seen in that.”

  “What about rationing?”

  “Darling, don’t worry about things like that. I don’t. There is always a way to secure what we need. We have no time to lose. Your brother’s remembrance service is next week. Then we have to go to collect his medal. They have awarded quite an honor to your brother.”

  “I’m sure Roland would prefer to be still alive.”

  He ignored his mother’s glare and excused himself on the basis he was tired.

  38

  As he walked to his room, his father’s old, manservant climbed the stairs behind him.

  “Sorry, master Derek. These old legs of mine aren’t used to walking as fast as they used to.”

  “I didn’t ring for you, Smith. Why aren’t you resting in the kitchen?”

  “Your mother said I was to attend to you while you were in residence, Sir. Only, nobody told me you were coming, so apologies for not being here when you arrived.”

  They had reached Derek’s old room by now.

  “Not in there, Sir, I moved your things to Master Roland’s room. It’s yours now, being bigger and all.”

  Derek didn't want his brother's room, or his inheritance. He closed his eyes. He knew what he wanted and that was Sally. Only, she came with two children and he didn't want those.

  “Sir, are you all right? You look rather pale.”

  “I’m fine, Smith. I should worry about you. You should have retired by now.” Derek waited, hoping the servant would tell him why he hadn’t. The man wouldn't return his gaze, his eyes shifting right and left. He called him by the name he’d used as a boy.

  “Sam? Come in and sit down and tell me what’s really been happening since I’ve been away. For starters, you can tell me about the black market.”

  Sam paled even more, if that was at all possible for a man who looked like he never went outdoors. He followed Derek into the room but only sat when Derek insisted.

  Derek glanced around. The room looked like Roland had just left. All of his brother’s things were laid out in perfect position. If he opened the wardrobe, no doubt he would find it full of the best suits a man could wear. Meanwhile, out in the streets, men who had returned from fighting, froze.

  “Sam, tell me. I won't let on to Mother.”

  “Your mother took the news of your disappearance badly, Sir but when Master Roland died, I think she might have lost her mind. For a while at least. She had some funny guests call to the house.”

  “Funny?”

  “The Mitford sisters amongst others. They said some things that would make your hair stand on end. If it wasn't for my age and Cook and the fact that we had nowhere else to go, we would have left. Then your mother insisted we find everything she wanted for her guests. Champagne and caviar and stuff like that, when you can't even buy sugar, a pack of ten smokes, or a tin of pears. I miss my tinned pears something dreadful. They were my treat, like, on a Sunday.”

  Derek wasn’t interested in tins of pears but he said nothing. The old man was uncomfortable enough.

  “Cook and me, we didn’t know anyone who could get this stuff. We tried telling the mistress, but she wasn't having any of it. One of her friends came to the rescue and every couple of weeks we got a delivery. Cook was all of a tither, convinced the coppers would come to arrest her. That's why she was so nervous when you walked in the door. She thinks you might hold her responsible and fire her. She doesn’t have a soul in the world, except for me and I can't afford to put a roof over our heads. Not now.”

  Something about the way the man said, not now, made Derek ask.

  “Why not now?”

  Sam didn't look up.

  “Sam, tell me. Why not now?”

  “Well, there’s nowhere for us to go, for a start. All those servicemen coming home from the war who have no homes, they get priority. Only right that is, really. And if we could find something, we don’t have the money.”

  Derek raised an eyebrow. His father had paid his servant well and they lived in.

  “Your father, God Rest his soul, always said he would give us a lump sum if we stayed with him until we reached retirement age. He promised it to all his servants, but the younger ones didn’t care. They got paid better in the munitions factories. Me and Sarah, I mean Cook, we had plans. We was going to get married and buy a nice cottage somewhere in the country. I would go fishing and she was… well, I don’t really know what she would do but she would not skivvy for anyone no more. But…”

&nb
sp; “Father died and the money went to Roland, only he was too busy with the RAF. And when he died, they tied the money up, as I wasn't around?” Derek prompted, as the silence lasted longer than a few seconds.

  “Not exactly. Yes, you were away but Roland was home a few times. Only, he didn’t have time to see to things. Your mother sent him to see your wife. She was desperate to get her hands on Rose Cottage. I’m not rightly sure why; she’d had no interest in it when your father was alive.”

  “Mother sent Roland to see Sally.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Why?”

  “I wasn't being nosy sir but sounds travel in this house. Cook and myself heard them having a big, old argument. Your mother was furious with your brother for not getting rid of your wife. She wanted him to throw her out but your brother wasn’t having any part of it. He said your Sally was a lovely, kind lady who had taken in two delightful children. He said, well, he said some horrible things to your mother. Called her quite a few names which made my Sarah blush scarlet.”

  “Roland did?” Derek couldn't believe his ears. Roland had always been his mother’s favorite.

  “Yes, Sir. Then he changed his Will. He left some money to your wife; if you didn’t come back. He told me himself he did that. He always said he thought you’d get home. He was sure you were in a camp somewhere. He made several enquires, not just at the Red Cross but through the War Office and everything. He told Cook it worried him what your mother would do to Sally if he died. I think he knew he wouldn't make it. Said something about out-flying his number or something. Master Roland was a brave man, a kind one too.”

  Derek blinked rapidly so the tears in his eyes wouldn't disgrace him. He’d never been close to his brother, who’d been sent away to school before Derek had been born. Father had insisted Derek attend a local school, for which he’d always been thankful. Roland had told him some horror stories about his time away at school.