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Kitty\u2019s\u201d Jewish\u201d identity card.<\/p>\nA former BBC journalist has uncovered her late mother\u2019s childhood diaries hidden in a wardrobe at her Stanmore home, revealing a remarkable story of escape from Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n
Helen John, whose mother Kitty died in August 2023 just three months shy of her 100th birthday, discovered a shoebox and an old Sainsbury\u2019s bag behind boxes and cases at the back of a wardrobe while clearing out the house. Inside were four diaries written in S\u00fctterlin script \u2013 a style of handwriting that was later banned by Hitler \u2013 along with photo albums showing scenes from her childhood.<\/p>\n
Kitty\u2019s\u201d Jewish\u201d identity card.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was utterly astonished to find they contained my mother\u2019s childhood diaries from the time when she was growing up, as a daughter of a Jew, in Nazi Germany,\u201d said Helen.<\/p>\n
After having the diaries transcribed into modern German, Helen spent 18 months piecing together her family history. The result is a new book, Daring to Be \u2013 Inge and Kitty\u2019s Escape from Nazi Germany, published this month by White Fox.<\/p>\n
The story follows Kitty and her sister Inge, daughters of the internationally renowned Berlin eye surgeon Professor Oscar Fehr, who treated royalty and film stars in the 1920s and 30s. After being classified as Jewish under the Nuremberg Laws, the family was banned from working in their professions, and the girls were forced to leave their school.<\/p>\n
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Kitty (right) with her older sister Inge in Berlin<\/p>\n
They managed to flee Germany with visas, arriving in the UK in August 1939, just weeks before the outbreak of war. \u201cIn the UK, they faced enormous challenges as many people didn\u2019t want a German family in their midst \u2013 \u2018the only good Germans are dead Germans\u2019. Her father was interned as an enemy alien and requalified as a doctor at the age of 72,\u201d said Helen. \u201cIt was only with the ending of the war \u2013 that they were finally safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book is described as a richly illustrated narrative, combining the original diary entries, family photographs and Helen\u2019s reflections.<\/p>\n
Quoting Goethe\u2019s Faust, Inge told her younger sister Kitty on arrival in Southampton: \u201cHere I am human. Here I can dare to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The house in Stanmore.<\/p>\n
Helen said: \u201cThe existence of the diaries was a revelation to me. I knew Mum\u2019s background as a refugee from Nazi Germany but the diaries showed what it felt like at the time to be 15 years old and scared. There was a lot of sadness in what she wrote but some of the entries made me laugh out loud too. In her later years she was so grateful to be able to live a happy life in Stanmore<\/a> with friends and family around her.\u201d<\/p>\n The book has been praised by historians and media figures, with David Rose calling it \u201ca remarkable, moving chronicle\u201d and James Hawes saying \u201cyou can\u2019t help but be captivated by this book.\u201d Dr Joseph Cronin described it as \u201ca compelling, beautifully crafted work,\u201d while Professor Dr Ernst Muller said it was \u201ca richly illustrated narrative that is vivid and deeply moving.\u201d<\/p>\n