Page 77 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20
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had every right, considering they worked so the high holidays in 1940. The family were
hard and were always hungry. warm and generous and could not understand
why we were living under such harsh
Finally, I received help, when Tamara Kollek
came to visit, while Teddy Kollek was conditions. However, when I refused their
attending meetings in London. She showed kind offer to stay, they plied me with good
me how to use the outside boiler to wash wholesome food for the whole group.
clothes, and I learned that however smelly,
woollen socks were, they should NOT be
boiled.
The boys were finding the work in the fields
extremely hard, especially during the harvest.
Some became ill and others left. We were
also very worried when we heard news of the
blitz that began in London in September
1940, and that the whole of England was in
danger. Evelyn in the 1940s
The conditions in our cottage became
unbearable. There were cockroaches
everywhere. The boys had been allowed to
shower at the mansion, but they were no
longer welcome there. Moggy and Sonia
Margolis came to help, but there was no way
conditions could be improved.
Salvation came when the “powers that be” or
the farmer realised that town boys were not
work-horses. The group left Blyborough
without even a thankyou from the gentleman
farmer. His farm manager and wife, who
were very kind to us, came to say goodbye to
me. His farewell words were: “You came to
us a pretty lass and now you look like a
country bumpkin”. A diet of porridge and Evelyn in the centre of her family at Kibbutz
potatoes had made its mark. Tzora, September 2020
We eventually arrived at Chivers Farm in
Suffolk, but that’s another story.
NB: It would be remiss of me not to record
the hospitality offered to us by the Grimsby
Lincs. Jewish Community that I accepted for
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