Page 77 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20
P. 77

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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