Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Southampton. 154 His recollection of his feelings upon his departure from Germany
corresponded to the same relief experienced by the other interviewees. His
feelings were also indicative of his renewed sense of self-confidence, as he
recalled:
I came to London and I was met by some English friends of mine. Naturally,
you suddenly felt different, feeling that you could walk straight and people
didn’t stare. I mean nobody looked at me in Germany, but you had the
feeling that everybody was looking at the back of your neck. A different story
altogether. Within days I think I felt relief, absolute relief. 155
His relief was even greater when his parents reluctantly left Magdeburg for
Palestine in August 1939. 156 With his parents’ emigration, his entire immediate
family had left Germany. He and his wife, Sigrid Freeman née Schetzer, also from
Magdeburg, immigrated from England to Australia in 1949, sailing on the Largs
Bay. Her parents followed shortly thereafter from England as well. 157
George Mannings’ immigration to England on a Kindertransport had been
organised prior to the pogrom of November 1938. When the pogrom occurred he
was in East Prussia training for farm work. In the wake of the pogrom he returned
briefly to Magdeburg. Aged sixteen, his feelings were characterised by an
overwhelming sadness and dread. He explained that he felt devastated that he was
not with his family and also because there was nothing he could do. When he
arrived in Magdeburg his widowed father, Heinrich Manneberg, 158 was already in
Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He was never to see his father again. He
recalled the feeling of chaos surrounding this period and ‘how quickly everything
154
H. Freeman, op. cit., 3 June 1998.
155
H. Freeman, op. cit., 13 May 1998.
156
Ibid.
157
S. Freeman, op. cit., 13 May 1998.
158
The lives and fates of the members of the Manneberg family have also been
discussed in previous chapters, particularly in Chapters Two and Four.