Shirley Lennon

Edith Jacobowitz-Bown

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Introduction: In Spring 1939, a seventy five acre farm at Ballyrolly outside Millisle, Co Down, Northern Ireland was leased by the Jewish refugee Committee in Belfast. Children, teenagers and adults previously living in a cramped hostel in Belfast were transferred there. Most of the children, including Edith Jacobowitz and her younger brother, Gert had entered Britain on the Kindertransport. Of about seventy of those who came to Northern Ireland, about thirty were sent to the farm. Edith also lived with families in Belfast but visited the farm often. This section uses quotes from Edith's diary written during her time in Northern Ireland and later translated herself from the original German. A copy is available from the Weiner Library. This Memorial page was created to link with a candle holder made as part of the HMDT 80 candles for 80 Years project to enable people to find out more about Edith and Gert's experiences. https://www.hmd.org.uk/80-candles-for-80-years/ A film about another child who lived on the farm, Walter Kammerling is available here: https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/walter-kammerling/ “I have always said that if there had been no Hitler and fascism, there would not have been any Jews to speak of in another generation, so eager were the majority to be part of the national set up” “The result of the 1933 election started to change life. I remember the racists marching with torches, and the books that were burnt in the school grounds. My friends from the other shops ceased to play with me” 9th November Kristallnacht “That night we did not sleep. The radio blurted out obscenities directed at Jews, Communists and other ‘sub-humans’.We watched the jewellers across the road being smashed and looted by teenage Hitler youths... In the morning we could see the broken glass all over the pavement, around the jewellers. The morning after the ‘Kristallnacht’ I went to school as usual.The conductor and passengers were highly amused by the sight of broken windows. They applauded thelooting as one way of getting even with the Jews. My eyes shiny, as I listened silently to the abuse.” “From January 1939 life was a kind of no man’s land. My brother and I went to school every day and came back in the afternoon. One day I came home all was in confusion. My brother had returned earlier from school and was standing there. 2 men told my mother and father to get a few things. We kissed them, and my father said ‘look after the boy, promise’. I promised. So they all went. My parents in the front, the men behind them. I saw them from the fourth floor window… we were left in the shambles... So I wrote to Mr Hurwitz of the Jewish Community in Northern Ireland explaining our plight and begged him to hurry up our escape from Germany” “The morning of our departure arrived, so did a letter from my mother. I sat in the car reading it,with the kind of numbness, which follows a crushed hope. We were not to see the parents again. It was early in the morning and there were so many children between the ages of six months to 14years. 150 children given into the charge of English Quaker ladies. We all had a ticket around our neck,with our names and destination” The children travelled through Europe by train, then by ship to England before arriving in Liverpool Street station. There they were met by a sister of Barney Hurwitz who lived in London, before being taken to another train to Liverpool and on by ship again to arrive in Belfast. “There I was on the deck with four pieces of luggage and Gert.” “I was full of fear of the future and the misery of the past. The loss of my mother and my fears for her and my father, at the same time the feelings of guilt that I had left them behind to perish! When the ship berthed we went on deck with our luggage. It was raining. We must have looked a funny sight” “Now we are in a hostel. Gert seems quite happy. He prefers to be with a crowd of people. The hostel became so congested with people, that another solution had to be found. One of the other schemes the Jewish Authorities had started was a Kibbutz, on the seashores of County Down, near a village called Millisle. There amongst a population of village fold, though fortunately at the outskirts of the village this very orthodox group ...had started to live their communal life.” “During the long holidays... the members of the hostel have gone to the farm by the Irish Sea. We have been here for four weeks. The first three weeks we slept in tents. Now we are in the empty rooms in the farmhouse. It is very comfortable. The food is very English...” In September 1942 Edith started in Ards District Hospital. She left in 1946 to go to Liverpool with the intention to do a course in tropical diseases. She later started a course in midwifery. “I qualified (as a nurse) in 1945. The prize for the year could not be given to a foreigner. The small market square in Newtownards was packed to listen to Mr Churchill for the official ending of the war. They all shouted with joy and all discipline was suspended for that evening. I stood amongst the crowds crying; wondering what was left for me.” Edith met and married Len Bown 1st July 1950 and had an only son Stefan born 18th October 1951. This is a link to an interview with Edith from the Imperial War Museum : https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/edith-jacobowitz-and-millisle-refugee-farm Please see a separate memorial page for Edith's Brother Gert Jacobowitz/Gerald Jayson

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