In the fall of 1938, my parents managed to get a place for me in a Quaker school in the Netherlands which had been established for German and Austrian refugee children. I had to travel to Warsaw to obtain a visa from the Dutch consul there and then, to get to Holland without entering Germany; I would need to take a plane to Prague and then a plane direct to Amsterdam. But the first plane could not leave because of bad weather, there was a wait of 10 days for the next available seat on the plane from Prague and no hotel would take a person without papers. My father, who was accompanying me, had to find a way for me to stay in Warsaw. He asked the first reliable looking man he saw in the street for help, who sent us to a member of the German embassy in whose apartment I then stayed. Equally amazing, the man who sent us there turned out to be a Polish policeman in the very department charged with deporting illegal aliens. I do not know why. Was it a humanitarian action or was it political? This is
In the fall of 1938, my parents managed to get a place for me in a Quaker school in the Netherlands which had been established for German and Austrian refugee children. I had to travel to Warsaw to obtain a visa from the Dutch consul there and then, to get to Holland without entering Germany; I would need to take a plane to Prague and then a plane direct to Amsterdam. But the first plane could not leave because of bad weather, there was a wait of 10 days for the next available seat on the plane from Prague and no hotel would take a person without papers. My father, who was accompanying me, had to find a way for me to stay in Warsaw. He asked the first reliable looking man he saw in the street for help, who sent us to a member of the German embassy in whose apartment I then stayed. Equally amazing, the man who sent us there turned out to be a Polish policeman in the very department charged with deporting illegal aliens. I do not know why. Was it a humanitarian action or was it political? This is
Hans.history3.docx