WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 Then one guy said, "You're letting that pig Jewess talk to you?" 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.960 and he went 'klonk', he hit me because I'm Jewish. 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:15.280 My name is Funmi Abari. Hello. 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:17.720 My name is Ruth Schneider. 00:00:17.720 --> 00:00:20.600 So, before the holocaust, did everyone get along? 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:22.560 Before the Nazis came into power... 00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:24.600 - Yes, darling? - Were Jews accepted? 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:26.920 I never felt any anti-Semitism 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:30.640 whether it was in the school or in the street, 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:32.320 before Hitler came. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:33.680 While you were in Vienna, 00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:36.600 did anyone show anti-Semitism towards you directly? 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:38.960 A boy across the road, 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:42.960 who was a year and half older than I was, we played together. 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:45.560 I really loved him. His name was Rudy. 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:47.520 When Hitler came, 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.680 I was 15 and he was about 16 and a half, 00:00:50.680 --> 00:00:53.160 and he went into the Hitler Youth. 00:00:53.160 --> 00:00:56.360 I was walking along the street and I saw him, 00:00:56.360 --> 00:01:00.120 in uniform with his friends, all Hitler Youth, 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:03.160 and I said to him, "Oh, Rudy! Don't you look gorgeous?" 00:01:03.160 --> 00:01:06.840 Then one guy said, "You're letting that pig Jewess talk to you?" 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:10.320 and he went 'klonk' and he broke the tooth here. 00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:14.200 I had to have a false one put in because it was broken. 00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:15.920 He hit me because I'm Jewish. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:19.640 I was a pig Jewess and I wasn't allowed to speak to a Hitler Youth. 00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:24.520 A Nazi supporter saved you and your family. 00:01:24.520 --> 00:01:25.920 That's right. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:31.600 All the Jewish organisations were infiltrated by Nazis. 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:34.040 They were usually secretaries and so on. 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:36.800 My father belonged to the Zionist organisation 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:40.800 and the secretary was the infiltrator. 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:43.640 She told him, "Meisels, get out of here. 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:46.680 "You're down for arrest on the 9th of May." 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:48.800 So, the funny thing is that, 00:01:48.800 --> 00:01:52.480 we were saved by a Nazi how to get away from the Nazis. 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:57.200 Could you describe your journey to London 00:01:57.200 --> 00:01:59.160 and what happened when you arrived? 00:01:59.160 --> 00:02:03.200 We flew over which was very unusual in 1938. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:06.360 My mother had thrown away the Polish passports 00:02:06.360 --> 00:02:08.280 because she hated Poland. 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:09.960 When we got here, 00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:14.040 Churchill had decided to intern all aliens. 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:18.040 An alien is somebody who is not a British subject, 00:02:18.040 --> 00:02:20.920 so we were enemy aliens, 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:23.920 like Germans and all that sort of thing. 00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:28.680 But, Mama and I were arrested and they took me to Holloway Prison. 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:33.160 We were locked up for 23 hours a day except for half an hour 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:36.600 when we had exercise and we walked around. 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:40.400 Mama was on the bed and I was on the floor on a mattress, 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:43.400 but the one thing is we had to use the same bucket! 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:45.880 If you know what I'm talking about? 00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:48.520 That was the only thing which I resented. 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:51.600 It wasn't a bad experience. I learned a lot. 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:55.400 How fortunate do you feel to have escaped Nazi territory? 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:59.320 I'd won the world. I was alive. 00:02:59.320 --> 00:03:04.240 I just felt wonderful and I always felt that I wanted to do something 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:07.440 to return the kindness that England had shown me. 00:03:08.480 --> 00:03:12.800 Country leaders swore nothing like the holocaust would happen again. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.560 Do you think they kept their promise even with the genocide in Rwanda? 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:18.640 Look what is going on now. 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:23.320 The same sort of thing is going on and nothing is happening. 00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:25.280 People haven't learned. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:27.640 They don't think they're doing anything wrong, 00:03:27.640 --> 00:03:30.400 just like Hitler didn't think he did anything wrong. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:32.000 If I knew how to change it, 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:35.160 I'd be in the government telling them what to do! 00:03:35.160 --> 00:03:38.000 There are times when I do want to tell the government 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.880 but they don't listen to us. 00:03:39.880 --> 00:03:43.480 History is a strange thing, you forget about various things 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:45.960 but this ought to be remembered. 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:48.320 I don't know how much longer I'll be around, 00:03:48.320 --> 00:03:53.200 but I hope to hear somewhere, sometime, that things have changed.