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My father went absent then re-appeared with Ruth and Lora Herzstein aged, if I remember correctly, nine and eleven years of age respectively. Our local Methodist minister the Rev. B.J. Coggle (he was no ordinary Methodist minister but a giant of moral strength) and his wife readily agreed to Lora a home and we took in Ruth. Neither of them spoke a word of English.

It turned out that they had lived in Germany for a number of years where their father was an eminent lawyer. When he could see the way German politics under Hitler were heading he moved his family to Czechoslovakia to try to avoid the Nazi regime. They obviously, as it turned out, hadn鈥檛 moved far enough because, before long, he could see that Hitler鈥檚 intentions was to dominate at least all Eastern Europe. They were a Jewish family and he could see that the Nazi philosophy was to target the Jews as a priority and so we come to where my story began, he contacted the organisation who could help (Probably Jewish) and asked them to spirit his children away out of the clutches of the advancing Nazis. So Lora and Ruth arrived in Walkden and I had a new ready made sister, having previously been an only child. At first having no concept at that age of what was going on in Europe I rather liked the idea of a ready made playmate even accepting it was a girl. Imagine our first meal together round the table, Ruth not understanding a single word of the conversation, my mother not having a clue what food she was used to, her likes and dislikes, not knowing what level of Jewish culture she had been brought up in and therefore what religious restrictions there were on what she could eat and not eat. I can鈥檛 remember the details but as days went into weeks and weeks into months she changed from what I have described as a girl whose language was developing into broken English (she was already fluent in German and Czechoslovakian). We were beginning to find out what made her laugh we were immediately aware of what made her cry. My mother was beginning to discover what clothes and underclothes she felt comfortable in as she had nothing when she arrived. It turned out she was a clever child. She learned very quickly. In September of 1939 I went off to the Grammar School and she had just arrived completely illiterate of English. When I tell you that twelve moths later she was not only fluent in three languages including English, but she sat and passed her 11+ exam and joined me at Farnsworth Grammar School albeit a year behind. Tommy Hundle head of Walkden Moor Methodist Primary School who I have already mentioned played a large part in this remarkable achievement. We had lots of laughs on the way. It turned out she had little sense of time and urgency. She was always coming down to breakfast on the last minute and this particular morning my mother had shouted up to her several times 鈥淩uth, hurry up鈥�. Eventually the reply came down in broken English 鈥淚t is not my fault, I can鈥檛 find the sleeve of my knickers鈥�.
Soon after she and Lora arrived we did receive a letter from her father. He had been told where she was. He thanked us for taking her in and made it very clear that she must fir in with our way of life in its entirety. She must have no religious restrictions on her food and pattern of life. If we wished she must attend our Christian church worship and activities and in a nutshell, live with us as if she had always been there. Again, what an agonising letter that must have been for him to write. The Coggles got a similar letter with respect to Lora.

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