A German child evacuated to North Mymms during WWII

Theodora Schwarzschild, third from the right bottom row
At the "large old and very cold house" in Brookmans Park where she was educated
Image North Mymms Local History Society,
Part of the Images of North Mymms Collection

In 1938 a Jewish girl fled Hitler's Germany with her family and headed for England. Soon after arriving she was separated from her parents along with dozens of other children and evacuated to Brookmans Park. Speaking no English, she remembers being "deposited" on Brookmans Park Station and taken in by a "really special family" who lived in Brookmans Avenue. She recalls being woken one night after a shell exploded in the back garden "blowing out the upstairs windows".