This is a beautiful memorial to a woman I had the honor to meet a couple times in my childhood. Growing up, my best friend’s father had lived in an orphanage in England, raised by a woman they called “Granny Alice”. I was too young to understand the full impact of the story and all it’s connections in history. All I knew was that this woman would come from England to visit who would bring different candies than I’d ever heard of like Smarties and toffees. She’d bring books that my friend would let me borrow. Her visits were very special to the family. I remember when they shared the episode of This Is Your Life with me, I realized I hadn’t just met their granny, I’d met someone really special. I’ve never forgotten her story. On my bookshelf sits a book about her called Love Despite Hate by Sarah Moskovitz to remind me of her dedication to children. Thank you for keeping her memory alive.
My mother was one of the young children. She had fond memories of her time at Weir Courtney. I say the kaddish prayer every year on the Hebrew date of the year when Alice left us.
Alice was after-school teacher of my father, Wolfgang Blumenfeldt, in Charlotenberg, Berlin. She was close to his family and in 1939 she and my grandfather Fritz made the decision to enrol Wolfgang in the Kindertansport programme and he travelled to England in January 1939, aged 10. A decade or so later and now called Wolf Blomfield, he had spent a refugee childhood in wartime England, and Fritz had died - probably en route to Sobibor. Now, my father wanted to be a social worker, so he applied for a job in a children's home for holocaust survivor children. He knocked on the door and there was Alice. She cried 'Wolfchen!' and they embraced. My father worked at Lingfield House for several years, a part of the family. He stayed in touch with some of the children and with Alice and they were all a part of the childhoods of my sister and I. As I heard it, Alice was not impressed by This is Your Life. My father was invited, but then his part was cut, which she thought was a big mistake, as she felt less of a connection with some of the others who were included. In my memory she was always very old, but visiting her flat was the first time I ate a schnitzel! Thank you so much for creating this very fitting memorial.
