Uncle helped Jews escape

By jchappell

Neil Morris chanced upon a Bath Chronicle article on the Kindertransport when he visited family in Bath recently and he writes to ask if anyone knows anything about the activities of his uncle Alan de Rusett in Germany in 1938. He says:

I happened to read an article in the Bath Chronicle a few weeks ago, about pre-Second World War efforts to extract Jews from Nazi Germany.

I was very young at the beginning of the war, but have memories of various adults passing through our home, and being told that they had escaped from somewhere horrible.

I have two names: Fritz Gerson and Dr Strauss.

During the war I was in the home counties, with a spell being evacuated to Ebrington, Gloucester, returning to Dorking just in time for the V-1 doodlebugs in late 1944.

We were living with my grandmother, and she was involved in finding families for these refugees to stay with in England.

A number of them were set on their way by my uncle Alan de Rusett, who in 1938 was a student (in I believe Cologne) and according to family lore was responsible for the escape of at least 20 persons.

Alan himself, who was a historian and worked for the UNA, died in the 1970s and I don't know if he wrote about his experiences.

Neil now lives in Frances. Write to him at: Neil Morris, 91150 Etampes, France, or email neiletcitine@orange.fr