Another outing for my radio programme from last year, about my grandfather’s escape from Nazi Czechoslovakia thanks to a letter from the BBC – on sunday oct 4 and then on BBC Sounds
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002rv6
The Letter
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Thank you to you, your brother and father for this fascinating programme. It was especially interesting for me because as a teenager I lived for 8 or 9 years at Castle House in the village of Gidleigh and your Grandparents, Hans & Leni lived just at the end of the road. Just over 100 metres away. I was at the same school as your Aunt, Jenni Hollander, in fact I, have just been sent a copy of bits of a very long school photo (Crediton High School – 1965) showing both of us as well as another friend (Gill Vivian née Price) whose parents loved to be invited to go to the home of a Mr. Robinson (retired headmaster of Winchester) in the small Dartmoor village Belstone where your Grandfather gave recitals. I can remember your Grandmother Leni taking me for walks on Dartmoor, she loved it, she was so small and so fit and I would come home exhausted. Gill’s parents had lived in Belstone and then moved to Drewsteignton where I believe you said that Hans and Leni also stayed for a while. I suppose they went from there to Gidleigh village. I don’t know because we didn’t move there until 1962 when I was 11. I think they must have been there for some time before us. My memory of their home was of a bungalow with piles of manuscripts everywhere. It’s just a memory from over 50 years ago so probably a bit distorted. I can see them both in my mind’s eye and I remember Jenni at school being a wonderful pianist and such a pretty girl. These are all good memories for me and I don’t know how I think that with Tom being so famous on TV that the surname rang the chimes for me. I hope you don’t mind my sending these memories, as I grow older I find family memories are so important. With my best wishes, Judith Hands, Torquay 19 November, 2020.
Dear Judith
For some reason, I missed your email til now. I am so sorry. I is wonderful to hear from you and to read your very precise memories. Do keep in touch. My father will be thrilled that you have such warm recollections. With all good wishes, Julia
I learned German at Crediton High School for Girls between 1959 and 1961. Each Friday afternoon and each Monday morning, Mrs Hollander would arrive from the fringes of Dartmoor, a diminutive figure on a large motor bike, to teach a few of us.
I also remember that her son, Tony, helped our science teacher in preparing the practical lessons. I think he was a student at the boys’ school next door.
He added a certain glamour to the lives of those of us who were boarders…
It is a sign of age that we begin to dwell on the past, I suppose, and I’m so pleased to learn about this happy ending for the Hollander family.
Jenny Carter, Burra, S.A., Australia
I don’t know if you will remember but I was at CHS with you. You were a devoted Torquay follower and every weekend exchanged notes with a chap from the Grubbery about the team. I was Susan Mundy then and only came to CHS in 6th form years, banished there by my parents! I used to look after the horse belonging to the Grenfell’s daughter.