Marianne Phillips

From Berlin to Manchester – my life story

Marianne was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1924. She escaped to Britain on the Kindertransport, lived in wartime London, built a new life and family, and “gave back” to the country that offered her a refuge.

Marianne has fond recollections of her early years in Berlin, including the arrival of Herbert, her younger brother in 1930. However, the tide of antisemitism that accompanied the rise of the Nazi Party made day to day living increasingly difficult. At the age of 13 in 1937 she lost her mother to illness, after which she and her brother had to live in a children’s home which the Nazi’s tried (unsuccessfully) to burn down on Kristallnacht in November 1938.

Her aunt succeeded in getting Marianne a place on the Kindertransport and also a job as a nanny with a family in Somerset. When her hosts learned that her younger brother was still in Berlin they immediately tried to bring him to England, but this became impossible once war was declared. Ten months later, following the evacuation from Dunkirk, her host family moved to Canada without Marianne.

With £5 in her pocket, she was put on a train to London where, contrary to what she had been told, nobody was expecting her. She found a bed at a refugee hostel and spent the war working first in a clothing factory and later as the Assistant Housekeeper at the hostel where she was living. When she wasn’t working, she made the most of everything cultural that London had on offer whilst also dodging the bombs during the Blitz.

Marianne married in London in 1943. After her husband died Marianne moved north to Manchester to be closer to her children and rebuilt her life once again. She still lives independently in her own flat, looking forward to visits from both her children, her four grandchildren and baby great-grandson.

There is no place for prejudice in Marianne’s life.