The left wing emigration, that means the Communists and Social Democrats, had a place called The Club of Czechoslovak-British Friendship. There took place meetings, lectures but most importantly there was a restaurant. It was possible to get pork, Czech dumplings and sauerkraut there. When you think: English cuisine, war, hospital – it´s clear. The fact is that we were never hungry, on the contrary to those who stayed here or somewhere else. When I was a pupil of the 1st class, a classmate fell in love with me, head over heals. My family made fun of it..He was accompanying me and to top it all, sent me a kitschy card. There was she, a blond girl with a pointer indicating it was meant to be me, and he, knealing with a bouquet. Well, I didn´t want to see him again any more. And here I was at the Friendship Club, eating my lunch and there was a boy sitting by the window dressed in a pilot´s uniform, nothing special about that. Suddenly he approaches me and says – Sorry to bother you, but aren´t you by any chance Mariánka Poláková from Prague? I say – Well, yes - And he replies – I´m your Francek from the first class!
Then we landed in Liverpool. We were used to being shouted at by Czech officers, practically all the time. And now here, where things were organized, nobody shouted at us. We were given tea and some bread and were hurled into buses, no idea where we were going. They took us to London. At first, we were taken to – what´s its name? Today there is a kind of circus or what – there came people from the Red Cross and distributed us into English families willing to host war refugees. This was a suburb of London and the lady who was accompanying us said – Now what? Mr Ryan isn´t in. A neighbour came out and said – You´re bringing the war refugees? Mr Ryan has left the keyes here.Can you imagine? Complete strangers. He leaves the key and lets us in. Of course, there was nothing, he was a bus driver, so no riches there, nevertheless there was all set for tea, we had to add only water, and food. He came home after midnight, he worked shifts. Oh Mr Ryan.
I found a job rather quickly, I was the only one to have a job and my brother kept bombarding me – You don´t earn much, we still have some money – the army was at a place called Cholmondeley Park. So I obeyed him, handed in my notice and left. There I stayed in a private place and this is where started, or rather continued a romance between my brother and my future sister-in-law. She had a sister who gave birth immediately after the landing. And her mother, granny Ilonka, was so kind to cook also for me. I thought I was in a fairy tale: cooking was done on an open fire and so washing up was also special: they were all black, the pots. And once in a month arrived a squire, he was renting out the little houses. He owned the farm and they all ran outside, he didn´t even dismount the horse, they shook hands, he asked how they were and left. Well, I never!
Another thing was the English police. They were always kind, on the contrary to the French policemen. We were not allowed certain things. For example, riding a bike. Why, nobody knows, perhaps not to pass on any secret messages, I don´t know. But me and my sister-in-law, where did we find the bikes? No idea. We were supposed to call at the police regularly, once a month and we went to the police station by bike. The policeman came outside and said – Dear young ladies, when you are getting here on bikes, be so kind and leave them at the back so that I won´t see them. And me and my sister-in-law, we cycled all over the countryside picking raspberries and brambles.
Full recordings
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v bytě pamětnice (2013 moje i 30.3. 2015 - dětská nahrávka), 23.10.2013
Marianna Langerová, née Pollaková was born on January 6th, 1920 in the Královské Vinohrady quarter of Prague. Born into a middle class, assimilated Jewish family, she simultaneously attended German and Czech basic schools and continued studying languages even after the Munich Treaty. It was then that she had to leave the school she studied at and prepare to emigrate. Thanks to the foresight of her father and a fair amount of good luck, the family managed to get to Greece early on. Later, Marianna and her older brother Egon, volunteered to fight against Hitler and left for France. Egon served as a doctor with the Czechoslovak Unit at Agde, while Marianna worked back in Paris. She managed to leave the city in time before the Germans arrived and together with her brother sailed to England. She moved places and had different work positions in London, Cholmondeley Park, Leamington Spa and again in London. There, at the left wing Friendship Club, she met Arnošt, her future husband. Still in London, their daugher was born. Immediately after the liberation, they left for home where they happily met Marianna´s parents who had returned from Palestine.
Family grave, New Jewish Cemetary, Prague, Elsa Pollaková (1st wife of Marianna´s father), Mořic and Matylda Taussig (grandfather and grandmother from mother´s side), Emil (mother´s brother), Bedřich and Gisela (parents) surname already spelled in Czech
Family grave, New Jewish Cemetary, Prague, Elsa Pollaková (1st wife of Marianna´s father), Mořic and Matylda Taussig (grandfather and grandmother from mother´s side), Emil (mother´s brother), Bedřich and Gisela (parents) surname already spelled in Czech
