The harrowing story of a Jewish girl brought up in the Nazi Germany of the 1930s, her escape to Britain, and her youth and later life in the Swansea area, recording the hardships she suffered and her attempts to come to terms with enormous family losses.

Hanes dirdynnol merch Iddewig a fagwyd yn Almaen Natsïaidd yr 1930au, ei dihangfa i Brydain, a'i bywyd yn ferch ifanc ac yn oedolyn yn ardal Abertawe, yn cofnodi'r caledi a ddioddefodd ynghyd â'i hymdrechion i ddod i delerau â cholledion teuluol dirfawr.

Ellen Davis was born Kärry Wertheim in 1929, the first and much-loved child of her parents, into a happy Jewish family whose antecedents had been living in the small German village, Hoof, since 1760. From 1933, as the Third Reich and nazism flourished, her family was hounded out of their home, isolated in school, estranged from their friends and finally separated from each other.

This part of the book is harrowing to read. Most of us who remember the 'thirties and 'forties were not really aware of the great suffering of the Jewish people in Germany during those terrible years and their subsequent anguish as parents and siblings were taken to concentration camps and young children were transported to friendly countries. Kärry, at eight years of age, was sent to an orphanage with her three brothers and small sister, her ‘children’, where she cared for them as best she could. They were taunted by Hitler Youth if they left the building, and finally the orphanage was set on fire.

When she was ten years old, without time to say goodbye to her ‘children’ Kärry was taken in haste by her parents to a train to be transported to safety in Britain. The story of her journey to Wales ends the first part of the book.

I was surprised to learn the size of the Jewish community in Swansea at that time and Ellen Davis, as Kärry became, has lived there for most of the rest of her life. She writes well and the descriptions of her adopted family, their relations, neighbours and friends gives a vivid picture of life in Swansea during the War and as she grew up. It is a very frank and honest account not always reflecting well on Ellen herself. Her unhappy marriage, motherhood and working life are recalled in detail as well as her attraction to other men. Her ambition to run a business selling knitting machines was thwarted by her husband, its accountant, emptying the account and later the onset of arthritis led to the end of her business aspirations.

At one time she found a new life for four years in London in an Estate Agency until her arthritis led to her dismissal and her return to Swansea to work as a receptionist in a large Garage. During this period she was helped by the man who later became her second husband.

The last part of the book chronicles Ellen’s further efforts to rediscover her origins and the remainder of her family, including her father, and describes her journeys to Copenhagen, Australia, New York, L.A., Cincinnati and Miami and back to Germany and the book includes pictures of Kärry as a child with her parents and the ‘children’, her college friends, and extended family.

In recent years Ellen Davis has been visiting schools telling her story, as well as writing about it in journals and finally completing this autobiography. It is an absorbing and harrowing account in parts, but it is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit and to Ellen Davis’s indomitable courage.

Beryl Thomas

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.