Evacuation

A Memory of Kibworth Beauchamp.

I was evacuated to Kibworth three times; in 1939 I came probably from my school, Newington Green in North London.

i stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Dinkley. After a few months, a bomb fell in Kibworth, probably on the way to Coventry. My parents took me home, but each time I returned home a bomb fell in our road as it was near an ammunition factory.

After each bomb, I was sent back to the county, the second time to Wales and then the third time I was sent to Kibworth to Family Gilbert, It must have been around 1942, I took part in a school play and the performance was noted in the local newspaper.

I was not happy with this family as the man of the house thought that the Germans would surely occupy us and he warned me I would be amongst the first to be taken away (I am Jewish).

I returned to Kibworth the third time when my brother was a baby, he was born in 1943 and we stayed in a cottage which we rented from a spiritualist. This man was noted for the fact that he could find missing people if he saw their photo.

I also attended my first and only seance there with my mother to discover if my aunt who lived in Paris was all right. (She and her husband and elder daughter were sent to Auschwitz).

I was due to attend the Grammar School as I already went to to a grammar school in London which had a prep year for 10 year- olds. however, we received no reply to our application.

I remember using a sled in the winter and taking 11 + in a local school without ever having seen an intelligence test before.

I returned to Kibworth a few years ago and discovered that are two Kibworths, can anyone provide information so that I can work out which one I might have been in? I know that the station could not have been too far as I would walk there to meet my father or mother when they came to see me.

I also remember sitting with the kids in my class and helping them to read as I already could read and write when I arrived at the age of 6. I still have a doll made by Mrs. Dunkely which she gave me on my birthday . Unfortunately, I have no pictures as no one had a camera in those days.

Another memory is that I would reenact the story of Snow White with the kids in my class in the school yard during the break and I would choose the part of the witch. One day, a Nazi plane flew over so we could see the swastika on the side, and even the pilot, I imagine he had been hit.

There were a lot of American soldiers in the area. We were taught to say: "Give us some gum, chum'', although my father warned me to keep away from them like fire!

To the kind people who did take us in and treated us well I send my belated thanks as surely none are still alive.

Devorah Beth, (formerly Dorothy Cohen)

I am interested to know if anyone else was evacuated with me, my name then was Dorothy Cohen.