Ninety-one-year-old Esther Bergh is a pioneer. She was not only among the first of the Kindertransport children saved from Nazi Germany, she was one of the first to live on a kibbutz in the new state of Israel.
For her, White Theatre’s “Kindertransport” has brought back many memories. She says the play (see page 20 for details) has rekindled an interest in her, with many people wanting to hear her real life story.
Following Kristallnacht, the British government opened its doors to certain categories of Jewish children and for the next two years, until war broke out, saved 10,000 children from what would have been certain death.
At age 14, Bergh became a Kindertransport child. It happened in the middle of the night and no parents or other relatives were allowed to see the children off. Fortunately, her best friend from school made it to the same train. It first took them to the Hook of Holland, where they boarded a ship to take them on to Harwich, England.
“That’s where we embarked,” Bergh says. “We were picked up by buses and taken to a seaside camp. They had set up a reception camp there for the children that came from all over. It was kind of a holding place for children until they were picked up by whoever had sponsored them. Parents who were able had filled out questionnaires requesting what kind of family they wanted for their child. My mother came from a traditional Jewish family so she would like for me to be in a traditional Jewish family.”
Children gradually left the camp, picked up by different agencies, and went to various places. Bergh says Jewish and non-Jewish families alike opened their homes to these children.
“The Quakers were extremely kind, setting up all kinds of facilities for the children,” she says. “There were hostels, camps, boarding schools, you name it. Every child had a different destination.
“I was one of the last ones to leave the camp because I got sick and was put in the sick bay. I thought I was going to die. You feel abandoned, every day; you don’t have your family with you. I was alone, really alone.”
Bergh’s friend had been picked up by a family from London. Then when Bergh was released from sick bay, a train took her to London. She thought she, too, would settle there with her friend. But it would not turn out that way; she was to go on to Manchester, England.
She stayed with an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, the Levys, taking care of their three children, leaving behind her dreams of continuing her education. Then one day they decided they wanted to marry her off. She said, “No thank you.” She realized she had to start supporting herself, with only an elementary education.
Her school friend’s parents had, in the meantime, made it to London before the war. Bergh was in touch with them and they invited her to visit them. Realizing her situation, they asked what she wanted to do. She said she had always been interested in teaching and working with children.
At about the same time, Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud’s daughter, founded the Anna Freud Institute where she taught orphans and children with behavioral problems. She was seeking students who would work and study at the same time.
“So this is where I ended up, where I got a terrific foundation for early childhood,” Bergh says. “This was all during the war.”
She found her first job in a wartime nursery and for the first time in her life had money in her pocket. “I could go and be independent, and this profession has been my lifetime occupation.”
Bergh says she lived for 11 years in England, where she never really felt at home. At that time the State of Israel was being created. She joined a group of young pioneers and in 1949 they went to Israel to establish a kibbutz.
“It was just a half a year after the state had been established,” she says. “It was another terrific experience. I’m glad I did it because to live in a state that’s just being established, a Jewish state, where for the first time in my life I felt I was free. Living in Germany, you never felt free. In England I was a refugee most of the time. When I went to Israel, I belonged, I was a free Jew. It was a wonderful feeling. I lived there for six years.”
She immigrated to New York because her sister lived there. Her sister was to be married and wanted Bergh to be with her. Her brother had also made it out of Germany and in fact lived with her at the Levy household in Manchester. Sadly, several years later, on his way to a conference in Israel his plane was shot down. He had been active in youth aliyah.
Her mother had plans to go to England as well, but then the war broke out and she became a victim of the Holocaust.
Bergh met her husband, Warner Bergh, shortly after coming to the United States. They moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1955 where they raised their two daughters, now Evie Grant and Jackie Hermanson. Their daughters decided to attend college in Missouri, met their future husbands and never returned home.
The Berghs stayed on in Des Moines until just two and a half years ago, when they moved to the Kansas City area to be with their children and grandchildren. They joined Congregation Beth Shalom.
In Des Moines, they were active in a Conservative synagogue where Bergh opened a Jewish preschool and worked there for 45 years.
Bergh says there have been two reunions of the Kindertransport children — a 50th and a 60th. They came from all over the world, and many of them brought their children.
“It was a miracle, an absolute miracle, the whole Kindertransport,” she says. “Ten thousand children would all have ended in the gas chamber. These children all have a different story. Some are similar; some are different. Some really made it — one or two Nobel Laureates, influential in British life in many ways and all over the world. I always like to point that out. So you can understand my feelings about refugees.”
