Man recalls seeing Hitler in Vienna on birthday

A man who came to England during World War Two said that he can remember the moment that, "Hitler walked straight through the middle of Vienna during my ninth birthday party."

John Farago, 95, who now lives in Deal, Kent, said that members of his Jewish family who he was living with in Austria were "apprehensive and fearful for their lives".

Mr Farago was taken to Brussels in Belgium on Kindertransport trains, which took children out of Nazi-controlled areas and into safer territory.

He lived with a family in Brussels but came to Folkestone in 1940 and then moved to Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, with members of his family.

Speaking to BBC South East ahead of the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport, Mr Farago said: "Most people were cheering for Hitler when he marched in. The people in the street were shouting for joy.

"I only learnt later in my life members of my family took their lives on the same day."

He added that in November of 1938, during Kristallnacht in Vienna, people were fighting against Jews, and some were killed.

It was after Kristallnacht that the British government agreed that some Jewish children under the age of 17 could temporarily come to Britain to safety.

The first Kindertransport from Berlin in Germany departed for the UK on 1 December 1938. Over the coming nine months, thousands were rescued.

The last Kindertransport train to leave Germany departed from Berlin on 1 September 1939 - the same day that Germany invaded Poland. Britain declared war on Germany two days later.

Mr Farago said: "I always felt I was lucky because I escaped. I was lucky because my parents escaped.

"My grandparents stayed behind in Vienna but then married a Hungarian, so she moved there.

"Some members of my family survived, but one of my father's brothers was lost."

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