Figure 1.--I do not know much about the decision our parents made. I think they decided on or about July 3. They must have discussed it for some days beforehand. It came of course a couple weeks after the French capitulation. The Luftwaffe was rapidly establishing bases along the Channel and we all having seen the newsreels knew wha was to come. My father's original letter was in my welfare file. I am flattered he called us decent, but I think we were! Put your cursor on the imsage to see the rest of the letter.

I do not know much about the decision our parents made. I think they decided on or about July 3. They must have discussed it for some days beforehand. It came of course a couple weeks after the French capitulation. The Luftwaffe was rapidly establishing bases along the Channel and we all having seen the newsreels knew wha was to come. My father's original letter was in my welfare file. I am flattered he called us decent, but I think we were! It is interesting to me that he went on an anasthetics course. I suppose it represented the shortage of civilian medical personnel. I expect he was taught to use the 'rag and bottle' method. (A pad of gauze placed over the nose and mouth onto which ether was poured. It might have been sprayed with ethyl chloride first to give a quick induction. There would be a lot of coughing and spluttering with ether as the inducing agent. It was considered a safe(?) and easy means of anaethetising. So long as they went 'easy' on the ethyl chloride. They said nothing to us at the time. They waited until the American Committee approved us. Then They simply announced to us that we were going to America. Our little sister was deemed to young to accompany us. After the announcement, it was all done in a bit of a hurry. I remeber Dad telling us we were going, probably about August 6. Both my brother and I were of course very excited. We did not know much about America, but we were avid cinema fans. And Hollywood had us well briefed. We were sure we were going to see cowboys and Indians. I think the excitement acted to keep our minds off leaving the family.