Frank Leigh

Interview Summary

Frank was born in Vienna in 1925. As a young boy he noticed the change in atmosphere on the streets around his town; he felt inferior and discriminated at school. After the Anschluss Frank and his parents were forced out of their home and moved in with his grandparents. On Kristallnacht his father was imprisoned in Dachau. Frank’s mother organised a place for him on the Kindertransport. A hostel in Leeds became his home until he was taken in by a Jewish couple. A barber’s apprenticeship brought out his entrepreneurial skills as a young teenager and became a life-long career. He lived with the trauma of never seeing his mother again but was forever grateful to Britain for giving him a home. (Khaiz Gymnasium, Stainbeck Lane Hostel)