HE: Mother with her brother
HE: 2007
HE: 2007
HE: Reverse side of father's internment document
HE: Henry on the right
HE: Father
HE:"Notification from the Central Office for Refugees in Bloomsbury House to my parents
HE: Father in the uniform of the Auxiliary Fire Service
HE: "This is a photograph on a pass which was issued to my mother as a cinema owner in Vienna. The pass entitled her to go to premieres
HE: Father's internment papers
HE: With parents and two cousins
HE: The Johann Strauss Kino (cinema)
HE: Father Berthold and aunt Mella
HE: "This is the reverse side of the letter referred to previously from the Central Office for Refugees. It mentions various conditions for the employment."
HE: Maternal grandparents
HE: "This is a further letter from the Central Office for Refugees to my parents that they’d had consular clearance and that a work permit was being issued to allow them to go to the UK to go to work for the Reverend Carroll in Binham
HE: With parents
HE: Maternal grandparents c1907
HE: With mother and Mrs Stella Epstein
HE: As a boy
HE: With his wife
HE:
Henry Ebner
Born: 1937
Place of Birth: Vienna
Arrived in Britain: 16/08/1939
Interview Number: 147 (S)
Experiences: Came With Parents or Close Family , Stoatley Rough School
Interview Summary
Date of interview: 06/02/2007
Henry Ebner, nee Heinz Ebner, was born 1937 in Vienna. His parents were cinema proprietors (Admiral Lichtspiele and Johann Strauss Kino). While his father was arrested and sent to Dachau, his mother managed to arrange domestic visas to the UK. The family came to the UK in August 1939. Henry’s father was interned at Central Promenade Camp on the Isle of Man for two months. From the age of eight to eighteen Henry was sent to ‘Stoatley Rough School’, in Surrey which catered in particular for refugee children. Henry Ebner became a solicitor and during his career was involved in restitution claims with Germany and pensions claims with Austria.
Place of Birth
The set-up was quite cosmopolitan in many ways and we had to do a lot of the chores ourselves. There was a big potato peeling machine there so we had to take turns. We had a rota, the bigger boys operating this potato peeling machine. We did the washing in the school. And there was also a farm in the school with a farmer. It was about a 10-minute, quarter of an hour walk from the school called The Farm. Again it had huts there where some of the older children lived. And some of the older children actually got involved in farming. And also tapped the stream to build a swimming pool. It was a horrible swimming pool but it served its purpose. We used to go swimming there and we used to pick the leeches off each other as we got out.
Life and leeches at Stoatley Rough
I think that one should be very grateful to the host country for offering sanctuary. I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity of bringing up a family in this country [...] I do feel some attachment to Vienna. I do occasionally still dream in German.
dreaming in German