Kenneth Shindler

Born: 1919

Place of Birth: Hamburg

Arrived in Britain: 26/03/1938

Interview Number: 56 (N)

Interview Summary

Date of interview: 06/04/2004

Born Kurt Schindler in Hamburg in 1919, into a prosperous family who owned a merchant’s business and lived in the affluent suburb of Harvestehude. Family completely non-observant, but Ken and his wife Sonja, a refugee from the Sudetenland, made a point of keeping their Liberal observance and passing it on to their two sons. Family emigrated to London in 1938, Ken joined the Pioneer Corps early in the war. He learnt arc welding, then became an electrical engineer, moving to Birmingham in 1963, successful in his career.

Place of Birth

The message is that as an immigrant into a new environment, you must acclimatise to that. That’s the criticism I have against the immigration who are so welded together and find it so hard to break away. It makes life difficult, I think, for themselves and for others.

Refugees must acclimatise