Margot Harris

Margot Harris, born Margot Adler in Kassel in 1930, was the youngest of five children. Her parents Rosa Adele née Kornmehl and Abraham Adler both came from Poland and their marriage was arranged. She remembers a very happy and protected childhood in Kassel. Her older siblings took her along to their activities and she learnt swimming in the river Fulda, went sledding in winter and started school in 1936. Her father sold menswear in his shop called “Adler’s Kleiderbörse” and they lived above the shop in Müllergasse/ Ecke Pferdemarkt. They were an observant family and she remembers her mother’s excellent cooking and baking for Shabbos, Pesach and the other high holidays.

During the November Pogrom (Kristallnacht), their shop was looted, a brick was thrown through their living room window and worse was only prevented by a neighbour shouting “the Adlers don’t live there”. Her father was taken to Buchenwald and efforts to emigrate which had been started already, had to be redoubled. Her older brother went on a Kindertransport to the USA. Her mother’s brother-in-law in Paris who was a well-to-do furrier with connections to the British Consulate helped arrange their emigration to London, where her father was “supposed to teach religion.”

Margaret remembers being very seasick on the way over from Hook of Holland to Harwich. Initially they stayed in a shelter in Mansell Street and when she contracted diphtheria, Margot was brought to a hospital for four weeks. She was well taken care of and even learnt English. At first, they lived in the East End and later they moved to Crouch End and Margot won a scholarship to Hornsey High School. Her father was able to start a business trading in diamonds and jewellery and they were able to buy a house in Golders Green.

After finishing school, Margot started a secretarial course at Pitman College. In 1948 she travelled to the USA with her parents to see her brother Hermann and with the plan to settle there. But when her mother came back to England, wanting to see Margot’s sisters’ children, Margot came along and never returned. She met her first husband and got married in 1951 and they had one son, called Paul. She later met her second husband Henry Harris and they have been married since 1961 and have a son Lee. When he did his A levels, Margot decided to do hers to and afterwards to become a psychotherapist. She still sees clients today and has published her memoirs “Vintage 1930, Still Here”.

Keywords: Adler. Kornmehl. Kassel. Adler’s Kleiderbörse. Cracow. Kristallnacht. Paris. London. Mansell Street Shelter. Evacuation during Blitz. Hatton Garden diamond and jewellery business. Hornsey High School. Pitman College. Psychotherapy. USA.