Theo Engelhard (F / Germany, 1927), Holocaust survivor

Theo Engelhard (F / Germany, 1927), Holocaust survivor

Inge Sadan / Inge Malka Engelhard (F / Germany, 1930), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <United Kingdom> <Kindertransport>

Biography

Theo & Inge went as refugees to the United Kingdom in a Kindertransport with their older sister Berta (b.1923). At the end of 1943, they eventually reunited with their parents, who arrived in Britain after wandering 5 years from Austria to Yugoslavia, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

USHMM

Inge Malka Engelhard (now Inge Sadan) is the daughter of Moshe and Rachel (Zimmerlinsky) Engelhard. She was born on January 24, 1930 in Munich, where her father ran a laundry. Inge had two older siblings, a sister Berta (b.1923) and a brother Theo (b.1927). She attended the Jewish school in Munich from September 1936 until it closed in November 1938. After Kristallnacht the children attended makeshift schools, and all were registered for the Kindertransport to England. Berta and Theo departed on January 4, 1939; Inge, who had just turned nine, was put on a waiting list for a later transport. After the Engelhards lost their business, Inge's parents found employment at the laundry of the Jewish hospital. In June 1939 when the family was turned out of their apartment, Inge was placed with a mixed German-Jewish couple, while her parents were given shelter in the Jewish hospital. The following month Inge was given a place on a Kindertransport that included children from Munich, Vienna, Frankfurt and Cologne. Leaving on July 6, the children travelled by train to Holland and by boat to Harwich, England. Upon her arrival in England, Inge was taken to Coventry, where she was met by her sister Berta. She stayed with Berta's guardians for the next five years, and Theo eventually moved in with them as well. During the Blitz the children moved with their guardians to Delph in Yorkshire. They remained there from December 1940 to February 1944. Though the children were grateful to be together, they were not treated warmly by their guardians, who viewed them as servants and even insisted that Berta and Theo's outside income be turned over to them. The children received letters from their parents until the start of World War II. For the next year they heard nothing, but in the early fall of 1940, they received a Red Cross communiqué informing them that their parents had succeeded in crossing over the Austrian mountains into Yugoslavia. Moshe and Rachel remained in Yugoslavia until the German invasion in the spring of 1941. They then fled to Italy and lived in Rome for the next year. With the help of a Vatican priest who supplied them with the necessary documents, the Engelhards escaped to Spain. Six months later they travelled illegally to Portugal, where they stayed until December 1943. On Christmas day they got passage on the Yankee Clipper and flew to Britain, where they were reunited with their children.