Headmistress' Lecture

Mrs Owens, the Headmistress of St George's invites you to the inaugural Headmistress' Lecture to take place on Tuesday 28 February 2012 at 6.00pm in the Sue Cormack Hall.

The Lecture is entitled Living with the Enemy: Surviving the Holocaust and will be presented by Holocaust Survivor Freddie Knoller.

Due to the content, this lecture will only be open to girls in the Fourth Year and above, to staff and to parents.  

To confirm your place please contact the School Office.

Freddie Knoller

Freddie was born in 1921 in Vienna, Austria, where he lived with his parents and two brothers. From early childhood Freddie and his family were subjected to antisemitism. Following the Anschluss, this became worse, causing Freddie and his brothers to leave Vienna. Freddie went first and travelled illegally to Antwerp in Belgium. Freddie’s mother and father, at 53 and 56, believed that they were too old for anything to happen to them and so they stayed; they were later deported to Theresienstadt.

In Antwerp, the Jewish Committee provided accommodation for Freddie, which he shared with two other refugees. However, Freddie picked up bad habits and the Jewish authorities gave him the choice of either joining a camp for Jewish refugees or losing assistance from them. Freddie joined the camp of Merksples and later Exarde, where he played in the camp orchestra.

In May 1940 the Nazis invaded Belgium and everyone in the camp fled to France. Freddie was arrested at the border and detained as an enemy alien in an internment camp. He was able to escape in the middle of the night, and made it to Gaillac, in the unoccupied area of France, where he had family. Freddie quickly became bored with life in Gaillac and decided to visit Paris, where he had always dreamed of going. While there, he became fascinated by the night life. He obtained false papers and earned money by taking German soldiers to the nightclubs and cabarets, earning a percentage of anything that they spent inside.

In May 1943 while working, Freddie was arrested by a Gestapo officer. Although the officer did not suspect that he was Jewish and using false papers, he did tell him not to continue working where he was and to instead work for the Reich. Freddie knew that he could no longer risk staying in Paris.

Through his contacts, Freddie joined the French Resistance group, ‘Bessiere’ at Figeac, in South West France. A broken love affair led to his betrayal and arrest by the Vichy police. After being tortured he admitted to being a Jew, and he was then sent to the Drancy transit camp. In October 1943, Freddie was sent on a transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau. During the journey, he looked after a middle-aged French doctor, Robert. Robert went on to be put in charge of the camp hospital, and in gratitude for Freddie helping him on the journey, he gave him extra food every day, which Freddie believes was the reason he survived.

On January 18th 1945, Freddie was sent on a Death March, and ended up at Dora-Nordhausen in Germany. As the Americans got closer, they were evacuated to Bergen-Belsen. From here, Freddie was liberated by British troops on April 15th 1945. After liberation Freddie left for France, where he was reunited with his brothers who had survived in America.

In 1947, Freddie emigrated to America where he met and married an English woman. After two years of marriage, she became homesick so they moved to England, where Freddie continues to live. He regularly talks to students about his experiences. Freddie has also written two books about his experiences: Desperate Journey and Living with the Enemy.