Inquest into death of Welsh politician adjourned
A YORKSHIRE woman who settled in England after being rescued from Nazi-occupied Austria during a lifesaving child refugee programme has reflected on her past to mark a milestone anniversary.
Gillie Rawson, 93, fled her native Vienna aged 13 as part of the nine-month Kindertransport scheme, which brought unaccompanied Jewish children to the UK ahead of the Second World War.
The 80th anniversary of the first batch of Kindertransport children arriving in England takes place tomorrow.
Speaking about the run-up to war, Mrs Rawson, of Leeds, said: “When Hitler marched into Austria in March 1938, it was a Friday.
“By the time the weekend was finished, Jews were barred from all sorts of things.”
Her father Siegfried lost his furrier business, one which he had run since before Mrs Rawson was born, and then came the Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass. On November 9 and 10, 1938, Nazis torched synagogues, vandalised Jewish homes, schools and businesses in Germany and killed close to 100 Jews before 30,000 men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
Mrs Rawson, of Moortown, said: “By then it was really, really serious. Anybody that could get out, did.” On December 1, 1938, the first transport left Germany. It arrived at Harwich, Essex, the following day, bringing 196 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin that had been burned by the Nazis on November 9. Mrs Rawson and her younger brother, Willi, took a train to Holland before sailing to London in 1939.
She said: “I was 13 and my brother had his ninth birthday the day after we arrived in England.
“I felt at home. At the beginning I thought, ‘This is going to be finished in a short time and I will go back’.
“When the war started, I realised that was it.”
The siblings were taken to live in Liverpool, but were later evacuated to Chester, a place they enjoyed. Mrs Rawson later moved to a hostel for Jewish children in Birmingham.
It was there she met future husband Henry Rawson, another Kindertransport refugee who had fled Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) alone in May 1939, aged 13.
Mrs Rawson later had to stay in hospital because she had tuberculosis, and Henry was the last one to visit her after being told to go by her friend Trude.
“One day he came to visit me. Somehow we fell for each other on that day, and very shortly after he went in the RAF,” she said.
Mr Rawson, originally Rosen, joined the forces at 18 and served in Burma.
“He won leave and came back to England for four weeks and we got married in that time,” she said.
The pair wed at the Singers Hill Synagogue, Birmingham, on October 2, 1946.
Their first child Sandi was born in 1947, followed by Terry in 1948, and John in 1949.
Mrs Rawson’s parents Elisabeth and Siegfried escaped the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, fleeing to Switzerland, where they later reunited with Gillie and Willi for the first time in seven years.
But horrifically, 58 members of Mrs Rawson’s extended family did die during the war. Some were taken to Auschwitz, and others to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp and ghetto.
She and Mr Rawson settled in Leeds in January 1948 after briefly living in Southend, and both later became agency menswear representatives until they retired at the age of 70.
Last Tuesday, Mrs Rawson met Prince Charles at St James’s Palace during a celebration of the Kindertransport anniversary.
Looking back to 80 years ago, Mrs Rawson said: “We think about it, but it doesn’t upset us anymore. It’s been too long.” THE INQUEST into the death of Welsh politician Carl Sargeant was adjourned at the 11th hour yesterday.
The court heard a legal challenge by representatives for Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones and a possible need to recall Mr Jones to give additional evidence meant it would not finish until a later date.
Mr Sargeant, 49, was found hanged at his home in Connah’s Quay, Deeside, on November 7 last year, four days after he lost his role as Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children following “bombshell” sex claims he had groped and touched women.
Coroner for North Wales (East and Central) John Gittins apologised to Mr Sargeant’s family as he told them further evidence would continue yesterday but he would not conclude the inquest.
Cathryn McGahey QC, representing the First Minister, has sought to review the coroner’s rulings on whether to hear evidence relating to the details of allegations made against Mr Sargeant.
Mr Gittins has twice refused applications to hear evidence from Aaron Shotton, leader of Flintshire County Council, and his deputy, Bernie Attridge.
Lesley Griffiths, Assembly Member for Wrexham and Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs, told the fifth day of the hearing at Ruthin County Hall she had travelled by train to Cardiff with Mr Sargeant on November 3, ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle in which he was sacked. She said: “My sincere thought at that time is he had no idea what was going to come.”
They were both driven to Cathays Park from the train station to see Mr Jones but were separated once they arrived and later spoke over the phone.
She said: “Straight away his voice was completely different. He said he’d gone but there was something else as well, that he’d been told there were allegations. He didn’t know what they were.”