LIVERPOOL NEWS
Kindertransport refugee Faye tried not to dwell on the past

FAYE Healey who fled the Nazis on the Kinderstransport, has died, writes Jeremy Wolfson, vice-chairman of the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council and Liverpool City Council’s lead on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Faye was one of the lucky few whose life was saved by the rescue in May, 1938.

She was taken in by a Liverpool family and made the city her home.

She told the Liverpool Echo in November, 2012: “I was 11-years-old when I moved to England. I left Gdansk because the Nazis were getting very difficult and it was dangerous to live there.

“There were 70 of us from my school who boarded the train and, at that age, you think of it more like an outing. It felt like an adventure.”

“I certainly didn’t realise that I would never see my parents again.

“My sister followed later as she had to get a sponsor from England because she was over 17. When she was on the train she could hear gunfire. She only just made it in time.”

Born Faye Amschanowski, she lived in the Free City of Danzig, now known as Gdansk.

Her parents, Sally and Herman, owned a master tailor shop near to the apartment where they lived with Faye and her older brother and sister.

Despite Poland slowly falling under the dark shadow of the swastika, Faye still has fond memories of her early childhood.

The journey from Poland to England took almost two days. A shortage of families in London to take her in meant Faye was sent to Liverpool, the place she would call home for the rest of her life.

She went to stay with the Fox family who welcomed her with open arms.

While living in England, Faye received a couple of letters from her parents, but they soon stopped.

She told the Liverpool Echo: “I never heard from my parents once the war broke out. I have chosen not to think about what happened to them as you would be upset all the time.

“It’s there in the background, but you don’t dwell on it as it would only send you mad.

“My sister made enquiries once the war ended, but all they found was a list of people who died and my parents were on that list. No date or location. Nothing about my parents’ final months.

“In England we were constantly being evacuated. Everyone was just trying to survive.

“We didn’t know about the concentration camps, as they were only discovered after the war. I can’t even bear to think about them.”

Life in England went on as normal and Faye enrolled at Northway Primary School where she learned to speak English in just three months.

Faye spent the next five years at High Field Senior School in Halewood, before attending Skerry’s College where she studied shorthand, typing, book-keeping and English.

She spent 20 years as a lollipop lady for Lander Road Primary School and St Elizabeth Primary School and was popular among both the children and adults.

Faye left the Fox household when she married, on October 20, 1962, Frank Healey, and moved to Litherland where they lived ever since.

Faye became a naturalised British citizen in 1947, and made an emotional return to her birthplace in 2012, accompanied by Frank and their children.

“My return to Poland was a 50th wedding anniversary gift from my children,” she said at the time. “It was the best present any would could ever buy me.

“The apartment block I had lived in had been destroyed by the war, but I could still recognise my old street.

“Of course, the main difference was there are very few Jews there now because they were all murdered by the Nazis.

“Although the fanatics who were mesmerised by Hitler stole so much from me they cannot take my memories.”

Faye joined the Association of Jewish Refugees and visited many schools and events in Sefton. She was a great supporter of Anne Frank Trust projects around Sefton.

Faye is survived by her husband Frank, her two children Yvonne and David and her grandchildren William and Maxime.


If you have a story or an issue you want us to cover, let us know - in complete confidence - by contacting newsdesk@jewishtelegraph.com, 0161-741 2631 or via Facebook / Twitter


Site developed & maintained by
MICHAEL PAYSDEN/FIREIMAGE
© 2020 Jewish Telegraph
www.JewishTelegraph.com