CUE: 3 ladies, 1 war, all survivors. Eva, Rosemary and Maxine tell their stories of what World War 2 was like for them. Could it be fun? Could it be enjoyable, or was it the most horrific thing? Listen to 3 stories, 3 children and One War to find out what life was like during evacuation from London, and life in a concentration camp.
IN: … “3 stories, 3 children and one war”
OUT: … “all the rest of the family”
DUR: 10 minutes
What’s it about?
Maxine, Rosemary and Eva tell their stories of World War 2.
All of them have their own stories to tell, of how they enjoyed aspects of the war, friendships, separations, broken arms and breathing their first breath of air in a Nazi concentration Camp.
3 stories, 3 children, 1 war explores the lives of 3 ladies who were a part of World War 2.
Maxine and Rosemary tell their stories of evacuation, and Maxine tells of her bringing back into the city during the war after being evacuated to Tring: they talk about how they felt, what happened, what they endured and things they remember.
Maxine’s backstory: she got evacuated to Tring for 6 months with her mother and infant sister and then her dad brought them back into London just before the bombings. She was in Kingsbury during the bombings and would come out of her house to see half of the town destroyed. But got on with life and went to school despite having missed out on so much due to moving around and her mother not letting anyone know.
Rosemary’s backstory: Rosemary got evacuated to Welwyn Garden City with her 3 sisters. Eventually her mother came and lived with them after they’d been split up into 2’s as no house had enough room to house 4 sisters. Fortunately they got to live 2 doors away from each other and got to see each other.
Eva’s story is a bit different though. She talks a lot of her mother’s experiences as Eva was actually born in a concentration camp at the end of World War 2. She talks of her Czech Mother who endured 3 concentration camps/death camps while becoming pregnant in the first, before giving birth to her child (Eva) on arrival to Muchahausen, where she went into labour while piled on top of people with all types of diseases. Eva’s Mum even survived Auschwitz, had they have known she was pregnant, that would’ve been it for her, but due to starvation, she ended up looking like a walking pregnant skeleton weighing 5 stone when giving birth, and a glass of milk given by a farmer when the coal truck she was being transported on did a stop, may have saved her life. What allowed Eva to be born? If they had have arrived any earlier in their last concentration camp they would’ve been gassed. Luckily the Germans had run out of gas so Eva and her Mum lived to tell their incredible stories. Sneaky parents risking death to see each other, luck, faith? How did Eva’s Mum survive? Was it luck, was it strength or was it destined to be?
All 3 stories take you on a journey of war time across Europe. I hope you can be transported back to late 1939 and live the war through the stories told and visuals shown.