A Guernsey evacuee worries about her parents, deported to Biberach, and is reunited with them before the end of the war

Beryl Sebire (née Saich) interviewed by Matt Harvey, Social History Officer, Guernsey Museum. The interview recorded on video. The video transcribed by J David 5-8/9/2005

And I was worried about my mum and dad because I had had to leave them behind, and after the war I said “you never came as you promised to come”. “We left it too late, my love”.
My father had a business. It took something to walk out of your home. You leave everything just like that, it wants some doing. And my mother was so terrified, she went outside, -don’t put this bit in though — my mother locked herself in the outside loo and they couldn’t get her out. He sent for a friend of his and together they knocked on the door and got her out. “You’ve got to go, otherwise they’ll shoot you”. But she was very ill in camp, and they sent her home in the September of 1944. They took them to Germany in September 42, and she was there just a year, they sent her back because she was very ill. My Father stayed on until the March 45, and he came back as well. I didn’t recognise him — he was a big-built man, and this little tiny man… “That’s not my father” “Yes it is” she said. I couldn’t believe it. But my mother said it was the lack of privacy which was awful. You get a lot of women in what they called a barrack, and they all had these straw palliasses to sleep on, and she said there had been prisoners-of-war there before, and you could see them there “Oh I’ve got one” They were catching lice. It was terrible. For a woman to have to go through that it’s pretty awful. But they survived.
I……….. Do you remember which camp they went to?
Beryl Sebire. Biberach, the famous Biberach, yes.
I……….. So where were you still working at this time, then?
Beryl Sebire. I was still working at the Bell-Punch, still there, that was in Uxbridge. I had a few hair-raising times there, but then again, I was lucky, I suppose. The Bell-Punch never got hit. Then eventually my mother was repatriated, September 1944, she came down to Uxbridge where I was staying with my aunt and uncle, and “Oh”, she said, “ Beryl, I just want to go somewhere where I can be alone with you, Oh it’s been dreadful, I’ve hadn’t had a minute, not had a minute to myself in that dreadful camp. Some of the women didn’t mind, as if it were a flipping holiday, but it was terrible, dreadful, dreadful”. And the food, well, it wasn’t very good to start off with, it wasn’t so bad afterwards, when the Red Cross parcels came through, that wasn’t so bad. The got cabbage soup, it was water that cabbage had been boiled in, it was awful. But you either had it or you went without. Life was very grim there, for quite a long while. And then… What was I leading up to?
I……….. So she came back…
Beryl Sebire. She was very ill. But she survived. And I think it was worry, caused by worry, must have been. She was quite ill for a long time, but she came through, and she came to my wedding, and lived a few years after that, to see me give birth to two grandsons.
I……….. Did they tell you more about their time at Biberach?
Beryl Sebire. Well, it was the same old routine, if you like, every day. Most boring. But first of all I had a ten word letter — just ten words, eh? — we could send them a longer letter, special sized one, and they could send one to us. Mum said please send some B and W to mend clothes. I thought “B and W?” I said to my aunt, “What’s B and W?” Black and white cotton. I sent some parcels out, actually I sent fourteen parcels, I remember how much they were, and they were about three pound each, near enough, and I used to go without my chocolate ration, and put that in, and I thought they’re down in a [ ], very very cold, and I sent my father some long johns, and he wore them, he said. That parcel got through, and he was jolly pleased, because if he went outside perhaps to mend a bit of fencing which was a bit broken, and he put his nails in his lips, he said he jolly soon took them out again, it tore the skin away, it was so cold. He said, if you want cold, you go down to Biberach. It was very pretty, very pretty country, all the trees were all covered, just like it was a postcard. But oh he said it was so mighty cold, mighty cold, him with his long johns on. But I always remember I sent them seven parcels, but there was only three got through. Same really
I……….. This was all through the Red Cross?
Beryl Sebire. yes,
I……….. Just like your messages were, they all went through the Red Cross?
Beryl Sebire. That’s right, they had to go through so many places, Somebody light fingered, there’s bound to be, I suppose. Lucky some got through, I suppose, but what I did begrudge was my flipping chocolate ration. I went without my chocolate ration, so I don’t know who had it. They had two or three parcels out of the seven, but they never got the others. But all the rest of them — there’s my chocolate gone west!
That was nice. Now where am I going from here? Oh yes, we had a place, a sister on her side, she found us a little bed-sit, two rooms and a kitchen, somewhere in Southall, and it was just a little kitchen, the bare essentials, a bed-sit with a bed, I don’t know where my aunt found these things, I’ve no idea, but they were there when we got there, a little cooking stove and some bedding and a chair, in 44 then, in that time my father came home in March 44, he was a French polisher by trade, although he opened a shop in Guernsey he was a french polisher by trade. “Oh,” he said, “I must get back to work as soon as I can, Oh he said, this camp, Oh let me get my hands on something,” you know. So he went up to two very big stores in Ealing, that’s another one up towards London way. There’s two big stores, one is called Sanders and the other one I’ve forgotten, both of them starting with S. So he went in and told them the tale “Yes, my man, you can start tomorrow” Oh he was as pleased as punch. He went up, he was a French polisher for them, perhaps it was a table got scratched or something, and he was as happy as a sandboy up there. I don’t know he had a week, it wasn’t very much but just enough to keep the wolf from the door, if you like, but he was so pleased to get out and walk there, it was about a mile, Oh, he said, it was wonderful to get out and walk, he couldn’t believe he was free. It was a pretty grim experience, when they were middle-aged, really. He had this little job, and then July the 4th we came home, because he’d put his name down because he’d got a business,
I……….. You were in Southall, and then you were in Uxbridge, did you stay in Uxbridge right up till you came back to Guernsey?
Beryl Sebire. No, because my mother came home, and she came down and stayed with us in Uxbridge just for a few weeks, and she said “I want to be alone with you” This is where her sister in Southall managed to find this couple of rooms for us, from about the end of September till the following March, when my father came home. That was in Ealing, that was a place in Ealing.
I……….. What were you doing?
Beryl Sebire. I left the Bell-Punch, because it was too far to travel up and down, and I went and I worked at the all secret, it was to do with map reading, map proofing, and I can’t think of the name of the blessed firm, it was a firm, to do with maps of where the planes had bombed Germany, and when I came across one that had been right down by Biberach, ooh, awful. But they weren’t interested in Biberach itself, not really, but they might have done it just for showing off, or whatever you call it, but there was nothing of any importance. But we had two rooms, and we stayed there. My mum had two or three bags of coal, there was nowhere to put it, so they put it up the stairs, and they tipped it in the corner of the kitchen. When my father came home, I had to go in there, on a little camp bed, there was the coal there, so I was sleeping with the coal then, not on it.

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