Nov. 2025
Dave Carson

As another anniversary of Kristallnacht approaches, the story of a new Hamilton resident reminds us of the destruction that took place, and the individual lives affected.

Anne Porter moved to Hamilton on her 97th birthday in May 2024. This is her most recent stop in an 85-year journey that began in Mainz, where Anne was born in 1927. Her father, Hans Gebhardt, was a successful wine merchant, her mother Liesel was the daughter of Bernhard Mayer, president of the Mainz Synagogue, under whose leadership the great synagogue in Mainz had been opened in 1912.

Anne’s journey away from Mainz began in 1938. She recalls “on Kristallnacht, we hid in the garden as Nazis were calling on any Jewish homes, but no one came”. That same night the Mainz synagogue was destroyed in flames, but President Bernard was unharmed; his son recounted that “On Kristallnacht I thought they would come to arrest my father. They came to the flat, and my mother opened the door, and when they wanted to go in, one of the SS leaders from Mainz, who knew me very well, came and said they should stay away from my father, and they did.”

Anne’s father Hans was on a buying trip to Holland and was warned not to return. This left her mother Liesel alone to make the most difficult decision any mother could make. The decision to be parted from her children. Liesel’s cousin had already made it to England and encouraged her to place 12-year-old Anne and her 8-year-old brother Oliver on a Kindertransport. 

In January 1939, they got on a train from Mainz, headed for the ferry at the Hook of Holland. Anne’s brother Oliver, told of their journey in a BBC program (google BBC Witness, Oliver’s story) “I shall never forget how my mother and grandmother Gebhardt took us to Mainz station and put us on the Kindertransport train. I never saw my grandmother again, she died in Theresienstadt concentration camp.”

As the train arrived at the Hook of Holland, just before getting on the ferry to England, Anne and her brother were briefly reunited with their father. This was the last time they saw either of their parents until 1946, more than seven years later.

Arriving in England, the first place the children stayed was a very cold summer holiday camp. Then began a wartime journey through various foster families around England. Anne describes some places as vey rough, before arriving at The Haven, a London home for refugees established by the wealthy Salmon family, owners of the Lyons Tea company. Anne still has the letters written to her paternal grandmother (the wife of Bernard Mayer) written by Lady Salmon, describing Anne’s progress at school. 

Eventually, Anne and her brother were separated, Anne to begin training as a nursery nurse while Oliver continued his schooling. So they spent the remaining war years in England.

Anne and brother Oliver in wartime England

Meanwhile, in February 1939, Anne’s mother Liesel had been able to join her husband in Holland. For a while they were safe but by 1942, with the increasing round-up of Dutch Jews, they had to go into hiding, where they had an experience similar to Anne Frank, but with a happier ending. A Christian couple, Nikolaas and Tonia van Kuijk, undertook to hide them and, for over two and a half years, from September 1942 until May 1945. they remained hidden in their attic in near starvation conditions, remaining quiet at night when the van Kuijk’s children were home and only coming out during the day when they were at school. Anne’s Uncle Martin said “the landlord they lived with put them in a hole he dug under the dining-room and they were living in that as long as there was any danger of arrests. He put two chairs in it and they were sitting and waiting till the danger had passed.” This the van Kuijk’s did at great risk to their lives; this sacrifice is recognized in Yad Vashem.

At war’s end, travel between England and Holland was difficult for civilians and it was only in September 1946 that Anne was able to return to Holland and be reunited with her parents. Separated from parents for seven of her most important formative years. 

This letter dated 12th September (1946) from Anne to her parents announces their reunion after a separation of over seven and a half years:

“Just received letter that Bloomsbury House got an early ticket through an agent, and I will be with you in Utrecht Tuesday at 12:18 am. I am leaving London at 20 o’clock Monday the 16th. Hope you manage to meet me. I am in a great hurry as I must phone Auntie Lischen to see if I can get into the house on Saturday to do my packing. Must get my tickets tomorrow. In great haste as I have nothing ready yet. Can hardly wait for these few days to pass.”

After a few post-war years in Holland, Anne joined a friend in Montreal and eventually met and married Alan Porter. They moved to Toronto and lived there for the rest of their married life, Alan dying in 2000. Anne moved to Hamilton in 2024 to be closer to the author. 

Anne’s parents and her brother Oliver lived in Holland for the rest of their lives.

In Mainz, in large part due to immigration from Eastern Europe, the community has been re-established and is over 1000 strong. In 2010, just over 70 years after the destruction of the old synagogue, a new synagogue was dedicated.

Postscript
In 2018, Anne and her brother Oliver received a letter from the Mainz Town museum telling them of paintings and chairs in their possession. Using Nazi inventory numbers written on the back of the paintings, they determined these paintings were confiscated from Anne’s grandmother Stephanie Gebhardt before she was transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The City of Mainz wished to return them. Anne and her brother did not respond, but in 2024 the museum letter was found in Anne’s files. Oliver’s son Robert contacted the Museum, and the items were returned to the family in a ceremony in February 2025.  Pictures of the paintings, assumed to be family ancestors, are shown below.

David Carson lives in Dundas. He enjoys researching and recording his family history. Dave’s grandmother, first cousin to Anne’s mother, encouraged her to send her children on Kindertransport.  85 years later, Dave is helping Anne to be comfortable in her new Hamilton retirement home.