1915 to 1939
Robert was born in March 1915 in Teplice, then part of Austria-Hungary. Teplice was quite a vibrant town and at the beginning of the 20th century was called Little Paris. The spa experience made the town very prosperous at this time and supported many small businesses and other industry moving into the area.
Robert’s father Alois ran a grocer’s shop.[1] Alois’s father, Rabbi Isak HaCohen Frankl, was Juda’s grandson. Although Isak had trained and taught for many years in Bohemia, it seems that Alois’ family was never religious; they certainly were not orthodox. It does make me wonder if Isak was really a progressive Jew at heart and was most interested in following the newer ways of the German Reform Movement. Alois’ family kept the Jewish festivals, went to synagogue and did not eat pork as such, but sausages and cooked meats containing some pork were eaten. In general, they were what one could call an assimilated family, whose ancestors had lived for a long time in these lands.
Such families were known as ‘Westjuden’, in contrast to the so-called ‘Ostjuden’ Jews who had immigrated from Poland and Russia at the beginning of the century. The ‘Westjuden’ had a very large synagogue in Teplice, and the Jewish community numbered about 5,000 out of a total population of about 30,000. The ‘Ostjuden’ had some small ‘Betstuben’ – prayer rooms – in the poorer part of the town. They were by far a more religious group than their Westernised counterparts. Robert’s memoir describes how on Jewish High Holydays (Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)), the town centre was practically deserted and the majority of shops were closed, as most of them were in Jewish hands. The synagogue was full to capacity, with seats numbered and allocated to members.
Robert remembered playing football at the back of the synagogue during breaks in the proceedings. or being busy collecting conkers. At school they were excused attending religious instruction and were given a free period (Freistunde); however, the Rabbi came to the school to give them instructions in the rudiments of the Jewish religion.
Robert’s birth mother Sophie died when he was just 11 months old, and his sister Elsa died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, two days short of her sixteenth birthday. His father re-married in August 1916 and his two half-brothers Otto and Willi were born in 1917 and 1920, respectively. His step-mother Emilie made a good home for them all, even though life could not have been all that easy.
Robert’s maternal step-grandparents owned a grocer’s store in Kraslice, a town in north-west Bohemia famous for the manufacture of musical instruments. His step-grandfather was a well-respected gentleman with a good sense of humour. One of his step-mother’s sisters, Ida, married a glazier called Richard Schneider who set up his own glazier’s business and Robert recalled ‘assisting’ in the workshop during school holidays. On one occasion Richard gave him a ‘Diamant’ (a glass cutting tool), which Robert kept and treasured for many years.
In 1925, Robert passed the entrance examination for ‘Realschule’ (technical Grammar school). He studied Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and modern languages: Czech was compulsory, and French and English were additional options, which became very useful later on. He passed every class with distinction (Vorzugsschüler) and he was very proud to be the only student to pass the third class with distinction.
For Robert, 1932 was a turning point in his life. He passed the matriculation exams with excellent marks and qualified to attend the Technical High School (equivalent to University). Shortly before taking the matriculation exam, he was encouraged to join the Zionist Youth movement, a sort of Scout group. This turned out to be one of the most important decisions he ever made. Not only did it change the direction of his life completely, but in all probability, saved it. The fact that he joined this movement led inevitably to preparation for communal life in Palestine through a Hachschara group, which provided the training for life in a settlement (kibbutz) in Palestine.
| Hachshara[2] (Hebrew הכשרה “preparation, appropriation”) was the systematic preparation of Jews on the aliyah, d. H. for the colonization of Palestine especially in the 1920s and 1930s. The ideological basis for this program was Zionism, which was borne and propagated by the Jewish youth movement, and especially by the two umbrella organizations Hechaluz and Bachad. Most Hachschara courses took place on agricultural goods. A group of people who wanted to emigrate (Hebrew קבוצה, KÉ™vutza) learned together what was necessary for building a community in Palestine. The young people, who often come from middle-class environments, mainly acquired horticultural, agricultural, domestic and craft skills and learned Ivrit, modern Hebrew. In the further development of the Hachschara, the creation of a Jewish identity became increasingly important. This included celebrating Jewish festivals, getting to know Jewish history and literature. Living and working together should create the cultural foundations for a new existence in Palestine. In later Israel, the Hachshara communities continued into the kibbutzim. Also, individual emigrants were less likely to learn from a farmer or craftsman. |
Having decided to move to Palestine rather than go to University, he applied to attend a course at the Commercial Academy, which in the end gave him the benefit of having passed both Grammar School and also the Commercial Academy. However, after completing this course, he was needed to join his father, Alois, in his shop. Shortly after, in March 1934, his father died. He then helped his step-mother until she was able to carry on with running the shop herself.
In the autumn of 1935, he first joined the Hachschara group in Karlovy Vary and later the one in Jihlava. The Hachschara was supported by the Rabbi of Teplice, Friedrich Weiss, who taught about agriculture and life in Palestine. Here Robert did all sorts of manual jobs and in his spare time and evenings, he helped in the youth movement as a group leader.
Eventually in 1937, he was called up into the Czech Army. His academic qualifications meant he was sent to the Czech Military Academy to be trained as an officer in Mukacevo in the very Eastern part of Czechoslovakia, now part of the Ukraine. There he stayed until the middle of 1938. After the successful completion of his training, he returned to the artillery regiment in Rokycany as a potential reserve officer. At this time in the Czech Army, artillery was pulled by horses, so Robert became an accomplished horse rider.
One day, as guard commander, just outside Rokycany, he was approached by some soldiers who told him that they could not communicate with some girls nearby. It turned out that these girls spoke only German and very surprisingly they came from Kraslice, Robert’s step-mother’s home town. They in turn informed him of the whereabouts of a family from Kraslice, whom he knew very well. As a result, he spent many evenings in the home of these family friends, in considerably more congenial surroundings than the military barracks. However, all good things come to an end. One evening, having returned from guard duty, he was handed a note that his Uncle Richard from Prague wanted to see him. This was very unusual, so he applied for leave in order to travel to Prague. As he requested the leave, he was told that he would not be welcome back into the army as he was regarded as a ‘Sudetendeutscher’. Travelling around what was now part of the German Reich (Sudetenland) was not an attractive option, so he went immediately to Prague where he eventually met his step-mother and brothers, as it turned out for the last time. His family did apply for passports to emigrate, but were not able to follow through and gain visas so they could escape the oncoming fury.
Through contacts with the Zionist movement, Robert applied to emigrate to what was then Palestine. The journey out of Czechoslovakia to Palestine, as it turned out, started and ended with a flight to Croydon, England. On 9th March 1939, six days before Hitler’s march into Prague, Robert had said goodbye to members of his family, only to be told that in all probability he would be the only one to get out alive, a prophecy that unfortunately turned out only too true. So, on practically the last plane out of Prague, he arrived at Croydon airport on a journey which was meant to be a stepping stone on his way to Palestine.
Robert was taken to David Eder Farm, where he was asked to become a farm worker, this was followed by moves to other some other farms around the country. Eventually, he landed in Oxford, where he was employed in the dairy department of the local Co-operative Society. This too was classed as agricultural (reserved occupation) not liable for call up to the Armed Forces.
It was in Oxford in early 1943 that he met Charlotte Kellermann, a Berliner who had arrived in England in August 1939. Having trained as a children’s nurse, she worked in Oxford’s Morris (Cowley) works to look after children whose mothers were on war work. They married on July 31st 1943 and managed to get a furnished flat just in time for our wedding. At two guineas per it seemed expensive, but they were persuaded eventually by friends to take it. For our honeymoon they travelled to Instow in Devon.
In early 1944, Robert was called up to serve in the British army. He was posted to an artillery unit in Redcar, while stationed there in August 1944, his daughter Eva was born. Eventually his troop was moved to Rome and then Bologna, finishing up in Udine, when war finished on May 7th 1945. But his army service was not over and he was now posted to India returning home in March 1947. After government re-training as a draughtsman, the family moved to Slough where David and Michael were born.
Robert joined his local trade union and that led to his getting involved in local politics and this led to him becoming elected as the Mayor of Slough
Robert was officially retired in 1980 but kept working on a part time basis. In 1991 they began to make some trips to the Czech Republic and visited their previous homes.
[1] This section was adapted from Robert’s own writing given to me by his son, David Frankl.
[2] Hachshara info from Google and Jewish Gen
