Readers Remember

In August 1945, after having been in a Japanese concentration camp on Java for three years, my mother, two brothers and I returned home to Surabaya.

One of the first things we did was go to a restaurant and order all the dishes we had hungered for during all those years of scarce food.

When we had finished it all, the waiters brought us more food ordered by other sympathetic diners who had seen our emaciated appearances and understood where we came from. We ate all that too.

ANNELIZE DE GRAAF

Hacienda Heights

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In 1938, I lived in Berlin on the night now known as Kristallnacht. It was called crystal night because all the Jewish stores were smashed in and glass was all over.

That day I went to school as usual and when I got to my Jewish school in the suburbs, the principal said you’d better go home. I went home, passing many burning synagogues. At home, my dad said, “I want you to always remember this day, so let’s get on the streetcar and see the damage with our own eyes.”

My mom, my two sisters, my dad and I got on the streetcar and drove around Berlin, surveying the chaos. A strong smell of perfume came from the department stores where hundreds of perfume bottles had been broken.

Seven months later my sisters and I went on a Kinder Transport to England and freedom.

HILDA FOGELSON

Studio City

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In 200 words or less, send us your memories or eyewitness accounts of the 20th century. Write to Century, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or e-mail [email protected].