I picked this book up as its title is very similar to a novel of mine (both quoting Hamlet) and its subtitle describes a path very similar to the one taken by my late father (both were born in Hamburg and ended up in Britain). But there the similarity ends, although the author’s account of life as a refugee from Germany in London before the Second World War sounds very familiar to me.
Roland Hill (born Rudolf Hess in 1920) experienced a very different way of life from that of my father, whose family was observantly Jewish. Roland/Rudolf’s parents had converted to Lutheran Christianity before he was born, and he himself converted to Catholicism as a teenager in Vienna, having been influenced by a charismatic scout leader. He remained a devout Catholic for the rest of his life, and much of the book is taken up with his accounts of Catholic philosophy, history and politics. After retiring from journalism he devoted himself to writing a biography of Lord Acton, the historian renowned for the aphorism ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,’ and his preoccupation with him also takes up a good deal of the book.
Having worked as a journalist for most of his adult (and teenage) life, Hill describes his childhood in Hamburg and experiences as a teenager living in Vienna and Milan with a lively pen and penetrating eye. What I found particularly enjoyable were his accounts of his family and childhood in Hamburg and life in pre-war London, with its ‘refugee scene’ and periodic visits to Bloomsbury House to receive the small weekly allowance that enabled him – and many other refugees – to keep the wolf from the door. He finds his encounters with the peculiarities of British mores and manners (and early morning cups of tea) baffling, but describes them with humor and affection.
Arriving in England as a young man he was interned on the Isle of Man, was sent to Canada and later released in order to enlist in the army. The section describing his experiences is entitled ‘Cleaning the loos with the Kaiser’s grandson,’ and he even manages to make this into a positive event. His experiences as a member of the Highland Light Infantry took him to the beaches of Normandy and, eventually, participation in the conquest of Nazi Germany, in which he served in various military capacities.
His journalistic career brought him into contact with any number of interesting personalities, and he gives insightful vignettes into some of them, among them T.S. Eliot, Henry Moore, Karl Popper, and Barbara Cartland, to name but a few.
Hill concludes his book with a panegyric to his late wife, Amelia née Nathan, whom he married late in life but with whom he was very happy. She had suffered from allergies for most of her adult life and was instrumental in gaining attention for the subject of allergies, which had been largely ignored by the medical profession. She helped to establish Action Against Allergy, the association which has done much to help those suffering from the condition.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World