Rebecca’s story

Rebecca was born to parents who lived in Golders Green and she has continued to live there throughout her life. She is 75 years old. She tells the story of her family as follows; “My father was Russian and my mother Romanian. My maternal grandfather won a local lottery and used the money to bring his young family to England. In Romania, Jews were disliked and treated badly – they found it difficult to find work and to keep to their traditions without being attacked.

Another reason for hatred towards the Jews was because many held good jobs in the government and the leader Bratianu wanted to change this and replace the Jews with his own supporters. It was also because of a peasant revolt in 1907 which Bratianu blamed mainly on the Jews as a way of getting rid of them. Many Jews were massacred as a result. This is called a pogrom.

My father’s parents also decided to move from Russia as they were persecuted during pogroms in Russia. Only my uncle, my father’s eldest brother, did not manage to escape and was forced to join the Russian army.

Both sides of the family moved to the East End of London by 1908 as they had heard from other members of the community who had already left that they would find jobs there It was here that my grandparents met. When they married, they decided to try and better themselves by moving to the suburbs – Golders Green was all the rage as it was close to the centre of London whilst still being reasonably calm, so they moved there in the late 1920s.”