Photograph; Hanka at Lingfield House

Accession Number: NEKHC:2009.217.6

Object: Photograph

Physical Description: Photograph; complete

Information:  A Photograph of Hanka, taken at Lingfield House, England. The children's home had been established as part of a scheme to care for children who had been liberated from Nazi Concentration Camps.

Further Information

This photograph was donated to the Museum by Zdenka Husserl. The photograph is of one of the girls who also lived in Lingfield House called Hanka, with a pet cat. It is one of a collection of photographs depicting life in Lingfield House. Lingfield House was the name given to two children’s homes established as part of a Home Office scheme to care for some of the children who had been liberated from Nazi concentration camps. The scheme was part of a wider allied effort to respond to the humanitarian emergency at the end of the Holocaust. With many thousands of people displaced and searching for surviving family members, there was a question of how to care for and assist the orphaned or unaccompanied children who had been found in Nazi concentration camps. As part of a scheme hostels were established in Britain for the care of a selected number of the children including at Weir Courtney, and later Isleworth, known as ‘Lingfield House’. The home operated under the auspices of The West London Synagogue Association, and was run day-to-day by Alice Goldberger and a small team of staff who became much loved by the children they cared for. Zdenka Husserl was brought to Britain as part of this scheme after being liberated in Theresienstadt, she has donated this many objects, photographs, and documents, which are now held in the Museum’s collection. Zdenka’s family were murdered during the Holocaust, at the time she was a small child. Her time at Lingfield meant Alice became a mother figure for Zdenka, and she remembers fondly the staff and children who lived there. The children were encouraged to keep pets, play, go to local schools, and practice Judaism. The photograph is stamped on the reverse with the name of the professional photographer who took it, Erica, who took many photos of the children which were often used in the reports published for donors and supporters of Lingfield House.  

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