For most of his life, Joe Cent didn’t know he was a refugee.

Joe was born in France in March 1937. His parents were both from Warsaw but had moved to France in the 1920s to escape antisemitism in Poland. However, in 1940 the Nazis invaded France and established control over the north of the country.

Joe tells how, thanks to a lucky encounter, his family all managed to leave France and establish a new life in Glasgow’s West End. He later learnt the fate of other family members who had remained in Poland.

Listen more to find out about the many adventures Joe went on to have in Scotland.

Moniek Garber was born in 1923 in Wolozin, a town which was then part of Poland but is in present day Belarus. Wolozin had a long tradition of Jewish learning, and 80% of the town’s population were Jewish. By the end of the war, 95% of the Jews in the town had been killed.

Before eventually settling in Scotland, Moniek’s fascinating journey took him across the globe. Listen to find out what happened when, as young boy of 15, Moniek defaced a poster of Stalin. You will also learn about Moniek’s experiences in a Siberian concentration camp, and life as a cadet in the Polish Army.

On the morning of the 3rd September 1939, Lore Lucas’s parents and sister – who had been visiting her in London – left Britain to return home to Holland, leaving Lore alone with her first husband. War was declared 1 hour later.

Listen to the eventful life of Lore Lucas – including her happy childhood, marriage, divorce, a wonderful 2nd marriage and the awful fate of her family in Holland.

Arriving in the UK in 1947, Halina Moss learnt how to be British from a book.

Halina was born into a politically active family in Warsaw in 1929. Her testimony encompasses her family’s return from exile in Russia and her shock at discovering that almost all of her friends and relatives had perished. Listen to hear her vividly recount her lucky escapes, her mother’s terrifying experiences and her father’s adventures.

Though the war started when she was just seventeen, Judith Rosenberg describes a happy childhood in Gyor in north west Hungary. Indeed, Hungarians were largely unaffected by the conflict until the Nazis invaded the country in April 1944.

Soon after, Judith’s whole family was sent to Auschwitz, and she never saw her father again.

Listen to Judith’s testimony to discover how her watch-repairing skills helped her to survive working in a munitions factory in Germany. Find out too how she met the love of her life, despite her mother’s doubts, and eventually moved to Glasgow where she was reunited with her fellow slave labourer, Susan Singerman – another Hungarian Auschwitz survivor whose story is also on the Gathering the Voices website.

Eva Szirmai begins by describing her experiences as an apprentice photographer in Budapest. She goes on to speak about life under the Germans – the yellow star houses, the arrests, the hunger, the curfew, the ghetto and the good luck that saved her life.

Eva chronicles her life with her husband and family under the Cold War Russian regime, ending with their ‘escape’ to Glasgow where her husband had been offered a job at Queens Park Synagogue. Listen to her speak of the delight she experienced when she and her family celebrated their first Friday night in the free country of Scotland.

At the age of 93, Alice Malcom was welcomed back to Vienna by the Austrian President,

Alexander Van der Bellen. It was the first time she had returned there since she escaped in

1938.

Learn first-hand what it was like for a Jewish girl to live in Vienna before and after the

Anschluss of March 1938 – when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany without a single

shot being fired.

Finally hear why Alice ended up in Scotland, where she found the love of her life.

Welcome to Gathering the Voices podcasts, this is a limited series of episodes, featuring interviews exploring the stories people have told to escape Nazi persecution and reach Scotland