Tributes to 103-year-old Holocaust survivor Alice Fraser
The great-grandmother of 11 fled Germany in 1939 and was interned on the Isle of Man as an ‘enemy alien’
One of the few surviving Jewish refugees from Germany to come to the UK on a Domestic Service permit has died at the age of 103.
Alice Fraser was born in Merzig, Saarland which was integrated into Germany in 1935.
During Kristallnacht her father was arrested and later sent to Dachau. He returned after six weeks and the family decided to leave for Luxemburg in late March 1939.
In her testimony to the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), Alice recalls being strip searched with her sister Hannah on leaving Germany.
Too old to be evacuated by the Kindertransport, the two sisters travelled to Britain with domestic visas whilst her parents stayed in Luxembourg; Fraser was interned on the Isle of Man as an ‘enemy alien’ in 1941. Her parents were taken by the Germans and sent to Poland.
She told the AJR: “They came, 2 detectives in plain clothes. I put a nail file in & they took it out again. No scissors. I only had a little case. I wasn’t very happy. I said, ‘All I’m interested in is seeing my sister. Send me anywhere, I don’t care. But I would like to be with my sister.’ They said ‘You’ll meet your sister some time. Don’t you worry.’ And I did, in the end.
“Nobody told us where we were going. Just told, ‘Get your things together’, that’s it. We ended up in Port Erin, billeted in a guest house. We used to get a royal pudding, would exchange that. Hannah & I didn’t care very much for that pudding. We used to get quite a bit for it. We did swimming. I started knitting. We had to peel potatoes. We tried not to let it get to us. Because we knew you just couldn’t do anything about it. So, you had to accept it.”
Released in 1941, the sisters went to Manchester to work for a Jewish family. On eventually returning to London, Alice began work in an ammunition factory.
While visiting friends who were in the Land Army near Oxford, she met her future husband, who was a refugee from Konigsberg, and they got married in 1943, while he was in the British Army.
“Once the war was finished,” her testimony states, “Alice found out that her parents were most likely killed in Auschwitz and she remembers crying for a whole day.”
Alice’s son Ronnie was born in 1947 and the family moved to Southend. She went on to work as a cleaner and school dinner lady.
The testimony archive of the AJR says Fraser “did not talk about her past much, until a grandchild asked her to come to talk to the school. In recent years she has given a number of talks but she emphasises that her life was not special.”
Following her death, grandson David Fraser wrote: “My grandmother Alice, my dad’s mum, passed away over the weekend. She was 103 and alert and bright and on it right up until the end. She was a Holocaust survivor who arrived in this country under distressing circumstances, building a life and a family including four grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, seven of whom she was fortunate to see bar and bat mitzvahed. An amazing woman we will all miss very much.”
Dr Bea Lewkowicz, Director AJR Refugee Voices told Jewish News: “The Association of Jewish Refugees is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of one of our treasured members, Alice Fraser. Alice was one of the few surviving Jewish refugees from Germany, who came to the UK on a domestic service visa and then later was interned on the Isle of Man, as an ‘enemy alien’.
We feel privileged to have captured her testimony as part of our Refugee Voices archive, a collection of life stories and experiences of Holocaust refugees and survivors. Through these eye-witness accounts the AJR can ensure that we keep essential lessons of history alive. Alice was a popular and loyal AJR member, who will be fondly remembered.”
The Association of Jewish Refugees issued tributes across social media:
We are sorry to hear of the death of Alice Fraser, one of the few surviving Jewish refugees from Germany to come to the UK on a Domestic Service permit. Alice was 103. In 1941 she was interned on the Isle of Man as an 'enemy alien'.
"I was too old for the Kindertransport…"
1/9 pic.twitter.com/TSCY3j4tNs
— AJR Refugee Voices Archive (@AJRefugeeVoices) June 13, 2023
To read excerpts of her interview withi the Association of Jewish Refugees, click here.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
