The lady introduced herself as Janette Bider. The reason why Mrs. Schmidt took us to see her was because Mrs Bider was an evacuee during WWII in England and we are reading a novel called Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian about a young boy who is a evacuee during the war. Mrs Bider was 3 ½ years old at the time the war began. Sadly, this is why she has only vague memories of these first years. At the time she was living near Big Ben in central London. In 1940 the Germans started the Blitzkrieg. Over a million children were evacuated to the countryside. They were evacuated in three groups under the odd name - Pied Piper. Both her father and her mother stayed in London, but Mrs Bider and her brother were evacuated. She stayed in the countryside for a total of about 8 ½ years, before she returned to London.
On the 18th June 1944, Mrs Bider remembers going for a walk with her father and her brother in the park, when a V2 plane bombed the church near Buckingham Palace. The Germans were trying to bomb the King and Queen, who were, however, not in the palace at the time. Mrs Bider's father threw her and her brother into a pit, then laid his body protectively over them, which probably saved their lives.
After the war, the King sent this document to all the children who had been evacuated.
Because she had stayed so far away from home for such a long time, her bond with her parents suffered. It took and long time until she could fully trust people again. Later she decided to move to Switzerland.
Her life story was really interesting with what she went through when she was a child because of the war. It was great to know what she experienced! (Chiara)
I thought that her story was very inspiring because it showed that your relationship with siblings is just as important as the relationship with parents and that eventhough your past or childhood wasn’t as good, you can still start fresh. (Rania)
It really inspired me, personally, to see how much Mrs Bider, who has experienced so much, still enjoys life to its fullest.
Ananda, G1c
