Holocaust survivor Eva Evans was "proud and amazed" to publish her first book at the age of 99.
In Once a Refugee, Always a Refugee the Primrose Hill resident describes her long, eventful life before and after World War II.
"I had always wanted to write as a girl in Germany, but when I came to England I never felt the language was familiar to me," she said.
"Then I decided, 'I can write. That's the only worthwhile thing I can do now for my family', I wanted it to be my whole story, not just before emigration but after."
Growing up in Berlin in the 1930s, life became increasingly dangerous for Eva's family. First Jewish students disappeared from her grammar school, then her father's GP practice was taken over, and finally he was taken to Sachsenhausen by the Gestapo where he tended to former patients living on a diet of soup.
"I had a completely different life to my brother and sister who were 10 years older. They had a wonderful life in Germany, but I did not because Hitler came to power and my parents were completely preoccupied with what you would call Hitler problems," she said.
Eva felt "strange" at school where she became the only Jewish pupil.
"They had to go to a school for Jewish children but because my father had a First Class Iron Cross and was a war hero I was entitled to stay. I felt completely out of place. I was once invited to a birthday party and the father gave me a long searching look. I realised he knew I was Jewish, and that was the end of socialising, I never got invited anywhere else."
And she recalls marching through Berlin in her gym kit.
"Hitler loved marches and our school marched in our black shorts and white shirts to impress the neighbourhood with young womanhood. I thought it was exciting. My family were shocked that I went on a Nazi march but I didn't realise that's what it was."
Although their quiet suburb was untouched by the terror of Kristallnacht, when Jewish businesses and synagogues were destroyed, an aunt who lived centrally, spent the night desperately searching for her missing son.
Eva says once the German doctor took over father Felix's surgery "he was finished".
"He had no job. This well known doctor in the district had to use the back stairs which were for kitchen deliveries. But he said 'Hitler won't last, I am not worried, we have enough money to live'.
"My parents didn't understand what was happening in the rest of Berlin. When the Gestapo came and took my father he wasn't prepared. His best friend always carried money and a passport, but he did not expect this could happen to him. When they took him away, my mother was completely hysterical and started screaming at this giant of a man, who said 'Mrs Doctor it's not my fault I was told to come and get your husband.'"
Now desperate to flee, Eva's mother Annie visited daily for three weeks to plead for her husband. When she showed them her deposit for a ticket to America, and promised to leave, they let him go.
"My father wanted to emigrate to America where he could practice with German qualifications, but it was much too late, there was a quota for Jewish people. He stood no chance."
With older siblings Lilli and Fred safely out of the country, a UK-based uncle helped with documents, and the family left on a train for London via Amsterdam.
"I don't know what we would have done without all the family who helped us," says Eva.
Like all refugees, they could only leave Germany with 10 DM per person - Annie's coat seams were opened to check she hadn't hidden diamonds. But their possessions, packed into shipping crates at Hamburg dock, never arrived.
"These lost crates became almost mystical," says Eva's daughter Janet.
"The Germans said they were bombed by the allies, but someone unearthed the records, and everything had been auctioned off. After all those years, my mother had an inventory of everything my grandparents had owned; paintings, silverware, and information about where it went."
The family arrived in Belsize Park, which had such a thriving community of Austrian refugees that Finchley Road became known as 'Finchleystrasse'. Eva attended Camden School for Girls with a fellow refugee who lived around the corner in Belsize Park Gardens. But when the school was evacuated in 1939, her protective family wouldn't let her go, and they all moved to Devon.
As paranoia about German nationals gripped Britain, Eva was interrogated, and her father interned for six months as an 'enemy alien'.
"I was only interested in doing my school certificate, and I was summoned to a meeting in Exeter and questioned by a group of lawyers about what was I doing in Torquay, like some kind of spy. My father was sent to a military camp in terrible conditions, under canvas when he was 60."
Despite this, Eva joined the Fire Service at 18 then achieved her dream of going to university, studying modern languages at UCL. She met husband Robert - an Austrian refugee who had changed his name from Eisenstein to Evans in case the Germans invaded Britain - at Belsize Park tennis club, and they married at Hampstead Town Hall in 1952.
He ran Hill House Restaurant in Haverstock Hill, they lived in Upper Park Road and had three children, Leonard, Margot and Janet. Eva worked as an administrator for academic associations in European studies and European law, and was awarded an MBE in 2014.
It was with help from the Association of Jewish Refugees that she finally wrote down her story.
Daughter Janet Lew said for someone who arrived with little English, her mother was remarkable:
"She has been such a hard worker all her life and achieved so much, but she never believed she could be a writer or get her book published. Now she has proved it to herself.
"She still does yoga to this day, she speaks to German children in Berlin on Zoom about her life - the President of Germany thanked her by letter - and she met The King when he came to JW3.
"Despite all that dislocation and despair I am stunned by what she has achieved."
Once a Refugee Always a Refugee is available on from Amazon.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here