Maida Vale woman who fled Nazis forced to work as maid to find refuge in Britain
A 93-year-old Maida Vale woman, who worked as a domestic servant after fleeing Nazi oppression in Austria, will feature in a BBC documentary on Friday (October 12).
Edith Argy, of Rodney Court, Maida Vale, left Vienna in 1938, aged just 18.
She was forced to apply for a domestic workers visa in order to stay in England, and find work as a maid.
Her experiences are documented in No Going Back, a documentary on the decline of domestic service which will be broadcast on BBC Two at 9.00pm on Friday.
She said: “I was desperately unhappy. Working as a servant never suited me.
“I came from a middle class background, quite bookish and was working in an office before the Nazi’s arrived in Austria.
“I was never cut out for domestic work. They called me a ‘tweeney’ which was half way between a cook and a maid, the lowest of the low.
Most Read
- 1 Covid-19: Hospital admissions and bed occupancy continue to fall
- 2 Businesses hail return of Highgate's Fair in the Square
- 3 What is the rare 'monkeypox' being treated at the Royal Free?
- 4 Barnet: Two men charged following fatal High Road stabbing
- 5 TfL: Revamped Northern line latest addition to ever-improving network
- 6 Barnet: Three arrested as victim of fatal stabbing named
- 7 Warnings issued after four fox clubs found stuck in old car wheels
- 8 Fears over large nitrous oxide cannisters found in Gospel Oak
- 9 Go fish: Anglers complain of limited access to Heath ponds
- 10 Court: Disciplinary rules not followed in 'unfair' sacking, lawyer suggests
“We slept in the attic and had to work from seven in the morning until the last dish was scrubbed at night, every day of the week
“I always just wanted a day off to sleep or rest.”
She escaped domestic work after finding a secretarial job in Maidenhead and was reunited with her brother and father in Paris after the war.
Her stepmother, deemed to old to receive a domestic workers visa by Britain, did not survive the war.
Mrs Argy eventually settled in London with her husband, and has lived in Maida Vale for nearly 50 years.