Maria Ault

Maria Ault was born in November 1926 in Hamburg to a Jewish father, Theodor Popper from Prague and non-Jewish mother Henriette née Bewersdorff. Henriette was an opera singer with the stage name Hella Borg. She had been married before to a South African man and had a son, Alfred, with him. Alfred attended a renowned progressive boarding school in Lüneburger Heide, run by Dr Max Brody. After the rise of the Nazis the boarding school relocated to Lake Geneva. Dr Max Brody knew the headmaster of Scottish public school Gordonstoun, Dr Kurt Hahn, and one of their students was Lord Mountbatten who later helped to bring Maria’s parents over from Sweden, where they fled.

Maria remembers a happy childhood in a beautiful villa in Groß Flottbek/ Othmarschen with a nanny and a lovely nursery. The house was filled with music and she had ballet lessons. Her parents were strict and formal but loving. Her father had converted to the Lutheran faith and therefore, Maria and her siblings didn’t know they were Jewish until Maria couldn’t dance with her ballet group because Jewish girls weren’t allowed.

Her parents arranged for Maria, her older brother John and the younger sister, Birgit to come with the Kindertransport to England. A Quaker, Elizabeth Howard, took the girls on a ship to Harwich. At Liverpool Street Station a cousin of their mother’s first husband met them and took them to their guardians. They lived with their guardians in Beckenham until they were evacuated to Melton Mawbray in September to live with a minister and his wife.

This was a very bad experience as the minister’s wife didn’t give them enough to eat and also physically abused them. Maria was exploited as a house maid, whereas her sister at least got the chance to attend grammar school. When this was revealed, they were moved to a different family in the same town. But despite having enough food and being treated well, Maria still felt exploited as a housemaid and nanny. She wrote to her guardians in Beckenham to ask if she could come back. It was revealed that the people she was living with had kept letters from her guardians from Maria. Many decades later would be revealed that they also kept many letters to Maria from her parents in Sweden. Maria was not allowed to see these letters at the time.. Her guardians told her that she was enrolled to start training as a nursery nurse which she enjoyed very much. 

Her sister finished grammar school and attended teaching college. She met an Englishman and they moved to Canada. Birgit, although better educated, felt traumatised by her experiences, and late in life chose assisted suicide in Canada. Maria's older brother (not the half-brother) was placed with a very nice family and had a good time but suffered from trauma induced by military service in Burma. On his return, he wasn’t able to finish his medical studies, but became a nurse. He later moved to Australia with his wife where he had a happy family life.

Maria’s father had left Germany for Sweden where he had colleagues. Able to speak seven languages, he found work with the Queen of Sweden. After his departure, Maria’s mother was arrested by the Gestapo who wanted her to forsake her Jewish husband and half-Jewish children but she resisted. Finally, she was able to leave with a Jewish conductor who was helped by Hermann Göring’s brother and joined her husband in Sweden. At the end of the war, they were able to come to England with the help of Lord Mountbatten. Even though Maria was happy to be reunited with them, reacquaintance was difficult. Maria met her first husband at a dance and got married in 1950; they had a daughter Linda. She later met her husband Charles Ault and they started a driving school and had a son.

Maria has been back to Hamburg and felt a connection with the city of her birth and her cousins. However, she strongly feels British and grateful for the country for saving her life. Because of this experience she has always wanted to give back to society and was very active in her church where she ran toddler groups and supports Ukrainian refugees. Since she became aware of the AJR a couple of years ago, she started attending meetings in Bromley. The grandchildren of the second family Maria stayed with when she was evacuated to Melton Mawbray, found old letters in an attic and they contacted the AJR to help them find the owner. Now Maria is in possession of letters from her mother sent to her from Sweden and from her guardians.

At the end of the interview Dr Bea Lewkowicz, Maria and Maria’s daughter Lina listen together to a recording of Maria’s mother singing Mozart arias from the 1930s.