A wartime diary by a Jewish teenager fleeing the Nazis has sparked a hunt for a man in Wolverhampton believed to have helped his family find refuge in Britain in 1939.
Eli Getreu, who later became a psychotherapist for Holocaust survivors, wrote the journal during a visit to his refugee parents in the West Midlands after escaping Austria. The unpublished pages, discovered by his widow Barbro Gentele, offer rare testimony of pre-war Jewish life in Vienna and a little-known story of sanctuary in Britain.
Historian Dr Daniel Lee, of Queen Mary University of London, told the BBC the journal pointed to a Wolverhampton resident named Isaac Brown who may have supported Jewish families settling in the area as antisemitic violence surged across Europe.
Brown, listed in 1939 records at 65 Tettenhall Road, is believed to have assisted Eli’s parents and other Jews seeking asylum. “There is still so much more to uncover about the Jews themselves,” Dr Lee said.
The diary, written in German, is now being translated by Getreu’s grandson, Öyvind Vågen. One entry dated 27 May 1939 captures the teenage refugee watching a local fair in Wolverhampton filled with “laughter and makeup,” before reflecting on what he had lost. “I was indeed sorry for something,” he wrote. “I saw young girls everywhere in the arms of their boys, laughing, happy, and contented. I was jealous; I wanted to be so contented, too.”
Diary entry dated 27 May 1939 from Wolverhampton. Photo Credit: BBC / Family handout.
He also wrote movingly of Kristallnacht, describing Nazi soldiers looting homes and burning synagogues in Vienna. “Religious scrolls were thrown in the street… My mother ran out, crying joyfully, kissing me and being happy that I was there.”
Ms Gentele, who lives in Stockholm, told the BBC she had “no idea what he was going through in Wolverhampton” but believes the diary captured “a glimpse of what could have been” for a sensitive and love-struck teenager worried about his family’s safety.
She met Eli in 1973 after he had moved to Sweden. He died in 2005 at the age of 85.
Dr Lee said the diary revealed how Jewish families didn’t only flee to major cities like London or Paris but often relied on personal networks that led them to less expected places like the West Midlands.
Eli Getreu and his sister Tirza as young children in Vienna. Photo Credit: BBC / Family handout.
“It’s amazing to think these boys and girls were having a lovely night, drinking and wearing make-up, but six months later some wouldn’t even be alive,” he said.
The family now hopes to publish the journal to help young people connect with history and understand the inner world of refugees, not just as victims, but as ordinary people living through extraordinary times.
