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Name: ZWEIG, Walter

Birth Date: 5 Sep 1904 Zory, Slaskie, Poland

First Date: 1938

Last Date: 1947

Profession: Farmer (formerly barrister)

Area: Rongai

Married: Jettel Lotte Charlotte Perls b. 20 June 1908

Children: Stephanie Regina (Haefele) (19 Sep 1932 Glubczyce, Opolskie, Poland-25 Apr 2014 Frankfurt am Main); Max Ronald Paul (6 Mar 1946 Nairobi)

Book Reference: Glimpses

General Information:

Glimpses - Stephanie Zweig says - "In June 1938 my mother and I arrived at Rongai in Kenya. For the previous six months my 34 year-old father [Walter Zweig] had been working out there as a farm manager, trying to forget that in his former life he had been a respected barrister and notary public. Having studied only Latin and Greek, he neither knew English or anything about cattle or crops. It took me years to understand why my parents told friend and foe that they hated farming but "we owe our lives to Kenya". We were Jews - in our home country in fear for our lives, in Kenya 'bloody refugees', and after the outbreak of the second world war 'enemy aliens' …
When my father was advised to [escape to Kenya] he did not even know that Kenya was a colony in East Africa. The colonial authorities only demanded £50 per head for an entry permit. The low price decided him. Even so, without the assistance of the Jewish community in Nairobi, he would not have gathered the sum in time to get his wife and daughter out of Germany ………… In 1939 school became compulsory for Europeans ….. The Nakuru Government school was 200 miles from home and I hated it. I was an only child, pampered by adoring parents, homesick, shy and speechless - I could not speak a word of English and I had no idea what was expected from me.
Glimpses - Stephanie Zweig - I knew early in life that my dearly-loved father was pining for his old profession and a country which did not brand him a foreigner the moment he started talking. So it did not come as a surprise when immediately at the end of the war he announced that we were going back to Germany, but I still feel the shock …….. In April 1947 we arrived in Frankfurt.

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