There is no such thing as coincidence

The following is a synopsis of Peter Kurer’s book which recounts his life before, during and after the Holocaust.

Peter was born in 1931 in Austria. He lived in Vienna with his parents, who were both Viennese, and his older brother. His parents met when his mother was learning piano at the Vienna Conservatory and his father was in his first year of six, studying medicine to become a doctor, before specialising as a dentist and later inventing and patenting a revolutionary dental system.

Peter had a happy and contented childhood, but everything changed with the Anschluss. His father narrowly missed being apprehended by the SS by feigning illness. Fearing the longer-term effects of the Anschluss, Peter’s parents resolved within a week to leave Austria.

Prior to the war, Peter’s parents had become acquainted with a devoted Quaker couple – Horatio and Mary Goodwin. When approached, they agreed to host Peter’s family and provide the mandatory guarantee for their safe passage to England in 1938.

Peter was seven when he arrived in Manchester, just ten days after his father called the Goodwins. Thanks to them other Quakers became guarantors for further family members and it was not long before Peter’s paternal grandparents also arrived, followed a few months later, by his paternal great-grandmother – at the age of 91 years.

He married Heather in 1955 and settled in Manchester, going on to have four children.

He volunteered considerable time to assisting with the establishment of a retirement home for Jewish refugees. He was instrumental in pursuing the ground-breaking vision of retirement flats, residential and nursing facilities being located on one site, which became the Morris Feinmann Home.

“In the summer, my parents always took us on holiday to a very nice area well away from the city called Puchberg am Schneeberg. It was a lovely place. I remember my mother’s favourite flower growing there, the wild cyclamen.”

Peter Kurer

“Then the day came when everything changed on 12 March 1938. That day was the Anschluss when Germany occupied Austria. German aeroplanes flew in large numbers over Vienna non-stop…A few days later, authorities were fixing Nazi swastika flags on every single house. The flags were being fixed from the roof down to the ground.”

Peter Kurer

“My parents always wanted Judaism in their lives, and I always wanted Judaism as part of my foundation. I am grateful for the harmony which existed between living in my Jewish home and the Quaker boarding school, nine months per annum. Today I still believe there is total harmony for me between these two religions.”

Peter Kurer

There is no such thing as coincidence

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