Nodding in mute understanding, she pushed the bedcovers aside and slipped her feet into her shoes before tiptoeing over to her mother who stood waiting by the back door. Samuel – Roz’s father – placed his well-worn dark brown fedora onto his head then pushed it into place. He cast a final glance over his shoulder before addressing his wife and daughter. ‘Ready?’

The women exchanged a glance and Roz slipped her hand into her mother’s before giving a brave nod.

Though they had hoped this night would never come, they knew the odds were stacked against them, so Samuel had put a plan into place months before, just in case.

Even before the dreadful night of destruction, which the Nazis had proudly referred to as Kristallnacht, Roz and her family had witnessed synagogues being purposely set alight. Anyone who dared object was taken away, arrested as though they were criminals. Roz had had friends who had been in school one day but not the next, and rumours were rife that the soldiers were arresting Jewish people in the middle of the night without explanation. Indeed, they had been woken on more than one occasion by people shouting as their loved ones were taken from them.

Samuel Sachs, a partner in a firm of accountants, had done his best to keep his head down, doing most of his work from home so that he didn’t draw attention to himself. He had only ventured out to join his wife and daughter as they, like many others, queued hour upon hour for a visa in the hope that they might leave Germany and start a new life, somewhere far away from the Nazi regime which was rapidly gaining in strength.

The visa had been granted a few days earlier and Samuel had secured a post, working as an assistant accountant at an insurance firm in the Liver Building in Liverpool, England. His wife Inge, an English teacher, had yet to find a job, but they had been assured by the head of the accounts department at Samuel’s firm that she would have no problem finding work as a private tutor once they reached English shores. Consequently, they planned to take a train to Holland, where they would catch a ferry to England.

‘We’re close, but we’re not there yet,’ Samuel had told his daughter over supper as she examined the visa. ‘We must remain vigilant, and only go out if absolutely necessary. We won’t be leaving for a few days yet, and we can’t afford for anything to go wrong.’