Chapter 6: Adina and Isak

Adina Fischer was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her parents died in a boating accident when she was young and was raised by her grandparents. She did well in school and was skilled in Kosher cooking. As she grew into a woman, her grandparents helped her get a job at a local hotel as a maidservant. She made friends and bobbed her hair like they did as the fashion from America became popular in Europe in 1921. She enjoyed going to the cinema and listening to jazz music with her new friends. One day, an acting troupe checked into the hotel to perform in the hotel's café. After work, she entered the café for a cocktail to enjoy the cabaret show full of dirty humor and musical numbers. The next day, their headliner got a role in a silent movie and left the troupe. The business manager requested a seamstress to come to the backstage area to alter the costumes for the new headliner. Adina volunteered to alter the costumes. She pinned the gowns to fit the actress better and got to work down in the laundry, where a sewing machine was located to patch torn linens and towels. The manager was impressed with her handiwork on the costumes and gave her a handsome tip for her work. He then offered her a job doing costumes for the acting troupe as they traveled around Europe. She accepted. She said goodbye to her grandparents and friends to board the ship to Oslo, Norway. She made friends with the performers, agents, musicians, set designers, and light crew. A year later, while the troupe was in London, England, one of the actresses was offered a part in a Broadway musical in New York City. Gertrude Schrader, from Munich, Germany, asked Adina to accompany her as an assistant so she would not be living alone in America. She gladly accepted. Gertrude was a kind young woman who grew up on a farm, was orphaned, lived with her grandparents, and then moved to the big city to live with her uncle when her grandmother died. She loved singing and dancing to connect with all the people in the audience. A social butterfly who made everyone in her presence feel welcome. Men adored her, but like many starlets, they easily cast her aside with empty promises they had no intention of keeping. She completed her run on Broadway, received much fan mail and flowers from admirers, and had a lovely apartment with two bedrooms. One gentleman took her out to dinner at a luxurious restaurant, and photographers were present capturing their arrival and departure. Next, they went to the ballet playing “Giselle”. Gertrude was given a fur coat, a silk gown, chocolates, jewelry, and flowers by her suitor. She fell hard in love and enjoyed his company, listening to jazz on the radio at home or having dinner with his family who lived in a grand mansion on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Liquor was illegal in America, but that did not stop people from entering speakeasies to listen to jazz music. Gertrude hoped her suitor would propose marriage someday.

She acted in local silent films for Astoria Studio in Queens between shows. At least, she acted without reciting many lines. Silent movies were more show than moving lips to simulate speech. She did well in the silent movies and received notice from a Hollywood producer who offered a contract to Paramount for six months. She eagerly packed her bags for California. She had to bid farewell to her suitor who never proposed to her, not even when she announced her new opportunity. They boarded a train to California. The producer invited her to dine at a jazz restaurant to have photographs taken of his newest starlet from Broadway. There they rode the streetcars and met the silent stars of the era: Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore, Marion Davies, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Will Rogers, Jackie Coogan, Ivor Novello, and Lon Chaney. Many of them she met at parties that occurred every week, with photographers around to capture the guest list. Others she met on set or walking around the studio on their way to their set in full costume. She starred in her own film called “An American in Japan” and wondered if the real Japan resembled anything on the set. Segregation was strict in America, so non-white people were portrayed as white people in blackface or brownface, with clay attached with glue altering their eyes and noses. Even the Indian Squaw of the Great Plains was a blonde woman with blue eyes wearing a long dark wig and brownface. It was a grand six months. The studio set her up with dates at restaurants and parties to have photographers take her pictures with her gentlemen. Then her grandfather died, so Gertrude returned to Germany for the funeral. She was given part of her father’s inheritance from her grandfather, and then returned to Hollywood to complete the two months left on her contract. Adina took a trip to visit her grandparents before returning to America. Once the actress left America to rejoin the acting troupe in Munich, so did Adina as the seamstress. This time around, at age nineteen, Gertrude was promoted to the headliner. She even met her old suitor from New York City after a show in Nice, France. He was married to a wealthy heiress and desired to rekindle an old flame with Gertrude as his mistress to beg her to return to Broadway. She declined.

On the train to Berlin in 1924, Gertrude met a German gentleman traveling with his sister, who was an artist. They got to know each other in Berlin, and then she sent postcards to him from the cities they performed in England and France. She gave him the schedule of their stays and hotel names. His house did not have a phone, so he called her hotels from the general store. When the tour ended in Paris, France, and everybody took a break before restarting new acts in a month, Gertrude decided to stay in Paris and performed in a cabaret. Adina stayed with her as an assistant. Her latest suitor came to Paris on the train and played the violin while she sang. A week later, he proposed on the Eiffel Tower. They eloped in a quick wedding and boarded a train to Munich. She decided to give up her acting career to be a housewife of a copper miner in a small mountain valley village. She was not that successful in her acting anyway and barely made a living at it as the headliner. Producers and directors made it known that she was disposable to lose the glitter in her dreams of stardom. Adina returned to Copenhagen to visit her grandparents and joined a theater as a costume maker. Her grandparents passed away before the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. Her grandfather had a heart attack first, and her grandmother later died from pneumonia. She lived in her grandparents' house, which they left to her in their wills. Then the Nazis invaded Denmark in April 1940. Her theater friends gave her money to run to Sweden across the Öresund Strait. She packed quickly and boarded a ferry for Helsingborg. The ferry took twenty minutes and made repeated crossings for the Jews fleeing the incoming Nazis. Normally, visas were required, but Sweden made an exception once Denmark was invaded. Soon after, Norwegian Jews were fleeing the Nazis coming to Sweden.

Adina heard about passenger flights to Scotland that Jews were taking in case the Nazis invaded Sweden too. She was staying at a hotel when she decided to chance a flight to Scotland in the hope the Nazis would not invade that country too. At least, she would be closer to Iceland or Canada to run to if she needed to. The passenger planes carried about twenty people and often flew at night to avoid German warships with anti-aircraft guns. They flew from Stockholm to Leuchars, Scotland, carrying passengers and ball bearings, taking between three and four hours. It was set up to obtain important ball bearings needed by the British after they declared war on Germany. Later, the Norwegian Government in Exile ran the Ball-Bearing Flights. Sweden supplied a lot of ball bearings also to Germany, being a neutral country. In the small plane, they had to sit in the bomb bay and pull a string to speak to the pilot. They made it safely to Leuchars, Scotland, and got off the plane close to dawn. At sunrise, the flights ceased so the pilots could rest and begin flying at night again. One of the pilots walked Adina to a nearby hotel she could check into. His name was Isak Goldschmidt. He was from Tonder in Southern Jutland. He married young with help from a matchmaker, and she died in childbirth while he was fighting in the Great War as a pilot for Prussia. In 1920, Southern Jutland voted to join Denmark. Once they built passenger planes, he started being a pilot for the passenger airline in Denmark. A good ten years older and quite charming, he invited her to dine at the hotel cafe. She confessed she traveled with an acting troupe making costumes, so matchmakers never matched her with any Jewish man. Now in her thirties, orphaned young, and with her grandparents having died, leaving her their house, her friends gave her money to flee to Sweden. They continued to see each other when he returned from Sweden. She got a job sewing uniforms at a factory.

As Germany began bombing England in September 1940, getting early warnings from recent technology called radar that Germany also had, Isak requested to join the RAF as a Great War veteran. The recruiter gladly accepted him as a foreign fighter and enlisted him, sending him to train in the new aircraft before being sent to London. He spoke English as well as French and German. Adina also went to London to volunteer as a nurse at a hospital and sew uniforms in a factory in Whitechapel. They found a rabbi to quickly marry them when he finished his training. Like others in the Blitz, she slept in the basement of the row house Isak rented for them. She shopped for food when she got off work and cooked Kosher meals for her and her husband if he came home to sleep. Most German bombs hit the East End of London, where Whitechapel was located. When Buckingham Palace was hit with a bomb, knocking out glass windows to nearly kill the king and queen in another room, the Queen was reported as saying, “Now I can look the East End in the face.” Isak went on bombing raids in Germany and defended London. The authorities tried to evacuate children out of London and into farming communities across England. She knew some English from living in America for a year, plus spending a winter in England, and showed Isak places she visited with the acting troupe. She practiced mastering British English in their rental home using schoolbooks from the general store. Isak studied English among other languages in the flight training during and after the Great War. Adina kept working at the hospital to help do laundry, change bandages on patients, administer medicine, and sweep floors. She listened to the radio for news on Denmark. Many London factories were bombed, and one morning she arrived to work to find her textile factory was destroyed by German bombs. She decided to just work at the hospital, learning nursing skills and reading to patients in English. The bombings continued through May 1941.

Adina heard about passenger flights to Scotland that Jews were taking in case the Nazis invaded Sweden too. She was staying at a hotel when she decided to chance a flight to Scotland in the hope the Nazis would not invade that country too. At least, she would be closer to Iceland or Canada to run to if she needed to. The passenger planes carried about twenty people and often flew at night to avoid German warships with anti-aircraft guns. They flew from Stockholm to Leuchars, Scotland, carrying passengers and ball bearings, taking between three and four hours. It was set up to obtain important ball bearings needed by the British after they declared war on Germany. Later, the Norwegian Government in Exile ran the Ball-Bearing Flights. Sweden supplied a lot of ball bearings also to Germany, being a neutral country. In the small plane, they had to sit in the bomb bay and pull a string to speak to the pilot. They made it safely to Leuchars, Scotland, and got off the plane close to dawn. At sunrise, the flights ceased so the pilots could rest and begin flying at night again. One of the pilots walked Adina to a nearby hotel she could check into. His name was Isak Goldschmidt. He was from Tonder in Southern Jutland. He married young with help from a matchmaker, and she died in childbirth while he was fighting in the Great War as a pilot for Prussia. In 1920, Southern Jutland voted to join Denmark. Once they built passenger planes, he started being a pilot for the passenger airline in Denmark. A good ten years older and quite charming, he invited her to dine at the hotel cafe. She confessed she traveled with an acting troupe making costumes, so matchmakers never matched her with any Jewish man. Now in her thirties, orphaned young, and with her grandparents having died, leaving her their house, her friends gave her money to flee to Sweden. They continued to see each other when he returned from Sweden. She got a job sewing uniforms at a factory.

As Germany began bombing England in September 1940, getting early warnings from recent technology called radar that Germany also had, Isak requested to join the RAF as a Great War veteran. The recruiter gladly accepted him as a foreign fighter and enlisted him, sending him to train in the new aircraft before being sent to London. He spoke English as well as French and German. Adina also went to London to volunteer as a nurse at a hospital and sew uniforms in a factory in Whitechapel. They found a rabbi to quickly marry them when he finished his training. Like others in the Blitz, she slept in the basement of the row house Isak rented for them. She shopped for food when she got off work and cooked Kosher meals for her and her husband if he came home to sleep. Most German bombs hit the East End of London, where Whitechapel was located. When Buckingham Palace was hit with a bomb, knocking out glass windows to nearly kill the king and queen in another room, the Queen was reported as saying, “Now I can look the East End in the face.” Isak went on bombing raids in Germany and defended London. The authorities tried to evacuate children out of London and into farming communities across England. She knew some English from living in America for a year, plus spending a winter in England, and showed Isak places she visited with the acting troupe. She practiced mastering British English in their rental home using schoolbooks from the general store. Isak studied English among other languages in the flight training during and after the Great War. Adina kept working at the hospital to help do laundry, change bandages on patients, administer medicine, and sweep floors. She listened to the radio for news on Denmark. Many London factories were bombed, and one morning she arrived to work to find her textile factory was destroyed by German bombs. She decided to just work at the hospital, learning nursing skills and reading to patients in English. The bombings continued through May 1941.