b'BOOK OF MEMORY FOR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAYMEMORIES OF MANYA AND SAMMY BRECHNER ZL FRANCES GOLDBERGB erliners, Manya and Sammy Brechner fled to London a few months ahead oftheinfamousKristallnacht,to a Britain with a strict immigration policy inplaceseverelylimitingthenumbers of Jewish refugees allowed to find a safe haven. I was a teenager the first time I met Manya Brechner,morethan50yearsago.My mother told me to greet Manya with Hello andShannahTova.Irememberbeing quite nervous of this clearly nice, very smart, slightly formal lady. It was a friendship that grew and grew with much pleasure. I knew Manya very well in her latter years and as aresultofthatclosefriendship,Ilearnt Manya & Sammy Brechner zl something of her early life in Germany. Home had been Berlin and Manya recalled thatduringatriptoOswiecim,(atown whichlaterbecamesynonymouswith Auschwitz) in 1938 for a family wedding, she andSammyreceived wordfromSammys father that it was not safe for them to return to Berlin. Oswiecim was in Poland and they had their passports with them so they were able to make their way directly to England. TheyarrivedinBritaininthespringof 1938 a few months before the Kristallnacht pogrom,forced to flee Germany in order toavoidanti-Jewishpolicies.TheBritish government classed them as aliens a status that changed to enemy aliens when Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3rd September 1939. Very quickly the status 17'