Renee (Gertie) Kellinger

  Noted events in her life were:

• Misc. By Renee Griller
I wish I could begin by telling you about my grandparents, but unfortunately I did not know any of them, but I would like to tell an interesting story about my father. He was born in Poland and had two older sisters. When he was 13 years old his mother passed away and his father decided to remarry. My father had an uncle in the United States who offered to buy tickets for the three children to come to live with him. He sent money and my father and his sisters, one was 15 and the oldest one was 17/18 set sail and, for some unknown reason, they sailed for America via London, with tickets paid only to London. Maybe it was cheaper that way but one thing I do know is my father never spoke about this experience, I believe it was too distressing for him.
On arrival in London, they went to buy the tickets to continue the journey to the States and found there was only enough money for two people. The older sister told my father that the two girls would carry on with the journey and they would ask the uncle to send the money to enable their brother to continue the journey to America. My father never heard from them again not knowing if they had even reached their destination. The sisters left this thirteen year old boy standing on the dock in London without any money and without knowing a word of English. Luckily, a member of the Jewish Board of Guardians was there (The Jewish Board of Guardians in England helps Jewish people that have problems) and asked my father in Yiddish why he was alone.
When the story was told, the man took him to a house in the East End of London. The people living there had a small workshop in one of the rooms where they were making clothes, and he was put to work for fourteen/fifteen hours a day. The couple in the house with whom my father lived and worked had five children not including my father. They all lived in a four-roomed house with one room converted to a workshop, and a shed in the yard had a sewing machine which was part of the working premises. I remember the house as eventually my father married the woman's youngest sister, my mother.
I was very close to my father; he taught me many things in life. He was a very intelligent man but unfortunately fate was not on his side. Having to work such long hours he did not have a chance to further his education. He worked hard and long hours to save enough money to enable him to bring his three half sisters and a half brother to London and, in spite of his own ordeal; he managed to take care of them.
My mother left Poland when she was nine and went with her family to London. She had five sisters and four brothers. After my parents were married, and my eldest brother was born my mother, due to an illness started to lose her hearing and eventually lost it entirely. When I was quite small and the blitz had begun in England, mothers and children were evacuated. My father wouldn't allow me to go; he told me that if anything happened to him and my mother I would be brought up by foster parents. Try to imagine that I lived in the heart of London, where every child was sent to so-called safer areas and I was the only child left in the whole area. Some time later, when I started to think about the situation, I realized that possibly the real reason my father wanted me at home was that, whenever the siren would sound, I could tell my mother and we could run to take shelter.
The funny thing was that at the beginning we rushed to take shelter under a railway arch, the object that the Germans were keen to bomb, and then we became wiser and looked for safer places. Almost at the end of the war, the Germans devised the V2 rocket. This object would fly to London, buzzing. When one could hear the buzz it meant it was flying over, but once it started its decline the buzzing stopped so consequently the poor people that were hit had no idea of the descent and the tragedy due to befall them. At that time there were no sirens to warn us.
One day my father was at work, my mother shopping, and a V2 came down and crashed into the garden adjoining our house. This was extremely lucky for me since one second later it would have landed on our house and I would not be here to tell this tale. The blast sent me flying right across the room until I hit the opposite wall, and was unconscious. When I came to I had lost the hearing in one ear. I didn't mention what had happened to my parents, as I didn't want to worry them, plus I was scared that now I would be deaf too.
Twenty years later I decided to have a graft inserted on the advice of an ear surgeon, apparently the blast had moved a bone in my ear and the surgeon advised me that it was possible to chip away the bone and insert a graft, but after twenty years he would not promise any success. I agreed to go ahead. After the operation I was strapped to the bed for forty eight hours not being able to move. This was to ensure the success of the graft, a really tough time, but fortunately all turned out well.
I had two brothers. When the eldest was twenty-nine he became ill with pneumonia and pleurisy, no anti-biotic at that time. He died in my arms. I was fourteen.
When I was six years old a boy Louis living in the same area had bought a bag of sherbet (a powder, when mixed with water is a poor substitute for lemonade) and inside was a toy ring, and he gave it to me and said “one day I will give you a real one”, and he did. A few years later our families moved to other areas and we lost contact. Destiny certainly moves in strange ways. When I was sixteen by pure chance we met again and later married. We had two children David and Susan.
Towards the end of the war and my husband was eighteen, he was conscripted to the army. After six weeks basic training, England at that time decided to start the invasion of France and he was sent with the forces - going all the way through to Germany. When World War II was over and, before being demobilized, he was given the job as an interpreter to the special investigation unit, until leaving the army.
When we came to live in Israel he obtained employment with Danish Interiors, a business selling Danish furniture and household goods. After some time he decided to leave and volunteer to work with the handicapped at a very large concern named Chimes. They care for children and adults in every way, including housing and finding them employment. Many of them share a home connected with Chimes, and are supplied with food and care.
Louis was a wonderful husband and father. He was a Zionist, always thought that every Jew should live in Israel.
In the late sixties I became very ill. It was my dream to visit Israel before I die: the usual request! We came on holiday and fell in love with the country and decided to come and live here. On our return home we told the children of our decision and Susan said she was not interested and if we wanted to go, she would stay in London with her friends. So that “put paid” to our aliyah at that time.
Some time later Susan's friend decided to go to a kibbutz for six months but only on the condition that our daughter would join her. I thought that was hilarious: Susan on a kibbutz! If she saw a fly she would scream, and was terrified of animals but to my surprise she did join her friend and they came to Kibbutz Ramat David they arrived there the day before Chanukah. The kibbutz was surrounded by other kibbutzim and also an air force base, and every evening there was a Chanukah party at one place or another. Consequently the first letter I received from her was “This is a wonderful country and I am not coming back to London”.
Including the joy of the parties she, at the age of sixteen, met a tall blond good looking fellow from France; he had come to Israel with Machal (volunteers from foreign countries), his home base being the kibbutz. The ironic part during the time of processing our aliyah, my husband had a heart attack, and the Jewish Agency informed us that our immigration would be deferred for five years due to the fact that no health fund was willing to accept us. Some improvement with the medical system has been made since then.
Eventually we made aliya in 1976. In the beginning I was extremely unhappy here. I was shocked with the culture, especially the spitting of the garanim shells on the buses and no orderly queues at bus stops or in the banks. Much improvement has been made since those years. Remember, I am from London where everyone stands and patiently waits their turn, or so they did in those years.
When we were married we lived in the heart of London: approximately five minutes by bus from Marble Arch Oxford Street, with all the wonderful hustle and bustle. I missed all that, but as a true Israeli I am still here. Unfortunately, Lou passed away a number of years ago but I am happy knowing he attained his dream of living here, where he was immensely happy.
I worked for twenty seven years at the South African Zionist Federation, my first and last job in Israel. I did statistics, accounts and promoted aliyah. I really enjoyed working there, and I truly believe if not for the staff at the Federation I would have returned to England. They were like family to me, and encouraged me in every aspect. Until this day, after retiring seven years ago, I still share joys and sorrows with them.
In 1981 the Federation decided to buy their first computer. It was installed in my office, and I was told to start using it. I had no idea what to do, there was no Google or Word system at that time, and when I asked the accountant how to proceed with the machine his answer each time was “Read the instructions”. (I am sure he hadn't the slightest idea either) Actually, this put me in good stead for the future, as when I am in difficulties; I try to read the instructions. My close friend now is Google. Anything I need to know, I question Google and get the answer! One of my first jobs with the computer was to work with a database and install all the information of all South Africans living in Israel. This was a tough job as it had to be processed in addition to my daily work load.
My daughter Susan is a wonderful person. She is working at the South African Federation and gives her heart and soul to the South Africans that need her assistance, has all the answers for those who want to come and make Israel their home. My son David is in Ottawa Canada, married. He met his wife when he was seventeen and she was fifteen. We seem to be a family that takes the plunge of young marriage.
While David was studying for his PhD in London University a Professor from the National Research Council in Ottawa asked him to spend a year with him to do research in Spectroscopy, atoms in the atmosphere. The year has now become many years. He is a scientist doing lots of incredible work with cancer trials and hopefully in the very near future the Canadian government will put his findings into practice. Since writing this, I have heard from him that the trials were successful and the results accepted by the Canadian health system and will now hopefully save many lives and stop some pain and suffering.
I am very fortunate to have an extremely good relationship with both my daughter-in-law and son-in-law.
Six grandchildren are my blessing. Two are in Israel, one in Toronto, one in Hamilton, one in London, England and one in Kenya. Luckily I manage to see them often; they do come to Israel at every opportunity.
In addition to this story, I have been granted the immense joy of living to see nine wonderful great-grandchildren and hopefully the family will increase and be able to live in a peaceful world.
Regretfully Lou didn't live to enjoy these gorgeous children, but in time they will learn what a great person he was.

Renee married Lou Griller.