1000 English Words

Werner Michael Blumenthal fled with his parents and his sister from Berlin to Shanghai in spring 1939.

Translation of the interview with Werner Michael Blumenthal:

"My father was very proud that he learned Latin for ... what was it ... two years, but his English ... - and a little French - was really very, very poor, and my Mother knew even less. On the ship they had a book called 1000 English Words, which they eagerly studied morning, noon and night. So in Shanghai they were more or less able to get by with their English, with a strong German accent, but they could make their way around in English. My mother more so than my father. But we immigrants spoke only German with each other."