Dora's story

Dora Northern was born Dora Schutte in Berlin, Germany in 1923. When she was ten years old, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in her country. Dora lived in Germany until the end of the Second World War. In 1950, she married an Englishman and settled in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire where she ran a tailoring business. In 2004, Dora was interviewed by Colin Hyde from the East Midlands Oral History Archive. 

Dora's Story offers a way in to Dora's experiences through a series of extracts from the original interview. In these extracts, Dora talks about growing up and attending school under the Nazi regime, witnessing the disappearance of Jewish neighbours, attending the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the outbreak of World War II in 1939. She gives us an insight into the opinions, beliefs and behaviours of a young woman during a turbulent period of 20th century history.

This resource is presented in two parts. Part one looks at Dora's experience of living in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Part two explores Dora's experiences of moving to post war Britain.