Ellen was born in Kassel, Germany in 1930. She left in 1939, just before war broke out, after witnessing Kristallnacht. She came to Australia on the SS Orama with 17 other unaccompanied children, brought out by Jewish Welfare. She travelled through London, then the Suez Canal to Perth and then to Melbourne. They were taken to ‘Larino’, a home for “orphaned children”.  Many were not actually orphaned, not yet anyway.  She stayed there for 9 years. Her mother miraculously survived and arrived in 1948. She married, had three children and now has three grandchildren. “Whatever happens, life goes on”, she says.  She and her husband had a grocery shop and then a building business and she’s still “doing the books”. They love to travel, play bridge, go to concerts, theatre and visit friends and family all over the world.