Back of photo of my Mother and me
What’s my name?
A multiple choice question.
Hanna, Hannelore, Johanna Flora, Zack, Dodd, Miley.
My names are the the titles of my journeying.
For the first seven years I responded to Hannelore.
I was part of the Zack family.
My birth certificate records my name as Johanna Flora Zack,
Johanna after my mother’s sister Johanna Schneider.
Flora after my deceased grandmother, Flora Schneider.
I was called Hannelore at home.
All these names…How did I become Hanna Dodd?
The name changes reflect the traumatic upheavals experienced
By Jewish families living in 1930’s Europe.
In the garden at the back of our house
In July 1939, when I escaped Germany on a Kindertransport rescue to England,
My mother wrote my name on the back of my identification label.
First she wrote Hannelore, then crossed out her entry, replacing it
With Johanna, the name on my birth certificate.
William Henry and Louisa Dodd was the second family to take in this refugee.
WW2 began on September 3, 1939 and twenty days later British households
were required to record details of those living under the same roof.
Dr Amy Williams, Historian of the Kindertransport, discovered the names recorded in that census. There were 3 names listed at 167 Coventry Road, Exhall, first William Henry, then Louisa Dodd and thirdly my name. Written in black ink, Hannelore Zack and corrected in bright green ink, to Johanna.
Seeing my name 87 years later….
There is ambivalence around my name, a foreign name, a German name, Germany was a dangerous enemy in 1939.
Fear of invasion swirled around us and Hannelore, Johanna, was changed to Hanna, albeit without the normal English “H” at the end.
Zack was replaced by Dodd, just like that without any official stamp, or discussion, according to my memory.
So much easier to fit into school and neighborhood.
Gradually, toward the end of my adolescence I became more self aware and step by step reclaimed my true family name, “Zack” but I stayed with “Hanna”.
Somehow I had become Hanna but filling in official forms needs focused attention, still.
Zack to Dodd to Zack to Miley, in 1971 when George and I married in Hyderabad, India, the final change, lasting 55 years.
George and I in India, 1971
Johanna Flora Miley, known as Hanna.