Autobiographical Notes

I was born on Jan. 7, 1925 in Berlin-Biesdorf, a district in the North-East of Berlin. My parents, Franz Noll and Martha Noll, née Janßen, had lived in Berlin since about 1915. My father grew up in Thüringen in central Germany; his parents had immigrated from Rotterdam, Holland, to Germany in about 1890. My Mother grew up in a rural area near Varel in Northwest Germany. Both of my parents had only an 8-year grade-school education. My mother was employed as a maid until she got married. My father went to a trade school for two years and then became a tool-and-die maker. Most of his life he worked for "Jaroslaw's Erste Glimmerwarenfabrik" , later renamed "Scherb und Schwer G.m.b.H.", in Berlin. He eventually became foreman and division manager. He originated 5 patents. My father was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from the time he was a young man. During the First World War, in 1917, he gave a speech at a rally of striking munitions workers. As a result, he had to spend the last nine months of the war in prison. Later, he became a very strong opponent of the Nazis. When the Nazis attained power in 1933, he predicted that there would be a second world war, that the U.S. would again fight against Germany, and that Germany would again be defeated. Even as a child, I never doubted that he was right. In fact, the thought that I might not survive the impending disaster was never far from my mind.