K E N N E T H   A P P E L
Biography

   Kurt Appel was born in Bonn in 1926. He lived with his parents in Argelanderstraße in the Poppelsdorf part of the city. In 1930 his father Adolph was admitted to a hospital in Bonn suffering from the consequences of severe trauma from his experiences during the First World War. In 1934 he was transferred to the ‘Provinzial-Heil –und-Pflegeanstalt’ (‘Provincial Psychiatric Hospital’) in Andernach. His mother Friederike, née Herz, had worked as a master butcher before she got married. When her husband was no longer able to work, she continued working as the manager of the clothing store ‘Hosenkönig’ [‘Trouser King’] in Friedensplatz in Bonn. When Jewish children in Bonn were expelled from state schools, Kurt went to the Lützowstraße Jewish ‘Volksschule’ in Cologne and lived in the Jewish children’s home, the Abraham Frank House.

   On 25th July 1939 Kurt Appel came to London with a Kindertransport where he stayed with the family of a professional lorry driver in the East End. Once in England, Kurt Appel refused to speak a single word of German and changed his name to Kenneth Appel. Even as a fourteen-year-old, he had to earn his living in a factory. Kenneth Appel studied at evening classes to gain his qualifications as an optician and he opened his own practice. Adolph Appel died in 1940 in unexplained circumstances in Andernach. In 1941 his wife managed to escape to Spain. In 1947 she emigrated to England.

   Kenneth Appel married in 1952 and had five children with his wife Beulah, who was a teacher and a musician. The couple now live in London (2010). Since his retirement, Kenneth Appel has been doing voluntary work in the health care services.
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