Payne - Edith - née Guttmann 1921-2003

Edith Payne (née Edit Guttmann, formerly Goldman, 1921-2003) was born in Trnava, Czechoslovakia. Her parents were Adolf Guttmann (born in 1894) from Slovakia and Paula Horner from Vienna (born 1897). Edith grew up in Bratislava where she went to secondary high school ('Gymnasium'). She left Czechoslovakia to study in Caen in 1937 but when the Second World War broke out she was forced to move to England being Jewish. She initially went to Birmingham where her aunt Fritzi and some friends were living. Working at Leytonstone town hall she met her future husband, Paul Benjamin Payne (formerly Goldman, born in 1914) from London. They got married in 1940. During Paul's army postings Edith lived at several addresses nearby. She worked as a teacher at a school in Llandudno, Wales, during this time.

Edith's parents were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942 where they perished soon after arrival.

Edith and Paul changed their name by deed poll to Payne in 1944. Their son, Ian, was born in 1944. The couple's house in London was bombed but they managed to rescue some of their belongings. After the war Edith trained to become a secondary school teacher of foreign languages and art. In 1974 she set up a shop selling art.

From the guide to the Edith Payne: family correspondence, 1939-1946, (Wiener Library)