In this episode (15 April 2026) of Conversations, Australian writer Jane Messer talks with host Richard Fidler about what she found about her Jewish German grandmother, Bella, when she went on a multi-country search for information.

Jane’s father & aunt were born in Berlin. When Michael (b. 1927) was 8, & his sister 13, Bella took her children to England & abandoned them to a boarding school. There were some initial brief visits to the school by Bella, but then a long gap of 13 years.

In order to understand Bella’s actions, Jane visits Berlin, Tel Aviv & Melbourne. She finds out that, even though Michael thought he was abandoned because he wasn’t loved, that wasn’t the case at all.