The Meyer family (father, mother and five sons Ernst, Kurt, Hans, Paul and Gert) left Germany in 1939. One brother settled in London, another in Brussels, the rest settled in Amsterdam to re-build their lives. A factory was built to produce various metal-anodes required by the electroplating industry. In May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Their factory was taken over by the Germans.
Two of the sons, Hans and Gert, were deported to Mauthausen concentration camp, victims of the Razzia (roundup) of February 1941, when 425 young Jewish men were arrested in revenge for attacks on Dutch Nazis. The parents went into hiding. Son Paul escaped the Netherlands, traversing German-occupied Belgium and France, and made it over the Pyrenees into Spain. His brother Kurt escaped Belgium and made it to Switzerland where he was interned until war-end. In Barcelona, Paul was arrested by the Guardia-civil. He pretended to be a Canadian soldier from an ill attempted landing by Allied forces on Dieppe-Beach in France and had managed to escape. He gave his name as Freddy Kingston from Ottawa. He was handcuffed and taken to Miranda de Ebros P.O.W. camp and interned for several months. He was interrogated numerous times but finally issued with an identity document in the name Freddy Kingston. "This document was most important to get food rations and help from the Red Cross and the British Consulate to secure my release from the camp."
The British Consulate and the Jewish Agency managed to secure passage for him on a boat to Palestine. Arriving in Haifa, he enlisted in the British 8th Army and received training at the British middle-east training centre in Palestine. He joined the newly formed Jewish Brigade, was posted to Egypt, then Italy, where his Brigade joined in the battle against the Germans until the end of the war. "We were proud to do this under our own blue-white-blue colours and the Star of David with the Jewish Brigade insignias showing on our uniforms." He took part in the Brigade's efforts to smuggle Holocaust survivors from the DP camps to Palestine. After discharge from the Army, he was awarded the BAOR Medal (British Army of the Rhine), the Italy Star and a Bronze Sport Medal for service 1939-1945.
Paul returned to the Netherlands, found his parents alive; Kurt was in Belgium and Ernst in England. Hans and Gert had been murdered. The family got the factory up and running again. At a social function he met and later married Mia Polak. Mia and her sister Bloema were saved by a Dutch resistance group and hidden on a farm in Friesland until the end of the war. The future did not look safe enough to stay in Europe, considering all they had experienced. They left Holland with their young son, Ronald, for Italy and by boat from Genoa to Sydney, arriving on 31 December 1950. "The beauty of Sydney was something to remember forever."
As an ex service-man, Paul could apply right away for Australian citizenship, which was granted six month later. He found a job with a plumber, then started running a car repair shop and drove a taxi for some years; he invented a retractable safety-belt, manufactured and sold it to various distributors.