Students who went to England’s Stoatley Rough School seeking refuge from the Nazis had to grow up fast.

The mixed boarding school provided shelter for hundreds of youngsters during the darkest days of World War II, and most had no idea when or if they would ever be reunited with their parents and families.

For the Denton Record-Chronicle/Roberto Rodriguez

From left, Peter Gaupp, Martin Owens and Dieter Gaupp talk during a reunion at Dieter Gaupp’s house last Saturday in Denton.

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“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Denton resident Dieter Gaupp, a former Stoatley student. “The Germans had overrun all of Europe.”

A native of Germany, Gaupp arrived at the school in Haslemere, Surrey, in 1939 at age 15. His journey to find sanctuary from the Nazis had begun in 1934, when his father decided that young Dieter should leave his home country.

At first, Gaupp said, he was sent to stay with close family friends in Italy. His younger brother, Peter, and his parents, Frederick and Ilse, left Germany and went to Italy in 1935.

Frederick Gaupp was an editor and writer at a publishing house in Berlin, and the work gave him access to up-to-date information about what was happening in Germany.Gaupp said this helped his father make timely decisions about his family’s future.

“He sent me out at just the right time,” Gaupp said.

His father was a veteran of the German army and served in World War I, Gaupp said, and his mother was of Jewish descent but was not a practicing Jew.

Later, arrangements were made for the Gaupp brothers to attend school in England.

“My parents were to follow,” Gaupp said. “But they had to get their papers in order. Kids were getting out faster.”

But circumstances worked against the Gaupps.

“The British closed the border,” Gaupp said. “My parents took the last train out of Italy to Switzerland.”

Gaupp said. “My parents took the last train out of Italy to Switzerland.”

Still, the Gaupp brothers were more fortunate than many of their fellow students.

“Some left their parents, and it was the last time they ever saw them,” Gaupp recalled.

The trauma of the war and separation from home and family had a profound effect on the students who attended Stoatley Rough School, Gaupp said.

“It was a harrowing experience,” he said. “They all grew up in a hurry. They had to figure out how to make it, how to get along.

“It was a tough time.”

In the process, the students of Stoatley forged a strong bond, Gaupp said, a bond that has continued through the years, survived the start of new lives in many locations and still endures today.

Eight former Stoatley students gathered May 7-11 for a reunion, and Gaupp said the memories flowed freely.

“We just start talking,” he said of those who took part in the reunion. “We don’t have to give background; you all have the same background.

“It’s a real family.”

A Stoatley School reunion was held in 1990, Gaupp said, and several others have followed, including recent gatherings in Albuquerque, N.M., and Arlington, Va.

“Most have been in England,” Gaupp said. “There are more students there.”

Gaupp made the arrangements for the most recent reunion, during which the former students and three spouses explored Jefferson, Texas, and then came back to Denton for two days of activities. Former students who live in England did not get word of the reunion in time to attend, Gaupp said.

“We have had reunions with a whole lot more [former students],” he said.

Reunions are always interesting, Gaupp said, and some bring surprises.

During a recent reunion, two former female students learned that they had been living within three miles of each other and didn’t know it.

“You usually meet a lot of people you didn’t know were at the school,” Gaupp said.

The school operated from 1934 to 1960, Gaupp said, and during that time about 600 students went there.

Gaupp edits a newsletter for former students, and his mailing list has 150 names.

Not all former students are receptive to the idea of reunions, he said, and some have blocked out many of the memories of those difficult times.

“I have one close friend; we were like glue, always together,” Gaupp said. “He was so traumatized that he had no memory of it. He asked me, ‘Would you tell me what I was like? I don’t have any memory of it.’”

Students struggled to deal with the pressures, Gaupp said, and some were unable to do their chores or keep up with their work. Life was not always easy for administrators and teachers, either, he recalled. Some parents who arranged to have their children attend school later vanished, and for some there was no money. School leaders had to find ways to make money.

“At the time, there was a general feeling that all of this was going to blow over pretty fast,” Gaupp said. “The school was not really prepared to go that long.”

Gaupp attended Stoatley until 1942, when he left at age 18 to take a job offered by a friend.

After the war ended, the Gaupp family came to the United States. Gaupp began attending Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, in 1947. His father had begun teaching German at the university the previous year. The elder Gaupp also was called upon to teach American government, a subject about which he knew little.

“He found a book and read it on the way over,” Gaupp said.

Gaupp earned his bachelor’s degree from Southwestern and went on to get his master’s degree from the University of Texas.

“I went into social work,” Gaupp said. “I wanted to go into some helping profession.”

He met his wife, Fannie Belle, “a Texas girl,” at the veteran’s hospital in Houston.

“It was her first job after she got her master’s degree,” Gaupp said. “We were married in 1954.”

The couple moved to Denton in 1964, and through the years, his wife helped develop a number of programs and retired from the University of North Texas as director of the Social Work Program. She died last year at age 87.

Gaupp said his wartime experiences definitely influenced his career choice.

“A majority of kids who went to that school chose a helping profession rather than business,” he said.

Gaupp, his brother and other former students were interviewed for a book by Barbara Wolfenden titled Little Holocaust Survivors (Greenwood Publishing Group), about the school.

“I gave a copy to the local library,” he said.

Memories of his days at Stoatley Rough School remain fresh, Gaupp said.

“It’s just as vivid as if it were yesterday,” he said. “I do have positive memories of the school. The more I learn, the more I admire the people who ran it.”

LES COCKRELL can be reached at 940-566-6887. His e-mail address is lcockrell@dentonrc.com .