Marion Lesser (nee Oschitsky) was born in Berlin 1925. She came to the UK in 1939 on the Kinderstransport. She was evacuated with the Westminster Jewish Free School to Wiltshire and stayed with an English family and went to the local school for two years. She came back to London and stayed in a girl's hostel and boarding house in Walm Lane, Cricklewood. She learned dressmaking and then volunteered for the Land Army in 1943 (as one of the few Jewish girls). She stayed in a hostel with 40 other girls in Cuffley near Hertford. This is where she met her husband whoshe married in 1946.