opera fans Ida and Louise Cook, who were equally determined to get in. It was in 1937 that the Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss and his wife Viorica Ursuleac (Richard Strauss’s favourite soprano) had first alerted them to the Jewish crisis. From that time until just two weeks before the outbreak of war, the sisters travelled regularly to Germany helping Jews to organise their emigration documents, and smuggling their valuables back to England. It was a costly enterprise since, to remain credible in the eyes of the Nazis, it was essential that they stay in the best hotels.
