Walter Kohn, an Austrian-born American scientist and former refugee who shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry—a subject that he had last formally studied in high school — died on last Tuesday in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 93. As a teenager, Dr. Kohn escaped to England from Nazi-occupied Vienna less than a month before World War II erupted, found himself shipped to Canada as an “enemy alien” and later built a long, distinguished academic career in the USA, becoming an American citizen in 1957.
Walter Kohn, whose parents saved his life by sending him out of Nazi-dominated Europe before the outbreak of World War II and who became a winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for work vital in developing new materials for electronics and medicine, died April 19. The Nobel Prize — which he shared with mathematician and chemist John Pople — brought wide recognition. He told the Los Angeles Times that his contributions to science were his way of trying to help live his lost family’s lives.
Parliament
The Government will have to take in 3,000 unaccompanied Syrian child refugees after Lords agreed a plan put forward by a Labour peer rescued from the Nazis nearly 80 years ago. The House of Lords this afternoon backed an amendment from Alf Dubs calling on the Government to accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees who fled Syria and ended up in Europe.
Each year the Holocaust Center provides a community program for Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Day of Remembrance. This year’s commemoration, scheduled for May 1 at 4 p.m., will be held in the gymnasium at The Roth Family Jewish Community Center, Maitland, Florida. There is no charge to attend, and reservations are not required. For additional information about the program contact Terrance Hunter at 407-628-0555 x 225.
Geoffrey H. Hartman, a Kind from Frankfurt and a literary critic whose work took in the Romantic poets, Judaic sacred texts, Holocaust studies, deconstruction and the workings of memory — and took on the very function of criticism itself — died on March 14 at his home in Hamden, Conn. He was 86.
In ‘Their Promised Land,’ Ian Buruma pays tribute to his British grandparents, who opened youth hostel to save 12 young Berliners before WWII
Generous theatregoers have raised thousands of pounds for a homeless hostel after a direct appeal by musician and writer Mona Golabek to audiences at her one-woman show. The money will go to the nearby Cardinal Hume Centre, which works with homeless young people and families with housing problems.
Susie Lind, who was rescued from the Nazis by Sir Nicholas Winton’s Kindertransport, spoke about her experiences for the first time in almost 80 years. Ms Lind contributed to the BBC One documentary programme ‘Children Saved from the Nazis: The Story of Sir Nicholas Winton’. The programme celebrates the life and work of Sir Nicholas Winton on Holocaust Memorial Day in partnership with the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
Susie Lind speaking with Natasha Kaplinsky
Susie Lind was one of 669 children rescued by the man dubbed the British Schindler – escaping on the penultimate train out of Czechoslovakia in May 1939. But the 91-year-old had not spoken in detail about her experiences for nearly eighty years, eventually doing so last year in response to a call from the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation for survivors to record their testimony.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Lina Edwards escaped Germany on the Kindertransport, the informal name given to a rescue effort that saved thousands of children
When Lina “Lee” Edwards was 15 years old, her tearful mother dropped her off at a train station, where mostly Jewish children like her were being whisked away from the Nazis and toward freedom. At the train station in Germany, Edwards’ mother wiped her tears on a handkerchief, which she also used to hide a gift — a diamond and pearl jewelry piece.
Following the success of their 2015 Edinburgh hit Spillikin, Cornwall’s Pipeline Theatre revives its debut play Transports for a national tour in Spring 2016. The play – described by the Cornish Guardian as “brave, bold and brilliant” – tells the story of a volatile teenager who is shunted from one foster home to another in the 1970s, until she finds her new carer – an eccentric chatterbox, who keeps her Kindertransport past buried in a trunk.