Posted on November 26, 2023
Sisters Jane and Ros Merkin have teamed up to produce a play to mark the 70th anniversary of the Kindertransport.
The performance, Suitcase, focuses on the moment when the Kinder arrived at Liverpool Street, following Parliament’s decision to admit 10,000, mainly Jewish, children as refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe.
Jane, 46, a freelance producer, and Ros, 48, a drama teacher at John Moores University in Liverpool, have spent the past few months working on the production, which is being directed by Max Reinhardt.
It will be staged at Liverpool Street Station on Tuesday.
Ros (pictured left) tells People: “Our mother [Johanna Merkin née Hacker] arrived on the Kindertransport. “I think it’s important, as the first generation is kind of disappearing, that we pass the information on.
“I think this is going to be more of an issue in the Jewish community.”
Jane adds: “The reason we wanted to do it at Liverpool Street was because we wanted to do it in front of people that don’t know what is happening. For instance, those on their way to work. This is similar to the way in which people at the station didn’t know what was going on when the Kinder first arrived.
“There are many non-Jewish British people who don’t know this happened.”
Jane lives in North London, while Ros lives in Liverpool.