Posted on June 17, 2024
After Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, the idea to rescue children from the Nazis and bring them to Britain is proposed to the British Government by two of World Jewish Relief’s founders, alongside other organisations, and a delegation of prominent British Jews.
Following a 45-minute appeal by the delegation directly to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, the British Government agrees to permit temporary admission of vulnerable Jewish children who were at risk of Nazi persecution, under the financial guarantee of the UK Jewish community.
Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the UK Jewish community, World Jewish Relief (then the Central British Fund) raises funds to cover the cost of travel for each of these children.
Within three weeks of Kristallnacht, the first 200 of these children begin their journey from Berlin to the UK. Most of these unaccompanied children travelled to Liverpool Street Station, meeting their volunteer foster parents for the first time, heralding the start of a new life.
Between December 1938 and September 1939, almost 10,000 children were brought to safety through the Kindertransport.
