The pogrom targeted all synagogues in Germany, Austria, and the already Nazi-occupied western Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland), which were burned down. The holy Torah scrolls were desecrated and were valuables stolen. Some 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps and thousands of Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged.

The fire brigade was there, not to douse the flames, but to cool down and protect neighboring German-owned property. Crowds of Germans stood by and watched it happen. At about 8 a.m., I arrived at my classroom, which was in the destroyed synagogue building. I saw it all.

Fast forward: Immediately following this “sign of things to come,” Jewish community leaders appealed to Jewish charitable organizations in the UK with the urgent call: “Please do something to save our children (kinder).”

Miraculously, the British government responded positively to the British Jewish leadership’s request. With the help of Jewish philanthropists, they arranged for 10,000 children to be admitted to the UK. At that time, the Nazi policy was to expel the Jews, as the “Final Solution” had yet to be formulated and implemented. The British immediately agreed to take the youngsters and the necessary arrangements were put in motion.

According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, the first group of 198 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin, which was destroyed during Kristallnacht, left for England on December 1, 1938, about one month after Kristallnacht.

During the next eight months, regular transports, originating in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland, took place. Unfortunately, on September 1, 1939, World War II broke out and everything came to an abrupt stop. The last group of children who left Prague on September 3 were turned back and never heard from again.