A visiting scholar in an Israel at war (Amy Williams)

Posted on June 15, 2025

On 6^th October 2024 I landed in Israel. I began my fellowship at Yad Vashem on the one-year anniversary of the largest loss of Jewish life in one day since the Holocaust.

Two weeks into my fellowship I found the Kindertransport lists. It would be the first time that former Kindertransport refugees and their families would see their lists in over 86 years.

Later in my trip I started to piece together how the Kindertransport was directly connected to the 7^th October.

A few things I discovered include:

1. The wife of a Kind was a hostage.
2. A member of a Kindertransport family was murdered.
3. The Kindertransport memorial in Berlin was vandalized.
4. Calls for Jewish deaths were heard in Liverpool St Station which is the physical marker of the Kinder’s arrival and welcome in Britain.
5. Kinder were evacuated from Kibbutzim.
6. People were evacuated to Kibbutz Lavi which was known as the English Kibbutz. Several Kinder once called it home and several second-generation members still live there. A soldier from the Kibbutz was killed.
7. The Kindertransport anniversary ceremony in Israel was rescheduled.

I became aware of how the Kindertransport has been placed within the context of present-day antisemitism. For example, online I’ve seen images of the Kindertransport memorial in London being used to make the point that the Kinder should not have been rescued because they and their descendants are responsible for the killings of Palestinians today. There has also been criticism that there has not been a Kindertransport for Palestinian children. Yet many seem to be unaware that the Kindertransport to Britain did not take place during a war. The comparison is not appropriate because during the Second World War few children were able to escape and were murdered in the Holocaust.

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