Posted on September 18, 2025
A centenarian who came to this country as a kindertransport refugee has just celebrated a third barmitzvah, with the chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees describing the occasion as “a powerful reminder of endurance in the face of history’s darkest trials.”
Kurt Marx, who was born in Germany in 1924, celebrated the occasion at Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue, surrounded by his devoted family, his proud community and distinguished guests including the Mayor of Barnet, Rabbi Danny Rich.
Marx was sent to Britain at the age of 14, via the kindertransport, after Kristallnacht. After the war he would learn that his parents had been deported to Maly Trostenets in Belarus, an infamous Nazi execution site, where at least 65,000 Jews were believed to have been murdered. They did not survive.