Posted on February 27, 2026
When we ask ourselves today “what is the Kindertransport” we often impose our limited present day understanding onto this historical term and event. The Kindertransport has long been regarded as the rescue of mainly Jewish children from Nazism to Britain after Kristallnacht and before the outbreak of the Second World War.
More recently there has been a shift in Kindertransport studies leading to a greater focus upon the different national and transnational histories and memories of this international movement. Thus, we are now more aware that the Kindertransport programme between 1938 and 1940 was not just a journey to Britain but also to many other nations. But while “the Kindertransport” is the established term for that programme, there is a danger of overlooking the fact that there were other transports of children.
To fully understand the history of the children’s transports we need to go back to the archives.