Memoir

  • Types

  • Genres

Farewell to Prague

by Darvas, Miriam (2001); Published by San Francisco: MacAdam/Cage Publishing

Flight and Refuge: Reminiscences of A Motley Youth

by Eisinger, Josef (2016); Published by Josef Eisinger

After a calm, middle-class childhood, the author escapes, at fifteen, from Nazi-occupied Vienna to Britain. He finds work as a farm ‘lad’ in Yorkshire, and then, as a dish washer in a Brighton hotel. Following the fall of France, he is interned as an ‘enemy alien’ and is transported to Canada.

Josef Eisinger, professor emeritus at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, is the author of more than 150 articles in scientific journals. His recent books, Einstein on the Road and Einstein at Home were published by Prometheus Books (2011, 2016).

Full Circle: A young boy’s escape from Nazi Germany and his reunion with Family

by Wolff, Michael M. (2016); Published by CreateSpace

This is the story of one Kindertransport child, who through the kindness of the British people, managed to escape death by joining the Kindertransport. By the time the Holocaust was over, the Nazis had murdered over 1,500,000 children.

https://www.amazon.com/Full-Circle-Escape-Germany-Reunion/dp/1539617157

Getting Here: From a Seat on a Train to a Seat on the Bench

by Ney, Peter (2009); Published by iUniverse, Incorporated

Two nights before his 7th birthday, Peter Ney and his family were awakened by the sound of yelling and of breaking glass as their home was vandalized. Two months later, Peter was granted safe refuge in England via the Kindertransport. Spanning seventy years, Getting Here tells of Peter’s journey from Germany through his tenure as a judge on the Colorado Court of Appeals. The book not only describes his journey, but rejoices in the fulfilling of the American dream—from a seat on a refugee train to a seat on the appellate bench.

Girl in Movement: A Memoir

by Kollisch, Eva (2001); Published by Thetford, Vermont: Glad Day Books

May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center

Hebrew University Jerusalem Holocaust Oral Histories

The 1,400 Holocaust audio interviews and transcripts reflect the vast scope of oral histories collected by researchers which have been archived at the Oral History Division of the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They include interviews conducted in the early 1960s. The collection developed over the past 60 years as more research was undertaken by established and emerging scholars and questions relating to the experience of Jews under Nazism broadened. This resource should provide an invaluable tool for researchers in Holocaust studies.

Homelands: The History of a Friendship

by Chitra Ramaswamy (2022); Published by Canongate Books

This book is about two unlikely friends. One born in 1970s Britain to Indian immigrant parents, the other arrived from Nazi Germany in 1939, fleeing persecution.

This is a story of migration, racism, family, belonging, grief and resilience. It is about the state we’re in now and the ways in which we carry our pasts into our futures.

If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton

by Winton, Barbara (2014); Published by Troubador Publishing Ltd

Barbara Winton’s biography of her father. There are around 6000 people in the world today who owe their lives to Nicholas Winton. They are the descendants of a group of refugee children rescued by him from the Nazi threat in 1939. Some of them know of his existence and the part he played in their history, many others do not.

Ilse and Molly Camis StoryCorps

by Camis, Ilse and Molly (2015); Published by StoryCorps

Kindertransport survivor Ilse Camis speaks with daughter Molly Camis at the 2015 Kindertransport Association conference.

Israel Uncensored: Remembering the Holocaust – From Home

by Hasten, Josh (2020); Published by Sound Cloud, The Land of Israel Network

In the age of Corona, this year’s annual Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day in Israel will be commemorated at home through technology. To discuss this reality and to share his story of survival with Josh Hasten, is Walter Bingham, who at 96, is the world’s oldest radio talk-show host. Hear how he survived Kristallnacht as a young teen, and was fortunate to make it to England on a Kindertransport. Bingham eventually made Aliyah where he continues to this day, his career in journalism. Don’t miss the interview with Bingham – a truly inspiring Jewish treasure and hero.

Kindertransport

(2008)

A collection of personal reminiscences and tributes from people who were rescued on the Kindertransport, collected by the Quakers in Great Britain in 2008.

Kindertransport Association Oral History Project Interviews

by Hacker, Grosz, Kollisch

A selection of the interviews conducted by the KTA Oral History Project. Interviewers were all KT2. Interviews done at reunions in the early 1990’s. Placed online by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Interviews and transcripts are also at the Holocaust Memorial Center, Farmington Hills, Michigan & the Wienner Library, London.

Kindertransport Memory Quilt

by Grosz, Hanus, Kirsten Grosz and Anita Grosz (2000); Published by The Kindertransport Association

Beautiful photographs of the Kindertransport Memory Quilt panels combined with the moving stories behind each square. Can be purchased through the Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI.

Kindertransport: a Rescued Child

by Mimi Ormond (2016)

Mimi Schleissner was only twelve years old when the Nazis invaded the Sudentenland, and she was forced to leave her home and family through the Kindertransport child rescue effort. A memoir.

Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy

by Eire, Carlos (2010); Published by Free Press

With the same passionate immediacy as Eire brought to his memoir of a Cuban boyhood, the National Book Award–winning Waiting for Snow in Havana (2002), he writes now about coming to America at age 11. The story takes readers from the journey to American itself – Eire was one of 14,000 unaccompanied refugee children in 1962’s Operation Pedro Pan – through his time in foster homes, both kind and harsh, and eventually to joining his uncle in Chicago, “where everyone came from somewhere else.”

Letter to Alexander: A Family’s Kindertransport Experience

by Laxova, Renata (2001); Published by Cincinnati, OH: Custom Editorial Productions

May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

Lifesaving Letters: A Child’s Flight from the Holocaust

by Roth, Milena (2004); Published by Seattle: University of Washington Press

Little Eden

by Figes, Eva (1988); Published by New York: Persea Books

May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

Margot’s Journey

by Patricia Carley

A collection of Margot Jungermann Hanau’s reminiscences interwoven with historical background that bring to life ‘Der Kindertransport’ or exodus of 10,000 German-Jewish children to England in the early years of what history calls World War II.

May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

My Darling Diary, Volume Three

by Jacoby, Ingrid (2009); Published by Cornwall, UK: United Writers Publications Ltd

In her third diary we follow Ingrid Jacoby’s life from the age of 23 to 26 years. Still in Oxford and now working for Rosenthals’ Antiquarian Booksellers, Ingrid remembers, at the age of 12, being transported via Kindertransport from Vienna to Falmouth with her sister Lieselotte, discovering that her mother was lost forever after dying in a German concentration camp and subsequently being unable to properly find a close relationship with her father and his new wife. Eventually Ingrid meets Stan, and as the pages come to a close we know that her heart and life have become secure. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.