Memoir

  • Types

  • Genres

Tell Everybody, Tell Everything: The Story of My Family & My Journey

by Rice, Gunther (2014); Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing

“Part memoir, part biography, this story recounts the trials and tribulations of Gunther Rice (born Gunther Zloczower), the youngest of nine children raised in a Polish Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany. At age 14, he was deported with his family (and other Polish Jews) to Poland and for months lived as a refugee in the no-man’s land between Germany and Poland. He was rescued by the Kindertransport and brought to Cardiff, Wales, three days before the start of World War II. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Berlin Shadow

by Lichtenstein, Jonathan (2020); Published by Scribnner UK

A formally audacious and deeply moving memoir in three timeframes that confronts the defining trauma of the twentieth century, and its effects on a father and son. In 1939, Jonathan Lichtenstein’s father Hans escaped Nazi-occupied Berlin as a child refugee on the Kindertransport. Almost every member of his family died after Kristallnacht, and, arriving in England to make his way in the world alone, Hans turned his back on his German Jewish culture.

The Boy Alone in Nazi Vienna

(2018) Published by The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide

A cache of 40 letters discovered recently in a UK loft and digitized for The Wiener Library archive, documents the prelude to this more unusual experience from a child’s perspective. The letters were written by a boy in Vienna to his mother, who was already in the UK, over the course of an agonizing four-month separation. During this time each worked frantically towards a reunion that they could not be certain would happen as war clouds gathered. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Boy in the Statue: From Wartime Vienna to Buckingham Palace

by Reich, Erich (2017); Published by i2i Publishing

The true story of a Jewish refugee boy, Erich, who arrived in this country from Nazi-occupied Europe three days before the start of the war. He was just four, and would never see his parents again. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Ephraims and the Neumeyers

by Locke, Tim (2014)

Perspectives on family stories of Görlitz, Dachau, the Kindertransport and the Holocaust. Tim Locke, whose mother Ruth(nee Ruth Neumeyer) and uncle Raimund escaped Nazi Germany on a Kindertransport to England, investigates and shares his family history from the 18th century forward.

The Girl Museum- Kindertransport

(2018) Published by Girl Museum

A lovely online resource, showcasing photographs, documents, and videotaped oral histories, with a robust study guide that meets common core educational goals.

The Girl with Two Suitcases

by Baram, Myra (1988); Published by Sussex, England: The Book Guild

Kindertransport Survivor Myra Baram tells the story of her life from Berlin to Nethanya, Israel. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Ninth of November

by Zurndorfer, Hannele (1983); Published by London: Quartet Books

Hannele Zurndorfer left Dusseldorf in May 1939 on a children’s transport with her younger sister. She ends her story with the last letter she received from her father. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Salzburg Connection: An Adolescence Remembered

by Lieberman, J. Nina (2004); Published by New York: Vantage Press

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

The Tiger in the Attic: Memories of the Kindertransport and Growing Up English

by Milton, Edith (2005); Published by Chicago: University of Chicago Press

They Found Refuge

by Bentwich, Norman (1956); Published by London: Cresset Press

Norman Bentwich writes of his involvement with the Kindertransport movement.

Three Lives in Transit

by Selo, Laura (1992); Published by London: Excalibur Press

The autobiographical story of three sisters who traveled from Prague to London.

Throw Your Feet Over Your Shoulders: Beyond the Kindertransport

by Stolzberg Korobkin, Frieda (2008); Published by Devora Publishing

In Throw Your Feet Over Your Shoulders: Beyond the Kindertransport, Frieda Stolzberg Korobkin presents a compelling, powerful and vividly described odyssey of her life as a six-year- old child sent by her parents (along with her siblings) from their home in Vienna, Austria to the relative safety of England. It is December 1938, and Friedl’s parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her and her sisters and brother on a kindertransport to England — organized by Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld.

Time Zones: A Journalist in the World

by Schlesinger, Joe (1990); Published by Toronto: Random House Canada

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

Uprooted and Replanted: The Memoir of Helmut Heckscher from Hamburg to the Kindertransport to America

by Heckscher, Helmut (2017); Published by Xlibris

n this lively memoir, Helmut shares his experiences and adventures, starting with his childhood growing up as a Jew in Nazi Germany and his escape to the UK with the Kindertransport. He writes of working in a factory in England, his interment at the start of World War II, and nights in the subways of London during the Blitz. Helmut eventually reunited with his parents in Wisconsin, then was drafted into the Army. With a lively voice, Helmut tells the story of his remarkable life, and paints a picture of a refugee becoming an American in the 20th Century.

When Time Ran Out: Coming of Age in the Third Reich

by Zeller, Frederic (1989); Published by Sag Harbor, New York: Permanent Press

Frederic Zeller’s story of his childhood in Berlin and escape to Holland, where he joined a Kindertransport. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.