by Angela Davis (2019); Published by Oral History Society
This article explores how Holocaust survivors narrate their relationships with their mothers, focusing on the emotional tension between closeness and distance. Drawing on forty oral‑history interviews with women who later lived in Britain and Israel, Davis examines how pre‑war family dynamics, wartime separation, migration, and later motherhood shaped survivors’ memories and self‑understanding. The study shows that mother‑child bonds were often marked by ambivalence, shifting attachments, and the long aftereffects of trauma.
by Chad McDonald (2018); Published by Routledge
McDonald’s article explores how Kindertransport survivors describe the moment they learned the fate of their parents after the Holocaust. Through close analysis of survivor testimonies, she shows how these discoveries shaped their identities, their sense of belonging, and their understanding of what it meant to become “British aliens.” The article highlights the emotional complexity of reconstructing family histories marked by loss, silence, and fragmented information, and it examines how survivors narrate these experiences many decades later.
by Presland, John (1944); Published by Bloomsbury House
Out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Smith, Edward Abel (2017); Published by Kwill Books
by Åsbrink, Elisabeth (2020); Published by Penguin Random House
Otto Ullmann, a Jewish boy, was sent from Austria to Sweden right before the outbreak of World War II. 13 year old Otto was granted permission to enter the country in accordance with the Swedish archbishop’s secret plan to save Jews on condition that they convert to Christianity. With thorough research, including files initiated by the predecessor to today’s Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) and 500+ letters, Elisabeth Åsbrink illustrates how Swedish society was infused with anti-Semitism, and how families are shattered by war and asylum politics.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/and-in-the-vienna-woods-the-trees-remain-the-heartbreaking-true-story-of-a-family-torn-apart-by-war-elisabeth-sbrink/835abb4fbe8f060a?aid=56539&ean=9781590519172&listref=kindertransport-history&next=tby Turner, Barry (1991); Published by London: Bloomsbury
A history of the Kindertransport movement. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Hill, Paula (2002); Published by Ph.D. thesis, University of London
May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Maier, Lilly (2023); Published by Titletown Publishing, LLC
What do a 75-year-old Los Angeles based rocket engineer and an eleven-year-old schoolgirl from Austria have in common? Not much at first glance, but Arthur and Lilly influenced each other’s lives in a fateful way.
In 1939, Arthur’s Jewish parents sent their son abroad on a so-called Kindertransport (“children’s transport”), hoping to save him from the Holocaust. The separation is a traumatic experience for the ten-year-old. Although he is rescued – from Austria via France to the United States – his family is murdered by the Nazis. He never sees them again. Sixty-five years later: During a visit to his parents’ former apartment in Vienna, Austria, Arthur Kern meets eleven-year-old Lilly Maier. A decisive encounter for both of them, which not only shapes Lilly’s further life but also leads to Arthur receiving a long-lost legacy from his parents.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/arthur-and-lilly-the-girl-and-the-holocaust-survivor-lilly-maier/1b3c436192725bc1?ean=9781955047302&next=t&aid=56539&listref=kindertransport-historyby Fox, Ann (2005); Published by ComteQ Publishing
KTA member Anne Fox takes us behind the lines of her family’s experience in the Holocaust. She shares with us the sorrows of parents and children separated by war, as revealed in letters that came into her possession years later. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Kleine-Ahlbrandt, William Laird (2001); Published by Purdue University Press
Twelve Purdue University faculty who were holocaust survivors tell their story in this oral history. One of these survivors is KTA member Joseph Haberer, who was on the first Kindertransport to England. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Wasserstein, Bernard (1979); Published by New York: Oxford University Press
May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Lawson, Peter (2008); Published by Bergan Journals
This essay in the journal CRITICAL SURVEY, Vol 20, No. 2, discusses how the Holocaust affected the work of Jewish poets who were relocated to England as part of the Kindertransport. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Bader, Alfred (2009); Published by Orion Publishing Group
In a fast-paced but incredibly detailed and honest description of his adventures, we learn of Bader’s four jobs: philanthropist,art collector, art dealer, and chemist. The book is a tale of high stakes in the art world and of deep friendships maintained over decades.It is a tale of great loss, and of great finds; of shabby treatment, and of incredible sharing and generosity; a tale of a great love, and a great family. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Andrea Hammel (2010); Published by Verlag Barbara Budrich
Hammel’s article gives a compact historical overview of the Kindertransport to Britain and examines how the children’s experiences have been remembered, interpreted, and sometimes simplified over time. It traces the emotional, social, and political consequences of child‑only rescue, showing how the label “child refugee” can follow survivors throughout their lives.
by Fast, Vera (2010); Published by IB Taurus
Drawing on unpublished interviews, journals, and articles, Vera K. Fast examines the religious and political tensions that emerged throughout the migration and at times threatened to bring operations to a halt. Children’s Exodus captures the life-affirming stories of child refugees with vivid detail and examines the motivations — religious or otherwise — of the people that orchestrated one of the greatest rescue missions of all time.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/children-s-exodus-a-history-of-the-kindertransport-vera-k-fast/6928947182bfdd9b?aid=56539&ean=9781848855373&listref=kindertransport-history&next=tby Jennifer Craig-Norton (2017); Published by Berghaan Books
Craig‑Norton’s article offers a concise but pointed critique of the idea that the Kindertransport should be celebrated as a flawless or universally applicable “model” refugee response. She shows how this narrative oversimplifies the historical reality: the Kindertransport was shaped by political hesitation, restrictive policies, and the painful separation of children from their families. By unpacking these complexities, the article encourages a more honest understanding of what actually happened.
by Weber, Ilse (2017); Published by Bunim & Bannigan Ltd. in association with Yad Vashem
Ilse’s letters, written from 1933 to 1944, serve not just as an autobiography, but as a timeline of catastrophic events. Most of the letters are written to her Swedish friend, Lilian von Lowenadler, Lilian’s mother, Gertrude, and to her dear son, Hanus. Hanus was placed on a Sir Nicholas Winton transport to England and was then taken to Sweden by Lilian.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/dancing-on-a-powder-keg-the-intimate-voice-of-a-young-mother-and-author-her-letters-composed-in-the-lengthening-shadow-of-the-third-reich-her-poems/1c0cc595884f407d?aid=56539&ean=9781933480398&listref=kindertransport-memoir&next=tby Schubert, Linda (2012); Published by Brandylane Publishers
Berlin had been safe for Anita Powitzer for as long as she could remember. But when Hitler came to power, everything changed. Now policemen harmed instead of helped, and Anita couldn’t even talk to her best friend. Flung from her secure childhood into a fearful world, she and her family had to find a way to flee Berlin before it was too late. It was risky, and Anita had to be separated from her loved ones, but this was the only way out. Alone in a country with a language she didn’t understand, staying with people she had never met, Anita had to wait and hope her parents could join her. Would she and her family be safe?
A journey fraught with danger from Germany to Great Britain, and finally to America, this is the true story of one Jewish family’s escape from Nazi Berlin.
by Göpfert, Rebekka (1999); Published by Frankfurt: Campus
May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center
by Salewsky, Anja (2001); Published by Munich: Claassen
May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center