by Bea Lewkowicz and Anthony Grenville (2021); Published by Brill
In Émigré Voices Lewkowicz and Grenville present twelve oral history interviews with men and women who came to Britain as Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria in the late 1930s. Many of the interviewees rose to great prominence in their chosen career, such as the author and illustrator Judith Kerr, the actor Andrew Sachs, the photographer and cameraman Wolf Suschitzky, the violinist Norbert Brainin, and the publisher Elly Miller. The narratives of the interviewees tell of their common struggles as child or young adult refugees who had to forge new lives in a foreign country and they illuminate how each interviewee dealt with the challenges of forced emigration and the Holocaust. The voices of the twelve interviewees provide the reader with a unique and original source, which gives direct access to the lived multifaceted experience of the interviewees and their contributions to British culture.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/emigre-voices-conversations-with-jewish-refugees-from-germany-and-austria-anthony-grenville/21531879?ean=9789004469075&next=t&next=tby Moratz, Ralph (2015)
Ralph Moratz writes of his childhood journey from Berlin, via Kindertransport to France, and in September 1941 to New York. One of his childhood companions was concert promoter Bill Graham.
by Carlson Berne, Emma (2017); Published by Capstone Press
Tells the stories in their own words of several of the thousands of Jewish children rescued from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940 and brought to new homes in the United Kingdom. Memoir pieces, poems, photographs, and other primary sources bring their stories to life.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/escaping-the-nazis-on-the-kindertransport-emma-bernay/1cf22be75942f159?aid=56539&ean=9781515745464&listref=kindertransport-for-young-readers&next=tby 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).
https://bookshop.org/p/books/flight-and-refuge-reminiscences-of-a-motley-youth/b8be5f438be8c454?aid=56539&ean=9780692768334&listref=kindertransport-memoir&next=tby Dwork, Deborah and Jan Van Pelt, Robert (2009); Published by W.W. Norton & Co.
The authors of Auschwitz offer a comprehensive survey of various countries’ responses to the refugee crisis and their often self-serving motives. America, fearing immigrants would become public charges, required financial affidavits from Americans, which were very difficult to get. Britain granted transit visas to the Kindertransport children and visas to famous Jews such as Sigmund Freud. The Dominican Republic allowed refugees to work on agricultural colonies. Internment camps in the Soviet Union offered a chance for survival while camps in France were conduits to the concentration camps.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/flight-from-the-reich-refugee-jews-1933-1946-deborah-dwork/870c5456b54d3575?aid=56539&ean=9780393342642&listref=kindertransport-history&next=tby Arbabzadah, Nushin (2007); Published by Arcadia Books
This is a collection of memoir, fiction and poetry that explores being British from the perspective of the newly arrived. It presents accounts that range from German-Jews – including several members of the KTA – to Iraqi Kurds, as well as Vietnamese, Afghanis, Chileans and others. The narratives poignantly depict the twin mechanism of loss and hope faced by newcomers to these shores, as they simultaneously search for ways to hold onto memories of lives no longer lived and in turn inhabit new ways of being. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center
by Wolff, Michael M. (2016); Published by CreateSpace
On the night of November 9, 1938, the Nazis came out in great force in Germany and Austria against the Jews living within their borders. Two hundred sixty-five synagogues and 700 Jewish-owned buildings (including community centers and orphanages) were burned. Over 7,500 Jewish businesses were vandalized, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested. This act of terror became known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” Although people around the world were very disturbed by these terrible acts of terrorism, only one country took any significant action to help the Jewish population within these two countries. A host of private citizens and organizations within Great Britain immediately began a movement to allow 10,000 Jewish kids to emigrate in order to get them out of harm’s way. This movement became known as the “Kindertransport.” Children from a multitude of European countries joined the Kindertransport and were able to reach safety within Great Britain. This is the story of one such 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.
by Thune, Eva-Marie (2019); Published by Hentrich und Hentrich Verlag
Eva-Maria Thüne visited 36 Kindertransport ‘children’ and held talks with them in 2017-2018. The main concern of the linguist was to gain knowledge about the attitudes of the rescued towards the German and the acquisition of the English language. As a study on the language of migrants, von Thüne’s investigation includes questions about language change, linguistic and cultural affiliation and identity. Her website includes links to the interviews.
by Keesing, Miriam (2013); Published by DOKIN
Dokin is a Dutch acronym for Duitse Oorlogskinderen In Nederland (German War Children in the Netherlands). Here you will find information about the refugee children from the Third Reich who came to the Netherlands after Kristallnacht. There were almost 2000 children that came to the Netherlands. On this website you will find information on these children and about this period in Dutch history.
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.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/getting-here-from-a-seat-on-a-train-to-a-seat-on-the-bench-peter-ney/d2365a03af347779?aid=56539&ean=9781440171383&listref=kindertransport-memoir&next=tby Anderson, Mark M., ed. (1998); Published by New York: New Press
Hitler’s Exiles is a panoramic, first-person account of the flight from Hitler’s Germany to America. From forgotten archives and obscure published sources, Hitler’s Exiles brings to life the unknown voices of that harrowing time by focusing on the ordinary people who underwent a most extraordinary voyage. Also included are little-known writings by such major figures as Thomas Mann, Hannah Arendt, and Bertolt Brecht. Hitler’s Exiles is at once a moving human account and a new classic of the literature of exile.
by Rosenzweig, Laura B (2017); Published by New York University Press
Tells the remarkable story of the Jewish moguls in Hollywood who established the first anti-Nazi Jewish resistance organization in the country in the 1930s
https://bookshop.org/p/books/hollywood-s-spies-the-undercover-surveillance-of-nazis-in-los-angeles-laura-b-rosenzweig/e844eeeb29f34e86?aid=56539&ean=9781479855179&listref=if-you-are-interested-in-the-kindertransports-you-might-be-interested-in&next=tby Gissing, Vera (2007); Published by Teachers TV
A 5 minute video of Vera Gissing, a Kind from Czechoslovakia, remembering her Kindertransport experience and reuniting with an old friend.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, based in London, has an online archive of articles about the Kindertransports.
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.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/homelands-the-history-of-a-friendship-chitra-ramaswamy/18334662?ean=9781838852665&next=t&next=tby Leverton, Bertha and Shmuel Lowensohn (1990); Published by Sussex, England: Book Guild
The founder of the Reunion of Kindertransport in London put together this collection of writings by Kinder. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center
by Borger, Julian (2025); Published by Other Press
This gripping family memoir of grief, courage, and hope tells the hidden stories of children who escaped the Holocaust, building connections across generations and continents.
In 1938, Jewish families are scrambling to flee Vienna. Desperate, they take out advertisements offering their children into the safe keeping of readers of a British newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. The right words in the right order could mean the difference between life and death. 83 years later, Guardian journalist Julian Borger comes across the ad that saved his father, Robert, from the Nazis. Robert had kept this a secret, like almost everything else about his traumatic Viennese childhood, until he took his own life.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/i-seek-a-kind-person-my-father-seven-children-and-the-adverts-that-helped-them-escape-the-holocaust-julian-borger/ea0490f59bd82a78?aid=56539&ean=9781635424287&listref=if-you-are-interested-in-the-kindertransports-you-might-be-interested-in&next=tby 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.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/one-life-the-true-story-of-sir-nicholas-winton-and-the-prague-kindertransport-barbara-winton/113b63093aa3c16b?aid=56539&ean=9781639367405&listref=kindertransport-memoir&next=tby Gill, Alan (2005); Published by Pymble, NSW: Simon & Schuster Australia
Stories of Kindertransport and other young refugees who wound up in Australia. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.
by Oppenheimer, Deborah and Mark Jonathan Harris (2000); Published by London: Bloomsbury
The companion book to the film. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.