News

From ‘Kindertransport’ to ‘Ukrainetransport’

Posted on March 6, 2022

A researcher who revealed the heroic efforts of ordinary British people in saving Jewish children from the Nazis has spoken out about why the government should trust citizens in a humanitarian emergency like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The 72-year-old said his Jewish community has this week launched an initiative called ‘Ukrainetransport’. Rabbi Jonathan Romain from Maidenhead is hoping to use the Kindertransport model to encourage Brits to take Ukrainian children into their homes.

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Play portrays Ukrainian theme of refugees with Kindertransport

Posted on March 4, 2022

Kindertransport, beginning nexr Thursday (March 10), is the seminal play by Diane Samuels wrestling with the short and long term consequences of exactly that.

Just before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, nine year-old Eva had waved goodbye to her mother Helga and finds herself alone on the platform at Liverpool Street Station. Uprooted from Germany, she cannot speak any English and is badly confused. Tagged like a piece of luggage, she is handed over to strangers.

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Open your homes to Ukrainian refugees, rabbi urges British families

Posted on March 4, 2022

A rabbi whose mother fled Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport has founded a scheme for Britons to host refugees from Ukraine, as the UN revealed one million people have now fled the country in the face of the Russian invasion.

The “Ukrainetransport” scheme has been set up by Rabbi Jonathan Romain, 67, the head of Maidenhead Synagogue, Berkshire, to host Jews and other refugees fleeing Ukraine.

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Daughter of Kindertransport hero Nicholas Winton

Posted on February 27, 2022

The daughter of the hero who helped organise the Kindertransport evacuation of Jewish children has said that the UK Government’s response to Ukrainian refugees is “completely inadequate”.

Barbara Winton, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Winton, said that Britain had a “moral responsibility to offer what help we can” to Ukranians fleeing their homeland in response to Russia’s invasion.

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Fairfield Holocaust survivor reflects on life on 100th birthday

Posted on February 20, 2022

Charles Ohlenberg, a Fairfield resident and Holocaust survivor, turned 100 on Thursday. Even with his century worth of memories, his experience surviving the genocide, when most of his family did not, is still at the forefront of his mind.

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New museum display highlights local survivor stories

Posted on February 15, 2022

Lisl Schick (née Porges) was only a child when the Nazis annexed Austria (to a grand welcome) and began to persecute the Jewish population. Faced with the dangers of Nazi occupation, Lisl and her family were forced to flee Austria. With her brother Walter, she escaped to Great Britain through the Kindertransport. The siblings eventually reunited with their parents and started a new life in New York City.”

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Acts of heroism and compassion

Posted on February 15, 2022

The Kitchener Camp and the Kindertransport were acts of heroism and compassion. Looking back, one wonders why so much that could have been done wasn’t. These are eternal lessons that need to be repeated over and over again.

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The Island of Extraordinary Captives

Posted on February 11, 2022

The Island of Extraordinary Captives focuses on Britain’s internment camp on the Isle of Man, chock full of artists, musicians and intellectuals. The reader is fully invested in protagonist Peter Fleischmann, an orphaned Jewish boy from Berlin with aspirations to become an artist until the Nazis got in the way. Cue Kindertransport to Britain; but, aged 17 and no longer little enough to be lovable, he was soon rounded up as posing a danger to the very state lauded for saving him.

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New data released on experiences of Kindertransport refugees

Posted on February 10, 2022

New data has been released documenting the experiences of 10,000 predominantly Jewish children who came to Britain on the Kindertransport.

The figures from the Association of Jewish Refugees builds on a 2007 survey which was previously only published in the form of a database. The enhanced version now includes accompanying notes from the respondents

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The Glasgow trail that sheds light on the lives of Jewish refugees

Posted on February 10, 2022

The hidden stories of hundreds who fled Europe to Glasgow during the Holocaust is revealed in a new heritage walking trail.

Using collections from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, the trail showcases buildings connected with Jewish refugees who were taken in by Britain on the Kindertransport programme. Each child had to be sponsored. Hundreds of these children came to Glasgow, with many staying in the Garnethill area.

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From Kindertransport to Reproductive Medicine

Posted on February 8, 2022

Bruno Lunenfeld was born in Vienna, Austria in 1927, the only child in a prominent family. But despite his privileged childhood, his early memories include having his tram ticket stolen and his shoelaces cut by Hitler Youth, as well as the ache of parting from his mother to join the Kindertransport to England.

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Harwich to host tribute to Kindertransport children

Posted on February 4, 2022

A memorial tribute to the child refugees who came to Britain on the Kindertransport will be unveiled in the autumn in Harwich, the point of entry for most of the arrivals.

Award-winning Essex artist Ian Wolter has created a statue depicting five children descending a ship’s gang-plank.

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Mother who escaped Nazi Germany

Posted on January 28, 2022

Tim Locke’s mother, Ruth Neumeyer, grew up in the German town of Dachau with her parents and brother Raymond. Despite not following the Jewish faith, several of Ruth’s relatives were Jewish, meaning under the Nazi’s Nuremberg laws she and her family were classified as second-class citizens.

Ruth and Raymond escaped Germany to the UK on the Kindertransport (German for children’s transport), which was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi-controlled territory during World War Two.

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Opinion: Holocaust Memorial Day tribute to Bradford refugee hostel

Posted on January 28, 2022

IF it hadn’t been for a mix-up over passports, Albert Waxman would never have made it to the safety of a house in Manningham.

Albert was 14 when he left Germany and came to the UK on the Kindertransport, the rescue system taking 10,000 Jewish children out of Nazi-occupied Europe from 1938-39.

Arriving at a holiday camp in Kent, after an exhausting journey, Albert was one of 24 boys chosen to stay in a hostel in Bradford set up by Oswald Stroud, founder of Drummonds Mill.

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Holocaust memorial ceremony to be held at town’s rail station

Posted on January 24, 2022

Wreaths are due to be laid as a town falls silent to remember others.

At the spot where hundreds of young Jewish refugees arrived in 1938, a special service of remembrance is to be held this week.

Commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday, January 27, Lowestoft rail station will host a special ceremony.

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Nobel Prize Given to Late Jewish Physicist

Posted on January 22, 2022

A Nobel Prize medal in chemistry won in 1998 by late Jewish physicist Walter Kohn, who was among the roughly 10,000 children saved from Nazi-occupied territories during World War II by the Kindertransport, will be auctioned next week.

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Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport”

Posted on January 22, 2022

Learn from film producer and author Deborah Oppenheimer as she discusses the 2000 documentary film “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport.” The film tells the story about the British rescue operation known as the Kindertransport, which saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish and other children from Nazi-occupied Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Danzig by transporting them via train, boat and plane to Great Britain.

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Kindertransport Britons urge UK to reopen safe routes for refugees

Posted on December 30, 2021

Members of the Kindertransport have urged the government to reopen safe routes for refugees in Europe, especially children, trying to reach the UK or risk more tragedies occurring in the Channel.

Alf Dubs, Stephanie Shirley and Erich Reich, who all arrived in the UK as child refugees on the Kindertransport, said the UK was losing its moral authority in the world and urged the government to change tack.

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Lord Dubs: ‘Someone has to speak up for people who risk their lives

Posted on December 25, 2021

When Lord Dubs saw children being carried wrapped in blankets out of small boats in Kent he was instantly taken back to the moment he arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport having fled the Nazis at the age of six. “What it made me feel is terrible pain for the people who are fleeing,” says the 89-year-old Labour peer. “People must be pretty desperate, having traveled so far anyway, to risk their lives in this way. It made me feel dismayed that our government is not enabling them to be safe.”

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Jewish refugees are being honoured at Watford’s Cassiobury Park

Posted on December 8, 2021

The Watford Inter Faith Association gathered to plant an oak tree within the Peace Garden at Cassiobury Park on December 5.

Led by the Association of Jewish Refugees, it was to honour the people and places that symbolise the enormous contribution of Jewish refugees.

Among those honoured were Harold Meyer, former Chair and Honorary President of the Watford Inter Faith Association and also Victor Garston, who both arrived in England on the Kindertransport in 1939.

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