Books

  • Types

  • Genres

Die Kindertransporte Nach Grossbritannien 1938/39: Exilerfahrungen im Spiegel Lebensgeschichtlicher

by Berth, Christine (2005); Published by Munich, Germany: Dolling und Galitz

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

Die leisen Abschiede: Geschichte einer Flucht

by Friedler, Ya'acov (1994); Published by R. Padligur (Hagen)

Friedler became a journalist well known for his work for the Jerusalem Post and the Israeli radio network. As a Jewish school boy in a small Ruhr Valley town, he was transported to Holland and placed with other refugee children into an old orphanage where the treatment reminds the reader of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”. On the day of Holland’s capitulation he was able to escape to the UK on an old freighter which was strafed at sea by the Luftwaffe. In this book, we follow Friedler from childhood through his life today. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center

Don’t Wave Goodbye: The Children’s Flight from Nazi Persecution to American Freedom

by Jason, Philip K. and Iris Posners, eds. (2004); Published by Westport, Connecticut: Praeger

The story of the 1,000 children sent directly to the United States between 1938 and 1945.

Double Vision, A Self Portrait

by Abish, Walter (2004); Published by New York: Alfred A. Knopf

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

Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport

by Carlson Berne, Emma (2017); Published by Capstone Press

Far to Go

by Pick, Alison (2010); Published by Anansi Press

Pick’s novel, her second, follows two separate narratives. One is the first-person storyline of an unnamed storyteller, an elderly contemporary Canadian academic who has devoted her career to interviewing children of the Kindertransport, and trying to understand the ways in which this traumatic event affected their lives.

Faraway Home

by Taylor, Marilyn (2009); Published by O’Brien Press

Karl and Rosa’s family watch in horror as Hitler’s troops parade down the streets of their home city — Vienna. It has become very dangerous to be a Jew in Austria, and after their uncle is sent to Dachau, Karl and Rosa’s parents decide to send the children out of the country on a Kindertransport. Isolated and homesick, Karl ends up in Millisle, a run-down farm in Ards in Northern Ireland, which has become a Jewish refugee centre, while Rosa is fostered by a local family. Teaching Guide available online.

Farewell to Prague

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

Finding Sophie

by Watts, Irene N (2003); Published by Tundra Books

Sophie Mandel was only seven years old when she arrived in London on the first Kindertransport from Germany. She has grown up with a friend of her parents, a woman she calls Aunt Em, and despite the war and its deprivations, she has made a good life for herself in England with her foster mother. She has even stopped thinking about the parents she left behind. Now the war is over, and fourteen-year-old Sophie is faced with a terrible dilemma. Where does she belong?

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).

Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946

by 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.

Flight of the Maidens

by Gardam, Jane (2001); Published by New York: Carroll & Graf

From Outside in: Refugees and British Society: An Anthology of Writings by Refugees on Britain and Britishness

by 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

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

Generation Exodus: The Fate of Young Jewish Refugees from Nazi Germany

by Laquer, Walter (2001); Published by Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press

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

Good-bye Marianne: A Story of Growing Up in Nazi Germany

by Watts, Irene N (2008); Published by Tundra Books

As autumn turns toward winter in 1938 Berlin, life for Marianne Kohn, a young Jewish girl, begins to crumble. First there was the burning of the neighbourhood shops. Then her father, a mild-mannered bookseller, must leave the family and go into hiding. No longer allowed to go to school or even sit in a café, Marianne’s only comfort is her beloved mother. Things are bad, but could they get even worse? Based on true events, this fictional account of hatred and racism speaks volumes about both history and human nature.

Goodbye, Marianne

by Watts, Irene Kirsten (1995); Published by Winnipeg: Scirocco Drama

This play is aimed at audiences in grades 4 – 6. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center

Her First American

by Segal, Lore (1985); Published by New York: Alfred A. Knopf