During the coronavirus lockdown, the KTA began hosting talks and presentations online. When the guest speakers allow, we will post these engaging and educational sessions here.
We will also add excerpts from Oral History Interviews with Kindertransport Survivors. Soon after the founding of the Kindertransport Association, a group of members of the Second Generation (KT2s) began meeting in New York City. We soon realized that one thing we had in common was that we knew only fragments of our parents’ stories, and that we wanted to learn more, and to help preserve the then little known story of the Kindertransports.
This led to the formation of the KTA Oral History Project, which developed an interview questionnaire and collected interviews with Kindertransport Survivors in homes, offices, and at National Kindertransport Reunions from 1993 -1999. You can view the complete interviews online at the USHMM and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Oral History Division. We will soon add excerpts from those interviews here.
KTA Books and More Talk Max in the House of Spies– September 15, 2024
The KTA is delighted to welcome Max Gidwitz to speak about his book Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II.
Max Bretzfeld doesn’t want to move to London. Leaving home on a Kindertransport is hard and Max is alone for the first time in his life. But not for long. Max is surprised to discover that he’s been joined by two unexpected traveling companions, one on each shoulder, a kobold and a dybbuk named Berg and Stein. Germany is becoming more and more dangerous for Jewish families, but Max is determined to find a way back home, and back to his parents. He has a plan to return to Berlin. It merely involves accomplishing the impossible: becoming a British spy.
The first book in a duology, Max in the House of Spies is a thought-provoking World War II story as only acclaimed storyteller Adam Gidwitz can tell it—fast-paced and hilarious, with a dash of magic and a lot of heart.
An instant New York Times bestseller!
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KTA Books and More Talk The Kindertransport, What Really Happened– January 23, 2024
Dr. Andrea Hammel to speak about her new book, The Kindertransport: What Really Happened, just published in the UK and the USA. Written with striking empathy and insight, Andrea Hammel’s expert analysis casts new light on what really happened during the Kindertransport. Revelatory and impassioned, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of migration and refugees, and offers thought-provoking lessons for how we might make life easier for children fleeing conflict today.
Kinder Talk Manny Korman’s Fascinating Journey- September 27, 2023
Manny Korman speaks about his family’s survival in the inaugural “Kinder Talk.” Manny describes his family’s deportation to the Polish border before Kristallnacht, their life in “no man’s land” on the Polish-German border, his father’s trip on the infamous ship, the St. Louis, to Cuba and then back to Holland (the “Voyage of the Damned”), his mother’s flight from Poland to the US via Italy and his and his brother’s Kindertransport train ride from Warsaw to a Polish port town where they boarded a ship to England via the North Sea. Manny will recount how he and his family managed to survive, reunite and stay in touch with a frightened little boy they met on the train after his mother had initially taken him off the train before she finally let him go.
KTA Books and More Talk Poetry and Prose Open Mic– September 10, 2023
Poet Stewart Florsheim joins the KTA as a guest speaker. He reads from “Ghosts of the Holocaust: an anthology of Poetry by the Second Generation,” an anthology he edited. Stewart is the son of a Holocaust survivor and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has been widely published in magazines and anthologies and has won several awards and been awarded residencies from Artcroft and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. His latest collection Amusing the Angels won the Blue Light Book Award in 2022. KTA members join to listen and read their own writings.
KTA Books and More Talk Dreyfus Drei– August 2, 2023
Artist and filmmaker Ella Dreyfus speaks about her short film about family, identity, and the return of generations of Jewish artists from Australia to Germany. This is a rare opportunity to learn about the Kindertransport children sent to Australia, and to hear from a KT2 who has chosen to live in Berlin. To learn more about the film: dreyfus3.com and about Ella and her work: elladreyfus.com
KTA Books and More Talk Letters From Brno – April 26, 2023
A special discussion of KTA Board Member Karen Kruger’s new film Letters From Brno. Letters From Brno is a powerful personal story of parental love and unspeakable tragedy. In December 1976, on a college break, Karen learned that her mother, Erika Stefanie Turkl (Neumann) was Jewish. This discovery marked the beginning of Karen’s search for answers to the puzzle of what had happened to her mother and her family. As she pieces together her family history, Karen learns that her mother and aunt were sent from Czechoslovakia via Kindertrantransport. The film uses interviews along with archival footage, photographs, documents and letters from Karen’s grandparents during the years 1939-1941. The letters are eyewitness accounts of putting Karen’s mother and her younger sister on a Kindertransport to England and their parents’ attempts to escape Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. You can see a trailer: www.lettersfrombrno.com.
KTA Books and More Talk The Island of Extraordinary Captives, A Painter, A poet, An Heiress and a Spy in a World War II Internment camp – November 17,2022
Author Simon Parkin shares an extraordinary presentation on his latest book.
KTA Books and More Talk Alice’s Book: How the Nazis Stole My Grandmother’s Cookbook – October 30,2022
Alice Urbach was a Jewish Viennese chef and cookbook author who fled Vienna to England after the Nazi annexation. During WWII, Alice was the matron for 20 girls living in the Windermere Kindertransport Hostel. Years later, Alice’s granddaughter, historian Karina Urbach, wrote Alice’s Book about Alice and her quest to get back the authorship credit for the cookbook she created. Two KTA members, Alisa Tennebaum and Ilse Camis z’l’, who had lived in Alice’s hostel, contributed their stories to this book.
This special Zoom program featuries author Karina Urbach, Kind Alisa Tennebaum, KT2 Bina Besser (Alisa’s daughter), KT2 Susan Camis (daughter of Ilse Camis), and KT3 Jason Camis (grandson of Ilse Camis), and is moderated by KT2 Rachel Rubin Green.
KTA Books and More Talk on the Kindertransport in Museums – June 29, 2022
Dr Amy Williams and Daisy Goddard join the Kindertransport Association for a talk on the Kindertransport in Museums internationally.
KTA Books and More Talk Mike Levy on the Unsung Heroes of the Kindertransport – April 3, 2022
Researcher and Oral Historian Mike Levy discusses his newly published book, ‘GET THE CHILDREN OUT!’ which focuses on previously untold stories of brave individuals who helped organize the Kindertransports – among them the grocer, the rose grower, the brigadier general, and the rabbi, and how the enormous task of caring for the Kinder was carried out – and by whom.
He also updates the KTA on his most recent research on Kindertransport foster families and his work with the Harwich Kindertransport Memorial Project.
KTA Books and More Talk Kindertransport Memorials – January 16, 2022
Dr Amy Williams and Professor Bill Niven join the Kindertransport Association for a talk on Kindertransport Memorials Worldwide.
KTA Books and More Talk Mirry Reich – May 2, 2021
Mirry Reich, who lives in Israel, tells the inspiring story of her mother, Bertha Leverton, who arrived in England from Germany on the Kindertransport when she was 16 years old. Bertha is sometimes referred to as “the mother of the KTA” as it was at the first Kindertransport Reunion that Bertha created in London in 1989 that Eddy Behrendt, a Kind from Danzig, came up with the idea to start something in the USA. Mirry highlights Bertha’s leadership role – at the age of 66 – in initiating reunions of the children of the Kindertransport and founding the ROK – Reunion of Kinder. Because of her passion and energy, Bertha’s reunion initiative developed into an international movement – recognized by Great Britain’s royal family – that fostered togetherness and education for the next generations. Bertha (of blessed memory) passed away at the age of 98 in December 2020.
Sophie’s Story: The Vienna Kindertransport of Sophie Rosenbaum – February 15, 2021
In this presentation, KT2 Dr. David Bader highlights his mother Sophie’s journey on a Kindertransport from Vienna, Austria, to Manchester, England, when she was five years old in 1939. Dr. Bader shares his research and learnings about the role played by the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany (London). He will also explain how to access Kindertransport records specific to Vienna. Dr. Bader will paint a picture of his family’s life in Vienna, the jailing of Sophie’s father in Dachau during Kristallnacht, and the family’s ultimate reunion in America. Dr. Bader’s mother, Sophie, participates in the Zoom presentation.
Meet the Kindertransport Association at Liberation 75 – May 6, 2021
A session at the Liberation 75 Conference, May 6, 2021, featuring Melissa Hacker, Carole Borgh, Margaret Kittel Canale and Susan Stayna.
Melissa Hacker is the first member of the Second Generation to serve as President of the Kindertransport Association, and is the daughter of a Kindertransport Survivor from Vienna. Carole Borgh’s mother is Renate (Herzog) Cahn, who left Krefeld, Germany on a Kindertransport in 1939 (age 15). Carole’s father is Guenther Cahn, who left Düsseldorf, Germany on a Kindertransport in 1939 (age 14). Margaret Kittel Canale’s mother is Vera (Posener) Kittel, who left Germany on a Kindertransport on July 25, 1939. Susan Stayna’s father is Karl Stayna, who left Vienna on a Kindertransport (the first out of Austria) on December 10, 1938 (age 12).