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Kindertransport: Saving Jewish children from Nazi Germany

December 6, 2023

85 years ago, 200 Jewish children arrived in Great Britain from Germany. It was the first of many so-called Kindertransport rescue missions. The children were brought out of Nazi Germany to safety. Until September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany attacked Poland and World War II started, around 10,000 minors were saved that way. But for other children, it was too late.

https://p.dw.com/p/4Zqdg

Reporter Gabi Biesinger went to talk to the 'children' who were saved by these transports abroad. She hears from the brave people and their families who tried to save as many lives as they could during the Nazi regime.  

 

CLIP 1 
"Our headmaster, he decided, or he tried anyway, to bring the whole school to England. If one considers that Kristallnacht was November 1938, in a matter of two months he managed to organize people in England to receive us, also to persuade the parents to let their children got to England."  

Kurt Marx was put on a train by his parents at the age of 13. Until September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany attacked Poland and World War II started, around 10,000 minors were brought to safety that way. But for other children, it was too late. 

CLIP 2  
"Pa was always sad when he talked about this. Because the last train that he organized with 250 children never left, because that was the day when Hitler marched in. And he always reflects on what he did not manage to do rather than what he did manage to do." 

 
And then there’s the question why the parents were left behind…many children never saw them again. Many were murdered by the Nazis. 
 
CLIP 3 
"Right from the start in the House of Commons, the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare said, you know, it's going to create horrible dilemmas for the parents. So that's another question. Why not the adults and of course, the adults in the government’s mind pose a sort of different type of threat, sort of harder to sell in the public sphere. So the very, very evocative photographs as the children arriving with teddy bears or dolls or whatever at the ports, it's harder to replicate that with an adult male, for example."
 
 
This report by Gabi Biesinger is presented by Ben Restle.
 
 

Sarah Steffen Sarah works as radio host and producer, reporter and editor.
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