The People of The Kindertransport

1. The People of The Kindertransport Lydia Hanns William Hooker Lindsey Alsip Brian Hamilton Brandon Walls

2. Lola Hahn-Warburg Before the Kindertransport? Involvement? -She is known for doing a lot of work helping set up the framework of the Kindertransport. -Powerful friends and was involved with the future President of Israel -Took personal interest in some kids -Leader of the Official Representation of German Jewry -She came from a powerful banking family

3. Personal Feelings Legacy -She felt a strong purpose for helping the kids -She never raised her temper around the kids -Wanted to be a sign of hope -She is always remembered for being at the end of the tracks when the kids arrive -Post war helping find and reunite kids with families

4. Nicholas Winton Before the Transport? Winton was a stockbroker in England that helped in Parliament and the London Stock exchange. • Involvement? • Lobbied in Parliament by saying to get other countries involved like Sweden and surrounding countries. • Only Sweden agreed • Great Britain only said yes if kids were under 18 and could find homes easily. • Worked as stockbroker by day then helped organize Kindertransport at night.

5. Personal Feelings Heard about Kristallnacht and decided to take action. "I found out that the children of refugees and other groups of people who were enemies of Hitler weren't being looked after. I decided to try to get permits to Britain for them. I found out that the conditions which were laid down for bringing in a child were chiefly that you had a family that was willing and able to look after the child, and £50, which was quite a large sum of money in those days, that was to be deposited at the Home Office. The situation was heartbreaking. Many of the refugees hadn't the price of a meal. Some of the mothers tried desperately to get money to buy food for themselves and their children. The parents desperately wanted at least to get their children to safety when they couldn't manage to get visas for the whole family. I began to realize what suffering there is when armies start to march."

6. Actions Rescued many children with the Kindertransport and with independent missions. Lobbied in Parliament for Kindertransport March 14, 1939- Winton has first success in getting children back to Great Britain. August 2, 1939- Winton’s last transport brought “official” number to 669. September 1, 1939- Winton had biggest transport planned but Hitler closed all borders. “Within hours of the announcement, the train disappeared. None of the 250 children aboard was seen again. We had 250 families waiting at Liverpool Street that day in vain. If the train had been a day earlier, it would have come through. Not a single one of those children was heard of again, which is an awful feeling."

7. Legacy • Winton didn’t receive proper credit at the time. He didn’t receive credit because he didn’t tell anyone about what he did. Not even his wife. However, she went through his stuff one day and found scrapbooks and letters to Winton. She then went to a friend who was a reporter and put him on BBC. Then he received a bunch of letters from all of his “children.” • Also received awards: • Made Honorary Citizen of Prague • Awarded MBE (Member of British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II (1993) • Received Knighthood on December 31, 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II • Been the subject of award-winning movies/documentaries.

8. Else Hirsch Before the Kindertransport? • Jewish teacher   • Taught Hebrew lessons to girls  • - Worked at Bochum's Jewish Women's Club

9. Involvement? • major resistance fighter in Bochum -organized 10 children transports to Netherlands and England between Dec. 1938 and Aug. 1939...she took care of the traveling organization forms, registering and getting all the required documents -gave English lesson in case those who were able to emigrate needed it    -deported in 1942 to the Riga Ghetto   -murdered in Riga at the age of 53 or 54 (1942 or 1943)  -wasn't really part of an organization and did a lot of it (if not all) on her own

10. Legacy • There is a stolperstein (plaque) in downtown Bochum (where she once taught) commemorated to her   • Streets in Bochum and Bad Lausick are named after her 

11. Samuel Hoare Before the Transport? Samuel Hoare served as Secretary of State for Air and Foreign Secretary. He managed the Air Force of Britain and foreign relations for Great Britain. Involvement? He, along with Nicholas Winton and the Jewish Refugee Committee, appealed to Parliament to begin the Kindertransport. He organized many transports out of Prague and Austria along the Dutch escape route set up by Norman Bentwich

12. Personal Feeling “Here is a chance of taking the young generation of a great people, here is a chance of mitigating to some extent the terrible suffering of their parents and their friends” – swayed the government to permit an unspecified number of children under the age of 17 to enter the United Kingdom.  Legacy Samuel Hoare is honored as a great British politician for his work in Cabinet positions and in Spain during World War 2. It doesn’t seem as though he has widespread recognition for his work on the Kindertransport.

13. History • An unspecified number of children under the age of 17 were permitted by British authorities to enter Great Britain from Germany and German annexed territories (Austria and the Czech lands). • It was spurred by British public opinion like the British Committee for the Jews of Germany and the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany. • The first transport brought some 200 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin to Harwich, Great Britain on December 2, 1938.

14. History continued • The last transport left from Germany on September 1, 1939, just as World War II began. • The last transport from the Netherlands left for Britain on May 14, 1940, the day the Dutch army surrendered to German force. • 9,000-10,000 children were rescued from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to Great Britain.

15. Basics of the Kindertransport • Private citizens or organizations had to guarantee to pay for each child’s care, education, and eventual emigration from Britain. • Unaccompanied refugee children entered Britain on temporary travel visas and when the “crisis was over,” they would return to their families.

16. Basics continued • The children on the convoy traveled by train to ports in Belgium and the Netherlands from where they sailed to Harwich. • Upon arrival, children with sponsors went to London to meet their foster family. Children without sponsors were housed in a summer camp in Dovercourt Bay and in other facilities until individual family agreed to care for larger groups of children.