The story of the Kindertransport

1. The story of the Kindertransport World War II: Germany, the Nazis and Judaism

2. The beginning:Nazis take control in Germany • Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, becomes Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 • Gives himself new powers • Sets up secret police, the Gestapo and SS • Nazis believe that Jews are to blame for all the problems in Germany • Propaganda campaign started against Jews. Germans turn against former friends and colleagues • Nazis arrest Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, disabled people and other groups, sending them to Concentration Camps where they are systematically killed

3. Kristallnacht November 9th 10th 1938 Kristallnacht (“Night of Crystal” or “Night of Broken Glass”) is the name given to the violent anti-Jewish demonstrations that took place throughout Germany on November 9th and 10th 1938. This terrible event is known as Kristallnachtbecause during those two days the windows of Jewish buildings (synagogues, shops, stores, community centres and homes) were systematically smashed. Many buildings were also looted and destroyed. The term does not adequately convey the dreadful suffering sparked by this brutal event. After Kristallnacht the German government started to arrest more and more Jews, sending them to Concentration Camps to die. Between 1935 and 1945 around 6 million European Jews were killed by the Nazis.Jewish people refer to this terrible event as the Shoah, meaning whirlwind. It is more widely known as the Holocaust.

4. Laws against Jews • Car ownership restricted among Jews • Jews not allowed into cinemas, theatres, concerts or some shops • Jews ordered to live in Ghettos, fenced off areas where only Jews were allowed to live • The 1935 Nuremburg Laws make Jews second class citizens. In order to be identified, they must wear a Star of David at all times • Jews cannot own a business or have certain jobs, such as doctor, teacher, lawyer • Jewish schools all closed then destroyed • Jews had to sell their valuables to the government • Jews are made to pay extra taxes

5. Sent away from home, from mum and dad In 1938 the Nazis allowed the British Government to admit children, from babies to 17 years old, but not their parents. Parents anxious to save their children sent them away, knowing they might never see them again. German soldiers made sure the children did not take anything valuable with them. It was impossible for parents and children to say goodbye properly.

6. Off to a strange place, to strange people 10,000 children left Germany on the Kindertransport to England. Most of the children did not understand what was happening and none wanted to go……………. …………. But some of the older children realised they might never see their mum and dad again. It was a terrible experience for both children and parents. Only 11% of Jewish children alive in 1933 survived to 1945. Around 1.5 million children were killed in the Holocaust.

7. From Hamburg to Harwich 1938 Alan Jacobs remembers: My own mother was on a ship like this, sent away by her mum and dad. She was 16 years old. It was the last ship the Nazis allowed to leave. Her younger brother was sent to his aunt, my grandfather’s sister, to Amsterdam in Holland where they thought he would be safe. He was arrested and sent to Mauthausen Concentration Camp where he was later shot. His aunt was hidden by nuns in their convent and survived. The nuns were very brave. My grandfather and grandmother were sent to Concentration Camps and killed in the gas chambers. My mother never found out until after the war.

8. Arriving at Harwich Jewish children escorted off the boats at Harwich, Essex. Those with guarantors, people who had paid £50, were sent to live with new families. Others walked the short distance from Harwich to Dovercourt.

9. First home, together at Dovercourt At Dovercourt there was a holiday camp. This was turned into a temporary home for the children until families willing to take them in could be found. My mother had a ‘guarantor’ and so she was put on the train to London. There she would start a new life with a strange family in a strange land. She didn’t speak any English.

10. Anne Frank and her family Otto Frank and his family had already escaped from Germany and they now lived in Holland. Escape from Holland was virtually impossible, with the borders closed and all ports controlled by the Nazis. The only way to survive was to go into hiding, and so Otto devised the brilliant plan of hiding in a building that had been his office. A bookcase concealed a secret entrance to a hidden set of rooms. It almost worked. From the moment the family went into hiding, Anne Frank wrote in a diary. It had been given to her as a birthday present. She described what it was like hiding from the Nazis during the war.

11. The end of the war 1945 In Europe the Russian army advanced towards Germany from the east, and the British and American armies from the west. As the troops advanced they discovered the horrors of the Concentration Camps: the mass graves, the gas chambers, the heaped belongings of the dead, including gold, silver and jewellery. The prisoners that were still alive were ill from starvation and illness. Although the soldiers did their best to care for them, many continued to die even though the war was over. Anne Frank was one of them. Someone had informed the Nazis about where the Frank family was hiding and they were all taken to Concentration Camps. Only her father, Otto, survived, along with her diary which had been found in the room where she hid.

12. Why is the Holocaust important to us today? Because if we cannot learn to live with each other regardless of race, religion or colour, to respect each other, to understand and enjoy what makes us different as much as what makes us the same, then we will never have peace, and will eventually destroy ourselves. If we can remember what Anne Frank said we can make a difference to the world. “Nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquillity will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realise them!'' Anne Frank,July 15, 1944, age 15