THE KINDERTRANSPORT

Lindsey Alsip

BACKGROUND

The first transport brought some 200 children from a Jewish

orphanage in Berlin to Harwich, Great Britain on December 2,

1938.

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).

9,000-10,000 children were rescued from Germany, Austria,

Czechoslovakia, and Poland to Great Britain.

LIFE BEFORE

Everyone led pretty normal lives until everything

with Germany just went crazy

After that people had family members disappear in

the middle of the night and come back months later.

Children were also getting kicked out of the schools

that they attended.

Parents put their children on the trains without the

knowledge that, that might be the last time they

would see their children.

AFTER THE TRANSPORT

Reunions were held even though a lot didn’t attend

because they didn’t want to remember that part of

their life.

People moved all over the world and got married,

had children of their own, and obtained high school

degrees.

PERSONAL ACCOUNTSH U G H B A R R E T T, V O LU N T E E R

• Almost 700 children coming in per week to Dovercourt

• Passports had been altered so that they were either named Jacob or Sarah and passports had a big “J” to show that they were of the despised race

• Carried paper bags with minimum clothing

PERSONAL ACCOUNTSO L G A D R U C K E R , K I N D E R

• She was sent to one of the few schools she was allowed in and had a teacher that she really liked but who disappeared

• Her teacher was replaced by Herr Schuler, who made them say “Heil Hitler” while doing the Hitler salute

• Her father got taken away in the middle of the night after Kristallnacht and was gone for six weeks; later sent to a concentration camp

• The only family member she lost was her grandmother• Her and her family moved to New York, where she got her

high school diploma and later married and had three children

• Began to explore her Jewish heritage when her children began asking questions and had her Bat Mitzvah at age 63