In the late 1930s, as the Nazis began targeting Jews and sending them to ghettos, work camps, and to their deaths, the British government came up with a plan to save Jewish children. They were going to introduce the Kindertransport, where unaccompanied minors who were under 17 years of age and from the German Reich could gain refugee status and enter Great Britain.
In between 1938 and 1940, around 10,000 children and young people fled from Germany, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia on the Kindertransport to the UK. British child welfare organizations made sure the children would have shelter and education, and Jews, Quakers, and Christians worked together to ensure the safety and protection of these children. The Kindertransport was seen as a success story, and Great Britain was praised for its effort to save thousands of young Jewish refugees.
However, as time went on, stories came out that showed the darker side. And now, in her new book “The Kindertransport: What Really Happened” (Polity, Jan 2024), author Andrea Hammel is setting the record straight on the operation.
The Truth Behind the Kindertransport
For more than 20 years, Hammel, who is professor of German and the director of the Centre for the Movement of People at Aberystwyth University, has been researching refugees who fled from National Socialism to the UK. Much of her work has focused on refugees who ended up in Wales.
Jewish children arrive in the Harwich, Great Britain, Dec 12, 1938, on a Kindertransport
One story that stood out to her was that of William Dieneman, an 8-year-old Jewish child who witnessed Kristallnacht, the November 1938 pogrom in Berlin. The Gestapo arrested and assaulted William’s father, and in January 1939, he was put on a Kindertransport with his older sister Ursula, headed to Great Britain. Their parents were not allowed to accompany them.
William and Ursula were separated and shuffled around to various foster families. She ended up with a family who used her as a free babysitter and maid. While William eventually was enrolled in a boarding school – and his parents ended up escaping Germany – they never lived together again. Hammel writes this was “a fate that was not uncommon at all, even if the parents managed to escape to the same country as the children.”
Another child refugee, Ruth David, escaped with her sister Hannah on the Kindertransport. When she arrived, she was placed in two children’s homes, where the adults beat some of the children there. She was separated from Hannah and her other four siblings, as well as her parents, who were eventually murdered by the Nazis.
Hammel sympathizes with the Kindertransport children, writing, “How did the children feel when their families decided that they should part and the children should escape unaccompanied on a Kindertransport?”
In the book, an account from Kindertransport refugee Martha Immerdauer, who was only 9 years old when she escaped Vienna, is shown:
“When my parents broke this news to me, I was devastated and burst into hysterical sobs at the mere thought… I felt as though some force stronger than myself was dragging me into an abyss and I had no power to prevent it… I had seen and understood the build-up of terror in the last two years, so I knew very well that my parents were doing this out of sheer necessity.”
The truth is that a number of children were forever separated from their parents who ended up being killed during the Holocaust. At the very least, parents and children would experience the trauma of separation, which would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
“To admit only the children, and not their parents and families, is clearly one of the most controversial aspects of the Kindertransport,” Hammel writes. “It has sometimes been suggested that parting from your own children was seen as more normal and less painful at that time.”
Additionally, Hammel reveals that the Kindertransport was started as a political move.
“People do not realize that the Kindertransport was essentially a visa waiver scheme initiated by the British government, but that the financial and organizational effort had to be shouldered by volunteers and charities including the Jewish community,” she said. “The UK government even demanded that a guarantee of £50 per child had to be raised to indemnify it against any future expense.”
There was also speculation as to whether or not the politicians at the time realized how traumatizing the Kindertransport would be on child refugees and their families.
“My research of parliamentary debates in November 1938 shows that they were aware of this consequence and went ahead with this controversial policy anyway,” she said.
The book also shows the consequences of the decision to leave the financing and the organization of the Kindertransport mostly to charities and volunteers.
“Financial and other pressures led to a selection of suitable candidates for a Kindertransport that disadvantaged children with disabilities and mental health problems,” Hammel said. “Correspondence between organizers even showed eugenicist and antisemitic views.”
Hammel writes about one applicant, a girl named Kitty Milch, who was described as “an intelligent looking and not particularly Jewish” girl. She was just the type of child who should be given sanctuary in Great Britain, the Kindertransport organizers decided.
“They tried to select ‘high-quality’ children who would be easy to place, make a good impression on the host community, and potentially make a good contribution to the economy and society in due course,” Hammel writes.
If a child was deemed to have “behavioral issues,” they would not be accepted. This was nearly impossible, since these children had witnessed horrors and were living under monumental stress at a pivotal time in their lives.
“Even minor problems such as bed-wetting were seen as a reason to reject an application,” Hammel writes. “If the reports on the applicants suggested any additional needs, the applications had little chance of success.”
While Hammel highlights all the problems with the Kindertransport, she does recognize that the efforts of volunteers and NGOs saved thousands of children. It’s just not a model for dealing with similar refugee crises.
“These people deserve our admiration,” she said. “But my book also shows the limit of their abilities. We need to look into finding stable routes and support for sanctuary seekers to escape persecution and conflict.”
Respecting the Refugees and Their Descendants
There is little reliable statistical data on the Kindertransport – according to Hammel, it isn’t known how many of the refugees were reunited with their parents and families following the war. Either way, she said, “those reunions were not easy for many, as both children and surviving parents had experienced a lot of trauma and a long separation.”
In writing “The Kindertransport: What Really Happened,” Hammel hopes to shed truth on a controversial past, but also to bring some clarity to the Kindertransport survivors and their descendants. Hopefully, knowing that the truth is out there, survivors’ troubling experiences will finally be validated and understood.
“It is important to have historically accurate information about the persecution of Jewish by the National Socialist regime, and the limited action taken to alleviate the suffering and allow some Jews to find sanctuary outside the German Reich,” she said. “The descendants of these refugees are our fellow citizens in the UK and the US, and their history should be recognized and respected.”
Click here to read related article: How a Kindertransport Saved and Shaped My Mother-in-Law’s Life