The film footage shows the arrival of the first Kindertransport of German-Jewish children in Harwich, Great Britain, on 2 December 1938. The British government had granted permission for adolescents between the ages of five and 17 to enter the country. 200 German-Jewish children were able to leave for England on this first transport on the ship “Prague” via Hoek van Holland.
Film length 05:52. A licence fee of 12×30 sec. applies for the purchase of the entire film.
The Kindertransport 1938
The Kindertransport was a rescue operation in which Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were saved from the Nazi regime. 2 December 1938 marked the beginning of this action.
The events took place a few weeks after the so-called Reichskristallnacht, a brutal pogrom night against Jews in Germany. As a result of this violent event, Jewish families became increasingly concerned about the welfare of their children and endeavoured to provide them with a secure future.
The British government, led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, agreed to take in Jewish children and organised the transport. A number of humanitarian organisations and Jewish communities played an important role in preparing and carrying out the evacuation.
On 1 December 1938, the first trains carrying Jewish children left Germany, in particular Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse station, and travelled to Great Britain. In the following nine months, a total of nine children’s transports were organised, which brought around 10,000 children to safety. Most of them were Jewish children between the ages of 3 and 17.
The children were taken in by British families, placed in foster families, orphanages or internal institutions. Some children were lucky enough to see their parents again later, but many became orphans and lost contact with their families.
The Kindertransport is considered one of the largest humanitarian rescue operations in history. Although it saved the lives of thousands of children, it could not avert the fate of most Jewish families who later fell victim to the horrors of the Holocaust. Nevertheless, the Kindertransport symbolises the remarkable effort to give Jewish children a chance of survival and a better future.
