COMMEMORATIVE SHABBAT 30 November - 1 December 2018 Shabbat Vayeshev

World Jewish Relief today

Our work saving lives and giving assistance to Kindertransport children as well as other Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 40s, informs everything we do now.

We also help people around the world who have been forced to leave their homes due to humanitarian disasters. This included assisting Syrian refugees in the UK, Greece and Turkey, South Sudanese refugees in Uganda and Rohingya in Bangladesh.

We support some of the world’s poorest Jewish communities, primarily in including those who have become refugees due to the recent conflict in eastern . Discover your family history

Before, during and after we rescued approximately 65,000 people from Nazi-Europe including many of the children who came on the Kindertransport and child survivors from the camps. We are now returning their historical records to family members for free.

To see if we hold your family history visit: www.worldjewishrelief.org/archives

Contact us: [email protected] 0208 736 1250 www.worldjewishrelief.org World Jewish Relief and the Kindertransport Reflections on 80 years

Between December 1938 and September 1939, nearly 10,000 children from Germany, Sandy Potashnick’s mother Annie Knecht Austria and were rescued on the Kindertransport and provided left Gydnia on the Kindertransport: with safe sanctuary in the . “We are all duty-bound to remember World Jewish Relief’s predecessor, the Central British fund for German Jewry (CBF), this 80th anniversary and celebrate the was instrumental in organising the Kindertransport alongside other organisations lives of those 10,000 Kinder whilst at including the . Leaving their homes and families in Germany, Austria, the same time recalling the utterly and Czechoslovakia, the children boarded trains with just a small suitcase altruistic sacrifice made by our and were brought unaccompanied to Britain where they established new lives. grandparents, parents and other relatives.” On the 2nd December 1938 the first trainload of Kindertransport children arrived in Britain. This year is the 80th anniversary and on Shabbat Vayeshev (30 November Paul Minikes-Alexander was – 1 December 2018) we will be commemorating the arrival of these children and aged one and half when he left Leipzig the thousands who came after them to start their new lives in the UK. on the Kindertransport:

“History can be a guide to the future For more information and ideas visit: www.worldjewishrelief.org/kindershabbat rather than a simple recording of the past. The Kindertransport must be commemorated and remembered by the present and future generations as a Timeline supreme example of tolerance charity and communal effort” 9 Nov 1938 The Nazis destroyed and ransacked Jewish businesses and property across Germany & Austria killing Jewish people and deporting thousands more to concentration camps. Get involved with the Kindertransport Shabbat 15 Nov 1938 CBF founders alongside other Jewish communal figures met with Prime Minister to plead for Join World Jewish Relief in commemorating the 80th anniversary of the his help in rescuing children from the Nazis. Kindertransport in your community on Shabbat Vayeshev.

21 Nov 1938 Parliament agreed to allow an unlimited number of child Read the special commemorative prayer written by the Senior Rabbi of your refugees to be given temporary refuge in Britain without Synagogue movement on Friday or Shabbat morning. the need for visas or passports. Host a speaker to talk about their experience of the Kindertransport 2 Dec 1938 Nearly 200 Jewish children arrived in , Essex or a related topic. on the first Kindertransport train from . Arrange a unique event to mark this occasion that feels right for your community. Sept 1939 Transports out of Nazi-occupied Europe continued until the declaration of war on 1 September 1939. For more information and ideas visit: www.worldjewishrelief.org/kindershabbat