The Kindertransport
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British-Humanitarian
saved from certain death. But he would never Five years after being made an MBE for his forget the 250 young people on the last train charity work, his life-saving Kindertransport scheduled to leave Prague on 1 September 1939, work of 1939 was finally revealed in 1988, when swallowed by darkness after Germany invaded the scrapbook recording his pre-war experiences Poland and closed all the borders. came to light and his remarkable story was Winton was born Nicholas Wertheim – the reported on British television. family name was changed in 1938 – in London, Knighted in 2003, Sir Nicholas eschewed the second child of a businessman. His father’s publicity. “I just saw what was going on,” Bavarian Jewish parents had settled in Britain he said, “and did what I could to help.” in the 1860s, while his Nuremberg-born mother had arrived in England in 1907. Winton and his sister were baptised in the Church of England – though in his late twenties he became an Winton at Prague Railway Nicholas Winton with Hansi Beck, one of agnostic – and he was educated at Stowe School. Station in March 1998. the children he helped to rescue. In late December 1938, Nicholas Winton, a young stockbroker, received a telephone call from a friend in Prague who had volunteered to help with the influx of refugees fleeing the Czech Sudetenland, after the Nazi invasion. After travelling to the city to offer his assistance, Winton became heavily involved in the aid operation, where he conceived the idea of moving endangered children to the UK. -
National Life Story Collection - the Living Memory of the Jewish Community
LIVING MEMORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY NICHOLAS WINTON, O.B.E. Interviewed by Milenka Jackson C410/094/01-03 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IMPORTANT Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators. This transcript is copyright of the British Library. Please refer to the oral history section at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History British Library Sound Archive 96 Euston Road NW1 2DB 020 7412 7404 [email protected] F832 - Side A This is the life story of Nicholas Winton, in the National Life Story Collection - The Living Memory of the Jewish Community. The date is l4th August, l99O, and Milenka Jackson is the interviewer. Mr. Winton, do you mind telling me about when you were born, and about your family? I was born on l9th May, l9O9, in Hampstead, London. My mother, at that time, must have been l9. She married my father when she was l7, and I was the second child. She, herself, was born in Nürnburg and her name was Wertheimer. She was, in fact, the first girl in Germany to pass the Abitur when that exam became available to ladies. My mother then was Wertheimer, and my father was Wertheim, and he was born, in fact, in Moscow, when his father, as a German, was American Consul to Moscow, which sounds very complicated, but that's as it was. -
Using Diaries to Understand the Final Solution in Poland
Miranda Walston Witnessing Extermination: Using Diaries to Understand the Final Solution in Poland Honours Thesis By: Miranda Walston Supervisor: Dr. Lauren Rossi 1 Miranda Walston Introduction The Holocaust spanned multiple years and states, occurring in both German-occupied countries and those of their collaborators. But in no one state were the actions of the Holocaust felt more intensely than in Poland. It was in Poland that the Nazis constructed and ran their four death camps– Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno, and Belzec – and created combination camps that both concentrated people for labour, and exterminated them – Auschwitz and Majdanek.1 Chelmno was the first of the death camps, established in 1941, while Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec were created during Operation Reinhard in 1942.2 In Poland, the Nazis concentrated many of the Jews from countries they had conquered during the war. As the major killing centers of the “Final Solution” were located within Poland, when did people in Poland become aware of the level of death and destruction perpetrated by the Nazi regime? While scholars have attributed dates to the “Final Solution,” predominantly starting in 1942, when did the people of Poland notice the shift in the treatment of Jews from relocation towards physical elimination using gas chambers? Or did they remain unaware of such events? To answer these questions, I have researched the writings of various people who were in Poland at the time of the “Final Solution.” I am specifically addressing the information found in diaries and memoirs. Given language barriers, this thesis will focus only on diaries and memoirs that were written in English or later translated and published in English.3 This thesis addresses twenty diaries and memoirs from people who were living in Poland at the time of the “Final Solution.” Most of these diaries (fifteen of twenty) were written by members of the intelligentsia. -
Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport Also by Deborah Hopkinson
WE HAD TO BE BRAVE Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport Also by Deborah Hopkinson D-Day: The World War II Invasion That Changed History Dive! World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark Titanic: Voices from the Disaster Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880–1924 Two Jewish refugee children, part of a Kindertransport, upon arrival in Harwich, England, on December 12, 1938. WE HAD TO BE BRAVE Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport Deborah Hopkinson NEW YORK Copyright © 2020 by Deborah Hopkinson All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Focus, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. scholastic, scholastic focus, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hopkinson, Deborah, author. Title: We had to be brave : escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport / Deborah Hopkinson. Description: First edition. | New York : Scholastic Focus, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. [2020] | Audience: Ages 8-12. | Audience: Grade 4 to 6. -
As a Young Man, He Saved 669 Children from the Nazis
As a young man, he saved 669 children from the Nazis. The world has lost one of its most inspiring men with the death of 106-year-old Sir Nicholas Winton. At the outbreak of World War Two, his efforts saved 669 children — most of them Jewish — from the Nazis. But Sir Nick is just as famous for what he did after the war; or, rather, what he didn’t do. He was born in England in 1909 to two recently emigrated German Jews. His family changed their last name from Wertheim to Winton, and converted from Judaism to Christianity. Nicholas Winton became a champion fencer, worked as a stockbroker, and was active in left- wing politics. While preparing to go on a ski vacation with a friend at the end of 1938, the two decided instead to go to Prague, which was the capital of Czechoslovakia, and is now the capi- tal of the Czech Republic. Winton and his friend found Prague in chaos, especially among the city’s large Jewish population. At the time, Nazi Germany was slowly moving across Czecho- slovakia, and there were no efforts to save Jewish children. So Winton took on the job himself. Working out of his hotel in Prague, he took down the names of thousands of children, and found people who could help smuggle them onto trains out of Czechoslovakia. Winton then went back to London and lobbied Europe’s governments to find places for all of them. Only England and Sweden agreed to take them in. During 1939, his contacts in Prague were able to get eight trainloads of children — a total of 669 in all — to foster families in London. -
Parkes Body (New).Qxd
2003-2004 The Parkes Institute Annual Report Contents 2 Report of the Head of the Parkes Institute, Dr Sarah Pearce 4 Outreach 4 AHRB Parkes Centre for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations 5 Conferences, lectures and seminars in the Parkes Institute 6 Income 7 Postgraduate Studies in Jewish History and Culture 8 Reports by Members of the Parkes Institute 15 Parkes Library report by Jenny Ruthven, Parkes Librarian 15 Special Collections report by Dr Chris Woolgar, Head of Special Collections, the Hartley Library, University of Southampton 18 Publications and papers by members of the Parkes Institute 23 Members of the Management Committee of the Parkes Institute 24 Members of the Board of Studies of the Parkes Institute 24 Fellows of the Parkes Institute 24 Honorary Fellows of the Parkes Institute The ParkesAnn Instituteual Repor Annt ual2003-2004 Report | 1 The Parkes Institute | The University of Southampon The length of this report is testimony to this year's remarkable range of developments and activities connected to the Parkes Library and Special Collections archive for the study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations. It has been a spectacular year of building for the future, with the completion of new housing for the library and archive, the arrival of new colleagues to lead research in new fields, and the appointment of our first administrator in the Parkes Institute. We are delighted to announce that in June 2004 the University’s Hartley Library opened the doors of its new Special Collections accommodation, in which the Parkes Library and related archives are housed, to its first readers. -
1 Sir Nicholas Winton
SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě BAKALÁŘSKÁ PRÁCE Opava 2021 Monika Hilzensauer SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta Monika Hilzensauer Obor: Angličtina pro školskou praxi Media Reception of Nicholas Winton’s Legacy in Great Britain and the Czech Republic Bakalářská práce Opava 2021 Vedoucí bakalářské práce: Mgr. Marie Crhová, Ph.D., MA Abstract This bachelor thesis deals with the media image of Nicholas Winton’s rescue operation in which he managed to save hundreds of Czechoslovak children. Predominantly from Jewish families. The introductory part describes the life of Nicholas Winton and events before the outbreak of World War II. The thesis concentrates on the how the story was represented in the media and reflects responses not only in Great Britain but also in the Czech Republic. The Slovak director Matěj Mináč, with whom an interview was conducted especially for this thesis, is a noteworthy source of information. The thesis monitors documentary and features films in Czech and British cinematography trying to find out which of those countries could have a bigger influence on “Nicolas Winton’s legacy’s presentation.“ Key words: Sir Nicholas Winton, media, rescue operation, Great Britain, Czech Republic Abstrakt Bakalářská práce pojednává o mediálním obrazu záchranné akce Nicholase Wintona, při které se podařilo zachránit stovky československých dětí, převážně z židovských rodin. Úvodní část popisuje život Nicholase Wintonova a události před vypuknutím druhé světové války. Dále se práce soustřeďuje, jakým způsobem byl příběh mediálně prezentován a reflektuje ohlasy nejen ve Velké Británii, ale také v České republice. Neobvyklým zdrojem informací je rozhovor, poskytnut výhradně pro tuto práci, se slovenským režisérem Matějem Mináčem. -
The Kindertransport: History and Memory
THE KINDERTRANSPORT: HISTORY AND MEMORY Jennifer A. Norton B.A., Australian National University, 1976 THESIS Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in HISTORY at CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO FALL 2010 © 2010 Jennifer A. Norton ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii THE KINDERTRANSPORT: HISTORY AND MEMORY A Thesis by Jennifer A. Norton Approved by: __________________________________, Committee Chair Dr. Katerina Lagos __________________________________, Second Reader Dr. Mona Siegel ____________________________ Date iii Student: Jennifer A. Norton I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this thesis is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the thesis. __________________________, Department Chair ___________________ Dr. Aaron Cohen Date Department of History iv Abstract of THE KINDERTRANSPORT: HISTORY AND MEMORY by Jennifer A. Norton The Kindertransport, a British scheme to bring unaccompanied mostly Jewish refugee children threatened by Nazism to Great Britain, occupies a unique place in modern British history. In the months leading up to the Second World War, it brought over 10,000 children under the age of seventeen into the United Kingdom without their parents, to be fostered by British families and re-emigrated when they turned eighteen. Mostly forgotten in the post-war period, the Kindertransport was rediscovered in the late 1980s when a fiftieth anniversary reunion was organized. Celebrated as an unprecedented act of benevolent rescue by a generous British Parliament and people, the Kindertransport has been subjected to little academic scrutiny. The salvation construct assumes that the Kinder, who were mostly silent for fifty years, experienced little hardship and that their survival more than compensated for any trauma they suffered. -
Assessing the Transdisciplinary Legacies of Zygmunt Bauman
This is a repository copy of Thinking in dark times: Assessing the transdisciplinary legacies of Zygmunt Bauman. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/155923/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Pollock, G orcid.org/0000-0002-6752-2554 and Davis, M orcid.org/0000-0001-5886-4790 (2020) Thinking in dark times: Assessing the transdisciplinary legacies of Zygmunt Bauman. Thesis Eleven, 156 (1). pp. 3-9. ISSN 0725-5136 https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513619898090 © The Author(s) 2020. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Thesis Eleven. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Thinking in Dark Times: Assessing the Transdisciplinary Legacies of Zygmunt Bauman Griselda Pollock University of Leeds, UK Mark Davis University of Leeds, UK Abstract: In 2018, the Bauman Institute and the Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory & History (CentreCATH) both based at the University of Leeds (UK) initiated a transdisciplinary programme to assess the legacies of Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017), whose prolific writings we felt to be profoundly relevant to the multiple challenges of the twenty- first century. -
State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education Grades
State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education Grades 7-8 A Study in Character Education A project of the Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education Authorization for reproduction is hereby granted to the state system of public education. No authorization is granted for distribution or reproduction outside the state system of public education without prior approval in writing. The views of this document do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Department of Education. 2 Table of Contents Introduction Definition of the Term Holocaust ............................................................ 7 Why Teach about the Holocaust............................................................. 8 The Question of Rationale.............................................................. 8 Florida’s Legislature/DOE Required Instruction.............................. 9 Required Instruction 1003.42, F.S.................................................. 9 Developing a Holocaust Unit .................................................................. 9 Interdisciplinary and Integrated Units ..................................................... 11 Suggested Topic Areas for a Course of Study on the Holocaust............ 11 Suggested Learning Activities ................................................................ 12 Eyewitnesses in Your Classroom ........................................................... 12 Discussion Points/Questions for Survivors ............................................. 13 Commonly Asked Questions by Students -
Chronology of Events 1918 – 1938
Chronology of Events 1918-1938 1918: Czechoslovakia is established after the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire following the First World War. The country is made up of two groups of Slavic peoples, the Czechs and the Slovaks. 1920: The Treaty of Versailles, in which Germany is held responsible for World War I and its consequences, is signed. The treaty deals harshly with a defeated Germany and includes territorial, military, financial and general provisions, including the demilitarization and 15-year occupation of the Rhineland (area between France and Germany), limitations on German armed forces and reparations of 6,600 million pounds. 1921: Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party. 1923: Beer Hall Putsch (Hitler’s attempt to overthrow regional government in Munich) is unsuccessful and Hitler is jailed. 1925: Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler’s book, is published. 1933: Japan attacks China. The Nazi party gains majority in the German Reichstag and Hitler is named Chancellor. The Reichstag building burns in a “mysterious” fire and all other political parties are abolished. Hitler denounces the Treaty of Versailles. There are public book burnings in Germany. Anti-Jewish laws are passed in Germany: no kosher butchering, no Jewish Civil servants, no Jewish lawyers, quotas for Jews in universities. Any Germans holding non-Nazi political meetings are subject to arrest and imprisonment in concentration camps (the first is Oranienburg, outside of Berlin). Dachau is built as concentration-work camp (specific death camps not yet built, but elderly, those who were very young, disabled or sick have difficulty surviving harsh conditions of camps). -
You Can Download the PDF Version of Sir Nicholas Winton's Life Story Here
Sir Nicholas Winton was born in Hampstead, London in 1909. For nine months in 1939 he rescued 669 children from Czechoslovakia, bringing them to the UK, thereby sparing them from the horrors of the Holocaust. Sir Nicholas died in July 2015, aged 106. ‘Why are you making such a big deal out of it? I just helped a little; I was in the right place at the right time.’ Despite Sir Nicholas’s humble and inspiring statement, it was more than just being in the right place at the right time, as his life story will show. Sir Nicholas Winton was born in Hampstead in 1909 to Jewish parents. In December 1938, at the age of 29, Winton cancelled a planned skiing holiday after being urged by a friend, Martin Blake, to go to Prague to see the dire situation for himself. The area had become overwhelmed with refugees after Germany had annexed the Sudetenland, a mostly German-speaking area of Czechoslovakia. Winton travelled to Czechoslovakia where he was sent by Doreen Warriner to see several refugee camps. Blake and Warriner were both working with an organisation to help relocate the adults, and Winton quickly realised that something had to be done to rescue the children who were caught up in the situation. He simply could not stand by. On Kristallnacht (9 and 10 November 1938), the Nazis had initiated a campaign of hatred against the Jewish population in all Nazi territories. An estimated 91 Jews were killed, 30,000 were arrested, and 267 synagogues were destroyed. Following this, the British government relaxed its immigration laws and agreed to allow in a limited number of children from Germany and Austria.