The escalating persecution and violence against the Jews in Europe during the 1930s reached a nadir with the Kristallnacht pogrom - the “Night of Broken Glass” - in Germany and Austria on November 9 and 10, 1938. Kristallnacht was the organized looting of Jewish stores and homes, the burning and desecration of synagogues, and the imprisonment of thousands of men in concentration camps. 91 Jews were murdered.
The Evian Conference a few months earlier in France offered no solution to the mounting crisis of persecuted Jews attempting to seek asylum outside of Germany. Stepping Into the breach, in one luminous moment, the British parliament agreed to allow unaccompanied refugee children 17 and under temporary travel visas to enter the country. It was assumed that they would return to their countries of origin, their homes and families at the end of the “crisis” in Europe. A number of groups working in Britain and in Europe came together and organized rescue operations. These groups included Youth Aliyah and HeChalutz, the British Jewish Rescue Committee, but as well Quakers, Catholics and Methodists all working together and coordinating their efforts for the sake of the children. In fact, the children were not all Jewish: 1100 non-Jewish children found shelter in Britain. And while each child was required to have a guarantor to cover the costs of childcare, education, and eventual emigration, at least one organization was willing to cover costs for those children who were without guarantors. Children without contacts in Britain stayed in hostels, holiday camps, or private lodgings.
The first transport left Germany and arrived in Harwich on December 2, 1938. The last transport left Germany for Harwich September 1, 1939, as World War II began. Some transports took children to other countries that opened their doors for them through private agencies.
After the journey to Harwich, the children went to meet foster families in London if they were sponsored. Not every child found a home immediately. Some would be housed in a refugee camp at Dovercourt Bay or other facilities until alternative arrangements for care could be made.
The children wore labels and identity documents around their necks. And they carried all their worldly possessions in their small suitcases or hands: teddy bears, dolls, handkerchiefs, school boxes for pencils, family photographs, blankets, religious items. Objects that had a practical value to be sure, but as well an emotional connection with the family they left behind that would help them manage the anguish and terror separating from their parents - themselves distraught - before boarding the trains. And the fear of what lay ahead. For older children the journey was perhaps less menacing and for some had been seen as an “adventure” and a relief from what they had been experiencing as teenage Jews in a world gone awry.
The children would ultimately be placed with families - strangers from possibly different religious, social, and economic backgrounds. They had to adapt to a new way of life: a new language, new schools and friends, different social customs and expectations - even within adoptive Jewish families. With the concern over enemy aliens, some would be interned on the Isle of Man or in Canadian camps. Communication between children and families on the Continent was possible for some through the Red Cross. For many children, the loss of their family and friends and the customary ways of life they knew created emotional scars that ran deep and felt like a loss of their childhood.
After the war, they would have to find means of supporting themselves, pursue careers, have families of their own. Some emigrated to other countries - the United States, Palestine, Canada, or even their home countries after the war. Inquiries were made with the International Red Cross and tracking services to find their families on the Continent. More than half of the children would never see their parents again: their parents and other family members had been murdered in the Holocaust. Many were plagued by survivor guilt that the passage of time did not heal.
Ultimately 1.5 million children were murdered by the Germans. 10,000 were saved by the Kindertransports. Many of the Kindertransport children went on to stellar careers as teachers, chemists and physicists, professors and artists and writers. Two won the Nobel Prize.
While the Kindertransports were not a perfect solution to the humanitarian crisis plaguing the Jews of Europe, the Kinder themselves grew to understand and appreciate the efforts made by many people and organizations on their behalf and were able to honor their parents who made the agonizing and selfless choice to send their children away in the desperate hope that their lives would be saved.
Postscript: The Wagner-Rogers bill (1939), supported by Eleanor Roosevelt among others, could have been an American version of the Kindertransport for 20,000 children 14 and under, outside of existing immigration quotas, but it never came to a vote and essentially died in committee. Representatives at both the Evian (1938) and Bermuda Conferences (1943) would not raise immigration quotas to accommodate persecuted Jews. By the time of the Bermuda Conference it was common knowledge that Jews were being exterminated, yet nothing was done. And in 1939, the refugee ship SS St. Louis with its cargo of Jews at the time trying to escape from Nazi Germany, was turned back from Cuba. Roosevelt didn’t respond to the pleas of the ship’s captain for temporary U.S. visas for his passengers. The ship was forced to return to Europe. A number of the passengers were eventually murdered by the Nazis.
Queried about the effort made by a New York congressman to award honorary U.S. citizenship to Anne Frank, whose family was among those unable to secure U.S. immigration visas, the noted historian Deborah Lipstadt replied that “The way this country turned its back on Jewish refugees in that period is a blot on our country. Nothing will change that.”
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Jewish Refugees from Austria
2014.1.88
Front: An image of Jewish refugees surrounding a table while having an English lesson in Switzerland. Back: Typed information about the image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: According to information provided on this wire photo (verso), "Thousands of Jewish refugees are now living in special encampments in Switzerland, where the authorities are trying to ease the problem by taking measures to prevent further influx. Many of the refugees are said to have been aided across the border by the Austrian Nazis. The photo shows a group of the refugees having an English lesson in the camp here."
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Schooled in New Ways
2014.1.94
Front: An image of two boys writing during lessons at a refugee camp in Dovercourt Bay, England. Verso: Typed information describing the image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
AP wire photo from 1938 verso: "Here is a study of young German Jewish refugees writing during lessons at the refugee camp school which has been set up for them at Dovercourt Bay, England. Many of the children wear caps indoors in accordance with tradition."
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Free City of Danzig Reise-Pass for Betty Sass, Accompanies First Kindertransport
2022.1.55
"Light brown booklet with lions and shield on cover. Includes photograph on page 2 of 32 pages, no marks on pages 13-31, back cover torn.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Betty Sass accompanied the first Kindertransport from Danzig on May 5, 1939 to Great Britain via the Netherlands. The Free City of Danzig was one of the cities from which almost 10,000 Jewish children were rescued by the Kindertransport program, the British humanitarian mission that ran between November 1938 and September 1939, ending just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Almost 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children under the age of 17 were rescued from Nazi occupied Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Danzig and placed with foster families or on farms, schools, and hostels throughout Britain. Most would never see their parents again.
Betty Sass (nee Neile) was a 42-year-old widow from the resort town of Sopot near Danzig. Renowned diplomat Thomas Brimelow - at this time in his stellar career the Acting British Vice–Consul in Danzig - signed her visa for the United Kingdom February 5, 1939, after recording the purpose of Betty’s journey on the visa itself: “accompanying a contingent of 75 children from Danzig to London.” Her passport - unique to Danzig - shows the stamped permit to land in Harwich on May 5, 1939. After arriving in Harwich, Betty escorted the children in her charge to London’s Liverpool Street Station where they would meet their sponsors and prepare for the next phase of their journey.
Betty then returned to Danzig by way of Vienna and Holland. It seems puzzling that she would obtain a visa in Vienna to go to Paraguay when she decided instead to return to Danzig. However, during this period after Kristallnacht many Jews were attempting to emigrate to South America and for a time Paraguay was being accommodative. Aware of what was happening to the Jews in the Nazi orbit, and fearing for her own life, she was perhaps thinking for a time of South America as a viable alternative to returning to Danzig to live under Nazi rule, since Danzig had already been annexed into the Greater Reich after the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and Jews would be expunged. Or perhaps it was a feint to leave Vienna, where for the immediate future emigration would still be encouraged for Jews to countries that would have them.
In any case, Betty clearly felt the need to transport herself to safety and took this window of opportunity to escape. She arranged to leave for Palestine with other Jews from Danzig. However, as a refugee without citizenship, Betty was considered an “illegal immigrant” by the British who controlled Mandatory Palestine, and like so many stateless immigrants fleeing Nazi controlled Europe for Palestine, Betty Sass was removed by British naval authorities who boarded her ship. She was interned around November 1940 on the island of Mauritius, a British colony in the Indian Ocean. Internment of Jewish refugees was part of the British effort to deter immigration and manage the alleged concern about the infiltration of enemy aliens.
Betty Sass would remain on the isle of Mauritius from 1940-1945. At the end of World War II, she was finally able to enter the harbor town of Haifa with a Palestine Department of Immigration permit and remain permanently as an immigrant.
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Young Refugee with Doll
2014.1.45
Front: An image of a girl with glasses, beret, doll, and satchel standing with her parents.Back: Typewritten and handwritten information about the image.Additional Information: "Refugee girl arriving with her parents in Canada from Germany in 1938.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Information on wire photo from Acme Newspictures Inc. verso: Young Jewish refugee arriving with her parents in Montreal, Canada, from Germany in November, 1938.
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Refugees Reach Vancouver Enroute to Australia
2014.1.42
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Recto: Acme Press Photograph November 25, 1938: refugees from Germany arriving in Vancouver, British Columbia. Verso: "Vancouver, B.C. -- A family of Jewish refugees from Germany as they arrived in Vancouver recently, enroute to Australia where they will take up a new home. Credit Line (Acme)."
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Helga Kreiner of First Kindertransport Arrives in Harwich, England
2014.1.43
Front: An image of a girl in an overcoat clutching a doll. Back: Typewritten information about the image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Helga Kreiner is pictured having arrived in Harwich, England, a member of the first Kindertransport of refugee children escaping the Nazi menace against Jews in Germany. Clutching her doll to her chest, holding her bag by her side, she stands anxiously awaiting her future in a foreign land without her parents whose own fate she could not know.
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Jewish Refugees at British Holiday Camp
2014.1.47
Front: An image of a woman in a kerchief alongside children and adolescants in front of row houses.Back: Typewritten, handwritten, and stamped information pertaining to the photograph.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Acme wire photo with following information verso: "Jewish refugees from Germany, temporarily staying at the holiday camp here (Dovercourt, Essex, England). They have been promised new homes in Britain. They will be supported by voluntary contributions, sheltered by British families, educated and taught trades and will then emigrate to British possessions. 12/13/1938"
Dovercourt Bay was meant to be a temporary transit camp for the first groups of children waiting for a foster family that could sponsor them. Depending on the ease with which that occurred, they might be placed at Dovercourt for some time, during which they would be taught English and practical skills and enjoy playing with their new-found friends, essentially being indoctrinated into British life.
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German-Jewish Refugees in England
2016.1.37
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Associated Press wire photo verso: "Young Jewish refugee children in camp at Dovercourt Bay, England, pay close attention to the blackboard as they receive a lesson in English. This haven cares for 200 German- Jewish Children." 12-28-38.
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Mrs. Ottilie Moore Saves Refugees
2014.1.89
Front: An image of Mrs. Ottilie Moore, daughter of Adolph Goebels surrounded by refugee children and a poodle on a ship deck. Back: Typed information about the image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Mrs. Ottilie Moore, daughter of the late Adolph Goebels, sausage king. Mrs. Moore has brought over from Europe eight refugee children whom she will keep and school in the United States. Two of the children in the group are Mrs. Moore's own.
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Jewish Refugees Holding Torah
2014.1.90
Front: An image of two men holding a Torah in the Devoncourst Bay refugee camp in England. Back: Typed information about the image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Associated Press wire photo with following information verso: "Free to pursue their devotions without fear of persecution, these young German Jewish refugees are shown unrolling the scrolls of the law for Jewish religious instruction at the Dovercourt Bay refugee camp in England. Note the shawls and head coverings they are wearing in accordance with ancient custom."
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ID Issued to Ten-Year-Old Member of the Kindertransport Helga Beck from Vienna, Austria for Admission to Harwich, UK
2022.1.41
recto : photograph is lower right corner with raised stamp at lower right corner; ‘5218’ printed at top right corner; verso: green and blue dated handstamps from Exeter and Harwich.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Helga Beck’s identification card accompanied her on her journey from Vienna to England in 1939. Helga’s journey to the UK with the Kindertransport occurred six months after the Kristallnacht pogrom in Austria. The information on the card is as follows: Recto: “THIS DOCUMENT REQUIRES NO VISA” - in other words, it serves as passport and visa for purposes of the Kindertransport to England. It provides her name, sex, place of birth, and names and place of residence of her parents: Vienna, Austria. Verso: two hand-stamped seals: Exeter City Police, 3 November 1945 with alien registration number. Also included: permission to land in Harwich 15 May 1939, an accompanying photo of Helga, and the stamp of passport control. Her number at top right: 5218.
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Postcards Sent by Family to Jewish Child Rita Goldstein Sheltered by OSE
2021.1.46a-e
Five postcards written in blue and black ink. All bearing blue french stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The OSE (L'Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants) was a humanitarian children’s aid organization providing social and medical assistance to Jewish families in need. After 1933, OSE’s main office was moved from Berlin to Paris, where Jewish children - refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria - were placed in OSE children’s homes in the area. By 1939 more than 200 children had been placed in one of these homes in Paris. OSE also provided social services to foreign Jews living in internment camps such as Gurs and Rivesaltes. OSE attempted to relocate Jewish children from these camps to homes in the unoccupied Vichy region of France where they would be cared for. With the German occupation of the Vichy region in 1942, the OSE mission changed to more clandestine activities: the development of hiding places, the creation of false documents, and smuggling children across the border to Switzerland and Spain. Through the heroic efforts of the OSE, more than 5000 Jewish children were saved from Nazi extermination. OSE’s work continued post-liberation assisting surviving children from Buchenwald find placements in French rehabilitation facilities.
The Goldstein family had lived in a flat on Bismarck Street in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The parents, David and Frida, did well in the family business: a smoker’s shop. Oscar, then an adolescent, has stated in reminiscing about the OSE and his own experiences as a refugee, that his parents decided to emigrate after Kristallnacht when the store was destroyed. By that time, however, it was not possible for them to obtain visas. They left for Belgium, first the father and then Oscar and his sister Rita and mother. Escape was difficult, they went back to Cologne, and this time were successfully smuggled into Belgium. The family received aid from the Jewish humanitarian organization AJJDC or “Joint” and were able to stay in a hotel until the Germans invaded Belgium in May 1940. At this point the family left for France on foot. Oscar would eventually be interned through the OSE at the Rivesaltes camp, while his sister Rita was placed by OSE in Hotel d’Angers in Le Mans early in the German occupation. Father David Goldstein would be deported to Auschwitz where he was murdered.
These 5 postcards appear to be written by several family members living at the Villa des Tourelles, an OSE “safe house” located in the Paris region at 113 Rue de Paris, Soisy-sous-Montmorency, France, all addressed to daughter Rita Goldstein placed by the OSE at the Hotel d’Angers in Le Mans. The postcards are somewhat illegible but appear to be written just before the German occupation of France.
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Kindertransport Correspondence: International Red Cross from Walter Herz, United Kingdom, to Marie Herz, Bohemia-Moravia
2012.1.36
Document with Red Cross at top, titled, "War Organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John. Includes typewritten and printed information in English and German.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Red Cross correspondence. An official "War Organisation of the British Red Cross..." inquiry filed by Walter Herz ("Relationship of enquirer to addressee: Son"), a young Czech Jew, sent by his parents to Great Britain prior to WWII. His parents remained in Bohemia-Moravia. Form has official 4-line boxed hand stamped address at top: "Red Cross Message Bureau 22, 37 Sutherland Avenue, Paddington, London W9." Limited message (no more than 25 words) reads in German: "Dear Mommy, Do not worry about me, I am very fine. I have everything I need. Kisses, Walter." Addressed to his mother, Marie Herz, in Bohemia-Moravia. Form has a red double circle of the International Red Cross, Geneva. It was received in Nazi Germany on October 14, 1940 (per the red boxed hand stamp at top). His mother's reply, also in German: "My very dear Walter, Do not worry about me. I am healthy & fine, too. Thousand kisses from your Mama." The form was hand stamped by the International Red Cross in Geneva. Kindertransport (also Refugee Children Movement or RCM) is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of World War II. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany and the occupied territories of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, and farms.
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One of 982 Jewish Refugees at Fort Ontario, Dorrit Blumenkranz Samples a Hot Dog
2014.1.46
Front: An image of a young girl, Dorrit Blumenkanz, holding a hot dog. Back: Typewritten information about image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
From information attached to this International News Photos wire photo verso: Six-year-old Dorrit Blumenkanz is one of 982 Jewish refugees from Vienna finding shelter at Fort Ontario in Oswego, N.Y. Refugees were assured that “whenever there is a knock at your door, it will be a friendly one.”
Dorrit would eventually settle in the United States, marry and have children. But it would not surprise anyone who sees this press photo to learn that she would go on to a career as a restaurateur in New York, initially specializing in desserts based upon culinary delights she remembered from her youth in Vienna and Italy, but ultimately developing a successful restaurant, bakery, and catering company.
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Signed Photograph of Nicholas Winton, Savior of 669 Jewish Children in the Czechoslovakian Kindertransport, Holding a Child
2014.1.471
Matted black and white photograph of Nicky Winton holding a child with his signature beneath.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Nicholas Winton had personally saved 669 Czechoslovakian children from the Nazi scourge by finding homes for them in England. Many of their parents were to be murdered at Auschwitz. For his extraordinary work on the Czechoslovakian Kindertransport he received numerous honors, including a knighthood.