By A. Fedeski (FSWC Educator)

On December 1, 1938, the first Kindertransport departed from Berlin, bringing approximately 200 unaccompanied Jewish children to safety in the United Kingdom. These children were the first of some 10,000 who would find asylum in the UK over the next nine months. The program, initiated after the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 9 and 10 1938, brought Jewish children to the UK from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The Refugee Children's Movement, led by Jewish and Christian groups and enabled by the British government (which waived a number of visa requirements for the children), resettled the kinder in private foster homes and hostels across the UK. While the Kindertransport saved thousands of lives, most of the children would never see their families again, as the majority were murdered during the Holocaust. After the war, the now-grown kinder settled across the world, including in Canada. The Kindertransport stands as a rare example of international humanitarian action during the Holocaust.

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