Stephen Smith “Remembering the Kindertranposrts”

This is a book I picked up at the Holocaust Centre simply because I liked the look and the feel of it.  It is in picture book format with far more text than is normal. It is the story of three Holocaust survivors, Steven Mendelsson, Vera Schaufeld and Lisa Vincent, who came over on the Kindertransport. It is aimed at young people though is a perfectly acceptable read for adults as well.  

All three of them were roughly the same age as Renate when she came over. Lisa even came from Nuremberg.

The accounts seemed particularly moving. Perhaps this is because these particular survivors make the effort to get down to the child’s level.

They mention much that is now becoming extremely familiar:

The gradual changes that came after the Nazis came to power.  

How it became particularly frightening in 1938

How they wore lots of clothes because they could pack so little in their tiny suitcases.

They wore “labels like you might put around cattle” said Lisa (11). Ironic that by wearing cattle-labels now they were avoiding cattle-trucks later.     

The white bread that seemed more like cake.

The enemy alien experience: you were treated like an enemy because you were German but you were only in England because you were persecuted by the Germans.

So much irony!

Some of the pictures are heart-breaking. There are a few photos but most are paintings by Hans Jackson. He fled Nazi Germany as a young man in 1939.     

              

The Holocaust Centre

I visited the Holocaust Centre yesterday. It is a really good museum and appropriate memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. I managed to get to talk to one of the survivors, Ruth Barnett. Like my mother-in-law, she survived by coming to England. She experienced similar feelings of unworthiness that my main character shows in my novel.

The two exhibitions at the Centre are very impressive: the Holocaust Exhibition and the Journey. The main exhibition is quite hard-hitting. It seems likely, from what I read there, that Clara Lehrs was shot, not gassed. That seems quite frightening but actually being gassed was not a pleasant way to die. Many victims lingered for quite a while.

The Journey is aimed at KS3 children and gives a real sense of what it might have been like to be a Jew in hiding and then a child on the Kindertransport. It is an extremely well thought-out exhibition. It replicates a German house where a Jewish family lived, a German school room, complete with picture of Hitler on the wall, a street scene on Kristall Nacht, a Jewish tailor’s shop with a hiding place, and a railway carriage which show films about the Kindertransport and the transportation to concentration and death camps. The final room is an exhibition. Throughout the Journey, one hears extracts for Leo’s diary. Leo is a young German Jew who starts to find life difficult and is then brought to England on the Kindertransport.

There are many opportunities to listen to and read survivor reports throughout the museum. The library also has a vast collection of many more. Normally, if there is a school group visiting, a survivor comes to speak and if there is enough space, the general public can listen as well.

The Memorial gardens are beautifully peaceful and provide a good space for some quiet contemplation. Over 800 people have planted white roses in memory of an individual who perished in the Holocaust.  A pity we did not know about this in time to do something for Clara Lehrs. But perhaps we can find something similar or start our own initiative.

If you know me, you will not be surprised that I bought three more books whilst there.     

I’m hoping to get there again. I was really well looked after by all of the staff there yesterday.