Kindertransport Kids - London Liverpool Street Station 1938 and Calais 2016

This morning I was on my way to a seminar on opposing the new Housing & Planning Act.

I stopped off in London Liverpool Street station to take this photo of the statute (by the ticket office) in honour of the thousands of unaccompanied (mostly) Jewish children that escaped persecution and murder from Nazi Germany before the second world war.

The children escaped on the so called "Kindertransport" trains via Harwich Ferry and London Liverpool Street station, where they were met by volunteers who arranged safe accommodation for them until the end of the war.

Many of these children never saw their parents again since they were slaughtered by the Nazi.

Last night I sent an email in support of Newham Councillor, Rokshana Fiaz, who had contacted our Council wanting to know what are we doing to support the children in the refugee camp in Calais, France which is being shut down by the French Government.

On twitter I suggested that that the same sort of racist twaddle about the Jewish Kids in 1938 will be repeated today by the media about Syrian children in Calais trying to flee repression and death.
 

The Kindertransport "hero" Sir Nicholas Winton RIP

On the way back home on Saturday from the UNISON Labour Link forum in Manchester, I went through London Liverpool Street Railway station.

At the station I passed the statues of the "Kindertransport" children who were rescued from Nazi Europe and arrived in this same station just before the Second World War.

Early Thursday morning in Manchester while out jogging along the River Irwell, I had heard about the death and great life of Sir Nicholas Winton aged 106 on radio 4.

Nicholas Winton had helped organise the transport to safety in the UK of over 600 Czech children from almost certain death in 1938-39. There were a number of different "Kindertransport" rescue missions. Most were Jewish but some were also the children of socialist and communist opponents of the Nazi.

His story is incredible and inspiring. He didn't think he was doing anything special and that anyone would have done the same as him if they could.  It goes to show that matters of principle and of doing the right thing matters. No matter how difficult, demanding and sometimes dangerous.

If you commute in and out of London via Liverpool Street, give these statues a gentle pat on the back as you go by. Be prepared also to support modern day Nicholas Winton's who may be trying even now to get children to safety from extermination in modern day Syria or Iraq. 

Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

Today (27 January) is Holocaust Memorial Day.  This date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.

On Friday morning I was travelling through Liverpool Street Railway station and the statutes of the "Kindertransport" children next to the main ticket office, reminded me of the 9,500 children who were allowed to flee Germany before the Second World War and live in Britain.

Many of them arrived in Liverpool Street station from Harwich. The vast majority would have died in German concentration camps if they had not been able to flee. Many never saw their parents again.

While 80% of the children were Jewish, the rest were children of anti-fascists who also knew what would happen to their children if they did not escape.

Newham Council and the Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, held an event on Friday morning to unite communities and reflect on the horrors of Nazi atrocities.

On Saturday I received through the post, the latest edition of UK anti-fascist magazine, Searchlight.  Reading in the magazine the accounts of current fascist activity in the UK, you must be amazed and sickened, that there are still Nazi's in our country, such as the those in the BNP, who think there is nothing wrong with mass murder and turning dead bodies into lamp shades and soap.

New Kindertransport Statue at London Liverpool Street

A few weeks ago now, I was rushing from the overground platforms in Liverpool station towards the  underground when I noticed that there was a new memorial to the Kindertransport Children (see right) next to the main ticket office. 

In the years before the Second World War nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany and Eastern Europe had been saved from the Nazi Holocaust by being sent by trains and ferries to Britain.  These trains were called the Kindertransport.

I have posted on this topic here, here and here.

Last week I noticed that there was a huddle of school children of a similar age and size to those portrayed in the memorial, gathered and sitting around it with suitcases.  They appeared to be on some sort of school trip and were waiting silently, tired and bored, for the next stage of their journey.  At the risk of appearing far too sentimental and over imaginative it did appear to me (briefly) as if the statues had come to life.

Holocaust Memorial Day - Suitcase Kindertransport

This photograph is from the statue commentating the Suitcase Kindertransport in the aptly named Hope Square outside Liverpool Station in East London. 

Before the Second World War nearly 10,000 children (mostly Jewish but also many children of left wing opponents) were sent to the UK from Germany and saved from being murdered by the Nazi.  Many of them arrived in the UK via Liverpool Street Station.

On the 27th January it was Holocaust Memorial Day.  In many Newham schools they held workshops and ceremonial remembrance events.  In Essex Primary School in Manor Park, Ruth Barnet, who was actually one of these Suitcase Kindertransport children who fled to safety and who then went to this school, gave a speech to the school together with our Mayor, Sir Robin Wales. Check out also The Newham Mag (page 14)

The original tale of the Suitcase Kindertransport has been one of the top ten posts of the week on my blog for quite a while.

Update: Check out more photos of statue on Facebook here

Suitcase Kindertransport – 70th Anniversary Play London Liverpool Street

“On 2nd December 1938, the first Jewish child refugees from Nazi‐occupied Europe arrived in Britain, at the start of what became known as the Kindertransport. Over a period of eighteen months more than 9,500 children – mostly Jewish but including 2000 children of Hitler’s political opponents – were saved from almost certain death. Very few ever saw their parents or extended families again. Many of these children passed through London’s Liverpool Street Station on their way to their final destinations across Britain”

I never knew this. I use London Liverpool Street two or three times a week. Last night coming back from my UNISON branch meeting in central London. I have also occasionally walked (or rather rushed) past those cast statues of children opposite McDonalds and had always meant to but never did, go over and find out what they were all about. I now see that they remember the Kindertransport children as well.

While saving 9,500 kids lives is obviously something to celebrate you will also think of the hundreds of thousands who were not saved and murdered, many in even a more brutal and sadistic manner than even Baby P.

On Tuesday 2 December there will be a free "original mix of site specific theatre and music" to mark the anniversary - 10.30, 1pm and 7.30pm. See pdf flyer above left. Click to enlarge.

I’ll try and attend one of the performances on Tuesday. It’s not often you have live music and theatre in a railway station, although at times there is plenty of drama.

This event is “generously sponsored by the German Embassy”. Personally I am very pleased that they are and think it is appropriate. I can understand that some may differ.

Update: Pictures of statues and new report Feb 2011 here