Post #8: Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Post #8 is for Into
the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
by Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer. This is yet another
book about the Holocaust, but instead of talking about the concentration
camps and the millions of people who were killed, this book talked about
those children – more than 10,000 of them – who were sent by their
families to England on the Kindertransport, and who,
as a result of their families' sacrifices, survived the war.
The book is made up of several
personal narratives. We hear stories from some of the children who were
sent to England, stories from a few of the parents who gave their children
up, stories from the organizers of the Kindertransport,
and stories from the families that took the children in.
I'm going to cut for spoilers,
even though this is history, so I'm not really sure there are actual
"spoilers". But I suppose it is better to be safe than sorry.
So:
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
The book started with a description
of each Kind's childhood prior to Kristallnact.
Most of them came from very affluent homes in Czechoslovakia, Austria
and Germany, although one boy was sent to an orphanage when his father
was killed and his mother could no longer support him. It talked about
how they were kicked out of their regular schools and sent to Jewish
schools, and then eventually were even told they couldn’t attend school
at all. It was at this point where parents were becoming desperate to
get themselves and their children out of Europe, but most of them weren't
able to do so. After a call from a friend about the goings-on in the
Sudetenland, Nicholas Winton, a British citizen, traveled to Czechoslovakia,
where the groundwork was laid for the start of the transport. When Norbert
Wollheim, a German Jew, also got on board, the Kindertransport
was born.
The book broke up each Kind's
stories so that you could literally travel through Nazi Germany in the
years prior to the war. You got to see how they were living prior to
Hitler reaching the height of his power, how bad things got once he
had, and what happened when people started disappearing to the concentration
camps. The stories were very poignant; I can't even count the number
of times I got tears in my eyes.
Here are some examples:
One narrator, Lory Cahn, was
supposed to travel to England. She was even on the train when suddenly,
her father decided he absolutely couldn't part with her, and yanked
her right out of the window of the train. Her family was eventually
deported to Terezin (Therensienstadt), where she was eventually sent
to Auschwitz, then to a series of seven other camps, before she was
finally liberated at Bergen-Belsen. Her mother was also sent to Auschwitz,
but she was killed in the gas chambers. Her father survived the war.
The other Kind
(those children who traveled to England on the Kindertransport)
all made it to England, where their stories were very different. One
boy was taken in by a very loving family and treated very very well.
One girl (who originally traveled with her younger brother, and was
eventually joined by her little sister) was made to do housework and
was treated very cruelly by her foster parents. Two sisters were raised
by a widow who did her very best by them, and although she didn't have
a lot, gave the girls everything she could. Another girl was originally
chosen to be the bride of the foster family's son, who had fallen in
love with a Christian girl; the parents were hoping she would provide
a Jewish alternative.
Another girl was nearly starved
by her first foster family, before being moved to a much better family
a few months later. And a few of the Kind were actually
rejoined with their families in England, after they'd written letters
and gotten job visas for their parents.
After arranging for over 10,000
children to get out of Nazi Germany and the occupied areas, Norbert
Wollheim was arrested by the SS and transferred to Auschwitz, where
his wife and three-year-old son were immediately murdered in the gas
chambers. Wollheim was the only member of his family (over 70 people
total when considering all the extended relatives) to survive the Holocaust.
In a period of history where there was so much death and destruction, it's nice to hear that there really were people who cared, and did their absolute best to help those people who were in such trouble thanks to Hitler's views. There's a documentary that this book is based off of that I've added to my Blockbuster Queue. I expect it will bring on the waterworks just like the book did.
