What Occured During Kindertransport

 

            In 1933, after the war started, Europe became unsafe for children. Nazis were taking over Europe and discriminating against Jews. The Nazis were taking away the rights of the Jews. In 1933, Hitler held a campaign that was about persecuting Jews. This is the anti-Semitism that was happening in Europe. During Kristallnact, Night of Broken Glass, Nazis burned Jewish businesses to the ground. Nazis were discriminating against Jews, and Jewish children were in danger. In order to save the Jews, organizations in Europe transported thousands of Jewish children under sixteen years old to Great Britain. If they were older than sixteen, they were sent from Britain to Canada and Australia. Kindertransport was a rescue operation that was created to save Jewish children during this difficult time. The parents of the children sent them away so that they would be safe from the war.

 The first Kindertransport was on December 2^nd 1938 from Harwich, England. Within just a few months there were thousands of Jews that left Germany. The children went on trains and ships to Great Britain. Most countries didn’t accept the Jewish children so only thousands made it into countries safely. Private Citizens from the organizations took care of the children. Ninety percent of the Kindertransport children never saw their parents again because their parents died in Europe. The Private Citizens who took care of the children had to pay for their education and their eventual emigration from Britain. Most of the children emigrated to Canada or Israel when they were older. In 1989, 1,200 Jews said the Kaddish, which is a prayer for the mourning of the dead, over their parents. Kindertransport was an operation to save the Jewish children from the Nazis. Even though the Jewish children couldn’t see their parents, they were safe, and that was the goal.