Kindertransport from North Rhine-Westphalia

More than 10,000 children and young people were saved between December 1938 and the outbreak of the war in September 1939 by what became known as Kindertransporte to the United Kingdom.

Lore Robinson, 1930s in Cologne (Photo: L. Robinson)

The majority comprised of Jewish children, others were Catholic, Protestant and non-denominational by religion, but they had been racialized as Jews by way of their Jewish family backgrounds. About 130 Jawne students were saved by four transports to England.

Along with the “Youth Aliyah” to Mandatory Palestine, the “Kindertransport” was the most important campaign to save children and young people from National Socialist persecution.

A project group of the Jawne Memorial and Educational Center visited witnesses of the “Kindertransport” in England. Interviews, photos and documents were compiled into an internet presentation, which went online in July 2011. It presents the life-stories of four women and nine men who were able to escape the region of present day North Rhine-Westphalia to the United Kingdom as children and adolescents in 1938 / 1939 and who still live in England today.

In addition, there is a wealth of information about the “Kindertransport” from the cities that are now part of the post-war state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Lore Robinson, 2010 in London (Photo: A. Joerss)

One of the interview partners was the former Jawne student Lore Robinson, who now lives in London. We welcomed her to the Jawne Memorial and Educational Center on several occasions.