Kindertransport: Remembering & Rethinking
12 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 months ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsA documentary series using firsthand testimony to uncover the story of the Kindertransport - the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria in 1938-39.
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Episodes
Bonus episode: Interview with 'One Life' director James Hawes
January 01, 2024 08:00 - 25 minutes - 17.7 MBTo mark the release of the Warner Brothers motion picture 'One Life' (starring Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Flynn), Alex Maws sits down with the film's director, James Hawes, to discuss the story of Sir Nicholas Winton and how he went about bringing it to the big screen. About the film: ONE LIFE tells the true story of Sir Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, a young London broker who, in the months leading up to World War II, rescued 669 children from the Nazis. Nicky visited Pragu...
Episode 10: Legacies
August 19, 2020 13:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MBThe series finale, but where does the story of the Kindertransport actually end? How has the memory of the Kindertransport affected those who experienced it, and how has it impacted us on a societal level? Historian Amy Williams weighs in and Barbara Winton, daughter of rescuer Sir Nicholas Winton discusses the link to contemporary refugee issues. As always, we are left with more questions than answers.
Episode 9: Twenty-five Words
July 16, 2020 16:00 - 24 minutes - 16.6 MBLetters between the Kindertransport refugees and their parents first served as a lifeline to home, but when war breaks out all that is allowed are brief messages transmitted through the International Red Cross. Many parents try to reassure their children that everything is fine, but then for many children the letters eventually stop or they come to deliver unbearable news.
Episode 8: Enemy Aliens
April 21, 2020 12:00 - 30 minutes - 20.7 MBAnti-German panic sets in and following Winston Churchill's edict to "collar the lot", all adult Germans and Austrians in the UK -- including Jewish refugees from the Kindertransport who were over 16 -- become "enemy aliens". Restrictions are imposed on their everyday lives, and many are sent to internment camps. Despite this hostility, many go on to join the British armed forces to fight against the Nazis from whom they had once escaped.
Episode 7: Identity
February 24, 2020 22:00 - 25 minutes - 17.8 MBForging a sense of identity is complicated enough for most children. Now try to imagine what it must have been like for those children who came on the Kindertransport. For many it was a case of being too Jewish for Germany; too German for Britain. In what ways were they made to feel at home in Britain, and in what ways were they made to feel foreign? How did they maintain their sense of Jewishness in far-flung corners of Britain? And To what extent did they retain a sense of 'continental' id...
Episode 6: Against the Backdrop of War
January 25, 2020 16:00 - 27 minutes - 18.8 MBWith the onset of war in September 1939, the transport of child refugees to Britain stops, stranding untold numbers of children in Europe and cutting off those children who had already arrived in Britain from their families. Ursula Gilbert recalls her experience bouncing around between homes, hostels and job training opportunities. Other refugees describe being sent to work on farms and as domestic servants.
Episode 5: Dovercourt
December 18, 2019 19:00 - 23 minutes - 15.9 MBIn the coldest winter Britain had experienced in more than a century, refugees were housed in unheated huts, while they tried to make the best of their situation by learning English and going on cultural outings. Meanwhile a radio appeal for prospective foster parents created a weekly experience that the children referred to as the 'cattle market' in which visiting couples would walk through the dining hall looking for their ideal foster child.
Episode 4: First Impressions
December 01, 2019 17:00 - 22 minutes - 15.7 MBThousands of British families respond to the call to help unaccompanied Jewish child refugees, and at long last Kindertransports start arriving. What were the reactions to the children upon arriving in a strange new country? Years later, what were the memories – positive and negative – that stuck with them about those first impressions?
Episode 3: The Decision Makers
November 22, 2019 01:00 - 29 minutes - 20.1 MBThe events of the November Pogrom prompt Westminster to loosen immigration restrictions, allowing unaccompanied child refugees to come to Britain. What did these children understand at the time about how they ended up on a Kindertransport? Eight refugees recall their experiences and historian Louise London explains British the shift in British policy.
Episode 2: What Was Left Behind
November 15, 2019 01:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MBFred Barschak can vividly remember the menu at his father's kosher restaurant. Otto Deutsch recalls his family's humble living conditions. And Ursula Gilbert remembers attending Berlin's grandest synagogue. These are some of the happy childhood memories that stand in stark contrast to subsequent tales of antisemitic taunts and a night of unprecedented violence.
Episode 1: The Journey
November 07, 2019 06:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBThe Kindertransport was a loosely coordinated rescue effort in 1938-39 through which nearly 10,000 children under the age of 16 were sent by their parents to safety in England. What was that journey like? What memories did those refugees carry with them throughout their lives, of the day that they left their parents behind? In 2003, the AJR began the process of recording the testimonies of some 250 Jewish refugees from Nazism living in Britain – a project we call Refugee Voices . In this po...
Kindertransport - Trailer
October 07, 2019 15:00 - 4 minutes - 2.95 MBSubscribe now to this documentary series using firsthand testimony to uncover the story of the Kindertransport - the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria in 1938-39. Launching on 7th November 2019.