Kindertransport: Journey to Life

It is 75 years since the British government sanctioned a mission to bring 10,000 Jewish children to the United Kingdom following the devastation of Kristallnacht in 1938. The night of violence, organised against the Jewish communities in Greater Germany, put pressure on the British government to relax immigration controls for a limited number of children. Charitable organisations, such as the Red Cross, organised the Kindertransport, where unaccompanied children between the ages of 5 and 17, were allowed to travel to Britain. Their lives were saved, but it was a traumatic rescue and the forced separation from their parents was only the beginning. The fleeing children had to survive in a strange new world, where they couldn't speak the language and had no idea who was going to care for them. Seventy Five years on we speak to some of those who came to Britain about their memories, and reflections of leaving their family behind so that they could survive.