The History of the Kindertransport and Its Long-Term Effects

Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Leo Baeck Institute present a lecture by Lilly Maier on “The History of the Kindertransport and Its Long-Term Effects.”

The Kindertransport (“children’s transports”) is a remarkable story to arise out of the horrors of the Holocaust. Over 10,000 mostly Jewish children could be rescued, because their parents were willing to separate from them. From Nazi Germany, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia these children – aged two to 16 – were brought to safety in Great Britain and France starting in December 1938. Many of them later emigrated to the United States. The Kindertransport saved these children, but it also had very distinctive and often traumatic long-term effects on their later lives. The forced separation from their parents and the complete uprooting from their childhood lives did leave emotional scars. Despite all this, most of the survivors overcame their trauma and lived very successful lives. Today, these survivors call themselves Kinder (“children”) as a reference to their background and the unique rescue effort that saved them. This lecture is based on dozens of interviews with such Kinder all over the United States.