Subject Guide: Jewish Aid and Rescue

Das Schicksal der Familie Brueg aus Gera und ihre Beziehungen zu Leipzig by Guy Bishop

A compilation of documents pertaining to Guy Bishop’s (formerly Guenter Brueg’s) years in Gera, Germany and his escape to England. A short typescript is accompanied by photocopies of letters, documents and family photos. Also included are published materials about the history of the Jewish community in Gera; the "Kindertransport" rescue mission; and the fate of the Brueg family during the Holocaust.

Inge's story of the Holocaust : Before and after the Kindertransport by Inge Gurevich

Memoirs touching on the author’s upbringing in Germany under Nazi-rule and her escape to England. Also included is a 3-page report by Ann Levy, the daughter of the author’s foster parents in Manchester, England.

Kindertransport, 1939 by Olga Drucker

Memoir by Olga Drucker describing the arrest of her father during the 1938 November Pogrom, her transfer to a Jewish school, and her preparations for leaving for England on a Kindertransport.

Mon sejour depuis Mai 1940 by Jerry Breuer

The memoir is a translation of a diary written originally in Shanghai, during 1941, accompanied by clarifying correspondence and notes. The memoir starts on March 6, 1939, the day when Jerry (Gerhard) Breuer was forced to say goodbye to Vienna. He went to Brussels, Belgium, on a Kindertransport. In 1940, on the day Germany invaded Belgium, he was arrested in Brussels. He was sent on a train (which had the letters “fifth column” written on it) to Camp St. Cyprien, France, which is described in detail. The memoir ends with the departure on his ship to Shanghai.

One child's lonely passage to freedom, 1938-1939 by Fred M. Rosenbaum

A short memoir that mixes personal experiences with historical facts, e.g. about. Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport. Experiences made during Kristallnacht are described, followed by the ride on the Kindertransport, and Mr. Rosenbaum's arrival in Britain. He then describes the effects on him of being separated from his family, his difficulties in adapting to new circumstances in his life, mainly because of him not knowing English.

Some facts and recollections of my life by Helga (née Liebenau) Roboz

Helga Roboz was born 1923 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Together with her brother she was sent to England with a Kindertransport in 1939. She was trained to become a nurse. In 1949 she went to Canada, where she got married in 1954, settling in North Vancouver.

Story of Sylvia (Mahler) Cherny by Sylvia (née Mahler) Cherny

The memoir starts with Sylvia Cherny's family background, the family business, and her time in Lower Austria where her family had lived for a couple of generations. Her father committed suicide after the Anschluss, fearing the Gestapo who was looking for him. Sylvia Cherny went on a Kindertransport to France, then fled via Lisbon to New York. 

Thankfully yours, Lisa Leist Seiden : 1929-1946 by Lisa (née Leist) Seiden

Lisa Seiden, née Leist, was born in 1929 in Vienna, Austria. She lived with her parents and her brother Peter in an apartment building in the Viennese suburbs. Lisa and her brother were sent to England on a Kindertransport on December 17, 1938. Her parents escaped the following summer to Argentina where an uncle had arranged to get visas. In 1946, the family was reunited in Buenos Aires.

Without bitterness by Marianne Elsley

Memoirs by Marianne Elsley including genealogical information on her family and recollections of her childhood; of her schooling in Nazi Berlin; of her family's preparation for emigration; of her emigration to England on a "Kindertransport;" of her life and schooling in England; of her internment as an "enemy alien;" of her evacuation from London; of her training as a nurse; and of her parents' deportation to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.

Charles Leigh Collection (AR 10746) 

The collection contains a compilation of letters sent to Charles Leigh (formerly Karlheinz Liebenau) and his sister Helga in England, where they had immigrated via Kindertransport, from their parents Max Liebenau and Dora Liebenau née Simke in Berlin. The letters are dated from May 1939, the time of their arrival in England, to November 1941, when their parents were deported to Riga.

Ernst and Ruth Lissner Collection (AR 25521) [Digitized]

This collection documents Ruth and Ernst Lissner, in particular Ruth's time in England after leaving Germany via Kindertransport. It includes correspondence and documents.

Kindertransport Memorial Clippings Collection (AR 6992C) 

Clippings about Kindertransport memorials and a packet of press clippings for the film Into the Arms of Strangers.

Kindertransport Memorial Collection (AR 6992) [Digitized]

This collection contains materials on remembrances of the Kindertransport. Materials include correspondence, handwritten notes, memorial programs, the text of a speech by Gerhard Schroeder, membership directories, annual reports, synopses and advertisements for publications and films on the Kindertransport, and materials from a 1999 reunion in London of individuals who were part of the Kindertransport including a full reunion booklet containing lists of attendees. 

Kurt Seelig Collection (AR 11115) [Digitized]

This collection contains materials by and about Kurt Seelig and his family. The majority relates to Seelig's time with Bernard and Winifred Schlesinger, who opened a London hostel for 12 German-Jewish children that arrived via Kindertransport. The diary of ten-year-old Kurt Seelig, written between 1939 and 1940, is particularly notable.

Ludwig Katscher Collection (AR 6336) [Digitized]

The 331 letters and postcards of the Katscher Collection are mostly correspondence from the parents, Ing. Alfred Katscher and his wife, Leopoldine in Vienna, Austria to their children, Heinz Ludwig and Liane. The children had been sent to England with Kindertransport at the beginning of the Nazi regime in Austria.

Ralph Moratz Collection (AR 25827) [Digitized]

The papers in Series II contain photographs, newspaper clippings, official documents, school rosters, and other material relating to Ralph Moratz and his peers’ escape from Germany via the Kindertransport to France. The papers in this series follow the boys’ journey from the Kindertransport to the Chateau de Quincy, Chateau de Chaumont, Mainsat, and finally, to their voyage from Portugal to New York.

The Kindertransport Journey : 80th year Commemorative Trip Collection 2019 (AR 12128)

The collection holds press coverage (all photocopies) of the Kindertransport Association’s commemorative trip to Austria and Germany. Included are a press review; the program and itinerary; and an info sheet about a Kindertransport memorial presented by a group of schoolchildren in Hook of Holland to the trip’s participants.

Kindertransport / Olga Levy Drucker. 1st ed. New York: H. Holt, 1992. 

National and transnational memories of the Kindertransport: exhibitions, memorials, and commemorations / Amy Williams and Bill Niven. of Dialogue and Disjunction: Studies in Jewish German Literature, Culture & Thought; 12, 2023. 

Postcards to a little boy: a Kindertransport story / Henry Foner - Heinz Lichtwitz; language and production editor, Ita Shapiro Haber., 2013. 

Ten thousand children: true stories told by children who escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport / by Anne L. Fox and Eva Abraham-Podietz. West Orange, NJ: Behrman House, 1998. 

The Kindertransport: contesting memory / Jennifer Craig-Norton. of Studies in Antisemitism (Bloomington, Ind.), 2019. 

The Kindertransport in literature: reimagining experience / Stephanie Homer. of Exil-Studien Vol 20, 2022. 

The tiger in the attic: memories of the Kindertransport and growing up English / Edith Milton. Paperback. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 

Trauma and attachment in the Kindertransport context: German-Jewish child refugees' accounts of displacement and acculturation in Britain / by Iris Guske., 2009. 

We had to be brave: escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport / Deborah Hopkinson. Firsted., 2020.