Kindertransport Before the Second World War

Helping Jewish Children to Escape to Britain

Sep 8, 2009

As Nazi Germany began to expand aggressively in Europe in 1938 and there were rumours of war, concern began to grow for Jewish children in Germany and Europe.

As soon as the Nazis came to power in 1933 they began to introduce a series of laws diminishing the rights of Jewish citizens. In the following years, Jews were forced out of their posts in universities and scientific institutions, forbidden from driving and forced to wear Yellow Stars defining their religion.

Signs of War in 1938

Although Britain and its allies attempted to pursue a policy of appeasement with Nazi Germany, war was appearing to be unavoidable. As the talk and threat of war in Germany increased, so did the anti-Semitism, particularly after Kristallnacht which with its brutality, destruction and violence, shocked Western Europe. In Germany and Austria, groups, such as the Committee for the Care of Children from Germany, began to organise evacuating Jewish children to Britain. Here they were placed with families, or sponsored to attend a boarding school, some had relatives in the USA and would travel on to live with them.

The Nazis Invade the Sudetenland

As the Nazis reclaimed the Sudetenland in 1938, reversing the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, thousands of refugees began to arrive in Czechoslovakia, however there was no Kindertransport arranged here like there was in Germany and Austria. A British man, Nicholas Winton, was in Prague at the time, and was so moved by the thousands of refugees, he decided he was going to organise his own Kindertransport for the Jewish children.

Kindertransport in Prague

After spending a couple of months in Prague, Winton returned to London to organise matters from there, with a small team of volunteers remaining in Czechoslovakia. Winton arranged the huge amount of paperwork necessary for the children’s travel, obtained permission from the Home Office to admit the refugees and found foster families to care for them when they arrived.

The trains began to leave Prague in 1939 as Nazi Germany prepared for more aggressive territorial expansion. There were thousands of children that needed to be evacuated, but with the prospect of war involved and the logistics and organisation it took, it was just not possible. However, Nicholas Winton did manager to evacuate almost 700 children to Britain.

War is Declared, September 1939

When Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1st 1939, Britain declared war. In Prague another of Nicholas Winton’s trains was full and preparing to leave the station, when Nazi soldiers boarded the train, it is most likely that the children on board were sent to a concentration camp. As the Second World War had begun, there was nothing further that Nicholas Winton could do for the Jewish children of Czechoslovakia.

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The copyright of the article Kindertransport Before the Second World War in W European History is owned by Fiona Allison. Permission to republish Kindertransport Before the Second World War in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.