“Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport,” by Deborah Hodge.
Tundra Books, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 2012, 60 pages, Grades 4-6.
Last week in Virginia, a violent fight broke out involving white supremacists. A number of groups including the KKK and the Aryan Nation support white supremacy. The beliefs behind white supremacy are grounded in thoughts of racial superiority and the need to enforce racial separation. Historically, this has always led to attacks on groups deemed to be a threat to the white supremacists.
In the 1930s, this system of thought created virulent fascism in Germany. Though legally voted into office in 1932, Hitler soon seized total power and imposed a horrific racist, religious and ethnic policy against a number of groups. Included in this evil net were Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, nonconforming priests and ministers and other “enemies of the state.” In this dark hour, the Nazis began the process leading to the infamous “Final Solution” by teaching young Germans to hate all Jews.
But in the face of this impending horror, people with great courage rose up to oppose this brutality. This book is about the transportation of Jewish youngsters from the clutches of the Nazis to safety in Great Britain. The name of this title is “Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport.” Kindertransport means “children transport” in English.
The Nazis began generating propaganda against Jews soon after they seized power in Germany. Jews were treated as being dirty, unclean, greedy scoundrels. As a matter of fact, they were blamed for all the evils that had fallen upon Germany after World War I. Though Hitler directed the hatred against the Jews, anti-Semitism had a long and ugly history in the country. About 300,000 Jews, or 60% of the total number of Jews in Germany, had fled the country by 1939. The rest were trapped. Many countries, such as the USA, accepted famous Jews like Albert Einstein, but rejected normal working Jews.
As the Aryan Race Laws began to be enforced by the Nazis, many people realized that the remaining Jews were all in mortal danger. Jewish leaders Bertha Bracey, a Quaker woman from England, Sir Nicholas Winton of England, Truus Meijer of Holland and many others created a plan to go into Germany and take 1,000 Jewish children a month from the Third Reich. It was a daring and dangerous strategy because of the Nazi hatred of the Jewish children, and their hatred for the adults saving the youths. In Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, many Jewish parents were contacted about sending their children on the escape trains. They quickly gave their children into the hands of those saving the youngsters.
Those leading the rescue knew they had little time and had to act with courage and daring.
How did they finally save the 10,000 children from the clutches of the Nazis?
How did these magnificent people find the courage to confront the Third Reich? How did the children actually escape? What happened to them after arriving in England? And finally, why is the need to confront racial hatred still so necessary today? To find out the answers to these questions, please go to the library and read this outstanding book, “Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertranport.”
As events last week demonstrated, racial hatred is not dead in the USA. I would encourage you to read this book with the younger members of your family and discuss the many issued involved in the Kindertransport and their relationship to events today. Books like this help us to learn from the heroic courage of the children involved in the Kindertransport and the adults risking their lives to save others.
