Dr. Amy Williams, a Birmingham native who currently serves as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan, New York, loves Audrey Hepburn.
“She was an incredible humanitarian and such a giving person,” says Williams. “She was full of life and loved unconditionally. Audrey was such a champion for children. As I got interested in the study of the Kindertransport, I could really relate to that.”
In August, Williams co-authored with her longtime mentor, Prof. Bill Niven, National and Transnational Memories of the Kindertransport: Exhibitions, Memorial and Commemorations. The exhaustive volume serves as a transnational study of the memory of the Kindertransport and the “first to explore how it is represented in museums, memorials, and commemorations.”
Speaking to The Jerusalem Report, Williams highlights the importance and enduring legacy of this seminal touchstone in the annals of Jewish history. Her passion and humanity shine through, often mirroring the kind of altruism she so admires in her cultural icon, Audrey Hepburn. The book’s release coincides with the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport, which is on December 1.
On November 15, 1938, within a week of Kristallnacht, “the night of broken glass,” the British government allowed unaccompanied minors under the age of 17 from the German Reich, including the annexed territories of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and free city of Gdańsk to enter Great Britain as refugees. The Kindertransport was orchestrated so that it became the sole responsibility of private citizens and specific organizations to guarantee the payments for each child’s well-being. Over the ensuing months, the UK took in nearly 10,000 refugee children.
“The splitting up of families because of Kristallnacht led many mothers making the brave decision to send their children to strangers,” says Williams. “I’ve spoken with about 150 families from all over the world. All of the survivors’ stories are so dear to me, [and] I am so thankful to them for sharing all that they do. Their determination to educate us is awe-inspiring and their personalities and energies also encourage us to do more.”
Williams came to Israel a year ago to take part in the “Future of Holocaust Testimonies VI,” a conference at Western Galilee College in Acre. “I spoke about personal transnational memory, and to interview Kindertransport families in Israel was really special for me because I sat in their homes surrounded by their possessions from the thirties. During my visit to Kibbutz Lavi [near Tiberias], I was lucky to have access to its archive and see their exhibition on Kindertransport. I also saw the exhibition at the Ghetto Fighters’ House. Both of these experiences taught me how the Kindertransport became a unique part of the kibbutz’s history as well as how the narrative was placed within the wider context of Jewish resistance, bravery and spiritual triumph.”
Frank Meisler, the Israeli architect born in 1925 in Gdańsk to a German mother and Polish father, was evacuated by the Kindertransport in August 1939. Meisler traveled with other Jewish children via Berlin to the Netherlands and then to Liverpool Street station in London. While his parents were later murdered at Auschwitz, he was raised by an aunt who lived in London, and did his national service in the Royal Air Force. Ultimately studying architecture at the University of Manchester, he moved to Israel in the late 1950s and thereafter, opened a workshop and gallery in Jaffa.
Meisler’s series of Kindertransport memorial sculptures remain on display worldwide. These sculptures include, The Arrival at Liverpool Street station in London, Trains to Life – Trains to Death in Berlin, The Departure in Gdańsk, Crossing to Life in the Hook of Holland and Final Parting in Hamburg. “To stand in his workspace with his daughter was very moving, indeed,” reflects Williams. “I left Israel wanting to know more. I knew that by delving deep into the archives, there was more to the story. I was proven right!”
“Meisler’s memorials are a good indication that the memory of the Kindertransport is moving beyond national boundaries – beyond British memory – in the last 20 years. His network brought back his own memories,” adds Prof. Bill Niven who taught German history at Nottingham Trent University. “Today it seems obvious that the Kinder – or personal – memories are central to how we remember the Kindertransport. For many years, the memory of the Kindertransport was institutional in the sense that postwar memory of the Kindertransport focused on the Refugee Children’s Movement. The self-congratulatory institutional memory would later be transformed into Britain’s national memory.”
Prof. Niven, who holds a PhD from the University of St. Andrews, points to the key cultural presentations of the Kindertransport theme such as novels and films. “These include, My Knees Were Jumping, the novel, Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald and Ursula Krecher’s novel, Landgericht (District), which achieved recognition through the German Book Prize in 2010 and was turned into a major TV series in 2018. It was shown on Central German Television.”
One Life, a new biographical drama film starring Anthony Hopkins, depicts the British stockbroker Nicholas Winton who courageously assisted in the rescue of Jewish children in Czechoslovakia. The film is based on If It’s Not Possible…:The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton, written by his daughter, Barbara.
“The 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport is very significant in terms of Kindertransport memory because it is very much at a crossroads in the nations we examine,” concludes Williams. “It could incorporate more personal transnational memory, which presents the events in all their complexity, or it could continue to focus on the very narrow definition of the Kindertransport as rescue. The Kindertransport is a rescue but it is also a family separation, and it signifies the deportation and annihilation of Jewish children. For the past month, I have been speaking with Kindertransport families in Israel who are deeply distressed but who nevertheless want to share their stories.” ■