Children

The Children

The Nazis “kidnapped” 50,000 polish children from their parents,then from there they took them to Germany to be adopted by some of the families that lived in the area. The chosen children whose features most fit the Nazi notion of a “master race” would be people with blond hair,blue eyes and fair skin. Many of these children were rejected later on and sent to special camps for children where then they would die of either starvation or disease.

With the world heading towards the outskirts of war it was becoming impossible to get every Jew out of Germany in time. People made special efforts for the part of the children especially. Relief organizations started to arrange for groups of children to leave Germany as soon as possible. The children had to leave their parents and to seek out to find their families in Britain. First they had to make sure they were wanted and make sure that the families would take good care of them. Also to make sure they were safe there if trouble comes they were ready.

A few days after the Night of Broken Glass the British Government, pressed by the Jewish groups, gave the go-ahead to humanitarian refugee organizations. These organizations bring over as many children as their resources can handle. Their resources provided 50 pound of necessary items. These items help cover the expensive of keeping them.

The Germans allowed the children to go as long as they did not take any money or valuables along with them. They went by train to the coast at Holland. Then by boat across the English Channel to the port of Harwich. The operation was called Kindertransporte - the children's transport. From Harwich the children were either sent to a special transit camp, a former holiday camp or put onto trains and sent to London. There they would meet some of the members of the Refugee Children's Movements organization and sent to stay with volunteered families to look and take care of them.

Gypsy children playing

Between the years 1938 and 1939 the Refugee Children's Movement brought 9,354 kids to Britain. Out of the 9,354 kids 7,482 of them were Jewish. Smaller and Smaller groups were brought after than extending the number to 10,000. Most of the kids parents back in Germany were sent to concentration camps where they were more likely dead. So the majority of the children stayed on to become British citizens.