Saved My Life Kindertransport Veterans Unveil Statue In Essex Harbor Immigration And Asylum

The girl had just stepped off a boat that brought her with hundreds of other Jewish children to the UK from the horrors of Nazi Europe. Shirley returned to Essex Harbor on Thursday to unveil a memorial Kindertransport statue commemorating the rescue of 10,000 unaccompanied children. Dame Stephanie Shirley says she loves Britain but is disappointed to “see it behaving in a short-term, little England way” when it comes to refugees. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian Her memories of the two-and-a-half-day trip to Harwich were mundane, she told a gathering of Kindertransport veterans, their descendants and local officials. “The lost doll, rather than the lost house. the little boy who kept being sick. sleeping on sheets of corrugated cardboard. the labels around our necks.” “Of course,” he told the Guardian, “I’ve since thought about how things might have been different if I hadn’t been put on a train. And how things are different because they put me on the train. how it gave me endurance and strength.” The first Kindertransport train left Berlin on 1 December 1938 and the first train from Vienna left nine days later. The rescue mission ended with the outbreak of war. It has been commemorated with monuments across Europe, including at Liverpool Street station in London. But until now, the point of arrival of the children had not been noted. Harwich’s monument, by Ian Wolter, consists of five children cast in bronze, descending a plank to safe ground. One walks forward optimistically, one looks curiously, one looks worried, and one looks back, perhaps at the home, family and life he has lost. The fifth does what children do in similar settings: climb the handrail. Kindertransport veterans at the unveiling of the ‘Safe Haven’ memorial on Harwich Waterfront. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian Wolter said: “It was a heavy responsibility – and a huge privilege – to create this monument. I tried to imagine the storm of emotions these children must have felt when they arrived in a foreign country, separated from their parents, without speaking the language.” The artist was chosen in part because of an earlier piece of public art, Children of Calais, which aims to spark debate about the treatment of refugees. It was unveiled in Saffron Walden, Suffolk, in 2018 by Labor peer Alf Dubs, a Kindertransport veteran who was present at Thursday’s ceremony. The Harwich memorial was paid for by donations, including a sum from the German government. Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK, told the audience at the ceremony that he was “honoured and humbled” to be present and the memorial was a reminder of the need to be “vigilant against the rise of anti-Semitism, prejudice and tyranny”. . Bob Kirk, 97, arrived in Harwich from Germany aged 13 in May 1939, six months after the Kristallnacht pogrom, when Jews were killed and rounded up and synagogues destroyed. Bob and Ann Kirk. He said he was “excited and scared” about the trip to Britain. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian “I had very mixed feelings: excited and scared,” he said. “I wasn’t very well prepared – my parents played it. It was a credit to the British government to give permission, but beyond that it was up to the local communities to organize transport, accommodation, support. “But it saved my life and gave me the possibility of a new life and a new family.” Kirk’s parents were deported to Riga, Latvia and killed. After the war, Kirk married another Kindertransportee, Ann, and the couple had two children. Both are active in Holocaust education. Shirley was a successful businesswoman and is now one of the UK’s leading philanthropists. She, her sister and her parents moved from Germany to Austria in the 1930s after her father lost his job. In the face of the growing Nazi threat, Shirley’s mother made the heartbreaking decision to put her daughters on a Kindertransport train to London. “It was a train with 1,000 kids,” he said. “At the station we were surrounded by crying parents. My mother held it together, but she didn’t really expect to see us again.” Mark King displays the entry document that belonged to his mother Dina King (née Gaspard) when she arrived in Harwich in 1939 from Austria. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian The family was reunited a few years after the war. “I was very lucky that my family survived,” she said. “I wish today’s refugees were received with the same kindness that we have shown. “Britain behaves quite well in relation to Ukrainian refugees, but black people are not so popular. I love this country with a passion, but when I see it behaving in a short-term, little England way, I am disappointed.” In 2019, Shirley received a check from the German government for €2,500 (£2,150) in compensation – a payment available to all Kindertransport survivors. Donate the money to Safe Passage, which helps today’s refugee children find shelter.

title: " Saved My Life Kindertransport Veterans Unveil Statue In Essex Harbor Immigration And Asylum Klmat" ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-25” author: “Gina Land”

The girl had just stepped off a boat that brought her with hundreds of other Jewish children to the UK from the horrors of Nazi Europe. Shirley returned to Essex Harbor on Thursday to unveil a memorial Kindertransport statue commemorating the rescue of 10,000 unaccompanied children. Dame Stephanie Shirley says she loves Britain but is disappointed to “see it behaving in a short-term, little England way” when it comes to refugees. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian Her memories of the two-and-a-half-day trip to Harwich were mundane, she told a gathering of Kindertransport veterans, their descendants and local officials. “The lost doll, rather than the lost house. the little boy who kept being sick. sleeping on sheets of corrugated cardboard. the labels around our necks.” “Of course,” he told the Guardian, “I’ve since thought about how things might have been different if I hadn’t been put on a train. And how things are different because they put me on the train. how it gave me endurance and strength.” The first Kindertransport train left Berlin on 1 December 1938 and the first train from Vienna left nine days later. The rescue mission ended with the outbreak of war. It has been commemorated with monuments across Europe, including at Liverpool Street station in London. But until now, the point of arrival of the children had not been noted. Harwich’s monument, by Ian Wolter, consists of five children cast in bronze, descending a plank to safe ground. One walks forward optimistically, one looks curiously, one looks worried, and one looks back, perhaps at the home, family and life he has lost. The fifth does what children do in similar settings: climb the handrail. Kindertransport veterans at the unveiling of the ‘Safe Haven’ memorial on Harwich Waterfront. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian Wolter said: “It was a heavy responsibility – and a huge privilege – to create this monument. I tried to imagine the storm of emotions these children must have felt when they arrived in a foreign country, separated from their parents, without speaking the language.” The artist was chosen in part because of an earlier piece of public art, Children of Calais, which aims to spark debate about the treatment of refugees. It was unveiled in Saffron Walden, Suffolk, in 2018 by Labor peer Alf Dubs, a Kindertransport veteran who was present at Thursday’s ceremony. The Harwich memorial was paid for by donations, including a sum from the German government. Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK, told the audience at the ceremony that he was “honoured and humbled” to be present and the memorial was a reminder of the need to be “vigilant against the rise of anti-Semitism, prejudice and tyranny”. . Bob Kirk, 97, arrived in Harwich from Germany aged 13 in May 1939, six months after the Kristallnacht pogrom, when Jews were killed and rounded up and synagogues destroyed. Bob and Ann Kirk. He said he was “excited and scared” about the trip to Britain. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian “I had very mixed feelings: excited and scared,” he said. “I wasn’t very well prepared – my parents played it. It was a credit to the British government to give permission, but beyond that it was up to the local communities to organize transport, accommodation, support. “But it saved my life and gave me the possibility of a new life and a new family.” Kirk’s parents were deported to Riga, Latvia and killed. After the war, Kirk married another Kindertransportee, Ann, and the couple had two children. Both are active in Holocaust education. Shirley was a successful businesswoman and is now one of the UK’s leading philanthropists. She, her sister and her parents moved from Germany to Austria in the 1930s after her father lost his job. In the face of the growing Nazi threat, Shirley’s mother made the heartbreaking decision to put her daughters on a Kindertransport train to London. “It was a train with 1,000 kids,” he said. “At the station we were surrounded by crying parents. My mother held it together, but she didn’t really expect to see us again.” Mark King displays the entry document that belonged to his mother Dina King (née Gaspard) when she arrived in Harwich in 1939 from Austria. Photo: David Levene/The Guardian The family was reunited a few years after the war. “I was very lucky that my family survived,” she said. “I wish today’s refugees were received with the same kindness that we have shown. “Britain behaves quite well in relation to Ukrainian refugees, but black people are not so popular. I love this country with a passion, but when I see it behaving in a short-term, little England way, I am disappointed.” In 2019, Shirley received a check from the German government for €2,500 (£2,150) in compensation – a payment available to all Kindertransport survivors. Donate the money to Safe Passage, which helps today’s refugee children find shelter.