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Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport

by Deborah Oppenheimer - £9.99  Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2017)
paperback    ISBN 13: 9781408892275 | ISBN 10: 1408892278

With a preface by Lord Richard Attenborough, a collection of accounts from some of the 10,000 children rescued from the Nazi Regime and brought to the UK by the Kinderstransport scheme.
 
In November 1938, international public opinion was shocked by the news of Kristallnacht - the anti-Jewish pogrom that led to the burning of synagogues and the first mass arrests of Jewish men. Twelve days later, the British government implemented the Kindertransport plan, which allowed many children to leave the horrors of the Nazi regime and find temporary refuge within British families and hostels. By the time war was declared in September 1939, this brave undertaking had saved 10,000 lives.
 
This book, based on the Academy Award-winning feature documentary of the same name, reveals what it was like to grow up in the shadow of the Nazi threat, to escape danger and fear, but also to leave family and friends, perhaps for ever. It is poignantly told in the words of those directly involved. It is both an astonishing insight into a remarkable moment of history and a timely reminder of how welcoming our country has been in the past to those who need welcome, shelter and hope.

(Price & availability last checked: April 2018)