Into The Arms of Strangers
By Damaris Chacon
ESL 0200
This is a documentary film about an extraordinary rescue operation called “Kindertransport” during World War II that transported Jewish children from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria to foster homes and hostels in Great Britain. These children were victims of Nazi terror. Their parents sent them away hoping they soon would be reunited. 80% of the Kindertransport children never saw their parents again. All those children who survived have unforgettable stories to tell.
In 1938, a few months before World War II, all the Jewish people in Germany were restricted as citizens by the tyranny of Adolf Hitler. Soon after that, Jewish people were arrested and threatened by Nazi soldiers. All the Jewish businesses were destroyed. Every day Jewish people lived in a constant fear. An organization from Great Britain called “Kindertransport” started to rescue Jewish children and transport them by train to their country. Once there, children were placed in foster homes or hostels.
With all the pain and devastation, parents sent their children to Great Britain, with the promise they soon would follow them. Jewish children were placed on trains and each received a number. They were allowed to carry only one suitcase. At the Dutch border, Nazis terrorized them; made them open their suitcases and robbed them. When children arrived in Great Britain, some were placed in foster homes and others in hostels, where people would come on weekends to interview them and take them to their new homes. Some children were able to find ways to liberate their own parents from Hitler’s tyranny and were reunited with them in Great Britain.
Children wrote letters to their parents and parents to their children. The Red Cross delivered the letters to the children and the parents. Some children never heard any more from their parents and they knew they would never see them again. Other Jewish children were lucky to be reunited with their parents years later.
As a parent, I can imagine the pain and devastation all these Jewish parents and children suffered during the Holocaust. It must have been devastating to see your children being taken away from you without knowing what would happen to them. There always will be times when people have to suffer one way or another in this world. I cannot imagine how a person or people can have so much hate to destroy human beings.