When 200 unaccompanied child refugees arrived in Harwich, Essex, in early December 1938, they did so through a new visa-waiver scheme. These children from Berlin were escaping Nazi persecution, and eventually more than 10,000 children – mostly from Jewish families – would arrive in Britain via the same process.
December 2 marks the 85th commemoration of the Kindertransport. And compared to some of today’s anti-refugee rhetoric, the scheme looks like a successful official rescue mission. But is that true?
November 9 and 10 1938 saw state-sponsored violence perpetrated against Jewish citizens across the German Reich. The British government was subsequently put under pressure from the public to help continental Jewish citizens.
