November 9, 2011
Dear Editor,
Following Vera Fast’s presentation (as part of the community-wide Kristallnacht Commemoration) about the Kindertransport I would like to add:
1. Not much is mentioned and very little attention is given to the role of non-Jewish organizations in general and The British Quakers in particular in taking in Jewish European children saved from the Holocaust.
"This operation could never take place with out the Quakers support Monday 1st December marked the seventieth anniversary of the first train carrying Jewish children away from Nazi persecution to leave Berlin. Quakers, who played a key role in this evacuation, marked the anniversary with an event at Friends House in London, bringing together survivors and families who cared for the children. Quakers were involved at all stages in the Kinder-transport. In London they joined with Jewish delegates in persuading the government to relax immigration requirements, making it easier to evacuate people from Nazi Europe. Quakers accompanied children on the long journey to safety and many families and Quaker schools provided homes." http://www.kindertransport.org/resources.aspx?cat=9
You can read the Kindertransportees’ stories here at www.quaker.org.uk/kinder
2. Its time to re-open the case and investigate again the role that the American government of Franklin D Roosevelt played during the late 30’s in saving Jewish European children. The issue of congress blocking proposed bills to admit 20,000 Jewish children under the age of 14 to the US remai a mystery to me to-date. So while praising the British Government for their part in saving these children we should condemn and criticize the US in a louder voice then ever.
3. In contrary to the common notion Kristallnacht was not a random stand alone act of violence against Jews (it was later recognized as the beginning of the Holocaust) that ended with some ‘broken windows’. Kristallnach was a government supported, sponsored and organized nation wide pogrom. More then 1500 synagogues and 7500 Jewish businesses were burned and vandalized. More then 600 Jewish people died and not 90 as usually reported! http://www.ashkenazhouse.org/vomrath.html
Eran Plotnick, Winipeg