The Kindertransports took primarily Jewish children and young people from
Chemnitz and Germany to safer (initially at least) destinations abroad.
The first trains left Berlin for England at the end of November 1938, with
others later heading elsewhere. But with the start of the war in 1939, the
rescue effort came to a standstill. By that time, they had transported
around 10,000 children and young people up to the age of 17 to England
without their parents under strict supervision. They each took one
suitcase and had 10 Reichsmarks in their pockets. They travelled alone to
a foreign country, whose language and everyday customs they did not
know, and started a new life there. They left behind families that had been
torn apart, most of whom were never reunited; many family members
and friends died in concentration camps. – The production deals with
Nazi persecution and the system of the Kindertransports from a historical
perspective, touching on the events in Chemnitz and telling this part of
European history primarily from the perspective of the former children,
whose view of the world of that time still has a profound impact today.
