Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport

Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport

by Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer (Author)

Synopsis

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 an imaginative plan, known informally as the Kindertransport, 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.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 01 Jan 2001

ISBN 10: 074755269X
ISBN 13: 9780747552697

Media Reviews
An important work that contains first-hand testimonies of an experience that only a few books have addressed, much less captured. - Chicago Tribune Wonderfully moving . . . a noble story, beautifully told. - The Daily Mail (London) Harris, an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker ( The Long Way Home ), and television producer Oppenheimer tell the story of the Kindertransport, a rescue mission undertaken by the British that saved 10,000 predominantly Jewish German, Austrian, and Czech children from the Nazi regime. In a series of Studs Terkel-style interviews, they relate the stories of 18 children, foster parents, and organizers of the transport. The text is arranged chronologically, with each section telling the story of one person to illustrate how the rescue mission worked, from the events preceding the children's departure for England to their lives today. This is an effective and compelling way of preserving history. Although much has been written al
Author Bio
Deborah Oppenheimer, whose mother was a Kindertransport survivor, is an Executive TV Producer at Warner Bros. Pictures. Mark Jonathan Harris is a writer and director, whose last film, The Long Way Home (1997), won an Academy Award for the Best Feature Length Documentary.