Kindertransport: a lifeline for Jewish children
Henry Lowenstein
After Henry’s application for the Kindertransport is submitted in February 1939, Henry and his parents continue to pursue all available options to get Henry out of the country. Knowing that he must be ready to leave quickly if accepted, Henry must get his paperwork in order.
Since October 1938, Jews are required to surrender their passports and carry Jewish identity cards issued by the Gestapo. Henry and his father, Max Loewenstein, visit Gestapo headquarters in Berlin on March 31, 1939 to obtain their cards. While they are there, Henry must watch as his father is subjected to insult and humiliation.
Henry’s card is marked with a “J” and, as required by the law regarding Jewish names in effect since August 17, 1938, it identifies him as Ernst Heinrich "Israel" Loewenstein.
Identification card issued to Ernst Heinrich "Israel" Loewenstein in Berlin, March 31, 1939.
Courtesy of Beck Archives, University Libraries, University of Denver
Henry is accepted on a transport to France and then loses his place due to illness. In late May he is accepted for the Kindertransport to Great Britain, organized by London’s Hampstead Garden Suburb Care Committee for Refugee Children.
Transcript
Henry Lowenstein: We had—in the meantime, I had been accepted for a transport to France. And I must confess that I wasn’t wild about going to France, but I would have—anything was better than staying in Germany. And that was a child’s reaction because I didn’t like French as a language. Didn’t speak French very well and never seemed to get it through my head what that was all about. But anyway, the—just as the plans were being made to go to France I became ill and was not able to go. And—which was probably, ultimately, one of the best things that ever happened to me because all the people that were sent to France were all killed, eventually when the Germans conquered France, all these people were taken away and never to be heard of again. So we got word from London that I was accepted, that this committee had agreed to sponsor me to go to England. And then we had to go and get paperwork done.
"I must confess that I wasn’t wild about going to France, but I would have—anything was better than staying in Germany."
USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, Interview 11470
Letter announcing Heinrich Loewenstein's place on the Kindertransport, May 25, 1939
Courtesy of Beck Archives, University Libraries, University of Denver
Henry is thirteen years old as he prepares to leave his family behind in Berlin, uncertain when they will see each other again. He is old enough to appreciate the gravity and the necessity of the situation. The pictures below are of the family during Henry’s last weeks in Berlin.
Transcript
Henry Lowenstein: But I mean the only thing—at that point, the only thing anybody thought about was, "How can we get out?" And I mean, of course it was a terrible thing to leave one’s parents and to leave one’s relatives, but it also became a question of survival. And the parents realized that the only way they could save their children was to get them out. So there was not a question of saying, "We have to stick together," because you knew if you stuck together the chances were you were all doomed.
[Interviewer] Did you have plans that maybe if they got out how you would meet or anything like that?
[Henry Lowenstein] No. We didn’t talk about that at all, because we absolutely, simply didn’t know. I mean the hope was to simply stay in touch and to find a way, you know. I mean after all, my mother had experienced—she had fled from the Bolsheviks to Germany. My father had been all through four years of the [First World] War, as a doctor, but still in all on the front lines. It was—you know we had grown up knowing that life could be very difficult. So all we could really look forward to was hope—finding a way for each of us to survive, and then finding a way of getting back together. But um, at the time, it was strictly a day-to-day survival thing.
"So there was not a question of saying, 'We have to stick together,' because you knew if you stuck together the chances were you were all doomed."
USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, Interview 11470
Loewenstein Family Portrait, May 1939. Left to right: Henry, Karin, Max, and Marie
Courtesy of Beck Archives, University Libraries, University of Denver
Heinrich Loewenstein and Karin Steinberg in Berlin, May 1939
Courtesy of Beck Archives, University Libraries, University of Denver
Henry Lowenstein's Timeline
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Hitler reconstitutes the Nazi Party
Hitler, released after 9 months in prison for treason, declares the return of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) at Munich's Bürgerbräukeller, the site of the Nazi Putsch against the democratically elected government in 1923. Hitler, who aims to gain power through elections, and then establish a Nazi dictatorship, designates himself Führer (leader).
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Henry Lowenstein born in Berlin, Germany
Henry's parents, Max and Maria Loewenstein, name their son Ernst Heinrich Loewenstein. He is called Heinrich, and later changes his name to Henry.
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Wall Street stock market crash
The Wall Street Crash, or "Black Tuesday," is the most devastating stock market crash in U.S. history. The crash leads to the Great Depression, which affects the industrialized world and strikes the Weimar Republic particularly hard.
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Jewish population of Germany is c. 523,000
The c. 523,000 Jews living in Germany at the beginning of 1933 make up less-than 0.75% of the country's total population (67 million). Approximately 80% hold German citizenship; the next largest group are Polish citizens, many of whom are permanent residents of or were born in Germany. Some 70% of the Jewish population in Germany lives in urban areas; the largest community (c. 160,000 people) is in Berlin.
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Adolf Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany
President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Hitler chancellor on the recommendation of political advisers, who believe they can manipulate Hitler for their own political purposes. During the next 18 months, Hitler and his Nazi appointees consolidate power and take over all mechanisms of governance.
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School quotas limit the number of Jewish students
Quotas allow only 1.5 percent of high school and university students to be Jewish. Jews will be totally barred from German schools by 1938, and Jewish schools will be ordered closed in 1941.
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Nuremberg Race Laws passed
The "Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor" and the "Reich Citizenship Law"--known collectively as the Nuremberg Race Laws--prohibit marriage between Germans and Jews, and strip Jews of many civil rights, relegating them to second-class citizenship. Inspired by Jim Crow-era laws imposing racial segregation and prohibiting interracial marriage in the United States, these laws are later extended to the Roma people and to Black individuals.
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Law requires registration of Jewish-owned assets
Under the "Order for the Disclosure of Jewish Assets," Jews must register all property valued at over 5,000 Reichsmark. This law sets the stage for the expropriation of Jewish property and possessions.
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Henry Lowenstein is accepted for Kindertransport to Great Britain
The Loewensteins receive notification from the Hampstead Garden Suburb Care Committee for Refugee Children confirming Henry's place on the Kindertransport.
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Registration of Jewish-owned businesses
Businesses owned in whole or in part by those defined as Jews under the Nuremberg Race Laws must register, which allows for the further expropriation of Jewish property by the Nazis.
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The Evian Conference is held in France
Convened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Evian Conference is designed to address increasing numbers of mostly Jewish refugees fleeing the Reich. More than 30 countries attend, but no country--with the exception of the Dominican Republic-- significantly increases its immigration quota to meet the crisis of Jewish refugees.
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Restriction of Jews from professions
Nazi laws restrict Jews from employment in numerous professions, including: book-keeping, real estate, money-lending, and tour-guiding.
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Decertification of Jewish doctors
An amendment to the Reich Citizenship Law (Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935) decrees that Jewish physicians will be relieved of their accreditation to practice medicine as of September 30, 1938.
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"Jewish name" regulations
The law requires Jews to adopt a middle name--"Israel" for males, "Sarah" for females--identifying them as Jewish. Jews are required to carry identification cards documenting their heritage.
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Invalidation of Jewish passports
German and Austrian Jews are required to surrender their passports. Those Jews who receive permission to emigrate are granted a passport marked with the letter "J" for Jude, which expires 30 days after their departure from the Reich.
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Kristallnacht Pogrom
Kristallnacht--the "Night of Broken Glass"--begins the night of 9 November and continues through the next day throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Nazi leadership plans and coordinates the pogrom, during which more than 1,400 synagogues are burned, Jewish-owned businesses destroyed, and about 30,000 Jews are arrested and deported to concentration camps. The Jewish community is later required to pay "restitution" for the damage caused to their own property. Nazis claim Kristallnacht was a "spontaneous" response to Grynszpan's assassination of vom Rath. In the United States, the Kristallnacht attacks were front-page news. Despite widespread condemnation of the Nazi persecution of Jews, the majority of Americans did not want to welcome Jewish refugees from Europe.
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Exclusion of Jews from German economic life
The "Order for the Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life" prohibits Jews from owning stores or engaging in any type of commerce with goods or services. Furthermore, Jews are prohibited from managing businesses of any kind and are forced to sell their businesses to Germans.
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Jewish children banned from public schools
Jewish attendance at German schools has been subject to a restrictive quota since April 1933. Though most Jewish students had already left German public schools due to antisemitism, this law formally expells Jewish children from schools.
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British government approves the Kindertransport (1938-1940)
After the Kristallnacht pogroms, refugee aid committees in Great Britain pressure the government to relax restrictions to allow refugee children from Germany and Germany-annexed territories into the country. The "Kindertransport," or children's transport, will bring about 10,000 children, most Jewish, from Nazi territory to Great Britain from 1938 until 14 May 1940.
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US, Canada, and Cuba deny entrance of Jewish refugees on the St. Louis
The US, Canada, and Cuba deny entrance to over 900 refugees aboard the St. Louis, though they possess Cuban visas. The passengers--nearly all Jewish--are forced to return to Europe. Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Holland accept the refugees, though many are later deported and murdered when the Nazis occupy Belgium, France, and Holland.
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Great Britain restricts Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine
Great Britain governs Palestine under an international mandate. Earlier, Mandate Palestine offered Jews an escape from Nazi-occupied Europe, but the British restrict their immigration under pressure from Arab leaders.
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Henry Lowenstein leaves Berlin on Kindertransport to Great Britain
Unaccompanied, the children on this transport leave Berlin on a train to Rotterdam, Netherlands. From Rotterdam they travel by ship across the English Channel to Harwich, where they board another train bound for London.
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Nazi Germany invades Poland, sparking World War II
Nazi forces invade and swiftly defeat Polish forces using the "Blitzkrieg"--a rapid and combined forces attack. Within days, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.
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British government initiates Operation Pied Piper
In anticipation of the impending war with Nazi Germany, the British government orders large-scale evacuations from urban areas that might be targets of Nazi air raids. More than half of the 1.5 million people evacuated from cities throughout Great Britain are children.
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Nazis invade Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands
Nazi Germany invades and quickly overwhelms Belgium, much of France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
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Allied evacuation from Dunkirk
Following Germany's rapid conquest of Belgium and the Netherlands, and with the French overwhelmed, approximately 300,000 Allied troops evacuate from Dunkirk to Great Britain.
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Battle of Britain and the "Blitz"
Great Britain under Prime Minister Winston Churchill remains defiant of Nazi aims to force British surrender. Great Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) battles the German Luftwaffe for months during a massive bombing campaign against British strategic and civilian targets. In nightly bombing attacks on London and other British cities, thousands are killed and millions terrorized.
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German Jews must wear yellow star
Nazi law requires all Jews in the Reich over age six to wear a badge on their clothing. This applies to Jews in Germany and all Jews living in territories annexed to Germany, including western Poland (the Warthegau), Bohemia and Moravia, and Alsace. The easily identifiable badge features a yellow six-pointed star with the word "Jew" written in the local language.
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Wannsee Conference on the "Final Solution"
Leading Nazi officials convene at Wannsee to plan and implement the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question." At this meeting, operational preparations for the extermination of European Jewry are outlined.
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"Factory Action" raid and Rosenstrasse Demonstration in Berlin
In the "Factory Action" of February 1943, the Gestapo conducts a major roundup of German Jews for deportation to Auschwitz. In Berlin, so-called “mixed marriage Jews” are held in special custody at the Jewish community center building at Rosenstrasse 2-4 in Berlin. A group of detainees' German/non-Jewish family members assembles outside of the building to demand information about their family members. Their protest continues until March 6.
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D-Day: Allied invasion of France
The long awaited invasion of Nazi-occupied France by Allied forces begins with the landing of some 175,000 US, British and Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy.
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Allied and Nazi forces engage in "Battle of the Bulge"
Allied troops moving towards Germany are halted when Nazi forces in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium push back the US Army. The Germans' rapid advance creates a "bulge" in the front lines of combat, but their gains are only temporary.
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Soviet occupation of Berlin
The "Battle of Berlin" begins April 20. As the Soviets fight their way street by street into the city, Nazi forces and leadership collapse in disarray. Hitler commits suicide on April 28. After three days of fierce fighting, the Reichstag--and the city of Berlin--falls to the Soviets on May 2, 1945.
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Unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany's High Command unconditionally surrenders on 7 May to the Allies and 9 May to the Soviets. May 8 is proclaimed "Victory in Europe Day."
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Emigration crisis for displaced persons (DPs) in Europe
Two years after the end of the war, there are still around one million people in displaced persons camps in Europe. Approximately 250,000 are Jews awaiting further immigration, many of whom wish to emigrate to British Mandate Palestine. For many DPs, repatriation to their pre-war homes is unthinkable, but many countries--including the U.S.--still impose restrictive immigration policies.
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Korean War begins
After World War II, Korea is partitioned at the 38th parallel, creating a socialist state under Soviet influence in the North and a Western-style democracy in the South. In June 1950, North Korea invades South Korea, armed by the Soviet Union. Under the banner of fighting the spread of communism, the United States leads a UN coalition in the conflict against North Korea, which is backed by communist Russia and China. An armistice agreement in July 1953 puts an end to the military conflict, but the division of Korea persists until today.