The Kindertransport ("children’s transports") is a remarkable story to arise out of the horrors of the Holocaust, allowing more than 10,000 mostly Jewish children to be rescued.
Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Leo Baeck Institute present a lecture by Lilly Maier on "The History of the Kindertransport and Its Long-Term Effects" on Monday, December 12, 6:30 p.m., at Deutsches Haus, 42 Washington Mews (at the corner of University Pl.), New York, N.Y.
The Kindertransport ("children’s transports") is a remarkable story to arise out of the horrors of the Holocaust. Over 10,000 mostly Jewish children could be rescued, because their parents were willing to separate from them. From Nazi Germany, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia these children – aged two to 16 – were brought to safety in Great Britain and France starting in December 1938. Many of them later emigrated to the United States. The Kindertransport saved these children, but it also had very distinctive and often traumatic long-term effects on their later lives. The forced separation from their parents and the complete uprooting from their childhood lives did leave emotional scars. Despite all this, most of the survivors overcame their trauma and lived very successful lives. Today, these survivors call themselves Kinder (“children”) as a reference to their background and the unique rescue effort that saved them. This lecture is based on dozens of interviews with such Kinder all over the United States.
Lilly Maier is a Fulbright scholar, historian, and journalist. At NYU, she is a graduate student in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism School. She previously studied history at the University of Munich, where her thesis – the basis for this talk – was awarded with the university’s "Prize for Outstanding Student Research." Maier has published several articles on the long term effects of the Kindertransport and recently presented her research at the "Kindertransport Association Conference" in Detroit. Maier has written for a number of American magazines and newspapers, including The Forward, PolitiFact.com, and the Columbus Dispatch. She has also worked as a lecturer at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Currently she is working on the biography of Arthur Kern, a Holocaust survivor who used to live in the same Viennese apartment that she grew up in, and who was saved on a Kindertransport to France. She expects to receive her master’s degree in journalism from NYU this December, followed by one in Jewish History from the University of Munich in 2017.
Events at Deutsches Haus are free of charge. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to deutscheshaus.rsvp@nyu.edu.. Space at Deutsches Haus is limited; please arrive ten minutes prior to the event. Thank you!