Kindertransport 'lost' records found by researcher

New insights into one of the most remarkable stories from the years before World War Two have been discovered in 'lost' records.

The Kindertransport saw thousands of Jewish children fleeing the rise of facism in Europe before the borders were sealed.

Details of their journey through Holland were not thought to have survived but have now been uncovered by a researcher from Nottingham Trent University.

Surviving Kindertransportee Hanna Zack Miley, 92, said: "I'm embracing more deeply both the losses and the deliverance, the saving of my life".

Used by border officials in the Netherlands, the records contain the names of almost all the children who fled to the UK and Holland on the Kindertransport – up to 9,000 children – on more than 90 trains between December 1938 and August 1939.

They include details of the children's names, home addresses, dates of birth, parents' names, chaperones' names, transport numbers and departure dates.

The documents were discovered in the archives at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, by Dr Amy Williams, a freelance research fellow who studied at Nottingham Trent University.

Dr Williams is now working with Emeritus Professor Bill Niven to piece together the facts and make the lists available to the public.

She said: "Since I started my research into the Kindertransport ten years ago, I was told repeatedly that the lists of children travelling to Britain and Holland did not exist.

"These lists will allow thousands of people to reconstruct their family units and understand more about their grandparents' and great-grandparents' lives before the horror ensued.

"Many of the Kindertransportees who are still alive today, who were so young that they cannot recall their journeys, will for the first time learn how they fled the war to start new lives in the UK and Holland."

Surviving Kindertransportee Hanna Zack Miley, 92, who now lives Arizona in the USA, said: "I am still feeling the reverberations of seeing my details on the Kindertransport list. Reclaiming the past is an ongoing journey for me.

"My first reaction was a feeling of authentication - this actually did happen, I was really there. I'm embracing more deeply both the losses and the deliverance, the saving of my life.

"I am comforted by a fresh sense of belonging to the kinder and our shared history. I think Dr Williams has gifted us with a sense of dignity, in the honouring of our story.

"Already the discovery of the lists has led to a Zoom meeting with two of Doris Aronowitz' sons. Her name was next to mine on the list. I think it's only the beginning."

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