One Small Suitcase

For ten months before the outbreak of World War II, hundreds of trains left Germany and Austria carrying children en route to relatives and foster homes in England. Bundled into carriages by distraught parents desperate to find a safe escape route for their offspring, these bewildered children embarked on their journey clutching a precious doll or some other memento of home and no luggage other than a small suitcase or bag. In this moving and compassionate account of the Kindertransport, the movement of (mostly) Jewish children out of Nazi Europe, the story is told in the words of the children themselves. Barry Turner draws upon interviews not only with the young refugees as they struggled to overcome homesickness and adapt to a new way of life, but also with the foster parents and those who helped to organise the transport. There are poignant tales of children mothering younger siblings and of terrible loneliness and hardship, but there were also acts of tremendous courage and generosity amongst those who set up hostels or provided schooling. Many of the children never saw their parents again, while those few who did track down survivors found that the gulf was too wide to bridge. Almost all bore the scars of their experience. Barry Turner sets the story of the Kindertransport in its context as part of the tragedy that engulfed Europe and the wider world, but he also urges us to make the comparison with the refugee problem that is with us still. A powerful and compelling history lesson for a mature reader, this extraordinary account is a fitting tribute to the children whose lives were utterly changed.