This post will be about the first Kindertransport, which arrived in the United Kingdom on 2 December 1938. However, I am starting with a speech by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on 30 September 1938.
“There are only two things I want to say. First of all, I have received an immense number of letters during all these anxious times, and so has my wife. Letters of support, approval, and gratitude and I can’t tell you what an encouragement that has been to me. I want to thank the British people for what they have done. Next. And next, I want to say that the settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace.
“This morning. I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you.
“We, the German Fuhrer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe.
“We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German naval agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.
“We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.”
“My good friends,
“My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
This is what puzzles me, if there really was peace for our time, then why did thousands of children have to be transported from Germany and Austria less than three months later?
In desperation, thousands of Jewish parents sent their unaccompanied children abroad, hoping they would find refuge from Nazi persecution. Just think about that for a minute, especially parents. The sacrifice of this act. When my kids were still small, it broke my heart every time I had to leave home for a few days and leave them behind. Or the nightmare scenarios that would run through my head when my children went on a trip—even if it was a short weekend. These parents weren’t sure if they would ever be reunited with their children, and for many that was the case as they would be murdered by the Nazis.
Approximately 10,000 children, the majority of whom were Jewish, were sent from their homes and families in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain.
The British Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare had met with a delegation representing both Jewish and non-Jewish refugees. After a debate in the House of Commons, they decided that the UK would accept unaccompanied children up to the age of 17. Sir Hoare agreed to speed up the immigration process by allowing travel documents to be issued on a group basis rather than individually. No limit was placed on the number of refugees.
The first children’s transport to England arrived in Harwich on 2 December 1938. It consisted of approximately 200 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin that had been destroyed during Kristallnacht. From cities such as Berlin, Vienna and Prague, the children travelled by train to ports in Belgium and the Netherlands and from there by ship to Harwich.
Sources
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/peace_in_our_time.htm
https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/1-december-1938-the-first-kindertransport-leaves-berlin-2/
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kindertransport-1938-40
https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/thema/Eerste%20kindertransport%20in%20Harwich%2C%202%20december%201938
History of Sorts 
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