Gabe Gerhske's Holocaust Blog: 2011

Getting ready for Kindertransport

Nilbert Schneider

10/27/1939

One day started out the same as any other day. I looked to my side where my beautiful wife slept. I got out of bed and kissed her on the cheek as I headed for the kitchen to make my usual sandwich and my vitamin drink for the morning. There I saw my two children Norbert and Fiona eating their breakfast that their grandma laid out for them as they got ready for school. As I was making my breakfast, the children asked me who Hitler was. I responded “He is a bad man who needs to be stopped.” “So why don’t you do anything to stop him.” The children asked. “I don’t think there is anything that I can do, I’m only one person what can I do?” I responded. “How am I supposed to know what to do, I’m only a child!” And so we talked for another hour until we both realized that we were late to work and school. I actually don’t care that I’m late, I hate my job as a substitute teacher anyway. All the kids always take advantage of it and it annoys me when they try to be smart about it. As I was approaching school I realized that my first class was at 10:30 and it was only 9 o’clock so I got up for no reason. So since I was already there I dropped the kids off and waved goodbye. Then, angered I returned home and rested for another half hour due to the lack of sleep I had yesterday because of the wedding of my sister and her husband in Italy. So after a regular day of substituting I saw a train go by filled with approximately 200 children with sad faces on each person. As I saw it I couldn't help but think what was happening and where they were being taken and why. I decided not to think about it and just let it go. Then I saw it again two days later and I never saw it again to this day.

Caleb Gerhske

12/10/1938

Last week I was taken from my family and put on a train heading to the safety of Great Britain. I was told that once we arrive in Harwich, we would be moved to London and brought to our foster home there. Just the thought of calling somebody else my dad or my mom is frightening. My whole life I have only known one mom and one dad to be mine. Why is this happening.. Why are the Germans so mean.. If it wasn't for them taking us Jews away and putting our kind into hard labor, I would've still been next to my parents smiling and having fun with the two people I truly love in this cold and heartless war. I don't want this to be happening. I'm only eleven years old... It's not fair.

A couple of hours ago all I did was wait and hope for my new family to be kind and loving. A couple of minutes after the train came to a stop in Harwich and I knew that we would have to go to London now. We started heading to London and after another couple of hours we were finally there. I was taken to a street in the city and I saw some people standing outside their front door. I figured that they might be a couple of families that adopted a child and they were waiting for us. Everybody standing outside seemed nice, except for one person. It was a man, probably around his 30’s. This man was big in size, about 6’2” or so. He had huge arms and a tattoo of a dragon going down his right arm and a couple of piercings on his face. I prayed over and over again for him not to be my new family member, until my leader brought me to a stop and I opened my eyes. I couldn’t believe it, the man was standing right in front of me. We shook hands and exchanged names, his name was James.

Of course I was assigned to him, of course even though I prayed and prayed, over and over again, I still ended up with him. Is there not a god out there. Have I been praying this whole time and the only person that heard it was me. It has become painfully obvious to me that either the god I have been following has turned his back on me and all the other Jews, or there was never a god up there at all and I have been wasting my time worshiping something that was never there. A couple of seconds ago, I was brought into his house. He showed me to my room and then left, I haven’t seen him since and to tell the truth I don’t want to. This is all I have to write for today, expect me back tomorrow to see how it’s going with James.

Alfred Derkminsta

December 2, 1938

I don’t know what but for some reason today doesn’t feel like a regular day. It doesn’t feels like any other normal working day for me as it probably does for any other SS officer. I just cant put my finger on it. The role call was normal. The Jews were all here, all 10,000 of them were counted and sent to work. Selection was normal, people got chosen to go to the crematorium and others were sent back to go to work. Personally in their situation I would rather be put to rest forever then work this undeserved torture. As I have written before and I will restate this now, the only reason that I am an SS officer is because I only joined because I wanted to go with what everyone else was doing and now I am afraid of what would happen if I quit. After selection the others got there soup and there ration of bread. I feel sad to see the Jews fight each other for food and I wish I could give them more. It’s a war going on with the prisoners, a war of survival. sons turning on fathers for food, friends nearly killing each other for that little left over soup in their bowl. After that another roll call went on and nothing different exept for the Jews that were already cremated, so there was a little more then 100 Jews that couldn’t be accounted for. Then when all the prisoners were sent to the blocks so they could rest and more can come in. New Jews were already waiting to be selected. I watched as the commander picked out the weak and the strong that were worthy to keep. I noticed that most of the people who were chosen to live were within 18 to 40 years old and they were male. As for the females, I only saw a good 5 that were allowed to live and deep down I knew that they will die soon and won’t live through all of this tragedy.

Norbert Wollheim

December 2, 1938
A couple of weeks ago as I have written before I witnessed the night of November 9, 1938, which is known as “The night of broken glass” (Knistallnacht). The night of Kristallnacht was a tragic and it opened eyes of many people including myself. Shortly after Kristallnacht, my acquaintance Otto Hirsh requested of me to take on the task of arranging for thousands of people to emigrate from places like Germany, Poland, The Czech lands, and Austria to the safety of Great Britain. I have decided to name this organization Kindertransport which means to child transport in English. Today was the first day that the trains of Kindertransport took off. Just a couple of hours ago I watched as 196 children got on a train and departed on a long journey From Germany to Harwich, Great Britain. Because of this organization those 196 children will now have a family to go to and not have to suffer through the Holocaust. The biggest thought in my head right now is if the children will ever see their family again. The organization was made for them to go back, but I think that the children will either want to stay with the family they are currently with or they’re parents won’t survive through the war. Another thing I wonder is how long this organization will go on and how many lives this will change. My only hope is that all the children end up in a caring family and in a safe environment. This is all for today, I’ll be sure to check in and write how the organization is progressing and anything that pops up about the children.

Kindertransport

Kindertransport was an event that saved nearly 10,000 Jewish children. The first of them occurred on December 2, 1938 which saved 196 children, going from Berlin, Germany to Harwich, Great Britain. The way this organization worked was they took children up to the age of 17 from Germany, Austria, and Czech lands. The reason this organization even started was because of the terrible night of Kristallnacht which left many homeless and desperate. After this terror happened and witnessing this night, Norbert Wollheim decided to do something about it. It began by Otto Hirsh, the director of the Reich Confederation of German Jews. He requested Norbert to arrange an organization which emigrated thousands of children to the safety of Great Britain and a new family. Norbert decided to take on this task and by doing so he ended up saving thousands of children.

This organization only lasted from 1938/1939. The last train took off on September, 1, 1939, starting off in Germany and was brought to an end in Great Britain. The organization of Kindertransport was shut down because World War Two started and it made it almost impossible to get the children to Great Britain safely, so they were forced to come to a complete end. In total the great people which brought the organization called Kindertransport (Which means child transport in German) saved a good 9,000 to 10,000 children from possibly suffering a terrible death in the crematorium and working hard labor. Of those 9,000 to 10,000, 7,500 of them were Jewish and they all came from Germany, Austria, Czech lands, and Poland and brought to Great Britain.