An "Enchanted Parenthesis”? Questioning Kindertransport to France, 1938-1942

The Wiener Library, 29 Russell Square, London
An "Enchanted Parenthesis”? Questioning Kindertransport to France, 1938-1942 image
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This event ended on Tuesday 29th of May 2018
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Free, registration essential
Venue Information
The Wiener Library
Russell Square, WC1B 5DP
Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Russell Square 0.17 miles

While Great Britain has earned its dominant place in the historiography on Kindertransport, other European countries developed initiatives to evacuate Jewish children from Central Europe in 1938-39. On a much smaller scale, France was also a Kindertransport destination. Between 350-450 Central European children found refuge in France. This talk will analyze the emergence of French rescue networks and highlight the specificities of the French Kindertransport by focusing on the children’s lives in the Jewish children’s homes designed to care for them.

Refuge in France was all too temporary: with the Nazi invasion of France, these Jewish children were yet again targets of Nazi and Vichy persecution. A major rescue operation, orchestrated by several organizations, managed to evacuate about 250 Jewish children to the United States in 1941-42. Many of these children had arrived on Kindertransports in 1938-39. France was thus a temporary exile for many Kindertransport children, and for many, a “parenthèse enchantée” that ended all too quickly.

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