Llansantffraed History Society

THE TOPIC of the talk was the Kinder-transport – the policy of bringing children from Austria and Germany who had a Jewish background. The policy was instigated following the ‘November Pogroms’ in 1938, which the British Government was put under pressure to do something about. The scheme worked by parents registering their children onto lists with a £50 guarantee in order to indemnify the British government. Once accepted, they arrived at Harwich and London’s Liverpool Street station with holiday camps in the east of England. According to data compiled by an online survey, 16 per cent of all child refugees came from Berlin and across the whole scheme there was a 51/49 gender split in favour of girls.To commemorate the events between December 1938 and the start of the Second World War, there is a plaque in Parliament and a statue at Liverpool Street station called The Arrival, both of which were erected in 2008 to mark 70 years since the Kindertransport. After the talk the members asked the speaker, Andrea Hammel, a range of questions and she was thanked for an interesting talk.