Memorial Design by Yael Bartana

© Yael Bartana

Yael Bartana was born in Afula, Israel in 1970 and today lives in Berlin and Amsterdam. She studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, The School of Visual Arts, New York, and the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. Bartana is a keen observer of the contemporary who uses art as a scalpel to dissect power structures and their underlying mechanisms. For some twenty years, she has been exploring the dark dreams of the collective unconscious. In her films, installations, photographs, scenic performances, and public monuments, she investigates themes such as national identity, trauma and displacement.

www.yaelbartana.com

The Orphan Carousel serves as a reminder of the void left behind after the hopeful – and painful – departure of Jewish children from the National Socialist dictatorship for safety abroad. The memorial is modelled after an old-fashioned wooden roundabout of the kind still found in children’s playgrounds today. It is functional as a roundabout but very difficult to set in motion. Three sentences are engraved in its sides: words of farewell expressing the joyful anticipation of reunion, which in most cases never came about. The memorial commemorates the children who were separated from their families in 1938/39, while also calling to mind the many children and adolescents forced to leave their families behind in war-ridden countries today.

Memorial Design by Anne Imhof

© Anne Imhof

Anne Imhof was born in Giessen in 1978 and today lives and works in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main. A graduate of the Städel School in Frankfurt, she works in the mediums of drawing, painting, installation, and performance and repeatedly also ventures beyond the boundaries of the museum space. The political dimension of her art consistently touches on questions of power structures and the freedom of the individual within our society.

Imhof has had solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London (2019), the Art Institute of Chicago (2019), the 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017), the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2016), the Kunsthalle Basel (2016), the MoMA PS1, New York (2015), the Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain de Nîmes (2014), and the Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2013). Her works have also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, for example at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2019) and Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2019). In 2015 she was awarded the Prize of the Nationalgalerie. In 2017, she received the Golden Lion of the Biennale di Venezia for her work Faust for the German Pavilion.
www.galeriebuchholz.de

Imhof’s design for the Kindertransport memorial is almost architectural in character and meant to occupy the urban space in a new way. It envisages an abstract simulation of a railway station platform: a track bed lowered into the ground and flanked by two panes of glass. Viewers walk through this glazed space and see their mirror images in the panes of glass. These reflections open new perspectives – not least of all for thinking about one’s own position in relation to the historical events. With its minimalist aesthetic, the memorial takes on a virtually ephemeral quality. The information text specified by the city is etched in one of the two panes, above it the work’s simple title untitled (children).

Memorial Design by Ella Littwitz

© Ella Littwitz

The visual artist Ella Littwitz was born in Haifa, Israel in 1982 and today lives in Jaffa, Israel. She graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem in 2009 and is a laureate of the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Ghent (HISK; 2014 – 2015). Her art often takes the form of large environments and installations. Her native Israel is a frequent point of reference for her works, which as a rule are preceded by extensive artistic research. Littwitz’s chief focusses are the critical examination of national and political identity and the construction of historical and psychological boundaries.

Littwitz has had solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (2019), the La Panera Art Center, Lleida (2018), the MWW Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław (2017), the Petach Tikva Museum (2017), and the Salzburger Kunstverein (2016). Her works have moreover been featured in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, for example at the Ticho House Jerusalem (2019), the Tallinn Kunsthal (2015), the Special Programme of the 6th Moscow Biennale (2015), and the Istanbul Biennial (2011). She has received numerous distinctions, including awards from the Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim-Stiftung and The Botín Foundation and a working grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds.
www.ellalittwitz.com

A message on a postcard Lore Jacobs, née Gotthelf received from her father on 7 July 1939 – shortly before she left Germany on a Kindertransport – served Ella Littwitz as a source of inspiration for her proposal. ‘Today is the tomorrow you were so afraid of yesterday – and all is well!’ The design is based on a scientific conceptualisation of space and time with relation to a specific historical event. Alluding to the light cone of the theory of relativity, it calls for two polished basalt sculptures set into the pavement on opposite sides of the world and thus connecting the two hemispheres: one at the site of the memorial in Frankfurt and the other on the Chatham Islands in New Zealand.

The dual cone structure represents an event that links the past, present, and future as a causal sequence. In its double function as a diagram and a memorial, the work creates an additional dimension bearing a reference to our perception of reality. Littwitz’s design is an endeavour to capture the two contrary states of mind of the parents who decided to send their children out into the unknown – on the one hand their deep despair and total surrender to reality as perceived in the then present, on the other hand hope of survival and continuity in a better future.

Memorial Design by Michaela Melián

© Michaela Melián

Michaela Melián was born in 1956 and lives in Munich and Hamburg. She studied art and music in Munich and London and has held a professorship in time-referenced media at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (HFBK) since 2010. Melián combines objects, photographs, films, music, and texts to create cross-genre installations and audio-visual projects with which she poses questions about the historicity of places as well as about memory and language and their reciprocal relationship in the sociopolitical and contemporary historical context. National Socialism in Germany and its consequences have accordingly been the focus of her critical reflections on more than one occasion.

Melián’s works have been on view in numerous international exhibitions, most recently, for example, at the Gwangju Museum of Art, South Korea (2020), the Kunsthal Rotterdam (2020), the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (2019), the Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2019), the Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona (2019), the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (2019), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2019), the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (2016), and the Kunsthalle Mannheim (2015). In 2010, on commission from the City of Munich, she realized Memory Loops, an acoustic memorial to the victims of National Socialism. She received the Grimme Online Award for Memory Loops, which was also selected as Audio Artwork of the Year 2010 by the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste. For her work Föhrenwald, Melián received the Radio Play Award of the War Blind. She has also received numerous other distinctions, including the Bremen Roland Prize for Art in the Public Space (2018), the Edwin Scharff Art Prize of the City of Hamburg (2018), and the Art Prize of the City of Munich (2010).
www.michaelamelian.net

Melián proposed an active form of remembrance. The design of the two-part work calls for a twelve-pointed star made of blue-dyed concrete embedded permanently in the ground. Reminiscent of both a double Star of David and a compass dial, this star is to be used once a year as a stage for a performance by a children’s choir of Frankfurt. Every year, a different music student has been commissioned by the City of Frankfurt to compose the choral piece sung on the occasion. The point of departure for the composition is the work Passacaglia by Siegfried Würzburger, the organist at Frankfurt’s Westend Synagogue from 1911 to 1938. Würzburger’s son Karl Robert departed for England on a Kindertransport on 24 August 1939.

Memorial Design by Ernst Stark

© Ernst Stark

The sculptor Ernst Stark was born in Bamberg in 1965 and today lives in Paris and Frankfurt am Main. He works primarily with various types of wood, which he processes with tools ranging from the chain saw to the Japanese knife. The artist feels his way to the objects in dialogue with his material: unhewn tree trunks. Often figurative and polychrome, his sculptures are modelled after photographs or from memory. Whether realized on a monumental scale or en miniature, they are bursting with energy and temperament. Stark is interested in the objects of everyday life; the spectacular is foreign to him. The transitory – as manifested in memories and photographic models – attains permanence and comes to a halt through his interventions.

Over the course of his nearly thirty years of working as an artist, Stark has received important grants and distinctions and taken part in international exhibitions at venues such as the Oberfinanzdirektion Frankfurt (2018), the Galerie widmertheodoridis, Zurich (2017), the Goldstein Galerie Frankfurt (2016), the Primo Piano exhibition space, Paris (2014), Lothringer 13, Munich (2014), the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck (2009), and the 9th Fellbach Triennial of Small-Scale Sculpture (2004).
www.ernststark.de

Stark’s design proposes a sculpture that viewers can climb onto and ‘use’. It consists of three chairs – one large and two child-size – set up on a platform made of solid bronze and thus serving as a socle. And because the platform’s surface bears a text on the history of the Kindertransport, it also fulfills the function of a large information plaque. The chairs have eyes. One of them stands apart from the others and looks in the direction of the railway station. On its seat is a card with a number on it. Cards of this kind were in fact hung around the children’s necks for the transport. The other two chairs stand side by side with their backs to the first and look towards the city centre. It is as if the three chairs are acting out a scene in a play in which the child leaves the protective intimacy of the family behind forever. The scene seems unambiguous but is nevertheless open to interpretation, and thus takes on a quality both real and irreal in the eyes of the beholder. The chairs are hewn in all detail from a tree trunk and then cast in bronze. As a result, the structure of the wood remains visible and lends the memorial a strong haptic quality and atmospheric density while at the same time pointing to the significance of the tree as a symbol of life in Judaism.

Bureaucracy

The emigration of the children and adolescents also involved numerous bureaucratic obstacles. Countless requirements had to be met before the children could leave Frankfurt. Some families started by making their own searches for foster parents, if necessary by travelling abroad to gather information. 

Every child had to be registered, a process which involved filling out a number of standard questionnaires. The completed questionnaires had to be submitted to the Quakers, the Christian denominational aid organisations or the Jewish welfare organisation Jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege, from where they were forwarded to the Kinderauswanderung (Children's Emigration) department of the Reichsvertretung der Juden (Reich Representation of German Jews). 

The organisations then used the questionnaires to draw up lists of proposals for the Kindertransporte. Over time, the criteria shifted, due not least to the fact that the host countries insisted on the fulfillment of specific requirements. For the most part, it was not possible to send children who were most at risk; instead, preference was given to those who conformed most closely with the country's criteria. Healthy younger girls, particularly girls who did not have to be taken in by hosts of a specific religious confession, were easiest to place. If no foster parents could be found, a search for financial guarantors had to be made. 

Certificates of each child's health and personal suitability had to be presented, since sick or socially aberrant children had no chance of being accepted. 

Passport photos, children's passports and exit visas had to be organised; the visas could only be issued after an entry permit had been received. 

Last but not least, detailed lists of hold and hand luggage had to be drawn up and approved by the foreign exchange offices. Once all documents were ready and the child or adolescent had been accepted for emigration to a host country, the parents were notified of the transport on which their child was to leave Germany. 

The accompanying graphic shows a simplified representation of this complicated bureaucratic process. 

Helpers and Aid Organisations

Auswandererberatungsstelle (Emigration advice centre)

Address: Quinckestr. 24 (today Königswarterstr.)

The emigration advice centre, located in the House of Jewish Welfare in Königswarterstrasse (which was called Quinckestrasse during the National Socialist era), was an institution of the Benefit Society of Jews in Frankfurt. In organisational terms, it was closely linked to the head office in Berlin. The work of the emigration advice centre consisted of counselling as well as financial and organisational assistance. From 1936-1938, the office was headed by the lawyer Dr. Max Hermann Maier. Until 1936, the office tried to facilitate a planned and organised emigration (prepared, for example, by retraining); from about 1936 onwards, the focus was on providing assistance to as many Jewish people as possible as quickly as possible. Max Hermann Maier fled Germany in November 1938.

Bergit Braach, later Bergit Forchhammer

Bergit Braach, born on 12 April 1921 in Duisburg, died on 13 December 2011 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Address: Hochstraße 8

Route: 1939 Great Britain, 1945 Germany, mid/late 1940s Denmark

Bergit Forchhammer, née Braach, is considered a "Mischling of the second degree" under National Socialist laws because she has a Jewish grandfather in the family. In Frankfurt she attends the Viktoriaschule (today Bettinaschule), which she leaves in 1937 due to anti-Semitic harassment. From January 1939 she works as a secretary to Dr. Rudolf Schlosser, the head of the Quaker office in Frankfurt. There, she deals in particular with applications for emigration and support for persecuted Frankfurt citizens. In mid-August 1939, Bergit Braach flees to London under the pretext of spending her summer holidays with friends. There she works in the Quaker "Germany Emergency Committee". After the war, she enlists as an interpreter in the US Army and returns temporarily to Frankfurt in 1945 before moving to Denmark.

B’nai B’rith

Address: Eschersheimer Landstr. 25-27

The "Frankfurt Lodge" was a branch of the "B'nai B'rith" Lodge founded in 1888, which was dedicated to the cultivation of Jewish culture and the defence against anti-Semitism. This social institution, to which prominent Frankfurt Jewish citizens were affiliated, maintained close contacts with English and American sister lodges. In Frankfurt, it used further spaces in addition to the premises in Eschersheimer Landstraße. In the following years, several branches developed, some of which took on Jewish refugees in the course of Nazi persecution. The Frankfurt branches were banned in 1938. In 1961 the Lodge was refounded.

Büro Grüber (Grüber Office), Frankfurt Branch

Address: Cronstettenstr. 50 (until February 1939), Hans-Handwerk-Str. 16 (today: Lange Straße).

The "Büro Grüber", led by Pastor Heinrich Grüber, was based in Berlin, but maintained a network of up to 22 counselling centres throughout Germany via confidants. The Grüber office primarily supported Christians of Jewish origin in emigrating. The confidant in Frankfurt was Pastor Arnold Schumacher, an clergyman of the Inner Mission. Schumacher also worked with the Quaker office in Hochstraße. Until February 1939, the Grüber office was based in Schumacher's private flat before moving into an office in what is now Lange Straße. In December 1940, the office was closed by the Gestapo.

Elisabeth Mann

Elisabeth Mann, born in 1880 - died on 6 January 1963 in Frankfurt am Main.

Address: Arnsteinerstr. 8

Elisabeth Mann is a reform pedagogue and headmistress of the Sophienschule (now Max Beckmann School) in Frankfurt-Bockenheim from 1929 until 1933. As Elisabeth Mann does not want to support Nazi politics, she takes early retirement in 1934 at the age of 55 and joins the Quakers in 1938. She conducted correspondence with the English Quakers and accompanied Frankfurt children's transports to Great Britain. Her close ties with Else Wüst, Martha Türk and her friendship with the Schlosser couple are beneficial to her rescue work. After the end of the war, she became involved in the Quaker feeding programme for the starving children of Frankfurt. Elisabeth Mann lived in Else Wüst's house in Haingründau in the Wetterau from 1944 until her death.

Else Wüst

Else Wüst, born on 25 May 1892 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 18 January 1974 in Gelnhausen

Address: Hochstr. 8

Else Wüst is a trained nurse and social worker and from 1928, the first woman in the Frankfurt criminal police. She is a member of the SPD and is dismissed by the National Socialists in 1933. She trained as a curative masseuse and in 1938 opened a curative massage practice at Hochstraße 8, where the Quaker office was located. She also lives there. She herself has been a Quaker since 1935. Else Wüst supports rescue operations for persecuted Jews, distributes writings against National Socialism and accompanies children on Kindertransports to England. She hides two Jewish families in her house in Hochstraße. She is observed and interrogated by the Gestapo. After the house in Hochstraße was bombed, she survived the war in the Wetterau and was reinstated in the police force in 1945.

Jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege (Jewish Welfare Association)

Address: Quinckestr. 26 (heute: Königswarterstr.)

Around 1900, numerous Jewish associations and foundations took care of the needy, including Jewish children in orphanages. After the First World War, they joined together to form the Jewish Welfare Association. The headquarters of the Jewish Welfare Service was initially located in Lange Straße, later in Quinckestraße/Königswarterstraße. A special task was also youth welfare, which is why the Jewish Welfare Association also played an important role in the Kindertransporte. In the course of the November pogroms, the male employees were arrested and the Jewish Welfare Association was closed. Some activities were allowed to continue from December 1938 under municipal supervision.

Martha Türk

Born on 19 February 1885 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 29 May 1942 in Edinburgh.

Address: Myliusstr. 40

Martha Türk ran a practice as a paediatrician at Myliusstr. 40 until 1933. She had to close the practice in 1933 and emigrated to England together with her sister Bertha. Her older brother Eric had already been living there for some time. In England, the three siblings helped the children of refugee doctors or young refugees with an interest in studying medicine through the Eric Turk Welfare Fund/Eric Turk Charity Trust. Martha Türk soon moves to Edinburgh, where she is able to obtain a new licence to practise. She also supports people in Edinburgh who have fled there from Frankfurt, among other places.   

Martha Wertheimer

Address: Unter den Kastanien 1

Martha Wertheimer, born on 22 October 1890 in Frankfurt am Main, murdered in June 1942, presumably in the Sobibor extermination camp

Stolpersteine: Unter den Kastanien 1, for Martha and Lydia Wertheimer

The educator, author and journalist Martha Wertheimer emerged early as a self-confident and liberal woman and was one of the first women to earn a doctorate at the new Frankfurt University in 1917. She was committed to women's suffrage, but also dealt with questions of emigration of Jews, especially children and young people. Her life was marked by many changes of residence, also due to anti-Semitic harassment. After a stay in Berlin, she returned to Frankfurt in 1938. Here she devotes herself to social and cultural work and heads the youth welfare service of the Jewish Welfare Service. After the November pogroms, she organises children's transports from all over south/southwest Germany, accompanying several of them personally. She herself and her sister Lydia are forced to move into a "ghetto house" at the end of 1941, and in June 1941 they are deported to Izbica/ Sobibor.

Palästina-Amt (Palestine-Office)

Address: Unterlindau 21-23

The Palestine Office was founded as early as 1908. It was a predecessor institution of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, which was founded in 1929. The Palestine Office maintained representative offices in numerous states. The aim of the Zionist organisation was to promote the settlement of Palestine through the immigration of European Jews. The organisation assisted in obtaining exit permits, but also provided information through exit manuals and offered education and training opportunities. In Germany, the Palestine Office had its headquarters in Berlin, but maintained offices in several cities, including Frankfurt's Westend. The office was dissolved by the Reich Ministry of the Interior in June 1941.

Quaker

Address: Hochstr. 8

The Quakers, or "Religious Society of Friends", are a Christian, liberal and democratic religious community that originated in England in the mid-17th century. The Frankfurt Quakers have been helping persecuted people since the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933. The office was last located at Hochstr. 8. Along with the Berlin office, the Frankfurt office became the most important international centre. In connection with the Kindertransports, all those Jewish parents who were non-denominational or whose children had been baptised Christian turned to the Quaker office. But members of the Jewish community also turned there. The Grüber office and the St. Raphael's Association worked together with the office, for which Dr. Rudolf Schlosser and Bergit Braach, among others, did important work in Frankfurt. The Quaker children's home and boarding school on the Eerde estate in the Netherlands, where children and young people from Frankfurt found refuge, is also of special significance.

Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany)

The Reich Representation was founded by Jewish organisations in 1933 as the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden (Reich Representation of German Jews), in 1935, forced to change its name to Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Representation of Jews in Germany), and in 1939, incorporated in the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Association of Jews in Germany). It had its headquarters in Berlin. The Reich Association, which existed from 1939, was no longer an independent association of Jewish organisations, but was directly subordinate to the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

The association had a department called "Kinderauswanderung" (child emigration), which coordinated the bureaucratic processes in connection with the child transports - it also received the applications that parents submitted to the denominational aid agencies and the Jewish Welfare Service. The Reichsvereinigung was officially dissolved in June 1943.

Rosa and Isidor Marx

Rosa Marx, born 26 November 1888 in Randegg, deported from Frankfurt in June 1942 and murdered.

Isidor Marx, born on 28 January 1886 in Bödigheim, died on 24 November 1968 in New York City, USA

Address: Röderbergweg 87

The educator couple Rosa Marx, née Schwab, and Isidor Marx ran the Israelite Orphanage in Frankfurt's Ostend since 1918. Rosa and Isidor Marx wanted to offer the children there a place of protection in the face of everyday anti-Semitism. Children later described the atmosphere in the house as a place full of warmth and security.

Together with Martha Wertheimer, the Marx couple organised numerous transports of children. Isidor Marx accompanied numerous children abroad, including to England at the beginning of September 1939. The start of the war makes it impossible for him to return to Germany - which saves his life. His wife Rosa stayed in Frankfurt, only able to maintain irregular contact with her husband. She is deported with the remaining children during the third major deportation from Frankfurt in June 1942 and murdered.

Rudolf Schlosser

Rudolf Schlosser, born on 4 April 1880 in Giessen, died on 11 December 1944 in Giessen

Address: Launitzstr. 6

From the beginning of the 1930s, the theologian Rudolf Schlosser, associated with religious socialism, and his wife Amalie Schlosser, née Lehmann (1886-1973), continued the welfare work of the mainly British Quakers in the Frankfurt Quaker Home which had begun after the First World War. The couple became leading figures in the small Frankfurt group from 1933 onwards, and the office gained nationwide importance alongside Berlin. After the November pogroms, the couple, together with the Quaker staff, organised the transport of children, mainly to the Dutch Quaker children's home in Eerde and to England. Rudolf Schlosser died in a bombing raid on Gießen.

St. Raphaelsvereins (St. Raphael's Association)

Address: Alte Mainzer Gasse 73 (documented for the year 1955).

Catholics of Jewish origin were supported in their emigration by the "St. Raphaelsverein zum Schutze katholischer Auswanderer" (St. Raphael's Association for the Protection of Catholic Emigrants). In 1933, the association had 70 branches throughout Germany; after the transfer of power to the National Socialists, the support for racially persecuted persons was spun off into a "Sonderhilfswerk" (special relief organisation) and finally into the "Hilfswerk beim Bischöflichen Ordinariat Berlin" (relief organisation at the Episcopal Ordinariate of Berlin), which worked with the St. Raphaelsverein. Its activities were limited to Berlin, but the association was active throughout Germany, including Frankfurt, in connection with the Kindertransporte. Through the Hilfswerk, 31 children were able to leave Germany between December 1938 and August 1939. The Hilfswerk also worked together with the "Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland" (Reich Association of Jews in Germany), the Grüber office and the Quakers. An office address in Frankfurt could only be researched for the year 1955.

Host Countries

In 1938, the restrictive measures imposed by the Nazi regime on Jewish citizens reached a sad climax. Following the annexation of Austria, the Jews living there were subjected to immense terror, arrests and deportations. In July 1938, the world reacted to this situation with a refugee conference, which was initiated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Representatives of 32 countries met in the French town of Evian. However, the conference had very little effect; there was no relaxation of the restrictive immigration conditions. 

The brutal November Pogroms of 1938 made the situation more acute. Nazis set fire to synagogues, destroyed businesses and property belonging to Jews and plundered apartments - also in Frankfurt and the surrounding region. 

In light of these events, it was hardly surprising that many families tried to at least get their children away from the Nazi dictatorship. 

The majority of them were taken in by the United Kingdom, which is why the country is still closely linked with the Kindertransporte today. However, other countries also declared themselves willing to act as hosts. Nevertheless, the number of children admitted remained far below what was required. 

Sweden

Jewish communities and Christian organisations began considering how to rescue Jewish children as early as August and September 1938. These considerations were triggered by the persecution of Jews in Austria and gathered momentum after the November pogroms and the announcement of the British rescue operation. 

In all, Sweden took in around 500 children as part of its Kinderaktion (children's campaign). The country mainly saw itself as a transit land for the children. Swedish citizens had donated large amounts to make the rescue possible. Sweden's Jewish communities served the state as guarantors for the children and adolescents, and also agreed to look into possibilities of sending them onwards. At the same time, the Jewish communities assumed right from the start that not all of the children would leave Sweden once they had arrived. 

The children and adolescents were placed with foster families in private and state-run homes. Most of them remained in Sweden permanently. Only around one-fifth of them actually transited the country. Around 50 children reached Palestine with the help of the Youth Aliyah organisation, having been prepared for life there by institutions such as the Kristinehov  boarding school. One of the persons responsible for the children's education at the boarding school was Erich Künstlicher from Frankfurt. A number of children were also able to travel onward to the USA and to the United Kingdom. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Sweden:

Ruth Eckhaus

Ruth Eckhaus, born on 29 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Address: Lersnerstraße 32

School: Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1942 Argentina

Manfred Hess

Manfred Hess, born on 24 November 1924 in Birstein, died on 17 February 2001 in Sdeh-Eliyahu, Israel

Addresses: House 34b in Birstein, Obermainanlage 24 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Jewish elementary school in Birstein, Israelitische Volksschule and Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1941 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Obermainanlage 24, for parents Julius and Emma Hess

Manfred is born in Birstein, where the Hess family lives. In 1934, the family moves to Frankfurt to escape the rising discrimination. Following father Julius’ incarceration in Buchenwald concentration camp and brother Joachim’s imprisonment in Dachau, the family tries to find ways to emigrate. In 1939, Manfred obtains a place at a Hakhshara camp run by a Swedish aid committee in Malmö and prepares to emigrate to Palestine. He is finally able to go there in 1941. In March 1939, his brother flees to Britain. Their parents do not survive the Shoah. On 11 November 1941, they are deported to Minsk and murdered.

Erika Jaffe

Erika Jaffe, born on 1 March 1928 in Berlin, date and place of death unknown

Addresses: Nassau an der Lahn, Gärtnerweg 9 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Nassau an der Lahn, Philanthropin in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1940 USA

In 1931, Erika moves to Nassau with her parents Leo and Gerta Jaffe. In 1937, the family moves to Frankfurt after Erika experiences anti-Semitic hostilities at school. One year later, the father is deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his release, he flees to Belgium in December 1938 and later to Palestine. In April 1939, Erika is sent to Sweden with a Kindertransport. In 1940, she is able to emigrate onwards to the USA, where she earns a living as a dishwasher and sales assistant. Her mother is able to follow her in May 1941, but she does not see her father until 1946.

Walter Rosenthal

Walter Rosenthal, born on 24 March 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 16 May 1998 in Haifa, Israel
Address: Musikantenweg 21

Schools: Philanthropin, Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1941 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Musikantenweg 21, for parents Julius and Fanny Rosenthal

Walter is the oldest son of Fanny and Julius Rosenthal. He undergoes practical training at the Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt (Jewish Training Workshop) in Fischerfeldstraße and at a Hakhshara camp in Ahrensdorf in order to prepare for his emigration. He reaches Sweden with a Kindertransport in 1939 and is able to travel on to Palestine two years later. His younger brother Erich escapes to the UK with another Kindertransport and lodges at the Jewish Boys Hostel in Northampton directed by Isidor Marx. Their parents’ plans to flee to Palestine comes to nothing. They are deported and murdered in June 1942.

Edith Stern

Edith Stern, born on 13 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 18 November 2014 in Buffalo, New York, USA

Address: Alt-Rödelheim 12

Schools: Radilo-Schule, Philanthropin, Jüdische Haushaltungsschule

Route: 1939 Sweden, 1941 USA

Memorial to the family: in 2018, a square in the Rödelheim district was named Arthur-Stern-Platz after Edith Stern’s father.

Edith is the only child of Arthur and Elly Stern. She initially attends the elementary school in Frankfurt’s Rödelheim district and later goes to the Philanthropin. From 1937, she attends the Jüdische Haushaltungsschule (Jewish Housekeeping School), where she prepares to emigrate. In June 1939, she is sent with a Kindertransport to Sweden, where she is lodged in a home in Falun. In the meantime, her parents are able to escape to the USA. Edith follows them, travelling via the Soviet Union and Japan to the USA. The family is reunited at the beginning of 1941.

United Kingdom

The term Kindertransport  (German for children's transport) refers to the emigration of about 10,000 mostly Jewish children and adolescents, who were allowed to enter the United Kingdom between December 1938 and September 1939. Among these were an estimated 300 to 400 children and adolescents from Frankfurt. The British government had introduced strict emigration rules for adults. However, following the November Pogroms of 1938, the general British public and in particular, representatives of Jewish congregations, urged the government to do something to help the Jews who were threatened by National Socialism. Only underage persons were allowed to enter the United Kingdom, as concerns had been raised that the arrival of grown-up refugees could have a negative impact on the labour market. Charities had to deposit £50 as security per child, and travel and accomodation were organised and funded by non-governmental organisations. 

The Reich Representation of German Jews, the Jewish Community of Vienna and British committees in Prague and Poland arranged for lists of the names of children that should emigrate to the United Kingdom. The London-based interdenominational Refugee Children's Movement was in charge of placing the children in foster families and children's homes. Most of the children travelled by train and ferry, and were distributed among England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland upon their arrival. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to the United Kingdom:

Nora Bergmann, born on 28 April 1926 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 17 April 2019 in Australia

Address: Uhlandstraße 38

School: Israelitische Volkschule (Jewish Elementary School)

Route: 1939 Britain, 1948 Australia

Memorial blocks: Uhlandstraße 38, for Nora Bergmann, her parents Israel and Gustel Ester Bergmann, and her brother Leopold Bergmann

Nora’s parents, Israel and Ester Bergmann, originally came from Poland. In June 1938 her father is arrested and flees to France after his release. In August 1939, Nora is able to escape to Britain with one of the last Kindertransporte. Most of the time, she lives with relatives there. After leaving school, she trains as a milliner. Nora’s parents are unable to escape. They are deported and murdered. In 1948, Nora goes to Australia, where her brother → Leopold Bergmann has been living since 1938.

Dorothy Griesheimer

Dorothy Griesheimer, born on 15 February 1923 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Obermainanlage 24, Am Schützenbrunnen 13 (now Alfred-Brehm-Platz 13)

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Britain, 1940 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Alfred-Brehm-Platz 13, for parents Thekla and Joseph Harry Griesheimer

Dorothy is the only child of Thekla and Joseph Harry Griesheimer. After the November pogroms of 1938, her parents send her to Britain with a Kindertransport in June 1939. In London, Dorothy is taken in by a girls’ home run by B´nai B´rith. Further schooling is not an option. Dorothy finds a job which requires her to work on the Sabbath. Due to her very religious upbringing, she asks her parents for permission. In 1940, Dorothy is able to emigrate onwards to the USA, where some of her relatives are living. Her parents are deported and murdered in 1942.

Herbert Rosenthal

Herbert Rosenthal, born on 15 February 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 30 October 1942 during a torpedo attack

Addresses: Eschersheimer Landstraße 69, Wolfsgangstraße 35, Ulmenstraße 8

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Britain, 1940 interned in Australia

On 2 February 1939, Herbert leaves Germany and is taken to Britain with a Kindertransport. His younger brother → Manfred Rosenthal had already been sent to acquaintances in France in December 1938. On his 16th birthday, Herbert is classified as an “enemy alien” in Britain; shortly afterwards, he is deported to Australia, where he is interned. His parents Erna and Milan Rosenthal leave no stone unturned to get him released. In October 1942, Herbert dies in a torpedo attack on the ship that is taking him back to Britain.

Felix Weil

Felix Weil, born on 12 December 1927 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Wolfsgangstraße 105, Sophienstraße 12, Flersheim-Sichel-Stiftung children’s home

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Britain, 1945 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Sophienstraße 12, for parents Ludwig and Linda Weil and sister Henny Weil

Felix’s parents, Linda and Ludwig Weil, are initially against leaving Germany. However, in 1939 they send their son to the Flersheim-Sichel-Stiftung children’s home, where he waits for an opportunity to emigrate to Britain with a Kindertransport. On 10 August 1939, Felix bids farewell to his parents and his sister Henny. On arrival in Britain, he is lodged at a boarding school. In 1945, he is able to emigrate onwards to the USA, where some of his relatives are living. In 1946, Felix returns to Germany as an American soldier. His parents and sister are deported in 1941 and murdered during the Shoah.

Karl Robert Würzburger

Karl Robert Würzburger, born on 29 November 1922 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 11 January 2010 in Wickford, UK

Addresses: Bockenheimer Landstraße 9, Bockenheimer Landstraße 73

Schools: Schwarzburgschule, Wöhler-Gymnasium, Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Britain

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Bockenheimer Landstraße 9, for parents Siegfried and Gertrude Würzburger and brother Hans Würzburger

Karl Robert is the youngest of the four sons born to musicians Siegfried and Gertrude Würzburger. After the November pogroms, he attends a Hakhshara camp in order to prepare for his emigration. On 24 August 1939, Karl Robert leaves Germany and is taken to Britain with a Kindertransport. Here he earns a living as a houseboy and tailor’s apprentice. When he hears that his parents and oldest brother Hans have been deported, Karl Robert voluntarily enlists with the British Army. In June 1944, he lands in Normandy; as soldier Kenneth Ward, he is also stationed in Germany.

Palestine

After the November pogroms, between 3,400 and 5,000 children were able to flee to Palestine with help of the Youth Aliyah organisation. Founded by Recha Freier on 30 January 1933, the organisation's aim was to rescue as many children and adolescents as possible from Nazi Germany, take them to Palestine and get them involved in building the country. This project was based on a strictly religious ideological concept, which however was relaxed in 1938 as a result of the humanitarian crisis. 

67 children and adolescents probably left Frankfurt am Main for Palestine: 35 boys were rescued from the orphanage in Frankfurt with the help of James Armand de Rothschild, the head of the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA). In April 1939, the group set off from Frankfurt under the escort of orphanage director Isidor Marx, later finding a new home in Kfar HaNoar HaDati children's village. 16 girls from the orphanage followed them in March 1940. The girls went to Jerusalem, where they attended the Evelina de Rothschild girls' school. One last group of 16 children left Frankfurt illegally in October 1940 - their flight crossed many borders and lasted several months. 

Some of these young people later joined the Jewish Brigade to fight with the Allies against the National Socialists. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Palestine:

Esther Edith Kleinberger

Esther Edith Kleinberger, born on 31 December 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died in 2014 in Haifa, Israel

Addresses: Home run by the Jüdische Frauenbund in Neu-Isenburg, Israelitisches Waisenhaus

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1940 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Berger Straße 72, for brother Karl Kleinberger

Because her mother Niche Kleinberger is ill, Esther Edith is taken in by a home run by the Jüdische Frauenbund (League of Jewish Women) in Neu-Isenburg after her birth and is then sent to the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt in 1928. Her twin brother → Karl Kleinberger is brought up by a great-uncle. In March 1940, Esther Edith travels by boat from Trieste to Palestine with a group of 16 girls from the Israelitisches Waisenhaus. Esther Edith is given a home at the religious children’s and educational institution Beth Zeiroth-Mizrachi and later trains as a children’s nurse.

Karl Kleinberger

Karl Kleinberger, born on 1 January 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 6 June 2015 in Haifa, Israel

Address: Berger Straße 72

School: Philanthropin

Country of refuge: 1940 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Berger Straße 72, for Karl Kleinberger and his foster parents Ignatz and Henriette Kleinberger

Because Karl’s mother Niche Kleinberger is ill, Karl is brought up by his great-uncle Ignatz Kleinberger, while his twin sister → Esther Edith Kleinberger is sent to the orphanage. At the end of October 1938, Ignatz Kleinberger is deported to Poland during the so-called “Polish Action”. Like his sister, Karl is taken in by the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage). In October 1940, Karl is able to escape through the Balkans to Palestine as part of an illegal rescue campaign organised by Recha Freier.

Edith Levi

Edith Levi, born on 21 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 15 October 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel

Address: Mauerweg 30, Josef-Haydn-Straße 56

School: Philanthropin

Route: 1939 Palestine, 1948 Argentina, 1978 Israel

Edith is nine years old when her mother Else Levi dies. In January 1939, her father, textile merchant Ferdinand Levi, sends her with a Youth Aliyah group to Palestine, where she spends two years living in a kibbutz and undergoes a course of agricultural training. In 1942, she joins the British Army’s Jewish Brigade. Her father is deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942 – he is one of very few who survive this concentration camp. Father and daughter are reunited in 1945 when Edith comes to Germany as a soldier. Together they emigrate to Argentina in 1948.

Hanna Levitus

Hanna Levitus, born on 6 October 1924 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 8 June 2002 in Kfar Saba, Israel

Address: Israelitisches Waisenhaus

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1940 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Höhenstraße 18, for mother Regina Levitus and brother Josef Levitus

After the early death of their father Ignatz Levitus, Hanna and her siblings Cilly, Jutta and Josef live at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage). Their mother Regina Levitus has been a housekeeper there since 1937. On 24 March 1940, the mother accompanies 16 girls from the Orphanage to Trieste. Hanna is also one of the group. While the mother returns from Trieste to Frankfurt, the girls travel onward to Haifa. Hanna spends one year in Jerusalem, where she attends the Evelina de Rothschild Girls’ School. From 1941, she works in domestic service. Her sisters → Cilly and Jutta survive the war in the Netherlands and travel to Palestine in 1946. Their mother and brother are deported and murdered in 1942.

Lisa Moos

Lisa Moos, born on 31 December 1919 in Mannheim, died on 28 June 2006 in Bad Soden in the Taunus region

Address: Grüneburgweg 64

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Fürstenbergerschule

Route: 1935 Palestine, 1990 Germany

Lisa Moos is born in Mannheim and grows up in Frankfurt. In 1933, her brother Friedrich Wilhelm, who is five years older, begins attending an agricultural teaching institution in Denmark in order to prepare for his emigration to Palestine. He goes to Palestine later that year. On 31 July 1935, Lisa is able to follow him to Palestine with a Youth Aliyah group. For two years, she lives in the Merhavia kibbutz in the Emek valley east of Haifa. Her parents Hugo and Sophie Moos are able to flee to Palestine in the autumn of 1940.

Netherlands

The Netherlands began allowing Jewish children to enter the country after the November pogroms. Some of them arrived as early as 15 November 1938. 24 children from the Jewish Orphanage in Frankfurt, among them Cilly and Jutta Levitus, were chosen for the Kindertransport that left the city on 22 November. Various sources indicate that anything from 1,500 to 1,900 children and adolescents were permitted to enter the Netherlands, at least 35 of whom came from Frankfurt am Main. Initially, they were only admitted on condition that they travelled onward within a reasonable time. In some cases, Dutch aid workers collected the children in Cologne and took them across the border. 

Most of the children lived in homes, some with foster families or relatives. Some of the children were able to travel onward to the United Kingdom, Palestine or other countries. 

Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer played an important part in the Kindertransporte. Her fearless negotiations helped make the Kindertransporte possible in the first place. Shortly before the Netherlands capitulated in May 1940, "Tante Truss", as she was known, managed to organise one last Kindertransport of 74 children from the Netherlands to the UK. 

After the country surrendered, many of the children who had fled to the Netherlands with the Kindertransporte were immediately threatened with deportation. Some of them were able to survive in rural areas or in hiding, but most of them were deported and murdered. 

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to the Netherlands:

Ruth and Liesel Hess

Ruth Hess, born on 10 December 1932 in Frankfurt am Main

Elise (Liesel) Hess, born on 18 December 1933 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 26 October 2009 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA

Address: Oberer Atzemer 10

Route: 1938 Netherlands, 1940 USA

As children, Ruth and Liesel become eyewitnesses of the November pogroms. A few days later, they are taken to the Netherlands with a Kindertransport. Because they are so young, the girls find it difficult to understand why their parents are “sending them away”. The day after their arrival, a Dutch newspaper publishes a photo of them with the headline, “Escaped from the German pogroms”. During their time in the Netherlands, Ruth and Liesel live in five different children’s homes. Not until 1940 are they able to see their parents Siegfried and Helene Hess again and emigrate with them to the USA.

Thomas and Gerhard Leo

Thomas Leo, born on 17 June 1925 in Marburg an der Lahn

Gerhard Leo, born on 31 January 1930 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 14 September 1998 in San Jose, California, USA

Addresses: Comeniusstraße 10 in Frankfurt am Main, Altkönigstraße 30 in Oberursel

Schools: Elementary school in Oberursel, Gymnasium in Oberursel

Route: 1939 Netherlands, 1939 Venezuela, 1940 USA

Thomas and Gerhard Leo grow up in Oberursel. In 1935, their father Ulrich Leo is dismissed from his post at the university because of his Jewish origins; three years later, he emigrates to Caracas to take up a post there. The family’s apartment is destroyed during the November pogroms. On 5 January 1939, mother Helene Leo sends her sons, both of whom have been baptised into the Protestant church, to the Netherlands with a group of eleven children; here they attend the Quaker school in Eerde. At the end of August 1939, the family is able to leave Europe and follow father Ulrich to Venezuela. In 1940, Thomas and Gerhard are able to continue their training in the USA with the support of the Quakers.

Cilly and Jutta Levitus

Cilly Levitus, born on 19 October 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 3 November 2010 in Langen

Jutta Levitus, born on 30 July 1928 in Strasbourg

Address: Israelitisches Waisenhaus

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 Netherlands, 1946 Palestine, 1957 Germany (Cilly)

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Höhenstraße 18, for mother Regina Levitus and brother Josef Levitus

After the early death of their father Ignaz Levitus in 1931, Cilly, Jutta and their siblings → Hanna and Josef are initially rehomed separately. Later they live together in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage), where their mother Regina Levitus has been working as a housekeeper since 1937. Cilly, Jutta and 24 other children travel to Amsterdam soon afterwards, on 22 November 1938. The two girls are lodged in an orphanage. They survive in hiding with forged documents. In 1946, they emigrate to Palestine. Cilly returns to Germany in 1957.

Edith and Max Mader

Edith Mader, born on 24 May 1931 in Frankfurt am Main, died in July 1980 in New York, USA

Max Mader, born on 18 May 1932 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Hanauer Landstraße 16a

School: Israelitische Volkschule (Jewish Elementary School)

Route: 1938 Netherlands, 1939 Britain, 1952 USA (Edith), 1959 Israel (Max)

On 10 November 1938, Max and Edith are forced to witness the arrest of their father Gerszon Mader; he is then taken to Buchenwald concentration camp. Shortly afterwards, their mother Rosa Mader, secretary at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage), manages to send Max and Edith to the Netherlands with a group of children. In the middle of 1939, the children travel onward to Britain, where their parents arrive some time later. Their father becomes a British soldier but dies in 1941 aged just 41. In 1952, Edith emigrates to the USA. Max lives in Britain for 20 years before emigrating to Israel.

Ruth and Miriam Schames

Ruth Schames, born on 12 October 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Miriam Schames, born on 18 July 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Address: Uhlandstraße 52

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Netherlands, 1939 Palestine

Ruth and Miriam’s father, Manfred Moses Schames, is a well-known art dealer in Frankfurt. He is arrested during the November pogroms and released from Buchenwald concentration camp on condition that he leaves the county by the end of January 1939. The family prepares to flee to Palestine. The two daughters are sent to the Netherlands with a Kindertransport at the beginning of January 1939. The girls are housed in a children’s home on the North Sea coast. Together with their parents Manfred Moses and Elsa Schames, they are able to emigrate via France and Italy to Palestine in April 1939.

Belgium

The Belgian Ministry of Justice reacted comparatively quickly to the anti-Semitic uprisings of November 1938 and approved the entry of 250 children less than two weeks later. By the spring of 1939, the government had permitted a further 750 children to enter. They would only be allowed to stay for a limited period. In all, between 800 and 1,000 children found (at least temporary) refuge in Belgium, including around 50 children and adolescents from Frankfurt. The Kindertransporte were coordinated by a network of Jewish and non-Jewish aid organisations. The conditions were not particularly strict; the government merely required the aid organisations to act as guarantors for the children's maintenance. 

Following Germany’s invasion of Western Europe in May 1940, many children escaped to the south of France with the help of aid organisations such as the Comité d’Assistance aux Enfants juifs réfuigiés (CAEJR), the Oeuvre deSecours aux Enfants (OSE) and others. However, they were again threatened with deportation later on.

Around one-third of the children who emigrated from Germany to Belgium were able to leave the country again by April 1941; many of them escaped to the United Kingdom and the USA, others to Palestine. A number of children survived in Belgium thanks to the support of aid and resistance organisations and private persons. They were lodged in monasteries and Christian homes and with Christian families. Some children who had initially found refuge there were deported and presumably murdered during the Shoah.

The Hessian emigrants Rosi and Siegfried Rothschild, Ruth and Jonas Tiefenbrunner and Jenny Sender-Fink also played an important role for the children as helpers in their new country.

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Belgium:

Ellen Adler

Ellen Adler, born on 3 November 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 29 July 2017 in Connecticut, USA

Address: Reuterweg 98

School: Philanthropin

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1939 Britain, 1940 USA

Like her older sister Inge Betty, Ellen Adler attends the Philanthropin school. Their father is arrested on 10 November 1938 and interned in Buchenwald concentration camp for several weeks. On 20 December 1938, parents Hugo and Flora Adler send Ellen to Belgium with a Kindertransport. Ellen initially lives with relatives in Brussels and later in a children’s home in Antwerp. Meanwhile, her parents and sister have fled to Britain; Ellen is able to follow them in July 1939. One year later, the family emigrates to the USA.

Lisa Baer

Lisa Baer, born on 13 March 1923 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Addresses: Hölderlinstraße 5, Scheffelstraße 27

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1941 USA

Although her family has already left Germany, Lisa Baer initially stays in Frankfurt until she has obtained her intermediate school-leaving certificate (Mittlere Reife). Her older brothers Richard and Rudolph had emigrated to the USA in 1933 and 1936 respectively, while her mother Pauline Baer had fled to Belgium. Father Ferdinand Baer had died back in 1924. On 20 December 1938, Lisa is able to follow her mother to Belgium with a group of children from Frankfurt. After her arrival, she initially goes to school then starts training as a physiotherapist. However, she has to break off her training when German troops invade Belgium in May 1940. She flees to France, presumably with her mother. From there, they manage to escape to the USA in the spring of 1941.

Marion Linz

Marion Linz, born on 12 November 1934 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Scheidswaldstraße 72

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1940 France, 1941 Dominican Republic, 1945 USA

After the November pogroms, merchant Eugen Linz and his wife Henriette send their four-year-old daughter Marion to Belgium with a Kindertransport departing on 12 December 1938. Her parents follow later. After the invasion of Western Europe, the mother and daughter flee to France, while the father is arrested in Brussels and interned in various camps in France. At the end of 1941, the family escapes to the Dominican Republic, where they live until 1945. After the end of the war, they travel onwards to the USA.

Mina and Hedy Schächter

Mina Schächter, born on 10 March 1926 in Frankfurt am Main

Hedy Schächter, born on 24 July 1931 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Ostendstraße 3

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Belgium, 1946 Britain, 1948 (Mina) and 1949 (Hedy) Palestine/Israel, 1950 (Mina) and 1955 (Hedy) USA

Mina and Hedy’s parents, Isi and Sofie Schächter, come from Austro-Hungary but have been living in Germany since 1913. Father Isi flees to Antwerp at the beginning of 1939. In April 1939, the daughters join a Kindertransport to follow him; in August 1939, son Benno reaches Britain with a Kindertransport, while their mother and sister Eva flee to Belgium on foot. After the occupation of Belgium, the family is interned. Both parents and sister Eva are deported. Mina and Hedy survive in hiding. After the war, they follow their brother to Britain. At the end of the 1940s, they go to Palestine/Israel and later to the USA.

Walter and Lisa Schnerb

Walter Schnerb, born on 31 July 1925 in Frankfurt am Main, died in January 2019 in New York, USA

Lisa Schnerb, born on 22 February 1931 in Frankfurt am Main, date and place of death unknown

Addresses: Hölderlinstraße 2, Röderbergweg 93

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 Belgium, 1939 Britain, 1940 USA

Lisa and Walter Schnerb are among the first 250 children permitted by the Belgian government to enter the country. On 13 December 1938, they arrive in Antwerp and are taken in by relatives. Their parents Godchaux and Jutta Jenny Schnerb manage to escape to Britain and have their children brought to them in May 1939. After war breaks out, the children are evacuated and the family is separated once again. In December 1939, they succeed in travelling together to the USA, where they become active members of the Breuer community in New York.

Felix and Leo Weiss

Felix Weiss, born in 1925 in Wiesbaden, date and place of death unknown

Leo Weiss, born on 19 January 1928 in Wiesbaden, deported to Auschwitz on 11 September 1942 and murdered

Addresses: Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring 66 in Wiesbaden, Obermainanlage 10 in Frankfurt am Main

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Belgium, 1940 Palestine (Felix), 1940 France (Leo)

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring 66 in Wiesbaden, for parents Isak (Isaak) and Sara Weiss and for siblings Klara and Leo Weiss

At the end of 1938, Isaak Weiss, father of Leo and Felix, is the first member of the family to flee to Belgium. On 22 February 1939, his sons follow with a Kindertransport to Antwerp. Mother Sara and sister Klara join them in June 1939. Soon, however, the family is torn apart again. In February 1940, Felix emigrates to Palestine with the Youth Aliyah. After the occupation of Belgium in 1940, the rest of the family flee to France but are interned there. Leo, his mother and his sister are deported via Drancy to Auschwitz, where they are murdered. His father escapes to Switzerland and survives the war.

France

By April 1939, several groups of children from Germany and Austria had found their way to France; in all, around 600 to 700 children aged under 15 found refuge there, including at least 36 children from Frankfurt. The French government had originally pledged to take in 200 children a month; however, they retracted their pledge due to the influx of immigrants who entered France from Spain following the end of the Spanish Civil War.

The Jewish children’s aid society Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) played an important part in organizing and funding the Kindertransporte to France, where they also provided shelters and schools for the children. The OSE also worked “illegally” and helped children enter the country with passports provided by French families.

Many of the refugee children who came to France in this way were lodged in children’s homes near Paris that were directed by Dr. Ernst Papanek, an Austrian educationalist and Social Democrat. After the German troops invaded in 1940, the children were evacuated to the part of France that was not yet unoccupied. However, at the end of 1942, they again found themselves in danger. The OSE made every effort to find ways for them to escape.

A number of children, including boys from the Jewish Orphanage in Frankfurt, were able to flee to the USA. Other children and adolescents survived in hiding or fled to Switzerland. However, many of them were unable to get away. These children were deported and murdered.

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to France:

Werner Dreifuss

Werner Dreifuss, born on 12 March 1931 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Home run by the Jüdische Frauenbund (League of Jewish Women) in Neu-Isenburg, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

School: Israelitische Volkschule (Jewish Elementary School)

Route: 1939 France, 1941 USA

Werner Dreifuss grows up at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt. In March 1939, he and 15 other children are able to escape with a Kindertransport to France, where he lives in various homes. In June 1941, he and a number of other children manage to flee via Spain and Portugal to the USA. In 1942, his mother Henni Dreifuss is deported from Darmstadt and murdered.

Anselm Hirsch

Anselm Hirsch, born on 18 May 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 21 April 2007 in Jerusalem, Israel

Address: Grüne Straße 30

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1938 France, 1941 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Grüne Straße 30, for Mathilde and Hermann Hirsch and siblings Werner and Roseline Hirsch

Anselm is the second of Hermann and Mathilde Hirsch’s seven children. In November 1938, his father is arrested and incarcerated at Buchenwald concentration camp for several weeks. His mother decides to send her five older children, Flora, Anselm, Gustl, Jakob (later Jack) and Benjamin, to France with a Kindertransport departing on 5 December 1938. Anselm is separated from his siblings and lives in a children’s home in Eaubonne established by Ernst Papanek. After Germany occupies France in 1940, he is able to escape to the unoccupied south. From here, he and his brother Jakob manage to flee to the USA, followed two months later by Flora, Gustl and Benjamin. In 1942, their parents and siblings Werner and Roseline are deported and murdered. Asher Hirsch, as he now calls himself, returns to his former home as an American soldier. Here he is stationed at Camp King in Oberursel.

Elfriede Meyer

Elfriede Meyer, born on 8 June 1926 in Mönchengladbach

Addresses: Rubensstraße 18, Israelitisches Waisenhaus

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School) in Mönchengladbach, Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 France, 1941 USA

Elfriede spends her early years in Mönchengladbach. After the death of father Julius Meyer in 1937, mother Recha Meyer and her two daughters Elfriede and Klara return to Frankfurt, where Recha was born. Elfriede lives in the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage). On 8 March 1939, the girl is able to emigrate to France with a group of 15 young people from the orphanage. After the invasion of Western Europe, the children flee to the as yet unoccupied South of France. In June 1941, Elfriede is able to reach the USA. Her mother and sister are deported and murdered.

Manfred Rosenthal

Manfred Rosenthal, born on 19 September 1926 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Eschersheimer Landstraße 69, Wolfsgangstraße 35, Ulmenstraße 8

Schools: Holzhausenschule, Philanthropin

Route: 1938 France, 1941 USA

Like his brother → Herbert Rosenthal, who is two years older, Manfred first attends the Holzhausenschule and later the Philanthropin. After the November pogroms, parents Erna and Milan Rosenthal send their younger son to acquaintances in France. A few months later, Manfred is taken in by a children’s home in Strasbourg. After the Germans invade France, he embarks on an odyssey through the country. In June 1941, Manfred is able to flee to the USA with the help of the Quakers and is finally reunited with his parents after three years apart.

Heinz Schuster

Heinz Schuster, born on 18 March 1926 in Sterbfritz, died on 26 May 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Addresses: Alte Schlüchterner Straße 10 in Sterbfritz, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Sterbfritz, Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule in Frankfurt am Main

Route: 1939 France, 1941 USA

Heinz grows up in Sterbfritz, where he attends the elementary school. His father Abraham Schuster dies in 1935, one year after he was forced to give up his business. Heinz is taken in by the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt, where he is able to continue attending school. In March 1939, he flees to France with ten other children, some of whom also come from the orphanage, and is initially housed in a children’s home near Paris. In 1941, he manages to escape to the USA. In 1946, Henry Schuster, as he now calls himself, returns to Germany as an American soldier. His mother Rosa and sister Margot are deported and murdered in 1942. Sister Bertel survives the Shoah.

Switzerland

After the November pogroms of 1938, the Schweizer Hilfswerk für Emigrantenkinder (Swiss Aid Organisation for Emigrant Children, SHEK) campaigned for children to be permitted to emigrate to Switzerland. Following tough negotiations between the SHEK and the Swiss Aliens Police, Switzerland finally declared itself willing to serve as a transit country for 300 Jewish children. Only orphans and children whose fathers were imprisoned in concentration camps were permitted to enter. However, the quota approved was not fully exhausted. The SHEK’s campaigners included Georgine Gerhard and Dr. Netti Sutro-Katzenstein.

Permission was given for the children to enter Switzerland just ten days after the November pogroms; however, they were to travel onward to a third country within a period of six months. The first group consisted of less than 100 children, who left Frankfurt on 5 January 1939 under the escort of Isidor Marx, director of the Jewish orphanage. Most of the children were lodged in children’s homes, while some were fostered by families. The children were accomodated at the children’s home Wartheim in Heiden, at the children’s camp Aufgent in Buus, at the Jewish orphanage in Basel and later at the children’s home Waldeck in Langenbruck.

In view of the increasing persecution and the outbreak of World War II, many of the children stayed in Switzerland for six years rather than six months. After the war ended, they were ordered to move on; many of them found refuge in Palestine.

Switzerland also served as a refuge for some 1,500 to 2,000 children who had entered the country illegally after the deportations began in Western Europe.

Among others, the following children and adolescents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Switzerland:

Hannelore Adler

Hannelore Adler, born on 6 April 1927 in Giessen, died on 7 January 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Addresses: Nordanlage 49 in Giessen, Wallstraße 11 in Bad Homburg, Jüdische Bezirksschule boarding school in Bad Nauheim, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Schillerschule Giessen, Jüdische Bezirksschule in Bad Nauheim

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1945 Palestine, 1954 USA

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Nordanlage 49 in Giessen for Hannelore Adler, her mother Helene Adler and her sister Margot Adler; Riccarda-Huch-Schule in Giessen for Margot Adler; Wallstraße 11 in Bad Homburg for Helene and Margot Adler

Hannelore Adler grows up in Giessen with her older sister Margot. In November 1936, her father Albert Adler becomes the victim of an anti-Semitic attack and dies of his injuries. Mother Helene Adler takes her daughters to Bad Homburg, where her family lives. Hannelore attends the Jüdische Bezirksschule (Jewish District School) in Bad Nauheim. After the November pogroms of 1938, she spends a short time at the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt, from where she is taken to Switzerland with a Kindertransport on 5 January 1939. In Switzerland, she lives at the Wartheim children’s home in Heiden. In September 1945, Hannelore is able to emigrate to Palestine, where she begins a course of agricultural training at a kibbutz. Later, she works as a children’s nurse. Her mother and sister are deported and murdered in June 1942.

Ruth Junker

Ruth Junker, born on 8 January 1926 in Groß-Karben, died on 1 February 2012 in Avigdor, Israel

Addresses: Heldenberger Straße 1 in Groß-Karben, Israelitisches Waisenhaus in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Groß-Karben, Jüdische Bezirksschule in Bad Nauheim

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1945 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Heldenberger Straße 1 in Groß-Karben for Ruth Junker, her parents Bella and Josef Junker and her sister Margot Junker

Ruth Junker lives in Groß-Karben and initially also attends school there. In 1937, she switches to the Jüdische Bezirksschule (Jewish District School) in Bad Nauheim. After the November pogroms, she is taken in by the Israelitisches Waisenhaus (Jewish Orphanage) in Frankfurt. She is one of the 100 children taken from Frankfurt to Switzerland by Kindertransport on 5 January 1939. In Switzerland, she lives in the children’s home in Heiden and later at the ORT school in Langenbruck. In 1945, she is able to emigrate to Palestine. In 1941, her parents Bella and Josef Junker and her sister Margot are deported from Frankfurt to Minsk and murdered.

Kurt Lamm

Kurt Lamm, born on 29 July 1924 in Homberg (Ohm), died on 27 December 2009 in Frankfurt am Main

Addresses: Obergasse in Homberg (Ohm), Jüdische Bezirksschule boarding school in Bad Nauheim, Rechneigrabenstraße 18/20 in Frankfurt am Main

Schools: Elementary school in Homberg (Ohm), Jüdische Bezirksschule in Bad Nauheim

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1949 Palestine, 1958 Germany

Kurt spends his early years in Homberg (Ohm) with his parents Max and Lotte Lamm and his siblings Amanda and Werner. Later he goes to the Jüdische Bezirksschule (Jewish District School) in Bad Nauheim as a boarder. His mother works in the school kitchen. After the attack on the school in November 1938, Kurt moves back in with his parents, who are now living in Frankfurt. In January 1939, he manages to escape to Switzerland with a group of 100 children. He initially lives in a children’s home in Buus, and later in Waldeck. Kurt becomes a shoemaker; at times he is interned. He emigrates to Palestine in 1949 after the end of the war. In 1958, Kurt returns to Frankfurt. His parents and siblings are unable to escape from Germany. In November 1941, they are deported to Minsk and murdered.

Dina Mainzer

Dina Mainzer, born on 31 August 1925 in Frankfurt am Main

Address: Hanauer Landstraße 1

School: Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1939 Palestine

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Hanauer Landstraße 1, for the members of the Mainzer family who were forced into exile

Dina is the daughter of baker Aron Mainzer and his wife Ida, and has three older siblings, Helene, Ruth and Jona. After the November pogroms, their father is forced to sell his bakery and prepares the escape of his family. At the beginning of January 1939, Dina reaches Switzerland with a Kindertransport. Six weeks later, she and her parents are able to emigrate to Palestine, where she becomes a nurse.

Hans and Ruth Selig

Hans Selig, born on 19 June 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 21 October 2014 in Jerusalem, Israel

Ruth Selig, born on 25 June 1930 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 3 October 2003 in Sunnyvale, California, USA

Address: Bäckerweg 32

Schools: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-Schule

Route: 1939 Switzerland, 1940 USA, 1967/68 Israel (Hans)

Following Sigmund Selig’s release from Buchenwald concentration camp, he and his wife Flora try in vain to escape with their three children. The family is torn apart. On 5 January 1939, younger siblings Hans (later Henry) and Ruth are sent with a Kindertransport to Switzerland, where they spent a year in different homes. Their older brother Walter goes to France at the end of 1938; three months later, he emigrates to Palestine with the Youth Aliyah organisation. The parents and younger children later manage to escape via Britain to the USA.

Australia

Only a few Jewish children found refuge in Australia after the November Pogroms. Jewish organisations managed to rescue a number of individuals such as Leopold Bergman, who came to Australia from Frankfurt under the auspices of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society. Apart from this, only one Kindertransport is known to have taken place. In June 1939, a group of 17 children – seven boys and ten girls aged between five and twelve – emigrated from Berlin to Australia. They were accommodated in the Larino children’s home near Melbourne.

All other attempts to organise Kindertransporte to Australia or New Zealand came to nothing. However, after the war broke out, numerous emigrants who had been interned as “enemy aliens” in the UK were transported to Australian detention camps. The 2,500 men affected included a number of Kindertransport children who were already over 16, Herbert Rosenthal among them. Leopold Bergmann, who had been living in Australia since 1938, was also interned.

The young men were permitted to return to the United Kingdom if they declared themselves willing to enlist in the British Army.

Among others, the following children and adolscents from Frankfurt am Main were admitted to Austrailia:

Leopold Bergmann

Leopold Bergmann, born on 31 July 1921 in Frankfurt am Main, died on 31 July 1998 in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

Address: Uhlandstraße 38

School: Israelitische Volksschule (Jewish Elementary School), Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt (Jewish Training Workshop)

Route: 1938 Australia

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone: Uhlandstraße 38, for Leopold Bergmann, his parents Israel and Gustel Ester Bergmann, and his sister Nora Bergmann

Leopold Bergmann’s parents originally came from Poland. The family lives in Frankfurt’s East End. In June 1938, father Israel Bergmann is arrested. After his release, he flees to France. Leopold prepares to emigrate by attending the Jüdische Anlernwerkstatt in Fischerfeldstraße, where he trains as a mechanic. In August 1938, he is able to emigrate via Britain to Australia with the help of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society. In 1942, he is interned there. After his release, he enlists as a soldier with the Australian Army. In 1948, his sister → Nora Bergmann follows him from Britain to Australia.