Kindertransport: Remembering & Rethinking
Episode 7: Identity
Forging a sense of identity is complicated enough for most children. Now try to imagine what it must have been like for those children who came on the Kindertransport. For many it was a case of being too Jewish for Germany; too German for Britain. In what ways were they made to feel at home in Britain, and in what ways were they made to feel foreign? How did they maintain their sense of Jewishness in far-flung corners of Britain? And To what extent did they retain a sense of 'continental' identity later in life?
Forging a sense of identity is complicated enough for most children. Now try to imagine what it must have been like for those children who came on the Kindertransport. For many it was a case of being too Jewish for Germany; too German for Britain. In what ways were they made to feel at home in Britain, and in what ways were they made to feel foreign? How did they maintain their sense of Jewishness in far-flung corners of Britain? And To what extent did they retain a sense of 'continental' identity later in life?