Kindertransport
This amazing interview with a Kindertransportee, Bertha Leviton, was filmed as part of the Barnet LA School Migration Project.
Capturing the life story of such people and the experiences they lived through is an important part of the collective history in the UK. Many Kindertransportees ended up receiving widespread recogition for their subsequent achievements in Britain. These refugee contributions to British society resonate as much today as when the interview was first filmed in 2006.
Bertha Leviton, Kindertransportee - a Life Summary
Bertha summarises her life and achievement in a simple explanation to camera:
'To think that a child who lived through Nazi times in Germany, escaped on the Kindertransport to England, built a life here, raised a family and was so very fortunate to have been reunited with her parents after arriving as a bedraggled refugee, made it to go to Buckingham Palace! And receive an honour from Her Majesty the Queen for the work that I have done in reuniting those former refugees ... that is the pinnacle of my life.'
Bertha Leviton - Kindertransportee
2 How did you leave your parents?
Bertha explains what it was like to leave her parents and whether she had the realisation that she could possibly never see them again.
'And it was so important my parents didn't cry, especially my mother. She painted a very rosy picture; and that's something I found out later on, that every parent promised their child they would soon follow or that we would return when things blow over'
Bertha Leviton - Kindertransportee
3 What was what was the journey like to England?
Bertha explains what the journey from Germany to England was like including who she travelled with and whether everyone realised the true reasons behind their journey.
'We were very subdued. We didn't laugh and shout like children going on holiday. It was a subdued lot of children on those transports. But after we crossed the border into Holland, there was absolute joy and we broke out into songs and talked about the songs and Nazis'
Bertha Leviton - Kindertransportee
4 How did you communicate with parents your parents when you were in England?
Bertha explains how she was able to communicate with her parents, for a while.
'The war started and we didn't have any contact with our parents; we were terribly worried about this happening. The Red Cross stepped in and letter cards, not letters, there were cards, pre-printed cards with addresses you could send, I think every two months or so, 25 words, like a telecom almost to reduce all your feelings into 25 words onto the postcard.
In 1942, the postcards stopped.
But I know that the postcard stopped in 1942 for everybody, because that was the time and the last postcard always read, we are on the horizon, we're going on a journey. And that was the journey to the concentration camps. But they didn't know that themselves. And the children didn't find out until after the war, where their parents had gone to and the postcards still exist.'
Bertha Leviton - Kindertransportee
5 How did you find out you would be leaving your home in Germany to live in England?
Bertha explains what the journey from Germany to England was like including who she travelled with and whether everyone realised the true reasons behind their journey.
'It was actually my little sister who got us onto the Kindertransport by coming home one day and saying a friend told her a secret, there was no school anymore after the Kristallnacht. So she went to play with a friend and she came home telling a secret that her little friends were going to England.
Everybody was desperate to get away and most people had left it too late because a lot of the German Jews didn't themselves realise what was happening to them and what was going to happen. So they delayed and delayed; some we call "the clever ones", got away some years before when Hilter came to power.'
Bertha Leviton - Kindertransportee
6 What was life in England like for you when you arrived?
Bertha explains what life was like for her and other Kindertransportee's in England when she arrived from Germany.
'It was an Exodus; there's no other word for it. And it was very hard. The real heroes were our parents who let us go. But for the children before the age of reason, under seven the trauma never left any of them. Even to this day, they're still crying for their parents. There's no other way there. You never get over a thing like that. And later I found out through my research about 85% to 90% of the children, I won't say lost their parents, their parents were murdered. You can lose a parent, an accident, an illness, whatever. But to have your parents murdered and then find out years later how it happened ...'
Bertha Leviton - Kindertransportee
7. What was life like growing up in Golders Green in North London?
Bertha explains what life was like for her growing up in North London.
'But people like to be together because we have been separated. We suffered such a lot and we're such a tiny percentage of the community'.
Bertha Leviton - Kindertransportee
Other Kindertransportee useful links :
