Page 35 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20
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they were doing and gave each of them a “We arrived at about 4 o’clock at Liverpool
sandwich. To this day, Kahana has the travel Street Station, and were ushered into a big
document that the British issued, on which hall,” says Kahana, and the moment is
the Nazi symbols of the eagle and swastika commemorated by the statue erected in the
were stamped. forecourt of the station to mark the arrival of
the Kindertransports.
And so, the railway journey began. 120
children, all between the ages of 10 and 16, Every child was called by name and directed
were told to shut themselves into the towards his adoptive family. Kahn was the
carriages and not to open the windows during first name called. He approached the stage,
the journey, which took two days. Kahana, where a distant cousin of his grandmother
sitting in a compartment with another five Rosa, an elderly spinster called Zerlina Engel
children, says: “We were all afraid, and knew was waiting, and took him to her house in
the situation wasn’t good. I didn’t know Belsize Park, a neighbourhood of Jewish
anybody. We left Czechoslovakia, crossed refugees in North London. The first thing that
the whole of Germany and reached the Dutch Zerlina said to him was that in England they
border. did not like the name Fritz, and on the spot
changed his name to Freddy.
At the border, the train stopped and a rumour
spread that the Germans were not letting us His English relatives looked after all his
continue.” After a night of uncertainty, needs. They sent him to an English Grammar
morning came and with it, the message that School “and very soon I turned into an
the Germans had given the green light to English boy”. He quickly learnt the language,
proceed. thanks to a system of learning with the use of
comics. “I continued learning piano and
“As soon as we entered Holland, everything
changed – windows were opened, sweets excelled at sports. I was more advanced in
were passed around, songs were sung and general knowledge than the English children,
there was much celebration.” The last stop for as Czech education was excellent”, he
the train was the port, Hoek van Holland, near explains. For only a short time, he managed
Rotterdam, from where the ships left for to keep in contact with his parents through
Britain. For a Czech youngster, from a letters, as just one month after arriving in
country without a sea border, it was a great England, the Second World War broke out in
discovery to face the sea. “I remember the September 1939 and connection was lost.
sounds of the seagulls, the waves and the big When the German aerial blitz on London
ship that waited for us. For me, it was another started, the children were evacuated from the
stage of the adventure.” city, but during school holidays they returned
to their homes in the bombed city. Freddy
The first child’s name that was called
spent a lot of time in the shelters, and his job
After a night crossing of the English Channel, was to walk around with a thermos flask and
the boat docked at the port of Harwich, and offer a hot cup of tea to the air raid wardens.
from there they travelled by train to London.
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