84-619: Joseph Herman Hertz CH (25 September 1872 – 14 January 1946) was a British Rabbi and biblical scholar . He held the position of Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1913 until his death in 1946, in a period encompassing both world wars and the Holocaust . Hertz was born in Rebrín/Rebrény, Kingdom of Hungary (presently part of the village of Zemplínska Široká , Slovak Republic ), in 1872 and immigrated to New York City in 1884. He
168-452: A "watershed moment" the government accepted "the political recommendation of a coalition of voluntary agencies" but without accepting that the government had any administrative or financial responsibility. The groups, though considering all refugees, were allied under a non-denominational organisation called the "Movement for the Care of Children from Germany". This organisation was considering only
252-503: A Jewish youth movement inclined to socialism and Zionism , were instrumental in running the country hostels of South West England. These members of Habonim were held back from going to live on kibbutz by the war. Records for many of the children who arrived in the UK through the Kindertransports are maintained by World Jewish Relief through its Jewish Refugees Committee. At the end of
336-569: A complex web of interfaith refugee assistance." Wilfrid Israel (1899–1943) was a key figure in the rescue of Jews from Germany and occupied Europe. He warned the British government, through Lord Samuel, of the impending Kristallnacht in November 1938. Through a British agent, Frank Foley , passport officer at the Berlin consulate, he kept British intelligence informed of Nazi activities. Speaking on behalf of
420-694: A friend involved in Jewish refugee work. Under the loose direction of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, headed by Doreen Warriner , Winton spent three weeks in Prague compiling a list of children in Czechoslovakia, mostly Jewish, who were refugees from Nazi Germany. He then went back to Britain with the objective of fulfilling the legal requirements to bring the children to Britain and to find homes for them. Trevor Chadwick remained behind to head
504-574: A great man," a courageous Rabbi, and that although he was affiliated with the Jewish Theological Seminary Hertz "was Orthodox, without any question." Although Hertz vigorously denounced the horror of the Holocaust (at one point relating an eyewitness claim that "German soldiers in football attire entered [a] stadium [near Kiev]. They snatched the infants from their mothers' arms and used them as footballs, bouncing and kicking them around
588-464: A home for refugees. She could have joined the children, but chose to remain behind. This was a rescue action, as occupation of the Netherlands was imminent, with the country capitulating the next day. This ship was the last to leave the country freely. As the Netherlands was under attack by German forces from 10 May and bombing had been going on, there was no opportunity to confer with the parents of
672-400: A long or indefinite period of time; younger children, in contrast, who had no developed sense of time, would not be able to comprehend that they may see their parents again, thus making the trauma of separation total from the beginning. The actual leaving, via railway station, was also not a peaceful process, and there are many records of tears and screaming at the various railway stations where
756-612: A number of children. Eventually around 500 Jewish children from Germany aged between 1 and 15 were granted temporary residence permits on the condition that their parents would not try to enter the country. The children were selected by Jewish organisations in Germany and placed in foster homes and orphanages in Sweden. Initially the children came mainly from Germany and Austria (part of the Greater Reich after Anschluss ). From 15 March 1939, with
840-416: A parent in a concentration camp. Once the children were identified or grouped by list, their guardians or parents were issued a travel date and departure details. They could only take a small sealed suitcase with no valuables and only ten marks or less in money. Some children had nothing but a manila tag with a number on the front and their name on the back, others were issued with a numbered identity card with
924-482: A photo: The first party of 196 children arrived at Harwich on the TSS Prague on 2 December, three weeks after Kristallnacht , disembarking at Parkeston Quay . A plaque unveiled in 2011 at Harwich harbour marks this event. In the following nine months almost 10,000 unaccompanied children, mainly Jewish, travelled to England. There were also Kindertransports to other countries, such as France, Belgium,
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#17330851137681008-688: A result, 805 people died out of the original complement of 1673. This led to evacuations of British children on passenger liners under the Children's Overseas Reception Board and the United States Committee for the Care of European Children to be protected by convoys. As the camp internees reached the age of 18, they were offered the chance to do war work or to enter the Army Auxiliary Pioneer Corps . About 1,000 German and Austrian prior-kinder who reached adulthood went on to serve in
1092-434: A ship's gangplank. Each child is portrayed with a different emotion representing the storm of emotions they must have felt at the end of their journey by train and then ship. The figures are also engraved with quotes of four of the refugees describing their first experience of the UK. The memorial is within sight of the landing place at Parkeston Quay of thousands of Kindertransport children. A number of members of Habonim ,
1176-476: A train. Depicted in different colours, the group of the rescued is outnumbered, as the majority of Jewish children (more than one million) perished in the Nazi death camps. In September 2022 a bronze memorial entitled Safe Haven was unveiled on Harwich Quay by Dame Steve Shirley , a former Kindertransport child. The work by artist Ian Wolter is a life-size, bronze sculpture of five Kindertransport refugees descending
1260-477: A transit camp for girls. While most transports went via train, some also went by boat, and others aeroplane. The first Kindertransport was organised and masterminded by Florence Nankivell. She spent a week in Berlin, hassled by the Nazi police, organising the children. The train left Berlin on 1 December 1938, and arrived in Harwich on 2 December with 196 children. Most were from a Berlin Jewish orphanage burned by
1344-835: A trip to Bulawayo in neighbouring Rhodesia. He then proceeded to Australia, with 20,000 Jews, where he delivered lectures in 20 communities. His travels then took him to New Zealand, with 2,500 Jews, stopped in Fiji where a few Jewish families were living, before arriving in Canada, with 125,000 Jews, on July 4, 1921 for a six-week tour that took him across Western Canada with stops in Vancouver , Calgary , Edmonton , Saskatoon , Regina and Winnipeg delivering eleven sermons and speaking at thirteen meetings as well as receptions with four Lieutenant-Governors , received by seven Mayors and visiting three provincial Premiers . He carried out many engagements in
1428-515: Is noted for its stance against Higher Criticism . It is also referred to as the Hertz Pentateuch , and it includes the following features: It also includes views of the most important medieval Jewish commentators, such as Abraham ibn Ezra , Rashi , Ramban , Radak , Sforno and Ralbag (Gersonides). The actual writing, which produced five volumes, was done by four other people, but "Hertz recast their material into his own style." When
1512-456: Is often presented in personal terms, with trauma varying based on the child's experiences, including their age at separation from their parents, their experience during the wartime, and their experience after the war. The primary trauma experienced by children in the Kindertransport was the separation from their parents. Depending on the child's age, the explanation for why they were leaving
1596-647: Is the Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, and a maximum of 65 members. Additionally, foreigners or Commonwealth citizens from outside the Commonwealth realms may be added as honorary members. Members are organised into a single class and are appointed by the monarch of the Commonwealth realms in their capacity as sovereign of the order. While membership of the order confers no title or precedence , those inducted into
1680-666: The Reichsvertretung (the German Jewish communal organisation) and the Hilfsverein (the self-help body), he urged a plan of rescue on the Foreign Office and helped British Quakers to visit Jewish communities across Germany to prove to the British government that Jewish parents were indeed prepared to part with their children. Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld brought in 300 children who practised Orthodox Judaism , under auspices of
1764-804: The Jewish Encyclopedia and the Encyclopædia Britannica . Hertz edited a significant commentary on the Torah (1929–36, one volume edition 1937). Published as The Pentateuch and Haftorahs and popularly known as the Hertz Chumash , this classic Hebrew-English edition of the Five Books of Moses, with corresponding Haftorahs , is used in many synagogues and classrooms throughout the English-speaking world. The work - through its commentary and essays -
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#17330851137681848-568: The Commonwealth realms . It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. It was founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire . The order was originally intended to be conferred upon a limited number of persons for whom this special distinction seemed to be the most appropriate form of recognition, constituting an honour dissociated from either
1932-558: The Free City of Danzig . The children were placed in British foster homes , hostels , schools, and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust . The programme was supported, publicised, and encouraged by the British government, which waived the visa immigration requirements that were not within the ability of the British Jewish community to fulfil. The British government placed no numerical limit on
2016-524: The German occupation of Czechoslovakia , transports from Prague were hastily organised. In February and August 1939, trains from Poland were arranged. Transports out of Nazi-occupied Europe continued until the declaration of war on 1 September 1939. A smaller number of children flew to Croydon Airport , mainly from Prague. Other ports in England receiving the children included Dover. The last transport from
2100-560: The Hook of Holland near Rotterdam . From the port, a train took some of the children to Liverpool Street station in London, where they were met by their volunteer foster parents. Children without prearranged foster families were sheltered at temporary holding centres at summer holiday camps such as Dovercourt and Pakefield , with the Broadreeds holiday camp, at Selsey , West Sussex , being used as
2184-452: The Isle of Man . Around 400 were transported overseas to Canada and Australia (see HMT Dunera ). The fast, unescorted liner, SS Arandora Star was sunk by German submarine U-47 on 2 July 1940. Many of her 1213 German, Italian, and Austrian refugees, and internees (she was also carrying 86 German POWs) were ex-Kindertransport children. There was difficulty launching the lifeboats, and as
2268-461: The London Beth Din . Hertz antagonised others by his strong support for Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s, when many Jews were against it, fearing that it would lead to accusations against the Jewish community of divided loyalty. Hertz was strongly opposed to Reform and Liberal Judaism , though he did not allow this to create personal animosities, and had no objection in principle to attending
2352-583: The Wagner–Rogers Bill was introduced in Congress , which would have increased the quota of immigrants by bringing to the U.S. a total of 20,000 refugee children, but it did not pass. On 15 November 1938, five days after the devastation of Kristallnacht , the "Night of Broken Glass", in Germany and Austria, a delegation of British, Jewish, and Quaker leaders appealed, in person, to the Prime Minister of
2436-576: The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple , Hertz founded the Council of Christians and Jews to combat anti-Jewish bigotry. His daughter Judith married Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld . His great granddaughter is the economist Noreena Hertz . From 1920 to 1921, Hertz became the first chief rabbi to undertake a pastoral tour of the British Empire . He arrived at the idea of such a tour after reading reports of
2520-609: The Bible to Jews and non-Jews and sought to raise £1 million for Jewish education. He began his tour in South Africa , which had a Jewish population of 66,000, on 27 October 1920 and travelled throughout the country over a period of three months, covering 5,000 miles by railway, including stops in several smaller communities as well as the Cape Town , Johannesburg and Pretoria , where he was greeted by Prime Minister Jan Smuts , followed by
2604-557: The British Prime Minister, ordered the internment of all male 16-to 70-year-old refugees from enemy countries – so-called 'friendly enemy aliens '. A complete history of this internment episode is given in the book Collar the Lot! . Many of the children who had arrived in earlier years were now young men, and so they were also interned. Approximately 1,000 of these prior-kinder were interned in these internment camps , many on
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2688-671: The British armed forces, including in combat units. Several dozen joined elite formations such as the Special Forces , where their language skills were put to good use during the Normandy landings , and afterwards as the Allies progressed into Germany . One of these was Peter Masters, who wrote a book which he titled Striking Back . Most of the interned 'friendly enemy aliens' were refugees who had fled Hitler and Nazism, and nearly all were Jewish. When Churchill's internment policy became known, there
2772-704: The Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council. He housed many of them in his London home for a while. During the Blitz he found for them in the countryside often non-Jewish foster homes. In order to ensure that the children followed Jewish dietary laws ( Kashrut ), he instructed them to say to the foster parents that they were fish-eating vegetarians. He also saved large numbers of Jews with South American protection papers. He brought over to England several thousand young people, rabbis, teachers, ritual slaughterers, and other religious functionaries. In June 1940, Winston Churchill ,
2856-499: The Home Office "shall put no obstacle in the way of children coming here," the agencies involved had to find homes for the children and also fund the operation to ensure that none of the refugees would become a financial burden on the public. Every child had to have a guarantee of £50 sterling to finance his or her eventual re-emigration, as it was expected the children would stay in the country only temporarily. Hoare made it clear that
2940-484: The Jewish agencies then increased their planned target number to 15,000 unaccompanied children to enter Great Britain in this way. During the morning of 21 November 1938, before a major House of Commons debate on refugees, the Home Secretary , Sir Samuel Hoare met a large delegation representing Jewish and Quaker groups, as well as other groups, working on behalf of refugees. In what was described by Rose Holmes as
3024-582: The Nazis during the night of 9 November, and the others were from Hamburg. The first train from Vienna left on 10 December 1938 with 600 children. This was the result of the work of Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer , a Dutch organiser of Kindertransports, who had been active in this field since 1933. She went to Vienna with the purpose of negotiating with Adolf Eichmann directly, but was initially turned away. She persevered however, until finally, as she wrote in her biography, Eichmann suddenly "gave" her 600 children with
3108-462: The Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An example is the 1,000 Chateau de La Hille children who went to Belgium. However, most often the term is restricted to the organised programme of the United Kingdom. The Central British Fund for German Jewry (now World Jewish Relief ) was established in 1933 to support in whatever way possible the needs of Jews in Germany and Austria. In the United States,
3192-604: The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. Dutch humanitarian Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer arranged for 1,500 children to be admitted to the Netherlands; the children were supported by the Dutch Committee for Jewish Refugees , which was paid by the Dutch Jewish Community. In Sweden, the Jewish Community of Stockholm negotiated with the government for an exception to the country's restrictive policy on Jewish refugees for
3276-698: The Prince of Wales ' successful tour of Canada following the First World War and decided to do something similar to visit small Jewish communities in the British Dominions (later known as the British Commonwealth ). Hertz "Imperial tour" took him 40,000 miles and to 42 Jewish communities over 11 months in South Africa , Rhodesia , Australia , New Zealand , Fiji and Canada . He lectured extensively on
3360-514: The Second World War. Winton has been lionised by both the British and Czech governments "in part to reframe their national Holocaust histories more positively." Latter-day historians have acknowledged the contribution of Winton, but characterised the kindertransport from Czechoslovakia as "a grassroots transnational network of escape...This network connected Boston-based Unitarians, London-based socialists, and Prague-based Jewish social workers in
3444-409: The United Kingdom, Neville Chamberlain . Among other measures, they requested that the British government permit the temporary admission of unaccompanied Jewish children, without their parents. The British Cabinet debated the issue the next day and subsequently prepared a bill to present to Parliament . The bill stated that the government would waive certain immigration requirements so as to allow
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3528-530: The United States accepted about 200,000 refugees fleeing Nazism, more than any other country. Most of the refugees were Jewish. In 1939 Senator Robert F. Wagner and Rep. Edith Rogers proposed the Wagner-Rogers Bill in the United States Congress . This bill was to admit 20,000 unaccompanied refugees under the age of 14 into the United States from Germany and areas under German control. Most of
3612-478: The acceptance of title or the classification of merit. It is now described as being "awarded for having a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time". The first recipients of the order were all decorated for "services in connection with the war " and were listed in The London Gazette . The order consists of the monarch of the Commonwealth realms, who
3696-461: The actual parting took place. Having to learn a new language, in a country where the child's native German or Czech was not understood, was another cause of stress. To have to learn to live with strangers, who only spoke English, and accept them as "pseudo-parents", was a trauma. At school, the English children would often view the refugee children as "enemy Germans" instead of "Jewish refugees". Before
3780-402: The allocation of this award to that country's citizens in preference to other Australian honours. The last Australian member, Doug Anthony , former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, died on 20 December 2020. Companions from other Commonwealth realms continue to be appointed, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa , a New Zealand soprano, was given the award in 2018 and Canadian author Margaret Atwood was given
3864-493: The arena."), Hertz was opposed to the Kindertransport if it meant Jewish refugee children would be raised in the homes of gentiles . Hertz saw the British war effort in the noblest of terms, wishing Prime Minister Winston Churchill a happy 70th birthday in late 1944 with the message, "But for your wisdom and courage there would have been a Vichy England lying prostrate before an all-powerful Satanism that spelled slavery to
3948-462: The award in 2019. Sebastian Coe , Baron Coe CH represented the Order at the 2023 Coronation . The insignia of the order is in the form of an oval medallion, surmounted by a royal crown (but, until recently, surmounted by an imperial crown ), and with a rectangular panel within, depicting on it an oak tree, a shield with the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom hanging from one branch, and, on
4032-536: The children in Britain without their parents was perceived at the time as a temporary measure but the war began. The work of the BCRC in Czechoslovakia was little noted until 1988 when the refugee children held a reunion. By that time most of the people who had worked in the kindertransport in Czechoslovakia had died and Winton became the living symbol of British help to refugees fleeing the Nazis, especially Jewish refugees, before
4116-410: The children's programme in Czechoslovakia. Winton's mother also worked with him to place the children in homes, and later hostels, with a team of sponsors from groups like Maidenhead Rotary Club and Rugby Refugee Committee. Throughout the summer, he placed advertisements seeking British families to take them in. A total of 669 children were evacuated from Czechoslovakia to Britain in 1939 through
4200-500: The children. At the time of this evacuation, these parents knew nothing of the evacuation of their children: according to unnamed sources, some of the parents were initially very upset about this action and told Wijsmuller-Meijer that she should not have done this. After 15 May, there was no more opportunity to leave the Netherlands as the country's borders were closed by the Nazis. Many children went through trauma during their extensive Kindertransport experience. Reports of this trauma
4284-457: The clear intent of overloading her and making a transport on such short notice impossible. Nevertheless, Wijsmuller-Meijer managed to send 500 of the children to Harwich, where they were accommodated in a nearby holiday camp at Dovercourt, while the remaining 100 found refuge in the Netherlands. Many representatives went with the parties from Germany to the Netherlands, or met the parties at Liverpool Street station in London and ensured that there
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#17330851137684368-626: The continent with 74 children left on the passenger-freighter SS Bodegraven [ nl ; de ] on 14 May 1940, from IJmuiden , Netherlands. Their departure was organised by Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer , the Dutch organiser of the first transport from Vienna in December 1938. She had collected 66 of the children from the orphanage on the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam, part of which had been serving as
4452-474: The country and their parents differed widely: for example, children might be told "you are going on an exciting adventure", or "you are going on a short trip and we will see you soon". Young children, roughly six or younger, would generally not accept such an explanation and would demand to stay with their parents. Older children, who were "more willing to accept the parents' explanation", would nevertheless realise that they would be separated from their parents for
4536-515: The day Germany invaded Poland , and two days later Britain, France, and other countries declared war on Germany. A party left Prague on 3 September 1939, but was sent back. Marking the European route of the children's transport and created from personal experience, Frank Meisler 's sculpture groups show similarities but with different details. The memorials show two groups of children and young people standing with their backs to each other waiting for
4620-535: The entry into Great Britain of unaccompanied children ranging from infants up to the age of 17, under a number of conditions. No limit upon the permitted number of refugees was ever publicly announced. Initially, the Jewish refugee agencies considered 5,000 as a realistic target goal. However, after the British Colonial Office turned down the Jewish agencies' separate request to allow the admission of 10,000 children to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine ,
4704-467: The five volumes were combined into a single volume (and published by Soncino Press ), the Revised Version translation, but not the non-Jewish commentaries, were replaced with the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation. Both translations were lightly edited by Hertz (e.g., at Lev. 27:29 RV and Num. 10:33 JPS). Companion of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of
4788-478: The funerals of Reform Jews. However, despite all this, his eloquent oratory, lucid writing, erudition and sincerity earned him the respect of the majority of British Jews and many outside the Jewish community. His commentary on the Torah is still to be found in most Orthodox synagogues and Jewish homes in Great Britain. Despite there being some Ultra-Orthodox Jews who do not look up to Hertz, prominent Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Nosson Scherman maintained that Hertz "was
4872-429: The large Jewish centres of Toronto and in what was then Canada's largest Jewish community of 40,000 in Montreal , highlighted by an address to 2,000 children in a park. He continued to Halifax, Nova Scotia before concluding with a Bible lecture in St. John, New Brunswick , departing Canada on August 16, 1921. After returning to England, he wrote “I had preached love and loyalty to the Empire wherever I went, and sown
4956-436: The latter years of the war, they may have become aware of the Holocaust and the actual direct threat to their Jewish parents and extended family. After the war ended in 1945, nearly all the children learned, sooner or later, that their parents had been murdered. In November 2018, for the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport programme, the German government announced that it would make a payment of €2,500 (about US$ 2,800 at
5040-416: The left shoulder. Kindertransport The Kindertransport (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi -controlled territory that took place in 1938–1939 during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War . The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 children, most of them Jewish , from Germany , Austria , Czechoslovakia , Poland , and
5124-405: The left, a mounted knight in armour. The insignia's blue border bears in gold letters the motto IN ACTION FAITHFUL AND IN HONOUR CLEAR , Alexander Pope 's description (in iambic pentameter ) in his Epistle to Mr Addison of James Craggs the Younger , later used on Craggs's monument in Westminster Abbey . Men wear the badge on a neck ribbon (red with golden border threads) and women on a bow at
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#17330851137685208-433: The monetary and housing and other aid required had been promised by the Jewish community and other communities. Within a short time, the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany, later known as the Refugee Children's Movement (RCM), sent representatives to Germany and Austria to establish the systems for choosing, organising, and transporting the children. The Central British Fund for German Jewry provided funding for
5292-508: The motives and character of the families: it was sufficient for the houses to look clean and the families to seem respectable. In Germany, a network of organisers was established, and these volunteers worked around the clock to make priority lists of those most in peril: teenagers who were in concentration camps or in danger of arrest, Polish children or teenagers threatened with deportation, children in Jewish orphanages, children whose parents were too impoverished to keep them, or children with
5376-504: The order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CH . Appointments to the order are generally made on the advice of prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms. For Canadians, the advice to the Sovereign can come from a variety of officials. Originally, the order was limited to 50 ordinary members, but in 1943 it was enlarged to 65, with a quota of 45 members for the United Kingdom , seven for Australia , two each for New Zealand and South Africa , and nine for India , Burma , and
5460-428: The other British colonies . The quota numbers were altered in 1970 to 47 for the United Kingdom, seven for Australia, two for New Zealand, and nine for other Commonwealth realms. The quota was adjusted again in 1975 by adding two places to the New Zealand quota and reducing the nine for the other countries to seven. Whilst still able to nominate candidates to the order, the Cabinet of Australia has effectively stopped
5544-448: The post until his death. His tenure was affected by arguments with a wide variety of people, mainly within the Jewish community; the Dictionary of National Biography describes him as a "combative Conservative". It was said that he was in favour of resolving disagreements by calm discussion – when all other methods had failed. Despite his title, he was not universally recognised as the final rabbinical authority, even in Britain. While he
5628-411: The programme; it was the start of the Second World War that brought it to an end, by which time about 10,000 kindertransport children had been brought to the country. Smaller numbers of children were taken in via the programme by the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Sweden, and Switzerland. The term "kindertransport" may also be applied to the rescue of mainly Jewish children from Nazi German territory to
5712-407: The proposal. He was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1943. He was also Commander of the Order of Léopold II of Belgium and had a Columbia University medal. A memorial plaque on his former London home at 103 Hamilton Terrace, Maida Vale was unveiled on 12 March 1996. Hertz edited a Hebrew-English edition of the Jewish Prayer Book or Siddur (1946), and contributed to
5796-507: The removal of religious disabilities of Jews and Catholics in South Africa. He was Professor of Philosophy at Transvaal University College (later known as the University of the Witwatersrand ), 1906–8. In 1911, he returned to New York to the Orach Chayim Congregation. In 1913, Hertz was elected Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire ; he received 298 votes against 39 for Dayan Moses Hyamson . His rival candidates had also included Bernard Drachman . Hertz held
5880-429: The rescue of children, who would need to leave their parents behind in Germany. In that debate of 21 November 1938, Hoare paid particular attention to the plight of children. He reported that enquiries in Germany had determined that nearly every parent asked had said that they would be willing to send their child off unaccompanied to the United Kingdom, leaving their parents behind. Although Hoare declared that he and
5964-410: The rescue operation. On 25 November, British citizens heard an appeal for foster homes on the BBC Home Service radio station from former Home Secretary Viscount Samuel . Soon there were 500 offers, and RCM volunteers started visiting possible foster homes and reporting on conditions. They did not insist that the homes for Jewish children should be Jewish homes. Nor did they probe too carefully into
6048-668: The same day of the week every year. This requires that one day every year (two in leap years) is not any day of the week but a "world day". Thus, once or twice a year there would be eight days rather than seven between consecutive Saturdays. Thus the Jewish Sabbath , which must occur every seventh day, would be on a different weekday each year. The same applies to the Christian Sabbath. Hertz realised that this would cause problems for Jews and Christians alike in observing their Sabbaths, and mobilised worldwide religious opposition to defeat
6132-423: The seeds of Jewish idealism and spirituality in all the far-off places I had visited.” He was granted a private audience with King George V at Buckingham Palace in November to discuss his visit. In the 1920s, Hertz successfully organised international opposition to a proposed calendar reform . The League of Nations was considering a calendar amendment, The World Calendar , such that a given date would fall on
6216-486: The time) to each of the "Kinder" who was still alive. This payment, although a token amount, represented an explicit recognition and acceptance of the immense damage that had been done to each child, both psychological and material. The Nazis had decreed that the evacuations must not block ports in Germany, so most transport parties went by train to the Netherlands ; then to a British port, generally Harwich , by ferry from
6300-490: The war started on 1 September 1939, and even during the first part of the war, some parents were able to escape from Hitler and reach England and then reunite with their children. However, this became the exception, as most of the parents of the refugee children were murdered by the Nazis. Older refugee children became fully aware of the war in Europe during the period of 1939–1945 and would become concerned for their parents. During
6384-480: The war, there were great difficulties in Britain as children from the Kindertransport tried to reunite with their families. Agencies were flooded with requests from children seeking to find their parents, or any surviving member of their family. Some of the children were able to reunite with their families, often travelling to far-off countries in order to do so. Others discovered that their parents had not survived
6468-447: The war. In her novel about the Kindertransport titled The Children of Willesden Lane , Mona Golabek describes how often the children who had no families left were forced to leave the homes that they had gained during the war in boarding houses in order to make room for younger children flooding the country. Before Christmas 1938, Nicholas Winton , a 29-year-old British stockbroker of German-Jewish origin, travelled to Prague to help
6552-483: The western peoples, death to Israel, and night to the sacred heritage of man." He was ex officio President of Jews' College , and Acting Principal, 1939–45. He was President of the Jewish Historical Society of England , 1922–3 and after his tenure was over, he continued to preside over lectures at the society including a lecture by then Chief Rabbi of Cologne, Germany , Rabbi Dr. Adolf Kober in 1937. He
6636-462: The work of Chadwick, Warriner, Beatrice Wellington , Waitstill and Martha Sharp , Quaker volunteers such as Tessa Rowntree , and others who worked in Czechoslovakia while Winton was in Britain. The last group of children, which left Prague on 3 September 1939, was turned back because the Nazis had invaded Poland – the beginning of the Second World War. The children travelled to Britain while their parents remained in Czechoslovakia. The settlement of
6720-556: Was Chief Rabbi of the group of synagogues known as the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire, led by the United Synagogue , a minority of new immigrants who had arrived since the 1880s regarded it as insufficiently orthodox. Hertz tried both persuasion and such force as he could muster to influence them; he added to his credibility among these immigrants by persuading Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky to become head of
6804-632: Was a debate in Parliament. Many speeches expressed horror at the idea of interning refugees, and a vote overwhelmingly instructed the Government to "undo" the internment. In contrast to the Kindertransport, where the British Government waived immigration visa requirements, these OTC children received no United States government visa immigration assistance. The U.S. government made it difficult for refugees to get entrance visas. However, from 1933 to 1945,
6888-913: Was also President of the Conference of Anglo-Jewish Preachers. He was on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Chairman of the Governing Body of its Institute of Jewish Studies. He was Vice-President of a wide variety of Jewish and non-Jewish bodies, including the Anglo-Jewish Association , the London Hospital , the League of Nations Union , the National Council of Public Morals and King George's Fund for Sailors . In 1942, with
6972-825: Was educated at New York City College (BA), Columbia University (PhD) and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Rabbi, 1894, the Seminary's first graduate). His first ministerial post was in Syracuse, New York at what is now Temple Adath Yeshurun. In 1898, he moved to Transvaal , South Africa, to the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation in Johannesburg . He stayed there until 1911, despite attempts by President Paul Kruger in 1899 to expel him for his pro- British sympathies and for advocating
7056-675: Was someone there to receive and care for each child. Between 1939 and 1941, 160 children without foster families were sent to the Whittingehame Farm School in East Lothian , Scotland. The Whittingehame estate was the family home of Arthur Balfour , former UK prime minister and, in 1917, author of the Balfour Declaration . The RCM ran out of money at the end of August 1939, and decided it could take no more children. The last group of children left Germany on 1 September 1939,
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