Chickenshed's production of
Tue 27 Sep - Sat 22 Oct In the Studio Theatre Written by DIANE SAMUELS
Directed by LOU STEIN
Cast Evelyn - Michelle Collins Rat Catcher - Pete Dowse Lil - Evie Edgell Eva - Hope Marks Helga - Gemilla Shamruk Faith - Mirrim Tyers-Vowles
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CONTENTS
About Chickenshed..............................................................................
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Reflections from Lou Stein, Artistic Director.................................... 5 Author’s Introduction - Diane Samuels............................................. 6-7 Set and Design ...................................................................................... 8 Timeline 1933-39................................................................................ 9 Kindertransport Historical Background........................................... 10 Lesson Plan............................................................................................ 11-13 - 'Memories of the Kindertransport' Resource............................... 14-17 - 'British Reactions to Refugees' Resource...................................... 18-25 About the Holocaust Educational Trust............................................. 26 Drama Workshop Activities................................................................. 27-31 Youth Theatre Exercises....................................................................... 32-34 Further Resources................................................................................. 35
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ABOUT CHICKENSHED
Chickenshed is a theatre company with a vision of a society that enables everyone to flourish. We create entertaining and outstanding theatre that celebrates diversity and inspires positive change: where difference can divide, at Chickenshed the difference makes the art. Working from our base in Southgate, as well as our branch in Kensington & Chelsea, Chickenshed is truly theatre changing lives, and we do this in a number of ways: Performance Performance is at the heart of everything that we do and brings together all aspects of the company. Our work uses the stage to celebrate diversity and performance as a vehicle to communicate with audiences and tackle topical social issues. We regularly present original and entertaining productions for young children, families and adults.
Education Chickenshed changes lives by bringing young people from all social and economic backgrounds, races and abilities together to study creatively alongside each other, many of whom have been marginalised by society and excluded from mainstream educational settings. We welcome over 200 students onto our BTEC, Foundation Degree and BA level programmes every year.
Membership We believe that every person who joins our company positively changes the way that we work. We work to every individual's strengths, finding the creative environment that will enable them to flourish. We hold weekly workshops for over 1000 children and young people - providing them with a safe and rewarding environment where they can gain a new-found confidence and have the chance to regularly perform in major in-house productions.
Outreach Chickenshed has established a network of partners that enables us to effectively reach children and young people who would otherwise not be able to access our work. We regularly take our inclusive outreach model on the road, delivering over 15 projects and benefiting over 15,000 young people every year in venues ranging from primary schools and young offender centres, to mainstream and special schools.
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Reflections from Lou Stein, Artistic Director
REHEARSALS FOR KINDERTRANSPORT As we enter the second week of rehearsals of our new studio show Kindertransport, there is a tangible buzz about the show, both with the actors, within the Chickenshed community and beyond. This will be the first show I fully direct at Chickenshed, and the experience so far has been intense and rewarding. I can't wait to share it with you, our audience; the bar is truly being raised as two of our recent graduates (Mirrim and Hope) work with Michelle Collins and Evie Edgell (a regular on Holby City), and two of our brilliantly inventive staff members, Pete Dowse and Gemilla Shamruk.
Meeting Kindertransport survivors as part of the process One of the unique aspects of our rehearsal process has been the opportunity to meet with actual people who were Kindertransport children themselves back in 1939. Meeting with Eve Willman and Rev. Francis Wahle has added an incredible dimension to the integrity and scope of our rehearsal work. Through their eyes, the cast and I have been able to experience, almost first-hand, what the effect of leaving their homeland in 1939, and arriving in their newly adopted country in England, was like for them. Eve actually showed us the original German passport and entrance visa she was issued when she was 5 years old. It was incredible to hold this piece of history in our hands and to share with Eve her memories.
12 Sept 2016
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AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION by Diane Samuels “I can understand myself only in the light of inner happenings.” Carl Jung
“People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.” James Baldwin
Memory is unpredictable. Sometimes it forms clear as crystal. At other times it splinters into shards that refuse to fit together. Some pieces may connect whilst others remain elusive. Often, memories dissolve into a mist or vanish altogether into a sea of darkness, but this doesn’t mean that they are no longer there. Kindertransport is a play in which invisible memory is made not only visible but material and physical, a living, breathing thing: a bedtime moment, a box of papers, a girl’s hand clutching a crinkled photograph. If you think that you know what memory means then the play asks you to think again, to feel, see, hear, touch where memory hides and reveals itself, to realize that the value of what you do and do not remember might not lie in the past but in how it connects you to what is fully alive, or solidly frozen, within you right now, as present as ever. Collective memory crystallizes into what we call History. ‘Facts’ serve to anchor the shared story into a generally agreed narrative. The ’objective’ and relevant facts that provide the wider context for this play start in Germany in the late 1930s. In early November 1938 an intensive series of ‘pogrom’ attacks on Jewish property and arrests of people were launched in Nazi Germany. This became known as ‘Kristallnacht’, The Night of Broken Glass, and has subsequently been called ‘Pogromnacht’ or ‘Novemberpogrome’. In the wake of this calculated violence some others in the world woke up to the level of danger that certain minorities, most notably Jews, faced within the Nazi domain. The British government was lobbied by Jewish, humanitarian and Quaker organizations to provide refuge. At the time, it was not necessarily easy but certainly possible for people to get out of Germany, surrendering their possessions in the process. The difficulty was finding somewhere to go when many countries were barring their doors to refugees no matter how endangered they were. The ten thousand permits that were made available for under-sixteen year olds to enter and remain within the United Kingdom were hard won and granted only because children were seen as less of a threat to the economy, which was still recovering from the ravages of the Great Depression. So, at the very end of 1938, began a series of transportations carrying mostly Jewish children (along with some from other backgrounds who were also at risk) aged sixteen and under from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The name these transportations were given is simply descriptive – Kinder (children), transport (transportation).These continued for almost a year until the Second World War began in early September 1939. It was in 1989, during the fiftieth anniversary year of the Kindertransport, that I first learned about these children who were brought to safety, and how many of them never saw their parents again. I wondered why I had not come across this before. I grew up in a tight-knit Jewish community in Liverpool in the 1960s and 70s, and attended Jewish schools from kindergarten at the age of three to secondary school, including sixth form. I was taught Jewish history and the Holocaust was given due attention. Yet there was no word about the Kindertransport, and this in schools where young people of the same age would readily have identified with the experience of these evacuees. The reasons for this are significant and connect with the inner life of the Kinder themselves. Many simply chose not to discuss or raise the matter of where they had come from and how. In their adult lives they had focused on making a living,
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AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION continued raising families and “putting the past behind” them. When the 1989 anniversary came around, the youngest Kinder, who had travelled across Europe and the North Sea as babies thrust into the arms of older children, were themselves in their fifties, whilst the teenage refugees were in their sixties. Late middle age is a time when life catches up with a person. An organization called Kindertransport Reunion was set up by Bertha Leverton and others who now actively sought to mark the event by bringing as many Kinder together as possible. A celebratory gathering was planned, the first of its kind. I met Bertha through a friend, herself a refugee, of my then husband, himself the son of German Jewish refugees. She talked to me about arriving and living in England, then later, after the war, how her mother had been one of the few who survived and had come to find her. Bertha also helped me to meet other Kinder and hear their stories too. I watched a documentary on television in which a number of them described their early experience of escape, subsequent survival, gratitude, guilt, loss and making a new life in another land. Twenty-five years on, 2013/14 saw the seventy-fifth anniversary. Kinder gathered again to mark their unique experience and connect with each other. By the time the hundredth anniversary arrives it is unlikely that very many, if any, will be here to attend. I feel privileged to have been able to engage with this communal act of remembering, reflection and attesting to the world whilst many have still been here to share it. Kindertransport, the event, is entirely distinct from Kindertransport the play. In the drama I do not attempt to speak for any of those who actually travelled on the trains as children. Whilst I did draw on key moments and detail from the spoken and written testimonies of Kinder, and whilst most of the experiences of Eva/Evelyn (the principle character in my play, played by two actors at different stages of her life) did happen to someone somewhere, the play is primarily a work of creative imagination, written from the heart. My play does focus on a particular happening at a time of massive upheaval in the world, yet it also looks beyond the specifics of this historical event and taps into a universal human experience: that of a child’s separation from its mother. Most of all, my focus when writing the play was to probe the inner life where memory is shaped by trauma, history meets story, in order to gain psychological and emotional insight into how a damaged psyche can survive, possibly recover, and whether there might ever be an opportunity to thrive. This journey within is what Kindertransport also offers each member of the audience and reader if they allow themselves to go where it ventures, no matter where or when they live. This is an extract from DIANE SAMUELS' KINDERTRANSPORT: THE AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO THE PLAY', published by Nick Hern Books, who also publish the playtext. www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/guidetokindertransport
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SET AND DESIGN For this production we worked with the tremendous designer, William Fricker. William has worked on many wonderful productions, and is associate set designer for War Horse. Here is a link to William’s website: http://www.williamfricker.co.uk/ And here are some of William’s set and costume sketches:
Lil
Helga
Ratcatcher
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Eva
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Article provided by Holocaust Educational Trust
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- Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, leading a coalition of Nazis and conservatives.
- L aw for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service removes Jews from government employment.
APR 7
1933
- Deportation of 15-17,000 Jews with Polish citizenship from Germany.
OCT 28
- Government announces approval of the Kindertransport programme to the House of Commons. - First Kindertransport departs from Berlin. Regular transports continue over the next nine months. - First Kindertransport arrives in Great Britain.
DEC 2
- British Jewish leaders approach British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to propose the Kindertransport.
NOV 15 DEC 1
- Jewish children expelled from state schools and forced to attend segregated Jewish schools.
NOV 15 NOV 21
- Göring chairs conference to organise complete exclusion of Jews from the German economy.
NOV 12
synagogues are attacked. 30,000 Jewish men are sent to concentration camps in the aftermath.
NOV 9-10 - Kristallnacht: nationwide pogrom in Germany and Austria in which at least 91 Jews are killed and thousands of homes, businesses and
- Passports of German Jews stamped with the letter ‘J’.
OCT 5
SEP 29-30 - Britain and France sign Munich Agreement with Germany and Italy, allowing Germany to occupy Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
- Anschluss with Austria. Immediately followed by pogroms. - Évian Conference: 32 countries meet to discuss help for Jewish refugees from Germany but fail to reach any meaningful agreement.
1939
- Britain and France declare war on Germany.
SEP 3
1938
- G erman invasion of Poland begins the Second World War. Last Kindertransport departs from Germany.
SEP 1
AUG 23 - Nazi-Soviet Pact.
incorporated into the Reich as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; Slovakia becomes an independent country under a pro-Nazi regime.
JUL 6-13
Berlin Olympics.
AUG 1-16
1936
- I n a speech to the Reichstag Hitler ‘prophesies’ “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe” should “international Jewish financiers, inside and outside Europe, succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war”.
MAR 15 - German invasion of Czechoslovakia: Czech lands
JAN 30
MAR 13
1935
Nuremberg Laws issued.
SEP 15
1933 - 1939
TIMELINE
Night of the Long Knives: Hitler murders Nazi and conservative opponents.
JUN 30 - JUL 2
1934
deemed ‘un-German’ in towns and cities across Germany.
MAY 10 - Pro-Nazi university students publicly burn books
Universities limits the number of Jewish students in state schools and universities.
APR 25 - Law against Overcrowding in Schools and
- N azi government organises a nationwide boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany.
APR 1
dictatorial powers.
MAR 23 - Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, giving Hitler
MAR 22 - Dachau concentration camp established.
JAN 30
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Antisemitism was the central and defining element of Nazi ideology, and Hitler’s accession to power in 1933 led to immediate and escalating persecution of Jews in Germany, through an array of laws, which increasingly restricted Jewish access to employment, education and social rights, and through waves of antisemitic violence. The pressure only intensified in 1938 when the Anschluss with Austria brought almost 200,000 further Jews under Nazi control. It is important to stress that this did not mean the Holocaust as we understand it was inevitable; no historians would today claim that it was always planned. It was clear that the Nazis aimed to purge Jews from German, and eventually European, society, but at this stage their strategy sought to exclude Jews from public life and eventually to force them to emigrate. In the face of this onslaught, a majority of German Jews did indeed emigrate before the beginning of the Second World War. However, the decision to leave a country in which most families had been settled for centuries was not an easy one and was made more challenging by the difficulty in finding states willing to admit them. Through the 1930s, partly due to a mixture of anti-immigrant sentiment and the effects of the Great Depression, Britain and other democracies refused to allow Jewish refugees to enter in large numbers, despite increasing evidence of the injustices they were suffering in Germany. At the Évian Conference in July 1938, Britain and 31 other countries failed to reach any meaningful agreement on further help for refugees. It took the shocking violence of the Kristallnacht pogrom on 9th-10th November 1938, in which Jewish businesses and homes were attacked, synagogues burned, and at least 91 people killed, to bring a partial change in both official and public attitudes in Britain. The government agreed to relax immigration rules to allow children under 17 to enter the UK but with continued restrictions: the children, with only a few exceptions, could not be accompanied by their parents, they had to be sponsored by welfare agencies who would pay a £50 bond as security that the children would not be a burden to the public finances, and they were only expected to stay temporarily prior to future emigration (although the outbreak of war in September 1939 meant that, in reality, many remained in the UK). The result was what became known as the Kindertransport programme. In a sense, the Kindertransport can be – and has often been – seen as a symbol of British humanitarian commitment. Around 9,500, predominantly Jewish, children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia (which was dismembered by Germany between September 1938 and March 1939) were able to find safety as a result of it. The organisation of the transports and subsequent care of the young refugees depended on the kindness, love and goodwill of many thousands of people. In turn, many of the refugees made Britain their home and have contributed much to our society. However, the story was more complex. In addition to the challenges facing generations of immigrants before them, of adaptation to a new country, with a different language and cultures, most Kinder endured the added ordeal of separation from their families, often at a very young age. Whilst very many were cared for by loving foster families in the UK, a small number of children were mistreated by their foster parents, who sometimes saw them as domestic servants. Some children had to contend with hostility or, more often perhaps, unintentionally distressing acts, such as the (often logistically necessary) separation of siblings or being brought up in the Christian faith. The war brought with it new challenges, ranging from evacuation for younger children to temporary internment as enemy aliens for the eldest, alongside a pervasive anxiety over the fate of loved ones stranded in Nazi-occupied territories. Only a minority of the children ever saw their parents again. It is also important to note that whilst the British government permitted the Kindertransport, it did not in any way organise the programme. This was rather the result of the initiative of various voluntary groups, notably Jewish and Quaker welfare agencies, and of remarkably dedicated and determined individuals whose consciences dictated that they act, despite facing immense financial, logistical and bureaucratic obstacles.
Article provided by Holocaust Educational Trust
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LESSON PLAN Britain, Refugees and the Kindertransport INTRODUCTION Nazi antisemitic persecution of Jews in Germany, and in due course other countries, gave rise to an unprecedented refugee crisis in the 1930s. This lesson focuses on the best known refugee story of this period, that of the Kindertransport – the programme whereby almost 10,000 unaccompanied children, mostly Jewish, came to Britain from central Europe between December 1938 and September 1939. This story is often presented as a redemptive one, enabling Britain to take pride in the fact that it opened its doors to save the most helpless of Hitler’s potential victims. However, as recent historical research has suggested, the history of the Kindertransport was rather more nuanced. This lesson therefore attempts to help students to understand the realities of refugees’ experiences. It is suitable for students aged 13 and over. The plan assumes that teachers will have around one hour to teach their lesson. It is appropriate for History, Religious Education, Citizenship, Geography and English curricula. The lesson has been adapted from Exploring the Holocaust, the Holocaust Educational Trust’s comprehensive cross-curricular scheme of work for secondary schools. For free access to all of the lessons and resources in Exploring the Holocaust, please visit the Trust’s website.
CONTENT AND USAGE The lesson uses the following materials:
• Memories of the Kindertransport: four information sheets, three of which contain testimonies from
former child refugees exploring different facets of their experiences; the fourth contains the memories of British families who took in children. The testimonies are derived from transcripts of oral history and video interviews, along with written memories.
• British reactions to refugees: four double-sided sheets, intended for use with older or more able
students. They contain facsimiles of historical documents which demonstrate the range of British attitudes to refugees and thereby help to present a nuanced picture of the society in which the Kindertransport arrived.
Although this lesson can stand alone, it will be most effective within a wider study of the Holocaust. In particular, students will benefit if they have already studied Nazi antisemitic policy in the 1930s, preferably using the Nazi Persecution of Jews in Germany lesson from Exploring the Holocaust. Citizenship and Geography teachers, in particular, may wish to link it to issues surrounding refugees, and public attitudes towards them, in the more recent past.
SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Aims To understand the meaning of the term ‘refugee’ and to reflect on the experiences of refugees To explore the ambiguities of Britain’s responses to Nazi persecution of Jews in the 1930s To engage with a range of types of historical source material
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LESSON PLAN Britain, Refugees and the Kindertransport Starter Ask students, individually and then in pairs, to define the word ‘refugee’. Collect feedback from the group. This will provide a useful opportunity to dispel misconceptions which some students may have: if necessary, explain the differences between refugees and economic migrants. Ask students why people might become refugees. Gradually direct the discussion to the question of why German and Austrian Jews would have become refugees in the 1930s, encouraging students to use their prior knowledge of Nazi persecution where appropriate. If students have not previously studied Nazism, briefly explain that Hitler’s regime subjected German and (from 1938) Austrian Jews to increasing persecution, including both legal restrictions and acts of violence, which culminated in the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938: at least 91 Jews were murdered, Jewish homes and businesses were attacked, and synagogues were burned. 30,000 Jewish men were arrested in the aftermath of the pogrom and held in concentration camps until they agreed to emigrate. At this point, many students may ask why all Jews did not leave the Reich. Encourage them to consider what factors may have prevented some from leaving. Answers might include: Germany/Austria was their home; there was the hope things might get better (although few believed this after Kristallnacht); they may have had dependents, such as elderly relatives, who could not easily leave; fear of the potential difficulties of life in a new country; lack of money. These answers will help to begin to direct students’ thoughts towards the challenges facing refugees. An additional factor, which students may or may not refer to, is that refugees needed somewhere to go – highlight this, if no students mention it, and ask them to consider why German and Austrian Jews may have had difficulty finding safe havens in the 1930s.
Activity 1 Introduce the story of the Kindertransport to the class: after Kristallnacht, the British government agreed to allow Jewish children, but not their parents, to enter the UK, provided they had sponsors willing to pay for them. Almost 10,000 children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia (occupied by Germany in March 1939) came to Britain from December 1938 onwards until the outbreak of war ended the scheme in September 1939. Divide the class into small groups. Give each group a copy of one of the Memories of the Kindertransport information sheets, ensuring that the four sheets are distributed evenly among the groups. Ask the groups to use the information on their sheet to note down – as a list, table or mind map – answers to the following questions:
• • •
Why might the children have been happy to have been on the Kindertransport? Why might they have been worried or upset? What were the challenges that they faced?
Collect feedback, ensuring that students add information from the other groups to their own answers.
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 12
LESSON PLAN Britain, Refugees and the Kindertransport Activity 2 The second group of information sheets – British reactions to refugees – can be used with older or higher ability students to explore some of the more challenging questions potentially raised in the plenary discussion above. As before, distribute copies of the sheets evenly across the small groups. Give each group a few minutes to read through the document on their sheet and to answer the stimulus questions. Use their responses, and the evidence looked at in activity 1, to address the following questions:
•
What evidence is there that people in Britain responded positively to the refugee crisis?
•
What evidence is there of negative attitudes?
• Is there anything else we can learn from this? (e.g. might there be a link between negative attitudes and the fact that the children’s parents were not allowed to come to Britain?)
(An alternative way of organising the lesson might be to divide the class, with one half studying the Memories of the Kindertransport sheets and the other British reactions to refugees. Information can then be shared in the plenary to create a rounded picture of the Kindertransport; ensure that sufficient time is allowed for such discussion.)
Plenary Ask students to return to their definitions of the word ‘refugee’ and review them in the light of what they have learned. Encourage them to discuss the positives and negatives of the refugee experience. Other questions which could be considered include:
• • •
What did Britain gain from the Kindertransport? What do the experiences of the refugees tell us about Britain in the 1930s and 1940s? Why do students think that Britain was prepared to admit the children but not their parents?
FURTHER STUDY This lesson could be followed by a study of wider British reactions to Nazi persecution, including more on attitudes to refugees, using the Trust’s British Responses to Nazism & the Holocaust resource. The stories of British citizens who provided relief or rescue to Jews, including two key figures in the history of the Kindertransport (Bertha Bracey and Nicholas Winton), can be studied using the Trust’s British Heroes of the Holocaust resource. The Kindertransport could also be the starting point for looking more broadly at attempts to help Europe’s Jews. The topic of rescue during the Second World War is addressed in the Trust’s Rescue during the Holocaust resource. These and many other resources can be downloaded for free from the HET website, www.het.org.uk
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 13
MEMORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT
Activity 1 Resource She et 1
Journeys Hedy Epstein, Kippenheim, Germany My parents were trying to paint a wonderful picture for me of England: I’m going to a big city, I’m going to school, ‘You’ll be learning a new language, you’ll make new friends, and we’ll all be together again soon...’ I wanted to believe this but I had all these mixed feelings about it and then I got the notion into my head that my parents wanted to get rid of me. I told them that, and it must have been very painful for them... My parents, who had this almost artificial smile on their faces, started to move with the train as it moved out of the station, and as it moved faster and faster, they ran faster and faster, tears streaming down their faces, waving goodbye with their handkerchiefs. Then I knew: they really did love me, this was a great act of love.
© Wiener Library
John Richards, Vienna, Austria
Father tried to shout something, but with all the commotion, we couldn’t hear. The younger children started to cry then. I had a sense of relief; I felt a sense of sadness; I felt a sense of anger. I thought: was I such a bad lad to be torn away from my father and mother? Will I ever be lucky enough to see them again? The emotions that were going through me! Tears. For some reason, I don’t know what, my sister didn’t cry. Later on in life, she told me that from the day we left the North Station in Vienna, she cut the past out of her life.
Alexander Gordon, Hamburg, Germany When we got to the border in northern Germany, suddenly the train stopped... Before we knew it, the border Gestapo came on to the train and... took us to a hall where the luggage would be examined. While they searched the train in case somebody was hiding something, in the hall they took their time unpacking everything on to tables, looking for new things... They gave the children a tough time. The children kept crying and crying.
John Silberman, Berlin, Germany We travelled from Berlin for several hours until we came to the Dutch border. It made a huge impression on me: ... accompanying the Dutch officials came a load of ladies in grey uniforms and I think it was the first time in years that non-Jewish people said something kind to us. They brought chocolate, soft drinks; they gave us postcards to mail home to our parents that we had crossed the border. Somebody had gone to a lot of trouble there to understand what kids would need.
Testimonies from: Lyn Smith (ed.), Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust (Ebury Press, 2005)
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 14
MEMORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT
Activity 1 Resource She et 2
Arriving in Britain Steven Mendelsson, Breslau, Germany In Harwich we were greeted by a band of ladies who hugged us, kissed us and embraced us for what seemed an eternity... The train from Harwich to London Liverpool Street station, the last leg of our tiring journey, took us through the East End of London. On either side we saw rows and rows of derelict houses with caved-in roofs. Some houses, apparently still occupied, had broken or boarded-up windows... This tremendous culture shock, the absence of our beloved, caring parents, the odd ‘refreshments’, the new, strange language, and, yes, even the differing weather, presented huge obstacles at first that we would have to overcome.
Vera Gissing, Čelákovice, Czechoslovakia
© Wiener Library
At Liverpool Street Station, we were ushered into a great big hall, full of benches, and there we sat with labels around our necks, waiting for our foster-parents or, for the lucky ones, relatives to claim us. Name after name was called. Then my sister disappeared through the side door, but came back and pushed a piece of paper into my hand and said, ‘Look, Vera, this is my address. Send me yours the minute you arrive at your destination.’ Slowly the hall emptied. Eventually it was only me left sitting in that great empty hall. I was filled with incredible panic. You can imagine: I had no address, no knowledge of English. I was so frightened what would become of me. Perhaps the family had changed their mind. Perhaps they didn’t want me... Then the door opened, and there stood this little lady, barely taller than myself. Her hat sat all askew on her head, and her mackintosh was buttoned up all wrong. She peered at me from behind a big pair of glasses. Suddenly, her face broke into the most wonderful smile, and she ran to me and hugged me, and spoke to me words I did not understand then, but they were, ‘You shall be loved.’ And those were the most important words any child in a foreign land, away from her family, could hear. And loved I was.
Bertha Leverton, Munich, Germany Most families wanted little blue-eyed and blonde girls from about three to seven. Little boys were accepted as well. The older children found it a bit more difficult to find foster-parents. They hastily established hostels to take a big influx of the children who weren’t chosen quickly because we had to be chosen fast, in and out. Every week another transport would arrive from Germany, so the children had to be sent out to make room for the new ones.
Testimonies from: Wendy Whitworth (ed.), Survival: Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Story (Quill Press, 2003); Mark Jonathan Harris & Deborah Oppenheimer, Into the Arms of Strangers (Bloomsbury, 2000)
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 15
MEMORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT
Activity 1 Resource She et 3
Becoming British John Richards, Vienna, Austria It was 3 September 1939 – the day war was declared... I could speak a little bit of English then; they had the radio on and I heard this man’s voice saying, ‘...this country is at war with Germany’. I looked at the people in the room and said to the man who had fetched me, ‘Does this mean that I can’t go home any more, that I won’t see my mother and father again?’ He tried to explain in a very kind way what it was all about, then he said, ‘Maybe if God is willing, maybe you’ll see your mother and father again; maybe.’ And it was the way that he said it... Other boys and girls who went into homes were adopted and kindly treated; but I was a lad on my own... the Catholic faith was imposed on me; I was treated like a Catholic and I didn’t want this.
© USHMM
Bertha Leverton, Munich, Germany On the one hand, you couldn’t speak a word, you couldn’t express yourself. On the other hand, you also realised that those people took you in out of the kindness of their heart, and how dare you say you would rather be in a Jewish home when there wasn’t a Jewish home for you to go to? It was quite a dilemma for older children like myself... There were some wonderful people who worked on behalf of those of us who came on the Kindertransport to Britain: Jewish, non-Jewish, churches, lots of groups and we are very grateful to them. But I believe that we have also given something to the people who sheltered us. We have given ourselves and made contributions in many fields: education, medicine and many other areas. Also, it must be stressed that many of the boys, as soon as they came of age, joined the British Army, and the girls the Land Army, as well as other services. And after the war, many became interpreters in Germany when the war crimes trials started.
Ruth Barnett, Berlin, Germany It was a huge surprise to get a letter suddenly from my mother in May 1949, and soon after that, she came to England to take me back with her to Germany... I went through the original Kindertransport experience a second time, this time in reverse. Overnight I had lost my home, foster parents, language and everything familiar... My parents desperately wanted their sweet little four-year-old back, the one they had sent off on the Kindertransport. They were in no fit shape to cope with a teenager, and a dislocated one at that... You simply can’t pick up a relationship again after a ten-year gap.
Testimonies from: Lyn Smith (ed.), Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust (Ebury Press, 2005); Mark Jonathan Harris & Deborah Oppenheimer, Into the Arms of Strangers (Bloomsbury, 2000); Ruth Barnett, Person of No Nationality (David Paul, 2010)
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 16
MEMORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT
Activity 1 Resource She et 4
The Foster Families
Mariam Cohen, Norwich I remember motoring to Norwich to pick up Kurt... We saw a ship coming in, and then we saw these poor little things straggling off the gangplank. They had been sick, and were dirty, and they smelled of ship and seasickness. And we brought them home... My mother, bless her, she took a little girl, Elizabeth, whose family used to phone every Friday night from Vienna. One Friday night, there was no phone call, and poor little girl, she knew what it was. She sat in that little grandmother’s chair and she covered her head with a shawl, and she just sobbed and sobbed. © USHMM
Warren Mitchell, London Something like five or six hundred children came off that train... Ilse came to live with us, she didn’t speak for about a week, she was so traumatised by what had happened to her. Her father was in a concentration camp. She learnt to speak English very quickly. She began to tell us what had happened and the appalling thing was that it wasn’t the Nazis – the Gestapo or the SS – it was the neighbours, the ordinary people who behaved so abominably to towards the Jews in their community. Ilse and her sister Lotte got out. She was very tearful, she didn’t think she’d see her parents again. She did get two letters via the International Red Cross and in a very short space of time she was speaking English and doing tremendously well at school. Ilse was my second sister, we played Monopoly together and we argued and fought just like brother and sister.
Richard Attenborough, Leicester We all said that we thought it was a marvellous idea: for three boys suddenly to have two sisters in the family was very good luck. But the remark I always remember more than any other was my mother’s. She said, ‘The problem, darlings, is this: your father and I love the three of you so much, but we are going to have to give perhaps even more love to these two girls than we give to you at this time, because, of course, they have none.’ This remark has affected my whole life in terms of attitude towards those who are not as fortunate as my brothers and I have been. For eight years Irene and Helga were our sisters. We did everything together. There were little jealousies, little quarrels, as with any kids, but we came to love each other very much. I am sure my brothers would agree it was one of the best decisions we ever made. After the war, which Helga’s and Irene’s parents did not survive, the girls went to America.
Testimonies from: Lyn Smith (ed.), Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust (Ebury Press, 2005); Mark Jonathan Harris & Deborah Oppenheimer, Into the Arms of Strangers (Bloomsbury, 2000)
Article provided by Holocaust Educational Trust
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BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 1
British reactions to refugees
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BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 1
This was an advert which was published in British newspapers in February 1939 by the Lord Baldwin Fund. This was a charity which was set up in 1938 by Stanley Baldwin, who had been Prime Minister for most of the 1920s and between 1935 and 1937. The fund raised money to help children to come to Britain on the Kindertransport: the government insisted that a bond of £50 (equivalent to £2,500 in today’s money) had to be paid for every child as a guarantee that they would not stay in the country permanently. The fund eventually raised about £550,000. (Copyright unknown)
Questions to consider
• In what ways does the advert suggest that people in Britain helped the children of the
• Why do you think that the advert says that the fund was helping Christian as well as
• Why do you think the advert says that the children will not be taking jobs?
Kindertransport? Jewish children?
Article provided by Holocaust Educational Trust
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 19
BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 2
British reactions to refugees
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BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 2
These pages are taken from a booklet called While you are in England: Helpful Information and Guidance for Every Refugee. This was published in 1938 by the Board of Deputies, the main organisation which represented British Jews, and the German Jewish Aid Committee, a Jewish organisation which helped refugees. The booklet was given to Jewish refugees, including children who came on the Kindertransport. (© Wiener Library)
Questions to consider • According to the booklet, in what ways were British people helping refugees from Nazism?
• The booklet mentions the “tolerance and sympathy of Britain”. Is there any evidence
• What can this booklet tell us about the challenges faced by the children of the
in the booklet that some people in Britain were not tolerant and sympathetic towards Jewish refugees? Kindertransport?
Article provided by Holocaust Educational Trust
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 21
BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 3
British reactions to refugees
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BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 3
This letter was written in February 1939 by a medical officer in Hampstead. His job was to record information about public health in his district. Hampstead was an area of North London where many Jewish refugees settled. The letter was written to the Ministry of Health. (Crown copyright, courtesy of the National Archives)
Questions to consider
• What concerns does the medical officer express about refugees?
• What might this tell us about some British people’s attitude to Jewish refugees?
• Is there anything in this document which suggests that people in Britain reacted positively to the Kindertransport?
Article provided by Holocaust Educational Trust
www.chickenshed.org.uk
Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 23
BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 4
British reactions to refugees
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BRITISH REACTIONS TO REFUGEES
Activity 2 Resource She et 4
This article appeared in December 1939 in The Friend, the weekly magazine of the Quakers. The Quakers, also known as the Society of Friends, are a Christian religious movement who strongly believe in pacifism and have traditionally campaigned against injustice. The Germany Emergency Committee was a Quaker organisation set up in 1933 to help refugees from Nazi Germany. Many other Christian groups helped refugees but they mainly helped Jews who had converted to Christianity; the Quakers helped all Jews. In November 1938 Quaker and Jewish leaders met the Home Secretary and persuaded him to allow the Kindertransport. The Germany Emergency Committee had an important role in organising the Kindertransport and helping the children when they came to Britain. (© The Friend)
Questions to consider • What things does the article ask Quakers to do to help Jewish refugees?
• What does this suggest about the challenges facing the organisers of the
• Why do you think that some Christians helped Jewish refugees?
Kindertransport?
Article provided by Holocaust Educational Trust
www.chickenshed.org.uk
Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 25
ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST EDUCATIONAL TRUST
We would like to thank the HET for their support and supply of resources during the production. The Holocaust Educational Trust was established in 1988. Their aim is to educate young people from every background about the Holocaust and its continuing relevance for all of us today. The Trust works in schools, universities and in the community to raise awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, providing teacher training, an outreach programme for schools and teaching resources. In addition, the Trust’s government-funded Lessons from Auschwitz Project gives thousands of post-16 students each year the opportunity to visit the site of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of a four-part educational programme. To learn more about their work, visit www.het.org.uk.
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DRAMA WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES The following are performing arts workshop activities which can provide a stimulating opportunity for a class (usually working in small groups) to further explore the themes of Kindertransport by Diane Samuels, as performed at Chickenshed in 2016.
Drama Activiti es
Workshop Activities 1. Word Journeys
a) After seeing or reading Kindertransport or using a play summary, as a group try to tell
b) Write down and number each word or phrase.
c) Now create freeze frames of each word or phrase.
d) Then, to background music or underscoring of your choice, run through each freeze
the story of the play in 8 words or short phrases.
frame in sequence to tell this very short version of the story. Make sure one of your group speaks each word as the freeze frame is made.
Extension
e) Add a freeze frame showing what could be the next part of the story after the actual action of the play ends.
2. Prequel and Sequel
a) Write, devise or improvise a Prequel eg a minute long scene showing your thoughts
b) Now do the same for a Sequel to present day Kindertransport showing the year's
c) After reading where the action in the past starts and finishes, create the same Prequel
about what would be happening in the year before the present day action of Kindertransport starts. action after the play has finished.
and Sequel activity for Kindertransport "Past" Eva's story.
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 27
Drama Activiti es
DRAMA WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
3. Destroying the Past Evelyn destroys the object memories of her past child-life as "Eva" at the end of the play in front of her family.
a) Choose a real life person in the news or from history and devise or script and perform
b) Do the same activity as in a) but with fictional characters from literature, film or
a two minute scene where they are much older and destroying a box filled with object memories from their past. Set this scene in front of their family who are arguing with the need to destroy the memory and making the "destroyer" explain why they are destroying memories. (eg Winston Churchill, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Theresa May, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Albert Einstein, Beethoven, David Beckham, Elvis Presley.) television. (Hamlet, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, Dorothy Gale (Wizard of Oz), King Arthur, Merlin, Scrooge, Bridget Jones, James Bond, Gollum, Gandalph etc )
4. "1 to 10" Emotion/Feeling Ranges Do the following activities with the idea firmly in mind that 1 is the smallest, slightest most subtle demonstration of the emotion and 10 is the most extrovert, large, extreme demonstration of the emotion. Students will walk around the space responding to each stimuli, according to the number 1-10, called out by the session facilitator.
a) Think of the word "Oppressor". Walk around the space and when you hear a number show that level of emotion or feeling representing that word. e.g. 1 - A little oppressive 5 - Middle oppressive 10 - Most oppressive
b) Now do the same sitting down and listening for numbers using the emotions from the
c) Now do the same while moving around slowly (at own pace) using the emotion from
d) Now do the same moving in a pair or three using the emotion from the word
e) Now do the same facing a wall using the emotion from the word "Rejected".
word "oppressed"
the word "Escape". "Ratcatcher".
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 28
Drama Activiti es
DRAMA WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
5. Moulding and Remoulding
a) In a group discuss what you think is the most positive scene in Kindertransport and
b) All of the group then sit down on floor in neutral apart from one person who is the
c) Then get the sculptor to "unmould" the statue back to neutral and keeping the slow
d) Rehearse this a few times then perform one group after another with no pause in
also what you think is the most negative scene. Feel free to make your own choice.
"sculptor". Then create a picture of each scene by the sculptor "moulding " the rest of the group in slow motion one by one into the Negative picture. Use background music to underscore.
motion feeling "remould " the neutral members of the group into the "Positive" picture. between to create a physical theatre moulding "performance".
6. On Trial In groups, devise a scene which puts one of the following characters on trial for these reasons.
a) Evelyn, for hiding her story from her daughter and not acknowledging the past.
b) The Ratcatcher, for their treatment or attitude to children. (Even though character is
c) Faith, for not understanding the pain of her mother.
d) Eva, for rejecting her mother in the past.
fictional).
Within each group students should split themselves between Jury, Prosecutors and Defence representatives. Groups then take turns to present their scene to the class, who will act as Judges voting on the verdict.
Then script the scenes.
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DRAMA WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
Drama Activiti es
7. Present/Past
Try to devise a scene from someone in the group that goes from the Present to the Past then back to the Present then back to the Past.
The theme of the scene should be a surprise meeting in the recent present and a surprise meeting in the past.
If time, script the scene.
8. Interview Past and Present In groups devise questions for a joint interview of both Eva and Evelyn about their motives for acting as they did in the play.
Act out the interview with the Ratcatcher as interviewer using the questions devised.
9. Split Second In groups pick one very short moment or split-second from the play - the moment you thought was the most important. Break up that split-second into five frozen images, with each picture showing a tiny splitsecond piece of the action.
Run each of the five split-second pictures one after the other to form the complete action.
Moments to use
a) Evelyn tearing up her paper memories.
b) One of the Ratcatcher actions
c) Eva turning away from her mother.
You can also discuss and use your own devised split-seconds from moments unseen in the play.
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Kindertransport Education Resource Pack 30
Drama Activiti es
DRAMA WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
10. Trailer
Devise in groups a trailer for a film version of Kindertransport
Create small five second pieces of the most important action in the play which freeze before anything is "given away" to the audience.
Have someone in group being the unseen "Voiceover" who asks key questions from the play.
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YOUTH THEATRE EXERCISES Members of Chickenshed’s Youth Theatre created a ‘contemporary response’ to Kindertransport, to be staged before an evening performance in October 2016. The following exercises and activities indicate how this process was undertaken.
Theatr e Exercis es
Youth Theatre Response to Kindertransport - Starter workshop activities 1.
Tableaux
s a starter activity the group splits into pairs or threes. Using the theme of identity the A groups are given the following stimulus to create tableaux and then discussion: I come from lava I come from the forest I come from a drunken night I come from the vacuum I come from rubble I come from the weary look of a stranger I come from the pain in my foot where my shoes have worn thin.
Following on, physical movement activities are used as building blocks towards sensitive, engaging and dynamic work. 2. Call and Response This is a simple warm-up in which commands are made vocally by the leader and the group responds physically:
• Go - the group walks with intention around the room • Centre - group gathers with urgency to the centre • Clear - group runs to the side of the space • Swap - Group swaps from one side to the other side of the space at a run • Fold - everyone getting to the floor into a foetal position • Unfold - moves smoothly off the floor back into a walk • Sky - a hand shoots to the sky • Favourite- everyone freezes and points with clarity and purpose at their favourite spot
• Person - you grab the closest person to you and hold them tight
in the room
The exercise conjures a sense of transition and journey both visually for the audience and physically/mentally for the performer. Ideally the activity will then be taken further and new commands relevant to the themes of the play incorporated, e.g. Train - everyone get into a line and stand to attention Ratcatcher - everyone cowers and covers their heads/eyes www.chickenshed.org.uk
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Theatr e Exercis es
YOUTH THEATRE EXERCISES
3.
Sequence of Hug inking in to the themes of family, unity and separation and relationships within L Kindertransport, this is a devising activity with a few simple rules.
In groups - one person stands in the centre and everyone else, one by one, has to interact with and hug the person in the centre and then pass on. Hug is a flexible term and can be interpreted in many ways. Following that, the exercise moves on to two people always hugging at one time when a third person comes in and starts a new hug which causes one of the original members to leave the hug. It’s a flowing continuing sequence in which all members of the group come in and out of the action in the centre. This is a sequence that each group then rehearses and sets for themselves - independently. Layers of direction are put on to this when they show them to the rest of the group. We might say ‘now all of you look at an individual who is moving around the space and never take your eyes off them. Do not change your sequence of hugs, just obey the rule of always looking at the individual’. This adds story where story did not originally exist. It’s about starting with building blocks and movement and then considering character and storywhich emerges from a single new rule being added to the mix.
The group are then sent away to read the script of Kindertransport. 4.
Character Discussion
he group is invited to share their thoughts on characters within the play and asked what T questions they would ask each character.
Discussion around group response to reading the play
• Themes • Relationships • Moments/Symbolism • Theatrical response – what parts of the play evoked a theatrical response? • Why is this play relevant to a young person in 2016?
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Theatr e Exercis es
YOUTH THEATRE EXERCISES
5.
Props and movement
We experimented with the use of coats and the way we can incorporate them into the physical activity. A coat is one of the fundamental items that a person might need when they are going on a journey away from home. We gave each group a coat and they had the following rules: • Create 4 events
• • •
Each event must be made up of two linked moves with the coat. Then link each event.
You will end up with a series of 8 movements. That is all the direction that is given and then it is up to the group to decide how inventive they are with that. The simplicity of this device creates more intricate and considered work. At the end of the exercise the groups were asked to show a moment of finality or separation - with the idea that the coat is then used to help symbolise/convey that moment when unity becomes isolation. The focus is always on the object. Reflection is then made on what those sequences conjure visually and how we can now layer context onto it and flesh out the skeleton of the movement - something that could be done more of in future rehearsal with the reference to this particular exercise
6.
Three Way Response
This exercise explores a three-way response to the play and themes. The group splits into three smaller working groups to explore the following stimuli:
• Historical notes on The Ratcatcher myth • Contemporary newspaper articles on current migrant and refugee situations • Sections from the play text of Kindertransport
Through one of the following disciplines:
• Movement/Physical • Vocal/Music • Drama/Writing With thanks to Frantic Assembly whose techniques on devising for physical theatre inspired some of these exercises.
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FURTHER RESOURCES Article/interview with Lord Dubs: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/05/ disgrace-to-europe-former-child-refugee-lord-dubs-calais-camp Archive hour, BBC Radio 4: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0075mvb The Reunion, BBC Radio 4: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tnjsx Kindertransport: A Journey to Life, BBC Newsnight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqP0uVSj3bQ Into the Arms of Strangers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21ba19zMSEk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bWRsFv5n2E Article featuring two of the Kinder we met while rehearsing Kindertransport (Eve Willman and Father Francis Wahle): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/03/ kindertransport-75-year-anniversary-nazis-jewish-children For more information on Czechoslovakia Kindertransport: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33350880 https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007780
To read about the Quakers contribution: http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/118 http://www.ajr.org.uk/index.cfm/section.journal/issue.Jun11/article=8202 To find out if your family were helped during the 1930s: www.worldjewishrelief.org/archive
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CHICKENSHED 290 Chase Side, Southgate, London N14 4PE Admin 020 8351 6161 Box Office 020 8292 9222 Email info@chickenshed.org.uk Website www.chickenshed.org.uk Registered charity no: 1012369 American Friends of Chickenshed: EIN No: 30.0099170