By Dr Bea Lewkowicz OBE
My grandfather, passed away on 27th January which is now the date of International Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). I was born on 30th January, the day when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and the day when Hitler gave his Reichstag speech in 1939. Every year, these two days have been filled with sorrow as we remember all those who were murdered during the Holocaust, and I also remember my grandfather.
But since I’ve been researching the Kindertransport, I’ve come to see 30th January and even 27th January in a new light. 27th January is Bernd Koschland’s birthday. He was the first Kindertransport survivor I interviewed. Now I think of this day as a celebration of life as well as a day to remember lives taken before their time. In this blog, I want to rethink the meaning of 30th January and its significance in Holocaust memory. The 2026 theme for the UK Holocaust Memorial Day is Bridging Generations which highlights the important role the next generation has in preserving the memory of the Holocaust. Through my Kindertransport research I’ve come to see the 30th of January as a day less about dictatorship, diabolic campaigns of propaganda and manipulating the democratic political system, and more about Jewish resilience and international rescue efforts. It is a day celebrated by Jewish refugee organisations because the children had reached safety and were out of danger. Of course, this day will always be connected to expulsion and exile, but this HMD it seems fitting to engage with the other side of the story.
30th January 1933 opens with raised arms saluting a victory. It carries on with SA and SS members marching through the streets of the government district of Berlin. Residents cheer as they pass by. This torchlit parade celebrated Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. In hindsight I think about the foreboding scenes that were yet to come of other marches down German streets to boycott Jewish businesses, to promote antisemitic legislation, to destroy Jewish places of worship, to pressure people into fleeing, and, ultimately, to deport them. As we know it took less than four months for the Nazis to curtail the rights of Jewish citizens with the exclusion of Jewish people from the civil service on 7th April 1933. Also, in April 1933 a law was passed which restricted the number of Jewish students who could attend German schools and universities. We could argue that this is really where the story of the Kindertransport begins.
30th January 1933 is also the day when a Jewish organisation called the Youth Aliyah was founded. The Youth Aliyah would go on to resettle thousands of Jewish youths in British Mandate Palestine in Kibbutzim and youth villages. Some of these children would end up on Kindertransports in the hope that they would later reach Palestine. The Youth Aliyah would pave the way for the later Kindertransports. As the Nazis and their supporters were celebrating their victory, the founders of the Youth Aliyah were embracing their Zionism, giving hope to Jewish boys who had lost their jobs, and ultimately – without fully knowing it at the time – saving the lives of Jewish youths. They were providing the youth with an education and training which was being denied to them in Germany.
Recha Freier turned to the Zionist leaders to explain the problems the youth faced. She stated her solution, but initially she was not met with overwhelming support. She had to advocate for the idea of a Youth Aliyah scheme. Eventually, thanks to Dr Siegfried Lehman, the founder and director of the Ben Shemen children’s village, 12 immigration certificates and 12 places in Ben Shemen were granted after he and 40 youths met with Freier at her home in Berlin. The original goal though was to send children to Kibbutz Ein Harod. Wilfred Israel, who became central to efforts to help Jewish people escape helped to obtain the equipment the boys needed from the department stores. It was Mark Wischnitzer, secretary general of the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden who covered the cost of the journey. Their date of departure was fixed for 12th October 1932. Freier recalled what Israel said to her: ‘This is an historic moment!’ She wrote that ‘the platform seemed to tremble under my feet. The work had begun; no one could interfere with it anymore; it would progress and develop and all those children standing there around me, full of hope, excitement and enthusiasm, would reach their goal. Cheering broke out as the train left. The parents wept’. This scene would be repeated time and time again until the Kindertransports to life came to a halt and the Kindertransports towards death took over. The threat the Nazis posed was felt well before they took power on 30th January 1939.
The organisation needed a committee. So, on 30th January 1933 the first official meeting took place at the office of Dr Hugo Fuerth, who was the notary. On this day the new committee discussed what the name of this new organisation should be, what its constitution should be, what the aims of the organsation were, and finally the committee signed the constitution. As Freier and several others left the meeting, they turned onto Unter den Linden and witnessed the torchlit procession. This is where the two sides of the story of that day meet head on.
Jumping forward now to 30th January 1939, Hitler speaks at the Reichstag where he uses the phrase “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. Hitler’s vision for a future without Jews is contrasted by the fact that a Kindertransport from Germany arrived in the UK on 30th January 1939 rescuing some 72 children. They journeyed to the UK on board the SS Washington which had departed from Hamburg. It is striking that so many of the children on the ship were from Berlin. On the day that Hitler was openly threatening Jews in Berlin and across Germany, Jewish refugees were being saved. In this context, the arrival on this Kindertransport on this day seems all the more significant because it highlights just how in danger the children were. Upon reflection it shows you how critical it was for the Kindertransports to take place. The Nazis had pushed emigration, it was the official policy up to the start of the war, but the speech by Hitler was not an idle threat, and it showed what might – and did – happen if the children were not brought out. 30th January in some cases marks the day which separated the children from their parents forever because their parents were unable to escape and were tragically murdered during the Holocaust.
They refugee organisations took this threat seriously. I was struck by the fact that there are files from 30th January 1939 which show that the refugee committee in Vienna was preparing and receiving the papers for other children to travel on Kindertransports a few days later. Again, on a day where Jews were threatened in Berlin, in Vienna the Jewish community was tirelessly working to get their children to safety. We could also contrast the violent and dangerous rhetoric and actions of the Nazis with the care and concern of the foster parents in the UK. For example, there is a document also from this day which discusses how several future foster families are urgently awaiting the arrival of the children they have agreed to take in. The committee in Vienna made a note that these children must be included on one of the next transports.
This day, for me, shows the commitment to the preservation of Jewish life. 30th January 1933 signifies the self-determination of the Jewish people. Rethinking these two dates (30th January 1933 and 1939) which were only 6 years apart has made me reimagine these days not just in terms of the tragedies which surrounded them but also through the eyes of Jewish and non-Jewish people who had a deep sense of duty towards Jewish children. The 30th January also represents their determination, hard work, and care for children who were being deprived of a future. This day gave them a prospect of life away from persecution.
30th January continued to be a significant date during the Holocaust and the Second World War. While I’ve argued that 30th January is a day to remember the incredible efforts and resistance of all those involved in the Kindertransports, I do not want to forget its significance in its proximity to HMD. On 30th January 1940, there is a communication between the Viennese and Italian refugee committees about two children called Nelly and Ernst Rubin. These two children have the prospect of journeying to America on a Kindertransport. The letter reveals the desperate situation of the children. Their father, Aaron, devotes his free time to helping even more desperate people than himself. This plea, this heartfelt letter asking for help tragically does not lead to a rescue. Nelly and Ernst were deported and murdered in Izbica, Poland in 1942.
