Channel Crossing to Life’: A nostalgic trip to the Hook of Holland

On 29 November 2011 a group of men and women, now mainly in their 80s, met at Heathrow airport to travel to Rotterdam at the invitation of the mayor of the city and of Lisa Bechner, the (non-Jewish) German ‘Frau Kindertransport’. Inspired by Bertha Leverton some ten years ago, she had single-handedly made the arrangements for the Kindertransport memorials in Gdansk and Berlin, in the latter case in the face of some unwarranted opposition from members of the Jewish community. Both memorials were the work of the Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler, himself a ‘Kind’ from Gdansk, and both depict groups of children with their pathetic little suitcases and the occasional violin. The Berlin memorial consists of two groups facing in opposite directions, one looking forward with hope in their eyes and the other – those left behind – looking dejectedly backwards. It is remarkable that almost each day since its inception two years ago, fresh flowers have been placed on it by passers-by. The memorial at Liverpool Street Station (again by Frank Meisler) has, of course, been there for some time and is, I fear, less reverently treated. And now the indefatigable Lisa has done it again, this time in the Hook of Holland, with the financial help of the Auswärtiges Amt der Bundesrepub l ik Deutschland, the Bundesstiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft, Aktion Sühnezeichen & Friedensdienste Berlin, and the German Embassy in the Hague; and with the assistance of Volker Hobrack, Chairman of the Gedenkstafelkommission, and Anke Schuster, an art historian from Berlin. The city of Rotterdam was also immensely helpful and the sculptor was, once again, Frank Meisler. Thus, remembrance of the fateful journey that took so many Kinder out of Germany and Austria via the Hook of Holland and from there to Harwich has been completed. Again, a group of boys and girls of different ages are shown in bronze, looking with hope as well as trepidation across the seatowards England. The unveiling, as dusk fell on a clear but cold day, was solemn and emotional. There were speeches from Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Mayor of Rotterdam, the sculptor, and Sir Erich Reich, the Chairman of the AJR’s Kindertransport Special Interest Group. The Mayor in particular spoke with deep feeling and empathy, with the emphasis on ‘never again’. (It is, of course, well-known that the Dutch played a significant, and even pivotal, role in the creation of the Kindertransports, but shortage of space prevents me from going into that here.) Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg spoke eloquently and movingly, and a group of local schoolchildren touchingly presented each of us with a long-stemmed white rose, which we were glad to place on the memorial. After the ceremony everyone joined a reception in a nearby restaurant. The group from the UK, with their spouses or carers, were joined throughout the three-day trip by a group from Berlin and former ‘Kinder’ from other countries such as the USA, and we were glad to be able to get to know them and to exchange reminiscences. Each of us had a story to tell, with similarities but also with breathtaking differences. So much for the centrepiece of our visit. The entire trip had been beautifully organised by Lisa Bechner and we were all comfortably ensconced in a Novotel hotel, where we got to know each other. A trip through Amsterdam gave us the opportunity to visit the huge 1667 ‘Portuguese Synagogue’, which is similar in style to the Bevis Marks synagogue in London and built by the same architect. Indeed, the latter was erected with the help of the Amsterdam Jewish community and the vast chandeliers, similar to those in Amsterdam, were a gift. The other significant visit was to the Anne Frank Museum, where we also had lunch and a guided tour in small groups. I had been there many years ago, but was once again moved by the poignancy of that family’s hiding place, carefully preserved, and the fate of Anne and her family. It so happened that a conference organised by the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research took place in The Hague at the same time, and I was privileged to be invited to give a five-minute talk about my life at the last day’s plenary session, in which I paid tribute to the Dutch women who greeted us in such a friendly manner on crossing into Holland – an act of kindness that none of us will ever forget. All in all, a remarkable, emotional and memorable trip. Leslie Baruch Brent