75th Anniversary of the Kindertransport, London, June

These past few days in London some of the Holocaust survivors have gathered who came to London on sealed trains just before war took the Continent in its grip. There were in all perhaps 10,000 of these young people. They were all scared and alone, but saved from the murder that otherwise would have overtaken them. The tragedy of their journey can best be described by a simple fact – most never saw their parents again … The pride Britons can rightly feel about the kindertransport – the result, after all, of a deliberate political act – must be weighed against the shame that the world did so relatively little to help those who wanted to flee … The kindertransport is therefore both evidence of what humans can do and evidence of what can happen when they don’t. So on this 75th anniversary let us celebrate what was achieved, celebrate the remarkable people who lived and went on to paint great pictures and write great novels and build great businesses. Let us celebrate, too, the people who just lived and had families and went about their lives in peace. Let us do that, but never forget that, for every child who was saved, there could have been, there might have been, there should have been, a hundred more. From The Times, leading article, 25 June 2013 See inside page 3 and correspondence, pages 6-7