The Guardian

The Kindertransport children 80 years on: 'I'm grateful my parents sent me away to carry on living'

Bernd Koschland recalls the synagogues burning on Kristallnacht – and how he never saw his parents again after he escaped Nazi Germany the following year• Bob and Ann Kirk: ‘We thought we were going on an adventure’• Ruth Barnett: ‘When I was 14, my mother appeared out of nowhere’• Bea Green: ‘I was bowled over that these non-Jewish people were nice to us’
Bernd Koschland: ‘It was only later as I grew older that it started to hit me hard.’ Photograph: Andy Hall/Guardian

Bernd Koschland, 87, was born into a family of Orthodox Jews in Fürth, near Nuremberg, in northern Bavaria. His father was a travelling salesman, his mother a housewife, and he had a sister, Ruth, who was seven years older. He says his parents sheltered him from the deteriorating conditions for Jews in the 1930s, but recalls seeing brownshirts – SA paramilitaries – parading in the streets and once caught

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Guardian

The Guardian4 min read
Lawn And Order: The Evergreen Appeal Of Grass-cutting In Video Games
Jessica used to come for tea on Tuesdays, and all she wanted to do was cut grass. Every week, we’d click The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s miniature disc into my GameCube and she’d ready her sword. Because she was a couple of years younger than m
The Guardian4 min read
Khaled Khalifa obituary
The writings of the Syrian author Khaled Khalifa, who has died aged 59 of a heart attack, depict a world of bloody conflict, but one where flowers still bloom. In his books, which are often read as eulogies for Syria, and especially his beloved city
The Guardian4 min read
Critics Of Napoleon Epic Have Fallen For Emperor’s Fibs, Says Film’s Military Expert
Critics of the “damaging” and “inaccurate” portrayal of Napoleon Bonaparte in Ridley Scott’s new cinematic epic Napoleon are just victims of the French emperor’s enduring propaganda, according to the military adviser behind the film’s vast battle sce

Related Books & Audiobooks