Arrival in the United Kingdom through Kindertransport

In this video, Joseph Lazar tells the story of how he and his younger sister were on the list of over 400 children brought to the United Kingdom thanks to the Kindertransport (''transport of children'') organised by British Rabbi Doctor Schonfeld. Joseph remembers how difficult it would have been for his mother to let her children go. Source: Montreal Holocaust Museum, 2008

Transcript: 

[00:00-00:06]

Video begins with inter-title in white text on black screen while instrumental music plays and fades into the next frame: Following the Night of Broken Glass in November 1938, Joseph Lazar found refuge in the United Kingdom as part of the Kindertransport (“transport of children”).

 

[00:07-00:19]

Cut to Holocaust survivor Joseph Lazar, sitting in front of a black background, and looking to the left of the camera. The camera shows his face and shoulders as he speaks during an interview conducted in Montreal in 2008.

 

>> Joseph Lazar: There was a Rabbi Doctor Schonfeld.

 

[00:10-00:16]

The name “Joseph Lazar” and the location of the filmed interview, “Montreal”, appear in white text above Joseph's right shoulder.

 

>> When he heard, when he read in the newspaper, about the Crystal Night, he would not rest.

 

[00:20-00:28]

Cut to a black-and-white portrait photograph of a bearded man, wearing a uniform and cap. The photo caption appears in white text in the top-left corner, “Rabbi Dr Solomon Schonfeld, 1945”.

 

>> He had some connection at the Home Office, and he organised children transports.

 

[00:29-00:47]

Cut to Joseph Lazar in front of the camera.

 

>> My younger sister and myself, we were able to get onto that list. There were over 400 children. And in the end of December, we— I think it was end of December, we left for England.

 

[00:48-00:56)

Cut to a black-and-white photograph of a group of adults on a pier, greeting children who are on the deck of a ship that has docked.  The photo caption appears in white text in the top-left corner, “Rabbi Schonfeld welcoming Kindertransport children, ca. 1938”.

 

>> I mean, for the parents, especially for my mother, it was…

 

[00:57-01:46]
Cut to Joseph Lazar in front of the camera.

 

>>…one of the hardest decisions, I guess, of her life. I mean, I remember looking out the train window, and saw her with a handkerchief in front of her face. I mean, it was a heartbreaking sight which I can't forget. Because she was heartbroken. I mean she, I mean, for her, we never— it came to picnics at the school went to— if it was anything that we had to go on a ship or anything, we were not allowed to go. You know. She was very— and now, she had to let us go.

                                                                                         

[01:47-01:56]

Music plays for the remainder of the video. Three credit pages appear in white text on black screen: Interview conducted by Barry Stahlmann, Witness to History Program, Montreal 2008, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre

 

Images: Courtesy of Jeremy Schonfield

 

Directing: Helgi Piccinin; Editing and Colorization: Michaël Gravel, Helgi Piccinin; Audio Mix and Original Music: Pierre-Luc Lecours. [Logo for Chaire de recherche du Canada en patrimoine ethnologique]

 

Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, copyright 2017.

 

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End of transcript.

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