Children's Exodus: A History of the Kindertransport, Vera K. Fast (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), xvii + 270 pp., hardcover, $42.00/ 25.00

Abstract

In Children's Exodus, Fast joins a steadily growing group of scholars who have written on the fate of Jewish children during the Holocaust and in its aftermath. Her book focuses on the immigration of Jewish refugee children to Great Britain from the first Kindertransport in December 1938 to the arrival of the last displaced youth in 1948. Fast's contribution is primarily one of synthesis: she provides engaging and readable accounts of well-known topics such as the British Jewish relief organizations' extensive efforts on behalf of Jews trapped in Nazi Europe, and of lesser-known topics such as the reception of Orthodox Jewish refugee children (including three transports of Polish Jewish youth who arrived in England in February and August 1939); care for young Jewish converts to Christianity in England; and rescue work carried out by the charismatic and controversial Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schonfeld. Fast's presentation clearly shows her abiding sympathy for the uprooted young Jewish refugees of German, Austrian, Czech, and Polish nationality and of varying social and religious backgrounds. She brings to life the voices of the young refugees, their distressed parents, and British officials engaged in saving them.