Kurt Strauss – “a fellow-traveller”

In March 1938 my mother and I were living with her parents in Prague, to where we had fled the previous summer to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews in our homeland, Germany. I remember seeing the German troops marching into the city, but had no idea of what this would mean for us. The Germany Emergency Committee of the Quakers had already helped my father to get out of Germany, and he was living in the Quaker refugee hostel at 122 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2.

I imagine that it was the same committee which managed to arrange for my mother and me to join a Kindertransport train leaving Prague several weeks later. In effect, she was smuggled aboard the train in the guise of a helper, and I simply joined the many other children on board. I remember that the train stopped somewhere in the Netherlands towards the evening, and we all got out to spend the night on mattresses in some village or town hall, or community centre, where the local people made us welcome and gave us a meal.

The next day we continued our journey by boat from the Hook of Holland to Harwich, then we were put on another train which brought us to Liverpool Street Station in London. As I recall, my father was waiting for us at the station and accompanied my mother and me to the hostel in Paddington. I have no idea what happened to the others, the real Kindertransportees, who were on the train - I was just a fellow-traveller.

Kurt Strauss
York