Socialist Viewpoint

—directed by Mark Jonathan Harris. 117 minutes

While the Holocaust’s murder of an estimated 1.5 million children is well publicized, this documentary recounts a little-known historic event, the rescue of 10,000 refugee children from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia between 1933 and 1939.

Interviews with surviving “kinder” reveal how their idyllic childhoods were shattered with Hitler’s rise to power. Their memories of synagogue burnings, looting of Jewish-owned businesses, and mass arrests are combined with personal tales of ostracism.

In 1938, responding to a plan worked out by religious groups, the British government allowed trainloads of refugee children into the country. Rules for adult refugees were much more stringent, requiring a job offer or a spouse willing to put up a sizeable cash guarantee. All other capitalist governments refused to participate in even this limited rescue effort. In debating American participation, US Senators declared accepting children without their parents would be contrary to God’s law.

Through letters between children and their parents and interviews with surviving kinder and the British families who took them in, the documentary details the wrenching personal experiences of these children as they adapted to a new language and culture while separated from their families. It also describes the desperate efforts some children made to save their parents. It also shows that not all foster families were altruistic—some were simply looking for free servants.

After Britain entered World War II, all German nationals 16 and over, including refugee children, were sent to internment camps. Some were later shipped to Australia under inhumane conditions. Publicity around the mistreatment of anti-Hitler refugees changed British public opinion. Refugees were allowed to return from Australia—if they joined the British army.

Today, the US and other capitalist governments continue to refuse to admit most refugees. One of the surviving kinder is pictured holding a sign comparing the turning back of Jewish refugees from Hitler to the US government’s turning back of boatloads of Haitian refugees. While such connections aren’t emphasized in the film, this look at history helps explode the ongoing myth that the US government fights for freedom and democracy.