Refugee children from the Kindertransport (1938/9)
Photo 1: Suzie Spitzer with her parents before she arrived in Cambridge with the Kindertransport in Cambridge. he family was Jewish and she was born in Vienna in 1934. With the rise of the Nazis, the family fled to Prague but were not safe there. In 1939, her parents, Hansi and Leo, decided to get the five year old Suzie to safety and put her on a train to England. She was part of the so-called Kindertransport, which was organised by the English government to rescue mainly Jewish children from Nazi persecution. Suzie was taken in by complete strangers - the Chadwick family of Fen Ditton in Cambridge. (Photo source: Ann Chadwick )
Photo 2：Greta Burkill from the Cambridge Refugee Committee, who organised support for the Kindertransport children. (Photo source:
Photo 3：25 Parkside – a hostel for Jewish children who came on the Kindertransport. (Photo source: Mike Levy)
Photo 4：55 Hills Road – the headquarters of the Cambridge Refugee Committee and a social club for older Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria and the Czech lands.(Photo source: Mike Levy)
10,000 refugee children (mostly Jewish) came in 1938/9 to Britain, arriving with the Kindertransport from Germany, Austria and the Czech lands to escape Nazi persecution. Around 120 children found their residence in Cambridge. They were supported by Greta Burkill and other members of the local Refugee Committee, which had its HQ at 55 Hills Road. Most were housed with local foster families, but some older teenagers were accommodated in a hostel at 25 Parkside. The children went to local schools and some were offered scholarships by the Perse School and other private institutions. Most of the children never again saw their parents, who had become victims of the Holocaust. The papers of Greta Burkill (from the Refugee Committee) are still held at the University Library.
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Ann Chadwick recalls below the arrival of her 5-year-old foster sister Suzie Spitzer, who came from Vienna via Prague. Suzie was one of the 10,000 Jewish children, who arrived with the Kindertransport, escaping persecution from the Nazis. Many parents, and other family members of the children, were murdered by the Nazi regime.
1. Escape and Journey
" She was sent to us on the Kindertransport train... came to us in Cambridge, having travelled from Prague station all by herself on a train with all the other children, with a suitcase and a teddy bear."
2. Arrival
" Susie came to us from Czechoslovakia. She arrived with us on the 1st of July 1939, two months before war broke out. So she just managed to squeeze into Britain.
We lived in Ditton Lane in Fen Ditton. Dad was a teacher on £4 a week. Mum had been a primary school teacher.
My parents told me that, when they went to meet her at Cambridge Station, they just saw this little girl with a small suitcase and an escort. And that was their first greeting, and they went towards her to meet her. And of course she didn't speak any English, and they didn't speak any German."
3. Support in Cambridge
" The Refugee Committee in Cambridge were absolutely brilliant. They used to visit Sue quite frequently."
4. Culture, Religion and Identity
" She came from a Jewish family, we were a Christian family... we actually joined, both of us joined a Christian uniformed organisation called the Campaigners.
She was brought up very much as a Christian. I'm surprised now when I look back that there wasn't more emphasis on seeing that she had a Jewish cultural introduction."
5. Employment
" Sue managed to enrol in Hillingdon Hospital and began a kind of, not a proper nurse training, but was on the wards and rather like our health assistants nowadays."
6. Experiences of integration
"Sue and I went together and had lots of camps and enjoyed the whole church parade and all that sort of thing."