Year 9 students remember the Kindertransport

75 years ago a rescue mission for Jewish children threatened by Nazi persecution in Germany, Austria and what was then Czechoslovakia was organised by Jewish organisations and sympathetic British politicians. A specially written play called ‘Suitcase’ which is touring train stations (where many of these children arrived from the continent) came to Hull Paragon on Thursday 14th November and 36 students from the school attended. Below you can watch the BBC Look North report and read what some of them said. As well as being an opportunity to increase the depth of their work on this subject, for many of the boys it was the first time that they had got so close to powerful acting, literally one or two feet away!

‘The play was split into many plays showing different parts of the Kindertransport. These included sibling separation and the cost of getting them. Some people did not want them here as they believed we were going to be over populated or thwy will take work. Others didn’t mind as long as it was a specific kind of child (such as male). It was very interesting and shows just how tough some children had it in WWII.’ Jack B

‘I think that the Suitcase performance was a really enjoyable educational trip giving me an extra insight into the past and extra information about that time. With this trip I think I was able to understand more about how different people felt and how they expressed their opinions, and how the children from lots of different countries tried to fit into Britain and how it was unfair towards them, with lots of people against them or for them’. Nathan F