On 24 November 1938, the Belgian authorities authorised Jenny Fink, Vice-President of the Antwerp Organisation Voor Het Joodsche Kind van Duitschland (For the Jewish Child from Germany) “to enter Belgium with a group of 16 children”. This first small transport was followed on 13 December by another one with 59 children. The Comité d‘Assistance aux Enfants Juifs Réfugiés (Assistance Committee to Jewish Refugee Children, CAEJR) in Brussels was responsible for this second transport. Until 17 July 1939, the CAEJR in Brussels and the sister-organisation in Antwerp each organised seven transports with almost 1,000 children from what was then the German Reich. Among them were more than 100 children from all regions of the Rhineland and Westphalia as well as about 60 children from Cologne. After the consignment from Vienna (more than 200 children) and Berlin (about 114 children), this group of children being taken to Belgium was the largest of the Kindertransports.
The 17 Kindertransports
Dortmund, 8 March 1939:
Certificates of good conduct for Leo Reiter
To be admitted to the Kindertransports required a considerable bureaucratic effort. Amongst others, Leo Reiter submitted certificates of good conduct from the Jüdisches Reform-Realgymnasium Jawne (Jewish Reform Grammar School, the Jawne) in Cologne. However, unfortunately, his efforts were in vain. He was not admitted for the Kindertransport to Belgium. In order to prepare for his emigration to Palestine, he worked in a Hachshara camp, the Landwerk Steckelsdorf, an agricultural training center, in Brandenburg. In July 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz and was murdered there.
© Martin-Buber-Institute, ULB (Université libre de Bruxelles)
Rosi Karfiol 1953
© The Bennett Banner, January 1953
Bielefeld, 14 March 1939:
Letter from Dr Rosi Karfiol to the Comité d’Assistance aux Enfants Juifs Réfugiés (Assistance Committee to Jewish Refugee Children, CAEJR)
Dr Rosi Karfiol, who initially worked at the Provinzialverband für jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege in der Rheinprovinz (Provincial Association for Jewish Welfare of the Rhine Province), later took over the management of the Westphalian affiliate organisation on 1 February 1939.
© Martin-Buber-Institute, ULB (Université libre de Bruxelles)On 24 June and 7 July 1939, 37 “non-Aryan” Christian children were able to flee Germany from Vienna under the auspices of the Comité des Avocates (Committee of Lawyers) and the Comité de Secours aux Réfugiés Protestants (Protestant Refugees Rescue Committee). Some of these were Jewish children who had been baptized to escape persecution.
Probably the youngest child in a Kindertransport to Belgium was Martha Szmulewicz from Cologne. On 12 January 1939, the seven-month-old girl and her two three- and four-year-old siblings were welcomed by their parents at Brussels North Station. In 1943 the family was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. One of the oldest fellow travellers was seventeen-year-old Miriam Rothschild, who arrived in Belgium on 20 December 1938 as the guardian of the children from the Jewish orphanage in Dinslaken. She emigrated to Palestine in March 1939.
The organisation of the emigration of over 150 unaccompanied children from smaller and larger towns in the Rhineland and Westphalia to Belgium was a huge accomplishment in these circumstances. Responsible for this task were people working at the welfare offices of the individual Jewish communities, the Soziale Ausschuss für jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege in Westfalen und Lippe (the Social Committee for Jewish Welfare in Westphalia and Lippe), based in Bielefeld, and in particular the Provinzialverband für jüdische Wohlfahrtspflege in der Rheinprovinz (Provincial Association for Jewish Welfare of the Rhine Province), based in Cologne.
On 15 June 1939, the last Kindertransport organised by the CAEJR left Cologne Central Station. 27 girls and boys arrived at the Belgian border station Herbesthal at 6.22 p.m. and continued their journey to Brussels after a short break.
Already a few days before the departure of the train, the CAEJR had sent a letter to the Jewish Community in Vienna: “This transport covers only a very small fraction of the intended number of children, as the local authorities have stopped all transports. Of course, we will continue our efforts and, if we are successful, we will inform you in good time”. However, this was not to happen before the outbreak of the Second World War. AS