Remembering Kindertransports at the Belgian border station Herbesthal

The arrival at Herbesthal station, the first stop on Belgian territory, is still alive in the memories of some Kindertransport children. After many years’ experience of exclusion and violence, crossing the border and arriving in free Belgium was the rescue they had been longing for.

Herbesthal, 27 January 2019: Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt and Patrick Thevissen, mayor of the municipality of Lontzen

Herbesthal, 27 January 2019: Sculpture by Sebastian Schmidt at the historic railway station

Painting by pupil Lorena Steyns as part of an art project at the Robert Schuman Institute in Eupen under the direction of Gabriele Klever

“I tried to describe the cold, grey atmosphere of a railway station. You can see a small child holding an adult's hand. Symbolically, the adult is already dissolving. Even in the shadows, the two are already separated. The yellow light in the train is intended to convey warmth and security.” Lorena Steyns

In January 1939, after the first Kindertransports, there was a nationwide outcry about one incident when 36 unaccompanied Jewish children, who all had a ticket, but without a valid entry visa, were taken care of at Herbesthal station and yet were then sent back to the German Reich.

A whole convoy of children aged 12 to 14 arrived in Herbesthal and the children seemed as happy as if they had entered the promised land. They were fed as well as possible at the station buffet. They drank above all, yet ate very little, although they had not received any food the day before. Most of them did not know what had happened to their parents. It was not until later that they were told the harsh reality. They were sent back to Germany.

La Libre Belgique, 7 January 1939

As a result of public pressure, the Belgian government allowed further transports for another 750 children until July 1939.

There was nothing in Herbesthal by which to remember these dramatic events until 2019. However, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2019, the community of Lontzen carried out an initiative of the Jawne Memorial and Educational Centre: it had a sculpture erected in memory of the Kindertransports – as had already happened at stations in London, Berlin, Hook of Holland, and Gdansk. In the presence of Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt, who had reached Herbesthal on 7 March 1939 with the Kindertransport, and Marcel Frydman, chairman of l’Enfant Caché asbl./Het Ondergedoken Kind vzv. (The Hidden Child, EC), the sculpture made by the Aachen artist Sebastian Schmidt was unveiled. This was the first time in Belgium that the dramatic life stories of the fugitive children as well as the extraordinary helpfulness of the Belgian population were commemorated in public. AS