By MARSHA HALPERT
As we near Yom HaShoahm, Marsha Halpert of Albany and a 2nd generation survivor shared with us some thoughts about one child during the Shoah and how people can help each other. Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins the evening of Wednesday, April 23, 2025.
Most of us have one or more special children in our lives. If you were living in a dangerous country, which child would you pick to leave you to go to another country for safety?
From 1938 to 1939, 10,000 families had to face this decision in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. These countries feared a German invasion just prior to the outbreak of WWII. Jewish children were most vulnerable as the Nazis were already showing many signs of anti-Semitism.
Fostering In England
In 1938, during Kristalnacht (translation: the night of the crystals). Jewish people were beaten in the streets. Mobs stormed into Jewish-owned stores and furniture was destroyed and valuable items stolen. Pieces of the broken glass windows littered the streets as where the riots occurred, giving the streets a crystal shine.
Concerned Jewish parents placed children, from infancy to age 16, on trains going to England where foster parents would be able to provide for their care and safety. These trains were called kinder (“children’s”) transport. When WWII ended, an attempt was made to unite these children with their parents. However, many of the parents had been murdered in Nazi concentration camps. Many of the children were now orphans.
Legacy Of One Child
I met one of these children, Edith, who had been rescued by a Mr. and Mrs. Ward. The couple helped her to adjust to a new home, new food, new language, new school etc. Members of their St Peter’s church helped her as well.
Today, once a year, the Ward’s granddaughter puts flowers in front of St Peter’s church where the Ward family attend services. Under the flowers is a plaque that says:
“The flowers are in memory of Edith Rexxxx, a Jewish child who was sent from Germany to England on the kinder transport in January 1939 and was given a home by the grandparents of Pam Brush. Edith’s parents were murdered by Nazis.”
Indebted
Edith’s daughter, Dorit, told me it saddened her to see her parents’ ‘grief because they were forced to live forever with the memory of their murdered parents. Dorit also told me:
“My family and I, and our descendants will forever be indebted and inspired by Mr. and Mrs. Ward as well as the members of their church for rescuing my mother from the Nazis. Their sympathy and kindness will never be forgotten.”
Today, Pam Brush, Mr. and Mrs. Ward’s granddaughter and Edith’s daughter still keep in touch. This is how a child survivor of the Holocaust has united two families for three generations.
