Two years on since finding the Kindertransport lists at Yad Vashem
On 10th October 2024 I wrote this message to Hanna Zack Miley on Instagram: “Hanna! I found your Kindertransport list”. I had landed in Israel on the 6th of October 2024 on the eve of the first anniversary of 7th October 2023. The following day, on the anniversary, I began my fellowship at Yad Vashem. Within days I made a discovery which changed my academic career and personal life. Hanna’s response was “Oh Amy, this is beyond imagination! I think about you flying into a war zone and there in THE place of remembrance (Yad Vashem) you are quietly doing research and find that list!!” Last year, I wrote the blog ‘For Hanna: The first anniversary with your Kindertransport list’ but at that time I hadn’t finished the research into Hanna’s list. Now, another year on, I can finally share with Hanna everything else I’ve found – though I hesitate to say “everything” as it seems that as Hanna looks back over old photographs and files, new meanings and findings are still coming to light.
Hanna had conducted a huge amount of research before we met. She then used this material to write her book “A Garland for Ashes: World War II, the Holocaust, and One Jewish Survivor’s Long Journey to Forgiveness”. Since finding her Kindertransport list this is what I was able to tell Hanna:
- Her Kindertransport crossed the German Dutch border on 25th July 1939 with 58 children on board.
- There was another Kindertransport on that day with another 115 children on board.
- Hanna’s train crossed the border at Zeveenar at 18.18pm whereas the other train crossed at Oldenzaal at 16.51pm. They then reached the Hook of Holland at 21.37pm.
- Both groups boarded the ferry called Vienna. There were 49 tons of cargo loaded as well as 2 cars and a trailer, and 170 letters/ bags of mail. The ferry arrived at Harwich on 26th July 1939 at 05.30am.
I had sent Hanna her chaperone list, so she knew the names of the adults who accompanied her but since then we have learned more about their fates. Frieda Amram was born on 06.10.1885 and at the time of Hanna’s Kindertransport she was living in Frankfurt at Hans Thomasstrasse 24. She was tragically deported to Ravensbrück on 25.07.1942 and then within months to Auschwitz where she perished. Anneliese Nahm was born on 16.02.1905 and she was also living in Frankfurt at Im Trutz 37. She was able to emigrate to America. Her husband, Ernst sadly died in 1941. Louise Schwarz was born on 21.10.1899 and her address in Frankfurt was Grüneburgweg 37. She married Dr. Daniel Steinberger who was incarcerated in Buchenwald. I think she also emigrated to America. Martin Hirschfeld was born on 12.06.1908 and his given address on the list is Berlin C.2., Linienstrasse 239. Martin was deported from Berlin to Terezin on 4.8.1943 and from there to Auschwitz on 29.9.1944. He did not survive.
There were 6 other chaperones for the larger transport on that day which joined Hanna’s transport on the ferry. 3 of the chaperones survived by emigrating to the UK but they were interned as enemy aliens. 2 were tragically murdered and I’m still not sure about the fates of one of them. The 2 chaperones who were murdered were incredible women: Rosa Wollheim and Irma Zanker. Rosa was several months pregnant at the time. She was deported to Auschwitz in 1943 with her young child and husband. Only her husband, Norbert survived. Norbert was also a chaperone and instrumental in the Kindertransports to the UK and Sweden. Irma accompanied the very first Kindertransport from Germany to the UK. She even managed to rescue her son on the Kindertransport and continue chaperoning knowing that he was in the UK. Her son later moved to America. Irma was sent from Hamburg to Terezin on 25.6.1943 and from there to Auschwitz on 28.10.1944 where she perished.
By the time some of the chaperones had been sent to Terezin, Hanna’s uncle, Georg Zack and childhood friend, Kurt Meyer had been deported from Terezin to Auschwitz. Before Hanna left Cologne on the Kindertransport Kurt had given her his passport photo to remember him. While Hanna knew that Kurt did not survive the Holocaust, she did not know that he was deported with her uncle. Georg and his partner, Emilie Zack were sent from Cologne to Terezin on 12.9.1942, while Kurt was sent earlier on 28.7.1942. On 23.1.1943 both Kurt and Georg were deported from Terezin to Auschwitz. Emilie was no longer alive. Georg’s transport number was 606 and Kurt’s was 579.
Moving beyond the lists we were also able to access Hanna’s World Jewish Relief file which is the last remaining document which lists her with her parents, and we were also able to access her 1939 register. At the end of September 1939 after the outbreak of war, everyone in the UK had to be registered. I found Hanna’s foster family in the register but there was a black line over what I thought might be her name – her first official registration in the UK beyond the refugee committee documents. We contacted the National Archives, UK and they were able to send us Hanna’s information – her name was revealed. Hanna has also recently been in touch with survivors and descendants who were on the 2 transports that day.
Hanna has even been in touch with the descendants of Kinder who lived across the square from her. Julian Schild’s father, Rolf was on the third Jawne Kindertransport in May 1939. I’ve recently shown him his father’s Kindertransport list. Rolf lived just doors down from the Roonstraße synagogue in Cologne. Hanna lived across the park at Horst-Wessel-Platz 14. Dr Imogen Dalziel has been working with Julian to uncover not only more about Rolf’s story but his broader family’s story as well as the family history of Julian’s wife’s family. Prof. Bill Niven has also been researching the train schedules for Rolf and Hanna’s Kindertransport. He has also been working with me to discover more about the various refugee organizations in Cologne who helped both Hanna and Rolf escape. These regional organizations were sending the applications and letters to the central Jewish welfare offices in Berlin to ensure that the Cologne children gained places on the Kindertransport. While I was recently in Cologne, I visited Rubensstraße 33 and Mauritiussteinweg 11 where the offices where at the time. It would have been these offices which processed Hanna and Rolf’s files.
I think it was walking around Cologne visiting the former addresses of Kinder that I was struck by something which I hadn’t thought about when I first found the lists. Back in 2024, I focused on what the lists told us about the names of the Kinder, their birthdates, their addresses, and their train times and routes. But I hadn’t thought about the Kinder who may have lived in the same buildings or in the same streets as one another. I thought about the Stolpersteine and the UK program “A House Through Time” and I wondered if any Kinder lived in the same place or close to one another. Originally, I thought very individually about departure but now I’m thinking of communities. There are only 14 Stolpersteine in Cologne which are dedicated to the Kinder. On their streets I was finding out about their neighbors’ fates.
I asked myself if there were any Kinder who lived at Hanna’s address in Cologne – Horst-Wessel-Platz 14, now Rathenauplatz. To my amasement there were three! The Reichenbach brothers, Klaus-Martin (1927), Hans-Richard (1929), and Rolf (1931) lived there with their parents, Martin and Anna Maria Reichenbach. The boys left Cologne on a Kindertransport to the Netherlands in March 1939 before Hanna left in July 1939. I have their Kindertransport list! Hanna’s family fled from Gemünd to Cologne after Kristallnacht and the Reichenbachs had moved back in 1937 from Schildgen. When I was in the Netherlands, I had found their files, but I hadn’t realised that they lived in the same building as Hanna. On 30.03.1939 the boys were quarantined in Rotterdam. From Quarantine Beneden Heijplaat, Quarantainestraat 1, Rotterdam they were sent to St. Jacobus, De Dijk, Eersel and St. Oedenrode, Damianen stichting. The brothers survived the war in the Netherlands but sadly none of them are alive today to be reunited with Hanna. I was though able to find a photo of the brothers online which I showed to Hanna. Their mother remained in Germany during the war. She was from a Catholic family whereas their father was from a Jewish family. He escaped to the UK in February 1939. I actually found his enemy alien files. He was interned. His address given to the police was Breemer, Ogden Road, Bramhall, Cheshire. On 12.1.1946 he sadly passed away alone in the UK. He was never reunited with his surviving wife and children.
Kurt Horn was another resident of Horst-Wessel-Platz 14. He managed to escape to the UK. He found refuge at Kitchener Camp. In 1940, he boarded the Samaria for America. There were other Kinder who I found living on the same street as Hanna. For example, Harry Neiss lived at number 17 – he went to Belgium on the Kindertransport. Kurt and Hannelore Kahn lived at number 20, and they went to the Netherlands on the Kindertransport. Others such as Herm J. Wolff who lived at number 15 were deported with Hanna’s beloved parents. Across the street where Rolf Schild lived were other many other Kinder such as Siggy Reichenstein.
The 10th October 2026 marks the second anniversary of my finding the Kindertransport lists. Hanna’s list was the list which confirmed that I had found the Kindertransport lists because I knew her Kindertransport number – 8814. The lists continue to open up questions – did the parents of the Kinder who lived in the same buildings talk with one another? Is that how some found out about the Kindertransports? What were the fates of those in the Kinder’s buildings and streets? The lists and the archives have helped me to give Hanna and many other survivors and their families details about their lives which are so important, especially when so much was lost.
