Loewenstein Family Portrait

The last family portrait of the Loewensteins in Germany. Taken in May 1939, weeks before Heinrich left on the Kindertransport.

In early February 1939, Herr Rosenberg, one of the few teachers still at Wilsnacker Strasse Jewish School, asked Henry to stay after class.  He told Henry that he knew of a committee that would sponsor one boy for admittance to England.  Kristallnacht had prompted a wave of British sympathy for the suffering of the Jews under Nazi rule, and refugee aid groups had successfully persuaded Parliament to admit an unspecified number of Jewish children, if a £50 bond was posted for each child.  Between December 1, 1938 and September 1, 1939, a series of trains, ships, and planes brought approximately 10,000 Jewish children into England. The program eventually became known as the Kindertransport.

Henry’s mother Maria applied immediately, and received a letter a few weeks later announcing Henry’s acceptance into this program.  It took several months for the committee to handle all the paperwork with both British and German governments, but on May 29th the Loewensteins received a letter with Henry’s travel date - June 5, 1939. Thirteen year old Henry and his family knew that his move to England would save his life, but it also meant a wrenching separation from his family.  Max and Maria hoped that it would not be long before the whole family could leave Germany. However, the war broke out within 12 weeks and the family would be separated for eight years, the only communication coming infrequently through the Red Cross. 

Henry spent two months in a refugee camp, then briefly attended a school in London, before being evacuated with all of London’s children into the countryside on the eve of war. He ended up in Whipsnade, a beautiful English village, adjacent to a branch of the London Zoo, where he soon found part time work while attending the village’s one room school. Later he worked on a farm and served with the British Home Guard until the end of the war.

A plaque, thanking the British Parliament for enabling 10,000 Jewish children to escape to England in 1939, was donated in 1999 by Kindertransport survivors and is prominently mounted adjacent to the entrance of the House of Commons.