Jennifer Craig-Norton sets out to challenge celebratory narratives of the Kindertransport that have dominated popular memory as well as literature on the subject. According to these accounts, the Kindertransport was a straightforward act of rescue and salvation, with little room for a deeper, more complex analysis. This volume reveals that in fact many children experienced difficulties with settlement: they were treated inconsistently by refugee agencies, their parents had complicated reasons for giving them up, and their caregivers had a variety of motives for taking them in. Against the grain of many other narratives, Craig-Norton emphasizes the use of newly discovered archival sources, which include the correspondence of refugee agencies, carers, Kinder and their parents and juxtaposes this material with testimonial accounts to show readers a more nuanced and complete picture of the Kindertransport. In an era in which the family separation of refugees has commanded considerable attention, this book is a timely exploration of the effects of family separation as it was experienced by child refugees in the age of fascism.

About the Author

Jennifer Craig-Norton is an Honorary Fellow of the Parkes Institute for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton. She is editor (with Christhard Hoffman and Tony Kushner) of Migrant Britain: Histories and Historiographies: Essays in Honour of Colin Holmes.

Reviews

Highly recommended.

* Choice *

This review cannot do justice to the depth of material that Craig-Norton offers and the way she balances the experiences of all involved, especially those whose actions and feelings have been ignored in the past. Anyone interested in learning the real history of what occurred in England - the good and the bad - should read The Kindertransport.

* The Reporter Group *

It is an unflinching portrayal-enhanced by the judicious use of photographs and other illustrations-of the immediate and the lasting impacts of the transport on those involved and on subsequent generations. As such, this book deserves to be widely read.

-- John Privilege - Ulster University * HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES *

Jennifer Craig-Norton's The Kindertransport is the latest of such books that attempt to provide a counternarrative to self-congratulatory understandings of the Kindertransport. Powerfully, Craig-Norton concludes that the celebratory and the critical should not be mutually exclusive, and that both the positives and negatives of this history should be acknowledged.

-- Stephanie Homer * H-Judaic *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253042217
Author Jennifer Craig-Norton
Format Paperback
Page Count 364
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press