A story for Holocaust Memorial Day, recounting Milena Fleischmann's journey to England in 1939 as part of the 'kindertransport' arranged by Sir Nicholas Winton.
The video
Synopsis
The story is based on the experience of Milena Fleischmann (Milena Grenfell-Baines) who, as a young girl living in Prague in July 1939, was among a group of Jewish children who were sent to England by their parents to escape persecution by the Nazis.
It was a long journey by train and Milena, aged 9, was accompanied by her 4-year-old sister and 2-year-old cousin. She bravely said goodbye to her mother and grandparents and uncle at the station. The Germans had already come looking for her father and he had gone into hiding.
After two days and two nights on the train they arrived in London and later all three girls were taken to live with a family near Manchester.
Two months later, in September 1939, another train prepared to leave Prague with 250 Jewish children on board, but this time it was too late. The war had started and the train never set off. It鈥檚 believed that most of the children taken off that train died during the war.
Eventually Milena鈥檚 parents managed to escape from Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic / Czechia) and joined her in England.
Video questions
- Why were Milena, her sister and cousin making the train journey to England?
- Why were the children travelling alone?
- How long was the journey and what does Milena remember about the journey?
- Why were Milena, Eva and Helen lucky to leave Prague in July, rather than waiting until September?
- Milena, Eva and Helen were some of 鈥榃inton鈥檚 Children鈥. What do you know about Sir Nicholas Winton? How and why did he arrange for the children鈥檚 evacuation to England?
Activities
- Tell the story of Milena, her sister and cousin as a comic book or graphic novel. Choose four or five key moments to represent in the 鈥榝rames鈥 and illustrate them, adding words in the form of titles such as 鈥楾he next moment鈥︹ or 鈥極ne week later鈥︹. Show thoughts in 鈥榯hought bubbles鈥 and speech in 鈥榮peech bubbles鈥.
- Write a poem about the events in the story, giving your feelings about what happened to Milena, her sister and cousin. You might include the unsuccessful journey of the 250 children who left in September.
- You might like to use a contrast structure for your poem, comparing life for you and for Milena and the other refugees. For example: We go to school / They feared to go out / Our country is our home / Theirs became the enemy鈥
- Find out about child refugees today and the organisations that are helping them. Is there anything that your class could do to help?
Resources
Download / print the transcript for this episode.
See also...
Sir Nicholas Winton. The story of Sir Nicholas Winton (1909 - 2015), told by his daughter, Barbara.
Resources for Holocaust Memorial Day. A collection of resources to help you mark HMD on 27 January.
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