Build up to war and the Kindertransport
Timeline:
1933
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany and calls for boycott against Jewish businesses. The first concentration camp is opened in Dachau. All non-Nazi political parties are banned in Germany.
1934
Upon the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler makes himself Führer of Germany, becoming Head of State as well as Chancellor.
1935
The German government passes the Nuremberg Laws, institutionalizing discrimination against Jews and providing the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany.
1938
March 13 - Austria is annexed by Germany
Sept 30 - Munich Agreement signed between Germany, UK, Italy and France. The agreement allows Germany to annex the Czechoslovak Sudetenland area in exchange for peace in an attempt to appease Hitler.
Nov 9/10 - Kristallnacht – the night of Broken Glass, when Nazis in Germany and Austria torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews.
Nov 15 - A delegation of British, Jewish, and Quaker leaders appealed to the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to permit the temporary admission to Britain of unaccompanied Jewish children. On 21 November Parliament debated and agreed to the appeal.
Dec 2 - The first party of nearly 200 children arrived in Britain, many from an orphanage in Berlin torched during Kristallnacht. In the following nine months almost 10,000 unaccompanied, mainly Jewish, children travelled to England.
1939
Jan 1 - Nicky’s first letter home from Prague
Jan 21 - Nicky returns to London
March 14 - First Kindertransport leaves Prague, bringing 20 children to UK
August 2 - Eighth transport arrives in UK, bringing the total number from Czechoslovakia to 669.
Sept 1 - 9th transport bringing 250 children to UK cancelled by Germans after borders closed following German invasion of Poland.
Sept 3 - United Kingdom declares war on Germany.
The rescue of children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia from the Nazi threat before the 2nd World War is known as the Kindertransport (Kinder being “children” in German). Around 10,000 children were rescued from Austria and Germany through the auspices of the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany, later known as the Refugee Children's Movement.
Representatives of the Movement were sent to Germany and Austria after 21 November 1938 to establish the systems for choosing, organising, and transporting the children. The Central British Fund for German Jewry provided funding for the rescue operation.