Title: Kindertransport
ID: RG-118/RG-118
Extent: 0.0
Arrangement: This Record Group is arranged in 10 subcollections.
Subjects: Evacuation of the 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Kindertransport, Jewish children from German-occupied and controlled countries, Kindertransport, photographs, Jewish children from Germany, Kindertransport, photographs, Kindertransport, Kindertransport, Jewish refugee children, Kindertransport, Jewish refugee children, arrival to England, Kindertransport, photo-documents
In response to the brutality of Kristallnacht, several organizations worked together to bring Jewish children under Nazi occupation to safety in the United Kingdom (UK). Roughly 10,000 Jewish children from Germany, Austria, parts of Czechoslovakia, and parts of modern-day Poland were sent to the UK on Kindertransports (children’s transports). Additional, smaller groups of children were brought to safety on Kindertransports to Sweden and Switzerland. The first train carrying refugee children left Berlin on December 1, 1939, and trains were halted when borders were closed due to the outbreak of World War II. The vast majority of the rescued children never saw their families again.
As part of a temporary exhibition curated by the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the artifacts that form this group were loaned from 10 children who escaped Europe on a Kindertransport. A number of these artifacts were on short term loan to the museum, and have since been returned, therefore they are only available digitally.
Evacuation of the 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Kindertransport
Jewish children from German-occupied and controlled countries, Kindertransport, photographs
Jewish children from Germany, Kindertransport, photographs
Kindertransport
Kindertransport, Jewish refugee children
Kindertransport, Jewish refugee children, arrival to England
Kindertransport, photo-documents
Repository: Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Access Restrictions: There are no access restrictions on this collection
Lisa Jura was born on April 21, 1924 in Vienna, Austria to Abraham and Malka Jura. She was the middle child and enjoyed a happy upbringing along with her sisters, Rosie and Sonia. Lisa grew up in a home filled with music and became a piano prodigy.
In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria and implemented their antisemitic and discriminatory legislation. During the violence of Kristallnacht, Jewish-owned businesses were damaged, synagogues were burned, and Jews, including Lisa’s father, were beaten openly in the street.
Lisa’s parents secured a place for her on the Kindertransport, a program to evacuate thousands of Jewish children from Nazi Europe to safety in the U.K. In August 1939, Lisa boarded a train and said goodbye to her parents, not knowing that she would never see them again. Malka’s last works were “promise me that you will hold on to your music.”
In the U.K., Lisa was placed into a boarding house on Willesden Lane with 31 other children refugees who arrived on the Kindertransport. They formed their own family and adapted to life as best they could. Sonia secured a spot on the last Kindertransport from Vienna and was taken in by Quakers in the English countryside. In March 1942, Lisa was accepted into the London Royal Academy of Music, the same year that troubling rumors circulated regarding the fate of European Jews. After the war, Lisa learned that her parents perished in Auschwitz, but her older sister Rosie survived. The sisters later reunited in England.
Lisa would go on to become a professional pianist. In 1949, she married resistance fighter and Holocaust survivor Michel Golabek, and they immigrated to the U.S. where they had two daughters, Mona and Renee, who also became concert pianists, fulfilling Malka’s wish that they hold on to their music.
This collection contains artifacts related to Lisa Jura.
Photograph of Abraham and Malka Jura, Lisa Jura's parents.
Lisa’s mother Malka gave Lisa this picture of herself as she boarded the Kindertransport. On the back of the picture, Malka inscribed ‘So you will never forget your mother’. The picture of Lisa's father was brought to the U.K. by her sister Sonia. These were the only pictures Lisa had of her parents, and she considered them precious possessions during the Holocaust.
