World War II Kindertransport survivor to speak at West Shore.

Edith Maniker

VICTORY TWP.  – West Shore Community College, in partnership with The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Muskegon, will host Kindertransport survivor Edith Maniker on Tues., April 28, from 12:30-1:45 p.m., in the college’s Center Stage Theater.

The Kindertransport, German for children transport, is a rescue mission that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the World War II.

Edith Maniker, a child survivor of the Kindertransport, left Leipzig, Germany, at age 8 with her younger sister and her 7-month old cousin. She was first housed in London and then sent to the country in 1939, only to be brought back to London and sent to the country again because of the German bombing of London.

She lived in a mansion, stayed in Plymouth and was moved to London as preparations began for D-Day only to be in the V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks on London. At the end of the war, she never returned to Germany, but came to Detroit to live with an aunt and uncle.

“Her story is filled with adventure and surprise,” says Professor Mike Nagle who is organizing the event. “This will be an amazing primary source for anyone wishing to learn about child survivors and the odyssey of children rescued prior to Germany closing the doors.”

The first Kindertransport arrived at Harwich, England, on Dec. 2, 1938, bringing 196 children from a Berlin Jewish orphanage burned by the Nazis during the night of Nov. 9. Most of the transports left by train from Vienna, Berlin, Prague and other major cities.

Children from small towns traveled to meet the transports, crossed the Dutch and Belgian borders, and went on by ship to England. Hundreds of children remained in Belgium and Holland. The transports ended with the outbreak of war in September 1939. One very last transport left on the freighter Bodegraven from Ymuiden on May 14, 1940 – the day Rotterdam was bombed, one day before Holland surrendered – raked by gunfire from German warplanes.

The 80 children on deck had been brought by earlier transports to imagined safety in Holland. Altogether, though exact figures are unknown, the Kindertransports saved around 10,000 children, most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. None were accompanied by their parents; a few were babies carried by children.

The presentation is free and open to the public, but seats are limited.

For more information, contact Nagle at mwnagle@westshore.edu or 231-843-5905 to make a group reservation.