Lincoln duo hope to take ‘concert documentary’ on Kindertransport nationwide

A musical duo in Lincoln say they hope to take their original new “concert documentary” on the story of the Kindertransport beyond the East Midlands.

The piece, which combines words, music and song, will be performed by Chapter House Ensemble in the city on 30 September, but creators Robert Steadman and Hannah Borrill said they hoped it would travel further.

“Hannah and I have a mutual friend whose father came to the UK from Czechoslovakia as part of the Kindertransport,” said Steadman. “He told us about it and said he had letters and documents from the time that told his father’s story. That triggered the idea.”

The much-heralded nine-month Kindertransport operation, named after the German for ‘children’s passport,’ took almost 10,000 mainly Jewish children from central European cities to Britain in the run-up to the Second World War, saving their lives.

Foster families in the UK, many of whom were Christian, volunteered to accept the children, only some of whom were later reunited with their parents.

“We’ve written original music with a hint of Klezmer, and combined that with arrangements of traditional Jewish music,” said Borrill. “The piece will be premiered in Lincoln and we then hope to take it around the country.”