World Jewish Relief’s archives are a historical treasure trove

It happened unexpectedly during a visit to a friend, Alex Pfeffer, in Manchester. We were chatting and I happened to mention that my mother came over on the Kindertransport.

He leapt up from his chair, disappeared for ten minutes, and came back and handed me a file of documents. Inside were the records of my mother’s arrival in Britain in May 1939, rescued on the Kindertransport by the Central British Fund for German Jewry, now called World Jewish Belief.

I was absolutely overwhelmed. My mother was just fourteen when she came to Britain. She arrived only months before the outbreak of war in May 1939. The document had a specific number: her reference number for the CBF. To date, I had only thought of numbers and the war years, as an identity cruelly tattooed onto the arms of the victims of the concentration camps. But this was not a number about death. It was a number that signified life.

The document detailed her initial studies, her first employment, and even small acts of kindness, such as receiving cinema tickets from her rescuers. She was always grateful for these gestures, and that gratitude defined her entire life. In fact, it was recorded in these documents that she called the CBF to express her thanks.

Alex supports World Jewish relief as an archives volunteer, which is how he came into possession of my mother’s records. For years I had known her for her resilience, her gratitude and her commitment to her faith and community. But holding that file in my hands made her story tangible, real and personal. Now I had a framework for all the vignettes, all the fragments of memory that she had shared with us, her children and grandchildren.

In Jewish thought and language, the word to remember is zachor. In Torah Hebrew (classical Hebrew), it is exactly the same root as the word for a male. Torah Hebrew is a Divine language.  If words share roots, they share conceptual meaning. What is the connection between memory and a male? I believe it is this. In Judaism, history is not simply the sterile recollection of the past, but yesterday’s story, like the male, “seeds”, tomorrow’s episode.

Past becomes present and present becomes future. As we mark the anniversary of the Kindertransport amidst an alarming rise of anti-Semitism worldwide, these documents provide a powerful testimony to the resilience, the resolve and the faith of people like my mother who were determined to build a better future.

I am not much good at planning surprises, but I decided, with these documents in my hands, that I would share it with my family at the most appropriate moment and keep it quiet until then.

The evening of the Jewish year that represents the transition from past to future, like no other. It is, of course, the night of Seder.

During the meal, I presented the file: an unexpected gift of our collective history. There was silence around the table as family members huddled together to study its contents. It was particularly poignant. My mother passed away a decade ago on the second day of Pesach. Her gravestone bears the words that we sing on Seder Night. “And this sustained our ancestors and ourselves”. The Ve’hi She’amda. A tribute to her spirit – which has sustained us, her descendants to do our best, to live authentic Jewish lives.

We sit at our Seder night table because the CBF gave her an opportunity for life. As we mark the anniversary of the Kindertransport, I urge all descendants of those brave refugees to access these documents.

World Jewish Relief works tirelessly to ensure that these stories survive. For decades, their archives were lost and forgotten.  These files contain the names of over 315,000 individuals and records of 65,000 refugees they supported in the 1930s, and 40s. Today, thanks to volunteers like Alex, these files are now available. Thousands of families (like myself), remain unaware that they even exist.

The challenges our community faces today are great. Rising anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, misinformation. The responsibility to preserve these stories is ever more critical.

Are you the child of a refugee? Do you know children of refugees? Do you know descendants of refugees? Reach out to World Jewish Relief. Access those files. Invite your family and friends around the table to your table. It’s an opportunity to salute the refugees themselves and those that rescued them.

I have the honour and privilege of leading the organisation, Seed. Our strapline says it all: Life tools for Jewish families. We equip parents with the skills to raise children in our complex world with a wholesome self-esteem and a sophisticated appreciation of our incredible heritage.

For me, this collaboration with World Jewish Relief is the perfect formula. Past becomes present and present becomes future.