Caring for Jewish kids recalled in museum project

Caring for Jewish kids recalled in museum project

24 September 2014

THE part played by a former Newcastle woman in caring for hundreds of children from Nazi occupied Europe is being told to students at Down County Museum.

Edith Kohner became a mother figure to the young Jewish children who fled from several countries just before the Germans closed the borders, trapping many members of their families.

Over 10,000 children left Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia on the Kindertransports just nine months before the outbreak of the Second World War. Hundreds came to Northern Ireland where they were cared for at a farm in Millisle, bought by the Belfast Jewish community and run by Edith and her husband, Franzi.

The Kohners were Czechoslovakian Jews who fled their home country with their young daughters, Dinah and Ruthie. Edith, a young mother, and Franzi, a barrister, were employed to run the farm which provided much needed love and stability for the children.

The Millisle farm became a staging post for the children before they could be sent to more permanent homes across the world.

Many of the children never forgot Edith’s caring and warmth and continued to visit her in her Newcastle home up until her death in 2009.

The moving story of the Kinderfarm and the experiences of the children is little known outside Millisle so the museum has produced Finding Refuge: The Millisle Farm Story, a resource for Key Stage two and three students.

It brings together a number of key documents, photographs, interviews and film from a variety of collections to create an innovative and engaging multimedia resource for schools.

This new resource enables users to find out more about how the local community in Millisle and Belfast played a vital role in helping young Jewish children during the war, the impact of anti-Semitism, racism and prejudice on the world.

Launching the resource at the museum was Walter Kammerling, a survivor of the Kindertransport and a former resident of Millisle farm. He was joined by Ruthie Kohner who spent several years at the farm with her parents and sister.

The museum also launched two other learning resources for students as part of its PEACE 111 funded community history project.

Transformations: Politics and Protest in County Down 1900-1920s will help pupils to investigate topics such as the Gaelic revival, the home rule crisis, the foundation of the Ulster Volunteers and Irish Volunteers, the impact of WW1 on local society and the road to partition.

Different Pieces but One Big Picture looks at religious and cultural identity in Co. Down and is designed to help students increase the understanding of the diversity of faith and identity.