Based on an unwritten agreement the Quakers were responsible, within the Christian welfare centers, for the care of all those adults and children without a registered religion. But in reality they did not turn anyone away who asked for help. Thousands of children – Frankfurt was the collection point for the surrounding cities – traveled from the main railway station to Hoek van Holland. From there they traveled by ship to Harwich and continued onward with the train to Liverpool Railway Station in London. Dr. Martha Wertheimer from the Children Transport Department and Isidor Marx from the Jewish Orphanage accompanied the children on the train as did the Quakers Else Wüst and Elisabeth Mann. These had to be reliable chaperones, because someone who used his position as chaperone to escape himself jeopardized the entire operation. Trains left Frankfurt twice per month as of January 1939; there were three larger “children packages” in these trains as of May/June. There were often 500 children, sometime “only” 50. Tricks were used in order to also enable 18-year-old students from the “Jewish Training Center” to leave the country as part of the contingent of the children transports. The last train left Frankfurt on 31 August, because with the start of the war in September 1939, the borders were then closed
.
About Martha Wertheimer: Hanno Loewy (Editor): Martha Wertheimer,
In mich ist die große dunkle Ruhe gekommen, Frankfurt/Main 1996.
Helga Krohn (Editor): Vor den Nazis gerettet, Sigmaringen 1995.
Rebekka Göpfert: Der jüdische Kindertransport von Deutschland nach England
1938/1939, Frankfurt/Main/New York 1999 and
Rebekka Göpfert: Ich kam allein, München 1994.
Petra Bonavita: Quäker als Retter …, Stuttgart 2014, pages 116-141
Internet: Links to Jewish Social Care, office of
the protestant reverend Gruber, Refugee Children’s Movement