Before the Kindertransport, the UK, along with other countries were uninterested in aiding Jewish refugees. Less than six months before the Kindertransport, the Evian Conference had taken place with little progress. Between July 6 and 15 1938, 32 countries were represented at the Evian Conference, convened to address the growing Jewish refugee crisis in Europe. Although delegates expressed sympathy for the refugees, only the Dominican Republic increased their immigration quotas. How then did the Kindertransport come about?

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On the night of November 9 1938, a violent anti-Jewish pogrom started and lasted into November 10. It is referred to as Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass); it occurred throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. 267 synagogues were destroyed, 7,500 Jewish businesses were looted, and 91 Jews were murdered, with 30,000 Jewish men being arrested and sent to concentration camps. In the wake of Kristallnacht, the Kindertransport occurred.