The predominant narrative of the Kindertransport reassuringly suggests that almost without exception, ordinary British people were moved by kindliness and compassion to take thousands of unaccompanied Jewish children into their homes and raise them as part of their families. However, at least since the publication of Karen Gershon’s collective autobiography We Came as Children in 1966, Kinder testimonies have told a more nuanced and often disquieting story about carer motivations. The recent discovery of significant archival documents from and about the carers themselves has amplified and largely substantiated the testimonial record, showing that foster parents’ motivations were varied, complex and often not primarily altruistic or unselfishly humanitarian.  

 

Kinder fostering did not follow a simple straightforward model. Some children were fostered by relatives, who had unique motives for taking in the children of their persecuted extended families. Many Kindertransportees experienced foster care mainly in evacuation settings, where villagers were compelled by local authorities to house evacuees. But the primary fostering model involved British families voluntarily taking in the children of strangers, and their motives for doing so varied widely.

 

Some were undisputedly impelled by altruism, treating their foster children with sensitivity and as part of the family. Others were more self-interested in their motivations, though these did not always preclude loving treatment of refugee children. In this category were older childless couples who took in Kinder in hopes of fulfilling their longing for a child of their own. But many children were not as fortunate in their foster parents, and their treatment was often a reflection of their foster parents’ motivations. Community approbation and the desire to be seen as ‘doing a good deed’ motivated a surprising number of foster families. Many foster parents, who believed they were motivated altruistically, soured on the fostering responsibility and gave the child back if fostering proved at all difficult, as it often did, since many children were traumatised by separation from their families. Some foster parents quite openly took children in primarily for the stipend that was attached to their care. Others wanted free household labour, and offered homes to teenaged girls, expecting them to work as unpaid servants. Non-conformist religious groups such as the Barbican Mission, Christadelphians, Baptists and others took in Jewish children for explicit conversionary reasons. These and other motives impelled British people to offer homes to strangers’ children, and exploring these motives is important in understanding the range of Kinder experience.