Unaccompanied child refugees in Britain contended with multiple questions of cultural, national and religious identity as they came to terms with their forced exile and grew to adulthood during and after the Second World War. Questions of Kinder identity have not been extensively examined, which has allowed longstanding assumptions about Kinder’s seamless and successful assimilation to flourish. Nevertheless, Kinder testimony, which explores concepts of self, home and belonging, shows that questions of national origin, nationality, religion, gender and family identity were all challenged by involuntary exile and the rupture with their families and nations of origin. The reception Kinder received from foster families, schoolmates and workmates, British citizens and religious communities all contributed to Kindertransportees’ sense of acceptance, belonging and identity in their new land. Later emigration to America, Israel, Australia, or other destinations often further complicated Kindertransportees’ national and personal identities.

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Documents 1,2 and 3 below packet all address these issues through Kinder testimony and oral history.

 

The motives of foster carers, explored in more depth in Case Study 2, also contributed to identity challenges, especially for younger Kinder. There was a widespread desire to assimilate and Anglicise refugee children, effacing all traces of their foreign identities, including, in some cases their religious identity. Document 4 addresses this question of identity through the letters of two foster mothers, which report on the progress of their young refugee foster children in becoming “English.”

 

For more documents related to questions of identity, see the exhibition documents of Uly and Inge Thorn, Simon Markel, and Renate Laband.