Complicating narratives of the Kindertransport
Digital Exhibition
Born 12.2.23 in Vienna.
This collection touches on themes of family separation, carers, agency and gratitude.
Selma Herman, age 15; Jetty Herman, age 9
MS183 563 Folder 1 (Special Collections, Hartley Library, University of Southampton)
Selma and Jetty were the youngest of Rubin and Chaja Herman’s five children. Selma was born on 21.10.24 and Jetty on 7.6.30 both in Hamburg, Germany. The entire family: two older brothers, and older sister Cilly, Selma, Yetty and their parents were deported in the Polenaktion to Zbąszyń on 28 October 1938. Selma and Yetty were accepted on a Kindertransport arranged by the Polish Jewish Refugee Fund and arrived in Britain on 30 August 1939.
Selma had promised her parents not to be separated from Yetty, and although her foster family had only offered to take Selma, they reluctantly agreed to accept Yetty when Selma insisted that she would not part from her sister. The foster family had a butcher shop in London’s East End that was bombed out in 1940, forcing the family and the Herman girls to evacuate to Aylesbury. The foster family struggled financially and sought increasing amounts of maintenance money from the PJRF, claiming that they could not afford to keep the girls otherwise. In late 1941, the Fund removed the girls, sending Selma to Leeds to work in a clothing factory, and Yetty, who was still at school, to a Jewish hostel in Harrogate. Yetty remained there until the end of the war, when she re-emigrated to the USA to join one of her older brothers who had survived the Holocaust. Selma married and remained in Britain for the rest of her life. Although both their brothers survived, their older sister Cilly and their parents were murdered in the Holocaust.
Rubin Herman’s letters from Zbąszyń (Documents 1 and 2) show the desperation of parents to get their children to safety, and emphasises the theme of family separation. Note that he was especially concerned about his older daughter Cilly, who was just barely too old for the Kindertransport, and suggested that she might be able to come to Britain as a domestic (Document 2).
This document collection features the theme of carers as well. As the correspondence concerning the foster family (Documents 4, 5 and 6) indicates, the financial strain of the war led both Selma and her foster mother to request extra pocket money from the Fund. The family was already receiving maintenance money for the girls, and other correspondence from Selma not included in this collection revealed that the foster mother was not sharing the pocket money the Fund was sending (Document 6) with the girls. In addition to keeping their allowance from them, Selma also revealed to the Fund that she had been working as an unpaid maid in the household for nearly two years and that her foster mother refused to allow her to take up work outside the home, and requested that the PJRF find her a paying job and somewhere else for her and Yetty to live (Document 7). The foster family’s desire to take in a teenaged girl and their reluctance to take the younger child Yetty (who later recalled being treated unkindly in the home) in addition to a number of letters from the foster mother demanding money from the Fund all lead to the conclusion that the family’s motives were not entirely altruistic. It should be noted that both sisters recalled the kindness of their foster father, and blamed the foster mother for their ill-treatment.
Selma’s letters to the Fund (Documents 4 and 7) demonstrate her agency and determination to improve both her and Yetty’s living situation, and the refugee organisation responded promptly to her appeals (Document 8). Selma’s gratitude to the PJRF is evident in a letter she wrote after leaving the foster family (Document 9) and in choosing to invite the Fund’s executive committee to her wedding in 1945 (Document 11). Though they could not attend, they gave her a generous cash gift as a wedding present (Document 10).
Also included for reference in this document set is from the Fund used to record the process of securing a guarantee (Document 3).
The below documents are from the Schonfeld Collection (MS 183) at the Special Collection, Hartley Library, University of Southampton. All of the below documents are used with permission of the University of Southampton Special Collections.
Please navigate the thumbnails below to view the full-size documents. Each document is accompanied by a description and archive reference.
