Complicating narratives of the Kindertransport
Digital Exhibition
Born 12.2.23 in Vienna.
These documents reflect themes of family separation, carers and gratitude.
Inge Thorn age 14 Uly Thorn age 17
MS140 A2049 96/18 (Special Collections, Hartley Library, University of Southampton)
Uly, born 16.7.26 and Inge, born 4.4.30 were the only children of Dr Hermann Thorn, an attorney, and his wife Josette, a musician and music teacher. They were born and lived in Vienna until December 1938, when the family fled to Paris after Dr Thorn had been released from a brief incarceration in a concentration camp. The girls were sponsored by the West London Synagogue and arrived in the UK in February 1939. They were both sent immediately to the same boarding school in Surrey. During the school holidays in the summer of 1939, the girls went back to France to visit their parents and they were still there when war broke out on 1 September 1939. The Thorns managed to send the girls back to Britain in mid-September 1939, where they resumed their schooling in Surrey.
After the German invasion of France in May 1940, Herman and Josette fled to Marseilles, France and from there, made their way to the United States via Martinque, arriving in New York in May 1941. They made every effort to get their daughters over to America, but were not able to do so until December 1943.
The girls were together at the same boarding school until Uly left in early 1943 to take up work in London. She aspired to become a journalist. Inge remained at school until she left for the USA.
Family separation is a strong theme running through this correspondence. The girls’ return to France in the summer of 1939, after they had been separated from their parents for a few months demonstrates the intense longing these families had to be together. It was highly unusual for Kinder to return to their parents for a visit once they had left for the UK, but since the Thorns were in France, the WLS made no objection to their spending the summer holidays with their parents. The visit became anything but routine when the girls did not make it back to England before war broke out and the correspondence between the Thorns and the WLS about their return (Documents 2 and 3) highlights the challenges of arranging travel in wartime. Elsa Goldschmidt’s suggestion that the Thorns take their daughters to the train in Paris and ask strangers to look after them seems remarkable to us now (Document 3).
Few documents could so clearly express the anxiety, stress and helplessness that separated parents felt about their children in Britain as Hermann Thorn’s long letter from New York in 1942 (Document 4). Distressed about the unlikelihood of reunion with their children in the near future, the parents, who by their own account were completely broken down by the ordeal of escaping Europe, were desperately worried about their older daughter’s education ending at age 15. Lacking agency and inhibited by gratitude and indebtedness to the WLS, they were torn about pressing their requests that she finish her school certificate and take training they deemed worthy of her talents. The Thorns had advocates in Britain who vouched for Uly’s talent and offered to help her maintain her studies (Document 5) and Uly herself, demonstrating the writing talent she had been praised for, wrote eloquent letters on her own behalf as well (Documents 6 and 7), revealing how much she depended on Elsa Goldschmidt’s counsel and advice.
The girls finally reunited with their parents in December 1943, after a separation of over four years, and another remarkable letter, this one from Josette Thorn, demonstrates the joy of reunion and the genuine gratitude they felt towards the WLS for taking such good care of their girls (Document 9). “I still cannot believe that my children are really here, with is, and that the music they make when they call me ‘mummy’ is not only a dream.”
The connection between the Thorn girls and the Elsa Goldschmidt of the WLS did not end when they left England. Showing how much they considered her one of their primary carers, and expressing their gratitude for their years in England, they both wrote touching and newsy letters and sent photographs of themselves in the years following their departure (Documents 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14), mentioning also that they were keeping in touch with the headteacher at their old school (Document 13). [Note that there is also a letter from this teacher, Miss Maude Micholls (Document 8), which expresses her deep fondness for both girls.] For her part, Elsa Goldschmidt took an equally fond interest and concern for the girls, even though they were no longer in her care (Document 15).
The below documents are from the West London Synagogue Collection (MS 140) 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 and the West London Synagogue.
Please navigate the thumbnails below to view the full-size documents. Each document is accompanied by a description and archive reference.
