Kindersang: UK premiere of Deirdre Gribbin work

Nurit Stark (violin) and Caroline Mezler (soprano)

On November 10th 1938 Hitler’s Kristallnacht pogrom prompted the Refugee Children Movement that rescued 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children from occupied Europe on Kindertransport trains to the UK during a nine-month period. Children travelled alone with nothing but a nametag and sealed suitcase. The majority of them never saw their parents again. In this 80th anniversary year I have marked this historical event by setting poems by survivor Lotte Kramer. Lotte was fifteen when she came from Germany on one of the last Kindertransport trains. She found herself living in the home of the eccentric Irishwoman Margaret Fyleman who was married to a retired Indian colonel.

My connection to the Kindertransport survival stories is deeply personal. My husband is Jewish. I often think about what would have happened to my son Ethan, who has Down Syndrome, had he lived in German-occupied Europe. Had he been lucky enough to survive how would he have processed family separation if he were one of the Kindertransport children?

At a time when freedom of thought, belief and movement is being challenged in Europe and the wider world in relation to border crossing, immigration and human rights, KinderSang and its historical resonances seeks to remind us that the courage and perseverance of committed individuals can overcome the reluctance of authorities to address the suffering of refugees.