Some British holidaymakers in late 1938 and 1939 must have seen the Kindertransports arrive in Harwich. After recently receiving a postcard of Dovercourt from the boat jetty from Steven Derby (the son of a Kindertransportee and Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) member) I was inspired to think about these holidaymakers who witnessed history before their eyes. I’d thought about how locals had seen and interacted with the Kinder because my friend, Alan Mann told me that his father, who was a Harwich resident, was a cabin boy on the ferries which brought the Kinder to British shores. He was one of the first British teenagers who welcomed them, spoke to them, and reassured them on their journey across the Channel from the Hook of Holland to Harwich. As Steve gifted me this historical postcard which he had found on the internet, I could see that he had had the same idea as me – was there a Kindertransport on the day the postcard was written?

There is a stamp on the back of the postcard with a date on it. It reads 16th March 1939. I looked in the refugee committee’s July 1939 report and, lo and behold, there was indeed a Kindertransport on this day! According to the report 57 boys and 83 girls were on board. With their arrival, around 3685 Kinder had arrived in the UK at this point. I think that this transport was from Germany as there was a transport which arrived from Prague on 14th March 1939 and another which arrived from Vienna on 15th March 1939. There was also a........

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