Hiroshi Suzuki, the Japanese Ambassador to the UK, has shown his affection for British culture through his endearing bond with one of Britain’s most cherished icons – Paddington Bear. Paddington has become the ambassador’s mascot whilst visiting regional landmarks, sampling local produce, and most importantly, whilst engaging in public diplomacy.

This seems very fitting given that the late Queen Elizabeth I also shared a fondness for Paddington. In fact, the Queen’s final TV appearance in 2022 was with Paddington. Here we might argue that the Queen expressed her lifelong solidarity with refugees and, more broadly, with the British people and people from the Commonwealth who also experienced displacement during the Second World War – a time which would later inspire Michael Bond to create the stories of Paddington.

When I saw the ambassador’s social media posts with Paddington, my first thought was, how apt that Paddington would be someone’s travel companion! Paddington started out as a foreigner in the UK but adapted to life here. He was welcomed by society. After experiencing some new hurdles, the UK became his new homeland. Paddington, a now valued member of society, would surely help anyone to become acquainted with life in the UK. That’s where I thought the story ended – as a nice tribute to a British figure who is based on Jewish history. Paddington, after all, is based on the Kindertransport, when mainly Jewish children fled to the UK to escape Nazism. They were then dispersed around England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. After the Second World War was declared, many of the children were uprooted again when they were evacuated. But then I found documents in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People which directly connected the history of the Kindertransport to Japan.

It started with the “America Action” or “Summer Action,” which was supposed to be a summer 1939 transport of children to America, organised by the German Jewish Aid Committee (GJAC) in conjunction with the Jewish communities in Germany and Austria. However, this never happened. The failure to implement the Wagner-Rogers Bill may have played a part. In March 1940, the Austrian Jewish community claimed in a letter to the GJAC that so far only 10 children had left on the scheme, although 441 names had been put forward. There is correspondence about the Summer Action right through 1940 and into 1941. There seem to have been technical problems with the American consulate issuing visas without permits having arrived, and relatives in America filing their own applications, whereas the GJAC was not always keen on automatically allowing refugee children to go to relatives, at least not until their reliability had been established.

It is known that, during the war, some children did eventually escape to America, often from France via Spain, Portugal, and Casablanca. And we also know about the Kinder’s family members who escaped to Shanghai. However, the route for children via Japan to America was something that I knew little about until I was inspired to investigate connections between the Kindertransport and Japan thanks to the ambassador.

In the archives, I first came across a standardised form from the Austrian Jewish community which reads: “I agree that my child… travels to America via Russia and Japan and am aware that neither the Viennese Jewish Community nor the German Jewish Children’s Aid Committee, with whose help my child is coming to America, is responsible for any indicants on the journey”.

I then found a letter stating that the journey for Salomon Preminger is out of the question due to his age. Salomon was born on 1.11.1938. There was paperwork submitted for him on 27.1.1940 when he was just over 2 years old. His siblings, David and Edith, are also listed. They appear on several lists. The most notable is one which states that they were on a Children for America list 9. Salomon and his siblings even had affidavits. Throughout this paperwork, the term Kindertransport is used to refer to Jewish children who were seeking shelter in America well into the Second World War. Despite these attempts, many of the children did not make it out. The decision not to send Salomon had terrible consequences. On Yad Vashem’s website, I discovered the end of his story.

Salomon was deported with Transport 19, Train Da 201 from Vienna to Blagovshchina (Maly Trostenets, Belorussia) on 06.05.1942. It is suggested that he was murdered in a forested area on 11.05.1942. In fact, via the Arolsen records I found Salomon’s deportation list. It reads at the top 06.05.1942 Minsk. His is listed as number 601. His brother, sister, and mother are also listed with him. Their numbers are 603, 602, and 600. Already in 1940, this little boy who was just over 2 years old was stateless. He was deprived of an identity, a homeland already in 1940, and he would not have even known this as he was too young. There was a moment of hope that he and his siblings could have been rescued but that did not happen. He was just over 4 years old when he was murdered.

What makes this story even more tragic is that his mother, Reizie was trying to save her children’s lives alone. Salomon’s father, Mayer, was murdered in Buchenwald on 20.11.1939. Salomon was 1 year and 19 days old when his father was killed. He was held in custody on 12.09.1939 and admitted by the Vienna State Police on 2.10.1939. His police number was 7438. His inmate number was 766. In a file held by the Arolsen Archives we read that he died from heart failure due to dysentery. How much this is true is hard to say but what we do know is that the conditions were very unsanitary. Salomon’s mother must have received notice of her husband’s death. She must have felt grief for her husband, joy for their new child, yet total fear for their children’s futures.

I do not know yet how many children escaped via this Trans-Siberian route, but this is the story of 3 children who never made it to safety via Russia and Japan. It seems somewhat ironic that the children would have travelled via Russia given that more recent history – Russia’s war in Ukraine – gave rise to a new term called Ukrainetransport where children and their mothers were able to flee to the UK. The term was coined by the son of one of the Kinder.

The Japanese Ambassador to the UK evokes the more positive side of the Kindertransport story with his friendship with Paddington. His social media posts in a way speak to the Kinder’s rich and full lives in the UK thanks to the Kindertransport as Paddington and the Ambassador have many adventures with one another. Yet the historical connection I’ve found between the Kindertransport and Japan ends with tragedy. Salomon and his siblings never made it to Japan, or on to America.

Thank you to my co-author Prof. Bill Niven who is conducting this research with me.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)