how did the British public react to the Kinderstransport rescue attempt in World War 2?

by unhandthatscience

Recently I heard that before the outbreak of the first world war, many German children - Jews in particular - left their homes on Kindertransport to go to Britain until it was safe to return, similarly to the evacuation of British children from cities. Although this action was supported by the government, there would have still been a prevailing anti-German sentiment during that time. Given this, what was the reaction of the British public towards these German refugee children and how would they have been treated? would Brits have been angry that support was being given to foreign refugees despite British children needing safe housing too? Or would the people be generally content knowing that the children were fleeing persecution and would most likely die without their help?

gtblain

While we know a large amount about the Kindertransport effort itself, we don't have an extremely large database on the British view of the rescue. However, based off what I saw while researching, we can infer that while there would've been some anti-German sentiment, most would be supportive of the rescue attempt. The British public were also eager for some action, and were putting pressure on the British Government to do more to help the Jewish population in Germany. The only source I could find on the issue was this: https://www.budrich-journals.de/index.php/diskurs/article/viewFile/3789/3178

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I hope this helped!