This year, the Manchester Community Observance of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, will take place at Temple Israel of Manchester, 66 Salmon Streeet, on Sunday, April 15th at 7:00 p.m.  This year's observance will focus on the Kindertransport program which rescued some 10,000 Jewish children prior to World War II.  The Kindertransport was an effort organized by the British government after the Kristallnacht riots of November 1938, to save Jewish children up to age 17 from the ***.  The British agreed to accept what they then thought would be temporarily unaccompanied children into foster homes and temporary housing until their parents could reunite with them.                                                                                          

          As events unfolded, many of these children ended up in British foster homes for up to six years until the end of the war.  The majority never saw their parents again.  Other families were reunited after the war, but sometimes found it difficult to pick up life where it had left off.  The little children who had been sent away had grown into teenagers; teenagers had become adults.  Often their family members had suffered terribly under the Nazi regime.  The events of the missing years were hard to overcome.

          The guest speaker at our commemoration will be Helen Wertheimer, whose parents sent her out of Nazi Germany at age 7, along with her brother, on the Kindertransport to live in England.  In her case, she was unusually fortunate to be reunited with her parents in England shortly after and eventually to get into the United States under the quota then in effect.  Many of her other relatives were not so fortunate and perished in the Holocaust.  Mrs. Werthheimer, who now lives in Andover, MA, with her husband Walter, will share her story with us.

          The stories of the children of the Kindertransport are all different.  Some of these stories have been told in the Academy Award-winning documentary Into the Arms of Strangers which will be shown earlier in the week, on Wednesday, April 11th, at Temple Israel.  There is no admission charge for the film.  The entire community is invited to view this exceptional documentary with its incredible archival footage on Wednesday and to join in the annual memorial observance on Sunday.  We hope that the film will help provide additional background for the program on Sunday.  For further information contact the Temple at 603/622-6171.