Description
Physical description
Brown leather suitcase (L 79cm x W 43.5cm x D 21cm) with two metal locks on the front and a leather handle. The case retains remnants of travel labels relating to the railway stations in Prague, Hook Holland and London Liverpool Street. As the labels have partially peeled away the full inscriptions cannot be made out.
Label
Kurt Sachs brought this suitcase with him when he left Austria for Prague to take one of the Kindertransports to England in May 1939: 'In September 1938 I hopped the border into Czechoslovakia and stayed with distant relatives in Pilsen. There was no prospect of a secure future and I wrote to all refugee committees I could find addresses for, mostly in England. In March 1939, just after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the German army, I received a letter from a committee in Birmingham to the effect that they had found a family who had volunteered to give me a home and would let me know about arrangements to travel in England. About a month later I was advised to be at Masaryk Station in Prague on May 11th to depart for England -I have since discovered that this was one of the Kindertransports arranged by Nicholas Winton in Prague. With little time in hand, I went to the Gestapo office with my German passport and asked permission to visit my parents in Vienna -they gave me the appropriate papers. So I had about a week in Vienna and saw my parents for the last time. My mother was most anxious I should arrive in England with more clothes than I had been able to pack in the little rucksack I had taken across the border. So the suitcase was packed and I travelled to Prague with it. I joined the Kindertransport party; the suitcase was too big and had to go in the luggage compartment. I remember very little of the journey. The compartments were very crowded and I was alone in the crowd. We arrived in Hook of Holland late at night. I was very tired and slept throughout until we reached Harwich, then we were put on a train to Liverpool Street Station. On May 13th we arrived in Liverpool Street Station and were met by the people who organised onward transport. My suitcase was not in the station, but I had a smaller case with overnight equipment, so we set off -two young men who had volunteered to meet me and drive me to Birmingham in their open MG! So I joined my new family -provisionally without the bulk of my clothes. A week later another volunteer from the Birmingham Refugee Committee brought a suitcase -unfortunately with the clothes of a little girl of about 10! Another week later the correct clothes were brought around.'
For further details see : 'I came alone : the stories of the Kindertransports' edited by Leverton and Lowensohn, pp. 281-283.
History note
Kurt Sachs brought this suitcase with him when he left Austria for Prague to take one of the Kindertransports to England in the late 1930s.
Kurt says of his experiences:
In September 1938 I hopped the border into Czechoslovakia and stayed with distant relatives in Pilsen. There was no prospect of a secure future and I wrote to all refugee committees I could find addresses for, mostly in England. In March 1939, just after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the German army, I received a letter from a committee in Birmingham to the effect that they had found a family who had volunteered to give me a home and would let me know about arrangements to travel in England. About a month later I was advised to be at Masaryk Station in Prague on May 11th to depart for England -I have since discovered that this was one of the Kindertransports arranged by Nicholas Winton in Prague.
With little time in hand, I went to the Gestapo office with my German passport and asked permission to visit my parents in Vienna -they gave me the appropriate papers. So I had about a week in Vienna and saw my parents for the last time. My mother was most anxious I should arrive in England with more clothes than I had been able to pack in the little rucksack I had taken across the border. So the suitcase was packed and I travelled to Prague with it. I joined the Kindertransport party; the suitcase was too big and had to go in the luggage compartment.
. . . I remember very little of the journey. The compartments were very crowded and I was alone in the crowd. We arrived in Hoek of Holland late at night. I was very tired and slept throughout until we reached Harwich, then we were put on a train to Liverpool Street Station.
On May 13th we arrived in Liverpool Street Station and were met by the people who organised onward transport. My suitcase was not in the station, but I had a smaller case with overnight equipment, so we set off -two young men who had volunteered to meet me and drive me to Birmingham in their open MG!
So I joined my new family -provisionally without the bulk of my clothes. A week later another volunteer from the Birmingham Refugee Committe brought a suitcase -unfortunately with the clothes of a little girl of about 10! Another week later the correct clothes were brought around. '
See also 'I came alone : the stories of the Kindertransports' ed. by Leverton and Lowensohn, pp. 281-283
