25 August 2021 press release

In early September, the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 at the German National Library and the City of Frankfurt will jointly commemorate child emigration from Frankfurt. On 1 September 2021, the German Exile Archive will open its new temporary exhibition “Child emigration from Frankfurt”. The monument “The Orphan Carousel” created by artist Yael Bartana will be inaugurated on 2 September 2021.

To mark the opening of the exhibition, Dr Sylvia Asmus, head of the German Exile Archive 1933-1945, will give an introduction to the topic. Other speakers will include Bärbel Schäfer, the patron of the “Denkmal zur Erinnerung an die Kindertransporte”, as well as city councillor Mike Josef, head of department für Planen und Wohnen der Stadt Frankfurt am Main. The sociologist, author and contemporary witness Dr Ruth K. Westheimer will give a welcome address. The exhibition will be on display at the German National Library in Frankfurt am Main until 15 May 2022.

You’ll only be alone for a little while, everything will be OK – this was the hope with which parents sent their children on the so-called Kindertransporte (children’s transports). Between November 1938 and the beginning of World War II in September 1939, the Kindertransporte enabled around 20,000 children and adolescents to escape the Nazi regime. At least 600 of these children came from Frankfurt am Main. Yet the separation was not just for a little while. Neither did everything return to normal.

“It is frequently stated that the children were rescued as a result of the Kindertransport. This is true. Yet at the same time, their escape also meant a separation from their families that the children were completely unprepared for, as well as traumatisation and feelings of guilt”, explains Dr Sylvia Asmus, head of the German Exile Archive. On arrival in their host countries, the children were often under immense pressure to adjust; some of them did not live in conditions suitable for children. Back home, they left behind a feeling of emptiness – in their families, in their classes at school, in public life. Most of the children never saw their parents, siblings or relatives again. Their childhood experiences marked them for life and also affected them later on when they started their own families.

“With our exhibition, we are showing that every story of child emigration is unique and individual”, she continues. The exhibition centres around the life stories of six former children from Frankfurt – stories that couldn’t be more different: Renate Adler (later Renata Harris), Elisabeth Calvelli-Adorno (later Elisabeth Reinhuber-Adorno), Lina Liese Carlebach (later Lee Edwards), Josef Einhorn (later Josef Karniel), Lili Fürst (later Lili Schneider) and Karola Ruth Siegel (later Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer).

At the same time, the exhibition directs attention to local conditions in Frankfurt, the situation in the host countries, the bureaucracy involved and the people who helped the children emigrate. The question that frames the exhibition is how we can remember childemigration today.

To accompany the exhibition, a catalogue co-edited by the German Exile Archive and the City of Frankfurt titled “Kinderemigration aus Frankfurt – Geschichten der Rettung, des Verlusts und der Erinnerung” (“Child emigration from Frankfurt – tales of rescue, loss and remembrance”) will be published by Wallstein Verlag in the autumn. It focuses on the exhibition and the Frankfurt memorial to the Kindertransport.
The German Exile Archive 1933–1945 is also making the exhibition “Childemigration from Frankfurt” available as a virtual exhibition. It can be accessed via the exhibition portal of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library).

Child emigration from Frankfurt
An exhibition of the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 at the German National Library
2 September 2021 to 15 May 2022

Monday to Friday 9-21:30
Saturday 10-17:30
Closed on Sundays and public holidays, also from 24.12.2021 to 2.1.2022
Admission free.

Exhibition opening: 1 September 2021, 19:00

Welcome: Ute Schwens, Director of the German National Library in Frankfurt am Main
Greetings: Bärbel Schäfer, patron of the „Denkmal zur Erinnerung an die Kindertransporte“
Greetings: Councillor Mike Josef, Head of department für Planen und Wohnen der Stadt Frankfurt am Main
Greetings: Jutta Ebeling, Vorsitzende des Vorstandes der Hessischen Kulturstiftung
Introduction to the exhibition: Dr. Sylvia Asmus, Head oft he German Exile Archive 1933-1945
Greeting from the contemporary witness Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer

Music: Prof. Melinda Paulsen (Vocals) und Andreas Frese (Piano) play songs by Max Kowalski

Registration required at: www.dnb.de/veranstaltungfrankfurt

The exhibition can be visited individually from 2 September 2021. Dates for media representatives can be arranged individually.

Further information, including on visiting the exhibition during the coronavirus pandemic, available at https://www.dnb.de/kinderemigration

Educational service

The German Exile Archive has developed an educational programme for schoolchildren to accompany the exhibition. This will be offered both on site and online.

Background

The task of the German National Library’s German Exile Archive 1933–1945 is to collect publications and documents relating to German-language exile during the Nazi era. The publications include all books and brochures in the fields of literature, politics, science and Jewish emigration written by German-speaking emigrants abroad between 1933 and 1950 along with the magazines they published. The documents include personal legacies from German-speaking emigrants in all fields and professions, archives of exile organisations and individual autographs.

Since March 2018, selected items from the German Exile Archive's own collection have been on display in the permanent exhibition “Exile. Experience and Testimony” in Frankfurt am Main. The German Exile Archive’s events and temporary exhibitions take a closer look at other themes and thus draw parallels between historic exile and current phenomena.

Project manager in Frankfurt: Dr Sylvia Asmus, Head of the German Exile Archive 1933–1945
Curators: Dr. Sylvia Asmus, Dr. Jesko Bender
Exhibition design: Space 4 GmbH, Stuttgart

Contact

Images for editorial use

Images for editorial use with reports on the exhibition. Press image material is only available in German.