Imagine being ripped from your life and inexplicably thrown into another. This jolting new reality would include a different family, country and personal history. This is what the Kinder (plural for the children who participate in Kindertransport) had to experience when they were relocated from their homes in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain in order to escape deportation to concentration camps. These children were given the chance to escape their countries before they were ripped from their homes to be sent to concentration camps. However, their experiences weren't exactly a walk in the park. Kindertransport was in some aspects a positive experience, but there were psychological drawbacks to separating children from their family at such a young age. The home conditions the Kinder had to endure in Britain depended on their foster parents. There were some considerate people who attempted to provide a home experience for the children most like what they had grown up with. For example, some parents would feed children a diet more suited to their religious needs, and also sent them to Jewish services. However, there were some children who were not as fortunate. Considering Kindertransport was donation-based, the RCM relied on stepfamilies to care for children out of pocket, "It can be assumed that in some cases the RCM left Kinder in unsuitable families rather than sacrifice the accommodation" (Gopfert). Due to this, instead of the RCM paying even more money to have a child relocated, there were some children left with abusive parents.
As a result of living with (in some cases, abusive) foster families and being separated from their parents at such a young age, there were many negative psychological effects on the children. On account of families not taking "the time or trouble to understand the emotional upheaval that their new charges had just gone through" (Sharples), the Kinder experienced frustration or loneliness, which only snowballed into bigger mental issues, such as depression, insecurity, and negative thoughts in many aspects in their lives.
