The Kindertransport was a rescue operation that saved about 10,000 Jewish children in Germany from December 1, 1938 to September 1, 1939 (Gallant, 199, 203). There were however restrictions to the selection process. For example to prevent re-immigration there needed to be someone who would be willing to pay 50 pounds and the incoming children would need to have families willing to take them in (Into the arms of strangers; Gallant, 214). Although the Kindertransport was used to save many Jewish children, there were many different pressures put onto the Kindertransport children. Mary J. Gallant's essay The Kindertransport talks about impact these experiences had on the children through different gender studies that have been conducted.
Before the children even made it onto the Kindertransport there were many pressures that affected their daily lives. Being harassed by other peers and teachers were two of the main pressures. School is one of the places that Jewish parents were unable to protect their children from what was happening. By separating seating, excluding from activities and plays, receiving harder assignments were all ways that teachers and schools tried to alienate Jewish students (Kaplan, 95-96; Gallant, 199). Jewish children were also attacked by their peers physically and mentally. Jack Hellman was attacked on the street just because he was a Jew. Most Jewish children were already focused on their safety so when the November Progrom happened it escalated the children's anxiety on what would happen to them. Eva Hayman also had a traumatic experience when she was forced to watch a synagogue burn with her class after the November Progrom when she heard a student suggest that they should throw her onto the fire as well because she was Jewish (Into the arms of strangers). These kinds of situations happened to Jewish students all the time at different degrees. However these children knew that their parents were already had many things to worry about so most kept these incidences from their parents and bottled up the terrified feelings.
