Heinz & Peter Behrendt (Kindertransport)

Correspondence relating to Heinz and Peter Behrent, German-Jewish refugees who were rescued as part of the Kindertransport mission between 1938 and 1939.Handwritten letters from Heinz and Peter Behrent to Eve Liebert (1939 - 1945); Handwritten and typed letters relating to Heinz and Peter Behrent and their parents (1940 - 1943); Correspondence relating to the Refugee Children's Movement in Cardiff and the B'nai B'rith Care Committee for Refuge Children in London concerning Heinz and Pater Behrent (1939 - 1942). Photocopies of originals. 599 pages.

Brothers Heinz and Peter Behrent, German-Jewish children sent to Britian as part of the Kinder Transport. The Kinder transport system was set up between December 1938 and September 1939 and succeeded in rescuing around 10,000, mostly Jewish, children under the age of 17, away from Nazi Germany. The children came mainly from Germany, Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia and all travelled without their parents.

Several organisations and private persons helped organise the Kinder transport and the receiving of the children once they arrived in Britian. Among these where the Refugee Children's Movement in Cardiff and the B'nai B'rith Care Committee for Refuge Children in London.

Heinz and Peter Behrent came to Macaulay House School in Cuckfield, Sussex, and later moved to Folkestone and Wales (Llanvair, Newport, Cardiff and Cleddon Hall). Heinz was during the later parts of the war stationed in Colchester as part of the army. Heinz and Peter Behrent were related to Gerda Sainer and Eve Liebert, who had previously emigrated to the UK.

Thier parents Ernst and Nanny Behrent were deported from the Netherlands after their sons arrived in the UK.

Items in the collection may be consulted for the purpose of private study and personal research, within the controlled environment and restrictions of The Keep's Reading Rooms.

Gerda Sainer

An online catalogue is available on The Keep's website .

Note created by J Samuelson, June 2011. Edited by Joanna Baines, September 2011. Edited by Samira Teuteberg, March 2017.

The original letters were loaned to the Centre for German-Jewish Studies to be photocopied for research purposes around 2003. The copies remained at the University of Sussex and the originals were subsequently returned to Gerda Sainer.