Kindertransport

Story

Before the start of the Second World War nearly 10,000 Jewish children were sent from Nazi Germany to live with British families. Eva is one of them. It takes her some time to settle to life in Manchester but when her family fail to escape Germany she stays with the Millers and after the war she changes her name to Evelyn and becomes a British citizen. Thirty years later her daughter finds some old letters and Evelyn must face her past.

Why we chose it

Kindertransport is a seminal play which has been performed, read and studied all over the world.

Where it came from

Diane Samuels says that three things inspired her to write. The first was a friend whose father had been on the Kindertransport, the second another friend who only found out that his mother had been at Auschwitz when he overheard her talking to someone at his father’s funeral and the third the admission of a women in a television documentary that she was still angry that her parents had abandoned her even though it had saved her life. As a young mother she was struck by the ways in which parents and children struggled with the parting. Would a child rather be sent away or stay with parents? Would parents always send the children away for their safety? Diane Samuels grew up in a Jewish community in Liverpool and though she was taught Jewish history and learnt about the Holocaust she wasn’t taught about the Kindertransport. The themes in the play are separation and how memory is shaped by trauma.

Where it went next

A year after its first performance in London it opened at The Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. It has since been produced around the world, in Sweden, Japan, Germany, Austria, Canada and South Africa. There have been a number of British revivals including the 2007 Shared Experience regional tour and a national tour in 2013. A 2018 revival saw the actress who played the daughter in the original production now playing Evelyn. The play is studied at GCSE Drama and A level English Literature.

Associated stories

Diane Samuels is a playwright and author who writes for stage and radio. She has written plays for younger audiences including One Hundred Million Footsteps, Chalk Circle and How to Beat a Giant.