If Not for the Kindertransport: Volume Two

Description

The memoir of Benjamin (Ben) Abeles, written in two volumes, is the story of a child trapped in Nazi Prague who escapes to London in July 1939 with the Kindertransport (childrenÕs transport) organised by Nicholas Winton and his co-workers. Volume II tells how after the launch in 1957 of the Soviet Sputnik and the start of the space race, Ben Abeles joins a research team in the USA to develop electric power generators for space probes to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and interstellar space. The invention of Abeles and his colleague George Cody in 1961 enables the conversion of heat generated by radioactive plutonium into electricity and becomes the workhorse of all deep space missions to date. Ben Abeles meets Ann Singer in 1957. A fellow Holocaust survivor, they are married for 49 years, and have three children, three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, whose vibrant stories are included in the memoir. After being widowed in 2007, Abeles moves to Leicester UK to live with his second wife, Helen Pearson. An active advocate for child refugees, with the late Sir Nicolas WintonÕs daughter, refugee children activist Barbara Winton, and fellow Prague Kindertransport survivor, Lord Alfred Dubs, Abeles is part of the Safe Passage campaign to reunite child refugees with their families in the UK. He gave speeches on their behalf at numerous events including the Leicester Cathedral and House of Lords. Ben died at the age of 95 in Leicester, UK in December 2020.

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