Kindertransport Rescue Stories: Volume One

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. As Ben waves goodbye to his weeping mother, father and sister at Prague station, he has no inkling he will never see them again. He sets off with the enthusiasm of a 14 year old teenager on his adventures in London during the Blitz where he becomes a dishwasher, cook, waiter, to name a few, including being homeless. Aged 18, he joins the Czechoslovak air force attached to the RAF, where he also resumes his studies. After the war he returns to Prague to search for his family. In vain Ð they have been murdered by the Nazis. Abeles has by now found his professional interest in life, physics. His account of studying physics in post-war Prague is set against the backdrop of the nation growing into a Communist state. After the Communist coup dՎtat in 1948, 24-year-old Abeles moves to Israel to study, and gains, a doctorate in physics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

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