A Talk by Erwin Tepper, MD

This is the story of a group of 50 children, 25 boys and 25 girls, ages 5-14, brought to this country , without their parents, in 1939 by a group concerned for the welfare of Jewish children. This group was headed by Philadelphia attorney Gilbert J. Kraus, and his wife Eleanor, and supported by the Brith Sholom organization which was founded in 1905 to help the flood of immigrants and still is a Jewish Benevolent society with 14 Lodges in three states, headquartered in Philadelphia, PA.

These remarks are made possible by letters and photos filled with recollections sent to me by many of these children, now "senior citizens".

Being one of these children I have often been asked why this transport occurred in 1939; before world war II started, and presumably before the actual extermination of the European Jews had really started. This shows that many of the individuals asking such questions are not aware of what had been happening in Nazi Germany prior to 1939. The Nazis came to power in 1932 and beginning then started to slowly but surely dehumanize the Jews . There were excluded from the protection of German laws. They were excluded from owning property, they were excluded from jobs, and subjected to unauthorized and unjustified arrest and even killing . The disregard the Germans had for non-Aryan life was well understood by anyone who would read the daily newspaper and follow the current events.

This group of children all came from Austria. Austria was then considered as part of Germany. The annexation of Austria, the Anschluss, occurred on March 12th 1938. So at that time all the laws that had been slowly developed in Germany against the Jews up were overnight enforced in Austria and thus many people saw the writing on the wall: not only was Jewish economic life in danger, but Jewish life itself was in danger. The crown jewel in the Nazi anti-Jewish campaign occurred on the night of Nov. 9th 1938 which is known as Kristallnacht, Crystal Night when the Nazis went on a rampage all over Germany and Austria against Jews. Thousands were thrown into prison and concentration camps for no legitimate reason at all and many men never came out alive. Thus again if anyone took the time to analyze what was going on all over Germany, Jews were in danger not only of their economic future, but of their very lives.

The official response of the United States government was not attuned to create any help.

"However, unlike the reaction of certain European countries American officials did not suggest any special rescue schemes to save central European children. On the contrary, as of spring 1938 unaccompanied children entering as quota immigrants, who previously received preferential treatment, now had to wait their turn along with adults. On November 9, 1938, for example, a child registering on the German quota waited over a year to receive an American visa."

"The first legislative attempt to circumvent immigration laws in order to rescue European refugee children was the introduction of the Wagner-Rogers bill in the spring of 1939. On February 9, 1939 Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York and Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a joint resolution calling for extra-quota legislation permitting the entry of 10,000 German children each year during 1939 and 1940 in excess of the existing quota. Children would be under 14 years of age and had to have resided in Germany or German occupied territory sometime during the period following January 1, 1933."

The Wagner-Rogers bill in fact was never passed due to fears of immigrant inflows during the depression, and to abundant anti-Semitism.

But in January of 1939 concerned individuals at a gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Kraus fortunately were discussing the turn of events and realized its consequences. With his background and friendly government contacts, the group headed by Mr. Kraus decided to take matters into their own hands - as individuals rather than as a formal group and proceeded to initiate this rescue of this group of 50 children. I do think part of this stems from the fact that the Krauses had two children of their own and I?m sure were considering this whole situation not only as humanitarians but as parents.

It was done entirely private and quietly. They enlisted, via the Brith Sholom organization, 52 sponsors for these children; this covered their eventual care when the children reach the United States and also covered the monetary expenses which many of the children’s families were in no position to afford.

Mr. Kraus had some influence with people in Washington and he obtained visas for all 50 children within the then existing rules of US immigration by using visa numbers that had been issued but for one reason or another now were not going to be used by the initial recipients. The numbers were transferred to the 50 children with the understanding that this was a private undertaking and that Mr. and Mrs. Kraus were personally responsible and assumed legal guardianship of all 50 children. It was this low-key, personal arrangement that facilitated this remarkable event. In early spring of 1939 Mr. & Mrs. Kraus and Dr. Robert Schless, a pediatrician, came to Vienna to chose the children.

Now it was the parents’ turn to make choices. I believe it took extreme courage, love, and sacrifice for these individuals to turn their beloved children over to strangers; perhaps even never to see them again. But they also obviously saw the handwriting on the wall. The parents also had started to make exit plans to the USA, but with the new laws, had to wait for Visas, but for how long?

The social scale of the children went from an internationally known surgeons child to the child of a gardener to children of German parentage to children of Polish parentage of which I was one of the latter.

All of us were interviewed and had discussions with the Krauses and others. Some of the more interesting remembrances are quoted here:

“The lady who interviewed us has red fingernails, I had never seen Red fingernail polish.”

“This experience and pressure that my life depended on my filling out, copying my school records, with no erasures allowed, the cost of the paper to us, and getting all the right answers, has left me scarred for the rest of my life. To this day I cannot fill out a form of any sort, without breaking out in a sweat.”

“All I knew was that my parents told me I was going with my sister on a big ship on a long trip. When I cried upon learning they were not to come along, I wanted to know why! They said there was no room on the ship and I remember pleading that they could attach a rope to the ship and be pulled along behind it.”

“I remember being given the ink block test. When shown the picture of a butterfly, I said it looked like the pelvis, which made testers smile and pat my head.”

I'm not sure how many children applied but eventually 25 girls and 25 boys, between the ages of 5-14 years old, that were chosen received the letter of acceptance which is shown here:

This was sent on May 9 and the final decision had to be made by May 10th of 1939 bringing all documents. The parents had to sign a waiver. That remarkable document is shown here:

See this last paragraph. I / we agree and given my/ our express consent that from the time the child is handed over for transport until he/ she is returned to the parents, Mr. Gilbert J. Kraus shall assume the position of Guardian. Again we see the remarkable undertaking of the Krauses to become personally responsible for all these children.

So at this point everything was ready for our departure. We all had our passports. We left Vienna on the 22nd day of May 1939 for Berlin. The partings in Vienna of children and parents were, I am sure difficult for all. These are some of the moments recalled:

“My parents reaction were understandably mixed. I remember my mother fainting at the railroad station as the train pulled out.”

“although they had enrolled us in order to save our lives, they felt it was a big mistake because they cried each day of our separation.”

"My parents were delighted. I was crying.”

“My mom told me about the train station was that the Nazis ordered them not to cry, but to be happy that we were saved.”

“Requirement that we not wave goodbye out the windows when departing, because Jews were not allowed to give the Hitler salute, and waving might be mistaking for one.”

“The trip (to Berlin & Hamburg) was both exciting and lonely.”

We stayed overnight in Berlin at a Jewish youth hostel type. And there, after some vehement arguments between Mr. Kraus and a Nazi official, which ended when Mr. Kraus did some table banging!

Most important event in Berlin - we received the visas stamp into our passports:

and Hamburg departure May 23, 1939

Of some interest is the two types of passports some of us were issued:

My passport was "FREMDEN (non citizen) PASSPORT" because I was considered Stateless, although I was born in Vienna, I was of Polish parentage and neither the Austrians nor at that time the Poles considered me a citizen.

Another passport as you see here was given to Dr. Braun who was born in Vienna, of Austrian parentage. You?ll also note a large J stamped on his passport. This was a passport for a Jewish individual and also you?ll notice a middle name put in to ? Israel?. Dr. Braun informs me this is not his middle name but was put into almost all Jewish passports to indicate the fact that the holder was a Jew. I think the difference between our two passports is mine was issued early in March his was issued later in May of 1939 and things had changed.

We then departed for Hamburg and embarked on the US President Harding and left Hamburg on May 23,1939.

However, the parents , regardless of other feelings, still were grateful for this life- giving opportunity given their children. A porcelain statuette was given as a collective symbol to Mrs. Kraus, appropriately during May - the month "Mother's Day" is celebrated:

Once on board ship we had various things to keep us busy. We had a stop over in Liverpool (or South Hampton), England. My father had escaped to England with the help of the HIAS about one month before and he came on board and visited and took photos:

Then we left for the long ocean crossing, 10 days:

Next came an important lesson: Boat safety drill:

We posed for photos:

But as with all memory, some of us remember other things while on our voyage:

We landed in New York on June 3rd, 1939. Our first glimpse of our haven was the Statue of Liberty.

The low-keyed event was fully covered by the press and did create somewhat of a controversy - how was this "large" group suddenly permitted to enter - without parents? But everything was done within accepted immigration limits.

Was this event quiet as planned? Or joyous! Two different quotes from these news articles:

But as far the children were concerned we were just somewhat overwhelmed. Bewildered and wide eyed!

But from the dock we were escorted to waiting busses and taken to our new home: Camp Brith Sholomville!

And again our "low-keyed" arrival was news for everyone.

Mr. Louis Levine, Grand Master of the Brith Sholom, was instrumental in arranging the Home to receive the children. The property was acquired in 1937 as a children’s camp. It was sold in 1965 and the proceeds used to buy and build the current Brith Sholom House for the Elderly in Philadelphia.

Doing first things first we saluted our new home and country:

We settled in fairly quickly to the camp routine. There were many new things to see and learn and do. Again I will quote:

Of course the most important thing to learn at this point was English. To accomplish this we had both formal and informal instructions:

The Declaration of Independence was a bit too formal English, but we did learn about the US History.

Mr. Kraus also helped in teaching:

We used all forms of instructive elements. Most fascinating for me was the comic strips, both in the daily and Sunday newspapers. To this day, I read those first before going on to the news.

More formal.

Our faith was also not forgotten:

But of course eventually the summer came to an end. We were all aware that we would be going out into the world of foster care. Some were placed earlier than others. And some children were quite anxious as to IF and WHEN they would be accepted. In the end, all children were placed, some with strangers and some with relatives:

We were settled in many states throughout the US. Mr. & Mrs. Kraus were foster parents to a brother and sister for 2 years until their parents arrived. I don?t know how many parents were eventually reunited with their children, but a good number did not survive. The experiences of foster care and/or reuniting with parents was a defining moment. Good relationships were formed. But there were some bumps along the road:

These are some of the quotes from letters:

As time progressed we all became integrated into the American society and lived normal lives. We all became fluent in English, most lost our accents, went to school according to our proper grades.

However, it is of interest to note that we did not START in our proper grades because of the language barrier. After the summer at the camp, I entered grade school in NYC and was placed in Kindergarten to start at the beginning, although I had finished 2nd grade in Vienna. But I soon caught up and skipped along to my proper grade within one year. I was not the only one to experience this. But I must emphasize that all along the way the teaching was in English, - the aim was learning the language, not necessarily the course content. Catching up on course content, be it mathematics, history, reading, even penmanship, was not a problem. (And contrary to some current popular opinions I don?t think my psyche was hurt and I have not heard from anyone else being hurt.)

“----we were supposed to be in 5th Grade, but due to our poor English we had to go back to 3rd Grade. However we did get to 5th grade very shortly and were not held back.”

“-joined the National Park Service, working as a ranger in Yellowstone, ---- entered the army — studied Orthodontics at Tufts under the G.I. bill”

“--Graduated with a business degree.”

“----became a registered nurse!”

“--received a degree in journalism and public relations----”

Many also served in the military when needed. We married, raised children, enjoyed grandchildren, generally lived a good family life.

So in closing I’d like to think that after all, everything did go reasonably as planned. This country accepted us, and we accepted it with all our hearts.

In these last quotes, I think, sums up our group of 50.

“--our parents were very brave, but the wonderful, generous, decent, gently, kind and caring Kraus family were the real heroes of this awesome happening.”

“ To me, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus were (are?) saints. They were the people who started and pushed the whole enterprise through. It started from a discussion at the Kraus dinner table. Mr. Kraus was able to obtain 50 regularly issued but un-used immigration visas through his acquaintance with Attorney General Francis Biddle. He personally signed affidavits of support for each of the 50 children, making himself legally responsible for them, if necessary, until they became self supporting. He was not only a very successful lawyer, vice president of the now defunct newspaper The Philadelphia Record, but also a superb artist, whose work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Art Museum, a near professional pianist, and a great athlete in his youth. However, the Kraus family was struck by tragedy. Mr. Kraus died at a relatively early age of a rare brain disease. Their daughter, Ellen, died at age 28 of breast cancer, leaving a husband and a young daughter,-- Mrs. Kraus became nearly blind, and spent her last years in a nursing home, where my sister and I visited frequently. So much for divine justice.”

Appendix: # 1

"One factor influencing congressional developments was the arrival of 50 children from Germany in early June 1939, which strengthened the position of those in favor of a compromise within the existing quota. The idea to privately sponsor the group was a result of a dinner conversation on the plight of Jewish children in Germany. Following the dinner, members of the fraternal Brith Sholom Lodge of Philadelphia appointed attorney Gilbert J. Kraus  to arrange to bring a number of these children to the United States. The State Department and the Commissioner of Immigration rapidly granted their approval to choose the children from among families whose quota numbers would soon come up and who met all essential requirements, except that relating to the public charge clause. Until the children reached "Brith Sholomville" (Collegeville, Pennsylvania) in early June, no publicity was given to the innovative scheme. The children’s unexpected arrival more than slightly surprised the existing child refugee organizations, which voiced heated speculations as to how the group had so rapidly passed through the maze of bureaucracy. In discussing Mr. Kraus’s success the comments centered on his government contacts."

[from the book: "The Unfulfilled Promise", by Dr. Judith Baumel, (Denali Press)]

Much credit and thanks to all of the people and sources used and quoted:
The Children
The Unfulfilled Promise by Dr. Judith Baumel (pub.-Denali Press)
NY Herald Tribune
NY Times
NY Journal
Christian Science Monitor
Philadelphia Inquirer
Jewish Forward
Royal Lodge 198, Brith Sholom
Philadelphia Jewish Times
Iris Posner, OTC