I am mainly asked to speak about my father's work on the Czech and
Slovak Kindertransport: the events of 1938/39, the circumstances at the
time, my father's readiness for the task and his motivation to undertake
it. This includes discussing the work of other characters involved in the
enterprise such as Doreen Warriner, the volunteer head of the Czech office
of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia and Trevor
Chadwick, the British schoolmaster who offered his services to assist
Nicholas and spent some months negotiating with the Gestapo and making the
lists of children in Prague, while Nicholas searched for finance and
families to foster the children from London.
Talks are tailored to the event I am invited to. For instance I spoke at
the opening of an exhibition in New Jersey on Women and the Holocaust,
where I discussed the work of Doreen Warriner, Beatrice Wellington &
Eleanor Rathbone as well as Nicky's mother, Barbara. I enjoy speaking
about those whose contribution to saving lives at that terrible time in
1938/39 is rarely mentioned and who receive little recognition.
Other areas of my father's life are also of historical interest
especially his role as Assistant to the Director of Reparations for the
International Refugee Organisation in 1946/47, when his job was to deal
with the loot stolen by the Nazis from their victims, by converting it
into funds mainly for the Jewish Agency. His own photos of that time are
unique and illustrate the subject.
Over the past few years I have given talks in the UK, USA and Czech
Republic at Book Festivals and to adult and school groups.
