<p>From Library Journal In 1939, Gissing's mother had the foresight to arrange for Vera and her older sister to join a transport of Jewish children fleeing German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The ten-year-old refugee passed the war years in England, literally dependent for survival on the kindness of the British families who took her in. When she returned home in 1945, she learned that only one aunt had survived the Holocaust. Despite the loss, Gissing attempted to make a new life in Czechoslovakia. Finally disillusioned by the anti-Semitism she constantly encountered, Gissing returned to England, where she still lives. Gissing kept a diary throughout the war years, so her recollections are especially vivid. Recommended for academic and public libraries</p>

Pearls of Childhood

History

Gissing, Vera

World

St Martins Pr

Dragon at School

Children's Books

MACDONALD BEEHIVE

<p>When Nicholas Winton met a friend in Prague in December 1938, he was shocked by the plight of thousands of refugees and Czech citizens desperate to flee from the advancing German army. A British organisation had been set up to help the adults, but who would save the children? Winton felt he could not walk away. He set up a makeshift office and in just three weeks interviewed thousands of distraught parents who had the courage to part with their children and send them alone to England. Armed with their details and photos, he returned to London to convince the Home Office of the urgency of the situation. He knew he was working against time. His supreme efforts resulted in eight trainloads bringing 669, mainly Jewish, children to London. For half a century these children, now dispersed and in their seventies, were unaware of the person to whom they owed their lives. To Winton, it was just a job. Even his wife knew nothing of what is undoubtedly his greatest achievement, until 1988, when clearing out the attic she came across documentation relating to the episode. From that moment, Winton's life was never the same again. Winton has been a remarkable humanitarian all his life. After the war, wishing to be involved with the rehabilitation of Europe's refugees, he worked for international organisations. He retired early, settled in Maidenhead and devoted himself to charitable works for which he was honoured with the MBE in 1983. Amongst other awards, he was granted the freedom of the City of Prague in 1991 and was awarded the Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Order by President Havel in a grand ceremony in Hradcany Castle in 1999. Nicolas Winton documentary (Power of Good) has won the 2002 International Emmy Award, in the category of TV documentary.</p>

Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation: Save One Life, Save the World (The Library of Holocaust Testimonies)

Emanuel, Muriel

Biographies & Memoirs

Vallentine, Mitchell

Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation: Save One Life, Save the World (Library of Holocaust Testimonies)

Wedding of Mrs. Fox and Other Stories

London : Bedford Press

Pearls of Childhood: The Poignant True Wartime Story of a Young Girl Growing Up in an Adopted Land

Robson Book Ltd

In June 1939, shortly before her 11th birthday, Vera Gissing escaped from occupied Czechoslovakia, leaving behind her parents, family, and friends, to spend six years in Britain. Throughout the war years, Vera kept a diary, recording her day-to-day experiences, her longing for her parents, her hopes, and her prayers for the freedom of her country. By the time she returned to Prague to set up home with her aunt in 1945, she knew that both her parents had died—her mother in Belsen, her father on a death march. She came back to England in 1949 and has lived there ever since. The memories and emotions rekindled by a reunion of the Czech school in Wales where she was educated encouraged Vera to go back to her diaries and the letters from her parents that she had not touched for 40 years, resulting in this powerful and moving account of the life of one child growing up in extraordinary circumstances.

Historical

Robson Books

Heimkehr in die Fremde.

Europäische Verlagsanstalt

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