At Liverpool Street Station in London in central London is a war memorial for the 10.000 Jewish children who had to flee to England during the year before WWII broke out. Eighty years ago today they would have their first Christmas without their parents. Most of them would never be able to see them again as the majority of the parents were murdered soon after.

The bronze group statue of Jewish children arriving at the Liverpool Street Station by Frank Meisler (1925-2018)

A memorial group of Jewish children arrive at the Liverpool Street Station by Frank Meisler (1925-2018)

A monument group of Jewish children arrive at the Liverpool Street Station by Frank Meisler (1925-2018)

Detail from a monument group of Jewish children arriving at the Liverpool Street Station by Frank Meisler (1925-2018)

In Prague, Berlin and Vienna, other sculptures of the same children stand as a memory of the tragedy of having to flee from their homeland, never to see their parents. I have been to these places without knowing about them. Kinder Transport (children in German) if you would like to read more about its organisers and the situation they were in.

Every time our time in London comes to an end, my husband and I go to Liverpool Street Station to take the train to Stansted Airport. We spend a moment at the group statue of the Kindertransport children who seem to have just arrived at a foreign country to an uncertain future. Very close is an Mc Donald and unfortunately, much waste is left at the statue. I rush to collect it and get rid of it in a waste bin. Some years ago, after the bombings in London in 2005, there wouldn’t be any waste bins in the stations. I remember running after someone cleaning at the station, who then helped me to receive the waste. I guess that many people are so ignorant about historical facts since war memorials are often filled with empty bottles and bags from people having their lunch or coffee break on the venues.

Reading about the sculptor Frank Meisler, I realise that he was on one of the last Kindertransports before it came to an end with the outbreak of WWII. He too lost his parents in the Holocaust.  He has created similar groups of statues in the European cities where the departures started. In Berlin, at the Friedrich Strasse Station, he placed a group of sculptures that describes two trains one to life and one to death.

Inside the station is a smaller statue of two children in more modern clothes called Für das Kind, displaced:

Für das Kind, displaced

This statue stands inside Liverpool Street Station in the city of London The brass plaque on the side reads..

“FÜR DAS KIND” – DISPLACED by Flor Kent commemorating the greatness of ordinary people in extraordinary times Kindertransport Memorial linking Liverpool Street Station – London Hlavní Nídraží Station – Prague Westbahnhof Statien – Vienna In tribute to all those who helped rescue 10,000 Jewish and other children escaping Nazi persecution through the Kindertransports from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany to the United Kingdom in 1938-39. Liverpool Street Station was the main place of arrival and the meeting point for the children and their sponsors and foster families.

In memory of the millions, including over one and a half million children, who were killed during the Holocaust.

They will not be forgotten Dedicated 16 September 2003 Rededicated 21 May 2011 by Sir Nicholas Winton

The station is a beautiful piece of architecture from the Victorian time. The cast iron ornamentations in the roof are worth seeing.

One of the Liverpool Street Station entrances

The roof decoration in cast iron at Liverpool Street Station

Inside the station is a vast World war one Memorial for 1100 people connected to the station. A German air raid on the station in 1917 led to 162 deaths.

The WWI Memorial in the background at Liverpool Street Station

Looking at the Kindertransport Memorial outside the entrance of the Liverpool Street Station