''Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport'' is a 2000

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

about the British rescue operation known as the

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

, which saved the lives of over 10,000

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and other children from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, and Danzig by transporting them via train, boat, and plane to Great Britain. These children, or ''Kinder'' in German, were taken into foster homes and hostels in Britain, expecting eventually to be reunited with their parents. The majority of them never saw their families again. Written and directed by

Mark Jonathan Harris Mark Jonathan Harris (born October 28, 1941) is an American documentary filmmaker, writer, and educator known for his award-winning work in the documentary genre. Over the course of his career, Harris has earned three Academy Awards and numerous ...

, produced by

Deborah Oppenheimer Deborah Oppenheimer is an American film and television producer. She won an Academy Award in 2001 for best documentary feature for producing '' Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport'' (2000). Oppenheimer co-authored a compa ...

, narrated by

Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage ...

, and made with the cooperation of the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...

, it utilized rare and extensive footage, photographs, and artifacts, and is told in the words of the child survivors, rescuers, parents, and foster parents. The film received numerous accolades, including winning the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Academy Honorary Award, Special Awards to ''Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. The ...

. The film was released on

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and

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

on August 28, 2001, by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Interviewed subjects

The documentary features filmed interviews in which the children of the Kindertransport (aged in their 60s and 70s at the time of the filming) recall their feelings and experiences. These interview subjects include: *Lorraine Allard, ''Kind'' *Lory Cahn, ''Kind'' *Mariam Cohen, foster mother of Kurt Fuchel * Hedy Epstein, ''Kind'' *Kurt Fuchel, ''Kind'' * Abrascha Gorbulski, Alexander Gordon, ''Kind, Dunera Boy, British Army Sergeant (1941-1948)'' *

Franzi Groszmann Franziska "Franzi" Stern Groszmann (December 27, 1904 – September 20, 2005) was possibly the last surviving mother of the Kindertransport. She sent her daughter (born 1928), now a writer known as Lore Segal, to England following Kristallnacht. Gro ...

, mother of Lore Segal *

Eva Hayman Eva Hayman (born Diamantová), January 1, 1924, Prague, Czechoslovakia – August 22, 2013, Auckland, New Zealand) was a Holocaust survivor, diarist, and nurse. Her sister was the writer and translator Vera Gissing. Biography When she was only 15, ...

, ''Kind'' *Jack Hellman, ''Kind'' *Bertha Leverton, ''Kind'' *Ursula Rosenfeld, ''Kind'' *Inge Sadan, ''Kind'' (Bertha Leverton's sister) *

Lore Segal Lore Vailer Segal (née Groszmann; March 8, 1928 – October 7, 2024) was an Austrian-American novelist, translator, teacher, short story writer, and author of children's books. She was the author of five novels, and was known for her autobiogr ...

, ''Kind'' *Robert Sugar, ''Kind'' *

Nicholas Winton Sir Nicholas George Winton (; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jews, Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by Nazi Germany. Born to History of the Jews ...

, rescuer *

Norbert Wollheim Norbert Wollheim (April 26, 1913 – November 1, 1998) was a chartered accountant, tax advisor, previously a board member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and a functionary of other Jewish organisations. Wollheim grew up in Berlin. He ...

, rescuer Alexander Gordon was also one of the refugees on , one of the most notorious events of British maritime history.

Reactions

''Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport'' has an approval rating of 92% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

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, based on 36 reviews, and an average rating of 7.68/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Although it appears to be nothing more than a "talking heads" documentary you may see on TV, ''Into the Arms of Strangers'', nonetheless, tells a heart-wrenching story".

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

assigned the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. The film had a limited theatrical release (18 theaters at its widest) and grossed $382,807 domestically. In 2014, ''Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport'' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the

and selected for preservation for all time in the

. In 2000, ''Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport'' won the Evening Standard Award for Best Documentary.

References

External links

*
Into the Arms of Strangers official websiteThe U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Kindertransport pageDeborah Oppenheimer website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Into The Arms Of Strangers: Stories Of The Kindertransport 2000 films 2000 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about children in the Holocaust Documentary films about child refugees Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Films directed by Mark Jonathan Harris Films scored by Lee Holdridge Kindertransport United States National Film Registry films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language documentary films Warner Bros. films

Interviewed subjects

Reactions

See also

References

External links