FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 13, 2018 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 77
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Kindertransport remembered in Bayside 80 years later
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Th is month marks the 80th anniversary
of the Kindertransport, an organized
rescue eff ort that shipped Jewish children
to the United Kingdom during the
Holocaust.
Th e Kupferberg Holocaust Center at
Queensborough Community College in
Bayside commemorated the anniversary
by inviting four of the survivors to speak
about the experience that changed their
lives forever.
Beginning in December 1938, 10,000
predominantly Jewish children from countries
such as Germany, Austria and Poland
were taken aboard the Kindertransport.
Th ough they were spared from the horrors
of concentration camps, most of them
would never see their families again.
Four of those children — Anita
Weisbord, Ellen Zilka, Manfred Korman
and Hannah Deutch — are now in their
late 80s and 90s and currently live in
Queens.
Th e four survivors recalled growing
up in their respective countries and the
general consensus was that their lives
were good until up until Hitler came into
power.
“Everything a child needs, I had, until
the day Hitler marched into Austria,”
Weisbord said. “On March 13, 1938, that
was the end of my childhood as I knew it.”
“You just hoped that when you left your
house you came back alive,” she added.
In March 1939, then 15-year-old
Weisbord said goodbye to her family and
boarded a train bound for a connecting
trip to England.
In 1938, Zilka remembers how she had
to leave her comfortable life in the Berlin
suburbs for an apartment that she had to
share with her parents, her brother and
another Jewish couple. At the time her
parents were trying to fi nd ways to get
visas to leave the country, but plans for
that fell through.
“Th ey somehow heard about the
Kindertransport and put both of our
Survivors standing in the front row. From left: Ellen Zilka, Hannah Deutch, Anita Weisbord, Manfred Korman.
names on it,” said Zilka, who was 10 years
old at the time. She and her 5-year-old
brother left on separate Kindertransport
trains in July 1939.
Korman recounted a diff erent story as
a child living in Poland at the time. Th e
Hitler regime expelled Polish citizens living
in Germany in order to send them
back to their motherland.
Korman, his brother and their mother
were brought to the Hamburg prison on
Oct. 28, 1938.
“In the Hamburg prison they separated
women with children and husbands
and fathers, and we did not get together
until the end of the day when they collected
us again and took us to the Hamburg
railroad station.”
In June 1939, Korman and his
brother were eventually sent off on a
Photo by Carrie Blank for Queensborough Community College (CUNY)
Kindertransport to England.
Deutch, who at the time was 16 years
old, remembers life once she reached
England where she had the opportunity to
train as a nurse and join the British army.
She felt safe in the country but recalled the
attitude the British had toward the refugee
children.
“Th e British were wonderful but they
wouldn’t touch any of us until they got
the ‘OK’ from the medical side,” she said.
During the one portion of the presentation,
Queensborough students asked
the panel of speakers a variety of questions
including if they felt safe once they
reached Great Britain.
Th e group agreed that though it was a
diffi cult decision for their parents, living
in Britain was an overall positive experience.
Th eir sponsor families were responsible
for them until they reached 18 years
of age.
“Th e years that I spent in England, especially
the ones in the British army, were
the best years of my life because I felt
England was ‘one for all and all for one,’”
said Deutch, who added that there were
no feelings of anti-Semitism in her new
home.
Now, all the members of the panel participate
in talks about their experience as
Kindertransport survivors.
“One day I realized that one and a half
million children perished in the Holocaust
and I’m alive, there must be a reason. And
I felt that I had to give something back to
society,” Weisbord said. “Life is precious
and speaking to students all the time,
I feel that it’s so important to keep our
story alive.”
Whitestone resident helping nonprofi t dedicated to people with Down syndrome
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@cnglocal.com
@QNS
ACDS, dedicated to providing lifetime
resources to individuals with Down syndrome,
autism and other developmental
disabilities, hired its fi rst-ever associate
executive director — a current
Whitestone resident.
Michael DeGrottole, who lives in the
Beechhurst section of the neighborhood,
has spent more than 30 years in the fi eld
of developmental disabilities, specializing
in the treatment of children and adults
with autism.
DeGrottole holds a bachelor’s degree
in American Literature from Queens
College and a master of arts in music
therapy from New York University.
Michael Smith, executive director of
ACDS, which serves Long Island and
Queens, created the associate executive
director position in response to a comprehensive
strategic plan that ACDS is
undertaking to help thoughtfully drive its
impressive growth.
As associate executive director of
ACDS, DeGrottole’s responsibilities
will include fi nding an additional site
for “Opportunities” Day Habilitation
Program Without Walls, which has grown
signifi cantly, and developing an adult residence
that will allow older group home
residents to age in place while addressing
their complicated medical needs.
DeGrottole will also be responsible for
driving an expansion of opportunities in
the Westchester special needs pre-school
to include aft er-school clinical services
and recreational programs.
His experience in residential services
includes 11 years at Life’s WORC, where
he worked in human resources, and four
years at the Floating Hospital, where he
served as director of rehabilitation services
for 92 clinics throughout New York state.
Most recently, DeGrottole spent
14 years as the vice president of programs
at the Mercy Home for Children
in Brooklyn, which provides homes and
services in Brooklyn, Queens and Long
Island for people with intellectual and
developmental disabilities. Photo courtesy of ACDS
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