The rescue network known as the Kindertransport saved the lives of nearly 10,000 children between the years of 1938 and 1940 by transporting them from Nazi Germany to England. This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport. To commemorate the arrival of the first Kindertransport in England on December 2, 1938, the Museum and the Kindertransport Association present a screening of the short films 256,000 Miles from Home and Dreyfus Drei. 256,000 Miles from Home follows four Kindertransport survivors as they retrace the route they took from their homelands to England and Dreyfus Drei tells the story of Australian Jewish artist Ella Dreyfus and her quest to unearth her family’s lost Holocaust history.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Dreyfus; Melissa Hacker, Executive Director of the KTA and director of 256,000 Miles from Home; Ilse Melamid, Kindertransport survivor; and Eva Yachnes, Kindertransport survivor. The program will be moderated by Dr. Eva Fogelman, renowned psychologist and author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust.
Melissa Hacker, daughter of a Kindertransport survivor from Vienna, is the Executive Director of the Kindertransport Association. Hacker is a filmmaker who made her directing debut with the documentary My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports, which was short-listed for Academy Award nomination and seen in film festivals, cinemas, museums, on television, and in universities worldwide. Honors received for Ex Libris, A Life in Bookplates, Hacker’s current work in progress, include a Fulbright Artist-in-Residence award in Vienna, and residencies at Yaddo, VCCA, Playa, Willapa Bay AIR, Saltonstall, Millay, Digital Arts Studios in Belfast NI, and a LABA Laboratory for Jewish Culture Fellowship. Melissa has spoken internationally on the Kindertransports and consulted on major exhibits, including Rescuing Children on the Brink of War at the Center for Jewish History. Melissa continues to preserve and share the stories of this pivotal moment in history, ensuring that the lessons of the Kindertransport endure for future generations.
Dr Ella Dreyfus is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, visual artist and academic at the National Art School in Sydney, Australia. She is the daughter of a Kindertransport child, who escaped from Berlin to Melbourne. Ella is the writer, director, producer and main protagonist of the documentary Dreyfus Drei, a short film about family, identity, and the return of three generations of Jewish artists from Australia to Germany. Dreyfus Drei was co-directed and co-produced with Janis Westphal of Sevenpeaks Films, Berlin and the Goethe-Institut. The film was commissioned by the 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany Festival and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) in 2021. Dreyfus Drei has screened at over 50 international film festivals, cultural institutions, universities and schools. For more information about Ella’s films and artworks visit www.dreyfus3.com and www.elladreyfus.com.
Dr. Eva Fogelman is a social psychologist, psychotherapist, author and filmmaker. She is a pioneer in therapeutic interventions for generations of the Holocaust and related historical traumas, and is a frequent consultant and speaker nationally and internationally. She is the writer and co-producer of the award-winning documentary Breaking the Silence: The Generation After the Holocaust (PBS). Dr. Fogelman is a Pulitzer Prize nominee for Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Psychohistory Forum, among other awards.
