Kindertransport film

Gloucestershire Archives is working with independent film maker David Grange to make a short film about the former Kindertransport hostel at 18 Alexandra Road, Gloucester, which has been awarded blue plaque status.  The film will be premiered at Gloucester’s City Voices festival in September. 

Most of our knowledge about the hostel comes from one of our collections, the archive of the Gloucester Association for Aiding Refugees (D7501).  It contains a wealth of fascinating detail about the 10 Jewish boys who lived at the hostel from June 1939 to December 1941. There is a short exhibition about the boys on the Gloucestershire Archives website - The Kindertransport Boys - The story of ten young refugee who came to Gloucester in 1939.

The plaque is the initiative of Michael Zorek, whose father Werner was one of the hostel boys.   Through Michael, we have been able to contact other descendants, and of the hostel’s wardens (themselves refugees from the Nazi regime), who have been sharing what they know.   We are also collaborating with Gloucestershire University history students who are working on their own exhibition about the boys, which will also feature in the History Festival.