Hello all-
And first – an apology! I am so sorry to be being a bit absent on the research front, and quite brief in replies to emails. I miss being able to chat properly, but things remain incredibly busy with the exhibition coming up fast.
We’ve now received the first drafts back from the designer, and these need to be turned around very quickly for draft two.
I had written far too much (it’s so difficult to have to miss things out that I want to see in here!), so lots of editing is having to take place now.
Sigh.
Anyway – it’s progressing, but it’s taking from morning to bedtime, seven days a week, to get through everything, which takes time away from my focus on anything else.
It can’t be helped just now, but I am sorry, and I am grateful for your understanding and patience.
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Funding news!
A new mobile exhibition Leave to Land: The Kitchener Camp Rescue, 1939 We are very proud to announce sponsorship from the Association of Jewish Refugees
We have just heard that we have been granted funding for half the costs of having a professional designer working on the exhibition banners, and for the cost of room hire at the Jewish Museum.
And as you can see, we are also near to our crowdfunding target for the other half of these costs. Thank you so very much to everyone who has donated: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kitchenercamp
We are immensely grateful for the funding granted by the Association of Jewish Refugees, and for all their support and advice over our last two years (!) of work on the Kitchener project.
Very special thanks are due here to AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman, who has always made time for us. And to Head of Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws, who patiently talked through the application process with committee member Paul Secher – a Kitchener descendant who took on the serious task of working through the application forms.
Many thanks, Paul – on behalf of us all – for seeing this process through to such a successful outcome.
Congratulations!
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Next in this process, I need to get a report written about our progress so far. Luckily, we have done quite a lot, so I shouldn’t be short of things to say!
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The Association of Jewish Refugees
The AJR would love for Kitchener families to join them. They organise and oversee the fantastic work on the Kindertransport that you hear about regularly. Anyone with family who were refugees to Britain is eligible for membership, wherever they live now.
The AJR do important social welfare and care work with Holocaust survivors and refugees.
They also undertake a vast amount of campaigning and Holocaust education work: https://ajr.org.uk/special-interest/remembrance/.
Please take a look at their website and consider supporting them (https://ajr.org.uk/join-ajr/) as they have supported us right from our very first meeting in Sandwich, where they provided our delicious lunch!
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The last piece of news for today is that I will be away at a couple of conferences this week.
We have to keep pushing forwards on the Kitchener research. We also need to keep up the work to ‘get out the word’ so that descendants hear about us and get in touch.
We’ve done fantastically well at reaching people so far, but we’re still a long way from reaching 3,oo0 – 4,000 families …
Do keep talking about the project, and keep letting people know about it in any way you can. The work folk have been doing on this has been fantastic and is making a big difference.
If you generally log in just to read the posts – do take a minute to look at how many families have now sent in materials. It never ceases to amaze me – and much of this is a result of one Kitchener Kid passing it on to another.
An upside for some families has been ‘finding’ family members they didn’t know about- sometimes living on another continent. Others have made contact with family friends from long ago. And many of us have made new friends, which is just as nice! It’s heartening, where so much has been lost.
Thank you to you all, for everything you give in so many different ways.
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I know we have holocaust institutions and researchers following what we do, so if any of you are about – I’ll perhaps see you at the BAHS conference on Wednesday!
All suggestions for how to continue onwards and upwards with our Kitchener research will be gratefully received!
Shabbat Shalom
And I hope everyone has a great weekend!
