Charles Susskind's luggage tags
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is commemorating the 80th anniversary of the first Kindertransport with a newly curated exhibit, “Childhood Left at the Station: A Tribute to the Children of the Kindertransport,” which opened August 26 and will run until December 31. The exhibit highlights ten of the 10,000 children saved by the rescue effort.
Included in the exhibit is well-known psychologist and media personality Dr. Ruth Westheimer, as well as a number of private citizens. Several of the featured Kinder had children who were inspired by their parents’ experiences to pursue careers in Holocaust education, like Greta Meier (mother of Ron Meier, Executive Director, American Society for Yad Vashem), Charles Susskind (father of Amanda Susskind, Regional Director, Anti-Defamation League), Rita Berwald (mother of Michele Gold, Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust board member and author of Memories That Won't Go Away: A Tribute to the Children of the Kindertransport), Sylva Oppenheimer (mother of filmmaker Deborah Oppenheimer, producer of Into the Arms of Strangers), and Lisa Jura (mother of Mona Golabek, author of The Children of Willesden Lane).
The exhibit also tells the stories of British information technology pioneer Dame Stephanie Shirley, Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler, British lawyer and singer Bea Green, and Los Angeles resident Dave Lux. Green, Shirley, Lux and Westheimer are the only survivors still living. Meisler passed away shortly after agreeing to be part of the exhibit.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer on her first day of school in Frankfurt, age 5