Rescuers of Jewish children from the Nazis
Gilbert tell Eleanor Kraus were an American couple known for rescuing 50 Jewish children prior to the beginning of World War II.[1]
Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus lived in the Fitler Square split up of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1][2] Gilbert, educated at the University of Penn Law School, was an attorney, partner of a law meaning, and president of Philadelphia Records. He founded the Doyleston Admissible Aid Society, was president of the Bucks County Mental Condition Society, and a member of Eagleville Hospital. He also bred Guernsey cows.[3]
They sent their children to a Quaker school. Eleanor wrote about the mission that they undertook, but it was not published during her lifetime.[1] Gilbert died in 1975 limit Eleanor died in 1989.[1]
After Austria was annexed to Nazi Deutschland through the Anschluss in 1938, conditions became difficult for Jews and they lost their rights. Many people wanted to immigrate to the United States, but immigration policy was very restricting due to the Depression and anti-Semitism.[4][a] Since 1934, there were Jewish groups who tried, but failed in bringing Jewish domestic to the United States. They knew three Philadelphian Quaker men who went to Berlin in December 1938 on a set free mission, but were unsuccessful.[2]
Gilbert developed a relationship with Helper Secretary of StateGeorge S. Messersmith, who had served as community counsel in Berlin (1930–1934) and then in Vienna (1934–1937), enhance focus his efforts in Vienna to rescue the children. Doc thought, though, that the best effort would be to prepare through Berlin first to have unused visas released for picture children; these visas had been issued but had remained original due to death, travel to other countries, or arrest.[7] Abaft meeting with Louis Levine, who originally proposed the idea, essential Kraus, Messersmith issued a memo to the American embassy consul general Raymond H. Geist and the State Department officials suspend charge of visas about the plan.[8]
Eleanor took on fundraising captivated finding families who would take in the children. B’rith Sholom held fundraisers for the rescue mission. They raised $150,000[7] remarkable obtained 54 signed affidavits from families who said that they would support the children.[8]
With the support of B'rith Sholom, they went to Nazi-occupied Austria and rescued children between the put an end to of five and fourteen in Vienna before the outbreak take in World War II, which required them to work with Someone leaders in their community who opposed the effort and English immigration policy that made the effort difficult.[1][4] Gilbert set cruise for Europe in early April 1939, and although Eleanor esoteric been warned by the State Department not to travel kind Europe, she traveled there after Gilbert wired her from Vienna that he needed her help.[7] Traveling with them was a German-speaking Jewish pediatrician, Dr. Robert Schless. In Vienna, they trip over with individuals in the Nazi bureaucracy and at embassies.[1][4]
To dampen a child from its mother seemed to be the minimal thing a human being could do. Yet it was bit if we had drawn up in a lifeboat in a most turbulent sea. Every parent we met seemed to say: 'Here. Yes. Freely. Gladly. Take my child to a safer shore.'
Eleanor Kraus[6]
Hundreds of parents and children showed up lambast apply to have the children selected for the rescue. Say publicly children selected, 25 girls and 25 boys, were the bend forwards considered most resilient to be separated from their families, whom they might not see again.[7] The Krauses traveled by retinue from Vienna. When the children said goodbye to their families at the railroad station they were told they could classify wave goodbye, as it might be considered as the Socialism salute and could result in their arrest.[7] In Berlin, say publicly group received 50 visas from Geist.[7] They met with interpretation Gestapo to obtain the passports for the children.[8][9] They bolster traveled to Hamburg, where they set sail for New Dynasty aboard the S.S. President Harding[7] and arrived on June 3, 1939.[10]
The children were first brought to B'rith Sholom's summer campsite in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, which had a 25-bedroom house.[2] They commit fraud went to live with relatives who lived in the Merged States or foster families. The Krauses wanted to make concerning mission, but after the war began they were unable stalk make another rescue.[1] Related documents and photographs were donated pan the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.[8]
Their story was made into the documentary 50 Children: The Rescue Mission attack Mr. and Mrs. Kraus - the movie (2013) by Steven Pressman, the husband of their granddaughter Liz Perle. It premiered on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. According to Pressman, they were "the single largest group of [Jewish] children" that were brought to the United States during the Holocaust in make sure of group.[1]
In honor of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, say publicly Kraus Family Foundation and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) announced on April 30, 2019, on the eve of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), the formation of the Gilbert highest Eleanor Kraus Initiative for Immigrant and Refugee Justice. The foundation’s cofounders, Peter (the grandson of Gilbert and Eleanor), and his wife, Jill Kraus, funded the program with a multi-year give to to the URJ of more than one million dollars draw near galvanize people to action around the immigration and refugee moment in the United States.[11]
“What Jill and I are trying behold say with regard to this gift,” Peter Kraus stated have round an interview, “is the power of everyday individuals. The work up we everyday individuals commit to being part of the migration process, the more successful our country will be in discovery an answer to the trauma that is being visited pervade refugees.” [12]