Hansi Neumann flight

{{Short description|First evacuation of refugee children from Prague in 1939}} {{Infobox event | title = Hansi Neumann flight | image = Nicholas Winton (1909-2015) in 1938 by the Associated Press.jpg | image_upright = | image_alt = | caption = Nicholas Winton and Hansi on the apron, Václav Havel Airport, Prague (January 1939) | native_name = | native_name_lang = | english_name = | time = | timezone = | duration =  | date = January 1939 | venue = Prague–Ruzyně Airport, Prague, Czechoslovakia | location = Prague | coordinates =  | also_known_as = Czech kindertransport | type = | theme = | cause = | motive = | target = | perpetrator = | first_reporter = | budget = | patron =  | organisers = *Barbican Mission to Jewish People *British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia | filmed_by = Universal News | participants = | outcome = Landed at Croydon, England (12 January 1939) | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | casualties3 = | reported deaths = | reported injuries = | reported missing = | reported property damage = | burial = | displaced = | inquiries = | inquest = | coroner = | arrests = | suspects = | accused = | convicted = | charges = | trial = | verdict = | convictions = | sentence = | publication_bans = | litigation = | awards = | url = | blank_label =  | blank1_label =  | blank2_label =  | website =  | notes = }} The '''Hansi Neumann flight''' was the first flight to evacuate refugee children from Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Croydon, England, in January 1939, in the lead-up to the Second World War. Part of the Czech kindertransport, it was completed in a Dutch Douglas aircraft of KLM, and organised by the Barbican Mission to Jewish People and the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (BCRC). Around 18 Jewish children were on the flight.

News of the flight was covered by journalists and photographers at the time. A two and a half minute film was taken of the departure by Julius Jonak of Universal News. Images of the BCRC's Nicholas Winton and the child Hansi at the airport, inspired a memorial later placed at the main railway station, Prague.

==Background== In the lead up to the Second World War, the Barbican Mission to Jewish People and the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (BCRC), organised flights to evacuate mostly Jewish children from Prague to England, part of the Czech kindertransport.<ref name=Grossman2019>{{cite journal |last1=Grossman |first1=Nurit |title=The emergence of the Kindertransport in Prague: the Barbican Mission to the Jews, a unique endeavour |journal=Jewish Historical Studies |date=2019 |volume=51 |pages=208–220 |doi=10.14324/111.444.jhs.2020v51.014 |jstor=48733609 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48733609 |issn=0962-9696|doi-access=free }} {{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=by4|from this source=yes}}</ref> The first of these flights was one of two Dutch Douglas aircraft of KLM, made available in January 1939.<ref name=Grossman2019/>{{efn| Generally, only a very small percentage of the total refugee children in Europe were evacuated by flight. Most went by train and ship.<ref name=Kushner2012>{{cite book |last1=Kushner |first1=Tony |title=The battle of Britishness: Migrant journeys, 1685 to the present |date=2012 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6641-2 |page=134 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3ECEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |language=en |chapter=5. Constructing (another) ideal refugee journey: the Kinder}}</ref>}}

The Barbican Mission was an organisation whose intention was to bring Jewish children from Prague to Britain and bring them up as Christians.<ref name=Grossman2019/> It declared that its mission was "to proclaim the Gospel of our lord Jesus Christ to the Jews".<ref name=Grossman2019/><ref name=Chadwick2010>{{cite book |last1=Chadwick |first1=William |title=The Rescue of the Prague Refugees 1938-39 |date=2010 |publisher=Troubador Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-84876-504-7 |pages=37–46 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyKVuRfLiQ8C&pg=PA37|chapter=2. Nicholas Winton}}</ref> Key members were Reverends Isaac Emmanuel Davidson, the Barbican Mission's director, his wife Lucy, and William Edward Wallner, the representative in Prague.<ref name=Grossman2019/> The BCRC had been established in late October 1938 in response to the increase in requests for refuge abroad.<ref name=London2000>{{cite book |last=London|first=Louise|author-link=Louise London|title=Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees and the Holocaust |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-53449-6|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uF45zYcPt68C&pg=PA147 |language=en|chapter=6. Refugees from Czechoslovakia}}</ref> Its purpose was to make arrangements and allocate funds for Czech refugees who may travel to Britain.<ref name="London2000" /> One of its associates was Nicholas Winton, a 29 year old British stock-broker of German-Jewish origin.<ref name=Brade2017>{{cite journal |last1=Brade |first1=Laura E. |last2=Holmes |first2=Rose |title=Troublesome Sainthood: Nicholas Winton and the Contested History of Child Rescue in Prague, 1938–1940 |journal=History and Memory |date=2017 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=3–40 |doi=10.2979/histmemo.29.1.0003 |jstor=10.2979/histmemo.29.1.0003 |s2cid=159631013 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/histmemo.29.1.0003 |issn=0935-560X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In December 1938, Marie Schmolka, Hannah Steiner and Martin Blake, asked him to hold off his skiing holiday in the Alps and visit Prague instead.<ref name=Brade2017/> The message he received began "600 children in Prague and elsewhere in Czechoslovakia urgently require emigration to England."<ref name=Brade2017/> In Prague, he became acquainted with the BCRC's Doreen Warriner and other officers involved in rescuing refugees.<ref name=Brade2017/> Winton remained there for around three weeks, helping with others, to organise the evacuation of mostly Jewish children refugees to England.<ref name=Brade2017/> At the time, KLM had been well established, was popular and successful at Croydon, with Spry Leverton as the KLM's longstanding representative there, and with their main office at The Hague.<ref name=Cluett1980>{{cite book |last1=Cluett |first1=Douglas |last2=Nash |first2=Joanna |last3=Learmonth |last4=Learmonth |first4=Bob |title=Croydon Airport: The Great Days, 1928-1939|date=1980 |publisher=London Borough of Sutton Libraries and Arts Services |location=London |isbn=0-9503224-8-2 |pages=79–80 |url=https://cdn.rochesteravionicarchives.co.uk/img/catalog/D0485_Extract.pdf |language=en|chapter=4. Airlines, aircraft and the aviation industry: the national airlines}}</ref>

==Flight== thumb|right|upright=1.3|Jewish children leave Prague for Britain by flight (January 1939)

On 9 January 1939, Davidson had given a press release from Hatton House, Lubbock Road, the residence of F. E. Fehr, regarding growing anti-semitism and need to evacuate at risk children in Prague.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chislehurst and refugees: first batch of children arrive |work=Bromley & West Kent Mercury |date=13 January 1939 |page=3}}</ref>

===Departure from Prague=== One of several flights organised by the Barbican Mission before 15 March 1939, the first flight of all Jewish children left Prague in January 1939.<ref name=Grossman2019/><ref name=Chadwick2010/> KLM made available two Dutch Douglas aircraft that day.<ref name=Grossman2019/> At the scene of departure, were the children, their parents, Winton, photographers and journalists.<ref name=Grossman2019/>

Winton's scrapbook, ''Saving the Children, Czechoslovakia 1939'', notes that "the first party of children today left Prague. This was fixed up by the Barbican Mission to the Jews in London and transport was arranged by us. Being the first lot of kids to leave Czechoslovakia it aroused much attention and cinema men and journalists were very much in evidence".<ref name=Grossman2019/> The cameraman noted "today on the aerodrome of Ruzyn nearly 30 children of refugees took leave of their parents. Two Dutch Douglas airplanes brought them to Rotterdam and from there to London. This is the charitable work of the Barbican Mission of London, under the direction of Rev. Wallner. He intends to give 60 children altogether a new home in London where they will remain till their 18th year".<ref name=Grossman2019/>

===Arrival at Croydon=== thumb|Children from Prague arrive at Croydon, 12 January 1939<ref>{{cite news |title=Hearts and the blind: refugee children |work=Edinburgh Evening News |date=13 January 1939 |page=10}}</ref> The flight landed at Croydon airport, South London, in the afternoon of 12 January 1939.<ref name=Grossman2019/><ref name=BT12Jan1939/> The children received a formal reception upon arrival at the airport.<ref name=Grossman2019/> There, they would have been required to complete entry formalities and undergo medical inspections.<ref name=Grossman2019/>{{efn|Medical inspections would have been by immigration.<ref name=DraperJan1939>{{Cite journal|last=Draper|first=John Robert|date=7 January 1939|title=Medical Supervision at Croydon Aerodrome|journal=British Medical Journal|volume=1|issue=4070|pages=S1–S3|jstor=20302025|doi=10.1136/bmj.1.4070.S1|s2cid=219995166 }}</ref>}} They were met by W. A. Leon, of the movement for the care of children from Germany.<ref name=BT12Jan1939/> Also meeting the children were the Davidsons, who took them by bus to Brockley.<ref name=Grossman2019/><ref name=Radio4/> They were first housed at Christ Church Parish Hall, some later being transferred to Seven Trees, a large house acquired by the Barbican Mission, on Lubbock Road, Chislehurst.<ref>{{cite news |title=Council give consent to use of house as home |work=Bromley & West Kent Mercury |date=20 January 1939 |page=3}}</ref> Most children were found homes in the Chislehurst area.<ref name=Grossman2019/>

==Children== The number of children on the flight was reported as 18.<ref name=BT12Jan1939>{{cite news |title=Eighteen child refugees coming to England by air |work=Belfast Telegraph |date=12 January 1939 |page=11}}</ref> Their parents included lawyers, doctors and journalists.<ref>{{cite news |title=More refugee children leave |work=Daily News |date=13 January 1939 |location=London |page=13}}</ref> Hansi Neumann,<ref name=Grossman2019/><ref name=Chadwick2010/> also referred to as Hansi Beck, was born on 28 August 1935.<ref name=Radio4/><ref name=TNA>{{cite book |title=1939 England and Wales Register: Chislehurst |date=1939 |location=The National Archives, Kew, London}}</ref><ref name=Rieden2019>{{cite book |last1=Rieden |first1=Juliet |title=The Writing On The Wall |date=2019 |publisher=Macmillan Publishers Australia |isbn=978-1-76055-948-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IcGcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT229|chapter=12. Not in our backyard|pages=229–232 |language=en}}</ref> He died in April 1940 from complications following an ear infection.<ref name=Rieden2019/><ref>{{cite book |title=England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007: Deaths registered in April, May, June 1940. |date=1940 |publisher=General Register Office |location=London, England |page=47}}</ref> An account in the ''Prism : An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators'' says that his father found his way to England to look for the boy, while the rest of his family were killed.<ref name=Rosenberg2013/> Other sources say both his parents died later in a concentration camp.<ref name=Chadwick2010/><ref name=Radio4/> Ilse Ryder was 10 years old at the time.<ref name=Radio4>{{cite web |title=BBC - Radio 4 - Home Truths - Ilse's Story |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/0241ilse.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240127105041/https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/0241ilse.shtml|archive-date=27 January 2024|website=www.bbc.co.uk |access-date=27 January 2024}}</ref> Two months later she was reunited with her mother, who arrived on a domestic permit.<ref name=Radio4/> Other children included Gertie Verging, Eva Somers, Holger Heller, Eva Heller Lewis, Renata Ornea, and Ewald Heller.<ref name=USHMM>{{cite web |title=Jewish children leave Prague |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1000675 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240201071751/https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1000675 |archive-date=1 February 2024 |access-date=31 January 2024 |website=collections.ushmm.org |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish children leave Prague |url=https://portal.ehri-project.eu/units/us-005578-irn1000675 |website=The EHRI Portal |access-date=4 October 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

Swedish Airlines also contributed to subsequent airlifts.<ref name=Chadwick2010/> On 8 March 1939, another group of 20 children left Prague by flight, and a further group left on 14 March.<ref name=Grossman2019/> By the onset of the war, two houses on Lubbock Road had been acquired, one for 52 boys and the other for 26 girls. No further children were moved.<ref>{{cite news |title=Refugee children to remain at Chiselhurst: no further additions anticipated in the near future |work=Bromley & West Kent Mercury |date=1 September 1939 |page=7}}</ref>

==Media coverage and legacy== [[File:Wintons Prague memorial by Flor Kent - 1.jpg|thumb|Winton's Prague memorial by Flor Kent, based on 1939 photograph with Hansi, Praha hlavní nádraží, platform 1]]

A two and a half minute film was made of the departure.<ref name=Grossman2019/> The camera was operated by Julius Jonak, and the film was produced by Universal News.<ref name=USHMM/>

News of the flight was covered by journalists and photographers at the time and has since received widespread media attention, with Winton featured in photographs with Hansi.<ref name=Chadwick2010/>

The artist Flor Kent, based a memorial at the main railway station, Prague, on an image of Winton and Hansi taken just prior to the departure.<ref name=Rosenberg2013>{{cite journal |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Pnina |title=When Private Became Public: The Für das Kind Memorial Series |journal=Prism |date=2013 |volume=5|url=https://www.yu.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/uploadedFiles/Academics/Graduate/Azrieli_Graduate_School/Research_and_Publications/Prism_Journal/Accordions/webFINAL_PRISM_Spring2013(1).pdf |issn=1949-2707|pages=72–73}}</ref> A memorial plaque to the Davidsons was erected at Lubbock Road, Chislehurst.<ref name=Grossman2019/>

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *Lucy V. Davidson, For a Future and a Hope: The Story of the Houses of Refuge in Chislehurst, ed. John S. Ross (Chislehurst: Christian Witness to Israel, 1989).

Category:1939 in Czechoslovakia Category:1939 in the United Kingdom Category:Dutch civil aircraft Category:Civil aviation in the Czech Republic Category:International response to the Holocaust Category:Kindertransport Category:Children in World War II Category:The Holocaust and the United Kingdom Category:Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism Category:Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany Category:Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust Category:Croydon Airport Category:Aviation history of England Category:1939 in aviation Category:Airlifts Category:January 1939 in Europe