School to share his experience of the Kindertransport, where 699 children were rescued from the Nazis occupation of Czechoslovakia. John and his brother Arthur


Holocaust survivor and Kindertransport child visits Sibford O


n Friday 26 January, John Fieldsend visited Sibford


Report by Jude (Year 9) who is pictured (right) chatting with John Fieldsend.


were both on the Kindertransport organised by Sir Nicolas Winton who cancelled a planned trip to ski in Switzerland in December 1938 to help a friend in Prague, helping refugees flee from the Nazis. Back then Nicholas Winton was a young British stockbroker but his Kindertransport project was crucial to the rescue of those children. John Fieldsend was known as Hans Heini Feige before he and his brother both anglicized their names. John explained to us that he was born in Czechoslovakia in 1931 but the family stayed in Dresden until John was seven when it was deemed too dangerous and so they returned to Czechoslovakia until the Nazi occupation of Sudetenland when John, along with his brother, was put in the trusting hands of Nicholas Winton and his Kindertransport. “Boys, you’re going on a long journey, and we can’t come with you.” This is what John’s father said. As they were leaving in the train, John’s mother handed him a wristwatch and said: “This is for you to remember us by.” In the talk, John Fieldsend


explained how the watch had stopped working and he tinkered with it by taking it apart. But one slight problem, he did not know how to put it back together again and in pure anger and frustration he threw the watch away ... something he now regrets. When John arrived in England he was greeted by his new parents, Les and Vera Cumpsty and their own son. “My stepfather had almost finished building a very complex air raid shelter by the time I got there,” recalled John. “The neighbours would peek over the fence saying that there was not going to be a war. When the first air raid sirens did go off we


all quickly went downstairs to the shelter … but we couldn’t get in because all the neighbours were already in there!” John told us that when the war


was over, he and his brother got a package from the International Red Cross containing their old family photos, and, a little while later, they received another package, this time containing a letter from their parents. John read us the translated letter.


6


Dear Boys, from Mother


When you receive this letter, the war will be over, because our friendly messenger won’t be able to send it earlier. We want to say farewell to you, who are our dearest possession in the world, and only for a short time were we able to keep you. Fate has not left us for months now. In January 1942, the Weilers were taken; we still don’t know where to and whether they are still alive. In June, Grandmother Betty. In September, Aunt Marion, Uncle Willy and Pauli. In October, your Steiner grandparents. In November, your 90-year-old great-grandmother and the Bermans. In December, it will be our turn.


The time has therefore come for us to turn to you again, and to ask you to become good men, and think of the years we were happy together. We are going into the unknown; not a word is to be heard from those already taken. Thank those who have kept you from a similar fate. You took a piece of your poor parents’ hearts with you, when we decided to give you away. Give our thanks and gratitude to all who are good to you.


From Father … Your dear Mother has told you about the hard fate of all our loved ones. We too will not be spared and will go bravely into the unknown, with the hope that we shall yet see you again when God wills. Don’t forget us, and be good. I too thank all the good people who have accepted you so nobly.


Curt & Trude Feige, 1943


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