Whittingehame Farm School

Whittingehame Farm School Located on the ancestral estate of Lord Arthur Balfour, former prime minister of Great Britain and author of the Balfour Declaration, the school was a shelter for Kindertransport Jewish Children seeking refuge in Britain. Opened in January of 1939, Lord Balfour's home, Whittingehame, near the village of Stenton, in East Lothian Scotland, Viscount Traprain, Balfour's grand nephew, arranged to take in initially 69 Jewish refugee children. With the financial support, principally, of the Edinburgh Jewish community and aid from the local Christian community and the Balfour family, the home eventually accommodated 160 children. The home was set up as a Zionist school to teach agricultural techniques to the children in anticipation that they would settle in Palestine after the war.

The school was closed in 1941 due to financial issues and that many of the children were older than 17. The young people were absorbed into the British economy. A large number of the Jewish boys volunteered and served, some with distinction, in the British army during WWII.

British restrictions on the Kindertransport Children were harsh. Kinder Transport Refugees had to be younger than 17 and no adult family member were permitted to accompany the children to Britain. Most of the children's families perished in the Holocaust. After the war, many of the Whittingehame Farm School refugees immigrated to Palestine.

References

Vorlage:Reflist Whittingehame Farm School Ester Golan's first hand account Syndney Pollard Refugee Historian The Little Boy who escaped from Hell [http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Cousins-who-fled-from-Nazis.4817707.jp Cousins}

The Vow: Rebuilding the Fachler Tribe After the Holocaust By Yanky Fachler [1] We built up our lives: education and community among Jewish refugees ... By Maxine Seller [2]