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andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2024-01-04 12:00 pm
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3. One Life (2023) and thoughts on asylum

[personal profile] jack 2024-01-07 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
I remember that sadly I'd never heard of the kindertransport until I was an adult, as it's the sort of background common knowledge that everyone might know, but not that EVERYONE knows. But that that meant I experienced learning about it in a weird sequence.

I picked up the vibe of it being commonly seen as a great humanitarian triumph, rescuing children from Nazi Germany, arranging transport, getting them out of German-ruled countries. But that gave me the impression of the British government sponsoring this effort, rather than mostly *permitting* it.

It gave me the impression of riding in and rescuing orphans who didn't have any parents, whereas in fact, one of the unique things about the effort was the unusual generosity of British policy in allowing a large but limited number of children in at all, provided they left any parents behind to die. And provided that volunteer groups provided enough funding that the children wouldn't be a burden on the country.

I think anyone who knows anything much about history at all would expect that, but that I (and maybe many people) who only picked up random bits and pieces, imagined that a high point of refugee tolerance in the lead up to the holocaust would have been higher than that. And I don't know why, but each time I'm reminded how much worse the world was than I thought, is one of the few terrible things that happens to moves me to tears.

And that none of that is that surprising, I just hadn't thought about it enough :( And that "children threatened by genocide are automatically welcome, as refugees" is something that might be policy *always*, not only once. But, if I'm right, isn't.
andrewducker: (Default)

Re: 3. One Life (2023) and thoughts on asylum

[personal profile] andrewducker 2024-01-07 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, the fact that we wouldn't take adults is horrifying, amongst many other horrifying things.
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