Collection

Donated by Beate Hammett (nee Beer)

Beate Beer packed these coat hangers in her suitcase for her Kindertransport flight in 1939 from Berlin to provincial England. Her carefully packed bags also held new clothes, her family’s silver cutlery, a small photo album, and other treasured belongings. Throughout World War II, she lived with foster parents in Bridgenorth. Her parents remained in Germany and did not survive the Holocaust. Beate migrated from England to Australia in 1947.

Kindertransport, also known as the Refugee Children Movement (RCM), transported Jewish children out of Nazi Germany and other occupied territories. The mission placed nearly 10,000 children in British foster homes before the outbreak of World War II