James Pastouna

About

It was in Germany that I first heard about the Kindertransport and Sir Nicholas Winton. Between March and August 1939, eight Winton trains carried 669 children – most of them Jewish – to safety in Britain. The last carrying 250 children, was cancelled, its passengers condemned to a dreadful fate. The date happened to fall on the very day that war broke out.

I have a little girl and kept thinking of the parents. The book I wrote is about anti – Jewish legislation that started in around 1933. Some of the laws and regulations are absolutely bonkers. Regulations I never knew existed. Can’t keep pets, no visit to an Aryan hairdresser are examples. I spent the Covid time researching and writing the book. The big challenge I had was to have a Nazi character. Have no idea how a Nazi really thinks. I then read some speeches of Mr Goebbels.

ZDF a major broadcaster commissioned me to make a film about the Kindertransport. In 2014 Sir Nicholas was 105 years old. He kindly gave me two interviews. I remember during our talk he mentioned the name of a hotel in Prague and I remember thinking, that’s not right. Never mind after all he’s 105! Later I looked up this particular hotel. Confession, it was me who’d floundered.

I had an interview date in London with Susanne Medas who came over with the Kindertransport. When I arrived at Susanne’s home I got to know other ‘children’, who have unique experiences with the holocaust. They understood that I would have difficulty putting their stories in my film, for dramatic reasons. I was making a film, not writing an article. Nevertheless, we talked with one another and years later I used some of their experiences in my book.