DHHRM | 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus

In-person registration includes a 6 p.m. reception followed by the 7 p.m. program.

Attendees are also welcome to tour the Kindertransport exhibition before and after the program.

In early 1939, few Americans were focused on the darkening storm clouds over Europe. Nor did they have much sympathy for the growing number of Jewish families threatened and brutalized by Adolf Hitler’s policies in Germany and Austria. One ordinary American couple decided that something had to be done. Despite overwhelming obstacles—both in Europe and in the United States—Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus made a bold and unprecedented decision to travel into Nazi Germany in an effort to save a group of Jewish children. Steven Pressman, author and documentarian of 50 Children, joins us to share their story.

About the Speaker

Steven Pressman, a veteran newspaper and magazine journalist, served as a reporter and editor at various publications. He is the author of 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany, and the director and producer of a documentary on the same subject (2013). His films, Holy Silence (2020), The Levys of Monticello (2022), and Moses Ezekiel: Portrait of a Lost Artist (2024) have been well received.

Special Short Film Screening

Featured at the beginning of this program will be a screening of Kinder Doll: A Kindertransport Story, a stop-motion animation short film about two fictional children, Otto and Edith, who board a train to Britain with their most prized possessions - a teddy bear and a doll. Created by animation students at UT Dallas, the six-minute film captures the story of refugee children who fled Nazi persecution without their parents.

About Kindertransport – Rescuing Children from the Brink of War

Kindertransport – Rescuing Children on the Brink of War showcases the astonishing rescue effort that, in nine months, brought thousands of unaccompanied children from Nazi-occupied Europe to the United Kingdom. Through personal artifacts, stories, and firsthand testimony, those who lived through the “Kindertransport,” German for “children’s transport,” tell its history. The exhibition offers a moving look at the rescue effort, the painful choices parents made to send their children to safety, and the lives their children began in the United Kingdom. This exhibition serves as a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of honoring the legacy of those who endured unimaginable suffering.

Kindertransport – Rescuing Children on the Brink of War was created and organized by Yeshiva University Museum and the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin.

On view from September 18, 2025, to February 15, 2026.

To buy tickets, click here.