Children of the original Kindertransport refugees visited Swanage in Dorset, to give thanks to the town – and to the Swanage man who rescued their parents, Trevor Chadwick.
A teacher and a volunteer lifeboat crew member Trevor Chadwick risked his life to help children in Czechoslovakia escape the growing Nazi storm as World War Two loomed, and 669 youngsters owe their lives to Trevor and his collaborators in the rescue operation.
Sons of Kindertransport refugees return to Swanage station; Paul Walder (second left) with his children Valentina and Bruno, and Craig Saul (centre) with his wife Carol
Trevor Chadwick saved lives of hundreds
A handful of mainly British volunteers whisked Jewish children and others at risk out of Prague in 1938 after Germany began rounding up those it hated and sending them to concentration camps.
Trevor Chadwick, whose father set up Forres School in Swanage, originally went to Prague to bring back two refugee boys to the school, but also brought a third child back – then returned to Nazi Europe to rescue further refugees, eventually saving the lives of hundreds of children.
At an event at Swanage bandstand on Thursday 15th May 2025, sons of two of the Kindertransport refugees who escaped certain death in Europe and came to Swanage, thanked the community which welcomed their fathers and made their lives possible.
Paul Walder, whose father Peter was brought to Swanage from Czechoslovakia in 1939 by Trevor Chadwick, flew in from Chile with his children Bruno and Valentina, and Craig Saul, the son of another Swanage Kindertransport boy Gary, also spoke to a meeting at Swanage bandstand.
The group then made a visit to Swanage station, where many of the dozens of children rescued by the Kindertransport and rehomed in Purbeck would have arrived.
Paul Walder flew to the UK from Chile to thank Swanage families for their kindness to his father Peter
Keeping alive the legacy
Paul Walder said:
“Thank you, Swanage, very much for the warmth you showed to my father Peter, who came here to Swanage in 1939, and for the way that your community has kept alive the memory and the legacy of Trevor Chadwick.
“I have come here from Chile with my children Valentina and Bruno, but have left behind my two sisters and my nephews and nieces, who are also very aware of what Swanage did and give thanks to your community for their lives.
“We are here to honour a man whose heroism saved lives. He put the life of my father Peter above his own, an eight year old Austrian boy from Vienna who was torn from his home but saved from the fate that claimed most of his family during the Holocaust.
“I want not only to pay tribute to Trevor Chadwick, but also to thank the people of Swanage for preserving his memory and recognising his extraordinary role in what history has called the Kindertransport.”
The Trevor Chadwick statue near Swanage bandstand with its sculptor Moira Purver
“Whisked them away from the abyss”
Paul added:
“For me, this is not just a story for the past, it is the life line that has made my whole life possible. By late 1938, the options were disappearing for my family as borders were closing and Jewish families were being confined to ghettos, the danger was mounting daily for them.
“In January 1939 a young teacher from the Forres School here in Swanage, Trevor Chadwick, set out on a mission that would forever change the history of my family.
“As part of a larger humanitarian effort, Trevor arrived in Prague with Nicholas Winton and Doreen Warriner to help rescue Jewish children – one of them my father, Peter.
“I never met Trevor Chadwick, but because of him, I exist. Why do some people choose to act while others look away? In every generation there are rare individuals who refuse to be paralysed by fear or indifference.
“They are not necessarily the most powerful, the wealthiest or the most famous, often they are ordinary people living ordinary lives, but history places an extraordinary demand upon them.
“Trevor Chadwick was one of those people, who brought children to safety, whisked them away from the abyss, at great personal risk to themselves.”
Craig and Carol Saul at the moving tribute to Trevor Chadwick
“Affection for Swanage for life”
Craig Saul said:
“I am honoured and humbled to be part of this occasion. My father Gary Saul, whose birth name was Gunther, arrived in this country from Berlin on the very first Kindertransport on 2nd December 1938, child number 43 according to the placard that went around his neck.
“Because of the media attention that was given to the first arrival, he was given media coverage in newsreels and photographs, and so has a little part in history.
“After two weeks in Dovercourt, a holiday camp, he came to the Dorset Rotary camp here in Swanage before being fostered.
“In addition to his love of and gratitude towards this country as his adopted home, he retained a very close connection and affection for Swanage for the rest of his life.
“I am classed as a second generation survivor, but we know who the real heroes were.”
Gary Saul, left, was among the first of the Kindertransport refugees to arrive in England, and was taken to the Dorset Rotary camp in Swanage
“One of the keepers of the flame”
Craig added:
“The real heroes were the Kinder themselves who came to a strange new land, their parents who sent them off to safety despite the personal wrench of separation of what was so often a final goodbye, the families that took them in and the people who made it all possible at great risk to themselves.
“I am proud to play my very, very small part as one of the keepers of the flame, which we need to keep burning bright to preserve the Kindertransport history and the lessons that we need to draw for the present and the future.
“Thank you to everyone who made today possible, and a very special personal thank you to those like Trevor Chadwick, who made the Kindertransport possible.”
Elaine Glover organised the meeting to thank Swanage for being a family to Kindertransport refugees
“A need to create a lasting memorial”
The event was organised by Elaine Glover, whose distant relative Irma Zanker gave her life for a rescue operation taking children out of Berlin, and addressed by John Corben, chair of the Trevor Chadwick Committee.
John Corben said:
“Trevor Chadwick was instrumental in saving the lives of 669 children from certain at the hands of the Nazis in 1938. He was asked to go to Prague and bring back two children, but actually brought back three.
“He was so moved by the plight of the other children he met in Prague that he went back and spent six months in bringing back hundreds more.
“When the town first learned about Trevor and his remarkable and courageous exploits, we felt there was a need to create a lasting memorial to him, so in 2019 we commissioned a lifesized bronze statue.”
John Corben, chair of the Trevor Chadwick Committee, recalled the story of the statue to Swanage’s great unsung hero
“One of the very best sculptors”
John Corben added:
“We were fortunate in having one of the very best sculptors in the country on our doorstep, Moira Purver, and with the outstanding generosity of many local people and organisations, we were successful.
“The statue of Trevor was unveiled in 2022 and has since stood proudly next to the children’s playpark which was renamed in his honour.
“Trevor was a lifeboat man, so we also thought it was fitting to have him looking out to sea across the bay to the lifeboat station.”
Edith Powney and Maureen Smith read moving poems from victims of the Holocaust
Son of an SS officer
At the commemoration, Edith Powney and Maureen Smith read moving poems written by victims of the Holocaust and about the journey of light, the name they gave to the Kindertransport.
Craig Saul, Paul Walder and Anita Grosz, herself a second generation survivor, were presented with a butterfly memento, as the living generation for whom life was made possible by heroes of the Kindertransport movement like Trevor Chadwick, Nicholas Winton, Florence Nankivel, and Doreen Warriner.
The meeting was also addressed by Anita Grosz, whose father was also one of the 669 children rescued by Kindertransport, and by Pastor Werner Oder, the son of an SS officer responsible for the deaths of thousands of adults and children, who defeated his own demons to become an advocate for peace and reconciliation with Holocaust survivors in Israel.
VIPs from the event gathered at Swanage Railway station where the refugee children arrived so long ago
Further information
- The history of Kindertransport is recorded on the National Holocaust Museum’s website
