Kurt Hermann — The Child Who Escaped Austria
Kurt Hermann was born in Vienna in 1929, the only child of a middle-class Jewish family. Life before the Nazis felt ordinary — school across the street, soccer with friends, trips to the amusement park, and helping his father at the family fabric business. By 1937, rumors of Hitler’s rise spread through Vienna, but no one imagined how quickly life would collapse.
Everything changed when Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. Overnight, Jewish children were segregated in school, bullied by former friends, and barred from daily life. Stormtroopers raided homes, beating adults and stripping families of valuables. Kurt watched synagogues burn during Kristallnacht and saw Jewish businesses destroyed. He was nine years old.
As conditions worsened, escape seemed impossible. American immigration quotas were nearly closed, and every option required a sponsor and guaranteed financial support. With desperation rising, Kurt’s mother wrote letters to strangers in America who shared their last name, hoping someone might help.
What finally saved Kurt was the Kindertransport — a rescue effort sponsored by the Philadelphia-based Brith Shalom. Only 25 boys and 25 girls could be taken. Somehow, Kurt was selected. On May 22, 1939, forbidden from hugging their children goodbye, parents watched in silence as the Nazis ordered them off the platform. The children were sent to Germany, processed, and eventually boarded the U.S. ship President Harding bound for New York.
Kurt arrived in America on June 2, 1939. He spent the summer learning English at a camp in Pennsylvania before being placed with a wealthy foster family in Allentown. Months later, his mother and father both secured passage to the United States, and the family slowly rebuilt their lives. Kurt finished school, served in the U.S. military, built a career as a CFO, raised a family, and spent decades volunteering for Holocaust education.
His survival — and everything he built afterward — traces back to a single moment of luck: being one of 50 children chosen to escape.