Writing in Exile: Kindertransport Diaries and the Making of New Lives
- Event type
- Seminar
- Series
- Exile Research Seminars
- Address
- Room 261, Second Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
- Event dates
- Contact
- jane.lewin@sas.ac.uk 020 7862 8966
Speaker: Monja Stahlberger (ILCS, University of London)
Between 1938 and 1939, nearly 10,000 children had to flee Nazi-occupied territories for Britain, changing their lives significantly and leaving their parents behind. What happened when these children had to suddenly rebuild their lives in a foreign land? Through their private diaries, this talk unveils the remarkable stories of young Kindertransport refugees as they navigated life in exile and explores how they maintained connections to their past while building new lives, the role of everyday experiences in shaping cultural identity and the young refugees' surprising perceptiveness in documenting their own transformation. Drawing from previously unexplored personal narratives, Stahlberger examines how Kindertransport refugees processed their experiences through daily writing. These intimate accounts reveal both ordinary moments and extraordinary resilience, showing how young people adapted to a new culture while grappling with trauma and displacement.
Dr Monja Stahlberger is a researcher specializing in exile studies and cultural exchange at the University of London's Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies. Her doctoral research examined Kindertransport refugees' diaries and their negotiation of belonging in exile. Winner of the 2024 Sylvia Naish Lecture and Bithell Fellow in German Studies at the ILCS, her work focuses on memory studies, transnationalism, and ego-documents in the context of German and Austrian exile studies.
All are welcome to attend this seminar, organised by the Research Centre for German & Austrian Exile Studies at the ILCS, in person or online (via Zoom).
Attendance is free, but advance online registration is essential for both in person attendance and online.
Image: Elisabeth Orsten’s diary entry for Easter Sunday 1940 (from the Papers of Elisabeth Orsten [1927–1921] gifted by the author to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum [Series 3, 35]).
