The Holocaust Educational Trust is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend Steven Mendelsson.
Steven was born on 7th May 1926 in the city of Breslau in Germany (now Wrocław in Poland). His happy childhood was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis; for example, at the age of 10, Steven was forced to leave his local state school because he was Jewish. As the situation of German Jews became increasingly perilous after the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, his parents arranged for Steven and his younger brother Walter to join the Kindertransport; they left Germany in April 1939. They stayed in a refugee hostel in Margate until the arrival of their parents on 2 September 1939, a day before Britain's declaration of war on Germany. Steven and Walter were amongst the minority of Kindertransportees who were fortunate enough to be reunited with their parents.
During the war, Steven's school was evacuated to Staffordshire and in September 1941 he started work as an apprentice precision tool maker in Walsall. During the next few years he joined the Air Training Corps, the Home Guard and attended a local evening school to gain his A Levels.
Steven later went on to marry and was father to two sons and a daughter, and grandfather to three grandchildren. He spoke regularly in schools about his experiences of Nazi persecution and the Kindertransport through the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Outreach programme.