Kindertransport cover

Kindertransport

by Diane Samuels

In 1938, seven-year-old Eva Schlesinger is put aboard a train filled with other Jewish children and carried away from Nazi Germany in a little-known rescue operation called "Kindertransport." More than four decades later, she had become a quintessential Englishwoman who hides her origins from everyone, including her own daughter. Here in Kindertransport her past and present collide. We see the terrified child who possesses only two gold rings and a Star of David hidden in the heel of her shoe to link her to the parents she left behind. And we watch the grown woman who had tried to forget the Kindertransport at the moment when her daughter discovers a storage box of papers. As her daughter questions her, a shattering truth emerges about Eva's identity, the true cost of survival, and the future that grows out of a traumatized past.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?