Rev. Bernd Koschland
Bernd was born in Fürth in 1931. From a happy childhood in Germany, Bernd remembers Kristallnacht when his father was sent to Dachau. His parents made the agonising decision to send their two children to England on the Kindertransport, and tragically he never saw them again. Bernd has lived a full and active life, training for the Rabbinate and becoming a teacher, a profession he enjoyed for many years. Bernd has served on many committees and boards for both professional and charitable organisations, as well as volunteering and speaking about his life to school-children. (Personal Interaction with Hitler, Pre-WW2 Concentration Camp Prisoner, With Foster Family, Kristallnacht)
My parents had heard through a distant relative that there was a vacancy on the Kindertransport to England for me. I still have a hairbrush that my mother packed, with my name on a little tag around it and a bag for PE shoes – Mum was concerned about me being untidy. Dad was more concerned with my future religious life, coming from an Orthodox Jewish home.
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