Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation, EHRI partner The Wiener Holocaust Library has had to postpone the showing of the temporary exhibition Leave to Land: The Kitchener Camp Rescue, 1939 and has adapted the display and created an online version which is available for visitors to explore whilst at home.

The Library’s new online exhibition, The Kitchener Camp, 1939-1940, highlights the largely forgotten story of the Kitchener Camp. In 1939, this derelict army base on the Kent coast became the scene of an extraordinary rescue which saved 4,000 men from the Holocaust. 

During Kristallnacht in November 1938, 25,000 – 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. They were subjected to starvation and torture, and hundreds died or were killed.

A condition of release from the camps was that the men had to undertake to leave Germany immediately.

As country after country refused to take more refugees, the Kitchener rescue began. It was founded and run by the same, mainly Jewish aid organisations that funded and coordinated the Kindertransport and Domestic Service Visa schemes. 

Visit the online exhibition The Kitchener Camp

Image: Residents of the Kitchener Camp, c. 1939 – 1940. Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.