Black and gray checked blanket given to Kindertransport refugee

Black and gray checked blanket given to Kindertransport refugee 

Black and gray checked blanket given to Kindertransport refugee 

overall: Height: 56.250 inches (142.875 cm) | Width: 49.750 inches (126.365 cm) 

Wool checked travel blanket given to 13 year old Mimi Alice Schleissner by her mother Berta to keep her warm when she left on the Kindertransport in May 1939. Mimi's parents Berta and Julius and her brother Edi, 18, stayed behind in Kolin, Czechoslovakia. Until October 1938, the family resided in the spa town Marienbad [now Marianske Lazne], in the Sudetenland region. It was annexed by Nazi Germany in October 1938 and most of the Jewish population fled. In November, the Marienbader Zeitung ran the headline"Marienbad is Jew-free" After arriving in Great Britain, Mimi joined Hachshara, a Zionist youth group which prepared members for life in Palestine. she hoped to leave in a few months, but Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, initiating World War II (1939-1945). Her family escaped to Palestine in December 1939.