Hohner Imperial IIA accordion and case carried by Hilde Anker on a Kindertransport

Hohner Imperial IIA accordion and case carried by Hilde Anker on a Kindertransport 

Hohner Imperial IIA accordion and case carried by Hilde Anker on a Kindertransport 

a: Height: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm) | Width: 10.750 inches (27.305 cm) | Depth: 10.500 inches (26.67 cm) b: Height: 7.500 inches (19.05 cm) | Width: 12.000 inches (30.48 cm) | Depth: 11.625 inches (29.528 cm) 

Imperial IIA small piano accordion and case belonging to Hilde Anker, 13, who took it with her on a Kindertransport from Berlin to Great Britain on June 12-14, 1939. Hilde's sisters, Eva, 17, and Dodi, 15, were also sent away by their parents, Georg and Gertrud, on the same Children's Transport. In 1933, Hitler's Nazi regime implemented policies to persecute the Jewish population. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in early November 1938, Georg decided the family must leave. The girls applied for spots on the Kindertransport and George's brother Leo in England agreed to look after them. Eva was sent to a vicarage in Sussex, and her sisters later joined her due to the constant bombing during the Blitz. In July 1939, Georg and Gertrud were warned of their impending arrest. They fled to Denmark and then joined their daughters in England. On September 20, 1940, the family left by ship for America. They settled in California where Hilde continued to play the accordion. It was later played by her niece Yvonne. In 2001, Hilda visited Sussex and a village resident recalled"the refugee child who played Run, Rabbit, Run on the accordion"