HMV describing Jewish refugee children as Central European Children

[Trulywonderful]

Would I be unreasonable to as any of you on twitter or willing to write an email complaint to HMV to do me a favour

HMV have described the Jewish refugee children in the new One Life film as Central European Children. This is erasing there Jewishness from the description. I know some may feel objection to this is petty but at the moment the Jewish community are seeing a far bit of this behaviour. Erasing us from things to make people feel more comfortable etc

Anyway if people want to help and tweet about this or email HMV I would be very grateful

What is the source for this? I can’t find any evidence that any of the children Winton rescued were Roma.

Excellent post, Flatulence (your username isn’t ideal for this very serious thread!).

Me neither.
I've searched for actual data and unable to find any. However, sir Nicholas did record the name of each rescued child. All the records I can find say predominantly Jewish children saved from Nazi concentration camps. Many in the last cancelled trip due to the outbreak of WW2 were subsequently murdered by the Nazis.

In, what we know as, (Western) Europe there is only Europe (civilised people like us) and EE (barbarians). However, there is Central Europe and history of Jewish presence in Europe is also history of CE - there is no region more influenced and influencing European Jews. However...

discourse in anglosphere, excluding niche academic journals, is set on polarising categories (Western) Europe - as it is always just Europe - vs EE. Thus, the trick here is obvious. in this context, CE means nothing and it is meant to not provoke questions that might be uncomfortable for paying viewers and as a result to not have all sorts of reactions to deal with.

Also, I am tried of people pretending Jewishness is only about religion. It is not.

Good post

Well all the complaints they got about this worked. This thread and other social media messages were about getting people to complain via yweet and email. Also to debate this type of situation and what is currently happening regarding Jewish things.

Thank you anyone that did tweet or email, it is very much appreciated by myself and a lot of other Jewish people, probably a fair few other people too😉

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/04/one-life-marketing-materials-altered-following-jewish-backlash

I find it ironic that on a thread about deleting a minority group by failing to mention the childrens’ Judaism that several posters have suggested an alternative that would delete other minority groups.

Well done OP!

No, disabled children were killed in their own homes or in hospitals starting pre war.

I think with films we see 'this is the story' when it is the story from one person's point of view and of a snapshot of the many stories.

I can't find a reference but I think I remember one of the children who is a film maker wanting nothing to do with this film.

I think 'predominantly jewish' would be the best description but these were children, not all were originally from Czechoslovakia, some had fled Germany.

Language does change and the language around WWII and the holocaust has been sanitized to a certain extent. In the 1940s the country was very much at war with Germany, now we talk about war with Nazi Germany.

Whatever the wording, this film and the twitterstorm around it will bring this story to a new audience who will hopefully go on to research what was happening and why people were prepared to send their children alone to strangers in a different country.

I found an interesting read in the guardian - in 1939 many Jewish people in Vienna advertised their children, hoping to find a home. And many did. I had no idea about this.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/06/guardian-200-ad-that-saved-jewish-father-from-nazis

Thank you for the article

I see from the article that the non Jewish children were political refugees. It doesn't mention an ethnicity

Political refugees? Is that a recognised minority group?

Being Romany is.

The kindertransport started in response to Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht was a pogrom specifically against the Jews, not the Roma, not homosexuals, not the disabled.
Winton was Jewish, the vast majority of the children were Jewish, and the first transport was 200 Jewish children from a Jewish orphanage decimated in Berlin during the Kristallnacht, a pogrom designed to delete Jewish people.

Ironic that Kristallnacht wasn't as inclusive of other minority groups as MNetters.

But none of the children rescued by Winton were Roma.

I would have laughed if the article said "altered due to Central European backlash" 🤣

Exactly, that's what I also understand. Political refugees were included but vast majority were Jewish to save them from the camps. I would find saying predominantly Jewish with some political refugees a bit if a mouthful.

Central European is used due to the current backlash against completely innocent Jewish people around the world (by ignorant people who don't seem to understand that Jewish people around the world aren't responsible for what is happening in Gaza).

Exactly this.
Make no bones about it: the Kinderstransport only happened because of what the Nazis and their collaborators were doing to Jews.
To not mention Jews in this context is like talking about AIDS in 1984 and not mentioning gay men.
I'm hoping all the people saying "other groups will get erased" are the very first to promote the use of terms such as "chestfeeding" and "birthing person" so trans folk dont get "erased".

I'm Jewish and my suspicion is they said 'central European' partly for accuracy to caprture the whole cohort and partly because they felt saying 'Jewish' would lower people's sympathy because of Israel/Gaze right now. Which I think was the wrong thing to to do both in itself and because actually I think most people have been very good about distinguishing Jewish people from Israel's actions.

In circumstances where some of the children definitely weren’t Jewish, YABU. Feels like trying to emphasise one group over others. What we should all be remembering is the incredible bravery of Winton and the evil these children faced.

My father was a Jewish child on the last train out of Hamburg. I have to be honest I thought all the kids were Jewish.

People wittering on about how the description is merely trying to be inclusive and nothing to do with erasing Jews from the story of the Kindertransport are going to have a hard time justifying this BBC article about one of the Jewish children Nicholas Winton saved. The web archive version shows which words were edited in later.

[https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-67876587

This.

Let's put it this way; would they have done this for other groups? I think not.

🙄 🥱

White people do feel put out when the slavery debates are termed around black people only, it's like only African slaves matter.

Someone will be on soon to claim that the white slaves had "white privilege".

Careful...your slips are showing. Taking a snide dig at other groups while talking about another group is...interesting.

It's tricky because the majority were jewish but they were all from central europe.

The thing I'm trying to articulate (but not very well, sorry if this isn't worded kindly) is that using the word 'jewish' is what the nazis did, they made sure they were not seen as true citizens, or not worthy of living in their homes, owning businesses or even receiving medical treatment.

Also the definition of 'jewish' is not always accurate, the mischling test was invented and used by the nazis, so someone brought up in the RC church with RC parents and 1 jewish grandparent would be either a jew or a mishling.

Sorry, this is a clumsy attempt, please understand I don't mean to upset or harm anyone but with discussions of this type, well it isn't going to be a fun fest is it?