Anschluss, Kristallnacht and Kindertransport

Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, rapidly extending Nazi racial law, confiscation and political repression to Austrian territory. Jewish families faced public humiliation, loss of work and property, arrest and mounting pressure to emigrate while escape routes narrowed.

The November pogrom known as Kristallnacht destroyed synagogues and businesses and led to mass arrests. Britain subsequently admitted thousands of unaccompanied children through the Kindertransport programme, but most parents were unable to follow before war began in September 1939.

The Wind Knows My Name follows five-year-old Samuel Adler from Vienna after Kristallnacht onto a Kindertransport train to Britain.