Figure 1.--David and Sosha appear here with Uncle Max, the circus uncle, in a later scene--after the gypsy-like uncle has been resident with the family for some time. David wears school clothes here--a double breasted overcoat and a beret with short pants and knee socks underneath.

The film is about the Silbersteins who would give up their young boy David to a Kindertransport scheme in order to save him from the NAZIs in the months leading up to World War II. The story was inspired by the heroics of Nicholas Winton, an English stockbroker who saved hundreds of Czech Jewish children from the Nazis. The Silbersteins are a large and close knit extended family living a good life in the Czechoslovakian countryside. The Jewish family had assimulated into European society. It was only their religious activities which told you they were a Jewish family. Of course for the NAZIs race was the issue. The Silberstein family live in Prague, where David's father has a respected career as a physician. The members of the extended family include a travelling circus manager, a gypsy of sorts, and a distinguished concert violinist. Believing in the decency of mankind, they don't pay much heed to the the developing NAZI threat at first. But after the NAZI invasion, little by little, as their daily life becomes more and more intolerable and their personal effects are stipped away, they realize the true horror of what is coming, but their recognition comes too late. Knowing their inevitable fate, the Silbersteins have to make their toughest decision ever--to turn over their beloved boy David to Nicholas Winton (played by Robert Graves). The distinguished Concert pianist commits suicide towards the end of the film. It is shortly after this that David is put forward for inclusion in the Kindertransport scheme. David like many of the Kindertrasport children would never see his family again.

Created: 3:14 AM 10/31/2005
Last updated: 8:56 PM 3/19/2011