Blue plaque ceremony for Bertha Bracey

'Bertha Bracey was a teacher and aid worker who organised relief and sanctuary for Europeans affected by turmoil before, during and after the Second World War.'

Quaker Bertha Bracey, a key player in the Kindertransport scheme, is being commemorated with a blue plaque unveiled at Bournville Meeting House.

According to the Birmingham Civic Society, which is awarding the blue plaque on 21 September, ‘The recipient, Bertha Bracey OBE, lived with her family in Bournville Lane and the plaque will be erected later on her home. Bertha Bracey was a teacher and aid worker who organised relief and sanctuary for Europeans affected by turmoil before, during and after the Second World War. She took charge of the Friends Committee for Refugees and Aliens, growing her team from a single assistant to over fifty case workers, and is recognised as a Hero of the Holocaust for her work in establishing the Kindertransport.’

Anne Giles, from Bournville Meeting. told the Friend that the Bournville-born aid worker worked in Vienna and Germany, and, from Quaker International Centres, organised aid in the years after the second world war.

‘From 1929 she worked from Friends House as leader of a team organising relief work for refugees, and she was a key player in the Kindertransport scheme. Her relief work continued until she retired.’

In 1942, Bertha Bracey was awarded the OBE for her work. ‘Friends may have seen a statue of her displayed at Friends House, sculpted by a survivor of Auschwitz,’ said Anne Giles. The inscription reads: ‘To honour Bertha Bracey (1893-1989) who gave practical leadership to Quakers in quietly rescuing and re-settling thousands of Nazi victims and lone children between 1933 and 1948.’

‘Her life was celebrated in many obituaries, including one in the Friend published on 27 January 1989,’ she added.

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