Letters – 24 May 2019

From Kindertransport to a balancing act

Kindertransport

Odd that the Friend’s report (10 May) of the eightieth anniversary of the Kindertransport ‘rescue effort’ nowhere records that the children rescued were Jewish children, whose families were later murdered in the Holocaust. If the Nazis had occupied Britain, those children and all the other British Jews would also have been sent to the gas ovens.

Laurie Andrews

Crisp and even?

In our Ipswich Meeting House cupboard we have a book written by Steven Crisp, dated 1694 with a twenty-seven-word title and 543 pages. It has an interesting series of ‘ownership’ signatures on the inside covers, probably indicating the precious nature of early books.

Beside the matters detailed in the review by Stuart Masters (3 May), there is an interesting section addressed to the women of Ipswich Meeting – separate from the men in those days. He advises them ‘not to walk disorderly or wantonly, but that they be admonished and counselled speedily’. He also has harsh words for other religions, something contemporary Quakers would read with unease.

Perhaps the main message to us is how fortunate we are to have no persecution for our beliefs, whereas Steven faced prison and spent much time visiting other incarcerated Quakers.

The book is in a somewhat delicate condition but when our warden took it up to his flat it deteriorated further so it has been returned to the original cupboard. Here it can, with careful handling, still be examined.

Richard Stewart

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