Let the children in.

Tonight me and the girls went to a demo to highlight the plight of refugee children in the Calais 'jungle' and the need to allow them safe haven into our tinpot little country before its bulldozed again on monday. It took place at Liverpool St station by the 'Kindertransport' statue. No I hadn't heard of it before either.

In 1939 a British stockbroker instigated an initiative to rescue children from European countries under threat from Nazi persecution, mostly Czechoslovakia and Germany. These kids were mostly Jews but also the children of journalists and others on Hitler's hitlist. Altogether he managed to bring out about 10,000 children to be temporarily adopted here, many of them would never see their parents again. As it happens the Woodcraft Folk played a large part in all this.
The bloke in the photo is Lord Alfred Dubs, a labour peer who was himself one of the Kindertransport kids who made one of many moving speeches.
I'll try and put up a link once I've posted this for further and more detailed reading if you're interested.

http://randompottins.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/folk-und-kinder.html?m=1

There. If you skip the first five or so paragraphs you get a bit more history.