In the fall of 1941, two sisters, Helli and Rita Buchholz, arrived in Cincinnati. Originally from Vienna, Austria, the girls’ parents made the difficult decision to send them on a children’s transport to France in March 1939. In France, the girls lived at the Rothschild estate Château de la Guette with about 130 other Jewish refugee children. There, the children and their educators built a vibrant and resilient community, learning, living, and playing together. As World War II progressed, the children’s circumstances became much more difficult and the children were forced to disperse. Helli and Rita were lucky to be among those who were able to make it to the United States and rebuild their lives in Cincinnati. Learn more about Rita and Helli’s story, and a group of Jewish refugee children who fled Nazism via France, in this Holocaust Speaker Series presentation led by Rita’s granddaughter, Sarah.
