Jewish children prepare to embark on the SS Mouzinho, 1941

Identifier
irn719270
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2019.562
  • RG-60.7107
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Silent
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

Jewish refugee children, many from internment camps in unoccupied France, gather in Portugal to embark on the SS Mouzinho for the United States. The voyage, including hundreds of Jewish refugees, was arranged by the JDC, with assistance from the United States Committee for the Care of European Children (USCOM), HICEM, OSE, and the American Friends Service Committee. 01:00:03 At a children’s colony in São Pedro do Estoril, Portugal, LS of a road before the “Colónia Balnear Infantil Do Seculo” building. Beach. Men and women direct a large group of young refugees (children and teenagers) to line up. American flags are distributed to the smiling children, who are wearing name tags and new clothing and wave the flags. 01:02:12 JDC’s European Director Morris Troper (who organized the ship transport) shakes hands with João Pereira da Rosa, Director of O Seculo newspaper. The Jewish refugees are arranged in a semi-circle around the two officials.The children wave American and Portuguese flags. A boy reads from a paper, receives a hug, and shakes hands. Teenage girls dance in a circle. Children stand in the courtyard, gates in BG. An official leads the children as they walk in a line, and wave their flags. Morris Troper and João Pereira da Rosa watch. Three women distribute chocolate bars to the children from the porch of the building. Children lean over the fence, posing and waving their flags. 01:06:31 View up at SS Mouzinho ship at the Lisbon dock with officials and sailors looking out. Morris Troper waves from the ship. AJJDC flag hanging from the ship waves in the breeze. Crowd of children and other refugee passengers on dock beside the ship, painted on the side with “MOUZINHO PORTUGAL”. Children sitting with suitcases. Children walking up the gangplank to board the ship, many have a small white name-tag hanging from their neck. Sailors help them board. A man hands the children flowers as they board. CU, children receive flowers and flags. 01:08:55 CU of a small girl holding a doll. The children and other refugee passengers wave to crowds on shore from the ship “Mouzinho Baleeira N. 5”. LS of the children waving and throwing streamers from the ship “MOUZINHO PORTUGAL.” Camera pans over ship, smokestacks and lifeboats. A large crowd waves from the harbor, among them are artist Marc Chagall and his wife. The gangplank is removed. 01:09:45 Morris Troper waves from shore. CU of Jewish refugees waving from ship windows. JDC flag. MOUZINHO. Ship embarks. The children who appear in this footage include the following, according to their name-tag identification number: 01:01:18:13 and 01:04:17:00 and 01:05:23:00 - Susi Kasper Leiter (the girl waving the flags in the flannel/checkered skirt). 01:01:55:00 and 01:04:10:00 and 01:04:38:00 and 01:05:00:00 and 01:05:22:00 and 01:05:49:00 and 01:06:05:00 - Betty Hirschhorn 01:02:16:23 - #79 Lore Flanter 01:02:21:18 - #90 Dora Safrin 01:02:41:17 - #24 Michel Tugendreich 01:03:22:21 and 01:03:27:09 - Josette Leib Faingold (girl in dark coat, Portuguese flag in hand, in front of girl with the light-colored dress) 01:03:23:13 and 01:03:29:15 - #63 Margot Weinberg 01:07:03:03 - #08 Bertold Martin Cohn 01:07:08:20 - #01 Robert Bergmann 01:08:42:09 - #23 Hans Wilhelm Singer 01:08:45:13 and 01:08:45:17 - #6 Martin Bar 01:08:47:16 - #33 Norbert Felber Additionally Edith Guttmann of Knittelfeld, Austria has been identified in this film at: 01:02:35 where she is looking down at her hands; 01:03:12 on the far right of the screen; 01:03:32 and 01:03:48 as one of the two girls in light dresses.

Note(s)

  • This film shows children from the first transport, dated 10 June 1941. Contact the Film Archive for a complete list of names and the ship manifest. Various sources differ about the number of children in this group, ranging from 100 to 136. We think the actual number is around 110, including some who did not have identification tags.There were five of these transports (or six if you include an earlier "test" transport that Martha Sharp organized) had a number of children who "went along" with the group but were going to stay with relatives in the U.S. and were not designated for foster homes like the other children. USHMM volunteer Susan Warsinger and her brother were among those who "tagged along" on one of these transports, though not the one shown in this film. For more information, refer to several USHMM collections donated by survivors from this transport and the detailed collection donated by the family of the adult chaperones, Isaac and Masha Chomski; as well as photographs and oral histories with people who were in this group.

Subjects

Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.