Ep 84: Kinder People. Kindest People. with Peter Suchmann and guest Manny Korman P1 on hmTv

Kinder People. Kindest People — Episode 84 (Part 1)

Guest: Manny Korman | Host: Peter Suchmann | Series: hmTv at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center

When a rescued violin finds its perfect new home, two families discover they’ve been linked since 1939.

In the first of a two-part conversation, Peter Suchmann sits down with 93-year-old Kindertransport survivor Manny Korman. Manny retraces an extraordinary chain of events that began with his father’s harrowing voyage on the St. Louis, continued through Manny’s own escape from Nazi-occupied Poland, and culminated in a trans-Atlantic reunion that rebuilt his family—and his life.

You’ll hear:

• How one Kinderlink newsletter notice and a grandfather’s violin brought the Korman and Suchmann families together.
• The inside story of the St. Louis “Voyage of the Damned” and Manny’s father’s survival in Westerbork.
• Manny’s journey at age seven on the Kindertransport, the strangers who took him in, and the Christian family that sheltered his best friend.
• A remarkable reunion in rural England that turned into a community theater production 80 years later.
• The lasting power of kindness—from rescuing a single child to supporting whole communities across generations.

It’s a testament to resilience, moral courage, and the quiet heroes who open their doors to strangers. Press play for an unforgettable firsthand account—and stay tuned for Part 2, where Manny shares how those experiences shaped a lifetime in education and Holocaust remembrance.

Listen, subscribe, and share—because humanity matters.

Transcript

Kinder People. Kindest People – Episode 84 (Part 1)
Host: Peter Suchmann
Guest: Manny Korman

Peter Suchmann:
Hello, and thank you for joining me today. I’m your host, Peter Suchmann, and we’re back with another episode of Kinder People. Kindest People here on hmTv at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center. It’s my pleasure to welcome a dear friend—my “bashert” partner in history—Manny Korman. Manny, thank you so much for being here.

Manny Korman:
My pleasure, Peter. Happy to talk.

Peter:
Not long ago we interviewed your granddaughter, Ariel, and I’d like to open with that story. After my dad passed away, my siblings and I searched for a new Jewish home for his violin. You read our notice in the Kinderlink newsletter and told your son, who called Ariel—and that’s how the violin found its way to her. It’s making beautiful music again for the first time in its life. We’re forever grateful.

Manny:
I have to admit, I did it for my granddaughter more than for your father—but it feels like destiny, doesn’t it?

Peter:
Exactly—bashert. Speaking of destiny, you were on the Kindertransport. Could you share your memories?

Manny:
Sure. Before the Kindertransport, my family was deported from Hamburg to Poland in October 1938. After some months, German authorities summoned heads of deported households back to Hamburg to “settle” their affairs—apartments, cars, everything. My father obtained an entry permit for Havana, Cuba, and chose that route. The ship he boarded was the St. Louis—Voyage of the Damned.

Peter:
The Western Hemisphere shut its doors—the St. Louis was refused in Cuba, the U.S., and Canada. More than 250 passengers later perished. Your father survived, but he was interned in Westerbork after the ship returned to Europe, right?

Manny:
Yes. He was among the first in Westerbork, then helped organize incoming prisoners when the Nazis took over. He became a “big macher” in camp organization.

Peter:
Let’s connect that to your own journey. How did the Kindertransport come about for you and your brother?

Manny:
Once my father left, my mother had to save her children. After Parliament’s November 1938 decision to admit 10,000 unaccompanied children, she secured spots for my 10-year-old brother and me—age seven. In June 1939 we boarded a train from Poland to Gdynia, then a ship straight to England.

Peter:
Did you deal with “enemy-alien” tribunals like my father did later?

Manny:
No, we were too young. But my mother’s younger brother—an adult—was interned as an “enemy alien” in Kitchener Camp until he joined the British Army, where they anglicised him from Zolomon Lachs to John Lawson.

Peter:
Once you arrived in England, what happened?

Manny:
The government required communities to place kids in homes before we landed. My brother and I were taken together by a Jewish couple in London. We’d befriended a boy named Joseph Kamel on the voyage—exactly my age, all alone—so the couple took him too. That was pure kindness.

Peter:
Your mother’s experience was different—she eventually reached the U.S.?

Manny:
Yes. After sending us off, she smuggled herself back into Germany to see her parents, then contacted an uncle in Brooklyn for a visa. Family politics delayed everything, but she reached New York in April 1940 and became a live-in housekeeper in Great Neck.

Peter:
And you and your brother?

Manny:
We spent a year in England—evacuated to rural Tealby during the Blitz—then, with visas arranged by our uncle-in-arms, sailed on the Cameronia, arriving in New York on September 10 1940. Our ship ahead and behind were sunk; we made it—she’erit ha-pletah.

Peter:
That reunion must have been incredible.

Manny:
It was. My father, meanwhile, survived Westerbork, liberation by the Canadians in April 1945, and finally joined us in July 1946. When he arrived, my childhood stutter, nail-biting, and other nerves disappeared—family structure matters.

Peter:
What became of Joseph?

Manny:
His Orthodox mother survived and reached England in 1947. At first Joseph didn’t want to leave the Goslings—the two wonderful Christian women who’d raised him—but eventually rejoined his mother and supported the Goslings for the rest of their lives. He became a successful businessman; his children and grandchildren are proudly Orthodox. We’re closer to them today than ever.

Peter:
That is the essence of Kinder People. Kindest People—acts of goodness echoing for generations. Manny, you’re ninety-three and your memory humbles me. We’re out of time for now, but please stay—next episode we’ll discuss how you and your brother became educators and your decades of presentations.

Everyone listening, thank you for tuning in. Please subscribe, share, and stay connected. Until next time, I’m Peter Suchmann, reminding you that humanity matters.