MEMBERS of the Association of Jewish Refugees have visited Harwich as part of the 85th anniversary of the first arrival of children rescued by the Kindertransport programme.

Twenty members of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a London-based national charity supporting Jewish victims of Nazi oppression, arrived in the town last week.

The group were welcomed by town crier Richard Bench, Debbie Patterson Jones, chair of Harwich Kindertransport Learning, and Harwich High Steward Sue Daish, who led a guided tour.

The group visited the Safe Haven memorial on the quay, the Leslie Brent exhibition in the Electric Palace, and the talking bench in the Mayor’s Garden.

Following a fish and chip lunch at the Pier Hotel, the AJR members visited Harwich Museum, where David Whittle gave a talk about the role the town played in rescuing the refugee children and showed film footage of the children arriving at Parkeston Quay and being cared for at Dovercourt Holiday Camp.

Karen Diamond, AJR outreach co-ordinator, thanked the welcome team and said "everyone had thoroughly enjoyed their day out" in the historic town.

The trip was organised to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the first arrival of the Kindertransport where 10,000 mostly Jewish children were sent to safety in Britain from 1938 to 1939.