Almost 80 years after the first "Kindertransport" evacuations of Jewish children from Nazi Germany to safety in Britain, 42 people set off Sunday on a memorial bike ride that will retrace their journey from Berlin to London.
The cyclists took off from Berlin's Friedrichstrasse station, where a statue commemorates the 10,000 mostly Jewish children who made it to the U.K. from Nazi Germany and elsewhere in Europe starting in late 1938.
Organized by the U.K.-based World Jewish Relief group, the ride retraces the route taken by the first Kindertransport, which involved a train from Berlin through the Netherlands, then a ferry across the English Channel to Harwich, then a train to London. The riders are expected to take six days to get to London's Liverpool Street station.
Among the riders who set off on Sunday was octogenarian Paul Alexander, the only original Kindertransport child participating in the current ride. He was joined by his 34-year-old son, Nadav, and 14-year-old grandson, Daniel.
"This ride is for me a victory ride. It's one of celebrating a good life," said Alexander, who was only a year old when his mother reluctantly sent him abroad.
"I'm riding also in honor of my mother and father who sent me away and had the courage and foresight to save me to send me away from the Holocaust," he said.
"It's a ride I do every 80 years," he joked. Alexander was able to reunite eventually with his family in England, where they settled. He later moved to Israel.
Many of the rescued children never saw their parents again.
As Sunday's ride started, the cyclists gathered for a safety briefing and the Jewish prayer for travelers. The British ambassador and German government representatives gathered to see them off.
"Our past is a reminder to fight against anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of discrimination," said German Foreign Ministry representative Karina Haeuslmeier. "We owe this to the children who survived and those who didn't."
