Photograph featuring Mary Löwenkopf Weiss

Unknown photographer

Mary Löwenkopf Weiss, 1925–1973

Photograph featuring Mary Löwenkopf Weiss

The Netherlands, 1939

Mary Löwenkopf Weiss (1925–1973), born in Vienna, Austria, was among those 1,500 unaccompanied Jewish children under the age of 17 who arrived in the Netherlands via the Kindertransport (The Children’s Transport) in 1938–40, following the harrowing anti-Jewish pogroms of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), which took place throughout Nazi Germany on November 8–9, 1938. While for some children, the Netherlands was a transitional point in their journey, many stayed, including Mary, who arrived in one of the first groups on December 11, 1938.

Ultimately, Mary found herself among 80 boys and girls who were placed in the dormitory Jongenshuis (Boys’ Home), a beautiful villa in Arnhem. A city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, Arnhem appeared to be a safe haven—until May 1940, when the Dutch army surrendered to the Germans. The situation continued to worsen rapidly. By the end of 1942, only 863 Kindertransport refugees still lived in Holland. The young inhabitants of the Jongenshuis were collectively transported to Westerbork transit camp for further deportation to concentration camps. Left nearly alone from the rest of the group, Mary avoided deportation by a stroke of luck and remained in the Westerbork camp for the remainder of the war, working in the hospital. 

The photograph captures a group of girls sitting on the outside terrace on a chilly day in 1939. Mary is shown third from the left wearing a stylish hat, probably a remnant of her Vienna wardrobe. One girl on the far left appears to be eating ice, pretending that it was ice cream—a poignant glimpse into the children’s moments of joys amid the tumult of that time.

The Kindertransport, the extraordinary emergency rescue operation of 1938–40, involved several Jewish aid organizations, including the British Committee for the Jews of Germany and the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany. It brought approximately 10,000 children to Great Britain, the main designated destination. But the smaller groups of children, like Mary’s, eventually arrived in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Most of those who managed to survive never saw their parents and families again.