The generosity of British Christians who saved a penniless Jewish child from Nazi-occupied Austria has prompted support for a rescue mission to save Christians from death at the hands of Islamic State.
Lord Weidenfeld arrived on a Kindertransport train in Britain in 1938 with only a few shillings in his pocket. Now aged 94, he is helping Barnabas Fund to rescue up to 2,000 Christian families from Syria and Iraq and resettle them elsewhere.
Lord Weidenfeld, the former publisher, who co-founded Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 1948, came to Britain a decade earlier. He credits his survival to the generosity of members of the Plymouth Brethren who took him in, fed and clothed him. ‘I had a debt to repay’, he said. ‘It was Quakers and other Christian denominations who brought [those] children to England. It was a very high-minded operation and we Jews should also be thankful and do something for the endangered Christians.’
