CHILDREN lined a rail platform in a poignant recreation of the moment thousands of Jewish children fled the terror of the Nazi regime.

This week marks the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport.

The huge humanitarian rescue saw 10,000 children travel from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to the safety of Britain to save them from the Holocaust.

Children and teenagers had to travel without their parents and many never saw them again.

To commemorate the arrival of the first Kindertransport in Harwich on December 2, 1938 a group of schoolchildren took part in a dramatic re-enactment of the event.

Izzy Morath, project assistant for the Kindertransport recreation, said: “We’ve had children from different schools like St Joseph’s Catholic School and Harwich and Dovercourt High School re-enact the Kindertransport arrival.

“It’s important to do this as it gives the children a chance to remember what happened here in Harwich 80 years ago.”

The historic train carried 200 children from a Jewish orphanage near Berlin to Harwich.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the evacuation, children of different ages wore newsboy hats, Tweed coats and vintage shoes to get in character as evacuees who made the voyage from mainland Europe to Harwich.

Residents stood on the platform to watch the dramatisation and see the youngsters board the train to Manningtree.

Shannon Lockwood-Spooner, ten, of St Joseph’s Catholic School, in Dovercourt, was one of the children acting on the day.

She said: “It’s the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport and at our school we have been doing lots of acting lessons for this.”

She said she was excited but a little bit nervous to perform in front of the crowd.

Ferne McLindon, nine, who also attends St Joseph’s, said: “We were given a long list of what we were going to be pretending to do, but I have acted before and enjoy it.”

The transport to Harwich started after the anti-Jewish violence of Kristallnacht – also known as the night of broken glass – in November 1938.

About a dozen youngsters from Harwich and Dovercourt High School and St Joseph’s Catholic School took part in the reenactment.

Andy Higgins, a teacher at St Joseph’s Catholic School, said: “We have been studying the Second World War at school and the children here are about the same age as the children who got on the Kindertransport.

“They have learned about Harwich’s history with the Kindertransport and I hope it will be a project they will remember from coming out and doing a reenactment.”

The commemoration event was part of a project named Harwich Haven: Surrender and Sanctuary which aims to get residents to remember their heritage.