A book detailing the remarkable true story of a group of children who were evacuated to Abbots Langley during the Second World War has been republished.
Wartime Evacuation to Abbots Langley, which was written by and follows the story of Clive Clark, was originally published in May 2004 by the Abbots Langley Local History Society (ALLHS). They have now republished it to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the war’s end.
Clive, along with 150 other children from his school in London, arrived in the village in early September 1939. They stayed for the duration of the war.
However, these were not the only evacuees who found a new home in Abbots Langley.
In 2022, ALLHS were contacted by the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle, who explained that one of their members, Steve Adler, had recently died. His family wanted to contact a Mrs Williams in Abbots Langley to inform her of his passing.
It then emerged that Steve had arrived in England just before the war as part of the Kindertransport evacuation from Europe, which included 9,000 German and Austrian Jewish children. Steve had been hosted by Mrs Williams in the village.
A new chapter has now been added to Clive’s republished book describing the attempts to find this elusive Mrs Williams, along with a “great insight” into the story of the Kindertransport children in Abbots Langley.
Email info@allhs.org.uk to purchase a copy of the book for £4 plus postage or find it at the society’s free Second World War exhibit at the Methodist Hall on Saturday, July 12, from 9.30am to 1pm.
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