Growing up in Vienna in the 1930s, Harry Baum was to witness the takeover of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1936 and as a Jew would soon find himself subject to the Nazi's obscene racial laws.

Jewish children arriving in 1938.

After the attacks on Jewish businesses and property during Kristallnacht in 1938 his parents felt they should act to protect their children from Nazi persecution. Harry's daughter Caroline explains, "In 1938 his parents saw the writing on the wall and decided they would take the opportunity to get their children out to a safe place."

Harry was one of the lucky ones. His parents decided to send him and his older sister, Franzi, to Britain on the Kindertransport. In all, around 10,000 Jewish children would come to Britain between December 1938 and September 1939, most of them from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

"My father spoke no English at all, though his older sister did speak some which she'd learnt from a governess in Vienna. But you can imagine how traumatic it was for them both, they travelled with a number round their necks and were only allowed one small suitcase each.

"Many of the other children on their train were much younger - you can imagine a train full of terrified, sobbing children. Many of them had been told by their parents that it was a holiday and that they would soon join them, but of course in 90 per cent of cases those children would never see their parents again."

Harry Baum arrived in England in December 1938, he and the other refugees were initially housed in a holiday camp at Dovercourt in Essex. The camp was managed by a committee of mainly British Quakers and several Jewish organisations. Once the children arrived in Britain host families were asked to take them in and help care for them. Harry and his sister were fostered by a Quaker family called Hughes who lived in York and as his daughter Caroline explains,

"The Hughes were quite a distinguished family, but they weren't ostentatious. My father remembers them with such affection and there was no attempt by them to persuade him to change his religion. They also recognised his intelligence and helped him get a scholarship to Bootham School."

One child recovering from a long journey

The then Archbishop of York, Dr William Temple regularly invited refugees to afternoon tea at Bishopthorpe Palace and helped young Harry Baum to lobby and write letters to try and get his parents out of Vienna.

"My father was eventually successful in getting his mother out of Austria, but unfortunately my grandfather disappeared. We believe that he was shot by the Nazis whilst on a forced march in the Ukraine, but we only found that out in the last few years."

Caroline Baum, attended the University of York, and it was only then she found out the whole story of her father's experiences in York during the Second World War. Harry Baum is now 81 and suffers from dementia but his daughter says his memories of the past are still very strong, "He can still remember every detail of what he packed in his little suitcase when he was taken to the station in Vienna."

"My father has always said to me that if he hadn't been born Jewish he would have chosen to have been born a Quaker as he considered them the salt of the earth. He just retained a profound respect, regard and love for the Hughes family."