Our guest is Dr. Alexander Strasser, one of 19 survivors from the Kinder Transport. Strasser's story is part of the new documentary from Ken Burns called Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War. It focuses on a little-known story of an American minister and his wife who rescued refugees and dissidents in Europe before and after the start of World War II.
The 90-minute film tells the story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, a Unitarian minister and his wife from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who left their children behind in the care of their parish, and boldly committed to numerous life-threatening missions in Europe. Over two dangerous years, they helped to save hundreds of imperiled political dissidents and Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi occupation across Europe.