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Act 1, Scene 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Kindertransport, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Memory, and the Past
Parenthood
Truth and Secrecy
Displacement and Identity
Sacrifice and Survival
Summary
Analysis
In the present, Faith sits down alone in the storage room and reads a letter she’s found in one of the boxes—it’s dated March 6, 1941. In the past, Eva takes off her coat and listens to a train announcement in English. Faith reads the letter, presumably written by Helga, and Eva responds to it aloud. Eva talks of “eating the bread of freedom even if it does taste like sponge buttered with greasy salt.” Helga notes that she’s chosen to write in English, knowing it must now be Eva’s “best language.” Meanwhile, Eva talks of being lucky “to have escaped.” Though she misses Germany, she admits that it was fun to “go[] on the red bus.” Helga says she hopes Eva is behaving for the Millers and doing well.
The letter that Faith finds is from 1941, years into Eva’s stay in England. The letter suggests that although Eva has, by this point, lived in England long enough to learn the language, it’s still early enough in her stay that she’s homesick and missing her family. When she describes “the bread of freedom” as taste[ing] like sponge buttered with greasy salt,” she’s suggesting that although she’s happy to be safe in England, her sadness at not being with her family undermines that happiness. Still, her mention of riding “the red bus”—a reference to the iconic double-decker public transport buses in the UK—shows that she’s gradually adjusting to life in England.
Themes
Back in the past, an English organizer enters and approaches Eva, who is now at the train station. He tells Eva that her English family seems to be running late. The English organizer speaks to Eva in English, but Eva, who speaks German, can hardly understand him. Eva cries for Mutti (Helga) and Vati as the English organizer looks on, visibly annoyed. Eventually the English organizer leaves. Eva sits down and tries to remove the pocket watch and jewelry from her shoe, but she can’t.
Eva tries to remove the pocket watch and jewelry—precious heirlooms that symbolize her heritage and her ties to her family back in Germany— from her heel in order to comfort herself. Her failure to access these items and get comfort from them, however, symbolizes how Eva’s physical separation from her family harms her—even if that separation is what ultimately saves her life.
Themes
Eventually Lil arrives and apologizes to Eva for being late. She introduces herself as Lil Miller. When Eva responds in German, Lil says Eva will have to learn English, as Lil doesn’t know any German. Then she removes the Star of David from Eva’s jacket, explaining that Eva doesn’t need it anymore. She tells Eva it’s time they get back to Manchester and starts to light a cigarette. Eva is at first horrified—Mutti (Helga) told her smoking is a disgusting and unhealthy habit—but Lil says she enjoys smoking. Eva has a change of heart and begs Lil to let her try one. Lil relents and lets Eva take a drag.
This moment confirms Lil’s relationship to Eva/Evelyn: she’s her English foster mother. When Lil removes the Star of David from Eva’s jacket, she symbolically encourages Eva to distance herself from her Jewish faith. This foreshadows that Lil may play a significant role in Eva’s gradual move away from her old identity and way of life and her eventual assimilation into English culture. Eva’s desire to smoke—a habit that Helga finds repulsive—further illustrates Eva’s allegiances shifting away from her biological family and toward Lil and Eva’s adopted home of England.
Themes
Lil tells Eva to stay put and then runs off to do something. Eva suddenly panics, begging “Frau Lil” not to abandon her. Lil returns not long after, a slice of cake in hand, and tells Eva to have some cake and stop worrying.
Eva’s intense fear at briefly losing sight of Lil reveals how traumatic being separated from her family has been for her—she’s terrified of being abandoned again.
Themes
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In the present, Lil offers Faith some tea; Faith declines and instead asks about Evelyn’s cleaning, dryly asking if Evelyn has taken out the vacuum yet. Lil scolds Faith and tells her to leave Evelyn alone.
Lil offering Faith some tea in the play’s present-day timeline mirrors the previous moment from the World War II timeline, in which Lil offers Eva some cake. Once more, the play’s structure shows how the past bleeds into the present.
Themes
Faith, undeterred, shows Lil the Rattenfänger book she found in the storage room. She’s confused—Evelyn used to tell Faith this story, but this book is in German, and Evelyn doesn’t speak German. Faith asks if the book belonged to Eva, the young Jewish girl who stayed with Lil during the war—and if so, she wonders why Evelyn has the girl’s belongings. Lil freezes, then asks Faith how she knows about Eva. Faith explains that she pieced it together from reading some of the letters and other things she found in the boxes. Lil gets angry and tells Faith to stop talking about Eva.
Faith’s confusion makes clear that she’s been completely left in the dark about Evelyn’s past—she hasn’t known that Evelyn could even speak German, much less that she came to England as a German Jewish refugee child. Lil’s angry response to Faith’s discovery further confirms that Evelyn’s past is something that was supposed to remain secret. It seems that Evelyn has chosen to repress her painful child as a coping mechanism, though how effective a strategy this has turned out to be remains unclear at this point.
Themes
Faith eventually gets Lil to admit the truth: Eva is Evelyn, Faith’s mother. Faith continues to ask Lil questions about Eva. Eventually, Lil admits that Evelyn was nine when she came to live with Lil, not just a few days old, as Lil has repeatedly claimed. Lil also says that Evelyn’s parents died during the war. Faith asks why she kept Evelyn’s life a secret, and Lil explains that Evelyn “wanted to put the past behind her.” Faith thinks this wasn’t for her best, though—Evelyn’s past affects her, too. Lil says it affects Evelyn more and calls Faith “selfish.”
Lil confirms what the audience (and Faith) likely have already guessed: Eva is Evelyn’s younger self. And Lil’s next major reveal—that Evelyn’s parents died during the war—helps explain Evelyn’s apparent choice “to put the past behind her" and conceal the details of her traumatic childhood from Faith. Lil’s observation that Faith is being “selfish” to want the truth from Evelyn raises the question of whether Evelyn owes her daughter honesty—or whether her personal trauma is hers alone to manage.
Themes
Back in the past, Lil asks Eva if she liked the sandwiches Lil gave her for lunch. Eva explains that the sandwiches have ham in them, which Eva can’t eat due to religious reasons. Lil says that Eva shouldn’t worry about that, since “we needn’t keep to the old laws anymore.” She says that Jews are just “Hanging on to the past” by following these laws.
The audience may interpret Lil’s criticism of “the old laws” multiple ways. A more generous interpretation is that Lil is just trying to help Eva adjust to her new life in England. A more critical interpretation is that Lil is being insensitive to how difficult being away from her family, religion, and home is for Eva—and is making Eva’s dislocation to England even more difficult by encouraging her stop “Hanging on to the past.”
Themes
Eva asks Lil to help with Eva’s parents. Lil explains that they have to get sponsors and jobs figured out first in order to get their entrance into the U.K. approved. Eva says that Vati is a banker, but Lil explains that he’ll only be able to get work as a servant. Eva is shocked and upset by this, but Lil doesn’t think it’s a big deal.
Lil’s nonchalance toward Eva’s parents’ limited opportunities for work gives insight into her attitude toward Eva’s parents—and Eva’s relationship with her parents—as a whole. She doesn’t seem especially sympathetic to the suffering and persecution they experience and seems to want Eva to stop dwelling on it too. While it’s true that Lil is doing a good and selfless thing by caring for Eva when Eva’s own parents cannot, she’s rather selfish in her disregard for Eva’s relationship with her parents and old way of life.
Themes
In the present, Lil and Faith continue to discuss Eva/Evelyn. Lil says that Evelyn had to deal with a lot, like losing her parents. She warns Faith not to tell Evelyn that Lil told her about Evelyn’s real past. She also reveals that Evelyn changed her birthday to January 7—the day Lil picked her up from the train station—on her 16th birthday, the same day she changed her name.
The audience may interpret Lil’s plea for Faith not to bring up the past with Evelyn as protective: she wants to protect Evelyn against Faith’s reopening old wounds. The details she shares about Evelyn changing her name and birthdate also reveal the extent to which Evelyn has chosen to rewrite her life’s story and deny her past.
Themes
Back in the past, Eva comes home late from her English lesson, and Lil scolds Eva for lying about where she’s been. Speaking in German, Eva tries to defend herself, but Lil accuses her of “hid[ing] behind German.” Finally, Eva admits to knocking on the doors of rich people’s houses and asking them if they had any work for her parents. All of them said no—just as Lil told Eva they would. Lil yells at Eva for disobeying her and humiliating her by acting “like some begging little orphan.” Scared, Eva begs Lil not to put her on the streets. Lil softens a bit and promises Eva that she’d never do that.
When Lil criticizes Eva for “hid[ing] behind German,” it gives further insight into the active role Lil played in Eva/Evelyn’s decision to deny her past. It seems that it’s not only that the trauma of her relocation to England and then the subsequent deaths of her family that compelled Eva to want a fresh start—Lil also seems to have made pointed efforts to rid Eva of her German identity. In this scene, for instance, she insinuates that speaking German is a shameful, naughty thing for Eva to do.
Themes
In the present, Faith asks Lil if Faith’s dad knows about Evelyn’s past. Lil says no, but Faith is doubtful. Evelyn enters the room to see what’s going on. Lil says they got distracted. Things are awkward for a bit as Evelyn looks at the dolls and other old things Faith has removed from the boxes. Faith asks how she’s supposed to stand here and pretend that everything is normal when it’s not—then she shows Evelyn the Ratcatcher book and demands that Evelyn tell her about Eva Schlesinger. Evelyn orders Faith to put the Ratcatcher book away. She asks Lil why Faith is invading her “privacy,” but Faith doesn’t think she’s done anything wrong.
On the one hand, the audience may interpret Evelyn’s stern reaction to Faith’s discovery as shock—after all, she’s been keeping her past a secret from Faith for decades, and now everything has come undone all at once. On the other hand, her comment about Faith invading her “privacy” complicates things, as it insinuates that Evelyn’s history is hers alone, even though as Evelyn’s daughter Faith shares some of that history—at least indirectly, through their shared blood.
Themes
Evelyn says everyone needs to agree to let the past be the past. In fact, she should’ve thrown out most of these old papers and photos ages ago. Faith asks to keep them instead—she’d like to know more about Evelyn and Evelyn’s parents. But Evelyn says that’s none of Faith’s business. Evelyn stands to leave, and Lil pleads with her not to leave things this way. Faith gets in front of the door to stop Evelyn from leaving. She accuses Evelyn of walking out or cleaning obsessively every time Faith even mildly disagrees with her. And Evelyn can’t get on a train or pass a policeman or traffic controller without panicking.
Evelyn and Faith are at odds because each feels betrayed by the other, Evelyn by Faith’s prying and Faith by Evelyn’s secrecy. But they’re also at odds about their attitudes toward the past. Evelyn feels that she has the right to pick and choose what aspects of her past are relevant to the person she is today, whereas Faith seems to think everything that has happened—regardless of how painful or undesirable it was—factors into who a person becomes. And if the audience takes Faith’s comments about Evelyn’s panic attacks at face value, then Faith’s approach to the path seems more correct than Evelyn’s: though Evelyn wants to put things behind her, her behavior suggests that her unresolved childhood trauma continues to affect her as an adult.
Themes
All these years, Faith explains, she thought it was her own fault that Evelyn was so unhappy, and now she realizes it’s more complicated than that. Faith also tells Evelyn that Evelyn and all her lies are why Faith had such an unhappy childhood. She calls Evelyn “a terrible mother.”
Faith’s accusation that Evelyn is “a terrible mother” likely upsets and perplexes Evelyn in ways Faith can’t possibly understand. Evelyn’s own mother, Helga, wasn’t there for Evelyn/Eva in her formative years, even if sending Eva away was Helga’s way of protecting Eva in the only way she could back then. Evelyn, by contrast, has been there for Faith.
Themes
Suddenly, the Ratcatcher’s pipe music begins to play, and young Eva says that the Ratcatcher is coming. Adult Evelyn begs young Eva to stop—the Ratcatcher isn’t coming, and they’re both safe. She tells young Eva that she’s a good girl and has done nothing wrong. Evelyn promises that she’ll do everything she can to make him go away. She won’t let him take Eva away ever again.
The mythic figure of the Ratcatcher seems to embody Eva/Evelyn’s unresolved childhood trauma, entering her consciousness during moments of great emotional strife. In this surreal moment, Evelyn consoles her younger self, assuring her that they’ve done nothing wrong and that the Ratcatcher won’t be able to find and hurt them anymore. This seems to represent Evelyn’s lingering fear that she did something bad to deserve her banishment (or what her younger self perceived as banishment) to England.
Themes
