Karl and Rosa's family watch in horror as Hitler's troops parade down
the streets of their home city -- Vienna. It has become very dangerous
to be a Jew in Austria, and after their uncle is sent to Dachau, Karl
and Rosa's parents decide to send the children out of the country on a
Kindertransport, one of the many ships carrying refugee children away
from Nazi danger.
Isolated and homesick, Karl ends up in Millisle, a run-down farm in Ards
in Northern Ireland, which has become a Jewish refugee centre, while
Rosa is fostered by a local family.
Hard work on the farm keeps Karl occupied, although he still waits
desperately for any news from home. Then he makes friends with locals
Peewee and Wee Billy, and also with the girls from neutral Dublin who
come to help on the farm, especially Judy. But Northern Ireland is in
the war too, with rationing and air-raid warnings, and, in April 1941
the bombs of the Belfast Blitz bring the reality of war right to their
doorstep.
And for Karl and Rosa and the other refugees there is the constant fear
that they may never see their parents again.
Based on a true story -- there was a refugee farm at Millisle and among
its occupants was a young boy called Karl.