A teenage girl broke the rules on a Holocaust rescue train — but it ended up saving the lives of twin infants without a mother

A 14-year-old girl showed extraordinary courage during the Holocaust when she chose to care for two babies abandoned on a train, a decision that would ultimately save their lives. Holocaust survivor Emma Mogilensky later shared this moment from her childhood, recalling how she stepped in to save them when no one else could, despite being just a teenager herself.

The story shared by USC Shoah Foundation (@uscshoahfoundation) on March 19 as part of its #WomenHistoryMonth series takes place during one of the darkest periods in history.

It was the “Night of the Broken Glass,” as people call it. On this chilly night of November 1938, Nazis launched a volley of riots against Jews. The British government acted quickly and initiated a rescue mission that lasted for nine long months and helped over 10,000 Jewish children escape from Hitler’s terror.

Kindertransport, which borrowed its name from the German word “kinder” for children, carried these children to safety, the BBC explains. The mission, however, didn’t unfold without a series of its own sufferings. Parents were forced to choose between the survival of their children and separation from them. 

Amidst this difficult episode, then-14-year-old Mogilensky was also traveling on a Kindertransport train when she came across a basket. Inside the wicker basket were two babies, sound asleep. For a girl of her age, who was still trying to navigate the chaos, the basket would rather go unnoticed. But instead of shrugging it away, she picked it up.

“I have often wondered what it must have cost that mother to put that basket on the train,” Mogilensky reflects with a hint of lament in her tone. “And that’s when we saw two bottles of milk and two clean diapers at the bottom of the basket,” she describes.

Diapering the babies revealed that both were twin girls. Each baby had drunk more than half a bottle of milk, and the teenagers had no idea how many more feedings they would need.

With as much as they could imagine, they filled up the bottles with cold water for their next feeding. “I guess that’s how we cared for them,” she says.

Before the young teens could fathom how to deal with the situation, a German soldier stepped into the train with a bayonet fitted on his weapon. While counting the suitcases and passengers in the compartment, his bayonet struck upon the extra basket. “Whose basket is it?” he asked. Mogilensky answered, “It’s mine.” He yelled at her because no one was allowed to carry more than one item of luggage. To inspect the basket, he opened its clasp with the bayonet. The lid flanged open to reveal two babies lying there, crying.

“He didn’t say a word. He just closed the lid and went out,” Mogilensky recalls.

“I am sure to this day that those two infants were not supposed to be on the train,” she grieves. And although the Jewish welfare welcomed them, they refused to let the babies go to England. Mogilensky rebelled. If England could take 500 children in, then it could certainly take just two more.

She stood up for the babies and asserted, “No. I have been looking after these babies since we got on the train, and I want them to come to England with us.” After much discussion and her recurring insistence, the babies were allowed into the country.

The unimaginable choice between leaving loved ones behind and seeking safety marked a life-changing turning point for thousands of children. For instance, a review of displaced children who were separated from their families during war and migration found striking mental health outcomes, with post-traumatic stress disorder affecting between 17% and 85% of young refugees examined across multiple studies.

Most viewers were left sobbing, thinking of the sadness the mother would have felt while she sacrificed her babies for their survival. “I cannot imagine the sacrifice their mother made,” commented @hawaii_barbie. @lurchersunited confessed, “I've just cried my eyes out. I never cry.” 

@marthag854 revealed that the twin girls were then adopted by two Dutch women in Holland when the train stopped before going to London. One got married and invited Mogilensky to her son's bar mitzvah. Today, she is a perfect example of a woman who not only shaped history but will also continue to inspire people for generations to come.

You can follow USC Shoah Foundation (@uscshoahfoundation) for more inspiring content like this.

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