THE drama of the Kindertransport which brought thousands of Jewish youngsters to Harwich as they fled Nazi persecution has been relived in a groundbreaking piece of theatre.

The moving story of the child refugees – or “kinder” – was recreated where it all started almost 75 years ago to the day at Harwich International train station.

Suitcase was specially devised by Ros and Jane Merkin, whose mother, Johanna Hacker, came from Vienna on the Kindertransport in December 1938.

She travelled with younger sisters Paula and Melanie, but ten-month-old baby brother Max was too young and stayed with their parents Koloman and Franziska.

They all died in the Holocaust.

Audiences followed performers through the station as they re-enacted the scenes of bewildered Kindertransport children waiting to be taken away by foster parents, while commuters hurrying to catch their trains were hijacked by history.