Anna Essinger

Anna Essinger
Born	15 September 1879 Ulm, Germany
Died	30 May 1960 Otterden, Kent, England
Residence	Bunce Court, Otterden
Nationality	German
Education	Master of Arts
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin
Occupation	Educator, co-founder of Landschulheim Herrlingen
Years active	early 1900s - 1948
Known for	escaping Nazi Germany in 1933 with her entire school and for helping child refugees and Nazi concentration camp survivors
Signature

Anna Essinger (15 September 1879 – 30 May 1960) was a German Jewish educator. At the age of 20, she went to finish her education in the United States, where she encountered Quakers and was greatly influenced by their attitudes, adopting them for her own. In 1919, she returned to Germany on a Quaker war relief mission and was asked by her sister, who had founded a children's home, to help establish a school with it. She and her family founded a boarding school, the Landschulheim Herrlingen in 1926, with Anna Essinger as headmistress. In 1933, with the Nazi threat looming and the permission of all the parents, she moved the school and its 66 children, mostly Jewish, to safety in England, re-establishing it as the Bunce Court School. During the war, Essinger established a reception camp for 10,000 German children sent to England on the Kindertransports, taking some of them into the school. After the war, her school took many child survivors of Nazi concentration camps. By the time Essinger closed Bunce Court in 1948, she had taught and cared for over 900 children, most of whom called her Tante ("Aunt") Anna, or TA, for short. She remained in close contact with her former pupils for the rest of her life.

Essinger was born on Hafengasse ("Harbor Lane") in Ulm, the oldest of six girls and three boys, to a non-observant Jewish couple, Fanny (née Oppenheimer) and Leopold Essinger. Her grandfather was David Essinger (1817–1899), a doctor. Leopold Essinger had an insurance business and served in World War I in Verdun, France. While in the imperial German army, he became convinced that there was widespread anti-semitism among the officers.

In 1899, at the age of 20, Essinger went to the United States to live with her aunt in Nashville, Tennessee. While in Tennessee, she became acquainted with Quakers, becoming deeply impressed and beginning a lifelong association with them. She graduated from college with a degree in German studies, financing her education by teaching German and by running a private students' hostel, which she founded. She later received an M.A. in education at the University of Wisconsin, became a teacher and lectured at the university in Madison, Wisconsin. Working with Quaker-sponsored humanitarian aid, she returned to Germany in 1919. Her task was to convince mayors, teachers and school rectors to set up kitchens so that children could have a hot meal once a day. She also collected food and clothing.

...
Wikipedia