Bertha Bracey

Overview

Bertha Bracey born Bournville, Birmingham, England June 1, 1893 (d. 1989). English humanitarian. Quaker teacher and relief worker in Austria, 1921; fed children and worked for reconciliation with Germans, Nuremberg, 1921; Berlin, 1926. Founding Secretary of German Emergency Committee to help Jewish refugees, London, 1933. Set up Quaker school for 100 Jewish children in Ommen, Holland, 1934; organized Children’s Transport of Jewish children to England, 1938-39. Flew out 300 children from Theresienstadt camp, 1945. Led Allied refugee effort, 1946; Women’s Affairs for Occupation, 1946-53. Honored as “Righteous Among the Nations.”

Quotations

“I would quote an American writer [Niebuhr] who said, ‘Religion is the hope that grows out of despair.’ One reason why our generation is not religious is that it has become too sentimental to be thoroughly pessimistic. It has never looked into the bottomless abyss, on the edge of which all citadels of faith are built.” (Cleo Lampos; photo geo.brown.edu)