Letters to America Letters to AmericaBefore being placed with our foster families we lived for 2 weeks in an orphanage called Hillside. During World War II Hillside Children's Center worked with Eastman Kodak to help the children of Kodak employees in England. Between 1940 and 1942, 156 British children were brought to the Rochester area by Kodak to safeguard them from the war in their home country. Hillside assisted in placing these “Kodakids,” as they were called, with the families of local Kodak employees or in foster homes for the duration of the war.
Coincidentally our phone number in Greenaway Road was Hillside 2183 so it can’t have been far away.
For a long time, about 6 months I guess, I wasn’t allowed to write my own letters home, though I wanted to. Obviously Mary was afraid I’d write something that she wouldn’t like, though I’m sure I wouldn’t have, and I was quite capable of putting sentences together reasonably neatly. I had been doing well enough in school. But every week she wrote out the letter she thought I ought to write and I had to copy it for sending. It was always full of how happy I was and how nice everybody was to me. By and large that was true. I don’t actually remember being homesick as such, but there were difficult times while I adjusted to the new life. Eventually I was allowed to write my own letters. After posting the first one, the very next letter from England told me what lovely letters I wrote. But I realised there had not been time for a reply to my own letter.
On August 15th, 1940 the first 118 of 156 children of British Kodak employees arrived in Rochester—fugitives from Europe’s war. The “Kodakids” were placed with Rochester families and went to school with their American peers for the next 5 years.
Mary Jo Lamphear, Town of Brighton Historian (ca. 1999):
Of primary concern was the problem of safe transport of the children. Because of the presence of German U-boats, the British government would not let the children cross the Atlantic Ocean without escort by warships. Conveying ships of civilians removed battleships and destroyers from the war effort so few were diverted to this duty. The U.S., bound by the Neutrality Acts, could not send escort ships to a war zone. Instead of a projected munber of 300,000 children evacuated by ship from England, only 1,315 actually sailed. On September 21st 1940, when the City of Benares was torpedoed with 406 passengers on board, 98 of them British children, the evacuation movement was halted for the duration of the war.One of the ships that made it across was the Duchess of Atholl, arriving at the port of Montreal on August 24th 1940. Transferring to railroad cars, the 118 Kodakids in the first group traveled to Brighton Station, a small passenger terminal near the intersection of East Avenue and Winton Road. Sheriff Al Skinner and a contingent of Kodak ofiicials who escorted them to temporary homes at Hillside Children”s Center and the Strong Memorial Hospital Nurses’ Residence met them. Placement with Kodak families took them to homes in Brighton, Irondequoit, Pittsford, Penfield and Rochester. The company assigned two social workers to assist the children and their sponsors. They traveled to England in 1946 to see how the Kodakids were adjusting to home life. Their five-month sojourn was described in the Kodakery, EK's(1) newsletter:
Sarah and Helen were generously and warmly entertained by the English families in their homes and at Kodak. They found them very interested in a country which had sheltered their children so well and of which their children talked so enthusiastically. Some of the parents are reading American history and novels to better understand their children's “other country.” We can never adequately express our gratitude for the kindness and care given our children during those long war years.Other than the cost of passage, due to a British law, the children's parents were unable to send money for the upkeep of their children. The sponsoring families bore the cost of living expenses and spending money, with Kodak paying for all health and dental care. EK assisted the children in keeping in touch with their parents, occasionally gathering them at Kodak for movies and slides of their families in England. Holiday parties in Rochester also kept the children in touch with one another.
I remember no movies, slides or parties. Perhaps I was just not taken for one reason or another. I do remember once, and only once, being taken to visit Janet Kemp who was with a family on the other side of Rochester.
The 2 social workers were Miss Nicholls [Sarah] and Miss Sedarquist [Helen]. I’m guessing the spelling here. Helen was assigned to me. She was the younger of the 2 and made a house visit once a year. I suppose she did other things but that was the only contact I had. The Grashofs gave me strict instructions not to say anything adverse or I’d be in trouble. This warning was quite strongly backed up by Luther, a black man who came in to do the heavy work, including the laundry, around the house. I remember on the final social care visit being taken for a drive in a car and saying that everything was wonderful. That was far from being true at the time as my foster parents were leading up to a divorce. I hoped that Sarah would guess something was wrong from my demeanour but she didn’t. I have had a poor opinion of social workers ever since.
Mary Jo Lamphear, Town of Brighton Historian (ca. 1999):
Many of the young men entered military service in England and Canada. Some of the young women became nurses and teachers: some married and had children. Almost all had a difficult re-entry into English life. They were unfamiliar with English customs and they had been away from their families for five long years. Many expressed guilt that they had been spared the fear and deprivation endured by their families. Severe rationing continued in England until the early 1950s.Children who were used to ice cream and hamburgers went home to few sweets and little meat. The ties forged by this humanitarian project remain today, although the youngest Kodakid is now about 67 years old and most of the sponsoring parents have died. The American "sisters and brothers" have fond memories of their Kodakid siblings and many still keep in touch.
