Adrian Jackson, publications manager in the Tarrant County College District Graphic Services department, recently received an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest First Annual Self-Published e-Book Awards for her historical fiction novel, Kindertransport.
“This is one of those war stories you hear little about,” Jackson said. Seventy-five years ago, humanitarians came together to rescue Jewish children from the grasp of the Nazis and place them with foster families. Before the door slammed shut nine months later, more than 10,000 children were saved. Kindertransport explores the fictitious story of four siblings whose lives were changed by their parents’ decision to send them to England until the end of the war.
Jackson, a historian, says the idea for the novel came from a magazine article, which focused on children saved by foster families in the United Kingdom. Her research for the book introduced her to Sir Nicholas Winton, the “Father of the Kindertransport,” who organized the rescue of mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. He found homes for the children and safely transported them to Britain.
“Some historians don’t consider the children of the Kindertransport as victims of the Holocaust,” Jackson said. “I don’t agree. They were deeply affected and their survival has had an exponential impact on the world. I wanted to explore their lives in this book and honor their stories.”
Kindertransport is the fourth eBook for Jackson, who says she chose to self-publish and go the eBook route because she wanted to make her work available. “I decided that I wanted to get my work out there more than I wanted to wait on someone else. This is a great time to self-publish – my novel is available to everyone and I don’t have to sell it out of the trunk of the car.”
Jackson is already at work on her next novel, which takes place in Texas during the same period as Kindertransport, and focuses on Americans of German and Italian descent that were rounded up at the same time Japanese-Americans were arrested as enemy aliens.
Adrian Jackson’s Website