Barbara Barnett

Barbara Barnett was born in 1924 to a Jewish family, part Sephardi, part Ashkenazi, established for at least five generations in London. During the Second World War she was evacuated to Canada, and on her return became a member of The ‘45 Aid Society. This was the first group of child survivors of the Holocaust admitted by the British Goverment into the care of the Jewish Community.

Barbara qualified as a social worker specialising in child welfare at LSE in 1948, and later became a Senior Lecturer in social work training. She set up and directed a new service ‘A Home for Every Child’, Bayit Lecol Yeled, in Jerusalem, and recorded it in an M.Phil. for Brunel University in 1980.

Through her connection with The ‘45 Aid Society, Barbara was invited to attend the 50 year reunion of a group of child refugees from Slovakia who had been taken to Ireland in 1948. She suggested they write about their experiences to exchange with each other, and several contributed - this was to develop into the publication of The Hide-and-Seek Children.

"Someone asked if I was going to publish their stories. That led me, after the reunion, on a lengthy process to trace more of the original group and collect their stories. Some I interviewed, some wrote their own accounts. Others found it too painful a task, opted out or told only of post-war experiences. I refrained from questioning any of their reminiscences.”

Since then more of the children have contacted Barbara with updates and with their stories. She has recently finished the editing of the second edition with the help of her daughter Celia and the designers MinaLima.