Eva Paddock and Holocaust Memorial Commemorations

As part of our school’s Holocaust Memorial Commemorations, we were delighted to welcome Eva Paddock to visit our school via Zoom on Wednesday 22nd January 2025 in the Library.

Our student archivists group discovered that Eva was one of the children who escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia on the Kindertransport in 1939 aged just three-and-a-half and also amazingly came to Balshaw’s after the war from 1947-1954.

Students had the chance to ask Eva questions not only about her memories about travelling on the Kindertransport, but also about her life at Balshaw’s and beyond. We recorded the Zoom meeting and interview for our school website archive and you can listen here.

We will be welcoming Eva in person in Autumn back to Balshaw's which all the students are excited about. Her sister Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines was also on that Kindertransport aged 9 and still lives in Preston.

Eva was at the Guild Hall commemoration in London with the Prince and Princess of Wales on Holocaust Memorial Day, Monday 27th January which was televised. Our students are immensely proud of our school's role as a School of Sanctuary welcoming refugees and Eva's arrival to us after the war just shows that Balshaw's has always been a School of Sanctuary.

You can read more about Eva in the document below:

Eva Paddock