On a bike, ex-child refugee retraces escape from Nazi Germany

Paul Alexander was just a toddler when his mother handed him to a volunteer nurse on a train leaving Nazi Germany in 1939.

Now 81, the former refugee child on Sunday began retracing that journey to freedom -- but this time by bicycle as part of a commemorative ride to pay tribute to the Kindertransport scheme that saved him and thousands of Jewish children eight decades ago.

"I did this journey 79 years ago when I came out from the hatred of Nazi Germany to the safety in England," he told AFP, adding that "it's extremely exciting and emotional to do this journey again after such a long time."
"The thought that came to my head is that this is my answer to Hitler, to sort of prove to myself, to show the world and to express my thanks for succeeding in life and being a happy married man with a family."
"Tens of thousands of people would not be alive today were it not for their heroism back then."