Title:TRANSPORT OF POLISH, CZECHOSLOVAK AND HUNGARIAN CHILD REFUGEES FROM PRAGUE TO ENGLAND [Allocated Title]
Film Number:ARY 172
Other titles:
Summary: A group of children (originally described by the British cameraman as "Czech orphans", or children separated from their parents by the war, with ages ranging from 3 to 14 years who have spent time in concentration camps) are sent from Czechoslovakia to England for resettlement under a scheme for Displaced Persons (DPs) organised by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).
Description: Teenage boys assemble at the rear entrance of a RAF Transport Command Stirling aircraft, parked on Ruzyne airfield, Prague. CU of the boys climbing into the aircraft. Shots from inside the aircraft as the boys climb in - all smile at the camera as they are helped aboard. Inside the aircraft, the boys are seen sitting on the floor of the aircraft either side of the fuselage. Outside, a group of boys, sitting on suitcases, wave at the aircraft as its engines start up and it taxis away (other Stirlings are seen in line behind taxiing at the same time).
Boys, carrying suitcases across grass and onto a runway, pass under the wing of a C47 (?) aircraft and walk towards the camera smiling. A C47 transport aircraft is seen in the background (different location -possibly showing arrival in the UK at RAF Crosby-on-Eden, Cumbria?).
Ruzyne airport building seen from the runway, with a large banner written in Czech hanging across the front of it. The camera pans rapidly to a large group of boys and girls (some quite young) with suitcases, gathered together with UNRRA representatives on the runway. CU of some very young children (3 - 8 years old?).
The scene reverts to the earlier one of the children boarding the Stirling. A very young girl (looking very unhappy) is carried onto the aircraft by a teenage girl (others are gathered round the door). A line of Stirling aircraft are seen parked on the runway. An electrically powered trolley carries three boys and a number of suitcases towards the line of parked Stirlings (shrouded Spitfires are seen parked opposite).
Older children are escorted out from the airport building towards the aircraft. CU of an elderly man and woman sitting on suitcases with two young boys (one has his jacket draped over his head). Uniformed adults and civilians usher older boys towards the aircraft.