A PEER who was a refugee from the nazis has called on the government to show “more humanity and intelligence” towards child refugees than was shown by the Chamberlain government as World War II approached.

Lord Alf Dubs came to Britain from Czechoslovakia as part of the 1938-39 Kindertransport campaign to get Jewish children out of fascist countries, led by Sir Nicholas Winton.

In a letter delivered to Downing Street, also signed by actors Vanessa Redgrave and Aislin McGuckin, Lord Dubs requested Theresa May’s “urgent intervention” in reuniting children living in the Calais camp with their families in Britain.

They said post-Brexit Britain offered an opportunity for politicians to make progress with the refugee crisis.

Charity Citizens UK says 170 children in Calais have “a right to relocate to Britain in order to reunite with their families.”

“If the rights of these children are not upheld they are left with an appalling choice between train tracks on the one hand, and the very traffickers you have challenged every step of your career since you became Home Secretary in 2010,” the letter states.

“I deeply hope that your government may show more humanity and intelligence than the Chamberlain government showed to the Jewish people until after Kristallnacht in mid-November 1938,” said Lord Dubs, referring to the Nazi Party’s infamous attack on Jewish people. shops and synagogues.

“I’m convinced that British people have got this humanitarian wish that these children should be here. We can give some of them, at least, safety in this country.”

Lord Dubs was six when the nazis invaded Czechoslovakia.