"I’m doing this to honour my parents," said Paul Alexander, who was one of the youngest children saved from the Nazis by the Kindertransport. He starts to cry. "What my mother did was of course quite incredible."

The 80-year-old is about to be among 42 riders who will cycle 600 miles from Berlin to London, in an event organised by World Jewish Relief to mark eight decades since the effort to take nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish children to Britain on the eve of war.

He was one year, seven months and 12 days old when his "courageous" mother Eva Minikes put her only child onto the train from Leipzig, in the care of a volunteer nurse, and he arrived in Britain on July 14, 1939.

Speaking to the JC from Israel, where he now lives, Mr Alexander called her decision an "absolutely amazing thing". She had no idea whether she would ever see her son again.

Before Mr Alexander was sent away, his father Alfons was arrested during Kristallnacht in 1938 and imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp.

"She must have known what was coming and thought that giving me away was the best thing to do to give me a chance to live," he said.

With the help of a British friend, Eva Minikes obtained a visa in late August 1939 and bought a plane ticket but was turned away at the airport.

She then bought a first class train ticket and pretended to be a wealthy lady visiting the UK. She arrived in Britain a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Alfons was released from Buchenwald and brought to Kitchener Camp in Kent, a holding ground for refugees from the Nazis, which he described as "‘a kindergarten after Buchenwald". He arrived in Britain 13 days after his son.

But when war broke out in September, the British deemed him an ‘enemy alien’ and interned him. He was released in November 1940 to join the British army.

Mr Alexander was raised by another family for three years, whom, to his sadness, he has never been able to trace.

He was reunited with his parents in 1943, when they were evacuated to Leeds to escape the bombing in London. "It was only then we started living a normal family life," he said.

He was lucky. More than half of Kindertransport children never saw their parents again.

After qualifying as a lawyer after the war, he moved to London to work and took the surname Alexander. He met his wife, Nili, who was of Israeli heritage, there. They both decided to make Aliyah and moved to Israel in June 1971.

He described the upcoming cycle ride as "a very exciting and very emotional adventure. It’s quite awesome, absolutely unique", adding: "Please God, I’ll get through it ok".

Some of the riders are the children and grandchildren of Kindertransport refugees. Mr Alexander is looking forward to meeting 92-year-old Harry Bibring, who was a teen when he came to Britain with the Kindertransport and will be joining the last mile of the ride to tandem cycle with his 62-year-old son Michael.

They will set off from the German capital on Sunday and aim to arrive in London by Friday.

"I look at it as a victory ride. I’m commemorating it. My children are commemorating it. At the end of the day my Kindertransport experience was a happy one," Mr Alexander said.

"Commemorating this ride from the terror and horror of Nazi Germany to freedom and safety in England with my son and grandson is a very meaningful, emotional and poignant experience."

Mr Alexander's son now has a little boy who is the same age as his grandfather was when he was sent away without his parents on the Kindertransport.

"When my son thinks about his father being put into the hands of a volunteer nurse, he thinks 'how did she do it?", Mr Alexander said.