1646 AJR Journal May 2010.Indd

VOLAJRUME JOURNAL 0 NO.5 MAY 200 Friends of the ‘enemy aliens’ n all the many obituaries, tributes and Nazism, as was Pressburger) and the other articles in the media devoted young Deborah Kerr. Ito Michael Foot since his death on Low had long been a committed 3 March 2010, hardly any mention has anti-Fascist and an advocate of a more been made of his forthright support robust stance towards Nazi Germany of the refugees from Hitler who were than Chamberlain’s ill-fated policy of interned by the British government in the appeasement. His most famous cartoon early summer of 1940. Though Foot was appeared in the Evening Standard in barely 27 years old at the time, he was a response to the signing on 23 August 1939 prominent feature writer for the London of the pact between Hitler and Stalin, one Evening Standard, thanks to the patronage of the great diplomatic surprise packets of the paper’s owner, Lord Beaverbrook, of modern times, which signalled the who appointed him editor of the paper imminent outbreak of the Second World in 1942. On 23 July 1940, Foot wrote a War and sounded the final death knell for trenchant article attacking the stupidity appeasement. Entitled ‘Rendezvous’, the and injustice of the internment of the cartoon depicts Hitler and Stalin greeting refugees from Nazism, who had every each other with much bowing and reason to hate Hitler and to rally to the scraping over the corpse of a murdered Allied cause. ‘Why not lock up General de Michael Foot, 1913 – 2010 Poland, the pact’s most obvious victim. Gaulle?’, he concluded caustically. this was followed a few days later by ‘The scum of the earth, I believe?’, As is well known, Jewish refugees the internment of men classed by the intones Hitler by way of greeting to his from Germany and Austria fleeing racial tribunals as Category B. On 25 June, fellow dictator, while Stalin responds persecution formed the great majority of the government ordered the internment with the endearing words ‘The bloody those interned, though the detainees also of men in Category C, which entailed assassin of the workers, I presume?’ included non-Jewish political refugees, the rounding up of around 13,000 more Both men carry concealed weapons, as well as Italians and people of other refugees. Some 4,000 women were also and the transparent insincerity of their nationalities suspected of sympathy for detained, before the policy of internment protestations of friendship highlights the the Axis powers. When Britain declared was abandoned. During July 1940, that cynical Realpolitik behind the pact. war on Germany on 3 September 1939, policy was comprehensively discredited Low’s opposition to Fascism, and the Jewish refugees of German nationality in the eyes of the public by events like the his aversion to Stalinist Communism, (who included Austrians after Austria’s sinking of the liner Arandora Star, which was fuelled by an instinctive sense of incorporation into Germany) perforce was carrying internees to Canada, by a justice and a strong feeling of sympathy became ‘enemy aliens’. At first, the German U-boat, with heavy loss of life. for its victims. He too did not remain government took no action against them, Contributors to the Evening Standard, inactive in the face of the internment of beyond having them appear before alongside Michael Foot, included the the innocent and defenceless ‘enemy tribunals that assessed the degree of risk great cartoonist David Low, born in New aliens’. The Evening Standard of 19 July they posed to Britain; the overwhelming Zealand and creator of such unforgettable 1940 carried a cartoon by him, divided majority of them were allocated to figures as the dyspeptic and reactionary into two parts by strands of barbed wire. Category C, indicating that they posed Colonel Blimp and the image of the To the left, behind the wire, stand the no danger. stolidly unadventurous Trades Union disconsolate internees, sober, reflective With the Nazi invasion of France and Congress as a carthorse. Blimp was to and sometimes bespectacled men with the Low Countries in May 1940, however, undergo an unexpected transformation in the dark suits and intellectual air that government policy changed, in response Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s characterised the refugees from Hitler in to an increasingly vociferous press unforgettable film The Life and Death the public mind; forlornly, they gaze out campaign that demanded the immediate of Colonel Blimp (1943), where the across the wire towards the freedom of internment of all refugees in the light inimitable Roger Livesey portrayed the which they have been incomprehensibly of Britain’s perilous military position. In reluctant conversion of the old warrior to deprived. The injustice and idiocy of May 1940, male ‘enemy aliens’ living in modern methods of prosecuting the war their internment as supposed enemies of designated ‘protected areas’ on coasts against Hitler, with the able assistance of Britain is underlined by Low’s description exposed to invasion were interned; Anton Walbrook (himself a refugee from continued overleaf AJR JOURNAL MAY 200 friends of the ‘enemy aliens’ continued from page 1 ANNUAL GENERAL of them as ‘German & Italian enemies of conscience. MEETING Nazism and Fascism’. The Conservative MP for Chippenham, of To the right, outside the wire, appear Major Victor Cazalet, was another out- THE ASSOCIATION OF a number of manic-looking figures who spoken critic of internment; in the House of JEWISH REFUGEES march around in a demented parody of Commons, Cazalet memorably described THURSDAY 17 JUNE 2010 right-wing militarism; Low calls them ‘our internment as ‘a bespattered page of our 11.00 AM own total-minded Little Hitlers’. Clad in history’, thus providing Ronald Stent, a at the Paul Balint AJR Centre trench coats and bowler hats or black top refugee and internee, with the title of his 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 hats and black jackets, they sport placards important study of internment (1980). Lunch, if required, £6 payable in advance bearing such slogans as ‘suppress the But Cazalet came from a very different Agenda press’ and ‘death for fool talk’. One man, political background to Wedgwood; at the Annual Report 2009 Hon. Treasurer’s Report with the regulation clipped military-style time of the Spanish Civil War, he had been Discussion moustache, squats down to squint at the a strong supporter of General Franco, Election of Committee of Management internees through the lower strands of the though he swung behind Churchill in his All questions for the chair should be submitted by Tuesday 1 June to the wire, for all the world like a dog snarling at uncompromising stance against Hitler. In Head of Administration at Jubilee House, its prey. There is even a woman, with the 1938 he had visited Vienna, where he was Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, mountainous bosom and the flat, pill-box moved to action by the desperate situation Middx. HA7 4RL. hat that bespeak the right-wing patriotic ELECTION OF COMMITTEE OF of the Jews trapped there by the Anschluss. MANAGEMENT fanatic, who carries a placard demanding Cazalet died in 1943, in the aircraft crash The following members will be ‘lock up all foreigners’. In the left-hand in Gibraltar that also claimed the life of the proposed for election or re-election to the Committee at the AGM bottom corner of the cartoon, a small girl Polish leader General Sikorski. on Thursday 17 June 2010: looks on in bewilderment. She asks the Commander Oliver Locker-Lamp- Mr A C Kaufman, Chairman, Mr W D Rothenberg, adult accompanying her ‘Which are the son, Conservative MP for Birmingham Vice Chairman & Hon. Treasurer, Mrs E S dangerous ones we have to keep behind Angel, Secretary*, Mr C W Dunston, Trustee*, Handsworth, invited Albert Einstein to Mrs D Franklin, Trustee, Mrs G R Glassman, barbed-wire, uncle?’ Britain in September 1933, following the Trustee*, Ms Karen Goodman, Mrs J Millan, The remarkable change in public Nazi takeover of power in Germany; this Mr E Reich, Mr A Spiro, Mr Tim Schwarz opinion towards the internment of ‘enemy enabled Einstein to make a memorable *Committee members retiring by rotation and being proposed for re-election aliens’ that occurred in July/August 1940 speech at an event held at the Royal Albert Anyone wishing to propose any other was largely the achievement of the friends Hall in support of Jewish academics per- member for election as Hon Officer, Trustee, of the refugees in Parliament and the secuted by the Nazis. Locker-Lampson or Committee member must submit to AJR’s Head of Administration such a proposal media. Under wartime conditions, and was at first sight an improbable ally of signed by ten members qualified to vote at especially in the emergency situation of the refugees: he was an outspoken enemy the meeting and with the signed agreement summer 1940, it was far from easy for of ‘Bolshevism’ and a staunchly right- of the person being proposed no later than 1 June. pressure from outside government to wing advocate of ‘cleaning out the Reds’. effect a change in official policy towards Nevertheless, he intervened repeatedly a little-regarded group like the refugees in Parliament to press the cause of the ARTS AND EVENTS DIARY from Hitler. But there were in the House refugees; it speaks for his humanity that MAY of Commons a number of determined on 25 July 1940 he questioned the Home supporters of the refugees bent on righting Secretary, Sir John Anderson, over the Mon 3 No lecture Bank Holiday the glaring injustice of internment. Pride case of Professor Fritz Mayer, a refugee Club 43 of place among these fighters for justice who had committed suicide when the Mon 10 Bill Tyler, ‘The Inca Trail (with and liberty must go to Eleanor Rathbone, police arrived to detain him.

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