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University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES History Contesting Memory: New Perspectives on the Kindertransport by Jennifer Craig-Norton Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2014 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES History Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy CONTESTING MEMORY: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE KINDERTRANSPORT Jennifer Craig-Norton The Kindertransport – the government facilitated but privately funded movement that brought 10,000 unaccompanied mostly Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland to the UK by 1940 – has been celebrated as a humanitarian act of rescue by the British government and people. The existing literature on the movement has been dominated by a reductionist and redemptive narrative emphasising the children’s survival, minimising their less positive experiences and outcomes and erasing the parents from the story. The administrative details of the programme centred on the Refugee Children’s Movement have been well covered in existing academic studies that have utilised publicly available archival records, but the examination of Kindertransportees’ experiences in the UK has depended almost entirely upon the memoirs and testimonies of former child refugees, largely because of restrictions on their after-care records. Archival gaps and the extensive use of Kinder memory have resulted in a historiography that has not adequately addressed the complexity and range of the children’s experiences. This study challenges the dominant memory of the Kindertransport using newly discovered archival sources. The case files of more than 100 German-born children who were brought to England from Poland are the basis for an investigation of both the particularities of their lives and the universalities of their experiences to the Kindertransport as a whole. The perspectives of the major Kindertransport actors – the refugee organisations, the everyday carers, the children and their parents – inform this analysis, contributing new insights on their interactions, motivations, attitudes and actions. Particular attention is paid to issues of religion, agency, gender, identity and writing the parents back into the Kindertransport narrative. In addition to contesting the memory of the Kindertransport, the documentation facilitates a critical investigation of Kinder memory. Using both recorded testimony from this group of Kinder and interviews with many of the still-living Kinder and their families, Kinder memory and archival documentation are interrogated, resulting in a synthesis that challenges both sources and produces new understandings of the Kindertransport and its legacies. i ii Contents ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... iii DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP .......................................................................... v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ vii Definitions and Abbreviations ....................................................................................... 1 Manuscript Notes and Photographic Information ....................................................... 3 Introduction: .................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1:The Organisations ...................................................................................... 31 I. Kindertransport Organisations: From Conception to Cooperation ................... 34 II. The Organisations and Religion .......................................................................... 56 III. The Kinder and the Organisations ..................................................................... 72 IV. The Organisations: New Perspectives ............................................................... 91 Chapter 2:The Carers ................................................................................................... 95 I. Voluntary Foster Carers ....................................................................................... 98 II. Fostering the Children of Relatives ................................................................... 136 III. Evacuation Foster Carers ................................................................................. 142 IV. Local Refugee Workers ..................................................................................... 151 V. Hostel Matrons and Managers .......................................................................... 157 VI. Teachers ............................................................................................................. 162 VII. Everyday Carers: New Perspectives .............................................................. 170 Chapter 3:The Children ............................................................................................. 173 I. Dependence and Agency ...................................................................................... 175 II. Identity ................................................................................................................. 209 III. The Children: New Perspectives..……………………………………………233 iii Chapter 4: The Parents ............................................................................................. 235 I. December 1938-August 1939 ............................................................................... 240 II. Wartime Letters .................................................................................................. 270 III. Refugees and Survivors .................................................................................... 290 IV. The Parents: New Perspectives ........................................................................ 297 Contesting Memory..................................................................................................... 299 Picture Credits............................................................................................................. 303 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 307 iv DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Jennifer Craig-Norton declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. Contesting Memory: New Perspectives on the Kindertransport I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. None of this work has been published before submission. Signed: ............................................................................................................................................. Date: ................................................................................................................................................. v vi Acknowledgements This project has brought me into contact with a very large number of people around the globe, all of whom deserve thanks and appreciation. Foremost, my profound gratitude to the many former Kinder and their families who have shared their personal and often painful stories, opened their homes and lent precious documents to me. In particular, I must express my deepest gratitude to Herbert Haberberg, who graciously and over many cups of tea answered all my questions, lent me his parents’ letters and allowed his life story to scaffold my narrative. My deepest gratitude to the former Kinder I met: Henry Alpern, DB, Gerald Lieder, Rebecka Krenzler Scherer and Grete Dukat Sole, and to those with whom I spoke or wrote: YH, Gerd Korman, Manfred Lindenbaum and Fannie Obst. All have been unfailingly generous in sharing their stories with me, and their contributions have been invaluable. Special thanks to Deborah Clements and Helen