DOCSLIB.ORG

Susan Cohen Eleanor Rathbone

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Susan Cohen Eleanor Rathbone Susan Cohen Eleanor Rathbone: Responding to the Czech Refugee Crisis of 1938 This paper examines the response of Eleanor Rathbone MP to the plight of Czech refugees between 1938 and the outbreak of the Second World War. In the first instance it looks briefly at her background and concern for the future of Czechoslovakia and its people. It then considers her role as a campaigner, and the opposition to her activism from officials within the British government. Eleanor Rathbone MP (1872–1946) earned a reputation during her lifetime for her campaigning and humanitarian activism on behalf of refugees fleeing Europe and the threat of Fascism and Nazism before and during the Second World War. Prior to this, the last phase of her long and active career, she had gained renown for her commitment to a wide variety of welfare and social issues, as well as for her role as a suffragist, feminist and pacificist.1 In 1929 she was elected as the Independent MP for the Combined English Universities – Birmingham, Bristol, Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading and Sheffield – and the newly achieved platform of the House of Commons became the springboard for her campaigning activities.2 In March 1933 she was the first woman politician to stand up in Parliament and denounce Hitler and his regime and warn, prophetically, of the threat posed to world peace.3 From then on her concern over the future of Europe grew and foreign affairs rather than domestic issues took up most of her time and energy. As she watched the deteriorating situation in Nazi Germany she gleaned as much information as she could from her growing network of contacts at home and abroad. Her concern over the danger that Czechoslovakia faced was well established before the Munich Agreement was signed on 29 September 1938. She had visited the three countries of the Little Entente – Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia – on a Balkan tour in early 1937 and, on her return, had expressed her very strong 148 Susan Cohen views on what she saw as Britain’s responsibility to Czechoslovakia. At that time she had asked in the House of Commons, ‘whether it would be decent to abandon this country, the last free enlightened democracy left in Central Europe? Also, would it be safe?’ reminding MPs of Bismarck’s dictum that ‘he who is master of Bohemia is master of Europe’.4 At the same time she was in contact with her Czech feminist friend, Mme Frantiska Plaminkova, who was a member of the Senate of the Czechoslovak Republic. Eager to raise the profile of Czechoslovakia at home, Eleanor warned Mme Plaminkova how difficult it was to make the British public ‘recognise their duty and responsibility towards Czechoslovakia’ as it was ‘not easy as people know so little about the country’.5 By early September 1938 Eleanor was writing to Henry Wickham Steed, the journalist and political commentator, expressing her concern over the lack of initiatives being taken by the recently established Czech Association of which he was Chair.6 She was constantly being asked how the Czech case could best be publicised and sought his help. There was a possibility of getting Mr Kosina and Dr Boer, the International Secretary of the Social Democrat Trade Unions and the Social Democrat Vice-Mayor of Brno respectively, to speak whilst on their planned visit to Britain in late October.7 Divisions between those on the political left and right were an impediment and Steed’s suggestion was that a European Association be formed, with sub-committees, the first of which would be a Czech Committee.8 Against the background of a mounting crisis, Eleanor remained a proponent of collective security, and supported foreign policies that were aimed at averting war. As a pacificist, she wanted peace, but not at any price, and talk of appeasement in 1938 was beyond the pale. Far from rejoicing at Chamberlain’s settlement with Hitler, whereby Germany was granted the strategic Sudeten northern frontiers of the Czechoslovak Republic in return for Hitler’s promise not to attack the rest of the Republic and to keep the peace in the future, Eleanor viewed the Munich Agreement as a betrayal and a humanitarian disaster. It may have resolved the immediate international crisis and delayed war for the time being, but in its wake was the human tragedy that Eleanor had envisaged. Ultimately it propelled her into the campaign to pressurise the British government to face up to what she, .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Height of Its Womanhood': Women and Genderin Welsh Nationalism, 1847-1945
    'The height of its womanhood': Women and genderin Welsh nationalism, 1847-1945 Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Kreider, Jodie Alysa Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 09/10/2021 04:59:55 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280621 'THE HEIGHT OF ITS WOMANHOOD': WOMEN AND GENDER IN WELSH NATIONALISM, 1847-1945 by Jodie Alysa Kreider Copyright © Jodie Alysa Kreider 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partia' Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2004 UMI Number: 3145085 Copyright 2004 by Kreider, Jodie Alysa All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3145085 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
    [Show full text]
  • British Responses to the Holocaust
    Centre for Holocaust Education British responses to the Insert graphic here use this to Holocaust scale /size your chosen image. Delete after using. Resources RESOURCES 1: A3 COLOUR CARDS, SINGLE-SIDED SOURCE A: March 1939 © The Wiener Library Wiener The © AT FIRST SIGHT… Take a couple of minutes to look at the photograph. What can you see? You might want to think about: 1. Where was the photograph taken? Which country? 2. Who are the people in the photograph? What is their relationship to each other? 3. What is happening in the photograph? Try to back-up your ideas with some evidence from the photograph. Think about how you might answer ‘how can you tell?’ every time you make a statement from the image. SOURCE B: September 1939 ‘We and France are today, in fulfilment of our obligations, going to the aid of Poland, who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack on her people.’ © BBC Archives BBC © AT FIRST SIGHT… Take a couple of minutes to look at the photograph and the extract from the document. What can you see? You might want to think about: 1. The person speaking is British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. What is he saying, and why is he saying it at this time? 2. Does this support the belief that Britain declared war on Germany to save Jews from the Holocaust, or does it suggest other war aims? Try to back-up your ideas with some evidence from the photograph. Think about how you might answer ‘how can you tell?’ every time you make a statement from the sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Britain's Response to the Victims of the Spanish Civil War by Isabella
    4,000 Basque Child Refugees: Britain’s Response to the Victims of the Spanish Civil War Isabella Brown Department of History – Durham University March 2018 1 Contents Introduction 3 CHAPTER 1 Evacuation: The Basque Refugee Children in Southampton, May-September 1937 8 CHAPTER 2 Repatriation: The Role of The Basque Children’s Committee (BCC) 13 CHAPTER 3 The Shortcomings of the British Labour Movement 18 CHAPTER 4 The British Government: Non-Intervention and the Rejection of the Basque Child Refugees 24 Conclusion 30 Bibliography 33 List of Abbreviations BCC – Basque Children’s Committee NJCSR – National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief TUC – Trades Union Congress 2 Introduction Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday by insurgent air raiders.1 The personal account of George Steer, a reporter for The Times who witnessed the destruction of Guernica, cultural capital of the Basque region, by General Franco’s aerial bombers on 26 April 1937, shook the British nation. This merciless attack on the Basque town situated far behind military lines made British politicians fully aware of the true situation in Spain where innocent civilians were facing persecution and murder at the hands of Franco’s Nationalists. Steer’s article prompted the British government, which had maintained a policy of non- intervention from the outset of the Spanish Civil War, to finally agree to accept 4,000 Basque child refugees in May 1937. This dissertation will examine Britain’s response to the cause of the Basque child refugees, looking at why their evacuation to Britain was so problematic for the government.
    [Show full text]
  • The Eleanor Rathbone Social Justice Lecture, February 2016) Susan Pedersen
    Women and the Quest for Equal Citizenship (The Eleanor Rathbone Social Justice lecture, February 2016) Susan Pedersen Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today. It is a privilege to reflect on the work and thought of Eleanor Rathbone, especially in Liverpool. One might think that the city of Liverpool owes Rathbone a good deal – after all her family helped to found the Anti-Slavery Society and the Central Relief Society, district nursing and the School of Social Work, Liverpool University, and the Walker Art Gallery. But that isn’t how Eleanor Rathbone saw it. As she wrote to a friend in 1919, she thought her relationship to Liverpool “one sided”: the city had given her wealth and position; she needed to do more, much more, to give back. I think right there we see something critically important about Rathbone, which is that she didn’t equate wealth with moral virtue. Hang on to that thought, if you would, because I’m going to come back to it. Now Rathbone did of course “give back” – not just to her city, but to all of us. She did this through some fifty years of ceaseless feminist, humanitarian and political work. She had a share in, or was the architect of, a host of important feminist reforms, from women’s suffrage to widows pensions to family allowances, but her extra- parliamentary campaigns also touched countless individuals lives, from Liverpool children given a better start to refugees from fascism who found her always willing to battle the Home Office for one more visa, one more exception.
    [Show full text]
  • Britain and Rescue: Government Policy and the Jewish Refugees 1942-1943
    Citation: Packer, Diana (2017) Britain and rescue: Government policy and the Jewish refugees 1942-1943. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/36287/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html BRITAIN AND RESCUE: GOVERNMENT POLICY AND THE JEWISH REFUGEES 1942-1943 DIANA JOAN PACKER PHD 2017 BRITAIN AND RESCUE: GOVERNMENT POLICY AND THE JEWISH REFUGEES 1942-1943 DIANA JOAN PACKER A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences OCTOBER 2017 Abstract. This thesis is an analysis of the initial responses of the British government to the Holocaust focusing on refugee policy. In particular, it seeks to re-examine the role of anti- Semitism as an influencing factor on government decision-making and argues that current historiography underplays that influence.
    [Show full text]
  • Shaping the Inheritance of the Spanish Civil War on the British Left, 1939-1945 a Thesis Submitted to the University of Manches
    Shaping the Inheritance of the Spanish Civil War on the British Left, 1939-1945 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Master of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 David W. Mottram School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Table of contents Abstract p.4 Declaration p.5 Copyright statement p.5 Acknowledgements p.6 Introduction p.7 Terminology, sources and methods p.10 Structure of the thesis p.14 Chapter One The Lost War p.16 1.1 The place of ‘Spain’ in British politics p.17 1.2 Viewing ‘Spain’ through external perspectives p.21 1.3 The dispersal, 1939 p.26 Conclusion p.31 Chapter Two Adjustments to the Lost War p.33 2.1 The Communist Party and the International Brigaders: debt of honour p.34 2.2 Labour’s response: ‘The Spanish agitation had become history’ p.43 2.3 Decline in public and political discourse p.48 2.4 The political parties: three Spanish threads p.53 2.5 The personal price of the lost war p.59 Conclusion p.67 2 Chapter Three The lessons of ‘Spain’: Tom Wintringham, guerrilla fighting, and the British war effort p.69 3.1 Wintringham’s opportunity, 1937-1940 p.71 3.2 ‘The British Left’s best-known military expert’ p.75 3.3 Platform for influence p.79 3.4 Defending Britain, 1940-41 p.82 3.5 India, 1942 p.94 3.6 European liberation, 1941-1944 p.98 Conclusion p.104 Chapter Four The political and humanitarian response of Clement Attlee p.105 4.1 Attlee and policy on Spain p.107 4.2 Attlee and the Spanish Republican diaspora p.113 4.3 The signal was Greece p.119 Conclusion p.125 Conclusion p.127 Bibliography p.133 49,910 words 3 Abstract Complexities and divisions over British left-wing responses to the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939 have been well-documented and much studied.
    [Show full text]
  • Eleanor Rathbone, the Women Churchillians and Anti-Appeasement
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by White Rose Research Online This is a repository copy of Eleanor Rathbone, the Women Churchillians and Anti-Appeasement. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/111408/ Version: Published Version Article: Gottlieb, J.V. (2016) Eleanor Rathbone, the Women Churchillians and Anti-Appeasement. Women's History: The Journal of the Women's History Network, 2 (6). pp. 15-18. ISSN 2059-0156 Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Eleanor Rathbone, the Women Churchillians and Anti-Appeasement Julie V. Gottlieb University of Sheffield his article examines Eleanor Rathbone’s transition from is contested by the mobilisation of women for anti-fascist domestic, feminist and welfare issues to international afairs campaigns and women’s own searching confessions and by the mid- to late-1930s. It explores her teamwork with other expressions.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Notes Introduction 1. Guardian, 17 June 1999 – John Hutton, the health minister, was quoted as saying there should be ‘radical improvements in adoption services. We will not hesitate to take the necessary action in the future to ensure that looked-after children do not become the innocent victims of misplaced theory or ideology’. And a prospective adopter wrote to the Evening Standard, 4 September 2003: ‘No first-time natural parent on this planet is, or will ever be, examined and intrusively checked on their parenting capability, as adopters are.’ 2. Jenny Keating, ‘Struggle for Identity: Issues Underlying the Enactment of the 1926 Adoption of Children Act’, University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History, issue 3 (2001), http://www.sussex.ac.uk/history/documents/3._ keating_struggle_for_identity.pdf. 3. They could apply to see their original birth certificate when they reached the age of majority but a court order was necessary. During this period very few legally adopted children would have reached the age of majority except for a few whose de facto adoptions were made official by the 1926 Adoption Act. 4. See Chapter 6. 5. Murray Ryburn, ‘Secrecy and Openness in Adoption: An Historical Perspective’, Social Policy and Administration, vol. 29, no. 2 (June 1995), pp. 151–68. 6. Ibid., op. cit., p. 166. 7. See Erica Haimes and Noel Timms, ‘Access to Birth Records and Counselling of Adopted Persons Under Section 26 of the Children Act, 1975’, Final Report to the DHSS (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, May 1983); John P. Triseliotis, ‘Obtaining Birth Certificates’, in Philip Bean (ed.), Adoption: Essays in Social Policy, Law and Sociology (London: Tavistock Publications, 1984).
    [Show full text]
  • The Journal of the Women's History Network Autumn 2016
    Women’s History The journal of the Women’s History Network Special issue: Remembering Eleanor Rathbone (1872-1946) Autumn 2016 Articles by Susan Cohen, Pat Thane, Sumita Mukherjee, Julie V. Gottlieb, Anne Logan Plus Twelve book reviews Getting to know each other Conference Reports Volume 2 Issue 6 ISSN 2059-0164 www.womenshistorynetwork.org Image Credit: The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Zurich, from LSE Library’s collections, WILPF/22/1. Women’s History Network Annual Conference, 2017 WOMEN AND THE WIDER WORLD Friday 1 September – Saturday 2 September 2017 University of Birmingham In September 2017, the University of Birmingham will be hosting the 26th annual Women’s History Network conference on the theme of Women and the Wider World. Further information about the conference and the Call for Papers will be advertised shortly. Conference organised by Laura Beers ([email protected]) and Zoe Thomas Editorial elcome to the Autumn 2016 issue of Women’s History, fortunate than yourself.1 A strong, but lapsed, Quaker heritage Wthe journal of the Women’s History Network. With this was influential and she learnt by example. Her father was a special issue, guest edited by Susan Cohen, we are in celebratory philanthropist and a pioneering social and welfare reformer, mood: we are both commemorating the 70th anniversary of responsible for, amongst other innovations, establishing Eleanor Rathbone and also reflecting on the very successful district nursing as a profession with a scheme that trained 25th WHN annual conference, hosted in September by Leeds nurses to treat the sick poor in their own homes.2 Responsible Trinity University.
    [Show full text]
  • To What Extent Was the Relationship Between Feminists and the Eugenics Movement a •Ÿmarriage of Convenienceâ•Ž in the I
    Journal of International Women's Studies Volume 11 Issue 3 Winning and Short-listed Entries from the Article 6 2007 Feminist and Women’s Studies Association Annual Student Essay Competition Sep-2009 To What Extent was the Relationship Between Feminists and the Eugenics Movement a ‘Marriage of Convenience’ in the Interwar Years? Clare Makepeace Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Makepeace, Clare (2009). To What Extent was the Relationship Between Feminists and the Eugenics Movement a ‘Marriage of Convenience’ in the Interwar Years?. Journal of International Women's Studies, 11(3), 66-80. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol11/iss3/6 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2009 Journal of International Women’s Studies. To what extent was the relationship between feminists and the eugenics movement a ‘marriage of convenience’ in the interwar years? By Clare Makepeace1 Abstract This article extends and questions historians’ recent inquiry into feminists’ relationship with the eugenics movement. It compares the work of three leading feminists – Eleanor Rathbone, Eva Hubback and Mary Stocks – with that of the Eugenics Society by focusing on the interwar campaigns of family allowances, birth control and voluntary sterilisation. Drawing upon National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship annual reports, personal correspondence and published articles, it challenges historians’ assumptions that Rathbone and Stocks courted eugenic support; instead it exposes the pragmatism of an ailing eugenics movement.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in the British Army, 1939-45
    Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in the British Army, 1939-45 By Steven Kern BA (Derby), MA (Sheffield) Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2004 Contents Abstract 111 Acknowledgements v Abbreviations VI Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Living Under the Nazi Regime in Germany and Austria, 1933-39 14 Chapter 2 The Refugees' Civilian Experiences in Britain (1) Before the Advent of War, 1933-39 42 (2) The War Years, 1939-41 60 Chapter 3 Refugees and Religion in the British Army, 1939-45 83 Chapter 4 Frustration in the Pioneer Corps, 1939-43 125 Chapter 5 Suspicion of the Refugee Soldiers, 1939-43 162 Chapter 6 Changing Names and Identity Papers, 1943-45 185 Chapter 7 Opportunities for N aturalisation, 1939-1945 213 Chapter 8 Relationships with the British Troops (1) Anti-Alienism in the British Army, 1939-45 235 (2) Anti-Semitism in the British Army, 1939-45 269 Conclusion 279 Bibliography 288 Appendix 317 111 Abstract This thesis fills a significant gap in secondary literature on the role of Jewish refugee soldiers from Germany and Austria, who served in the British army during the Second World War, 1939-45. It goes further than any previous specialised works in this area by examining the social issues surrounding the refugee soldier's experiences in the army, such as their relationship with British soldiers and their personal attitudes towards the policies of the War Office. There are few surviving documentary sources specifically detailing the service of refugees. To compensate this there has been an emphasis on the gathering of oral testimonies.
    [Show full text]
  • Heseltine Institute Working Paper
    Heseltine Institute Working Paper Universal Basic Income as emergency measure and enduring reform Dr Matthew Thompson Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place May 2020 Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 2 An emergency response to crisis ............................................................................................................ 4 Plugging the gaps in welfare ........................................................................................................... 5 Revaluing and transforming work ................................................................................................... 6 Helicopter money to the rescue? ................................................................................................... 6 A modern debt jubilee .................................................................................................................... 7 So what’s the big idea? ........................................................................................................................... 9 The Automation theorists ............................................................................................................... 9 The Egalitarian mainstream ............................................................................................................ 9 Neoliberal ‘negative income tax’ .................................................................................................
    [Show full text]