Britain and the Holocaust

VOLUME 16 NO.7 JULY 2016 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees Britain and the Holocaust he Wiener Library launched its what was intended to be a studiously neutral ‘many survivors and refugees had an extremely exhibition ‘Dilemmas, Choices, account of the arrival of the Jews from Europe difficult time after arriving in the UK’, though Responses: Britain and the Holocaust’ between 1933 and 1948. In a letter to the one cannot hold the British government Ton 18 April 2016. The exhibition, co-curated editor published in May 2016, one reader took solely responsible for the misery caused by with the Holocaust Educational Trust, used issue with the ‘one-sided information’ that their forced emigration and their separation material from the Library’s rich archives from home and family, let alone for their to reassess the responses of the British treatment in Nazi camps. Secondly, few government and the British public to the would dispute that certain groups of Holocaust and – of particular interest to refugees, like domestic servants, met with many of our readers – to the arrival of a particularly poor reception. Many of thousands of Jewish refugees on these the young women who came to Britain shores. It is both fascinating and chilling on domestic service visas encountered to read the correspondence between appalling conditions, as accounts like Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and the Edith Argy’s The Childhood and Teens Air Ministry in which the latter set out its of a Jewish Girl in Inter-war Austria and reasons for not bombing the installations Subsequent Adventures make graphically at Auschwitz. The contribution made clear; but British and Irish girls were by the Holocaust Educational Trust’s treated no better in British households, (HET) regional ambassadors, young nor were German and Austrian girls in people who work with survivors of Nazi households, including Jewish ones, in persecution, was a special feature of the Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia detained by Berlin or Vienna. Most of these refugees launch. After speeches of welcome from police at Croydon Airport, March 1939 remained in domestic service only for a Anthony Spiro, Chair of the Library’s short time, as almost all of them found Board of Trustees, and Karen Pollock, Chief I had provided on the British government’s other jobs once war broke out and they were Executive of the HET, there was a heartfelt role in these matters, pointing out some needed in offices and factories, contributing account by one of the young ambassadors of of its failings, with the implication that to the war effort and restoring their pride and what the experience had meant to him, and I had adopted an attitude too favourable self-esteem; not infrequently, they went on to a graceful speech in response by one of the to the government by glossing them over. lead happier lives. survivors. But another reader remarked, quite to the In the case of refugee medical practitioners, This thought-provoking and expertly contrary, on my ‘timely, if gentle, reminder the restrictions that prevented them from produced exhibition raised the familiar and that Britain has not always been a safe haven practising were demanded not by the much disputed issue of the nature of the for those fleeing persecution’. It is surprising government but by professional bodies like the reception accorded to the Jewish refugees who how quickly one-sidedness can turn into two- British Medical Association, seldom restrained fled to Britain after 1933 to escape the Nazis. sidedness when one is dealing with an area as by human sympathies from defending its Down the decades, there have been, very problematic as this. members’ interests. The dispute involving broadly speaking, two rival schools of thought: It is instructive to consider the three points junior doctors and Health Secretary Jeremy those who have seen the British government’s raised by the first of these letters. Firstly, few Hunt demonstrates the risks governments response to the plight of the Jews under would dispute the writer’s contention that run in taking on the representative bodies of Nazi rule as inadequate and ungenerous, its the medical profession. Thirdly, few people immigration policy after 1933 as restrictive, would claim that the British government and its treatment of the refugees once admitted RELOCATION OF AJR was generous in its policy of admitting Jews as unnecessarily harsh, most obviously in the HEAD OFFICE from Europe after the end of the war (see mass internment of ‘enemy aliens’ in summer my article ‘The Miliband Controversy in 1940; and, on the other side, those refugees The AJR’s Head Office has moved to Historical Perspective’ in our December 2013 who felt gratitude to Britain for taking them Winston House issue). But how long did those admitted suffer in, for resisting Hitler when the nation ‘stood 2 Dollis Park under the conditions of entrance imposed alone’ in 1940-41, and for making it possible London N3 1HF on them? I note that the writer, complaining for them to build new and fulfilled lives as The new address is close to Finchley that the British government had admitted British citizens after the war. Central Tube Station, Northern Line, her ‘only on a temporary basis’, is writing The potential for disagreement in this and is on a number of bus routes. from Swiss Cottage some 70 years later. How area emerged clearly in the responses to my The AJR’s telephone number temporary, one might ask, is ‘temporary’? front-page article (April 2016 issue) on the remains 020 8385 3070. Pre-war refugees granted temporary residence, UK Holocaust Memorial, which contained continued on page 2 journal JULY 2016 Britain and the Holocaust continued NORTHERN REGIONAL MANCHESTER Tuesday 19 July 2016 like the men from Nazi concentration camps Please join us at our annual Northern Regional Get-together admitted on transit visas and accommodated Our keynote speaker will be Mike Levy, at Kitchener Camp in Kent, were allowed to playwright, journalist and educator for the Holocaust Education Trust, stay permanently, while none of the Jewish children admitted to Britain after the war were whose subject will be ‘From Hitler to Hi-de-Hi’ ever deported abroad. This is the story of the Warner’s Camp which was used as a transit camp for the first This is, in truth, a grey area not suited to wave of Kindertransportees in December 1938 and later became the location for the black-and-white judgments. It can be argued BBC TV series ‘Hi-de-Hi’. with justice that Britain was lukewarm (and The day will include refreshments and lunch, discussion groups and musical entertainment. sometimes not even that) in its policy towards We will also have a demonstration of SPF Connect, a new project funded by Six Point Foundation the admission of Jews fleeing Nazism and to help older people get online by providing a free, easy-to-use touch-screen computer and in the reception that it extended to them. training. It’s an excellent opportunity to meet and socialise with friends old and new. Britain took in some 60,000 Jews before the For full details and an application form, please contact war, but six million perished. Plainly, it would Wendy Bott on 07908 156 365 or at [email protected] have been possible for the country to have taken more and to have treated those that it did take more hospitably – always bearing in mind that the government could not ignore AJR CARD AND GAMES CLUB public opinion, sections of which, then as Please join us at our new Card and Games Club now, were sharply hostile to the admission of on Monday 11 July at 1.00 pm immigrants, especially Jews from Germany. at North Western Reform Synagogue, But it is also true that in proportion to its Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN population and absorptive capacity, Britain Card games including Bridge, Backgammon, Scrabble – you decide. took in more Jewish refugees in the years before Games are dependent on numbers being sufficient. A sandwich lunch with tea, coffee and Danish pastries will be served on arrival. the Second World War than any other country except Palestine. Britain alone took in some 10 £7.00 per person Booking is essential – when you book please let us know your choice of game. per cent of the Jews from Germany, Austria Please call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected] and Czechoslovakia who escaped from Nazi rule before September 1939; of the 120,000 Austrian Jews who survived the Holocaust, British government introduced a visa system. about a quarter, just over 30,000, did so because This allowed the government to regulate the AJR FILM CLUB their first country of refuge was Britain. entry of refugees more systematically. Certain Please join us at This is not to claim that it was ever easy groups of refugees, like those willing to work Sha’arei Tsedek North London for Jews to gain entrance to Britain during as domestic servants, were granted visas, as Reform Synagogue, the 1930s and 1940s. Between 1933 and were those who could find someone resident 120 Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone, N20 9EZ 1938, Jews fleeing Nazism knew that if they in Britain willing to sponsor them, at a cost of on Monday 4 July 2016 at 12.30 pm sought entrance to Britain, they could be £50. Ten thousand children were admitted on refused admission by the immigration officer A lunch of smoked salmon bagels, Danish Kindertransports without visas – and without pastries and tea or coffee will be served first. at their port of arrival.

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