Ajr Film Club

VOLUME 17 NO.12 DECEMBER 2017 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees Land of Hope THANKING ALL As 2017 draws to a close the AJR’s latest activities have included services and Glory? PART 2 to commemorate Kristallnacht and two separate receptions to thank the Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 radically hundreds of volunteers who give up their time each year to help AJR altered the situation of the Jewish refugees from Nazism in Britain. members. But, as with the pre-war period of settlement discussed in last month’s These are covered in this issue, along article, it is not easy to arrive at a straightforward balance between with our regular blend of news, the positive and negative aspects of that wartime experience. articles, culture and testimony. We also introduce a new regular feature – The initial effect of the outbreak of war The British government, not wishing to the debate of the month – and sadly on the Jewish refugees was severe. repeat the mistakes of the indiscriminate announce the forthcoming retirement Those who had held German or Austrian internment of ‘enemy aliens’ during the of our Consultant Editor. nationality – though not Czech or Polish First World War, required all refugees – automatically became ‘enemy aliens’ to appear before tribunals, to assess the We wish all our readers Chanukah in the eyes of the British authorities. Continued on page 2 Sameach. National Memorial Chosen........................... 2 Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 .................... 3 A One-Boy Kindertransport.......................... 4 News ....................................................5 & 20 Letters to the Editor ................................6 & 7 Art Notes...................................................... 8 Reviews ..............................................10 & 11 Another visit to Poland ............................... 12 Letter from Israel ........................................ 13 Around the AJR ..................................14 & 15 Parliament welcomes AJR volunteers ......... 16 Looking for................................................. 17 Obituaries .................................................. 18 Adverts ....................................................... 19 AJR Team Chief Executive Michael Newman Finance Director David Kaye Heads of Department HR & Administration Karen Markham Social Services Sue Kurlander Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart AJR Journal This illustration is by Paul Humpoletz whose father was one of some 27,000 German, Editor Jo Briggs Consultant Editor Dr Anthony Grenville Austrian and Italian nationals interned as “enemy aliens” during WW2 in camps scattered Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira across Britain, with the majority on the Isle of Man. 1 AJR Journal | December 2017 Land of Hope and Glory? The inhumanity of detaining so many as potential German agents, sometimes refugees from Germany and Austria was in close proximity to German internees Part 2 cont. compounded by the inefficiency with who were genuine Nazis. The ignorance level of security risk that they might pose. which the measure was implemented and indifference of the British authorities, The vast majority of the Jewish refugees and the incompetence with which, who initially failed to differentiate properly were placed in Category C, as ‘victims once under way, it was administered. between Nazi sympathisers and Jewish of Nazi oppression’ who posed no Numerous accounts by interned refugees refugees, arguably caused the refugees threat to Britain; they were not interned, have highlighted the deficiencies in such more anguish than any shortcomings in though they became subject to certain basic necessities as food, bedding or their physical conditions. restrictions. However, the refugees now sanitary facilities: eloquent examples are faced the stigma of being regarded as the composer Hans Gál’s description of The detention of boys of sixteen, parted ‘Germans’; consequently, many refugees conditions at the Donaldson Hospital in abruptly from their families or arrested abruptly lost their jobs. Edinburgh, the classicist Paul Jacobsthal’s at their schools, and of men in their grim picture of ‘dark satanic’ Warth Mills, sixties in poor physical condition gave the Worse was to follow. The government a temporary camp in Bury, Lancashire, appearance of utter callousness. When the came under mounting pressure from the or the literary biographer Richard government reversed its policy of detaining security services, the right-wing press and Friedenthal’s memories of living under refugees, following the sinking of the other groups suspicious of the refugees canvas at Prees Heath in Shropshire. Arandora Star in July 1940, it instituted from Nazism, to detain the ‘enemy Conditions improved once the internees complex and unpredictable procedures aliens’. In May 1940, in the panic that reached the camps on the Isle of Man for the release of those interned; lacking accompanied the occupation of France but even there the inmates suffered in any semblance of logic or equity, these and the Low Countries by the Germans, cramped, confined accommodation in merely added to the psychological strain Winston Churchill, newly appointed Prime requisitioned boarding houses. on those languishing in internment camps. Minister, gave the notorious order to The internees were released over a period ‘collar the lot’. This led to the internment The physical conditions were, however, covering the second half of 1940 and the of over 25,000 innocent refugees, not the principal cause for complaint. early months of 1941. Internment marked including some 4,000 women, mostly What the interned refugees felt most the lowest point in relations between the in camps on the Isle of Man. Several keenly was the injustice of the measures refugees and the British. thousand men were deported overseas; taken against them, the infringement of some were on the Arandora Star, which their basic rights and freedoms on spurious However, once internment was past, the was sunk by a German submarine while and insubstantial grounds. As Jews who Second World War proved to be a key bound for Canada. Others were on the had fled from Nazi persecution, often experience determining the attitudes of Dunera, where the treatment of the after experiencing severe discrimination or the refugees towards Britain. It was during detainees during the passage to Australia even physical maltreatment, it was galling the war that an abiding affection for the was appalling. in the extreme for them to be detained country and its people took root among National Memorial chosen The AJR has sent congratulations to British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye and Israeli architect Ron Arad, who will jointly design Britain’s new National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. The winning design was announced at the end of October following an international competition which attracted almost 100 designs. The AJR was heavily involved in consultations concerning the Memorial and was part of the sub-group The National Memorial winning design on testimonies. have the appearance of a series of fins. engagement with moments of collective The new Memorial will be in Victoria The architects’ vision is “a Memorial gathering”. Tower Gardens, adjacent to the embedded in the land” and they aim to Houses of Parliament and be mainly “carefully sequence highly immersive The new Memorial and Leaning Centre is subterranean, while above ground it will spaces that juxtapose moments of solitary expected to open to the public in 2022. 2 AJR Journal | December 2017 the Jewish refugees. The war brought the the two men, when Hitler was exposed also became involved in vital civil defence refugees a sense of pride and renewed by Churchill’s inspirational oratory for the activities during the Blitz, volunteering self-worth at being able to participate shallow, ranting bully that he was. for fire-watching or as ARP wardens. The alongside the British in a common refugees were understandably eager to cause: the war effort to defeat National From the summer of 1940, the refugees join the fight against Hitler, though initially Socialism. The wartime sense of solidarity found themselves in the front line of a they were only permitted to serve in the reinvested the refugees with the feeling civilian population facing a sustained lowly, non-combatant Pioneer Corps. But of belonging lost in their homelands and campaign of aerial bombardment; London from 1943 refugees were admitted to with the confidence derived from facing was bombed nightly almost without almost all branches of the British forces. the hardships and suffering of war on the interruption from September 1940 till same terms as the rest of the population. May 1941. Those who experienced the Some 10,000 refugees served in the Blitz in London and other cities repeatedly British forces, many of them seeing active The first factor to make a favourable expressed their admiration for the combat. Sir Ken Adam, who later won impact on the refugees was psychological: behaviour of the British people, for their an Oscar as a designer of film sets, flew the determination of the British people stolid endurance, unflustered coolness and Typhoon fighters in the RAF, while Sir from 1940 to resist Hitler at all costs. good humour under fire. The strong sense Michael Kerr, who became a Lord Justice This stubborn refusal to contemplate of solidarity, the kindness and readiness of Appeal, flew in Coastal Command. defeat or surrender made a profound to

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