Volume XXX No. 11 November, 1975 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOOAim OF XmH RfflKEES Bl GREAT BRITAIN ^argot PottlUser training, had to do all the adapting and to eam a precarious living by uncongenial work. The Kerrs had come to England on the strength of a film script about Napoleon for REFUGEE LIFE UNDER REVIEW which a fee of £1,000 had been paid, but the film was never made. The money enabled the People who grew up in the 'twenties will and wartime experiences than about their life family, parents and two children, to settle in a have difficulty in appreciating the fact that in Britain after the war. He is convinced that small Bloomsbury hotel. Judith (Anna in the the time span between the present day and the older generation will "carry Germany with book) and her brother Max soon became tri­ the beginnings of the Hitler regime is about them forever, wherever they go—a loyalty, lingual and won scholarships to good schools. as wide as that which separated their adoles- a regret, a wound". He is equally convinced Max went on to Cambridge to study law, Anna, <^nt days from the age of Bismarck. The that this German-Jewish identity is in danger however, came up against all the stumbling experience of those who left Germany as of being lost in the younger generation, but blocks that were encountered by refugee girls refugees after 1933 has now become part of even so "that German Jews will go on contri­ who wanted to eam a living. She leamt steno- history to the same extent as had that of buting . their German sense of order to the typing to do secretarial work, but most of the Bismarck's Reich in their youth. It is there­ world". It is to the author's credit that his worthwhile jobs were not available to her. In fore only natural that students of 20th century encounter with the remnants of this group Zurich she had still said "I might quite like history should show themselves increasingly should have led him to think so—^whether it being a refugee", but after three years in Eng­ interested in the history of refugees from is true, is, to say the least, very much open lish surroimdings and having lost all trace of Nazi oppression. This interest is heightened to debate. an accent, she as well as her brother desper­ hy the fact that there have been so many The Dispossessed is the story of Jewish ately wanted to belong. more refugees after the end of World War II refugees told by someone who is not one and of colonialism, and these new refugees of them. It is perhaps more unbiased and out­ Brother Max was accepted without question in many countries have raised new problems spoken for coming from outside. It lacks, how­ in Cambridge and would have had a brilliant which are constantly discussed and investi­ ever, one element which strange though it may career there but for his intemment. When all gated. The refugee problem has once more seem, forms an integral part of the story : the attempts by teachers and friends to secure his attracted public attention. gift to laugh in adversity—gallows-humour. release had failed, his parents wrote a letter to Readers of AJR Information will be aware The experience of the accountant who with a national newspaper which was forwarded to of the fact that for the past few years the his wife was employed in domestic service by the Home Secretary. He promised to look into Council of Jews from Germany has been well-meaning people, and whose shortconungs the case immediately. Alfred Kerr's reaction Collecting material on the fate of the Jewish as a gardener were counterbalanced by his was: "The English are extraordinary. Here they I'efugees in their various countries of refuge, wife's excellence as a cook and by his employ­ are threatened with invasion at any moment, and it is hoped that it will not be long before ers' social conscience, is as comical as it is and the Home Secretary can find time to right the results of this research project can be sad. Jews have always been able to see the an injustice done to an unknown boy who Published. In the meantime students in a funny side of a serious situation, and the re­ wasn't even bom here". Frau Kerr's reaction number of countries have made the fate of fugee situation was not lacking in comical was that of a good Jewish mother: "Jfax is a these groups or certain aspects of it the aspects, at least in retrospect. very remarkable boy". Subject of their theses. Recently a young It is impossible to do more than mention English author, Austin Stevens, was commis­ Alfred Kerr's Daughter some of the more unlikely things that happened sioned to write a book on Refugees in Britain, There is no lack of this type of humour in to the Kerr family, how Max managed to join and after very thorough research this book two books by Judith Kerr When Hitler Stole the RAF generally closed to refugees, how the has now been published under the title The Pink Rabbit (Collins 1971 £1.50. Paperback Bloomsbury Hotel was bombed and refugee Dispossessed (Barrie & Jenkins, London 1975, 30p) and The Other Way Round (Collins 1975 friends introduced the proprietor to an Indian 3l9pp, £5.50). The author has gone to great £2.95). Surprisingly, both books appeared as Maharajah who eventually sold her his Putney lengths in consulting official documents and the children's books and Pink Rabbit even won the home, how Judith eventually won a scholarship Surviving files of the organisations in charge youth-book section of the German Youth to the Central Schools of Arts and Crafts and of refugee work and has in addition inter­ Prize in 1974. But then—^why indeed should became a freelance painter and designer—all viewed a number of people. The title of the not children be told about historic events in this is told with such gusto and perception that book reveals the author's attitude—an almost a way which helps them to identify with the it is quite impossible to put either of these limitless empathy and compassion for refugees people who took part in them? The best chil­ books down without wishing for more. —-it leads him to put almost too much blame dren's books in any case are those that can Alfred Kerr died on his first official return on the countries of refuge for their refusal be equally enjoyed by grown-ups, and both visit to Germany in 1948, Judith is by now to admit all those who might have been able books certainly can. happily married to an English writer and to escape. He puts the story in its context by Judith Kerr is the daughter of the late mother of two British-bom children. And yet giving details of the persecution of Jews by Alfred Kerr, the great dramatic critic of the in an article recently written for The Times the Nazis in order to show the breaking point, Twenties and Thirties who was read as much Literary Supplement she refers to the problem different for each individual, which decided for his brilliant if highly idiosyncratic style of what she calls "writing with borrowed People to become refugees. The book is at of writing as for his profound analysis of the words". On a visit to Berlin, sitting on top of a its most interesting when it descril>es individ­ theatre of his day. Like her father she has a bus, she read a street-sign Bhimenladen. At ual experiences which are followed through way with words, and in the two books she once she was overwhelmed by reminiscences from that decisive point to final settlement in relates the story of her family's life after of a visit to a flower shop as a child, clasping this country. Difficulties of language and of they became refugees. The pink rabbit is the an adult hand and moving among what employment, intemment and war service are one she left behind when the Kerrs hurriedly appeared to be a jungle of giant plants. At that Perceptively related. left for Switzerland just before the March 1933 moment she realised "I had found a bit of my The author compares the Jews from Ger­ elections, as they were in immediate danger. childhood, pickled in a word that had lain un­ many to the Russians who had come as refu­ From there they went to live in Paris for two used for forty years ... I don't know if it gees at an earlier date. They came from years and eventually arrived in England in matters . but I regret that never in my life a background of long suffering and hardship. 1936. Apart from a few articles in Swiss papers can I be so affected by the word florist". This is This gave them an important advantage over and a few more in French papers nothing by a flash of insight granted to a gifted writer, but the German Jews. Alfred Kerr was ever published after he left it contains an emotional tmth which is re­ Berlin and he emerges as the really tragic Austin Stevens also notes that most refugees flected both in her own books and in that of are far more vociferous about their pre-war figure in the story. His wife, a musician by Austin Stevens.