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We Built Up Our Lives: Education and Community among Jewish Refugees Interned by Britain in World War II PDF

264 Pages·2001·21.28 MB·English
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WE BUILT UP OUR LIVES RecentTitles in Contributionsto the Study of World History Continuity during the Storm: Boissy d’Anglasand the Eraof the FrenchRevolution John R. Ballard Ambivalent Embrace:America’sRelations with Spain from the RevolutionaryWarto the Cold War Rodrigo Botero Paper Liberals:Press and Politics in RestorationSpain David Ortiz, Jr. Triumph and Downfall:America’sPursuit of Peaceand Prosperity,1921–1933 Margot Louria Philadelphia’sEnlightenment,1740–1800: Kingdom of Christ, Empireof Reason Nina Reid-Maroney Finance from Kaiserto Fu¨hrer:Budget Politics in Germany,1912–1934 C. Edmund Clingan The UncertainFriendship: The U.S. and Israelfrom Roosevelt to Kennedy Herbert Druks The Persistenceof VictorianLiberalism:The Politics of Social Reformin Britain, 1870–1900 Robert F. Haggard The UncertainAlliance:The U.S. and Israelfrom Kennedy to the PeaceProcess Herbert Druks A Lust for Virtue:Louis XIV’sAttackon Sin in Seventeenth-CenturyFrance Philip F. Riley Family Dynasty, RevolutionarySociety: The Cochins of Paris, 1750–1922 Laurence H. Winnie The SupranationalPolitics of Jean Monnet: Ideasand Origins of the EuropeanCommunity FredericJ. Fransen WE BUILT UP OUR LIVES Education and Community among Jewish Refugees Interned by Britain in World War II Maxine Schwartz Seller Contributionsto the Study of WorldHistory,Number92 GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Seller,Maxine,1935– Webuiltupourlives : educationandcommunityamongJewishrefugeesinternedbyBritain inWorldWarII / MaxineSchwartzSeller. p.cm.—(Contributionstothestudyofworldhistory,ISSN0885–9159 ; no.92) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.(p. ) ISBN0-313-31815-8(alk.paper) 1. Refugees, Jewish—Great Britain. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Jews—Great Britain. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Concentration camps—Great Britain. 4. Jews, German—Great Britain—History—20thcentury. 5. GreatBritain—Ethnicrelations. I. Title. II. Series. DS135.E5S45 2001 941'.004924043—dc21 2001023340 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright(cid:2)2001byMaxineSchwartzSeller Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,without theexpresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2001023340 ISBN:0–313–31815–8 ISSN:0885–9159 Firstpublishedin2001 GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. www.greenwood.com PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica TM Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CopyrightAcknowledgment The drawings from the Orchan Pioneer are from the journals collections of the Imperial War MuseumDepartmentofPrintedBooks. For Andrew, Levi, and Marnina—with love. Whatever I do is wrong. The story of blame is long, Just listen to my song: Like me there are quite a few; In Germany they call me a Jew. In Britain a “fifth columnist”; In Russia a great capitalist, In Spain a hot anarchist In America a red communist. The Truth is: I want to write, Paint, love and fight, For what I think is right. JackBilbo OnchanPioneer,December29,1940. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 “We Had to Go”—Life in the Third Reich 17 2 From Refugees to Internees 47 3 Making the Best of It 77 4 Creating Community 113 5 Education in the Men’s Camps 151 6 Education in the Women’s Camp 183 7 Getting Out and Looking Back 213 Bibliographic Essay and Sources 247 Index 255 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people helped make this book possible. The N. Littauer Foundation pro- vided generous support for this project. I would also like to thank the staff at the Imperial War Museum and the Wiener Library in London, the Public Rec- ords Office in Kew, and the Manx National Heritage on the Isle of Man for their generous and expert assistance. The Imperial War Museum and theManx NationalHeritagegraciouslyallowedmetousephotographsandothermaterials fromtheircollections.IwouldalsoliketothankMrs.TheaO’Rourke,Mrs.Feo Kahn, and Peter Daniel for permission to use materials in their possession. I wouldespeciallyliketothankYvonneCresswellattheManxNationalHeritage for the many hours she spent helping me locate documents, artifacts, and pho- tographs from the museum’s collections and for putting me in touch with in- formants on the Isle of Man. Friends and colleagues in London, MiriamDavid, Gaby Weinar, Ann Kershen, Louise London, and William Fishman provided important background information and helped locate a number of my respon- dents. I thank them all. At the University at Buffalo Mary Beth Bogertranslatednewspaperpassages from the German, and Gloria Gibson and Susan Ott did a skillfuljobofediting and proofreading. Their help was greatly appreciated. I also want to thank my colleagues Adeline Levine and Marion Kaplan for reading parts of the manu- script and making many constructive suggestions. Mistakes in factsorinterpre- tations are, of course, mine, not theirs.FinallyIwanttothankmyhusbandBob for his assistance with photography on the Isle of Man and for his encourage- ment and support. Most of all, I want to thank my respondents, the remarkable people who so x • Acknowledgments generously shared their memories with me. I appreciate your kindnessandhos- pitality to me as a person as well as your patience and openness with me as a historian. Everyone who spoke with me or wrote to me made important contri- butions to this book. I have tried to tell your stories as you told them to me, and I apologize in advance for inaccuracies of fact and interpretation, which, despite my best efforts, are certain to appear. I hope this book will capture at least some sense of that special combination of qualities—courage,persistence, resourcefulness, and resilience—with which you built up your lives. I will not forget you. INTRODUCTION Fearing an imminent German invasion, the British government arrested and in- terned28,000“enemyaliens”ofGermanandAustriannationalitylivinginBrit- ain in the spring and summer of 1940.1 Eight-year-old Renate Steinert (later RenateOlins)andherparentswereamongthem.TheSteinertswereJews.They hadfledfromNaziGermanytoHollandin1937andarrivedinLondonin1938. Mr. Steinert set up a small factory there, and Renate started school. In May of 1940 two police detectives knocked at the door of the Steinert’s modest apart- ment and announced that they had come to take Mr. Steinert away. Fifty-five years later, Renate’s memories of that night were vivid: My mother said he was not at home. They said they would wait, and sat down in our little sitting-room until my father came home, and when he found the two detectives therehewentashen....Ilockedmyselfinthebathroomandcried,satonthefloorwith myheadonthelavatorybasin.Afteratimemyfather’ssuitcasewasprepared.Mymother had got supper ready,but they wouldn’t wait for him to have supper. I was asked to come out, and I kissed him goodbye, which was quite dreadful,quite dreadful. Iwascrying,andmymotherwascrying.Myfatherwasstrugglingnottocry, and then he was marched off, we didn’t know where....My mother and I were left alone, and there followed weeks of misery, absolute misery, while my mother worried desperately about where my father was. We could get no news. And then one day, a coupleofmonthsafterhe’dgone...therewasaknockatthedoor,andtherestoodtwo more detectives, a man and a woman. And they explained that they’d come to collect mymotherandthatshewasbeinginterned,buttheyhadnoinstructionsaboutthechild. I said, “Well. I’m coming, too.” We were marched off, each with a little suitcase, to HarrowRoad Police Station.2

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Fearing an imminent Nazi invasion, the British government interned 28,000 men and women of enemy nationality living in Britain in the spring of 1940. Most were Jewish refugees who, having fled Nazi persecution, were appalled to find themselves imprisoned as potential Nazi spies. Using oral histories
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