Oldal 133 [133]
OCR
German Jewish Migrations to Great Britain 1933—1939: Remarks on Cultural Otherness ture tours for its wards. Ihey would be then granted a special six-month grant and sent with all necessary documents to visit a number of US universities. Lecturing gave them a chance to present themselves in America and increased the chances of finding employment there. Ihe SPSL would also help them with all the paperwork required when emigrating across the Atlantic. The society’s report states that out of over 2500 registered scholars, 601 were still living in Britain in 1946, 307 of them being of German descent. The vast majority of the rest—nearly 2000—moved to and worked in the US (Berghahn 2007: 77-78). These data of course show only partial statistics on the number of immigrants and contain only those registered by the SPSL. This programme bears no particular name and was based on two general ideas. The first one referred to a “republic of science” (Ibid.: 79), an idea from the interwar period claiming that science should be done without reference to geographical and political borders, and that the exchange of researchers, their ideas, and techniques should be a priority in scientific life. The second is believed to have originated in Winston Churchill’s speech, recalled by Sir Ludwig Guttmann? in an interview in the 1960s: “Since the Germans have thrown out their best scientists, we have made whole benefit of it.” The second programme, focusing on children, started after Kristallnacht. As a result ofan appeal from the British Refugee Committee, on November 9, 1938, a debate influenced by the events of Kristallnacht took place in the House of Commons. By then, the authorities had already refused 10 000 Jewish children entry to Palestine.’ The discussion led to a new agreement, according to which an unspecified number of Jewish children would be allowed to enter Great Britain itself.° The regulation stated that neither parents nor guardians were allowed to accompany the children, all of which had to be under the age of seventeen. Organisers of the programme also had to provide each child with a sum of £50—the money to be spent on re-emigration, once the situation in their home towns improved. All expenses were to be covered from private funds, be it from Jewish organisations, donations or private people willing to help. Between December 2, 1938 (when the first transport arrived at Harwich) and September 1, 1939, approximately 10 000 children made the trip to the British Isles.” > Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann, born 1899, died 1980. Neurologist, founder of the Paralympic Games, emigrated to Great Britain in 1939, worked in Oxford. ‘ Britain and the Refugee Crisis 1933-1947 in Parkes Archive, University of Southampton, Sir Ludwig Guttman, Accession No 004596/03, p. 26. > Between 1918 and 1948 the territory was under the British mandate. ° Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, the Kindertransports, http://www.holocaustresearchproject. org/holoprelude/kindertransport.html (last accessed on: October 1, 2014). 7 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Kindertransport, 1938-1940, http://www.ushmm.org/ wic/en/article.php?Moduleld=10005260 (last accessed on: October 1, 2014). 131
