Seite 140 [140]
138
Anna M. Rosner
within six months of the beginning of the war, 60 000 were examined and either
given friendly alien status or interned. By 1942 most of the aliens were released or
shipped abroad, with Canada being the most popular destination. Public opinion
did not pay much attention to the fate of the interned until July 1940, when
the Arandora Star (a luxury liner used for internee transportation to Canada) was
sunk by a German submarine taking down 146 German and 453 Italian prisoners
(Atkins 2005: 86).
Conclusion
The Jews of Britain gave newcomers a mixed welcome. Some became deeply in¬
volved in refugee work or took in Kindertransport children. Others remained un¬
moved and did not respond to calls for more funds, did not offer homes for unac¬
companied children, and even trivialised the threat of Nazism. For the newcomers
Great Britain was a place of numerous possibilities. There were already some active
Jewish communities (mainly established in the nineteenth century), Jewish chari¬
table organisations and authorities willing to consider helping the oppressed. Great
Britain was also a gateway from which one could try to migrate even farther—to
the United States, Australia, or South America.
Jewish organisations tried to help the oppressed German and Austrian Jewry in
many ways. The two projects presented above are just a part of a wider aid effort,
some parts of which were more, and others less, successful. However, it should
be mentioned that actions such as the Kindertransports are unique and no other
country can today claim to have done anything similar on such a scale. There are
also many works discussing the outcome of both actions. The problems, which oc¬
curred after the outbreak of the war, went further than might have seemed at the
beginning. Most of the scholars who came to Britain made their living in British
institutions of science and learning. They supported Great Britain while it was at
war with their home country, and the vast majority chose to stay in England after
the war ended. Most of them, however, claimed that they never really felt British.
This is a case of so-called ‘lost identity’, which touched them in a significant way.
At the same time most of them came from assimilated families who acknowledged
their Jewish roots, but were more German than Jewish in terms of culture and
upbringing. In the 1930s they realised that their homeland rejected them and that
they had lost the need for self-recognition as Germans, although they never gained
a sense of being British. Only their children—and most of all their grandchil¬
dren—see themselves as British."
All Kindertransport refugees share this feeling, but approach it in slightly differ¬
ent ways. Those who during their journey were old enough to realise the situation,
tried to maintain their identity and remain Jewish. For them this was their link
with their parents and relatives. For those who were too young to understand why
For more information see the Parkes Archive, Britain and the Refugee Crisis 1933-1947 collection.