Oldal 140 [140]
OCR
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 involved in refugee work or took in Kindertransport children. Others remained unmoved and did not respond to calls for more funds, did not offer homes for unaccompanied 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 charitable 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 occurred 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 grandchildren—see themselves as British." All Kindertransport refugees share this feeling, but approach it in slightly different 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.
