From “Refugees” To “Enemy Aliens”: Part Four

 

Germans and Austrians in the Arts and Agriculture in Aberystwyth during the Second World War

 Refugees at The National Library of Wales and in Agriculture

Part four in this blog post series will explore the lives of refugees from National Socialism who came to work and reside in Aberystwyth due to the evacuation of artwork from the British Museum and the National Gallery, or simply just as their safe haven which for some caused a halt to their careers. This blog will continue to address the questions set out in the first blog in this series. Mainly, who were these German and Austrian nationals and importantly how and why did they themselves end up in the seaside town of Aberystwyth, miles from their homelands, and subject to potential internment? What was their fate? If it is possible to ascertain, what were their individual experiences of the tribunals and judgements they faced? Were they subjected to internment or were they found exempt to such a fate? As well as considering the impact of being a refugee on their careers and livelihoods and the important roles they played in preserving artistic heritage.

To understand why the majority of German and Austrian refugees focused on in this blog came to Aberystwyth, it is firstly important to understand the circumstances and agreements which resulted in them moving to and working on possessions from institutions, such as the British Museum and the National Gallery in Aberystwyth. The possessions of these institutions had been moved, along with the possessions of 74 other institutions, museums, government departments, local councils, galleries and libraries from across England and Wales to the National Library of Wales (NLW) based in Aberystwyth from as early as September 1938. This was in-line with a wider plan originally developed in 1933, by the then First Commissioner of Works for the British Government, W.A. Ormsby-Gore M.P., to ensure that no damage occurred in the case of the outbreak of a war to important possessions originally from cultural and historical institutions based in London. By 1934, the NLW had already been contacted by the British Museum, who had previously moved some of their possessions there during the First World War, to plan for possessions to be moved there again in the case of another war breaking out. The National Gallery also made an agreement, nearly four years later, with the NLW in September 1938 for paintings from their collections to be moved there. Importantly, when war broke out, both these institutions had also made plans with the NLW for members of their staff to also be evacuated there, such as 20 members of staff from the National Gallery. It was these agreements between these organisations that resulted in many of the refugees who are the focus of this blog coming to Aberystwyth to work on categorising or photographing prints and drawings which had been moved to the NLW, such as Johannes Wilde and his wife Julia, both of whom were art historians.

Johannes and Julia were both born in Budapest in Hungary on the 2nd of June 1891 and the 10th of December 1895, respectively. Johannes worked at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria from 1923 until 1938, rising to the position of Keeper there, in charge of conservation. He became an Austrian citizen in 1928 and married Julia Gyárfás in 1930. Julia also became an Austrian citizen during her time there. However, after the Anschluss, annexation, of Austria in 1938, the life the Wilde’s had made for themselves in Vienna came under question, as Johannes became increasingly more concerned for Julia, as she was Jewish. They therefore decided to flee Austria in April 1939, whilst attending an art exhibition in Amsterdam and came to England. When they had arrived there, they stayed briefly with the Director of the National Gallery, Kenneth Clark. By September 1939, they were living at Toksowa Hotel in Camberwell. Johannes was working as a scientific research worker whilst living there and was categorised as C at a tribunal held in London, on the 24th of October 1939. 

 

Johannes Wilde (1891-1970), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

In 1940, exempt from internment, Johannes undertook the task of cataloguing materials of the print room at the British Museum which had been moved to the NLW. This led to the Wilde’s moving to Aberystwyth, so that he could undertake such a task, where they stayed on the seafront at the Belle Vue Hotel on Marine Terrace. Julia at this time is recorded as being a housewife whilst they were living there and with her background as an art historian was no doubt of great assistance to the cataloguing Johannes was undertaking. The Wilde’s were however not in Aberystwyth long before they were both interned, and it is widely recalled that Johannes was wrongfully charged with signalling enemy submarines in Aberystwyth. After their internment, they were separated, as Johannes was boarded on to the S.S. Ettrick on the 3rd of July 1940, to be interned in Canada and Julia was moved to Rushen Camp on the Isle of Man. Johannes remained in Canada until being returned to the U.K. on the S.S. Georgia on the 5th of March 1941, where arrangements had been made for him to appear in front of a committee on the Isle of Man to authorise his release. He remained on the Isle of Man however until May of that year, when he was released from internment along with Julia on the 6th of May 1941. Johannes and Julia clearly returned after internment, to Aberystwyth, as Johannes continued to completion in 1945, the task of cataloguing evacuated materials from the print room of the British Museum, which were not returned to London until around May 1946. In 1947, Johannes became a Reader at the University of London in the History of Art. By 1950, he was the Deputy Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Johannes by 1953 had completed writing a book about the Italian drawings from the materials which had been evacuated, called Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: Michelangelo and His Studio. Johannes and Julia both passed away in 1970 in Camberwell. 

 

Julia Wilde (1919-1983), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

Much like Johannes, Walter Gernsheim was also working on material that had been moved to the NLW when he was interned. Walter was born on the 30th of November 1909 in Munich and was an art dealer, photographer and translator. However, with the growing prevalence of antisemitism in Nazi Germany, Walter found finding work a growing problem. This environment and the growing lack of work available to Walter, led him to seek refuge in London in 1934. He had begun photographing art at institutions, such as the British Museum and during the war he had a War Office permit to undertake this work. As artwork from major institutions, such as the National Gallery had been moved to Aberystwyth, Walter visited there to make photographs of the artwork that was set out in his government contract. Whilst he was there with his wife Gertrud, they stayed at Lenton on Victoria Terrace. This was also where they were both interned from to the Isle of Man in June 1940. Unlike, the Wilde’s they were both interned in the same place and even the same camp in Port Erin on the Isle of Man, which had been established as a camp for those who were married. Walter was not released from internment until November 1944. After the war, he continued alongside his brother, Helmut Gernsheim to take photographs of artworks held in various institutions as well as continuing collecting and dealing art in to the early 2000s. Walter passed away in Florence, Italy in 2006.

Whereas art historians, Otto Kurz and Hilde Kurz nee Schüller, unlike Johannes and Walter, did not arrive in Aberystwyth to work on material which had been moved to the NLW until after Otto was interned. Otto and Hilde were both born in Vienna, Austria in 1908 and February 1910 respectively. They were both also art history students at the University of Vienna in the 1920s. Otto whilst a student there was attacked by Nazis in the library and much like Walter, he found it hard after his university studies to find work in Austria due to the growing antisemitism there. Through contacts he had made at the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the University of Vienna, he was able to find work at the Warburg Library in Hamburg and then relocated to London with the library in 1933. Hilde later fled to England and took up work in 1937 at the then Warburg Institute, which had changed its name after relocating. Hilde and Otto went on to marry each other later that year. By 1940, the Kurz’s were living on Clarendon Road in Notting Hill and whilst living here Otto was not only interned in June 1940, but he was also listed at this address on the Gestapo’s Invasion List, which was created in the case of a German invasion. Otto spent a few months in internment until he was released on the 24th of September 1940. After his internment, Otto and Hilde worked on material, potentially from the Warburg Institute, which had also been moved to the NLW. Otto then went on to become the Assistant Librarian of the Warburg in 1944 and later the Librarian in 1949, a role he remained in until 1965. He also held professorships in Classical Traditions and Fine Art at London University and at Oxford. During most of Otto’s career, Hilde worked privately on his many research endeavours. Otto and Hilde passed away in London in September 1975 and March 1981, respectively.

Other refugees however arrived in Aberystwyth simply as their place of safe haven, with no work or form of education there for them to take up upon their arrival, such as the agricultural expert, Franz Joseph Stanek. Franz was born on the 11th of November 1895 in Vienna, Austria to Anton and Maria Stanek. Before leaving Austria, Franz was an expert in agriculture but by September 1939, he had arrived in Aberystwyth and was unemployed. During his time in Aberystwyth, he lived at 6 Vulcan Street and was briefly detained as an “alien suspect” from this address and was imprisoned in H.M.P Swansea. This imprisonment however only lasted a few days before he was released under the instructions of the Home Secretary on the 9th of September 1939. There is no record in and around the mid to late 1930s, to indicate for how long Franz had been living in Vulcan Street in Aberystwyth before 1939, but all records do indicate that he struggled to find employment in his field whilst living there. His remaining time in Aberystwyth, after his release from H.M.P. Swansea however was very brief, as after his internment tribunal on the 23rd of October 1939 and being categorised as a ‘B’, he left Aberystwyth nearly immediately, the next day. By April 1940, Franz had decided to go to Brazil, potentially in the pursuit of work there as he clearly continued to find it hard to gain employment in the U.K. He was granted permission to move there by the Home Office on the 9th of April 1940. Franz then boarded alone on the 6th of May 1940 on to the Highland Brigade ship in London, which was travelling to Rio de Janeiro. According to the passenger list, at this time, Franz was noted as being stateless. Clearly, moving to Brazil was an attempt at a fresh start and a new life there. However, what his life entailed after boarding this ship is unknown.

 

Franz Joseph Stanek (b. 1895), photo n Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

What united the majority of those explored in this blog was the necessity of the NLW and being close to evacuated books, prints and paintings, so that they could undertake their work of cataloguing and photographing. However, the lives of Johannes, Julia, Walter, Gertrude, Otto, Hilde and Franz, all further indicate the variety of the lived experiences of refugees from National Socialism. Many had fled from persecution and the barriers which had been created within their careers and fields, due to the rise of antisemitism, and many found work and made lives for themselves in Britain. Others struggled with the transition and the pursuit of finding work was hard and not as easily established, with their careers being halted and further immigration being pursued with a desire to change this. None of these refugees, unlike the U.C.L. students and staff, even share the exact same fundamental reasons for ending up in Aberystwyth. As, each came for different reasons, some on work visits that were quickly shortened by internment, for others it became their new home whilst they worked there and for Franz, with no work on offer providing the motivation behind such a decision, Aberystwyth was simply his safe haven. Furthermore, some were not interned, and others were. Even these experiences differed, some were distanced from their married partners and others were interned together in the same camp. Exploring the lives of individual refugees highlights their originalities, differences and uniqueness from each other, much like the individual lives of those who entered domestic service in Aberystwyth and the surrounding areas. Their lives will be explored in the final blogs in this series.

Conor Brockbank

With thanks to Aberystwyth University research project Refugees from National Socialism in Wales

Photos used with the permission of Archifdy Ceredigion Archives, Aberystwyth.

SOURCES

AJR Journal. The Association of Jewish Refugees, October 1975 & December 2013.
Berkowitz, M. ‘Lost in the Transnational: Photographic Initiatives of Walter and Helmut Gernsheim in Britain.’ In Geller, J.H., and Morris, J., eds. Three-Way Street. Jews, Germans, and the Transnational. Michigan, 2016. Pp. 144-168. Accessed via https://bit.ly/3JrOxFh, 17 March 2023.
Camberwell, London, 1970, England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007, FindmyPast.
Camberwell, London, 1970, England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1858-2019, FindmyPast.
Ciulisová, I. ‘Dvorcik’s Pupil Johannes Wilde (1891-1970).’ Umeni Art, 60 (2012): 101-108.
Davies, W. Ll. ‘War-Time Evacuation to the National Library of Wales.’ Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmdorion, Session 1945 (1946): 171-178.
Franz Joseph Stanek Internment Exemption Record, 1939, The National Archives, HO 396/240.
Franz Stanek Immigration Card, 9 April 1940, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1940, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965, MyHeritage.
Franz Stanek Interment, Reception and Internment of Aliens: List of Internees, 1939, The National Archives, PCOM 9/661.   
Franz Stanek, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 6 May 1940, Passengers List Leaving UK 1890-1960, FindmyPast.
Gertrude Gernsheim Internment Record, 1940, The National Archives, HO 396/254.
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Kurz, Otto, Gestapo Invasion Arrest List, 1940, Hoover Library.   
Malet, M., and Behr, S., eds. Arts in Exile in Britain 1933-1945. Politics and Cultural Identity. Leiden, 2015.
Otto Kurz Internment Record, 1940, The National Archives, HO 396/264.
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Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives, MUS/204.  
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Rose, L. Psychology, Art, and Antifascism. Ernst Kris, E.H. Gombrich, and the Politics of Caricature. New Haven, 2016.
Shenton, C. National Treasures. Saving the Nation’s Art in World War II. London, 2021.
Snowman, D. The Hitler Emigrés. The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism. New York, 2010.
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Toksowa Hotel, Dulwich Common Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1939 Register.
Vulcan Street, Aberystwyth, 1939 Register.
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Westminster, London, 1981, England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007, FindmyPast.
Wilde, J. Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: Michaelangelo and His Studio. London, 1953.
Wilde, Johannes, Dictionary of Art Historians, https://bit.ly/3LhTMdg, accessed 11 March 2023.

From “Refugees” And Evacuees To “Enemy Aliens ~ Part Three

The Evacuated German and Austrian Students and Staff of University College London in Aberystwyth during the Second World War

Part Three: Interned U.C.L. Students In Australia and Canada

 

The final blog focusing on the evacuated University College London (U.C.L.) students will explore the life stories and experiences of 9 students who ended up being interned in either Australia or Canada, far away from both their safe haven of Aberystwyth and their homelands of Germany and Austria. This blog will consider addressing the questions set out in the first blog in this series. Namely, who were these German and Austrian nationals and importantly how and why did they themselves end up in the seaside town of Aberystwyth, miles from their homelands, and subject to potential internment? What was their fate? Were they subjected to internment or were they found exempt to such a fate? If it is possible to ascertain, what were their individual experiences of the tribunals and judgements they faced? Alongside considering why were internees sent to Australia and Canada as well as the impact of internment on these individuals and those around them and how far these internments impacted or influenced the future decisions and paths taken by these internees.

According to the historian Rachel Pistol, the decision was made by the British Government in 1940 to move some internees away from Britain and to the dominions of the British Empire, namely Australia and Canada, to prevent internees helping the Nazis in the case of the potential invasion of Britain. This decision to move some of those deemed “enemy aliens” to Canada or Australia, was not initially known publicly. This decision to move internees became public however with the sinking of the ship, the Arandora Star on the 2nd of July 1940, according to the political scientist Neil Stammers. This ship was carrying internees to Canada when it was torpedoed leaving only 600 survivors from the 1,900 people onboard. In the British Government’s admission on the radio on the 3rd of July, according to Stammers, they argued that those on board were Nazi sympathisers and Italian fascists. As, the following life stories will demonstrate however it is clear despite the government’s admission, that they also sent internees who had been deemed “enemy aliens” on similar ships to the Arandora Star, who were clearly neither sympathisers nor fascists to be interned in Australia and Canada.

One such internee was Heinrich Eugen Nowottny, the only U.C.L. student who was interned in Australia out of the nine whose life stories will be explored. Heinrich was born on the 11th of June 1912 in Germany. It is unclear how Heinrich fled Germany and ended up becoming a U.C.L. student, but he was evacuated alongside his fellow students to Aberystwyth at the beginning of the 1939 academic year and lived at 5 North Road. It was whilst Heinrich was living there that he was interned on the 25th of June 1940 and later sent to Australia on the S.S. Dunera on the 10th of July. This journey on the S.S. Dunera, according to J.M. Ritchie, a German studies academic, was unbearable and the guards on board reportedly robbed the internees. Heinrich himself appears in a photograph on a webpage of the National Museum Australia, which focuses on these internees who arrived in Australia on the S.S. Dunera. From this photograph, it appears that Heinrich was interned in the Tatura Camp in Victoria. Heinrich remained there for nearly two years before his release was authorised on the 5th of January 1942.  He returned to Britain on the S.S. Themistocles and was released on arrival on the 6th of October 1942. Heinrich then lived in Oxfordshire for the rest of his life. There, he married Winifred Dodds in 1948 and then became a naturalised British citizen and changed his name to Henry Eugen Nowottny in September 1959. By the late 1950s, Henry was a technical translator and lecturer. He passed away in 2001 in Oxfordshire.

 

Heinrich Eugen Nowottny (1912-2001), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

The remaining eight U.C.L. students were all interned in Canada, such as Paul Mandl. Paul was born on the 9th of February 1917 in Vienna, Austria and became a refugee from Nazism in England, where he began studying at U.C.L. From there, he was evacuated to Aberystwyth in 1939 and lived at 32 Portland Street. Paul remarked in a student magazine, according to the social historian Georgina Brewis, that Aberystwyth and Wales more generally reminded him of Austria due to their social and geographical similarities. Whilst in Aberystwyth he also took an active role in student activities there. This time for Paul was one he looked back fondly on, as he recalled in a letter written in March 1943 to the University College of Wales (U.C.W.), Aberystwyth’s student magazine, Y Ddraig, The Dragon that:

I’ll never forget the session 1939-40 in Aber, where staff and students showed such profound sympathy with the victim of Nazi barbarism. I would like to thank you all for everything you did to make me feel at home at the College by the Sea.

However, this safe haven and the fun he was clearly having alongside his studies in Aberystwyth was not to last, as he was interned in June 1940, a week after his university exams had finished. He was then boarded on the S.S. Ettrick for internment in Canada on the 3rd of July 1940 and was interned in ‘A’ Internment Camp in Farnham, Quebec. His release was not authorised until May 1942 and by the Christmas of that year, he was able to continue his university studies albeit a full term behind, on this occasion in Canada itself at the University of Toronto. This came as a great relief to Paul, who recalled in the same letter to The Dragon, that upon his internment he ‘felt that I never again would be able to study at a University’. The University of Toronto soon began to feel like home, much like Aberystwyth had before his internment. However, on this occasion it is clear that this was partly due to the stark contrast of interment and the freedom he now experienced, rather than the similarities of home and the safe haven which Aberystwyth offered, as he remarked, again in the same letter, that:

Obviously this (Toronto) is home cheerfully, as nothing is so dear as one’s personal freedom.

Paul clearly became settled in Canada, as he remained there for the rest of his life, other than sabbaticals in his hometown, at the University of Vienna and at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. Canada however was where he spent most of his academic career, as he gained his BA and MA from the University of Toronto. He then went on to undertake research at the National Research Council in Ottawa between 1945 to 1967, and during this time he gained his PhD from Toronto in 1951. Paul was then the professor of Mathematics at Carelton University in Ottawa from 1967 to 1982. In 1997, the Dr. Paul Mandl bursary was established there by Paul and his colleagues to be awarded annually to students in the Honours Mathematics program at Carelton. Paul passed away in August 2010 in Ottawa, Canada. 

Paul Mandl (1911-2010), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

 

Another U.C.L student who was also interned in Canada via the S.S. Ettrick was Carel Paul Erwin Eichwald. Carel’s life has been greatly recorded by his son in a series of articles in 2005 for the BBC’s WW2 People’s War archive as well as in a 1985 essay that Carel himself wrote recollecting his experiences for a history course at the University of New England in Australia. (The WW2 People’s War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed to by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar). The information which follows about his life has used these articles from the WW2 People’s war archive and the 1985 essay, alongside other sources from university and government records, to highlight Carel’s experiences and life story. Carel was born on the 11th of March 1920 in Amsterdam, when his mother was travelling through the Netherlands on her way back to Germany from seeing her family in England, where she had been born. Carel spent his childhood in Schonberg, near Frankfurt in Germany. After the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933, the Eichwalds, a Jewish family, began to make plans for their future as well as their children's futures in England, such as getting paying guests who stayed with them in Germany to pay into an English bank account they set up for this purpose. Carel’s parents sent him to England after finishing school in 1936 to the safety of his mother’s brother and sister-in-law who lived there. Carel attempted to return to Germany that Christmas but was turned back by the Gestapo and was according to an account written by his son in 2005, told that if he returned, he would be sent to a concentration camp. He began his studies at U.C.L in 1937 and by 1939 was reunited with his parents after they fled Frankfurt during the November pogroms, where Jewish businesses and properties were attacked in November 1938. Along with many of his fellow U.C.L. students, Carel was also evacuated to Aberystwyth at the beginning of the 1939 academic year and he initially lived at Glynderwen on Trinity Road. According to Carel’s 1985 essay, his first tribunal he attended at Aberystwyth resulted in him ‘within minutes’ being classified as category ‘C’ due to his connections to England on his mother’s side. 

However, much like Paul Mandl this educational safe haven was not to last, as he was interned in June 1940. Carel recalls again in his 1985 essay, the night of the 25th of June when he was taken from his accommodation of Courtlands on Queens Road in Aberystwyth and put into a cell at the local police station, as follows:

(M)y landlady knocked on my bedroom door. “Couple of gentlemen downstairs to see you, Mr. E!” They apologised: “We’ve been instructed to intern you, Fifth Column scare – sorry about it, but it’ll be temporary only; then you’ll be out again. They gave me time to dress and pack, write a note to my parents, then locked me in a police cell at Aberystwyth.

He was then taken via Brecon and Cardiff to Liverpool, where he remained in an internment camp, until along with Paul Mandl and many others he was boarded onto the S.S. Ettrick for interment in Canada on the 3rd of July 1940. It is important to note however that Carel and his fellow passengers on the Ettrick were not informed of their destination, according to Carel, so boarded the ship completely unaware of where they would end up. After arriving in Canada, he was initially interned, until his refugee status was acknowledged, with Luftwaffe and those who had been determined category A at the tribunals. It is important to note that these internees were Nazis and Nazi sympathisers and were the exact kind of people that Carel and his family had fled from in Germany. He was eventually transferred to the same internment camp as Paul Mandl in Farnham, Quebec. Contrary to the claims of the sympathetic police officers who picked up Carel in Aberystwyth however, his interment was in fact not temporary, as his release was not authorised from this internment camp until February 1941 and upon his release, he was 3049 miles away from where he was picked up in Aberystwyth.  

Carel was returned on the S.S. Thysville to England and according to an article written by the editor of the U.C.L. student magazine, the New Phineas in the Spring 1941 edition, she shares information from Carel that he is now in the Pioneer Corps and is at their training centre in Ilfracombe, Devon. In this article entitled ‘News of Internees’, Carel also shared the status, locations and camps of fellow U.C.L. students who had been evacuated to Aberystwyth and then were interned in Canada, such as Peter Ulrich Weichmann, Hugo Erhard Rolf Landsberg, George Brandt, Immanuel Goldschmidt and Werner Max Wolf. Through this article, U.C.L. students were encouraged to begin a letter writing campaign to those students who had been interned and to make sure this was done frequently and that the letters should be lengthy. Carel then went onto marry in Kent in 1942, Thalia Allen, a fellow U.C.L. student who had also been evacuated to Aberystwyth in 1939. Around this time, Carel also changed his name to Paul Elwell, which according to Carel was so he could join the fighting units of the war. Paul was then demobbed in July 1946, after serving in reconnaissance and the intelligence corps as well as on the Italian front. He emigrated to Australia in 1948 to work in a department store and removals company in Sydney and worked here until retiring in 1981. His second attempt at a university degree at New England was unsuccessful as he suffered a brain haemorrhage and until he passed away in 2004, he was incapacitated. 

Peter Ulrich Weichmann, the first of the four interned students who Paul Elwell shared their locations to the New Phineas, was born on the 9th of November 1921 in Charlottenburg, Berlin. By 1939, Peter and his mother and father, Alfred and Dorothea were living in Stanley Gardens in Notting Hill. Alfred had found a job as a BBC announcer and Peter had begun his studies at U.C.L. It is unclear when the Weichmann's left Germany and had arrived in London. After Peter was evacuated to Aberystwyth later in 1939, he found accommodation at 55 Bridge Street. He was interned from there in June 1940 and unlike Paul and Carel, Peter was boarded on to the S.S. Sobiecki for internment in Canada on the 4th of July 1940. Like Paul and later Carel, he also was interned in Internment Camp A in Farnham, Quebec. His release was not authorised until the 14th of August 1941, and he was not officially released for another six days. Peter returned to Britain and became a naturalised British citizen at the same time as his parents in July 1947, changing his name to Peter Tom Ulrich Wykeman. He went on to marry Daphne Trice in Hampstead in 1961 and moved to Surrey in 1966. Peter worked in the iron and steel industry first in London and then later in Brussels. He passed away in 1987 in Surrey.

Peter Ulrich Weichmann (1921-1987), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

Another interned U.C.L. student whose location was revealed by Paul Elwell, Hugo Erhard Rolf Landsberg, was hard to track beyond his release from interment. Hugo was born on the 28th of February 1920 in Berlin. How and when he came to England is unclear, but he was evacuated as a U.C.L. student in 1939 to Aberystwyth and lived at Fedw in Custom House Street. He was interned from Custom House Street on the 21st of June 1940. Hugo was then moved to Canada but unlike Paul, Carel and Peter, he was interned in Internment Camp I, which was located elsewhere in Quebec. His release and return to Britain were authorised on the 12th of November 1941. Where Hugo’s future led him is unclear from there. 

 

Hugo Erhard Rolf Landsberg (b. 1920), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archive

In comparison, much more is known about George Brandt, another of those listed by Paul Elwell in the New Phineas. George was born on the 20th of October 1920 in Berlin and his family left Germany in 1933 not long after the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. He began studying as a Modern Languages student at U.C.L. in 1938 and was evacuated to Aberystwyth at the beginning of his second year. George lived at 38 Portland Street during his time in Aberystwyth and became actively involved in student activities, whether that be assisting in the editing of the New Phineas or writing poetry and reporting on societies who had been evacuated to Aberystwyth for the magazine. He was also actively involved in the University College, London, Jewish Students’ Society, who had found a new home in King Street in Aberystwyth. George is reported in the Jewish Chronicle as having been involved in discussions that the society hosted on topics like the Creation Chapter in Genesis and Evolution in October 1939. However, all this hive of activity came to an end when he was interned in June 1940. George however was allowed to take his final exams before his internment. He was then interned in Internment Camp N in Sherbrooke, in the Southern district of Quebec, Canada. George was released as a student from internment on the 4th of October 1941. He carried on his university education in Canada, gaining an MA from the University of Winnipeg in 1945. After completing his MA, he worked at the National Film Board of Canada until he left to return to England in 1949 with his new wife, Toni. In 1951 he joined the drama department of the University of Bristol, George would remain at the university for the rest of his academic career, being appointed to the newly created position of Director of Film Studies in 1971. According to George’s obituary in the Guardian, he was in this position and throughout his academic career, an essential player in introducing practical film and television studies to universities in Britain. He retired from the University of Bristol in 1986 and passed away in September 2007.

George Brandt (1920-2007), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

Immanuel Goldschmidt, who was also interned in Canada, was a fellow member of the U.C.L. Jewish Students’ Society, alongside George. He was born on the 15th of July 1921 in Berlin. By 1939, he had left Berlin and was a law student at U.C.L. and was living in Lingfield, Surrey at the same address as his future wife, Elsie Tanner, who he went onto marry in 1944. When Immanuel was evacuated to Aberystwyth, he initially lived at 67 North Parade and later moved to Aventine on Cliff Terrace. Here one of his roommates was the future sixth president of Israel, Chaim Herzog. He was an active member of the Jewish Students’ Society along with Chaim and George, taking part in discussion topics such as “The Poetry of the Psalms” in October 1939, according to a report in the Jewish Chronicle. Immanuel was later interned in Canada, as recalled in Chaim’s biography in 1996, being boarded on to the S.S. Sobiecki on the same day as Peter Ulrich Weichmann. However, unlike Paul, Carel, Peter, Hugo and George who were all interned in and around Quebec, Immanuel was interned further to the east in Fredericton, New Brunswick in Internment Camp B. He was later released from internment after arriving back in Britain on the S.S. Indrapoera on the 30th of June 1941. Immanuel then graduated from university the following year. He then, much like Carel, went on to serve in the war for the British forces. Immanuel became a naturalised British citizen in 1947, changing his surname to Goldsmith. By 1950, he was admitted to practice law in England. However, in 1959, he along with his wife, Elsie, moved back to Canada, where he was required to take a bar admissions course at Osgoode Hall Law School in Ontario, before he could practice law there. Immanuel then established himself as a lawyer in Canada, becoming a partner in the law firm Caswell & Goldsmith and then in 1970, he was appointed to the Queens Counsel. He also published books on building contracts and personal injuries and death in Canada, which were well received and republished. Immanuel passed away in Toronto, Canada in July 2003.

Werner Max Wolf is the final evacuated U.C.L. student whose life and subsequent internment in Canada will be explored. Werner was born on the 28th of February 1919 in Berlin. By the time of U.C.L. being evacuated to Aberystwyth, Werner was undertaking a BSc there and moved into 8 Eastgate Street. He later moved to 67 North Parade, which may have crossed over with the time Immanuel was living at this address. Before he was interned, Werner was fined £5 for being in possession of information useful to the enemy, it is not clear what this information entailed but it was clearly judged to be serious enough at the time to be fined over. Werner was then interned from 67 North Parade and was moved to Canada in mid-1940 and was not released until September 1941, after being returned to Britain on the S.S. Thysville in January of that year. Werner did not return to Aberystwyth and settled in London, where by 1947 he was working as a research chemist. By 1966, he had moved to Co. Durham in England and was working for Chemical Compounds Ltd.

Werner Max Wolf (b. 1919), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

 

Overall, internment in Australia and Canada for many of the U.C.L. students, such as Paul, George and Immanuel, meant the sudden and complete ending of their contributions to the wider evacuated U.C.L student life in Aberystwyth, as many had active roles in student journalism for the New Phineas or in various student societies. Also, the fate and reality of internment in Australia or Canada meant being moved thousands of miles, not long after leaving Germany or Austria and their subsequent evacuation to Aberystwyth from London. Many of them also then faced longer periods of interment than their fellow students who had been interned on the Isle of Man, with internment periods for U.C.L. students in Australia and Canada being between 12 to 23 months longer. Internment in Canada in particular also influenced the future paths some of these students took after their release, as a number of them remained or ended up returning to Canada to make and build a life for themselves there. Others returned to Britain and their lives took a variety of different paths, some became naturalised British citizens, many married, a few gained jobs in teaching, chemistry or the iron and steel industry and others emigrated in the pursuit of work and a life elsewhere. None of these students from what can be ascertained about their lives after leaving Aberystwyth and being released from internment, apart from Paul Mandl, returned to Germany or Austria on a semi-permanent or permanent basis. U.C.L. students, staff and their families who were evacuated to Aberystwyth it is important to note, were the largest group of refugees from National Socialism who were either internment tribunal attendees, or who were later interned from Aberystwyth and the surrounding areas. However, they did not make up the whole of this group of refugees, with others who were from the art and agricultural industries as well as the domestic services finding refugee in Aberystwyth and the surrounding areas. Their life stories, internment tribunals decisions and for some their subsequent internments will be addressed in the following blogposts in this series.

Conor Brockbank

 

With thanks to Aberystwyth University research project Refugees from National Socialism in Wales 

Photos used with the permission of Archifdy Ceredigion Archives, Aberystwyth.

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From 'Refugees' and 'Evacuees' to 'Enemy Aliens' ~ Part Two

The Evacuated German and Austrian Students and Staff of University College London in Aberystwyth during the Second World War

Part Two - Interned U.C.L. Students and Staff on the Isle Of Man

Part two of this blogpost series, will explore the individual stories of the one University College London (U.C.L.) students and four members of staff who faced internment on the Isle of Man after they had been evacuated to Aberystwyth. Exploring their life stories and experiences will continue to consider the main questions which were set out at the beginning of part one in this series of blog posts. Mainly, who were these German and Austrian nationals and importantly how and why did they themselves end up in the seaside town of Aberystwyth, miles from their homelands, and subject to potential internment? What was their fate? Were they subjected to internment or were they found exempt to such a fate? If it is possible to ascertain, what were their individual experiences of the tribunals and judgements they faced? Alongside considering the impact of internment on these individuals as well as those around them.

The Isle of Man was again used as it had been during World War One as a place to intern people.  Klaus Albrecht Mayer was the only U.C.L. student to be interned on the Isle of Man who is explored in this blog. Klaus, pictured below, was born in Mainz, Germany on the 17th of November 1918 and was evacuated alongside his fellow U.C.L. students to Aberystwyth in 1939. Klaus lived at 18 Marine Terrace in Aberystwyth until he was interned in June 1940. After Klaus was released in November 1940, he returned to Aberystwyth and lived at 43 Cambrian Street. It is unclear where and what direction his life took him after this. 

Klaus Albrecht Mayer (b.1918), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

 

Internment however it is important to note was not simply only the fate of evacuated U.C.L. students but also a very small number of staff were also interned on the Isle of Man. Karl-Werner Paul Maurer, who was born on the 24th of June 1905 in Esslingen, Germany had been a lecturer in German at U.C.L. since 1931. Karl-Werner had previously taught at the University of Dijon and Bonn before being appointed there. He was evacuated along with the rest of his department at the beginning of the 1939 academic year. Karl-Werner and his wife Sheila due to this evacuation, moved from Taviston Street in Euston, Camden into Jasper House on Great Darkgate Street in Aberystwyth. However, in June 1940 alongside his colleague Robert Pick, an Austrian lecturer in the department who was later the editor at Alfred A. Knopf publishing house in New York in the 1950s, he was interned on the Isle of Man. This was met by his fellow colleagues in the department with much protest.

 

Karl-Werner Paul Maurer, photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

Sheila Maurer, photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

 

Much like Karl-Werner, Hermann Hans Anton Von Zeissl, a U.C.L. research assistant, was also interned on the Isle of Man. Hermann was born on the 2nd of December 1888 into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria and later went on to become a civil servant in the Austrian government. On the 15th of March 1938, after the Anschluss, annexation, of Austria by Nazi Germany, all Jewish and half-Jewish civil servants were removed from their posts. Hermann therefore who had rose to the position of Assistant head of the University section in the Austrian Ministry of Education, would have lost his job. In this environment of increasing hostility to Jewish Austrians, Hermann fled to England in 1939. Hermann, it appears went onto work as a research assistant at U.C.L. and was living at 150 Sinclair Road, West Holland Park in Kensington and Chelsea by September 1939. In late 1939, both he and his daughter, Annelise, who had also come to England and was a languages student at U.C.L., were evacuated to Aberystwyth from London and Surrey respectively and lived at Pantyderi on Llanbadarn Road. 

On the 21st of June 1940, Hermann was interned and was moved to the Isle of Man. Annelise remained in Aberystwyth at this time and continued her studies. It is unclear if they were reunited in Aberystwyth, as it is hard to establish if both their university departments were still evacuated there when he was released from internment on the 16th of October 1940. By the summer of 1945, Hermann was able to return to his position in the Austrian government and by 1949 he had become the President of the Austrian UNESCO Delegation. Anneliese, on the other hand it appears did not join her father when he returned to Austria and instead remained in Britain, where she married Brian Dee in Cuckfield, Sussex in 1951. Hermann passed away in 1967 in Austria and Anneliese in November 2013 in Oxford.

 

Anneliese ‘Anna Elizabeth’ Von Zeissl (1916-2013), photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

The final evacuated U.C.L. staff member whose life and subsequent internment on the Isle of Man will be explored is Georg Schwarzenberger, who was born on the 20th of May 1908 in Heilbronn, Germany. Georg grew up in a middle-class Jewish family and attended Heidelberg University in Germany where he met his future wife, Susanne. Georg and Susanne became actively involved in Germany with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the political party itself was banned by the Nazis on the 21st of June 1933 and many of the leading representatives of the party were imprisoned and removed from office, or both. Under these circumstances and the rise of the Nazi party, he fled to London in 1934 and was later joined by Susanne. Georg eventually undertook a PhD at the University of London, completing this in 1936. In 1938, Georg and Susanne consciously became stateless in response to the Munich Settlement and its consequences. By 1939, Georg had a post in the Faculty of Law at U.C.L. and was the Secretary of the New Commonwealth Institute for Justice and Peace, which later became the London Institute of World Affairs. Georg alongside his colleagues in the Law department was evacuated to Aberystwyth in 1939 and took up residence at 5A, Oxford House on Marine Terrace in Aberystwyth. However, two days into the beginning of WW2, Georg faced the first of many sudden changes and imprisonments in one form or another. As on the 3rd of September 1939, he was arrested by the Cardiganshire Constabulary and imprisoned briefly between the 4th and 7th of September at H.M.P Swansea as an Alien Suspect. He was released due to an intervention via telegram by the then newly appointed Home Secretary, John Anderson.

During the 1939-1940 academic year, Georg was incredibly busy, as alongside his own teaching responsibilities, he undertook a leading role in covering the lecture courses for the International Politics department of the U.C.W, Aberystwyth, due to the permanent staff of the department, such as E.H. Carr, being absent and away on government service. The department was in safe hands however, as Georg played an important role in the second consensus in International Relations on realism, alongside E.H. Carr in fact. Furthermore, Georg and his U.C.L. colleague, George Keaton had to move and establish the New Commonwealth Institute in Aberystwyth. All this hard work was to be disrupted when he was interned in June 1940, and this was seen as a ‘serious blow’ to the Institute according to the Directors Report written in October 1940 by Keaton.

 At his tribunal which decided his fate, where his category was changed from ‘C’ to ‘B’, he was asked by the Chairman if he wanted his wife treated the same as him and as Georg believed he’d be reclassified as C, he agreed. Not only was Georg judged an “enemy alien” by the British authorities at this tribunal, but he was also viewed as such by the Nazis too. As, in 1940, Georg unbeknown to himself, also ended up on the secret Gestapo Invasion Arrest List, which would have meant he’d have faced imprisonment if the Nazis successfully invaded Britain. The decision of the tribunal in Aberystwyth however against all the Schwarzenberger family had widespread ramifications, with unlike Karl-Werner and Hermann, not only was Georg interned but his wife and son faced the same fate too.

Whilst Georg was interned in Douglas on the Isle of Man, he continued to be involved in education, as he recalls a Camp University being set up and that he was put in charge of teaching Law. Susanne and Georg were separated and for 7 weeks she was also separated from her son, as she was kept in Holloway Prison whilst a place was being established for women internees on the Isle of Man. When the Rushen Internment Camp was established for women internees and their children, Georg and Susanne were able to keep in contact via post between the two camps and on one occasion were allowed to see each other. 

Georg, along with his family, however missed very little of his academic teaching as he was released by November of the same year, as U.C.L. arranged for his release under the University Release Order. Instead of moving back to Aberystwyth, which he only briefly reported back to, Georg went back to the family home at Edgeware. This however did not last long, as that night his home was bombed. The department and the Institute not long after had both moved to Cambridge and until he could find suitable accommodation there, Susanne and their son remained in Aberystwyth with friends until around 1941 to 1942. Georg remained a member of the U.C.L. Law department until 1975, becoming a professor in 1963. Georg passed away in Hertfordshire in 1991 and Susanne in 1994 respectively. Georg’s legacy continues with the Georg Schwarzenberger Prize in International Law, which is awarded annually by the University of London to a student in the Faculty of Laws, who is considered outstanding in the field of Public International Law.

Internment on the Isle of Man clearly breached across the student and staff divide, with well-known and established academics alongside new students facing the same internment policy, indicating the wide-ranging reality and blunt implementation of the policy of interning all German and Austrian men. The evacuated safe haven of Aberystwyth was destroyed for most of these men and their families. However, for some, like Klaus, Karl-Werner, Robert, Susanne and her son, it continued to offer that safe haven for them after they were released from their short periods of internment on the Isle of Man and returned to live, learn and teach there. Internment on the Isle of Man however was not the only fate which awaited German and Austrian men who were swept up in the British government’s change towards mass internment, as some faced internment much further away in Australia and Canada. The fate and life stories of these evacuated U.C.L. students who faced internment there will be the focus of the next blog in this series.

Conor Brockbank 

With thanks to Aberystwyth University research project Refugees from National Socialism in Wales 

Photos used with the permission of Archifdy Ceredigion Archives, Aberystwyth.

SOURCES

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From 'Refugees' and 'Evacuees' to 'Enemy Aliens' ~ Part One

 

The Evacuated German and Austrian Students and Staff of University College London in Aberystwyth during the Second World War

Part One - U.C.L. Students Not Interned

During the Second World War (WW2), nationals from Germany and Austria, many of whom had their citizenship removed and had found refuge in Britain in the years before the war began, were subject to the judgement and suspicion of them being “enemy aliens”. Austrians, it is important to note, had faced the Anschluss, an annexation, of their country by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in March 1938 and was one reason for the mass flight of Austrians from their homeland. It was also why Germans and Austrians in the following “enemy aliens” policies in Britain were viewed the same, as Hitler’s Nazi Germany was in control and union with Austria. What did the term “enemy alien” truly mean though? How was it decided that German and Austrian nationals in Aberystwyth and Britain more widely were “enemy aliens” and a risk to the security of the country? Who were these German and Austrian nationals and importantly how and why did they themselves end up in the seaside town of Aberystwyth, miles from their homelands, and subject to potential internment? What was their fate? If it is possible to ascertain, what were their individual experiences of the tribunals and judgements they faced? Were they subjected to internment or were they found exempt to such a fate? The following series of blog posts will attempt to explore these questions and add a depth to the names and photos of some “enemy aliens” collated in a notebook by the Cardiganshire Police as well as those people whose names are only present in the tribunal records, which were a result of the Aliens and Regional Advisory Committee tribunals held in Aberystwyth in 1939 and 1940 respectively.

Amongst the 600 students as well as the staff members who were evacuated from University College London (U.C.L.) to Aberystwyth, were 15 students and 4 members of staff and their families, who were subject to these tribunals to judge if they were “enemy aliens”. Their evacuation amongst others from Birmingham and South Wales according to the County of Cardigan Standing Committee minutes for the 3rd of October 1940, was a clear concern and focus of the Chief Constable, J.J. Lloyd Williams, and the Cardiganshire Police Force as he notes:

Owing to the bombardment of the South Wales, London and Birmingham areas, a very considerable influx of evacuees has occurred … These unofficial evacuees include many aliens and considerable additional work has been imposed on the aliens staff at Aberystwyth through these individuals taking up their residence here.

This additional work that Lloyd Williams wrote about in these minutes, involved mainly undertaking tribunals, of which Aberystwyth was one of 120 places that tribunals were held in across Britain, to ascertain if the Germans and Austrians who were presented in front of them needed to be interned or be subject to certain restrictions. These decisions were made in-line with the categories set out by the government, to classify them as either a “refugee from Nazi oppression” or as a “non-refugee” with them assigned ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ to indicate their fate, be that:

‘A': Being interned,
‘B’: Travel was limited to 5 miles from their place of residence, with permission for travel at any greater distance requiring the permission of the police and they couldn’t own a camera or binoculars
And ‘C’: who were exempt from restrictions and internment and had the opportunity to have their status as a ‘Refugee from Nazi Oppression’ indicated and acknowledged on official documents.

These restrictions enforced on German and Austrian nationals in Aberystwyth and more widely within the whole of Britain as well as the policy of internment were possible under the power and laws of the Alien Acts of 1914 and 1919 respectively. All of those who were evacuees from U.C.L., who were subject to the Alien tribunals between the 23rd and 27th of October 1939, were initially categorised as ‘C’, so therefore they were judged as a “refugee” rather than an “enemy alien”. The historian, Dr Rachel Pistol argues that at the time, being assigned as a category ‘C’ was seen as an indication of innocence. No doubt many of those who were evacuated from U.C.L. to Aberystwyth viewed their category ‘C’ as such. This categorisation was also according to the political scientist, Neil Stammers, the initial fate of 64,000 Germans and Austrians in Britain, with only 6,800 being categorised ‘B’ and an even smaller amount of 569, being categorised as ‘A’ and in need of immediate internment. 

However, this decision by the Aliens Tribunals in Aberystwyth as well as the decision to categorise the majority of Germans and Austrians in Britain as category ‘C’ in 1939, for many was quickly overturned by the government’s decisions between the 11th and 17th of May 1940, to begin the process of the mass internment of all male “enemy aliens” who were in Britain. This policy it should be noted was agreed despite the reservations of notable cabinet ministers, such as the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee and Arthur Greenwood as well as the then Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson. Stammers argues this change was due to the fear that many Germans and Austrians were an internal threat to the security of Britain, as it was believed and pushed by the newspapers of the day that they were sympathetic or working for the Nazis. Furthermore, the progression of the war, with the invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) and France in May 1940 and the change of Prime Minister, from Neville Chamberlain to Winston Churchill and his government, brought a new direction and individuals to the discussion table, which combined ultimately changed the overall opinion of the government towards the matter of mass internment. Near the end of June 1940, the fate of any German or Austrian man was decided, as any male categorised as ‘C’ was now subject to internment. The realities of these decisions made in London, came to affect those who had initially been evacuated around 232 miles to the seaside town of Aberystwyth to protect them from the realities of the war, in the form of the bombardment of London by air from Nazi forces. As, between the 4th and 19th of June 1940 many were taken from their allocated educational safe haven of Aberystwyth to be interned as an “enemy alien”. This was a fate 24 Germans and Austrians, resident in Cardiganshire had faced by the 3rd of October 1940, according to the County of Cardigan Standing Committee minutes.

The individual stories and fate of these 16 students and 3 members of staff of U.C.L., are both in some ways similar, but in many ways their stories of how their lives were in a constant period of upheaval from the mid to late 1930s and throughout the course of WW2 are totally unique, in both how Aberystwyth became their temporary home away from home and how they then adapted to such upheaval in their lives too. This first blog will explore the small group of U.C.L. evacuated students who were themselves not interned.

Of the evacuated German and Austrian U.C.L. students, only 4 were not interned at all, alongside one Polish student. Many of these students were females and therefore not included in the new policy to intern all male “enemy aliens”. Two of these students whose lives after their time in Aberystwyth are unknown, were Stefanie Mira Fink, pictured below, who was a Polish student studying for a BA General, a multidisciplinary degree that covered a wide range of subjects and Johanna Friedstein. Johanna was born in October 1917 in Vienna, Austria and was living at Holborn House on Queens Road throughout her evacuated studies at Aberystwyth. 

 

Stefanie Marie Fink. Photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

 

The three remaining evacuated students came from a variety of backgrounds, such as Dina Rosenblüth who was born in May 1919 in Wilmersdorf, a residential district in Berlin and was a psychology student in Aberystwyth, who had been educated in England after her family had emigrated from Germany in c.1938 after the Nazis rose to power. The Rosenblüths, consisting of Dina, her brother and mother were living in Hendon, London in 1939, where Dina began her studies at U.C.L. Her father was a judge in Berlin before they left Germany and later went on to help establish the state of Israel as well as becoming the country’s first Minister of Justice. During her time in Aberystwyth, she lived at Hafodynys on Victoria Terrace. Dina from the 1950s onwards went on to publish many articles and books which focused on child psychology and psychoanalysis. She passed away in July 1983 in Tavistock, England. 

 

Dina Rosenblüth. Photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

Ruth Irmgard Bringfriede Liefmann, was another U.C.L. student who was not interned. Ruth was born in March 1916 in Hamburg and had left Germany before WW2 began. In November 1939, she was a sports teacher in Swanage in England before she moved to Aberystwyth as a student at the Chelsea Physical Training College and lived on Bryn Road there during this time. It was believed, amongst her pupils later in the war at Holyrood preparatory school in Abermad, that Ruth would have competed as a long jumper in the 1936 Olympics that were held in Berlin, if she had not been prevented from doing so because of being Jewish. Ruth was a popular teacher at Holyrood, where she taught German to her pupils. Her commute to work during this time, was a short one, as she lived in a lodge at Troed-y-rhiw, Llanfarian. Teaching remained her occupation until she retired as a college lecturer in Hampshire. Ruth then passed away in Hampshire in September 1991.

Ruth Irmgard Bringfriede Liefmann, 1916-1991. Photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

 

Hans-Hermann Arnold was the only male U.C.L. evacuated student who was not interned for a very unique reason. Hans Hermann was born in Berlin in December 1915, the son of Eberhard and Emmy Arnold, the founders of the Bruderhof, an Anabaptist Christian community originally formed in Sannerz, Hess in Germany. After Eberhard and the Bruderhof community’s resistance and awareness of the impacts of Nazi ideology, the community then based in the Rhön Mountains was stormed by the Gestapo on the 16th of November 1933. The community moved to Liechtenstein and later set up further communities in the Netherlands and in the Cotswolds in Ashton Keynes, England in 1934 and 1936 respectively. Hans-Hermann joined this community, known as the Cotswold Bruderhof around March 1936 and with his brothers and brother-in-law, after his father’s death in November 1935, took charge of the running of the various communities. 

 

Hans-Hermann Arnold. Photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

Hans-Hermann's university education began in Manchester University in early 1936, however after failing his exams, he changed his degree course to History and enrolled in this subject in 1938 at U.C.L. Alongside his fellow U.C.L. students he was then evacuated to Aberystwyth. His wife, Gertrud whom he had married in June 1938, later described her husband’s new surroundings after being evacuated from London as ‘an old castle directly on the rocky coast and that ‘(a)t the swell of the sea, the spray of the waves came up to the windows.’ The ‘old castle’ that Gertrud describes was the main University building of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, which is now known as the Old College. At this time, Hans-Hermann travelled earlier than the rest of his fellow students to Aberystwyth to find suitable accommodation for his relatively new family to live in, as Gertrud had given birth to their first child, Rose Marie at the Cotswold Bruderhof in June 1939. He initially stayed at 10 Iorwerth Avenue and then at Arfon, Cae’r-Gog, with Hans-Hermann finally settling with his family at Sandon House, 9 Cae’r-Gog Terrace in Aberystwyth. Their experiences whilst in Aberystwyth can be ascertained from a series of letters Hans-Hermann sent to his family based at the Cotswold Bruderhof. His experiences recollected in the letters were mostly of the demands of the student workload and on many occasions, he mentions the friendly reception of the local people, such as in a letter to his mother on the 22nd of October 1939, when he said that due to ‘the extremely friendly attitude of the people here ... there will be no difficulty in my continuing study here.’ Gertrud also remembered this friendly reception, as students at the university collected money together, alongside Hans-Hermann’s scholarship and money coming from the Bruderhof, for their upkeep whilst they were in Aberystwyth.

 

Gertrud Arnold. Photo in Police Memorandum Book inscribed ‘Aliens’ Photographs’, H.W.?Owen, MUS/204, Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

In this letter of the 22nd of October 1939, Hans-Hermann also gives an account of attending his tribunal, where he recalled that both Mr Read, a local man and Prof. John. E. Neale, the Astor Professor of English History at U.C.L., came to speak up on his behalf. Neale, he recalls even waited with him for over two hours and missed a lecture he was meant to give as well as inviting him afterwards for coffee at Prof. Reginald Francis Treharne’s house, the Chair of History at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where Neale was staying whilst the department was evacuated there. Whilst Hans Hermann was there, he talked to Neale about the Bruderhof, which the Professor had previously heard of. Hans-Hermann also provided a short summary of his tribunal in this letter, as he recalled that:

I was first asked if I was a Jew, and for what religious reasons I had left Germany. Then, to what religious group I belong. I showed them my [Bruderhof] membership card in answer, and then things went very quickly, and I received the stamp “Refugee from Nazi oppression,” with the withdrawal of all limitations. So there is nothing in the way of my studies and we shall have nothing to fear while staying here.

 

Hans-Hermann Arnold, 1915-1972. Photo by permission of the Bruderhof Historical Archive, New York

 

However, this friendly reception and lack of fear was not to last for Hans-Hermann and his family, as by January 1940 in another letter to his mother he revealed that their ‘life here is not so easy’ as he indicated that they do not meet anyone who is not pro-war and that he felt he could not say much against it as he would not be heard. This would have been hard for Hans-Hermann, as it would have completely contradicted the beliefs of the Bruderhof, in this case especially, their pacifist stance. By mid 1940, their lives in Aberystwyth came to a complete end around the time that the British government changed their stance on mass internment. As Gertrud recalled receiving a telegram telling them with no reason given to return immediately to the Cotswold Bruderhof. In her memories held at the Bruderhof Historical Archive in New York, she recalled this quick move away from Aberystwyth and the return to the Bruderhof:

We hardly packed anything, but left as we were. We then learned that England wanted to intern all Germans. If we would have stayed in Wales, we could have been sent to Canada or another place because we were not on the Bruderhof. Our members were already interned on our property... The government was friendly, but our neighbours were hostile to us. Because of that the Home Office advised us to emigrate.

The Arnolds therefore on this advice from the Home Office emigrated to Paraguay on the 24th of November 1940. Hans-Hermann according to Gertrud found this move very hard because he felt there was still a big mission ahead of them in England as well as this meaning that they would be further away from Germany, where he believed that Hitler’s regime would collapse soon. In Paraguay however, they went onto establish a huge mission, forming three communities alongside the members of the Cotswold Bruderhof who also emigrated there between November 1940 and May 1941. In 1953, Hans-Hermann and Gertrud travelled to the U.S.A. to raise money for a hospital they had built in Paraguay. This eventually led to an interest in a community being established in the U.S.A., with the eventual creation of the Woodcrest Bruderhof in New York in June 1954. Hans-Hermann and Gertrud were members of this community until they passed away, with Hans-Hermann dying of cancer there in December 1972. 

Gertrud & Hans-Hermann Arnold. Photo by permission of the Bruderhof Historical Archive, New York

 

The life stories of Dina, Gertrud, Hans-Hermann, Johanna, Ruth and Stefanie, demonstrate that although every refugee had fled National Socialism, their stories and lives were unique and different. Their stories all guided them to Aberystwyth as evacuees from U.C.L., each were from different departments be that History, Psychology or a more general designed degree course. Many of them it is clear were also welcomed into the local community, with Ruth teaching German at a local school as well as Hans-Hermann and Gertrud being shown the charity of the local student population through the collections they ran for their upkeep and the support given to Hans-Hermann at his tribunal. These overall experiences mostly indicate a welcoming and friendly reception, but Hans-Hermann's later letters indicate that their lives walking around the streets and being educated in the seaside town of Aberystwyth also brought some slight tension mainly with his pacifist beliefs. None faced the fate of being interned, mainly due to the interment being imposed on males or in Hans-Hermann's case, the Home Office correspondence which advised him to leave England. This was however not the fate that some of their fellow male U.C.L. evacuee students and lecturers faced, of which their fate and life stories will be the focus of the next blog posts.

Blog by Conor Brockbank

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Photos and letters used with the permission of the Bruderhof Historical Archive, Walden, New York & photos used with the permission of Archifdy Ceredigion Archives, Aberystwyth.

Copyright Conor Brockbank 2023