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