|
Trending Topics
|
German Jewish Refugees Held in UK Internment Camps during World War II
(Times of Israel) Amy Spiro - In May 1940, fearing an imminent German invasion, the British government authorized the arrest and detention of all German citizens residing in the UK. Around 30,000 Germans were rounded up and sent to internment camps - the vast majority of whom were Jewish refugees who had fled the Nazis, many with British assistance. Among them were my grandfather, great-grandfather and great-uncle, held in Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man. A new book from British journalist Simon Parkin, The Island of Extraordinary Captives, illuminates the lives of the men held in Hutchinson Camp, many of whom were prominent artists, musicians and intellectuals. Some of the refugees had arrived in Britain as teenagers on the Kindertransports. Others had been imprisoned in concentration camps and managed to escape to the UK. Articles in the Hutchinson Camp newspaper reveal anger, bewilderment and a sense of betrayal at being locked up by the British. The front page of the Oct. 15, 1940, edition included a call to the camp commander begging for inmates to be allowed to work for the war effort and "prove our loyalty to Great Britain and our hatred of Nazidom." Many were terrified that they would be repatriated to Germany or exchanged in a prisoner-of-war swap. Others feared that the Nazis would invade the Isle of Man and delight to find so many Jews already rounded up as easy targets.