Figure 1.--.

Britain is not normlly thought of as a country affected ny the Holocaust. The country had very restrictive immigration policies, but did provide sanctuary for thousands of European Jews including the Kindertransport children. It was the first country to successfully defy Hitler and the German military. There was a small part of Britain that was occupied by the NAZIs after the fall of France--the Channel Islands. Here there were a small number of foreign and British Jews. Most of the Channel Island Jews evacuted, but officials did not permit foreign Jews to leave for Britain. Soon after the German occuption the NAZI occupation officials issued the first anti-Jewish Order (October 1940). They instructed the police to idetify Jews as part of the registation process. Island authorities identified the Jews. Their registration cards were marked with red "J"s. Authorities also compiled lists of Jewish property which was turned over to German authorities. [Fraser] The process developed differently on the four islands, Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, and Alderney. Jersey Jews and 22 Jersey islanders died in concentration camps. Officials made some effort to mitigate anti-semitic measures the NAZIs demanded. They refused to require Jews to wear yellow stars. They did formally Aryanise businesses, but they were returned after the war. Even so, Jewish families had to struggled to survive after being deprived of their livelihoods. Police officials on Jersey and Guernsey did investigate Jewish ancestry for the Germans. Curfews were imposed on Jews. Shopping was limited to 3-4 pm. Two Jersey Jews committed suicide. One was admitted to an asylum where he subsequntly died. There were heros. Albert Bedane hid Mary Richardson, a Dutch Jewess who married a British sea captain, for 2 1/2 years. Guernsey police handed over three East European Jewish women to the NAZIS who deported then first to France where they were rounded up and transported to Auschwitz. The Duquemin fmily, including an 18-month-old baby girl, were deported but urvived. Alderney was the site of the only SS camp on British soil--the Norderney Camp. The camp was for the French Jews and other prisoners who worked on the island. The JHews were kept separated from the other prisoners. The islands were used by NAZI propaganda. Hitler ordered elaborate fortifications belt on the islnds to prevent British efforts to liberate the islands. The result was an ennormous effort to fortify the islands, efforts that made little military sence and would have been more useful as part of the Atantic Wall along the French coast. The NAZIs transported over 16,000 slave workers to the Channel Islands to build the fortifications. Among these workers were 1,000 French Jews. [Cohen] Many of these slave laborers died from exhaustion and malnutrition. Nicholas Winton is known as England's Schindler. He managed to save 669 children from the Nazis. Two Jews were killed by the British Navy when their ship was sunk attempting to enter Palestine (1939). the British interned 1,500 Jews destined for Palestine on Mauritius (1941-45). There were 124 who perished there.

Arab Revolt (1936-39)

The Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini helped inspire riots and disorders throughout Palestine (April 1936). Six prominent Arab leaders formed the Arab High Command to to protest Zionist activities, especially land purchases and immigration. The Arab High Command organized a general strike of Arab workers and a boycott of Jewish products (April 1936). Soon the initial peaceful actions escalated into attacks on Jews as well as the British authorities. Riots occured in Jerusalem and other cities . These dusorders, seen as the first stage of the "Arab Revolt" continued until November, 1936. Another stage of disorders began in September, 1937. The cause was the Peel Commission which suggested the partition of Palestine. The second stahe was much more violent. There were more intense fifgting with British forces as well as attacks on more Jewish settlements. The British were hard pressed at the time and actually authorized the arming of the Haganah. The British and the Haganah worked togrther. Effecive operations were organized by Charles Orde Wingate who later became famous in Burma. Wingate established Special Night Squads of Jewish volunteers. The British sucessfully defeated the Arab Revolt. Husseini was able to find refuge in Iraq. The British government cocerned about the British position in the Arab world sought to apease Arab opinion with the 1939 White Paper.

British White Paper (1939)

NAZI diplomacy with its anti-British and anti-Semitic approached appealed to the Arabs. Here they met considerable sympathy both because of rising anti-Semitism and opposition to British colonialism. The British attempted to counter this by issuing a White Paper before the War began withdrrawing their support for a Jewish homeland. Palestine's location closed to the Suez Canal made it a possession of some strategic importance. As Europe moved toward war, the British Governent organized a conference of Arabs and Jews to discuss the future of Palestine and difuse the disorders that broke out with the Arab revolt. The meeting became known as the St. James or Round Table Conference of 1939. The British attempted to bring together Arab and Jewish representatives. The Jews were represented by the Jewish Agency (Zionist and non-Zionist groups) led by Chaim Weizmann. The Arabs delegation was led by the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, but te delegation included the more moderate party of the well-known al-Nashashibi family. The Arab delegation included non-Palestinian Arabs (Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, and Yemen). The Conference did not go well. Al-Husseini refused to even meet with the Jewish representatives. The resulting British White Paper was crafted to help reverse increasing Arab sympathy with the NAZIs (1939). The Jewish Agency in Palestine rejected the White Paper and charged that it was a deninal of the Balfour Declaration as well as Britain's responsibilities under the League of Nations Mandate. The Jews were especially concerned about the British decession to permanently restrict Jewish immigration, at a time when Jews were being brutalized by the NAZIs and Fasist forces in other European countries.

Immigration (1930s)

Britain is not normlly thought of as a country affected ny the Holocaust. The country before the War had very restrictive immigration policies. >br>

Kindertransport

Britain did provide sanctuary for thousands of European Jews including the Kindertransport children. Some of the last Jews to get out of Germany were the children brought out through the Kindertransport. This was the transport of Jewish children out of Austria, Czecheslovakia, and Germany. The British Government, horrified at the outburst of violence in Kristallnacht agreed to eased immigration restrictions for certain of Jewish refugees. Two charitable groups help organize the program: the British Committee for the Jews of Germany and the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany. Together these groups persuaded the British government to permit children under the age of 17 to enter Britain from Germany and German-occupied territories (at the time what used to be Austria and Czecheslovakia). The limit on the number of children was that private citizens or organizations had to guarantee to pay for each child's care and education. The British Government refused to accept any financial responsibility. The Government also insisted that the children would have to eventually emigrate from Britain. Not the most hostpitable conditions, but at least they were out of Germany. The Government agreed to permit the unaccompanied children to enter on a simple travel visa. Parents or guardians were not permitted to accompany the children. There were also a few infants cared for by the older children. About 10,000 children were saved--the largest group of children to be saved from the NAZIs. Most were aided by Jewish charitable organizations, but Quakers and other groups also helped. The experience was traumatic for the children, especially the younger ones, who did not understand why they were being separated from their parents. The children had to say a final goodbye to their parents and families for a long train journey to England and numerous checks by NAZI authorities. Most were never reunited with their families who were murdered in the NAZI death camps. The older children were put up on hostels, many of the younger children were adopted.

World War II Role

Britain was the first country to successfully defy Hitler and the German military. The Battle of Britain was crucial. Had the British failed, it woyld have been very difficult for America to bring its power to bear on Germany. Britain was unable to prevent German killing operations in Europe. Germany occupied most of Europe and the ability to organize the killing operations with little serious opposition. Even so about half of Europe's Jews survived the War. Had not Britain survived, almost surely, the German killing operations would have found and killed even more Jews.

Channel Islands

Internment of German Jews

British laws like the laws of most countries authiorized the Government to arrest and intern enemy aliens. The same occurred in America after Pearl Harbor. These laws we based on natiionality, not religion. No one when these laws were crafted expected the Germans to launch awar on Jews. Thus there was no provision for exempting Jews feeing NAZI persecultion. Thus German and subsequenty Itlian Jews were interned along ith othr Germnans and NAZIs, They were even ovften kept in the same faciities. While as far as we know the Jews involved were fervently anti-NAZI, the British policies are not as absurd as it may sound. The Germans did try to insert agents in Britains. We do not know of Any agents who pretended to be Jews, but our informtion is limitd at thus time. And there is always the possibikity of refugees being forced to carry out assignmets because of threats to famiy members. Thus invetigaing the background of these individuls was not unreasonable. Among those interned were the Kinderstransport children after they turned 17 years of age. Whie we do not know of any NAZI agents among the Jewish internees, we do know of Soviet agents. One ws Klaus Fuchs who was asigned to work n the Manhttan Project with the Americans.

British Einsatzgruppen

German agencies after Hitler issued Führer Directive 16 began preparing for not only the invasion, but for occupying a subgegated Britin. This included setting up Eisatzgruppen. What we do not understand is why the Germans did not organize Einsatzgruppen for France, but did for Britain. And here the racial aspect further confuses the history. The SS decided there was only limited genetic material to be havested in France, but that the British were a kindred Aryan people. For what ever reason, the Germans decided that the subgecatiin of Britain required Einsatzgruppen. Walter Schellenberg, director of the counter espionage unit of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Head Office of Reich Security--RSHA) prepared a secret occupation handbook. (Schellenberg was recruited by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich and would later become the top German intelligence officer after British agents shot Heydrich and Abwher head, Admiral Canaris was arrested.) His handbook would have been proven useful by occupation authorities. It offered detailed informtion on a wide range of topics concerning Britain and the Empire. There were detailed analyses of both the political and economic system. Individual chapters covered a wide range of topics, everything from Parliament and public schools to freemasonry a prenial NAZI target. The book also discussed the Boy Scouts, probsbly because of the importance of the Hitler Youth in Germany.

Nicholas Winton

Nicholas Winton is known as England's Schindler. He managed to save 669 children from the Nazis.

Ultra Decripts

Ultra decripts had revealed that the Germans had begun killing Jews in large numbers when they invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941).

BBC Broadcasts

Hungarian Deportations Stopped (July 1944)

The British Foreign Office received a report from four Jewish ecapees from Auschwitz describing the gassing of Jews in large numbers at the Auschwuitz-Birkenau (July 4, 1944), It was compiled in Slovakia and snuggled to Switzerland where it was telegraphed to London, Washington, and Jerusalem. Chaim Weizemann and Moshe Shertok with the Jewish Agency went to see Foreign Sectretary, Anthony Eden, to discuss the fact that Hungarian Jews were being deported in large numbers. Eden immediately went to see Primeminister Churchill. This was the first detailed report describing ewhat was happening at Auschwitz. Within days, Chirchill ordered RAF Bomber Command to bomb the rail links between Hungary and Auschwitz. Before the orders were given American bombers hit Budapest (July 2). The American raid was unrelated to the killing of Jews. The raid was associated with the American strategic bombing campaigning hitting fuel depots and rail marshalling yards. But as was common during the War, many of the bombs missed their mark and hit Government buildings and residential areas, including the homes of important Government officials. Some of the buildings and homes had been included on a list sent by a British diplomat in Switzerland, Elizabeth Wiskemann, who suggested bombing Budapest to force the Government to stop the deportations. She sent the telegram in the clear, intending that it be read by the Hungarian intelligence service. Included were the addressed of the police and railway ministeries and home addresses of Government officials. The Hungarians thus assumed that the American raid was meant to stop the deportations and that there would be more. Horthy ordered the deportations to be halted and so informed the German Ambassador, SS General Veesenmayer. Even though SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichman was in Budapest, the deportations stopped. Churchill mlearned of this through a decrypted Turkish diplomatic cable. BBC broadcasts described the deportatiions and the gassing being carried out at Auschwuitz-Birkenau. The BBC also indicated that the Britisg Government would persue those involved as war criminals. [Gilbert, Churchill, pp. 211-13.]

Liberating Concentration Camps (March-April 1945)

After the Allies crossed the Rhine (March 1945), British and Canadian units began entering the concentrtiion camps in nrthern Germany. These were not the death camps where millions were killed, but they did by 1945 include many Jews. The Germans hd emptied Auschwitz and other camps in Poland as the Red Army approched. The SS guards forced the inmates on death marches west, often in the dead of winter. They were mrches with littkle or no food and inadequate clothing. Staghlers were shot. The survivors were brought to concentration camps in the Reich where by 1945 the alredy terrible conditions had deteriorated even further. By the time the Allies reached these camps, no food had been delivered for some time. The Germans intended to kill these unfortunte people so they could not bear witness, but the pace of Allied advances and the deteriorating conditions men that there were survivors still alive, albeit near death.

Refuge for Child Survivors in Britain (1945-46)

Some 732 Jewish children who manged to survive in the NAZI concentration camps were brought to Britain after the War. fter the NAZI surrender (May 1945), the British Government offered to care for 1,000 orphans who has somehow managd to survive of the Holocaust (summer 1945). Tragically only 732 child surviviors were located. Nor only were the childrenparticularly vuklnerable, but they were especilly targeted by the Germns as 'non-workers'. The childre over a period of 8 months were flown from Prague in Czechoslovakia and Muninch in southern Germany. They arrivd in England (Windermere and Southmpton) as well as afew in Scotland and Northern Island. The children began calling themselves, 'The Boys", although a few girls were involved. They became over time a tight-knit group. Few outsiders could fully understood what the children experienced. ThHolocausrt is terrible beyond imagintion, but the expeiences of the children could not be more heart wrenching. The children could talk to each other in a way that wasnot posible with others. An imprtnt Britis hisorin hs told their story, "Their early childhood was spent in the towns and villages of Poland, Cechoslovakia, and Hungary, in normal children's worlds of family, friends, school and holidays. Here is a portrait of pre-War Eropean Jewry, both urban and rural, now lost. From the age of ten and even younger, to the age of fifteen and sixteen, 'The Boys were forced into torments of ghettoes, concentratin camps, slave labour camps and death marches; they exoerieced the Holocaust from a child's prospective, often witnessing at first hand the death of their parents, brothers and ssters. Their liberation ws followed by the difficult rebuilding of their lives in Britain,lives whichb had been phsically and emotionally drained by their nightmare past. Yet they drew on the strength of their group to move forward, both induividually and together. After leaving their hostels, they remained a closely knit, affectionate, devoted bnd iof brothers --and sisters . Thir families having been destroyed, they created families amongst theseselves." [Gilbert, The Boys,]

Jewish Immigration to British-Administered Palestine

Britin as a result of World War I had seized Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. The Palestinian Arabs were relatively restrained during the Ottoman Era. The Ottomans had allowed Zioist settleents. After the War under less severe British rule, the Palistinians becae increasingly aggressive. Under the Grand Mufti, Palistinians with moderate views were eliminated. Tensions increased, resulting in the Arab Revolt (1936-39). The keep a lid on the growing tinder-box and to placate Arabs in other Middkle Eastern countries, especially Egypt, the British limited Jewish immigration at aime when Jews were desperately attempting to flee NAZI occupied Europe. Jewsintercepted were interned, but not returned to the NAZIS. a Two Jews were killed by the British Navy when their ship was sunk attempting to enter Palestine (1939). the British interned 1,500 Jews destined for Palestine on Mauritius (1941-45). There were 124 who perished there. British restrictions on immigration continued after the War, restricting the relocations of thousands of Holocaust survivors in camps mostly in Germany. now convinced that the Zionits were right and desiring to emigrate to Palestine. Many Jews trying to reach Palestine were intened by the British on Cyprus.

Sources

Cohen, Frederick. The Jews in the Channel Islands during the German Occupation.

Fraser, David. The Jews of the Channel islands and the Rule of Law, 1940–1945.

Gilbert, Martin. Churchill and the Jews: A Life Long Frienship (Henry Holt: New York, 2007), 359p.

Gilbert, Martin. The Boys.

Created: 7:30 AM 12/8/2010
Last updated: 8:39 PM 2/7/2013