Britain and the Refugee Crisis, 1933-1947

Ref: Special Collection

Title: Britain and the Refugee Crisis, 1933-1947, and Civilian Internment in Britain, 1939-1945


Scope: Audiotapes and transcripts of interviews with mostly Jewish refugees and internees in Britain of the Nazi and World War II era

Dates: Interviews conducted prior to 1980 for the period 1933-1947
Extent: 6 boxes

Administrative / biographical history:

The collection consists of 168 audio-cassettes of interviews with 77 individuals (both men and women), and transcripts of 41 of those interviews. Those interviewed are mainly Jewish refugees (including individuals of mixed race or Jewish extraction), though a minority are not (such as a member of a refugee assistance committee, an Anglican clergyman who attended the Onchan internment camp in the Isle of Man, and a Polish underground member). They are for the most part of academic or professional background.

These are copies of material held in the Imperial War Museums Department of Sound Records, from which they were purchased in 1987.

• Related collections: East End Newspaper Reports; Krebs Papers; Zaidman Collection; Zaidman Papers
• Source: Purchased 1987
• System of arrangement: Alphabetically. Tapes and transcripts separate
• Subjects: Antisemitism - Germany; Jews in Great Britain; England - Emigration and immigration
• Conditions of access: Available to all researchers, by appointment
• Copyright: Imperial War Museum, London
• Finding aids: List available