Description
Object description
Memoir (39pp ts) of his childhood in a German-Jewish family in Hamburg, northern Germany, during the 1920s, his early introduction to politics via his father, a member of the Social Democratic Party, the family's emigration to Britain during the course of 1928 – 1930 (his uncle owned a business in Liverpool), his involvement as a schoolboy with the radical left in Liverpool in the early 1930s, joining the Young Communist League in 1932, apprenticeship in the tailoring trade and trade union / shop steward activism, subsequently joining the Communist Party of Great Britain, arrest at the outbreak of war in 1939 and internment alongside his father in police cells in Liverpool and in the internment camps at Clacton-on-Sea and Seaton until mid-1940, commenting on the political organisation and activities of Communists interned at Seaton, with an interlude at the London Oratory School internment centre and his (unsuccessful) appeal tribunal hearing, removal from Seaton and departure from Liverpool with a group of internees destined for Canada in the SS ARANDORA STAR in July 1940, his survival of the ship's sinking by a German U-boat and return to the UK, temporary accommodation in Edinburgh before being shipped to Australia in HMT DUNERA at the end of July, arrival at Melbourne in September 1940 and internment at Tatura (Camps 2, 3 and 4) until July 1942, with excellent descriptions of conditions in these camps and the political organisation of the internees, return to the UK and continued internment at Douglas, Isle of Man, a second unsuccessful tribunal hearing in London, and his eventual release in December 1942, returning to live with his parents in Manchester until after the end of the war, moving to Bradford with his young family where he continued his career in the clothing business and his political engagement [Extensive recorded interview with Baruch held in IWM Sound Archive].
Content description
Memoir (39pp ts) of his childhood in a German-Jewish family in Hamburg, northern Germany, during the 1920s, his early introduction to politics via his father, a member of the Social Democratic Party, the family's emigration to Britain during the course of 1928 – 1930 (his uncle owned a business in Liverpool), his involvement as a schoolboy with the radical left in Liverpool in the early 1930s, joining the Young Communist League in 1932, apprenticeship in the tailoring trade and trade union / shop steward activism, subsequently joining the Communist Party of Great Britain, arrest at the outbreak of war in 1939 and internment alongside his father in police cells in Liverpool and in the internment camps at Clacton-on-Sea and Seaton until mid-1940, commenting on the political organisation and activities of Communists interned at Seaton, with an interlude at the London Oratory School internment centre and his (unsuccessful) appeal tribunal hearing, removal from Seaton and departure from Liverpool with a group of internees destined for Canada in the SS ARANDORA STAR in July 1940, his survival of the ship's sinking by a German U-boat and return to the UK, temporary accommodation in Edinburgh before being shipped to Australia in HMT DUNERA at the end of July, arrival at Melbourne in September 1940 and internment at Tatura (Camps 2, 3 and 4) until July 1942, with excellent descriptions of conditions in these camps and the political organisation of the internees, return to the UK and continued internment at Douglas, Isle of Man, a second unsuccessful tribunal hearing in London, and his eventual release in December 1942, returning to live with his parents in Manchester until after the end of the war, moving to Bradford with his young family where he continued his career in the clothing business and his political engagement [Extensive recorded interview with Baruch held in IWM Sound Archive].
History note
Cataloguer SWW