Description
Object description
German civilian worked with Cambridge Refugee Committee in Cambridge, GB, 1935-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Germany, Imperial Russian Empire and GB, 1896-1934: family background in Germany; education; move to Imperial Russian Empire; continuing education at Harrogate Ladies College in GB, 1910; opinion of education in GB; how elements of childhood experiences aided work with refugees later in life; period as student at Newnham College, University of Cambridge in GB from 1917; marriage to John Burkill and move to Liverpool, GB, 1928; teaching prisoners in Walton Prison, Liverpool, GB. Recollections of period working for Cambridge Refugee Committee in Cambridge, GB, 1935-1947: meeting with Ernst Reuter on skiing holiday; first refugees to arrive in GB, 1935; organisation of refugee committee.
REEL 2 Continues: memories of committee personnel; financial sources of committee; assistance from Dr Hans Schlossmann and Dr Meyer; difficulties of selection of potential refugees to help; relations with refugees; prior recollections of work with Save the Children Fund after First World War; aiding Ernst Reuter's son Harry Reuter to escape from Germany; taking Harry Reuter into family home; Harry Reuter's success at school; naturalisation of minors and Harry Reuter's acquiring British nationality; Harry Reuter's subsequent employment.
REEL 3 Continues: taking in second refugee child Harry Graetzer; Harry Graetzer's situation; Harry Graetzer's desire to change his name by deed poll; process of adoption for refugee children; story of Jewish refugee child adopted by non-Jewish couple; rule that Jewish children could not be adopted by non-Jewish families; visits to large number of refugee children; opinion of care given to refugee children by working class families; plans to bring ten thousand refugee children under Kindertransport scheme to GB from 1938; attempts to find 'guarantors' for refugee children.
REEL 4 Continues: refugee children send to Jewish organised agricultural camps; desire of some of these refugee children to get help from Cambridge Refugee Committee to continue their education; difficulties in dealing with British evacuee children and Jewish refugee children; impact of her work with refugees on home life; story of Nazi spy placed amongst teenage Jewish refugees; opinion of British police; contrast in attitude of British authorities and people towards 'enemy aliens' during First and Second World Wars; internment of refugees over age of sixteen; attitude towards policy of internment.
REEL 5 Continues: contrast in attitude of Home and War Offices towards refugees; aid given to committee from Sir Alexander Patterson and Sir Alexander Maxwell of the Home Office; money supplied by Czechoslovakian Government-in-Exile to Czech refugee children; opinion of organisation of Bloomsbury House; procedure for getting children out of Europe, 1938-1939; attitude of Trade Unions towards refugees and question of threat to job market; difficulties persuading businesses to take teenage refugees as trainees; contrast between situation of 'guaranteed' and 'unguaranteed' refugee children; psychological impact of experiences on refugee children.
REEL 6 Continues: story of refugee children who had difficulties adapting to life in GB; attempts of committee to keep siblings together and contrasting attitude of religious refugee committees; difficulties faced by refugee women employed as domestic servants; contrast between situation of Russian refugees after revolution and Central European refugees during late 1930s; treatment of refugee domestic servants by employers; arrival of children from concentration camps, 1945; aim of getting children out of Europe to enable parents to escape more easily.
REEL 7 Continues: difficulties dealing with British Orthodox Jewish children evacuated to Cambridge; work of refugee women for Red Cross; education of refugee children and determination of some to go to night school and university; types of careers that refugee children went into; proportion of refugee children dealt with who stayed in GB; story of five thousand Jewish children sent to Germany by Vichy French government; difficulties of reuniting children with their parents; return of many refugee children to GB after war; attitude of parents of refugee children towards work of Cambridge Refugee Committee; attitude towards accusation of poor treatment of refugees.
REEL 8 Continues: implications for refugee children of 1944 Education Act; campaigning for rights of refugee children with regards to education; opinion of British attempts to help refugees during 1930s; treatment of refugees in GB, 1945-1980; closure of Bloomsbury House and turning over dossiers to Jewish Refugee Committee, 1947; retaining her own dossiers to maintain responsibility for her children; attitude towards her work with refugee children; question of Jewish refugee children placed in Christian homes taken by Orthodox Jewish committees; opinion of value of work with refugees.
