{"id":69,"date":"2017-07-22T12:03:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T12:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/?p=69"},"modified":"2017-08-18T16:08:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T16:08:03","slug":"internment-jewish-german-diasporic-identity-and-acculturation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/2017\/07\/22\/internment-jewish-german-diasporic-identity-and-acculturation\/","title":{"rendered":"Internment: Jewish-German Diasporic Identity and Acculturation"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the Second World War, German citizens in the United Kingdom were considered \u2018enemy aliens\u2019<\/a>. As the war moved into a phase of extreme tension, male \u2018aliens\u2019 were interned in camps to ensure that they were not Nazi informers or sympathisers trying to undermine Britain from within. Female \u2018aliens\u2019 were often merely relocated if they resided in an administratively or politically critical area. Annekathrin and Anicuta were displaced from Edinburgh to Glasgow as Annekathrin writes that they were no longer permitted to reside within twenty miles of the East Coast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The policy of interment of \u2018enemy aliens\u2019 in the UK at the start of the Second World War\u00a0was relatively liberal, with only known Nazi sympathisers being sent to internment camps. When the war reached its critical stages, however, in 1940 with the battle of Dunkirk, the government took a more hard-line stance. Winston Churchill famously declared: \u201cCollar the lot!\u201d<\/a>. Interment became a bigger project<\/a>, with thousands of aliens being deported from Britain to the Colonies. Many ships were lost to U-Boat attacks.<\/p>\n

Despite being fully integrated into the Edinburgh medical community and having been granted permission to stay in the United Kingdom, Ernst Levin was interned in 1940 at the Isle of Man internment camp, along with other \u2018alien\u2019 men. His wife Anicuta and daughter Annekathrin were removed from their home in Edinburgh and forced to move to Glasgow with other \u2018alien\u2019 women. Interment camp conditions were generally good, as evidenced by letter from Ernst\u2019s fellow interned men to Anicuta upon their release. A letter indicates that Ernst\u2019s nephew Jacob Levin, his brother Kurt\u2019s son, was also interned in an allied internment camp in Sydney, Australia. It seems that British citizens were sympathetic to the Levins’ plight, and famous Edinburgh-based surgeon Norman Dott <\/a>personally wrote to the authorities requesting Ernst\u2019s release so that he could continue to aid Dott in his practice. Annekathrin documents this interment experience in letters to her father, who seems to have taken up an active professional medical role in the camp.<\/p>\n

29th June 1940 TELEGRAM:<\/u><\/p>\n

To Ernst in Isle of Man interment camp:<\/p>\n

\u2018Your family well removed to \u2026. Glasgow \u2013 Dott\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

**************************************<\/p>\n

A series of letters written from Annekathrin Levin to her father in an Internment Camp:<\/p>\n

4th<\/sup> June 1940<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to write with pencil because my pen is out of order \u2026 I have been talking to Mr. Dott and he thinks it would be a good thing if you could write personally to Mr Adams whether your naturalisation papers are not yet ready or whether he could inquire about them. Mr Dott is not sure that you will get your salary again from the Rockefeller institution \u2026 Mr Dott had got a sort of questionnaire from the Academic Assistance Council whether your work was of national importance because in these cases (it) seems to make an application for the release of such persons\u201d<\/p>\n

30th<\/sup> June 1940:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to leave Edinburgh with a week\u2019s notice to remove with the rest of the alien (German and Austrian) women 20 miles from the East coast. You can imagine that we had very much packing to do as well as trying to find a place where we could stay. Finally we moved to Glasgow to the above address. It was given to us by the Church of Scotland offices \u2026 we are being very well looked after here \u2026 although everything is very primitive. We have one room \u2026 But the Church of Scotland office knows all about us and has taken our case into their hands. They may be able to help us. Your salary has been stopped since the first of June <\/u>so that we have to be very careful with the little money that\u2019s left\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to close the flat and leave it as it stands. It would be more expensive to move the furniture and store it. I gave one key to Mr Dott and the Police are watching the flat so that no one breaks in \u2026 Mr Dott is doing everything he can to get you released as he needs you very badly in his department<\/u>\u201d<\/p>\n

9th<\/sup> July 1940:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDear Pops, we have just received your telegram asking how we are \u2026 We are staying here in lodgings and Mr and Mrs Reilly are very nice people. We got their address from the Church of Scotland offices in Edinburgh. We don\u2019t know how long we shall stay here because unless we can get assistance it will be too expensive for us here<\/u> \u2026Whenever we hear anything new about us we shall let you know. An application for your release has been made by the Academic Assistance Council \u2026 We had together with the rest of the alien women to move 20 miles from the East coast. That\u2019s why we are in Glasgow now\u201d<\/p>\n

[The Quakers and other religious organisations, such as the Church of Scotland, often helped refugees or displaced \u2018aliens\u2019 as charitable work. The Friends Committee for Refugees and Aliens<\/a> existed from 1933 to 1950.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

26th<\/sup> July 1940:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to congratulate you on yours and Mutti\u2019s wedding anniversary \u2026 What a pity that we can\u2019t be together this year \u2026 One of these days I shall go to the Society of Friends (Quakers) \u2026 quite a number of the Edinburgh alien women have come to Glasgow through their committee \u2026 (they wanted to) try to open a kind of hostel for all the women who couldn\u2019t find anywhere else to go. So I am going to find out about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

********************************<\/p>\n

FROM NORMAN DOTT<\/a>:<\/u><\/p>\n

18th<\/sup> June, 1940:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI enclose a letter from the Aliens War Service together with your certificate of registration which arrived here today. It is clear that in your present status of an alien if would not be possible for you to work at the Infirmary nor indeed to reside in Edinburgh. These conditions might of course be altered if your naturalisation which was so imminent could be completed, and I hope that this may be possible\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

***********************************<\/p>\n

From Fellow Interned ‘Aliens’ to Anicuta and Annekathrin:<\/u><\/p>\n

3rd<\/sup> September 1940, from Mr Boller:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYour father asked me to write to you \u2026 he is well \u2026 he hasn\u2019t written in so long because he has a significant job in the camp, to discern \u2018medical hardship\u2019. He is putting his whole soul into it: organises, writes lists and argues with all the doctors \u2026 You have probably read about the camps. The people there are treated well, as they are not starving or treated badly, and have no air raids. On the other hand, there are barbed wire fences, the feeling of being trapped and cut off, and the horrendous post service\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5th<\/sup> September 1940, from Mr Wolff:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was recently released from Central Promenade Camp, Douglas, Isle of Man, and your husband asked me to send you his best greetings. I owe a lot of thanks to your husband on whose recommendation the British medical officer qualified me as unfit for interment, and who did his utmost to urge my release. I only wish that I could do anything in the interest of your husband\u2019s being freed\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

31st<\/sup> August 1940, from S.J. Bach:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI have just returned from Central Camp, Douglas, where I have seen your husband very frequently \u2026 In the last two months the state of health was very good while he had to overcome the first shock of his internment in the early days. But he is quite alright now and very busy in managing an office concerning the medical hardships of the camp \u2026 Many cases have been released since due to his efforts\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

************************************<\/p>\n

Letter from \u2018Society of Protection of Science and Learning<\/a>\u2019 (formerly Academic Assistance Council)<\/u><\/p>\n

Several societies were formed during the course of the Second World War\u00a0to ensure that academics doing work vital to society and science were protected, even if they held the status of \u2018enemy alien\u2019. The continued progression of science and technology in the UK during the war years was an absolutely crucial aspect of the war effort, with the acceleration of a competitive drive to innovative new forms of warfare. The work of Alan Turing and his team\u00a0to break the Enigma machine code in a race against German communications technology is a good example. The Academic Assistance Council was formed in 1933, to help academics who had to flee<\/a> Nazi Germany re-settle and continue their work. In 1936 it was re-named the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning, and in 1999 the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics. The organisation continues its work today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

15th<\/sup> September 1939:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are anxious to have the following particulars about those displaced scholars who have been in this country for some years, in case an opportunity should arise of taking up the question of early naturalisation with the Home Office\u201d<\/p>\n

Ernst filled in:<\/p>\n

Applied for naturalisation on 17th<\/sup> November 1938<\/p>\n

Unconditional permit of residence on 7th<\/sup> October, 1937<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

********************************<\/p>\n

Propaganda stamps with slogans used by both the British and German postal services during\u00a0the Second World War<\/u><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the Second World War, German citizens in the United Kingdom were considered \u2018enemy aliens\u2019. As the war moved into a phase of extreme tension, male \u2018aliens\u2019 were interned in camps to ensure that they were not Nazi informers or sympathisers trying to undermine Britain from within. Female \u2018aliens\u2019 were often merely relocated if they … Continue reading Internment: Jewish-German Diasporic Identity and Acculturation<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3,12,14,15,11,13],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/levin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}