Breaking the Silence: Voices Of The British Children Of Refugees From Nazism - Softcover

Moos, Merilyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783482966 ISBN 13: 9781783482962

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2015

Synopsis

An in-depth analysis of the memories and experiences of the British second generation of refugees from Nazism before the Holocaust. This oral history project investigates the impact of their parents' trauma, dislocation and pattern of silence on ordinary members of this second generation in this unique geographical context.

About this title

About the Author

Merilyn Moos is an independent scholar based in London.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Breaking the Silence

Voices of the British Children of Refugees from Nazism

By Merilyn Moos

Rowman & Littlefield International, Ltd.

Copyright © 2015 Merilyn Moos
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78348-296-2

CHAPTER 1

The Historical Background of the Countries of Origin of the Refugee Parents

The geopolitical circumstances that precipitated the British second generation's parents' exile continue to reverberate strongly in the lives of their children, the British second generation. The British second generation's present perceptions of who they are and the current debate on the character of silence is better comprehended within a historical/cultural background. But this is not a history book about the causes or consequences of Nazism and its march through much of Europe, precipitating the flight of the participants' parents. Many fine academic books have already been published around these topics, which I draw upon to provide background but do not dwell on.

Here I will consider the background situation in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary as it contributed to the parents' flight and subsequent arrival in the UK; these were the 'countries of origin' of the British second-generation participants. This section is not intended to be a comprehensive review of patterns of exile from these countries.

While Nazism was obviously the immediate cause, it was also the development of the nation-state across much of Middle Europe after World War I that had emphasized the importance of the nation-state and nationhood and had therefore created minorities of those who were not of that nation. Indeed, though Germany was something of an exception, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I left significant minorities in the newly formed nation-states of 'Eastern' Europe, especially in Poland and Czechoslovakia, most of whom had been forced or encouraged to leave their country of origin or had been exterminated by the end of World War II (Mazower 1998, 41–43). To draw from Mark Mazower (1998, 41–48), the earlier forms of 'solving' the 'problem' of minorities, which had been accentuated by the creation of the nation-state, were no longer seen as viable: neither population swaps such as those between Turkey and Greece after World War I nor migration, particularly to the US, which was essentially controlled from 1921.

This is not to diminish the Jewish experience. Anti-Semitism was experienced in the great empires of the nineteenth century, but it was accentuated with their demise just before and after World War I. The new types of regime had different types of anti-Semitism within them. While the Nazi's attempt to annihilate all Jews was distinct from more piecemeal efforts at 'ethnic cleansing', the testimonials included here could be the stories of many who went into some form of exile during the 1920s and 1930s.

Though it has not proven possible to establish all the refugee numbers, I attempt to give some indication of the difference in the numbers of those who fled from each country of origin in the 1930s, which is itself linked to the history of each country. This is a study of the children of those who fled before the outbreak of war, not of those who stayed.

GERMANY

Refugees from Germany constituted the largest group to come to the UK. As events in Germany bestrode Europe and much of the rest of the world between 1933 and 1945, it is worth going into some limited detail on the background to the exodus of refugees from Germany.

The Nazis took power in January 1933 and rapidly set out on the road to dictatorship.

Following the Reichstag fire on 27 Februa

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1783482966
• ISBN 13: 9781783482962
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 358