I recently came across a little booklet that was given to my
mother in 1939, when she arrived in the UK as an 18-year-old refugee from Nazi
Germany.
It is called 'Helpful information and guidance for every
refugee' -- and in the light of the current debate about refugees and immigrants,
it makes fascinating reading.
But first some context: in the 1930s and early 1940s, an
estimated 70,000 Jewish refugees were granted asylum in the UK. Another 500,000
who applied for entry were unsuccessful; among them was my grandmother, who had
to stay behind in Germany and was shot by a Nazi death squad in 1941. (I tell
her story here.)
The booklet that I found among my mother's possessions was
published by the German Jewish Aid Committee and the Jewish Board of Deputies
(as it then was). Each section is in both English and German.
First, there is a list of 'organisations useful for our visitors'. Then
comes 'How to register with your local police'. And then, under the heading
'The tolerance and sympathy of Britain and the British Commonwealth', comes a
long list of do's and don'ts.
Rule No. 1: 'Spend your spare time immediately in learning
the English language and its correct pronunciation.'
Rule No. 2: 'Refrain from speaking German in the streets and
in public conveyances and in public places such as restaurants. Talk halting
English rather than fluent German -- and do
not talk in a loud voice (Italics in the original). Do not read German newspapers
in public.'
Another rule says: 'Do not make yourself conspicuous by
speaking loudly, nor by your manner or dress. The Englishman greatly dislikes
ostentation, loudness of dress or manner, or unconventionality of dress or
manner. The Englishman attaches very great importance to modesty,
under-statement in speech rather than over-statement, and quietness of dress
and manner. He values good manners far more than he values the evidence of
wealth. (You will find that he says "Thank you" for the slightest
service -- even for a penny bus ticket for which he has paid.)'
There are also words of warning: 'Do not expect to be
received immediately in English homes, because the Englishman takes some time
before he opens his home wide to strangers.'
And a final admonition, in heavy, bold type: 'Be loyal to England, your host.'
What a long time ago it was. How Britain has changed. And
how quaint was the language, the writers apparently unaware of the existence either
of women or of anywhere in the UK that isn't England.
The picture that the booklet painted, of a country obsessed
with good manners and keeping up appearances, was, perhaps understandably, very
definitely rose-tinted. Why upset newly-arrived refugees with tales of Oswald
Mosley and the Battle of Cable Street, which had taken place in the East End of
London less than three years previously, when Jewish and other anti-Fascists
resisted a planned march through a Jewish neighbourhood by Mosley's Blackshirts?
Why remind them that in 1938, the Daily Mail had approvingly quoted a London magistrate who said:
'The way stateless Jews from Germany are pouring in from every port of this
country is becoming an outrage.'
My mother soon learned for herself that refugees were not
universally welcomed: within two weeks of having found work as a mother's help
in north London, war had been declared and she was summarily dismissed. Her
employer, who was Jewish, said she didn't want 'a German' in her home.
Inevitably, leafing through that nearly eighty-year-old
booklet, my thoughts turned to today's refugees, from Syria, Yemen, Eritrea or
Sudan. Especially as I had just been reminded yet again of the bigotry and
prejudice that still greets foreigners fleeing from violence and persecution.
A couple of days ago, I suggested on television that the
German chancellor Angela Merkel had done the right thing in 2015 by opening
Germany's doors to hundreds of thousands of migrants, even though it was
clearly to her political disadvantage. The reaction, in messages to me on
social media, was immediate and ugly.
'Europeans do NOT need low IQ Africans to flood in bringing
their lack of restraint, bestial sexual habits & violence.'
'We do not need Islam or millions of uneducated people from
Africa in Europe who bring violence, rape, fgm, child marriage, crime, jihad,
and a burden on the tax payer.'
There was more in a similar vein. I found it depressing, although
not surprising. But I also remembered the hundreds of British friends my
parents made in post-war Britain, many of whom will be joining us in a couple
of weeks' time to celebrate the life of my late father, another refugee from
Nazi Germany, who died just before Christmas at the ripe old age of
ninety-eight.
Both my parents followed the rules in that little booklet to
the letter -- and they enjoyed long and happy lives together in the country
they called home. Shortly before he died, my father wrote: 'Unless you were
born and grew up in this country, you will never be an Englishman, and nobody
will call you that. But all the same, I call Great Britain my "home
country", as I feel at home here, and I am glad this is where I lived my
life, rather than anywhere else.'
I hope that one day, today's refugees will be
able to say the same.
