3. Jewish refugees from the Nazis 1938: everyone wants to leave

Woburn House, Tavistock Square

Woburn House today

Woburn House and the Jewish Refugees Committee

Woburn House opened in 1932 as a communal centre for Jewish organisations. Just one year later, after the Nazis came to power, it became the centre for the Jewish community’s efforts to help refugees. In this building, the Jewish Refugees Committee provided support for the new arrivals with everything from clothing, accommodation and even a free meal service. 

The funding for these services was raised within the Anglo-Jewish community, coordinated by a new body, the Central British Fund for German Jewry (the CBF). The government only permitted refugees to enter the country on the understanding that it would not cost the state any money. As refugees were usually not allowed to work, the CBF had to manage the refugee influx and underwrite all costs. This arrangement allowed the government to avoid ever committing to a policy of granting asylum and taking responsibility for the refugees itself.

Yvonne Kapp and Margaret Mynatt wrote about the plight of refugees in 1940 and they described Woburn House:

Before one had turned the corner of the street the waiting throng of refugees standing close-packed on the pavements and in the roadways was enough to arouse whatever anti-Semitism – or anti-fascism – was latent in the onlooker. One had to fight to push one’s way in at the door and then, still shoved and jostled, one was in the enormous room where in stolid though not quiet assembly the multitude of desperate petitioners stood waiting – for news, for help, for advice, for something, anything, that would enable them to return to their miserable quarters with hope refreshed. Later benches were places in this hall and then, like some nightmare out-patients department for the uncurable, the refugees would sit for hours on end in humble tragic rows, waiting and hoping.
Yvonne Kapp & Margaret Mynatt, British Policy and the Refugees, 1933-1941 (London: Frank Cass, 1997), p. 16.

Their book was such hard-hitting critique of British government policy that it was only published in 1997.

The move to Bloomsbury House

After the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland (in March and September 1938), and even more so after Kristallnacht (in November that year), the number of refugees went up dramatically and Woburn House became too small. Also, there were now many more refugee organisations elsewhere. In April 1939 most moved to the rather run-down (hence affordable) Palace Hotel in Bloomsbury Street, which became known as Bloomsbury House. At times there were up to 600 people working there, and c. 30 organisations and committees including: the Refugee Children’s Movement; organisations helping specific professions, from medical doctors to musicians; Christian Church committees; and many Jewish aid groups. The Quaker German Emergency Committee also moved from Friends House to Bloomsbury House, to enable better coordination of their work with others.

Every refugee who registered with Bloomsbury House was issued with a little blue book entitled ‘While you are in England’. Published by the German Jewish Aid Committee in English and German, it listed useful addresses, told newcomers how to register with the police, and promised to help in any way they could. In return they outlined how they expected refugees to conduct themselves in the UK - refugees should learn English, not talk too loudly, not criticise the government or join a political organisation:

Do not speak of “how much better this or that is done in Germany”. It may be true in some matters, but it weighs as nothing against the sympathy and freedom and liberty of England which are now given to you. Never forget that point. [...] Do not make yourself conspicuous by speaking loudly, nor by your manner of dress. The Englishman attached 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.)
'While you are in England: helpful information and guidance for every refugee' (London: German Jewish Aid Committee, c. 1939). A copy of the booklet is accessible online via the Wiener Holocaust Library Digital Collections https://www.whlcollections.org/image/00525/

It sounds funny to us now but there was a not unfounded fear within the Jewish community that the increasing number of Jewish refugees would increase antisemitism in the UK.

Quaker German Emergency Committee

The Quakers launched a fundraising appeal to help refugees from the Nazis with documentation that would allow them to escape Germany and resettle in the UK or elsewhere.

'Everybody wants to leave'

Three brothers – Walter, Franz, and Ernst Philipp, and their cousin Dolf Placzek, from a close-knit Viennese family all arrived in the UK throughout 1939. Dolf and Walter arrived first, and set to work attempting to get the rest of their family out of Austria. They prioritised the brothers, Franz and Ernst, whom they feared were targets of the regime, having already been arrested and spent some time in a concentration camp in 1938. Fortunately, the brothers were eventually able to travel to the UK at the end of June 1939.

Dolf and later Walter both got jobs at Bloomsbury House where English staff and refugees worked side by side. They assisted hundreds of refugees, all the while checking with colleagues regarding the status of permits for their mothers and sisters who were still in Vienna. Dolf’s mother and sister escaped to the US, but the brothers' mother and sister were not able to leave Vienna. Karolina and Hella Philipp were deported and killed in 1941.

The image included here is adapted from a photo of Ernst, Vally and Walter Philipp, circa 1940, in British uniform (photo in private hands).

We leave Tavistock Square Gardens by the north exit and walk north past Woburn House along Upper Woburn Place. We cross the road and walk east along Woburn Walk - a well-preserved Regency shopping street. We turn right down Burton Street and left on Burton Place, which leads us to Cartwright Gardens.  

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