Life for German and Austrian Jews had become steadily more restricted ever since the Nazis were elected to power in Germany in 1933. Then on November 9, 1938, mobs ran wild in the streets of German and Austrian cities, vandalizing Jewish homes and businesses, burning synagogues and terrifying and beating up Jews.
That night, which became known as Kristallnacht, nearly 100 Jews died and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps in the aftermath.
Jews scrambled to leave, but there were very few places in the world willing to take in desperate Jewish refugees. The Jewish men confined to concentration camps in 1938 were told they were free to leave - if they could find a country willing to take them in. It proved an almost impossible task.
The Jews of Britain came together to help. In 1933, with Hitler’s rise to power, a group of prominent Jews, including Anthony de Rothschild, Otto Schiff, Simon Marks (chairman of the famous department stores Marks & Spencer), and Dr. Chaim Weitzman (who later became the first President of Israel), had formed the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF). In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the CBF came up with two audacious plans to rescue Jews.
The CBF brought about 10,000 Jewish children to Britain in 1938 and 1939 in a massive program that was called the “Children’s Transport”, or Kindertransport.
After the horror of Kristallnacht the British government relaxed the rules of entry of certain categories of people. Unaccompanied refugee children could enter the country, receiving a temporary travel visa, if private citizens guaranteed they would pay for each child’s education, care and eventual ticket out of the country. The CBF organized British citizens to guarantee the expenses.
Kitchener camp, 1939. Georg Benjamin, front left. Courtesy http://www.kitchenercamp.co.uk/
Some Jewish women were allowed into Britain on two year “domestic” worker visas in order to alleviate the servant shortage. (My own grandmother was among these Jewish women whose lives were saved because British households wanted a supply of cheap domestic servants.) But the 30,000 Jewish men who languished in Nazi concentration camps had no options. No country wanted them.
The CBF got to work, lobbying officials to take in these Jewish men. Britain’s government didn't want refugee camps on its soil. Housing German citizens, whatever their religion, was seen as particularly risky. But the CBF gained permission for a transit camp. A disused military camp called Kitchener camp in the southern English county of Kent was requisitioned to provide temporary shelter. Up to 5,000 men could be brought to Kitchener if the CBF pledged funds to support their upkeep.
Kitchener camp, 1939, Moshe Chaim Gruenbaum, http://www.kitchenercamp.co.uk/
Time was short and the CBF started bringing Jewish men from concentration camps to England in February 1939. The Jewish community turned to a pair of Jewish brothers, Jonas and Phineas May, who’d previously helped run the Jewish Lads Brigade, a youth group, to run the camp. With their background in running summer camps, the CBF thought Jonas and Phineas could help welcome the traumatized Jewish men.
Lothar Nelken was a judge in Germany who’d been fired from his post for being Jewish and imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp. He arrived in Kitchener camp on July 13, 1939. “At around 9pm we arrived in the camp,” he recorded in his diary. “We were welcomed with jubilation…The beds are surprisingly good. One sleeps as if in a cradle.”
Eventually thousands of Jewish men called Kitchener Camp home. “It was necessary to start a system for admitting 400 men a day,” Phineas wrote on June 14, 1939.
Kitchener camp, Jack Agin, Cook, 1939. Source: Clare Ungerson’s Four Thousand men,
with the kind permission of the Wiener Library
The camp bustled with life. Shabbat services, classes, a newspaper, several bands all occupied the camp’s swelling population. The camp also hosted weddings between the refugees and their fiancées who’d manage to make it out of Nazi Europe. The men hoped to bring their wives and children over to start new lives in England. As war became more likely, the mood in the camp plummeted. Jewish women and children left behind in Nazi Europe were in grave danger.
By September 3, 1939, when World War II was declared, about 4,000 Jewish men had been brought to Kitchener camp. With the world at war, the men realized their families wouldn’t be able to join them.
Many of the refugees were determined to fight Nazis. “Kitchener men” were allowed to join Britain’s Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps, a logistics division that helped plan British military invasions. Over 800 Kitchener refugees accompanied the British Army as they fought in northern Europe in 1940. After the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, the Kitchener refugees were brought back to England.
After France fell to the Nazis in 1940, the public mood changed and British authorities were uncomfortable having so many German-born men on English soil. Refugees who’d enlisted to fight were allowed to remain in the army. Other refugees were moved to internment camps, mainly on the remote Isle of Man; many of the refugees were sent to Canada and Australia. Few saw their families ever again.
For 70 years, the story of Kitchener camp was very little known. It is now being told. On September 2, 2019, a plaque was unveiled in the town of Sandwich, near the camp, marking the remarkable story of 4,000 Jewish men who were rescued. Phineas and Jonah May’s children were present, as were the descendants of some of the refugees whose lives were saved at Kitchener.
One descendent who attended was Paul Secher, whose father Otto arrived in the camp in May 1939. “My father didn’t talk about it very much,” Secher said. “I sensed it was a painful subject for him. He managed to escape (Germany) but his parents and a sister didn’t. The burden must have been immense.”
(11) Anonymous, September 20, 2019 1:55 AM
Great true story
Kudos to Dr. Miller! She has such a flair for brining a story to life. I am very glad to know of the 4,000 Jewish souls that were preserved. It's troubling to hear of so much indifference of politicians & other people of influence to, "pass the buck" and let "others" worry about it. F.D.R., Churchill did have knowledge of the truth of Hitlers, final solution! I truly believe G-D in his wisdom, will right all wrongs!
(10) Michael Benstock, September 16, 2019 6:40 AM
An interesting article. I knew Jonas May well. He was a member of Kenton Synagogue in Middlesex. He was a gifted amateur painter and painted both my and my wife’s portraits before we returned to Australia. He never mentioned his WW11 exploits.
(9) Anonymous, September 13, 2019 2:43 PM
mrs
this is so fascinating. i knew about the Kindertransport but not about the Kitchener camp. We were in Sandwich this summer but had no idea about this story. My mother also had a German woman acting as a domestic,
(8) Linda Calderon, September 13, 2019 5:20 AM
Thank you for sharing
I never knew about this but am so happy that, that number of people were given a place to stay during that wicked time. Sad to hear that some never saw their families again, however.
(7) Barbara Daltrop Rothman, September 12, 2019 7:36 PM
My father was in Kitchener camp in 1939. Rescued
My father was rescued by the Jewish community in England. He was imprisoned in Dachau and left Germany in August, 1939. He was sent to the Kitchener camp. He was 18 years old. He was then sent to the Isle of Mann, until he was sent to Canada. In Canada, he was interned in several camps in Quebec, until his release 2 years later.
(6) E Wilson. Leeds, England., September 12, 2019 4:36 PM
Sorry to Disagree, But the truth needs Out.
The Jews in Britain who were trying to rescue Jews were very few in number, and their activities were kept quiet about and concealed. I am sorry to say this but appeals to the Jewish Community for them to adopt Jewish children were almost totally ignored, it's possible they did not appreciate the urgency of the situation. It was an national emergency. In desperation the UK Kindertransport organisers turned to the non-Jewish community for them to volunteer to offer homes to Jewish children from Germany, and the response was a lot better. So far so good, but one UK Orthodox Rabbi strongly objected to this, he claimed that he would rather see these children dead than that they should be brought up by gentiles and adopted by Christians - because of this lunatics objection an estimated 10 000 German children who could have been saved died. If ever a man wanted lynching it was him.
In the background we had an awful Welsh Politician who openly said "What do we want with 10 000 Jews," A British Fascist called Oswald Mosley was marching against Jews, and even worse an American President Roosevelt, who sneaked out of the back door of the White House when delegates from a 400 strong parade of Rabbis called on him to ask him to speak out against Hitler and the Nazis atrocities. This was the same FDR who said No, No, No to 20 000 German Jews coming to America, I know we all criticise the wartime Pope, and rightfully so, but FDR, and leaders of the USA & British Jewish Community have nothing to be proud about. And when it comes down to 'What did Hollywood and Al Jolson Do' Well we know the answer to that one, sweet ---- all. To set the record straight even our famous Winston Churchill's silence deserves censure.
Reb Mordechai, September 13, 2019 7:15 AM
I can feel the emotion in your words and empathise with you
Dear Mr E. Wilson. I can feel the emotion in your words and empathise with you. I assume from your surname (forgive me if I am wrong), that you are not Jewish so I thank you for caring so much about the Jewish people. May G-d bless you.
Regarding this Rabbi, please don’t judge him so harshly. I’m sure you can remember that, despite what he said, back in 1939, NO ONE ever dreamed that it would end in death camps. I understand his point though. The Rabbis make a comparison between the Purim story where they tried to exterminate all the Jews, and the Chanukah story, where they tried to destroy all the Jews by assimilation into Greek culture. Please give him the benefit of the doubt and understand his words in that context. The good Rabbi was making the point, what is better? Physical death or Spiritual death by taking Jewish children and bringing them up Chrstian?
I fully agree with your point about the apathy of the Anglo Jewish community. From speaking to relatives who lived through those terrible time, it was the London Jewish community (including the Orthodox communities), the most affluent the most influential, who were the most indifferent. Those communities outside of London were much more willing to help.
However, if you look to the Jews of New York, you see the same thing!!! Many Jews in the United States, as expressed in the letters’ pages of the New York Times, took the view that they did not want “thousands of primitive uncultured Jewish refugees flooding the country and giving us Jews a bad name!”
E Wilson, Leeds, England, September 14, 2019 1:23 PM
When the Lives of Jews Are Concerned Lets Stop being Polite Shall We.
@ Reb Mordechai, You are correct insofar as you guessed that I was not Jewish by birth, once you know the difficulties I had getting converted, the prejudice I had from those J who objected to converts, and the prejudice from members of my own and my future wife's family, then you will be surprised I am still here, and positively active on behalf of Jews. For instance, on the You Tube comments columns I have replied to well over 5000 Anti-J-Comments, written by writers have never met Jews, never lived alongside and inside a Jewish Community, writers whose comments are based on hate-fiction and not fact. Who are these people who feel that they can decide who shall live and who shall die, who can be ignored, and not be helped, they are .... nobodies, I cannot name one whose admired or had any sort of success in life, nobodies with loud voices, grudges and equally bad advice about almost everything. People are people with 7- shades of grey, 7- predictable behaviour patterns, 7- shades of honesty and criminality.
In an ideal world the Isle of Wight, or the Isle of Man (both large islands adjoining the English coastline) should have been given to the German Jews, to create a British Israel By the Sea, wouldn't that have been something. In my lifetime 2 million Jewish children died because of my parents and my nations indifference. Amongst them was a little girl who knowing she was going to be shot asked her mother "Why, what have I done wrong, I am only a child?" This little girls’ remarks shamed the people of Germany for 1000 years, and don’t let them ever forget it
(5) Anonymous, September 12, 2019 1:50 PM
I had no idea this camp had existed.
Thanks so much for this interesting bit of history.
(4) Rachel, September 11, 2019 9:39 PM
Many Kindertransport kids later helped the war effort
As children grew up in the UK, many men joined the British military, while women joined the various military auxiliaries such as WAC and WAAF. Other women worked in factories or on farms, taking on the work of young British men who were in the military. Finally, those with German language skills worked as translators.
(3) Irene Black, September 10, 2019 8:50 AM
My parents fled from Berlin August 1939 and my dad, with 100 boys he had brought with him, spent 3 months in Kitchener Camp
I would refer you to my biography of my parents, who fled Berlin on 28 August 1939, bringing with them 100 boys from the Berlin ORT school of which my father, H H Behrendt, was headmaster. He,the boys and other staff from the school spent 3 months at the Kitchener Camp. My mother was sent to Leeds. My parents corresponded almost daily, building up a picture of camp life and refugee life in Leeds. They kept every almost letter and document. These plus many photographs, diaries and other correspondence are the subjects of my biography 'If only I could have News from you', (Goldenford Publishers Ltd. ISBN 9780955941580).
(2) Anonymous, September 9, 2019 4:56 PM
Such an important story!
4000 people!! This is so important, so many lives saved BH!! thank you
(1) tom, September 9, 2019 1:26 PM
informative
Thanks for the interesting article. I wonder what Britain would do today