Eleven essays, most in English and a handful in German, reflect the experience of German and Austrian refugees who landed in Great Britain during the Nazi era. Three are case studies of academics and professionals who built new careers in England; two focus on refugee children, one concentrating on the fate of those educated at leading German-Jewish institutions, and one on the reading habits of children across two cultures; and the remaining essays examine developments in the political and cultural spheres. The index lists names only, not subjects. c. Book News Inc.

From the contents: Charmian BRINSON: Autobiography in exile: the reflections of women refugees from Nazism in British exile, 1933-1945. - Alexander STEPHAN: Hetz- und Greuelpropaganda. Die Uberwachung der deutschen Exilschriftsteller in Grossbritannien durch das Auswartige Amt. - Jorg THUNECKE: Die Isle of Man-Lagerzeitungen The Camp und The Onchan Pioneer: Kultur im Ausnahmezustand."

This volume focuses on the contribution of German-speaking refugees from Nazism to the performing arts in Britain, evaluating their role in broadcasting, theatre, film and dance from 1933 to the present. It contains essays evaluating the role of refugee artists in the BBC German Service, including the actor Martin Miller, the writer Bruno Adler and the journalist Edmund Wolf. Miller also made a career in the English theatre transcending the barrier of Language, as did the actor Gerhard Hinze, whose transition to the English stage is an instructive example of adaptation to a new theatre culture. In film, Language problems were mitigated by the technical possibilities of the medium, although stars like Anton Walbrook received coaching in English. Certainly, technicians from Central Europe, like the cameraman Wolf Suschitzky, helped establish the character of British film in the 1950s and 1960s. In dance theatre, Language played little role, facilitating the influence in Britain of dance practitioners like Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder. Finally, evaluating the reverse influence of émigrés on Germany, two essays discuss Erich Fried’s translations of Shakespeare and Peter Zadek’s early theatre career in Germany.

German-speaking Exiles in Ireland 1933-1945 is a pioneering study of the impact the German-speaking exiles of the Hitler years had on Ireland as the first large group of immigrants in the country in the twentieth century. It therefore adds an important yet hitherto virtually unknown Irish dimension to international exile studies. After providing an overview of the topic and an analysis of current developments in exile studies the volume devotes two chapters to Jewish refugees and another to the considerable number of Austrian exiles, investigates the relationship between Irish government policy and public opinion, and explores the problems of identity faced by so many in exile. It then focuses on some eminent refugees - Erwin Schrödinger, Ludwig Bieler, Robert Weil, Ernst Scheyer, and Hans Sachs - before concluding with personal accounts by Ruth Braunizer (the daughter of Erwin Schrödinger, excerpts from whose diaries are published here for the first time), Monica Schefold (the daughter of John Hennig), and Eva Gross. The fourteen contributors to the volume are Wolfgang Benz, Ruth Braunizer, John Cooke, Horst Dickel, Eva Gross, Gisela Holfter, Dermot Keogh, Wolfgang Muchitsch, Siobhán O'Connor, Hermann Rasche, Monica Schefold, Birte Schulz, Raphael V. Siev, and Colin Walker.

The rich history of the German rabbinate came to an abrupt halt with the November Pogrom of 1938. The need to leave Germany became clear and many rabbis made use of the visas they had been offered. Their resettlement in Britain was hampered by additional obstacles such as internment, deportation, enlistment in the Pioneer Corps. But rabbis still attempted to support their fellow refugees with spiritual and pastoral care. The refugee rabbis replanted the seed of the once proud German Judaism into British soil. New synagogues were founded and institutions of Jewish learning sprung up, like rabbinic training and the continuation of “Wissenschaft des Judentums.” The arrival of Leo Baeck professionalized these efforts and resulted in the foundation of the Leo Baeck College in London. Refugee rabbis now settled and obtained pulpits in the many newly founded synagogues. Their arrival in Britain was the catalyst for much change in British Judaism, an influence that can still be felt today.

The author offers an interdisciplinary examination of the German-speaking exile experience in Great Britain from the beginnings of the Nazi regime to the end of the Second World War. The book examines the contingencies of cultural production for German and Austrian exiles against the historical context of British immigration and internment policies. By investigating the influence and manipulation of trends in popular British culture in the English-language exile fiction by Ernest Borneman, Robert Neumann, Ruth Feiner, Lilo Linke and George Tabori, the author illustrates how a suspect minority voiced their socio-political concerns in the dominant culture, and presents a strong case for the facilities of polylingualism in literature. The book reconstructs biographical and cultural histories of authors whose remarkable success as English-language writers may otherwise risk lingering in obscurity. Since the author traces the interaction of historical events and the personal experience of a range of writers, themes of gender-based, national and religious identities are addressed. Flexible and accessible, the book extracts meaning from the politics of popular culture and cultural exchange in the twentieth century during a period of nationalism, acute jingoism and war.