Anti-semitic Britain
1905 Alien act an anti-semitic law : The antisemitic British Government under Premier Balfour limited the number of Jews coming to Britain. Jews were fleeing persecution from Eastern Europe.  For the next forty three years British  policymakers ,using the Alien Act , limited  the number of Jews emigrating to Britain . During the inter war years Britain promoted Palestine as the place to which to flee. Before and during the Holocaust British policy makers conitnued to limit Jewish access to a safe haven in Britain and also in Palestine despite the absolutely desperate need at that time..

World War 11 , Nazis and the Holocaust

Louise London. Author of 'Whitehall and The Jews' writes "British self interest consistently limited humanitarian aid to Jews fleeing pesecution and death. Refuge was severely restriced during the Holocaust and little attempt to save lives ...reflecting the goverments aim of avoiding long term responsibility for large numbers of homeless Jews. Policy makers believed that UK was not a "country of immigration"

"Whitehall and the Jews is the most comprehensive study to date of the British response to the plight of European jewry under Nazism "

1938/39 Beginning of War

March 1938 annexes Austria

A sudden savage onslought against Jews made the majority desperate to escape. The British government acted swiftly by requiring visa requirements which mandated pre selection abroad and introduced strict new selection criteria

The effect was to bar Austrian refugees . It made exceptions of those who had guarantors and those women prepared to become domestic servants

The goverment saw Britain as a transit country not a permanent home: Only Palestine was seen as a permanent settlement p9

Elian Conference

This conferebce was called by President Roosevelt, eleven days after Hitler annexed Austria, to discuss what to do about the Jewish refugees trying to escape Nazi Germany .The Jews of Austria and Germany watched to see "how the world reacted to the brutal German crushing of the rights and lives of fellow human beings." and were very hopeful, believing that this international conference would provide them a safe haven.

Hitler responded to the news of the conference by saying essentially that if the other nations would agree to take the Jews, he would help them leave.

Delegates of thirty-two nations attended and decided they could do very little. The Dominican Republic and Costa Rica were the only countries willing to take in Jews fleeing Europe - and then only for payment of huge amounts of money. Ultimately the conference was a failure, at least from the point of view of the Jews and their sympathizers, with both the United States and Britain refusing to take in substantial numbers of Jews.

Empire Dominions Palestine

Britain didnt allow any safe haven in the dominions either not even as a temporary measure till the crisis has passed. Britain issued a declaration limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine to fifteen thousand per year for the next five year . Britain had a rule that visas to the UK had to be sought and obtained abroad which severly limited limited the numbers of people seeking asylum at its ports

1939 -1943 As the crisis became more grave

Louise London writes "Nor when the crisis of the Jews became yet more grave did the fundamental approach change. During the Holocaust Britains policy was much of it made in conjunction with the US goverment. A key element in the rationale of the British goverment's approach to Jewish suffering was what to do with the Jews and this took precedence over saving them whether from Nazi persecution or mass murder.

1943 The Height of the Holocaust

Anglo American Confernce on Refugees (Bermuda Conference)

This conference met and decided not to adopt any policy for the rescue of European Jewry. Rabbi Iisrael Goldstein (USA) of the Synagogue Council of America was quoted in the New York Times: "The job of the Bermuda Conference was apparently not to rescue victims of Nazi terror but to rescue our State Department and the British Foreign Office. Victims are not being rescued because the democracies don't want them."

The British people

The British public were on a different page to policy makers. In a Gallup poll 1943 78% favoured the admission of endangered Jews. British people begged their goverment to save Jews from wholesale slaughter.

After a strong appeal by the British Jewish Refugee Committee, the British government had decided to allow in unaccompanied refugee children. Almost 10,000 Jewish children succeeded in getting to Britain A similar proposal in the US  to enable 20,000 German Jewish refugee children to enter the United States over a two-year period was defeated in Congress.

Lousie writes*. In all 80,000 were allowed in out of a possible 600,000. It is hard to know how many more could have been actually saved and it is quiet contentious. "A key element in the rationale of the British goverment's approach to Jewish suffering namely that the problem of what to do with the Jews took precedence over saving them whether from Nazi persecution or mass murder. humanitarian aid to the Jews was given much lower priority than maintenance of severe restrictions on immigration".

==================================================================

notes clips

claim

p94/95 introduction

Number tell the story

80,000 out of 600,000 intro

Zionists didnt help aimed for Palestine. (see Zionism and Jewish emigration

Notes:

Britain should have:

Britain should have allowed the desperate Jewish refugees fleeing persecution into a safe have in Britain and not to a land that was not Britain’s to give and which denied the indigenous people any right to self determination. nos rickety boats.

At this late stage and in the next few years at the height of the holocaust briatin should have an open door allowing all jews fleeing death or persecution into a safe haven in Britain.

) Throughout war

Louise introduction.

USA quota no palestine yes

Illegal immigration was now the only way. hasting attacking British in Palestine.

some of officialdom oliticians and adminstrators treasury *

===============================================================================