WW2 75.1: The Experience of a World War Two Refugee in Budleigh

 Sculptor Frank Meisler's ‘Kindertransport – The Arrival’ (2006) stands outside London’s Liverpool Street station.   

A project established by the Association of Jewish Refugees, it pays tribute to those Britons who aided the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazi persecution which led on to the Holocaust.  Image credit: Wjh31 

I’m not certain of being around for the centenary of the outbreak of World War Two. So 2020, the 75^th anniversary of the war's end, seems a good time to reflect on those terrible five years that my parents’ generation endured.

Especially as it may help to put the relatively minor disaster of Covid-19 into perspective. 

Sadly, the grim pandemic has meant that Fairlynch Museum’s VE Day display may not be seen by as many visitors as it deserves. Here’s a testimony from the Museum’s archives which relates to the early years of WW2 rather than to 1945.

Children of Polish Jews from the region between Germany and Poland on their arrival in London on the ship 'Warsaw'. Photographed February 1939

It’s an account written by an R. Muller about his experience as an evacuee, following his escape from Nazi Germany and its persecution of Jewish people.

The Beaufoy Institute, Black Prince Road, Lambeth. The Listed Grade II building, built by the Beaufoy family, is now a Buddhist Centre

The young German boy had been enrolled as a pupil in the Beaufoy Institute, set up by the vinegar manufacturer Mark Hanbury Beaufoy to replace a ‘ragged school’ serving deprived children in the London Borough of Lambeth.

Threatened by enemy air raids, the Beaufoy Institute was evacuated to Devon. One of its pupils described his experiences, as published in the 1940 edition of the  school magazine Beech Leaves:

‘It is just over a year ago that I came to England with about four hundred other boys and girls who were being sent here by a Jewish-British Committee to escape the persecution of the Jews which was going on in Germany.

It was a foggy and rainy morning when we arrived at Harwich after a rough channel crossing. I was still suffering from the after effects of seasickness and so felt very miserable and homesick in a strange country. After I had been in England a little while it did not seem so strange as I began to understand people when they spoke to me in English. In due course I was sent to Beaufoy Technical Institute where I found myself in entirely different surroundings. I tried to be friendly with my companions but being a foreigner this was a little difficult, whilst being a German made it more difficult still. I found the boys were interested in hearing about the state of affairs in Germany, especially about the Gestapo and the Spy-service.

In September, owing to the outbreak of war, it was decided to evacuate the school children from the London area in case of air-raids. Our school was lucky enough to be sent to Budleigh Salterton. By the time we got to Devon my English had improved and with great pleasure I noticed that many of the boys had forgotten that I was not one of them. Only sometimes after some little quarrel they may call me ‘little Hun’ or ‘Nazty spy’ – this, however, I know is meant only as a joke and I soon forget it. I am really grateful to the staff and the boys of our school, all of whom have given me so much help and made me feel like a countryman of their great country which has done so much for me.’     R. Muller

It would be wonderful to track down R. Muller or his family and welcome them to the town of which he had happy memories

The next piece in my WW2 75 series is at 
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/07/ww2-75-yes-budleigh-was-bombed.html

You can access other posts on this blog by going to the Blog Archive (under the ‘About Me’ section), and clicking on the appropriate heading.