
Aliens
The Chequered History of Britain's Wartime Refugees
Paul Dowswell(Author)
Biteback Publishing
Published on 22. August 2023
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-78590-793-7 (ISBN)
Description
The welcome given to refugees from fascist Europe is part of our fond nostalgia for Britain's role in the Second World War, nestling in our imagination next to images of evacuees clutching teddy bears, and milkmen picking their way through bomb rubble during the Blitz. But there is a darker side to this story. Then, as now, there was great suspicion, resentment and fear towards new arrivals, much of it kindled by the tabloid press. Then, as now, politicians dealt with a reluctance to accommodate refugees by hiding behind bureaucratic hurdles and obfuscation.
Many of the 10,000 Kindertransport children who arrived here in the late 1930s have warm memories of the kindness they were shown, but half a million refugees were refused entry and most of them died as a result. And those who were accepted found their troubles far from over. While Britain fearfully awaited invasion in 1940, 30,000 Jews were interned as 'enemy aliens' and some were sent off to the colonies on dangerous and sometimes fatal voyages. Nor were Jews the only refugees clamouring for the thin gruel of public sympathy. Those fleeing fascism and civil war elsewhere in Europe found that whether they were met with kindness or hostility depended on the locals' political affiliations and newspapers of choice.
Interweaving personal testimonies with historical sources, Paul Dowswell casts a fresh eye on the wartime era, painting a vivid picture of what life was really like for Britain's refugees.
Many of the 10,000 Kindertransport children who arrived here in the late 1930s have warm memories of the kindness they were shown, but half a million refugees were refused entry and most of them died as a result. And those who were accepted found their troubles far from over. While Britain fearfully awaited invasion in 1940, 30,000 Jews were interned as 'enemy aliens' and some were sent off to the colonies on dangerous and sometimes fatal voyages. Nor were Jews the only refugees clamouring for the thin gruel of public sympathy. Those fleeing fascism and civil war elsewhere in Europe found that whether they were met with kindness or hostility depended on the locals' political affiliations and newspapers of choice.
Interweaving personal testimonies with historical sources, Paul Dowswell casts a fresh eye on the wartime era, painting a vivid picture of what life was really like for Britain's refugees.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
8pp plates
Dimensions
Height: 162 mm
Width: 244 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
498 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78590-793-7 (9781785907937)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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E-Book
08/2023
Biteback Publishing
€23.99
Available for download
Person
Paul Dowswell is a prize-winning author. His best-known work is Auslander, which takes as its central theme the bizarre world of Nazi racial science. The Financial Times declared that it 'ranks among the very best of wartime historical fiction'. The novel won the Hamelin Associazione Culturale Book Prize and the Trinity Schools Book Award. Eight of Paul's other historical novels have won or been shortlisted for the Historical Association book awards. Aliens is his first adult non-fiction book.
He is a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and a frequent visitor to schools across the UK.
He is a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and a frequent visitor to schools across the UK.