This event is organised for Refugee Week 2024.

In Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, economic and political breakdown and the rise of extremist politics turned citizens into refugees. From 1933 onwards, Jews fled Nazi persecution in Germany and later Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. By 1946, war, genocide and forced population movements had created millions of refugees.

Around 80,000 Jewish refugees arrived to the UK between 1933 and 1945. Aimed at GCSE and A-Level students, this talk will utilise sources from the Library’s unique archive to trace some of the journeys made by these 80,000 refugees, focusing on ‘ordinary’ people. It will also explore British responses to these refugees, including governmental actions and the activities of community and voluntary organisations.

This session is suitable for those studying the following:

KS3 & KS4 History:

• AQA: Germany, 1890 – 1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
• Edexcel: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918 – 1939
• OCR (History A): Germany, 1925-1955: The People and The State
• OCR (History B): Living under Nazi Rule, 1933 – 1945

KS5 History:

• AQA: Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918 – 1945
• Edexcel: Germany and West Germany, 1918 – 1989
• OCR: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919 – 1963

Virtual Event guidelines:

1. The Library will send you a Zoom link and joining instructions via email prior to the event. Please check your junk email folders.
2. Please try and join 5 minutes before the event start time and we will let you into the room (do try and bear with us if this takes a few minutes).
3. If you would like to ask a question during the event, please type your question into the chat function, and we will endeavour to answer as many questions as possible during the Q&A. Your webcam will not be seen during this event.

This event is free, although registration via the link below is required. Please note that our free events are run by staff volunteers. Thank you for your patience should we have any technical or audio difficulties. We will do our best to correct them but this is not always possible.