The Camp Kitchener Rescue

STORIES ABOUND ABOUT THE KINDERTRANSPORT and the rescue of thousands of children from the clutches of the Nazis in the early days of 1939. At the same time, but lesser known because it came without images of small children to stir a viewer’s heart, the Camp Kitchener Rescue saved countless Jewish men held in German concentration camps.

On the violent night of November 9/10, 1938 (Kristallnacht), and during the following day, between 24,000 and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested in Germany. These men, many of whom had been pulled from their beds and taken to prison with nothing more than the pajamas they wore, ended up in the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen. Under brutal conditions, they suffered and died from beatings, poor nutrition, and illness. After several months, those who were still alive were released if they promised to leave Germany immediately.

But where could these men go and how would they finance their emigration? In many cases, the men were held until their families had secured visas and transportation for them to leave Germany. Luckily, the Central British Fund for German Jewry stepped in to help.

This organization, known as the CBF (now called World Jewish Relief and still active), was founded in 1933 soon after Hitler’s rise to power. The CBF was funded by wealthy members of the Anglo-Jewish community, such as Simon Marks of Marks & Spenser department stores (Marks & Sparks); the well-known banking Rothschilds; and Chaim Weizmann, the future first president of Israel. The organization shouldered the financial and housing needs of Jewish refugees from Nazi oppression. In 1939, with financial help from two American Jewish organizations (the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American United Palestine Appeal), the CBF organized and financed both the Kindertransport and the Camp Kitchener Rescue.

To make the Kitchener rescue a reality, the CBF negotiated with the British government for temporary landing permits for about 4,000 adult Jewish men detained in German concentration camps. The CBF leased the derelict WWI army base, Camp Kitchener, as a place to house the men and paid for their transportation from Germany. Located in Kent, south of London and near the village of Sandwich, the military base had been unoccupied since 1918. Soon it would find a second life.

The number of refugees the CBF could bring to England was limited by space, money, and how many transit visas the British Home Office issued. Men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five who could demonstrate active plans to immigrate to the US or another country within two years were given priority. Most came from Germany, but men from Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were also included. In February of 1939 the first to arrive were 100 handpicked men who had skills suited to help repair the dilapidated Kitchener facilities (bricklayers, electricians, carpenters, and plumbers). In less than two weeks, additional refugees began arriving.

The Jewish Lads’ Brigade (now the JLGB to include girls), a youth organization with experience running summer camps, agreed to manage Camp Kitchener under the leadership of two brothers, Jonas and Phineas May. The brothers organized daily life for the housed refugees as a self-contained, all-male community that offered cultural and educational opportunities.

The men were housed, summer-camp style, in forty-two barracks outfitted with bunk beds. Meals were prepared in a central kitchen and served in shifts in a large dining hall. The food was not fancy, but it was substantial and nutritious. The breakfast, based on a working man’s typical fare, consisted of porridge with bread and butter and either coffee or tea. The main meal was served at noon. Typical menus included fish fillets with sauce or boiled beef, vegetables, and desserts like plum duff or treacle pudding. Evening meals were light ― cheese and pickle sandwiches or soup, always accompanied by hot cocoa. Cooking, serving, and cleanup of the meals were done by rotating teams of refugee residents.

Multiple activities were offered to the men. Camp Kitchener boasted two synagogues, one of which was housed in a huge WWI vintage tent, a medical clinic, several barber and tailoring shops, a post office, meeting rooms, and a 1,000-seat cinema donated and built by Oscar Deutsch, a British movie tycoon. Concerts and sporting events were held regularly, and a camp newspaper, the Kitchener Camp Review, was eagerly read by everyone. Written and published by the refugees and edited by Phineas May, the monthly Review included camp news, creative writing, essays, and artwork.

The inaugural edition of the Kitchener Camp Review, a typed booklet of 12 pages, described the opening ceremony when the Union Jack rose over the parade ground for the first time since WWI.

“To-day, March 1^st, at 10 o’c the Camp Director gave the following speech to the refugees assembled around the flag-pole. The sun shone down on the flag as it was hoisted, and, standing to attention, the refugees then sang “God Save the King.” (Kitchener Camp Review, No. 1, March 1939, page 8)

In his short speech, Jonas May, the camp director, reminded the assembled refugees that the last time the Union Jack had flown at Camp Kitchener, it had been during a time of war. “But it will fly this time,” he said, “as an indication of Peace; peace for everyone who is residing in this camp.”

During the day, each refugee was able to organize his daily schedule according to his own interests, with intensive English language classes being the only mandatory activity. The camp newspaper section called “Mixed Pickles” kept the men abreast of activities and events. The July edition included a notice about the formation of a Scout Group at the request of the younger residents of Camp Kitchener. “Those who have long been deprived of the joy of scouting can once again participate in the doing of good turns with all the deeper meaning of the movement,” it announced.

Though the camp was surrounded by a fence, there was no barbed wire, and occasional supervised excursions into the surrounding countryside and the nearby town of Sandwich were planned.

Camp Kitchener was originally named after Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, who is sometimes credited with creating the first concentration camps for civilians during the Boer War. Ironically, the camp bearing this infamous name became a sanctuary for Jewish men.

The refugees enjoyed days that seemed idyllic compared to Dachau. Still, the British Home Office laid down rules to go with their special visas granting temporary transit only. They must continue to work toward immigration elsewhere, were prohibited from applying for permanent residence in Britain, and were forbidden to take paid employment. Many men, with families still in Germany, were haunted by worry for their wives, children, siblings, and parents. Though the population of the camp hovered around 3,500 residents, there was turn-over as men emigrated and new refugees arrived.

When war with Germany was declared in September of 1939, everything changed. The refugee men suddenly became enemy aliens in the UK and had to appear before tribunals to be classified according to their degree of danger to the war effort.

“We were not anxious, not at all, when it was announced that a Tribunal would come to our Camp, examining the case of every camp member, and deciding whether he should be treated as a suspicious subject or as a ‘friend of the Crown.’” (Dr. A.W.W. Kitchener Camp Review, November 1939, page 8)

Additionally, their pathway to achieve mandatory emigration out of Britain became ever more difficult.

To ease the situation as to where the Camp Kitchener refugees would go, the men were allowed to volunteer for the British Army’s Pioneer Corps. This section of the military did not participate in combat. The Pioneer Corps built airfields, set up communications, performed other labor-intensive chores, and later would help with rubble removal in London during the Blitz. Close to nine-hundred Camp Kitchener refugees joined the unit and served during the war alongside Brits and others from far-flung parts of the Empire.

However, after the evacuation from Dunkirk and the fall of France, British fear of German spies and saboteurs so close to the English Channel escalated. Soon the remaining men at Kitchener―those who had not already emigrated or joined the Pioneer Corp―faced internment on the Isle of Mann or deportation to Australia or Canada. The camp was closed in May of 1940.

Camp Kitchener operated for only sixteen months. Those few months allowed 4,000 men who had endured the horrors of Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen to regain their personal dignity, acquire skills needed for further emigration, and enjoy daily life in the safety of the English countryside. In that brief period, thousands of men passed through the camp on their way to a better life in countries around the world.

Besides spearheading the Kindertransport and the Camp Kitchener Rescue, the Central British Fund for German Jewry, known today as World Jewish Relief, offered assistance and financial aid to countless Jewish refugees in Britain, helping them obtain employment, expand their skills, find safe places to live, and assist in their transportation onward to other destinations. We who are descendants of refugees who were helped in the 1930s and 40s are forever grateful.