Global Humanitarianism: Quaker Aid to Refugees from Nazism, 1938-1945

Research Questions

- How did the Quaker humanitarian relationship with Jewish refugees fit into the history of Christian-Jewish relations during the Holocaust?

- How distinct was the international role of Quaker organisations in assisting Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe compared to the humanitarianism of other Jewish, Christian, and secular actors? Research Relevance

The intensification of the Nazi persecution of Jews in 1938 caused Jewish emigration to spike and international awareness of their plight to increase. In Britain, this led to the implementation of the Kindertransport scheme, enabling 10,000 Jewish children to enter the country. While multiple humanitarian actors assisted Jewish refugees through this initiative and during the Nazi period, existing scholarship gives the Quaker contribution little attention.

Moreover, while the Kindertransport remains a key focus in current literature on international responses to Nazism, this project will treat the Kindertransport as a chronological starting point rather than a climax. It will document the role of Quaker humanitarianism during the Holocaust, highlighting its international importance within a multi-agency effort.

It aims to construct a social history of these endeavours, examining humanitarian responses in three areas:

- Quaker aid to refugees in Britain, especially work with Jewish children in Quaker boarding schools. To date, only two of Britain's twelve Quaker boarding schools have been examined by scholars, and this study will be the first to offer a comprehensive comparative approach.

- Quaker efforts to alleviate the suffering and secure the release of Jewish refugees interned as 'enemy aliens' on the Isle of Man. Despite available wide-ranging reports at the Library of the Society of Friends (LSF), existing scholarship never discusses these endeavours.

- Quaker casework in North Africa, Vichy France and neutral Portugal to aid Jewish emigration, shedding light on the international and transnational scale of Quaker relief during the Second World War.

In examining these topics, this study will bring together histories of the Holocaust, interfaith relations, humanitarianism, and refugee studies. Such themes are of constant contemporary interest, while the project's use of survivor testimony is also especially timely as the Holocaust transitions from memory to history. Documenting this chapter of twentieth-century Jewish refugeehood will thus have scope for impact among organisations concerned with Holocaust remembrance and education.