On Friday 13th November, 2020, the IMLR published their audio walk “On the Trail of 1930s Refugees in Bloomsbury”. Originally meant to be a socially distanced in-person event, the guided tour would have consisted of a walk around Bloomsbury in London. The tour would explore key points where the community of Jewish refugees took root while war was being waged against them. Instead, this now is a self-guided tour, part of the Being Human festival, that you can yourself take part in here.

We are delighted to be reviewing this event, as most of us chiefly know Bloomsbury through the lens of the bohemian literary and artistic circle of the 1910s and 20s called the Bloomsbury Group, where distinguished members such as author Virginia Woolf and art critic Roger Fry were part of.

This tour offers a different perspective and a much-changed London, but just as interesting and vibrant; full of heart and hope, but also the fear that lingered in the exiles’ hearts. It is a London that housed many interesting but persecuted people who were given the opportunity to build their lives again from the ground, after being driven away from their home countries. From establishing lending libraries to helping refugees find employment, sponsorship, and housing, Bloomsbury became the centre of many German-speaking refugees, mainly from nazi Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Walking through the neighbourhoods while listening to the voices of the refugees that lived in Bloomsbury at the time, is endearing and touching. Most importantly, this is a vital conversation that doesn’t only concern Londoners, but the very world. It is a reminder of a dark, deplorable period of history, when a people had to endure a series of atrocities, prejudices, and injustices. It is perhaps one of the most fitting events of the Being Human festival, as it taps into the heart of being human, of coming together in solidarity, of comradeship, guidance, and support.

The audio recording brings to life the work of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, and is illustrated by voices from the IMLR’s exile archives. Devised and led by Miller Archivist, Clare George, there are contributions by Charmian Brinson, who is a founding member for Exile Studies, and Gareth Williams.

Walking the 2.5 miles guided by the music and voices of the era takes you back to the Bloomsbury during the 1930’s which, says Gareth Williams, “was a magnet to the new arrivals due to its cheap boarding houses, the lure of British museums, the London University, and the district’s bohemian reputation.” The vast majority of the refugees, it is mentioned, arrived in the last 2 years before the war. Particularly, after the annexation of Austria in March and Kristallnacht in November 1938.

One of the Austrian refugee’s voices is heard, old, but quite excited and energetic. “I had learned English at school,” Gertrud Wengraf says. “But I thought when I came, I thought I was quite good because I had been reading and been able to even write. But when I came here, I was quite, quite lost. It was very difficult for me.” Wengraf then adds how she was surprised to find “that quite a lot of people rang up this Austrian service and they wanted a housemaid or a butler, but then when they heard they had to pay these people, they were very surprised. They thought that they [the refugees] should just be glad to be able to get out of their country and have a house, a roof over their heads. So, lots of people put their phone down, and said, well, then I don’t want to.”

During the war when the refugee numbers continued to rise in the UK, the recording reveals at a later point, refugees were only granted leave to land on the condition that they did not work, which left them in a precarious situation, to say the least.

Still, there were moments of quiet. In an interview, singer and entertainer, Eva Sommerfeud shares those moments of tranquility which are quickly interrupted by the continuous fear ruling over refugees’ lives. “We had a room [in Gower Street] the three of us. […] At the window the next morning the sun was shining, and I looked out of the window and saw a soldier with his wife and a pram, walking. It was so quiet and I kept thinking, don’t they know what is happening in Europe? Don’t they know there is a war? You know, it was so peaceful, so quiet, no noise, no air raids. I was delighted, but, of course, worried.”

This guided tour captures many of the different colours of Bloomsbury at the time. Socialists, communists, pacifists, together in a small, tight community, full of organizations dedicated to the aid of those that were displaced and exiled. Perhaps, what stood out the most in our minds was the vibrant image of Stewart House, where SASiety itself is based. Students across the world frequented the building, which was then called Student Movement House. As Dr. Clare George states, “it’s real purpose was to make the intellectual elite of the British colonies familiar with the customs, manners, and traditions of the Motherland. The warden of the Student Movement house between 1932 and the early 1940’s was Mary Trevelyan, friend of T. S. Eliot, and distant cousin of Historian G. M. Trevelyan. She [Mary] recalled how students would come together, to meet, eat, play games, and debate, but to listen to current on the radio.” They must have been there and listened to the radio when in 1933 Germany left the league of nations, in 1938 when Hitler marched into Austria, and in September 1938 when Chamberlain and Hitler met to agree on the future of Czechoslovakia. Mary Trevelyan was essential in helping students in need, so much so that she once even put a bed in her office to take care of an ill student. Dr. George mentions how “there was no financial margin for illness.”

We are sure that you will enjoy this talk as much as we did. We highly recommend you stroll around Bloomsbury while listening to this guided tour as it really transforms one’s perception of the area. If you can’t or are not in London, you can still listen to the recording and feel close to the people, events, and location. It enhances not only our understanding of the nuances of the lives and tragedies during Second World War, but it also shows how a community of people is united through hard fate, hospitality of a nation, and — in the spirit of the festival– through being human.

Check more of Being Human Festival‘s events here.
Written by Elena Zolotariov, IES PhD Candidate