About

The acceleration of the Nazi persecution of Jews in 1938 led to a spike in Jewish migration, while international awareness of the plight of European Jewry increased. In Britain, this led to the implementation of the Kindertransport scheme, enabling 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children to enter the country. Despite the wide-ranging efforts of multiple relief groups to assist Jews during the Nazi period, this initiative is often viewed as the culmination of the British humanitarian response to Nazism, while Quaker work is woefully neglected in available literature. Existing scholarship on Quaker aid during the Holocaust almost never looks beyond the outbreak of war, while social histories of Jewish refugeehood give limited attention to the Quaker contribution. This thesis will fill that historiographical gap.

Using the Kindertransport as a chronological starting point, this project will examine the relationship of Quaker relief organisations with Jewish refugees on an international scale during the Second World War. This will highlight the significance of Quaker humanitarian work towards Jewish refugees, questioning what made their endeavours distinct in the context of complex international multi-agency efforts. To tell this often-neglected story, this project will employ a variety of visual, written and spoken material from multiple archives and digital platforms, constructing a social and intellectual history of the Quaker-Jewish relationship during the War. These sources will include testimonies and accounts of Holocaust survivors and Quaker relief workers, and reports, publications and correspondence from within the relevant organisations themselves. This range of material from Quaker, Holocaust, and national libraries and archives will offer a rounded perspective of the Quaker-Jewish relationship during the Second World War, revealing the long-lasting impact of the Quakers’ work.

This research will further understanding of refugee studies, humanitarianism, and international responses to the Holocaust, also adding to the history of Christian-Jewish relations.