Manchester University Press
4 ‘Refugees and Eccles Cakes’
Abstract
In September 1967, Dr Heinz Kroch, the German-Jewish refugee from Berlin who thirty years earlier had founded the Lankro Chemical Company in Eccles, was presented by the Mayor of Eccles with a casket and scroll to honour his admission to the Roll of Freemen of the Borough. The whole episode may perhaps be seen as a continuance of those ritual exchanges, engineered on both sides, which, from the mid-nineteenth century, sought to define the relationship between Manchester Jewry and the civic authorities of the locality. In 1967 Eccles, a time and a place troubled by newer waves of immigration, the corporation and the refugee were effectively laying claim to a heritage of reciprocity. For its humanity, the town had been rewarded by the contributions of the stranger; by his contributions, the stranger had confirmed his right to be British; a Jewish German had become an Eccles cake.
Abstract
In September 1967, Dr Heinz Kroch, the German-Jewish refugee from Berlin who thirty years earlier had founded the Lankro Chemical Company in Eccles, was presented by the Mayor of Eccles with a casket and scroll to honour his admission to the Roll of Freemen of the Borough. The whole episode may perhaps be seen as a continuance of those ritual exchanges, engineered on both sides, which, from the mid-nineteenth century, sought to define the relationship between Manchester Jewry and the civic authorities of the locality. In 1967 Eccles, a time and a place troubled by newer waves of immigration, the corporation and the refugee were effectively laying claim to a heritage of reciprocity. For its humanity, the town had been rewarded by the contributions of the stranger; by his contributions, the stranger had confirmed his right to be British; a Jewish German had become an Eccles cake.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Abbreviations vii
- Glossary ix
- Preface xi
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 Speak no evil 9
- 3 'Displaced scholars’ 34
- 4 ‘Refugees and Eccles Cakes’ 58
- 5 ‘Something ought to be done’ 80
- 6 The forgotten refugees 99
- 7 ‘The work of succouring refugees is going forward’ 143
- 8 ‘Serious concern’ 170
- 9 ‘Our remaining comrades in Czechoslovakia’ 193
- 10 ‘Not because they are Jews’ 208
- 11 ‘Inspired idealism’ 217
- 12 The Harris House girls 225
- 13 ‘A haven of safety’ 237
- 14 ‘Outposts of Jewish Palestine’ 246
- 15 ‘The most difficult boys to handle’ 271
- 16 ‘By the grace of the Almighty’ 288
- 17 ‘From slavery and persecution to freedom and kindness’ 300
- 18 ‘Bright young refugees’ 308
- 19 ‘Humanitarianism of the greatest value’ 325
- 20 The saved and the trapped 343
- 21 ‘The Dutch orphans’ 359
- 22 Pacifism and rescue 379
- 23 Conclusion 394
- Bibliography 405
- Index 414
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Abbreviations vii
- Glossary ix
- Preface xi
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 Speak no evil 9
- 3 'Displaced scholars’ 34
- 4 ‘Refugees and Eccles Cakes’ 58
- 5 ‘Something ought to be done’ 80
- 6 The forgotten refugees 99
- 7 ‘The work of succouring refugees is going forward’ 143
- 8 ‘Serious concern’ 170
- 9 ‘Our remaining comrades in Czechoslovakia’ 193
- 10 ‘Not because they are Jews’ 208
- 11 ‘Inspired idealism’ 217
- 12 The Harris House girls 225
- 13 ‘A haven of safety’ 237
- 14 ‘Outposts of Jewish Palestine’ 246
- 15 ‘The most difficult boys to handle’ 271
- 16 ‘By the grace of the Almighty’ 288
- 17 ‘From slavery and persecution to freedom and kindness’ 300
- 18 ‘Bright young refugees’ 308
- 19 ‘Humanitarianism of the greatest value’ 325
- 20 The saved and the trapped 343
- 21 ‘The Dutch orphans’ 359
- 22 Pacifism and rescue 379
- 23 Conclusion 394
- Bibliography 405
- Index 414
