You will find it easier to follow this is you have read the
book The House on Schellberg Street
Renate’s Story
Not being Jewish
Consider Renate’s childhood:
- Mixed with ordinary German children
- Went to a Lutheran school
- Had connections with the Waldorf School in Stuttgart
Try to work out what it must have been like for her at that
age of eight to thirteen.
Write a short account of what she felt when she found out
she was Jewish or discuss this with your group OR
Work in groups to feed back to the main class or group. What
might Renate have thought when she found out she was Jewish?
Further help:
http://www.thehouseonschellbergstreet.com/search/label/Wilhelm%20Lohe%20School
See 22 December 1938 in the book
Being Jewish
The Blutschutz rules make her Jewish
These see Jewishness as a race issue rather than a religious
one.
Consider this: Renate did not realise that she was Jewish until
a few weeks before she came over to England on the Kindertransport.
The Kindertransport cost each child £50.00. This is the
equivalent of about £3,000 today.
Why do you think Britain only offered help to the children?
Why didn’t we invite whole families to come and stay?
Some facts about the Kindertransport:
- It was run mainly by the Quakers.
- The adults who accompanied the children had to return to Germany or the Kindertransport would be stopped.
- The children were allowed one small suitcase.
- Dutch women met them at the border, with hot chocolate, snacks, blankets and soft toys.
- They arrived mainly at Liverpool Street station in London.
Note:
- Some children were abused – usually by being used as cheap labour.
- Many children never saw the rest of their family again.
- A few were well cared for but never felt really at home. Why not, do you think?
Renate was fortunate in many ways:
- Her uncles were already in England.
- They found her a really nice family.
- She went to a very welcoming school.
- Her mother came over to England a few months later.
Even so it remained difficult for her:
- She didn’t speak English when she first arrived.
- Clothes were different.
- Houses were different.
Imagine you are Renate. Write two letters to you grandmother
- one about the journey of England and the other about your first few weeks in
England.
OR
Work in groups to feed back to the main class or group. What
were the problems Renate faced in the first few weeks in England?
Further help:
In the book see:
Becoming English
What might have helped her to learn English?
She had two curious talents – she could run and she could
play cricket? How might this have been helpful?
How might being close to animals help?
How did her friend and teacher Mrs Cohen help?
She faced several obstacles:
·
Soon after she came to England, World War II
started – England was at war with Germany.
·
Because of the war, she and her mother were classed
as Enemy Aliens Class B.
·
Her mother was in England being bombed by the Germans.
Her father was in Germany being bombed by the Allies.
Write an extract from Renate’s
diary about the difficulties she faced when trying to become English. What helped
her?
OR
Work in groups to feed back to the main class or group. What
helped and hindered her in becoming English?
Further help:
In the book see:
Renate, 9 April 1940
Käthe Edler, 10 May
1940
Renate, 5 July 1941
Renate 25, December
1941
Renate 6 June 1944
Notes for teachers
The unconscious Jewess
Warning: this may cause a few spoilers if you haven’t
already read the book.
Realisng she was Jewish
Renate really had no idea she was Jewish until just a few
weeks before she came over to England on the Kindertranpsort. She mixed with
ordinary German children. Her mother and father were both scientists and
weren’t particularly religious. Her grandparents, although born as orthodox
Jews, had converted to the Lutheran religion. They considered it more up to
date than the Jewish religion.
Renate’s teachers had protected her from much of the Nazi
indoctrination. Several of them got into a lot of trouble because of that. Renate lived in Nuremberg and the Nuremberg
rallies could not have been very pleasant. In fact the Blutschutzgesetz was
also made in Nuremberg.
So it came as a complete shock to her to find out that she
was partly Jewish. This may seem unbelievable – and this included fact almost
stopped the book being published. Fortunately Crooked Cat were convinced.
In retrospect she realised that this was an explanation for
her mother’s strange behaviour. Her mother had given up going to the opera, was
often found weeping and made a real fuss about not allowing Renate to go on a school
trip just because she had the remains of a cold. She was probably too scared to
let her daughter out of her sight.
Some of the Nazi indoctrination had worked – Renate at least
realised that Jews were regarded as a disgrace.
The Blutschutzgesetz
The Blutschutzgesetz – literally the blood protection law –
sees Jewishness as a race rather than a religion. As Renate had two Jewish
grandparents, she was a Mischling of the first degree.
The Kindertransport
Renate’s parents decided to send her to England on the
Kindertransport. The £50 that had to be guaranteed was not a problem for them.
They were relatively wealthy. Renate’s papers were in order also as because her
father had had a run-in with officialdom she had her own adult passport even
though she was still a child. Again, this seemed improbable and almost stopped
the book being published. However, this story is also true.
It may seem cruel, taking the children away from their
parents. The British didn’t however want to have whole Jewish communities
coming to England. It may have led to anti-Semitism in a country that had just
gone through a major depression. The authorities didn’t want to give the
working people the opportunity to resent the Jews and accuse them of stealing
their jobs.
We scratched at the surface: we saved just under 10,000
children.
The Quakers did a lot of work on the Kindertransport. The
Germans who accompanied the children as far as England were expected to return to
Germanys straight away. If they did not, the Kindertranpsort would be stopped.
At the Dutch boarder, Dutch women provided drinking
chocolate, snacks, blankets and soft toys for the children.
For Renate the whole of the journey would have been odd. She
was probably travelling with orthodox Jews and knew very little about them. She
considered herself to be German.
Most of the children arrived at Liverpool Street station in
London. Here they were either picked up
by families who were going to look after them or taken to a centre where they
lived together for a while before places could be found for them.
Many of the children never saw their families again.
Here again Renate was different. Her two uncles met her in England. Her mother
came over a few months later. They had found a very nice family for her. She
was even reconciled with her father after the war. She attended a Steiner
school where staff and students would have been very open-minded.
Many of the Kindertransport children never saw their
families again. Some were abused. Quite
a few were used as free slave labour.
Becoming English
What made life easier
- She had a lot of support from the family with whom she lived.
- She was immersed in English.
- Her friend and teacher, Mrs Cohen, understood her confusion.
- She befriended a cat. Many children who had to leave their families – including our own British evacuees - found it easier to relate to animals than to people.
- She could run well
What made life more difficult
- The school seemed supportive but the other students still found her strange at first.
- It became worse when the Second World War started. As you know if you’ve read the book, the fact that her mother was in London being bombed by the Germans and her father in Nuremberg being bombed by the Allies, lead to her having a nervous breakdown.
- She and her mother became Enemy Aliens Class B. This meant:
- They could not go near to the sea without permission. Renate’s school was by the sea.
- They had to report to the Police station.
- They couldn’t go near munitions factories. Not that either of them wanted to,
- They mustn’t go more than ten miles away from their home. However, Renate’s home was more than ten miles from the Police station.
- They mustn’t be out after 10.0 p.m. ( Fortunately for Renate the local policeman was very friendly and sensible.)
·
Although she became very fluent in English and
was an extremely able and intelligent girl, she was not allowed to go to a
British university. The 1944 Education Act made it a lot easier for people of
her generation and those that came afterwards. Her lack of official Britishness
did not. She later took on British nationality but it was still not easy.
Would you like this as a handy PDF? Download it here.
Would you like this as a handy PDF? Download it here.
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