Refugees from Nazism

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Many refugees from Nazism were Jewish or half-Jewish but there were also significant numbers of non-Jewish refugees including scientists, "degenerate" artists, politicians and many others. They fled to neighbouring countries in the mid to late 1930s using temporary visas to get out of Nazi Germany and Nazi Austria. The families had been ostracised from professions, schools and even public places by the Nazi anti-Jewish laws.

In January 1933 there were about 500,000 Jews living in Germany, 1% of the population, of which 1/3 lived in Berlin. When the Nazis took power about 37,000 Jews left mostly to neighbouring countries. However, despite the Nuremberg laws and reduction in civil rights emigration remained constant but not excessive throughout the 1930s. This was due in part to unwillingness by European countries and USA not to take in additional refugees. (see SS St. Louis)

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To the United States

German Jews who emigrated to the United States to escape Nazism included Hannah Arendt, Rudolf Arnheim , Erich Auerbach , Albert Einstein , Siegfried Kracauer , Fritz Lang , Robert Siodmak and Kurt Weill

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Unwillingness by European countries and USA not to take in refugees

International response to the Holocaust

There was nonetheless during the mid 1930s plenty of people publicising the plight of German Jews. The Internationally famous British pianist Harriet Cohen was very active in this respect talking to the British Prime Minister and even playing a concert in America with Albert Einstein to raise funds to help Jewish scientists leave Germany. The American journalist, Dorothy Thompson was also very active in this respect. According to Bennett Cerf in Try and Stop Me (1944), she socked a woman who made pro-Nazi remarks in her presence — after asking her to step outside.

The European situation deteriorated in 1938 with the annexation of Austria in March, the increase in personal assaults on Jews during the spring and summer and the nationwide Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) with attacks in Germany and Austria on Jewish shops, confiscation of Jewish property and destruction of over a thousand synagogues. This led to a sudden increase in visa requests. However the European countries, including Britain, as well as the USA government would still not significantly increase the permitted levels of immigration. Though the British, as an emergency measure did admit 10,000 unaccompanied children under the Kindertransport programme, leaving parents behind on what turned out to be the eve of the Second World War. As youngsters, they adopted the English language for everyday use, and fitted into the homes and schools that they found in Britain.

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Refugees from Nazism

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Unwillingness by European countries and USA not to take in refugees

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-:''[[Emergency Rescue Committee]], [[Righteous among the Nations]], [[brain drain]], [[European migration to America]], [[German Jews who emigrated to the United States to escape Nazism]], [[Refugees from Nazism]]''
+Many [[refugees from Nazism]] were [[Jewish]] or [[half-Jewish]] but there were also significant numbers of [[non-Jewish refugees]] including scientists, [[degenerate art|"degenerate" artists]], politicians and many others.   They fled to neighbouring countries in the mid to late [[1930s]] using temporary visas to get out of [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Nazi Austria]].   The families had been [[ostracised]] from professions, schools and even public places by the [[Nazi anti-Jewish laws]].
-== Germans and Austrians who fought for Britain ==
+In January 1933 there were about 500,000 Jews living in Germany, 1% of the population, of which 1/3 lived in [[Berlin]].   When the [[Nazis]] took power about 37,000 Jews left mostly to neighbouring countries.   However, despite the [[Nuremberg laws]] and reduction in [[civil rights]] emigration remained constant but not excessive throughout the 1930s. This was due in part to unwillingness by [[European countries]] and [[USA]] not to take in additional refugees.  (see [[SS St. Louis]])
+== To the United States ==
-More than 75,000 German and Austrian [[refugees]] arrived in [[Britain]] in the 1930’s to escape [[Nazism]].
+[[German Jews]] who emigrated to the United States to escape Nazism included [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Rudolf Arnheim]]
+, [[Erich Auerbach]]
+, [[Albert Einstein]]
+, [[Siegfried Kracauer]]
+, [[Fritz Lang]]
+, [[Robert Siodmak]]
+and [[Kurt Weill]]
-One in seven of the German and Austrian refugees who came to Britain between 1933 and 1939 volunteered for, and enlisted in, the [[British Forces]]; a surprisingly high percentage. They took the unprecedented step of swearing allegiance to [[King George VI]] even though, with a few exceptions, they did not receive [[British nationality]] until after the [[war]].
+== Unwillingness by European countries and USA not to take in refugees==
+:''[[International response to the Holocaust]]''
+There was nonetheless during the mid 1930s plenty of people publicising the plight of [[German Jews]].  The Internationally famous British pianist [[Harriet Cohen]] was very active in this respect talking to the British Prime Minister and even playing a concert in America with [[Albert Einstein]] to raise funds to help [[Jewish scientists]] leave Germany. The American journalist, [[Dorothy Thompson]] was also very active in this respect. According to [[Bennett Cerf]] in ''Try and Stop Me'' (1944), she socked a woman who made pro-Nazi remarks in her presence — after asking her to step outside.
-The majority began their army life in the non-combatant Pioneer, the pick and shovel on their badge emblematic of hard physical labour. They became affectionately known as [[The King’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens]]. The vast majority were of [[Jewish]] origin, but there were also a significant number of other political refugees: [[Communists]] and ‘degenerate’ artists.
+The European situation deteriorated in 1938 with the [[annexation of Austria]] in March, the increase in personal [[assaults on Jews]] during the spring and summer and the nationwide [[Kristallnacht]] (Night of Broken Glass) with attacks in Germany and Austria on Jewish shops, [[confiscation]] of Jewish property and destruction of over a thousand synagogues.   This led to a sudden increase in visa requests.   However the European countries, including [[Britain]], as well as the [[USA government]] would still not significantly increase the permitted levels of immigration.   Though the British, as an emergency measure did admit 10,000 unaccompanied children under the [[Kindertransport]] programme, leaving parents behind on what turned out to be the eve of the [[Second World War]]. As youngsters, they adopted the English language for everyday use, and fitted into the homes and schools that they found in Britain.
+==See also==
-Their motivation for volunteering was never in doubt. If it was anyone’s war, it was certainly theirs. William Ashley Howard (Horst Adolf Herzberg), [[half-Jewish]] in the eyes of the [[Nazis]], served first in the [[Pioneer Corps]] and then the [[Royal Navy]] and was involved in the height of action at sea. His motivation is clear:   “Having been in Germany and lived through what was happening, every fibre of my body suggested that I had to do something. The regime was so evil. I was aware of the plight of the [[Jewish people]] and I considered it unquestionably my duty to fight at the highest level.”
+:''[[Emergency Rescue Committee]], [[Holocaust]], [[brain drain]], [[European migration to America]], [[German Jews who emigrated to the United States to escape Nazism]], [[Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany]], [[Germans and Austrians who fought for Britain]], [[German Resistance]], [[Jewish refugees]], [[international response to the Holocaust]], [[resistance during the Holocaust]]''
-However, it would be nearly two years before the government granted permission for them to fight in combatant units and offer their expertise and knowledge of German for [[intelligence operations]] and missions behind [[enemy lines]].
-Willy Field, a [[German Veteran]] who fought for Britain summarised his experience in an interview : “As a [[refugee]] from [[Nazi]] oppression, I am happy that I served England which had, after all, given me my freedom. For this I am very grateful. I feel absolutely [[British]], even though I was born and raised in [[Germany]] for the first eighteen years of my life.    I have no difficulty with going back to Germany, but my motto is you should be able to forgive, but you should not forget.”
-Ernest Goodman (originally Ernst Guttmann) who was one of the few German refugees in the elite [[Coldstream Guards]], involved in frontline combat, and often in street-to-street fighting.  His words are a permanent reminder of their selfless sacrifice:  “What did the Germans think of us? Some say readily that we committed high treason. Of course, I don’t mind that at all. We were not British subjects at that time. We did what we thought we had to do. We tried to fight for the redemption of the human race and to give history another chance.”’
-The story of the [[King’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens]] is one of extraordinary survival against the odds but also one of unprecedented loss. All paid a heavy price in the fight to set Europe free from [[Nazism]]. The majority lost family and friends in the [[concentration camps]] as well as comrades on the battlefields of Europe.
-Failure to defeat [[Nazism]] was never an option. Many veterans have since discussed how they did not expect to survive the war, especially when involved in frontline fighting and intelligence operations behind the lines. In spite of all that they have been through, these men and women have not harboured bitterness. But scars remain deep within. Most are philosophical about the need to forgive but never forget.
-All express a profound sense of gratitude to Britain for saving their lives from certain death in the [[Holocaust]]. By the end of the war, they had distinguished themselves in all disproportion to their numbers. After the war, they were granted [[British Nationality]] and lived out their lives in total loyalty to the [[Crown]] and contributed in no small way to public life.
-The story of the [[Germans and Austrians who fought for Britain]], including recollections of many [[veterans]], are told in the book “[[The Kings Most Loyal Enemy Aliens]]” written by Dr [[Helen Fry]] and published by [[the History Press]].    The book was launched during a special celebratory event ([[Refugees from Nazism]] who served in the [[British Forces]] in [[WWII]]) organised by the [[Imperial War Museum]] London which brought together more than 100 veterans.   [[The Imperial War Museum]] website has a dedicated section to the event.
-A new dedicated website containing video interviews with the veterans can be seen as part of the [[British Local History]] website (www.Britishlocalhistory.com).   There are also many other website links which are listed in the References” section at the bottom of these wiki pages.    The wiki pages below are based on the book “[[The Kings Most Loyal Enemy Aliens]]”, audio and video interviews with veterans and speeches given by the Veterans at the [[Imperial War Museum]] during the [[Refugees from Nazism]] event.   The Veterans are keen that their story be told.   Thus further contributions and stories by other veterans to these Wiki pages and to the dedicated section of the [[British Local History]] site are welcomed.  [[The Imperial War Museum]] also runs a programme of interviewing and collecting audio interviews with veterans for historical purposes.
-== Refugees from Nazism ==
-Many [[refugees from Nazism]] were [[Jewish]] or [[half-Jewish]] but there were also significant numbers of [[non-Jewish refugees]] including scientists, artists, politicians and many others.   They came to Britain in the mid to late 1930’s using temporary visas to get out of [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Nazi Austria]].   The families had been ostracised from professions, schools and even public places by the [[Nazi anti-Jewish laws]].
-In January 1933 there were about 500,000 Jews living in Germany, 1% of the population, of which 1/3 lived in [[Berlin]].   When the [[Nazi’s]] took power about 37,000 Jews left mostly to neighbouring countries.   However, despite the [[Nuremberg laws]] and reduction in [[civil rights]] emigration remained constant but not excessive throughout the 1930’s.    This was due in part to unwillingness by [[European countries]] and [[USA]] not to take in additional refugees.    There was nonetheless during the mid 1930’s plenty of people publicising the plight of [[German Jews]].   The Internationally famous British pianist [[Harriet Cohen]] was very active in this respect talking to the British Prime Minister [[Ramsey MacDonald]] and even playing a concert in America with [[Albert Einstein]] to raise funds to help [[Jewish scientists]] leave Germany.  The American Journalist, [[Dorothy Thomson]], one of the three most famous women in America, was also very active in this respect.
-The European situation deteriorated in 1938 with the [[annexation of Austria]] in March, the increase in personal [[assaults on Jews]] during the spring and summer and the nationwide [[Kristallnacht]] (Night of Broken Glass) with attacks in Germany and Austria on Jewish shops, [[confiscation of Jewish property]] and destruction of over a thousand synagogues.   This led to a sudden increase in visa requests.   However the European countries, including [[Britain]], as well as the [[USA government]] would still not significantly increase the permitted levels of immigration.   Though the British, as an emergency measure did admit 10,000 unaccompanied children under the [[Kindertransport]] programme, leaving parents behind on what turned out to be the eve of the [[Second World War]]. As youngsters, they adopted the English language for everyday use, and fitted into the homes and schools that they found in Britain.
-== Introduction – “THE KINGS MOST LOYAL ENEMY ALIENS” ==
-At the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939, Germans, Austrians and Italians living in Britain were classified as [[enemy aliens]] and as such were required to appear before a Tribunal to assess their security risk to the country. Most were categorized as ‘[[friendly enemy aliens]]’ and had to report regularly to the local police. Many had already volunteered for the British Forces and waited for their call-up papers. At the end of 1939, they were permitted to enlist into the only unit open to enemy aliens at that time: the non-combatant [[Pioneer Corps]].
-In 1940 many were interned during the Invasion Scare, the wartime government being fearful of [[Fifth
-Columnists]] who might be seeking to betray the country from within.   Perverse it may have been to imprison people who had themselves fled [[Hitler]], but it reflected the concerns of the day.   Fortunately most Germans and Austrians were forgiving and had an understanding of this.     Once the authorities had realised that there was a distinction to be made between enemy aliens who were a danger to national security, and those who had actually fled [[Nazi tyranny]], opportunities to serve in the forces opened up, and this is where their contribution to [[Allied Victory]] began to take shape.
-The story of the German and Austrian refugees who fought for Britain is told in Helen Fry’s book “The Kings Most Loyal Enemy Aliens” <ref> “The Kings Most Loyal Enemy Aliens” by Helen Fry published by The History Press </ref> and forms the basis of these Wikipedia pages.
-'''(a) The Pioneer Corps'''
-The alien Pioneer companies were first formed and trained at [[Kitchener Camp]], near [[Richborough]] on the Kent coast. It was here that 3,500 refugee-men were already receiving temporary shelter, most of whom volunteered for the [[British Forces]]. They began their army training in the camp. Once the training was completed, six companies were raised; five of which were sent to France in January/February 1940 to join the [[British Expeditionary Force]], only to be evacuated after advancing German forces cut off [[Dunkirk]] in the summer of 1940.
-In May 1940, as [[Nazi forces]] swept through Belgium, Holland and France there was a real fear that Britain would be next. As a result, the government evacuated the remaining refugees at [[Kitchener Camp]] (who were training for the [[Pioneer Corps]]) overnight to [[Dartmoor]]. There, they camped in tents for nearly nine weeks in dense fog and heavy rain. Morale was low, but their spirits were lifted by one [[Coco the Clown]] (Russian born [[Nicholai Poliakov]]) who had enlisted in their ranks. He entertained the men in the [[NAAFI]] tent and recalls (in Behind My Greasepaint): “The weather was very bad, pouring with rain. It was not enough that the weather was wet but I had to pour buckets of water all over myself and get wetter still; but I didn’t mind that as long as I could make the boys laugh.”
-[[Alfred Perlès]], the metaphysical writer and friend of [[Henry Miller]] and [[Lawrence Durrell]], also wrote about the time on [[Dartmoor]] (in his book [[Alien Corn]]). He says: “Rain is always depressing at the best; but when your abode is a tent it is tragic ... At night it was quite a hazardous matter to venture to leave the tent, as all the tents looked alike in the rigorously enforced black-out. Yet black-out or no black-out, a man has to get out of his tent once in a while when the cold and damp begin to have their effect on the bladder. Gorloff [a colleague] had marked our tent “Ritz Hotel” with a piece of white chalk.”
-The complaints of the men were finally heeded and they were moved to Hilltop Holiday Camp at [[Westward Ho]]! to finish their training. Once completed, they were formed into companies and sent all over the country on various construction duties, including work on coastal defences, and clearing bomb damage in the blitzed parts of London, Exeter and Plymouth. This is 137 company at [[Yeovil]], where they worked at the nearby [[Yeovilton airbase]].
-'''(b) Internment of Germans and Austrians living in Britain'''
-Meanwhile during May/June 1940, around 30,000 ‘enemy alien’ who had not already enlisted in the British Forces were interned in Churchill’s policy “collar the lot”. Men and women were arrested from their homes and places of work and interned behind barbed wire. They were sent to camps around the country, with the majority [[interned]] on the [[Isle of Man]] and at [[Huyton]] near Liverpool.
-Around 2,000 men were shipped to Australia on the infamous troopship [[Dunera]] and also to [[Canada]]. They remained in internment for several months, or even up to a year in the case of the internees in Australia. One of the ways to secure an early release from [[internment]] was to volunteer for the [[British Army]]. Thousands of men chose to do so and were drafted into the [[Pioneer Corps]]. The training centre at [[Westward Ho]]! could no longer accommodate the thousands of men who were enlisting from internment, so it was moved to [[Ilfracombe]] where the men were billeted in requisitioned hotels.
-'''(c ) Ilfracombe'''
-[[Ilfracombe]]: September 1940 – this Victorian seaside town was about to change dramatically with the arrival of over 4,000 men of German, Austrian, Italian and Czech nationality who were training for the [[Pioneer Corps]]. Those who were sent here from internment camps were essentially the intellectual and artistic elite of German and Austrian society: doctors, dentists, lawyers, surgeons, architects, businessmen, musicians and artists, as well as those who later became household names. They were later joined by internees returning from Canada and Australia.
-A number of notables passed through [[Ilfracombe]] in the [[Pioneer Corps], including the prolific writer and journalist [[Arthur Koestler]]; [[Martin Freud]] - the eldest son of [[Sigmund Freud]]; [[Anton Freud]] (a grandson of Sigmund); [[Ken Adam]], later the production designer for over 70 films including 7 James Bond films; and the newspaper tycoon [[Robert Maxwell]].
-Top Berliner and Viennese musicians, actors and tenors who had joined the army graced the Ilfracombe stage for nearly two years, entertaining the troops and local population. The continental musicians formed an orchestra and worked alongside [[Coco the Clown]] in organising plays and variety performances. Breslau-born violinist Sgt [[Max Strietzel]], who had survived several months in [[Dachau concentration camp]] before coming to England, conducted the orchestra. Classical concerts and plays became a regular feature in the life of the town for nearly two years, often performed in aid of local charities. Shows and concerts included Almost a Honeymoon, White Cargo, Gypsy Life, Babes in the Wood and Murder on the Second Floor. They raised nearly £3,000 for local Devon charities and the war effort, a substantial sum of money at that time.
-After [[Ilfracombe]], the Pioneer soldiers served for nearly two years in their companies, stationed all over the country, engaged in construction work, mixing concrete and general manual labour. For many, it was the most frustrating time of their life – they wanted to play a more active role in the defeat of Hitler but would have to wait another two years before they could do so.
-'''(d) German and Austrian women fighting for Britain'''
-Little is recorded about the role of women in the forces. Gathering their testimonies has not been an easy task because many have not been forthcoming with their experiences. It is estimated that just under a thousand ex-German and ex-Austrian refugee women volunteered for the Forces, most of whom were drafted into the [[Auxiliary Territorial Service]] (ATS). Amongst these continental recruits were also highly trained professional women: doctors and professors who had held high-level positions in Germany before they fled. The majority who served in the ATS had limited duties, consisting primarily of cooking and domestic duties. Others served in the [[Women's Auxiliary Air Force|WAAF]] (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force). A handful were stationed at special listening posts like [[Bletchley Park]], or involved at the [[German Propaganda Radio Station]] at [[Milton Bryan]], south of [[Bletchley Park]].
-'''(e) Fighting the enemy'''
-Many of the men with technical skills were transferred from the [[Pioneer Corps]] to the [[Royal Engineers]], [[Royal Army Medical Corps]] and [[REME]] (Royal Electical and Mechanical Engineers). The most far-reaching change for ‘enemy aliens’ in the British Forces came at the end of 1942 when the Government permitted them to transfer to fighting units. The first transfers were to those designated for “special duties.” This included the Small Scale Raiding Force where small groups of highly trained men carried out raids on the coasts of North Africa and France. Richard Lehniger was involved in a raid codenamed Aquatint off the [[Normandy coast]] in September 1942, and lost his life in that mission.
-Others also trained for “special duties” and were formed into German-speaking units for covert operations. This led to the formation of [[3 Troop]] (or [[X Troop]]) of No 10 [[Inter-Allied Commando]], a special Commando group consisting of primarily [[German refugees]] with some other nationalities. They trained at [[Aberdovey]] in [[North Wales]] and [[Arisaig] in the [[Scottish Highlands]]. Once trained, they did not serve together but were attached to other units, like the [[Royal Marine Commandos]] and other Commando units for operations in the invasion of Italy and Sicily, and of course for the [[D-Day landings]] in [[Normandy]] and aftermath.  3 Troop suffered heavy casualties and fatalities whilst in action.
-Another group formed for special operations was ‘12 Force’, a self-designated title, which was part of [[SOE (Special Operations Executive)]]. It consisted of only [[German-speaking ex-refugees]]. These men were eventually parachuted in groups of twos and threes back into the countries of their birth (Austria and Germany) for missions behind enemy lines.
-From 1943, enemy aliens began transferring to other regiments, which included the [[Royal Artillery]], the [[Royal Armoured Corps]], the [[SAS]], The [[Royal Navy]], [[Gordon Highlanders]] and [[Black Watch]] and other infantry regiments, and airborne forces. They served in every campaign of the war: some took part in the [[invasion of Italy]], others in the [[Normandy invasion]] and subsequent advance into Germany; others in [[Palestine]] and the [[Far East]]. Some were amongst the first wave of parachutists to be dropped into [[Normandy]] prior to [[D-Day]] to prepare dropping zones for the incoming airborne forces. They were at the forefront of every major campaign of the war, especially after [[D-Day]]. With the [[Royal Armoured Corps]], the infantry, the [[Commandos]], the [[Royal Marine Commandos]] and paratroopers, they spearheaded the advance with their regiments through Normandy and finally into Germany, often working behind enemy lines.
-Once in fighting units, they anglicized their names in case of capture. If they had not done so they would have been killed as traitors, rather than treated as [[POWs]] if captured by the [[Nazis]]. Their fluency in German was crucial for each regiment, especially once German prisoners were captured. They could interrogate prisoners and gain vital intelligence for Allied operations.
-'''(f) De-Nazification'''
-Having served, and many having been wounded, on the front line, their story does not end there. At the end of the war, these “refugees in uniform” had one final task to fulfil in British Army uniform. When the guns fell silent across Europe, they were transferred in their thousands into the [[Intelligence Corps]] and sent back to Germany and Austria in British uniform to begin the [[de-Nazification]] process and rebuild [[post-war Europe]].
-Their knowledge of the language became essential to [[Allied Military Government]]. They were assigned to all aspects of military administration, the interrogation of POWs, collecting evidence for the [[War Crimes Investigation Unit]] and the hunt for [[Nazi war criminals]]. [[Hans Alexander]] was part of the search team of ex-German refugees that hunted down and arrested [[Rudolf Hoess]], the notorious commandant of [[Auschwitz]].
-When Prussian-born Erwin Lehmann enlisted in the [[Pioneer Corps]] in [[Ilfracombe]] in September 1940 little did he know that under the name [[John Langford]], but still as a German national, he would serve as [[Churchill’s bodyguard]] at the [[Potsdam Conference]] in 1945. So too, Berlin-born Geoffrey Perry (Horst Pinschewer) did not realise what fate had in store for him when at the end of the war he captured Britain’s most notorious wartime traitor [[William Joyce]] in woods north of Hamburg.
-We owe much of the reconstruction and stability of post-war Europe to the work of the ex-refugees in the British Forces at this time.
-'''Harry Rossney''' born – Helmut Rosettenstein)
-[[Harry Rossney]] was one of over 10,000 refugees from Nazi oppression who took the unprecedented step of swearing allegiance to [[King George VI]] and served in the British Army during the [[Second World War]]. Theirs is an extraordinary story, and one that is unique in [[British military history]]. Like fellow refugees, Harry had seen too much in Germany, the country of his birth, to sit back and do nothing. He had witnessed firsthand the brutality of the [[Nazis]] and the massive military force that was being built up to use against Europe.
-Harry had a difficult life but one he always faced with optimism and strength.   He remembers in the recession of the 1920’s being a child and having to beg for bread for the family from the bakery.  In the 1930’s Harry’s friend and acquaintances in Germany avoided him as he was [[half-Jewish]].  Threatened with arrest by the German police he knew he had to leave the country of his birth.
-Harry escaped to England in March 1939, as he himself often says, in a one in a million chance. He was initially amongst two hundred refugee craftsmen from Germany and Austria engaged in the reconstruction of a derelict First World War camp called [[Kitchener Camp]], near Sandwich on the Kent coast. The camp was being rebuilt to accommodate 3,500 refugees from [[Nazi oppression]] from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. At the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939, along with other [[refugees from Nazism]] he became technically an ‘enemy alien’. In early 1940, whilst he was still in [[Kitchener Camp]], he volunteered to join the British Army. He enlisted in the only unit open to enemy aliens at that time: the [[Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps]]. Six alien Pioneer companies were formed in Kitchener Camp that Spring, five of which were sent to France to join the British Expeditionary Force. They were all later evacuated after Dunkirk. Harry was not amongst those who went to France but remained in Kitchener Camp. When France, Holland and Belgium fell to Hitler’s forces in May 1940, the remaining refugees in [[Kitchener camp]], including Harry, were moved immediately away from the Kent coast in case they were infiltrated by [[Nazi spies]] parachuting into the country. They were moved overnight to the damp, wet moors of [[Dartmoor]] in the heart of Devon. After nine weeks, the Pioneers in training were moved once again – this time to [[Westward Ho]]! on the North Devon coast.
-Because Harry was already in the [[Pioneer Corps]], he escaped Churchill’s policy of mass internment in May/June 1940 when around 30,000 other [[refugees from Nazism]] were interned behind barbed wire on the Isle of Man, Australia and Canada. When over the summer of 1940, they were gradually released, over 4,000 internees volunteered for the British Army. They could only enlist in the [[Pioneer Corps]]. With so many new recruits coming out of internment camps, the alien Pioneer Corps training centre was moved from [[Westward Ho]]! to the Victorian seaside town of [[Ilfracombe]]. Harry moved with it to Ilfracombe, where the men were billeted in requisitioned hotels. His task for nearly 18 months was to kit out every new recruit with their army uniform. After his time in Ilfracombe, he served with 249 Pioneer company.
-On [[D-Day]], 6 June 1944, the Allied forces began their massive invasion of [[Normandy]]. Within a couple of weeks, Harry’s unit landed in Normandy. His life took an unexpected turn. He was called away from the [[Pioneer Corps]] for a special, but difficult task which would involve using his skills on a daily basis as a sign-writer. He was assigned to 32 [[Graves Registration Unit]], with the job of burying the [[Allied dead]] and training a labour force consisting of [[German POW]]s and local French people to carry out sign-writing on all the temporary markers on the graves in the [[Allied cemeteries]] of Normandy. He was eventually demobbed after a total of six and a half years in the army.
-Harry returned to England where he became a [[British citizen]] and settled into civilian life. During the writing of [[Helen Fry]]’s books about this period Jews in North Devon during the Second World War and [[The King’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens]]: [[Germans who Fought for Britain]] during WWII, Harry provided an amazing amount of material. Without his help and insights, the two books would lack the depth of emotional reflection which comes from oral testimony.
-It is almost 70 years since the outbreak of the [[Second World War]]. For many [[refugees from Nazism]] the memories were too painful to bear. They had lost most, if not all, of their family and friends in the [[Holocaust]]. A wall of silence encompassed them for decades. In that period, Harry continued to reflect on his experiences under [[Hitler]] and his wartime service in the British Army. It affected him deeply.
-Over the decades, [[Harry Rossney]] composed an extraordinary collection of poems which form the basis of a new book “Grey Dawns” <ref> “Grey Dawns” by Harry Rossney published by British Local History </ref> written by [[Harry Rossney]] and edited by [[Helen Fry]] with a forward by the [[Imperial War Museum]] was published November 2008.   Harry used his creative talent to record for posterity his own experiences of a horrific period of European history, responses and experiences which future generations of historians will be unable to reconstruct from official documentation. With the passing of his generation, the urgency to record such eye-witness accounts becomes ever more pressing. Harry’s book is a tribute to his self-strength, and dedication to preserving the memory for the sake of humanity.
-'''Willy Field'''   (born – Willy Hirschfield)
-Served in the [[Pioneer Corps]] (29 November 1941 – 25 August 1943). In the 165, 248 and 88 companies; volunteered for the [[Royal Armoured Corps]]. Joined the [[8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars]] (26 August 1943 - 19 December 1946).
-Born Willy Hirschfeld in Bonn, Germany in 1920 of Jewish parents. On 10 November 1938, he was arrested by the [[Gestapo]] and transported to the [[Dachau concentration camp]].  Willy spent five terrible months there and was only released after receiving a permit to come to England.    Willy is still haunted by the mornings at the [[Dachau concentration camp]] where bodies were found hanging on the electrified fence – prisoners who could not face another day at the hands of the [[Nazis]].  He came to England in May 1939 on a German passport.
-When war started in September 1939, Willy Field appeared in front of a Tribunal and was classified as Group C, which meant ‘[[friendly enemy alien]]’.  There were very few restrictions as such and he was able to work in the East End of London fitting sewing machines for making uniforms for the British Army.   In June 1940, he was once again arrested, this time by British police, and sent to an internment camp at [[Huyton]] near Liverpool. In July, approx 2,000 (mostly [[Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany]]) were put on the troopship [[Dunera]].  They did not know their destination and were kept in impossible conditions below deck and very badly treated by the British soldiers guarding them. The officer-in-charge and other ranks were eventually court-marshalled over the mistreatment and severely
-reprimanded. The [[Dunera]] took Willy Field to Australia where we remained for a year behind barbed wire.
-The British Government acknowledged the [[Dunera]] episode and internment as a deplorable and regrettable mistake. An officer from the Home Office was sent out to Australia to offer them to return to England to join the British [[Pioneer Corps]]. In November 1941, Willy was amongst three hundred internees who returned to Britain on the SS Stirling Castle to join the British forces.
-Having enlisted in His Majesty’s forces, Willy Field was sent to [[Ilfracombe]] in North Devon for
-training in the [[Pioneer Corps]].  He served first with 165 Company, then 249 and finally 88 Company. After two years in the [[Pioneer Corps]], he had the chance to join the British fighting forces.   Willy volunteered for the [[Royal Armoured Corps]] to be trained as a tank driver. At that time he had to change his name to William Field in case of capture by the Germans.  He finished his training in Farnborough and was then posted to the 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars.   Willy became the driver of a [[Cromwell tank]]. Just prior to [[D-Day]] in 1944, he was assigned to waterproofing the tanks. Willy fitted an extension onto the exhaust of the tanks so that no water could get into it on landing. Once on dry land, the extension could be discarded. Then the regiment was on the move.
-At that time Willy had a feeling that they were going somewhere, probably France, but no one told them.  Willy recollects – “At last, I felt that I had achieved something - I could take an active part in the war. I was doing something worthwhile.
-Landing near [[Arromanches]] on [[D-Day]] +3 Willy was soon involved in heavy fighting.  He advanced through France and, because of his knowledge of the German language, was given the task of interrogating the POWs that the regiment captured en route.  When he spoke to the first German prisoners he was not angry in spite of all that he had been through.  It’ was not in Willy’s nature to harbour resentment or anger. Winning the war was good enough for him !
-Willy’s regiment advanced through Normandy towards the area of [[Villers-Bocage]] and came under intense fire from the Germans on the way to [[Caen]].  They lost at least five tanks and several men in the fighting. A few months later he crossed into Holland and it was here near [[Nijmegen]] that Willy’s tank received a direct hit.  His tank Commander and gunner were killed baling out of the burning tank.  Willy crawled out of the driver’s seat.    He also pulled out the wireless operator, who was still in the turret and placed him safely behind the tank.  They were hit again and Willy was wounded in the leg, but managed to get help. The wireless operator was so badly wounded that he died on the way to the First Aid station.   Willy later learned that all his comrades were buried at the [[British Military cemetery at Eindhoven]].
-For Willy it was a shock to see one’s mates killed.   In fact the trauma of the experience hit him when his Commanding Officer took him back to see the burned-out tank a few weeks later. He was very lucky to have been the only survivor of my tank crew.   Once recovered from his wounds, Willy returned to frontline fighting in a new tank; this time as driver for an officer who was Second-in-Command of the Squadron.  The regiment headed through Holland towards Germany. In January 1945 amidst thick fog, reduced visibility and snow-covered ground, they were involved in the
-intense [[Battle of Linne and St Joost]] in Holland.  They had to white-wash the tanks because it was winter and there was heavy snow on the ground. Just outside Linne they met with British commandos and made a commando charge through the village. It was the first time that a commando raid of this kind had taken place so successfully.  Willy recollects “We charged our tanks, ten or twelve in a row, towards the village with the commandos sat on the back of the tanks. It was a very successful campaign.  Then we encountered stiff resistance at St Joost; a long straggling village which
-had to be cleared house by house.”
-Finally Willy moved with his Squadron into Germany, heading for Hamburg. It was the first time he had set foot on German soil for six years. So much had happened in that time.   He took part in the capture of Hamburg and there was little resistance. The Germans were in disarray. The city had been completely destroyed.  Willy was busy interrogating POWs who had marched towards the British troops in their thousands to surrender.  Willy recollects one experience with the prisoners – “I was in my tank and heard someone crying. I got out of the tank. Behind the bush was a young German soldier, not more than about 16, shouting in German, ‘don’t shoot me, I’m going to give up’. Of course, I understood what he was saying. I felt sorry for him - he was only a young kid. He was so surprised when I replied to him in German. He said to me that he had been told by his Commanding Officer that if he surrendered, he would be shot. I assured him that there was nothing to worry about. I even gave him a cigarette.”
-On 21 July 1945, and still as a German refugee in British uniform, Willy took part in the [[Victory Parade in Berlin]], driving his tank past the Allied leaders which included [[Winston Churchill]]. It was a very proud moment for him.
-After the war Willy was stationed in Germany at Lingen near Munster overseeing the transport troop and training new recruits as tank drivers.  He was demobbed in December 1946 and returned to England where he settled and became a [[British citizen]].  He then found out through the Red Cross that his father died whilst in Cologne awaiting transportation to a [[concentration camp]].   His mother and his brother, and most of his extended family were taken to Minsk in July 1942 and murdered in the
-[[Minsk concentration camp]].
-In the first edition of the journal of the [[8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars]] to be published after the war, the Commanding Officer wrote: ‘We were lucky to have in our Squadron a number of German-speaking other ranks, many of whom had had first-hand experience of [[Nazi brutality]].’
-A book telling Willy Field’s story, “[[From Dachau to D-Day]]” written by [[Helen Fry]] will be published in Summer 2009 by [[The History Press]].
-'''Eric Sanders '''  (born – Ignaz Schwarz)
-Served in the [[Pioneer Corps]], transferred to [[Special Operations Executive]]; after the war was posted to Vienna with the [[British-Austria Legation Unit]] on legal work for the new Austrian laws.
-Eric started on his path to Britain from Vienna in 1938, when he spent many hours on many days queuing up for documents in order to obtain a visa at the British Embassy.   The slim, rather attractive lady there told him he could obtain a student visa but had to be enrolled in an English school first.
-School! Eric’s most brilliant scholastic achievement was in failing !!!  He failed his end of year exams in the fifth form and the seventh form and, as was the local custom, had to repeat each of those years. It is a puzzle to Eric how he missed repeating the sixth form.
-A London cousin enrolled Eric in a commercial course. Full of optimism he then queued up at
-the embassy and held out the enrolment papers for Clarke’s Commercial College in Chancery Lane to the lady in the embassy.    She looked and shook her head, ‘This is not continuing your studies. That doesn’t qualify for a visa’.    Then, another miracle - the wonderful woman at the Embassy said, ‘Oh,
-never mind,’ and approved the visa.   Later Eric heard that this Mrs. Holmes bent visa rules left, right and centre in order to help people get out of Vienna.
-Eric travelled to London in August 1938.  In February 1940 he joined His Majesty’s 88 Company of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps.  In France he was loading and unloading supplies at the docks. Back in Blighty he dug trenches in Herefordshire in case the Germans invaded.  After a stint of clearing debris at the London docks after the nightly German bombardment, came a year of forestry work in
-Newport, Monmouthshire.  It was whilst on detachment in Carmarthen putting corrugated iron sheets on Nissen huts that he was recruited for the [[SOE]], the Special Operations Executive, by the amiable Herr Hartmann, a forty-year-old Swiss, of broad build and unbelievingly dignified. Actually he was an Austrian borrowed from [[MI5]].
-Eric recollects – “when I had reached Britain I had one thought, one dream deeply rooted inside me. I wanted to do something positive, something that counted, to bring about [[Hitler]]’s and the [[Nazis]]’ defeat. So you will understand how elated I felt on a day in January 1943, when eight of us entered the Victoria Hotel in Northumberland Avenue, agreed to do a dangerous job and signed the [[Official
-Secrets Act]]. We were to be trained to be dropped behind enemy lines.”
-The first two years in [[Special Operations Executive]] were one of the greatest experiences of Eric’s life: learning the skills of a radio operator, sending and receiving messages, encoding and decoding them and learning the use of every conceivable weapon: pistols, revolvers, rifles, bren guns, sten guns, bazookas, and hand grenades and explosives, even how to produce them ourselves. Explosives, not hand grenades. But no spears not even bows and arrows.   Eric recalls it was the stuff I had read of and seen in films - exhilarating, and romantic.
-Mid-1944 Eric was at Hetherop Castle, near Fairford, Gloucestershire, getting ready to be flown to Italy in preparation for being parachuted into Austria.  They were organised into groups of maximum four men, minimum one. There were around twenty-five of them in total. Eric was allocated as wireless operator to Theo Neumann and Hans Hladnik.  Gradually one group after the other disappeared from Hetherop Castle. On the 2 August it was his turn.   In Italy we were taken to a place near Monopoli, where Hansl, Theo and Eric were waiting to go into action. It was a fisherman’s house, code-named ‘Seaview,’ on the Adriatic shore, directly opposite to Montenegro. Another of our SOE guys, Michael O’Hara,also stayed there. On many days Theo and Hansl mixed with the prisoners in a nearby POW camp, in order to find genuine anti-Nazis among them.  Eric was alone in the house with O’Hara on the night he left for his mission.   Later he heard from our commanding officer that as soon as O’Hara made radio contact, it would be Theo’s and Eric’s turn to be dropped.  Michael O’Hara never made contact and Eric never went into action.  O’Hara was the only one of our [[Special Operation Executive]] group who did not survive his mission. He was captured, tortured and murdered in Graz.
-On the 2 August 1945 Eric left Italy, frustrated and disillusioned. The SOE was being dissolved and he was once again a Private in the regular army. But the SOE did not let him down. Eric was transferred as sergeant-interpreter to a German Prisoner-of-War camp in Taunton, Somerset, a very fulfilling job. And two days after being discharged from the army, Eric was re-recruited by a Major Laszky who led the [[British Austrian Legal Unit]] (BALU) in Vienna. Austria had to re-constitute its whole legal system and every new law had to be approved by the [[Allied Commission]]. Laszky, with four other [[Austrian refugees]], one of them Theo Neumann, all qualified lawyers, had to translate the texts into English for the British representatives. Each translation took days and they spent many hours till early in the morning, checking the final drafts word for word.  During that fabulous year in Vienna Eric obtained his [[naturalisation papers]] as [[British citizen]].
-'''Colin Anson'''   (born – Colin Ascher)
-Served in 87 Company of the [[Pioneer Corps]]; transferred to 3 Troop of No 10. Inter-Allied Commando; on active service for the [[invasion of Sicily]] and Italy.
-Whilst the 87th Company of the [[Pioneer Corps]], in which Colin originally served, stationed at Liverpool and then in Wales, a mysterious member by the name of Hartmann joined them, who spoke German with a distinctive Swiss intonation.   He was vague about his background and did not explain how he came to be among them but probed our motivations and attitudes. Some of them with a German background were ordered to report at the Grand Central Hotel in London’s Marylebone Road,
-which was then a transit hub, and those who survived the vetting process were informed that they had been accepted for a Commando Troop of which Capt. (later Major) Brian Hilton-Jones was the Commanding Officer.
-As a security measure they all adopted English names and appointed reliable British  friends to be their ‘next-of-kin’ and act as a ‘post office’, through whom they could maintain contact with those who had known them under our old names.   The recruits changed names and cap badges on the way to their base at Aberdovey. So Claus Leopold Octavio Ascher became Colin Edward Anson.
-They were then put through a very demanding course of training at the Commando Training Depot at Achnacarry in the Scottish Highlands, designed not only to get them very fit but also to put off anyone whose heart was not really in it.  They returned to the base at Aberdovey proudly wearing their new green berets!    The training was continued in Wales by Capt. Hilton-Jones in a very well designed
-programme to keep them at a peak of fitness as well as develop intelligence skills.  Only live
-ammunition was used.  The army boots had the rubber soles of the now familiar ‘Commando’ pattern instead of hobnails which allow silent movement and help in rock climbing. And so the Skipper fashioned them into a competent unit of increasingly professional soldiers.
-Unlike other [[commando units]], Colin’s troop was designed not to go into action as a unit but for small groups to be attached to other [[commando units]] for operations, to make them useful as German speakers.   In Colin’s case, he was with the first small group to leave the troop, to be attached to
-No.40 RM Cdo. to take part in the invasion of Sicily.   Members of 3 Troop served in Sicily, Italy, in the Adriatic based on the island of Vis, in Albania and Greece, In Normandy, in Holland and finally Germany, the crossing of the Rhine, and in the Reichswald Forest. Of the original eighty-six
-members, twenty were killed in action, most were wounded, including even Colin Anson in Sicily.
-Colin Anson embarked at Greenock in a convoy and only after some time at sea were they informed by Brigadier Laycock that we were on our way to the biggest landing operation yet undertaken: the [[invasion of Sicily]]. Having passed through the Straits of Gibraltar they were joined by more ships, growing into a vast armada. The weather turned very stormy. However, as they came into the lee of Cape Passero, the sea became as calm as a mill pond, a great wave of sub-tropical aroma rolled
-over them and the air was filled with the chirping of a thousand cicadas.   During the night of 10 July they landed against ineffective opposition. They split into three columns, one group probing inland, the other two mopping up defences along the coast. During the following days, they worked our way up the East coast, taking Syracuse and then Augusta, the only opposition being from the Luftwaffe in the form of substantial air raids. But then there was a holdup at a tenaciously defended river bridge in the plain of Catania, providing a flat glacis overlooked by [[Mount Etna]].    Colin was not aware of having been wounded by shrapnel which penetrated his helmet but it is still there now, encapsulated in the inside rear of his skull !  In fact his brain had been exposed and he had not been expected to survive the night.
-He was downgraded to the B3 medical fitness category, and had to spend three soul-destroying months recovering in an Infantry Reinforcement Training Depot on the Suez Canal to make sure no infections or tumours had invaded his brain, before the hole in my head could be closed by means of a bone graft just before Christmas 1943.   He then regained his A1 medical status.
-Colin Anson re-joined what was now No.2 Central Mediterranean Commando Brigade, about to move to the Adriatic island of Vis. There they spent the summer of 1944, raiding German island garrisons and shipping. The most spectacular action in which he was involved was a raid on the island of Brač in conjunction with the Partisans.   The aim was to make as much dust and noise as possible, to divert the Germans away from a hunt for [[Marshall Tito]], then hiding in a cave system at Drvar.  They stayed as long as possible, with the [[SS Panzer Division]] Prinz Eugen heading towards them, and hoped the action may have helped in Tito's escape.  Colin Anson then saw action in Albania and the liberation of Corfu. Finally, they were sent to Northern Italy to take part in the last actions of the war in that theatre.
-When the war ended, the Army Commandos were dissolved and he was attached to the [Control Commission for Germany]] and posted to Frankfurt, to join an interesting unit called FIAT, which stands for [[Field Intelligence Agency, Technical]]. Part of his work was to translate records of industrial, medical, and scientific developments during the war years. There were also weeks in Berlin, translating parts of the records of the Ministry of Weapons and Equipment under [[Albert Speer]].    It also enabled Colin to find his mother, who had survived the war in Frankfurt, and to start proceedings for bringing her over to England. After he married Alice, originally from Vienna - who had served in the WAAF for four years - she was able to see her grandchildren grow up.
-Colin Anson commented in an interview that he had not seriously expected to survive the war in the Commandos, but there was a job that had to be done. He wanted to repay his debt to Britain for saving his life.
-'''Ernest J. Goodman'''   (born – Ernst Gosttmann)
-Served with the Guards Armoured Division, 5th Battalion. [[Coldstream Guards]] and Westminster Garrison and 2nd Battalion. H.Q. Company. Was involved in frontline fighting with the infantry in France, Belgium and Germany.
-At the [[Imperial War Museum]]’s event, [[Refugees from Nazism]], Ernest Goodman commented - “ I never miss the opportunity of thanking the British people for saving me when the knife was at the throat of the Jewish people of Germany, and chicanery and sheer brutality were a daily occurrence”.
-Ernest Goodman came to Britain with the [[Kindertransport]].   Once of 10,000 children, alone and unaccompanied that were to be admitted to the United Kingdom without the usually required entry visa.     On 23 August 1939, he arrived at Liverpool Street Station, on the [[Kindertransport]], fourteen years of age, with special entry permit in his hand and by courtesy of the YMCA went to a hostel in Derbyshire and within forty-eight hours he was working on a farm. Four weeks later he was placed on a farm permanently, lodging with the cowman and his family in their cottage. Work was hard and, in the summer, sixteen-hour days were not unusual.  Ernest learned English fast but in those early war
-years being a foreigner, particularly a German, was not cool.  He dreaded being asked, ‘Are you a German?’
-From the day the war began Ernest Goodman coveted the British military uniform.  He wanted to hit back at the criminal and corrupt gangsters who were ruling Germany. That shameful regime soon overran much of Europe and his heart was with the British people, who now had the knife at their throats, who were bombed without mercy and threatened with invasion.   Colin Anson was avid in my belief that Britain’s decision to give thousands of German and Austrians shelter was the noblest episode in those terrible years and the desire to fight shoulder to shoulder with the British people was his ardent desire.   He prayed for the time to pass until he was eighteen. That occurred in 1943 when his friend, Adolf Neuberger and himself enlisted.
-Ernest Goodman did his basic and infantry training first in Glasgow, then with the Northamptonshire Regiment. At that time the Company Commander gave Ernest Goodman his present name!  He had something far more exotic in mind but he thought that Ernest Goodman was ‘A jolly good name, what?’ and who, at the tender age of nineteen, would argue with the Company Commander?
-Next came the greatest thrill of his life when he was picked, together with his friend, who was now Archie Newman, to transfer to the Guards. Both of us became Coldstreamers, thrilled as never before, going over all the drill and all the infantry exercises, now in Guards style, where they were trained to do things they never dreamed they could accomplish.    The uniform helped greatly in the construction of a new identity and to legitimize his integration into British society. Then followed Normandy and Belgium and he was now a member of the [[Allied Liberation Army]] that had the task of beating Germany, thus to remove the terribly dark blot from decent and peaceful civilizations.
-Ernest Goodman was happy to have spent several years of his life in the [[Coldstream Guards]], a glorious organization where he learned lessons of and for life. In 1946 he took a British bride and in December of 1947 became a British subject.  They have lived in the United States since 1953.
-'''Fritz Lustig'''
-Memories of the [[Pioneer Corps Orchestra]].    He joined the Pioneer Corps at No 3 Training Centre in Ilfracombe in October 1940 direct from internment on the Isle of Man.  As he had heard of the Orchestra in [[Ilfracombe]] before he left the [[Internment Camp]], he took his cello with him (it had proved invaluable at the Camp, to keep ‘busy’, and to entertain others). Immediately on arrival he was spotted and instructed to find the orchestra's conductor, Cpl Strietzel, who after a perfunctory ‘audition’ applied for transfer to the Entertainment Section of HQ Company after his three weeks initial training. This meant that Frtiz Lustig was going to stay in Ilfracombe, and that his duties would consist mainly of playing the cello. However, the Entertainment Section also contained singers, actors, producers, and the clown ‘Coco’ (Cpl Polakov). The wife of one Pioneer was a professional dancer who had been a member of the famous Ballet Joos in Germany (Hanne Musch), and she regularly took part in the shows, and also acted in several plays. Occasionally members of the orchestra would be given small parts in plays and join the professional actors on stage.   Fritz was one of those called upon several times, and his most demanding part was that of the ‘Native’ Jim Fish in the play ‘White Cargo’, for which he had to black up completely (apart from the part covered by a loincloth) and sing a ‘native’ song of my own imagination!
-Apart from concerts given by the orchestra (which usually consisted of a mixture of classical and popular pieces) and in which the solo singers Jess (tenor) and Karg-Bebenburg (baritone) took part, and the plays mentioned above (mainly farces), they also put on variety shows and pantomimes. In all of these ‘Coco’ took a prominent part, and usually members of his family were also roped in. For female parts in the plays and shows members of the [[ATS]] also stationed in Ilfracombe as well as civilian
-volunteers - among them two daughters of the Commanding Officer Lt.Col Coles - volunteered to take part. The proceeds of the public concerts, plays and shows were given to local charities - about £1200 in total, a substantial sum at that time.
-In January 1942 No 3 Training Centre was dissolved, and the Entertainment Section moved to Bulford on Salisbury Plain, where for rations and administrative purposes were attached to 229 Company, but otherwise remained completely independent under their own officer, Lt  White.  They were now called the Southern Command Pioneer Corps Orchestra, and for a time even had to wear a costume (black trousers, a white blouse with a high collar, and a red sash).  They did not like this a bit and felt rather like performing monkeys, and to their relief it did not last long.    For special occasions they were absorbed into the Southern Command Symphony Orchestra, which consisted mainly of army bandsmen and professional musicians. With this body (which was conducted by Eric Fenby, the amanuensis of the blind composer Frederick Delius) they gave several broadcast concerts, and on one occasion a section of the orchestra (including Fritz) played in the National Gallery in London.   They also
-made several recordings, which were used to entertain troops overseas.
-Fritz Lustig had never been very happy in the Orchestra, as he did not consider that playing the cello was the best way of helping to win the war. So he was very glad when at his own request he was transferred to the Intelligence Corps in May 1943, and his new Commanding Officer assured him in a welcoming interview that what he was going to do now would be far more valuable for the successful prosecution of the war than firing a rifle or driving a tank.  He was demobbed as an RSM (WO I) in September 1946.
-'''Susan Lustig''' (née Cohen)
-Joined ATS in March 1943, attached to RAMC first as Dental Orderly, then as Medical Orderly. Transferred to CSDIC(UK) and attached to Intelligence Corps in December 1943 as a Sergeant, promoted to SQMS (WO II), married Fritz Lustig.
-Susan Lustig was one of the refugee-women who served in the forces. It is estimated that there were just under a thousand, and most enlisted in the [[ATS]] – the Royal Air Force and Navy were more reluctant to accept non-British women, and therefore relatively few ex-refugees got into the WAAFs or
-WRENs.  The first lot of ‘alien’ ATS were accepted in 1941 and were all volunteers. They were either trained as cooks, or performed what was called ‘general duties’, i.e. serving meals, washing-up, etc.
-Just as the men were at first only allowed to join the Pioneer Corps – the ‘untrained labour’ of the army – so the women were only permitted to do the jobs just mentioned.
-Susan Lustig arrived in this country in July 1939, just about five weeks before the war began.    Her father had died the previous year and her mother stayed behind.   She never saw her mother again as she became a victim of the [[Holocaust]]. Female applicants could obtain visas only as domestic servants or trainee nurses, and the minimum age for either was eighteen.  Susan was too old to be included in one of the ‘Kindertransports’ and therefore had to wait until she reached that age.
-Susan’s first job lasted only a few weeks, as her employer was nervous about having a ‘German’ in the house when war was declared.  She found refuge with acquaintances of her parents who lived in Finchley, North London. They also came from her home town of Breslau (now the Polish town of Wroclaw), but having arrived some years earlier, were by now well established. It was a large household of eight people, where her domestic help was very useful. The father of the family was a dental surgeon, and he gave Susan some training as a chair-assistant, which proved useful in her army career.
-In 1943 Susan was called up for war work and had to report to the Labour Exchange, where she was given the choice of either working in a munitions factory or joining the ATS.  She chose the latter, although it was pointed out to her that the pay would be much better for factory work. She opted for ‘general duties’, as she knew that if she was trained as a cook, which was considered a ‘trade’, she would never be able to do anything else during her service life.   After three weeks’ initial training she was given a job as a dental orderly, because of her experience as a dentist’s chair-assistant.   After only a short period it turned out that – in army language - there was no ‘establishment’ for women to do this work, and she was sent to York to be trained as medical orderly: doing bandaging, giving injections and similar jobs.  She was then posted to Nottingham where the Army Post Office was situated, and many of the girls who worked there had permed hair which they did not like to wash very often.
-This resulted in many of them having lice, and most of her medical work was delousing.
-One day when on leave in London she happened to meet a girl from her home town who was also in the ATS. She noticed that she was a sergeant, whereas she had by then progressed to Lance Corporal. She was not allowed to tell what her work was, only that she was attached to the Intelligence Corps, and she asked whether she would like to be transferred to her unit, as more girls with German
-language qualifications were required. Of course Susan agreed, and after a while had to attend an interview at the War Office in London. This lasted all day, and apart from answering a lot of questions she had to take a typing test – copying from a German newspaper. As she was not a trained typist it took ten minutes to type three lines ! Susan was told to take lessons in order to improve my typing speed and assumed that I would shortly be transferred to this new job. Back in Nottingham Susan enrolled in a class and practised on the company office typewriter every evening.   After four weeks she was posted and given a railway ticket to Chalfont & Latimer in Buckinghamshire, where she would be met at the station. To her surprise it was a dashing Naval Officer who met her, who explained that he was taking me to a camp where all three services were represented. It was called ‘CSDIC’, which stood for ‘Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre’ – a special Prisoner-of-War
-Camp dealing with POWs from whom it was hoped to obtain important information.    Susan was immediately promoted to sergeant, which was the lowest rank for anybody dealing with intelligence matters in that unit. She started off in a typing pool, but as her typing was still pretty poor at the time, was soon transferred to another section where she had to check the prisoners’ documents and perform other clerical duties.  One day she came across a prisoner’s pay book whose name seemed familiar – he
-had been her English teacher at school ! As he was not a Nazi, she put in a good word for him.
-It was in this Camp that she met Fritz Lustig – an RSM in the Intelligence Corps – who became her husband a month after the end of the war. Married ATS-girls were given the option of applying for immediate demobilisation, so she took that opportunity and got out of the ATS in September 1945. Susan was lucky to get my first civilian job through the Major I had worked for: as Supervisor of the Duplicating Section in the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations in London.
-'''Roger Bryan'''  (born - Roger Britzmann)
-Recently died in the USA, he was a German-born translator for the prosecution at the Nuremberg war-crime trials who moved to the USA after the war <ref>  www.Northdevon.co.uk  article “Death of Ilfracombe Pioneer Corps Man”, 28 August 2008 </ref>.
-Born Roger Britzmann in 1921 in Berlin, the son of a doctor, he studied photography. Weeks before war broke out he fled to England where he was interned as a prisoner-of-war.   In 1940 he and 2,500 other Jews and refugees were shipped to Australia on the floating concentration camp, the [[Dunera]]. He was in a prisoner-of-war camp for several months before being returned to England.   Mr Bryan wrote in a memoir that the British Army allowed him to volunteer in 1941 for the [[Pioneer Corps]] in [[Ilfracombe]]. The Pioneer Corps was made up mostly of refugees and former prisoners on the [[Dunera]]. He was then stationed in Glasgow, where he met Lore Konigshofer and they married in 1943.
-In 1946, Mr Bryan was sent to the former concentration camp at [[Neuengamme]], near Hamburg, to interrogate and document Nazi officials and soldiers. Later that year, he worked as a translator at the Nuremberg trials.   He wrote in his memoir: "I translated German terms and phrases for British prosecutors in the courtroom. To see the whole rogues' gallery of defendants, not more than 20 feet in front of me, was overwhelming. [[Göering]], with a derisive grin most of the time, [[Streicher]], [[Rudolf Hess]] and other [[Nazi criminals]]. Hess was either a great actor or mentally disturbed."
-A few months later, Mr Bryan supervised the [[British Film and Documentation Unit]], run by the RAF.   He said: "We had samples of tattooed human skin that had been made into lamp shades and gloves. Even more devastating was the collection of photographs taken by German soldiers. The most haunting one showed a trench the prisoners had dug before being shot at the edge of it. One of the victims looked like my mother. I had trouble sleeping for nights."
-In 1954, the family moved to Philadelphia, where Mr Bryan worked as a salesman and founded a sewing thread firm.    Roger Bryan died August 2008 and is survived by his wife, daughter and three grandchildren.
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