British Responses

‘Rescue The Perishing’ pamphlet, published by Eleanor Rathbone in May 1943.

Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

‘Rescue The Perishing’ pamphlet, published by Eleanor Rathbone in May 1943.

Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

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This lesson resource uses the Library’s contemporary source material to help students assess the variety of ways in which different people and groups in Britain responded to news of Jewish persecution before and during the Holocaust, the context which shaped these responses, and how they changed over time

Please use the links below to download the worksheet and primary sources.

All sources are courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library and can be reproduced for educational purposes only. The Wiener Holocaust Library should be acknowledged in all reproductions.

Downloads

To download the PDF worksheet click on the link below. To download images, click onto the
desired image and press ‘download’ at the bottom of the picture.

Exploring British Responses to the Nazis’ persecution of Jews and the Holocaust Worksheet/Lesson Resource

Wilhelm (left) and Bernard (right) Simon, c. 1939.

‘Order for the Detention of Enemy Alien’ issued to Bernard Simon, c. September 1940.

Bernard Simon’s claim for compensation for belongings stolen or damaged on-board HMS Dunera, the ship which transported him and other internees to Australia. The Dunera become infamous for the terrible treatment and poor conditions Jewish refugees experienced on board.

An extract from Bernard Simon’s recollections in 1990 of his internment and the conditions in the Hay Camp in Australia in 1940/1941.

Extract from the ‘Rescue The Perishing’ pamphlet, published by Eleanor Rathbone in May 1943.

‘Stop Them Now! German Mass Murder of Jews in Poland’.

A pamphlet published by Polish Jewish refugee Szmul Zygielbojm in September 1942, containing reports of the Nazi atrocities against Jews from the Polish underground movements and eyewitness reports from Polish citizens. Zygielbojm hoped to raise awareness of the murders and inspire action to help save Polish Jews, including his family, who were trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, c.1930s.

A young boy sweeping up broken glass from a Jewish shop window after Kristallnacht, an anti-Jewish pogrom led by the Nazis in November 1938. Businesses were destroyed, synagogues were set on fire, and over 25,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps, such as Buchenwald and Dachau.

A label (c.1930s) stating ‘do not buy from Jews’. This label was likely created to encourage Germans to boycott Jewish businesses.

The front page of Dr. Malvine Sara Rhoden’s passport. In August 1938 all Jews who had supposedly ‘non-Jewish’ first names were forced to adopt the middle name Sara or Israel. In October 1938, a law was passed forcing Jews to have the letter J stamped in their passports.

‘A Plan To Help The Persecuted’ leaflet, produced by the British Jewish community and organisations in North London following Kristallnacht, also known as the November Pogrom, in November 1938.

Ludwig Neumann in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. c.1940.

A drawing by Gerda Nabe, a young German girl, in her school textbook. The drawing represents the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, which stripped Jews of their German citizenship -making them stateless in their own country- and banned them from marrying ‘Aryans’.