Yorkshire Cottage, continued

A very kind lady from Quaker House sent me the following information, on children being excluded from WWII evacuation schemes, as mentioned in Yorkshire Cottage by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley (see earlier post):

I think this book has slightly mis-represented the situation at the time. Firstly, Quakers could only bring over children under the government scheme, so they would not have been able to bring over any refugee children who did not meet the criteria of the scheme. The criteria for rescuing refugees would have been about establishing whether the children were ‘in danger’ from the Nazi regime as opposed to their racial profile – although of course it was the Nazi’s racial profiling of citizens which led to them being in danger.

The Jewish relief agencies, and the non-Jewish relief agencies (Quaker, Catholic etc) in the UK, agreed amongst themselves to divide up the refugees into those who identified as Jewish, and those who did not identify as Jewish (but whom the Nazis decided to persecute as ‘non-Aryan’, usually as they had mixed parentage or a Jewish grandparent). So, Quakers tended to support refugees who were non-Jewish, or had mixed heritage, but not from any particular ethical stance, just as an effective way to organise the available resources and manage the caseload.

As far as I know, the government let the relief agencies on the ground assess who should qualify for the scheme – i.e. they let the relief agencies decide who was ‘deserving’, i.e. at risk of the Nazis. All the government was concerned with, was that financial support of a certain amount had been arranged for each child. You can read more about the Kindertransport here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/kindertransport/

There are records for the Kindertransport children here: https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/kindertransport

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has information here: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kindertransport-1938-40

I am not sure the child in question came over with the Kindertransport, as she was French and fled with her mother and brother. But it did make me feel better that  Ella Pontefract perhaps misunderstood the situation.

A Curious Thing in a Yorkshire Cottage

In my earlier post I wrote about Yorkshire Cottage by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley. On page 101 of this book I came across this paragraph:

The text refers to a three year old girl who, with her mother and small brother, has fled from Belgium. Her father is 'interned' (= in a concentration camp) in France. She is being evacuated to Yorkshire and spends some time with Ella and Marie. 

According to this book being mixed race barred you from benefiting from Government evacuation schemes. Can this be true? I keep coming back to this paragraph as is just sounds so cruel. I have contacted a few organisations about this, but so far have received no replies. If anyone can shed any light on this, or if you know of any sources I could use, I would be most grateful.

Yorkshire Cottage by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley (1942)

 

 

  

This book was bought by Marjorie and William Blake on 29 October 1942, and the authors signed it on 15 April 1943.

Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley wrote about the social history of the Yorkshire Dales. In the late 1930's they buy an old cottage in a Yorkshire village. The name of the village is not mentioned in the book, but Wikipeda tells us it is Askrigg. 

(a garth is an enclosed yard)

The first part of the book tells the story of how they rebuild, decorate and furnish the house. We also learn a lot of the people (especially local craftsmen) they meet, with conversations in the local dialect.

Only part of the rebuilding is finished when war breaks out. 'For us life altered in a night. It became a confused programme of learning to drive ambulances, of attending first aid and antigas lectures, and of helping to sort the scanty A.R.P. equipment which was all that was allowed us in those early days. (...) Amid these duties the cottage seemend unreal, as if it were something we had known long ago.' Materials and men become scarce, but two and a half years after they bought the cottage they move in as permanent residents. Some of their furniture they buy from Thompson's in Kilburn. This furniture was and is famous for having a mouse carved somewhere on it. 

The second half of the book describes their first year in the cottage.

There is some talk of soldiers, refugees and evacuees, but otherwise the war does not seem to impinge very much and life goes on in the Dales much as it always did. I can see why this book might have been popular during the war. It is like one long cosy fireside chat about things that have always been so and will never change. The landscape, the climate, the well, the garden, the village: life goes on. Parts of this book I found, dare I say it, a little boring, but I am sure lots of people will find it the ulitimate comfort read.

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