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Based on numerous in-depth and personal interviews with members of three generations, this is the first comprehensive study of German-Jewish refugees who came to England in the 1930s. The author addresses questions such as perceptions of Germany and Britain and attitudes towards Judaism. On the basis of many case studies, the author shows how the refugees adjusted, often amazingly successfully, to their situation in Britain. While exploring the process of acculturation of the German-Jews in Britain, the author challenges received ideas about the process of Jewish assimilation in general, and that of the Jews in Germany in particular, and offers a new interpretation in the light of her own empirical data and of current anthropological theory.
“…a scholarly yet readable book…pioneering work.” • Journal of Jewish Studies
Introduction
- I. Problems of Identity
- II. Concepts of Assimilation and Ethnic Identity
1. The Process of Jewish Assimilation in Germany
- The Debate of German-Jewish Assimilation
- Towards a Re-definition of German-Jewish Ethnic Identity
2. Life Under the Threat of Nazism
- The Crisis of the German-Jewish Identity
- A Period of Re-orientation
- The Significance of the Eastern European Jewish Immigrants
- Aspects of Jewish-Gentile Relationships in the 1930s
- Effects of the Nazi Policies on the German-Jewish Community
3. Emigration
- Academics
- The Medical Profession
- The Legal Profession
- Artists
- Business People
- November 1938
4. Search for New Roots
- The Burden of the Past
- German-Jewish Institutions
5. The Ambiguities of Ethnic Identification
- England—A New Haven?
- Germany—A Winter’s Tale
6. ‘Continental’ Britons
- Problems of Identity
- Elements of Continental Ethnicity
- Encounters with Anglo-Jewry
- The Third Generation
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index