Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1939-2002 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
5 files
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Fred Dunston (previously Fritz Deutsch), the depositor, worked in the Youth Aliyah offices and later the Palästinaamt, Vienna (after the former was destroyed during Kristallnacht), and also as youth leader or member of the Elternschaft in the Youth Aliyah centres of Great Engeham Farm, Kent, Braunton and Bydown, Devon.
Youth Aliyah or Aliyat Hanoar, as it was known in Hebrew, was created by Recha Freier, wife of a Berlin Rabbi, in 1932. Combining productive agricultural training with educational and Zionist values it gave many young Jewish children a purpose and occupation during the period of mass unemployment, the result of the breakdown of the German economy.
Circumstances in late 1938 Europe meant that it became imperative to send Jewish children abroad. Auslandhascharah was the overseas version of Youth Aliyah where children and young people were trained with a view to eventually emigrating to Palestine. England was added to the list of countries and the London office soon became the busiest, reflecting the popularity of Great Britain as a destination.
Funding of the centres came from the British Council of the Young Pioneer Movement for Palestine (Hachsharath Hanoar), whose executive committee comprised Mrs Israel M. Sieff, Mrs Norman Laski, Mr M. Schattner and Mrs Lola Hahn-Warburg.
Great Engeham Farm, Kent, was received as a gift as a result of an advertisement in the London Times. It opened in June 1939 and a total of 134 children and 30 chalutzim lived there rent free. It served primarily as a transit camp for between 300 and 350 children aged 13-16.
Bydown, Devon, was founded by a group from Great Engeham Farm who were forced to move there in November 1939 when Kent was designated off-limits to aliens. Its headmaster was Dr. Fridolin M. Friedmann, a former headmaster of the Landschulheim of Caputh, near Berlin. It closed at the beginning of October 1941 when the lease ran out.
The agricultural training centre at Braunton, Devon, was a collaborative project between Youth Aliyah, Hechaluz and the British Council of the Young Pioneer Movement for Palestine. The accommodation housed 30 people who engaged in farm work. The centre existed between March and December 1940.
Repository
Archival history
GB 1556 WL 1372 1939-2002 Collection level (fonds) 5 files Dunston , Fred , b 1917 , youth leader
Fred Dunston (previously Fritz Deutsch), the depositor, worked in the Youth Aliyah offices and later the Palästinaamt, Vienna (after the former was destroyed during Kristallnacht), and also as youth leader or member of the Elternschaft in the Youth Aliyah centres of Great Engeham Farm, Kent, Braunton and Bydown, Devon.
Youth Aliyah or Aliyat Hanoar, as it was known in Hebrew, was created by Recha Freier, wife of a Berlin Rabbi, in 1932. Combining productive agricultural training with educational and Zionist values it gave many young Jewish children a purpose and occupation during the period of mass unemployment, the result of the breakdown of the German economy.
Circumstances in late 1938 Europe meant that it became imperative to send Jewish children abroad. Auslandhascharah was the overseas version of Youth Aliyah where children and young people were trained with a view to eventually emigrating to Palestine. England was added to the list of countries and the London office soon became the busiest, reflecting the popularity of Great Britain as a destination.
Funding of the centres came from the British Council of the Young Pioneer Movement for Palestine (Hachsharath Hanoar), whose executive committee comprised Mrs Israel M. Sieff, Mrs Norman Laski, Mr M. Schattner and Mrs Lola Hahn-Warburg.
Great Engeham Farm, Kent, was received as a gift as a result of an advertisement in the London Times. It opened in June 1939 and a total of 134 children and 30 chalutzim lived there rent free. It served primarily as a transit camp for between 300 and 350 children aged 13-16.
Bydown, Devon, was founded by a group from Great Engeham Farm who were forced to move there in November 1939 when Kent was designated off-limits to aliens. Its headmaster was Dr. Fridolin M. Friedmann, a former headmaster of the Landschulheim of Caputh, near Berlin. It closed at the beginning of October 1941 when the lease ran out.
The agricultural training centre at Braunton, Devon, was a collaborative project between Youth Aliyah, Hechaluz and the British Council of the Young Pioneer Movement for Palestine. The accommodation housed 30 people who engaged in farm work. The centre existed between March and December 1940.
Fred Dunston
Papers of Fred Dunston, 1939-2002, relate to Youth Aliyah and comprise correspondence and papers between the those responsible for the management of the refugee centres at Great Engeham Farm, Kent and Bydown and Braunton, Devon, relating to the management of the institutions; also some letters from the child refugees.
Chronological by institution
Open
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
German and English
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk
Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
March 2008 Adult education institutions Age distribution Age groups Braunton Bydown Childhood Children Devon Dunston , Fred , b 1917 , youth leader England Europe Jews Kent Migrants Refugees Religious groups Training centres UK Western Europe World wars (events) World War Two (1939-1945) Youth Aliyah Wars (events) London Educational institutions
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Fred Dunston
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Papers of Fred Dunston, 1939-2002, relate to Youth Aliyah and comprise correspondence and papers between the those responsible for the management of the refugee centres at Great Engeham Farm, Kent and Bydown and Braunton, Devon, relating to the management of the institutions; also some letters from the child refugees.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Chronological by institution
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
- Latin
Language and script notes
German and English
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
Notes area
Note
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
- Adult education institutions
- Age distribution
- Age distribution » Age groups
- Age distribution » Age groups » Childhood
- Age distribution » Age groups » Childhood » Children
- Religious groups » Jews
- Migrants
- Migrants » Refugees
- Religious groups
- Adult education institutions » Training centres
- Educational institutions
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English