Kent UK camp that saved 4,000 German Jewish Men: 1939.

During WW1 Richborough Camp was built on the River Stour, the start­ing point of a ferry service across the Channel for troops and munitions to Fran­ce and Bel­g­ium. A railway was built from the main line to the banks of the Stour, so thou­s­ands of soldiers could be transported. But by late 1918, this British Army camp was left derelict.

Location of Richborough/Kitchener Camp, Kent

across the Channel from France and Belgium

Richborough Camp and Port, Kent, in late 1918. So why was this camp rebuilt pre-WW2? By the late 1930s, the Council of German Jewry had been trying to or­ganise a safe haven for citizens, especially once they were swamped with requ­ests for help. In Krist­all­nacht Nov 1938, 25,000-30,000 Jewish men acr­oss Germ­any, Aus­tria and Sudentenland were arr­est­ed & confined in Buchen­wald, Dachau & Sachsenhausen concentration camps. They suf­f­­ered starvation and tort­ure, and hund­reds died in the brutal conditions.

Ironically, release from the German camps dep­ended on prison­ers prom­is­ing to LEAVE Germany asap! Ot­her countries refused to take more ref­ugees, so Kitchener Res­cue be­gan. Per­m­is­sion was given for the old camp to be rent­ed by the Council of Ger­man Jewry, to prov­ide a transit-camp refuge for Jewish working men. It was run by the Jewish aid organisations that organised the Kinder­trans­port. 

Until they had a safe haven, the men had to report weekly to a German pol­ice st­ation; meanwhile they remained at risk of re-impris­on­ment and death. Thus the priority was to get these sons and husbands out of Germany urgently.

The first men to arrive in Kitchener in 1939 had to rebuild
the old, derelict Richborough Camp from WW1.

Most men hoped that they’d have been able to gain employ­ment somewhere and then bring their families from Germany to join them. Kitchener Camp never offered this opportunity because the ref­ug­ees were only al­lowed temporary British residence vi­s­as and were re­quired to move on elsewhere. To obtain a place at Kit­ch­ener, then, men had to show that they had a good chance of emigrat­ing and finding work.

The sleeping huts and other facilities in Kitchener Camp were made ready

for 4,000 German Jewish men arriving in 1939  

How did German Jewish men gain places at Kitchener? See the journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees/AJR which showed Werner Rosenstock had been emp­loyed at the Council of Ger­man Jewry in 1939, the only major Jew­ish German organis­at­ion still funct­ioning post-Kristall­nacht. He helped select as many men as poss­ible from those with likely successful appl­ic­­ations for tran­s­it visas. IF they were under 49 and had some kind of document­at­ion promising entry to a for­eign count­ry, they could be selected from the mass of applicants freshly rel­eas­ed from Nazi camps. NOT being selected could have been catastrophic.

Dormitory huts

Some men were selected for th­eir ability to help reb­uild Kitchener camp in Kent; sh­ow­ing their practical skills meant they had a good ch­ance of being able to find work else where­. Afterall taking Kitchener from a derelict site to hab­itable in a month, to house c4,000 people, was a huge task. The Ger­man men had to install doors, windows and panes, roofs and elec­t­ric lights. After these re­p­airs, each hut was divided into 2 sec­t­ions, and 36 men slept in each.   

Work was obligatory, and there was a lot to get through each day. Lo­c­al farmers trained some men in skills for growing their own food, ne­c­essary both for their immediate situation and as a useful skill for employment later. There were also roads to be built, ditches to dig, drains to clear, and ongoing hut re­pairs. There was some time off from the la­b­our­ing schedule, but it was stress­­ful for those Germans who’d been used to a professional life. Others worked in the kitchens, pre­paring, cooking and cleaning 3 times a day. Remember that 3,500+ men were fed here daily, achieved by 400 men work­ing in shifts.

Some men worked in the off­ic­es. And some taught classes since every man had to do Eng­l­ish lessons, supplemented by locals from Sandwich. Rabbi Dr Werner van der Zyl led read­ings, dis­cussions and services in Kitchener; he was aided by a cantor who’d been res­cued by Kitchener’s transit scheme. Holy day cel­­ebrations were held in the camp tent in 1939 when services were held under wartime blackout cond­it­ions for c3,000 of the men.     

Synagogue tent, Kitchener Camp
Used on high holy days

There was also a large contingent (c60) of dentists and doctors. So Kitchener camp had an isolation hospital unit, general hospital, First Aid unit and laboratory.

 First aid station, Kitchener Camp

Music became hugely significant and as more professional musicians arrived, a camp orchestra was formed. Such was the orchestra’s reputation that in August 1939, a live BBC broadcast of one of their concerts was planned.

Musical presentation by Kitchener men 

for camp residents and for visiting Sandwich families

For leisure activities, some men rode bikes along coastal paths or sw­am in the sea. On Saturdays they also had time alloc­at­ed to play foot­ball. At night they were allowed out of the camp with a pass, although there was a night time curfew. Sandwich is a pr­etty, historic port-town, and in 1939 the historic homes and buildings in town were still appealing. A local store, Golden Crust Bakery, had fur­n­iture in the back, where they ser­v­ed meat pies and drinks. The owner was soon persuaded to sell European coffee, giv­ing them somewhere hugely popular to go for Kaffee und Kuchen. Other men went to the Empire Cinema in Sandwich.

Despite the men being called Friendly Aliens, pub­lic opinion turned again­st German-speaking refugees after Dunkirk’s evacuation in May 1940 and the fall of Fran­ce. Refugees had three choices: 1. serve in the Brit­ish Army, 2. be in­terned or 3. be deported to Aust­ral­ia or Canada. Of the men on the infamous Dunera ship to Australia, 239 men had come from Kitchener.

Then Kitchener Camp was closed.

Thanks to Gerry Pearce, coordinator of the Berlin-Niederschoenhausen Project, for directing me to Kitchener Camp and for recommending Clare Ungerson’s book Four Thousand Lives (2014).