British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (later the Czechoslovak Refugee Trust)[1] was a voluntary organisation established in late October 1938, in the lead up to the Second World War, in response to the increase in demands for refuge abroad. Its purpose was to make arrangements and allocate funds for refugees in Czechoslovakia to travel to Britain.[2][3] It was primarily for the rescue of political refugees, particularly Communists and Social Democrats, as well as Jews and their families, many of whom had fled Nazi Germany or the regions it had annexed during 1938 (Austria, in March, and the Sudetenland, in October).[4] The committee was largely funded by public donations and appeals following the Munich Agreement and ensuing occupation of the Sudetenland.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ ""Archival material relating to Czechoslovak Refugee Trust: Records"". UK National Archives. Archived from the original on 24 November 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2024. Reference: HO 294.
  2. ^ London, Louise (2000). "6. Refugees from Czechoslovakia". Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53449-6.
  3. ^ Grossman, Nurit (2019). "The emergence of the Kindertransport in Prague: the Barbican Mission to the Jews, a unique endeavour". Jewish Historical Studies. 51: 208–220. doi:10.14324/111.444.jhs.2020v51.014. ISSN 0962-9696. JSTOR 48733609.
  4. ^ a b Buresova, Jana (1 January 2009). "The Czech Refugee Trust Fund in Britain 1939–1950". Exile in and from Czechoslovakia during the 1930s and 1940s. Brill. pp. 133–145. doi:10.1163/9789042029606_009. ISBN 978-90-420-2960-6.