Both my parents came to England from central Europe as teenagers just in time. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I grew up acutely aware of the strong feeling of gratitude felt by both of them towards the country that gave them sanctuary. Only later did I begin to realize that Britain’s record of accepting refugees in the 1930s was not quite as noble as I’d been led to believe, and that this country in turn owes an enormous debt of gratitude to those whom it did take in.
Indeed, I’ve been struck over the years by how often a passing reference is made in the press to the immense contribution to British life made by those whom Daniel Snowman has dubbed “the Hitler émigrés”.
Rarely, however, has this topic been subjected to closer and more nuanced scrutiny.
The Insiders/Outsiders Festival I initiated some two years ago, which is in on the brink of becoming a reality, provides an opportunity to do just this. At a time when the issue of immigration is so hotly debated, and both antisemitism and racism more generally are once again rearing their ugly heads, it seems a timely venture.
Not only is the cultural terrain covered by the Insiders/Outsiders Festival hugely interesting in its own right but the festival is a salutary reminder of the importance of openness and internationalism, of cultural cross-fertilisation and of the deep, long-lasting and wide-ranging contribution that refugees can – and do — make to British life.
Insiders/Outsiders is a year-long nationwide arts festival which will run from March 2019 until March 2020 celebrating refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe and their impact on British culture. Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, the festival brings together around 100 exhibitions, concerts, dance and theatre performances, film screenings, walks, lectures and literary events across the UK. Venues include not only the usual (Jewish) suspects but utterly mainstream, often high-profile ones such as Tate Britain, Trinity Laban Music & Dance Conservatoire, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Glyndebourne, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Cornwall, Manx Museum, Isle of Man, New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester and many more.
Although the primary focus of the festival is on the arts as the easiest and most effective way to reach the broadest possible audience, attention will also be paid to the extraordinary contribution made by these émigrés to other fields such as science and psychoanalysis.
It also features work by those who experienced the worst and came to the UK after 1945, and by descendants of these refugees and Holocaust survivors which explores the complex legacy of their families’ experiences.
Projects which, while not underplaying the historical specificity of the period, make explicit links between past and present, refugees then and refugees now, are also included. In addition, tribute will be paid to those mostly British-born individuals and organizations (the ever-modest Quakers, for example, feature prominently) who in the face of the British government’s reluctance, if not downright obstructiveness, went out of their way to welcome and support the traumatised incomers.
Although for obvious historical reasons, the vast majority of the refugees were Jewish (even if it took the Nazi regime to remind them of the fact), the festival also embraces those (including cultural luminaries such as painter Oskar Kokoschka, architect Walter Gropius and dancer-choreographer Rudolf Laban) who were not but in falling foul of the oppressive cultural policies of the Third Reich, in the end had to leave as well.
Others — like actor Conrad Veidt and musician Ferdinand Rauter — could have stayed but refused to betray their Jewish spouses, friends and colleagues. They, too, should not be forgotten.
The companion volume to the festival, published by Lund Humphries, will be launched at Jewish Book Week on March 6.
