This attention gripping title attracted a good attendance at the Stewartry U3A October meeting. Our speaker Peter Banks outlined the impact of the 1930’s refugees from Germany on his own life, and on the United Kingdom.
Peter read at Worcester College, Oxford, then headed by Prof Sirs Hans Krebs and was tutored by Prof Hans Kornburg, two eminent chemists and pharmacologists, who had to flee Germany in the 1930s. Hans Kornburg came to Britain as an unaccompanied 11 year old, unable to speak English and never to see his parents again; having parallels with current child refugees in Calais. As a trainee lab assistant his ability was spotted by Prof Krebs who encouraged him to read Chemistry at Sheffield University. Hans Kornburg subsequently had a glittering career, ultimately Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge and being knighted for services to science. Peter describes the three years that Hans Kornburg tutored him as a gift.
Hans Krebs had begun his career in Germany before he was dismissed by the Nazis. He came to Britain in 1933 under the auspices of colleagues at Cambridge and built an academic career which lead to a Nobel Prize in 1953 and a knighthood. He made a significant contribution to the war effort through his work at the Sorby Research Institute where he evaluated the nutritional value of the national loaf, the impacts of vitamin deficiencies and water deprivation. These studies were only possible with the volunteer conscientious objectors who underwent deprivations in the interest of science and for the war effort. Hans Krebs son, John, Baron Krebs is a prominent zoologist, and has chaired the Food Standards Agency.
Peter’s third gift was Prof Hugh Blaschko, whose family were at the heart of Germany’s establishment giving him access to many eminent people in the fields of science, publishing and arts; a background which was vibrant, liberal and international. His research in pharmacology was curtailed by the Nazis, but he was able to come to Britain and again had an illustrious career to Britain’s benefit.
Prof Blaschko was one of many scientists who were able to come because of the Academic Assistance Council which was formed in 1933 following the German law causing the dismissal of around 25% of academics as “undesirable people”. Leo Szilard and Lord Beveridge were the main initiators, but university Vice Chancellors and Nobel prize winners contributed. AV Hill, the Vice President gave grants to scholars who could find a host institution. Of these refugees 16 went on to win a Nobel prize, 18 were knighted and 74 became Fellows of the Royal Academy.
In other fields famous refugees include Ernst Gombrich, Nikolas Pevsner, Andre Deutsch, George Solti and Ludwig Gultman who founded the Paralympic Games in England.
On the outbreak of war 27,000 Germans were interred in the Hutchinson Internment Camp on the Isle of Man. Most of them were refugees who wanted to help the Allied war effort. The Refugee Council set up committees to prepare dossiers on 560 refugees who were receiving financial support from the Academic Assistance Council and secured their release, though this took up to a year.
The stories of these refugees, and the contributions they have made to British society as well as to science, provide a strong case for offering a home to asylum seekers to our mutual benefit.
The next meeting of the Stewartry U3A is the AGM which will be held on Tuesday 22 November in the Parish Church, Castle Douglas after which David Collin will give a talk on Life and Death on Little Ross Island. The AGM starts at 2.00pm but the Church will be open from 1.15pm for member registration.