Fighting Prejudice, Finding Refuge
Birmingham Jews and the 20th Century Holocaust
Fighting Prejudice, Finding Refuge
Studying the history of Birmingham Jewry helps us to understand how social prejudice is rooted in our irrational fears of those who have a different culture, religion, or appearance to our own. In Birmingham, racial discrimination and anti-semitism have often been present in ignorance of the fact that the city has continually profited economically and culturally through the arrival of many different people and communities, including the Jewish.
Yet in times of social tension or transition, one community will
often be blamed for the more complex changes taking place that may
be more difficult to understand. This has not only affected the
Jewish community. In the 19th century, discrimination was often
aimed at Irish Catholics who were perhaps the largest migrant groups
of workers in the area. In the 1950s and 1960s Afro-Caribbeans arrived
to face a ‘colour bar’. More recently, Asians, Muslims,
and various Eastern Europeans have all come under attack.
Historical records of attacks upon Jews in Birmingham show just
how deep rooted are the irrational fears of those upholding a different
religion. ‘Old and New Birmingham’ by R.K. Dent describes
the following event in the early nineteenth century: “ On
the night of the 22nd of March, 1813, a crowd broke into the Methodist
Chapel, in Belmont Row, broke the windows, destroyed the pulpit
Bible, and pulled down the chandelier. From this place the rabble
marched to the Jew’s synagogue, in Severn Street, and thence
to a meeting-house near Lady Well, and finally to the Baptist Chapel,
in Bond Street; in all these the windows were shattered, pews destroyed,
and the places pillaged of everything which could be carried away”
(Old and New Birmingham, p364).
Today, underlying social ignorance of other religions, races and ways of life can still pave the way for discrimination and abuse, and leave the door open for right wing extremism in Birmingham. Exploring archives and history can uncover human stories of suffering and resistance that open new perspectives, arming us against narrow minded preconceptions.
<return to top>
Birmingham Jews and the 20th Century Holocaust
If ‘slavery’ was the defining humanitarian issue of the 19th century, the defining struggle of human rights in the 20th century was the attempted ‘genocide’ of all Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazi party. In Birmingham, men like Rev Abraham Cohen of Singer’s Hill synagogue would stand in the frontline of the urgent battle against the worst imaginable form of prejudice - a Jewish holocaust.
Hitler’s attack on the Jewish would send shock waves across the globe, and have a profound effect upon Jewish communities in Birmingham. Jews living here were now faced with a life or death dilemma: how could they help their fellow Jews in the grips of Hitler’s regime? For some, one straightforward answer would be to join the British Army, even if it eventually meant making the sacrifice of their own lives.
Others, however, looked for solutions closer to home. How could Birmingham provide a refuge of escape for persecuted Jews? Where could they be accommodated? Where would they work? Would more Jews in the area rouse further suspicion, and undo the fragile sense of integration they and their father’s generation had fought to achieve? There were no simple solutions to a crisis on such a scale: individual courage and collective action were both needed.
The links on this final section present a small number of available archive materials that could be used to investigate the struggle of local Jewish people against Hitler’s persecutions. They also consider how the resulting refugee crisis affected the whole of Birmingham and how other religious communities perceived, and came to the aid, of the Jewish crisis. (Note: for links to more detailed resources on the ‘Jewish Holocaust’, please go to the Resources section).
<return to top>
Author: Dr Andrew Green
Main image: Photograph by Brigitte Winsor
|
