The 3,000 “enemy aliens,” most of them Jews, who were rounded up in British coasting coastal districts on Sunday as a precaution against possible “fifth column” activities, have been turned over to the military authorities pending transportation to special camps, it was learned today.
The Isle of Man has been selected as the internment center, newspapers reported. The internees will be guarded by members of the Home Defense Corps. They will be separated from those previously interned under the defense regulations on suspicion of Nazi sympathies.
Immediate internment of all German and Austrian aliens on the west coast was demanded by Roland Robinson, Member of Parliament, who stated: “I can’t understand why the east coast roundup of Germans and Austrians last Sunday is not applied by the Government also to the west coast.”
Among the Germans detained in Sunday’s roundup are a number of prominent anti-Nazis, including Willi Folsner, former Berlin pastor who was recently ordained as a Church of England curate; Pastor Hildebrandt, a friend of Pastor Martin Niemoeller, German opposition Protestant; Dr. Daube, a Cambridge lecturer; Dr. Hersch, a fellow of Trinity College, and Dr. Meyer, a lecturer for the Workers’ Educational Association.
A number of “holiday workers” from London were also arrested in Brighton when they asked the police if they were allowed to return to London. The press pointed out that those who returned to London without inquiring of the police had escaped arrest.
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