Seventy-five children and ten instructors who have left their homes in Germany are established in Otterden, Kent, where they are carrying on the life and civilization of the land from which they were exiled by persecution.
They are pupils and teachers from a Jewish school at Herrlingin, Wurtemburg, and are housed in a country mansion which they have rented almost within sight of the Canterbury Cathedral. The lease is for seven years.
Many of the youngsters will not see their parents again for many years. Most of the parents have been scattered far and wide in the new Jewish exodus.
On account of the circumstances surrounding their exile, the names and identity of the children and their teachers must remain anonymous. The headmistress who betrays her nationality only by an occasional unusual idiom in her language, has completely discarded her German name, and is known as Fraulein.
The subject of Germany and German affairs is forever banned in this little school. A half hour’s conversation with the fraulein almost convinces one that she has never even heard of Adolf Hitler.
A representative of the press interviewed her recently. He was taken for being a Nazi spy. He knocked at the door of the school-house repeatedly, and an answer was slow in coming.
In the interview, Fraulein said:
“It would not be wise for me to say anything about Germany or German politics,” she insisted. “Our school here is a great experiment. Similar schools have been established for German Jewish refugees in France, Holland and Switzerland. When we were considering where we might go, I insisted on England.
“The children’s parents, scattered though they are, send us contributions. We have friends in Germany who aid us. We are entirely self-supporting.
“The Board of Education and the Kent Education Authority are watching us with interest, but we receive no grant from them and have asked for none.
“Six teachers came over with me from Germany, and we have taken on three English teachers. I need three more and we have a considerable number of applications.
“The education we give here will take the students to the stage where they are ready for the University, and in addition they will be taught craftsmanship and agriculture.
“It is going to be terribly hard work. We all have to be Spartans. Already the children are making furniture and working in the garden so that we can grow as much food as possible.
“Our day starts before seven A.M. with gymnastics and open air exercise in the fields. All the housework is shared by staff and pupils, for we have no servants, and before school starts at 8:30, the boys and girls have to make their own beds, clean their own rooms, etc. After school is over they go out into the woods to collect fuel. We have to be very economical, you see.”
Asked what the children will do when they have completed their education and become adults, Fraulein said that they will have to decide for themselves. Some will probably join their parents in Palestine, she said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
