The British Broadcasting Corporation has broadcast a special “dispatch from the front” describing a company of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps composed of German and Austrian refugees which a B.B.C. reporter visited.
The reporter said that members of the corps were almost without exception men of culture, medical students, doctors of philosophy, men of science, several of whom had fought for the German and the Austrians in the last war.
Some, the dispatch said, had the Iron Cross. Today they are the British Army, “all doing hard work without complaint.” The refugee pioneers work under British officers, several of whom are German scholars. The non-commissioned officers have been carefully selected for their tactfulness and ability to handle all types of men.
The result, the reporter said, is “efficient work and cooperation.” Some of the men still have families in Germany but, although they have had no word from them, they do not allow their personal sorrows to dominate their lives.
The reporter said the pioneers had organized their own small orchestra and nightly concerts. One of these was recorded by the B. B. C. and rebroadcast on a special program, during which a man was heard singing “Ramona” in German.
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.
