I am so grateful to whoever recommended this book in comments a few months ago because, to give it its full title From East End to Land's End - The Evacuation of the Jews' Free School, London to Mousehole, Cornwall During World War Two by Susan Soyinka was a hugely enjoyable read with a wealth of evocative illustrations.
My copy, which arrived from You Know Where, happens to have been signed by the author with a dedication that reads
'I hope you enjoy reading this forgotten piece of Jewish history.'
and I'll say it again, I most certainly did.
In September 1939 650 children from the school were evacuated to Ely near Cambridge, followed in June 1940 by a further 100 children to Mousehole in Cornwall.
A brief history of the geography Mousehole, difficult to access by land but easy by sea, is followed by some social history and all fascinating given that I knew little of it despite the fact that the village is only eighty miles from us here. For example I had no idea that a Spanish raid in 1595 had landed 400 men and burned the entire village to the ground destroying both the church and its records before moving on to raid nearby Newlyn and Penzance. The invaders only fled when they heard that Francis Drake's fleet had mobilised in Plymouth...Drake a son of Tavistock with a statue and blue plaques here to show for it.
Smuggling ( who can blame them) and fishing for mackerel and pilchards into the 1920s, the rise of tourism with the advent of the railways, all offer a sense of place and the fact that here was a safe and exciting place to be as a child. A small God-fearing community with its freedoms and disciplines as well as its divisions and fears is about to welcome one hundred children of a very different creed and from a very different place...
Follow the road to the foot of Cornwall, to its end, and you are at Mousehole (pronounced Mowzel)
What could possibly go wrong...
Well everything I (wrongly) suspected because in my mind is building this idea of a hundred Jewish children heading to Cornwall in 1940...
What sort of a reception will they get...
Had prejudice travelled this far, to a remote and inaccessible Cornish fishing village...
A recent reading of The Many by Wyl Menmuir carefully delineates the animosity that a small, closed community can feel towards outsiders.
There are excellent first-hand accounts of the journey, the arrival in nearby Penzance, the choosing of children, the billeting of the 'unchosen' and a heady mixture of bewilderment and excitement among the children for whom, for many, it was their first sight of the sea.
It would seem the welcome was Cornish and huge. The number of village children doubled overnight with the evacuees being given 'homes' not 'billets' and the streets soon rang with a mixture of Cornish and Cockney accents. There was plenty of food and fresh air and the novelty of helping mend the fishing nets or hopping on the vegetable van as it made its rounds, swimming in the sea, messing about in boats, exploring the countryside with the freedom to play outside unsupervised. By all accounts (and Susan Soyinka has done a wonderful job of recording these before they were lost) life was idyllic making it easy to forget there was a war.
Given events in Europe it was felt important that the childrens' faith and identity were kept alive and to this end a synagogue was established in the church hall, though many children also attended Methodist services with their foster families. Whilst the wider world witnessed anti-semitism at every turn, Mousehole knew none of it and when it was time for the children to leave their was huge sadness. Many families wanted to adopt the children, some kept in touch for years afterwards and for the children returning to London the readjustment was difficult...
'I left my heart in Mousehole, that's all there is to it.' said Frances Pomm (nee Fromovitch).
The book also excelled for me on its history of the Jewish people in the UK.
An invitation and welcome from William the Conqueror in 1070 followed by peace, persecution, massacres, prejudice, rejection, eviction, more arrivals and finally I understand the origins of Sephardim (Mediterranean arriving via Spain, Portugal and Amsterdam) and Ashkenazim ( Central and Eastern European).
Honestly, I really should have known all this but I didn't, so I was lapping up all the historical information the book provided.
By 1800 there are 10,000 Jewish people and four synagogues in the East End of London, charities are established along with a vast network of support both social, philanthropic and cultural. Food, free dispensaries, orphanages and hospitals are made available for the immigrants, with schools established to counter attempts at conversion. It was a fine balance between integration and acceptance versus a retention of a unique religious identity. The Rothschild family supported the growth of the Jewish Free School for which there was a huge demand for places. I was fascinated by all this, not least by the arrival of 150,000 more disheveled and destitute immigrants following the assassination of Tsar Alexander in 1881 and an increase in persecution. This in itself threatened to de-stabilise an established East End community that had fought hard for acceptance.
There is no question that for all its confusion and long term problems the wartime evacuation scheme did save lives and that aspect was a success. It's hard to imagine 3.5 million people being moved around the country nowadays, but Susan Soyinka recognises that the scheme also failed to consider the human impact or to thoroughly supervise the actual care, and of course horror stories abound elsewhere. Which all makes the happy outcomes for this little cohort of Jewish children even more remarkable; despite their differences their were more similarities between the communities than were immediately apparent but which allowed them to blend seamlessly and which Susan Soyinka analyses towards the end of the book...
Both enjoyed a closely entwined religious and family life...
Both set high value on the care of children and the elderly..
Both had an established rhythm to each day, week and season based on religious observance..
Both had a recognition of the preciousness and precariousness of life...
Both shared a sense of humour...
Both displayed resilience...
Kindred spirits one and all and their time together never forgotten...
(And if you want to read more about the book and the people I have found an excellent website here.)
If you have read From East End to Lands End please do add any further thoughts in comments, I'm sure there are chunks I have missed out, and I would definitely welcome further reading suggestions about interesting books that offer more on the history of the Jewish people.
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