Readers highlight the lessons that must be learned from the hysteria that led to thousands of people being interned in Britain during the second world war
Simon Parkin’s long read (‘I remember the feeling of insult’: when Britain imprisoned its wartime refugees, 1 February) very appropriately reminds us of how easy it is for the popular press to stir up hysteria and hatred against immigrants and to influence government policy.
Hitler’s victory in 1933 forced thousands to flee Nazi persecution. It would have been relatively easy to separate the very few imposters from the thousands of Jews, communists and other persecuted minorities who would hardly be working for the Nazis. MI5 itself had files on many of the communists, and most of those of Jewish background could be easily identified. In my book (A Political Family – the Kuczynskis, Fascism, Espionage and the Cold War) about one German-Jewish family that escaped Hitler’s Germany, Jürgen Kuczynski explains how he was interned at Seaton camp in Devon, alongside those who were Nazis, but no distinctions were made. In fact, the Nazis were often given preferential treatment. Other less fortunate internees were shipped to Canada and had to run the gauntlet of Nazi submarines; dozens lost their lives in this way.
