JEWISH REFUGEES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 45, 23 February 1939, Page 14

JEWISH REFUGEES

H FAMOUS CAMP USED

The famous Kitchener Camp at Bichborough, Kent, where 40,000 troops H were stationed during the Great War, has been acquired by the Council for German Jewry for use as a refugee H camp, states "The Times." It will be the biggest camp of its kind in the country, and will have its own cinema, HH "parliament," and hospital. The camp will hold 3500 refugees from Germany and Austria between the ages of 18 and 35. It wiir cost £80,000 a year to maintain, and is to H'be organised and run by the Jewish Lads Brigade. Home Office sanction for the scheme has been received. Mr. Ernest Joseph, the architect, said that the camp was ideal for their purpose. A large cinema was being built and equipped. Mr. Joseph added that although only Ha few refugees would be at the camp ■ at the outset they would be arriving very shortly at the rate of about 200 a week. The men would be given intensive training in engineering, agriculture, and trades like boot repairing and tailoring. In the evenings they would learn English and Spanish. It was hoped to devise a kind of "parliamentary" system by which the refugees could have a say in their own welfare. All the men would emigrate in due course and would be no liability on the country. Other German Jewish refugees have left their camp at Lowestoft and are being accommodated in two boarding-houses at Felixstowe. In the mornings they have English lessons ■ and play football or do physical exercises, and in the afternoons they enjoy table tennis, billiards, and other games in the Congregational Church Hall. The young men are being sent to farming establishments and will, after training, emigrate to the colonies.