The Kitchener Transmigration Camp at Richborough

In January 1939 the Anglo-Jewish Council for German Jewry leased a derelict World War I army camp at Richborough, Kent, to house Jewish men who had been arrested in Germany during the "Kristallnacht" pogrom and were then freed to leave the country. Within a month, 100 German refugees arrived and helped to reconstruct the camp. Gradually, the camp could absorb 3,500 Central European refugees. The men spent five hours a day working and two hours studying English. There was a plethora of cultural activities. In August 1939 frantic efforts were made to enlarge the capacity of the camp and to prepare for war. Many of the men volunteered to serve in the British armed forces and were accepted into so-called “alien companies". The first 1,500 such men landed in France in early 1940. In May 1940 the Kitchener camp was evacuated and the civilian inhabitants were transferred to the Isle of Man. An estimated 15,000 individuals were saved by the Kitchener camp.