| CAST | Czech And Slovak Things | http://www.geocities.ws/czechandslovakthings/ |
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!! 1. Introduction
The British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (BCRC), formed in October 1938, and the resulting Czech Refugee Trust Fund (CRTF), formed in July 1939, were the main organisations dealing with the thousands of Czechoslovaks who came to Britain as a result of events in their homeland before, during and after World War Two. Part of the text of an internal CRTF document from the 1950s provides a summary of the organisation's origins and activities, giving a general overview before dealing with specific areas in more detail. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TEXT ON THE ORIGINS OF THE CRTF
2. Offices and Staff Lists (Britain) After forming during October 1938 the BCRC had an office address in the house of Mr J.M. Keynes at 46 Gordon Square, London WC1. This was to be a very temporary arrangement until the Committee moved into 2 rooms at 5 Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1, on November 2nd. This building would also house the offices of the Co-ordinating Committee for Refugees and its 'sub-committees' (of which the BCRC was one of about a dozen), along with the offices of the Inter-Aid Committee of the Save the Children Fund. By 21st December 1938 the BCRC occupied 5 rooms there (690 square feet), with 9 full time paid workers and 11 full time voluntary workers. There were also 1 paid and 2 voluntary workers carrying out the majority of the work for the Czech Domestic Bureau. Extra volunteer workers coming in after 5pm and the honorary officers also had to be accommodated. At this time the BCRC requested an additional 5 rooms (700 square feet). During December it was proposed that the Palace Hotel in Bloomsbury Street W1 be leased to house all the refugee committees under one roof. By the end of the month an offer had been made to the owners of L5,000 for a total of 37,000 square feet, with 3,000 to 5,000 square feet provisionally allocated for the BCRC. Members of the BCRC had made a site visit and it was agreed that 3,000 square feet plus a ground floor reception room would be adequate. It was thought that the premises would be ready by 15th January 1939. On the 9th January it was still anticipated that the building would be ready for occupation in approximately 10 days, at which point the BCRC and other committees would move in. However, at the January 26th meeting of the Finance Committee the Honorary Secretary reported that the offer of 2 rooms for the BCRC at the Palace Hotel had been withdrawn. It was also reported at this meeting that the staff had grown to 17 paid employees, plus 29 volunteer workers, an executive officer and honorary officers, all of whom required office space. The section of the committee minutes relating to this, listing the paid members of staff and their weekly wage, can be seen by clicking on the link below. BCRC Paid Staff List -
Mecklenburgh Square 26/1/39 : One Page (59KB) When the same committee met on 1st February it was decided that the BCRC might have to stay at 5 Mecklenburgh Square. This was due to the fact that it could not have the amount of space it required where all the refugee organisations were now to be centralised. This was recorded as "Bloomsbury House, Bloomsbury Square", although later correspondence indicates that the address was "Bloomsbury House, Bloomsbury Street" (presumably a renamed Palace Hotel). At 5 Mecklenburgh Square the BCRC would have 14 small rooms, 2 larger rooms, and a large waiting room, instead of 8 small rooms and a waiting room at Bloomsbury House. Although the space available was greater, it was suggested that remaining at Mecklenburgh Square was a 'grave misfortune', as the BCRC would probably get less consideration from the Co-ordinating Committee for Refugees if it was separated from it and all the other committees collected together in Bloomsbury House. On March 27th the Honorary Treasurer reported that due to the increase in the amount of work, more office accommodation (5 rooms) had been taken at 10 Mecklenburgh Square. Despite this, shortage of space continued to be a major problem and solutions were desperately sought. At the meeting of the Finance Committee on 17th April it was reported that potential new offices had been found at 143-144 Park Lane which were ready for almost immediate occupation. However, it was agreed that the Honorary Secretary should discuss the situation and the question of rent with the Treasury before any further action was taken. No more is heard of this plan, perhaps because a joint meeting of the Executive and Finance Committees on 27th April decided that nothing could be done with regard to new premises until the reorganisation of the Committee was complete. At the meeting of the General Council on 15th May the Chairman reported that the Home Office and Treasury would not allow the Committee to take offices at Colquhoun House in Broadwick Street, London W1. Three large houses in Westbourne Terrace had been inspected and might be suitable for offices, and it was agreed to follow up on this scheme provided it was sanctioned by the Home Office. Next came the news at the joint meeting of the Executive and Finance Committees on 24th May that the Home Office had now approved of the Committee taking offices in Colquhoun House, and the necessary steps were being taken for arranging the move as soon as possible. However, at the Executive Committee meeting on June 21st the Chairman stated that owing to delays in negotiations with the London County Council, the move into the property was being unavoidably held up. It was agreed that a letter should be written to the Chairman of the London County Council asking for an early decision about Colquhoun House and pointing out that exceedingly important work was being hindered due to the current lack of space. On July 23rd 1939 the BCRC officially became the CRTF and in early August the offices were finally moved to Colquhoun House. A staff list dated August 23rd shows the full extent of this combined headquarters and London administrative office before the next relocation. There are 236 employees shown, a large number of which seem to be drawn from the refugees themselves, plus 22 refugee group leaders and deputy leaders, most of whom were not employed by the CRTF. View this staff list by clicking on the links below.
Although Colquhoun House had only been occupied for a few weeks, the outbreak of war in early September meant that as much of the organisation as possible had to be moved out of the capital city. An administrative office remained in London at Bloomsbury House, which also housed the Refugee Joint Consultation Committee (renamed from the Co-Ordinating Committee for Refugees and incorporated into the Central Office for Refugees). The CRTF headquarters were moved to Redbourn House, Redbourn, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire. This had been in the process of conversion to be a CRTF agricultural training centre, so only provided improvised temporary office space for a few weeks. In early October 1939 the headquarters were moved again to New Lodge, Windsor Forest, Windsor, Berkshire. A staff list for the New Lodge headquarters (115 persons) dated 14th December 1940 can be viewed by clicking on the links below.
The headquarters remained at New Lodge for the rest of the war. Correspondence indicates the use of other addresses for administrative purposes as well. These include 114 Richmond Hill, Richmond, Surrey, and 18 Selwyn House, Manor Fields, Putney, London SW15.
Before the start of the war in September 1939 it was thought that the refugees would re-emigrate to other countries after the completion of the required paperwork, certainly within a few months. On this basis properties were obtained on short leases and converted where necessary to act as temporary hostels. Many of them were operated with the help of local refugee committees. Some became more permanent when it was understood that the war would prevent the expected re-emigration. At some point I will write a full account of the hostels and the BCRC/CRTF policies concerning them, but for the moment all I have available is an incomplete list with a few basic details. There are also photographs from 5 of them. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIST OF HOSTELS
Although there were many transports organised by the BCRC to evacuate refugees, along with many refugees who made there own to Britain, I have so far found very few of the lists which showed which persons were on which transports. Many of them were active in political resistance to the rise of German influance in Czechoslovakia, and it was on this basis that they were selected. These included members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSÈ), and 2 lists of party members evacuated have survived.
4.(a) List of 25 communist VIPs This list contains the details of 25 leading communists from the Sudeten areas intended to be evacuated to Britain. It includes senators, deputies and former deputies, party secretaries, journalists and others. The list is undated and has no heading, although the note "age - occup." (for occupation) has been added at the top as a query, and the initials "N.P.Sd G" to indicate the party name. I have found corresponding entries for all but 3 of the 25 in the Case Index List later complied by the CRTF, between Cases 401 and 423 on pages 24 and 25 of Main List 1. List of 25 communist VIPs : One Page (94KB) CRTF Case Index : Main List 1 Page 24 (133KB) and Page 25 (111KB)
4.(b) List of 75 other communists This list contains the details of 75 others and is headed "England - Transport am 25 Jänner 1939". There are corresponding entries for all but 6 of the 75 in the Case Index List later compiled by the CRTF, mostly between Cases 613 and 689 on pages 39 to 42 of Main List 1. The list can be divided into two sections (1 to 52 and 53 to 75), each sorted alphabetically.
X. BCRC and CRTF documents at the Public Record Office The Public Records Office (PRO) has an excellent web site at www.pro.gov.uk which gives full information about the institution, the archives, and how to access them. There is also a searchable online catalogue, PROCAT, which allows you to find relevant items from 9 million 'pieces' catalogued using various criteria. Within the Home Office (HO) section at the PRO there is a whole 'series' (HO 294) composed of documents concerning the BCRC and the CRTF. There are a total of 638 'pieces', each of which may be anything from a file containing a few sheets of paper to a 10cm thick file or ledger stored in a box. They include minutes from committee meetings; internal documents; correspondence and documents relating to individual refugee cases. The 'series' is named slightly incorrectly 'Czechoslovak Refugee Trust', but includes items from both the BCRC and the CRTF. As the latter existed for much longer, documents from it are in the majority. You can view the catalogue entries for these using PROCAT, but I usually find it easier to use a full 'raw' listing of pieces. CLICK HERE TO VIEW FULL CATALOGUE LISTING OF 'Czechoslovak Refugee Trust' DOCUMENTS (HO 294) Bear in mind that most of these items are closed for 50 years from the date of the last document contained within them. Many relating only to the war years have already been opened for viewing. However, there are a number of files which contain documents of a later date and are therefore still closed. Opening dates for each 'piece' are included in their PROCAT entry. Please get in touch with me using the E-mail address on the Welcome page of this site if you want help or advice on visiting the PRO, how to use PROCAT, or the BCRC/CRTF documents. I have already looked at a number of them, so I may be able to answer your queries easily. I would also like to hear from you if you are interested in, or are reasearching, the same area. The sections below give details of only certain specific areas, and refer only to the pre-war refugees (sometimes called the 'old' refugees).
X.(a) Numerical Index of Refugee Cases (HO 294/612 and HO 294/613) These two files contain lists in numerical order of all the refugee cases dealt with by the BCRC/CRTF throughout their existence, both pre and post-war. The 3 lists for pre-war refugees give full name, year of birth (or precise date for children), their fate (emigration, naturalisation, return etc.) and the date of it. Notes show any service with the armed forces or other occasional details. There are also regular markings against the names (short diagonal lines, on top of each other to form crosses), the meaning of which I do not know.
X.(b)
Complete Case Files (HO 294/235 to HO 294/385) These are specimen case files with all registration cards and additional documentation. Unfortunately they represent only 2% of the original total number of case files (151 from about 7,261). The case numbers are not included in the PROCAT catalogue 'piece' descriptions (which consist only of the surname of the persons involved), but a 'former reference' field does have this information and it is included in the lists below. There seems to have been little logic involved in deciding which specific files were to be preserved in their entirety, rather than having only the registration cards saved in the files described in section 3.(c) below. However, they do come from throughout the sequence with selections from the start of each case number 'block' of 500. The first files in this section were opened in 1991, the 58 files still not open becoming available over the next 20 years.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW SUMMARY OPENING SCHEDULE OF COMPLETE CASE FILES
X.(c) Registration Card
Files (HO 294/487 to HO 294/591) These contain the BCRC/CRTF registration cards (slightly larger than A4 size) with full personal details for each refugee. They were completed after an interview which usually took place anything between a few days to a few weeks after the reugee's arrival in the UK. Also included are secondary cards with information about the location and activities of the person, with occasionally one or two other items (such as copies of the affidavits issued by the CRTF). Any other items from the original case files seem to have been stripped out when the cards were removed and put into batches to form these files. The catalogue index entry for each file contains a date for the latest document it contains, so it is possible to know when they will be opened (after 50 years closure). Unfortunately, the description field is not available for those files that are still closed, so it is NOT possible to know exactly which file contains a specific case number or when the documents relating to that case will be released. It is only possible to estimate which file a specific case is in from the case numbers contained in the open files closest to it in the sequence. The first 7 files in this section were opened in 2001, with another 5 in January 2002. The remainder will be available gradually over the next 30 years. The following list shows which case numbers are included in the files that have already been opened. CLICK HERE TO VIEW LIST OF REGISTRATION CARD FILES ALREADY OPEN CLICK HERE TO VIEW SUMMARY OPENING SCHEDULE OF REGISTRATION CARD FILES
X.(d) Database of Registered Individuals and Associated Persons A new and long-term ongoing project is the creation of a database of information concerning those registered with the BCRC/CRTF. The first phase of data entry, about half the information contained for each entry in the Numerical Index lists (see section X.(a) above), is now complete. The current situation allows immediate results on searching for specified names (or parts of names) and correlation with the relevant case number. Further brief details concerning the individual shown on the Numerical Index lists can then be found, and the reference for any other items relating to that person held at the PRO, such as the file containing the main registration card (see section X.(c) above) or perhaps even a complete case file (see section X.(b) above), identified. The first result of the database is an alphabetical list of the names (with year of birth) included.in the original lists. Although there are approximately 14,000 entires in the database, just over 600 are 'empty' or 'redundant', containing cross-references to other case numbers that the person involved has been transferred to. There are also a very few duplicate entries. These have therefore not been included, leaving a total of about 13,400 names in the list. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE COMPLETE ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PERSONS Please note that the file containing this list is approximately 430KB in size and may take a minute or two to download on a standard telephone dial-up connection. Also, please read the notes at the top of the page before use. IF YOU PREFER TO SEE THE LIST ON SMALLER
PAGES PLEASE CLICK BELOW
X.(e) Analysis of the Case Index list and Registration Cards Files The information contained in the material at the National Archives can be studied to produce an analysis of the persons registered and those associated with them. CLICK HERE TO VIEW CHARTS AND MORE ON ANALYSIS
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