Leonhard Posner Betrayed by Britain’s Enemy Aliens Policy

Part 1. The Case of Charlotte Teichgräber from Beuthen, Upper Silesia.

Part 2. Leonhard Posner – Betrayed by Britain’s Enemy Aliens Policy. That’s this post.

Related post: The Bernheim Petition.

All information in this post is based on information that is in the public domain.

Leonhard Posner – Background Information

In my previous post about Charlotte Teichgräber, I described how, in 1935, Charlotte was brutally attacked and humiliated by an antisemitic mob in the town of Beuthen, German Upper Silesia. If you have not read that post, which gives context to this post, please do so as the story continues here.

Leonhard Posner was a Jewish refugee who arrived in the UK before the outbreak of World War II.

Leonhard and Charlotte appear for the first time in Britain in the 1939 census. The census shows them residing at Tollsworth Manor Youth Hostel (now known as Tollsworth Manor House) in Chaldon, Surrey. The record also indicates that Leonhard and Charlotte were married. Source: Myheritage. Subscription required. In the Myheritage record, the name of the residence is misspelt and mistitled.

The Czech Trust Fund

The Czech Trust Fund and its predecessor, the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia (BCRC), were humanitarian organisations funded by the British Government. One of their functions was to help refugees in Czechoslovakia who had escaped from Nazi Germany travel to the UK. Once in the UK, these refugees were housed in hostels. Source: British Czech Slovak Review – Remembering the Trust. August/ September 2015. PDF document.

Tollsworth Manor Youth Hostel

I have not explicitly found evidence that the Tollsworth Manor Youth Hostel was run by one of the two above-mentioned organisations. I would say that it is highly likely it was and that Leonhard Posner and his wife had been directed by one of those organisations to stay at that hostel.

Refugees coming to the UK through the Czech Trust Fund and the BCRC had travelled from Czechoslovakia. It could be assumed that Leonhard and Charlotte had escaped Germany for Czechoslovakia (at a time when Czechoslovakia was still a safe country) and presumably married there. As mentioned in Part 1 of this story, Charlotte and Leonhard eventually left Germany, determined to marry outside the country.

Leonhard, as a Jew residing in Beuthen, Upper Silesia, would have been protected by the The German–Polish Convention on Upper Silesia until 1937. I covered this convention in Part 1 of this story and how to some degree the convention protected the Jews of German Upper Silesia.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has records for both Leonhard Posner and Charlotte Posner. Both the records state that the information is from the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia and later, the Czech Refugee Trust Fund. It is noted that in the record for Charlotte Posner, her maiden name is incorrectly spelt as Teichgraver. Source 1: Record for Leonhard Poster. Source 2: Record for Charlotte Teichgräber.

Many Jewish refugees in the UK were betrayed by Britain’s enemy aliens policy

Following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Austrian, German and Italian refugees, many of them Jewish, were deemed by the British Government to pose a risk to national security. The management of this risk resulted in the government deciding on three classifications of aliens:

• 66,000 were deemed Category C, which meant they posed the least danger and were exempt from internment or restrictions.
• 6,700 were classified as Category B and monitored by the police.
• 569 were classified as Category A and interned as enemy aliens.

The Hutchinson camp was one of many interment camps scattered throughout the UK. It is not suggested that Leonhard Posner was interned in this camp.

Significant overcrowding resulted from this sharp rise of internees. 7,500 internees were sent to Australia and Canada between 24 June and 10 July 1940, to alleviate this.

On 2 July 1940, the Arandora Star, was one of the ships headed for Canada with almost 1,000 internees and 300 crew members. The ship was torpedoed and sunk. A total of 805 persons lost their lives.

HMT Dunera Sails For Australia – The Dunera Boys

2,542 prisoners embarked on the HMT Dunera* from Liverpool on 10 July 1940, bound for Australia. Leonhard Posner was one of the prisoners aboard the HMT Dunera.

Although there were 450 German and Italian POWs and a few dozen fascist sympathisers among them, two-thirds of the deportees were Jewish and the great majority were anti-fascist. Some of the surviving Arandora Star survivors also sailed on the HMT Dunera.

The way internees were treated on the trip was appalling. Many of their items and documents were tossed overboard by the 309 ill-trained and poorly commanded soldiers on duty. Only thirty minutes a day were spent outside above decks by internees. Human waste was spread around the decks, as there were only ten toilets for over 2,500 men.

Internees suffered verbal and physical harassment and were made to walk barefoot across shattered glass after soldiers crushed beer bottles on the deck.

Because of their appalling treatment, the British government eventually decided to compensate the group with £35,000. Lieutenant-Colonel William Scott, the officer-in-charge, was among the three guards court-martialled.

*According to The Association of Jewish Refugees in their excellent YouTube webinar entitled Why were Jewish refugees deported to Australia on HMT Dunera in 1940, HMT stands for His Majesty’s Transport. Scroll to 1:15:53 in the video. Most other sources on the internet, including Wikipedia state that in the Dunera’s case, HMT stands for Hired Marine Transport.

Onward Journey to Hay Camp

The prisoners were boarded on trains to Hay, a town in central New South Wales. The majority were housed in the Hay camp. There were three compounds in total, with 1,000 people living in each. Since many of the Jewish prisoners had been forced to quit skilled occupations in Germany, Austria, and England in the years prior, the group was heavily composed of talented professionals, craftspeople, and artists.

Along with creating an unofficial university, libraries, and orchestras, the internees also published a newspaper, staged plays and concerts, and even printed their own money to be used within the camp.

Source: National Museum Australia. Dunera Boys.

Leonhard Posner Arrives at Hay Camp

The National Archives of Australia holds an online record detailing Leonhard Posner’s arrival in Australia. We learn from the record entitled Prisoner of War/Internee; Posner, Leonhard; Year of birth 1910, Dresden – Occupation: Hairdresser; Nationality: German that:

Leonhard Posner was apprehended on 16 May 1940 in Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK. He was received [in Australia] from British Guards and was interned at Hay Camp on 6 September 1940. The reason for internment is shown as Enemy Alien [Jewish Refugee]. His next of kin is listed as his wife, Charlotte Posner, with an address in Leicestershire, UK. This document contains links to a total of three records.

1. Record 1 contains the details above and more.
2. Record 2 is a request by Leonard Posner that his details are not communicated to the German Government via consular offices or via the International Red Cross.
3. Order for Detention of Enemy Alien by the Commonwealth of Australia.

Source: National Archives of Australia.

Leonhard Posner in the Australian Press

The Australian Jewish News carried an article about The Dunera Boys* dated 1 September 1989. In the article, we learn from memorabilia held at the Jewish Museum of Australia that Leonhard Posner was the camp barber at No. 8 Camp in Hay. The article includes a sketch of Leonhard working in the barbershop at Hay Camp. A telegram from Leonhard to his wife, dated 17 days after his arrival at Hay Camp is also displayed. In the telegram, Leonhard asks if the baby has been born and whether both are well. Further memorabilia is described and you can view the full article at the source link below.

Source: Australian Jewish News. Dr Helen Light. Jewish Museum of Australia. 1 September 1989. Online image at Oldnew.com. Subscription required.

Dunera Internees in Popular Culture

*In Australian captivity and following their release, the Jewish prisoners from the HMT Dunera became known as The Dunera Boys. A film of the same name was made in 1985. On the date this post was published, The Dunera Boys film was available to purchase on Amazon Prime in the UK.

Leonhard Posner – Finally Freed

The National Archives of Australia holds one more record for Leonhard. We learn from this record that:

On 6 June 1941, Leonhard, now a free man, embarked on the HMS Largo Bay for the UK. You can view the full record details at the source link below.

Source: National Archives of Australia [Record 2].

Release From Detention – A Grave Injustice Reversed

The British government changed its alien classification system again within weeks of the Dunera’s departure. Most of the Dunera internees would not have been deported following this reversal of Britain’s enemy aliens policy. The British government began to apologise for the incarceration of most of the detainees by October 1940. In 1941, the British Home Office sent Major Julian Layton to Australia to discuss the possible repatriation of the prisoners. Major Layton’s recommendation was that the internees be reclassified as “refugee aliens”, thus paving the way for their repatriation.

Source: National Museum Australia [Policy Reversal].

The Great Betrayal in The UK of Jewish Refugees Fleeing Nazi Persecution

Leonhard Posner, Charlotte Posner and the other Jewish refugees could not possibly have imagined that following their escape to Czechoslovakia and then finally to the UK, they would be so cruelly betrayed by the country they would have obviously regarded as a safe sanctuary.

Leonhard Posner died in 1992 and Charlotte Posner died in 1989. Their burial place in the UK is detailed at Myheritage.com. Subscription required.

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