Fred Dunston: papers re Youth Aliyah

Fred Dunston (previously Fritz Deutsch), the depositor, played a key part both in Vienna, where he worked in the Youth Aliyah offices and later the <em>Palästinaamt</em> (after the former was destroyed during <em>Kristallnacht</em>), and also as youth leader or member of the <em>Elternschaft</em> in the Youth Aliyah centres of Great Engeham Farm, Kent, Braunton and Bydown, Devon.<br><br>Youth Aliyah or Aliyat Hanoar, as it was known in Hebrew, was created by Recha Freier, wife of a Berlin Rabbi, in 1932. Combining productive agricultural training with educational and Zionist values it gave many young Jewish children a purpose and occupation during the period of mass unemployment, the result of the breakdown of the German economy.<br><br>Circumstances in late 1938 Europe meant that it became imperative to send Jewish children abroad. <em>Auslandhascharah</em> was the overseas version of Youth Aliyah where children and young people were trained with a view to eventually emigrating to Palestine. England was added to the list of countries and the London office soon became the busiest, reflecting the popularity of Great Britain as a destination.<br><br>Funding of the centres came from the British Council of the Young Pioneer Movement for Palestine (Hachsharath Hanoar), whose executive committee comprised Mrs Israel M. Sieff, Mrs Norman Laski, Mr M. Schattner and Mrs Lola Hahn-Warburg.<br><br>Great Engeham Farm, Kent, was received as a gift as a result of an advertisement in the London Times. It opened in June 1939 and a total of 134 children and 30 chalutzim lived there rent free. It served primarily as a transit camp for between 300 and 350 children aged 13-16.<br><br>Bydown, Devon, was founded by a group from Great Engeham Farm who were forced to move there in November 1939 when Kent was designated off-limits to aliens. Its headmaster was Dr. Fridolin M. Friedmann, a former headmaster of the Landschulheim of Caputh, near Berlin. It closed at the beginning of October 1941 when the lease ran out.<br><br>The agricultural training centre at Braunton, Devon, was a collaborative project between Youth Aliyah, Hechaluz and the British Council of the Young Pioneer Movement for Palestine. The accommodation housed 30 people who engaged in farm work. The centre existed between March and December 1940.<br><br>The depositor seems to think that the papers relating to Great Engeham Farm were presented to him at a good bye party at the end of November 1939. He does not remember how he acquired the papers relating to Bydown. The papers relating to Braunton were received whilst in his capacity of <em>Madrich</em> (youth leader).<br><br> These papers document the experiences of the children, young people and youth leaders who were involved with the Youth Aliyah movement first in Austria then Great Britain, 1939-1941. They represent a unique insight into the problems faced by the youth leaders and the children in camps in Kent and Devon. Much of the material includes English translations from the original German by Fred Dunston along with explanatory notes.<br><br>Document Collection 1301 comprises transcriptions and copies of the Braunton material. Open