Descendents of Jewish internees visited the island recently to mark a significant anniversary.

Members of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) travelled to the Isle of Man in a trip co-organised by the Association and the group Insiders/Outsiders.

The AJR is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, and is marking it by further educating the masses on the realities of events such as internment.

In May and June 1940, the British government interned almost 30,000 refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria, some 25,000 men and 4,000 women, mostly on the Isle of Man.

During their visit, members of the AJR gathered at Hutchinson Square in Douglas - the site of an internment camp during the Second World War noted as ‘the artists’ camp’ due to the thriving artistic and intellectual life of its internees.

Within weeks of the camp opening, the internees set up a camp ‘university’, and went on to launch a highbrow newspaper, as well as hosting lectures, concerts and plays.

Whilst here on the island, the visitors saw a blue plaque unveiled at the Sea Terminal by Chief Minister Alfred Cannan and an oak tree planted in Hutchinson Square by the Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer.

In a statement, the AJR said: ‘Internment was a disastrous government policy.

‘Not only did it cast the shadow of suspicion on the very community of people most impacted by Nazism, it separated families and caused additional unnecessary displacement.

‘So ill-conceived was the policy that Jewish refugees and Germans with Nazi sympathies were interned together.

‘Internment represented the lowest point in the relations between Britain and the Jewish refugees.’

The tree planted in Hutchinson Square is dedicated to ‘all those refugees who fled Nazi persecution in Europe and who spent time here on the Isle of Man’.

The AJR spokesperson went on: ‘We travelled to the Isle of Man and gathered at Hutchinson Square, the very location where the refugees were given homes and supported by people on the island, to remember this dark history but also the lives of those impacted.

‘The tree we planted on the Isle of Man honours the family of Manfred (Fred) Kalb who endured displacement and internment.

‘Fred, who was just a small child, was brought to the UK by his mother and the pair of them were interned on the Isle of Man for 18 months.’

The Association of Jewish Refugees wished to thank ‘our colleagues [in] the Isle of Man for their support with our endeavours and also to congratulate Monica Bohm-Duchen at Insiders/Outsiders and Aviva Dautch at Jewish Renaissance on conceiving, persevering and delivering this wonderful trip and for connecting many of the second generation to this compelling history’.

You can read more about the organisation’s trip to the island at: https://buff.ly/3uw8SmF