Collection of letters relating to the immigration of Rolf von Leyden.
Object numberM2020/039:004
TitleCollection of letters relating to the immigration of Rolf von Leyden.
DescriptionFour letters concerning the immigration of musician Rolf von Leyden, through the Quakers’ German Emergency Fellowship Committee (GEFC), 1938-1939. Rolf von Leyden, born in Munich, was a cellist in a string quartet and orchestra, a composer and a music teacher instructing in cello and violin. In 1933 he had a “Berufsverbot,” an order of “professional disqualification” on account of his Jewish heritage, which prevented him from earning an income. In fact, Rolf was ‘mischlinge’ – a Christian with Jewish ancestry – for his mother was a Dutch evangelical. He was able to live on his mother’s income until 1938. Rolf managed to escape Germany to Switzerland in February 1939, learning afterward that the Gestapo were looking for him in the boarding house where he had been living. Unable to get a permanent Visa to emigrate, Rolf was forced to stay on the move around Europe.
A relative in Melbourne, Molly Leeper, appealed to Quaker Camilla Wedgewood for assistance in securing a permit for Rolf. Camilla Wedgwood was the President and Chairperson of the German Emergency Fellowship Committee (GEFC) in Sydney. Molly wrote in April 1939 that without a permit Rolf would be forced to return to Germany where he would be interned in a concentration camp. Camilla soon replied that “The refugee problem is far too huge for any voluntary or private organisation to be able to tackle it… The attitude and state of confusion in Canberra does not make things easier… Unfortunately, there is practically no hope at all for foreign musicians in this country…” In the same letter, Camilla noted “I am afraid you will think me hard, but to do work like this, one has to develop the hide of a rhinoceros.”
Other documents relating to Rolf von Leyden includes correspondence between Camilla Wedgewood and Jessica Stewart from Trinity College in Cambridge, England. Camilla wrote to Ms Stewart that “Two of the strongest trades’ unions in this country seem to be the Medical Association and the Musicians’ Union, and both are taking a very hostile and dog-in-the-mangerish attitude towards refugee and other foreign migrants… I am sorry to be unhelpful in this case, but bitter experience has taught me how difficult it is to extract from Canberra permits…”
Rolf survived the war in Switzerland, but never made it to Australia.
Part of a collection of 442 documents from the archives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), which relate to victims of persecution desperate to escape Nazi Germany and Austria. As early as 1933 the Nazis began implementing discriminatory laws intended to vilify and exclude those deemed “racially undesirable”, rounding up political dissidents and incarcerating them in camps, dismissing officials in civil service and positions in the universities, forcing the Aryanization of Jewish businesses, forbidding Jews from practicing in their professions, and so on. The ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom in November 1938 was the turning point resulting in mass emigration. Yet increasingly, nations, including Australia, limited quotas for Jewish refugees. In 1938, the German Emergency Fellowship Committee of the Quakers was established in Sydney. The letters, applications and articles through this committee speak to the urgent appeals flooding into benevolent organisations like the Quakers from ‘non-Aryans,’ including Jews, conscientious objectors, opponents of Nazi ideology and other ‘undesirables’. One letter from January 1939 mentions 70,000 applications for immigration to Australia at the Department of the Interior. The letters in this collection give voice to some of the individuals that made up that number; many of whom were never able to escape Europe.
A relative in Melbourne, Molly Leeper, appealed to Quaker Camilla Wedgewood for assistance in securing a permit for Rolf. Camilla Wedgwood was the President and Chairperson of the German Emergency Fellowship Committee (GEFC) in Sydney. Molly wrote in April 1939 that without a permit Rolf would be forced to return to Germany where he would be interned in a concentration camp. Camilla soon replied that “The refugee problem is far too huge for any voluntary or private organisation to be able to tackle it… The attitude and state of confusion in Canberra does not make things easier… Unfortunately, there is practically no hope at all for foreign musicians in this country…” In the same letter, Camilla noted “I am afraid you will think me hard, but to do work like this, one has to develop the hide of a rhinoceros.”
Other documents relating to Rolf von Leyden includes correspondence between Camilla Wedgewood and Jessica Stewart from Trinity College in Cambridge, England. Camilla wrote to Ms Stewart that “Two of the strongest trades’ unions in this country seem to be the Medical Association and the Musicians’ Union, and both are taking a very hostile and dog-in-the-mangerish attitude towards refugee and other foreign migrants… I am sorry to be unhelpful in this case, but bitter experience has taught me how difficult it is to extract from Canberra permits…”
Rolf survived the war in Switzerland, but never made it to Australia.
Part of a collection of 442 documents from the archives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), which relate to victims of persecution desperate to escape Nazi Germany and Austria. As early as 1933 the Nazis began implementing discriminatory laws intended to vilify and exclude those deemed “racially undesirable”, rounding up political dissidents and incarcerating them in camps, dismissing officials in civil service and positions in the universities, forcing the Aryanization of Jewish businesses, forbidding Jews from practicing in their professions, and so on. The ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom in November 1938 was the turning point resulting in mass emigration. Yet increasingly, nations, including Australia, limited quotas for Jewish refugees. In 1938, the German Emergency Fellowship Committee of the Quakers was established in Sydney. The letters, applications and articles through this committee speak to the urgent appeals flooding into benevolent organisations like the Quakers from ‘non-Aryans,’ including Jews, conscientious objectors, opponents of Nazi ideology and other ‘undesirables’. One letter from January 1939 mentions 70,000 applications for immigration to Australia at the Department of the Interior. The letters in this collection give voice to some of the individuals that made up that number; many of whom were never able to escape Europe.
Production date 1938 - 1939
Production periodpre-World War II
Subjectimmigration, escape attempts, escape pre-war, Australian link to Holocaust, mischlinge, musicians
Object nameofficial correspondence
Materialpaper
Language
- English
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, donated by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)