The Exile Archive was established at the Institute of Germanic Studies (w.e.f. 1 August 2004: the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies) in the academic year 1996-97. The Institute already held the papers of several individuals such as  Rudolf Majut, Herbert Thoma and  Berthold Auerbach, who were exiled from Germany and Austria during the 1930s as a result of persecution under the National Socialist regime. However, since the setting up of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, the Institute has attracted further significant donations and bequests, among the most important being the papers of the Anglo-Austrian Society and the archive of Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller.

As part of the Institute's acquisitions policy, it is intended to expand this new Collection, and anyone who has interesting material which he/she would like preserved in this way is invited to contact the Librarian, Dr Martin Liebscher at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, GB-London WC1E 7HU (tel: 020 7862 8969).

The Archive will not confine its interest to Nazi refugees however, but will also expand to provide a historical perspective of German migration to the United Kingdom generally, and London in particular. This historical perspective will focus on the emigrant communities which settled from the eighteenth century onwards.

The Papers

The material being collected at present comprises a variety of formats: correspondence, birth, marriage and death certificates, naturalisation papers, compensation forms, photographs and personal accounts of the experiences of exile life. Heartbreaking stories emerge of the deprivation and loss of loved ones, a happy way of life and sometimes personal professional status. Very often, highly-qualified men and women were obliged to accept menial work in order to survive. Some were fortunate in recovering their professional status and occupations at a later date after the War had ended.

Archival Arrangement

The arrangement of the papers is simple: a division has been made between individuals (arranged alphabetically by surname) and organisational activity (arranged alphabetically by the name of the organisation).