Enemy aliens

Jill Allum brings a little known story to light

How often do you have the chance of ridding someone you know of a demon that has bound her family for 100 years? My Friday Meeting friend, sometime in 2015, began telling me of her German grandfather, Rudolf, who had been interned as an enemy alien in Alexandra Palace, alongside 3,000 others, from 1914 to 1919.

The story gripped me. It was such a heartfelt plea. She was putting her trust in me. The stigma the family have carried is impossible to imagine. ‘I must be anonymous,’ she said. ‘But I must tell my story for the sake of my grandchildren.’ So, with tears and heartache, she began and I listened and made notes. I knew we had the stuff of another play reading. Beccles Meeting’s first play-reading was at the Area Meeting celebration at Goat Lane, Norwich, in October 2014. I had written about ‘Dr George Fox arriving in Beccles, starting the Adult School, building Quaker Hall and joining the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) in 1914’. We performed twice in Beccles.

This time my research took me, and my husband Phil, to Friends House Library – to spend days reading reports, minutes and invoices of the Friends Emergency Committee, who went into Alexandra Palace.

The Emergency Committee took tools and materials so that the men could make things to sell and relieve their boredom. Melissa Atkinson, at the Friends House Library, sent a photograph of a little silver dachshund and a licence for me to show it. In my friend’s house, I held the darning mushroom and nursing chair that Rudolf had made.

With fear and trepidation, I stood before an audience of forty, ready to start the first performance of ‘Enemy Aliens in world war one’. My friend crept in and sat at the back. Had I done justice to her story and not betrayed her trust? It was all I could have hoped, as the six Friends spoke the words of the characters. I could hear sobs from the audience. My friend said she was crying but her eyes were shining as she thanked me.

Here are some extracts from the play reading. They convey the experience of those involved at the time. A narrator provided the ‘narrative spine’ of the story.

SCENE ONE

Narrator: Here are Florence and Rudolf. They are living in a large, comfortable house by the North Sea in Dovercourt, Essex. It is July 1914. They have three children – Adeline, seven, Winifred, six, and one-year-old Ronald. Rudolf is a very successful hotel manager, speaking several languages, including Yiddish. But he is German! One day his brother, Karl, arrives from Germany:

Karl: My dear Rudolf, Florence and all of you. I’ve come all the way from Germany to warn you – war is coming! Leave the country. Rudolf, take Florence and the children to America. If you delay it will be too late!

Adeline, excitedly: America! America! I want to go to America!

Florence: It’s time for bed darlings. Go and have a lovely dream about America.

SCENE TWO

Narrator: Karl never got back to Germany. He was rounded up as he arrived at Harwich and taken to Knockaloe Camp on the Isle of Man, which would host up to 23,000 internees. It is October 1914. German males are suspected of spying, especially those who live near the east coast, like Rudolf’s family. It would be the best place to signal for a Zeppelin attack. So, the cry goes out –

Audience: Round up the German spies!

Loud knocking on door. Children scream and run to hide.

First policeman: Open up! Open up! In the name of the Law!

Second policeman: We come with strict orders. You must obey or your whole family will be in trouble.

Florence: C_c_c_come in…

First policeman: We have a warrant to arrest Rudolf Schriever.

Florence: Darling – it’s the police – they’ve come for you, as we expected.

Rudolf: Farewell, my dearest. We will be brave.

SCENE THREE

Narrator: Things turned nasty after the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915. More German men are taken, leaving the families distraught and penniless. No one will befriend them now. Even relatives turn their backs. There is a curse on all things German. A pledge goes out to get a million people to sign – to boycott everything German. People show their anger. Stones are thrown and windows broken.

Audience shouts: Hun! Bosch! Lock ‘em up! Kraut! Enemy! Send ‘em home!

Adeline rushing in from school: Mummy, boys are stoning the shops. They’re throwing everything into the street.

Florence: Come in darling, there’s nothing we can do.

Winifred: Mummy, the children are throwing stones at me. They hurt my legs. The teacher hit me today and called me a dirty little kraut.

Florence: What did you do?

Winifred, crying: Nothing, Mummy, they all seem to hate us.

SCENE FOUR

Narrator: Rudolf was taken to the camp in Olympia until May 1915, but conditions were very bad. Displaced Belgians, fleeing the German invasion, were interned in Alexandra Palace. As soon as the Belgians were removed from Ally Pally the German internees were brought in. Rudolf was in the first group of 500. 3,000 would be the final total. An officer is clocking the new men in.
Officer roughly, to men arriving: Hand over any scissors, knives, razors, writing paper, stamps, small tools, money over £1, sketch books…

Rudolf, sadly: Not allowed to write to my Florence or draw a picture for the girls…

Officer getting impatient: Hurry up now. There are hundreds of men coming in here.

Rudolf: What am I left with – the clothes I stand up in … how many years will this go on….

Officer: Go and queue up for your bedding.

Rudolf: One filthy grey blanket, a pillowcase with a bit of straw in…

SCENE SEVEN

Narrator: Quakers are going into Ally Pally with equipment for woodworking and other crafts. Now we are in a Meeting of the Friends Emergency Committee, in the Quaker-run St Stephens House, where Anna Braithwaite Thomas, the secretary, and William Hughes are talking. It is Christmas 1916.

William: Did you see the article in the Evening News? – ‘The Hun Coddlers – A Little Bit of Sugar for the Tiger. The efforts of the Friends Emergency Committee to soften the heart of the German Tiger by offering lumps of sugar to its cubs are indecent. The heart of Germany can only be softened by high explosives.’

Anna: Yes, and what about the hostile letters – one threatened to shoot the secretary at sight!

William: This is an endless work. Do we have enough materials and tools for tomorrow?

Anna: We have sixty-four pounds of tin foil paper – they are hammering it together and forming a ball for a doorstop.

William: I love the small silver dog and fox and the dozen quaint monkeys.

Anna: And what about thirty pairs of trousers at 2s each?

Narrator: Here are pictures of the men making trousers and the toys they made. We have seen the silver dog and fox in a cabinet in Friends House Library and looked at the many invoices. They gave me a special licence to copy this photo for you. The largest item was a writing desk waiting to be exported to Sweden. I have held the darning mushroom and the nursing chair at my friend’s.

SCENE EIGHT

Narrator: The Quakers not only go into Ally Pally to help the men but also into the homes of their destitute wives. Here is Lucy Thompson. She married one of the Quaker Emergency Committee. Sadly, she died in pregnancy. He married again and we know his son, who sent us this photo. Lucy sorts clothes for the men and takes gifts to the poor, struggling women.

Lucy: Baby Josef lives in a banana crate lined with pink flannel and covered in rugs that we have given them. Today I took a little white frock and two warm vests. The poor little mother was holding her baby, with tears running down her cheeks.

Mother: Baby dear, do you know how many people love you? They do not all hate us, baby, and we must always remember that God is very good.

Lucy: I will come and see you again next week. Keep up your spirits. We, Quakers, are all praying for you and for your poor husband in Alexandra Palace. Goodbye for now.

Mother: Goodbye my good friend and thank you so much.

---

Comments

Please login to add a comment