The Quaker Germany Emergency Committee

The Germany Emergency Committee of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) was set up in 1933, shortly after Hitler came to power.

It was one of the organisations that helped to bring the Boys to the UK and to care for them in the Britain.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

The Germany Emergency Committee of the Religious Society of Friends was established in 1933, shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, to assist victims of Nazi persecution. Often known as the Quaker Germany Emergency Committee, it became a key organisation in the rescue and support of Jewish refugees.

In Britain, Bertha Bracey was appointed Secretary of the Committee in 1933 and played a central role in coordinating rescue efforts, including the Kindertransport. After Kristallnacht in 1938, six Quaker volunteers travelled to Berlin to assess the situation on the ground. Meetings between Bracey and leaders of German Jewish women’s organisations were critical to launching the Kindertransport, and Quaker volunteers accompanied many of the children on their journeys.

The Committee played a significant role in assisting Jewish children and families to escape from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland before and during the early years of Nazi rule. It was instrumental in helping to bring the Boys to the UK for rehabilitation after the war, and ran various schools and hostels across the UK to which the Boys were sent, including Stoatley Rough, Linton Road and Butcombe Court.