They called us Bloody Foreigners. Jewish Refugees in Kenya, 1933 until the 1950s.

Title: "They called us Bloody Foreigners"
Subtitle: Jewish Refugees in Kenya, 1933 until the 1950s
Author: Cilli Kasper-Holtkotte
Translation from the German: Alexandra Berlina
Publisher: Hentrich & Hentrich
Berlin, Germany 2019
ISBN 9783955653613 / ISBN 978-3-95565-361-3
Softcover, 16 x 24 cm, 286 Seiten, 140 b/w photos

About: They called us Bloody Foreigners. Jewish Refugees in Kenya, 1933 until the 1950s.

“We did not go to Kenya out of a sense of adventure; actually, Africa did not hold any allure for me”. Most Jewish refugees who reached the British colony from 1933 onwards would have expressed themselves as had Grete Heilbronn from southern Germany. Finding your way around was difficult. Language, climatic conditions, landscapes, population: all these were foreign and alien. Neither was the presence of these refugees particularly welcome. If possible, they were immediately sent to the interior of the country to work on farms, despite commonly lacking any agricultural knowledge. Fighting for survival was not much easier in the city. Laboriously, yet energetically, the refugees built their own worlds, created centres as sources of identities. "They called us Bloody Foreigners". Jewish Refugees in Kenya analyses these arduous inner and outer battles of the histories of many refugees stranded in Kenya, narrated primarily on the basis of contemporary witness accounts. Author Cilli Kasper-Holtkotte lived in Kenya for many years. Following her doctorate, she published on the Jewish history of Germany and France in the Modern Times, the founding of Jewish communities in Belgium in the 19th Century the history of the Jews of Frankfurt in the Early Modern Times.

About: They called us Bloody Foreigners. Jewish Refugees in Kenya, 1933 until the 1950s.

Introduction and Acknowledgements
The Kenyan Jewish community and its special challenges
The colonial administration and Jewish refugees
Kenya - the colony
The capital: Nairobi
Arriving as a refugee in Kenya
Up-country
Refugees as farmers
From a vibrant life into provincial seclusion
Lost time - the internment of Ernst May
"Never look back" - looking for roots and a sense of belonging
New identities in the White Highlands
Concluding remarks
Appendix
Notes
Index