Political Exile and Exile Politics in Britain after 1933 brings together a number of scholarly essays that shed light on a hitherto neglected aspect of the experience of German and Austrian refugees in Britain – their political activities in their country of refuge and how these were viewed (and used) by the British government and its Secret Service.
This volume does not claim to be exhaustive. However, it offers a range of case studies on various issues concerning political exile and the possibility of the continuation of political engagement in exile, even in the internment camps. Most of the contributions in this volume are based on archival material that has never been used before possibly because, like the MI5 files on Karl Otten which have only recently been declassified, researchers have not been able to access them.
Predictably, the majority of these essays show the political activities of men. The efforts of women which constitute the focus of three contributions therefore are all the more noteworthy.