(HOLOCAUST).

These papers document the difficulties that confronted German Jews seeking refuge in England in order to escape Nazism. For example, it was necessary for the employment agency (i.e. the Domestic Bureau of the Central Office for Refugees, London) vouch the person concerned would be gainfully employed. (In this case, the twenty-two year old woman was found a position as a "special diet cook.") Oftentimes there would ensue a torturous round of bureaucratic ministrations: Thus, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael in London conveyed that the petitioner must approach the Hilsverein in Frankfurt. The Hilfsverein will communicate with the Domestic Bureau in London, who will then communicate with the sponsor in London who will send a Home Office form to fill out. Our collection includes a notice frrom the Home Office that "owing to the time necessary to complete the many formalities before a Home Office Permit can be obtained, it is requested that enquiries regarding the progress of an application for a permit should not be made within one month of the date of the original application…" There was a further complication inasmuch as the person in question, Helena Erster of Frankfurt a/Main had been born in Lodz, Poland in 1917. Only, if truly "stateless," would the British authorities permit entry. If on the other hand, there was the possibility that the person could be "returned" to Poland, no such permission would be granted. In the end, the hapless Jewess was forced to make inquiry at the Polish Consulate whether she could be repatriated to Poland from Germany - unknowingly a most unfortunate decision...