German Pork Butchers in Britain

[johnbhoy]

Ali,
    It is so sad what happened to your GGF and his family, and as mentioned, possible bricks through the windows etc, and in the victorian/edwardian era, the 'stigma' must have been unbearable for the family.

A German Jew is something that I have not even thought about yet!!! Again, I was just taking it for granted that most of these guys were coming to the UK to escape compulsory military service & with the 'pork butcher' tag, Judism is something I would not have thought.  Very interesting indeed!!!
I get back to the UK in 2 weeks (work 28 days on / off on the rigs) and will be researching the pork butcher's book with gusto. I hope we all find some little piece of our jigsaws soon, and more importantly, there is a happy outcome, as some of these people were dealt a bad hand through no fault of their own

Best Regards Ali

John

[scrimnet]

One thing about the Royal Family (that is largely forgotten) is that when they changed their name, Britain was being Blitzed by German long range heavy bombers...The Gotha

Here is a quote from a book I have...

"There was a pork butchers shop on Spring Bank, Kress and Wagners. They were from Germany. There were a lot of German Pork Butchers in England at the time, and quite a number in Hull. Rumours went around that Kress and Wagner were spies and, in fact I was one of the lads that went  and stoned the shop; a big gang of us under the tress that lined Spring Bank, chucking big stones through the windows."

A certain newspaper carried anti German messages, and told people to refuse to be served by German or Austrian waiters, and if they said they were Swiss, to ask to see their passports. One  Swiss waiter was taken to Scotland Yard in the belief that he had been drawing plans of military instillations...It was it transpired a plan of the tables in the restaurant dining room!

The name of the newspaper??  The Daily Mail!

There was a certain "spy phobia", and this went along with the weird war stories and hysteria that gripped the nation, where every stranger, and odd looking chap (mainly those with beards!) were chased after by children shouting "you're a German Spy!!"

The Irish of course were deemed to be in league with the Germans, and shouts of "Irish German Spy" were not uncommon!!!

[scrimnet]

A contemporary WW1 cartoon....

[bongo ali]

Excellent !  That one cartoon illustrated to my young son just how/why the changes were made!
On a more serious and darker note - a link to (I think) the Quakers' humanitarian involvement to wives and families of interned civilians.  Makes the cartoon all the more understandible.


http://www.manxnotebook.com/fulltext/sh1920/ch07.htm

Re the anti-german fervour - I'm sure that I've also read somewhere on this site, the story about a mob, who had been heavily influenced by the press of the day, who surrounded a pub demanding that the 2 germans lodging there were turfed out, 'enemy in our midst' type of situation.  Turned out the 2 chaps were country yokels from Bristol and their rather thick accents had been mistaken!

And we think the 'Daily Mail' type of journalism and scaremongering is new......

Continued good luck everyone.

Alison

[johnbhoy]

Scrimnet, I learn something new everyday and I thought I had a very good grasp on history. I was unaware that the airship was the 'Gotha', thanks for that.

As for the 'mails' cartoon, at first glance, I thought I was looking at a 1938 Nazi cartoon about 'Der Juden'.............appauling, sensationalist, lazy journalism.

It's fine to be patriotic for one's country, as that is a love of one's country, but to be a Nationalist, is to hate another's country.

As for the 'Irish' slur, well nothing new there and doesn't surprise me one bit.

Great post Scrimnet

John

[johnbhoy]

Hey Alison, thank God for people like the SSFD and others such as the Womans International League!
Noticed the Daily Mail was up to it's usual jingolistic reporting and also the Evening Times, which is a very poor paper at the best of times. I googled the term 'yellow papers' that was mentioned in the report, with the result...downmarket, unethical reporting...say no more. 
I was aware of the government utilizing ships in the past, such as the Maidstone for housing Irish republican suspects, but was unaware of the 'Alien' re- German/Austrian/Hungarian civilians (even after 30 years + in the UK) being interned on ships, and as per your previous post, the distress must have been unbearable for many and the family's.
Did you notice that there were still internees on the IOM in 1919?

Another great post Alison

John 

[scrimnet]

Scrimnet, I learn something new everyday and I thought I had a very good grasp on history. I was unaware that the airship was the 'Gotha', thanks for that.

As for the 'mails' cartoon, at first glance, I thought I was looking at a 1938 Nazi cartoon about 'Der Juden'.............appauling, sensationalist, lazy journalism.

It's fine to be patriotic for one's country, as that is a love of one's country, but to be a Nationalist, is to hate another's country.

As for the 'Irish' slur, well nothing new there and doesn't surprise me one bit.

Great post Scrimnet

John

Actually the Gotha's were heavy bomber aircraft, not the Zeppelins!! 

Here's a good bit about the First Blitz...

http://www.firstworldwar.com/airwar/bombers_gotha_giant.htm

And the cartoon came from Punch...I have the full lot from 1914-1916
 

[Berlin-Bob]

Two points:

1) Anybody who has ever been to a german supermarket, will have seen the array of sausages and hams ("1001 ways to process a pig") there.  So a "german" pork butcher would probably be much more specialised than an english pork butcher.

2) to the topic-within-a-topic: My mother fled from Austria to Britain as a refuge from the Hitler-regime in 1938, but in 1965 she was still getting the anti-german treatment, because of her accent.

Bob

[johnbhoy]

Scrimnet, I learn something new everyday and I thought I had a very good grasp on history. I was unaware that the airship was the 'Gotha', thanks for that.

As for the 'mails' cartoon, at first glance, I thought I was looking at a 1938 Nazi cartoon about 'Der Juden'.............appauling, sensationalist, lazy journalism.

It's fine to be patriotic for one's country, as that is a love of one's country, but to be a Nationalist, is to hate another's country.

As for the 'Irish' slur, well nothing new there and doesn't surprise me one bit.

Great post Scrimnet

John

Actually the Gotha's were heavy bomber aircraft, not the Zeppelins!! 

Here's a good bit about the First Blitz...

http://www.firstworldwar.com/airwar/bombers_gotha_giant.htm

And the cartoon came from Punch...I have the full lot from 1914-1916
 

OK, thanks for clearing that up scrimnet, much appreciated