Bunce Court School
Encyclopedia
The Bunce Court School was an independent, private
boarding school
in the village of Otterden
, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger
, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germany, but after the Nazi Party seized power
in 1933, she began to see that the school had no future in Germany. She quietly found a new home for the school and received permission from the parents of her pupils, most of whom were Jewish, to bring them to safety in England. The new school was called New Herrlingen School, but came to be known as Bunce Court. The school closed in 1948. Alumni, who sometimes stayed on at the school even after finishing, were devoted to the school and organized reunions for 55 years. They have referred to its "immense effect" on their lives, as "Shangri-La
" and to being there as "walking on holy ground".
n town of Herrlingen in 1926. The school began as an adjunct to the children's home
founded by Essinger's sister Klara in 1912. In 1925, as her own children and many of the children in care came of school age, she got the idea to turn the orphanage into a Landschulheim (boarding school). Landschulheim Herrlingen opened on May 1, 1926 as a private
boarding school
with 18 children ranging in age from 6 to 12. Anna Essinger became head of the school and her sister Paula, a trained nurse, became the school nurse and its housekeeper. The ceremonies to open the school were attended by Theodor Heuss
and Otto Hirsch
from Stuttgart
, as well as the mayors of Göppingen
and Ulm.
Landschulheim Herrlingen was non-denominational, accepting children from any faith, and coeducational. Having been influenced by progressive education in the United States, Essinger ran the school accordingly. The primary grades were taught using the Montessori method. Teachers were to set an example in "learning, laughing, loving and living" and the motto for the school was "Boys and girls learn to be inquisitive, curious and independent and to find things out themselves. All work is to encourage critical thinking." Individual work was encouraged. There was no testing of skills or attainment. Instead, grading was replaced by an assessment that described the development of the individual child and progress was discussed with the children. Parents received the assessment of their children in writing.
Academics were supplemented with a strong emphasis on the arts, as well as physical activity, including daily walks in the woods. The children learned two languages from the first day of school on, with emphasis on the spoken, rather than the written word. Learning was accomplished through living, whether from daily walks in the woods, from the tasks required of the children in and around the building, or at meal time, where there were "English" and "French" tables and those sitting at them would speak in those languages during the meal. The arts were also offered. In addition to painting, drawing, singing and drama, the children learned to play music. In the evening, "Tante Anna" read a story, then gave each child a "good night kiss" and sent them off to bed.
Staff and pupils were on a first-name basis; Anna Essinger was generally called "Tante" (Aunt) Anna, or TA for short. She was a strict disciplinarian with both staff and pupils, but the environment at the school was loving and supportive. Corporal punishment
was taboo
.
The teachers were idealistic and in 1927, the school received very good early assessments. Enrollment soon grew to 60 pupils.
and the Nazi Party seized power
in 1933 and anti-semitism
on the rise, the school became increasingly Jewish, as some parents bowed to pressure to boycott Jewish institutions and Jewish parents found it increasingly difficult to find placement for their children. In April 1933, when all public buildings were ordered to fly the Nazi flag and swastika
, Essinger planned a day-long outing for her school, leaving the flag to fly over an empty building, a symbolic gesture, according to a nephew. Afterwards, Essinger and the school were denounced and the school came under Nazi scrutiny with a recommendation to install a school inspector at the school. In May 1933, Essinger was informed that her oldest pupils would not be allowed to take the tests for the abitur
, the school-leaving certificate needed to pursue a university education, and most non-Jewish parents withdrew their children from the school.
Essinger realized that Germany was no longer a hospitable place for her school and sought to relocate it in a more secure environment abroad. She first sought a new location in Switzerland, then in the Netherlands and finally, in England, where she found an old manor house
dating from 1547 in Otterden
, near Faversham
in Kent
. The house is called Bunce Court, after the family that owned the property in the 17th century. Essinger raised funds in England, primarily from Quakers, initially to rent and later, to purchase Bunce Court. She informed the parents of her desire to move the school to England and received permission to take 65 children with her. The children all went home for summer vacation, not knowing they were leaving Landschulheim Herrlingen for the last time.
In summer 1933, Essinger arrived in England with the 13 pupils prohibited from taking the abitur test. She set them up at Bunce Court, where they had just a few weeks to prepare for a British matriculation
exam; nine of them passed. In autumn 1933, three different groups of children and staff set out on an educational trip for the Netherlands, leaving from the south, the north and the east of Germany. Anna Essinger boarded a train with one group; her sister Paula took a group through Switzerland, where they picked up two pupils who had been on vacation with their mother. All three groups arrived on the ferry in Dover
and were picked up in red buses and brought to Kent, where classes began the next day. In addition, there were three children from a Berlin family fleeing Germany that had pre-arranged for their children to meet the ferry and continue on to the school.
Landschulheim Herrlingen was not officially closed, but was instead was turned over to Hugo Rosenthal (1887-1980). Although it was seized by the Nazis in 1934, it continued as a Jewish school and became a centre for Jewish life in southern Germany until 1939, when the Nazis closed it and turned it into a home for Jewish seniors, whom they forced to relocate there from various places in Württemberg
. In 1942, the home was closed and its residents sent to extermination camps. Between 1943 and 1945, two of the buildings were occupied by Erwin Rommel
and his family. When Rommel was forced to commit suicide, he left from this home.
In later years, during the Blitz
on London, children were evacuated
to the countryside for their safety, but in 1933, when Bunce Court opened, England was safe and war was years away. English people were unaware of what was taking place in Germany and did not understand why Essinger and the school had left Germany. The new school was makeshift and finances meagre, causing the English education inspectors to be initially unfavourable toward New Herrlingen. Within a year or two, however, enough improvements had been made that they came to realize the school was viable and unique. In October 1937, there were 68 pupils enrolled at Bunce Court, 41 were boys and 27 were girls. Of the 68, all but three were boarders and all but 12 were foreign-born. By this time, the school had won the respect of the authorities. After three days spent visiting Bunce Court in 1937, inspectors from the British government's Ministry of Education reported their amazement "at what could be achieved in teaching with limited facilities" and that they were "convinced it was the personality, enthusiasm and interest of teachers rather than their teaching 'apparatus' that made the school work competently".
New Herrlingen was home, so that even after finishing their education, some pupils would stay on for a number of months, living at the school while working elsewhere, their wages largely going for their upkeep.
There was no money for a laboratory, so the sciences were minimal. Alumnus Thomas Mayer
said Bunce Court provided "a highly intellectual atmosphere" with pupils who were excited about what they were learning, where their "intellectual interests were not confined to classroom learning, but encompassed politics, literature and art."
The official language of the school was English. New teachers from England were told not to learn German for at least a year. Essinger also accepted English children to the school, especially non-Jews to foster the non-denominational aspect, and bring in some financial and linguistic support, as well. Nonetheless, most German staff and pupils reverted to German or a combination of German and English, so most English teachers and pupils learned German.
Religion was not stressed at the school, but was just part of the curriculum. Many alumni were, in their adult lives, agnostic or irreligious. Nonetheless, those who wished to observe traditional Friday evening observances and holidays were able to do so with similarly interested staff. Most Bunce Court pupils were from families that had assimilated into the local culture and the children knew little about Jewish culture. Nazi persecution and discrimination made them aware of their Jewishness, so that in England, the school added courses on Jewish history, the teachings of Jewish prophets and the ideas of Jewish philosophers like Maimonides
and Spinoza. These courses were taught by Hanna Bergas
.
In 1939, war broke out in Europe and on 3 September, 1939, war was declared between England and Germany. Defence Regulation 18b
was issued, ordering the internment of anyone suspected of sympathizing with the Nazis. The Home Office
then ruled that anyone born in Germany was classified as an enemy alien
and all German males over age 16 were interned. In addition to the pupils who were interned, some of the pupils who had gone home that summer to visit their families in Nazi areas never returned and were not heard from again. With two hours' notice to pack their things, the school lost five men and 10 of the older boys, then, the cook and female students aged 16, before it was determined that "good Germans" who had fled the Nazis could be released, provided they remain in one place until the end of the war. This benefited the school greatly. Maths was taught by an astronomer, the music teacher had been an assistant to Ludwig Karl Koch
, the stoker, formerly a senior producer at Berlin's Deutsches Theater
, directed school plays.
, the United Kingdom agreed to accept 10,000 German children in Kindertransport
s and Bunce Court took in as many of the refugees as possible. As Hitler invaded and annexed other countries, children began to come from Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. With an enrollment of uprooted children whose parents were in unknown circumstances, coming from different social classes and cultures, Essinger sometimes found it difficult to find British teachers who were up to the challenges and needs of the pupils. Some children were "almost ill with homesickness and the older children anxious for parents, brothers and sisters left in Germany. A Quaker worker told...of parents' agony of mind who could only choose one of several children to go to England for safe education and which to select—the most brilliant, most fit, or one most vulnerable and unlikely to survive?" Ultimately, many of the pupils never saw their parents again.
Years later, teacher Hans Meyer
said, "At the time, it was less important to be a good teacher than it was to be an sympathetic human being. It was more important to give them a good-night kiss than [to teach] excellent German literature." In some cases, there would be letters from parents and then they'd stop coming, particularly once war broke out. Meyer said, "We tried to lead them away from the period of silence. We didn't know what had happened to the parents. We couldn't give them any hope, neither could we take it from them."
The teachers also had special needs. Upon arriving in England, the overriding concern was to make a good home for the children. At the end of the first year, the teachers had been available to the children without any time off or uninterrupted privacy for themselves. While they were elated that things were going so well, they were exhausted. That changed with the establishment of "off-duty" time to refresh oneself. "It became possible to read, to write a letter, to go away for a few hours or a weekend without being interrupted or missed" wrote Hanna Bergas. She noted that the return to the community was always a joy.
to tolerate an entire school full of "enemy aliens", who were viewed as potential collaborators.
Essinger found a new location several hours away at Trench Hall, near Wem
in Shropshire
. After "packing feverishly", the school moved on 14 June 1940, shortly before the senior pupils would have to take their matriculation exams. They all passed. Unlike the original trip to Bunce Court, when the children had shown great interest in the surroundings, this time, tired from the packing, bewildered and restless, they took little interest in the scenery for the first several hours. Then the buses passed through the already bombed city of Coventry
, later to be devastated by the Coventry Blitz
. The children were shaken, having been previously removed from the reality of war.
It was smaller than Bunce Court, so a group of the youngest children were sent temporarily to a school in Surrey
. Even so, there was terrible overcrowding and after a year, the chicken coop and the stables were converted into dormitories, creating enough room to allow the younger children to return. Even so, some bedrooms doubled as classrooms and had to be rearranged for use every morning. More time consuming, however, was having to cover every window in the evening to comply with the orders for a complete blackout
, a task which had to be carried out for years.
In this new location, the local residents occasionally hurled epithets at the pupils, calling them "dirty Jerries". When the 1944 film Henry V
was showing at the local cinema, Essinger did not let Bunce Courtians go, in part because she'd been warned that the first newsreel
reports from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
would be shown and she didn't want her pupils to realize why they had not heard from their parents, but she was also worried that harm would come to them at the hands of some of the locals.
The school remained at Trench Hall until 1946. The property was much too small for the 140 pupils who moved there, but enrollment dropped after the Nazis banned Jewish emigration in 1941. Also, the school could no longer keep its chickens, pigs or bee hives. While the school was evacuated at Trench Hall, the buildings and grounds of Bunce Court were used by the military and were much changed and required restoration work before the school could return. Not until after the war was over, was the school finally able to return to Bunce Court in 1946.
ghetto, deportation to a slave labour camp, separation from his family and imprisonment at Czestochowa
, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt concentration camp
s. He arrived in England in August 1945 at the age of 14 and, along with 10 other Polish boys, was sent to Bunce Court. Traumatized, he and the others were treated with love and care. In his 2006 memoir, Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die, he said his two years at Bunce Court "turned me back into a human being".
After the war, Essinger hired Dr. Fridolin Friedmann
to be headmaster of the school, but his tenure was brief, caused by her interference with his work.Fridolin Friedmann had previously been the rector
of a Jewish landschulheim in Caputh
and had taught at the Odenwaldschule
. In addition, after the war, a number of the refugee teachers left the school. Already difficult to staff, the situation did not improve after the war; rather, the low salary and remote location made recruitment of new teachers increasingly difficult. In 1948, her eyesight failing badly, unable to manage it herself and, according to some, unable to conceive of anyone else running the school, Essinger closed Bunce Court School.
of £9, regardless of marital status or position, as the egalitarian atmosphere placed no value on intellectual labour over manual. Alumnus Richard Sonnenfeldt
called the teachers "dedicated and superb". Alumnus Werner M. Loval made a list of staff in his book, We Were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century. Gretel Heidt was briefly interned as an "enemy alien". In 1940, Hans Meyer was interned at the camp in Huyot and volunteered to be deported to Australia on the Dunera, after learning that some of the Bunce Court boys would be sent there. They were released shortly after arrival; Meyer was returned to England in 1941. Helmut Schneider was also interned and deported.
called it a "remarkable school, which was more than a school but a sort of community, a small republic". For many pupils, as well as their teachers, Bunce Court was a last refuge that not only literally saved their lives, but also gave them new meaning and substance." After the school closed, alumni organized reunions for 55 years. Numerous people associated with the school wrote memoirs, both pupils and teachers, as well as Essinger family members and Anna Essinger, whose memoir was not published.
In 1989, author Alan Major wrote a series of articles about the school in Bygone Kent, the County of Kent's local history magazine. Called Bunce Court, Anna Essinger and Her New Herrlingen School, Otterden, it was cited in a 1997 doctoral dissertation, which included a section on Bunce Court. Alumnus Peter Morley
's first film was a documentary about Bunce Court and in 1995, Peter Schubert premiered his 1994 film Anna's Children (Annas Kinder), a 57-minute German documentary about Bunce Court and its founder, in Herrlingen.
In July 2007, the original Bunce Court school bell was returned from California, where it had been stored by alumni Ernst Weinberg. It was reinstalled on top of the former schoolhouse. A plaque honoring both the school and Essinger was unveiled at the same time.
in December 1984. The main house dates from 1547 and was occupied by the Bunce family. In the 18th century, the front of the building was renovated with mathematical tile
s to give it a more contemporary look. In 1896 and 1910, two wings were added. In 1984, it was again renovated and subdivided into four separate residences.
In the 1990s, five additional houses were built on the grounds. Bunce Court Barn, which is between the main house and the new houses, has also been converted into a residence, is also listed.
Memoirs by Bunce Court staff
Memoirs by Essinger family members
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in the village of Otterden
Otterden
Otterden is a village on the Kent Downs in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England.-History:Otterden is mentioned in the Domesday Book under Kent in the lands belonging to Adam FitzHubert...
, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger
Anna Essinger
Anna Essinger was a German-Jewish educator. At the age of 20, she went to finish her education in the United States, where she encountered Quakers and was greatly influenced by their attitudes, adopting them for her own...
, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germany, but after the Nazi Party seized power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
in 1933, she began to see that the school had no future in Germany. She quietly found a new home for the school and received permission from the parents of her pupils, most of whom were Jewish, to bring them to safety in England. The new school was called New Herrlingen School, but came to be known as Bunce Court. The school closed in 1948. Alumni, who sometimes stayed on at the school even after finishing, were devoted to the school and organized reunions for 55 years. They have referred to its "immense effect" on their lives, as "Shangri-La
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains...
" and to being there as "walking on holy ground".
Landschulheim Herrlingen
The school was originally founded by Anna Essinger and two of her sisters in the SwabiaSwabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
n town of Herrlingen in 1926. The school began as an adjunct to the children's home
Children's Home
Children's Home is a historic building at 427 Robeson Street in Fall River, Massachusetts.The Home was built in 1894 and added to the National Historic Register in 1983....
founded by Essinger's sister Klara in 1912. In 1925, as her own children and many of the children in care came of school age, she got the idea to turn the orphanage into a Landschulheim (boarding school). Landschulheim Herrlingen opened on May 1, 1926 as a private
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
with 18 children ranging in age from 6 to 12. Anna Essinger became head of the school and her sister Paula, a trained nurse, became the school nurse and its housekeeper. The ceremonies to open the school were attended by Theodor Heuss
Theodor Heuss
Theodor Heuss was a liberal German politician who served as the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II from 1949 to 1959...
and Otto Hirsch
Otto Hirsch
Otto Hirsch was a Jewish jurist and politician during the Weimar Republic. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany and died in Mauthausen concentration camp.- Biographical details :...
from Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, as well as the mayors of Göppingen
Göppingen
Göppingen is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the district Göppingen. It is situated at the bottom of the Hohenstaufen mountain, in the valley of the river Fils....
and Ulm.
Landschulheim Herrlingen was non-denominational, accepting children from any faith, and coeducational. Having been influenced by progressive education in the United States, Essinger ran the school accordingly. The primary grades were taught using the Montessori method. Teachers were to set an example in "learning, laughing, loving and living" and the motto for the school was "Boys and girls learn to be inquisitive, curious and independent and to find things out themselves. All work is to encourage critical thinking." Individual work was encouraged. There was no testing of skills or attainment. Instead, grading was replaced by an assessment that described the development of the individual child and progress was discussed with the children. Parents received the assessment of their children in writing.
Academics were supplemented with a strong emphasis on the arts, as well as physical activity, including daily walks in the woods. The children learned two languages from the first day of school on, with emphasis on the spoken, rather than the written word. Learning was accomplished through living, whether from daily walks in the woods, from the tasks required of the children in and around the building, or at meal time, where there were "English" and "French" tables and those sitting at them would speak in those languages during the meal. The arts were also offered. In addition to painting, drawing, singing and drama, the children learned to play music. In the evening, "Tante Anna" read a story, then gave each child a "good night kiss" and sent them off to bed.
Staff and pupils were on a first-name basis; Anna Essinger was generally called "Tante" (Aunt) Anna, or TA for short. She was a strict disciplinarian with both staff and pupils, but the environment at the school was loving and supportive. Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
was taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
.
The teachers were idealistic and in 1927, the school received very good early assessments. Enrollment soon grew to 60 pupils.
Escape from Nazi Germany
After Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Nazi Party seized power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
in 1933 and anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
on the rise, the school became increasingly Jewish, as some parents bowed to pressure to boycott Jewish institutions and Jewish parents found it increasingly difficult to find placement for their children. In April 1933, when all public buildings were ordered to fly the Nazi flag and swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
, Essinger planned a day-long outing for her school, leaving the flag to fly over an empty building, a symbolic gesture, according to a nephew. Afterwards, Essinger and the school were denounced and the school came under Nazi scrutiny with a recommendation to install a school inspector at the school. In May 1933, Essinger was informed that her oldest pupils would not be allowed to take the tests for the abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
, the school-leaving certificate needed to pursue a university education, and most non-Jewish parents withdrew their children from the school.
Essinger realized that Germany was no longer a hospitable place for her school and sought to relocate it in a more secure environment abroad. She first sought a new location in Switzerland, then in the Netherlands and finally, in England, where she found an old manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
dating from 1547 in Otterden
Otterden
Otterden is a village on the Kent Downs in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England.-History:Otterden is mentioned in the Domesday Book under Kent in the lands belonging to Adam FitzHubert...
, near Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. The house is called Bunce Court, after the family that owned the property in the 17th century. Essinger raised funds in England, primarily from Quakers, initially to rent and later, to purchase Bunce Court. She informed the parents of her desire to move the school to England and received permission to take 65 children with her. The children all went home for summer vacation, not knowing they were leaving Landschulheim Herrlingen for the last time.
In summer 1933, Essinger arrived in England with the 13 pupils prohibited from taking the abitur test. She set them up at Bunce Court, where they had just a few weeks to prepare for a British matriculation
Matriculation
Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...
exam; nine of them passed. In autumn 1933, three different groups of children and staff set out on an educational trip for the Netherlands, leaving from the south, the north and the east of Germany. Anna Essinger boarded a train with one group; her sister Paula took a group through Switzerland, where they picked up two pupils who had been on vacation with their mother. All three groups arrived on the ferry in Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
and were picked up in red buses and brought to Kent, where classes began the next day. In addition, there were three children from a Berlin family fleeing Germany that had pre-arranged for their children to meet the ferry and continue on to the school.
Landschulheim Herrlingen was not officially closed, but was instead was turned over to Hugo Rosenthal (1887-1980). Although it was seized by the Nazis in 1934, it continued as a Jewish school and became a centre for Jewish life in southern Germany until 1939, when the Nazis closed it and turned it into a home for Jewish seniors, whom they forced to relocate there from various places in Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
. In 1942, the home was closed and its residents sent to extermination camps. Between 1943 and 1945, two of the buildings were occupied by Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
and his family. When Rommel was forced to commit suicide, he left from this home.
New Herrlingen School
The new school was called New Herrlingen, but generally known as Bunce Court. It had over 40 rooms and extensive grounds, making it an ideal location for a boarding school. From the beginning, the new school suffered from a chronic lack of funds. There was no money for a domestic or caretaking staff, so everyone, staff and pupils had daily chores and did the work, from converting stables into new dormitories, laying telephone cables and repairing furniture to gardening, growing vegetables and looking after the chickens to peeling potatoes, cleaning and polishing.The younger boys lived in a building, initially without electricity, about 400 metre (0.248549094659923 mi) away from the main building. Twenty of the oldest boys lived in a dormitory built on the grounds with the help of British Quakers. The school maintained a large vegetable garden, two greenhouses, five hundred hens, beehives and several pigs, which were fed on kitchen waste, all primarily run by pupils.In later years, during the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
on London, children were evacuated
Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II
Evacuation of civilians in Britain during the Second World War was designed to save the population of urban or military areas in the United Kingdom from aerial bombing of cities and military targets such as docks. Civilians, particularly children, were moved to areas thought to be less at risk....
to the countryside for their safety, but in 1933, when Bunce Court opened, England was safe and war was years away. English people were unaware of what was taking place in Germany and did not understand why Essinger and the school had left Germany. The new school was makeshift and finances meagre, causing the English education inspectors to be initially unfavourable toward New Herrlingen. Within a year or two, however, enough improvements had been made that they came to realize the school was viable and unique. In October 1937, there were 68 pupils enrolled at Bunce Court, 41 were boys and 27 were girls. Of the 68, all but three were boarders and all but 12 were foreign-born. By this time, the school had won the respect of the authorities. After three days spent visiting Bunce Court in 1937, inspectors from the British government's Ministry of Education reported their amazement "at what could be achieved in teaching with limited facilities" and that they were "convinced it was the personality, enthusiasm and interest of teachers rather than their teaching 'apparatus' that made the school work competently".
New Herrlingen was home, so that even after finishing their education, some pupils would stay on for a number of months, living at the school while working elsewhere, their wages largely going for their upkeep.
Finances
Tuition at the school was £100 a year and many, because of their situation, could not pay, or were there on a promise that funds would be forthcoming. The number of pupils was constantly in flux, whether from having finished and passed the Cambridge school examination or because of the chaotic conditions of the era. At times, there were well over 100 pupils, but at other times, well under 100. The school made ends meet by putting everyone—children and staff—to work tending the gardens and animals, and maintaining the buildings and grounds. When a school inspector asked a boy if he'd also done such manual labour back in Germany, he answered, "There, it was an educational method; here, it is a necessity." The children grasped the situation and pitched in.Education
Classes were small, from five to eight pupils. The curriculum focussed on the English language and literature, history, and maths. German literature was also taught so that the children would understand that "despite all that had happened, human values had not changed and that it was worth nurturing the cultural foundations of the children even though they were separated from their homeland."There was no money for a laboratory, so the sciences were minimal. Alumnus Thomas Mayer
Thomas Mayer
Thomas Mayer is emeritus professor of economics at the University of California, Davis. He previously taught at West Virginia University, Notre Dame University, Michigan State University, and the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his work in monetary policy and economic...
said Bunce Court provided "a highly intellectual atmosphere" with pupils who were excited about what they were learning, where their "intellectual interests were not confined to classroom learning, but encompassed politics, literature and art."
The official language of the school was English. New teachers from England were told not to learn German for at least a year. Essinger also accepted English children to the school, especially non-Jews to foster the non-denominational aspect, and bring in some financial and linguistic support, as well. Nonetheless, most German staff and pupils reverted to German or a combination of German and English, so most English teachers and pupils learned German.
Religion was not stressed at the school, but was just part of the curriculum. Many alumni were, in their adult lives, agnostic or irreligious. Nonetheless, those who wished to observe traditional Friday evening observances and holidays were able to do so with similarly interested staff. Most Bunce Court pupils were from families that had assimilated into the local culture and the children knew little about Jewish culture. Nazi persecution and discrimination made them aware of their Jewishness, so that in England, the school added courses on Jewish history, the teachings of Jewish prophets and the ideas of Jewish philosophers like Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
and Spinoza. These courses were taught by Hanna Bergas
Hanna Bergas
Hanna Bergas was a German teacher. Fired from her job and prevented from teaching in public schools in Nazi Germany, she found employment at a private boarding school in Herrlingen, in southern Germany...
.
In 1939, war broke out in Europe and on 3 September, 1939, war was declared between England and Germany. Defence Regulation 18b
Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was the most famous of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during World War II. The complete technical reference name for this rule was: Regulation 18B of the Defence Regulations 1939. It allowed for the internment of...
was issued, ordering the internment of anyone suspected of sympathizing with the Nazis. The Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
then ruled that anyone born in Germany was classified as an enemy alien
Enemy alien
In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...
and all German males over age 16 were interned. In addition to the pupils who were interned, some of the pupils who had gone home that summer to visit their families in Nazi areas never returned and were not heard from again. With two hours' notice to pack their things, the school lost five men and 10 of the older boys, then, the cook and female students aged 16, before it was determined that "good Germans" who had fled the Nazis could be released, provided they remain in one place until the end of the war. This benefited the school greatly. Maths was taught by an astronomer, the music teacher had been an assistant to Ludwig Karl Koch
Ludwig Karl Koch
Ludwig Karl Koch MBE was a broadcaster and sound recordist. An expert on recording animal sounds, he played a significant part in increasing the British public's appreciation of wildlife....
, the stoker, formerly a senior producer at Berlin's Deutsches Theater
Deutsches Theater
The Deutsches Theater in Berlin is a well-known German theatre. It was built in 1850 as Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, after Frederick William IV of Prussia. Located on Schumann Street , the Deutsches Theater consists of two adjoining stages that share a common, classical facade...
, directed school plays.
Special needs
After KristallnachtKristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
, the United Kingdom agreed to accept 10,000 German children in Kindertransport
Kindertransport
Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...
s and Bunce Court took in as many of the refugees as possible. As Hitler invaded and annexed other countries, children began to come from Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. With an enrollment of uprooted children whose parents were in unknown circumstances, coming from different social classes and cultures, Essinger sometimes found it difficult to find British teachers who were up to the challenges and needs of the pupils. Some children were "almost ill with homesickness and the older children anxious for parents, brothers and sisters left in Germany. A Quaker worker told...of parents' agony of mind who could only choose one of several children to go to England for safe education and which to select—the most brilliant, most fit, or one most vulnerable and unlikely to survive?" Ultimately, many of the pupils never saw their parents again.
Years later, teacher Hans Meyer
Hans Joseph Meyer
Hans Meyer was a German-born teacher at Bunce Court School in the County of Kent, England. He taught at the school from 1934 until it closed in 1948. In 1940, Meyer and several others from the school were forced to go to a British internment camp...
said, "At the time, it was less important to be a good teacher than it was to be an sympathetic human being. It was more important to give them a good-night kiss than [to teach] excellent German literature." In some cases, there would be letters from parents and then they'd stop coming, particularly once war broke out. Meyer said, "We tried to lead them away from the period of silence. We didn't know what had happened to the parents. We couldn't give them any hope, neither could we take it from them."
The teachers also had special needs. Upon arriving in England, the overriding concern was to make a good home for the children. At the end of the first year, the teachers had been available to the children without any time off or uninterrupted privacy for themselves. While they were elated that things were going so well, they were exhausted. That changed with the establishment of "off-duty" time to refresh oneself. "It became possible to read, to write a letter, to go away for a few hours or a weekend without being interrupted or missed" wrote Hanna Bergas. She noted that the return to the community was always a joy.
Evacuation to Trench Hall
In June 1940, the school, with roughly 140 children, was given just three days' notice (extended to a week) to evacuate when the area was determined to be too near the Battle of BritainBattle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
to tolerate an entire school full of "enemy aliens", who were viewed as potential collaborators.
Essinger found a new location several hours away at Trench Hall, near Wem
Wem
Wem is a small market town in Shropshire, England. It is the administrative centre for the northern area committee of Shropshire Council, which has its headquarters at Edinburgh House in the centre of Wem. Wem railway station is on the Shrewsbury to Crewe railway line...
in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
. After "packing feverishly", the school moved on 14 June 1940, shortly before the senior pupils would have to take their matriculation exams. They all passed. Unlike the original trip to Bunce Court, when the children had shown great interest in the surroundings, this time, tired from the packing, bewildered and restless, they took little interest in the scenery for the first several hours. Then the buses passed through the already bombed city of Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, later to be devastated by the Coventry Blitz
Coventry Blitz
The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place in the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force...
. The children were shaken, having been previously removed from the reality of war.
It was smaller than Bunce Court, so a group of the youngest children were sent temporarily to a school in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. Even so, there was terrible overcrowding and after a year, the chicken coop and the stables were converted into dormitories, creating enough room to allow the younger children to return. Even so, some bedrooms doubled as classrooms and had to be rearranged for use every morning. More time consuming, however, was having to cover every window in the evening to comply with the orders for a complete blackout
Blackout (wartime)
A blackout during war, or apprehended war, is the practice of collectively minimizing outdoor light, including upwardly directed light. This was done in the 20th century to prevent crews of enemy aircraft from being able to navigate to their targets simply by sight, for example during the London...
, a task which had to be carried out for years.
In this new location, the local residents occasionally hurled epithets at the pupils, calling them "dirty Jerries". When the 1944 film Henry V
Henry V (1944 film)
Henry V is a 1944 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The on-screen title is The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France . It stars Laurence Olivier, who also directed. The play was adapted for the screen by Olivier, Dallas...
was showing at the local cinema, Essinger did not let Bunce Courtians go, in part because she'd been warned that the first newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
reports from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
would be shown and she didn't want her pupils to realize why they had not heard from their parents, but she was also worried that harm would come to them at the hands of some of the locals.
The school remained at Trench Hall until 1946. The property was much too small for the 140 pupils who moved there, but enrollment dropped after the Nazis banned Jewish emigration in 1941. Also, the school could no longer keep its chickens, pigs or bee hives. While the school was evacuated at Trench Hall, the buildings and grounds of Bunce Court were used by the military and were much changed and required restoration work before the school could return. Not until after the war was over, was the school finally able to return to Bunce Court in 1946.
Final years
The last children to come to Bunce Court were orphaned Nazi concentration camp survivors who no longer knew what normal life was like. One such boy was Sidney Finkel, born Sevek Finkelstein in Poland, who survived the PiotrkowPiotrków
Piotrków may refer to the following places in Poland:*Piotrków Trybunalski, a city in Piotrków County, Łódź Voivodeship*Piotrków Kujawski, a city in Gmina Piotrków Kujawski in Radziejów County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship...
ghetto, deportation to a slave labour camp, separation from his family and imprisonment at Czestochowa
Czestochowa
Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship...
, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...
s. He arrived in England in August 1945 at the age of 14 and, along with 10 other Polish boys, was sent to Bunce Court. Traumatized, he and the others were treated with love and care. In his 2006 memoir, Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die, he said his two years at Bunce Court "turned me back into a human being".
After the war, Essinger hired Dr. Fridolin Friedmann
Fridolin Friedmann
Fridolin Friedmann was a progressive German-Jewish educator. He taught at the Odenwald School and was later headmaster at the Landschulheim Caputh, both in Germany. He accompanied several Kindertransports to England, remaining there himself in 1939...
to be headmaster of the school, but his tenure was brief, caused by her interference with his work.Fridolin Friedmann had previously been the rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of a Jewish landschulheim in Caputh
Caputh
Caputh is a village in the municipality of Schwielowsee, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Brandenburg, Germany.Caputh got a railway station in 1904...
and had taught at the Odenwaldschule
Odenwaldschule
Odenwaldschule, is a German school located in Heppenheim in the Odenwald. Founded in 1910, it is Germany's oldest landschulheim, a private boarding school located in a rural setting. Edith and Paul Geheeb established it using their concept of progressive education, which integrated the work of the...
. In addition, after the war, a number of the refugee teachers left the school. Already difficult to staff, the situation did not improve after the war; rather, the low salary and remote location made recruitment of new teachers increasingly difficult. In 1948, her eyesight failing badly, unable to manage it herself and, according to some, unable to conceive of anyone else running the school, Essinger closed Bunce Court School.
Bunce Court staff
Bunce Court started out with a handful of teachers, two secretaries, a gardener, a driver and a cook, who had one (paid) helper. They were mostly German, though there were some British teachers. Staff were given room and board and a monthly stipendStipend
A stipend is a form of salary, such as for an internship or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from a wage or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed, instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried...
of £9, regardless of marital status or position, as the egalitarian atmosphere placed no value on intellectual labour over manual. Alumnus Richard Sonnenfeldt
Richard Sonnenfeldt
Richard W. Sonnenfeldt - was a Jewish-American engineer and corporate executive most notable for being the U.S...
called the teachers "dedicated and superb". Alumnus Werner M. Loval made a list of staff in his book, We Were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century. Gretel Heidt was briefly interned as an "enemy alien". In 1940, Hans Meyer was interned at the camp in Huyot and volunteered to be deported to Australia on the Dunera, after learning that some of the Bunce Court boys would be sent there. They were released shortly after arrival; Meyer was returned to England in 1941. Helmut Schneider was also interned and deported.
- Bruno AdlerBruno AdlerBruno Maria Adler was a German art historian and writer. He taught art history in Weimar and lectured about it at the Bauhaus...
- Hanna BergasHanna BergasHanna Bergas was a German teacher. Fired from her job and prevented from teaching in public schools in Nazi Germany, she found employment at a private boarding school in Herrlingen, in southern Germany...
(called Ha-Be, or H.B.), moved with the school from Germany, taught history - Miss Clifton (Cliffie), an Australian teacher
- Maria Dehn, taught biology and was the head gardener
- Anna EssingerAnna EssingerAnna Essinger was a German-Jewish educator. At the age of 20, she went to finish her education in the United States, where she encountered Quakers and was greatly influenced by their attitudes, adopting them for her own...
(Tante [Aunt] Anna or T.A.), co-founder and headmistress - Paula Essinger (Tante Paula), head of the kindergarten and school nurse in charge of the "isolation hut" (school clinic)
- Hannah Goldschmidt (Hago), taught geographyHannah Goldschmidt and Hans Meyer met at the school and got married. Her niece, Ursula Solmitz (later Osborne), was a pupil at Bunce Court.
- Gretel Heidt (Heidtsche), the cook and a non-Jewish German; all pupils had tasks in the kitchen working under her
- Mr. Horowitz, taught history and English; a British teacher
- Dr. Walter Isaacsohn (Saxo), taught history, Scripture and Jewish subjects, led Friday evening and holiday services
- Frau Berthe Kahn [née Essinger], housemother and in charge of housekeeping
- Lotte Kalischer (Lo-Ka), taught music, violin, piano; gave violin recitals with piano accompaniment by Helmut Schneider
- Erich KatzErich KatzErich Katz was a German-born musicologist, composer, music critic, musician and professor. He fled the Nazis in 1939, arriving first in England, emigrating to the United States in 1943, where he became a citizen. He was a driving force behind the early music and recorder movements in the United...
, taught music from 1941 to 1943 - Pilar Marckwald, Spanish, kitchen helper
- Wilhelm MarckwaldWilhelm MarckwaldWilhelm Marckwald was a German actor and director in both theatre and film. He went to Spain in 1933, fleeing to Stockholm as the political situation heated up. Accused of being a communist, he and his wife were forced to leave Sweden for France...
, boilerman, gardener, directed plays, played violin - Hans MeyerHans Joseph MeyerHans Meyer was a German-born teacher at Bunce Court School in the County of Kent, England. He taught at the school from 1934 until it closed in 1948. In 1940, Meyer and several others from the school were forced to go to a British internment camp...
(Meyerlein), taught carpentry, sports and gardening, was also a housefather - Hilde Oppenheimer-Tod (Hutschnur), taught French; was also a housemother
- Helmut Schneider (Schneiderlein), taught maths, played piano at school concertsSchneiderlein is the main character in the original German version of Grimms' "The Valiant Little TailorThe Valiant Little TailorThe Valiant Little Tailor or The Brave Little Tailor is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 20. Joseph Jacobs collected another variant A Dozen at One Blow in European Folk and Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book...
", Das Tapfere Schneiderlein. - Norman Wormleighton (Wormy), taught English, initiated play readings, a British teacher
- Muriel (Shushi), British teacherMuriel was nicknamed "Shushi" because she so often shushed the children at bedtime, after "lights out".
Legacy
Most alumni lost the families they left behind, so especially for them, Bunce Court was not just their school, it was their childhood home and those who lived there, their family. Alumni use reverent terms when speaking about Bunce Court and numerous alumni have written memoirs, all mentioning their time at Bunce Court. Martin Lubowski, who lost his family to Nazi concentration camps, said, "I feel I am walking on holy ground whenever I visit Bunce Court". Richard W. Sonnenfeldt wrote in his book, Witness to Nuremberg, "While I was there, and forever after, Bunce Court has been my Shangri-La." Michael Trede, a German who was not Jewish, said that Bunce Court was, "not a 'normal' school, not an institution, rather more of an emergency association, like an extended family. Frank AuerbachFrank Auerbach
Frank Helmut Auerbach is a painter born in Germany although he has been a naturalised British citizen since 1947.-Biography:Auerbach was born in Berlin, the son of Max Auerbach, a patent lawyer, and Charlotte Nora Burchardt, who had trained as an artist...
called it a "remarkable school, which was more than a school but a sort of community, a small republic". For many pupils, as well as their teachers, Bunce Court was a last refuge that not only literally saved their lives, but also gave them new meaning and substance." After the school closed, alumni organized reunions for 55 years. Numerous people associated with the school wrote memoirs, both pupils and teachers, as well as Essinger family members and Anna Essinger, whose memoir was not published.
In 1989, author Alan Major wrote a series of articles about the school in Bygone Kent, the County of Kent's local history magazine. Called Bunce Court, Anna Essinger and Her New Herrlingen School, Otterden, it was cited in a 1997 doctoral dissertation, which included a section on Bunce Court. Alumnus Peter Morley
Peter Morley (filmmaker)
Peter Morley, OBE is a German-born British television producer and documentary filmmaker. As a nine-year old child, he fled Nazi Germany with his elder siblings and moved to England, where he has lived ever since...
's first film was a documentary about Bunce Court and in 1995, Peter Schubert premiered his 1994 film Anna's Children (Annas Kinder), a 57-minute German documentary about Bunce Court and its founder, in Herrlingen.
In July 2007, the original Bunce Court school bell was returned from California, where it had been stored by alumni Ernst Weinberg. It was reinstalled on top of the former schoolhouse. A plaque honoring both the school and Essinger was unveiled at the same time.
Notable alumni
Many of the school's alumni went on to distinguished careers in their fields.- Frank AuerbachFrank AuerbachFrank Helmut Auerbach is a painter born in Germany although he has been a naturalised British citizen since 1947.-Biography:Auerbach was born in Berlin, the son of Max Auerbach, a patent lawyer, and Charlotte Nora Burchardt, who had trained as an artist...
, British painter - Leslie BrentLeslie BrentLeslie Baruch Brent , born Lothar Baruch, in Köslin, Germany , to German-Jewish parents, is a British immunologist and zoologist....
, British immunologist - Frank George, (son of Manfred GeorgeManfred GeorgeManfred George, born Manfred Georg Cohn, later shortened to Manfred Georg, was a German journalist, author and translator. He left Germany after the Nazis came to power, living in several different European countries and eventually emigrating penniless to the United States in 1939...
), Fullbright scholar and American architect - Gerard HoffnungGerard HoffnungGerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
, British humorist - Werner Loval, Israeli real estate agency founder
- Frank MarcusFrank MarcusFrank Marcus was a British playwright, best known for The Killing of Sister George.-Life:Frank Ulrich Marcus was born 30 June 1928 into a Jewish family in Breslau . They came to England as refugees in 1939...
, British playwright (The Killing of Sister GeorgeThe Killing of Sister GeorgeThe Killing of Sister George is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that was adapted as a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich.- Stage version :Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series Applehurst, a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers...
) - Thomas MayerThomas MayerThomas Mayer is emeritus professor of economics at the University of California, Davis. He previously taught at West Virginia University, Notre Dame University, Michigan State University, and the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his work in monetary policy and economic...
, American economist - Peter MorleyPeter Morley (filmmaker)Peter Morley, OBE is a German-born British television producer and documentary filmmaker. As a nine-year old child, he fled Nazi Germany with his elder siblings and moved to England, where he has lived ever since...
, British filmmaker and television producer (Kitty - Return to Auschwitz) - Michael RoemerMichael RoemerMichael Roemer is a film director, producer and writer. He has won several awards for his films. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. A professor at Yale University, he is the author of Telling Stories.- Early years :...
, American independent filmIndependent filmAn independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
maker, (Nothing But a ManNothing But a ManNothing But a Man is a film made in 1964 and directed by Michael Roemer. The story is about a black railroad worker, who falls in love with a black school teacher, who is the town’s preacher’s daughter. The story depicts the struggle of their strife for “a meaningful place” in their society. It...
, The Plot Against HarryThe Plot Against HarryThe Plot Against Harry is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Michael Roemer and filmed in 1969. It was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Martin Priest as Harry Plotnick* Ben Lang as Leo* Maxine Woods as Kay...
), Guggenheim FellowGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, professor at Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States... - Helmut SonnenfeldtHelmut SonnenfeldtHelmut Sonnenfeldt is an American foreign policy expert.Born in 1926 in Berlin, Germany to Drs. Walther and Gertrud Sonnenfeldt, he spent his childhood in Gardelegen, Germany, where his parents had a family medical practice. In 1938, Sonnenfeldt was sent to Anna Essinger's Bunce Court School in...
, American foreign policy advisor - Richard W. Sonnenfeldt, chief interpreter for the U.S. prosecution, Nuremberg TrialsNuremberg TrialsThe Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
- Michael Trede, German professor and chairman of the Mannheim Surgical Clinics and University of Heidelberg Medical School
Architectural landmark
The main house at Bunce Court is a Grade II listed building. It was listed by English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
in December 1984. The main house dates from 1547 and was occupied by the Bunce family. In the 18th century, the front of the building was renovated with mathematical tile
Mathematical tile
Mathematical tiles are a building material used extensively in the southeastern counties of England—especially East Sussex and Kent—in the 18th and early 19th centuries. They were laid on the exterior of timber-framed buildings as an alternative to brickwork, which their appearance closely resembled...
s to give it a more contemporary look. In 1896 and 1910, two wings were added. In 1984, it was again renovated and subdivided into four separate residences.
In the 1990s, five additional houses were built on the grounds. Bunce Court Barn, which is between the main house and the new houses, has also been converted into a residence, is also listed.
Bunce Court memoirs
Memoirs by Bunce Court alumni- Thomas Mayer, in: Roger E. Backhouse, Roger Middleton (eds.), Exemplary Economists, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Vol. 1 (2000), pp. 92-108. ISBN 1-85898-959-0
- Michael Trede, Der Rückkehrer. (2003) ecomed verlagsgesellschaft AG & Co. KG, Landsberg, Germany. ISBN 3-609-16172-8
- Sidney Finkel, Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die. (2005) self-published. ISBN 0-9763562-0-1
- Peter Morley, OBE, Peter Morley - A Life Rewound. (2006) Bank House Books
- Werner M. Loval, We Were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century. (2010/5770) Gefen Publishing House, Ltd. ISBN 978-965-229-522-4
- Michael Roemer, "A Collection of Bunce Court Memories". (Undated). Michael Roemer Papers (MS 1837). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
- Richard W. Sonnenfeldt, Witness to Nuremberg. (2006) Arcade Publishing, Inc.
- Leslie Baruch Brent, Ein Sonntagskind? – Vom jüdischen Waisenhaus zum weltbekannten Immunologen. (2009) Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag ISBN 9783830517023
Memoirs by Bunce Court staff
- Hanna Bergas, Fifteen Years: Lived among, with and for refugee children, 1933-1948 (PDF) Unpublished. (1979) Palo Alto, California. Manuscript archived at the Leo Baeck InstituteLeo Baeck InstituteThe Leo Baeck Institute-New York in Manhattan is a library, archive, and exhibition centre devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. The Institutes's offices and collections are housed in Center for Jewish History in New York City...
/ Center for Jewish History, New York - Hans Meyer, Reflections: Bunce Court. (2004)
Memoirs by Essinger family members
- Dorle M. Potten (née Essinger), Des Kindes Chronik. (2003), reissued 2009. Published privately. Silver EndSilver EndSilver End is a small village in Essex, between Braintree and Witham in England, UK. It was conceived as a model village by the industrialist Francis Henry Crittall who established a factory there to manufacture components for metal windows.-History:...
, WithamWithamWitham is a town in the county of Essex, in the south east of England with a population of 22,500. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the larger towns of Chelmsford and Colchester...
, Essex
External links
- Leslie Baruch Brent, "A remarkable reunion" (PDF) Association of Jewish Refugees newsletter (November/December 2003), pp. 8-9 Retrieved September 30, 2011
- Photos of Bunce Court (Photo album #3) Otterden Online. Retrieved October 2, 2011
- "Herrlingen; Landschulheim Collection 1928-1996" Center for Jewish History. Retrieved October 16, 2011
- Archival materials relating to Landschulheim Herrlingen Leo Baeck Institute. "Guide to the Susan Ehrlich Losher Family Collection, 1929-2007". Retrieved October 16, 2011