Irony: An Early Morning Job Prevents Internment

There is irony in life and I remember my father talking about his ironic experience during the war whilst being an Enemy Alien working on British War Work Project! My father, his mother, father and brother left Wien (Vienna), Austria in 1938 as a family (this was quite unusual at this time) because they could no longer live a Jews in their home country. On arrival in the UK they settled down and my grandfather became a sergeant in the British Army (Expeditionary Forces) at the outbreak of war and my father’s brother went to school here. My father was classed as an “Enemy Alien” as he was still an Austrian citizen, a country with which Britain and the Empire were at war with.

During the war my father worked as a tool maker on war work (irony number 1) and would have to leave work early in the morning to go to work at Croydon Aerodrome making parts for Gloucester Gladiators. In circa 1940, one morning after her had left for work Police called to his home and my grandmother answered the door to their home. The Police quizzed my grandmother as to my father’s whereabouts and asked for him to report to the Police Station on his return home.

When my father got home that evening his told of the visit and the Police’s request. My father felt that if it was important enough the Police would call back; he knew very well that the police wanted to “intern him” because he was classified as an Enemy Alien, which had happened to his cousins who had arrived in the UK from Poland just before the outbreak of war. He ignored the request and continued to work on War Projects as a toolmaker for the duration of the war.

In 1948 my father became a British citizen and was interviewed by some from a Government agency. At the interview, the interviewer said to my father “when the Police call to home and ask you to report to the Police Station it is usually for a good reason” (Iron 2 and remember this was some 7 years after the early morning Police visit). So luckily my Father, despite being an Enemy Alien disliked what was happening during the war, was not a risk to the security of the Nation. Or was he?

I always found this story when he told it family and friends during evenings of “war story telling” quite amusing and scary as well. I thought “were there ever any real risks to the Nations security because serious “enemies” slipped through the net?”

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