The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre is housed in the beautiful Garnethill Synagogue, Scotland’s first purpose-built synagogue, erected in the Garnethill district of Glasgow during 1879. The Centre houses a diverse collection of records of the Jewish experience in Scotland since the first Jews arrived in the late 17th century, although organized Jewish communities in Scotland date back only so far as the early 19^th century. The collection includes growing computer registers of the Jewish community of Scotland, cemetery records, personal ephemera, and organizational registers, photographs and oral histories.

The Centre is currently focused on collecting material relating to the refugees who fled to Scotland from Nazi-occupied Europe. Among the artifacts acquired by the Centre thus far is a copy of the original register of the Garnethill Boys’ Hostel, created and operated by the Congregation from 1939 to 1948 in a house adjoining its synagogue.

Given the Congregation’s early role in the rescue of Nazi-era refugees such as those arriving on the Kindertransport, it is therefore fitting that a planned Scottish Holocaust Era Study Centre will be located within its synagogue as an adjunct of the Archives Centre.

The Congregation’s serious intent to take a role in the rescue of European Jewry is reflected in the minutes of its general meeting of 11 December 1938, when it was resolved:

That this meeting recommends that every male Seatholder of the Congregation agrees to contribute a minimum sum of 1/6 per week for the Appeal Committee of the Council for German Jewry and that a Committee of 12 be formed to supervise the ingathering of the contributions.

Thereafter, the Jewish Echo of 24 February 1939 reported on the active preparation of the new hostel:

Rapid strides are being made in the redecoration and reconstruction of the house at 125 Hill Street, which is to become Glasgow’s first hostel for German refugee children. The house has been cleaned from top to bottom…already the rooms have taken on a new air of smartness and comfort….With 15 rooms, each of them large, well-lit and solidly built, the hostel is expected to accommodate 30 children and a small household staff…. boys between the ages of 12 and 16.

The register of the Congregation’s hostel lists over 175 individuals who were admitted between 1939 and 1948. Some of the refugees stayed only a few days or weeks, others longer. A number came and went more than once. For each individual, the register provides columns for:

• Names
• Date of Birth
• Date of Arrival
• Occupation
• Nationality
• Prior Address
• Date of Departure and Destination

Of the 75% of the residents who listed their country of origin, 42% were from Germany, 14% from Austria, and the remainder from Poland, Russia, Rumania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Many residents went on to lodge with families, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and to other hostels in Scotland, England, the United States, Canada and Palestine.

Other hostels for Jewish refugees in Scotland included:

• A Quaker hostel for women and girls, located on the other side of the synagogue in Renfrew Street, from 1940-1942. This hostel accommodated fifteen people at a time, mostly adults.
• Whittingehame House, the former home of Arthur J Balfour in East Lothian, served as a farm training school for refugee teenagers 1939-1942. The school was run on the model of the Hachshara Kibbutz and on Youth Aliyah philosophy.
• Polton House, near Dalkeith in Midlothian and others at Birkenward, Skelmorlie in Ayrshire, Ernespie House (Castle Douglas), and The Priory in Selkirk.

Unfortunately, no admission registers have as yet been found for these three other hostels.

For further information, please visit the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre online at www.sjac.org.uk or contact us at info@sjac.org.uk. Your participation and interest is most welcome.