Exploring the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and the lasting impact of Jewish immigrants in Scotland
Holocaust Memorial Day is marked each year on the 27 of January. It is a national day of remembrance for the six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered in the Holocaust and the millions more who suffered under Nazi persecution. The day is a moment for reflection and commemoration which acknowledges the devastating loss inflicted on the Jewish community. It also serves as a powerful reminder of our collective responsibility to ensure that such atrocities are never repeated.
While Holocaust history understandably focuses on the events in mainland Europe,the impact of the genocide beyond Nazi-occupied territory often goes overlooked. Despite this, the effects of the Holocaust certainly extended to the UK, including Scotland.
When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish refugees fled the Nazi regime to the United Kingdom and neighbouring European countries. One prominent example of this was the Kindertransport scheme in which 10,000 unaccompanied children under the age of 17 were evacuated to the UK to escape the increasing persecution they faced within their own communities. Hundreds of these children came to Scotland and many amongst them settled in Glasgow.
The history of Jewish refugees in Scotland is shaped by individuals, families and communities each with their own unique background and experience. Collectively, these individual stories reveal the deep, rich and fascinating history of Scottish Jewish life. Although collating and sharing this history is no easy task, it is successfully being done by one Glasgow-based organisation.
The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, established in 1987, is based in Garnethill Synagogue, Scotland’s first purpose-built synagogue which opened in 1879. The Centre is dedicated to preserving Scotland’s Jewish heritage and collects, studies and displays historic material which tells the story of the Jewish experience in Scotland over the past two centuries.
The collections of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre are vast and varied. They include books, registers, oral history recordings and over 6,000 photographs as well as other memorabilia such as war medals, keys, artwork and sculptures. By collecting and examining these artefacts, the Centre has been able to piece together the history of Jewish life across Scotland.
A major focus in recent years has been amassing an extensive and fast-growing collection regarding Jewish refugees who came to Scotland. In particular, the Centre established a Scottish Holocaust-era Study Centre in 2021, in conjunction with the new Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre, which focuses on the events and developments in Scotland while the Holocaust was taking place.
The material collected by the Centre shows how the Jewish congregations in Scotland – and wider Scottish society – responded to the persecution faced by Jews in mainland Europe. For example, they organised demonstrations such as boycotts of German goods, met with politicians, and raised funds to help support evacuations.
In addition, in 1939, the Garnethill Hebrew Congregation provided the house in the grounds of the Synagogue to create a hostel for refugees. This hostel housed around 175 refugees between 1939 and 1948, most of whom were young boys from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The SJAC have a register of the residents in the hostel and records which show how the local Jewish community came together to support and care for these refugees, most of whom were unaccompanied children.
Evidence shows that in the years leading up to and including the Second World War, the Jewish population of Scotland rose to 20,000. As more Jewish refugees settled in Scotland, they began to contribute to their new communities. For example, talented sculptors and artists moved to Glasgow and continued their careers by teaching at the Glasgow School of Art and designing architecture for the city. Among them were the sculptor Paul Zunterstein, who fled the Nazi Anschluss of Austria, and the architect Isi Metzstein who designed St Peter’s Roman Catholic Seminary at Cardross.
The contributions of Jewish people who fled Europe and came to Scotland continued long after the end of the war. The research and materials displayed by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in their Scottish Holocaust-era Study Centre contains many notable examples of the wide-ranging impact these individuals had on Scottish society. For example, Dr Kate Hermann, a Jewish woman from Hamburg who fled Germany in 1937 and settled in Edinburgh, became the first female consultant neurologist in Scotland. Kurt Hahn, who was forced to flee Germany in 1933, came to Scotland and later founded Gordonstoun school which Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and King Charles III attended as young boys.
The contribution of Jewish refugees has also had a lasting and transformative impact on Scottish culture and arts. Among the most prominent examples are Sir Rudolf Bing and Hans Gal, Austrian Jews who fled to Scotland. They were two of the main founders of the Edinburgh International Festival. Today, the annual event remains world-famous, cementing Scotland’s place on the world stage as a nation which celebrates and promotes its arts and culture.
The SJAC’s work to recognise these contributions and ensure they are never forgotten is a vital part of their overall mission to document the Jewish experience in Scotland and uplift and celebrate the Scottish Jewish community. This work is becoming increasingly important in an atmosphere of rising antisemitism in the UK and across the world.
Speaking about the work of the Scottish Holocaust-era Study Centre, Harvey Kaplan, the SJAC’s director, said, “The SHESC tells the story of how around 3,000 Jewish men, women and children escaped the horrors of Nazi- occupied Europe and found a safe haven in Scotland. It’s important to remember the rich contribution made by many of these refugees to Scottish society in the fields of medicine, science, the arts, commerce and education.”
The SJAC’s partner organisation, the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre, work with school pupils to educate them on the experience of Jewish refugees who came to Scotland. By using learning kits which follow the stories of real Jewish refugees, the pupils can create a personal connection with a refugee, emphasising the humanity and individuality of each person affected by the Holocaust.
This is what makes the work of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre both valuable and unique. The Centre’s research empowers and recognises individuals, not statistics. The displays focus on and emphasise the personal identity of each Jewish refugee, something which the Nazis and their collaborators made every effort to strip away. The perpetrators of the Holocaust sought to dehumanise Jewish people, reducing them to mere numbers. In response, the focus of Holocaust remembrance and education must be to return to the victims the humanity which was stolen from them and ensure they are remembered as people, not as figures on a chart or a spreadsheet.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2026 is a reminder of where hatred and intolerance can lead. It is also a reminder of the duty we all hold to create a world in which persecution, discrimination and prejudice are never tolerated, and where the lessons of the past guide us towards a more just and compassionate future.
Image Credits: Scottish Jewish Archives Centre.
