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Exile Archive

This collection contains personal papers, correspondence, official documents and literary and autobiographical scripts created by or relating to German-speaking exiles and exile-related organisations mainly in the UK.

Edith Wildorf.jpg
Edith Wildorf and Trudi Ascher, German refugees who worked as domestic servants (EXS.2.WIL.2)

The then Institute of Germanic Studies began to collect archival material related to the subject of exile following the establishment of the Research Centre for German & Austrian Exile Studies (RCGAES) at the Institute in 1995-96.

Personal papers, artistic scripts, and official documents were donated to the Library mainly by individual exiles or their families, often through the intermediary of RCGAES committee members, such as Professor Charmian Brinson, Professor Richard Dove, and Professor Hamish Ritchie. Most of these deposits, particularly those comprising a small number of documents extracted from wider sets of personal papers, were put into this thematically based collection, the Exile Archive (EXS).

As part of the Institute's acquisitions policy, it is intended to expand this collection, and anyone who has interesting material that he/she would like preserved in this way is invited to contact the Miller Archivist, Dr Clare George.

The Archive will not confine its interest to Nazi refugees however, but will also expand to provide a historical perspective of German migration to the United Kingdom generally, and London in particular. This historical perspective will focus on the emigrant communities that settled from the 18th century onwards.

University of London Archives

University of London, Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies