Metadata: Serota, Neemia (Oral history)
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- Imperial War Museum
- Holding institution (official language):
- Imperial War Museum
- Postal address:
- Lambeth RoadLondonGreater LondonUnited KingdomSE1 6HZ
- Email:
- Email: contact@iwm.org.uk
- Reference number:
- 11573
- Title:
- Serota, Neemia (Oral history)
- Title (official language):
- Serota, Neemia (Oral history)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Blass, Shona
- Serota, Neemia
- Date(s):
- 1937/1948
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 5 reels
- Scope and content:
- REEL 1: Aspect of period in Israel, 1937-1939: story of attending three year course at agricultural school in Degania Alef; returned to GB after completing 18 months of course, 1939. Aspects of period with Women's Land Army in Grimsby and Oxford, GB, 1939-1943: entered Midland Agricultural College, Nottingham, on outbreak of war; sent to farm near Grimsby; opinion of farmer and accommodation; problem of non-Kosher food; family background; story of six mile walk to farm and work looking after bullocks; description of accommodation in shepherd's cottage and taking meals with wagoner; cost of board and lodgings; reaction of locals to meeting first Jewish person; working hours; opinion of treatment; recreational activities; number of Jewish girls in Land Army; story of Rabbi in Grimsby arranging accommodation with Jewish family; social life; story of watching troops coming back from Dunkirk, 6/1940; opinion of Churchill; story about friend 's family killed in air raid; visited solicitor's house for baths and meals; story of leaving farm and moving to Headington, Oxford, 1941; opinion of lodgings; description of work delivering milk on horse and cart; activities with Jewish Society in Oxford; description of work for Co-Op on milk lorry; story of home in London being bombed. Aspects of period with Women's Land Army in London, GB, 1943-1945: description of work on milk round for Express Dairy in Hampstead; notable customers including Gen. De Gaulle; reaction to antisemitic remarks from customers; community spirit; attitude to Germans; attitude of Jewish community to war and Jewish refugees in London;REEL 2 Continues; story of inviting refugees into home; closeness of Jewish community; reaction to arrival of Jews from other countries including US; work helping at Jewish Service Club; story about Jewish friend marrying US soldier; reaction to news of Holocaust and liberation of camps; attitude to arrival of Jewish refugees; question of Jews being more affected by war than non-Jews; reaction to formation of state of Israel, 1948 and first Israeli Embassy in London; growth of Zionism after war; question of some Jews being more attracted to communism than Zionism.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- IWM was founded on 5 March 1917 when the War Cabinet approved a proposal by Sir Alfred Mond MP for the creation of a national war museum to record the events still taking place during the Great War. The intention was to collect and display material as a record of everyone’s experiences during that war - civilian and military - and to commemorate the sacrifices of all sections of society.The interest taken by the Dominion governments led to the renaming of the National War Museum to Imperial War Museum later in 1917. It was formally established by Act of Parliament in 1920 and a governing Board of Trustees appointed. The National War Museum was renamed Imperial War Museum in November 1917. The museum was opened in the Crystal Palace by King George V on 9 June 1920. From 1924 to 1935 it was housed in two galleries adjoining the former Imperial Institute, South Kensington. On 7 July 1936, the Duke of York, shortly to become King George VI, reopened the museum in its present home on Lambeth Road, South London, formerly the central portion of Bethlem Royal Hospital, or ‘Bedlam’.With the onset of war in 1939 IWM’s remit was extended to include the Second World War. While a programme of collecting got underway, vulnerable collections were evacuated to stores outside London, and the museum was closed to the public from September 1940 to November 1946. Most of the exhibits survived the war, but a Short Seaplane which had flown at the Battle of Jutland was shattered when a German bomb fell on the Naval Gallery on 31 January 1941. This was just one of more than 40 incendiary hits on the building throughout the war.The Korean War led to a further redefinition of the IWM’s terms of reference to include all conflicts in which British or Commonwealth forces had been involved since 1914. IWM has therefore continued to collect every type of evidence documenting its very broad remit. Its collections are vast and rich, and in addition to its role as a museum, IWM is also a major national art gallery, a national archive of written and audio visual recourse, and a centre for research. During the 1970s and 1980s IWM underwent a period of unprecedented expansion, with the establishment of three new branches – IWM Duxford in 1976, HMS Belfast in 1978 and Churchill War Rooms in 1984. The fifth member of the IWM family, IWM North, opened in Trafford, Greater Manchester, on 5 July 2002.Further information on the history of the organisation can be found on the Museum Archive pages see https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/museum-administrative-records
- Access points: persons/families:
- Serota, Neemia
- Subject terms:
- Agriculture
- Antisemitism
- Jewish community
- Refugees
- World War II
- Zionism
- Access, restrictions:
- Visit IWM website for Research Room access provisions see https://www.iwm.org.uk/research/research-facilities
- Finding aids:
- Online catalogue.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80011321
- Yerusha Network member:
- AIM25
