Hans Meyer (1913–2009) was a German-born teacher at

Bunce Court School The Bunce Court School was an independent, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germa ...

in the

County of Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He taught at the school from 1934 until it closed in 1948. In 1940, Meyer and several others from the school were forced to go to a British internment camp. Learning that several of his pupils were being deported to a camp in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Meyer volunteered to accompany them, ending up on the HMT ''Dunera''.

Biographical details

Meyer was born in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, the son of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents. His father ran a hardware store. He died in 1932; his mother was sent to

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

, where she perished.Leslie Baruch Brent and Eric Bourn
Hans Joseph Meyer
(PDF) ''

AJR AJR may refer to: * AJR (motorcycle), Scotland * AJR (band), a pop band from New York City, United States *Abdominojugular test, to measure venous pressure * Academy for Jewish Religion (New York) * ''American Journal of Roentgenology'' * ''Americ ...

Journal'' (August 2009), p. 15. Retrieved October 4, 2011 After attending gymnasium, he began studying medicine until he was prohibited from attending university by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

.Eric Bourne and Leslie Baruch Brent
"Hans Meyer"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' (July 8, 2009). Retrieved October 4, 2011. In 1934, at the age of 21, he left Germany and moved to England, where he began working for

Anna Essinger Anna Essinger (15 September 1879 – 30 May 1960) was a German Jewish educator. At the age of 20, she went to finish her education in the United States, where she encountered Quakers and was greatly influenced by their attitudes, adopting them fo ...

at Bunce Court School. The school's original home was in

Herrlingen Blaustein () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated on the Blau River, 6 km west of Ulm and has about 15,000 inhabitants. Before 1968, Blaustein was known as Herrlingen. It was created in 196 ...

, Germany, but after it came under scrutiny from Nazi authorities and her senior pupils were prohibited from taking the exams for the

abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

, Essinger evacuated the entire school to England.Michael Luick-Thram
"Anna Essinger and the New Herrlingen School"
Parish of Otterden website. Dissertation excerpt, ''Creating 'New Americans': WWII-era European Refugees': Formation of American Identities''. Retrieved September 28, 2011 Bunce Court's enrollment was primarily made up of refugees from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and countries under Nazi control. Alumni Leslie Baruch Brent, who arrived on the first

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...

, and Eric Bourne credited Meyer with having been very empathetic with the pupils, a large number of whom ultimately lost their families.Harold Jackson
"Anna's children"
''The Guardian'' (July 18, 2003). Retrieved September 29, 2011 Years later, Meyer said that at that time, teaching was less important than being a "sympathetic human being".Anna Essinger biography
Anna Essinger Gymnasium. Retrieved September 28, 2011 Bunce Court pupils were on a

first name basis A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...

with their teachers or were called nicknames made up by the children. Meyer's nickname was "Meyerlein",Werner M. Loval
''We Were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century''
Gefen Publishing House, Ltd. (2010/5770) pp. 184–185. Retrieved October 4, 2011 an affectionate

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

, meaning "little Meyer". Meyer met and married another teacher at the school, Hannah Goldschmidt and had two sons, Joseph and Tyll, who died in an accident at age 21. His wife's nickname at the school was "Hago", for the first two letters of her first and maiden names. After the British government issued

Defence Regulation 18b Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was one of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during and before the Second World War. The complete name for the rule was Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regulati ...

and then in 1940 determined that all German-born males over the age of 16 had to be interned, Meyer and others from the school, including several pupils, as

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

s, were forced to leave the school for an internment camp in

Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Belle Vale, and the neighbouring village of Roby, with which it f ...

, a suburb of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. When Meyer learned that some of the boys from Bunce Court were to be deported to Australia, he volunteered to accompany them on the HMT Dunera. He was able to return to England in 1941 and rejoin his family. In 1948, Essinger closed Bunce Court and Meyer went into business with a former student, Peter Ryan. In 1956, the partnership was dissolved and Meyer enrolled at Culham College in

Abingdon, Oxfordshire Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been admin ...

, (formerly in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

) and acquired a teaching certificate, enabling him to work as a teacher. He found employment at Shepway School in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, where he worked in a special unit for boys for the next 20 years, retiring in 1978. Meyer's first wife died in 1977. He and his second wife, Susanne Hein, from

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, were married in 2001. After a Bunce Court reunion in 2003, Meyer contacted as many former pupils as he could findLeslie Baruch Brent
"Labour of love" (book review)
''AJR Journal'' (February 2005), p. 9. October 12, 2011 and invited them to contribute reminiscences of the school, publishing them privately as a book called ''Reflections: Bunce Court''.

References

External links

Otterden Online. Retrieved October 4, 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Hans Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Staff of Bunce Court School 1913 births 2009 deaths People from Rhenish Hesse