History of Nursing Lecture: Jewish refugees and their nursing lives in WW2
From enemy alien to valued worker: Jewish refugees and their nursing lives during the Second World War
05 Jun 2025, 17:30 - 19:30
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A lecture by Dr Jane Brooks on the experiences and feelings of Jewish refugee nurses.
Following the fall of France, all those Jewish women who had fled Nazi oppression and sought work as nurses in Britain, were dismissed from their hospital positions. Fears of fifth columnists and a lack of understanding of the position of Jewish refugees led to increasingly draconian measures against them, culminating in the internment of some on the Isle of Man.
The Annual RCN History of Nursing Forum lecture by Dr Jane Brooks explores the experiences and feelings of refugee nurses. They were designated ‘enemy aliens’, dismissed and interned, only to be invited back into nursing a few months later. Brooks exposes the opportunism of the Government and nursing profession as more nurses were needed to care for the sick and injured and the refugees' growing sense of worth as they supported the Allied war effort against the Nazis. She considers the young women’s nursing wartime work, as they re-evaluated their lives from victims of a murderous regime to valued members of a vital war-time profession.
Doors open at 5.30pm (refreshments provided) and the lecture starts at 6pm.
This event is in person and open to all.
If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please contact us on rcn.library@rcn.org.uk or 0345 337 3368.
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Dr Jane Brooks is a senior lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester and editor of Nursing History Review.
Dr Brooks has been a historian of nursing for over a quarter of a century and for the past fifteen years, specifically nursing in the Second World War. Her previous publications include the edited book, One Hundred Years of Wartime Nursing Practices (MUP 2015) for which she and her co-editor, Christine Hallett were recipients of the Mary M Roberts award from the American Association for the History of Nursing. In 2018, her monograph, Negotiating Nursing: British Army Sisters and Soldiers in the Second World War was published, also by Manchester University Press. This book was supported by the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. Brooks has also published many articles, across a spectrum of topics, including the history of university education for nurses in the UK, older adult nursing in the mid-twentieth century and nursing in the Second World War, including those nurses who volunteered for active service overseas and Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Europe and nursed in the UK and beyond. Her latest monograph, Jewish Refugees and the British Nursing Profession: A Gendered Opportunity (MUP 2024) was awarded the Lavinia Dock prize also from the American Association for the History of Nursing. The book was supported by the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Fellowship from the University of Virginia and the H15 grant of the American Association for the History of Nursing.
The event will be chaired by Dianne Yarwood, chair of the History of Nursing Forum.
For any queries about this event please contact:
RCN Library and Museum
rcn.library@rcn.org.uk
0345 337 3368
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Page last updated - 25/04/2025
