• Introduction
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Other Refugees

With the rise to power of Hitler in Germany in 1933, the eyes of world Jewry were focused on Germany. The Bradford community, with its German connections, was at the forefront of helping Jews to leave the continent, and many Jews made Bradford their new home.

Many other Jews fleeing from persecution on the continent found new homes in Bradford from 1933 1945 and immediately after the war. Some were so traumatised by their experiences they ceased to have contact with Jewish life, a common occurrence.

Joseph Kagen (1915--1995), later Lord Kagan, was one of those who survived the Holocaust, and came initially to Bradford at the end of the war. He went on to found Kagen Textiles Ltd. His innovative light weight, wind-proof and water-proof 'Gannex' raincoats became fashion icons and were favoured by Harold Wilson who knighted him, though he later fell from grace when he was convicted of stealing from his own company and served a prison sentence.

Thus when the war ended in 1945, Bradford had a strong Jewish community, having benefited from the influx of war-time refugees. There were now two synagogues, both with Ministers, a Jewish Institute in Mornington Villas (later Bradford Bridge Club) and a large number of families with children. Many of Bradford's doctors and dentists were Jewish, some were refugees from Europe, while others had come to the city from London and Leeds.