signed Letter
1940 · Admiralty House, London
by Winston S. Churchill
Admiralty House, London, 1940. Letter. This compellingly interesting item features two pieces of correspondence from early in the Second World War. The first is a typed, signed letter from then-First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill just 10 days before he became wartime Prime Minister to German-Jewish journalist and émigré Alfred J. Fischer declining an appointment to meet. The letter is accompanied by the original Admiralty envelope. The second typed letter is signed by Churchills Private Secretary, John Peck, dated 8 June 1940, on 10 Downing Street stationery, addressing an apparent request to make inquiries into the case of Mr. Fischer. Together, these two pieces of early Second World War correspondence are noteworthy for occurring during Churchills ascendance to the premiership, for featuring his signature on his Admiralty stationery in his final days as First Lord, and limning the fraught, perilous fate of German Jews, even those who made it to supposed haven on Allied shores.
Churchills letter is typed on a single sheet of Admiralty stationery, headed with a printed, blue Admiralty device and dated 30 April 1940 at the upper right. The salutation My Dear Sir, the valediction Yours vy ty [sic], and the signature Winston S. Churchill are all in Churchills hand. The letter politely rejects a request from journalist Alfred Fischer for a meeting, Churchill offering I am sure that your Editor will understand how fully occupied I am at the present time The letter is accompanied by its original franked envelope, the flap featuring the raised, printed ADMIRALTY WHITEHALL device and still sealed with red wax imprinted with an Admiralty signet.
An additional 8th June, 1940 letter to Fischer is from John Howard Peck, the only one of Churchills wartime Private Secretaries to serve for the entirety of Churchills wartime premiership. This typed, hand-emended, and signed letter is on 10, Downing Street, Whitehall stationery, printed thus at the upper right, with a PRIME MINISTER device at the upper left. The letter, written less than a month after Churchill became wartime Prime Minister, is addressed to a woman who made an appeal on Fischers behalf after Fischer was detained as a Category B alien. Peck writes: Mr. Churchill has had enquiries made into the case of Mr. Fischer but he regrets that nothing can be done in the matter at the moment
Each letter, as well as the envelope, is housed in its own clear, removable, archival mylar sleeve. The sleeves are housed in a rigid, crimson cloth folder.
Alfred Joachim Fischer
We know little about Mrs. Hochner other than her apparent concern and advocacy for Alfred Fisher. But Mr. Fishers story is known, at least in part, and is intriguingly interwoven with the general tragedy of allied internment of enemy aliens and the compound brutalities visited on German Jews fleeing Hitlers Reich.
Alfred Joachim Fischer (1909-1992) was a German Jew working as a journalist for a liberal newspaper in Berlin at the end of the republic. In 1933, the year Hitler became German chancellor and the first concentration camps were established, Fischer began an emigration odyssey via Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, the Balkans, Palestine, and Turkey. In 1939 he fled at the last minute from Prague to Great Britain. But his flight from one persecutor only delivered him to another.
Fischer was detained as a potential Category B enemy alien. Eventually he was among those deported to Australia on the HMT Dunera. The 57-day voyage was not only under threat by German U-boats; detainees faced regular beatings and robbery at the hands of British soldiers and officers on board.
As Fischer later recalled, I was only allowed to take a few items with me, including a personal letter from Winston Churchill. Ostensibly that was this same letter. (Translated from Fischer, In der Nahe der Ereignisse, p.177)
PLEASE NOTE THAT A CONSIDERABLY MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS ITEM IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. (Inventory #: 006030)
Churchills letter is typed on a single sheet of Admiralty stationery, headed with a printed, blue Admiralty device and dated 30 April 1940 at the upper right. The salutation My Dear Sir, the valediction Yours vy ty [sic], and the signature Winston S. Churchill are all in Churchills hand. The letter politely rejects a request from journalist Alfred Fischer for a meeting, Churchill offering I am sure that your Editor will understand how fully occupied I am at the present time The letter is accompanied by its original franked envelope, the flap featuring the raised, printed ADMIRALTY WHITEHALL device and still sealed with red wax imprinted with an Admiralty signet.
An additional 8th June, 1940 letter to Fischer is from John Howard Peck, the only one of Churchills wartime Private Secretaries to serve for the entirety of Churchills wartime premiership. This typed, hand-emended, and signed letter is on 10, Downing Street, Whitehall stationery, printed thus at the upper right, with a PRIME MINISTER device at the upper left. The letter, written less than a month after Churchill became wartime Prime Minister, is addressed to a woman who made an appeal on Fischers behalf after Fischer was detained as a Category B alien. Peck writes: Mr. Churchill has had enquiries made into the case of Mr. Fischer but he regrets that nothing can be done in the matter at the moment
Each letter, as well as the envelope, is housed in its own clear, removable, archival mylar sleeve. The sleeves are housed in a rigid, crimson cloth folder.
Alfred Joachim Fischer
We know little about Mrs. Hochner other than her apparent concern and advocacy for Alfred Fisher. But Mr. Fishers story is known, at least in part, and is intriguingly interwoven with the general tragedy of allied internment of enemy aliens and the compound brutalities visited on German Jews fleeing Hitlers Reich.
Alfred Joachim Fischer (1909-1992) was a German Jew working as a journalist for a liberal newspaper in Berlin at the end of the republic. In 1933, the year Hitler became German chancellor and the first concentration camps were established, Fischer began an emigration odyssey via Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, the Balkans, Palestine, and Turkey. In 1939 he fled at the last minute from Prague to Great Britain. But his flight from one persecutor only delivered him to another.
Fischer was detained as a potential Category B enemy alien. Eventually he was among those deported to Australia on the HMT Dunera. The 57-day voyage was not only under threat by German U-boats; detainees faced regular beatings and robbery at the hands of British soldiers and officers on board.
As Fischer later recalled, I was only allowed to take a few items with me, including a personal letter from Winston Churchill. Ostensibly that was this same letter. (Translated from Fischer, In der Nahe der Ereignisse, p.177)
PLEASE NOTE THAT A CONSIDERABLY MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THIS ITEM IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. (Inventory #: 006030)
(619) 384-7992
