This book follows the lives of female Jewish refugees who fled Nazi persecution and became nurses. In the mid twentieth-century, nursing was nominally a profession but with poor pay and harsh discipline. It was unpopular with British women, and in the years preceding the Second World War, hospitals in Britain suffered chronic nurse staffing crises. Despite the opportunities war-work offered women, the highly gendered world of mid-twentieth century Britain meant most women remained in feminised occupations. Nursing was promoted as a critical mode of employment.
Using a range of personal testimony, this book exposes the value that refugees placed on the nursing profession as a means for escape and financial independence. Following the uneven trajectory of female Jewish refugees' lives, the volume moves from the war years to the latter decades of the twentieth century when changes in the social order enabled more women to enter university and professional life. The refugee nurses, armed as they were with education and intelligence, could have moved out of nursing into more lucrative and socially advantageous work. Yet, most did not. Despite the relatively low numbers, the book demonstrates their considerable influence on nursing practice, education and research.
Jewish refugees and the British nursing profession is the first major study to explore the personal and professional lives of Jewish refugees who entered the nursing profession in Britain. It speaks not only to the historical challenges for women refugees, but current threats for migrant workers in the country's health care professions.