The Diary of a Refugee Aid Worker: Reverend H. J. McLachlan in Czechoslovakia, 1938–39

Abstract

The author reproduces the original diary of Rev. H.J. McLachlan, edited with a short contextual introduction, which records his relief and rescue work in Czechoslovakia in 1938–39. A Unitarian Minister, McLachlan was one of many volunteers who responded to the refugee crisis. The diary records his month in Czechoslavakia, his contacts with fellow aid workers and individual refugee cases, coupled with McLachlan’s personal response both empathetic and antipathetic. The limitations of the wider Christian response to the refugee crisis are demonstrated by the financial and organisational constraints under which McLachlan and his colleagues worked.

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C. R. Kotzin

C.R. Kotzin received her PhD in History from the University of Southampton. Her thesis examines the responses of Christians in Britain to Jewish refugees from Europe, 1933–39. She is currently guest curator at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, USA.