Sketch of the barbed wire fence surrounding the internment camp on the Isle of Man.
Overview
- Caption
- Sketch of the barbed wire fence surrounding the internment camp on the Isle of Man.
- Date
-
1940
- Locale
- Isle of Man, Great Britain
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Eric F. Bowes
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Eric F. Bowes
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Erich Bowes (born Erich Brauer) was the son Wilhelm Brauer and Ida Boehm Brauer. He was born on December 25, 1922 in Breslau, Germany where his parents were iron and steel merchants. After the Nazi takeover, Jews were no longer able to attend regular German schools, so Erich received vocational training on a farm in Gross Breesen, outside of Breslau, from November 1937 to March 1939. However, once he realized that this would not greatly hasten his escape from Germany, he decided to return home. To facilitate his return, his father bribed the SS man in charge of Gross Breesen with 100 marks to give Erich official permission. The Gestapo in Breslau told Erich he had to work for the Jewish community, with the stipulation that he leave the country within six months.
Erich left on a Kindertransport to England on June 27, 1939. From July 1939 to January 1940, Erich stayed on a farm in Litton Cheney near Dorchester, and then he spent the next six months in a youth hostel at 104 Nightingale Road, London. However, in June 1940, Erich was deemed an enemy alien by virtue of his German birth, and on June 21 he was deported from London to an internment camp on the Isle of Man. He returned to London in November and enlisted in the British Army. He later joined the Special Operation Executive (SOE) in a unit known as the 12 Force. Composed largely of immigrants, 12 Force was trained to drop into enemy territory to support partisans, guide Allied airmen who had been shot down, and hinder enemy activities. He trained with them until 1943, when he left 12 Force to assume special assignments for the SOE. On assignment, Erich parachuted into Germany and performed sabotage, through the demolition of German factories and railroad switches. In the autumn of 1945, he was detailed to escort SS War criminals held in Great Britain to SHAEF in Paris and Nuremberg. While in Nuremberg, Erich received a cable sent by the American chaplain Lippman informing him that his parents were in the Deggendorf displaced persons camp. They had been deported to Theresienstadt on March 1943 and then to Auschwitz in 1944. After receiving the cable Erich took a jeep to Deggendorf to reunite with his parents. Erich's parents could not get visas to immigrate to England; they instead came to the United States in 1946 and settled in New Jersey. Erich joined them in December 1948.
- Record last modified:
- 2007-07-13 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1148783
