Les Rayons (Gland)

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The school that Max and Gertrud Bondy founded in 1936 as a school in exile in Gland, Switzerland , has become known under the name Les Rayons . After her expulsion from Germany and the related quasi-expropriation of her Landerziehungsheim Schule Marienau , Les Rayons was her first attempt to establish a new professional life in a country of exile.

Prehistory

Les Rayon has two different and independent histories, both of which are examples of life and survival in emigration. One leads from the founding of a Quaker school in Switzerland to the admission of émigré children in an English school, the other leads via a German educational home to a first emigration to Switzerland to final exile in the USA. The point of contact between the two stories is Gland.

The "International Fellowship School"

In October 1921, the English Quaker Emma Thomas (1872-1959) founded a school with initially 11 students in Gland with the support of the “Fellowship of Reconciliation”. In 1924 there were already 32 pupils who came from eight different countries: Switzerland, England, France, Germany, Holland, America, Austria and Italy. The school was intended as an experimental facility to prepare its students for life in a “New World”, for service to the community and for life in freedom. At the same time, multilingualism, the parallel command of three or four languages ​​was part of the concept.

The school maintained close relationships with the village population of Gland and incorporated them into the school's work with exhibitions and lectures. On the other hand, the village framework was repeatedly broken up by excursions and trips that were intended to emphasize the international character of the school. For this purpose, however, she also maintained a deliberately open house and welcomed guests from all over the world. This spirit of the school is described by a quote from Emma Thomas:

"Some people smile at us and say frankly," What difference can you make to the world? "We do not waste time in thinking about that. We are just trying hard to begin to establish the kingdom in that small spot of earth where alone our will rules. "

Between 1928 and 1933, about 12 teachers, including blacks, Chinese, French, British, and Americans, were responsible for about 40 girls and boys. They lived in several bungalows in a spacious garden area. All employees, including the director, the cook and the gardener, were paid uniformly. They received 100 Swiss francs a month and had free board and lodging if they lived on the school premises. The food was vegetarian and the table service was incumbent upon all members of the school community, with a rotating cast. The Sanskrit forms of address for the teaching staff were unusual . The names “Pitar” for men and “Moto” for women were followed by their respective first names, Emma Thomas was Mãtã, the mother.

The many student reports cited by Blaylock testify to an atmosphere comparable to that of the German rural education centers to echoes of Summerhill . But the experiment of a new form of education and a culture of peace did not produce the desired results. There were conflicts, and one teacher, Fr. Natarajan, who also used school as a research field for his doctorate at the Sorbonne, found that freedom for students sometimes leads to chaos in the classroom and often the difference between school work and vacation blur. Reading, writing, and math would suffer. But in 1995 the Italian writer and translator Gioconda Salvadori (better known in Italy under her pseudonym Joyce Lussu; 1912–1998), who has criticized her everyday school life in Gland and also left school at her own request, came to an interview the assessment that in the area of ​​education only very modest progress had been made compared to what had been dared at the time in Gland. The students would have asked a lot from their teachers, and since it was they who made the demands, attention would have been guaranteed in class. She emphasizes how important the relationship between teachers and students was as a relationship among equals.

The “International Fellowship School” - Blaylock claims that the name École internationale “Les Rayons” has always been in use for it in French - closes in 1936. Blaylock does not know why; his focus is not primarily on the school, but on the person Emma Thomas. She went back to London, volunteered in air raids during World War II, looked after 15 evacuated children, taught Italian prisoners of war in English, and at the end of the war she received permission to go to Italy, where she wanted to work with the aim of bringing two peoples together again bring together.

"Ayton School"

From 1841 to 1997 the Great Ayton Friends' School existed in Great Ayton (North Yorkshire / England) . The school was a Quaker-run co-educational agricultural boarding school. The Ayton School was not only oriented towards co-education, it was also intended for children from interreligious mixed marriages . Jennifer Taylor sees this as one reason why, from 1933 onwards, the Ayton School of all places offered a greater number of refugee children than other Quaker schools. At the time there were twelve Quaker boarding schools in England that provided 100 scholarships for refugee children and were willing to provide additional support for school costs in emergencies. These activities were coordinated by the Germany Emergency Committee .

There were around 40 refugee children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia who attended the Ayton School between 1935 and 1942 . These forty children also included some who had previously attended the “International Fellowship School” and now experienced another stage of their exile here. Hanno Reichenbach, who later changed his surname and called himself Reed, and his friend Walter Balnemones came from Gland in 1935 and were the first refugee children in the Ayton School . In the summer of 1936, George Sanger and his mother went on vacation to the "Fellowship School", which was already being closed. There they got to know the housekeeping supervisor who was due to leave before their departure, and with whose help George became a pupil at the Ayton School .

Whether more than these three found their way to England via Gland and what has become of the children and young people who attended the International Fellowship School up to 1936 cannot be answered. Here, too, the following applies, with which Jennifer Taylor ended her investigation: This is not intended as a definitive document, but as a start to which more should be added. It is in an attempt to encourage the filling of this vacuum in our history that this manuscript is submitted.

From Marienau to Gland

The second strand of the history of Les Rayons leads to Dahlem in the Lower Saxony province, where

at Gut Marienau since 1929

operated. This school, rooted in the tradition of reform education , was increasingly exposed to repression after the National Socialist seizure of power due to Max Bondy's Jewish origins, which ultimately forced the Bondys to flee Germany.

Why Gland was chosen as the escape destination and the school Les Rayons cannot be clearly clarified. After Barbara Kersken, the contact came through Paul Geheeb , who had founded a school in exile near Geneva in 1934 and who had good international contacts. He would have made contact with the international “Fellowship School” in Gland, although it remains open whether its closure was already under discussion at the time or whether it was intended to continue under new management. In any case, in 1936 Gertrud Bondy went with her two younger children “to Gland on Lake Geneva to 'reorganize' the Swiss school 'Les Rayons' - according to the official version”. The article by Hannele Baruschke shows that the takeover of Les Rayons was a bit more complex. Afterwards, Harald Baruschke, a former Marienau graduate and her later husband, was “lecturer at the University of London” when he was offered by Emma Thomas Les Rayons . Another participant in the takeover of Les Rayons was Georg Roeper, also an old student from Marienau, who had already been a student of Max Bondy at the previous school in Gandersheim. "In 1936 and 1937, together with Harald Baruschke, he helped found the Bondy School Les Rayons in Gland on Lake Geneva in Switzerland and in handling the sale of Marienau forced by the Nazis."

Harald Baruschke, Gertrud Bondy and their two youngest children were the outposts of the Bondy school in Gland. In 1936, Gertrud, Ulla and Heinz were the first of the family to immigrate to Switzerland, where Gertrud established École de Les Rayons at a former Quaker school in Gland, near Lake Geneva. Harald Baruschke had opened the school earlier, and it soon became a haven for Jewish children escaping from Europe. The driving force behind the departure from Germany was apparently Gertrud Bondy, while her husband Max still hoped to be able to continue working in Marienau.

“In 1936 my mother, Gertrud Bondy, became convinced that there would be no more room in Germany for our family and for my parents' ideas. [..] My father and I stayed in Marienau. [..] He couldn't imagine that we were not wanted in Germany with our Jewish descent. He wanted to stay as long as possible. It was a sad but also a nice last year for both of us; beautiful, because Marienau has a peculiar beauty, [..] sad because, despite my father's hope, we both basically knew that our life there was over forever. "

At the end of 1936, the state authorities prohibited Max Bondy from running the school in Marienau beyond March 31, 1937. Bondy had to quickly find a successor for the school, which he managed with the support of Ernst Reisinger from the Landheim Schondorf . After the school was sold, which amounted to an expropriation, and handed over to Bernhard Knoop , Max Bondy followed his family to Switzerland with his daughter Annemarie in 1937.

"Les Rayons" - The Bondy School in Switzerland

The new beginning

Gertrud Bondy and Harald Baruschke started in Gland with a few students and summer camp guests. These summer camps also took place in the following years, partly in the form of language courses, but partly as resting places for people on the move. Together with Gertrud Bondy, not only two of her own children came to Gland, but also pupils from Marienau. From there, Max Bondy brought his daughter and other children with him in 1937.

For many children the school became an outpost for another emigration , they had been sent ahead by their parents while they were preparing their own emigration. Others had been deliberately sent to Gland by their parents because they wanted their children to remain in the care of the Bondys. There were children from many nations, Jewish children as well as non-Jewish children, some received support from aid organizations, and foreign currency could even be transferred from Germany to Switzerland for German students. Despite the scarce resources, it was possible to offer the students a reasonably carefree life. Annemarie Roeper-Bondy remembers interesting visitors to the school, lectures, music and theater events, but also ski trips in the Mont-Blanc area and sporting activities such as sailing or swimming. And the school community meetings, in which the students should learn to participate in decisions. “Here was a happy coexistence with students from many parts of the world. Life went on as if our world as we knew it had not collapsed. But we were touched more and more by this collapsing world. "

The Bondy School without the Bondys

It is not clear when the Bondy family decided to leave Switzerland. With Annemarie Roeper-Bondy, it sounds as if moving to the USA was a constant topic when she writes: “At the same time as running the school, my parents were busy emigrating to America.” In fact, this step seems to be to have been considered shortly after Max Bondy's arrival in Switzerland, because as early as December 1938, just over a year later, it was considered unavoidable. The Bondys close a report on the school with the words:

"We shall open a similar school in the United States at the beginning of the next year, [the Windsor Mountain School.] It will be run according to the same principles as our Swiss school [and Marienau]." An exchange of pupils should be of interest to American and Continental parents. "

Chartock sees the reason for this step in the fact that the Bondys have consolidated the view that Les Rayons is no longer a safe haven in view of the looming threat of war. At the same time, the intention still prevailed at the time that the new school to be founded in the USA “to serve as 'an American counterpart' to their Swiss school, but due to the war, they had to give up that idea.” The management of the move Georg Roeper was responsible for the USA. He went to the United States six months before the Bondys to find a new school location. Annemarie Roeper-Bondy:

“Just as we would not have moved to Switzerland without Harald's help, I believe that without Georg we would not have emigrated to America. We followed him half a year later. Georg and I got married two weeks after we arrived in America. "

While the Bondys established the Windsor Mountain School in the USA , Les Rayons remained under the direction of Harald Baruschke and his wife Hannele. The end came in the spring of 1943, when foreign exchange transfers to Switzerland were no longer possible and an important component in the financing of the school was no longer possible. Closing the school was associated with high financial burdens for the Baruschkes, which they later had to reduce in small installments. In the war years, no new students came to the school either, and those who remained were able to find other places. The last 10 children were accepted by Swiss families or were taken into the care of aid organizations. The Baruschkes had to hand over the school empty, to whom is not mentioned.

literature

  • Annemarie Roeper, Karen Mireau Smith: Marienau: A Daughter's Reflections. Azalea Art Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9849760-4-1 .
  • Oswald Graf zu Münster: Commemorative speech for Georg Roeper on October 18, 1992 in Marienau. In: Marienauer Chronik. (1993) 46, pp. 149-154.
  • Hannele Baruschke: The school in Gland - also a Bondy school. In: Marienauer Chronik. (1993) 46, pp. 168-171.
  • Annemarie Roeper-Bondy: "Les Rayons". The Bondy School in Switzerland. In: Marienauer Chronik. 47 (1994), pp. 140-143.
  • Roselle Kline Chartock: Windsor Mountain School: A Beloved Berkshire Institution. Charleston 2014, ISBN 978-1-62619-443-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A pacifist organization founded in 1914 that, in view of the outbreak of World War I, sought spiritual ways to counter the effects of the war with a society in accordance with the divine commandments. Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 7.
  2. ↑ Blaylock suspects that the proximity to Geneva, the international organizations that became established there after the end of the First World War and the spirit of optimism they conveyed could have been the decisive factor in favor of Gland.
  3. ^ Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 11.
  4. ^ Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 12.
  5. ↑ “There was a series of bungalows in a lovely garden which overlooked the lake.” Joyce Lussu, quoted from Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 13.
  6. ^ Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 12.
  7. ^ Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 12.
  8. ^ Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 14.
  9. ^ Gerard Blaylock: Emma Thomas in England, Switzerland and Italy: a life devoted to education. P. 17.
  10. ↑ Jennifer Taylor: The Missing Chapter.
  11. ^ The first German refugee children in Ayton. ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aytonoldscholars.org
  12. ↑ George Sanger's Way to "Ayton School". ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aytonoldscholars.org
  13. ^ Barbara Kersken: Archive School Marienau
  14. ↑ Hannele Baruschke was herself a “Marienauerin”, belonged to Max Bondy's final graduation class in Marienau and after graduating from high school went to Gland, where she married Harald Baruschke.
  15. ^ Hannele Baruschke: The school in Gland. P. 168.
  16. ^ Oswald Graf zu Münster: Commemorative speech for Georg Roeper on October 18, 1992 in Marienau. In: Marienauer Chronik. (1993) 46, pp. 149-154.
  17. ^ Roselle Kline Chartock: Windsor Mountain School: A Beloved Berkshire Institution. ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ISBN 978-1-62619-443-4 , p. 25. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / books.google.ch
  18. ↑ Annemarie Roeper-Bondy: "Les Rayons". P. 140.
  19. ↑ "Annemarie Roeper followed in her footsteps, became an educational scientist, campaigned, among other things, for the promotion of gifted children and founded the Roeper School in 1941 together with her husband Georg. The persecution in Lüneburg, her escape from Nazi Germany together with her brother and her parents, she described poignantly shortly before her death in her book A Daughter's Reflections . ” Tom Roeper, great-grandson of Salomon Bondy, visits the virtual Lurup history workshop . There is also evidence of the Bondy's family history here. There is a video on youtube (in English) in which Annemarie Roeper-Bondy tells very sensitively how she experienced the time of the Nazi seizure of power and the farewell to Marienau: Annemarie Roeper - Across Time & Space 1
  20. ^ Roselle Kline Chartock: Windsor Mountain School. P. 67.
  21. ^ Hannele Baruschke: The school in Gland. P. 169.
  22. ↑ Annemarie Roeper-Bondy: "Les Rayons". P. 141.
  23. ↑ Annemarie Roeper-Bondy: "Les Rayons". Pp. 141-142.
  24. ^ Roselle Kline Chartock: Windsor Mountain School. P. 68. The additions in the square brackets are from the author.
  25. ^ Roselle Kline Chartock: Windsor Mountain School. P. 68.
  26. ↑ Annemarie Roeper-Bondy: "Les Rayons". P. 142.
  27. ^ Hannele Baruschke: The school in Gland. Pp. 169-171.