Academic refugees

At the end of last year, a symposium was held at the British Academy in London to celebrate a 75th anniversary. The anniversary was of the establishment in 1933 of a unique organisation: the Academic Assistance Council, now the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA); the Council in 1937 became formally incorporated as the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), and in the 1980s assumed its current title. Although a celebration, the anniversary was in reality a reason for sadness, in that, 75 years after its establishment as a short-term measure to cope with the German Nazi government’s policy of firing all Jews from their jobs, its work remains and its activities are currently more in demand than at any time since the 1930s.