The British Federation of University Women: helping academic women refugees in the 1930s and 1940s

In early 1933, the members of the British Federation of University Women (BFUW), an organisation which was established in 1907 to provide a supportive network for the growing number of academic women, embarked upon a unique humanitarian mission to aid their counterparts in Europe (Sondheimer, 1957; Dyhouse, 1995). This remarkable undertaking, which came to provide academic women refugees with professional, financial and practical support, was in direct response to the growing threat from Fascism and Nazism. Almost from the moment that Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933, the BFUW Executive Committee began to receive a steady stream of calls from German members of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW), whose lives and careers were affected by restrictions imposed upon them by the Nazi regime. Some were seeking help finding work and settling in Britain, while others were looking for temporary help as trans-migrants on their way to the USA, New Zealand or Australia.