A Life Lived Unconstrained
Alumnus Lord Alf Dubs tells us about his life,
from child refugee to House of Lords Peer
Alumnus and House of Lords Peer Alf Dubs (BSc Government 1954) has had a long and successful career in politics, first standing for election in 1970. At six years old however, Alf was a passenger on Nicholas Winton’s Kindertransport, fleeing Prague due to the rise of the Nazis. Alf discusses his life, his experiences as a Jewish refugee, an LSE student in the 1950s and his career as a politician in the House of Commons and House of Lords.
Memories of Prague
The Germans occupied Prague on 15 March 1939. Shortly after the invasion we were told that we had to tear out the picture of the Czech president Benes from our schoolbooks and replace it with a picture of Hitler.
My father left immediately for the UK but when my mother was refused permission to leave, she put me on a Kindertransport train. It was June 1939 and I can still clearly see her standing on the platform waving me off, surrounded by German soldiers in uniforms and swastikas. When we reached Holland I remember the older children on the train cheering – I didn’t know why – I was looking out for windmills and wooden shoes. Only afterwards did I understand that they were cheering because we had reached safety from the Nazis.
I was lucky though. Unlike the other children who were being fostered, when I got to London my father was waiting for me.
There is desperation among the Jews. Those who can are trying to reach any foreign sanctuary that will take them. But according to reliable sources, it is impossible for anyone, even diplomats, to leave Prague without special visas from the secret police.
Daily Herald, Friday 17 March 1939
Three hundred persons, mostly Jews, who have permits or notices of permits to go to England, are already in Prague...It is felt, in view of the present situation, that unless these people can be rapidly removed, the consequences cannot be predicted.
Birmingham Mail, Saturday 18 March 1939
Mr. Nicholas Winton, the hon. secretary of the child refugees from Czechoslovakia organisation told me he had 6,000 children on his books waiting to be brought to this country. His committee has already brought 500 to England.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, Monday 14 August 1939
Life in the UK
I was so much more fortunate than many of the other children who I travelled with as my mother was able to escape and join us. She arrived in London the day before the war broke out. However, the biggest adjustment for us was the death of my father, just a few months after my mother arrived, which left my mother without an income or family and unable to speak English. Fortunately, she found a job scrubbing floors in a British Restaurant in Manchester.
One of my earliest memories of England was seeing women soldiers – possibly from the ATS – marching in Hyde Park. I thought that was marvellous – the only soldiers I’d seen until then had been men and mainly German occupiers. I was six when I arrived here, and I only spoke German and Czech so my father enrolled me in a school so I could learn English.
LSE in the 1950s
I was at LSE during the post-war period so there were quite a lot of older undergraduates who were ex-forces. I was excited to be in London – I’d only ever visited it before – and to be at the illustrious LSE. I had admired Harold Laski greatly and aspired to being taught by him. Although Laski died before I went up to LSE, I was excited to immerse myself in a political environment – something that I didn’t have at home.
While the exhilaration of the 1945-51 Labour government soon gave way to the despair of the Conservative government that succeeded it, politics was in the air! I canvassed in Holborn and St Pancras in the 1951 elections, and I found my lectures intellectually exciting. I spent two happy years in university accommodation at Passfield Hall and I remember friendship and comradery. Many of the friends I made remained lifelong friends.
We are renowned as a 'hot-bed of agitation against the exploitation of man by man,' and this pre-eminently socialistic outlook is quite unique amongst the other colleges.
Don Last, LSE Labour Society,
The Beaver, May 1953
That LSE as a School of Political Science should produce and encourage students with a political bias is understandable; it is nonsensical, however, that this attitude should permeate and riddle Union Affairs.
The Beaver, October 1953
The University Mock Parliament held at L.S.E this term was a shock for the Socialists. The opposition vote of 56 is significant in that it included 19 Liberals and a few Communists. Against this the Conservatives mustered 90, a formidable achievement.
The Beaver, February 1954
I was passionately interested in politics from an early age. It struck me that if politics could cause so much evil in the shape of Hitler’s Germany, then it could surely also be used for good.
My proudest moments from my career include my role as a minister in Northern Ireland. I worked for Mo Mowlam and played a small part in securing a peace process that led to the Good Friday Agreement. I have also achieved amendments in the House of Lords on behalf of child refugees the so-called Dubs Amendment (I would never have called it that) has provided a safe route to the UK for 480 unaccompanied asylum-seeking child refugees stranded in Europe.
The amendment stipulates that “the secretary of state must, as soon as possible, make arrangements to relocate 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children who are in European countries to the United Kingdom”.
Guardian, 21 March 2016
However, none of this might have happened had I not been encouraged by a Labour MP to go for a seat in Parliament. When going into politics, I believed that my refugee background meant that I couldn’t have a higher ambition than to be a local councillor. I shouldn’t have constrained myself and, looking back, I realise I should have gone for it sooner. That’s the advice I give refugees today.
Interested in reading LSE alumni life stories?
Explore more alumni profiles here.
Built with Shorthand