Hello, my name is Alf Dubs. I remember the House of
Lords and I'm a humanist. I've been invited to talk on prison
radio. As a humanist.
You probably know that as any religious prisoners have the
right
to champions of their particular faith. So non religious prisons
also have the right to humanists, visitors. However,
that's not possible at the moment, as you understand
because of the virus. And so some of us from Humanists UK,
have been asked to talk on prison radio about themes that
matter to us.
I'll tell you a little bit a little bit about my background.
I was born in Prague, I came to Britain to escape the Nazis on a
Kindertransport run by that marvellous man, Nicholas Winton.
He came to Prague
In 1938 39, so what was happening to people,
particularly Jews, with the threat of the Nazis and then the
occupation by the Nazis, and helped to organise children out
of Prague on Kindertransport as other people did from Germany,
Austria and other countries. I remember the German invasion.
I remember. I remember how German soldiers everywhere. We
had to take a picture of the Czech president out of our
schoolbooks, I was six years old, and stick in a picture of
Hitler. And my mother put me on a train anxious parents not
knowing whether they'll ever see their children again. German
soldiers in the back cover swastikas the old ones knew what
was going on. As I said, I was six years old and I don't think
I really understood except it all seemed rather dramatic.
Anyway, the chain long chain journey but on Halliburton
seats, you don't mind if your six year old. I didn't know
anybody on the train.
Have a couple of hundred of us I think. And and so we proceeded
on the train to the Dutch border.
I was looking out for windmills and wooden shoes. I couldn't see
any. The older ones cheered because they're out of reach of
the Nazis. And then the hook of Holland carriage and then to
Liverpool stayed where we were met with our dog dog tags
allocated to relatives family or, or people who would foster
us. So that was a story of my journey. If it hadn't been for
the Kindertransport, I don't think I'd have survived the
Holocaust, because I'm half Jewish myself.
And so I got involved in politics. I got involved in
politics because I was passionately trying to try to
understand why what had happened to me it happened. And so I
I eventually went into politics and into the commons and then
and then got in the House of Lords. One of the issues about
which I'm particularly concerned
Refugees, especially child refugees, understandably, given
my own background of the cause is important to regardless of
whether the person advocating It has been a refugee himself or
herself or not.
Anyway, what happened was that in 2016, the Syrian crisis scene
was and people fled Syria happened.
And we learned that there were 95,000 unaccompanied child
effigies somewhere in Europe. Some of them are in northern
France, somewhere in Greece, and in Italy, and I moved an
amendment in Parliament that we should take some of these
children who had no no family here, but who were absolutely
vulnerable, vulnerable to
to criminals vulnerable to prostitution, vulnerable to
trafficking, very vulnerable young people frightened,
frightened and on their own summit travelled months to get
to get to get to Europe, from Afghan
On Syria, all parts of Africa.
So the amendment, eventually, the government accepted the
amendment. They opposed it initially. And then they
accepted the amendment, because they realised that public
opinion that suddenly woken up to what was happening, I should
say, by the way that in the refugee camps or
what's left to them, there are young people volunteers who are
giving a lot a lot of time and effort out of their lives to
help other people who are very vulnerable and that's how
they'll they'll humane and humanitarian and humanist thing
to be thing to be doing. I went to Calais, the jungle and after
it was pulled down or was left of it, and also in theory,
Collins the conditions were terrible. They're not just young
people, but young people lying, sleeping in under tarpaulins,
and no shelter, no paragraph some vulnerable, frightened,
anxious to find
Safety
and and, you know, without without much hope until Britain
and other countries say yes you, you can come to us. Now there's
a part of the European treaty called the Dublin Treaty, which
allows children who've got family
in another EU country to join them. That's for money, you
can't teach another. And, again, we wanted to continue that after
but left the EU. And that was another amendment that I moved.
And again, again, eventually the government except accepted it
sup with with a credit of argument. So we've our children
have got no family here and suddenly have a family here. And
some of them are waiting and waiting to come to Britain. If
they can't get here legally. Then what they do is they go on
the back of a truck or they come on a dinghy very, very
dangerous. And so I think I think it's one of the most
important things how we live after refugees. I don't think
Britain should take them all by any means.
I do think we should share responsibility along with other
along with other European European countries. So that's
one of the causes not only human is caused, it's one of the
causes that, that I feel very, very close to, and I'm still
involved and active in it. Let me let me say, say something
else. I've got a, I've got a poem here, but by W.H. Auden, it
s called 'Refugee Blues'. I'd ike to just read a little bit of
it, because it sums up some o my feelings and sums up some of
the things that are happenin or happening that happened in
the past. It was written in the 1930s. I'm just rea
ing extracts fro
Say this city has 10 million souls, some are living in
mansions, some are living in holes. Yet there's no place for
us, my dear. Yet there's no place for us. Once we had a
country and we thought it fair, looked in the Atlas and you'll
find it there. We cannot go there now, my dear. We cannot
Go then now.
And then about particles on my passports, the console, bang the
table and said, if you've got no passport, you're officially
dead. But we're still alive by the year we're still alive. Went
to committee. They offered me a chair. Ask people likely to
return next year. But where should we go today, my dear, but
where should we go today? came to a public meeting. The speaker
got up and said, if we let them in, they'll steal our daily
bread. We're talking about you and me, my dear. We're talking
we was talking to you and me. Forth I heard the thunder
rumbling in the sky was Hitler over Europe saying they must
die. Oh, we were in is my mind. Yeah, we were in his mind.
Walked so would saw the birds in the trees. They had no
politicians and saying it as they went the human race My
dear. They went the human race. Doing die saw a building with
1000 floors, 1000 windows and 1000 doors. Not one of them was
ours. My dear not
One of them was ours.
stood on a great plane in the falling snow 10,000 soldiers
marched to and fro looking for you and me, my dear looking for
you and me.
And that's the end of that poem. I think it's pretty moving. And
I will have a tear my when I when I read it, or when I when I
when I think of what he describes. And finally, just a
bit of music, just a bit of music I like I like lots of bit
of music, but this might be a more cheerful and sentimental
end to my talk. Thank you very much for listening to me.