Change of time and meeting point - CITY OF REFUGE: A WALKING TOUR OF WARTIME CAMBRIDGE

During WWII, Cambridge played a key role as city of refuge for people fleeing the War. Incredible women like Greta Burkill, Sybil Hutton, and Eva Hartree facilitated the kindtertransport that saved the lives of thousands of refugee children. Cambridge residents opened their homes, while the ‘Academic Assistance Council’ (AAC), presided over by future Nobel laureates Ernst Rutherford and Archibald Hill, found homes for over 2,000 refugee scholars; 16 later won Nobel prizes, 74 became Fellows of the Royal Society, and 34 Fellows of the British Academy. The AAC, now the ‘Council for At Risk Academics’ (CARA), continues to bring refugee scholars to Britain and Cambridge today.

Our walking tour includes entrance to Cambridge Colleges, as well as visits to streets in Cambridge home to houses opened to refugees from WWII on. Discussions will touch on the lives of Nobel laureates like Max Perutz and Hans Krebs (of ‘Krebs Cycle’ fame), as well as the economist Piero Sraffa, who helped Ludwig Wittgenstein to some of his most important philosophical insights. We will look, too, at institutions that moved to Cambridge, from the London School of Economics to one of the most important music libraries in the world, the Hirsch Collection, first welcomed to the UK by the town and University of Cambridge. The tour will cover approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km), and will last approximately one and a half hours.