The imperial war museum as a source of information for historians of immigrant minorities: The example of Germans in Britain during the first World War

Abstract

This article looks at the importance of the Imperial War Museum as a source of information for historians of immigrant minorities with reference to the plight of the Germans in Britain during the First World War. Three classes of documents are considered. First, the memoirs of a German, Richard Noschke, which discuss his experiences both inside and outside internment camps. Second, a number of diaries kept by English people, which deal particularly with ‘spy fever’. And third, pamphlets and journals of the British Empire Union, the most important anti‐alien organization of the war years.