AUSTRIAN STUDIES, I3, 2OO5 275 to some extent deadening, but take one man out of many and it can still be heartbreaking' (p. 206). Magdalen College, Oxford Robert Pyrah Wien London , hin und retour. Das Aust?an Centre inLondon 1939 bis 1947. By Marietta Bearman, Charmian Brinson, Richard Dove, Anthony Grenville and Jennifer Taylor. Vienna: Czernin. 2004, 287 pp. 23,00. isbn 3-7076-0165-X. This book focuses on an organization set up in London in 1939 by Austrian refugees who had escaped Nazi persecution. Assisting newly arrived immigrants inadapting to life ina foreign country and providing an Austrian oasis inLondon to ease homesickness were among itsprincipal purposes until 1947, when the Austrian Centre closed itsdoors. As well as supporting individual immigrants, the Centre tried to establish itself as an official organization representing the Austrian people and therefore entided to negotiate with the British government for an improvement in the legal status ofAustrian immigrants toGreat Britain. The authors explore how the Austrian Centre gradually made itselfheard. As the British started to detain so-called enemy aliens in camps all over the country ? some were even transferred to places as distant as Australia ? the Austrian Centre made every effort to convince the British government thatAustria was to be considered as an occupied country and not a German war ally, and therefore that the internment of Austrian men as enemy aliens was incorrect according to international law.The demand for recognition of Austria and her people as victims of Nazi Germany soon became the basis of all of theAustrian Centre's endeavours, both in the cultural sphere and in terms of political lobbying. The Allied Powers adopted a similar stance when, in theMoscow Declaration of 30 October 1943, theydeclared Austria to have been 'the first country to fall victim toHitlerite aggression' and asserted that theywished 'to see re-established a free and independent Austria'. Towards the end of thewar theAustrians pleaded for a separate battalion within the British forces, in order to support the Allies in the liberation ofAustria. In tracing the development of the Austrian Centre during the war years, the authors follow the chronology of international events, and the respective chapters are structured in accordance with the changes in Soviet-British relations. In doing so, they emphasize how far theAustrian Centre's bargaining power depended on Soviet politics ? because the Austrian Centre was dominated by Communists. Consequently, the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939 had generally negative effects on the Austrian Centre's credibility and shattered political beliefs within the leftist exile community. Despite Stalin's policy, the Austrian Centre tried to present itself as a reliable ally in the battle against Hitler. But itwas not only the Austrian Centre that strived for British acknowledgement. Several exile organizations tried to establish themselves as the legitimate representatives ofAustrians in exile, and strong rivalry,especially between Communists and Socialists, prevented concerted action, while the British showed no preference for either. 276 Reviews The Austrian Centre activists followed twomain strategies. First, they used informal contacts with British politicians to gain intercessors for Austrian interests, as is recounted by Charmian Brinson in the third part. Second, they launched massive propaganda to attract the attention of the British public to the Austrian case, focusing on future conceptions of Austria as well as on the fate of theAustrian refugees inBritain. The youth organization 'Young Austria', for example, not only introduced Austrian teenagers to patriotic thinking but also was able to reach British youth organizations. The authors dedicate a considerable part of their book to the manifold cultural endeavours of the Austrian Centre, to publications such as Zeitspiegel and Austrian News, to theatre groups such as the 'Laterndl' and to musical events. Evidently, the Austrian emigrants did not flinch from trading in tired clich?s, and promoted both classical music and, on stage, the Wiener Schm?h as Austrian cultural assets. A critical examination of this phenomenon would have enhanced the historical analysis. In concentrating on the different means of political propaganda used by the Austrian Centre, the authors manage to avoid the well-trodden path of a biographical focus on renowned ?migr?s, and are thus able to reveal interesting perspectives. However, the reader is in...