We Are Strangers Here

Ruth Borchardt's Interned: An Enemy Alien in Holloway Prison, reproduced here with an introduction by Charmian Brinson, was written but not completed in 1943, and only came to light after the author's recent death. The novel vividly describes the plight of a young German refugee, Anna Silver, as an 'enemy alien' in Britain on the outbreak of war, and her subsequent detention in Holloway Prison, a situation made more complex by her young child. The novel finishes as Anna Silver arrives at the Internment Camp on the Isle of Man. The second part of the novel, dealing with events on the Isle of Man, was planned but appears never to have been written. This book highlights the plight of German anti-Nazis and Jews in British exile and has a distinct air of tragicomedy about it. Little has been written on the internment of women during the Second World War, and this book will appeal to readers interested in modern history, social history, and women's studies.