The Chalet School Peace League Quiz

Answer:

After the Anschluss in 1938, when Austria was absorbed by Germany, the future of the Chalet School, situated in the Austrian Tirol, looked very uncertain. They had already moved from their original home by the shore of the Tiernsee to a disused hotel, der Edel Ritter, on the Sonnalpe near the Sanatorium. Dr. Jem Russell, the owner of the Sanatorium, had manged to persuade his wife, Madge, who had founded the school, and Hilda Annersley, the Head Mistress, that it would be safer for the school as part of the larger community on the mountain shelf.

That move had taken place during half-term in the Spring term. Before the end of that term it was becoming obvious that many of the girls would be leaving at the end of term. Some were to go home to their own countries, as their parents were not very happy about the political situation in Austria. Most of the German and Austrian girls' parents had received instructions that their daughters should be educated in Nazi schools.

Led by the prefects, the girls held a meeting to discuss the forthcoming changes. They drew up the document that would become known as the Chalet School Peace League and everyone present signed it. They told Joey Bettany, the first pupil of the school and by then an old girl, about it. She agreed to sign it, and also offered to get some of the other old girls to sign it. She suggested that they should ask the staff to be involved, too.

The girls intended to hide the document in a nearby cave. But they realised that they were being spied upon by a local woman and her son, who were suspected of acting for the Nazis, and decided it would not be safe to do that. The document was eventually smuggled out of Austria and returned to Jo and the school at the end of their first term (in December 1939) after the school had re-opened in a new location on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel.

However, Guernsey looked increasingly unsafe, and the school moved to the Golden Valley in the Welsh borders during the Easter holidays in 1940. While there, the Peace League was spoken about at the beginning of each term. Any new girls who wished to do so, were invited to add their names to the list of signatories.

The full text of the document was:-
"We, the girls of the Chalet School, hereby vow ourselves members of the Chalet School League. We swear faithfully to do all we can to promote peace between all our countries. We will not believe any lies spoken about evil doings, but we will try to get others to work for peace as we do. We will not betray this League to any enemy, whatever may happen to us. If it is possible, we will meet at least once a year. And we will always remember that though we belong to different lands, we are members of the Chalet School League of Peace."

Elinor Brent-Dyer was unusual in distinguishing between Nazis and other Germans, and thereby encouraging her readers to do the same. She did not believe that all the German people should be hated, even though that country was at war with the United Kingdom.