Franz Kohner (rear, centre) ran the Refugee Resettlement Farm at Millisle, County Down with his wife Edith from July 1939. He later set up a successful clothing company in Belfast, Belart Ltd. (Photograph: Billy Kohner) In August 1938, a short news item appeared in a Jewish newspaper in Vienna, describing a Stormont scheme which the city’s Jews hoped would save them from intense Nazi persecution.
The report said the Northern Ireland government had supported an unnamed Austrian Jew, who was employing Viennese refugees in an Ulster factory, and was prepared to consider applications from employers and skilled workers who could train local people..