As a student and young fellow , Grierson had a great interest in and admiration for the Soviet Union , which led him to spend a summer touring it with a friend in 1932 . Subsequently , he published a bibliography of literature on the Soviet Union down to 1942 , which he updated annually until 1950 . Grierson 's distaste with fascist régimes manifested itself in a refusal to visit Spain under Franco , and also in a visit to Germany in 1938 to aid the release of two Jewish academics . They were the father and father-in-law of David Daube , a friend of Philip and subsequently regius professor of civil law at Oxford . After being rounded up in Kristallnacht ( 9 November 1938 – 10 November 1938 ) they had been sent to the Dachau concentration camp . Once Grierson and some friends had been alerted to the situation by Daube they moved very fast , obtaining a visa to visit Germany on 14 November and papers for the release under British visa of Daube 's relatives expedited by the MP for Cambridge university . After flying to Frankfurt on 18 November , Grierson arranged the release of Daube 's relatives on 20 and 26 November , and travelled with them back to England
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Philip Grierson