Based on an exceptional cache of documents charting Cambridge Assessment's examinations in 1938, this article uncovers evidence of the board's early, pioneering work with displaced learners. The newly discovered documents form part of an archive collection already catalogued, relating to the work of Jack Roach who was responsible for the Cambridge English Examinations before and during the Second World War. In this article Group Archivist, Gillian Cooke takes a historiographical approach, drawing on each document in the collection to reveal the pressures and preoccupations of Roach in relation to his work with German Jewish candidates and the Cambridge English qualifications. The forces of an escalating international political crisis are shown to impact directly on examination candidates, teachers and centres as well as on the revision of existing qualifications and the development of new ones. The documents offer a unique glimpse at an extraordinary time in the history of Cambridge Assessment and how it responded to new challenges to examination standards.