VOLUME 9 NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2009 journal ^ Association of Jewish Refugees

Jews in double jeopardy

he Nazis reserved a particularly of revolutionary events, as Munich vicious brand of hatred for descended into a spiral of political TGermans who were both left-wing radicalisation. It was here that political political activists and Jews. AVhen such assassination entered the bloodstream of people fell into Nazi hands, they were the German extreme right; that included habitually treated with exceptional and the Nazi Party, a previously insignificant systematic brutality. One of the first sect that gained the potential to become was the writer and left-wing anarchist a major political force in 1919, when Adolf Erich Miihsam, a colourful figure on the Hitler became a member in the wake of Munich literary and political scene. He the turbulent events in Munich. In early was arrested within a few hours of the April 1919, the city lurched further to the Reichstag fire, on the night of 28 Febmary left, as a group of radicalised left-wingers 1933, and incarcerated in a concentration seized power and attempted to establish camp, where he was subjected to appalling a Rdterepublik, in which govemment was treatment. The beatings and torture to be exercised through workers' and continued after he was transferred to soldiers' councils ('Rate'), on the model Oranienburg concentration camp, and in ofthe Russian Soviets ('Soviet' is Russian July 1934 his battered body was 'found' for 'Council'). hanging in a camp latrine; he had been Richard and Gisela Bernstein with their son Jews were prominent among the murdered by his guards. Heinz and daughter Susanne leaders of this movement: the young It must be remembered that in 1933/34 writer and activist Ernst Toller was the level of violence directed by the against Jewish left-wdng political activists chairman of its Revolutionary Central Nazis against the Jews, though severe in took root on the far.right well before Council; the philosopher Gustav Landauer, individual cases, was not comparable with 1933. In January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg, an anarchist pacifist, took charge of what was to come later. Only in 1938, with leader of the infant German Communist education; and Erich Muhsam was an the Anschluss of Austria and the 'Crystal Party and a Jew from Poland, was savagely active supporter. Incoherently idealistic, Night' pogroms, did the regime escalate beaten to death during the Spartacist this group was displaced on 13 April 1919 its anti-Semitic measures, exposing the Uprising in Berlin by men of the right- by a more tough-minded regime, led by mass of the Jewish population in Germany wing paramilitary Freikorps; her body the Communist Eugen Levine, another and Austria to overt and bmtal physical was thrown into the Landwehr canal. Her Jew. But in early May 1919 right-wing persecution. And the further escalation partner, Leo Jogiches, was assassinated militias entered Munich, overthrew the to genocide took place only in 1941, with two months later. And in June 1922, left-wing regime and bloodily 'cleansed' the onset of the 'Final Solution'. Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau was the city. Landauer, an exemplary man In 1933/34, the Nazis were still assassinated by right-wing activists of peace, was shot by a soldier, then primarily concerned with destroying who considered it a slur on Germany's stamped to death; Levine was court- the organisations and resources of honour that a Jew should hold such high martialled and executed; and Toller, their political opponents, especially the representative office. who narrowly escaped with his life, Communists and Social Democrats. Their Arguably, it was in Munich, the birth­ served five grim years for high treason initiatives in the racial field were mainly place of National Socialism ('Hauptstadt in Niederschonenfeld prison, alongside limited in those early years to measures der Bewegung'), that the practice of Miihsam. excluding Jews from certain fields of physically eliminating Jewish poHdcal The anarchy and violence associated employment and activity and depriving opponents became common currency on with the short-lived Rdterepublik in them of their rights as citizens. But the the German far right. In Munich, with Munich left an abiding impression on bulk of the Jewish population was not yet the collapse of the old regime in Novem­ many middle-class Germans, though the at immediate risk of actual physical harm; ber 1918, power fell into tiie hands of a worst of the violence had in reality been indeed, manyJews continued to hope that radical left-wing govemment led by Kurt perpetrated by the right-wing forces they could live out the duration of Nazi Eisner, a Jew from Beriin, a pacifist and while 'restoring order'. In the subsequent mle in Germany. There were, of course, an intellectual. Eisner was the first to be counter-revolutionary backlash, the fear instances of severe violence against Jews, targeted: he was assassinated in Febmary of the perceived threat from the left to but these were not yet widespread on the 1919 by a right-wing aristocrat, Graf von political stability, bourgeois normality scale of later years. Arco-Valley. and middle-class prosperity took on an The regular use of violence and murder Eisner's murder triggered a sequence I continued overleaf]

I AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

JEWS IN DOUBLE JEOPARDY continued from page 1 obsessive quality, focusing largely on the figure of the left-wing Jewish intellectual, The Kindertransport 1938/9 who became for fearful right-wingers INSTTTUTE OF GERMANIC *- ROMANCE STUDIES the embodiment of an 'alien' menace to Seventy Years On German society. Centre for German-Jewish Studies This blended with the image of the New Developments In Research University of Sussex Jew propagated by the anti-Semites ofthe extreme right. For them, Jews were by Thursday, 17 September 2009 reason of their race inherently incapable of becoming part of the German Volk At the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London and were thus condemned to remain Room ST 273, Senate House, Malet Street, London WCl

outside German society, whose national Co-Ordinators: Andrea Hammel (Sussex) and Bea Lewl

they did not share. Indeed, as members Programme of an 'alien' race, Jews were deemed 9.30 Registration to be covertly united in a conspiracy to 9.50 Naomi Segal (Director, IGRS) and Christian Wiese (Director, CGJS): Welcome destroy 'healthy' German society, by 10.00 Anthony Grenville (AJR, London); Introduction 10.30 Frances Williams (Edinburgh): The NEW Kindertransport Database: Exploring Child Refugee containinating its racial purity, cormpting Experiences with Use of Statistical Information its moral order and undermining its social 11.00 Discussion and political stability. Jews, unlike 'healthy' 11.30 Coffee 12.00 Jana Buresova (London): Nicholas Winton, Man and Myth: a Czech Perspective Germans, were bloodless intellectuals, 12.30 Bea Lewkowicz (London): Kindertransport Testimonies and the AJR Refugee Voices Archive capable only of uncreative calculation 13.00 Discussion 13.30 Lunch (own arrangements) but never of tme genius, and cut off by 14.45 Leslie Brent (London): Writing the Past for the Future: Autobiographical Reflections an excess of cerebral rationality fromth e 15.15 Andrea Hammel (Sussex): The Future of Kindertransport Research 15.45 Discussion tme wellsprings of life. 16.15 Tea Here lay the origins of the Nazi 16.45 Screening of Kindertransport Story, introduced by Director Lindsay Hill concept of Judeo-Bolshevism, which 17.30 Closing Discussion paired the alleged racial threat from Registration (£15.00) required by Wednesday, 9 September 2009 the Jews with that of Marxist political The event is supported by the Centre for German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex subversion. The campaign against Judeo- For further details, please contact Jane Lewin on 0044 (0)20 7862 8966 Bolshevism was to reach its full lethal or at [email protected] frenzy after Hitler's invasion ofthe Soviet Union in 1941. Before 1933, the image of the Jew as fomenter of Communist fatally wounded. singled out for the harshest treatment: on revolution was a useful tool in the Nazis' One ofthe first captives ofthe Nazis to 7 August 1933, while being transferred propaganda armoury - though when be 'shot while attempting to escape' was to Dachau, he was shot in a wood near they needed to parade their pseudo- Felbc Fechenbach, a Jew from Wiirzburg, Detmold, apparently on the direct order Socialist credentials, they wheeled out who as a young man had been Eisner's of Reinhard Heydrich. the stereotype of the Jewish plutocrat and secretary in Munich and had been im­ The Nazis continued to track Jews capitalist instead, ignoring the evident prisoned for high treason in 1922, after with left-wing political affiliations, even contradiction between the two. a notorious trial sometimes termed the if they were little-known figures. An The Nazis came to see the left-wing 'German Dreyfus Affair'. After his release, example was Richard Bernstein, a Jew Jewish intellectual as their mortal foe, Fechenbach worked as editor of a Social from Vienna who worked as an editor the hidden antagonist behind all the op­ Democratic newspaper in Detmold, where on Vorivdrts, the official newspaper of position ranged against them. To this was his highly effective brand of campaigning the Social Democratic Party. According added the fury of bull-necked Nazi thugs anti-Nazi journalism made him a marked to documents kindly supplied to me by when they were lampooned by the sharp man. Fechenbach was arrested on 11 Susanne Medas, Bernstein's daughter, pens of Jewish humorists and political March 1933 and held in a local concentra­ the Nazis were able to keep tabs on satirists; this confirmed the Nazis in their tion camp. As a Jew, an intellectual and a Bernstein when he fled to Prague and delusion that a secret intellectual mafia prominent left-wing joumalist, he was duly then to Oslo - partly because as late as of Jews controlled publishing and the June 1938 he attempted to claim from his

press and must be rooted out. Predict­ AJR Directors Prague address the compensation due ably, Jewish authors figured prominently Gordon Greenfield to him for his dismissal from Vorwdrts Michael Newman among those whose books were burnt in Carol Rossen in 1933. His son and daughter reached 1933. The first German to be murdered safety in Britain, but Bernstein and his A|R Heads of Department on foreign soil by agents of the Nazis Susie Kaufman Organiser. AJR Centre wife Gisela were deported to Auschwitz, was the philosopher and writer Theodor Sue Kuriander Social Services where both died. By contrast, even high- Lessing, a Jew whose critical biography AjR Journal profile non-Jewish intellectuals on the left of President Hindenburg had marked Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor were left untouched, provided that they Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor him out in Nazi eyes as an enemy of Andrea Goodmaker Secreurial/Advertisements avoided political activity. The writer Erich the people. Lessing fled to Marienbad Kastner, whose books were burnt on 10 in Czechoslovakia, but the Nazi press Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not May 1933, managed to survive the Nazi campaign against him was maintained, necessarily those of the Association of Jewish years largely unscathed. Refugees and should not be regarded as such. and on 30 August 1933 he was shot and Anthony Grenville AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

Confused as never before NEWTONS Long established I y feelings are confused as never the Sinai had been returned by Begin, and Hampstead Solicitors before. I have always been a so was the wretched stnp of land called advise on MI ferven t Zionist, like my father Gaza, but that was all. Then, in 1982, De­ before me. For my barmitzvah he gave fence Minister Ariel Sharon turned a blind Property, Wills, Estates me the biography of Theodore Herzl by eye to the attacks by the Falangists on in­ and Litigation Alex Bein - translated from the German. nocent civilians in the Palestinian camps of Home visits arranged The same year, came one of our happiest Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon. Anti-Israel moments when the State of Israel feelings were growing fast. The West 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue was proclaimed. We closed our Bank was becoming a hotbed of London NWS SNB eyes to the terrorist acts of the Palestinian terrorist actions Stern Gang and the Irgun - as, of course, was Gaza. Tel: 020 7435 5351 Zvai Leumi. We hated Later, the Israelis built a Fax: 020 7435 8881 Ernest Bevin, considering very unpopular 'security www.newtonlaw.co.uk him an anti-Semite. We wall', which was con­ were shocked about demned worldwide. what happened to the More recently, Exodus. We defended Hezbollah, made up of the killing of the two public relations are already Lebanese, Syrians and British sergeants, the Iranians, attacked blowing up of the dreadful - they tvill get even Israel from the north; King David Hotel, worse when it is seen that Hamas, which had JACKMAN- the assassination of Obama and Europe cannot won the Palestinian Count Bernadotte. SILVERMAN bring their Road Map for elections, attacked COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS Our new heroes were Israel from Gaza. David Ben-Gurion and peace to any fruition. I do Israel lost the battle the Haganah. not blame Netanyahu. against Hezbollah The Palestinians He is afraid ofthe Jewish (certainly in PR terms) declared war on Israel fundamentalists just as and upset almost the the moment it was entire world by what was created. Of course, nearly Arafat was afraid of seen as an over-reaction all Diaspora Jews sided with the Palestinian to the rockets fired by our new homeland, including ones. Hamas from Gaza. (I disagree those who had fully integrated with the world's reaction but into their new countries. It was perhaps I am biased.) Israel has Telephone: 020 7209 5532 said that Israel would not have been become almost a pariah state, accused [email protected] created but for the Holocaust and Hitler. of apartheid. Anti-Zionism has become Perhaps - but did this matter? We Jews rife; so, inevitably, has anti-Semitism. had a country we could call our own. The President Ahmadinejad of Iran declared wars continued. The Six-Day War was a that he would wipe Israel off the map. Of miracle in military planning, thanks to course, Israel could retaliate. Saudi Arabia AUSTRIAN and GERMAN Moshe Dayan. Do you remember those reportedly said it would allow Israel to fly PENSIONS stickers we proudly put up in our cars: over its air space to bomb Iran. But the 'Come to Israel and see the Pyramids'? Israelis are already partly blamed for the PROPERTY The Yom Kippur War was not a success Iraq wars. Do they want to be blamed for RESTITUTION CLAIMS but Israel had great leaders, particulady the another war? EAST GERMANY - BERLIN highly regarded Golda Meir Furthermore, President George W. Bush, together with Shimon Peres was still a young man, as most of his predecessors (with the possible On instructions our office will was Yitzhak Rabin. exception of Jimmy Carter) supported Israel. assist to deal with your Then, to everyone's surprise, Menachem Now, however, we have a US president who Begin, a fierce right-winger and former may not be as staunch a supporter: Barack applications and pursue the terrorist (or freedom fighter), became Obama. At about the same time, because matter with the authorities prime minister, made peace with Egypt of the daft PR electoral system that Israel and, together with Anwar Sadat, the follows, Israel chose a right-wing prime For further information Egyptian leader, even won the Nobel Peace minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who did not and an appointment Prize. The relationship with Jordan, thanks win the election and who is supported by please contact: to behind-the-scenes activities between Avigdor Lieberman, an ultra-right-winger Peres and King Hussain, was good too. who is generally disliked. Tzipi Livni, who ICS CLAIMS Above all, the US backed Israel, and the did win the election, isn't even in the 707 High Road, Finchley European countries were not openly government. London N12 OBT averse. It can be argued that it was a right- So what went wrong? In peace negotia­ winger. Begin, who made some sort Tel: 020 8492 0555 tions, Israel could not agree - nor should it of peace with Egypt and that perhaps Fax: 020 8348 4959 - to the right of return of the 1948 Pales­ another right-winger, Netanyahu, might Email: keylaw(gbtinternet.com tinians. Also, Israel took land in the 1967 agree to peaceful co-existence with the war to which it was not entitled. In 1979 I continued on page 4 I AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

Kindertransport Survey completed

Going public The original forms are now safely necessary funding; The ambitious project to create an stored, and maintained for posterity, at the All others who helped in supporting the archive and a database of the Wiener Library, whilst the scanned records successful outcome of the archive. Kindertransportees' experience and the will be kept by the /UR and KT//UR, with historic act of rescue of 1938/39 is now every word preserved. Rolace complete. Much effort has been exerted The enormous task of scanning 12,000 over recent months to improving details Future plans pages of the original Survey forms and of the statistics in order to ensure the Further work on the ancillary anecdotal ancillary material we received was most maximum integrity of the completed information sent with the questionnaires generously donated by the specialist database, which is run on Microsoft Excel. is being carried out, with the objective of document management company Rolace We are now ready to go public. making this material searchable. This will of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. take time and cost money, but will reveal We would like to express our particular The database can be viewed in the much more of the story of those days, gratitude to Carole Lancaster, Managing Kindertransport section of the AJR website now many years ago, for the benefit of Director of Rolace, and Karen Puryer, the alongside a full description of the project historical knowledge. Production Manager, for recognising at www.ajr.org.uk/kindertransport When funds or donor generosity the importance of the historic event In order to view the database, you must permit, we hope to make available a of the Kindertransport - the saving of have the Microsoft programme Excel, or version of the database that can be our lives - and preserving the record of another spreadsheet programme allowing queried and analysed online. the contribution we have made to our Excel to be opened on your computer. (It society. Rolace paid special attention to is simply too expensive to create and send Thanks and acknowledgements data protection issues and to document printed versions of the database.) First and foremost, our highest appreciation assembly, so that the digital versions We hope that those of you who do is due to one and all of the erstwhile protect the identity of Survey respondents download the database will send us your Kinder - wherever in the world - who and the originals were correctly re­ comments, and any feedback on possible have kindly and diligently worked with assembled. We elected not to take errors, by the end of November 2009, after us by completing and returning the advantage of Rolace's Secure Document which the database will be made available questionnaires. This was a great effort Shredding service because of the historic to historians, research students, libraries - without your input, there would be no relevance of the originals. and seats of learning. archive. Many thanks. We hope you will find the database It was my privilege to lead the team who Preserving the Survey forms interesting. It is the first time, to our did the work, and I wish to acknowledge The scanning to digital file of all the knowledge, that a statistical database in particular the following: forms we received, both the Main forms containing so much detail of what is now an Bertha Leverton, who drafted the first as well as the Supplementary ones, has important part of UK history and Holocaust attempt of the successful questionnaire; been completed in order to preserve this knowledge has been attempted. Ronald Channing, who gave unstinting material and make it as widely available Hermann Hirschberger as possible. support throughout the entire project- Frances Williams, a PhD student at The scanning covered all aspects of Edinburgh University, who was engaged the Survey - every page, including all the in creating and completing the digitising anecdotal additions supplied by well over 'DROP IN'ADVICE SERVICE of the database; half the respondents. Members requiring benefit advice This mammoth task, involving Kurt Taussig, who spent many, many please telephone Linda Kasmir approximately 12,000 pages, was hours editing the database; on 020 8385 3070 to make an generously completed, totally free of Tom Heinersdorff for all his help and appointment at AJR, Jubilee House, charge, by the specialist document computer expertise, his unstinting Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, management company Rolace of efforts and many hours of devotion Middx HA7 4RL Melton Mowbray, Bucks (see also generously given; acknowledgements below). The AiR Trustees for granting the

POINT OF VIEW cant, from p3 murdered Rabin, in order to sabotage the Oslo peace accords that Rabin, Arafat and WHITTINGEHAME Palestinians. Sorry, but I doubt it! Already Clinton had signed. he has allowed the settlers (mostly ultra- I feel no optimism about the situation FARM SCHOOL religious Americans) to continue to build in the Middle East. Sadly, I think that settlements on the West Bank. He dare Netanyahu is on to a loser Israel's public 17 September 2009, 7.30 pm not agree that Jerusalem should be an relations are already dreadful - they will at The Town House, Haddington, international city under Jewish, Muslim get even worse when it is seen that Obama East Lothian and Christian rule. He is frightened of Israel and Europe cannot bring their Road Map There will be a talk on this subject being divided into two states. (I personally for peace to any fruition. I do not blame illustrated by photographs also cannot see how this can be achieved Netanyahu. He is afraid of the Jewish taken by IVIr Drew, with Palestinian Gaza so far in distance fundamentalists just as Arafat was afraid a teacher at the school from the Palestinian West Bank.) Due to of the Palestinian ones. If you would like to attend or have any the PR electoral system, Netanyahu is Just one thing please. Would Jews in under the control of the religious parties. the Diaspora stop condemning Israel in information on life at Whittingehame They would never agree to any land being public! We have enough enemies without House, please telephone 01508 498848 or returned to the Arabs. They believe it is fighting among ourselves! email [email protected] theirs. Remember, it was an extremist who Peter Phillips AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

Tingfielders' reunion, 2009

fter months of e-mails, let­ theatre, ballet and the cinema as ters and telephone calls, the we grew older Before Lingfield Agreat day finally arrived: House was closed, we were all Sunday 21 June 2009. It was a given opportunities for training so sunny day when we 'Lingfielders' that we could find suitable jobs. - children from Lingfield House Just after the war. West London - were reunited in the wonderful Synagogue, realising that the setting of The Holocaust Centre/ children needed housing and care, Beth Shalom in Nottinghamshire. donated all the funds intended for It was a very moving occasion the redecoration and renovation as we had not met like this for of the synagogue to the upkeep nearly 12 years. The 'children' of Weir Courtney and Lingfield came from as far afield as the House and organised an annual USA, Israel, Portugal and Belgium 'Lingfielders' reunion at The Holocaust Centre/Beth Shalom, bazaar to help with the funding. June 2009 Front row Marina Smith, Rachel Oppenheimer, - a truly international gathering. Heidi ChaHes, Liliana Pertoldi, Joanna Millan, Sylvia Cohen, A junior Lingfield Committee was We were particularly honoured to Stephen Smith Second row Wolf Blomfield, Hanka Garama, set up by young members of the be able to host, accompanied by Fritz Friedman, Vic Cohnheim, Jerzy Herszberg, Zdenka HusseH, synagogue to befriend us and Ervin Bogner, Jackie Young Back centre Norbert Hall her husband, Sarah Moskovitz, take us on outings. who wrote Love Despite Hate, a on Alice Goldberger's birthday - she On the great day in June 2009, book about the lives of the Lingfielders always said it was her biggest and best we all gathered at Golders Green and after they grew up and made their own birthday present! Alice, who worked for took an early coach to the Holocaust way in life. Anna Freud at the Hampstead Nurseries, Centre, where we were greeted by Unfortunately, there were a number where children were being treated for Marina Smith with her usual hug and traumas associated with the Blitz, was enjoyed lunch in the Dome. After chosen to meet us and oversee our care lunch we were addressed by Stephen until we were either adopted or could Smith, who explained the work of lead independent lives. the Centre for the benefit of those We were looked after by Alice and a who had not previously visited. We dedicated number of helpers in such a had an opportunity to view the Main way that we became one large 'family'. Exhibition and the new exhibition The Sir Benjamin Drage offered the use of Journey, which is designed for primary his home, Weir Courtney, in Lingfield, school children. We were also given Surrey, on a temporary basis until a an opportunity to gather round the more permanent house could be found. rose bush planted in memory of Alice This new house was in Isleworth - we Goldberger. all agreed to call it Lingfield House as a Following a delicious tea, we headed reminder of our time in Lingfield. back to London, arriving in time to en­ Alice encouraged us to take an joy dinner together before going our interest in music, pets, handicrafts, separate ways. We left feeling that we dancing and cookery. She also made wanted to keep in touch more closely. Alice Goldberger, who cared for the Lingfield sure that we had bicycles and all the Zdenica Husserl children until they were either adopted or things English children had. We also had Joanna Millan could lead independent lives the opportunity to attend concerts, the Rachel Oppenheimer of Lingfielders who were unable to make this reunion due to the distance and costs involved as well as health problems. A number now live in Australia and the USA and they were much missed. The 'children', all of whom were among the youngest child survivors of the Holocaust, were brought over from Continental Europe in or shortly after 1945. Many of us came on 15 August 1945 from Prague and arrived in Windermere in the middle of the night The Lingfield children AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

judgement? Was Mr Muller a refugee and, if so, when did he arrive in this country? Does The Editor reserves the right he exclude himself from those 'who otherwise would just as likely have ended to shorten correspondence up in the gas chamber'? submitted for publication Betty Bloom, London NW3 Sir - My parents and I also received this 'blue book' on arrival in the UK. I am very grateful that my parents tried their best to abide by its contents and, although they never lost their 'foreign' accent, they 'MY VIENNA IS DEAD' very much appreciated this story, which acquired a very good working knowledge Sir -1 was intrigued by the two articles in highlighted the caring attitude of Lord of the English language, because for a your July issue concerning the experiences and Lady Sainsbury. long time only English was to be spoken of Viennese 'returnees'. I returned (Mrs) Meta Roseneil at home. Their adherence to the spirit of to Vienna three or four years ago on Buckhurst Hill, Essex the book enabled me to lose all traces of a business connected with pension rights. foreign accent and to blend into the British- I left Vienna with my mother early in LITTLE BLUE BOOK Jewish community, which saved the lives of January 1939, arriving in England on 9 Sir - Yes, had it not been for the help of my parents and me. Sadly, several people January. She came on a domestic permit the Quakers, my family and I could easily were treated harshly but that was less than to a titled English family in Surrey. I was have ended up in a concentration camp! suffered by many in the British armed serv­ nine years old (ten that summer) and However, S. Muller (August), please allow ices, who saved us all from the Nazis. interned with her on the Isle of Man by me to sympathise with the person who Edgar H. Ring, Edgware. Middx the autumn. complained of her mother's treatment on We had lived in Huetteldorf, my mater­ arrival in the UK. I have no memory of the AN INNOCENT REMARK nal grandmother had lived in Leopoldstadt, 'little blue book' but I still have some very Sir - Anthony Grenville's leading articles my paternal grandmother had had an bitter memories of those black days. are always stimulating. His 'Duet for Qne' apartment on Mariahilferstrasse. Even Confused and unhappy Austrian refu­ in the August edition reminded me of an as an adult, I had vivid memories of my gees, unable to speak a word of English, incident many years ago when I needed childhood home and always felt I would my mother and I were taken in by quite extra cash and spent an evening in an be able to find my way around in Vienna a wealthy family, where she became a English-Jewish home as waitress and quite easily. I even recalled the tram domestic slave (I don't use that word dish-washer When the gentleman took ride home from Leopoldstadt and the lightly). In exchange for our bedroom me back to our flat in his car, I said it was hot chestnut seller on the corner by the and food, my mother did all the cleaning, the first time I had met an English-Jewish tram stop. cooking, washing, ironing and child- family - assuming, of course, that he When I was actually there, it was like minding. When she didn't understand recognised by my German accent that I being in a strange, foreign and unknown how to use some of the woman's do­ too was Jewish. To my embarrassment, city. Although I tried to find the places I mestic equipment, she was shouted at he replied: 'Well, now you know we are so vividly carried in my memory, I was like and physically pushed around. Imagine quite normal like everybody else!' a lost soul. I couldn't connect with the how I felt at seven years old, witnessing I meant no offence by this innocent local population although my German is this cruelty. It was the first time I had remark, but it taught me to be more careful fluent. The Jewish people I came across seen my mother cowed and miserable. with my 'observations' in future! were neariy all immigrants from the She had had to leave her husband, sister Susanne Medas. London WW East, wearing the traditional gabardines, and mother in Vienna and was not able zizith, black hats and peyot. Trying to even to post them a letter as we were not JEWS AND ARABS find a synagogue in Patzmanitengasse allowed money for stamps. She couldn't Sir - It was reported in the Jewish press my grandmother had attended, I found a get a work permit to allow her to earn that Jews for Justice for Palestinians are kosher butcher shop and enquired. I was anything for all her labours. intent on extending their pernicious boy­ invited to a stiebel on Friday night. They Things got better when father joined us cott of Israel - despite a recent European didn't know of any temple in the area. in England and volunteered for the British Court ruling that this amounts to unlawful I came to the conclusion that 'my' Vienna army. At that point, my mother was given discrimination. Peter Prager (August) loses was as dead as all my beloved family. I think a work permit and wages. The very kind no opportunity to trumpet his member­ it probably died with them in 1942. Unlike headmaster of my junior school finally dis­ ship of this deplorable organisation - he your writers, I never want to see the place suaded the other children from spitting at ought to hang his head in shame. Coming again. I am British, I feel very English, I love me and throwing stones. He also set about as it does from a Jewish group, it has a 'my' English/British history, England is my teaching me English, so I managed to win a particulady adverse effect on Israel's legiti­ home. I love it and belong to it - warts and grammar school place a few years later macy and it also fuels anti-Semitism. all! Mrs. E. Holden (nee Eisler) Believe me, my family has been To berate Israel for its failure to provide London N14 eternally grateful to Britain for saving us Israeli Arabs with air-raid shelters is in 1939 and we have done our best to the height of hypocrisy Many of them SAINSBURY'S AND THE repay our debts. But please, Mr Muller, welcome casualties, as it provides them KINDERTRANSPORT don't think that everyone here greeted with propaganda value. Furthermore, they Sir-1 recently attended Sainsbury's AGM us with kindness and generosity! are not the target and stand on rooftops and, during 'Question Time', we were Maria Blackburn (nee Redisch) cheering when rockets rain down on delighted to learn from a shareholder that Newport Pagnell Israeli towns and when these stray and her husband, coming to England on the hit Arab houses - that too is Israel's fault! Kindertransport, had been collected from Sir- If S. Muller, whose letter appeared after Israeli Arabs bear no allegiance to the Liverpool Street Station by Lord and Lady mine in last month's issue, were to take the Jewish state and consider themselves Sainsbury in a Rolls-Royce and cared for trouble to read my letter, which gave ex­ Palestinian, but would not want to live during the war When they got married in cerpts of the actual content of the booklet, there and demand all the benefits that 1959 they were given a wedding present I hope he would retract his unwarranted Israeli citizenship bestows. by the Sainsbury's, so the association attack on Mrs Saville. Would it not be safer Admittedly, Arab towns and villages continued for a long time. to acquaint oneself with some - if not all have a problem with their infrastructures, The chairman and everybody present - the facts of an argument before passing accruing huge deficits because few of AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009 them pay taxes and building shelters is Sir - I take issue with Peter Prager and GASTRONOMIC MEMORIES hardly a priority for them. They have their the Merkin sisters who are spending time Sir - Anthony Grenville's reference own mayors who are appointed from and effort defending the Israeli Arabs. to Ackerman's chocolates (August) within. The authorities are reluctant to May I suggest that there is virtually no brings back nostalgic and gastronomic intervene because of the international emigration to the rich - or indeed the not- memories of the nearby, irreplaceable outcry this would provoke. The only so-rich -Arab states, as I guess it is realised Cosmo Restaurant. thing the Israeli High Court can do is to that the welcome would be lukewarm or Gerald Holm. London NW3 appoint an Israeli professional as acting less - even if they could gain entry. In none mayor to sort out the shambles, but all he of these Arab countnes would they enjoy 'GOD ON TRIAL' more freedom than they do in Israel. can do is battle nepotism, which is rife in Sir - I hadn't wanted to enter into a clannish societies, and try and convince I also have to take issue with A. K. slanging match with Peter Phillips. people that paying local taxes is in their Mikkelsen, who believes the AJR is in However, I cannot let the matter rest. own interest. Driving through Arab areas, favour of Netanyahu and Likud. I wonder First, regarding the Jewish 'race' to you see virtual palaces springing up that what his opinion is based on. which he so proudly belongs, this is a would put many Israeli homes to shame. Another point I'd like to raise is the hotly disputed issue taking the Jewish However, they tend not to take pride in prevalence of articles and letters in the people as a whole. No one who has their surroundings beyond their own magazine concerned with Germany and been to Israel will have failed to notice homes and you hardly ever see any trees Austria. It feels the letters written by that Jews of all shades and social or flowers and streets are strewn with Rubin Katz are a voice in the wilderness. characteristics abound there. There just trash. This has a lot to do with their cul­ On a lighter note, I smiled when looking is no such thing as a pure Jewish race, ture. Should any reader brand me a racist attheheadlineforthis month's AJR concert as there have been outsiders coming to simply for telling the truth, so be it! in Watford: 'German and Austrian oper­ join our group from the earliest days of Rubin Katz, London NWl 1 etta'. Difficult to imagine that there will our existence. But, if left to Reform and be no excerpts in the programme from the Liberals, the Jewish 'race' would Sir - We have all become accustomed to Die Csardasfuerstin or Graefin Mariza by have got diluted even more as no one being told by the media that Israel is to Imre Kalman or from the operettas of Pal - not even Peter Phillips - can deny. blame for all the difficulties that Arabs Abraham or Viktor Jacoby. At the risk of Moreover 'belonging' to a certain race are facing. Thus it is a great relief to find provoking adverse comments, I would is an accident of birth and nothing to that the 2009 Arab Human Development also like to mention The Merry Widow and be proud of. Report, which draws on contributions The Land of Smiles by the Hungarian-born I was once asked by a non-Jewish lady from more than 100 Arab scholars, puts Ferenc Lehar These operettas might be what I would do if a child of mine were the blame faidy and squarely on the way described as Viennese - but certainly not to marry a black person and I replied that various Arab governments treat their German, or indeed Austrian. own citizens. I wouldn't mind in the least, provided Janos Fisher, Bushey Heath, Herts that person was an observant, practis­ The Report identifies the urgent need ing Jew. forArab governments to provide'guaran­ tees on universal human rights and LETTER FROM JERUSALEM If left entirely in the hands of the freedoms - especially those of women, Sir - I was interested to read (July) that Liberal or Reform Jews, the whole ideal better protection for the environment, Bertha Leverton is to emigrate to Israel. I of Zion and a Jewish home in the Land tackling poverty and hunger and expand­ made the same move recently to join my of Israel would long ago have sunk ing access to affordable health services'. children, who made aliya during the 80s. into oblivion. I have in my possession The UNDP (United Nations Development I have, however, retained my subscription some Liberal prayer books from pre-war Programme) noted that the Report high­ to your journal as there are always Germany which prove my point. These lighted that in six Arab countries there interesting articles in it concerning Israel, people were bending over backwards to was an 'outright ban on the formation especially Jerusalem, where I now live. make what they considered a favourable of political parties, while restrictions on For instance, last month there was a fas­ impression on the 'goyim'. Alas, they political activities and civic organizations cinating article on the beautiful Botanical were to learn the hard way what being in other countries often amount to de Gardens by Dorothea Shefer-Vanson. I have a Jew entails. facto prohibition... National security since become a member of the Gardens. It was only after the establishment of measures such as the declaration of Then, I am an inveterate reader ofthe the State of Israel that the Reform and emergency law often serve as a pretext to numerous plaques here. On reading one Liberals tried desperately to jump on the suspend basic rights, exempt rulers from regarding the abduction and murder of bandwagon and gain a foothold and constitutional limitations, and afford Alexander Rubowitz, I wondered where recognition there. They had suddenly security agencies sweeping powers...'. I could find out more about this horrible turned into Zionists! Pointing to the poverty and hunger incident. Well, in the July issue there is As for Peter Phillips's 'feeling of despite the comparative affluence in the a review of the book by David Cesarani belonging', in my opinion it is nothing region, the Report said that one in five about it. The only problem is where I but worthless sentimentality if not people live on less than $2 per day below would be able to buy this book. accompanied by observance of the the internationally recognized poverty Then there are frequent references to mitzvot such as, for example, Kashrut. line, but stated that a more accurate the Arandora Star and Dunera incidents, In order for Peter Phillips to extend estimate would be that '20 per cent of in which my late father, Martin Sulzbacher, his knowledge of Judaism, I suggest he Arabs live in poverty' (UN News, 21 July was involved. In your obituary of Hannah try Project Seed, which should be very 2009). Dr I Scarlett Epstein OBE Striesow, you state that her husband was rewarding. Their phone number is 020 8958 0820. Hove, Sussex a lucky survivor of the torpedoed Aran­ dora Star. She was then able to claim she (Mrs) Margarete Stern. London NW3 Sir - Peter Prager must feel proud he is a had given permission for him to be sent member of Jews forjustice to Palestinians overseas. In our case, my poor mother was OUT OF SIGHT as some sort of super-class of Jew. Good not even aware her husband had been Sir - Leafing through the February issue luck to him! But what puzzles me is why on the Arandora Star. At the time, she of your erudite journal, I noticed that the he should think anybody else is interested. was stuck in the Isle of Man with us poor redoubtable Rubin Katz puts himself to My late parents - refugees from Vienna children. Never mind 'giving permission'! the right of Ghengis Khan, but he doesn't - quickly learnt the lesson that in the He was sent to Australia on the Dunera say how far I can easily trump that. I have UK one does not discuss one's personal as described in the article 'Dunera Boys'. always maintained that I am so far to the political opinions. Shame that Mr Prager Please continue to send me copies of your right of Ghengis as to be completely out never learned the same lesson. wonderful journal. of sight! Frank Bright Peter Simpson, Jerusalem Max Sulzbacher. Jerusalem Martlesham Heath. Suffolk in Terezin, are said to be invaluable testimony as to the true nature of Terezin REVIEWS - an inhuman concentration camp rather than the 'show-case' Jewish settlement The madness recorded which fooled the gullible Red Cross. 1938: HITLER'S GAMBLE In 1943-44 Kien wrote the libretto to by Giles MacDonogh Viktor Ullmann's one-act chamber opera Constable. 2009. 416 pp.. £20 hardback ith remarkable vigour and Der Kaiser von Atlantis, a subversive his is certainly a book that needed dedication, two Russian-bom work which led to the deaths of both in to be written. Although much Wwomen have brought new life Auschwitz. Tof the information has appeared to the work of gifted Czech painter, poet Whitechapel Gallery likes to attract elsewhere, this is perhaps the first time, and librettist Peter Kien, who died in at least in English, that someone has artists local and intemational. The latest chosen to draw together, on such a Auschwitz aged 25. A poignant exhibition one to feature under the all-encompass­ huge scale and under one cover, all the celebrating his work continues this month ing light of the refurbished gallery is significant elements of 1938. in the grim setting of the Czech former American artist Elizabeth Peyton. Her The real problem is that the author ghetto and Nazi transit camp, Terezin, in often miniature mood paintings are quite has, in fact, written two books. One, honour of what would have been Kien's derivative of David Hockney, but the which I shall call 'Book I', is the traditional 90th birthday. The exhibition, Franz reflective pose she favours suggests a mel­ material - well set out and covering the political, military and diplomatic story of Peter Kien - I Think, Love and Hate ancholy mood, particularly in her images the Anschluss and Munich. The other, in Colours, in Forms!, is curated by from French literature. The line drawings 'Book II', can be properly described Elena Makarova. An extensive catalogue, have more immediacy, though. only in the words of Lucy Davidowitz as detailing Kien's early life in the former Walking in my Mind at the Hayward 'The War Against the Jews', with special Sudetenland town of Varnsdorf, was emphasis on the conduct of that war Gallery features the work of ten intema­ in Austria - the Anschluss, Kristallnacht written by Ira Rabin to accompany the tional artists. It explores their imagina­ and all the months in between. And, exhibition. tion through immersive large-scale although the two books present themes installation art. Yoshimoto Nara's My that are intimately interwoven, the ^ Drawing Room is a life-size recreation themes are separate. > of the artist's youth in the form of a The reason for the emphasis on -i cabin filled with the paraphernalia Vienna is contained in a moving epilogue, ' N. detailing the family of the author's great- '-^^1 of his early memories. This includes grandmother and her descendants, the \ battered toys, crayons and ripped-up Zimmers and the Zweibecks. drawings - a reflection of his days as So what makes 1938 such a water­ / -^^ a solitary student artist, rock music shed? The cataclysmic changes of 1938 blaring from a stereo and Japanese are concisely described in the four-page anime art on the walls. This perfectly introduction. At the beginning of the year, the German army still had a degree encapsulates a moment: you can of independence. With the exception of almost see the artist as a child in the Saar and the Rhineland (indisputably that space. German territories), Hitler had not yet Yayoi Kusama uses her experience crossed an international frontier and the Jews of Nazi Germany, however much of recurring hallucinations to generate persecuted, were still largely in posses­ a striking installation of wall-to-ceiling sion of their properties and businesses. red and white polka dots comprising By the end of the year, everything had huge misshapen inflatables. We changed dramatically. Hitler was the un­ explore the 'dizzy, empty hypnotic disputed leader of the armed forces: the Anschluss and the 'diplomatic' seizure feeling' of the artist's universe. ofthe Sudentenland (with Western com­ Thomas Hirschhorn's Cave- pliance) at Munich had hugely changed JCL.. manman re-creates a cave out of the balance of power. The defence lines Peter Kien: drawing of Viktor Ullmann cardboard and brown packaging tape. of the rump of Czechoslovakia were Entering this cardboard labyrinth, untenable. And the Jews were largely Much of Peter Kien's extensive work, you encounter foil-covered shop dummies, pauperised by 'Aryanisation' and, in the case of the Austrian Jews, large-scale painted in Terezin's technical drawing film posters and pages of political tracts, plunder, with Kristallnacht destroying office, where he was director, is in the all connected to dynamite sticks, making much of their communal life. Expressionist style. An energy flows you wonder if it will all explode! With regard to 'Book I', the familiar through his work, as though he is grasping story is told with close attention to the life which for him will prove a fleeting detail. Most of the 'usual suspects' are moment. Using stolen paper, Kien drew Annely Juda Fine Art here: the browbeating of Schuschnigg and painted the people around him in the at Berchtesgarden; Mussolini's reply, 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) camp. A drawing of his wife Ilse betrays signalling his abandonment of Austria, Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 on hearing of Schuschnigg's intention to the fear and anxiety she inevitably felt. CONTEMPORARY PAINTING defy Hitler by holding a plebiscite, 'C'e His drawings of camp life, including those AND SCULPTURE un errore'; and the British government's of the theatrical entertainment permitted answer to Schuschnigg's desperate plea AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009 for support - 'Her Majesty's Government are copious notes with each chapter. In A moving historical cannot guarantee protection' (France, the account of those who were hugely document on the day, not unusually, didn't have involved in getting Jews out, especially LETTERS FROM EAST GERMANY a government). the children, there is no mention 1946-1951 The same depressingly familiar stories of Rabbi Dr Schonfeld, who alone continue throughout the book - the brought out about 1,000 children (and by Albert Schaefer-Ast abandonment of the Czechs told blow many adults). Nor of Mrs Waismuller, Rochart. 2008. translated by by blow and the wind taken out of the wife of a Dutch Catholic banker, who Amanda Price, edited and introduced sails ofthe German opposition to Hitler went down to Vienna armed with 600 by John Buck, 80 pp. paper (in the form of a coup d'etat should he visas to confront Eichmann, suffering lbert Schaefer-Ast was a popular actually go to war) by Chamberlain's considerable personal humiliation (a night artist known throughout Germany arrival at Bad Godesberg. The inability of in the cells of the Metropol plus a strip Afor watercolour paintings of the Western military chiefs to add - 60 search). But she took out the first 600 flowers, animals and insects, book French divisions ready on 30 September children from Vienna on 10 December illustrations and humorous drawings. with a further 40 shortly afterwards, 1938. This slim volume of letters and artwork together with Britain, and a highly There is also no reference to the transports us to life in the Soviet- trained and motivated Czech army of best account of what it was like to be a controlled zone of postwar Germany. some 32 divisions, plus, we now know, prisoner of the SS during Kristallnacht: An informative introduction and 'Who's 8 Russian divisions, which had received Hans Keller's/Wus/c, Closed Societies and who' help the reader to follow the last-minute permission to pass through Football. The BBC nearly lost its most content of the letters. They and the line Romania into Czechoslovakia, against a prestigious music critic. drawings - in particular one of the artist total of 35 German divisions - is one of But there is much here that is well sitting in bed wearing a very thick coat, the most inexplicable miscalculations of told and needs to be known. And it is hat and gloves - poignantly convey the this sorry tale. sometimes difficult to heed the author's difficulties of attempting to survive in The subtitle of this book is incorrect. warning not to draw a direct line between sometimes freezing conditions (down to Hitler took at least three gambles. First, 1938 and the final destruction: many -31° Centigrade) with insufficient food. in the case of Austria, he gambled on more abandonments had to happen for Schaefer-Ast's second wife Steffie non-intervention, including, crucially, that destruction to take place. (nee Nathan) was Jewish. They were that of Italy Second, he gambled on W. H. Auden wrote in his poem compelled to divorce by the Nazi the inability of other sources of power September 1. 1939: regime in the late 1930s, his anti­ - e.g. the army - to mount an effective Accurate scholarship can fascist stance having drawn negative opposition. And third, he gambled on Unearth the whole offence attention along with his marriage to a the desperate attempts by England and From Luther until now Jew. Their daughter Susanne came to France to avoid war. Benes alone, he That has driven a culture mad ... the UK by Kindertransport, organised by knew, would not fight. The accurate scholarship is here, the the Quakers, in May 1939. Her mother When we come to 'Book H', however, offences laid bare, and the madness managed to obtain a domestic visa and we realise that more than one frontier recorded. I know one shouldn't, but it is left Germany for the UK in July 1939. was crossed on 12 March 1938. What very tempting on reading all this to write: Keeping up a correspondence in took place in Austria in those first few '1938: Final Solution Straight On'. those years required persistence- many weeks was a paroxysm of barbarism, a Fred Barschak obstacles prevented letters arriving spontaneous explosion (not, seemingly, - but it was clearly of great importance ordered from above!) of brutal violence, ARTS AND EVENTS DIARY to the writer to feel in touch with the like of which had not been seen SEPTEMBER 2009 Steffie and Susanne, hearing about before even in Nazi Germany. Here, Sun 6 'Klezmer in the Park 2009' For aspects of their daily lives and sharing everything is meticulously recorded, his own. He too, in an echo of Jewish not just the pavement scrubbing (you the first time ever, seven of Britain's most famous klezmer bands will per­ prisoners - and of other prisoners of can read the Telegraph's famous corres­ form on one stage. From 1.00 to 6.00 the Nazis - pleads for parcels of food pondent Eric Gedye and his description pm at the bandstand in Regent's Park. and warm clothing. of the 'heartless grinning crowds in the Free of charge. Introduced by comedian, Schaefer-Ast cherished the hope of Graben' watching a well-known Jewish actor and Yiddishist David Schneider his family being reunited in Germany surgeon having acid poured over his after the war, his optimism despite Thur 24 Dr Nikolaus Wachsmann, hands), but also some 'refinements', everything indicated by his writing to 'Before Auschwitz: The Birth of the such as forcing detainees to spit into his daughter in January 1951: '[T]he each other's faces and the compulsory Nazi Concentration Camps' Wiener Library, 6.30 pm. Tel 020 7636 7247 main thing is that you are happy and if eating of excrement. your world collapses - a lark will always Some of the most vivid writing CLUB 43 arise out of it, the cloud with the silver deals with the frantic attempts to leave A NOTICE TO MEMBERS lining.' He did not, however, expect during the first few days, including Following the sad death of our Chair­ Steffie and Susanne to return while the brilliant account by the playwright man, Hans Seelig, and in the absence of living conditions were so poor; they Carl Zuchmayer of his own exit, which a successor to him, it is our intention to visited briefly in July 1951. Afterwards continue the Monday evening lectures he accomplished by adopting the he wrote: '[NJothing can separate us ... for the time being. mannerisms of his famous creation, the the future will bring us together' He We re-commence our lectures on 7 also continued to hope that Peter, the 'Captain of Kopenik'. September, with further meetings on There are small irritations. How many 14 and 21 September. Speakers for all son of his first marriage, had survived English-speaking readers, for instance, these dates will be available although the war Neither of these hopes was will automatically understand that at this stage we are unable to provide fulfilled as Schaefer-Ast died of a heart RAM (Reichaussenminister) refers to the exact titles of the lectures. attack in September 1951 aged 61, Ribbentrop? So why not say 'Foreign We look forward to welcoming you never knowing that Peter - 'missing in Minister'? back on 7 September. the East' - had been killed in a battle There are also omissions. The lack of a Ernst Flesch, 020 7624 7740 against Soviet troops in June 1944. bibliography is unhelpful, though there Leni Ehrenbergh, 020 7286 9698 Barbara Dresner-Dorritty AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

n July 2008 I received my Land Army A medal at last! potato crop. We worked mornings and medal. listened to complicated English lecturers II left Vienna on the Kindertransport After six months a Children's Welfare in the afternoons. There was no pay. I on 1 August 1939, arriving at London's Officer arrived. He stopped our work on had arrived at Bydown Farm in December Liverpool Street Station two days later the basis that we were being used illegally. 1939. Two years later I went to Barnstaple Twenty-three boys and four gids, including I had left behind my entire starving family Art College for a year, working as an au myself, were taken from the train and and had hoped to send them money The pair without pay. put on a coach for Hale Nurseries in situation was hopeless. All I had were the Altogether, I was a Land Girl for two Fordingbridge, Hampshire. We worked clothes I stood up in. My missing suitcase years, 1939 to 1941. I thought I wouldn't in large greenhouses, debudding flowers turned up two months later, battered and get a medal, never having had a uniform. and tomatoes and removing seeds from lacking several items. Eva Levitsky and I, I discovered a year ago that uniforms were white lilies. Many of the flowers were sent the two youngest, were handed one-way issued only after I had left. off for export. We clocked in for work tickets to Swimbridge railway station in I am pleased that I contributed to the from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday. We north Devon. We joined 100 Jewish refu­ war effort and delighted to be among were not paid. Our work was expected to gee gids and boys at Bydown Farm. There, those receiving the Women's Land Army subsidise the cost of others coming over we worked on the land in various ways, medal. as well as our own costs. including digging and harvesting the Lili Pollard

WHERE WERE YOU ON D-DAYI he 65th anniversary of the Normandy ten men to support him. As a skilled to be a most exciting event, enhanced by invasion brought back for me welder, I was one of those many a beautifully clear sky suddenly filled with Tmemories of 6 June 1944. At that backroom boys employed, from about droning masses of planes, each towing time, I was an NCO in the Royal Electrical 1941 onwards, on, among other things, a glider. From my experience when and Mechanical Engineers, stationed preparing military equipment such as stationed in south-east London during in Rutland and billeted in the 'pork-pie tanks for wading duties, as eventually the Blitz with the 137 Company AMPC town' of Melton Mowbray, from which utilised during the invasion. We also (the Pioneer Corps), I was apprehensive we travelled daily to the nearby army had to deal with troop-carrying barges at so much going on above me - though engineering workshops in Old Dalby. I which needed minor modifications. 1 was greatly relieved when I saw the RAF was lucky with that posting because the Needless to say, we had no idea where emblem clearly displayed on the planes. Rutland countryside enabled me to enjoy or when this equipment would be Naturally, I very much wanted to know a lot of rambling, which has always been needed. what their mission was. my favourite pastime, particularly in hilly Among our regular duties were It felt like an endless wait for the BBC terrain. overnight fire watch rotas and on the Morning News about the Allied invasion It used to be said that for every night of 6 June 1944 it was my turn to - D-Day fighting man at the front you needed head up the team. That night turned out Ken Shindler

The 40th annual BBY picnic WANTED TO BUY youth group meets once a year as the original brothers and sisters German and On this occasion, it is in a beautiful concentrated on their own families to Agarden belonging to a member the exclusion of group activities, but English Books Champagne is being quaffed to celebrate the friendships formed were life-long an 80th birthday. Most people are and nostalgia prevailed. In due course, Bookdealer, AJR member, in their seventies and eighties, but the offspring of some of the original welcomes invitations to view there is a sprinkling of children and members formed the nucleus of a new and purchase valuable books. grandchildren. youth chapter, still active today. They are all ex-members of the Otto So great was the sentimental Robert Hornung Hirsch chapter of B'nai B'rith Youth, attachment felt by many members that 10 Mount View, Ealing, London W51PR whose parent lodge featured such pillars when one of them, Freddy Haas, decided Email: [email protected] of the German-Jewish community as the to trace alumni with a view to organising Tel: 020 8998 0546 late Dr Leo Baeck. It is one of the few a reunion, he found no difficulty in Jewish groups which welcomed members contacting a large proportion of them. from all strands of the community - The reunion was in the form of a picnic in Orthodox, Reform and Liberal - and even a park in rural Buckinghamshire and was SPRING GROVE had members of Sephardi extraction. a resounding success. A picnic has been A-, RETIREMENT HOME The youth chapter had a number of held every year for 40 years. Most have defining activities. It met in premises pro­ been located in the same venue, though 5(^> 214 Finchley Road vided free of charge by the West London the occasional one has accepted an ^ Y/l London NW3 Synagogue, but many of its activities were invitation to private gardens belonging •s^ Ij London's Most Luxurious elsewhere: members went on walks, bicy­ to a member A feature of the earlier \f • Entertainment -Activities cle rides and did good works in the wider picnics was a post-prandial country walk, • Stress Free Living Jewish community. The group, whose ages engaged in by the more sprightly of the •24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine ranged from post-teen into the late twen­ crowd. There was no walk this year: the ties, used the quasi-sibling relationship members are aging. • Full En-Suite Facilities Call for more information or a personal tour as a centre for their social life. Austrian, No doubt the aged youths of the BBY Czech, Polish, Dutch and French refugees will continue to assemble for their annual 020 8446 2117 augmented the original Germans. picnic for many years yet! or 020 7794 4455 After some years the chapter dissolved Frank Beck [email protected]

10 AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

Peter Hart at 95: A life BRIEF ENCOUNTER eter Hart, who has just was interned, then worked celebrated his 95th for the American Joint Pbirthday, was born Distribution Committee and and educated in Berlin. the Quakers in Madrid on In 1933 he left Germany -„, ^ -TL relief work after they had as a teenager when the T r-"'—• -: obtained his release from Nazis forced Orenstein & ^ s5 the Miranda internment Koppel to terminate his camp. apprenticeship after two 1 All Peter wanted to and a half years with this I do was to join the British Jewish firm. c. laf^^H army. His wish was fulfilled Peter entered the ^uB^^^I when the British embassy While waiting for the Normandy hotel industry, working ^^^^^^1 obtained his visa and sent D-Day remembrance service to begin, in France and Italy until •j^^^^^H him to Gibraltar and then AJR member Ken Ward walked up to 1938. Back in Paris, he was f^^^^^B by convoy to Britain, where Prince ChaHes, introduced himself as contacted by Baron Robert ^^^^^1 he arrived in 1943. a D-Day veteran, and thanked him de Rothschild and asked to ^^^^^^H Following a spell in for the support of the Royal Family. go to Martigny-les-Bains to ' - -' ^"•^^^^ the Pioneer Corps, he was Prince Charles, Ken tells us, asked him open a retraining centre for 200 German transferred to the Intelligence Corps for which tank he had been on, thanked and Austrian refugees. secret war work and later attached to the him for bravely fighting the Nazis 'for At the outbreak of war, first interned Foreign Office, where he ended up re­ our liberty', and shook him warmly by as an 'enemy alien', then handed over to educating German prisoners-of-war, after the hand. the Germans after the invasion, he even­ having been their prisoner in France. tually reached the 'free zone', only to be Peter's wartime story Journey into specialising in on-arrival bookings. arrested again by the Vichy authorities and Freedom has been well reviewed in this For 22 years, Peter and his wife Lili, conscripted into the army as a 'travailleur journal and elsewhere. to whom he has been happily married etrange'. Demobbed in 1947, he worked at for 64 years, arranged monthly outings Shortly before the Germans occupied the Howard Hotel. Seeing people having for the Leo Baeck Lodge and he is the the whole of France following the Allied difficulty in finding hotel rooms yet Lodge Liaison person for the permanent landing in North Africa, he managed noticing empty rooms at the hotel where Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War to go into hiding before crossing the he was working, he opened the first- Museum. Peter and Lili have one daughter, Pyrenees into Spain. Arrested again, he ever Hotel Reservation Service, Hotac, Monica. Tea by the sea nthony Grenville's piece in the July and their extended families had coped, 'Decades and decades.' Then, more issue, 'The Eye of the Storm', had how and when they knew they'd been honestly, I added: 'Since 1939.' Ame in tears. It connected me to the duped, the very moment they had felt He threw me a sharp look and epilogue in my (unpublished) memoirs. remorse? I longed to know, wishing I continued: 'I haven't been home for years. When the Allied invasion of Europe could talk about these things with them Busy travelling the world earning my living began, one of its aims was to knock out there and then. on the way plumbing and on building VI and V2 launching pads on the northern One day I was having tea on Brighton sites. All sorts of casual work.' coast of France, the shortest distance to sea front. A man of about 40 sat at the 'A lot of people do that these days,' I England, their prime target. Once that had table next to me. He was bald on top, suggested. been achieved, England's home front was with what hair he had falling down to his 'No, that wasn't my reason for leaving free from raids. As the battle to liberate shoulders. He was smoking a cigarette, home.' Europe from the Nazi scourge continued, exhaling towards the sea. A not-so-down- 'What was then?', I asked. I began to read reports of the uneven and-out asked him for a cigarette. 'Sure!', 'At the end of the war', he replied, 'I progress into Germany. When the Rhine he said expansively, his body leaning was eleven years old. One day, looking was crossed, in and around Ludwigshafen, forward, the packet of cigarettes open for for a toy, I found a shoebox full of photo­ my hometown before the war, I was there the not-so-down-and-out to help himself. graphs. Sorting through them, I found every step of the way, looking for familiar Then he clicked open his lighter, putting one of my father standing on the edge faces and places in newsreels and pictures the flame to the cigarette between the of a pit full of corpses with a gun in his in the papers - dispirited German civilians other man's lips. hand. Suddenly I understood the silence and defeated soldiers, their arms held high I had a suspicion that the bald man was between my parents - and my father's in defeat, when, only a short time eadier, German because the 'r' in 'sure' had that drunkenness! As I grew older, I knew what their arms had been raised in praise of the guttural sound a lot of Germans used to that picture was about. And I grew silent. man who had now brought them low. make when speaking English. When I was 16 and home from school one When the war was long over, Brighton 'What is your home town in Germany?', day my father was sitting at the kitchen was awash with students learning English, I asked. table, a half-full bottle of brandy in front Germans among them. Walking on the 'Munchen Bayern,' he replied. of him. By supper time, it was empty. sea front, I heard them speaking German 'How long have you been in Slowly, my father slid under the table among themselves. Ever curious, I walked England?' and died. After his funeral, I left home. as near as I could to them so as to catch 'Ayear or so.' I've never been back - not even for my what they were saying and what kind of 'I am from Ludwigshafen on the Rhine,' mother's funeral!' dialect they were speaking. But why, after I declared. The bald man and I have something so long, did I expect them to alleviate my 'Oh really and how long have you been in common. anger with debates on how their parents in England?' Rose Cannan

li and founded the Zionist youth movement Essex: The story of Leslie Kleinman B'nai Akiva. Walter Weg New member Leslie Kleinman, in Auschwitz Next meeting: 3 Sept: Alan Bilgora, towards the end of the war, gave us a very 'Jewish Opera Singers'; interesting talk about his experiences. Now 22 Sept: Outing to Freud Museum living in Westcliffe, Leslie also tells his story to local schools. Larry Lisner Ealing: The history of Kitchener Next meeting: Esther Rinkoff, 'Israel Camp Revisited' 'Another wonderful holiday Prof Clare Ungerson gave a most interesting in St Annes' talk about her research into Kitchener ANY MEMBERS OR CONTACTS ON Camp, set up at the beginning of the war THE ISLE OF MAN? to house refugee men in transit forthe USA Francis Masserick, a Second Generation and elsewhere. Marianne Black AJR member living on the isle of Man, Next meeting: 1 Sept. Howard Falksohn, would like to be in touch with any First, 'The Wiener Library' Second or Third Generation members or contacts there. Please get in touch with Francis on 01624 890076 or at gommemasserick® manx.net

South London: A new vocabulary l^mm^ Some two dozen of us gathered at Members from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Streatham's Liberal Synagogue for a Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and delicious lunch and to hear the Bank of Newcastle enjoyed, among many other England's Tom Pike explain hedge funds, activities, an amateur operatic production Leeds CF Sunshine Garden Party securitisation, leverage, derivatives, etc. of The Likes of Us at the Lowther Theatre A large, jolly group basking in the A most informative session. and an outing to the Lake District. sunshine in Pippa and Norman Landey's Edith Jayne 'I would like to thank Ruth, Susanne garden in the pretty village of Thorner, and the AJR for allowing me to enjoy we heard about the St Anne's holiday Temple Fortune: The history another wonderful holiday in St Annes. and the Northern gathering in Leeds of Pears soap I have been seven times on this AJR and tested our brains with a light- Andrea Cameron told us the fascinating holiday and hope to be well enough for hearted quiz. A delightful afternoon tea history of Pears soap, which, curiously, 2010'-Sus/L/nton followed. Barbara Cammerman is now made in India and exported to England. Evelyne Frank llford: Humorous anecdotes Wembley Social Get-together Next meeting: 17 Sept. Rosette Wolf Fred Rosner recalled humorous anecdotes We had a lively exchange on, inter alia, Brighton & Hove Sarid: A musical told by mainly Jewish German and Viennese the sad state of affairs in the African singers and conductors. Some of the jokes continent, with its high levels of poverty tour de force lost their impact when translated into and crime, and on today's youth, who Alan Bilgora gave us a rare opportunity English, he admitted. Meta Roseneil complain a lot about boredom. Needless to hear a number of famous arias sung Next meeting: 2 Sept. David Lawson, 'The to say, Myrna's catering efforts were much by world-renowned Jewish opera singers, Ostrava Jewish Community' appreciated. most of whom began their careers singing in synagogues. Not only a musical thrill but Irene Stanton Next meeting: 9 Sept: Social Get-together; also historically enlightening. 22 Sept: Outing to Freud Museum Scarlett Epstein Next meeting: 14 Sept. Social Get- HGS: Visit of rabbis from Netherlands together Rabbi Harry Jacobi and his son Rabbi North London: Impressive work by WJR Richard Jacobi gave a most interesting World Jewish Relief's Paul Stein gave talk on the history of Dutch Jewry. We us a presentation with slides on WJR's were then shown on a screen a number of work. Difficult to believe there are Jewish Rembrandt's paintings, all ofthem with a communities in Ukraine suffering such Jewish theme. Harriet Hodes The incredible Bea Klug Bea Klug poverty and depredation, which WJR aims MBE, pictured at an Edgware meeting HGS: Crisis of the kibbutzim to alleviate. Equally impressive is their with AJR Southern Groups Co-ordinator work in Georgia and Darfur Hazel Beiny, spoke about her trials Our speaker, David Merron, left his Herbert Haberberg and tribulations through ill health kibbutz on the Gaza border and returned to England when he felt the kibbutz Next meeting: 24 Sept. Joint outing with and blindness and how, despite these Hendon to West Lodge obstacles, she raised a family, set up movement was moving away from its original ideals. Laszio Roman one of the first homeopathic clinics, Welwyn GC: In search of and became a founder member of the Next meeting: 14 Sept. 'Peter Suchet-His the 'Old Country' Anne Frank Education Trust. Amazing Family' Guests from Radlett shared with us Martin Next meeting: 15 Sept: David Merron, Calms's 'Memories of the Old Country'. 'The Future of Kibbutz Life'; Welwyn Regional Tea Some 60 of 22 Sept: Outing to Freud Museum Martin had travelled widely throughout us heard with great pleasure Peter Poland and neighbouring countries Suchet's talk about his family. Peter in search of what is left of the shted. Pinner: The remarkable life of himself works in advertising and meets Illustrating his talk with evocative pictures, Arieh Handler 'many interesting people'. We ended he found synagogues tended to be best Aubrey Rose spoke about the book he was the afternoon with tea/coffee, delicious preserved when they served a public savoury rolls, cakes and, of course, once writing on the life of this unsung hero. purpose where present congregations more chatting to 'new and old faces'. Born in 1915, Arieh Handler grew up in could not support renovation. Thanks to all who organised this lovely Magdeburg, Germany and emigrated to Fred Simms Palestine in 1935. After Kristallnacht he afternoon. Hanne Freedman Next meeting: 10 Sept. Social Get-together became involved in rescue and survival at home of Monica Rosenbaum

12 AJRJOURNAL SEPTEf^BER 2009

show, which was performed in 1970-71 only on Broadway. Paul Balint AJR Centre Annette Saville 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 Next meeting: 24 Sept. Outing with North London to West Lodge Tel: 020 7328 0208 AJR LUNCHEON CLUB Scotland Regional Get-together OUTING TO Pictured: Sydney Mayer, Michael Sankie, HOUSE OF LORDS KINDLY NOTE THAT FROM George Taylor from Glasgow Monday 5 October 2009,11.30 am 16 SEPTEMBER 2009 Some 45 members from Scotland WE WILL HAVE OUR SPEAKER AT A unique opportunity to visit the and the North of England met at the House of Lords with a tour conducted 12 NOON AND LUNCH AT 12.45 PM Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation Com­ by Lord Janner of Braunstone munity Centre for their annual summer Wednesday 16 September 2009 Get-together Members discussed in Starting at 11.30 am, followed by lunch Sara Hardy groups 'Divided Loyalties', 'The Second in the River Restaurant, when BBC documentary broadcaster Generation', or 'The Importance of Pre­ Black Rod will be delighted to meet members Please be aware that members should not serving Our Heritage'. After a superb Please note: there is a lot of walking involved lunch, we had musical entertainment by automatically assume that they are on the Luncheon Members will be expected to make Club list. It is now necessary, on receipt of your copy Gica Loening and a beautifully illustrated their own way to and from the of the AJR Journal, to phone the Centre on 020 7328 presentation by Edward Green on 'The House of Lords and will be responsible 0208 to book your place. Queen's Jewellery'. Philip Mason for the cost of their lunch in the River Restaurant West Midlands (Birmingham): To book your place, please call KT-AJR Another delightful occasion Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 Kindertransport special Over 20 of us enjoyed Eileen and Ernst Places arc on a first-come first-served basis interest group Aris's warm hospitality for our Summer Monday 7 September 2009 Luncheon. We discussed our future Erich Reich programme with Myrna and socialised 'Unusual Findings in for a very pleasant 2-3 hours. We thanked Kindertransport History' Eileen and Ernst for yet another delightful KINDLY NOTE THAT LUNCH WILL BE occasion. Philip Lesser SERVED AT 1.00 PM ON MONDAYS Reservations required Hendon Two by Two Walter Woyda played us a recording of Please telephone 020 7328 0208 the Richard Rodgers musical Two by Two. Monday, Wednesday & Thursday Danny Kaye had a prominent part in the Our friends in the North Pictured 9.30 am-3.30 pm Suzanne Ripton, Arek Hersh, Ibi Ginsberg, PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS AJR GROUP CONTACTS Margaret Kagan. Over 80 of us gathered in Leeds for the annual Northern Get- CLOSED ON TUESDAYS Bradford Continental Friends September Afternoon Entertainment Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 together and Kinder Celebration. We Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) dispersed into discussion groups, possibly Tue 1 CLOSED Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 the most popular of which was one led by Wed 2 Jack Davidoff Thur 3 Jen Gould Bristol/Bath Imran Manzoor, who founded a human Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 rights and social justice project in Bradford, Mon 7 KT LUNCH - Kards & Games Klub Tue 8 CLOSED Cambridge including taking groups of Muslim youth Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Wed 9 Margaret Opdahl to visit Auschwitz. After lunch, Anita Parma Thur 10 William Smitti Cardiff spoke about the Holocaust Educational Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Mon 14 Kards & Games Klub Trust. Thanks to everyone from the AJR, in Tue 15 CLOSED Cleve Road, AJR Centre particular Susanne, for such an enjoyable Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Wed 16 LUNCHEON CLUB event. l/l/a/ter Knoblauch Dundee Thur 17 Ronnie Goldberg Agnes Isaacs 0755 1968 593 Mon 21 Kards & Games Klub - Monday Movie Matinee East Midlands (Nottingham) Bob Norton 01159 212 494 Norfolk (Norwich) Tue 22 CLOSED Edgware Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Wed 23 Douglas Poster Ruth Urban 020 8931 2542 North London Thur 24 Gayathrie Peiris & Bill Patrick Edinburgh Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Mon 28 CLOSED - Yom Kippur Fran?oise Robertson 0131 337 3406 Oxford Tue 29 CLOSED Essex (Westcllff) Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Wed 30 Stefan & Arjan Larry Lisner 01702 300812 Pinner (HA Postal District) Glasgow Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 Radlett Harrogate Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator 020 8385 3070 Inge Little 01423 886254 Sheffield Hendon Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 South London Groups Co-ordinator Hertfordshire Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 South West Midlands (Worcester area) Susanne Green, Northern Groups Co-ordinator HGS Myrna Glass 020 8385 3070 0151 291 5734 Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 Surrey Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator Hull Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 020 8385 3070 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Temple Fortune llford Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 Agnes Isaacs, Scotland and Newcastle Co-ordinator Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Weald of Kent 0755 1968 593 Leeds HSFA Max and Jane Dickson Trude Silman 0113 2251628 01892 541026 Esther Rinkoff, Southern Region Co-ordinator Liverpool Wembley 020 8385 3077 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Laura Levy 020 8904 5527 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Manchester Wessex (Bournemouth) Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 Child Survivors Association-AJR Newcastle West Midlands (Birmingham) Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Corinne Oppenheimer 0121 705 9529

13 AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

I MONDAY MOVIE MATINEE AT DAY CENTRE AJIP ANNiLAiL TIEA Phillip Lee AT HILTON HOTEL. IT Consultant From September we will be DESKTOP/LAPTOP having a i^ilm show after lunch ELTON WAY. WATFORD REPAIRS one Monday in every month 13 SEPTEMBER 2009 UPGRADES For details, please call the Centre TROUBLESHOOTING on 020 7328 0208 If you vfish to attend, please NO OBLIGATION FREE ESTIMATE complete and return to us the NO FIX NO FEE A message from Bertha Leverton form enclosed with this issue of Setting up of Broadband the AIR lournal E-Mails To my many good friends in the AJR. Setting up of a new Computer especially the many members of the Increasing Memory Kindertransport special interest group Removal of Viruses/Spyware which has flourished for several years as ^ PC crashes an active, constituent part ofthe AIR AJR TRIP TO ISRAEL Increasing Disc Space First, thank you for the beautiful 29 November to 8 December 2009 PC running slowly picture frame! We are arranging a 10-day Installing Software / Hardware trip to Israel this November 1 CAN HELP VOU Having decided that my future life, Tel: 020 8207 2387 after so many years in Britain, will be best This will be a fantastic Mobile: 07973 501 001 served by joining my family in Israel, I opportunity to visit various places of Email: [email protected] have gone on aliya, taking with me won­ interest including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, derful memories of our many meetings the Dead Sea and Masada LEO BAECK HOUSING over the years as well as of the Kinder- We are planning to stay at transport Reunions - not least the recent the 4-star Ramat Rachel Hotel in ASSOCIATION 70th - and of so many good friends. You Jerusalem on a half-board basis CLARA NEHAB HOUSE will all remain in my heart for ever. RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME Do come and visit me in Israel! Call Please note that there will be some Small caring residential home with large me on the telephone just as if I were still walking involved attractive gardens close to local shops and living in Canons Park! The AJR office has If you wish to go on this trip, please public transport all the details. fill in the form enclosed with 25 single rooms with full =L, this issue of the Journal 4: en suite facilities My love to you all. Bertha 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care Entertainment & Activities provided FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS Ground Floor Lounge and FIRST FLOOR RETIREMENT Dining Room Birth FLAT FOR SALE IN KENTON Lift access to all floors. Alweiss/Rosenkovitch on Monday 15 June First floor retirement flat with Uft. For further information please contact: in London to Lilian and Noam twins, Maya Warden-assisted. Entryphone system The Manager, Clara Nehab House Lea and Zoe Nicole, sisters for Anna, Julia 1 fitted bedroom, lounge/dining room, 13-19 Leeside Crescent, and Ben. fitted kitchen, modem bathroom/WC London NWll ODA Telephone: 020 8455 2286 Deaths Electric economy heating, residents' Andrews, Serafina (Finnie) passed away lounge, laundry room and games room on 5 June at the age of 103. Bom in Vienna, Communal gardens i^'C-toc^ Home Care she and her husband Alec were early New 99-year lease Care through quality and members ofthe Middlesex New Synagogue In excellent condition and founder members of the B'nai B'rith professionalism Wembley Jerusalem Lodge. Near shops, synagogues, buses Celebrating our 25th Anniversary and trains 25 years of experience in providing tiie Hartnelin (nee Lynfield/Lilienfeld), Asking price £145,000 liigliest standards of care in the comfort Hilde, widow ofDr Wilhelm Harmelin. Bom Please call Carol on of your own home Frankfurt 6 February 1914, died peacefiilly in 01923 857 822 or 0794 7694 844 London 3 May 2009. Deeply missed by her niece Rosemary Preiskel, her nephew-in- law Anthony, her great-nieces Caroline and SWITCH ON ELECTRICS Katie, and her great-nephew David. Rewires and all household electrical work Kadisch, Debora sadly passed away on PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Thursday 29 July, after much suffering, Mobile: 0795 614 8566 1 hour to 24 hours care in her 103rd year. She was a very well- Registered through the National Care Standard Commission loved lady and will be greatly missed by Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 her daughter Margaret, grandson David, www.colvin-nursing.co.uk daughter-in-law Pema, great-granddaughter FillsLrCare Samantha, and her many good friends. Quality support and care at home CLASSIFIED ACACIA LODGE Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron M. ROGOSNITZKY, 35 years in the For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care (Licensed by Borough ol Barnet) Hebrew book business, is looking to buy ' Single and Double Rooms. antiquarian and out-of-print Hebrew & Convalescent and Personal Health Care • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. Jewish books/libraries. Tel 0208 455 Compassionate and Affordable Service • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. 4112/7645. • Nurse on duty 24 hours. Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff • Long and short term and respite, Does anyone have back issues of the AIR Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA including trial period if required. Journal which they no longer require, or Between £400 and £500 per week can anyone lend me back issues to copy? I Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours will retum them as soon as possible and in 020 8455 1335 other times Studio 1 Utopia Village 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley both cases pay the postage. Please contact 7 Chalcot Road, NWl SLH London N12 9TB June Smith on 01743 790088.

\4 AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

OBITUARY Michael Newman Peter Ross, 1920-2009 Closing payments from the eter Ross, who died in a partly because he did not find General Settlement Fund retirement home in Bath it easy to delegate, but also n July, the General Settlement Fund for Victims of National Socialism on 30 June, was born because delegation was not P (GSF) began the disbursement of Peter Rosenbaum, the son of a really necessary with Peter I the closing payments from the Fund businessman in Giessen, near at the hehn. He ran the office along the lines of the final quotas Frankfurt. His family moved to computer, but even that was agreed by the Fund's Board of Trustees. Milan soon after his birth. He scarcely necessary for he had The GSF was established as part of had just finished school there the most amazing memory: he the Washington Agreement signed in when, m 1938, Mussolini, under carried in his head innumerable January 2001. pressure from Hitler, introduced anti- telephone numbers (even in retirement he As the GSF was capped at $210 Jewish laws, and Pietro Rossi, as he then still remembered the identity numbers of million, awards were made on a pro­ was, was sent by his parents to Britain to the soldiers to whom he had at one time rata basis and the final shares will be study chemistry at Imperial College. But distributed pay packets in the Pioneer 10.56 per cent of the determined losses the war interrupted that and Peter (now Corps). He always had time for a chat in the claims-based process, 17.16 per Ross) joined the Pioneer Corps, and was and gossip and for retailing, at some cent in the equity-based process, and also involved m dealmg with Italian PoWs. length, some of the immense stock of 20.74 per cent for insurance policies. Towards the end of the war he worked for anecdotes and jokes he had accumulated To date, the independent Claims Committee has decided 20,537 of the the Central Office of Information. in a lifetime. total of 20,700 applications, containing After demobilisation, he retumed to Following his retirement from USA, approximately 120,000 individual London to complete his degree, and he he did voluntary work at the Wiener claims, and recognised property losses then worked for ICI in Manchester for Library from 2001 until 2006, when his of over $1.5 billion. some 15 years, moving on from there to deteriorating eyesight forced him to give Since 2005, the General Settlement the London branch of the import-export that up. Fund has paid $139 million to around agency Loewenstein & Hecht. He was very well-read and an assiduous 14,000 applicants and 4,000 heirs in the On his retirement in the early 1980s, theatre-goer. And he was a genial host and form of initial disbursements - so-called advance payments. Approximately 30 Peter joined the University of the Third a very good cook. per cent of all claims concerned occu­ Age (U3A) in London. He described his Peter married Nina Zeitlin, a graphic pational and educational losses, 20 per time there as the most fulfilling period artist, in 1949. She died in 1977. His second cent liquidated businesses. The remain­ of his life. He taught Italian language wife, Miriam Layton, a psychotherapist, ing 50 per cent are related to the other and literature, and was for 12 years, died in 1984. He leaves a son, a daughter, categories of property - bank accounts, until 2000, the USA Office Manager. The three grandchildren, three step-children, stocks, bonds, mortgages, moveable efficient running ofthe USA during those and seven step-grandchildren. property, insurance policies, real estate, years depended almost entirely on him. Ralph Blumenau insofar as no in rem restitution has been granted pursuant to the GSF law, and other losses and damages. SEARCH NOTICES In settling these claims, the in-house Aron, Renate was my best friend. We attended Berlin Star of David. Was paratrooper and German-Jewish research team of the GSF obtained Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue till 1938, then lost refugee, killed 1944. Any info pis to Martin Sugarman around 70,000 documents from various contact. Was red-haired like her mother Her father, on 0208 986 4868 (evenings after 7 pm) or at Martin. Austrian archives. an undertal

15 AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2009

LETTER FROM Newsround ISRAEL German Jews support annotated publication of yWe/'n Kampf German-Jewish leaders are backing a renewed effort to publish Mein Kampf in C^hortkov be red Germany for the first time since the war remem Under a proposal by Munich historians, ne Friday morning I joined my young man approached our table and the scholarly edition is to carry a critical husband on a trip to Haifa to thrust a piece of paper into my hand. introduction challenging Hitler's assertions. Stephen Kramer, General Secretary of the Omeet others like him whose This is a photograph of my grandparents, Central Council of Jews in Germany, said parents were originally from a place Shlomo Shachner and Etti Frisch, on their the publication would 'prevent neo-Nazi called Chortkov. Unlike myself and wedding day,' he said. 'My father died 30 profiteering' from Mein Kampf. many others, my better half has never years ago and never told me anything Film on life of athlete Gretel paid much attention to his family history, about his family. If you or anyone has Bergmann opens in Germany and it was more because of my insistence any information about him, please let me Berlin '36, a film which tells the story of Gretel Bergmann, a German-Jewish than his own interest that he agreed to know.' I watched him approach everyone high jumper robbed of the opportunity attend the meeting. there and repeat the same message. I of winning an Olympic gold because she Chortkov, which before the Second didn't have the heart to tell him that my was a Jew, is due to open in Germany this month. Aged 95 and living in New World War was by turns Polish, Ukrainian connection with Chortkov was tenuous York, Gretel Bergmann is now known as and Russian, was once home to a thriving in the extreme. Margaret Lambert. The young immigrant Jewish community of about 7,000. Relations to the USA made two vows - that she Tmie and again I heard people bemoan would never return to Germany and that with the local population were good and the fact that they had not asked their she would never speak another word the Jews prospered, working as traders, parents about life before the war. In of German. But in 1999 she broke her merchants, cattle-dealers, etc. Israel when most of them were growing vows, returning to Germany to attend the dedication of a stadium in her name in her The history of the Jews of the area, up, parents were preoccupied with hometown of Laupheim. also known as Galicia, is mundane in its earning a living and children did not New Claims Conference leader wretchedness. The Germans invaded want to be reminded of their 'diaspora' appointed and the Jews were herded into ghettoes past. Besides, the general ethos in Gregory Schneider has been appointed and eventually murdered, either on the Israel was that of building a new country Executive Vice-President of the Claims and focusing on the future rather than Conference. In accepting the position, Mr spot or after having been deported to Schneider emphasised the imperative to one of the nearby concentration camps, dwelling on the past. address the social welfare needs of Nazi notably Belzec. Needless to say, the local About 100 people from the second, victims and to obtain compensation for population co-operated with the Nazis in Nazi victims who have not yet received third and fourth generations tumed up payments. murdering their former neighbours. for the meeting, each one having paid Hundreds of schools to become The area is also distinguished by the in advance for the privilege. Memorial centres of Holocaust education very small proportion of its Jews - only candles were placed on the tables, which Many schools across the UK are to become about 2 per cent - who survived. Some had been laid for the lunch that was to specialist centres of Holocaust education went into hiding and a handful escaped follow. At one point in the memorial under a newly launched scheme. According to a report in the Times Educational to the forest and became partisans. My ceremony, everyone was asked to light Supplement, the plan forms part of the late parents-in-law had left in 1934 for the the candles on their table. new £1.5 million Holocaust education Land of Israel, having been granted 'cer­ Neri gave a short speech about Chort­ project run by London University's Institute of Education. The Holocaust Education tificates' as pioneers because they were kov and its history, several members of Development Programme will provide members of a Zionist youth movement the organising committee read out ac­ specialist training for 3,500 teachers - one and had been on a training farm. counts of the exploits of the local Jewish from every secondary school in England. But the descendants of that handful partisans, most of whom perished, and Prague exhibition on life of of survivors hold fast to what remains of someone read aloud the verses from Rabbi Loew opens their heritage. Led by Neri and Martha, A new exhibition at Prague Castle marks Ezekiel describing the vision of the dry the 400th anniversary of the death of two energetic woman in their seventies, bones. "This is exactly our story here in Rabbi Yehuda Loew. Rabbi Loew, known the group meets regularly once a year to Israel,' he said as he concluded, his voice as the Maharal of Prague, is remembered remember something that most of them choked with emotion. for the legend of the Golem, which he is said to have brought to life to protect never knew, to share information about We all sang the Hebrew version ofthe Prague's Jewish community The 'Path of what happened and, most importantly, Partisan's Song and Hatikva. Then it was Life' exhibition, which focuses on Loew's to try and discover more about their own actual life as well as legends linked to him, time to eat, because no Jewish event is includes materials from Prague's Jewish ancestors. complete vrithout a meal. Museum and Vienna's Kunsthistorisches At one point during the meeting a Dorothea Shefer-Vanson Museum and will run to 8 November

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website www.ajr.org.uk

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