VOLUME 6 NO. 3 MARCH 2006 wis journal mm I^^H ^ Association of Jewislr Refugees Peoples, cars and people's cars

The 70th anniversary of the production in unleashed 20 years of war on Europe. 1936 of the VW3, the prototype of the Ik. . im/M '-^55?* When nationhood came to Gennany in Volkswagen, underlies the historical irony /' 1871 in the wake of Bismarck's victories that an industrial product so closely over Austria and France, the democratic, associated with National Socialism and C^ popular element in the concept of the 'Volk' Hitler personally should have become an weakened further as Western, liberal icon of the anti-war left in 1960s America. ^Tc©© © notions of the 'the people' lost ground in face Readers of a mawkish disposition will recall of the increasingly aggressive self-image of

that it even metamorphosed into the 'Love • * k Germans as a powerful, expansionist Bug' in the Disney HlmHerbie. i national group. The bombastic words In 1933 Hitler discussed with the engineer i^C^^^g^^H ( engraved on the new Reichstag building, Ferdinand Porsche his idea of a Volkswagen, 'Dem Deutschen Volke', expressed a new a people's car that could carry five people and &^ «^v^^^^^^^| sense of national unity and identity forged cruise at 100 kph, was economical on fuel, not from a liberal consensus out of the and cost only 1,000 Reichsmark. Porsche's democratic process, but on the battlefield out ideas for a small car dovetailed with Hitler's of conquest and a dangerous illusion of vision of a car available to all Germans and so national superiority. the sturdy little Beetle with its air-cooled, With the advent of racial ideology in the •jl^^^ ' ^,^0 <« rear-mounted engine was born. later nineteenth century, the identification of But the cloven hoof of Nazism was evident the Volk with the national unity escalated from the start. Control of the company that E3TW into the exclusive notion of the pure produced the prototype was vested in the ^V^JHI^K Germanic race 'cleansed' of any alleged Deutsche Arbeitsfront, the Nazi impurity of blood or birth deriving from organisation into which German workers other, 'inferior' racial groups. From this had been dragooned after the abolition of free efface the crimes of its recent past by emerged the Nazi concept of the trade unions in 1933. In 1938 Hitler renamed reinventing itself as a democratic, Volksgemeinschaft or 'people's community', a the car KdF-Wagen, absorbing it into the egalitarian society where technological term stripped of any popular democratic 'Kraft durch Freude' (Strength through Joy) advances and economic efficiency worked to connotations and denoting instead a racial programme that sought to bribe German the advantage of the people as a whole. The collective organised on totalitarian lines and workers into supporting the regime with parliamentary democracy of the Bonn bound together by mythical ties of 'blood and consumer goods, sea cruises and the like. regime was underpinned by the economic soil' - groups that supposedly threatened its The Volkswagen was unmistakeably democracy of a system where the German racial purity and health, Jews for example or spawned by the Nazi state, part of its people shared in the prosperity the German the disabled, had to be eliminated. campaign to woo the masses and later of its people had created. Thus was the concept of the 'Volk' war effort, where it was known as the K- This comes close to the concept of the corrupted, as extreme nationalism Wagen or Kiibelwagen beloved of the people common in Western parliamentary culminated in the pseudo-popular system of Wehrmacht. One can argue that Volkswagen democracies where in theory all citizens, the Nazi racial state. The Fuhrer's 'people's was a brand as heavily contaminated by its regardless of class, wealth or rank, have car' was intended only for a select racial association with Nazism as Messerschmidt equal rights and participate on an equal basis group, though that was obscured post-war by or Heinkel. A product from the same stable in the political process, a concept enshrined the huge success of the Volkswagen in as Stuka dive-bombers and V-1 flying bombs at the dawn of democracy in the export markets worldwide. Eventually it could easily have had an image problem, for constitutions ofthe newly independent USA overtook the Model T Ford as the bestselling Doodlebug and 'Love Bug' were in reality and revolutionary France. But 'le peuple model of all time and drove its principal kindred beetles. frangais' meant not only the newly European competitor, the British motor In the 1950s though, the Volkswagen enfranchised French masses seeking to industry, into terminal decline. One crumb of became the prime symbol of the affluence assert their democratic rights against the consolation for supporters®bf British that spread across West Germany in the hierarchy of king and nobility, as a self- manufacturing industry: the recently wake of the Wirtschaftsuiunder, the governing, autonomous people. It also revamped version of the Beetle is plainly economic wonder that apparently united meant the French nation which, having inferior to the revamped Mini, which is Gennan society by dispensing consumer established itself as sovereign in its own produced on the site of the Morris plant in prosperity across the classes. The Beetle lands, sought to assert its sense of national Cowley, Oxford - by BMW. exemplified West Germany's attempts to ascendancy as 'la grande nation' and Anthony Grenville AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

Poor Bert Brecht Sacred mission Anthony Grenville While visiting my daughter who is studying in Jerusalem, I recently had The title of Bertolt Brecht's the famous poem 'An die the privilege to act as an emissary for autobiographical poem 'Vom armen Nachgeborenen', in which he the AJR and to deliver to Yad Vashem B. B.', with its memorable opening appealed to those born in a later, some 400 testimonies the AJR has lines 'Ich, Bertolt Brecht, bin aus den more peaceful age to pass received from members whose schwarzen Waldern./ Meine Mutter compassionate judgment on his relatives perished in the Holocaust. I trug mich in die Stadte hinein/ Als generation, forced to confront the was met in the Hall ofNames within the ich in ihrem Leibe lag. Und die Kalte evils of Fascism and capitalism in a Yad Vashem museum complex by its der Walder/ Wird in mir bis zu world of apparently irredeemable director, Alexander Avraham. meinem Absterben sein', came to cruelty and hatred - the anguished mind when an article in The Times plea of the moralist unable to avoid The new museum, a prism-like compared Brecht unfavourably with soiling his hands with violence. structure, presents the history of the - of all people - Max Beerbohm. To A deeper issue here is to what Holocaust with the individual stories compare one of the giants of extent one's judgment of a work of highlighted in the unfolding historical modern theatre with the author of literature should be determined by narrative. Using more than 2,500 Zuleika Dobson is a masterpiece of knowledge of the private life, authentic artefacts including blinkered insularity, even by the beliefs and activities of the author. testimonies, photographs, film clips standardsofthe Murdoch press. Is Arthur Koestler's analysis of and works of art, the museum weaves The Times's real quarrel with Stalin's show trials in Darkness at over 90 personal accounts into a Brecht was, of course, political, not Noon any the less artistically thematic and historical narrative, thus literary: Brecht was a convinced compelling because we know of the telling the story of the Holocaust Marxist at a time when Marxist author's record of violence against through the voice ofthe individual. orthodoxy meant loyalty to Stalin. women? Is the superbly crafted The Hall of Names is a conical room But those who accuse Brecht of humanity of Theodor Fontane's designed to represent the towers of the unquestioning acceptance of novels less satisfying because we gas chambers. Along the inside of the Stalinist ideology and practice, like know of his aversion to Jews, from cone are hundreds of pictures of Jews of the renegade Communist Ruth his letters to his friend Georg every background who perished. Fischer, whose misreading of his Friedlaender (a Jew, of course)? Do Mirroring the pictures is a deep hole play Die MaBnahme led her to call we rank Ezra Pound's Cantos lower with water at the bottom. I was told this him 'the bard of the GPU' (later because the poet ended up a KGB), misunderstand his position. ranting advocate of Italian Fascism? was because water represents life and, if you look down into it, you see not only It was, after all, Brecht who wrote It is easy to argue that no work your own reflection but the reflection of a marvellously sly poem after the that expresses support for an the faces in the pictures. In this manner, crushing of the East German ideology as abhorrent as National your face and theirs are entwined. workers' uprising of 1953, in which Socialism can have literary merit - he asked the Communist but then how do we judge Around the walls are black folders, government, which had blamed the acknowledged masters like the poet each one containing the testimony of people for forfeiting the regime's Gottfried Benn and the novelist about 350 people murdered by the confidence, why it did not simply Ernst Junger, camp followers of that Nazis and their collaborators. At dissolve the people and elect ideology for all that they avoided present, Yad Vashem has a list of 3 another in its place. It was also direct commitment to Nazism in its million names. In an ongoing effort to Brecht who in the late 1930s wrote worst years? collect more names before it is too late, Yad Vashem is urging people to assist in this sacred mission by ensuring that a AJR Heads of Department testimony is completed for everyone Gordon Greenfield Finance who was murdered. JACKMAN • Carol Rossen Adnninistration and Personnel Marcia Goodman Social Services If there are members of your family SILVERMAN Michael Newman Media and Public Relations whose names have not been recorded, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS Susie Kaufman Organiser, Day Centre please contact the AJR for a form so AJR Journal that their details can be added and Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor preserved for eternity. 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 8017 Andrea Goodmaker Carol Hart Secretarial/Advertisements Volunteers' Co-ordinator, AJR AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

POINT OF VIEW My love-hate relationship with Vienna NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors It was in the late forties that they put avidly every Sunday, advise on words to Johann Strauss's Emperor along with Albert Sandler's Gfand Property, Wills, Family Trusts Waltz. There I was, in my teens, living Hotel. Ninety minutes of Viennese and Charitable Trusts in a market town called Banbury, music. Bliss! French and German spoken when up swelled the words 'I was born My mother The Frau Doktor! She in Vienna'. My wife is puzzled that the was a great cook. And what did she Home visits arranged Emperor Waltz is so meaningful to mostly cook? Viennese dishes, of 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, me. 'How can you feel anything for a course! Tafelspitz, Wiener Schnitzel, London NW3 5NB town, a country, a people, that threw Rostbraten, Apfel Strudel, and Tel: 020 7435 5351 you and your family out?', she asks. I Kaiserschmarren. Fax: 020 7435 8881 haven't a clue, but I do. My first holiday to Vienna was in My father was a doctor in Vienna. 1948. The city was still divided into Then along came the Nazis, and they four sectors. Wien 2 - the old Jewish wanted to kill us. My father was due to area - had been allocated to the go to Dachau. Only through the Russians. It looked as if the war was kindness of a patient who warned him still being fought there. Nothing had CONSULTANT that his name was on a list of Jews due been rebuilt. With trepidation, we to long established English for arrest did he not perish. A couple went on to the Friedhof, near the Solicitors (bi-lingual German) of months later we were on our way to airport, to visit the graves of my sister would be happy to assist clients Switzerland, and then to England. The and grandfather. Thankfully, though with English, German and Austrian problems. Austrians had welcomed the overgrown, they hadn't been Anschluss and embraced National desecrated. Contact Henry Ebner Socialism with as much ardour as the Later, we walked round the Myers Ebner & Deaner Germans. My mother and I were inour Stadtpark, pausing to listen to the 103 Shepherds Bush Road apartment in Vienna on Kristallnacht music played at the Kursalon. We London W6 7LP when the Nazis destroyed it, as well as went to Grinzing to see if the Telephone 020 7602 4631 my father's surgery. My father? Heurigens still existed. My father ALL LEGAL WORK Together with his brother, he was sought out the Kaffeehauser he had UNDERTAKEN caught attempting to climb into frequented before the war. And we Switzerland and sent back to Vienna visited Baden bei Wien and minus a few teeth. Semmering. What memories these So here we were in England (in two small towns must have evoked Hampstead, where else?) with hardly for my parents. Then it was back to AUSTRIAN and GERMAN any money, no knowledge of the Banbury! PENSIONS language, and with my father's job Visiting Vienna became an annual prospects as a doctor almost pilgrimage for us. And in the eighties, PROPERTY negligible. We did have his Josef after my parents died, I took my wife RESTITUTION CLAIMS Schmidt records, brought from and four children there to show them EAST GERMANY-BERLIN Vienna, to cheer us up. We also where I had lived. The house had been On instructions our office will listened to all Viennese music on the destroyed. But the Prater was there in assist to deal with your 'wireless' - Strauss and Lehar (and yes, the background, with its famous applications and pursue the matter Riesenrad, though there was no sign before you accuse the family of being with the authorities. lowbrow, Mozart tool). We followed of Harry Lime! I intend taking some of the fortunes of Arsenal and West Ham my 11 grandchildren there this year. For further information football clubs because Hakoah of Yes, I love Vienna - even though I and an appointment Vienna, a Jewish team, played against was only three when I left. Sacher please contact: them in the thirties and my father was versus Demel: who cares? But how ICS CLAIMS the club doctor typically Viennese! How much 146-154 Kilburn High Road Eventually, my father was allowed greater a place Vienna would be if London NW6 4JD to work as a doctor, first in Becontree, only the Jews hadn't been forced Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) then in Banbury. Richard Tauber was to flee! Fax: 020 7624 5002 becoming popular. We listened to him Peter Phillips (born Peter Pfeffer) AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

Berlin memorial visit - reduced cost We have now managed to reduce substantially the cost of our planned visit to the new Holocaust memorial in Berlin. The visit is planned to coincide with the 61st anniversary of the end of the Second World War and will take place between 7and 10 May. The revised cost, which includes tours of the Jewish Museum and the Wannsee Villa, will be £525. This includes flights, transfers, accommodation and breakfast, coach travel throughout Berlin, and Around 175 people attended the AJR's Holocaust Memorial Day service at Belsize Square an official tour guide. Synagogue (see story on page 16) As there will be a full programme, this visit will not be suitable for people with walking difficulties. 'Making a difference': To reserve one of the limited places on the trip, please phone 020 Holocaust Memorial Day, January 2006 8385 3070 or email 'We called it genocide and no one came', Pierre Sauvage led the audience's [email protected]. said the former lieutenant General Romeo appreciation ofthe daring actions of Charles Dallaire as he sought to put into words his Fawcett, who, together with Varian Fry, feelings of despair and terror as more than saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were people in Marseille. In a documentary murdered by their Hutu neighbours in highlighting his efforts that was screened Rwanda in 1994. The United Nations as part of the Memorial Day ceremony, Mr officer, supplied with only a handful of Fawcett said simply: 'I thought we could peace-keeping soldiers, who were unable to make a difference. It's a responsibility prevent the genocide, spoke graphically of people have.' the dangers of intolerance and xenophobia Addressing the meeting. Prime Minister o at the national Holocaust Memorial Day Tony Blair said that 'Today's Europe of o event at the Wales Millennium Centre, peace and prosperity is a lasting memorial k i " Ginette Fournier-Rouquet, who received Cardiff. to the victims.' He added that we think of Yad Vashem's 'Righteous Among the In honouring the individuals who risked the unthinkable 'to commemorate the Nations Award' in 2005, looking at her their lives to save others, his message millions who died in the Nazi onslaught' and portrait at Marion Davies's photographic defined this year's Holocaust Memorial Day 'to reflect on the victims of more recent Holocaust Memorial Exhibition 'Absence theme: one person can make a difference. genocides' before reminding people of the and Loss'. Held in Cambridge and scheduled need to 'rededicate ourselves to fighting to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day, AJR member Nicole David spoke the exhibition illustrates the effect of the movingly about her experiences as a hidden racism and embracing the tolerance of Nazi accession to power on German Jews, child and the humanitarian acts ofthe family difference'. synthesising images of Holocaust who cared for her in Belgium during the The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, memorials taken in Berlin with war. Her recollections complemented the added: 'The only antidote to fear is photographs of documents and artefacts created in the studio. remarks by residents of the French village responsibility: the refusal to believe that of Le Chambon who acted to save Jewish there is nothing we can do, the decision lives, as well as those of Clare Keen-Thiryn, never to take refuge in blaming others, Cardiff Council leader Rodney Berman whose family also rescued Jews fleeing making them scapegoats for our were proud to announce that every school Nazism. frustrations and fears.' child in Wales had taken 'The Pan-Wales The AJR was also represented by The occasion amply reflected the location Pledge' to make a difference, a specially opening speaker Eva Clarke, who was born ofthe Welsh capital with contributions firom commissioned poem written by Gwyneth in Mauthausen camp in Austria, and Ellen the Penylan Synagogue choir, the actor Lewis, Wales's national poet. Singer, who spoke of her experiences as a Philip Madoc, the soloist Katherine Claire Keen-Thyrin's great-grandson, Kindertransport survivor. Members of the Jenkins, and poetry readings and dances seven-year-old Samuel Pfister, had the AJR's Cardiff group attended the event performed by the National Dance Company honour of concluding the ceremony by along with Hermann Hirschberger, Bertha of Wales. lighting the memorial flame. Leverton and AJR staff members. Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan and Michael Newman

4 AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006 Letter to my German brother You are nearly 10 years older than I. Jurgen Schwiening have been a partisan had I been a That doesn't make much difference young man in Poland or Russia. You now we are over 70 but it is a big verrecke!'? That was the new Germany were aghast: 'They were bandits, who difference whether you were only 10 our parents were so proud of. Do you shot our soldiers in the back!' Then you in 1945 or already 20. When we last remember them speaking about added that it must be the English met in Germany we talked about the 'Konfirmationslager', where her influence on me. past. That is what I want to write to grandmothers and aunt died? You say One more thing I have to talk to you you about. you didn't know any of this. Yes, but about, my brother. There is a nice wall- Forty years ago you and I went our does it therefore not concern you? hanging in your living room. It's been different ways. I married a Jewish Today you know it: we have both had there for years. 'It's from Russia', you woman and eventually became a 60 long years to learn. When, our said, 'Our father sent it.' You said that British citizen. You married a German parents' and our life improved as if it was quite normal - that you girl. We both have children and because they found work in the bring something with you from the grandchildren and can't complain. armaments industry, when father war, a present to your family. I Your sister-in-law is the only Jew in joined the Brownshirts and then the remember when the carpet and some your family and, as far as I know, Nazi Party, when he advanced in the silver arrived. It must have come from among your acquaintances too. You police, Esther's family were the house of well-to-do people. Did know, of course, that my wife was also systematically robbed of their rights, you never ask yourself how father got German until she and her parents work and possessions, and forced to hold of these valuables? They were were driven from their home. They emigrate, and those who were unable totally out of place in our tiny flat. were lucky England allowed them in. to escape were eventually murdered. Carpets and silver were not part of our You never wanted to admit there was world, were they? When I asked you At our departure you said 'Come a connection. Had I said to you that we about father's war experience you back next year', but I couldn't say yes. are the children of a generation of quickly replied: 'He was only in the We had spoken about the past and, police, and only for a short time at the when the conversation got round to The words 'Jew' and front. He was captured by the Russians Esther's Jewishness, you said that 'Jewish' have quite a and kept in a PoW camp until the end wasn't important: the only thing that of '49.' That is true. When he came mattered was her humanity. Do you different ring for you back he was a sick man. He never told really think that after all that has than they do for us. You me much about his time in the war I happened, a German can give the associate with them suspect you know rather more same simple answer the because you too were in the East as a Enlightenment thought was possible? something strange and young soldier and perhaps father Do you think a German can tell a unknown - perhaps also spoke to you as a comrade. Since then Jewish woman that she should be unpleasant, threatening, I've done the research which you so satisfied to call herself a 'Mensch'? Do much resented, because I have a right you think she can put her Jewishness or un-German. to know - and so do you. aside? For a Jew, after Auschwitz that robbers and murderers you would He was in the Protection Police and would amount to self-negation and have considered that an insult. served in an SS police regiment betrayal. When she told you she had You told me many times: 'We don't involved in the so-called rediscovered her Jewish identity and want to hear any more. We've had 'Bandenbekampfung' in White Russia. was proud of it, you were angry. Yes, enough. Television is full of it.' You've In these campaigns hundreds of the words 'Jew' and 'Jewish' have quite always had enough of it. You always villages were burnt down after a different ring for you than for us. You knew it all. Our conversations never everything of value was taken. Many associate with them something got beyond your objecting 'Don't start innocent people, mainly Jews, were strange and unknown - perhaps also that again.' And then you'd add: 'We 'sonderbehandelt' and the rest - men, unpleasant, threatening, or un- too suffered - we were bombed and women and children - were deported German. Are the Sturmer pictures still lost everything.' When I told you what to the Reich as slave-workers. Do I in your mind, or the antisemitic the prophet Hosea has to say about need to tell you what prejudices and Christian stereotypes? sowing the wind and reaping the 'sonderbehandelt' meant in Nazi Have you ever considered what it whirlwind you didn't reply. Once you jargon? For his part in one of these means for her now to visit a German said generously: 'We all make 'actions' father was awarded special town, where SA-men like our mistakes. War is terrible, that's why I'm points - alas, not enough for a medal. grandfather and father would have a pacifist.' Yes, war is terrible but He proved himself and was soon marched through the streets shouting sometimes one has to fight, as with promoted. Yes, our father still stands 'Deutschland erwache, Juda Hitler's Germany. I told you I might between us... AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

Sir - I agree wholeheartedly with Peter Prager The other day, an English friend of mine complained that the waiting lists in "^lETTERS^ The Editor reserves the right our hospitals were so long because 'too to shorten correspondence many people are coming into this TO THE { submitted for publication country'. I reminded her that there might be no hospitals at all if these people IMtOVLj hadn't come: the NHS would grind to a halt without them, as would public transport in London. It is bad enough to ARE THERE TOO MANY I am not arguing that Britain should encounter such xenophobic attitudes IMMIGRANTS? discriminate against Muslim among the English, but it really saddens Sir - I agree with Peter Prager (Point of immigrants - that would be a counter­ me when Continental Britons express View, February) when he cites the way productive overreaction. Not only are similar views. We, as erstwhile refugees, in which earlier immigrants were the great majority of Muslims valuable should never forget that Britain was once absorbed and became an asset to this contributors to British society, but such af ra id to be 'swa m ped' by us. country; also that Britain needs more discrimination would indeed justify Edith Argy young immigrants to contribute to our the feelings of peaceful Muslims that London W9 economy and to help with the looming Britain is Islamophobic - just as pensions crisis. But I cannot agree with restrictions on Jewish immigration Sir - There is a notice in my local library him when he ridicules as prejudice, akin were justifiably resented by Jews as stating that the Borough of Barnet is to the old prejudice against Jewish antisemitic. It is precisely our prepared to help immigrants to obtain immigration, the apprehension of legitimate apprehensions which British citizenship by procuring the 'many Jews' (and surely not of Jews should stimulate us at least to make necessary forms for them, completing alone) that the influx of so many sure that there is no economic or social them, and sending them to Croydon Muslims may intensify the dangers of discrimination on our side. That violence in Britain. The comparison with cannot entirely solve the problem, but (Home Office). When we were Jews is completely misplaced. Such it would reduce it rather than naturalised in the 1940s we had to do active hostility as existed was entirely by exacerbate it. everything ourselves: no official help was offered. Moreover, we had to prove that the host community against the Ralph Blumenau we could read and write English as well immigrants: it was not reciprocated by London Wl7 the immigrants. Jewish immigrants as speak it. kept their heads down; they aspired to (Mrs) A. Saville Sir - Mr Prager's article, while well- integration; they were too economically London NW4 intentioned, does not fully state sufficiently and upwardly mobile for the facts. In order to declare an there not to be a pool of young people COALITIONS AND OTHER interest, I too arrived in England in late who felt hopeless and, if they did feel CONCOCTIONS 1939 as a Jewish refugee. We came as deprived of economic opportunities, Sir - Congratulations on your leading genuine asylum-seekers in fear of they would perhaps turn to socialism article 'Coalitions and other concoctions' our lives. Today's immigrants are and its class solidarity, but not to a (February issue). The fate of the Weimar frequently economic immigrants specifically Jewish resistance. Indeed, Republic is often held to be a dire claiming to be asylum-seekers. Often there was no ideology of religiously- warning to those of us who would like to brought in by gangs who make huge inspired resistance, no preaching inside see proportional representation in this sums of money, mostly they come the country to exhort to it, and no country, and I think you have laid that without skills. feeling that such resistance would be particular ghost (and a few others). It is Britain needs skilled and educated encouraged by powerful forces outside extraordinary that Britain can claim to be people willing to integrate. Let us the country. a model democracy when its electoral welcome genuine asylum-seekers. The system elects governments on minority Of course, the great majority of Jewish refugees who were allowed votes, and that a party such as the Liberal Muslim immigrants want to, and will, asylum in the late thirties were mainly Democrats should have 66 MPs after integrate in the same way as the Jews highly skilled and educated, receiving almost a quarter of the votes did, but it is not prejudice to be contributing out of all proportion to cast in the last general election. apprehensive about the trouble that their number in the arts, science, can be caused by the minority who do medicine, business and many other Professor Leslie Baruch Brent not. Economic hardship is sometimes fields. The same holds true of the London N19 caused by discrimination on the part of Russians who went to Israel, and of the host community, but sometimes many of those who re-emigrated to GERMAN AMBIENCE also by social factors within the the USA and Australia. The 'Kinder' Sir May I as one whose mother tongue is immigrant community. Whatever the came from backgrounds which gave German but who is now more familiar cause, the articulation of grievance and them the will to succeed despite the with Shakespeare than Goethe put it to anger which it generates seems to be huge disruption. your contributors Halberstam (December greater in the Muslim community than, Bob Norton 2005) and Graff (February 2006) that if for example, among Hindus. Nottingham they really miss the German ambience so AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

much, they may like to consider COMMENDABLE COMMENTS returning there. Sir I have read Rudi Braude's comments ARE YOU ON A LOW Robert Miller (January issue) in response to Inge INCOME AND IN NEED Leatherhead, Surrey Trott's letter and find these comments commendable. Could you please tell me OF HOMECARE HELP? what is prompting you to frequently 'GEORGE WHO?' AJR might be able to offer you publish her vitriolic and uninformed Sir Anthony Grenville's attempt to financial assistance for cleaning, letters on the Israel-Palestinian Arab belittle the late George Best is not only gardening and caring. Islamic conflict? in bad taste but also betrays ignorance Members who might not of football basics. First and foremost, Raph Freeman otherwise be able to afford the British are a nation of football fans: Jerusalem homecare please contact: hence the fuss about the demise of one of their one-time greats was only to be THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE Estelle Brookner, Secretary expected. Second, everybody who saw Sir -1 am writing to express my gratitude AJR Social Services Dept Best play - and, above all, his for making my life so comfortable at the Tel: 020 8385 3070 Manchester United colleagues such as age of nearly 82.1 was born in Hamburg Bobby Charlton - confirms that he was with two sisters and a brother, of whom the outstanding British player of his only one sister survives. Our lives were time. He was faster than Stanley comfortable until 1938, when all our Companions Matthews, had a greater variety of luxuries, business and home were of London skills, and could score goals. De seized. My father was one of the few Incofporating mortuis nihil nisi bonum. Hampstead Home Care given the chance to escape Germany for Fred Rosner Shanghai. My brother, sisters and I Chigwell, Essex A long established company escaped by Kindertransport. providing care in your home On arrival in England, I was sent to a Assistance laith personal care Sir - The AJR Journal should hostel for girls in London. I met my General household duties concentrate on more articles about the husband while working at an Respite care 1920s-50s (see Dorothy Graff's letter, ammunitions factory. Early marriage Medical appointment service February issue) and on was hard and our accommodation was •OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE" German/Austrian-Jewish matters. one large room. Working and looking 020 7483 0212/0213 Anthony Grenville's article 'George after the family fell solely on my Who?' has no place in your journal. shoulders, which resulted in the C. Lang breakdown of my marriage. London NW6 Being a single parent, I began night SPRING shifts at the Reading Battle Hospital, GROVE affording me the time to look after my BRUNDIBAR REMNAl 214 Finchley Road family during the day. I met my new Sir On the day I read about the London NW3 husband at the hospital but, due to his Brundibar revival in your January 2006 London's Most Luxurious ill health, I became his nursemaid. He issue, I received notice from the RETIREMENT HOME convent near Freiburg where she lived died in 1983. I began work as a carer at • Entertainment-Activities of the death of Schwester Veronica the Waylands Mental Hospital, Bradfield, until it closed. I continued • Stress Free Living Gruters at the age of 83. As a sister of • 24 Hour Staffing • Excellent Cuisine working as a carer in the private sector the Benedictine order, but with a • Full En-Suite Facilities musical education and some Jewish until the ageof 70. Call for more information blood from one of her ancestors, she By chance at the age of 76, I became or a personal tour single-handedly resuscitated the score involved with the AJR. This has resulted of Brundibar from sheets of music used in my last six years being the best years 020 8446 2117 in the Theriesenstadt concentration of my life. Having had to struggle most or 020 7794 4455 camp. of my life, I am not used to anyone, [email protected] You published my review of a especially an organisation, that is prepared to offer assistance recording of the music in January 1990. Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. My wife Marianne and I met Veronica unconditionally. This has allowed me to STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST stop worrying about little things and Gruters in her home a few years ago Surgeries at: and found her to be a vivacious lady enjoy living. I consider my AJR social 67 Kllburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) who refused an invitation to dinner in a worker a true friend that I can turn to at Telephone 020 7624 1576 restaurant because her order would any time. I would like everyone to 2 Pangbourne Drive not permit her to indulge in outside appreciate what a wonderful Stanmore Middx HA7 4QT entertainment. organisation the AJR is. Telephone:020 8958 8557 Rudi Leavor Inge Farr Visiting chiropody service available Bradford Reading f AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

read the Bible. His 54 pencil and water colour drawings for the Old Testament in the Redfern Gallery prove the depth of REVIEWS NOTES his immersion in Jewish lore and tradition, celebrating humanity at its root. Gloria Tessler Chief engineer of the universe Opening the exhibition, Lord Smith of ALBERT EINSTEIN - CHIEF ENGINEER Finsbury, formerly Culture Minister OF THE UNIVERSE: ONE HUNDRED Chris Smith, praised Jewish provenance AUTHORS FOR EINSTEIN (THREE for generating important standards of art. VOLUMES) But while Epstein's gifts of solidity and edited by Jurgen Renn sensitivity, once reviled, are now Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2005, 472pp., €29.90 celebrated, Gordine's work proved more acceptable. As a celebration of the centenary of Is there a genuine link between these Albert Einstein's 'annus mirabilis', the Fritz two artists, who shared a similar Thyssen Foundation for the Advancement inspiration? Both rejected the academic of Science has produced this lavish and influence of Greek and Roman art, inexpensive collection of essays. It is in three sections: worldview and knowledge turning instead to Africa, Mexico and acquisition (largely scientific); Einstein - Indian traditions. If by the term primitive his life's path (largely biographical); and we mean the peeling away of layers of Einstein's world today (dealing with the received Greco-Roman ideas of beauty, development of topics to which Einstein then Epstein is indeed a pioneer and, like contributed). It provides a disjointed but many others, took the brunt of the art fascinating account of Einstein's life. He world's rejection. In a written preface to was a pioneer of quantum theory, the exhibition, Sir Anthony Caro says that although he refused lifelong to accept both artists had a vision of the promised some of its implications. He was gloriously right about relativity. Javanese Dancer Signed 'Dora Gordine', land. Gordine was less visionary and less 1927. Bronze with wood base experimental, but to her eye the beauty Einstein was a pacifist, socialist and (Valsuani cast), 143.2 x 65.1 x 37cm. and grace of the oriental figure was democrat, with an almost naive belief in Courtesy of Dorich House Museum, the possibility of resolving political entirely captivating. Her strongly defined Kingston University problems through goodwill alone. He Chinese, Malay or Javanese sculptures favoured universal disarmament and a Jacob Epstein looked east for share something of Epstein's heavy world government, and expected it to inspiration to the ancient world, and his earthiness, but for his luminous and emerge from the enlightenment and attraction to the Chaldean, Egyptian and challenging power read romanticism and mobilisation of the masses through the African traditions is reflected in the Eastern dignity in her work. Their 'intellectual leaders of all countries', volume and energy of his sculptures. In strength and more obvious charm spared among whom he counted himself. How Embracing the Exotic: Jacob Epstein her from the critics' savagery, and such a government could be elected, how and Dora Gordine, which runs at the interestingly her own doll-like, impassive it could be made accountable, and how it would use its monopoly of force was less Ben Uri until 19 March and then moves features betray a hint of the Javanese clean to Newcastle University's Hatton reflected in much of her work. They are In real life, however, he backed away Gallery until 20 May, we see his work also influenced by her early study of from naive idealism. In 1918 he was Hindu classic, dancerly forms. paired for the first time with that of distressed by the plight of East European another East European Jewish Epstein's sculpture - pared down to the Jewish refugees in the aftermath of the contemporary, Dora Gordine. Both essence of being - is said to have First World War and the rise of founder members of the Society of influenced many twentieth-century antisemitism in Germany. In spite of a Portrait Sculptors, they showed at the European artists. Rodin, Brancusi and theoretical opposition to nationalism, he radical Leicester Galleries in London at Modigliani were his early role models. became a committed Zionist and was instrumental in founding the Hebrew the height of their careers. But Epstein The artist and writer Roman Halter, University in Jerusalem. outraged the London art world in the whose moving paintings were featured by The part of Einstein's story with which I 1960s with his elemental, pregnant Tate Britain last year for the 60th was least familiar was the campaign Genesis, which eschewed contemporary anniversary of the liberation of the death ideals of beauty in favour of the inner against him in the early 1920s, long camps, was the subject of the opening before the Nazis came to power. A major celebration of primitive life. Gordine was programme of the Spiro Ark spring prediction of Einstein's general relativity more romantic, but also more stylised; cultural programme. Tribute to the theory was confirmed by Arthur the female power of her nude sculptures Holocaust survivor's triumph over his Eddington's expedition to Brazil to has even more obvious oriental roots. circumstances was paid by Colin Wiggins, observe the total solar eclipse of 29 May Epstein was deeply humanist rather National Gallery Deputy Head of 1919, which showed that light from a star than specifically religious, and frequently Education. was deflected by the sun's gravitational field. Criticism of Einstein should have AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

ended; instead, he was accused of self- the AUT and NATFHE. In Einstein's own Platz, Riedenberg, Schondra, promotion. The scientifically unqualified words, quoted in this memorable book, Unterleichtersbach, Zeitlofs; Bad Paul Weyland founded an 'The attitude of ... intellectuals, viewed Kissingen - Garitz, MaBbach, Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutscher as a class, [is] not better than that of the Poppenlauer, Steinach/Saale, Thundorf; Naturforscher zur Erhaltung reiner rabble.' Hammelburg - Bonnland, Dittlofsroda, Wissenschaft e.V. to oppose him. Bryan Reuben Oberthulba, Untererthal, Volkersleier, Einstein called it the Anti-relativistische Westheim. GmbH. Weyland organised a mass Included are details of the structure, meeting in the Berlin Philharmonie on 20 Yesteryear's neighbours development and culture of all the August 1920 followed by meetings YESTERYEAR'S NEIGHBOURS: TRACES Jewish communities in the Landkreis; throughout Germany. OF GERMAN JEWS IN THE information on original Jewish Einstein was attacked because he was ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT OF BAD settlements; chronological tables; a list politically left-wing and because his KISSINGEN FOCUSING ON THE of names and occupations of the over relativity theory was too novel, but PERIOD 1800-1945 6,200 Jews who lived in the three primarily because he was a Jew. Nobel districts; names of soldiers killed in the by Cornelia Binder and laureates Johannes Stark and Philipp First World War; information on I Michael Mence Lenard declared that all science was emigrants, synagogues and cemeteries; Obtainable from: racially dependent and that relativity and a report by a Holocaust survivor. info@reflectionswood. org, 443pp, must be rejected on account of its non- The reference registers include an €109 plus postage & packing Aryan and theoretical origins. There index of names, an index of places, were campaigns to prevent Einstein The writing of local Jewish history by photos and illustrations by place lecturing and to avoid references to his non-Jewish, non-professional German together with sources, explanatory work in the literature. (Nor were things historians is now widespread. Many of notes, a bibliography, archives consulted better in the 'socialist' world. Soviet them spend all their spare time on their with file references, and information demagogues banned relativity as research and writing. When Michael provided by eye witnesses and others. 'bourgeois idealism'.) While many of Mence came to live in the district of Bad The book is illustrated with 594 black- Einstein's colleagues defended him, a Kissingen in the eady 1970s and later and-white and 66 colour plates. proposal to make him a freeman of the met Cornelia Binder, who was born in the Herbert Loebl city of Ulm, his birthplace, was vetoed. district town of Bad Bruckenau, they There is an extraordinary resonance discovered a mutual interest in the between the campaign against Einstein history and fate of former Jewish FILM and the recent attempts within the citizens. Their enquiries drew little or no academic trades unions the Association help and, initially, some hostility. It A truly shocking affair of University Teachers (AUT) and the required considerable moral courage to CACHE (HIDDEN) National Association of Teachers in seek information in the three district directed by Michael Haneke Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) towns and smaller localities where Jews starring Daniel Auteuil and to institute a boycott of Israeli had lived, some for 300 years and more. Juliette Binoche universities and to persuade their The two assembled an archive and at selected cinemas members to sever all ties with Israeli created a travelling exhibition in the academics. Neither NATFHE nor the AUT three district towns, from which resulted Every French film I see seems to have as was urged to sever ties with academics in their first book. Last Traces of German its leading character either a TV celebrity any other countries - even the nastiest Jews in the Landkreis of Bad Kissingen. or a high-flying publisher This film has tyrannies - just as Weyland's Their work attracted the attention of both: Georges, played by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft did not concern former Jewish citizens in the Landkreis dependable Daniel Auteuil, is a TV itself with gentile scientists. A number of and nominations for the Wiener Library celebrity; his wife Anne - the delectable British academics, while protesting that Award, which they received from the Juliette Binoche - is a prominent Israel was inflicting collective hands of this reviewer in 2002. publisher Georges and Anne's idyllic punishments on Palestinian Arabs, This extraordinary book is an extension lifestyle comes to a bitter end when he wanted to muzzle Israeli academics, no of that work. Like Last Traces, it differs begins receiving menacing videos about matter what their political views were. from all other local histories known to his personal life from an anonymous The treatment of Bir-Zeit University was this reviewer in that it is written in both source. The videos bring back painful criticised but there was no recognition German and English. It differs in another memories of his childhood, when, that it was founded by Israel after 1967. respect too - by appealing to because of him, an Arab friend and his No doubt the Jordanians felt, descendents of Jewish families family were given rough treatment at percipiently, that the university would originating from the district and to local the hands of his parents. As the couple's become a centre for political agitation. people interested in history, as well as to contented existence falls apart, it is NATFHE held many of its discussions on scholars. One can imagine that the evident that the theme of the film is no Saturdays and Jewish holidays to particularly well-referenced information less than the collective racism of French prevent orthodox Jews from attending. will result in several more books. society towards its Arab citizens. The German scientists who turned The book is, in the first instance, a Some three-quarters of the way against Einstein did so on grounds that history of Jewish families from 1800 to through the film, a literally shocking had nothing to do with the scientific 1945 in 21 locations in former event takes place - an event which validity of his theories. The same applies administrative districts; Bad Bruckenau - connects graphically with the trauma in to the enemies of academic freedom in Stadt, Bad Bruckenau - Bad, Geroda, Georges's childhood. I will long AJR JOURNAL MARCH 2006

remember the frisson that swept their son angry with his mother for through the packed cinema at this split- allegedly having an affair? Is she or isn't second image. she? Again, it's your call. I could go on Cache has been showered with and on. And as for guilt feelings -1 didn't awards. It is directed by the 63-year-old see very much evidence of them - with Austrian Michael Haneke, who in Georges or anyone else. previous films has tackled xenophobia Recently I saw The Talented Mr Ripley, Catching the last night of the proms and the victimisation of illegal based on the Patricia Highsmith novel. immigrants; currently he is about to Not only did it end conclusively but there on television on New Year's Eve, I direct his next film, a three-hour epic was a bonus: the villain, a triple murderer, found that the final chorus was about Nazi youth. According to a recent got away with it. Now that's an ending neither Land of Hope and Glory nor interviewer, Haneke makes for a worth staying up for Henry Wood's sea shanties but truculent interviewee, with an ability to Howard Spier Parry's setting of Blake's Jerusalem. make you feel your questions are To hear it sung with gusto by the beneath him. Unwilling to provide pat thousands-strong audience was very explanations of his work, he evidently touching. has contempt for his ice-cold media Spring's New Promise Throughout the ages, physical and image. In Cache it shows. spiritual Jerusalem has captured the This is a very taut film, acted with Freed from ice are stream and brook imagination of millions, triggering perfection, and always retaining our Sunshine gleams in every look emotions in the hearts of people of interest. There is much fascinating use of Hope sprouts green from niche and nook. all races and creeds. To sit in a photographic imagery. The film's spooky concert hall in Jerusalem and hear a air is enhanced by the total absence of Gone is winter's frosty reign choir trill the last notes of Faure's background music. But with the Halcyon days are here again Requiem, intoning the name of the repeated substitution of videos for film, Life's re-newed in every vein. city in a divine, celestial choms, is an we're not always sure what we are unforgettable experience. Equally Colours blaze in myriad hues watching is 'real'. And this is the poignant is hearing the opening aria Greens and yellows, reds and blues problem. of Handel's Messiah, where the A tapestry of splendid views. Now I realise there are two schools of words of Isaiah speak of comfort for thought on this. There is the school the People throng through park and street Jemsalem and an end to its warfare. director belongs to: viewers are to make And there are many other examples. their own minds up about what they are Stepping lightly on their feet seeing. They are to be shocked into Breathing air that's mild and sweet. The King James version of the accepting that French society should be Bible has been adopted by Anglicans Gone the days of gloom and chill laden with guilt over wrongs done to the as its original, tme version. They Hearts uplifted with a will Arabs in their midst, that Georges is find it hard to grasp that it is an wracked with guilt and his past has Hope the future's better still! erratic, often inaccurate translation, irrespective of its intrinsic value as come home to haunt him. We never Lili Hart actually learn who the sender of the literature. But whatever hold the city videos is. has had on Christians, as But I find myself attached to the Annely Juda Fine Art exemplified by the Crusaders, or on Muslims, who fought tenaciously to second school of thought. Maybe I'm 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) recapture it, it is we Jews who regard old-fashioned but I have a penchant for Tel: 020 7629 7578 a firm conclusion. Maybe I'm lazy but I Fax: 020 7491 2139 it as our physical and spiritual cradle. don't like to be packed off with The attempt by Israel's guesswork. And this is precisely what CONTEMPORARY PAINTING govemment a few years ago to happens here. Unable to reveal the AND SCULPTURE change the city's official name to its shocking event described above, the Hebrew version, Yerushalayim, fell critical point of the film, I confess to on deaf ears. Stamps were minted being totally at a loss as to why it took and documents printed, but no one place: there's no rhyme or reason to it. WANTED TO BUY seemed to take much notice. City But there are other holes too. German and names have been changed in the And the second biggest hole is English Books past, as evinced by Istanbul, precisely the ending of the film - when Mumbai and Beijing, but not we are expected to sally forth into the Bookdealer, AJR member, Jerusalem. night without even knowing who sent the wretched videos. (At one point, I welcomes invitations to view and Its Arabic name is Al-Kuds, the even had it figured that Georges, in a fit purchase valuable books Holy City, but no one seems to take of conscience, was sending them to much notice of that either 'And was himself.) And why, for instance, does Robert Hornung Al-Kuds builded here in England's 10 Mount View, Ealing Georges hesitate to tell his wife of his green and pleasant land'just doesn't London W5 IPR suspicions about who is sending the Email: hornungbooksOaol.com have the right ring to it. videos at the cost of their fast Tel: 020 8998 0546 Dorothea Shefer-Vanson deteriorating relationship? And why is

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Bettine Le Beau remains a much loved smuggle her into Switzerland was star in the Jewish community's thwarted by the guide being caught with firmament, especially among PROFILE an earlier group of children. It was Continental refugees and survivors as Ronald Channing decided to find families who were she herself was a hidden child. prepared to accept the risks in hiding the Celebrating her 74th birthday as a children. A Protestant farmer and his great-grandmother and defying the Bettine Le Beau wife with no children of their own, living years, Bettine retains the exceptional in an isolated farm near Montelimar, beauty and lithe figurewhic h made her Through a child's eyes took in Bettine and another girl of a a film and television actress similar age at Christmas 1942. All traces performing regularly with Benny Hill, of their Jewish identity were erased and Morecombe and Wise, Mike and she became Betty Fretier, whose father Bernie Winters, the Likely Lads, and as was a prisoner and whose mother had a 'Bond girl' in Dr No. Her vivacious died. The girls were able to attend the personality, ready humour and wit, not local school. to mention fluency in six languages, led At the liberation - she can still hear the to broadcasting, earning her a regular celebratory ringing of church bells - place on the BBC's tremendously Bettine's brother found their mother, popular Petticoat Line for nearly a who had survived a number of camps, decade. Her book Help Yourself to and his sister. Thanks to Rabbi Solomon Happiness transmits her positive Schonfeld, the family were eventually philosophy oflife. reunited in London. There Bettine Bettine was born in Antwerp in 1932. learned English in two months, went to Her father, Leopold Fallek, a native of school and college, and, by the time she Crakow, came to Antwerp after a spell was 16, had blossomed into a beautiful on a kibbutz and worked in the docks. them from obtaining visas before France young woman. Her mother, Rachel, from Lodz, was on was at war and the city occupied. They Answering an ad for a model with a her way to America when the two met became refugees and had to register at fashion house, she met Peter; they in a Jewish immigrants' boarding house the town hall. married in 1952 and had a son and and married in 1927. Every tenant in A girl of eight in 1940, Bettine still daughter. Responding to an ad for a their Antwerp apartment block spoke recalls experiences as through a child's television-show hostess with a Yiddish, though at school Bettine spoke eyes. They were transported with other photograph of herself from the Daily Flemish. It was at Kindergarten that Jews to a village near Bordeaux, then Mirror, she was, after a number of she discovered her love of art, dressing taken to a castle with vicious dogs auditions, given a contract with the Ada up and performing. Leopold was a patrolling the perimeter. Eventually Foster agency and kept busy playing furrier, but in the summer the family they were imprisoned in the Camp de beautiful French girls in commercials set up an ice cream stall on the beach at Gurs in the foothills of the Pyrenees. and films. In 1979 she founded The Ostend, where Bettine loved the She was one of 30 children in a barracks, Feminine Touch charity. freedom and remembers decorating sleeping on straw mattresses and In 1988, after spending three years in holes in the sand with paper flowers surviving on starvation rations of bread Israel, the family returned to England, and shells. When her father bought a and a thin gruel. However, she learned where Bettine increasingly devoted her shop in Brussels, Bettine learned Spanish from Civil War prisoners in the time and talent to Jewish charities as a French. camp. volunteer entertainer talking about In 1940 this idyll came to an abrupt Her mother bravely agreed to her show business and how to retain one's end. While her father was buying skins children being smuggled out and they youth and beauty. Today, she also talks to in London, German troops occupied found themselves in a castle with Jevnsh schoolchildren for the London Jewish Belgium. Despite chaotic scenes at children from Germany. Bettine knows Cultural Centre, is warmly welcomed by Brussels station, where thousands that it was the French-Jewish relief AJR groups throughout southern were trying to escape, her mother organisation OSE which was behind England, and is particularly proud of her hired a taxi for them to go to their escape and subsequently housed weekly Yiddish classes at the Holocaust unoccupied Paris in the hope of and protected them. A plan to ship her Survivor's Centre in Hendon and her travelling on to join her husband in from Marseilles to an uncle in America membership of the Centre's Friends. London. Equivocation on the part ofthe was frustrated by the USA's entry into Bettine is also a talented sculptor whose British consulate in Paris prevented the war, and a subsequent plan to work is widely admired.

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Portugal. We were especially intrigued INSIDE by the strange and wonderful AJR SEDER NIGHT subterfuges this barely 100-strong SECOND NIGHT SEDER SERVICE farming community employed to outwit THURSDAY 13 APRIL 2006 theAJR The Paul Balint AJR Day Centre the Inquisition and keep alive the flame 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 of their Jewish faith and traditions. Andrew Herskovits Rev Larry Fine will be officiating Please telephone 020 7328 0208 for llford: Tales laced with humour Next meeting: Mon 20 March, 10.45 am. reservations £25 per person There was a good attendance for our Godfrey Gould, 'Some Jewish Limited space available for wheelchairs first meeting of the year to hear Erich Contributions to Life and Landscape in 6 pm for 6.30 pm prompt start Reich speak about his experiences since Brighton & Hove' he arrived in this country on the Kindertransport. He has certainly had a Essex Message in a Bottle scheme 'Society and Morality', AJR member varied life, spending time in Israel, A Southend Police Community Liaison Francoise Robertson organisd another Manchester and London - even finding Officer explained the Message in a successful theatre outing in December, and losing a few wives in the interim. All Bottle scheme to us. If someone is found when once again members of the his tales were laced with humour and unconscious on the floor because of Glasgow and Edinburgh groups had a everyone present enjoyed his illness or an accident, this scheme will most enjoyable visit to the reminiscences. Meta Roseneil help to provide aid without further Edinburgh Festival Theatre to see Annie delay. To prevent burglaries, an Get Your Gun. Susanne Green Next meeting: Wed 1 March, 10.30 am. assortment of devices is available free of Charles Elliman, Mayor of Redbridge charge to be fixed on doors and A good laugh in North London windows. Among a policeman's many We had the pleasure of being entertained South London: Vienna coffee houses weapons is a gas spray which will render by Rabbi Plancey of Boreham Wood now and then an assailant helpless. Synagogue. Imagine a rabbi who not only We were fortunate to have Otto Julie Franks has a repertoire of funny stories and jokes Deutsch, Chairman of the Essex AJR but actually knows how to tell themllt's group, as our guest speaker. Though he Next meeting: Tues 14 March, 11.00 am. not as though we were rolling in the aisles attended at short notice, for some of us John Diver, Why Wills should be Kept up to Date' but all 30 of us present had a good laugh. his comprehensive, informative and Herbert Haberberg light-hearted talk about the coffee houses of Vienna brought back pleasant Pinner: a remarkable man Next meeting: Thur 30 March. Helen Fry, The memories of our youth. Inge Gredley About 50 of us listened to Hugh Lewis of Pioneer Corps: Refugees in Uniform' Bushey Museum give an excellent talk, Outing: Thur 9 March. Wiener Library. Contact Next meeting: Thur 16 March. James Taylor with splendid illustrations, on Sir Hubert Susan Lewis at Head Office - discussion on the merits of museums and von Herkomer, a self-taught painter memorials In remembering the Holocaust famous in Victorian times but almost Manchester Continental Friends forgotten now - except in Bushey, where In Manchester, in addition to the main HGS: Happiness is 'an attitude of he lived and worked. meetings with speakers organised so well mind' Paul Samet Bettine Le Beau gave many convincing by Werner Lachs, the AJR now has four but surprisingly simple ways of Next meeting: Thur 2 March, 2.00 pm. 'Any new small social groups: 'Continental increasing one's happiness. The Questions?', chaired by Gerald Hellman Friends', who meet every two or three with a distinguished panel emphasis was on feeling: feeling good months mainly in members' homes. about oneself, feeling young, and These groups provide an opportunity making others feel good. The answers Lavish entertainment in Herts for members living away from the central she gave to many questions included a The group met at the home of Monica areas, to meet others to share thoughts fascinating list of Yiddish curses but, as Rosenbaum, where we were lavishly and experiences. she pointed out, these were - usually - entertained. We welcomed Prof and Mrs For instance, at a meeting in Broughton not meant seriously. Paul Cohn Newcome from Stevenage and had a Park/Crumpsall, two members discovered lively and interesting chat among they had come on the same ship {The Next meeting: Mon 13 March. Eli Benson ourselves. Sam Ostro Washington) on the Kindertransport. of Magen David Adom Gerda Rothberg remembered the date on Next meeting: Thur 23 March. AJR which they left Germany, Alice Rubinstein Brighton & Hove Sarid: the crypto- President Ludwig the date on which they arrived - you can Jews of Portugal imagine the dialogue which followed! Our speaker Ivor Richard told us about Scotland theatre outing At a PrestwichAA/hitefield meeting in the small community of crypto-Jews Following last August's successful January, Werner Lachs told us about a that has survived for 300 years in a theatre outing to the Edinburgh Festival book recently published in Germany. remote mountain region of northern to hear Rabbi Julia Neuberger speak on Peter Lorenz Johansen, a consultant

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pediatrician who had disagreed with issues including the new memorial in Paul Balint AJR Day Centre his father, a Nazi sympathiser, had Berlin and their experiences of the 1 5 Cleve Road, London, NW6 discovered documentation on Werner's communities in the UK to which they Tel: 020 7328 0208 uncle, also a consultant pediatrician, came - some good, some not so good. traced Werner's family tree and written By using the AJR transport budget, AJR LUNCHEON CLUB the story of his uncle. we have been able to pay for taxis to Wednesday 15 March 2006 At recent meetings in Didsbury, new help many members to attend these 11.45 am for 12.15 pm meetings. members felt they had come full circle - Rabbi Roderick Young For information on our new meeting with fellow Continentals to 'The Secret Jews: One Rabbi's share experiences for the first time, Manchester Continental Friends Strange Journey of Discovery' some not having previously realised groups, please contact Susanne Green that there were others living in the area. on 0151 291 5734. |XT_ A lO Kindertransport At meetings in Cheshire, members Susanne Green Ix I ~/AJ l\ special interest group have found they can share views on AJR Northern Groups Co-ordinator MONTHLY MEETINGS AT CLEVE ROAD FORTHCOMING MEETINGS East Midlands Social get-together 7 or 8 March tbc Monday 6 March 2006 Surrey Sun 19 March Social get-together Sarah Jedwab At Leeds Continental Friends 'The Secret Jews of Mashad fundraising coffee morning for (in Iran)' Holocaust Memorial Project: Pippa Landey (AJR volunteer), Reservations required Annie Perrez (AJR volunteer), Please telephone 020 7328 0208 Ronny and Lesley Millet, Henriette and Rodney Lee, Monday, Wednesday & Thursday Barbara Cammerman, and 9.30 am - 3.30 pm child presenters Shana and MARCH Afternoon Entertainment Toby Winston Wed 1 Madeleine Whitson Thur 2 Margaret Opdahl Mon 6 KT Lunch - Kards & AJR GROUP CONTACTS Games Klub Newcastle Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) Tue 7 CLOSED Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 Weds Mike Marandi Norfolk (Norwich) Bristol/Bath Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Thur 9 Geoffrey Strum Kitty Balint-Kurti Oil7 973 1150 MM North London Mon 13 Kards & Games Klub Cambridge Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Tue 14 CLOSED Lisel Eisner 01223 356721 Oxford Wed 15 LUNCHEON CLUB Cardiff Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Myma Glass 020 8385 3077 Thur16 Wizo Ladies choir Pinner (HA Postal District) Dundee Mon 20 Kards & Games Klub Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Tue 21 CLOSED Sheffield East Midlands (Nottingham) Wed 22 Sheila Games Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Bob Norton 01159 212 494 Thur 23 Jen Gould South London Edinburgh Mon 27 Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Kards & Games Klub Fran^oise Robertson 0131 337 3406 South West Midlands (Worcester area) Tue 28 CLOSED Essex (Westcliff) Ruth Jackson 01386 552264 Wed 29 Simon Gilbert Larry Lisner 01702 300812 Surrey Thur 30 Joe Kay Glasgow Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 Weald of Kent Harrogate Max and Jane Dickson Inge Little 01423 886254 DIARY DATES 01892 541026 Hertfordshire 25 April Yom Hashoah Wessex (Bournemouth) Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 11-18 June Eastbourne holiday Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 HGS West Midlands (Birmingham) 27 June AGM Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437 9-16 July Lytham St Annes Hull Myrna Glass, AJR South and Midlands holiday Bob Rosner 0148 2649156 Groups Co-ordinator 29 Oct-5 Nov Bournemouth holiday llford 020 8385 3077 For further information about any of these Meta Roseneil 020 8505 0063 Susanne Green, AJR Northern Groups events, please cal us on 020 8385 3070. Leeds HSFA Co-ordinator Trude Silman 0113 2251628 0151 291 5734 Liverpool Susan Lewis, Groups' Administrator 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 020 8385 3070 Members requiring benefit advice please Manchester KT-AJR (Kindertransport) telephone Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 to make an appointment at AJR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Editorials and articles published, and opinions expressed, in the AJR Journal are not Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL necessarily those of the Association of Jewish Refugees and should not be regarded as such.

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FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS ANOTHER HOLIDAY IN EASTBOURNE HOLIDAY FOR NORTHERN MEMBERS Birthday After last year's wonderful holiday in Sunday 9 July - Sunday 16 July 2006 Holden, Herbert (ne Holzinger). Happy Eastbourne we are returning to the AT THE FERNLEA HOTEL 80th birthday. Pops! Much love from Edith, Best Westem Landsdowne Hotel David, Deb, Del, Julia, Gary, Toby and St Annes Sunday 11 June to Sunday 18 June Joanna. The cost, including Dinner, Bed and Price £400 + £20 single room Breakfast, is £410 per person Classified supplement Grandmother seeks to purchase an upright The hotel charges a supplement per If you wish to book a superior room, piano as a present for her grandsons. room for sea view or deluxe room there will be a further supplement. Please telephone Mrs Sands on Programme includes Price includes Dinner, Bed & 020 77944827. ENTERTAINMENT Breakfast, transport from, and OUTINGS returning to, the Day Centre in Cleve Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd Rd, lunch on journey to Eastbourne, PLEASE BOOK EARLY TO AVOID Clara Nehab House entertainment in the hotel DISAPPOINTMENT Residential Care Home Book early to avoid disappointment Please contact Ruth Finestone on 020 8385 3070 All single rooms with en suite bath/shower Call Joan on 020 8385 3072 or Short stays/Respite and 24 hour Carol on 020 8385 3085 Permanent Care. Large attractive gardens, NORTHERN SECOND GENERATION Ground Floor Lounge and Dining rooms, GATHERING Lift access to all floors. Easy access to STUDIO FLAT AVAILABLE FOR RENT Sunday 2 April in Leeds local shops and public transport at 15 CLEVE ROAD All from the Second Generation Enquiries and further information please contact: SINGLE OCCUPANCY are welcome. Tiie Manager, Clara Nehab House £452 PER MONTH For details, please contact 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 ODA FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Barbara Dresner Dorrity Phone: 020 8455 2286 PLEASE CONTACT on 0161 368 5088 or at CAROL ROSSEN ON 020 8385 3070 [email protected] FillarCare Quality support cind care at home Jewish Care i^jCrtotvi/ Home Care and the • Hourly Care from 1 hour-24 hours Care through quality and Otto Schiff Housing Association

• Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover professionalism Worl

Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 www.colvin-nursing.co.uk ALTERATIONS ACACIA LODGE OFANYKINDTO Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. MATRON LADIES' FASHIONS For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent I also design and make (Licensed by Bomugti of Barnet) 2s COMPANY • Single and Double Rooms. 2s Company specialises io children's clothes • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. companionship, whether for yourself, West Hampstead area 020 7328 6571 • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. • Nurse on duty 24 hours. your family or friends. We can be there • Long and short term and respite, at any time and any place to accompany including trial period if required. you on any shopping trips, journeys, Between £400 and £500 per week holidays, walks or even a cuppa. Living SWITCH ON ELECTRICS 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours in or living out. Rewires and all household 020 8455 1335 other times Why not call us for an informal chat on electrical work 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley, 020 7586 8988 mobile: 0778 880 8907 London N12 9TB PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 ALL STAFF SCREENED AND VETTED Mobile: 0795 614 8566

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25 June 1918. I believe her father had a Central Office for Obituaries cigarette factory and that she worked there before fleeing to England. Her Holocaust Claims family life was close and loving, and she Michael Newman & Samara Wolinsky had many friends, with some of whom she renewed contact after the war She Restitution of stolen Jewish loved to sing, dance and skate. She property married 'Eddie' Wedel, who pre-deceased The City of Vienna is searching for the her many years ago. They had one son, former owners of art and cultural Roy, who has just celebrated his 60th birthday. items stolen during the Nazi era so that the objects, owned by the City, Irma liked to travel abroad on holiday, and went more than once to visit her can be returned to the rightful parties. Benedikt Isserlin brother Rudi and his family in America. Jean Robertson On 29 April 1999 the Vienna City Benedikt Issedin, who has died at the age of 89, was the head of the Department of Council decided that art and cultural Semitic Studies at Leeds University for Arts & Events Diary items held in the city's museums, over 20 years. He was born in Munich, his March libraries, archives and collections family descending from the rabbi and appropriated during the Nazi era scholar Moses Issedes (1525-72). His were to be considered questionable Sat 25 Feb to Sun 5 March Jewish Book father was professor of psychiatry in acquisitions. There are clear Week. All events at Royal National Hotel, Munich. The rise of Nazism prompted his Bedford Way, London WCl. To purchase indications that these objects were parents to send him to Switzerland, tickets tel 0870 060 1798 or visit obtained from Jewish owners where he attended the universities of wvvw.jewishbookweek.com through acts of robbery, confiscation Berne, Zurich and Basle, where he read and expropriation and were later history and archaeology. He To 14 May 'Passover - Journey to auctioned or sold as a result of Nazi subsequently joined his sister Beata in the Freedom' Jewish Museum, Camden UK - she financed his study at the Town persecution. University of Edinburgh. He moved to Mon 6 Geoffrey Ben-Nathan MA, It is thus important that such Magdalen College, Oxford, where he 'Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of objects still in the possession of the studied oriental languages. Beaconsfield: APointof View'Club.43 City of Vienna be restored to their During all his years of study and after Thur 9 Czech Jewish History Seminar initial owners or their legal he rarely missed an opportunity to take London Jewish Cultural Centre (UCC), successors. The restitution of these part in excavations on sites in North 2-4 pm Africa and the Far East. His crowning items is the remaining step of achievement was his series of excavations Thur 9 Bozena Steinerova in concert. Austria's indemnification efforts. UK debut of prize-winning Czech pianist. in the Phoenician site in Motya. Since 27 September 2001 the UCC, 7.30 pm In 1951 he joined the University of museums of the City of Vienna have Mon 13 No lecture (hall not available). Leeds as an assistant lecturer and became published on their website 148 Club 43 a Reader in 1978. He taught a variety of objects acquired from the Vugesta Wed 15 Prof Jean-Francois Bergier, subjects including Near Eastern (Gestapo Office for the Disposal of the archaeology, Hebrew and Arabic 'Switzerland and the Second World Property of Jewish Emigrants) with languages and literatures. War: Experiences of an Historian', at photos and a detailed description of A longstanding member of the AJR, Wiener Library, 7 pm. Wiener Library/Leo the articles. Additionally, there is a list Benedikt Isserlin had begun in recent Baeck Institute/Centre for German-Jewish of 1,545 objects on the website of the years to attend AJR Continental Friends Studies, University of Sussex lecture series meetings in Leeds. Mon 20 Dr Charmian Brinson, The Museum der Stadt Wien Anglican Bishop, the Methodist (www.wienmuseum.at) that were Minister and the Women of Rushen: appropriated during the Nazi era. Irma Wedel George Bell, J. Benson Harrison and My friend Irma Wedel, who has died in Relevant information on the origins their Work for Women Internees in hospital, was a long-time member of the of the items should be addressed to WW2'Club43 AJR and regulady attended meetings Dr Peter Eppel, Wien Museum, until her health began to fail and she Mon 27 Roy Clements, 'Joyce, Yeats and Karlsplatz, A-1040, Wien, Karlsplatz, Beckett, and Irish Sport' Club 43 went to live at Kay Court on Finchley Austria. The telephone number is -1-43 Road, where she was well cared for ORGANISATION CONTACTS 1 505 87 47 84034. Despite her dreadful experiences - Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square Written enquiries should be sent to losing one of her brothers and both Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans Seelig Central Office for Holocaust Claims parents in the Holocaust and fleeing to on 01442 254360 England on a Kindertransport together (UK), Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, with her beloved brother Rudi, who pre­ Jewish Museum, Camden Town, tel 020 Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, by fax to deceased her - Irma was always lively and 72841997 020 8385 3075, or by email to tried to make the best of things. London Jewish Cultural Centre, tel 020 [email protected]. She was born Irma Netzer in Munich on 8457 5000

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Newsround

Holocaust centre for Vienna Holocaust memorial week University This sixth Holocaust Memorial Day Sagi Hartov and the JFS Senior Choir. The University of Vienna is to build a (HMD), the first organised under the At Barnet Council's HMD event, held in Holocaust centre in honour of Simon chairmanship of Dr Stephen Smith, held a a 600-people marquee in Hendon Park, 94- Wiesenthal. The centre will include thousands of documents, including files national commemoration in Cardiff at year-old Sir Nicholas Winton recounted from the country's wartime resistance which Prime Minister Tony Blair his motivation for rescuing 692 Czech and the country's Jewish community. It is addressed a packed audience. At the Jewish children. In an address Bertha expected to cost over $17m and to be University of Sussex, the campus Leverton thanked Britain for their rescue, completed by 2010. programme devised by its German-Jewish noting that 'One country made a Studies Department again benefited from difference, and that was England'. Actress Actress launches Anne Frank website the AJR's support. I joined several other Bettine Le Beau and Gina Schwartzman Actress Emma Thompson has helped capably organised events held in London spoke of their good fortune in surviving as launch a website connected to the Anne during the week - each, though, attended hidden children. Rev Bernd Koschland, Frank museum by placing her name on a leaf at the Amsterdam museum, predominantly by refugees, survivors and Councillors Katia David and Rabbi Aba according to a report in the JTA (New local officials, with few from the wider Dunner devised the programme. At Brent York). Visitors to the website - pubhc. Cross Shopping Centre, the Mayor of www.annefranktree.com - can attach a Barnet opened the Jewish Museum's In the Greater London Authority's ultra­ story or a poem about what Anne Frank Kindertransport exhibition 'The Last modern City Hall, Baroness Sally means to them to a cyber 'chestnut tree', Goodbye', describing the rescue of 9,500 Hamwee oversaw the capital's ceremony. a replica of the tree that sat outside Speaking eloquendy on behalf of the children from Nazi Europe. Among those her attic. Kindertransportees, Hermann present were the indefatigable Rev Leslie Hirschberger recalled the vicious Hardman, who entered Bergen-Belsen Austrian authorities accused of complacency antisemitism of his classmates and camp as a military chaplain. Hermann Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon teachers and violent attacks by the Hitler Hirschberger, speaking for the Kinder, Wiesenthal Centre's Jerusalem branch, Youth. Failing to obtain a refuge abroad for referred to the sacrifice made by parents in has said that 'Austria is a paradise for the whole family after the Kristallnacht sending their children on this unique act of rescue. Nazi war criminals'. His remarks followed pogrom, his parents found places for a meeting with the Austrian interior and Hermann and his brother on the The AJR's well-attended Holocaust justice ministers as part of the Kindertransport, which he described as an Memorial Day Service (see photo on page Wiesenthal Centre's Operation Last act of 'decency, humanity and compassion 4) was held at Belsize Square Synagogue Chance. Mr Zuroff said that the 77 unique to England'. and led by Hermann Hirschbergen Ludwig suspects currently being investigated by Dr James Smith of the Aegis Trust Spiro, founder member and President of the Austrian authorities were being dealtwith'slowly and passively'. suggested that 'Never again' appeared a the AJR and now in his 94th year, recalled hollow cliche when considering later that the association was established when Poll finds less hostility towards Jews genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and now it was 'essential to have an organisation in Russia Dafur in Western Sudan, where 2 million able to look after refugees' interests, help According to a new nationwide poll, the people remained under constant threat. them integrate into the country and majority of Russians do not harbour negative feelings towards Jews and the Ideology that led to genocide had to be support the war effort'. He welcomed Dr percentage of Russians who disapprove combated. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of Andrew Balint who, 20 years previously, of antisemitism has increased since last London, read a moving passage from the had brought him the support of the Paul year A year ago, a poll conducted by the memoirs of Miep Gies, the woman who hid Balint Trust, which made the same firm, the Public Opinion Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam. establishment of a day centre possible. Foundation, found that 47 per cent of Rabbi Barry Marcus warned that Anthony Spiro, Ludwig's younger son and Russians said they were neutral towards antisemitism was 'happening again before an AJR Trustee, described how those who dislike Jews, compared to 38 our eyes', and that echoes of the Iranian responsibility had devolved to a younger per cent this year Last year, 34 per cent President's perverse denials of the generation. The 35 regional groups were said they had negative feelings about Holocaust were to be found in Britain. 'The maintaining the level of membership, an those who do not like Jews, compared to memory ofthe Shoah is a private grief with in-house programme was creating an 42 percent this year significance for all', he said, 'and ultimately invaluable archive of 'Refugee Voices', and German-Israeli relations an assault on all humanity'. Rabbi Marcus complementary support was being given The German post office has issued a intoned the Kaddish and musical for educational projects in universities, stamp marking 40 years of diplomatic contributions were made by Israeli cellist schools and Holocaust institutions. relations between Germany and Israel.

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.ajrorg.uk

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