VOLUME 19 NO.8 AUGUST 2019 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees

Our Ten Plaques IN AUGUST COMPANY A few weeks ago, the AJR unveiled a plaque at Belsize Square Among the many and varied articles in our August issue you will find a very Synagogue. It was the tenth site in our scheme intended to insightful article (page 3) by a member of the second generation, Ian Austin MP, commemorate leading Jewish refugees who built new lives in Britain, explaining why he felt he had to leave as well as places and buildings which have special connections to the Labour Party. Jewish refugees. There is also news of a new compensation scheme introduced by the Dutch Railways (page 5), plus an account of the last boatload of Kinder to arrive from Poland prior to WW2, and a report on the United States Holocaust Museum’s testimony archive.

Please enjoy reading and send us any comments.

Ridding politics of racism...... 3 Memories of Fritz Spiegl...... 4 Letter from ...... 5 Letters to the Editor...... 6 Looking for...... 7 Art Notes...... 8 USHM testimony archive...... 9 Marie Schmolka...... 10 Truly Righteous...... 11 The Last Boat...... 12 - 13 Reviews...... 14 News...... 15 & 17 Around the AJR...... 16 Obituaries...... 18 AJR Trustee Frank Harding unveiling a plaque in Edinburgh to commemorate Adverts...... 19 Mazeltovs...... 20 Sir Rudolf Bing

Frank Harding, a trustee of the AJR, came to commemorate a particular person? Please note that the views expressed up with the idea for the scheme. When I With famous scientists, for example, they throughout this publication are not interviewed him recently, he told me that have chosen the labs where they worked necessarily the views of the AJR. residents and visitors alike have learned rather than their homes. But sometimes a great deal from the AJR plaques, both the owner of the building doesn’t want AJR Team about particular individuals but also about a plaque and there have even been Chief Executive Michael Newman the general contribution of refugees. As objections by relatives of the person being Finance Director David Kaye with English Heritage, someone has to commemorated. Heads of Department Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart have been dead for twenty years before HR & Administration Karen Markham they can be commemorated with a plaque. The first AJR plaque, to honour the life of Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws And, crucially, they have to have made a Sir Hans Krebs (1900-81), the Nobel Prize Social Work Nicole Valens significant contribution to some aspect of winning biochemist, was unveiled at the AJR Journal British life and culture. Department of Biochemistry in Oxford in Editor Jo Briggs May 2013. He left Germany in 1933 after Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy Of course, he told me, there are he was dismissed from his university job. Contributing Editor David Herman Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira challenges. Which building do you choose Continued on page 2

1 AJR Journal | August 2019

Our Ten Plaques (cont.) 1933 Essinger came to Britain and brought cinema built with money donated by the 65 Jewish pupils from her school to Bunce Odeon Cinema tycoon, Oscar Deutsch. “His colleagues,” wrote Jeremy Seabrook Court, a Tudor manor house near Otterden During summer 1939, a few of the men in The Refuge and the Fortress, “packed in Kent, which was evacuated to Shropshire managed to get their wives and children twenty crates with his scientific apparatus, briefly during the war but returned to out of Greater Germany using the system and he left on the night train from Freiburg. Bunce Court in 1945. The school closed of ‘domestic service visas’ for their wives He was welcomed, almost penniless, at in 1948 and Essinger died in 1960. Pupils and the for their children. Victoria Station by Hermann Blaschko at included Gerard However, most families were not able to [another refugee scientist].” Hoffnung, Leslie Brent, get out of Germany in time. There is an and , the TV filmmaker best excellent website about the Kitchener The second plaque, also in 2013, known for his documentary, Kitty – Return Camp at www.kitchenercamp.co.uk and if commemorates the life of the founder of to Auschwitz. you would like to attend the unveiling of the Paralympics, Sir Ludwig Guttmann the plaque on 2 September please contact (1899-1980), and is situated at the Leslie Brent, the famous immunologist, said, [email protected] National Spinal Injuries Centre, on the site “I felt loved and that is so important for any of Stoke Mandeville hospital. An eminent child. I am grateful to the staff for dealing We have also recently been given neuro-surgeon, Guttmann came to Britain so discreetly with the loss of my family, permission to install a joint plaque to in March 1939, and revolutionised the burdened as they must have been with honour Milein Cosman and Hans Keller, treatment of paraplegics during and after their own loss of loved ones.” as well as another plaque to honour the Second World War. Otto Schiff, the philanthropist who was In April this year a plaque was unveiled responsible for administering the emigration In November 2013, the AJR erected in memory of Professor Sir Ernst Chain of tens of thousands of Jewish people from a plaque in honour of The Cosmo, a (1906-79), another Nobel prize-winning Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia restaurant and café on the Finchley Road scientist, at the building at Imperial College before . This plaque will be between the 1930s and 1998. It was named after him. Together with Alexander installed at Woburn House. an unforgettable taste of central Europe Fleming and Howard Florey, Ernst Chain in north London, famous for its strudel, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology What is immediately striking about the goulash and schnitzel. or Medicine in 1945 in recognition of their existing and planned plaques is both discovery of penicillin. Chain was appointed the range of people honoured – from In December 2015, the AJR erected its a fellow by the Royal Society in March teachers and bio-chemists to opera next plaque in honour of (1873- 1948 and was knighted in July 1969. managers – and the range of places where 1956), a prominent leader of Progressive you can see them, from Hampstead Judaism, who lived at 283 Watford Way, to Cumbria, and from Kent to Oxford. London NW4, from 1945 until his death KITCHENER PLAQUE This perfectly captures the diversity of in 1956. Just before he died Baeck became On 2 September a plaque will be refugees in the 1930s and ‘40s and their the first president of the famous Leo Baeck unveiled at the Bell Hotel in Sandwich, enormous contribution to British life. Institute for the study of the history and to commemorate the 80th anniversary of This is just the beginning of an ambitious culture of German-speaking Jewry. the Kitchener Camp for refugees from scheme. Keep your eyes peeled for future Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and announcements. In August 2016, the AJR erected a plaque Poland. Many of these men had been at Glyndebourne in honour of Sir Rudolf arrested during November 1938 and David Herman Bing (1902-97), General Manager of incarcerated in Sachsenhausen, Dachau and the famous opera house from 1936. Buchenwald. With the support of the Home Note: See the new Interactive Map on the In 2017 another plaque was placed to Office, the Central British Fund for German AJR website which shows the location of commemorate Bing, this time in his capacity Jewry (CBF) managed to organise transport all the blue plaques, with information and as Founding Director of the International and accommodation for the refugees and photographs about each one. If you have Edinburgh Festival in 1947, before he to support them financially (the inmates any suggestions please contact the AJR at moved to New York in 1949 where he was received 6d. pocket money per week plus the usual address. General Manager of the Met for over 20 one 2 1/2d postage stamp). years. The Kitchener Camp, named after Lord In September 2016, a plaque was unveiled Kitchener, had been derelict since the First Write Your Life Story to honour Lord Frank Schon (1912-95), the World War. It opened in January 1939 and Record a Family History Austrian-born Chairman of the National between February and the outbreak of Whether you have begun writing, Research Development Corporation, at his World War Two in September, just under researched your ancestors, or former house in Whitehaven. four thousand Jewish refugees, all of them never put pen to paper, we offer men, were put on trains from Berlin and a personalised service to help In 2018 a plaque was erected in memory Vienna. They travelled via Ostend and you preserve your precious of “Tante Anna”, , at Bunce Dover to Sandwich in East Kent. memories for future generations. Court School. Born in in 1879, she www.wordsbydesign.co.uk founded a co-ed progressive boarding Kitchener had its own orchestra and [email protected] school in southern Germany in 1926. In football team and even a 1000-seater 01869 327548

2 AJR Journal | August 2019 LET’S RID POLITICS OF RACISM

In February Ian Austin, Member Over the past few years we’ve seen Ken of Parliament for Dudley, quit the Livingstone’s bizarre nonsense about and senior members legitimise the Labour Party in protest over its myth that Jews were the chief financiers of handling of . Here the slave trade. he explains his decision and his Jewish MPs – particularly women – have pledge to AJR members. been subjected to the most horrendous abuse and terrible, violent threats, even Ian Austin MP On 16 March 1939 a ten year old Jewish being told they don’t have human blood. boy was woken in the middle of the night by noises from the streets of Ostrava, a city Some Labour members have been arrested came to speak at our annual Holocaust in what was then Czechoslovakia. Peering on suspicion of racial hatred and the party commemoration in Dudley. The second out of the window, he saw the German faces a full official inquiry for racism by the time was at that demonstration, an anti- troops marching into the town square. Equality and Human Rights Commission. racist protest against the Labour Party!

A few days later, his mother and teenage And let us not forget that this crisis was Dozens of friends of mine left the Labour sisters waved him off on a train as he triggered by the shocking discovery that Party in protest at the culture of extremism escaped to England. He never saw them Corbyn had defended that grotesque racist and racism that Jeremy Corbyn had allowed again. Rounded up and sent first to a caricature on a mural in East London. to develop, and in the end, I knew I had to ghetto, they were murdered in Treblinka on walk out too. 5 October 1942. I knew I had to do much more to tackle this terrible problem. Last year, whilst in Krakow I did not leave to join another party but Despite arriving able to speak only three to take part in the March of the Living, I to shine a spotlight on the problem in the words in English, he grew up to become was introduced to an Auschwitz survivor Labour Party and to encourage others to the youngest grammar school headteacher now in his nineties. When told I was an MP, take action to tackle it. in the country, was honoured by the Queen he looked up and asked for which party. with an MBE and adopted four children, When I replied “Labour,” he said: “Are you I have never been more certain of the second one of whom is me. not ashamed to be in the Labour Party with anything in all my time in politics. I know all the antisemitism.” my responsibility. This is a basic issue of I grew up listening to my dad telling decency and fairness – of what is right and me about the Holocaust and about the And the truth is that I was deeply ashamed. what is wrong – and I know whose side I evils of racism. That led to me joining am on. the Labour party as a teenager, and the first A few weeks later I joined the Jewish thing I did when I became an MP was to community at a demonstration against I have met and listened to countless lead a campaign to drive out the BNP from antisemitism in Parliament Square. refugees and survivors. I have seen at first Dudley. hand the fantastic work the AJR does to Susan Pollock was there too. Born in support them and to honour them and their So I am appalled and ashamed at the Hungary in 1930, she was imprisoned in legacy. extent to which antisemitism has poisoned Auschwitz as a child but survived the war. the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. She now spends her time working with the And I want to promise all of them – these Holocaust Educational Trust, visiting schools remarkable men and women who have I am shocked and ashamed that a party and colleges to teach young people about contributed so much to our country – that that has had such a proud tradition of the evils of racism and prejudice. I am going to do all I can to rid politics and fighting racism has caused huge offence the Labour Party of the poison of anti- and distress to the Jewish community. The first time I met her was when she Jewish racism.

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3 AJR Journal | August 2019 Memories of Fritz Spiegl

Eva Amann, a retired teacher Eva Amann of English who lives near and Fritz Spiegl Cologne, recalls her unusual friendship with Fritz Spiegl, an Austrian Kindertransportee, whom The Guardian summed up as “a professional flautist, an archivist of obscure music and an conscience, which is indeed, sir, a Oswald Mosley, My Yiddisher Momma. enthusiastic agent provocateur mender of bad soles.” Fritz wondered how you could render this pun in Once we had ventured beyond the and tease.” He settled in another language. door, Fritz led us to a room with Liverpool, where he died in 2003. a splendid four-poster bed and As he wanted to know about modern enquired slyly: “Now, Bernhard, would translations, I sent a letter to the you like to sleep in the bed where “Around 1996 I became acquainted editor pointing out several modern Soames violated Irene?” My poor with Fritz Spiegl’s column in the Daily German translations that I knew. Fritz husband looked bewildered at such Telegraph; it was called “Usage and opened his letter back: “Sehr verehrte an outrageous proposition, but was Abusage” and a friend cut the articles Frau Amann, or should I say Fräulein soon enlightened: Ingrid and Fritz out for me and sent me a bunch from Amann?” I could not resist replying had offered some of their rooms and time to time. I enjoyed his way with in German with that famous line from their magnificent garden as sets for words and his acute observations Goethe’s Faust, when Gretchen gives the filming of John Galsworthy’s The on language. In one column he short shrift to Faust’s come-on line: Forsyte Saga. “We had lots of fun discussed the problem of translating “Mein schönes Fräulein, darf ich’s with the film crew and chaos for many Shakespeare’s metaphorical language wagen...” by saying gruffly that she weeks, too”, Fritz commented drily, and his frequent use of puns. As an was neither a Miss, nor pretty - “Bin “but it paid for the repainting of the example, Fritz quoted that line from weder Fräulein, weder schön!” outside of the house.” Julius Caesar where the cobbler explains his occupation. “A trade, Our correspondence had been going on After that weekend we stayed in touch sir, that I hope I may use with a safe for a while, when he phoned me and and talked on the phone occasionally. suggested a visit to Liverpool on our In 2001 Fritz told me the Austrian next trip to Britain. In the summer of Government had offered to compensate 1998, on our way to the Lake District, him for the material loss his family we stopped for two nights in Liverpool had incurred after the Anschluss. and stayed with Fritz and his wife, Commenting on this belated initiative, Ingrid. Their lovely home originally Fritz said: “If this happened in an English consisted of two houses in a magnificent pub, you’d call it a cheap round, as there Edwardian terrace, but they had the are hardly any people left who can profit walls knocked out to create spacious from this offer. As to the damages, I can rooms. There were musical instruments list those precisely: on the day of the everywhere, but the most unusual piece Anschluss I was summoned home from of furniture was a fake bookcase. and when I arrived my mother was sitting in front of our house When Fritz showed us to our room he clutching an ashtray – otherwise the seemed to walk right into the bookcase, house was entirely empty: The village but it opened and turned out to be a neighbours had seen to that.” door. The “books” on the shelves were made of cardboard, but with the most I consider myself fortunate to have met exquisite leather binding, some with Fritz and to have enjoyed his company. gold lettering - all by Fritz. Of course, I shall never forget him. he invented the titles of these fictitious books. I remember two that I found (Vimeo has an online interview with particularly funny: Arnold Schoenberg, Fritz Spiegl, “Ich bin Engländer”) Contradictionary, by Fritz Spiegl How to Compose Easy Tunes and https://vimeo.com/143848147

4 AJR Journal | August 2019

LETTER FROM ISRAEL BY DOROTHEA SHEFER-VANSON

HUMANS WITHOUT and on an average day there are some are paid by the Palestinian Authority. twenty or thirty journeys to and from BORDERS hospitals. In addition to transporting Palestinian children in need of advanced medical A chance remark Thus, a child can undergo dialysis or treatment in Israeli hospitals, the key aims made by one chemotherapy, treatments which are of the organisation are to visit and support of my fellow- not always available in the Palestinian the children and family members during pupils in the hospitals. Sometimes they recover and hospital treatment, secure medical devices weekly German- sometimes they do not, and the cases for use by the children in their homes and language class which are unsuccessful are invariably very provide practical support to these families I attend in my distressing for all concerned, including the and communities in their daily lives. A neighbourhood retirees’ club aroused Israeli drivers, who develop an attachment similar organisation is based in the Tel Aviv my curiosity. Thus I learned about the to ‘their’ clients and their families. Tuvia area, with many more volunteers, who are activities of a group of Israelis who proudly showed me a photo he had been often called upon to collect children from have made it their mission to assist sent of a baby born to a Palestinian family the Erez crossing to Gaza and bring them Palestinians whose children require after the death of the child he had been to hospitals in Israel. advanced medical treatment in Israeli driving to and from hospital for some hospitals. Like the other members of time. Tuvia has a B.A. in Arabic language HWB also organises fun days and the volunteer organisation known as and literature from the Hebrew University picnics for the children and their Humans Without Borders (HWB), two of Jerusalem, so communicating with his families, whether as a day on the or three times a week my fellow-pupil, ‘clients’ is not difficult. In most cases the beach or outing to a swimming pool, Tuvia, who today looks more like a families know basic Hebrew, and can thus with food and entertainment laid on. geriatric hippie than the bank manager overcome the language barrier. HWB believes that it is every child’s he once was, goes to one of the right to grow and develop in a caring military checkpoints around Jerusalem Naturally, a project of this kind involves and supportive environment, and is (e.g., Kalandia or Bethlehem), picks considerable organisation and committed to enhancing the safety and up a Palestinian child, with one or two co-ordination. When the association was well-being of Palestinian children and accompanying parents, and drives originally founded in 2002 by Canadian their communities. By promoting direct, them to one of the Israeli hospitals immigrant Larry Lester, the co-ordination friendly contact between Palestinians where they are treated for one of the on the Palestinian side was implemented and Israelis, and through its efforts to various diseases that afflict the young by Gamila Yafit Biso. Today, however, all brighten the lives of the children and Palestinian population. Apparently, the arrangements are made by means ease the anxiety of their parents, the because of the high rate of intermarriage of various messaging apps. HWB is a organisation contributes to the fostering in Arab families the proportion of non-government, non-political charitable of greater mutual respect between the children suffering from renal diseases is organisation, and has some 200 volunteers two sections of the population. The particularly great. The hospitals involved from all sectors of Israeli and Palestinian organisation is a recognised charity, and in the Jerusalem area are Hadassah, society, as well as from the world donations may be made through the Sha’arei Tzedek and Augusta Victoria, community. The costs of medical treatment New Israel Fund.

Dutch Railways Compensation The Dutch national railway 15,000 euros each. Widows and widowers are eligible to receive 7,500 company has announced it will euros and if there is no surviving pay compensation to those spouse, the children of victims should receive 5,000 euros. who were taken to death camps and also to the relatives Application forms should be available The Mayor of Barnet, Cllr Caroline from 1 August from the website of those who were murdered. Stock, attended our recent Edgware below or by calling Melanie Jawett group meeting. Pictured here with on 020 8385 3072. her husband and the AJR’s Ros Hart, Survivors who were transported Cllr Stock said she was honoured to by the company Nederlandse https://commissietegemoetkomingns. be in the presence of 20 Holocaust Spoorwegen (NS) are due to receive nl/en survivors.

5 AJR Journal | August 2019 Letters to the Editor The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence submitted for publication and respectfully points out that the views expressed in the letters published are not necessarily the views of the AJR.

CHANNEL ISLANDS IN WW2 the creation of the United Nations, awarded this sum of money, and that it In the AJR Journal (July) I read that the Universal Declaration of Human should be spent appropriately on their the AJR film club will be seeing ‘The Rights and the EU. The era established behalves. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie principals of tolerance, equality, Judith Rhodes, Leeds Society’. I have only read the book humanity and democracy. These have and avoided the film for the following guided successive generations. Today reason. In the book’s acknowledgements those values are threatened by racism, THE QUAKERS the author wrote ‘If nothing else, I a tide of hostility and nationalism and In reply to Walter Wolff’s letter on the hope these characters and their story religious intolerance. role of the Society of Friends in helping shed some light on the sufferings and refugees, I heartily endorse his request strength of the people of the Channel How can we stem this tide? Through for an article in the AJR Journal. Islands during the German occupation’. education, action and promoting Sufferings and strength - but what about inclusion, understanding and community I too was told by Friends House that their weaknesses? On page 80 we read: cohesion. they had destroyed files naming ‘The Commandant of Guernsey had refugees, but subsequently discovered ordered all Jews to report to the Grange Our event was sold out, the response that this was not 100% true. Many, Lodge Hotel and register.’ But what and feedback from the audience was but not all, files were indeed destroyed, actually happened to them? In a report powerful. Although I hesitated to but I understand that a name index sent to the Home Office in August 1945 join this distinguished panel, I felt my was constructed from those files. In the we read: “When the Germans proposed contribution and effort at the age of end I was able to receive some very to put their anti-Jewish measures into 90 years was worthwhile and I feel basic information about my mother. force, no protest was raised by any privileged to have joined the debate on Not much, and no new information, of the Guernsey States Officials, and such an important matter. but better than nothing and cheering to they hastened to give the Germans Dr Mindu Hornick, Birmingham know that a record exists. every assistance.” In striking contrast, Judith Rhodes, Leeds measures against the local Freemasons led to “the Bailiff making considerable ‘COMPENSATION’ protests”. Three Jewish women from I write in support of Nick Sigler’s JUDITH KERR Guernsey were sent to their deaths in proposal that the German government I am writing to express my appreciation March 1942. No publicity was given should be lobbied to give the “donation” of your article/obituary on Judith Kerr. to this in the Channel Islanders’ own offer to refugee organisations on behalf Like you, I think her trilogy is her best accounts of the occupation. In his book of deceased Kinder. The offer of €2,500 work although the media response Journeys from the Abyss Tony Kushner (too little and far, far too late) would to the news of her death seemed to noted that ‘for the best part of forty have been a bitter pill to my mother, focus exclusively on the Mog series and years no one showed any inclination to who died in 2011. In the 1950s and ‘60s The Tiger who Came to Tea. I read find out more about this episode in the she claimed, and received, restitution; her trilogy when I was writing of my islands’ past’. but the hurdles she had to jump were mother’s experience of being a refugee Michael Levin, London SE23 cruelly high, and some of the official in London from 1938 onwards. Judith correspondence she received was vile. Kerr conveyed so well the anxiety and “How come a 15-year old girl possessed sheer hard work of being a refugee, HOLOCAUST EDUCATION valuable jewellery?” “Prove that your which my mother must have had to deal I spoke at the Hay on Wye festival on father paid this tax” [so – not old with too. the subject of “Have we failed in our enough to possess jewellery, but old education?” enough to know about her father’s Thank you so much for highlighting that taxes]; “There is a record of a presumed aspect of Kerr’s work. In view of racism, Islamophobia and marriage [i.e. the official record of my Gaby Weiner, Lewes antisemitism I was invited as a Holocaust grandparents’ marriage], but I am not survivor to join the distinguished panel prepared to accept it as proof”. [How of Barbara Winton, the Lord mayor of DARE they say “presumed” marriage?] ANOTHER ACCOLADE Worcester, Jabbar Riaz and Professor There are various ways in which a David Green of the University of In recognition of what so many people deserving person can be awarded an Worcester. had to go through from their childhood accolade. One of these is to have his/ right through into their troubled adult her birthday mentioned in ‘The Times’. The horrors of two world wars and lives, it is surely right and fitting that This occurred on 5 July when Professor the Holocaust were the catalyst for those who are deceased should also be Leslie Baruch Brent, frequent contributor

6 AJR Journal | August 2019

Dombrowski (later Scuback) born 1893. In 1953 she was living at 21 Gascony LOOKING Avenue, London NW6. Also her son Erwin Dombrowski (born 1914). FOR? lisamarie.dombrowski@uni-jena to this Journal, was 94. Your HILDE RESTER (née TROPP) readers may not know that he is The AJR regularly receives Information is sought on Hilde Rester, an ‘immunologist and zoologist, messages from our members born 26 August 1903, by her great- whose research helped to pave the grandson Tom Sieger. It was assumed way for organ transplantation’. and others looking for people or that she perished in a concentration Rudi Leavor, Bradford for help in particular subjects. camp, but new facts indicate that she may have escaped to Britain in 1939. Here are some of the most [email protected] ART LOVER recent requests – please get in I am a member of AJR and receive the splendid AJR journal regularly touch directly with the person WARTIME PUBLISHERS and would like to say how very concerned if you can help. Freencky Portas, a student at UCL, is much I enjoy reading every page. writing a Masters thesis on Publishing Everything written is so interesting During WW2 and is seeking information and I love the biographies, book DR. GOSSMAN about people who worked in publishing section etc. I am into Art and Canon Bell seeks information on Dr during or shortly after the war. Music and I must compliment Gossman, widow of an exiled German jurist, [email protected] Gloria Tessler on all her writings. who was killed 12 November 1940 in a Sheila Grossnass, London N16 bombing raid on Bayswater. Earlier she had been given refuge in Crouch End by Dowain RICHARD YEOMAN and HENRY BLACK Bell’s grandparents. Her brother, his wife Prior to WW2 Henry Black left the UNITED IN EASTBOURNE and daughter Ursula (10) were interned in KInderhaus der weiblichen Fürsorge The AJR provides a varied August 1940 and possibly sent to Canada. orphanage in Frankfurt-am-Main with programme of topics and holidays. [email protected] a group of children bound for the UK. Eastbourne provides a varied choice In later years his son, Richard Yeoman, of lovely walks, gorgeous flowers, worked in films. His son and other an attractive pier, clean fresh air, DOMBROWSKI/SCUBACK (née Schaal) descendants are invited to attend a the sea and lots more. Together Lisa-Marie Dombrowski, a student memorial ceremony in Frankfurt this they provided the ideal holiday for at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of September. a large group from 7 - 14 July this Jena, seeks information on Henriette [email protected] year.

Carol Rosen and team were always on hand and a wonderful trip to Volunteers Hillier Garden Centre provided us with a lovely cream tea. Above all I met some new friends and a few Benefit I had not seen for sometime and conversation flowed freely. What A group of AJR volunteers more can anyone ask for? gathered at the Wiener Library last month to hear Jewish Volunteer Thank you AJR! Network Chief Executive, Nicky Gerald Hellman, London Goldman speak of the many © ADAM SOLLER benefits of volunteering, including ERRATUM its reduction of asthma attacks! taken on more roles, more frequently and We apologise for wrongly with greater interest.” AJR’s volunteers captioning one of the photos AJR Chairman, Andrew Kaufman currently support over 270 first that illustrated the article From MBE, said, “Tonight is an opportunity generation members. Thirty percent of Auschwitz to Ambleside (July). The for the AJR to honour our wonderful our volunteers have a family connection group of refugee boys were not volunteers; a group of truly altruistic with the AJR, with as many under 30s watching a film, they were actually people who unconditionally give their volunteering as over 80s. Many different being taught English by Heini time to support our members. As well roles are available – please contact the Goldberg, the late brother of our as growing in number, volunteers have office if you’d like to help. member Frank Goldberg.

7 AJR Journal | August 2019 ART NOTES: by Gloria Tessler

Each year it seems harder to find the soul of the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, as art of every genre, statement and dimension makes war on your senses until you stagger out in a dizzy fizz.

As you might expect, this year it’s animal an owl and a hybrid of two creatures sharing pubescent boy-girl. welfare, sustainability, gender issues, one long snaking snout. In one gallery there climate change, the Windrush scandal, is a menacing group of black crows which There are works made entirely out of Brexit, immigration and contested borders seem to have been made of black bin bags. rubbish, and there are the usual banner – a huge political shout as well as an Nowhere is climate change and the need proclamations which present themselves as art bonanza, open to Academicians and for sustainability more powerfully expressed art. “We are all immigrant scum” shrieks everyone else lucky enough to have work than in Nicola Hicks’ gingerly polar bear Jeremy Deller’s textile banner, while Banksy chosen. It is serious business, but also poised on what appear to be melting ice presents a shuttered and padlocked border great fun. Last year’s curator, Grayson caps. being attacked by a rat with a hammer Perry, flitted from room to room, a clown under the sign Customs: Arrivals from the in rainbow colours. This year the show Apart from the stress on sustainability, EU and marked Keep Out. Thomas Schütte was muted by the fact that times, they are evident this year in the choice of natural makes a point of isolation with his Mann a-changing. materials displayed in the Architects Room, Ohne Gesicht (Man Without a Face), there is an emphasis on older painters, which seems to reflect the sense that the The 251st Royal Academy Summer aged from the 70s to the 90s, like the 87 stranger is oneself. Exhibition, co-ordinated by painter Jock year old Frank Bowling RA, the 92 year McFadyen, begins in the Annenberg old Anthony Wishaw and Anthony Isaacs I was very impressed with Border Crossing Courtyard with a series of massive other- at 96. by Cathy de Monchaux, an intricate worldly look-at-me sculptures by Thomas rectangular work involving copper wire, Houseago, which dwarf the courtly presence Gender issues and gay love are asserted in a bandage beads, and graphite in which of 18th Century painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. painting of two near identical men making a mass of ghostly white horses run McFadyen curated a ‘menagerie’ in the love by Ksenija Vucinik. There are mixed lemming-like between white trees and Central Hall by a team of artists, and as you race and black love affairs, celebrated in undergrowth towards a clearing. The enter you are immediately in the wild. The Arthur Timothy’s Adeline and Bankole most painterly painting, reminiscent of a animals are strange and beguiling: a red and Timothy. Some of the most exciting works Goya, is Zatorski+Zatorski’s giclée print white prowling tiger coated in pink foil by are sculptures. Cathy Lewis’s Orlando, The dream of the Pearl Diver’s Widow, in the Mach Brothers, a deer, a virtual aviary of referencing the novel by Virginia Woolf, which a nude reclining on a shell-like sheet strange birds, a large gleaming copper dog, is a subtle and beautiful white marble is caressed by an octopus. There’s certainly more than a touch of S & M, but for me it is the most beautiful painting on show.

Until August 12.

Annely Juda Fine Art 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 CONTEMPORARY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

switch on electrics Rewires and all household electrical work PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Mobile: 0795 614 8566 Lions, tigers and bears all feature in the Royal Academy’s 251st Summer Exhibition

8 AJR Journal | August 2019 Calling all Witnesses

Filming of a witness in Austria One of the archive’s Ukrainian witnesses

One of the largest and most two broad categories of interviewees: formative years. For example, when Danish Jews fled to Sweden in 1940, diverse Holocaust-related Holocaust survivors and so-called “witnesses.” The term “survivor” includes some of the new arrivals transformed testimonial collections in all individuals who suffered state-sponsored teenage social lives, as host communities organised dances and established clubs for the world, the United States persecution by the Nazis or their allies and local collaborators, while a “witness” Jewish youth. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s denotes anyone who lived during the period Building on the success of this and other Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History in question, and can describe, through their own memories, the political, social, similar projects, we are now seeking to Archive holds over 22,000 and cultural environment of the 1930s or conduct interviews with witnesses to Jewish refugee arrivals in the United interviews—and its collection 1940s, including Jewish persecution. The Herr Archive thus takes a holistic approach Kingdom and to continue widening continues to grow. Noemi to documenting the Holocaust, capturing our lens in order to gain a richer, more complex understanding of the challenges Szekely-Popescu is responsible voices at multiple levels of society in order to offer better insights into the complexity of they faced upon arrival to the UK. What for capturing new eyewitness human nature, the controversial aspects of were the expectations of foster families welcoming refugees? What was their accounts and explains the interpersonal relationships, and the dynamic between individual actions and societal understanding of the rise of fascism on process here. change. the continent and of increasing Nazi expansion? What were the specific Hearing accounts of eyewitnesses to The Museum has collected the stories of challenges to integration? history enables us to catch a unique refugees since the 1980s, well before it glimpse of the past. Oral histories invite us opened its doors to the public in 1993. We are eager to hear Jewish and non- to look beyond the medium and immerse Nevertheless, work continues toward a fuller Jewish witnesses’ memories of the societal ourselves in an environment of vibrant documentation of the refugee experience, atmosphere in wartime and immediate story telling. An interviewee’s candour including capturing the environment in post-war UK, including the penury of the or unexpected perspective can capture a so-called “host societies”, i.e. countries reconstruction years, whether from foster- listener’s imagination and leave a lasting of transit or emigration for refugees. In siblings, classmates, neighbours or friends impression. collaboration with the Jewish Museum of Jewish refugees, and others who can in Stockholm, the Herr Archive started aid us in better capturing life during these The Herr Archive actively acquires and recording the memories of host society years. produces around 1,000 interviews members a few years ago with a small-scale each year throughout Europe and the project documenting the stories of Swedish More than 80 years after the first arrival of United States. Our interviews are freely witnesses to wartime and post-war Jewish refugees from to the UK, we are accessible by anyone in the world with refugee arrivals. The project focused on faced with the last opportunity to rescue an internet connection. documenting the memories of native-born the evidence in the form of first-hand Jews of other Jewish refugees arriving in accounts, so that the stories of witnesses The archive’s holdings cover a wide Sweden. In these interviews, the witnesses may be saved and preserved for future scope, seeking to present the most described in vivid terms the changes in their generations. If you know anyone who comprehensive and integrated picture of communities throughout the ‘30s and ‘40s. wishes to be interviewed for this project, the wartime environment surrounding The successive waves of displaced persons please contact Borbala Kriza at the Holocaust. The collection comprises had a strong effect on the interviewees’ [email protected].

9 AJR Journal | August 2019 REMEMBERING & RETHINKING MARIE SCHMOLKA AND THE EMIGRATION FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The work of Nicholas Winton regarding the Kindertransport is very widely known. But readers will be less familiar with the woman who made it happen, Marie Schmolka. It was her appeal, together with Doreen Warriner, that involved Winton in December 1938. So who ARCHIVE CZECH REPUBLIC CREDIT NATIONAL was this woman? In the second of our series Remembering & Rethinking the Kindertransport, we look at Schmolka‘s contribution and plans to honour her work.

Born in 1893 in Prague, Marie née Eisner conditions in camps were poor, with hunger, Rebecca Sieff, the founder of WIZO, was the youngest of four sisters. She married diseases, suicides, and women turning to sex eulogised Schmolka: “She refused to relatively late, and her marriage to older work. Schmolka visited the camps, collected be intimidated, either by the threats of attorney Leopold Schmolka was very happy, evidence to mobilise public opinion, and hostile governments, or by the barriers of albeit brief. After his death, Schmolka, who wrote appeals to foreign ambassadors in pomp and circumstance which surround grew up in an assimilated family, became Prague and to Jewish agencies abroad. even friendly governments and their interested in Zionism and Jewish affairs. She chancelleries.” joined WIZO, and thanks to her immense Schmolka, Warriner, and their team realised organisational skills and wide-ranging political that it would be difficult to secure refuge Today, the emigration of the grown up networks in Czechoslovak politics, soon for adults, especially political emigrants. refugees is largely forgotten, and few in became a key player in Jewish social work. Although the Holocaust, as it came to be, British WIZO are familiar with Schmolka’s was as yet unimaginable, they recognised name. The focus has moved to the After 1933 many leftist Jewish Germans that leftist refugees were most at risk Kindertransport, because children’s rescue sought refuge in Czechoslovakia. Their from the nearing German occupation. In is considered more moving, and some are reception was far from the rosy picture December 1938 the overworked Schmolka still alive. Most former Kinder do not recall that the romanticised narrative of interwar and Warriner passed on the scheme of who stood behind the organisation of their Czechoslovakia would have us believe. kindertransporte to their British volunteers: rescue. Most of them have never heard Schmolka led the National Coordinating Martin Blake and his friend Winton. of Schmolka, and believe that Nicholas Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia Winton (who always argued he was part and headed the local branch of HICEM Schmolka was arrested the day after the of a collective) was their sole rescuer. In a and JOINT, the transnational Jewish aid German occupation of Czechoslovakia. gendered turn of events, the women who organisations. Her work was political and For two months she was kept in Pankrác led the rescue effort have been erased practical: She got to know hundreds of prison and subjected to long, gruelling by history, replaced by the man who was individuals, organised visas, negotiated interrogations by the . She was effectively their intern. with police for the right of domicile, set up released following protests by Czech housing and financial support and liaised politicians. In August 1939, Adolf The Marie Schmolka Society seeks to change with employers to supply refugees with jobs. Eichmann sent her with a colleague to this. We aim to place a blue plaque in Gospel and Britain to help boost the Oak, where Schmolka spent the last months By autumn 1938, folowing the Munich enforced Jewish emigration. She made of her life. Moreover, we would like to agreement, when Britain and France forced London her home, moving in with Mary inspire further research into women social Czechoslovakia, their ally, to surrender its Sheepshanks, an old friend from the workers in the Holocaust. More information Sudeten borderlands to Germany, it was Women‘s International League for Peace on our work and possibility of support is on no longer a harbour for refugees. Aid and Freedom. Sadly, she died six months our website: www.marieschmolka.org organisations were unable to cope with later on 24 March 1940, having worked the influx of over 100,000 refugees, and herself to a heart attack. Anna Hájková and Martin Šmok

10 AJR Journal | August 2019 TRULY RIGHTEOUS

To date, approximately 28,000 non-Jews have been honoured by for the tremendous risks they Jochen Kreyssig took in saving Jews during receiving the Holocaust. Of these, only his honour CREDIT EMBASSY OF ISRAEL, BERLIN from Jeremy 627 were from Germany. The Gertrud Prochownik Issacharoff following article is written by the granddaughters of one difficult period in history, she was often Lothar and Johanna’s biodynamic farm. lady who was saved by the late ready to see the next great war on the Lothar Kreyssig had already risked his Johanna and Lothar Kreyssig, horizon. At home we were surrounded by life under the Nazi regime. As a devout depictions of life in Germany before the Protestant and State Judge he rejected who not only saved several lives war, painted by her husband, the artist the order to carry out the ‘’ during the war but went on to Leo Prochownik (1875 - 1936), but she or ‘Euthanasia’ laws, refusing to send never spoke of her own experiences at mentally handicapped people to their establish an organisation which that time. No mention was made of her deaths. Having surprisingly escaped Nazi has done much to foster close work for the Jüdische Arbeitsvermittlung, retribution once, he risked his and his of her losses, nor the sister and brother- family’s life a second time by hiding two relationships between young in-law sent to Auschwitz, or of her Jewish women. After the war in 1958 German non-Jews and the terrifying time before and during the he helped set up ‘Aktion Sühnezeichen Second World War. Like many survivors Friedensdienste’ (Action Reconciliation/ global Jewish community. she wanted to forget, or perhaps it was Services for Peace) which finds places just impossible to relate these events to for young German volunteers to work in On 30 October 2018 a ceremony her grandchildren. We did not know it at the Jewish community throughout the took place in Berlin at the New the time but we were very lucky to have world. Synagogue - Centrum Judaicum to her with us at all. honour the Kreyssigs and name them That Gertrud survived the war at all is ‘Righteous among the Nations’ for Only on the death of our mother almost a miracle and we are forever saving the life of our grandmother, Marianne, Gertrud’s daughter, in March grateful to the Kreyssig family for what Gertrud Prochownik. The medal and 2016 did we uncover some papers they did. Not only did they take her in, certificate were presented to their relating to our family history. By chance at the utmost risk to themselves, but surviving son Jochen Kreyssig by we came across copies of Gertrud’s they treated her like a ‘mensch’, like the Israeli Ambassador to Germany, correspondence with Lothar Kreyssig one of the family, all of them sharing Jeremy Issacharoff. The ceremony was dating back to 1945. meals together round the table. This organised by the Israeli Embassy, Yad was something Gertrud mentioned Vashem and ‘Aktion Sühnezeichen Gertrud ‘vanished’ on 13 April 1943 in her letters. Her friendship with the Friedensdienste’ in the presence of at the age of 58. She used the name Kreyssig family continued after the the Kreyssig family and our family. We Hildegard Jacobi whilst she was living war as her correspondence proves. were also able to say a few words and illegally. In her account she wrote of her She would be delighted that they were here is our story. flight from Berlin, pursued by the Gestapo, honoured as ‘Righteous’. travelling to her first hiding place in Gertrud (or ‘Omi’ as we called her) the countryside, without papers, while Our mother continued the family was a quiet, loving part of our family, carrying a cyanide tablet, and prepared contact and we, her granddaughters, sharing her marzipan chocolate, to commit suicide as a form of ultimate have stayed friends with two of the giving us cuddles, and enjoying family escape. She went first to another family Kreyssig’s grandchildren, Martin and outings. She passed much of her but when it became impossible for her to Ulrike Kreyssig, who were present at time in her room, at her desk, writing stay there she travelled by road and train the ceremony and we hope this family letters in German to friends and to Hohenferchesar to live with Lothar, connection will continue for many family on her portable typewriter and Johanna and their family from November generations to come. reading Der Spiegel which kept her 1944 until the end of the war in 1945. abreast of world events. Having lived She and another Jewish woman worked Jenny Krausz and Julie Krausz- through two world wars and such a among the foreigners employed on Rogerson

11 AJR Journal | August 2019 REMEMBERING & RETHINKING THE LAST BOAT

Eighty years ago this month, the The tiny population of Zba˛szyn’, of around 5000, had no idea the refugees were steam ship Warszawa brought coming. With no extra accommodation its last boat load of Kinder to our available, they had to improvise. The large train station, an abandoned flour mill and shores. Filmmaker Alan Reich, the stables of the Prussian barracks (which whose father and aunt came on still smelled of horses, despite having been vacant since 1917) all played shelter to that boat, is making a compelling Jewish families who, in one day, had gone from having homes and jobs to becoming documentary about their journey. stateless refugees in limbo and in appalling He shares his insights here as part conditions. They had to establish a makeshift community, with volunteers of our Remembering & Reflecting running everything from the hospital to on the Kindertransport series. Alan Reich the postal service. In a heated gymnasium, turned into a dormitory, Rosi looked after 100 children aged five to fifteen. “My father, Jack Reich, and his older travelled on. I fantasised it as a biblical sister, Helen, came to England without whale, into whose belly the children The refugees’ plight made the headlines their parents. My father was 10 years old. were saved from danger and brought to in all the Yiddish papers and even the They arrived from Poland on a ship called England. British press. Throughout the winter and Warszawa. These were the only facts I early spring many letters were sent across knew. The coal-powered passenger ship was Europe, the USA and the Far East, seeking built in Sunderland in 1916 by Doxford any visa possible. I grew up in North West London in an and Sons, and called the Smolensk. By orthodox Jewish community, where Yiddish the 1930s it had been renamed the SS Here in England, an international lawyer and heavily accented English was spoken. Warszawa and sailed regularly between named Elsley Zeitlyn established the I had no grandparents on my father’s the new port of Gdynia, in Poland, leaving Polish Jewish Refugee Fund and in mid side, and no one mentioned them. This on a Friday and arriving on a Tuesday. November 1938 he went to Zba˛szyn’ community of refugees and survivors did to see the situation for himself. His not dwell on the past. At the time I didn’t Thanks to search notices in the AJR campaign – ‘What I saw in No Man’s show curiosity – maybe I was scared to ask Journal and Kindertransport newsletter, Land’ – highlighted the plight of the now difficult questions. I have been able to learn much about remaining 5500 refugees and the amount other people who travelled on the SS of money needed to sustain them. In 1996 - when I was already a father Warszawa. From Herbert Haberberg, myself and had visited what I thought had for example – who had just turned 14 in Zeitlyn secured the support of George been my father’s hometown in Poland – I the autumn of 1938 – I learned that the Lansbury, Member of Parliament for discovered that my paternal grandparents forced deportations that my grandparents Bow. As soon as Parliament agreed, on had in fact emigrated from Poland to experienced were coordinated with great 21 November, to allow unaccompanied Dortmund in Germany after WW1. Being German efficiency, collecting Polish Jews children into Britain, Zeitlyn and Lansbury Polish citizens, they were arrested at the from several stops throughout Germany. began campaigning to bring children out end of October 1938 and forcibly expelled of Zba˛szyn’ and find sponsors willing to from Germany, along with 17,000 other Another deportee, Rosi Schule, told me pay the £50 guarantee. Jews of Polish origin. how she was 22 in 1938 and a teacher in a Jewish boarding school near Stuttgart. At The first 54 children (34 boys and 20 girls) This was complete news to me. So I was 11pm one Thursday night she was visited arrived from Gdynia on the SS Warszawa curious to know how my father got to by two SS officers and told she had 15 on 15 February 1939. Zeitlyn accompanied Poland – and then from Poland to England. minutes to pack enough for two days and their voyage and George Lansbury MP More importantly, I wanted to understand take no more than 10RM. The following welcomed them at the docks. Zeitlyn then why it had been difficult for him to share day, Rosi was escorted into a third class pledged to find sponsors for 100 more his story. carriage with a group of children and sent children from Zba˛szyn’. towards Poland, to then be held for months Because his story was scary to confront in the small border town of Zba˛szyn’, along In Southampton University’s library I face on, some years ago I became with thousands of other Jewish refugees discovered letters from my grandfather – infatuated by the actual boat the children from throughout Germany. to Zeitlyn. “I come to you with a petition

12 AJR Journal | August 2019

Newspaper report of the children’s arrival SS Warszawa

referring to both my children,” he wrote. By July, Zeitlyn had got sponsors for only began to build their new lives in England, “We are all here in Zba˛szyn’ in the Refugee 30 children. This time the SS Warszawa did Israel or the USA, they were given little Camp. I don’t see how to come free and not risk taking the shorter route through information about the organisations and what will be the future of my children. the Kiel Canal, instead sailing up to the top individuals behind their rescue. Indeed, We have lived here for more than seven of Denmark and down to the North Sea, even after the Kindertransport became months now. My children... a girl of 14 arriving in England on 1 August. widely recognised in the 1980s, there and my son of nearly 10 years...” and was very little mention of the work of he went on to give further details of my Of the 100 that Zeitlyn had pledged the Polish Jewish Refugee Fund in the father and my aunt. to save, 70 were still stuck in Poland, mainstream history books. including my father and aunt. They said This letter was well written in English, but I goodbye to their parents in Zba˛szyn’ station I believe the SS Warszawa Kinder story is doubt that my grandfather spoke or knew and went to Ottwock, a village close to worth telling, now more than ever, because much English. Yiddish yes, and German. Gydnia. Conditions there were much we are on the cusp of losing the generation So who wrote this lettter for him? I will better but it was a tense three weeks that remembers those events. And it needs never know. whilst enough sponsors were found. On to be told as widely as possible. To quote the morning of Tuesday 29 August the the psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, “We tell The reply from Zeitlyn in London was SS Warszawa brought its final cargo of 70 stories to make sense of our lives, but to almost immediate: “I am hoping to bring Kinder. Three days later war was declared tell the story is not enough… there must be out 100 children from “No Man’s Land” and the route was closed. someone to listen.” and would be very glad to take your children amongst them, but unfortunately, I In total, Elsley Zeitlyn found sponsors I also believe that the experience of have the greatest difficulty in finding homes for 154 children, who arrived on three these children is as relevant today as it for them. Up to the present moment I have journeys on the SS Warszawa in 1939. was then. Only last month we witnessed not yet succeeded in more than about 30 No passenger list has been found, but another awful scene of families fleeing homes out of the 100. I am afraid that I my father and his sister arrived on Libya, travelling on rickety boats which cannot promise to take your girl. First of all the last boat, together with Herbert easily capsize. But in their desperation she is nearly 18, and the Government insists Haberberg, Sir Erich Reich and his they are willing to risk everything to find that the children brought over here, leave brother, and many others fortunate safety and a better life. Of course ‘our’ at 18 years of age”. enough to have been guaranteed by surviving Kinder understand at first hand total strangers in England. the refugee experience and what it is Zeitlyn continued: “There are many like to be rescued by the compassion thousands of refugee children already, I have now had the privilege to speak to and action of strangers. This is why and people are not willing to burden several of these Kinder, giving me a not some of them have donated their own themselves with more. But I am not complete but complex picture of their Kindertransport compensation payment despairing and I hope to include your son experience of becoming refugees twice towards helping these modern day in the next batch that I bring out. Send in less than two years. They all told how, refugees via organisations such as Safe me the fullest details of his date and place while growing up, they were completely Passage or Help Refugees. of birth, together with photographs. I can unaware of being part of a movement only urge you to have faith and hope for involving nearly 10,000 children, that we www.safepassage.org.uk the best.” now know as the Kindertransport. As they www.helprefugees.org

13 AJR Journal | August 2019 REVIEWS

THE IMPACT OF ZIONISM AND not sufficiently presented. For example where Luise trained as a midwife. ISRAEL ON ANGLO-JEWRY’S IDENTITY discussion of the debate on the 1956 Suez Through the refugee committee they 1948-1982. CAUGHT SOMEWHERE crisis gives no indication of its origins as a met elderly cousins, Rosemary and Ruth BETWEEN ZION AND GALUT. response to President Nasser nationalising from the famous Spooner family, who By Jack Omer-Jackaman the Suez Canal and closing it to Israeli helped sponsor him through school and Vallentine Mitchell, London 2019. shipping. Similarly the origins of the 1967 university. He studied agriculture after ISBN 978 1 910383 91 9 war are sketchily dealt with No clear working in farming, as career choices mention is made of the mobilisation of were limited during the war. The creation of Israel put diaspora Arab forces around Israel’s border, nor Jews under a new sense of obligation. of Egypt closing the Straits of Tiran to After graduation he joined the Animal Acceptance had previously been Israeli shipping, a breach of international Breeding Research Organisation, sought on the basis of affiliation and maritime law that cut off the port of Eilat. becoming departmental head of identification with the state they lived physiological genetics and deputy in. Now suddenly British Jews could be At various times fears were expressed director before retiring at the identified with a new foreign state and, that the relative lack of antisemitism was compulsory age of 60. Afterwards he moreover, one that had fought against leading to the dilution of the Anglo-Jewish enjoyed glittering consultancies for the Britain in its independence struggle. community. Times have changed and Food and Agriculture Organisation of That altered everything and has been antisemitism appears to be back with a the United Nations and British Council. a continuing source of tension, both vengeance. This took him to Ethiopia, India and between the Jewish community and Michael Levin China several times. The Chinese work the wider society, and within the Jewish centred on the yak and he became a community itself. great authority and textbook author GOODBYE BERLIN: The biography of on the subject. Accounts of extensive Omer-Jackaman asserts that Gerald Wiener Chinese travel and relationships with the commitment to religion gradually By Margaret M Dunlop country’s scientists are intriguing. lessened as identification with Israel Birlinn Limited increased. Readers may be shocked ISBN 978 1 78027 420 1 He first went to the USA in 1957, where to recall how hostile some British Jews he met family who survived the war after once were to Zionism. In 1948 the The life of the distinguished agricultural a very difficult time in Japanese-occupied Anglo-Jewish Association ‘was still geneticist Gerald Wiener, who came to the Shanghai - the only place for which they publishing articles which attacked the UK on the Kindertransport, is examined could get visas. His parents had long “cancer” of Zionism, whose eradication in this fascinating biography by his wife parted, and his father Paul had spent required communal “spring cleaning”‘. Margaret M Dunlop. time in a concentration camp before British Zionism was really rather limited being freed to emigrate. Much to his and involved supporting Israel from afar Gerald’s work involved exploring the later regret, Gerald had been dissuaded rather than actually making aliyah. To causes of variation in the performance of by Luise from responding to Paul, when some this was unacceptable. We are, for cattle and, in greater detail, in sheep. His he messaged via the Red Cross. Sadly example, told of a 1957 conference at research department in Edinburgh was he had died by the time Gerald visited, the Hebrew University ‘at which a large world renowned, and after his retirement when he discovered he had two half- number of Israeli Zionists’, including former colleagues made an astonishing brothers, Pete and Jerry. It is wonderful Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, breakthrough, leading to the cloning of to read about joyful family reunions but ‘delivered tirades against the Diaspora’. Dolly the sheep. there was great sadness too.

Other issues covered include the alleged Until the Nazis came to power Gerald Gerald and Margaret enjoyed a happy ‘great silence’ about the Holocaust in enjoyed a happy, prosperous childhood retirement. He took an active role in the the initial post-war years, the trial in in Berlin. He lived in an apartment in a Church of Scotland in Edinburgh and Israel of Adolf Eichmann, the wars of friendly little street with his mother Luise Biggar where he was a leading light 1956 and 1967, the rise of Herut and and her father. Residents were stunned by in community heritage affairs. They the Israeli right, and the invasion of but through lifelong friends moved to Inverness in 2008 to be near Lebanon in 1982. who had already moved to England the family. Margaret – herself a former 12-year-old managed to get the right head teacher and author of two novels This book originated as a thesis and papers to join them. Luise soon followed – provides a very comprehensive and is clearly written for an academic but his beloved grandfather remained as sympathetic account of Gerald’s varied audience. It provides a detailed he thought he was too old for the Nazis to life and gift for friendship. The memoir investigation of the obvious Anglo- bother about, with fatal consequences. is anchored by very helpful chapter Jewish primary sources, though headings. sometimes the background context is Gerald eventually ended up in Oxford Janet Weston

14 AJR Journal | August 2019

My Story is on a run

Michael Ziff and Mark Regev admiring a My Story book at the Maccabi Fun Run

AJR volunteers at the Maccabi Fun Run

Israeli Ambassdor Mark Regev sprinted Maccabi GB President Michael Ziff, who was a great way to meet members over to AJR’s stand at the Maccabi was delighted to see a My Story book of the community and let them Communal Fun Run to have a look at about Heinz Skyte, an AJR member who know about AJR, even if most of our the latest additions to our My Story lives in Ziff’s hometown of Leeds. Held in members (and staff!) were not quite up book project. Regev was joined by June at Allianz Park, London, the Fun Run to running around the stadium.

Plaque at Belsize Square Descendants of several founder Going Sparko members of Belsize Square Belsize Square blue plaque group of members and guests Synagogue were present at the unveiling of an AJR Blue Plaque the significance Belsize Square Synagogue children of the founders. on 25 June. has had for many AJR members. It continues today as a thriving progressive AJR continues to enjoy a close Commemorating the 80th anniversary Jewish community blending modernity relationship with the synagogue, of the synagogue, which was founded with tradition. Many of its members are holding our annual Holocaust Memorial by refugees, the plaque recognises children, grandchildren or great-grand- Day and Kristallnacht ceremonies there.

COUNTERING to identify and address any attempts to deny or distort the reality of the DISTORTION Holocaust.

The International Holocaust AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman, who is part of the UK’s delegation to Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is the IHRA, said “Holocaust distortion making countering distortion its and denial cuts across political, understood in perpetuity.” ideological and cultural divides and priority for the next five years. reinforces antisemitism and related A summary report from the IHRA biases. It is imperative that the AJR and meeting, including links to a specially At the recent IHRA plenary meeting other associated organisations work written paper on Holocaust distortion, in Luxembourg, all 33 member states in partnership to ensure that the full can be seen at https://sway.office. agreed to make sustained efforts truth about the Holocaust is widely com/xUNxRwZJXTFT0vaf?ref=Link.

15 AJR Journal | August 2019

PINNER Our East We were given a fascinating insight into Midlands Around the Stephen Lawrence case by Howard group visited Youngerwood. He was the Crown artist Ruth Prosecution lawyer involved in that highly- Schwiening the AJR charged case and also in the subsequent in her studio These are just a few of the many recent Macpherson Inquiry. His talk took us AJR events around the country. behind the scenes of the first trial and the inquiry and told us a lot about what actually happened in court. Robert Gellman

ILFORD A well-researched talk by David Barnet, Bradford Continental Friends meeting as always. Viscount Samuel (1870-1963) EAST MIDLANDS BRADFORD wore many hats over the years: Postmaster We met at the lovely Market Bosworth Bradford Continental Friends met at the lovely General, Cabinet Minister, but best country home of artist Ruth Schwiening home of Lily and Albert Waxman and were remembered for being High Commissioner and her husband Jurgen. Meetings for this treated to a wonderful lunch with champagne in Palestine, a position he carried out most region are also held in Nottingham and to celebrate the forthcoming 90th and 95th efficiently. This was a very interesting piece Leicester, and we would love more people birthdays respectively of our hosts. of history, much appreciated by everyone. of ‘shared’ background to attend. Wendy Bott Meta Roseneil Wendy Bott AUGUST GROUP EVENTS CONTACTS

All AJR members are welcome at any of these events; you do not have to be affiliated Susan Harrod to that particular group. Please contact the relevant regional contact for full details. Events and Outreach Manager GROUP CO-ORDINATOR AUGUST EVENT 020 8385 3070 Pinner KAREN 1 August Garden Party [email protected] Ealing ROS 6 August Elizabeth Nightingale – Chiltern Music Therapy Wendy Bott Edinburgh AGNES 6 August Esther Rantzen at the Festival Northern Outreach Co-ordinator and the Romanov Exhibition 07908 156 365 Ilford KAREN 7 August Dr Helen Fry – The Secret War of Trent Park – Bugging the Nazis [email protected] in WW2 Dundee AGNES 7 August Social get-together Agnes Isaacs Kingston and Surrey ROS 8 August Social get-together Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Card and Games Club ROS 12 August Card & Games 07908 156 361 Bradford WENDY 12 August Social get-together [email protected] Cheshire WENDY 13 August Judith Gordon – How to build a school in South Africa Ros Hart KT Lunch ROS 14 August Social get-together – fish and chip lunch Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Glasgow Book Club AGNES 15 August Book Club 07966 969 951 Edgware SUSAN 20 August David Barnett – [email protected] Jewish London 1819 Leeds WENDY 21 August Visit to Lavender Farm and talk Karen Diamond N.W. London SUSAN 27 August David Barnett – Joe Lyons Corner Houses Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Hertfordshire KAREN 28 August Nick Dobson – 07966 631 778 The Great Fire of London [email protected] Book Club KAREN 28 August Book Club Scotland KT Lunch AGNES 28 August Lunch for Kinder and their KT-AJR (Kindertransport) families Susan Harrod 020 8385 3070 CARD AND GAMES CLUB [email protected] Monday 12 August 2019 at 1.00pm Child Survivors’ Association-AJR at North Western Reform Synagogue, Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN Henri Obstfeld Offering Bridge & other card games, Backgammon, Scrabble & Rumikub, depending on numbers. 020 8954 5298 A light lunch will be served before playing commences [email protected] BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL An entrance fee of £8 would be appreciated

16 AJR Journal | August 2019

YOUTH ALIYAH - ONE FAMILY’S LEGACY

German Jewry, like any society Children in a on and off stage and screen, Youth Aliyah village in Israel had its stars.

One such family came from Posemuckel - as good a name as any for obscurity. They dominated for a generation or two. Then people looked front and back, left and right, but they were no longer visible.

They were the Freier family. They began to attract some notice when Rabbi Dr. Moritz Freier was appointed to the pulpit of one of Berlin’s oldest synagogues in the Heydereuter Gasse. Soon he was overshadowed by his wife Recha - a fact to which he never reconciled himself, because Recha founded an organisation which enriches Jewish life in Israel and the five continents of the earth to this farms and model villages, which gives that oldest son, Shalhebet, is credited with day, the Youth Aliyah. country part of its backbone to this day. overseeing the state of Israel’s nuclear arsenal, which is believed to exist by Its first objective in the 20th century So was vision transformed into achievement every intelligence agency in the world was to pick up young people at a loose by the will of steel. and has never been officially admitted. end in their late teens and early twenties and give them training in agriculture in Two of Recha’s sons, Ammud and Together they wrote several pages of model farms called Hachscharah. After a Serem, became doctors. Ammud got a Jewish history. This history is but another training period of six to eighteen months professorship of gynaecology and obstetrics word for immortality. they were transferred to a country in Boston, Massachusetts. Serem is one still called Palestine, there to build up of Israel’s leading paediatricians. The Willy Wolff

WYBERLEY REMEMBERED

The descendants of several donated food and clothes. Jewish girls who found refuge at a convalescent home in The house, which had beautiful grounds, was demolished in 1956 so the information Sussex have helped unveil a board has been installed nearby, at Marle commemorative information Place Recreation Ground. Descendants of board near its site. eight of the refugees attended its unveiling, Burgess Hill - the new information along with local residents, dignitaries and board Between 1 January and August 1939 community representatives. Wyberley Ladies Convalescent Home “On behalf of all the families whose in Burgess Hill, which was run by the AJR member Lesley Urbach, whose German relatives were looked after here, I would Grand Order Sons of Jacob, took in 50 mother and aunt were among the young like to thank councillors and officers from girls from Germany, Austria, Poland and residents of Wyberley, and who initiated the Burgess Hill District Council for helping Czechoslovakia, all of whom had arrived commemoration, spoke movingly about the us ensure that this significant period of on a Kindertransport. By all accounts the experience of the girls at the event. She was Burgess Hill’s history is better known,” said girls were well looked after by Matron supported by local Girl Guides and pupils Lesley. Hilda Joseph and her sister, Margaret, as from Burgess Hill Girls school who read out well as by members of the Grand Order quotes from several of the women who More information at who paid for the girls’ maintenance and spent time at Wyberley as girls. www.burgesshill.gov.uk/refugeechildren

17 AJR Journal | August 2019

OBITUARIES

BRONIA VEITCH (née Schütz) Born: 9 January 1935, Berlin Died: 2 March 2019, W.Yorkshire

Bronia Veitch was the third and England. In August 1939, on their way, In 1946 Bronia was brought to England youngest daughter of Josef and she and Bronia spent two days with us. by her foster father and reunited with our mother, although she found it difficult Beila Gittel Schütz, an orthodox To her great distress, my mother was then told she could not take Bronia as the to settle back into a Jewish environment Jewish couple who emigrated UK authorities did not permit her to be and missed her foster parents greatly. She from Poland to Germany soon accompanied by a four year old. persevered in her studies and obtained an after WW1. honours degree in Sociology. She battled Being too young for our hostel, Bronia for freedom, against warfare and racial Ten days before Kristallnacht our father was moved to several very poorly run discrimination, was interested in the arts, was arrested by the Gestapo and deported orphanages and was deeply unhappy. In literature and music. back to Poland. He spent years in various May 1940, four days after the Germans ghettos and concentration camps, and was invaded Belgium, the Committee decided Until a year before her death Bronia sent on the death march from Buchenwald that the 50 girls in our hostel should try lectured about the Holocaust, and her to Bergen-Belsen where he finally perished to escape to France. Although we had story is included in Martin Gilbert’s book in January 1945. promised our mother to look after Bronia “The Righteous”. She also self-published we had to leave without contacting her, a book about the Belgian resistance and After his deportation, our mother was and Bronia thus found herself totally her own wartime experiences. forced to hand our shop to a non-Jew alone, in a country at war. With the help and move into Berlin’s Jewish quarter. In of Belgian resistance fighters, on the brink Bronia was buried in a green, non- February 1939 my other sister Ruth and I of deportation to Auschwitz, Bronia was denominational cemetery and the service were sent via Kindertransport to Belgium, rescued by a wonderful Belgian couple, was conducted by friend and fellow to a girls’ hostel run by the Belgian Jewish Henri and Gabrielle Ball, who, risking their AJR member, Rudi Leavor. She is greatly Refugee Committee. own and their children’s lives, passed Bronia missed by son Malcolm, daughter Bobby, off as an orphaned niece and obtained four granddaughters and sister Betty. Life in Berlin becoming precarious, my forged papers for her in the name of mother applied for a domestic visa to Brigitte Ball (Bronneke in Flemish). Betty Bloom

RUDI OPPENHEIMER followed by Rudi and Paul six months later. Born: 1 October 1931, Berlin Died: 13 May 2019, London Eve worked in her uncle’s glove business; she passed away in 2017. Paul studied Rudi Oppenheimer endured engineering, working in the motor Bergen-Belsen and survived the industry. He died in 2007. Holocaust with his brother Paul, Rudi also became an engineer. He studied and sister Eve. at Imperial College London and graduated (‘Star’ camp), though they were equally with a degree in electrical engineering; he In 1935 his parents had moved them subjected to forced labour. Both parents worked for Shell Oil for 34 years. to England to live with his aunt and died of starvation and disease early in uncle. But his father, a banker, was then 1945. In his retirement, Rudi spoke tirelessly transferred to Amsterdam where the to school groups about his life and family joined him in September 1936. Six days before the British Army reached the experiences of his family. The Germany invaded in May 1940 and Belsen, the ‘Exchange Jews’ were forced to Oppenheimers’ aim was to make in June 1943 the family was taken to travel over 500 miles around Germany on the world a better place for future Westerbork where they stayed for seven a two week journey with no destination. generations. As Rudi himself stated months; before being sent to Bergen- They survived by eating grass and raw “Standing by and doing nothing is not Belsen. Paul was then 15, Rudi 12, and potatoes scavenged when they were let off enough.” Eve 7 and the fact that Eve was born in the trains to avoid air attacks. Rudi and Paul Britain saved the Oppenheimer siblings’ had typhus so became separated from Eve. Condensed from an obituary published lives. They were classified as ‘Exchange A chance reunion enabled them to contact on the website of the National Holocaust Jews’ and sent to the Sternlager their family in London, Eve travelling first, Museum, Notts.

18 AJR Journal | August 2019

Kindertransport JOIN US FOR A DAY TRIP

A special interest group of The Association of Jewish Refugees TO THE SEASIDE FILM CLUB LUNCH THE BEST EXOTIC on Wednesday 14 August 2019 at Alyth Gardens Synagogue MARIGOLD HOTEL 12.30pm on MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2019 This month our at 12.30pm Kindertranport Lunch will be Sha’arei Tsedek North London Reform a social get-together Synagogue, 120 Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone, N20 9EZ Come along for a delicious fish and chip lunch and a chance to catch up Tuesday 13 August 2019 £8.00 donation per person with friends old and new Coach Leaving !!!Schmooze and Food!!! Finchley Road and Edgware. We look forward to seeing you all. Join us for a delicious Fish and Chip lunch and dessert on Southend sea front £7.00 per person BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL Then the opportunity to wander along the front, take in the sea air, and relax Call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 amongst friends. or email [email protected] Contact Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or [email protected] British retirees (Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Bill Nighy) travel to India to spring grove take up residence in what they believe London’s Most Luxurious is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than advertised, the Marigold Hotel RETIREMENT HOME nevertheless slowly begins to charm in 214 Finchley Road unexpected ways. London NW3 Outstanding live-in and hourly care in your home at flexible, affordable rates. A delicious deli lunch  Entertainment will be served first  Activities  Stress Free Living BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine – also advise if you need a taxi  Full En-Suite Facilities Please RSVP to Ros Hart Call for more information or a personal tour on 07966 969951 020 8446 2117 or email [email protected] or 020 7794 4455 [email protected] 020 7482 2188 pillarcare.co.uk

North West London Lunch & Talk www.fishburnbooks.com Tuesday 27 August 2019 Jonathan Fishburn Alyth Gardens Synagogue buys and sells Jewish and Hebrew books, 12.30pm ephemera and items of VINTAGE TEA WHILST Jewish interest. We are delighted to welcome back CRUISING THE THAMES DAVID BARNETT He is a member of the Antiquarian Speaking about the History of Joe Lyons, Booksellers Association. famous tea shops and corner houses Contact Jonathan on 020 8455 9139 or 07813 803 889 for more information 19 SEPTEMBER 2019

Please join us for a riverboat trip with Books Bought commentary and vintage tea on The Thames from Henley Modern and Old £8.00 per person to include a delicious deli lunch. Coach pick-ups in Edgware and Finchley Road Booking is essential. Eric Levene Contact Susan Harrod on 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 Ros Hart on 07966 969 951 020 8385 3070 or [email protected] [email protected] or email [email protected] for details and to book.

19 AJR Journal | August 2019

We congratulate the following AJR members, who have each MAZELTOV received prominent awards HELENA ARONSON BEM Helena Aronson was recently the L/ ódz˙ ghetto. She came to England presented with a BEM for in 1946 and, apart from a seven year stint in Lagos, Nigeria, has lived in Services to Holocaust Education. London ever since.

Helena, who was one of three Holocaust Both Helena’s daughters and one survivors receiving this award during the of her grandsons accompanied her 5 May ceremony, was born in 1927 in to the Tower of London, where the the small Polish village of Pabianice. She medal was presented to her by The spent most of the war in various ghettos, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, being one of only 750 Jews to survive Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE.

The ELIE WIESEL Award Peter and Marianne Summerfield have received the Elie Wiesel Award from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum of Washington - the Museum’s highest honour - in recognition of their tireless work in Holocaust education, both in the UK and the USA.

then taken to Kilburn, where the boys Twin honours attended Essendene elementary school, for Lands which was evacuated during the war. Returning to London, the twins supported Frank Land, who started his each other through Willesden County career as a young programmer Grammar School and the London School of Economics, graduating in Economics in on LEO, the world’s first business 1950 with almost identical marks. They computer, received an OBE were both then employed by Britain’s for services to the Information largest catering company J. Lyons & Co. in the Systems Programming Team of LEO Systems Industry in the June (Lyons Electronic Office). Ralph became became Emeritus Professor. 2019 Honours List. their European Manager and established the LEO brand in Eastern Europe before Frank met his British-born wife Ailsa Frank and his identical twin brother, Lyons sold LEO Computers Ltd. to English (née Dicken) at the LSE in 1950, where Ralph, were born in Berlin in 1928. Electric in 1961. Frank left in 1967 to teach she became Professor of Operational Their parents, Louis and Sofia (née Systems Analysis at the LSE. He successfully Research. Frank remains actively involved Weinberger), were well assimilated built up the department, and then resigned via the LEO Computers Society. Ralph, but grew increasingly uneasy as Jewish in 1985 to become Professor of Information who was awarded an OBE in 1996 for restrictions came into force. The family Management at the London Business School Export Services, is also still involved, and at were met by Sofia’s relatives in London, before returning to the LSE, where be 90 years old the twins are as close as ever.

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Winston House, 2 Dollis Park, Finchley, London N3 1HF Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 e-mail [email protected] AssociationofJewishRefugees @TheAJR_ For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters, Unit 5, St Albans House, St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected] The AJR Journal is printed on 100% recycled material and posted out in fully recyclable plastic mailing envelopes.

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