AJ R Info r mation Volume UII No. 12 December 1998 £5 (to non-members)

\ Don't miss ...

A craving for poison Richard Grunberger p3 Reflections on the Wye Accord and its possible consequences

A saint for the Holocaust Ronald Channing P5

The great facilitator The peace caravan trundles on Prof Paul Cohn pi 6

bba Eban once described Menachem Begin as has rendered the old maps - not only of the West Honorary 'the dark at the end of the tunnel'. Eban had a Bank, but also of the political land.scape - obsolete. A rare gift for aphorisms - he dubbed All this is happening at a time when the geopolitical jews Chamberlain's Britain a 'brollygarchy' - but his pattern of the entire Middle Ea.st is highly fiuid. In the he.se are judgement on Begin was somewhat half-baked. The area of the Palestinian Authority Arafat and Hamas are not to be latter embarked on the futile invasion of the Lebanon, locked in battle to the death, and in Jordan King Tconfu.sed yet he also made the lireakthrough peace with Egypt Hussein is battling death. On the other hand, in Iran with the Nazi- at the heavy cost of handing back Sinai. the AyatoUahs are facing their Taliban enemies out­ designated 'white Benjamin Netanyahu .seems cast in the Begin side, and modernisers inside, the country. In Turkey Jews', i.e. .scientists mould. He, too, perpetrated egregious mini-Lebanons, the secular E.stabli.shment have .seized the initiative who refused to but is to be recommended on concluding, in the face from the Islamicists, and have scored a foreign policy subscribe to the of last-ditch opposition, the Wye Plantation Agree­ success by forcing Syrian President Assad to lose face non.sense of ment which takes the Oslo-initiated peace process by abandoning the Kurdish insurgents. Aryan Physics'. forward on its obstacle .strewn path. Although the Middle Ea.st is .still highly volatile, it can When, in '68, the This interim agreement is one in which there are no now be .said that it is a safer place at the end of 1998 French authorities real losers - except Hamas who now come under CIA than it was at the beginning of the year D called Danny surveillance. There are, of course, self-perceived Cohn-Bendit a kxsers, primarily the West Bank settlers, whose intran­ foreign agitator, sigence can only point in one direction: Annageddon. thoLLsands of Just as Netanyahu's cabinet intenningles politicians - students took to the in the .sen.se of politics being the art of the po.ssible - streets chanting 'we with purblind zeaU)ts, .so Netanyahu is himself a mix­ are all Gennan ture of ideologue and pragmati.st. Rightwing Zionism Jews'. In a less is in his 'genes', since his father was a disciple of facile a.ssumption Jabotinsky's. His intermittent pragmatism stems from of Jewi.sh identity acute awarene.ss of Israel's closeness to America the late Ted (where he himself lived for a while). The link is .so Hughes, Poet intimate that at times the fortunes of American presi­ Laureate, was wont dents come clo.se to hinging on Israeli compliance to describe him.self with their plans. This had tempted Netanyahu into as a Holoc-aust what is Ix'st described as a tail-wags-dog ploy. Feeling .survivor. What unduly pressured by Clinton to make concessions, he lay behind this has drawn close to the Republican opposition in .self-characteri.sation Congress. However, the backlash against the Starr was his father's Report, prefiguring the Republican fiasco at the mid­ p.sychic scarring in term elections, seems to have brought him back to the Great War, and the path of .sanity. the suicide of Sylvia The Wye Accord has already played a small part in Plath, as well as of altering the American political landscape. In Israel his second - part- Netanyahu's apparent volte-face has redrawn the Jewish - partner D Life or Theatre-' The work of Charlotte Salomon is being fauklines separating the Likud and Labour blocs, and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art until 17 January 1999. AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

his retirement in 1977. His great love, Profile however, was translating. Alongside a for­ midable number of books translated from German and Czech into English, he has es­ The gift of tongues tablished a pioneering role as a ccording to a disdainful aphorism distinguished translator of Bulgarian and of Somerset Maugham's, only Macedonian poetry. Among the many of­ Acard-sharps and diplomats are flu­ fices he has held are those of Chairman of ent in several languages. Ewald Osers' the Translators' Association and the Transla­ distinguished record as a translator medi­ tors' Guild, 'Vice-Chairman of the In.stitute ating between English, the tongue of his of Linguists and leader of the British del­ adopted homeland, and an astonishing egation to four World Congresses of variety of European languages, refutes that Translators. proposition. Born in Prague in 1917, into He has been showered with prizes and an affluent, German-speaking Jewish honours for his literary translations, includ­ family, Ewald and his younger brother ing the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for the best were largely brought up by their mother, translation from German, 1971, the Euro­ the daughter of Austria-Hungary's first pean Poetry Translafion Prize, 1987, and Jewish high court judge, after the early most recently the Kafka Medal of the death of their father. Masaryk Academy of Arts, Prague. Besides Ewald's mother's family name was important works of history, biography and Anders. It had been 'Abeles', but when her Eivald Osers philo.sophy, he has translated from German father became a high court judge it was such eminent writers as Reiner Kunze, suggested to him that he should change London, thanks to the intervention, life-sav­ Rose Ausliinder and Thomas Bernhard, as his name, so he called himself 'Anders'. A ing as it turned out, of Professor well as the correspondence between Rich­ further promotion would have required Heyrovsky, Czech winner of a Nobel Prize ard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, him to change his religion, which he re­ for chemistry. During the war, his mother and Jaroslav Seifert, Miroslav Holub and fused to do. was deported to her death; his brother, Ivan Klima from the Czech. Educated in the legendary culture of however, survived Theresienstadt and de­ Ewald Osers lives with his wife Mary- Prague Jewry - his father had met Kafka, portation to Poland. whom he married in 1942, in the and Franz Werfel and Max Brod were old When war broke out, he got a job at the delightful Thames Valley surroundings of boys of his school - Ewald studied chemis­ BBC's Monitoring Service, where he en­ Sonning Common; they have two children try at the German University in Prague. joyed a distinguished career, working on and two grandchildren. He remains crea­ But in .spring 1938 antisemitic harassment highly important confidential material both tively active in his long and productive drove him from Prague; he was admitted during and after the war, and rising to be­ 'retirement'. as a doctoral student at University College, come Assistant Head of Department before D Anthony Grenville

towards Israel had brought diminishing sup­ within his interpretation of the Oslo ac­ Peace in our time? port for the PLO. cords. Nevertheless, Prof Rubin proved rof Barry Rubin of Bar-Ilan University, The 1993 Oslo Agreement was, in his rightly confident in predicting that an cutting through confused thinking view, "of tremendous importance". While interim agreement would be reached in Pand misinformed opinion, presented recognising that every step agreed at Oslo the USA and a second Israeli withdrawal a clearly argued and timely analysis of had been delayed, progress had been accomplished. The achievement of a fina' 'Propects for Peace in the Middle East' at made. Palestine elections had been held status agreement, however, was quite an­ an Institute of Jewish Studies lecture given and won by Arafat and his supporters, and other matter at University College London. He spoke Israel had withdrawn from parts of the In Prof Rubin's opinion, the Palestine AU' during the later stages of the Israeli- West Bank and Gaza, though the Palestine thority, with up to 2.8 million people Palestinian negotiations hosted by the USA Authority had notably failed to achieve a within the territories, faced an uphill task, at Wye Plantation in Maryland. deal with Hamas. not least becau.se the Arab world now gave Professor Rubin pinpointed key factors The greatest .setback had come in 1995 the Palestinian cause lower priority. The influencing the Israel-Palestinian relation­ with the assassination of Prime Minister past decade's strengthening momentLim to­ ship, including the fact that more Yitzhak Rabin, followed by an escalation in wards an Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement significant changes had taken place in the attacks carried out by Hamas and Islamic had led to agreements being achieved only last eight years in the Middle East than in Jihad. Terrorism, he pointed out, was car­ through incredibly tough negotiations. A'' the previous half century. In addition, the ried out by people who did not want the both sides needed a peace agreement, i^^ dissipation of pan-Arab nationalism, the col­ peace process to succeed - indeed they Prof Rubin's analysis, neither was prepared lapse of the Soviet Union and its decline as had set out to wreck it. Binyamin Netan­ to walk away from the process established an Arab ally, the weakening of the more yahu, on the other hand, favoured the by the Oslo accords. radical regimes, and the shift of Arab states pursuit of peace, but on his own tenns and D Ronald ChanninS ^^^sg^a^^^^^H^f^^^^^^^^^^^

AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

the firing squad. The man concerned was A craving for poison the Vichy propagandist Drieu le Rochelle he fact that Yevgeni Primakov, whom his Jewish ex-wife hid in the imme­ AUSTRIAN and GERMAN Russia's top Arabist and special diate aftermath of Liberation (when many PENSIONS Tenvoy to Saddam in the run-up to collaborators were summarily executed). the Gulf War is a Jew, has shocked many When, several months later, Drieu left his people. They find it hard to conceive of a hideaway, he mistakenly thought that the PROPERTY RESTITUTION Jew having a mindset geared towards executions were continuing, and commit­ CLAIMS accommodation with a lethal madman bent ted suicide. EAST GERMANY- BERLIN on wiping out Israel. It has been said of French collaborators The most plausible explanation of the like Drieu that they were the only ones in On instructions our office will Primakov phenomenon is that the KGB- Europe with literary talent. The most tal­ assist to deal with your trained Intelligence specialist long ago ented of that coterie was, without doubt, applications and pursue the shed the last vestige of Jewish identity. It Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Celine indulged in matter with the authorities. hysterically boundless Judeophobia, view­ is a curiosity of history that there has never For further information and been a dearth of individuals of pronounced ing the League of Nations, Wall Street, the Jewish identity who found a modus Viv­ City of London and the Kremlin all alike as appointment please endi with Jewbaiters. Jewish-dominated. In 1935 he raved about contact: The prime example of the species was native French writing being 'crushed' by ICS CLAIMS the conductor Hermann Levi, who ren­ Jewish imports a la Vicky Baum, Ro.samond 146-154 Kilburn High Road dered invaluable assistance to Richard Lehmann and Virginia Woolf. Two years London NW6 4JD Wagner at Bayreuth - for which he was later he published a genocidal diatribe with recompen.sed with anti.semitic jibes. Levi, the self-explanatory title Bagatelle pour un Tel: 0171-328 7251 (Ext 107) nonetheless, wrote to his father, a provin­ massacre. Fax:0171-624 5002 cial rabbi, that Wagner was far removed In 1944 the retreating Germans consid­ from petty antisemitism (kleinlichem ered him so important that they evacuated Risches). him back to the Reich together with Petain The climax of the fraught relationship and Laval. From Germany he managed to between composer and conductor oc­ reach Denmark - and the Danes delayed PARTNER curred at the premiere of Parsifal in 1882. complying with French extradition de- in long established English Solicitors Wagner balked at letting a Jew conduct a mand.s till he no longer faced retribution. (bi-lingual German) would be happy work 'imbued with Christian symljolism', In the 1950s this wayward, not to say to assist clients with English, German and but had to entrust the launch of the opera psychopathic, literary genius desired noth­ Austrian problems. Contact to Levi's baton at the insistence of King ing more than acquittal on charges of Ludwig of Bavaria, his financial backer collaboration and an opportunity for writ­ Henry Ebner Wagner's major contribution to anti­ ing. Myers Ebner & Deaner semitic ideology was his as.sertion - in His legal, as well as literary, rehabilitation 103 Shepherds Bush Road Judaism and Music - that Jews lacked any was greatly helped by the US academic London W6 7LP true creativity, and infiltrated cultural life Maurice Hindus, author of a critical .study Telephone 0171 602 4631 merely as clever copyists with an eye to on Celine. Additional support for his re- the main chance. (A similar view was ex­ admi.ssion into the literary pantheon came ALLLEGALWORK pressed early in the twentieth century by from the novelist Philip Roth and Prof UNDERTAKEN the Jewish-born Protestant convert Egon George Steiner. Readers will, perhaps, not Friedell. His Kulturgeschichte depicts the be surprised to learn that Hindus, Roth and Jews as agents of corrosive rationalism Steiner are all Jews. which destroys faith and rots the cultural D Richard Grunberger fabric.) NEWTONS From Judeophobia as the central Wagner- Leading Hampstead Solicitors ite tenet it seems a far cry to T S Eliot's $90 million insurance fund 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, occasional antisemitic excesses (pace 'The Six leading European insurance London NW3 SNB rats are underneath the pile/The Jew is companies are establishing a $90 (£54) underneath the lot'). But Eliot also argued million humanitarian aid fund for ^ All English legal work undertaken and German, in a public lecture that 'freethinking Jews Holocaust victims. The companies' Swiss & Austrian claims should be kept beyond the city'. Even so records will also be re-examined to Leonard Woolf (Virginia's Jewish husband) identify victims' unpaid policies. ^ German spoken disarmingly labelled Eliot's anti.semitism as The agreement was reached in London 'k Home visits arranged the conventional prejudice of the Edward­ by the international commissk)n - chaired * Associated offices in Hamburg, ian middle-clas.ses. ^ by fomier US Secretary of State Lawrence Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Sydney, But antisemites not only had Jewish col- Eagleburger - representatives of World Zurich laboratcjrs, imitators and triviali.sers like the Jewish Congress, US insurance companies Tel: 0171 435 5351 aforementioned - in one wartime in.stance and the six European companies D Fax: 0171 435 8881 a Jew(ess) literally saved a Jewbaiter from AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

em Hebrew. Published 50 years before the Chassidic wife. It is directed by Jeroen Rev/ew 1897 Congress, this book acted as a cata­ Krabbe, a Dutch half-Jew for whom the lyst for Zionism as a cultural East European film constituted a labour of love. It also A dream come true movement, to which Herzl gave political depicts Antwerp's Pelikanstraat as contem­ substance in West European terms. porary Europe's last shtetl, whose denizens Heik.0 Haumann (ed.) DERTRAUMVON ISRAEL At the time of the first Basle Congress a ritually rend their garments at funeral, and DIE URSPRUNGE DES MODERNEN number of East European olim were where the pre-Pas.sover burning of chometz ZIONISMUS. Be/tz Athenoeum Verlag,Weinheiml already struggling to survive in Palestine. forms as much part of the street scene as Bergstrasse, 1998. Pb. DM58.00. Other subjects covered in this collection Guy Fawkes' bonfires do in our season of ith the specific aim of establish­ include a new and fascinating look at the mists and mellow fruitfulness. ing an academic link between infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion But the film also has discernible weak­ Wthe 1997 centenary of the First and an evaluation of the concept of the nesses. Its portrayal of dysfunctional Zionist Congress and the 1998 Golden bodybuilding Jew versus his effeminate Holocaust survivors' families sometimes Jubilee of Israel, the Hi.story Department of counterpart. teeters on the edge of the grotesque, the University of Basle carried out a special At a time when some aspects of Zionist while at moments of crisis in the heroine's project of research into the origins of history are being questioned by revisionist life a preternaturally benign and wise old modem Zionism. historians - and Jewish ones at that - it is Jew (Chaim Topol) offers her Talmudic Professor Haumann's keynote paper important for anyone concerned with this consolation and gobbets of folk wisdom. takes the form of an analysis of the argu­ subject to be able to rely upon the impec­ Left Luggage is currently showing if^ ments for and against political Zioni.sm at cable objectivity displayed by Professor selected N. London cinemas. the time of its conception, and the conflicts Haumann and his team. The basic plot device of the German- of opposing ideologies which have contin­ D David Maier Belorussian co-production Fmm Hell to Hell ued throughout its first century. goes back to the reign of King Solomon: That Herzl was by no means the only the quarrel of two mothers claiming the one to dream of his people's return to their same child. The film focuses on a litde ancestral soil is a well-known fact. Less Personal and Jewish girl entrusted to a Polish couple by well-known is that not all these dreamers collective drama on parents facing deportation from Kielce. were of the Jewish faith. Indeed, a number Miraculously the latter both survive - she of his helpers (and predecessors) were de­ the silver screen as a slave labourer, and he, after a daring vout Christians. This historical phenomenon escape from a camp, as a partisan. is the subject of an essay dealing with the Jeroen Krabbe LEFT LUGGAGE On the strength of his resistance record attitude of Basle's citizens towards the ten Artur Brauner FROM HEIITO HELL he becomes the po.stwar police chief of Zionist congresses held there. Some of the haja, the young heroine of Left Kielce, where his wife also resurfaces- opinions expressed were predictably hos­ Luggage, pursues a somewhat rack­ Desperate for the return of her daughter tile. Others displayed belief in the C ety lifestyle in 1970s Antwerp. She she encounters a little stranger, and meets "prophetic promi.se to the Jewish people has left home to dabble in student with the hysterical hostility of the foster that they would regain their once-lost Holy radicalism and casual affairs. Occasionally mother'. This individual hostility is sub­ Land". Some de.scendants of Jewish con­ she visits her quarrelling Holocau.st survivor sumed within the collective poisonous verts to Protestantism were active as parents, one of whom can't let go of the illwiU the townspeople bear Jewish survi­ Friends of Israel' without any apparent past while the other tries to blot it out via vors claiming their property back. It al' missionary purposes, although the hope frenetic housewifely routine. ends horribly in the Kielce pogrom, which that returning to Judaism would be a Tired of drifting, Chaja takes on the job claimed fifty Jewish lives a year after tht^ preparation for turning to Christianity can­ of a nanny to a prolific Chassidic family, Holocaust. At the end of the film the fifty not have been absent. and enters a strange ambience which victims' names fill the screen. A quite unusual 'Christian Zionist', the attracts and repels her in almost equal No one would deny that the film makers Swiss physician Titus Tobler, aimed to es­ measure. There she eventually works a mi­ had their hearts in the right place. Where, tablish a 'Christenstaat' on the soil once nor miracle: her solicitude and youthful though, were their head.s? At times their trodden by his Saviour. Such an evangeli­ high spirits make a sensitive little boy, childish approach to the sujet beggars cally orientated entity was to be who, reacting to his father's intimidating belief. Thus they indicate the outbreak of established by means of a "peaceful CRI- sternness, had retreated into tonguetied war by showing the carefree inhabitants of sade". Tobler evolved into an authority on silence, 'recover' speech. Kielce dancing in the town square on the Holy Land, which he came to know In the process she, too, is transformed 1 September 1939, and being dive bombed rather better than Herzl ever did. and recovers her own authentic self. Al­ by German planes. The reaction of Jews and non-Jews in though the film ends with a funeral, the Earlier the - obviou.sly Di.sney-trained -' other European countries, particularly Tsar­ tragedy is offset by Chaja's re-integration scriptwriters have the two pairs of newly- ist Russia and Austro-Hungary, to the into the Jewish worid. weds coincide at the photographer's studio proposed return to Zion is the subject of Over and above this emotionally drain­ and decide on a joint wedding photo! (As i' several essays. One of these describes how ing, and yet dramatically satisfying, finale in 1930s Poland the gulf between Catholics the reborn love for Zion in the increasingly Left Luggage has several strengths. It's and Jews could have been bridged so unattractive Pale of Settlement was cap­ starry cast is headed by Lsabella Rosselini easily!) tured in Abraham Mapu's novel, the first who brings tremendous authenticity to her But even these defects don't weigh as full-length work of fiction written in mod­ role as uncomplaining, overburdened continued on page 5

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AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

A saint for the Holocaust? erhaps the recent canonisation of Jewish-born Edith Stein as St PBenedicta of the Cross is a genuine attempt by the Pope from Krakow, John Israel's Finest Wines Paul II, to further reconciliation. Indeed, from the Edith appears to be the first 'Jew' to be so honoured since the earliest days of Golan Heights Christianity. Yarden, Golan & Gamla This creation is intended perpetually to enshrine her acts of charity and her ethnic \Nrite, phone or fax origins within the ambit of Catholic for full Information veneration. It demonstrates the Church's Edith Stein House of Hallgarten acknowledgement of the Holocaust as Dallow Road, Luton LUI 1UR being directed primarily at the Jews. To losophy at Gottingen where, as one of the Tel: 01582 22538 underscore this intent, the Pope designated few women to gain acceptance, she was Fax: 01582 23240 August 9th, the saint's day of "the Martyr able to demon.strate her brilliance. Both Saint of Auschwitz - the daughter of Israel", academic problems and unrequited love for Catholics to commemorate the loss of were confided to an unfinished biography, AJR MEALS ON WHEELS the six million. revealingly entitled Life in a Jewish family. If you live in North or North West Less charitably, it can be argued that the While Edith .served as a volunteer Red London and wish to take advantage of canonisation is but an ill-advised attempt to Cross nurse in World War I, colleagues fell this service, phone Susie Kaufman 0171- deflect criticism of centuries of Christian in combat, leaving her lonely and disillu­ 328 0208 for details and an assessment antisemitism, culminating in the heinous sioned. Stein revealed little about her interview. crimes being committed against Jews, gyp­ motivation for converting to Christianity in sies and other victims of the Final Solution, 1922. Refused immediate entry into a con­ by Germany throughout the conquered ter­ vent, she nevertheless imposed the vows ritories and, more specifically. Pope Pius of chastity, poverty and ol^edience on her­ XII's refusal to declare moral outrage in self and taught at Catholic institutions. opposition to them. Consequent to the Aryan racial laws of Edith Stein was born on Yom Kippur 1933, Edith lost her teaching post. While 1891, the seventh child of a devout Jewish her mother was prepared to leave BELSIZE SQUARE family in Breslau, Gemiany, though her fa­ Germany, Edith entered the Carmelite con­ SYNAGOGUE ther died when .she was only two and her vent in Cologne as a novice nun, known mother had then to spend time running now as Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Her 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NWS the family's timber business. Judaism had anti-Nazi abbot was denounced by a .subor­ little appeal for the acculturated and as­ dinate. Pater Herman Keller, who turned a We offer a traditional style of similated Edith, who provocatively declared deaf ear to her pleas for .sanctuary in a religious service with Cantor, her atheism at the age of fourteen. Bethlehem convent. Keller, in all likelihood Choir and organ Following studies in psychology at spying for both Germany and Egypt, was Breslau, she entered into the realm of phi- him.self transferred to the Middle Ea.st. Further details can be obtained After Kristallnacht, a.sylum was found for from our synagogue secretary contirnied . . . her at the Carmelite convent in Echt in heavily as the overall wrongness of the neutral Holland. After the occupation Edith Telephone 0171-794 3949 film's tone. For the last seventy years the desperately .sought permission for refuge impact of films has depended as much on in a Swi.ss convent, thwarted only by the Minister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner what the audience hears as what it sees. intransigence of the church to which she Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine Here cinemagoers hear three distinct had pledged her allegiance. The Dutch Regular services: Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, groups of people - Germans, Poles and bishops' condemnation of the deportations Saturday mornings at 10 am Religion school: Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm Jews - all speaking undifferentiated brought retribution when Jewish-bom nuns German. and priests were arrested by the Gestapo Space donated by Pafra Limited That is far from satisfactory, but what and taken to We.sterbork transit camp on compounds the offence is the use of a 2nd August 1942, among them Edith and colloquial, snappy Pru.ssian variant of Ger­ her si.ster Rosa, who had also converted. BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE man. To hear a Polish-Jewish police chief From there they were sent to Auschwitz 51 Belsize Square, London N.W.3 refer to his subordinates as 'meine Jungs' and murdered on 9th August, hardly suffi­ Our communal hall is available for and a Polish peasant a.s.sure fugitive Jews cient time for a .saintly 'angel of Au.schwitz' cultural and social functions. 'wir werden die Sache schon schaukeln' to care for many of the sick and dying. Tel: 0171-794 3949 strikes a jarringly false note. D RG D Ronald Cnanning AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

REICHSFLUCHTSTEUER Sir - The office of the German Chancellor Kohl wrote to me recendy in answer to a request for extension of the second claims deadline of December 1969. (Claimants living in the eastern parts were excluded under the Federal Repub­ lic's claim to be the legitimate successor of GROMBRICH'S BLOTTING Celan) Jews to other fields and/or at other the Reich). PAPER periods is irrelevant and rather reminds me The Chancellor's office wrote that it of the traditional Burns night toast "Here's Sir - Instead of heading Professor Sir Ernst would be prejudicial to extend once more tae us, Wha's like us?" However, I agree Gombrich's letter with "Brickbat" would an the deadline of 1969. The actual word with him (and disagree with Gombrich) apology by the Editor not have been more used was benacbteiligend. that the influence of Jews on culture in appropriate? The Thuringian state law offices, how­ general has probably not been unrelated to ever, wrote that the time limit for Cheom Inge Trott shtetl attitudes, i.e. respect for learning, al­ Surrey appealing against Reichsfluchtsteuer was beit of a narrow kind. 1944. Enough said! Ruislip, G Curzon New Barnet, Herts KG Speyer Sir - Emancipation in the second half of Middx the nineteenth century relea.sed the pent- up intellectual and cultural potential of Professor Gombrich's lecture, as published by European Jewry, locked in their 'synagogue the Austrian Cultural Institute, refers on p24 PROTEST and .shtetl' prison. The re.sulting explosion to Schubert, Bruckner and Brahms, and on Sir - May I draw your attention to a report of creativity and enterprise reverberated p26 to the interwar philosophers Moritz von in the Daily Telegraph according to which throughout the Western world. If they, and Schiick and Rudolf Carnap. Ergo it wos not "Spielberg's Holocaust archives could succeeding generations, avidly absorbed confined to the visual arts at the fin de replace memorial in Beriin". what they found around them like blotting siecle. In addition, the distinction between As a 94-year-old contributor to the Los paper', what is wrong with that' Viennese and other Austrian (in the Habsburg Angeles archives I am horrified at the thought of endangering those irreplace­ Grunberger chides Gombrich for being sense) jews is spurious. Did Joseph Roth's able memories of around 50,000 survivors what he calls an 'elitist Austro-Jewish Galician birth make him anything other than of the Shoah. Tho.se archives should forever escapee from his Jewish heritage'. A an Austrian (aka Viennese) jew? Told that it be kept in a place .safe from anti.semiti.sm! strange resentment. Would he have wanted did, he would surely spin in his grave. Ed. him to detect a specific Jewishness in What do your other readers think about Schoenberg's music, Kafka's writing, Men­ thi.s? delsohn's architecture, Ein.stein's physics? EXTORTION PRECEDED Wembley Park, Middx Mrs H Heim Like Goebbels and Ro.senberg did? EXTERMINATION Grunberger finds Gombrich's view invali­ Sir - It .seems to me that to rob the Jews THE PHILOSEMITE.THE JEW dated by the existence of the rich Yiddish was the Nazis' guiding principle before culture of a long list of writers, from they decided to commit the perfect crime ANDTHE ANTISEMITE Gebirtig to Scholem Aleichem, who chose by doing away with the bodies of the Sir - Would Strindberg now see Jews as to remain in the cosy warmth of the shtetl. victims. world citizens, free from bigoted I fail to .see the logic in this assertion. The reason why so many Jews were re­ patriotism? Some attitudes currently London NW3 Rudolf Strauss leased from concentration camps just expressed within and on behalf of Israel before the war (and why they had been are to the contrary, whether ba.sed on the Sir - According to Richard Grunberger (Oc­ taken there in the first place) was that they biblical promi.se or having their origins in tober issue), Gombrich's recently published had to pay a ransom to the Gestapo before the fear of a fresh holocaust. lecture discounted the Jewish element in being allowed to leave the country. Either way - "What price emancipation Au.strian culture. The lecture turns out to Tho.se spared such experience but who now?" have been restricted to the Jewish contri­ wanted to emigrate "at all cost" had to pay Chalfont St Giles Alan S Kaye bution, specifically to the visual arts, Reichsfluchtsteuer (escape tax), some Buckinghamshire specifically at the fin de siecle and specifi­ 20,000 US dollars. cally in Vienna. Gombrich .states that this Once the war had started and foreign particular contribution was relatively small. opinion didn't matter, they took every pos­ THE AJR FLEDERMAUS I assume that he knew what he was talking session from those left behind or found in Sir - Having read the critical letter in the about - art hi.story being his field of exper­ occupied Europe. Therefore, when the November issue I must write and say hoW tise. The lecture reveals a definite Germans mention the billions they have much we enjoyed the performance of Die uneasiness about being non-religious but paid out since '45 I would like to remind Fledermaus. It was beautifully done, as still recognised as Jewish but tliat is another them that this is peanuts in comparLson was the funny intermezzo' with Hinge and matter. with the material value of the proceeds of Bracket. In the circumstances, Grunberger's listing extortion and robbery. We thank all the performers and the of the sub.stantial contributions of Viennese, Ipswich Frank Bright orchestra. non-Viennese and non-Austrian (e.g. Canetti, Suffolk London, SWl 8 Margaret Kahn mm Ig^^^^^^ii^Sa^^^^ilSSi^MS^ffiSi ^ggmi^sa^^a

AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

HALLENSER SAINSBURY TRIBUTE Sir - In pre-Nazi days 1,300 Jews lived in Sir - Lord Sainsbury of Drury Lane who AJR's key role in Halle (Saxony Anhalt). At the invitation of died recently aged 96, did a great deal of the Mayor 36 Hallenser recendy returned philanthropic work. One example of this distributing UK funds to the city for one week to commemorate was his setting up of a hostel for about 20 the 60th anniversary of Crystal Night. Jewish refugee children in Putney in 1939. ritish Government funds, made The programme included a visit to an ex­ Lord Sainsbury took great personal interest available earlier this year to provide hibition about Halle's Jews, an official in our welfare. Even after our wartime Bimmediate help for Holocaust reception at the Town Hall, discussions evacuation to various homes this support, survivors and refugees living in this with school pupils, a visit to both Jewish including financial help, continued. country, should have been distributed to cemeteries and a Friday evening service at Some years later we invited Lord 825 eligible applicants in the UK, each of the synagogue. Sainsbury to a special function to thank whom receives a timely and welcome In 1989 the Jewish congregation num­ him. He was very touched and maintained allocation of £400. bered a mere seven. It is now just over contact with some of us for a long time Administration of the scheme, which two hundred, but as it consists almost ex­ afterwards. included answering the hundreds of clusively of Russians and Ukrainians, it is Hatch End Erica H Plaut enquiries and evaluating applications also the end of an era. Middx against the Government criteria, was Tiie visit was a moving experience for carried out exclusively by the AJR's own many and an attempt to build a bridge Social Services Department on behalf of between the present and the past. the six Jewish relief organisations involved. London Gerald Holm AFTER THE FATWA Once authorised, each individual payment NW3 There is an alternative and less optimistic was subsequently made by the Board of view of the political changes in Iran. Deputies. Since the Foreign Secretary has suc­ The AJR was among the first to appreci­ AJRWITHOUT R ceeded in obtaining a partial modification ate the urgency of meeting the needs of Sir - May I suggest a new title for our of the Fatwa on Salman Rushdie we can elderly and often isolated people before organisation: "JACOB". The Acronym stands now have more normal and friendly rela­ the on.set of winter weather, and conse­ for Jewish Association of Continentally tions with Iran and much needed trade. quently pressed vigorously to overcome Originated Brits. It rolls off the tongue Has anyone considered how much more any unanticipated delays in forwarding the quite easily, though fimily in my cheek. difficult this is going to make any decisive payments. Furthermore, we could ask Lord and effective action again.st Iran's nuclear In addition to a significant number of Jakobovits to he our patron, and be known tomb? members of the AJR and other co-operat­ as Jacobites. Mallwyd Manfred Landau ing organisations who have now As an ex-refugee, ex-Kindertransportee, Powys benefited, on virtually every working day ex-Austrian, let me now make a serious new enquiries are made at the AJR office suggestion: ACJ - Association of Continen­ from as many as five former refugees and tal Jews. survivors in all parts of the country, many May your correspondents never have of whom have only tenuous connections anything more serious to concern them with the Jewish community. As applica­ tions from those meeting the criteria than to be referred to as refugees, as Stolen Austrian savings though it were a term of abuse. continue, AJR Chief Executive, Michael Uxbridge E Fisher Au.strian banks expropriated thou.sands Radbil, is actively considering applying to of accounts belonging lo their Jewish Middx Anthony Layden at the Foreign Office for clients after the Anschluss, according additional funds in order to provide similar to the Holocaust Educational Tai.st. a.ssistance and meet the.se equally deser­ BANKING (MAL)PRACTiCE The chairman of the Oesterreicbische ving needs. Sir - The Midland Bank advised me about a Po.stsparkasse(PSK), while accepting With the support and good offices of year ago that they are discontinuing their no responsibility for funds which had Swiss Emba.s.sy Minister Robert Reich, pay­ eadier practice of monthly written advice been taken by the Nazis, has ments from the Swiss Humanitarian Fund setting out (a) German DM amounts published details of 7,000 dormant have been passed to the World Jewish received and (b) their rate of conversion accounts and announced the .setting Restitution Organisation (WJRO) for distri­ applied. This, in my opinion, is not only aside of il20,000 to meet genuine bution. These include the UK's allocation bad banking practice but also precludes claims. of some £220,000 which is to be disbursed one from checking the correctness of the A copy of the li.st can be referred to on a similar basis as the UK fund. It is figures, conversion rates, etc. involved. at the AJR office. The names of law­ anticipated that the continuing interest of The problem now is what, if anything, yers in New York and Vienna the AJR on behalf of members, allied to to do about .Midland's discontinuance of pos.sessing the relevant expertise and pressure from other communal organi­ their earlier practice over many years willing to act for potential claimants sations and the Jewish Chronicle (see which, they now state, they had been are also available, though it would interview with AJR Chief Executive 30th under no obligation to facilitate in the first appear that the PSK may be dealt October) will bring about a satisfactory place. with directly D result. Name and address widiheld URDC AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

NEWS FROM AJ R Keports OTTO SCHIFF HOMES

NORTHERN AJR Heartfelt appreciation urrently undergoing major refurbishment, Osmond House Jewish art For the past 3'-^ months, since breaking C Residential and Nursing Care Despite Manchester's atrocious weather my leg, I have had the good fortune to Home in The Bishop's Avenue, when conditions, some 40 members attended an receive AJR's Meals-on-Wheels. They have completed (phase I is due for comp­ illustrated talk intriguingly entitled The been a real life-saver as I was unable to letion by Spring 1999), will offer 49 Shocking Tradition of Jewish Art, given by cook for myself. single rooms, each with full en-suite Jon Dyson. He suggested that over the This is the third time that I have ben­ facilities. centuries the Torah's Second Command­ efited from your wonderful service. I have Osmond House specialises in caring ment (Thou shalt not make for thyself now recovered sufficiently to prepare for the elderly mentally frail, in particu­ graven images...) was a custom often meals again and would like to say lar those with Alzheimer's Disease or ignored, if not flouted. Jon Dyson's erudi­ thankyou, from the bottom of my heart! with other forms of dementia. Staff have tion fascinated tfiis knowledgeable audience D Marion Kreindler received special training both to appre­ which also enjoyed another social success. ciate the Jewish way of life and the D Werner Lachs continental culture of most of the resi­ dents, as well as to care for people who MIDLANDS AJR may be confused or have distressing memories. Made to last The new and up-to-date design being Leon Jessell MBE JP, guest speaker at the introduced at Osmond House will pro­ Midlands Group, talked about his many vide a more homely atmosphere which, years experience of working in the together with all the latest equipment manufacture of different kinds of leather Recipients of AJR Information on tape. and facilities, will help to offer the very goods. He demonstrated how purses, best in care. The AJR is making a major handbags, satchels and golf club cases A most rewarding job contribution to facilitate the financing of were made and showed samples of the t is nearly fifteen years since I started this much needed and worthy project. types of leather that were used. A most taping AJR Information for visually disa DLVV informative and enjoyable afternoon was bled members. Initially, they were only had by everyone. D EG I names to me, but very soon they became my friends. Those unable to speak to me Paul Balint AJR Day Centre on the 'phone, whether in Bournemouth or presents the The piano Australia, answered on tape. Placing a ZEMEb CflQIR manda Palmer, a graduate of Trinity rubber band round the cassette when it Lighting of last Chanucah candle College of Music, began entertain­ was returned to me signified that I should ing members at the Paul Balint AJR listen to it and enjoy their conversations Sunday 20th December A at 3.15pm Day Centre more than five years ago, and many requests. Entrance £5 including tea by dcket only singing initially with Marek Dabrowski at After recording my first AJR Information Contact Sylvia, Renee or Susie the piano before she turned to onto tape, I confess that on playing it back accompanying herself. I dozed off. As I didn't want to .send our cli­ Amanda shared a flat with a couple who ents to sleep, I recruited some of my had a piano, but when they moved, natu­ friends to join in the reading, thereby pro­ AJR 'Drop in' Advice Centre rally they took their piano with them. In viding a variety of voices. at the respon.se to Amanda's predicament, Hannah Though I am now getting older, I would Paul Balint AJR Day Centre Goldsmith, who arranges the Day centre's like my many friends to continue to enjoy 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL much-enjoyed daily entertainment pro­ iLstening to AJR Information, so I am ask­ between 10am and 12 noon on the following dates: grammes, thought that the AJR should ing for .some help. The basic requirements reciprocate by placing an advertisment in are a good, warm and .sympathetic voice, Tuesday 1 December Wednesday 9 December AJR Information for a piano that was no and reliability. In all, it takes about six to Thursday 17 December longer in use. Hannah was delighted to re­ eight hours a month and I will gladly train Tuesday 22 December ceive a response from the daughter-in-law and help you, as well as supply all the Thursday 7 January of the late Else Nathan, an AJR member tapes and wallets. Age and gender are un­ and every Thursday from who loved playing the piano and accompa­ important; wheelchair or home bound 10am to 12 noon at: nying singers. Donated in memory of Else people can do it just as well. I guarantee AJR, I Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, London NW3 6AL Nathan as a generous tribute to the work that it is one of the most rewarding jobs No appointment is necessary, but please bring of the AJR, her piano will continue to play imaginable, so if you think that you may along all relevant documents, such as Benefit its melodies and accompany singers as a be able to volunteer help, please call me, Books, letters, bills, ex. much appreciated gift. D HG Irene White, on 0181 203 2733 • AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

HOUSE DOCTOR • • • Vie>vpclnt • • •

hingles is not in itself a serious Light years illness, though it can be uncom­ he First Worid War takes much of What if we were to tear ourselves fortable and in some cases painful. S the blame for challenging the away from declaring GMT as God given, Caused by the same virus responsible senseless sacrifice of millions of irrevocable and hands-off because it's for chicken pox in children, it is a re­ T proletarian lives on the battlefield, for British. Just accept, if you will, that the activation of this virus which never liberating women from a permanently Charles II inspired. Wren-designed ob­ completely went away. inferior, disenfranchised and domestic- servatory, with its navigation and Patients suffer from red itchy spots in servant-cum-procreator status, for rattling chronometer-based history and naval a line around either half of their body, or down the staid social stuctures and Empire-designated zero line of longitude down one limb, and in common with privileges of the nineteenth century's which still passes through Greenwich (no childhood chicken pox, the rash ruling class, for licensing public house doubt against the envy of less happier becomes itchy and scabby before fading opening and closing hours to safeguard lands), plays a sufficient role in providing in about two weeks. In a proportion of munitions' manufacture and the war visiting schoolboys with the delight of patients, most of whom are elderly, the effort. From it also derives the tradition straddling it to place one foot in each pain can la.st for longer periods and be of 'putting the clocks back' or 'forward', hemisphere. extremely uncomfortable, but there are as the equinox dictates, no doubt to save drugs which offer alleviation if precribed Retaining British Summer Time would on scarce energy and maximise daylight in the early stages. significantly reduce road casualties - par- working hours, to become what is known ticulariy those of children retuming home Shingles can be transmitted if the as Summer Time. from school, lower the incidence of recipient has never had chicken pox or Continental time - should we now be crime, boost trade and tourism, lift the is extremely weak or unwell from treat­ more PC in saying 'European time'? - is gloom of winter afternoons and save ments such as radiotherapy. It cannot be one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean some £250 million in energy costs. Un­ transmitted to anyone else by contact. Time (GMT), admittedly pretty trouble­ fortunately, opposition to this reform is While shingles can be extremely some for all those earnest business types .still provided by the Scots who imagine painful, it is not life-threatening. Very regularly scutding through Eurotunnel to themselves bound to myths of land and rarely, shingles may indicate some Paris, Brus.sels and beyond on expense nature, and have yet to ma.ster the knack damage to the body's immunity by a accounts, prepared to .sacrifice all in the of getting up at any time which suits and disease not yet apparent, so it is always battle for the nation's wealth creation, returning themselves to the bedchamber advisable to consult your doctor. Though kitted out for their European campaigns in a similariy calculated action, whatever no treatment is available to prevent with mobile phones, faxes and laptop time the clockface di.splays. shingles, any inherent pain and computers. discomfort can be significantly reduced. D Ronald Channing D Dr Max Bayer Dr Bayer is unable to enter into any personal correspondence. PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE 15 Cleve Road, West Hampstead, NW6 Mon. & Weds. 9.30am-3.30pm.Tues. 9.30am-5.30pm. Thurs. 9.30am-6.30pm. Suns. 2pm-6.30pm Call Sylvia Matus - 0171 328 0208

Afternoon entertainment programme - Wed 16 LUNCHEON CLUB DECEMBER/JANUARY 1998/99 Thur 17 Nikki van der Zyl accompanied Tue 1 Karen Grace, soprano and Joan by Daphne Lewis, piano Enjoy Oates, piano Sun 20 THE ZEMEL CHOIR * Excellent food Wed 2 HOIJNSLOW COMMUNITY Mon 21 KARD & GAMES KLUB • Stimulating talk OPERA Tue 22 Yoel Brightman, trumpet * Enlivening discussion Tluir 3 Amanda Palmer, opera accompanied by Amalia '¥ Meeting new friends Sun 6 Sue Kennett, .soprano and Brightman, piano Gordon Weaver, piano Wed 23 Joanna McDonald accompanied k\R LUNCHEON CLUB Mon 7 KARD & GAME.S KLUB by Yeu-Meng Chan, piano Tue 8 Marek Dabrowski, piano and Thur 24 CLOSED AFTER LUNCH - on Wednesday 16th December Amanada Palmer, .soprano Christmas Eve at 15 Cleve Road, NW6 3RL Wed 9 Opera Pops, accompanied by Sun 27 CLOSED 11.45 for 12.15pm Margaret Gibbs, piano Mon 28 CLOSED Guest speaker: Rabbi Rodney Mariner Thur 10 The Eddy Simmons Duo Tue 29 CLOSED will speak on 'Chanukah & Xmas' Sun 13 TEA DANCE - with Shelly Wed 30 CLOSED and light the Chanukah candles Weldon Thur 31 CLOSED Mon 14 Wizo Choir Sun 3 Katinka Seiner and Laszio Reservations (£8) Tue 15 Katinka .Seiner and Laszio Easton accompanied by from Sylvia, Renee and Susie Easton, accompanied by Malcolm Cottle, piano Tel: 0171 328 0208 Malcolm Cottle, piano Mon 4 KARD cS; GAMES K\.\-h AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

FAMILY BOOKS SHELTERED FLATS ANNOUNCEMENTS AJR Information on Tape PURCHASED TO LET Deaths WANTED Pre-1950 Ciiildren's & Attractive Hellman. Leonora Hellman Three reliable volunteers illustrated Books passed away peacefully on 20 to record and distribute Published in Germany, Russia, warden-controlled flats at October aged 102 years and 5 tape cassettes Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary Eleanor Rathbone House months. Greatly missed by all Training, help Brian Mills: Books Highgate N6 her family and friends. & equipment given 18 North Road, Glossop, Derbys. SKI3 9AS Details from: OSHA Reimann. Marianne Reimann, Please call: Irene White Tel/Fax 01457-85 6878 Social Services Dept much loved sister of Ingeborg, 0181 203 2733 Tel: 0181 458 7792 died September 18, aged 84. Greatly missed by relatives and Typewriters, etc. friends. Quality repairs & DIN DELIS HOUSE Zinunermann. Klaus Zimmer­ COUNSELLING servicing mann died 26 October 1998 Residential Care Home aged 88 after a long illness. THERAPY Carried out by for Senior Citizens Greatly mourned by his wife, experienced engineer Religion highly honoured Hilde Schoenfeld daughter, son-in-law, grand­ Collections arranged Pleasant relaxed atmosphere daughters Katie and Zoe. Cert.Ed. Dip.Ed. Free quotations & details from: Gordon Spencer, All single rooms with TV CAPP, UKCP & telephone Tel:018! 445 1839 CLASSIFIED German-speaking, female For information contact: Mrs HR Fearon Pennant Miscellaneous counsellor/psychotherapist Babysitting and respite care SWITCH ON ELECTRICS Phone 0181 903 7592 Fax 0181 903 4195 available in the Swiss Cottage Fully qualified and under Rewires and all household area. Tel: 0171 431 6001. continual supervision electrical work. PHONE PAUL: 0181-200 3518 Services Fees negotiable Ring: 0181 537 0314 BELSIZE SQUARE Manicure & Pedicure in the APARTMENTS comfort of your own home. ALTERATIONS 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NWS Telephone 0181 343 0976. OF ANY KIND TO Tel: 0171-794 4307 or Odd job expert, honest, Optic/an LADIES' FASHIONS 0171-435 2557 reliable, willing, anything!! I also design and make Or Howard Solomora BSc FBCO (German speaking) 0181 346 children's clothes MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY 4047. Dental Surgeon West Hampstead area ROOMS. RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER MODERATETERMS DrHMan Shields 0171-328 6571 NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION Day Centre & Shirley Lever at the Paul Chiropodist Balint AJR Day Centre. New AJR INFORMATION Trevor Goldman SRC TORRINGTON HOMES Clothes for Sale, dresses, under­ is available on tape MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N. by appointment at MATRON wear, cardigans etc. Wednesday If anyone would like to take For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent The Paul Balint AjR Day Centre 2 December and Thursday 10 advantage of this service, (Licensed by Borough ol Barnet) December, 9.45-11.45am. IS C/eve Rood,West Hampstead, NW6 > Single and Double Rooms. please contact 1 H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. Please make appointments with Mrs Irene White I Gardens, TV and reading rooms. Societies Sylvia Matus.TehOm 328 0208 0181-203 2733 > Nurse on duty 24 hours. Association of Jewish Ex- before 9am or after 6pm > Long and short term, including Berliners. Please contact Peter trial period if required. Sinclair 0181 882 1638 for AJR GROUP CONTACTS From £275 per week 0181-4451171 Office hours information. Bournemouth : Ralph Dale 0181-455 1335 Other times 01202 762 270 ADVERTISEMENT RATES NORTH FINCHLEY Leeds HSFA: Heinz Skyte FAMILY EVENTS BRIDGE 0113 268 5739 First 15 words free of charge, Midlands: Edgar Glazer £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. 0121 777 6537 Residential Home LESSONS North: Werner Lachs CLASSIFIED - £2.00 per five Clara Nehab House 0161 773 4091 words. (Leo BaecH Housing AsBociaton Ltd.) 13-19 Leeside Crescent NWII Nottingham: Bob Norton BOX NUMBERS - £3.00 extra. 01159 212 494 All rooms with Shov/erW.C.and *KARD & DISPLAY, SEARCH NOTICES Pinner: Sheryl Smookler H/C Basins en-suite per single column inch 0181 866 0185 Spacious Garden - Lounge & GAMES KLUB' 65 mm (3 column page) £12.00 S. London: Ken Ambrose Dining Room - Lift IS Cleve Road, NW6 48mm (4 column page) £10.00 0181 852 0262 Near Shops and Public Transport Surrey: Ernest Simon COPYDATE 5 weeks prior to If you are interested in learning 24 Hour Care - Physiotherapy 01737 643 900 publication Long & short Term - Respite Care • to play Bridge Trial Periods please contact: Enquiries: Josephine Woolf Sylvia, Renee or Susie AJR The AJR does not accept otto Schiff Housing Association The Bishops Avenue N2 OBG on 0171 328 0208 responsibility for the standard of Te/:0/7/-43/ 6161 service rendered by advertisers Phone:0181-2090022 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

show is particularly strong in Italian works, Landestheater Linz, and Erich Kastner's with masterpieces by Mantegna, Guercino childrens' play Emil und die Detektive at and Tintoretto. Among the Northern the Schauspielhaus, Hamburg. schools are four works by Rubens, includ­ Obituaries. The actress Kitty Mattern ing 'The Creation of Adam (after (wife of Siegfried Arno) an emigre from Michaelangelo).' In the adjacent gallery is a Vienna where, during the thirties, she ap­ fine exhibition of drawings and etchings by peared in cabaret, has died in the USA. the 17'"' century French landscape painter Hans Joachim Kuhlenkampff, who has died Claude Lorrain. in Germany at the age of 77, was one of British Sporting Heroes, at the Nat­ the first German television personalities, ional Portrait Gallery until January 24, is quizmasters and raconteurs. His death re­ devoted to Britain's greatest sporting calls that of another allround entertainer: heroes from the mid 18"' century to the the Jewish survivor Hans Rosenthal, whose pre.sent day. Some 250 paintings, drawings, quiz programme Dalli. dalli had made him prints .sculptures and photographs reflect one of the most popular figures on the national obsession with sport. Also German TV. Rosenthal died during the showing is a display of drawings by the eighties, mourned by many faithful celebrated caricaturist, Gerald Scarfe. viewers D At the Sternberg Centre is an exhibition of expressive woodcuts, dating mainly from the 1930s, by the Slovakian artist Relief fund Imro Weiner-Kral, depicting the people and towascape of Bratislava, including the The Axel Springer Foundation admini­ Jewish quarter. Until January 4. sters a fund for actors, singers, musicians, journalists and writers who n Barry Fealdman can no longer work on grounds of ill- The John Denham Gallery, 50 Mill Lane, London health. Would-be applicants are advi.sed NW6, are showing paintings, drawings and prints to contact Ernst Cramer, Axel Springer by Katerina Wilczynski until ISth December Stiftung, 10888 Berlin D Posen-born Wilczynski studied under Emil Orlik, was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome, came to England as a refugee and postwar spent much Lady Agnes, by John Singer Sargent, 1892, at the time in Greece. Her work is in many public Tate Gallery until 17January 1999. collections, including the National Portrait Gallery Annely Juda Fine Art andtheV&A. 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) O mark the centenary of the death Tel: 0171-629 7578 Fax:0171-491 2139 of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), the Victoria & Albert Museum ha.s CONTEMPORARY PAINTING T AND SCULPTURE mounted a notable exhibition of over 200 SB's Column drawing.s, prints, pesters and books created during his short, frenetic life. The show pera Problems. The Royal Opera explores the diverse influences that House is not the only one that shaped his own vision, including ancient Ohas to fight for its existence; even GERMAIN and Greek vase paintings, Japanese prints, in Germany where opera has high priority EI^GLISH BOOKS European old masters and the pre- among the arts and where over 40 cities Raphaelites. His exquisite black and white and towns .stage opera regularly, there are BOUGHT erotic drawings and prints reflect his financial constraints. Problems are also Antiquarian, secondhand and friendship with the so-called decadent increasing in Berlin where the three(!) modern books of quality artistic and literary figures of the day. The opera houses face ever-rising costs. always wanted. exhibition presents a splendid impre.s.sion A Jewish Odyssey. Anatol Regnier, We're long-standing advertisers of the fin de siecle epoch. Until January 10. chanson singer, lyric writer, composer (and here and leading buyers of books The V & A is al.so showing the work of grandson of Franz Wedekind) gave a read­ from A|R members. Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), the great ing in Munich. His book Damals in Immediate response to your letter decorative woodcarver, be.st known for his Bolechov, einejiidische Odyssee deals with or phone call. work for Sir Chri.stopher Wren at St Paul's the destruction of the century-old Jewish We pay good prices and Cathedral. Exhibits have been drawn from culture in Eastern Galicia. The event drew come to collect. all over the country to demonstrate Gib­ a large audience. Please contact: bons' remarkable style that creates an Remarkable Revivals. Current produc­ illusion of reality. Until January 24. Robert tlornung IVIA(Oxon) tions on German-speaking stages include 2 Mount View, Ealing, A major exhibition of old ma.ster drawings Menotti's opera The Consul (the struggle London W5 IPR Mantegna to Rubens, on loan from the of emigrants with inexorable officialdom) Telephone 0181-998 0546 Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, is on view at the Vienna Volk.soper, Zuckmayer's near (5pni to 9pni is best) until January 10 at the British Museum. The forgotten Der frohliche Weinberg at

II AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

ankh as the key which unlocks the Vishnu. Essentially it is a cross spinning at Perverted synnbol: mysteries of heaven and earth. Also it its centre with angles at the end of each combines the symbols of Osiris and of Isis, arm representing light streaming out as the the swastika and thus becomes a sign of immortality. cross turns. o symbol in any century has A connection is the Yang-Yin, a circle di­ In the fourth century BCE the son of a been more hated than the Nazi vided into equal parts by a sigmoid or cowherdsman in India had a dream. His vi­ N emblem of the swastika. Yet it was S-shaped line across the diameter, the sion was that humans should be kind to as a symbol of peace and friendship that it white section having a black spot in it and animals and he founded the Jain offshoot found its true form in Asia in the sixth- the black portion a white spot, implying of Buddhism. They are so fanatically veg­ century BCE. Its earliest manifestation was that there is always something masculine in etarian that on a recent visit to India I saw as fertility .symbols, as seen in a phallus the feminine and vice versa. The sigmoid Jains wearing pieces of muslin across their from the Indus civilisation and a female line implies rotation, like the swastika. mouth for fear of insects ingressing and be­ idol discovered in Troy from the third Pre-Christian bronze artefacts found in ing swallowed. millennium BCE. The Egyptian ankh or key the necropolis in Koban in the Caucasus I also saw several buildings, including of life which we would recognise as a show swastikas implying eternal life after Delhi's Lakshmi Narayan temple, the lar­ capital T surmounted by an oval, is also death. From there the symbol migrated to gest Hindu temple in India, with swastika viewed by some as the possible evolution India where it was particularly revered by decorations on their walls. of the swastika. The Egyptians see the the Jains, Buddhists and followers of DRO Leavor

FORTHCOMING EVENTS - DECEMBER 1998 University of Sussex Centre for German^ewish Ongoing: Coats of Many Colours: Prints, drawings & costumes Mc« 7 Germany's General Studies from around the world. Election: Dr Edgar Flacker, MeH" Library Jewish Museum, Camden Georgetown University. Club Town till Jan 99 43, 8pm For their new library, the Centre for German-Jewish Studies welcomes Kristallnacht Tue 8 What is the Berlin donations of books & manuscripts in Conunemoration: a small Republic? Charles Lees. English & German exhibition at the Jewish Sussex Liniversity, 5.15pm Mu.seum, Finchley till Jan 99 McMi 14 Music on record & reladng to the social, polidcal & cultural Tue 1 The Right Words in the refreshments: Club 43, history of German speaking Jewry. Right Order: Gabriel 8pm Materials concerning German/Austrian Josipovici, Su.ssex University, Thur 17 Music & Current Affairs Jewish refugees & commemorations of the 5.15pm Quiz: Walter Woyda, SLAJR. Shoah are also of interest. Phone 0181 852 0262 for Wed 2 Modem Jew as City For further information please contact: Dweller Par Excellence: details. David Groiser, Deputy Director, Seminar, University College Sun 20 Emperor String Quartet Centre for German-Jewish Studies, London, Room 2l6, Foster play Mozart, Beethoven & University of Sussex, Falmer, Court, 6pm, free admission Dvorak. Conway Hall, Brighton BNI 9QN Thur 3 Lunchtime Recital: Opera 6.30pm, M TehOI273 606 755 Gala, Verdi Puccini & Bizet. Sternberg Centre, 1.15pm, £2 ORGANISATION CONTACTS Tliur 3 Chanukah afternoon Club '43, at Belsize Square Synagogue. with Latkas & Donuts: Hans Seelig 01442 254 360 PRIVATE PROPERTY Pinner AJR, Pinner University of Sussex Centre for IJ\ POLAND Synagogue, 2pm German-Jewish Studies. David Sun 6 Schidlof String Quartet Groiser Tel/Fax: 01273 678 495 Act Now play Haydn, Shostakovitch & Jewish Museum, Camden Town, Beethoven, Conway Hall, 129/131 Albert Street, NWl 7NB. Tel: The Polish Government & 6.30pm, £4 0171 284 1997, and at Sternberg Centre Local Authorities are only now assuming Sun 6 London Archduke Trio Sternberg Centre for Jutlaism/ control of'abandoned' private property. By play Beethoven, Jewish Museum, Finchley, 80 East registering your entitlement you may save Mendelssohn & Lakner. End Road, N3 2SY. Tel: 0181 346 2288/ your family property. Sternberg Centre, 7.30pm, ±8 349 1143 For further information contact: Mon 7 Tel-Aviv, Marvel or Institute of Jewish Studies. Lectures: Michael Storfer FCA, PR Claims Monstrosity? Seminar, University College, Gower Street, WCl. Ltd, University College London, Tel: 0171 380 7171 19-21 Hatton Garden, Room 216, Foster Court, Pinner AJR, Pinner Synagogue, 1 Cecil LondonECINSBA 6pm, free admission Park, Middx. Tel: 0181 866 0185 or 4833 Tel: 0171 430 1581 Fax: 0171 404 5355

12 AjR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

i.e. less time than a single act of Gotter- Naked ddmmerung. SEARCH NOTICES he Pirandello play Naked recently Almost as mercifully brief was Michael Last Jews in Berlin. Channel 4 is re­ packed the Almeida Theatre in Frayn's Copenhagen. This turned out to be searching a documentary for its Secret TIslington. On leaving, some theatre­ less of a play than a dramatised lecture History series on Jews who survived the goers were heard to express surprise - or about quantum mechanics and the splitting war in Berlin. If you or someone you know possibly disappointment - that the perfor­ of the atom. Having 'left' school without stayed in Berlin or has any information, mers had kept their clothes on throughout. 'O' level Physics under my belt, I had little please contact the producer, Peter Kessler, They need be disappointed no longer. interest in, or motivation for, following the 24 Tredegar Square, Bow, London E3 5AG. Nudity figures prominently in two produc­ exchanges Frayn puts in the mouths of Tel: 0181 980 5461. tions currently playing in London: Antony Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg at their and Cleopatra by Shakespeare, and The mysterious wartime meeting in Occupied Granddaughter of Hedwig Oppen- Blue Room, which David Hare adapted Denmark. heim nee LIppmann, born Chemnitz from Schnitzler's Reigen (aka La Ronde). The only thing that seemed to filter 1879, lived in Stettin. Daughter Eva Moritz In the latter play the sight of Hollywood through the verbal fog generated on or Morris, who became English domestic, value-added female flesh caused veteran stage was this: the non-Nazi (but far from had a daughter who attended funeral of critics to go weak at the knees. They anti-Nazi) Heisenberg may, or may not, George Lippmann in 1973 in London. drooled into their laptops about Nicole have slowed down the German nuclear Being sought by family in USA. Please con­ Kidman's 'alabaster skin' and - pre­ programme - not for nothing is the Un­ tact Ken Sheridan, 19 Wordsworth Place, empting charges of sexism - praised Iain certainty principle named after him - London NWS 4HG. Glen's 'Chippendale pectorals'. In all this whereas Bohr definitely helped America steamy hoopla poor old Schnitzler was to­ to develop the atom bomb and to destroy Lance Skinner (Hayman) would like to tally forgotten. Entire Scandinavian forests Hiroshima. hear from any children who were in an were converted into newsprint to inform If Copenhagen left me floundering in orphanage together with him after the war us about Kidman's husband Tom Cruise, .somnolent incomprehension, Tom Stop- or any member of his natural family who their babysitting arrangements, their white pard's Invention of Love induced the may be searching for him. Please write to stretch timo, and similar trivia. I searched in Brecht-prescribed 'alienation effect' from AJR, Box 1250. vain for a single mention of Schnitzler's the very first line. This happened to be fraught encounters with the Habsburg cen­ 'belay the painter' and is surely all Greek Oskar Moravitz, born in Prague, taken sor, Catholic bigots and the early Nazi to any ordinary mortal unversed in the to Theresienstadt 30.1 1.41 then to Riga rowdies who threw stinkbombs during per­ arcane Oxbridge vocabulary of punting. 9.1.42 where he was last heard of working formances of Der Reigen; everything of (Punting, I notice, also features on the as a barber. His niece would like to hear cultural-historical interest was drowned out po.ster advertising the play.) from anyone who knew him or may recall his last days. Please write to Valerie Javeri, 8 by raunchy hype. From punting Stoppard modulated to a Rutland House, Stratton Close, Edgware, Meanwhile the pre-run publicity for pastiche of Three Mem in a Boat, and a Middx.Tel:OI8l 952 3503. Antony and Cleopatra conveyed heavy turgid debate about art and .scholarship lie- hints that Helen Mirren would similarly re­ tween the bearded Victorian worthies Peter Langford (Laufer) would like to veal all, thereby arousing expectations Ruskin and Walter Pater. He then expati­ hear from any of the Jewish refugee chil­ which could not possibly have entered the ated on AE Housman's passion for textual dren who lived in a hostel in Linslade (near play's creator's mind. In the event, bare criticism of Latin texts and his nostalgia for Leighton Buzzard) called 'The Laundry', in bosoms enhanced Bard appeal and the Shrop.shire and its lads. 1939/40.Their names were: Ernst Caspari, entire run was sold out even before the Sheer yawn-including, not to say jaw- Bernhard Goldmann, Franz Oppenheimer, first night. dislocating, tosh - and this from the Bruno Berger, Wolfgang Zernik, Hannah The above-mentioned plays are literal in- playwright who gave us the manifold Hirsch and Marion Frischauer. Please con­ the-buff productions, but on the London delights of Arcadia, just as a younger tact him at 75 Quickswood, London NW3 stage one can currently also glimp.se a Michael Frayn made us split our sides over 3RTTel:OI7l 722 1200. form of metaphorical nakedness summed Noises Off up in the phrase 'the Emperor's new Thus do two disrobed Emperors strut Berta Heyman, nee Stern, and Jean clothes'. their stuff in invisible new clothes, while Heyman. Last heard of at Terezin in 1945 My heavy-duty theatregoing during the at other packed-out theatrical venues after liberation. Anyone recalling having 1997/98 sea.son has been considerably Kidman, Glen and Mirren got their kit off. met them, or what happened to them, eased by the purchase of a wristwatch with Cromwell, thou should.st be living at this please contact their daughter on (0044+) a luminous dial. Since every theatre pro­ hour! Send the Roundheads down Shaftes­ 0171 722 7582 0 gramme nowadays lists a play's running bury Avenue!! D RG time, a quick glance at this watch enables me to compute the length of the longueurs to be endured before the final curtain. Robert's memorial .set up his Hatton Garden company in 1948. In this connection muchas gracias, David Gem-cutting expert and AJR member Mamet! Mamet's Old Neighbourhood, an Robert Acker-Holt presented the Queen Chairman from Germany opaque brain-teaser about a dysfunctional with a silver-gilt model of Kensington Gar­ Ignatz Bubis, leader of German Jewry, was family of Chicago Jews wallowing in dens' newly restored Albert Memorial. He elected chairman of the European Jewish Weltschmerz, lasted only eighty minutes. arrived in Britain from Austria in 1939 and Congress at its meeting in London.

13 :^iT=5a5KlS^;BCT5«3W5raB AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER /998

Cooking with Gretel Beer seasoned flour 7 fl oz (200ml) strong lager Hilary's Care Agency 1 bay leaf 4 slices lemon HIGH QUALITY HOMECARE 4 tablespoons fresh white breadcrumbs FORTHE ELDERLY AND DISABLED Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 (350°F, ^CARERS * COMPANIONS 160°C). Butter a deep gratin dish, large y^ HOUSEKEEPERS enough to take the four fillets side by side. Tir DOA1EST/CS Melt a tablespoon of the butter and soften Flexible service tailored to your needs the onion rings in this. Cover the base of Daily & Live-in - 1-24 hours - 7 days a week the gratin dish with the onion rings and COVER/NG NORTH

14 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

'think-tank' capable of producing innova­ Refugee contribution Anticipating British tive and practical ideas and policies, to benefit the entire Jewish community. - an introduction Jewry's future DRDC t a meeting of the Leo Baeck Lodge, ewish Policy Research has launched a Dr Ulrike Walton-Jordan, recently four-year research project aimed at pro­ Aappointed to Sussex University's ducing a long-term strategy mapping the Centre for German-Jewish Studies under Jprogress of British Jewry in the twenty-first Terezin requiem Profes.sor Edward Timms, gave a prelimi­ century. n 10 October the Wigmore Hall nary analysis of her planned researches The UK's Jewish voluntary sector con­ witnes.sed the London premiere into the contribution that was made by stitutes more than 2,000 agencies serving Oof Sylvie Bodorava's Terezin German-speaking refugees to British culture some 300,000 people. These include syna­ Requiem in a superb and deeply moving and public life, a contribution of which the gogues, educational institutions, youth performance by the baritone ChrLstopher British people were, on the whole, unaware. movements, membership associations, Maltman and the Skampa Quartet. It is a Most literature on the subject, .said Dr charities, and social welfare agencies of remarkable work by a young Czech Walton-Jordan, was not comprehensive, which the AJR is a leading provider. composer commissioned by the Warwick having dealt with 'niches' such as politi­ As a first step, the project is to examine Arts Foundation and inspired by the twenty cians and musicians. Her analysis would the Jewish voluntary sector's financial re­ performances of Verdi's Requiem which extend chronologically from 1933 to the sources and sources of income, and then took place in the Terezin Ghetto during 1950s and include organisations which make valid comparisons with the entire UK 1943 and 1944. Jewish and Catholic brought refugees together then, and those charitable sector. Further analyses will re­ religious texts are juxtaposed to represent that .still do. search human resources (both salaried and the two cultures. By way of example, she chose to discuss voluntary), the governance of voluntary or­ It opens thunderou.sly with a Lacrymosa the lawyer, Ern.st Kohn, who brought his ganisations, community activities, .services to the words Shema Yisrael adosbem elo- skills to the service of the German-Jewish and delivery systems. Most importantly, keinu... (Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our and the wider community; the violinist, the project will explore trends in the de­ God...); continues with the Latin words of Marianne Liebke, who having .studied under mography and social characteristics of the the Dies irae, and concludes with a mixed Max Rostal in Berlin, played and broadcast country's Jewish population. Hebrew and Latin Libera me. Sylvie widely in the UK; the author, Hermynia zur Professor Barry Kosmin, JPR's Director of Bodorova is a composer of whose music Mijhlen; and the half-Jewish arti-st, Oskar Research, explained that the project origi­ we .shall hear a great deal more, and the Kokoschka, who arrived from Prague, im­ nated out of the organisation's seminar on choice of Maltman's powerful, yet in- bued himself with English language and the future of the Jewish voluntary sector ten.sely lyrical baritone was ideal for this culture, then went on to explore humani­ and was a direct respon.se to the themes eminently approachable work which tarian Lssues. Members of the audience, in and issues raised by the participants. makes a nonsen.se of the widespread belief recalling their own experiences, contrib­ This enterprise, the like of which has that serious contemporary music must al­ uted to a lively and informative discu.ssion. never before been attempted in British ways be obscure. Diu:>c Jewry, utilises JPR's role as a community n Waker Elkan

our house in Yemin Moshe to the car park. letters - Fat, Resh, Dated, Vav Vav Reisb ThVwIIss Lngg A .stubble-chinned Israeli with a large Mem Samach", i.e. Frd Wrms. I unlocked am continuously amazed at how the bunch of artistically wrapped flowers the gate as a token of ownership identifi­ Israelis manage to read and write the .stopped me. "Ata gar poF' (Do you live cation. He gave me the flowers and I equivalent of a vowelless language. here?) I as.sured him that I did. "/Ini pointed triumphantly to the vowel-less Unaccustomed as I am, in German, French mevakesh Rcbov Tura 39". I said that this Hebrew name. "Ani ainarti lecha- Farad and English, to dispen.se with these vital was actually my address. He then told me Vermef. There it was in writing, black on five components of the alphabet, I am that the flowers (according to the Hebrew gilt - my name was Farad Vermes accor­ prepared to put up with con.sonants only lettering of the address) were for Family ding to his interpretation. No vowels, no in the Torah, but in books and Farad Vermes. I asked him to hand the certainty. newspapers!? flowers to me, since I was indeed Fred I was reminded of the Frenchman who You have to develop a sixth .sen.se and Worms in person. "Haim lo bisbvilcba, .struggled with the illogical differences in look at the context and grammar of the haim le Farad Vermef (They are not for the pronunciation of English words of simi­ paragraph to make sen.se of the sentence. you. They are for Farad Vermes). lar spelling. Door v poor; Slough v enough; Let us take a simple three-word example: I realised that I could not convince him though V rough etc. "Uncle David's boiler" literally transcribed of my double identity but thought that see­ When he arrived at Victoria station and "Hadud Shell Dod David' but spelled "Hdd ing was believing. " Vayeilchu sbneihem saw a large poster referring to the musical Shi Dd Dvd". How come my grandchildren yachdad' ...and ju.st like Abraham and Isaac, "Chicago - pronounced Success" he shot under eight, the computer experts, can de­ we walked together to the gate of our himself. cipher this in.standy? house. There is a small in.scription on the In Israel you have to gm (groan, grin) Alas, it does not always work. The other letter box in Hebrew and in English... and br it. day I climbed up the stairs leading from "Delia & Fred Worms followed by Hebrew D Fred S Worms

IS AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1998

expertise in the development of the NEWSROUND The great facilitator machinery, but his real achievement was of getting the best out of his team. This Speak no evil he work of Max Newman was resulted in the development of the Colos­ Historian Richard Breitman has published admired in a recent visit by the sus', which was used on a cipher machine evidence in his book Official Secrets that TAssociation of Jewish Ex-Berliners to known as 'Tunny', employed mainly by from July 1941 the British concealed their Bletchley Park (September issue). In addi­ the German Army to communicate be­ knowledge of German massacres of Jews tion to his work on deciphering German tween Hitler and his High Command. The gleaned from secret radio interceptions codes during World War II, Newman was a growing number of messages were de­ decoded at Bletchley Park. Mass killings on distinguished mathematician who greatly ciphered with so little delay that they the Eastern front were known by influenced the subject's postwar develop­ could be acted upon immediately. The September 1941 and that Hitier was intent ment in Britain. information gathered enabled Churchill and on genocide by January 1942. Britain and Max Newman, ne Neumann, was bom in Eisenhower to gain accurate infonnation on the USA eventually issued a joint statement London in 1897 where his grandfather, German Army movements during the last in December 1942. from Bromberg, Jacob Salomon Neumann, twelve months of the war and it is likely had settled in the 1880s. Max went to that the war was shortened significantly as Spielberg Foundation for Berlin? school in Dulwich and later to the City of a result. German press reports that the Survivors of In 1945 Newman took up an appoint­ the Shoah Visual History Foundation, ment at the University of Manchester established by Schindler's List film where, for nearly 20 years, he worked with producer Steven Spielberg, may be invited Sydney Goldstein, professor of Applied to establish a branch of this educational Mathematics, and his successor James organisation in Berlin, possibly occupying Lighthill. The staff included many of his the site previously designated for a former Bletchley colleagues, as well as a Holocau.st memorial. substantial number of refugees from Ger­ Nobel prizewinner many. Of the latter not all were Jewish; Vienna-born Prof Walter Kohn of the they included GEH (Harry) Reuter, the son University of California is the joint winner of of Ernst Reuter who became Mayor of this year's Nobel prize for chemi.stry. Both West Beriin in 1948. his parents died in Auschwitz and he was The development of computers in this interned on the Isle of Man and in Canada. country took place mainly at the National Physical Laboratory, also in Manchester, and Proof of connplicity later in Cambridge. This was largely due Documents itemising the sale of the to Newman's actions in appointing staff expropriated possessions of Cologne Jews (such as Alan Turing in 1948) and obtain­ in the 1940s, the existence of which has ing funds. At the same time he continued been denied by officialdom, have been his mathematical research and helped to revealed by the researches of Prof initiate the annual Briti.sh Mathematical Col­ Wolfgang Dre.ssen. Similar files, believed to Max Neivman loquium which now forms an important be held in embargo for another 70 years in London School. After war service he went part of the mathematical scene. all parts of Germany, demonstrate the up to Cambridge, being elected a Fellow Newman died in 1984. general population's awareness of the theft of St John's College in 1923. His research D Prof Paul M Cohn of property and the removal of all rights was in topology, a branch of mathematics The audior is indebted to Sandy Green, Peter from Gemian Jews. sometimes called rubber-sheet geometry', Hilton and especially to Max Newman's younger in which he pioneered new methods. Assisting Mengele son.William, for their help. Dr Hans Muench, 87, who arrived at Ausch­ In 1942, the year he wrote a paper witz in 1943 the .same day as Jo.seph which came to play an important role in Mengele, is under investigation by the theoretical computer science, he was re­ Bavarian authorities. Muench, who assisted cruited to do secret work at Bletchley Park. 50 YEARS AGO in Mengele's inhuman experiments, is Besides the famous Enigma machine used for enciphering messages, the Germans quoted as regarding the gas chambers as EX-SERVICEMEN'S PARADE "humanitarian" and still admires his mentor. had developed another highgrade crypto­ graphic system, part of a group collectively The Annual Parade of Jewish ex-servicemen and Czech forum known as 'Fish'. Messages from these women was an impressive spectacle. Fifteen thousand marched past the Cenotaph after the A number of eminent Jewish political, machines were first intercepted in 1941, Chief Rabbi, assisted by the newly appointed academic and religious figures participated but the deciphering of Fish messages was Senior Jewish Chaplain to the Forces, Rev. I. Levy, very slow on account of the vast number had conducted the service and Admiral of the in a Prague conference at the invitation of Fleet, Viscount Cunningham, had taken the salute. President Vaclav Havel, among them Israel of possibilities that had to be examined. At a reunion in the Albert Hall, the Minister of Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau, Henry Kissinger Newman realized that the search process Defence, Mr A.V. Alexander, recalled the great services Jews had rendered to the cause of and Rabbi Dr Albert Friedlander of Leo had to be mechanized, and a group called freedom throughout the ages. Baeck College. the 'Newmanry' was set up for this AJR Information, December 1948 DRDC purpose. Newman used his mathematical

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