AJR urmution Volume LVNo.12 December 2000 £3 (to non-members)

Don't miss... Scientist refugees p4 Multicultural Britain Israel under fire pl4 The Judenplatz Two words - each capable of stirring up a separate cor)troversy. memorial pl6 n recent weeks two news items have cast a emigrating from one's homeland involves a readi­ revealing light on the problems that beset the ness to leave 'home-grown" values behind, and fit Obscene echo I evolution of a multicultural society in Britain. The into a pre-established, different way of life. When ^ ^^ ich Jews first related to a Gallup poll showing a widespread our 'founding fathers' created AJR Information it largely belief that ethnic immigrants and asylum seekers didn't even cross their minds to make it a German R control the have been flooding into the country at such a language publication. We readily adopted the cus­ US media' writes prodigious rate that they now constitute a quarter of tom of 'trick or treat' and 'a penny for the guy' - Jemima Khan (nee Goldsmith) all inhabitants. The true figure is around six per cent especially since Guy Fawkes put us in mind of van in The Guardian. of the population, although it may well be true that der Lubbe, the arsonist in the Reichstag. She adds 'Jews in London - which is atypical - every fourth resident Admittedly, the Empire builders who set out to form over half of hails from outside the United Kingdom. The widely paint large parts of the globe pink were not driven Clinton's policy believed inflated figure feeds the paranoid delusion by the ambition to replicate the parliament that had advisers, preventing that the native Brits are about to be swamped and been saved from the Gunpowder Plot in all the the US from acting that the country will lose its traditional identity. Such capitals where the Union Jack flew. Even so, by the as an honest broker a Doomsday scenario does not merely start out from end of the Raj, Westminster-style parliaments were in the Middle East'. the premise of a hugely exaggerated alien presence; to be found in places as far apart as Delhi, Accra, Why is Jemima's it also leaves out of account the effect prolonged Lagos and Nairobi. This transformation owed a lot to voice listened to in residence in this country will have on the figures like Gandhi and Kenyatta - but also to such the first place? immigrants' lifestyle in terms of more intermarriage, exemplary British personalities as Gladstone, Annie Precisely because her daddy's dosh smaller families, etc. Besant, Arthur Creech-Jones and Fenner Brockway. gave him influence. Fears about the perceived loss of British identity Descendants of former colonial subjects are there­ Which other rich are a different matter. Here, the old adage 'if it ain't fore hardly justified in looking upon the term man ever bought broke don't fix it' seems to apply. Unlike their US British' as a barrier to identification with their new himself a brand counterparts, black British athletes have never country of domicile D new political party jibbed at wrapping themselves in the at a whim? This national flag at Olympic award entity, the UK ceremonies. Indian cuisine and Afro- Independence Party, Caribbean music have made major became notorious in 1997 for election contributions to contemporary Brit­ rally calls to castrate ish life. Although these exotic Edward Heath (who components have been quite had taken us into smoothly subsumed into the concept Europe). of 'Britishness', the Runnymede Trust Jemima's (composed of home-grown Liberals comments on US and ethnic spokespersons) has politics exude a lately advocated dropping the term similar whiff of British' as redolent of the days of obscenity. Her the Raj. The Trust's report warns that words replicate the retention of the word with its exactly those of Imperial connotations could present Goebbels in 1940 when he explained an obstacle to the identification of why America was coloured immigrants with their new veering away from country. neutrality towards This 'project', however well-inten­ Discussing the future of multi-ethnic Britain. From left: Antony Lerman, a pro-Allied tioned, strikes one as fundamentally former /PR Director, Sarah Spencer from the IPPR and Lord Parekh who chaired the committee which produced the Runnymede Trust's report. stance D ill-conceived. The very act of AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

Der erste Zug nach Profile

Berlin arrives at last! Heath, Shropshire and finally - for six abriele Tergit (1894-1982) emi­ Charles Peter Carter months - on the Isle of Man. When re­ grated with her husband, the nintentional prophecy on the part cruiting officers came round the camp in G architect Heinrich Julius Reifen- of his father meant that Peter January 1941, he volunteered for the berg, from Berlin via Czechoslovakia UCarter took English lessons from Pioneer Corps. He transferred to the (1933) and Tel Aviv (1935) to London the age of six with an Englishwoman who Royal Armoured Corps in 1943 and parti­ (1938). She was a near-founder member happened to live in Vienna and without cipated in the Normandy campaign. The of Club 1943 and Secretary of the PEN- whose intervention he might not have end of the war saw him posted on the Centre German Speaking Writers Abroad been able to leave Austria in 1938. To Danish-German border near the Kiel (1957-81). begin at the beginning: Canal. Throughout his war service, Peter's Jens Bruning, a writer and journalist Charles Peter Carter was born in postings were influenced by his linguis­ from Berlin, has re-edited Tergit's writings Vienna, an only child of middle-class tic abilities; the position was no different as well as unearthing some of her hith­ parents, in 1921. Until at the war's end when erto unpublished works and has the age of fourteen, he his commanding officer previously presented her works at Club attended the Stubenbastei appointed him Adminis­ 1943: his 1996 edition of her experiences Gymnasium (popularly trator for Civilian Affairs in pre-war Palestine Im Schnellzug nach known as "RGI") but, at for the town of Iztehoe Haifa and of her highly praised and often his request, transferred and the surrounding bitingly witty law court reports from the to the Handelsakademie district until his discharge 1920s Wer schiesst aus Liebe (1999). In which he attended until in December 1945- I" October he presented his latest publica­ he left Vienna in July this capacity, he was in tion, the novella Der erste Zug nach 1938. What prompted charge of all administra­ Berlin. Maud, a somewhat naive, spoilt his departure was being tion, a baptism of fire for and inexperienced upper-class young thrown down the stairs a 23-year-old. He re­ American woman, travels with a group of at school a week after members one occasion journalists to Berlin immediately after the Anschluss when be­ when he was required to WW2, and encounters a confusion of po­ ing a Jew in Vienna give formal permission, litical and social attitudes, often reflecting meant, among other to a Yugoslav in a nearby past prejudices and an unwillingness to things, experiencing the Charles Peter c labour camp, to marry- learn from recent experience. The book transformation of people's attitudes from His 'reward' was an invitation to a noisy overflows with characteristically acute friendliness to hostility. With an uncle and 'boozy' wedding and an offer to ex­ and often sharply witty observations. It and aunt in Swiss Cottage who acted as ercise droit de seigneur with the bride. may not be a literary masterpiece, but it is guarantors, a visa was duly applied for Faced with this tricky development, he a worthy and enjoyable testimony to its and granted. Collecting the visa was an decided his only option was, without de­ author and age. altogether different matter as it meant lay, to make good his escape. Gabriele Tergit was a prolific and highly running the gauntlet of Nazi thugs sur­ In December 1946, Peter married Irene, valued contributor to AJR Information. A rounding the British Embassy, achieved a Viennese refugee whom he first met at selection from these essays would cer­ with the assistance of Peter's English tutor a Viennese skating rink in 1935 when she tainly deserve the attention of Mr who fended off aggressive taunts by re­ literally bumped into him. Sadly, she died Briining's meticulous and praiseworthy plying that she was English and Peter was nine years ago. They adopted their son efforts. her nephew! when he was a year old. n Hans Seelig After a few weeks living with his aunt After a series of jobs on his discharge and uncle in Swiss Cottage, Peter soon from the army, Peter applied to the Cen­ made himself independent, visiting tral Office of Information's exhibition AJR Information Personnel Woburn House through whose offices he division where he worked for 27 years in' Richard Grunberger Editor-in-Chief found work as a trainee exhibition de­ terrupted by a six-year stint at the Natural Ronald Clianning Executive Editor signer, a job which appealed to him History Museum from 1964. The Insect Marion Koebner Staff Reponer because of his love of art and drawing. Gallery, unchanged since the mid 1960s, Andrea Goodmaker On the outbreak of war, he was laid off is his handiwork. Prior to his retirement, Departmental Secretary & Advertising Co-ordinator and found work in a distant relation's toy he was in charge of project and design Gloria Tessler Arts Correspondent factory painting dolls' faces. His mother assistance to prison governors and chie*

Dr Anthony Grenvllle Historical Researcher was able to reach London in September constables. 1938 as a domestic but his father only Since his retirement in 1983, Peter's Katia Gould Editorial Adviser managed to leave Austria illegally by hobbies have been the study of philoso­ Gerta Regensburger & Lionel Simmonds crossing into Switzerland via Basle. (He phy and playing social bridge. He also Proof Readers finally reached England in 1943 via still skis. He admits to being ^ A)l Information, I Hampsteid Gate, la Frognal, London NW3 iAL France, Spain and Portugal). technophobe and does all his writing o'^ 1(1:020 7431 6161 'Fax: 020 7431 84S4 (-mail: (n<|uiri(s@ ajr.org.uk Peter was interned in the summer of an 'old-fashioned typewriter'! 1940, first in Kempton Park, then in Frees D Marion Koebner AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

noblest race perishes). Children's crusades A key point about Nazism was that it projected itself as a movement of the NEWTONS nhabitants of medieval Europe were young. The brownshirted Hitler - forty- Leading Hampstead Solicitors accustomed to seeing vast throngs of four when appointed Chancellor - cut a I people move across the countryside. much more youthful figure than his 22 Fiajohn's Avenue, By and large these tended to be pilgrims Weimar predecessors in their stiff collars, London NW3 SNB bound for Canterbury or Santiago de starched shirt-fronts and tails. In the Compostella. Very intermittently they China of Mao's cultural revolution, the "^ All English legal work were Crusaders heading towards Pales­ conflict between generations took on a undertaken and German, tine. In the year 1212 religious fervour more convoluted form. The 'supreme Swiss & Austrian claims produced a strange hybrid halfway helmsman' acted out the role of the "k German spoken between a crusade and a pilgrimage. malign grandfather who incited the This was the Children's Crusade in rising generation to revolt against their "k Home visits arranged which fifty thousand hymn-singing fathers (i.e. the bureaucrats). When stu­ Tel: 020 7435 5351 children set off from Northern Europe for dents, instead of pursuing knowledge, Fax: 020 7435 8881 the Holy Land. They were never seen literally pursued their teachers, academic again: the fortunate ones who survived standards inevitably plummeted and this the rigours of the journey got sold into had deleterious consequences for the slavery once they reached the Medi­ country as a whole. terranean coast. This was the first Right now, though, the most blatant PARTNER recorded instance in history of masses of manipulation of the impressionable in long established English Solicitors children being used in the service of a young occurs daily in the West Bank and (bi-lingual German) would be happy particular ideology. Gaza. The PLO has set in motion a chil­ to assist clients with English, German The phenomenon was sufficiendy unu­ dren's crusade in which twelve-year-olds and Austrian problems. Contact sual not to recur till the mid-twentieth get themselves killed to provide emotive century - when, however, it became footage for worldwide transmission by Henry Ebner almost commonplace. In 1944/45 the Na­ the media. Their deaths - on camera - zis conscripted thousands of schoolboys not only provide attention-grabbing foot­ Myers Ebner & Deaner into the Volkssturm, the auxiliary units age for NBC, CNN and the BBC, but also 103 Shepherds Bush Road mustered to beef up the depleted Wehr- invaluable publicity for the would-be in­ London W6 7LP macht. By the time of their call-up these stigators of all-out war against Israel. Is it Telephone 020 7602 4631 fourteen-year-olds, having undergone not time that UNESCO reminded the Pal­ ALL LEGAL WORK lengthy brainwashing in the Hider Youth, estinian Authority of the conventional UNDERTAKEN were quite disposed to throw their lives wisdom that in lesson time school chil­ away for the Fiihrer. The self-sacrificial dren should be in the classroom and not mindset engendered among Hitler Youths a battle zone? As the toll of under-age was neatly encapsulated in this verse: Wir Palestinian martyrs continues to mount it steigen auf zu Kampfgewittern/ Der seems that Yasser Arafat is about to add Heldentod ist unser Recht/ Der Erdball soil another title to the whole string - Chair­ AUSTRIAN and GERMAN im Kern erzittern/ Wenn fdllt sein edelstes man, commander-in-chief, 'Father of the PENSIONS Geschlecht. (We ascend to storms of Struggle' etc. - he already has; the new ti­ battle/ A hero's death is our right/ The tle will be Kindertoten leader. earth will be shaken to its core/ When its URG PROPERTY RESTITUTION CLAIMS EAST GERMANY- BERLIN NEWS EXTRA On instructions our office will assist to deal with your Wagner premiere French honour applications and pursue the The first scheduled performance in Israel Serge Klarsfeld, French Nazi hunter, matter with the authorities. of Wagner's music took place after an lawyer and Holocaust writer, has been Unsuccessful application by Holocaust honoured by President Chirac with the For further information and survivors failed to persuade a judge to rank of Officer in the Legion of Honour. appointment please intervene. contact: Contentious bishop ICS CLAIMS Slovak Bishop Jan Vojtassak, who agreed LOOK OUT FOR 146-154 Kilburn High Road to the deportation of his country's Jews London NW6 4JD during World War II, has been proposed NEXT MONTH'S NEW for beatification by the Pope. Research Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) carried out by Israeli historians led to 'AJR JOURNAL' Fax: 020 7624 5002 their protesting against the nomination. AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

by what was happening in Germany, Reviews joined with other leading British figures Hindsight and warning to set up an Academic Assistance Council Karl Otten, DIE REISE NACH DEUTSCHLAND, (AAC) as early as May 1933, to fund (ed )Richard Dove, Peter Lang AG, Bertie, 2000. Scientist refugees displaced scientists and find them work in scientific institutions. To ensure that their arl Otten, who was born in the Jean Medawar & David Pyke, HITLER'S GIFT: appeal would not look like a Jewish Rhineland in 1889, spent twenty- SCIENTISTS WHO FLED NAZI GERMANY, crusade they sensibly decided that none two years in exile in Britain from Richard Cohen Books, London, 2000. K of the officers should be of Jewish origin. 1936, dying in Locarno in 1963, is one of efore Hitler, Germany was the In its first three years the AAC helped that highly talented generation of foremost scientific nation in the 1,300 displaced university teachers. An­ Expressionist writers whose achievements Bwodd. Of the 100 Nobel Prizes other British rescuer was Professor were swept from public consciousness by awarded up to 1932, 33 were given to Frederick Lindemann of Oxford who, twelve years of Nazi rule. In the 1950s he Germans or scientists working in with money from ICI, recruited several distinguished himself with two Germany (18 to Britain, 6 to USA). About bright young German Jewish physicists anthologies, Ahnung und Aufbruch a quarter of the German laureates were of who then transformed the Oxford (Expressionist prose) and Schrei und Jewish descent, although Jews made up Clarendon Laboratory into a leading re­ Bekenntnis (Expressionist drama)- only 1% of the German population. In the search centre. In America, the Rockefeller Professor Dove is to be congratulated for following 27 years (1933-1960), Germany Foundation set up a special fund for their rescuing this previously unpublished anti- won only eight. Britain, however, won 21 universities to support academic refugees. Nazi novel from oblivion. It depicts the of which seven were to scientists driven As the Director of the New York Institute experiences of a young Englishman, out by the Nazis. America then became of Fine Arts said: "Hitler... shakes the tree James Taylor, during a stay with the the leading scientific country, bolstered and I collect the apples". The book Eilershoven family in Cologne in 1938, by 15 European Nobel Prize-winning concentrates on those who fled to Britain and is designed to warn British readers refugees who made it their final and USA but there are no accounts of about the warlike nature of Hitler's destination. Just as important were the scientists who found refuge in the south­ regime. Though this was more than many younger refugee scientists who ern hemisphere. timely in 1938, the outbreak of war the subsequently occupied senior posts Later chapters vividly describe the following year caused events to run throughout the world. internment (often only temporary) of ahead of the novel, and Otten's pub­ Jean Medawar, the widow of Nobel many refugees in 1940 when France was lishers lost interest. laureate Sir Peter Medawar, and David being overrun, with a personal account Through the eyes of Otten's rather Pyke, a Fellow of the Royal College of by Dr Max Perutz (August Science naive and impressionable visitor to Physicians, list these facts and then Notebook). Another chapter deals with Germany, the reader is confronted with present a fascinating and extremely read­ the dilemmas of notable non-Jewish the systematic militarisation of German able account of what happened to Jewish scientists like Max Planck about staying in society and the indoctrination of the academic scientists in Germany after Nazi Germany, and the curious case of younger generation of Germans with the Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January the Jewish physiologist Otto Warburg brutality and immorality of Nazism. The 1933. Only ten weeks later, by a law of 7 whom the Nazis left alone to continue humane and civilised values of the older April, most Jews were dismissed from his researches in Berlin. Finally, the generation, as represented by Professor state institutions which included all the authors relate the crucial contributions Eilershoven, are treated with contempt German universities. The speed and in­ made by refugee scientists from Ger­ by his daughter Sybil, intoxicated with tensity of the Nazi anti-Jewish measures many, Hungary and elsewhere to atomic her pseudo-revolutionary 'new ideals'- took everyone by surprise; within the first energy research and their concern that Inevitably, James and Sybil fall in love, year, some 2,600 scientists and scholars the Allies should produce (but not use) simultaneously discovering the ugly truth left the country. At Gottingen University, an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany about the Nazi regime: James is himself for example, out of 33 staff in the four did (see the play Copenhagen still run­ imprisoned, though later released. He physics and mathematics institutes, only ning in London). returns to England convinced that evil i* eleven remained. Inferior Nazi-supporting Hitler's fanatical persecution of Jewish rampant in Germany and must soon be academics were only too eager to fill the scientists and scholars unintentionally unleashed on an unsuspecting Europe. ^^ gaps. This scenario was repeated even bestowed enormous talents on the rest an introductory chapter, added in 1941' more rapidly in Austria after the of the world while depriving Germany he is shot down as an RAF pilot during ^ Anschluss in March 1938. itself of great expertise which con­ raid on Cologne; he dies fighting what he The book describes in graphic detail tributed to its losing the war. This knows must be fought. the plight, the hurried agonising deci­ thoughtful, timely and well-documented The value of the novel for the modern sions, the survival and subsequent book brings to life many of the human reader is to some extent historical, evi' fortunes of some forty scientists who dramas involved and adds considerably dence of the attempts by the refugees were affected, including many eminent to our knowledge of those momentous from Hitler to impress the truth abou^ figures (such as Einstein) and others times. There is a lovely bilingual irony in Germany on the reluctant British. Di^ known and interviewed by the authors. It the book's title: to the English, "gift" Reise nach Deutschland is a journey int^' was Britain which led the rescue efforts. means a present but to Germans "gift" the past which should itself not be ar Sir William Beveridge, then Director of means poison. lowed to relapse into neglect. the London School of Economics, appalled n Prof Michael Spiro D Dr Anthony Grenvill^ AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

Kinder story retold Into the Arms of Strangers to be poignant and moving, but that it glossed over the GERMAIN and INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS, Warner Bros depth of animosity shown towards Jewish El^GLISH BOOKS Pirtures, Odeon Leicester Square and seleaed families by the Germans, "ninety percent cinemas. of whom were Nazis, and whose normal BOUGHT greeting was Heil Hitler", he recalled. nto the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Hermann Hirschberger, who unequi­ Antiquarian, secondhand and Kindertransport is an American-made vocally thanked England for having saved modern books of quality I film documentary recalling the his life, praised the film for being always wanted. remarkable rescue in 1938 and 1939 of "comprehensive and well done," and for We're long-standing advertisers 10,000 children from almost certain recounting both the good and the bad here and leading buyers of books murder by the Nazis, and the operation's experiences of the Kinder in their new­ from AJR members. dramatic impact on the lives of the found homeland. children who were saved by being found D Ronald Channing We pay good prices and refuge in Britain. come to collect. The narrative is related in the words of For immediate response child survivors, rescuers, parents and Subversive farce please contact: foster parents, who tell of the dedicated Robert Hornung MA(Oxon) people who brought the children to our Noel Coward, FALLEN ANGELS, Apollo Theatre 2 Mount View, Ealing, shores, and of the astonishing fortitude fter fifteen years of marriage, now London W5 IPR and courage of the children themselves lacking in romance and passion, Email: hornungbooks(2)aol.com who left their parents behind them, in Awhich one of us could be tempted Telephone 020 8998 0346 most cases never to be reunited. if the love of our youth returned and (Spm to 9pm is best) Producer and moving spirit behind the asked to see us? This is what happens to film, Deborah Oppenheimer, though Felicity Kendal and Frances de la Tour, aware that her own mother was a Kind, playing two married women in their 40s, knew little detail of her flight, so she intimate friends who live in each other's undertook a vast amount of research to pockets, the Fallen Angels who believe uncover her mother's experiences. "My that the best way to overcome temptation mother was of a generation in which you is to succumb to it. didn't air your problems; you kept your The women are unwittingly aided and suffering private," said Oppenheimer. An abetted in their plot by their smug hus­ outstanding creative team also included bands who prefer games on the golf BELSIZE award-winning writer and director Mark course to those in the bedroom; the Jonathan Harris, narration by celebrated scene with the two wives getting drunk SQUARE actress Dame Judi Dench, and the splen­ on champagne while waiting for their SYNAGOGUE did soundtrack music composed by Lee mutual paramour's arrival, is a triumph of 51 Belsize Square, NWS 4HX Holdridge and many other skilled film­ slapstick farce on one level and, on an­ makers. other, a razor-sharp examination of the We offer a traditional style Featuring among the key witnesses is marital relationships of Mayfair's 'smart of religious service with Cantor, Choir and organ Bertha Leverton, who had conceived and set', people so bored with their lives that organised reunions of the Kinder in 1989 they have to quarrel over nothing to enli­ Further detfdls can be obtained and 1999 and is co-author of a collection ven them. from the S3magogue secretary Telephone 020 7794 3949 of Kinder stories entitled / Came Alone. The play was nearly refused a licence Benha was the eldest of three children of in the 1920s; it was feared that the audi­ Minister: Rabbi Rodney J Mariner a Polish-German family from Munich. After ence would be offended by "the women's Cantor: Rev Lawrence H Fine arriving in England and celebrating her obvious willingness to go wrong". The Regular Services: sixteenth birthday at Dovercourt Camp, a censors thought it "brightly written but Friday evenings at 6.45pm family in Coventry took her in to be their extremely dubious" and they were of Saturday mornings at 10am Religion School: Sundays at 10am to 1pm maid. She related how, against the odds, course right, but the play was passed by Nursery School: 9.15am to 12.15pm she arranged for the family to take in her the short-sighted Lord Cromer who saw it Belsize Under 3's: 9.30am to 11.30am brother and younger sister as well. only as "an unreal farcical comedy". A distinctive feature is the inclusion of Human nature has not changed and the Space donated by Pafra Limited rare archive film, researched by an au­ play is just as funny, just as relevant and thority on the sources of Holocaust just as subversive of conventional sexual related material, Corrine Colett, much of mores now as it ever was. But don't be which had never previously been shown put off; the subversion is so delicate and BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE in public. Only the backing from a major witty that most people would not even 51 Belsize Square, London N.W.3 film studio like Warner could provide the notice it and the comic situations, the wit Our communal hall is available for time and effort this necessitated. and the acting so wonderful that you will cultural and social functions. Kindenransporiee Zigi Faith, who left fall off your seat laughing. Tel: 020 7794 3949 his home in Hamburg aged 10, found D Andrew Herskovits AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

bution is somewhat marginal to the sub­ ject in the form of a joke I overheard in Vienna during Dr Kreisky's tenure of of­ T^wte^i^^ fice: Q: Was sagt man zu einem kleinen miesen Juden, tvenn man ihn im Stadt- park begegnet? A: Guten Morgen, Herr Bundeskanzler! WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? readers about the accuracy of my book Richmond, Surrey CP Carter Sir - The Nazis did not only murder Guilty Victim. He further alleges that I 'strangers': the German Jews were an have become an apologist for Austria. As integral part of the German nation. he has not pointed to any specific A GLARING OMISSION inaccuracy in my book, it is hard for me (November issue) To call them strangers Sir - Marianne Walter asks (November to judge whether there is any substance would mean the acceptance of Hitler's letters) about Eric Hobsbawm's per­ racial division between Aryans and Jews. to his concerns. I can however assure your readers that my manuscript was functory reference to the Holocaust. Hitler did not stop at killing the 'stranger' Hobsbawm is mdeed neither a neo-Nazi Jews: he also killed his political carefully checked for accuracy by independent experts. nor an antisemite. He is, however, adversaries. Communists, social democrats, ideologically challenged. What pains him In any event I strongly object to Mr even the SA. In this we have a parallel about the twentieth century is not mass Sternfeld's aspersions on my professional rather than a difference with Stalin who killings like the Holocaust or the Stalinist integrity. I can assure you that I am in no killed 'his own', but was driven by fear, terror, but the failure of Communism. sense trying to convey an 'official line' on real or imagined, of political opposition Christ Church, Oxford Peter M Oppenheimer to his autocratic power. Austria's record on restitution, or indeed Amongst the 'foreign' creators of the on any of its policies. The views ex­ Austrian art form, you refer to Johann pressed in my book - many of them Strauss II as a Jew. Even the Nuremberg critical of Austria's record - are entirely NOT AN ORDINARY JOE laws would not have done so with some­ my own. I consider that Mr Sternfeld Sir - The article about the selection of our Connecticut senator, Joe Liebermann, one whose great-grandfather (Johann owes me an apology. (October 2000), as US Vice-Presidential Michael 1720-1800) was a Jew, baptised London NW3 Hella Pick candidate correctly points out that Jews in the Stephanskirche in Vienna in 1762, holding high political office is not such a but neither his wife nor his son Franz nor Sir - The English title of Hella Pick's novelty in European countries. When the Franz's son Johann's wife were Jewish. book is a misnomer. For the purposes of Jewish roots of Barry Goldwater were Johann II was Johann I's son and there­ historical accuracy one must distinguish disclosed during his presidential caiH' fore one-eighth Jewish. Interestingly, in between pre-war Austria as a sovereign paign in 1964, Harry Goldin quipped: "I spite of this slender Jewish connection, state on the one hand and its inhabitants always knew that the first Jewish the Nazis removed the relevant page on the other. Flawed as that state was President of the United States would be from the official entries at the Stephans­ owing to its clerical-authoritarian charac­ an Episcopalian." kirche; the original page is now on ter, it was independent and its Newtown, Connecticut Guy Bishop display again. government tried to defend its indepen­ Franz von Suppe was not French. He dence - albeit not very efficiently. Its was born in Split, at that time part of the independence was abrogated by force. Austrian Empire. His family originated in During the war the Allies had to promise WORN OUT CASE Belgium. the re-establishment of Austrian sover­ Sir - In reply to F Goldberg (November London NW3 Thomas Edmund Konrad eignty and act accordingly. Had they not letters), perhaps we ex-camp inmates done so they would have underwritten don't talk about it because we don't feel at all 'heroic'. Sir - On a visit to Vienna, we stayed for the Anschluss by implication. On that London NW6 Ezrajurmant^ the ninth time at an hotel with several point the state as such was a 'victim'. As 'Slav' staff, all very nice and content. No to its inhabitants, or at least a consider­ trace of your 'slavophobia' there nor any­ able minority, the appellation 'guilt' is an where else. Vienna now has a larger Slav apt description. Not only did they supply Sir - On arrival in this country, many oi population than in my youth and they ap­ a disproportionate number of war crimi­ us were dumped in hostels or institution* pear a happy lot. Do stop baiting old nals, but their post-war history is one of often run on 'juvenile offenders' lines ano left to our own devices once the novelty Oesterreich as often as you do. Many prevarication to admit their responsibility. of staring at refugee children had worO things are better there than here: trans­ Until recently their government showed an appalling disinclination to tackle the off. Wartime evacuation became a second port, traffic, rail, post, OAP pensions, question of compensation. trauma for us, dumped on non-Jewish ofjera etc. Pinner, Mddx. Frederick Hirsch and uncaring foster parents in places we Norwich HP Anderson had never seen. Abuse by paedophile* and exploitation as cheap labour were AUSTRIAN MISNOMERS Sir - As I cannot claim to know all the not uncommon. Of course we cannot Sir - My attention has been drawn to Mr facts about Dr Kreisky, I consider it un­ compare our fate with those who en' Albert Sternfeld's letter (November issue) safe and improper to join the ranks of his dured the concentration camps, but thi* where he has chosen to 'warn' your apologists or detractors. My only contri­ in no way excuses the lack of any loving AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000 care by individuals in the community for Sir - A lot of us children in Vienna had Hearing AJR Information what after all were de facto orphans and black baby dolls and we loved them. still less any concern about their future. I Debussy's little daughter had a golliwog he wrinen words of AJR Information still harbour, to this day, the bitter memo­ for which he wrote a piece in his are brought to life on audiotape by ries of days long past. 'Children's Corner': Golliwog's Cake Walk. Ta dedicated band of volunteer Greenford, Mddx. Ernest G Kolman London NW4 Mrs A Saville readers to make quite certain that visually impaired AJR members do not miss out on the Association's monthly magazine. Sir - The recent televised showing of a GERMAN PENSION The length of the recording has recently film about the Kindertransport was par­ Sir - Members of Parliament have no say been increased from 60 to 90 minutes so ticularly poignant to me as I actually saw about German pensions (October letters); that almost the whole of the magazine myself arriving at Liverpool Street the only way to protest is to write to the can be read without omissions or editing. Station, the 17-year-old Erich Isenberg, German Ambassador. The service, begun by Irene White in tired, confused and not knowing the lan­ Sutton, Surrey H L Markan JP guage. We had been made to feel less than welcome even before we left the Hook of LEARNING FROM HISTORY Holland; a British official assured us "You needn't have bothered - the Germans are Sir - On a return visit to Berlin I felt human, they won't kill you." Nor were reassured to see, still permanently we made any more welcome when we displayed on the Wittenberg Platz, the arrived in London; we waited five or six grim admonitory sign cataloguing the hours before someone came from most infamous of the Camps. There are Bloomsbury House who then directed us also additional entries: Trostenez and to Rowton House (a shilling a night). We Flossenbiirg. Full marks to the authorities. were told to go for meals at a communal At Libeskind's Jewish Museum, the place, but when we got there they had visitors' book was illuminating. A From left: Rita Rosenbaum, Prof Michael Spiro Schleswig-Holstein visitor only recorded run out of food. Back at Rowton House, 1986, is now administered by another AJR we found all our possessions had been "extreme exhaustion". Was it physical or spiritual? Not revealed. Another entry, volunteer, Rita Rosenbaum, with expert stolen. help from Jewish Care's Stamford Hill Wembley, Mddx. Eric Berry more articulate, read: One cannot change history but we must live with it and try to studio engineer Ben Goodman and their understand it. This museum helps gready Head of Audio and Braille Resources, Jon Kaye. MIXED MARRIAGES towards that goal. An Asian visitor wrote (in English): Dear Japanese visitors. Think For further information, contact Rita Sir - I have to take issue with Peter about your past as well. Learn from the Rosenbaum c/o AJR Head Office, giving Prager's contention that Jewish wives of Germans. your name, address and telephone Christian husbands were exempt from the London SWl3 KG Heymann number D Star of David (November issue). I knew one such lady whose husband was, at the time, suffering from a chronic heart ailment. Had he failed to survive the war, PASSING ON THE BENEFIT Fraenkel Prize 2000 there is no doubt she would have been Sir - Among those of us who are about he Wiener Library has announced transported to the East. The Yellow Star to receive our £150 (now £200) winter that the 2000 Fraenkel Prize in she had to wear has been passed to her fuel allowance, there will be quite a few TContemporary History has been son who is holding on to it so that his who have the good fortune not to need awarded jointly to Professor John children and grandchildren should not it. It was introduced to help pensioners Home & Dr Alan Kramer for their book forget. on low incomes, but because of the diffi­ German Atrocities in 1914: Meanings ieatherhead, Surrey Robert Miller culties associated with means testing, it and Memories of War and Dr Mark is being paid to rich and poor alike - Roseman for his book The Past in and tax free at that! May I suggest that Hiding. Dr M Healy (USA) received the BEYOND HIS KEN those who, like me, are quite able to pay prize for entrants who have yet to pub­ Sir - What is Frank Bright's evidence for their fuel bills without assistance pass on lish a major work for his book Vienna accusing Ken Livingstone of 'unadul­ their winter fuel allowance to the AJR Falling: Total War and Everyday Life. terated racism'? (October letters) Is it where it will help those who really need In the year 2001 there will again be two feasible that - as London Mayor - he help. distinct Prize awards, both for unpub­ Would be happy to work with his London NW8 Prof Walter Bkan lished works in the field of Contemporary Deputy Nicky Gavron, whose parents European History: one of US $5,000 open Were Jewish refugees, if he were to all entrants and one for US $3,000 antisemitic? Ken was right to oppose the Nonsense rhyme open only to those who have yet to pub­ golliwog. Robertson's could have just Many thanks to our many readers who lish a major work. For more details please removed it and kept all their 200 odd ivrote in droves in response to Irmgard write to the Administrative Secretary, employees. Treuherz' cry for help. One reader asks: Wiener Library, 4 Devonshire Street, Lon­ Cheom, Surrey Inge Trott Who is the author.''Ed. don WIW 5BH D AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

AJR Reports

KtNDERTRJiNSPORr Nk From David Jedwab Membership renewal et me help to dispel any confusion that may have existed L among 'Kindertransport' members over the right annual subscription to be paid. Former members of RoK who were already AJR members - but who mis­ takenly paid an additional £15 within the last 12 months in order to partici­ pate in the new KT-AJR Special Interest Group - are entitled either: (a) to be refunded the £15, or (b) to donate this Members enjoying tea, served during the extended interval, at the AfR's 52"'' Annual Concert held at Imperial College, London. Richard Dickins conducted the London Concertino chamber amount towards the work of the AJR. orchestra and international piano soloist Noriko Ogawa charmed the audience with her The annual renewal fee remains at interpretation of Mozart's piano concerto No 14 in E flat. The programme ended with a lively £25 (£35 for overseas mailings) and en­ rendition of Grieg's Holberg Suite. titles each and every member to enjoy in full the benefits and services offered NEWS FROM THE GROUPS Worthing and Lewes impassable. In the by the Association D Hove area there were a few fallen trees, blocked drains and other signs of Pinner destruction. Radio and television were peaking on his 'Experiences as a advising people to stay at home. Having AJR'Drop in'Advice Centre Jewish Ambassador', Sir Horace cancelled the guest speaker, I took myself at the Paul Balint AJR Day Centre SPhillips ranged from his Glasgow to Ralli Hall thinking that nobody would 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL boyhood before the war to his last turn up for the monthly meeting. But by between I Oam and 12 noon on the appointment as Professor of International 10.30 five members had heroically following dates: Relations at a Turkish university. Called appeared so we sat in the cosiness of the Tuesday 5 December up in 1939 as a private in the Dorsetshire Pink Room, had coffee and biscuits and Wednesday 13 December Regiment, after Dunkirk he was sent to talked - as old friends do - about health Iraq to guard oilfields and started learning issues, social services, Israeli politics and Arabic, then to Burma and the Far East, food. I must now circulate my recipe for finishing as a Major on Earl Mountbatten's vegetable lasagne. An unusual but most 50 YEARS AGO staff. With his knowledge of languages, enjoyable meeting! D Fausta Shelton he went into the diplomatic service. ALIENS ATTHE BBC Although much of his working life was The next meeting is on Monday 18 December when Michael Robinson will speak on 'Food for A total of 3 18 aliens Is in tennporary employment spent in MusHm countries, he found no by the BBC. The BBC personnel is under very Chanukah'. Come to the party. real difficulties, Indonesia and Turkey close review. Asked by Mr John E. Haire whether being very tolerant of other religions. His it was not the fact that most of the aliens were interest in, and care for, people clearly West Midlands employed by the BBC during the war and gave There will be a Chanukah party at Central most loyal service, Mr Ness Edwards replied: contributed and he seems not to have "That is certainly so in the majority of cases." disappointed his mother's ambitions for Synagogue on 10 December starting at 7.30 D AjR Information December 1950 him. D Paul Samet pm. Further information about tickets for the 3 course dinner followed by a cabaret, from Henny The Chanukah party, with Esther and Alf Keiles Rednall U providing the entertainment, will be on Thursday 7 December Manchester Annely Juda Fine Art There will be a pre-Chanukah musical presenta­ Brighton and Hove 23 Dering Street (off Hew Bond Street) tion on Sunday 17 December U here was havoc in Sussex on the Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 morning of 30 October with no Leeds CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Ttrains in or out of Brighton and The next meeting will be on Sunday 10 Decem­ AND SCULPTURE the roads through Eastbourne, Arundel, ber: David Fligg's 'Musical entertainment' U AJR INFORMATION DECEMBB< 2000

• • • VIewpcint • • • Stormy weather

Season/ orrential rain has fallen rise into the atmosphere they trap and Enjoy continually over large swathes of reflect back the heat that would other­ * Excellent Food * Stimulating Talk * T Britain bringing the most wide­ wise radiate into space, effectively * Enlivening Discussion * spread flooding for centuries along our raising the earth's surface temperature. =•= Meeting new friends * riverbanks and inundating the traditional Representatives of 160 countries re­ homes which line the narrow cently gathered in The Netherlands in AJR-KT LUNCHEON CLUB thoroughfares of our historic villages an attempt to reduce greenhouse gases on Wednesday 13 December 2000 and towns. Ill-conceived building by the 5% below 1990 levels agreed at at l5CleveRoad,NW6 3RL development on the flood plains has the Kyoto conference in 1997. However, I 1.45am for 12.15pm reduced their capacity to store water, levels continue to rise while scientists Guest speaker: while the ploughing of grasslands for tell us that cuts of 60-80% are required. Susannah Alexander who will talk cereal crops has meant faster run-off Unfortunately, the United States, which about her work at The Jewish Museum and soil erosion. alone accounts for more than 20% of gas with reference to Chanukah. Natural disasters were comfortably la­ emissions, procrastinates and George W Bush (in thrall to the oil companies) re­ Reservations £7.50 for everyone! belled 'acts of God,' but following two from Sylvia, Renee and Susie centuries of unfettered industrialisation, jects the existence of global warming! Tel: 020 7328 0208 blame for climatological change of this Weather forecast for the next 50 years: order should at least, in part, be placed Warm, dry summers and more frequent on man-made atmospheric pollution. A droughts, wetter autumns and winters decade has now passed since scientific with flooding rivers. Coastal areas in opinion accepted that human activities danger of flooding from rivers and rising Paul Balint AJR Day Centre were responsible for changing the high tides. A storm surge across the At­ world's climate and the Prince of Wales lantic could threaten North Sea coasts. l)ing-a-L)Ong has dutifully blamed man's "arrogant Mediterranean holiday resorts will lose disregard of the delicate balance of na­ their beaches as sea levels rise, tempera­ Tga f)ane(3 ture". tures will become too hot for comfort What causes this 'greenhouse effect'? and Alpine glaciers will melt. with Put succinctly, it is the production of The longer governments delay the in Jenny Kossew & Lawrence Jacobs carbon dioxide, methane and other evitable transition to the use of gases from burning fossil fuels, defor­ renewable sources of energy, the more 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 estation, road traffic, industry and catastrophic the consequences. SUNDAY I7TH DECEMBER 2000 agricultural by-products. When these D Ronald Channing 3pm to 6pm

Entrance by ticket only £6 Apply to: Sylvia, Renee or Susie PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE Tel: 020 7328 0208 15 Cleve Road. West Hampstead. NW6 4f ^ Mon. & Weds. 9.30am-3.30pm.Tues. & Thurs. 9.30am-5.30pm. Suns. 2pm-6.30pm DECEMBER 2000 Afternoon entertainment programme Jenny Kossew & Lawrence AJR VISIT TO Jacobs The Imperial Sun DAY CENTRE OPEN - no Mon 18 KARD & GAMES KLUB entertainment Tue 19 Ben <& Paul at the piano War Uluseiun Mon KARD & GAMES KLUB Wed 20 END OF "yEAR CONCERT - Holocaust Exhibition Tues Opera Pops - accompanied by Helen Blake, voice & piano on Thursday 18 January 2001 Margaret Gibbs, piano Thur 21 MUSICAL HREWORKS FOR £8 per person to include coach fare, Wed 6 Guyatherie Peiris accompanied by CHANUKAH - Caroline Salmon- guided tour of the exhibition, Day Centre lunch, William Patrick, piano Trutz, soprano & David Rose lunch, tea & biscuits at the Museum Thur 7 Robin Richards violin, and Peter accompanied by Margaret Gibbs, Midday lunch at the Paul Balint AJR Day Irvine baritone, accompanied by piano Centre, 15 Cleve Road.West Hampstead, Gloria Moss, piano Sun 24 CLOSED London NW6 Sun 10 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO Mon 25 CLOSED Coach departs AJR Day Centre 1.00pm, ENTERTAINMENT Tue 26 CLOSED returning there approx. 4.30 - 5.00pm Mon 11 KARD & GAMES KLUB Wed 27 CLOSED Ticket numbers limited - walking involved Tue 12 Katinka Seiner & Laszio Easton Thur 28 CLOSED Wed LUNCHEON CLUB Sun 31 CLOSED For booking application form, 13 14 Jenny Kossew entertains on Mon 1 CLOSED- NEW YEAR'S DAY contact Joan Altman, AJR, I Hampstead Gate, Thur Tue 2 IA Frognal, London NW3 6AL accordion NEW YEAR CONCERT - Katinka Telephone 020 7431 6161 Sun 17 TEA DANCE - Live music by Seiner & Laszio Easton

^ 9 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

FAMILY Shirley Lever at the Paul Balint Under the Auspices of FORTHCOMING EVENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS AJR Day Centre. New clothes for sale, dresses, underwear, cardigans LINK Psychotherapy Trust DECEMBER 2000 Deaths etc. Thursday l4 December 945- CHILDREN OF FORMER Brainin. Leo Brainin, born in 11.45am. Until 3 Alexandra Valavelska in KINDERTRANSPORTEES Achlting Kabarett, New Lyadi, Russia in 1904, emigrated Association of Jewish Ex- are invited to a 'Peer Group' meeting End Theatre 9.30pm to London from Vienna in 1938, 020 7472 5800. Berllners and Ex-Breslauers. with Judith Elkan and Ruth Barnett died on 15 October 2000. A won­ Until 10 The Last Goodbye. The Please contact Peter Sinclair 020 derful, witty and compassionate on SUNDAY 10 December from rescue of children from 8882 1638 for information. man, active to the end. Hugely 10.30am to 3pm at Nazi Europe. Etz Chayim 73 Fortune Green Road, London NW6 Gallery, Northwood & missed by all his family and Pinner Liberal Synagogue. friends. This meeting is in response to a wish expressed at 01923 822592 The Matchmakers" Rabbi Frank Dabba Jolley. Elisabeth Jolley, born previous meetings of three generations of the Sun 3 international Jewish Kindertransport, and will continue to explore how Smith/ Deborah Schultz Elisabeth Drey in Munich in 1917, Partnership Agency Photographic Records of died in Croston, Lancashire on 7 the Kindertransport experience has affected them the Warsaw Gheno/ Visual October. Sadly missed by children, Phone: 0049-89-92367894 and their families. People who did not attend the testimonies of Arnold previous meetings but would like to come to this grandchildren and friends. Fax: 0049-89-92279864 Daghani. Yakar 3.30pm. meeting will also be welcome. 020 8202 5551 King. Alice King, beloved wife of Our agency works around the Mon 4 Robin Hanau. Bismarck. the late Dr LGT King died on 11 world only for Jewish people of Further details from Kuth Barnett Club 43. 7.45pm. October aged 96, at Craigmount all ages to find the new right 73 Fortune Green Road.tondon NW6 IDR Tues 5 Judaica Antiques Road tel/fax020 743l0837 Show. David Breuer-Weil- Nursing Home, St Andrews, partner for marriage or life. or Judith Elkan. 31 Coleridge Walk, tondon NWll 6AT Hampstead Garden Scodand. Maybe this is also tel 020 8455 8845. Suburb Synagogue, something for you. Non;ice Lea. 7.30pm. Spiro Schreier. Fanny (Nita) Schreier, Ark. born 1911, died peacefully on 2 Please contact us by phone or fax Tues The Diary of Anne November. Nita was brought up for more information Frank. in Vienna and came to live in OTTO SCHIFF German and French also spoken 5 - Sat 9 European premiere at England in 1939 where she lived HOUSING ASSOCIATION Richmond Theatre. 020 with her beloved husband Willy proi-iding qualivy care for tfi£ Jewish Refugee commur\iiy 8940 0088. until his sad death in 1980. for oi'er half a century Wed 6 Prof Hyam Maccoby. Beloved mother of Ellen and SWITCH ON ELECTRICS SHELTERED ACCOMMODATION 'Why are the Jews hated?' London Jewish Cultural Susan, mother-in-law of David Rewires and all household CLARA NEHAB HOUSE Centre, Kidderpore Ave, Solomons and David Lewis, electrical work. TEMPLE FORTUNE, NWll London NW3. 8pm. grandmother of Wendy, Jon, Sun 10 Human Rights Day at SEMI DETACHED BUNGALOW Duncan and Mathew, great- PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Liberal Jewish Synagogue. IN TEMPLE FORTUNE grandmother of Charlie and Ben. St. John's Wood. Panel Large Lounge/Double Bedroom/ A charming, gracious, brave lady debates, workshops, arts, Large Kitchen/Bathroom food etc. who will be remembered with ALTERATIONS Available to let immediately Mon 11 Michael Faulkner love and affection by all who OF ANY KIND TO (Barnet College). John knew her. LADIES' FASHIONS For further details & to arrange a Heartfield's 1930s anti- I also design and make visit please contact: Farita Franklin Fascist photomontage Tel: 020 8209 0022 Ext 611 Schrier. Helli Schrier died children's clothes (illustrated talk). Club 43- peacefully in her 89"" year in 7.45pm. West Hampstead area Winchester, on 10 October. Wife Hilatry Pomeroy. of the late Jack Schrier, designer 020 7328 6571 THE BELSIZE SQUARE Sephardi Ballads - Poetry & Song. Inst.of Jewish craftsman of London and SYNAGOGUE 2000 Studies, UCL, Gustave Winchester. She will be dearly Tuck Theatre, Gower missed by son Steven and TORRINGTON HOMES BAZAAR St.,WCl. 6.30pm. End of year get-together grandchildren, Gary, Jacqueline, Mrs Pringshelm, S.R.N. 51 Belsize Square, NW3 Mon 18 Phillip and Kim. MATRON with recorded music & For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Come and buy your festive presents at refreshments. Club 43- (Licensed by Borough of Barnel) the best Ba2aar in the area 7.45pm. CLASSIFIED • Single and Double Rooms. Until 3 'From Shteibl to City. Children's toys/books, pens, clocks, For Sale In London Treffen Wir • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. Jan 2001 Two exhibitions at Ben groceries, china, glassware, cakes, cards, Uns Wieder by Steffen Pross. 200 • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. Uri Art Gallery. 020 8349 pages and photos. 427 including • Nurse on duty 24 hours. posters, clothing, gift boxes, plants and 5724 lots more.... Meir Axeh-od (1902- postage. Telephone 020 7435 5199. • Long and short term, including trial period if required. Why not treat yourself to lunch in our 1970): Russian theatre famous restaurant? designs. Ben Uri Gallery Miscellaneous Services From £300 per week at The Manor House. French — Dutch — English. 020 8445 1171 Ottice hours THERE'S ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE llam-4pm Sun-Thurs. Private tuition by qualified 020 8455 1335 other times FAMILY THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND Until 28 Keeping the Light. teacher. All levels. Please contact NORTH FINCHLEY OF SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER 5.00pm-7.00pm Jan 2001 Photographic exhibition Eva Urbach Tel: 020 7419 0139. and SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER ll.00am-4.00pm on the Jews of Cochin. Jewish Museum, Camden Town. Manicure & Pedicure in the Residential Home comfort of your own home. Until The Jewish East End Telephone 020 8343 0976. Clara Nehab House Crouch End April 2001 Then & Now. (L0O Baack Housing A»socfaton Ltd.) Photographic exhibition Kaffee Klatsch Klub, established 13-19 LMSkl* Cmcent NWII Festival Chorus by Sam Tarmer. Jewish 1986. Monthly entertainment for All rooms with ShowerW.C.and performs Leonard Bernstein Museum, Finchley. Chichester Psalms Jewish Europeans, 60 plus. For H/C Basins en-suite Spacious Garden - Lounge & West Side Story (highlights) further details telephone 020 8554 Dining Room - Lift William Walton - Belshazzar's Feast 0443. Near Shops and Public Transport on 20 January 2001 at BELSIZE SQUARE Day Centre 24 Hour Care - Physiotherapy Westminster Central Hall APARTMENTS Long & short Term - Respite Care - Amanda Goldring at the Paul Tickets at 10% discount from 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 Trial Periods Tel: 020 7794 4307 or 020 7435 2557 Balint AJR Day Centre will be Prof Leslie Baruch Brent, Enquiries: 30 Hugo Rd., London N19 5EU selling small gifts and a selection Modern Self-catering Holiday Rooms, Otto Schiff Housing Association (please enclose s.a.e.) or from the of outerwear etc. Wednesday 6 The Bishops Avenue N2 OBG Resident Housekeeper, Moderate Terms Westminster Central Hall box office Near Swiss Cottage Station December 9-45-11.45am. Phone: 020 8209 0022

10 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

ily here. They filled their suitcase with pa­ per boats, wistful diaries and letters SB's Column home, recalling French hills and school friends never to be seen again, but also the anticipation of a better life. As a ayreuth. Preparations do not poignant hint of eternal change, this front appear to be going smoothly for ineteen Princelet Street resonates room with its synagogue was occupied Bnext year's Wagner Festival. Mezzo- with memory. Next door is the 100 years ago by the Ogier children, then soprano Waltraud Meier has cancelled her N house where Stepney's first by Jewish barmitzvah boys. Today appearances and Placido Domingo is woman mayor, Miriam Moses, was born. Bangladeshi women come here to learn quoted as saying that he cannot agree on Bits of mosaic lino, still clinging to the English. rehearsal dates with "Herr Wagner not dusty floorboards beneath a coloured In 1869 the lease on the house and gar­ being co-of^erative." He will therefore not glass roof, tell the history of the nine­ den was bought by Polish Jews who be at Bayreuth in 2001. teenth century synagogue, built there raised money to build a synagogue. The Honours and birthdays. Austrian- when Jews fled to Britain from the pog­ Rothschilds, Montagus and Mocattas were born Hollywood legend Billy Wilder (95) roms of Eastern Europe. The Huguenots, the long- established families who helped has been made an honorary citizen of Vi­ who invented the word refugie occupied them put down roots. Local schoolchil­ enna; German actor Gert Westphal, who this house, which was built in 1719; the dren, including many from immigrant achieved popularity through his readings Irish, escaping the potato famine, the families, were filmed on a video record­ and recitals, has celebrated his 80* birth­ West Indians, Iranians, Iraqis, Somalis, ing Jewish history. The presenter is a day; Vienna's Burg actress Gusti Wolf, still Afghans, Kurds, Chinese, Bangladeshis, young Asian girl. Later the children are active at 88, is now the oldest member of all brought an individual shown lustily singing Hinei the ensemble. atmosphere to London's ma tov u manaiim, and the Visions of fashion. Vienna-born Rudi changing East End. Spital­ following parable of a wise Gernreich, who emigrated to the United fields, named after the man's response to States in 1938 and was a revolutionary twelfth-century Priory of St antisemitism is told by the fashion designer, staged a controversial Mary Spital, whispers with group. The man offers ten show at the Kiinstlerhaus in Graz. It is de­ the ghosts of refugees, but roubles to anyone who calls scribed as a show of social trends with a it takes children to breathe him derogatively a Jew. glance into the future. life into it again. Eventually he can only offer Vienna. A restaurant has been opened And that is exactly what one rouble for his assail­ within the Burgtheater (corner of the happened this autumn, ants, who then get the Volksgarten side) which aims to combine when Friends of the Spital­ Princelet Street Synagogue, Spitalfields, message. elegance, comfort and tradition. This is now a centre for the celebration of all the first time these historic rooms have fields Centre invited local immigrant life in London's East End. Their suitcase is filled schoolchildren to project with threads, spools and catered for hungry theatre lovers. themselves into the lives of new immi­ needles of the rag trade. This was a time Obituary. The death is announced of grants through art, poetry, drapery, letters, when the only escape for Jews from David Schallon, the Israeli conductor who anything in fact which evokes the anguish grinding poverty was boxing or show was regular guest conductor of the and excitement of reinventing oneself in business. And the text on the wall tells us Luxemburg Symphony Orchestra and a new place. The suitcase is the theme of how English neighbours learned Yiddish who also conducted at San Francisco, the exhibition and it becomes a Pandora's to communicate as the words nosh and Berlin and London. He lived in Germany. Box of memory. Spools of coloured schlepp entered the English vocabulary. In Bass baritone Walter Berry, important in threads from the Jewish sweatshops, pas­ the basement of the house, excavated in the opera world for nearly 50 years, has tel labels on which children write what 1869, some of the earliest meetings of the died aged 71. Apart from creating 20"' they would take with them from home in Anti-Fascist movement were held. century roles (including Wozzeck, and one bag. A teddy bear, writes one, my In 1952 Britain looked to the Caribbean Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten), he was family, writes another; hope, faith, to help rebuild the shattered, war-torn a welcome visitor to all major opera Shabbos candles, my rosary. Britain has country and advertisements were posted houses from Salzburg to San Francisco, been a melting pot since the Norman throughout the "West Indies to attract peo­ visiting Covent Garden from 1976 on­ conquest of 1066. But you tend not to ple to start a new life here. A powerful wards. His wife is the mezzo soprano think of Celts, Danes and Norsemen in picture is evoked of a colourful, exotic Christa Ludwig U the same breath as Jews, Caribbeans and past abandoned for the hope of sanctuary This is SB's final Column. He took over Asians. Britons certainly didn't during the in a cold country whose streets, it was PEM's Column in September 1974 and Great Fire of London in 1666, when they thought, were paved with gold. has since contributed regularly over the blamed it all on the foreigners. The Spitalfields Centre has a vision: to last 26 years. Now nearly ninety, he has The participating schoolchildren learn launch a museum - or celebration of im­ decided to retire and to enjoy reading that the Huguenots escaping persecution migrant life, in the words of spokesman AJR Information rather than contribu­ from the ruling French Catholics in the Philip Black - and to produce more edu­ ting to it. We wou/d like to record our seventeenth century, were silversmiths, cational material to promote racial gratitude to him for his unfailing contri­ clockmakers, silk weavers and merchants harmony. The children who created this butions on the British and continental and that the house was rented by Peter exhibition have certainly got the message. cultural scene and to wish him well for Abraham Ogier who brought up his fam- n Gloria Tessler the future. - Ed.

II AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

Science Notebook ARE YOU ON A LOW Laws of averages following figures for the percentages of INCOME AND IN NEED pensioners living on low incomes in OF HOMECARE HELP? n September, various news media 1998/99: carried stories about the increase in the Below 50% of mean income 25% - Be­ AJR might be able to offer I number of pensioners living on low low 60% of mean income 42% - Below financial assistance. incomes - "below the poverty line". How 50% of median income 12% - Below 60% was this line defined? Some papers {The of median income 23%. As in the exam­ Members who might not Independent, The Times) took it as 50% of ple above, the mean incomes were larger otherwise be able to afford the mean income of all pensioners, others than the median incomes. More pension­ homecare please contact: (Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph) as 60% of ers therefore had incomes below 50% (or Estelle Brookner, Secretary the mean income, while Radio 4 on 60%) of the mean than of the fairer me­ AJR, Social Services Department Today said poverty was defined as below dian income. The different thresholds Phone NO: 020 7431 6161 60% of median income. This agrees with selected by the media help us to see why the adoption of 60% of median income as the (pro-government) Daily Mirror could the fairest threshold indicator of low display the headline "100,000 more OAPs incomes by European statisticians. living on breadline" while the (anti-gov­ rrz ^ Just what sort of averages are mean and ernment) Daily Mail concluded from the Companions median? Consider as an example a group same DSS report "an increase of 400,000 of London of five pensioners. Suppose one lucky (pensioners in poverty) over three years". Incorporating pensioner get £33,000 a year while the Manipulation of different 'averages' is Hatnpstead Home Care ^ ::^ others have annual incomes of £6,000, quite common. Thus the management of A long established company £5,000, £4,000 and £2,000, respectively. a firm will quote the mean salary of their providing care in your home Their mean income (ie the arithmetic av­ staff to show how well paid they are * Assistance with personal care erage) is £10,000, obtained by dividing while the union will cite the median if General household duties the total income of the group by five. wage to illustrate the opposite. An arbitra­ * Respite care This is clearly an unfair representation of tor might well consider yet another •k Medical appointment service the group's incomes since it is greatly bi­ average called the mode, the income ased by the very high income of just one earned by the largest number of employ­ 'OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' person. A fairer measure of the average is ees. All sides will call their figures 'the 020 7483 0212/0213 the median income, the figure in the mid­ average'. Disraeli once wrote "There are dle when the group's incomes are ranked three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and in order, in this case £5,000. Only one statistics". But statistics only mislead if the person in the group receives less than basis of the numbers has not been prop­ SPRING 60% of the median, ie less than £3,000. erly explained; an unqualified 'average', The report of the Department of Social for example, is almost meaningless. And GROVE Security on which the media were com­ did you notice that this article did not de­ 214 Finchley Road menting (Opportunity for All. Second fine what was meant by 'income'? London NW3 Annual Report 2000. Cm 4865) gave the D Prof Michael Spiro London's Most Luxurious RETIREMENT HOME even racially motivated murder were un­ * Entertainment - Activities * Stress Free Living Chancellor leads typical of today's humane and tolerant * 24 Hour Staffing * Excellent Cuisine country which had accepted large immi­ * Full En-Suite Facilities Berlin mass protest grant populations. Tens of thousands of Call for more information n the anniversary of Kristallnacht, other people participated in similar dem­ or a personal tour Germany's Chancellor Gerhard onstrations in many parts of the country. 020 8446 2117 OSchroder led more than 100,000 Accompanied by President Johannes people in procession through the streets Rau, Parliamentary President Wolfgang or 020 7794 4455 of Berlin in protest against racism and Thierse, Berlin's Rabbi Ehrenberg, and racist attacks by neo-Nazis in Germany other leading personalities from the which are reported to have victimised a worlds of politics, culture and sport. Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. hundred members of ethnic minorities in Chancellor Schroder headed the huge STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST the last ten years, at least three having procession which wound its way from the Surgeries at: lost their lives in this past year alone. New Synagogue through darkened streets 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) The Chancellor also attended a service to the Brandenberg Gate, symbol of Ger­ Telephone 020 7624 1576 at Berlin's main pre-war synagogue, the many's militaristic past, where President 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) New Synagogue, commemorating Ger­ Rau addressed the rally. As part of the Edgware, lUliddx HAB 7PU many's Jewish Holocaust victims. commemoration, Berlin's Staatskapelle, Telephone 020 8905 3264 The organisers of the rally wanted to gave a concert conducted by Daniel Visiting chiropody service available show that stories of racial hatred and Barenboim. • Ronald Channing

12 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

council which renovated the school and History rediscovered Survivor of converted it into a museum in memory of n unusual sequence of events led the local Jewish families who had been to my acquisition of a slim volume Kristallnacht deported and then murdered in the Aof Jewish history, written in 1936 hen, in the night of 9 camps. I am one of the only three surviv­ in German. Having had some success in November 1938, the synagogue ing children of those Jewish families. Of finding old friends through the Berlin W in Lingen/Ems was set alight by the other two, one lives in the USA and magazine Akttiell, I attempted to trace the the Nazis, the one-roomed Jewish school the other in London. son of our late Rabbi in the Grunewald escaped that fate because of its proximity The museum and memorial garden are Synagogue, Dr Emil Bernard-Cohn. Two to dwellings occupied by non-Jewish open to the public on the fourth Sunday replies from the Rabbi's daughters, now families. The school had been used twice of each month and are well visited. In the living in Los Angeles and San Francisco, weekly for religious instruction although memorial garden are two stones, one in told me that their brother had died in all the Jewish children were educated at memory of the Jewish citizens and one 1994, but one of them kindly sent me a the local Volksschule. on the site of the synagogue. In response history of the Jewish people called Von After the war, the school was used for to a request from Lingen, I made and do­ Kanaan nach Israel, written by their some years as a stable and later for the nated a pair of wrought iron gates for the father prior to his emigration. storage of hay and straw. The then owner former school which were officially finally agreed, after several years, to sell opened last September. the property and adjacent land to the D Bernard Grunberg

Hohenenns Jewish Remembering Schottenbastei Jewish pupils Museum rganised by the history teacher n 1931, when Theodor Elkan, leader of of the Realgymnasium Schotten­ the Jewish Culture Forum, said: "As Obastei (formerly the Realschule I you see, we are only a small Schottenbastei), a memorial tribute in the Gemeinde, which lives from its form of a plaque has been unveiled at memories", there were fewer than twenty this Vienna school. The plaque com­ men and women of the Jewish faith in memorates the 436 Jewish pupils who, Hohenems in the Austrian province of between 1933 and 1938, attended, or Vorarlberg. After the Anschluss in March were assigned to, the school until finally 1938, all cultural activities of the Jewish expelled on 1 July 1938. Of the 62 former community were dissolved by the Nazis. pupils in various parts of the world who Some Jews escaped. Others, including responded to an invitation to attend the Theodor Elkan and his wife Helene, were memorial event, eight former pupils did deported to concentration camps and so, including two from the UK. Rabbi Dr Emil Bernard-Cohn, author of a rediscovered Jeivish history. killed. More plaques at similarly affected The neutral street names such as Vienna schools are planned D Jews in both biblical times and during Schweizer Strasse, changed in 1938, did (Reports from E Glaser, A Dutch and F Roxon) Germany's Third Reich have been exten­ not revert to their original Jewish names sively chronicled, but comparatively little in 1945. The synagogue, which survived has been written about the intervening the war almost unscathed, was rebuilt as 4,000 years. Cohn's history covered the a fire station. Homegrown history Jews in Greek and Roman civilisations, in When the Villa Heimann-Rosenthal new series about the Holocaust Babylon and Spain until the expulsion, came into the possession of the town of is being shown on German and in central Europe, in an eminently Hohenems and a use was sought for the A television (ZDF). Screened at peak readable account, translated into English building, discussions soon gave rise to time, the series' historical advisers include by Hayim Perelmuter and re-published in the foundation of a Jewish Museum. The Yehuda Bauer, Christopher Browning and the USA in 1945. In 1985 Perelmuter Museum gives a full account of the his­ Eberhard Jackel. Simon Wiesenthal is the Wrote additional material about the Jew­ torical and cultural life of Hohenems' 'patron'. ish people after 1936, including the Jews. The permanent exhibition stretches At the conclusion of the series, there foundation of the State of Israel. over many rooms. Visitors have access to will be a panel discussion. Diverging I believe that no-one has conducted re­ over 1,500 books and many periodicals, from the accepted spelling 'Holocaust' de­ search into the Jewish people and their videos and archives. Opening hours are riving from the Greek and adopted by the host cultures as Cohn has done. This little from 10.00-17.00 (except Mondays), with Anglophone world, the German series di­ gem, last reprinted by Deutscher guided tours by prior appointment. For rector has chosen the tide Holokaust, "a Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, in 1986, is further details contact Jewish Museum, symbolic act of appropriation of one's now out of print, but may still be found Schweizer Strasse 5, Hohenems, Vorarl­ own history", according to Eberhard in specialised libraries. berg, Austria. Telephone: 0043 5576 3989. Jackel. • Rudi Leavor D Gerald Holm UMK

13 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

I firmly believe what Arafat is continu­ people of between $200 for minor inju­ Israel under fire ally telling US: that his ultimate intention ries up to $2,000 for fatalities. These may arrived in Israel a few days after Ariel is not only to occupy the whole of the be either payments for incitement to riot, Sharon's fateful visit to the Temple Palestinian area agreed at Camp David, or compensation, but they have the same I Mount in Jerusalem. According to with the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, effect. I spoke with two non-Jewish fami­ reports in the ferusalem Post and Haaretz but that th%; is but the first step towards lies, the men being employed by a his visit had been agreed with the occupation of the territory that is Israel European company providing technical Palestinian authorities, but whatever the and, by a Jihad, effect a genocide of the services in Gaza, who had been evacu­ original motivation of either Mr Sharon or Israeli Jewish population. The Palestinian ated out of Gaza the previous evening as Mr Arafat, the latter chose to use the visit authorities, through their TV and radio things had got too 'hot'. During the riots to exploit the Western media. newscasts and in the mosques, are incit­ they had witnessed men standing on Though initially I empathised with the ing their people to riot. Stoning is the street corners with wads of 100 shekel plight of the Palestinian and Israeli Arabs, traditional means of putting people to notes handing money out to Palestinian after reading the press and discussion death in the Middle East and is still used rioters. with locals, I appreciated the extent to in some Arab states. Arms given to the The barbarity of the lynching of two which Arafat controls his people. Know­ Palestinian authorities to keep order are Territorials in Ramallah should leave no ing very well that a death - particularly being fired at the Israel Defence Forces one under any illusion as to the fate of that of a child -captures the headlines of from amongst the stone-throwers. The fire Jewish Israelis should the Arab nations Western newscasts, he has chosen to sac­ returned by the IDF cannot be targeted. ever mobilise the Jihad. The strength of rifice the lives of young men and boys in As sad as the injuries and deaths are in the IDF is the only guarantee for the Jews his desire to do so. His intention is to Western eyes, Arab families are quite will­ in Israel. From polls taken in Israel during generate worldwide sympathy for the Pal­ ing to put their youngsters on the streets the riots, it appears that over two thirds estinian cause aimed at placing an and make them into, as they put it, mar­ of ordinary Israelis still want the peace international army into Judea and tyrs. negotiations to succeed, as does much oi Samaria, as happened in Kosovo. He also A report in the Jerusalem Post referred the Western world. The main question is wants to involve the Arab world in a to the fact that the Palestinian authorities whether Arafat does too. Jihad against Israel. appear to be making payments to their D Simon Alexander

possible for him to declare his love for that we had to enrol in the war effort- Love story or the heroine, Roxane. Instead he stands in Soon afterwards I gave up making ladies the shadow below her balcony where, in costumes in the East End - and Roxane Stalin was my Cyrano a Romeo and Juliet style setting, his hand­ stopped selling blouses in a smart West brk was tailoring, the calling of some but tongue-tied rival woos Roxane, End shop - to retrain as 'dilutee engi­ my 'foster parents' in the East and prompts him. Now Stalin was my neers'. WEnd. In the early war years the prompter. In autumn 1941 I still looked It was the first of many things we did rag trade had continued to be seasonal. quite unlike a Hollywood screen idol, but together. For that reason, and also because my life had acquired another dimension. I (concluded) U Richard Gmnberger workplaces occasionally burned down in had become a cog - however small - in the Blitz, I switched, as occasion arose, the wheel of Young Austria, which was between making Home Guard uniforms, attached to the motor of Communism. It military greatcoats and fashionable ladies' was Stalin who gave my tongue wings. Holocaust wear. Then one day the war expanded its He enabled me to woo my Roxane not scope with Hitler's attack on Russia, with the lyrical phrases Cyrano had whis­ Memorial Day which spelt the final abandonment of his pered into his rival's ear, but with ritain will mark Holocaust Memorial plans for invading Britain. We YA cadres mind-bending Marxist mantras. I waxed Day for the first time on 27 January breathed a threefold sigh of relief. Firsdy eloquent, like a Catholic priest quoting B2001. A national ceremony will take because London was out of the Latin scripture to a vernacular-speaking place in central London on the evening or immediate firing line, secondly because communicant, about the 'labour theory Saturday 27 January (after Shabbath) Communists were now allies, and thirdly, of value', the contradiction between the which is expected to set the tone (ot because overnight Stalin had become productive forces and the relations of other more local activities throughout the everybody's 'Uncle Joe'. To me he production', 'expropriating the expropri­ country. It is expected that a member or became, in addition, my very own ators', and 'the dialectic of thesis, the Royal Family will attend as will Cyrano. This occurred when my Roxane, antithesis and synthesis'. I was able to leading political, religious and communal looking for the company of teenagers explain with talmudic dexterity how the personalities. A limited number oi who spoke her own language, war had turned at 4am on June 22, ie the invitations will be issued by the Hotnc fortuitously turned up at a meeting of my precise moment of Hider's attack on Rus­ office. The AJR will forward names and Young Austria group. She came for sia, from an Imperialist side-show of no addresses of those requesting an conversation - but stayed for conversion. consequence to the working class, into a invitation (please mark envelope HMD)- In Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac fight-to-the-death between civilisation The ceremony will be broadcast on the hero's awareness of his own bizarre and barbarism. television. appearance makes it psychologically im­ From which it followed, I concluded, UMI^

14 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

The Jewish Historical Institute and its Two centuries of family history archive is what draws us to Warsaw. It short drive south from Wroclaw is Schindler's List was filmed. In any event, acts as the central archive for the erst­ Ziebice (Miinsterberg), birthplace Kasimierz, formerly the Jewish quarter while Jewish communities in pre-war A of grandfadier Max. It's six in the until the Nazis forced the Jews into a Poland. Not all archives were saved from evening and the women of Ziebice are ghetto on the other side of the river, is the Nazis' desire to eliminate every sign streaming into church; the men are sitting bubbling with Jewish-style restaurants, of Jewish existence but what has been in the town square, walking their dogs or renovated synagogues converted to Jewish saved is piled up in this Aladdin's cave, out of sight. The town can hardly have museums, hotels with Jewish or biblical much of it uncatalogued through lack of changed in its composition and structure. names and even a (non-operational) financial resources. Amongst the many Here, I try to imagine our grandfather as mikvah. The oldest synagogue - the beau- records of nineteenth- and early twenti­ a young boy, playing in the streets until, eth-century Jewish community life are when only five years old, he lost his some of the Breslau community's records: father Louis and the widowed Johanna death registers, notifications of marriages, moved west. As before, we search out the bequests, minutes and financial records, local priest to point us in the direction of none of them complete, but still the Jewish traces. This time, the priest, when green shoots of information. From these he emerges from the hour-long service, is pages, the Koebner/Kobner family grows unhelpful in his haste to get away. And and spreads through cholera epidemics the language barrier seems impenetrable. which claim the lives of babies and One of his helpers somehow com­ young children, brothers and sisters, the municates to us that there is indeed a old, frail and sick, to give us back a his­ Jewish cemetery outside the town and as tory we have taken so long to reclaim. It the early evening mms sunless, we climb is a deeply moving moment. the hill and pass through the stone arch David and I part company, he to ex­ leading to the Miinsterberg cemetery, plore his (paternal) West Prussian family packed close with headstones, some history, I to return to Berlin to visit Daniel standing, some fallen, all bearing Hebrew Libeskind's unforgettable Berlin Jewish inscriptions. Disappointingly, we don't Museum, a moving experience and a find the grave of great-grandfather Louis, memorial in its own right. There are those but there are many Miinsterberg families who say that it should remain empty and buried and recorded here over the communicate its power without the help previous two centuries. To our astonish­ Entrance to Miinsterberg Jeunsh cemetery of the clutter of pre- and postwar artefacts ment, the most recent interment dates tifully simple Rama - still functions as a of Jewish life in Germany. Maybe that is from 1972. How many of the inhabitants house of worship for the 150-strong what the architect himself secretly in­ of Ziebice are even aware of this Cracow Jewish community and has an old tended! treasure-trove of Jewish history? and well-kept cemetery. Amongst the sev­ In a perverse way, it is a relief to be We have two more appointments with eral old graves is that of our back in Germany: undoubtedly because I our grandparents' forefathers: in Cracow great-grandfather eleven times removed, can communicate with those around me and Warsaw. Cracow seems to be experi­ the seventeenth-century Tossafist rabbi in a way I couldn't in Poland. But with encing a Jewish revival, almost as if to Lippmann Heller, imprisoned for his views the surfeit of experiences and impressions compensate for the obliteration elsewhere and subsequently released but banned flooding in during the previous six days, I in Poland. Maybe this is partially due to from preaching in Cracow. His grave is just want to go home and try to assimilate the more tangible and commercial expla­ covered in candles and other tributes, two centuries of family history. nation of Spielbergia: for this is where which makes me ever so slightiy proud. (concluded) U Marion Koebner

Hedwig Pollak. Born 3.3.1898, Vienna, unmarried, Continental and British Jews. Researcher would former historian and library assistant, emigrated from SEARCH NOTICES welcome contact from anyone with personal experi­ Vienna to London 7.4.1939. Anyone knowing her ences of relations between Jewish refugees from whereabouts please contact Prof Peter Voswinckel, Hitler and British Jews. Dr Anthony Grenville, 29 evacuated by ambulance after liberation from Bergen- University of LiJbeck, Koenigsstr42, D-23552 Lubeck. Cholmley Gardens, London NW6 I AG. Belsen on 15/4/1945. Sought by her sister Ester/Edzia Fax 0049 45170 7998 99. Email: [email protected] in USA. Contact British Red Cross International Wel­ Email: [email protected]. fare Dept,, 9 Grosvenor Cres., London SWIX 7EJ.Tel Elisabeth Ullmann, nie Anders, former Austrian ac­ Malka Gronich. Thought to have moved from Jeru­ 020 7201 5109. BRCS ref. 75977/MCA. tress (stage name Elisabeth Carroca), and Trudi Binar, salem to Britain this year Would she or any relative Hermann Kempner. Engineer, born 1871, emi­ former Miss Czechoslovakia in 1920s and 1930s. Histo­ please contact Nora Gittins, AJR, I Hampstead Gate, grated to London from Munich in 1939 to join his rian seeks firsthand information, recollections about la Frognal, London NW3 6AL.Tel:020 7431 6161 niece, a daughter of Luise Torsch (nee Kempner). their lives and careers. Please contact Dr Dagmar Orthodox hostel, Brondesbury, London. Would Kempner was guardian to Jakob van Hoddis, aka Hans Popping, Sophle-Charlotten -Str. 46, 14059 Berlin or anyone who stayed here between January - Septem­ Davidsohn, (German-Jewish poet) between 1922-1939. email: [email protected] ber 1939 contact Helga Fox (nee Hirschfeld), 5101 Information about Kempner's stay in the UK and any River Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20816, USA. Tel 001 of his correspondence concerning van Hoddis are Liane Warren n6e Ehrlich, born 4.4.1929 in Vienna. 301-652-2102. Email: [email protected]. sought for an exhibition in the Centrum Judaicum, Arrived England 22.2.1939 by Kindertransport. Infor­ Berlin next year. Contact Nicholas Jacobs, 10 Burghley mation and whereabouts urgently sought by her niece Lola/Laye Jamnik. Born 25/12/1920, daughter of Rd., London NWS lUE.Tel. 020 7482 2390. Fax 020 Liane Frohlich, Kurhausstr.9,4283 Bad Zell, Austria. Tel Berish/Berek & Ita nee Jakubowicz. Last heard of 7485 4220. 0043 7263 7566; Fax 0043 7263 6365 D

IS AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 2000

the books are barely visible and the Silent The Judenplatz Library appears to be made of a series of NEWSROUND slabs. The bottom slabs are inscribed with Memorial the names of all the labour and death Bundestag plea ienna is an arch-conservative city camps to which Austria's 65,000 Holo­ Jews in Germany have been urged by in matters of art as Mozart, Mahler, caust victims were sent. German MPs not to leave the country VKlimt and others found out to their Vienna's Inner City is still largely resi­ because of the recent spate of antisemitic cost. Even so, a century ago the Sezession dential and the Judenplatz is no exception. attacks. Politicians pledged to make group of painters coined the slogan Der It is a safe bet that the square's inhabitants Germany's Jews feel safe and wanted. Zeit ihre Kunst (every age has an art who live in four-storey houses with impos­ Fund's shortfall appropriate to it) which one cannot ing baroque facades - Mozart composed Out of 220,000 German companies quarrel with. The Romanesque harked Cosi Fan Tutte at No 244 - are put out of approached for a contribution to the back across the barbarian void to Roman countenance by the featureless bunker­ slave labour fund finalised earlier in the civilisation. The Gothic age built like structure permanently in their field of year, only 4,200 have agreed to make a heavenward-soaring structures which arti­ vision. "What", one can imagine them payment. Unless the target figure of ±3.3 culated Faith. The asking in the plan­ billion is reached, the pledge for Renaissance shifted the gent whine of the immunity against litigation in the US focus from the linear Viennese, "has Mozart courts may be withdrawn. to the circular - the got to do with circle being seen as Minsk?" What indeed? Disappearing compensation funds the symbol of perfec­ The conjoining of Funds intended for slave labour survivors tion. Futurism claimed beauty to horror was may have been embezzled or misapplied to be the art form of a characteristic hall­ after transfer to the Ukrainian and Russian the machine age. And mark of the Third authorities for distribution. Count Otto what is the art ap­ Reich. And just as von Lambsdorff, appointed to negotiate propriate to the Age the Austrians whole­ the fund, has ordered an audit. of Genocide? Certainly heartedly joined in Slovakian Jewish claims nothing literal or all other aspects of Proceedings have been issued against figurative along the Nazism - unless they Germany by Slovakia's Jewish community lines of Alfred themselves took the following Slovakia's exclusion from the Hrdlicka's 'Monument lead, as they did recently concluded slave and forced to the Victims of War in Jew-baiting - so labour agreement. The Jeivish Chronicle and Fascism' at the they did in this. In reports that their claim for £2.75 million Albertina in Vienna. Germany Buchenwald largely represents assets confiscated from Here the sculpture of concentration camp Jews by the Nazi Slovak state. j the pavement-scrub­ almost bordered Wei­ bing Jew has been mar, the city of Catholic church pays out known to serve as a The judenplatz, Vienna Goethe whose fav­ One thousand slave labour survivors, seat for sightseers to ourite beech tree exploited by Germany's Roman Catholic rest their feet on and munch sandwiches. allegedly formed the central point of the Church during WWII, are to receive pay­ The work of Daniel Libeskind and camp. In Austria, Mauthausen, a place of ments of il,500 each, reports The Daily Rachel Whiteread exists in a different di­ even greater horror, existed in close prox­ Telegraph. The money will come from the mension. Libeskind designs buildings imity to Melk monastery whose baroque Church's own compensation fund. (like the Nussbaum Museum in Osna- splendours remain engraved on every Norway's tribute briick) with jagged asymmetrical design visitor's retina. A memorial to Norway's deported Jews and tapering corridors that lead nowhere. Simon Wiesenthal said of the memorial has been unveiled as part of the Rachel Whiteread has been described as "It shouldn't be beautiful - it must hurt!" Norwegian Government's reparations "giving substance to the intangible, the The Viennese, while undoubtedly agree­ programme. Sited near the harbour of air-filled spaces underneath or inside ob­ ing that it isn't beautiful, take strong departure, the memorial has been jects". She first shot to prominence with exception to being hurt. Back in London designed by the British sculptor Anthony her inside-out house in Bethnal Green. three days after the unveiling, Rachel Gormley. Shortly afterwards she received the com­ "Whiteread testified to that sad truth when mission for designing Vienna's Holocaust she told The Observer. "I felt quite fright­ 'Japanese Schindler' honoured Memorial (a project suggested by Simon ened being there many times. I felt I had Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat Wiesenthal and implemented by the So­ become a target. All the anger became di­ posted in Lithuania in 1940, has been cialist municipality). Last month, after five rected at my memorial." In other words posthumously honoured on the lOO* years' delay, the memorial was unveiled. the country is still in denial. Varying the anniversary of his birth. A plaque has It is a concrete single-storey windowless old adage Austria Erit Im Orbe Ultima I been unveiled commemorating Sugihara's building with a sealed pair of doors at fear that the Austrians will be the last to issuing of transit permits to Japan for one end. The walls are covered from top take the axe to the frozen sea within Jewish families fleeing Poland, saving to bottom with row upon row of books themselves. 10,000 lives. made of pale concrete. From a distance D Richard Grunberger UMK

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