VOLUME 18 NO.11 NOVEMBER 2018 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees

Righteous Gentiles: EIGHT DECADES ON This November, of course, marks exactly Then and Now eighty years since the seminal events of Kristallnacht and the advent of what became known as the Kindertransport. When Yad Vashem was established in 1953 by the Knesset, one of its tasks was to commemorate the “Righteous Among the Nations” Both topics have been covered extensively over the years by the (khasidei umót ha’olám), non-Jews who risked their lives to save AJR Journal and within this issue Jews during the Holocaust. There are fewer greater tributes. By you will find details of several special commemorations. Eight decades on, January this year almost 27,000 people had received this honour, both topics remain unparalleled and including 6,706 Poles, 5,595 people from the Netherlands, 3,995 sadly, as proved by our feature on Holocaust Memorial Day on pages French men and women, 2,573 Ukrainians and 1,731 Belgians 16-17, highly relevant to today’s society. among them. The largest number of rescuers per capita were the We trust you will appreciate reading this Dutch: one in 1700 people in the Netherlands. issue and would welcome your thoughts as to how the milestone anniversaries of these events are being commemorated.

AJR Grant for Liberators...... 3 Harris House on air...... 4 Tales from Herrlingen...... 5 Letters to the Editor...... 6 & 7 Art Notes...... 8 Letter from Israel...... 9 Nursing & Jewish women refugees.....10 & 11 Reviews...... 12 News...... 13 & 18 Around the AJR...... 14 Looking For...... 15 Holocaust Memorial Day Trust...... 16 & 17 Adverts...... 19 Events & exhibitions...... 20

AJR Team Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem Chief Executive Michael Newman Finance Director David Kaye

Fifty-one countries and nationalities are the total saved as between 100-150,000 Heads of Department represented. People from Cuba and El Jews. But the highest proportion of Jews Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws Salvador, Japan and Vietnam, Egypt and per capita rescued were from Denmark. In HR & Administration Karen Markham China. Some numbers are surprising. 1943 more than 7,200 of Denmark’s 8,000 Social Services Sue Kurlander Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart Only 22 Danes, but 601 Germans. More strong Jewish community were rescued and Albanians and Armenians than Britons (22). brought to neutral Sweden hidden in fishing AJR Journal According to the historian Norman Davies boats. The fishermen were never honoured Editor Jo Briggs more Jews were rescued in Poland than at Yad Vashem because they were paid for Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy Contributing Editor David Herman in any other country. In his book, Rising their services. Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira ‘44: the Battle for Warsaw, he estimates Continued on page 2

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Righteous Gentiles (cont.) to Jewish parents (Wertheim), he was never motives, most clearly in the work of Quaker recognised as one of the Righteous Among organisations like the German Emergency Some individuals are widely known. the Nations, even though his parents had Committee (GEC), the International Jan Karski, who came to London and converted and had him baptised. Hebrew Christian Alliance and others. Washington to tell the Allies what was happening to the Jews in occupied Poland The twenty-two Britons who were Eighty years on, there is a fierce has appeared in several documentaries, honoured included Frank Foley, a British debate about the rise of antisemitism including Shoah; Oskar Schindler, of course; MI6 agent, who worked undercover as a in Britain. In newspapers and social Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat passport officer in Berlin and saved around media Jewish commentators have who disappeared mysteriously in Hungary 10,000 people by issuing forged passports spoken out passionately but so have in 1945; and Varian Fry, an American to Britain and the British Mandate of many non-Jews who have consistently journalist, who rescued many famous artists Palestine. Ida and Mary Cook (Ida was attacked antisemitism. They deserve and cultural figures from wartime France. better known as the Mills & Boon writer, recognition. They include newspaper and Mary Burchell) helped 29 Jews escape from magazine editors such as Daniel Johnson Others are less well known but performed Berlin in the 1930s, funded by Ida’s writing (Standpoint), Jason Cowley (The New astonishing deeds. Irena Sendler, a Polish (she wrote twelve romantic novels between Statesman) and Professor Alan Johnson social worker, helped save 2,500 Jewish 1936-39). A British POW, Charles Coward, (Fathom), and columnists like Dan Hodges, children. Gertruida Wijsmuller-Meier helped was sent to Monowitz in December 1943 Colonel Richard Kemp, Douglas Murray save about 10,000 Jewish children from and helped a number of Jews escape (Standpoint and The Spectator), Tim Germany and Austria who escaped on the from Auschwitz and later gave testimony Montgomerie (The Times), broadcasters like Kindertransport just before the outbreak at Nuremberg, describing conditions at Andrew Neil and Maajid Nawaz and writers of the war. She also managed the last Monowitz and the treatment of POWs and like JK Rowling. There are many more. transport to the UK on May 12, 1940 Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz. on the last ship leaving the Netherlands. These writers and commentators fight Her countryman, Jan Zwartendijk, as a Other stories were less dramatic but on a number of fronts: in measured Dutch consular representative in Kaunas, hugely important. The Academic newspaper columns but also the vicious Lithuania, issued exit visas used by between Assistance Council (the AAC), set up by world of Twitter, social media and radio 6,000 and 10,000 Jewish refugees. Another William Beveridge in May 1933, helped phone-in programmes. They defend Israel diplomat, José Castellanos Contreras, bring over fifteen hundred refugee scholars and Zionism, but, above all, they defend provided Salvadoran citizenship papers to from Nazi Germany and Austria by 1938, Jews from antisemitism, supporting approximately 13,000 Central European many of them distinguished figures in their statements from figures including Jews. Ho Feng Shan, the Chinese Consul- field. In 1936 it became the Society for the Lord Sacks and Jewish MPs and politicians general in Vienna, issued visas to more than Protection for Science and Learning (SPSL). such as Luciana Berger, Margaret Hodge 3,000 Jews. Key figures apart from Beveridge, included and Louise Ellman. Walter Adams, the first Secretary of the The range of the Righteous is extraordinary. AAC, and Esther Simpson, who for more These are dark times. Antisemitism and They were from many faiths and none: than nineteen years was in charge of most Islamophobia thrive. Now, more than Christians from all denominations, Muslims of the administration and correspondence. ever, we need alliances between decent and agnostics. These remarkable people Of the refugee scholars sixteen went Jews, Muslims and other gentiles who included pharmacists and nuns, painters on to win Nobel Prizes, eighteen were will stand up for decency and fight and scout leaders, sewer inspectors and knighted, and well over a hundred were together against intolerance. Writers and monarchs. Two Polish farmers were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society journalists but also non-Jewish politicians murdered by the Nazis together with their and of the British Academy. Some of the such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, six children for helping Jews. best-known figures included the geneticist Chuka Umunna, and Ian Austin, Sajid Sir Walter Bodmer, the art historian Sir Javid, Lord Eric Pickles and the Prime Many hid Jews in their home or on their Ernst Gombrich and the mathematician Sir Minister, Mrs. May. property, in bunkers dug under farmhouses, Hermann Bondi, the Nobel Prize-winning in barns, convents, attics and forest physicist Max Born, Sir Ernst Chain who One lesson that brings together the 1930s hideouts, in cemeteries and in sewers. helped discover penicillin and Sir Ludwig and today is that when race-hatred is on Sometimes the Jews were passed off Guttmann, who revolutionised the the march it is easy for people, indeed as relatives or adopted children. Others treatment of those with spinal injury at whole communities, to feel isolated. Who provided Jews with false papers and false Stoke Mandeville Hospital. can we turn to for support? In the 1930s identities. Clergy faked baptism certificates, and ‘40s Jews received help from many foreign diplomats issued thousands of visas In his essay on British non-Jewish unlikely friends, people who risked their and passports. And still others smuggled organisations in support of refugees in lives or their careers, Polish farmers, Danish Jews out of ghettos or across borders into Second Chance, one of the best books fishermen and Chinese diplomats. Today, neutral or less dangerous countries. on German-speaking refugees, Gerhard when antisemitism is on the rise, here Hirschfeld identifies a number of factors and in Europe, we should acknowledge Sir Nicholas Winton is famous today for which explain why so many organisations non-Jews who are prepared to take a stand organising the Czech Kindertransport which responded to the plight of refugees from against prejudice. sent 669 children (most of them Jewish) to Nazism including British traditions of foster parents in England and Sweden. Born charity and philanthropy and religious David Herman

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AJR GRANT FOR LIBERATORS

The AJR was very proud to support a recent exhibition at London’s Ben Uri Gallery, which helped highlight the achievements of women refugee artists.

Liberators explored the lives and works Alicia Melamed Adams of twelve extraordinary women artists from the Ben Uri Collection. The stories of these artists, set against the backdrop of two World Wars, the Holocaust and its aftermath, highlighted two waves of Jewish migration to Britain and the tumultuous social, political, religious and and experience of women refugee artists, all ages in exploring lesser known stories artistic upheavals of the early but also to address broader themes of women artists.” 20th century. relating to female identity, which include women’s suffrage and liberation (Lily Alicia Melamed Adams is one of only Between 1933 and 1945 more than 300 Delissa Joseph), motherhood, Judaism, two surviving artists in the Liberators male and female painters, sculptors, and their place in the establishment of exhibition. graphic designers, illustrators and Modernism in Britain (Clare Winsten, architects sought refuge in Britain from Margaret Marks). Melamed Adams was born Alicia National Socialism. Some were young Goldschlag in Drohobycz, Eastern women whose artistic trajectories had The exhibition coincided with an important Poland and originally wanted to study not yet been fully formed, such as Eva new outreach initiative which will tour medicine. However the Nazi invasion of Frankfurther, Alicia Melamed Adams replicas of some of the works featured in Poland in September, 1939 put paid to and Eva Aldbrook, or in the cases of the exhibition to non-museum settings that idea when the Jewish population Margarete Marks and Dodo Burgner, such as schools, hospitals, care homes, of her home town were forced into a faced the fracture of careers recently community groups and libraries, and ghetto. She was the only survivor of her established in their homeland. A number which is also supported by the AJR. entire family. were also directly affected by the Holocaust. Josefine Auspitz and Chana AJR Head of Educational Grants and She married fellow Holocaust survivor Kowlaska perished during this time and Projects Alex Maws said: “Women’s Adam Melamed in 1946 and after two many, such as Dora Holzhandler and experiences are too often marginalised in years in Paris, they moved to London Edith Birkin, lost their families. representations of the Holocaust and the where she studied at St Martin’s events surrounding it. Liberators is both School of Art. Much of her work The women featured in Liberators were an exhibition and an educational initiative, commemorates the Holocaust and has selected not only to address the role and has the capacity to engage learners of been exhibited all over the country.

The Annual Election Meeting of the Association of Jewish Kristallnacht Service Refugees (AJR) will take place at 3pm on Thursday 13 December A Service of Solemn will commemorate the events 2018 at Winston House, 2 Dollis Remembrance and Hope of Kristallnacht (‘Night of the QUESTIONS Park, London N3 1HF. on the 80th anniversary Broken Glass’), the pogrom of Kristallnacht will be against Jews on the night of FOR AJR All questions for the chair held at Westminster 9-10 November 1938. should be submitted by Friday Abbey at 6.30pm on If you wish to attend 2 November 2018 to the Chief Thursday 8 November. Tickets (free) are available by via please contact Karin Pereira Executive at the same postal www.westminster-abbey.org/ on 020 8385 3070 or at address, or by email to The service, which the events or by calling the AJR [email protected] [email protected]. AJR is co-organising, office.

3 AJR Journal | November 2018 Helping Harris House on air

Liverpool AJR member Faye Harris House reunion Healey will shortly appear in in the 1980s a new Channel 4 series called Britain in 100 homes, thanks to the intervention of the AJR.

Faye, who was born in Danzig (now Gdansk) in 1928, can still remember vividly the day her beloved parents waved her a fond farewell as she boarded a train to England from Poland, little knowing it would be the last time she would ever see them. She was just eleven years old when she was sent to England on a Kindertransport. She was taken in by the Fox family, who welcomed her with open arms. Her older sister was sent to London and her brother to Palestine and the three children did not meet again until after the war.

Faye was enrolled at Northway Primary School where she learnt to speak English in just three months. “All the children used to stand around me because I was a novelty,” she says. “I could only speak German. One naughty boy said to me ‘it is always polite to say to people when you meet them ‘hello you bloody bugger’. I learnt very quickly not to greet people that way!”

Whilst living in England Faye received a typing, book keeping and English. In the Kindertransport. The Harris House – so couple of letters from her parents but they October 1962 she married Frank Healey and named after the owner, Miss Harris, who soon stopped. “I never heard from my they had two children together. Faye worked donated the property at 27 Argyle Road – parents once the war broke out,” she says. for 20 years as a lollipop lady for a primary opened in February 1939 but was forced to “I have chosen not to think about what school in their home town of Litherland. close in July 1940 when British authorities happened to them as it simply makes me took the view that any refugee over 16 years upset. My sister made enquiries after the Faye tells very touchingly about her recent, of age was a security risk. war but could only find confirmation that emotional return visit to Danzig – a gift they had died. No date or location. Nothing from her children for her and her husband’s The girls who stayed at the Harris House about my parents’ final months.” golden wedding anniversary. The city was collectively contributed to a diary which was virtually demolished and, in recent years, discovered years later at a church jumble After leaving school Faye studied shorthand, was rebuilt in its former style so that Faye sale. The diary, which contains inspirational felt it was extremely familiar to her. At first accounts of the teenagers as they adjusted this made her feel nostalgic but then she to British life after escaping from Hitler’s Faye remembered the Nazi flags and antisemitic clutches, is deemed a significant wartime Healey slogans that had appeared everywhere record and is now on display at Manchester’s before she left. During her recent visit she Jewish Museum. was asked to give many press and radio interviews. The programme featuring Faye and the Harris House, will be aired shortly and be Faye will be sharing parts of her story in the presented by Phil Spencer of Location, programme ‘100 Homes in Britain’, which Location, Location fame. is focusing on a house in nearby Southport which opened its doors to 19 girls from Jo Briggs & Lilian Levy

4 AJR Journal | November 2018 TALES FROM HERRLINGEN

Klaer Weimersheimer, sister of Anna Essinger of Bunce Court, started her Kinderheim in Herrlingen, the same village as Anna’s Landschulheim, in 1913. I was there from 1925 (when I was three) for nine years, until 1934.

Klaer’s aim was to take children with problems or difficult family circumstances. I came to her when my mother had just died and my Klaer Weimersheimer is top left. Peter is second left in the front row father, working full time, could not look after me. Pfluecken wir ‘nen Strauss; a conductor in the USA. And there were Dann nimmt uns der Peter wieder the Hodapp boys, whose parents were Klaer only took about a dozen children. Zerrissen und zerlumpt nach’ Haus. missionaries in China. We called her Muetterle, and she was truly a mother: warm, caring, His sister Hanni got the job of looking after As I got older, from around ten, I affectionate. We were a big family and me - she was just three years older. The joined others in more or less running there are probably not all that many real youngest, Bruedi, played the cello, in fact things. Klaer was very keen on giving families whose children get so much the three of them used to play trios. responsibility early. By that time Tante love. For the first year or two, she had Anna’s Landschulheim had been my cot in her room next to her bed. We had a proper school, with teachers established for some years and in my last from many countries; I started picking up year at Herrlingen I went to school there. The house had been designed to Klaer’s bits of English right from the start. Emma This was maybe a mile the other side of ideas. There was a big balcony where we Brander, one of the teachers, was an the village; we used to walk across the all lay down in the summer for half an active member of the SAJ (Sozialistische fields in summer and in winter we skied hour after lunch. There was a big garden Arbeiterjugend) and I still remember a few there. and we grew all our vegetables and fruit. of the songs she taught us - “Brueder zur Sonne” and “Der kleine Trompeter”. We’re now in 1933. Anna, who saw the Klaer had three children. Peter, the light very early, transferred her school oldest, was a big brother to us. He used I had some good friends. One was to Bunce Court in Kent. She managed to take us on hikes: I still remember this Wolfgang Leonhard, who wrote “Die to take about 25 children with her. The song: Revolution frisst ihre Kinder”. His Landschulheim was taken over by Dr. Communist parents took him to Moscow Hugo Rosenthal and - force majeure - Wenn die Wand’rung ist zu Ende in 1934. Another, Erasmus Belden, became became a purely Jewish school.

The year after, in the summer of 1934, I left Germany and moved to Britain. The time I spent at Herrlingen was a very happy one. I look back with great affection. The year after I left, Klaer emigrated to Palestine and set up Meshek Yeladim.

P.S. During the war the Kinderheim was taken over by Rommel and his family. It was there that he killed himself. The village now has a Rommel museum and a street named after him.

School days at the Kinderheim in Herrlingen Peter Block

5 AJR Journal | November 2018 Letters to the Editor The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence submitted for publication.

OTHER PEOPLE’S PROBLEM rather than enlightens an interested As far as I am concerned, I am first Let’s face it. We all know (although audience. generation British, born 1949 in many will never admit it even to Frank Bright, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk Westminster Hospital and circumcised themselves) that there is a broad, if by the same doctor as Prince Charles. mostly latent, streak of anti-Jewish My mother left Germany in October prejudice running through all strata of ANTISEMITISM AND CHRISTIANITY IN 1938 and found guarantors for both British society. In my opinion this is a EUROPE her parents, who got out in July, 1939, historical fact. An illustration from a job The article by Dr Elena Rowland was so why do I have to define myself as interview for a technical service position very interesting and informative. But anything other than first generation in about 1955: “We don’t mind, but I thought the omission of the York British? some of our customers might object”! massacre in 1190 and expulsion and exclusion of all Jews from Britain My father is part of the Kristallnacht/ Things got worse when Israel was for over 350 years was particularly Dachau/Kitchener Camp/Isle of Man/ founded, largely because Jews were interesting. My father, a first generation Ile au Noix Canada cycle which is what no longer the underdogs. Matters Kindertransport German survivor of the I would like to see respected in depth as accelerated when the Left as a whole Holocaust, also disregards the darker each reaches 80 years of history. found that State’s policy objectionable, corners of Britain’s history. and lately have become politicised We do not know how AJR will develop as part of an anti-Corbyn dirty tricks It is totally understandable in the over the next decade. The Wiener armoury. This is NOT a Jewish problem, context of coming from Nazi Germany Library and the Jewish Museum would but one for the “others”. So we have to to a largely tolerant democracy in be appropriate meeting hubs and I live with it. August 1939, but given the present would like to see monthly articles E.M.Feld, London N3 day world-shaping decisions we are documenting Jewish matters of 80 years making, it would be better to have a ago, starting at the Kristallnacht events. more objective contextual view of where Eric Elias, London N3 HOLOCAUST TRANSLATED England, the Labour (and Tory) parties Unlike Ruth Barnett (September 2018), stand in Europe and the world today. when I talk to students or adults I start Tony Levi, London N2 INTERESTING ARTICLES by saying that it is the wrong word for Congratulations on your interesting what is intended to be conveyed. To article about the new Holocaust Centre start with it is a Greek word. They are THE LABOUR PARTY TODAY in Huddersfield. The two pieces on the then surprised to hear that it means “a Oh dear! First we have Heinz opposite page (page 5) about Frank sacrifice wholly consumed by fire” from Grunewald disagreeing with Deborah Foley and Fritz Bauer are also very Holocaustón, where holos is “whole” Lipstadt. Now we have Eric Sanders important. I have no evidence but I think and Kaustós a “burnt offering”. I then disagreeing with the former Chief Frank Foley rescued my Dad by getting explain that the “caustic” in caustic Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. Gentlemen – the him a boat passage to Shanghai in 1939. soda, a drain-cleaning chemical, is Labour Party today is not the Labour I have woven that into my play “What the same word as the second part of Party of Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Blair price for Justice?” Holocaust in that it burns away dirt, and and Brown. It is now the Labour Party that what was done to us was neither an of Jeremy Corbyn, a proven antisemite. Regarding Fritz Bauer, I have always offering in any sense nor had anything Eric Sanders writes about “evidence”. wondered whether my Dad had any to do with drain cleaning. I could fill both AJR Letter Pages with contact with Fritz Bauer. He must have “evidence”. Just google “Jeremy known of him in the late 1940s and The word is used today to our cost with Corbyn and antisemitism” and you will they both had huge difficulties with the gay (in the old sense) abandon where it have hours of painful reading. still pervasive Nazi attitude and former is wholly inappropriate, and is applied in Peter Phillips, Loudwater, Herts. Nazis’ influence in the legal profession. It areas other than modern Jewish history was Bauer who got wind of Eichmann’s where it has no place. It was introduced hiding place and alias. Bauer mistrusted in recent times to obfuscate, to avoid FUTURE GENERATIONS his German colleagues so sent the the truth, and in that it has succeeded. Just a few thoughts regarding your information straight to Mossad. My Dad Even “The Final Solution to the Jewish invitation to us youngsters to be more was also a judge in Berlin before the war, Question” would have been preferable active in the AJR. For starters, please can but a year younger than Fritz Bauer. and unambiguous. To have resorted we stop this 2nd/3rd generation banter: to a word which is all Greek to nearly We all have refugee roots regardless of Would you please pass on to David everybody, and wrong to boot, confuses when and where we were born. Herman my thanks, for not only

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including my letter about the Reith David Herman’s excellent and learnt her original name just as she was lectures on war, but responding with the informative article about Jewish about to begin an examination when the challenge to readers for their opinion. Czech immigrants was spoiled by the headmistress told her to use her “real” Ruth Barnett, London, NW6 inclusion of Robert Maxwell among name, of which Susi had no previous “these distinguished refugees” without notion. What most upset her was that NOTE FROM EDITOR: We are glad mentioning that Maxwell was a she had never seen an o as an ö, and readers found our recent article on crook who deprived thousands of his wondered how she could explain such to Major Frank Foley interesting. Our employees of their pensions and did her friends. thanks also go to John Curtis for nothing to endear the reputation of highlighting the fact that there is a Jewish refugees to our British hosts. During the meeting a local Jewish commemoration to Major Foley at lecturer in Jewish history challenged Hoop Lane cemetery. Perhaps Mr. Herman could write an her with questions about the State of article about the many distinguished Israel. Susi had little knowledge about Jewish Hungarian immigrants who have Zionism and he should have been CZECH MATES contributed so much to the UK and who more considerate, sensitive or at least I found David Herman’s article describing rarely appear in the pages of the AJR understanding. the fate of Czech refugees very Journal? interesting. I was particularly struck by John Farago, Deal, Kent I think she had a good marriage and a the story of Leo Weiner’s father who, good son. Her husband died before her with four degrees, worked as a cleaner. NOTE FROM EDITOR: Thank you for and had a Christian burial. She had the this excellent suggestion, which we are strength to wish to be buried with him. I experienced something similar when including in our plan for 2019. Surely that was to be admired? I came here in 1982. Ignorant about Ruth L. David, Leicester Britain I studied English during the day, while in the evenings and weekends SUSI BECHHÖFER working as a dishwasher in a Roman Thank you for the obituary on Susi MY SISTER WAS SAVED Catholic Hospital. A nun told me: Bechhöfer (October). Her story was one Frank Bright’s letter regarding the sinking ‘Doctor, do not forget to clean the of the more tragic ones I have heard of three ships in the bay of Lisbech in bathroom and toilet!’ and I would like to add a few details, late 1945 took me back over 70 years. having known her reasonably well. I think Leo’s father was right to change Like Susi, I came to England with the One of the ships mentioned was his name to Wilson. I changed my name Kindertransport (I was 7 years older) and deserted by its crew and was floating by deed poll to Rowland and, in spite I also lost my parents in Auschwitz. aimlessly in the Baltic until a Norwegian of my foreign accent and look, secured sailor took charge of it. It was work in a microbiology laboratory to I first met her in Leicester where she bombed by Allies who believed it to complete my MSc. There, an English gave a talk to the Jewish community. be transporting German troops. Then, technician, identified me as “…another She was at the time incredibly shy and on nearing the shore of Schleswig- Czechoslovak Jewish, frustrated old really afraid of speaking publicly. Holstein, many Jewish prisoners were spinster,” I was financially recompensed forced into the water and shot dead by by the Court for this remark and got During her talk we were shown a BBC the SS. another job, at a higher salary. film which included a few pictures of the man who became her father. Her My sister Mergrit was one of the lucky The problem with overseas qualifications mother was left pregnant by this man, ones who was liberated by British troops is that you need a sponsor of sorts. I with twins. It could not have been more when the ship eventually reached dry was lucky as people from my laboratory wretched at the time. land. The Colonel in charge cleared the verified that I was capable. However local hospital to make space for Jewish I also took a Psychology course and Her mother Rosa fell in love with a prisoners, including my sister, who was despite my tutor signing the papers German soldier. He wanted to marry her suffering from typhus. I am forever for the British Psychological Society, but of course Hitler had made a law in grateful to him. I have never been able to work here 1935 forbidding marriage and any sexual as a doctor. Many years after the war relationship between Jews and Aryans, This account is based on a letter I life is still not easy for graduates from the word the Nazis commonly used for received describing my family’s suffering. Czechoslovakia. Christians. I read it only once and it is now safely Dr Elena Rowland , London SE18 locked in a steel cabinet. Bechhöfer is spelled with an ö. Susi Ernest Kolman, Greenford

7 AJR Journal | November 2018 ART NOTES: by Gloria Tessler

Our collective imagination may be too romantic, skewed by Gauguin’s imagery, but The Royal Academy’s Oceania exhibition shows a different perspective. Oceania covers a third of the earth’s surface with thousands of volcanic islands and coral atolls in the Pacific ocean

Art is a pragmatic realisation of everyday life between islands, sustained by fishing, travelling, punctuated by war, and enhanced by terrifying gods, masks, and deadly rituals. The fact Ta Moka panel that one deity is the god of island 1896-99 eating tells you about a people used to New Zealand volcanic eruption of the sort we see in Indonesia and other areas today. The thread of ancestor and deity worship reflects an awareness of the world and the cosmos, the fragility of life and the tension between opposing forces of war and fertility. large paddles, including one called a are problems, even violence. One soul canoe with sculpted beasts, turtles islander views the scientific instruments Papua New Guinea and the and birds, weapons and many totemic the seamen have introduced. Another neighbouring Bismarck islands were images, such as masks worn at festivals. has brought an easel and is trying to colonised 30,000 years ago. In August, There is an early 19th century feather paint. The implication is that the people 1768, four years before George III cloak, surprisingly modern looking in will develop European traits, and the founded the Royal Academy, in sailed a vivid orange and yellow design. The Europeans themselves will learn from Captain James Cook, commanding the materials used for the sculpture and a more native, spiritual awareness. HMS Endeavour, on a scientific mission jewellery include palm leaf, coconut Christian missionaries initiated change, to track the transit of Venus in Tahiti palm, shark teeth and vertebrae, human encouraging the rejection of the and to explore the southern hemisphere hair and shell. Some of the masks deities as pagan idols, but in fact for the Admiralty. In the first of his show glaring eyes and wide open many islanders opted to embrace new three voyages to the Pacific they were mouths disclosing terrifying molars. narratives. The uglier face of intrusive confronted by a life they had probably Nearly everything is made of wood, colonialism was that it brought disease, never imagined; as alien to Europeans and was either discovered or made in sexual abuse, land appropriation and as they in their red coats and white the mid-19th to 20th centuries. It begs labour exploitation. But the art of the breeches must have seemed to the the question: was this art replicated islanders themselves remains primitive, islanders. from originals made hundreds of years powerful and languishes in the memory. earlier? And where is the European As you enter the exhibition, the influence that we know took place? first thing you see is a sheet of blue hanging from the ceiling, a concoction The answer is found in a riveting single Annely Juda Fine Art of polythene and cotton thread, channel video created by Lisa Reihana. 23 Dering Street representing the ocean, called Kiko Real and animated figures move against (off New Bond Street) Moana, made by four Maori women a painted island backdrop showing Tel: 020 7629 7578 artists from the Mata Aho Collective. the indigenous islanders: the women, Fax: 020 7491 2139 It flatly evokes the sea which is said enrobed in white, swaying, the men both to connect and separate them, sometimes masked, and finally the CONTEMPORARY suggesting nothing of its turbulence. cultural interaction with the bemused PAINTING AND SCULPTURE As you move inside you see canoes and redcoats. It’s not all plain sailing. There

8 AJR Journal | November 2018

LETTER FROM ISRAEL BY DOROTHEA SHEFER-VANSON

has boycotted the municipal elections, the city. What that would mean for O JERUSALEM! refusing to recognise their legitimacy. the future of Jerusalem is unclear, This represents a turning-point in as many of the laws and byelaws I was fortunate the attitude of the Arab residents of governing daily life there have been enough to Jerusalem and may well contain the endorsed by Israel’s Supreme Court, attend a talk by seeds of positive future developments. and are hence immutable. But there Peggy Cidor, It would seem that the fear of reprisals would undoubtedly be a change in who writes on from extremist elements which condemn the general atmosphere, whether for Municipal Affairs participation in Israel’s institutions has better or for worse is a matter for the Jerusalem abated, accompanied by the realisation of opinion. Post and various other publications that neither the Palestinian Authority and also works as a documentary nor Hamas are able or willing to provide In June 1967, when the entire researcher. She is well-informed about the municipal services that are so badly city came under Israeli rule, Jews the workings of the municipality and needed by the population of East constituted seventy percent of the various candidates for Jerusalem’s Jerusalem. population and Arabs thirty percent. upcoming municipal election, and was Since then, this ratio has changed, and at pains to put her audience in the Seeking to dispel confusion about the now stands at sixty to forty percent, picture about the eight candidates, various candidates, Ms. Cidor explained whether due to natural increase or and the different lists and policies the background, political and religious population growth. Zeev Elkin has each one represents (in the meantime, affiliation, likely areas of electoral stated that it is his objective to restore one of the candidates, Yossi Havilio, support and proposed policies of each the former proportion, by building whose chances of being elected were one. The plethora of candidates is housing for Jewish residents and considered very slim, has withdrawn, certainly confusing for anyone who has redrawing the boundaries of greater so that the number is now seven). not kept apace of the intricate political Jerusalem, which currently include dance of the various individuals and several major Palestinian refugee One of the salient points Ms. Cidor their groupings, not to mention the in- camps on the outskirts of the city. stressed was that the number of fighting within certain groups. Thus, the But he also affirms that he will work candidates is unprecedented in the current front-runner, Zeev Elkin, who is a to improve the infrastructure of East fifty years since the Six-Day War of member of the Likud party, represents it Jerusalem, which has suffered many 1967, when the city was reunited in the Knesset and has been endorsed by years of neglect. His close connection under Israeli rule. In fact, the largest Prime Minister Netanyahu, is opposed by to the Prime Minister and the ruling number ever was three, and that was the Jerusalem branch of the Likud party, Likud party will doubtless help to give in 2005. Just prior to the Six-Day which feels slighted at not having been him access to the necessary funds. War Teddy Kollek had been elected consulted as to who should represent it. mayor, and he remained in office from The mayor of Jerusalem is elected for a 1965 to 1993. The current mayor, Further confusion is provided by the five-year term and generally functions Nir Barkat. has announced that after plethora of religious, orthodox and ultra- with the help of a coalition of several completing two terms of office he will orthodox candidates of every shade parties, including at least eight salaried not stand for re-election and seeks to and stripe. Although these factions Deputy Mayors, each one with a move to the national arena. have generally been divided in the past, sphere of ‘ministerial’ concern. There is there have been rumours in the press no doubt that whoever is elected will Also unprecedented is the presence of late of a projected unified list and seek to provide for the needs of his (or in the forthcoming election of two candidate being put forward by all the her) constituency, and it remains to be Arab candidates and lists. In the past religious parties, which could well result seen who will benefit as a result and the Arab population of Jerusalem in that person being elected mayor of who will suffer.

AJR SCREENINGS

The AJR is sponsoring a number of film screenings this month, as part of the 22nd Jewish Film Festival.

AJR-sponsored performances include “Winter Hunt” on Saturday 10 November at 18:00 in London and Tuesday 20 November in Manchester, plus “Refuge Britain” on Sunday 11 November and “Resistance” on Sunday 18 November, both in London. www.ukjewishfilm.org

9 AJR Journal | November 2018 Nursing and Jewish women refugees: A training, a profession and a living

Eighty years ago, on 26 November 1938, The Nursing Mirror and Midwives’ Journal published a letter from ‘Sister’ appealing to her fellow nurses to welcome young German Jewish women into the profession:

“None of us can open our daily papers and remain unmoved at the desperate predicament of the German Jews. Can we not – those of our profession – do something to aid this human suffering? Many of these poor wretched creatures are well-educated young women, girls brought up in refinement, now flung helplessly into a chaotic world without mercy or pity.

The doors of some of our hospital training Ruth Rawraway and babies Liesel Einstein’s certificate schools have already been opened to a few of them but the number is, as yet, refugees from Nazi Europe. Drawing on both written and oral quite inadequate. Those of us who are not personal testimony, the purpose of my matrons need not be left out. There must In about 2011, I was working on an oral research is to tell the story of the young surely be many trained nurses like myself, history project about nursing in the Second women who fled Nazi Europe for Britain, willing to ‘big sister’ one of these young World War. During these interviews a and entered the nursing profession at ones, to make our homes their homes, and few participants reflected on the arrival a time of mass shortage of nurses and to help them over a very difficult passage of young Jewish refugees into their nurse wartime health care needs. Like the wider of their lives. training hospitals. In one such interview population of Britain, there were nurses Nurse BN describes a girl who ‘appeared whose antisemitism wrought misery on If such a scheme could be launched I, at the [hospital nursing] school’ in about the refugee students. There were others for one, would be pleased to accept 1938. BN thought she must have had like the Sister and Nurse BN above whose responsibility for the welfare of one of connections in England, to have been able kindness and pursuit of professional these girls, to take her into my flat, to fit to escape. She continued, ‘They explained excellence enabled these young women her out with uniform and books prior to it to us, but you didn’t appreciate it. You to establish themselves in Britain, as nurses her entrance into some hospital training know, you couldn’t conceive in your own and as welcomed, valuable members of school, and give her a home for off-days mind what was going on’. It was clear the profession and society as a whole. and holidays.” to me that there was an important story here, of young women refugees fleeing Edith Bown (née Jacobwitz) was one such There is no subsequent letter or article Nazi Europe and entering the nursing young refugee. Edith fled Germany with that tells us if this Sister was able to create profession here in Britain. Then in 2017 her brother in 1939, but not before she such an opportunity in her own home, I wrote to the AJR asking if they would had witnessed at first hand the horrors but we do know that no such scheme publish a letter seeking refugees who had of Kristallnacht, which we remember was ever launched within the wider been nurses and who would be willing this month. In her oral history interview, profession. Individual refugee nurses to be interviewed. The AJR were happy preserved at the Royal College of Nursing would experience kindly homes of British to help. I had no idea how many would Archives in Edinburgh, Edith recalled: nursing colleagues who willingly offered respond and feel able to talk about their them friendship and a sympathetic space nursing lives, but I have managed to That night we did not sleep. The radio away from the hospital. But there were interview eight women and have been blurted out obscenities directed at Jews, many, both within the nursing profession sent memoirs of others by their children, Communists and other sub-humans. We and in the wider public, who were able nieces and nephews. I have also found a watched the jewellers across the road to read their daily papers and remain very number of oral histories already in archives being smashed, and looted by teenage much ‘unmoved’ by the plight of Jewish around the country. Hitler youths, boys were led by SA men…

10 AJR Journal | November 2018 Nursing and Jewish women refugees: A training, a profession and a living The morning after Kristallnacht, as the accepted the value of nursing: ‘it was redemptive. As Gertrude Roberts said: ‘I official propaganda version called it, I training you could do that didn’t cost was nursing people, I was meeting sick went to school as usual. In fact, I was the anything, and that was a progression’. people, I was kind of making up for not only member of the family to venture Like Hortense and Edith, Charlotte nursing my parents, I was at last able out. My mother liked to keep everything Hoxter had dreamt of being a doctor. to help someone. And I‘ve done it ever as normal as possible. I went by tram She was not allowed to take the Abitur since.’ that morning. The conductor and the (A levels) because she was Jewish and passengers were highly amused by the her family sent her to England soon Not all those who took up nursing enjoyed sight of broken shop windows. They after. Her reasons for entering nursing it. Annie Altschul, a refugee from Austria, applauded the looting as one way of were pragmatic, she liked people and admitted that she disliked general nursing getting even with the Jews. nursing offered a training, a profession intensely. She later found her home in and a living. Despite her ambitions to psychiatry and became the first professor Edith’s parents were arrested in May be a doctor being thwarted, Charlotte’s of mental health nursing in Britain. 1939, at which point despite her father’s daughter told me that she had loved Others enjoyed the work, but found concerns about the children being sent nursing and that her work ‘fulfilled her’. nursing in Britain lacked promotional away, such decisions became a matter opportunities unless you were British. of urgency. Edith and her brother left for Another refugee, Mia Fuchs, wrote: Many of the refugee nurses, like their Ireland a month later. They never saw ‘I started training as a nurse at the British counterparts, left to marry and their parents again. Edith had wanted [Keighley and District Victoria] hospital have a family of their own. Some returned to study medicine, but such ambitions in March 1941. I was pleased to finish to nursing later in life. The stories I have were no longer possible. Nursing was an my work as a domestic but I had quite listened to and the testimonies I have read option, and she commenced at Newton mixed feelings about my future as a are varied and deeply humbling. But I have Ards Hospital in September 1942 – not hospital nurse.’ Lee Fischer (née Einstein) been struck by a number of similarities: the only refugee nurse whose ambitions recalled that when she reached eighteen, the determination to take the lay outside nursing. Several of those Britain was in the middle of the war opportunities provided, a resilience in whose testimonies I have accessed and everyone was expected to support accepting when life was not ideal and a wanted to be doctors, one a concert the war effort. She applied to Booth belief that nursing could make a difference pianist and another a journalist. None Hall Children’s Hospital in Manchester. to them and their patients. of these were possible in Britain. Their Like many of her compatriots, she was choices were gendered and opportunistic working as a domestic servant at the Dr Jane Brooks RN on the part of the government and time. Cruelly, the woman for whom she Senior Lecturer, Division of Nursing, the public need: domestic service or worked sacked her on the spot when she Midwifery and Social Work nursing. Yet, whilst both jobs provided saw the invitation for an interview for University of Manchester accommodation, meals and a uniform, nurse training. Some, like Kitty Schafer Dr Brooks will be speaking at the Royal nursing was able to provide something had always wanted to nurse, or as in the College of Nursing on 13 November at that domestic service could not. case of Ruth Rawraway, were already 5pm (www.rcn.org.uk) and to the Jewish experienced nurses when they fled to Historical Society on 13 December at 7pm When Hortense Gordon realised that she Britain. For some the opportunity offered at University College London would not be able to study medicine, she by nursing was deeply personal and (www.jhse.org)

Mia Fuchs’ visa Ruth Rawraway in the middle

11 AJR Journal | November 2018

1932. To everyone’s surprise his sister REVIEWS Lisa put in an appearance eleven minutes later. Her childhood memories CONTEMPORARY HUMAN RIGHTS are also included in this book published CHALLENGES: THE UNIVERSAL in memory of the twins and dedicated DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS to refugees everywhere. AND ITS CONTINUING RELEVANCE Routledge His father was a lawyer and they lived ISBN 978-0815364634 in a large expensively-furnished fourth floor flat on the site where Mozart had AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman written The Magic Flute and indeed was proud to be among the joint- died. “Mutti” (his mother) came from editors of this fascinating collection of a prosperous family which owned Café essays on the Universal Declaration of Herrenhof. It was decorated in art Human Rights (UDHR). deco style with a ballroom and seating for 1,000 in the heart of the cultural Written in honour of Clemens Nathan, THE WEINSTOCK LETTERS 1939 - 1948 city. Guests included Franz Werfel and a Holocaust refugee and AJR member Soferpress Sigmund Freud. who passed away in 2015, the ISBN 978-965572021 collection includes essays written by Delightful photos of the twins as leading international human rights This beautifully produced book gives a small children illustrate the book. The experts, including former US President fascinating insight into the lives of the household employed a cook, maid Jimmy Carter, UNESCO Secretary Weinstock family, four of whose children and nanny but this quickly changed General Audrey Azoulay, and the escaped Vienna despite the subsequent as a carefree childhood was disrupted former Archbishop of Canterbury murders of both their parents and their after the Nazis annexed Austria in Rowan Williams. fifth sibling. 1938. Later that year the Poppers were baptised in Christ Church, The UDHR was drafted by the UN The book contains a comprehensive Vienna, during the mass baptism for Commission on Human Rights in the collection of letters, cards and telegrams Jews. Although his parents were not aftermath of WW2 in an attempt to which passed between various members physically hurt or imprisoned, life address the wrongs of the past and of the Weinstock family between 1939 became tough and intimidating and plan for a better future for all. This and 1948. They vividly bring to life their their livelihood went. book offers a timely contemporary pain at being separated, the parents’ view on the UDHR and its continuing delight that their children had arrived With difficulty they set off by train relevance to today’s issues. safely and were doing well in England and boat for a new life in Cyprus, a and the desperate tones of the surviving British Crown colony, and were joined Examined through these universal siblings as letters from their parents by grandparents. The children enjoyed principles, which have enduring and missing sibling became ever more idyllic times while the parents took up relevance, the authors grapple scarce. In fact brother Zvi had travelled sweet-making for a living, interrupted with some of today’s most pressing to Palestine in 1941 but was killed in the by Stefan’s father’s internment. Locals challenges, several of which, for caravan going to Mount Scopus in 1948. were friendly and hospitable but example equality and gender related the family had to move around with rights, would not have been foreseen Two of his siblings – Sara Schreiber and Stefan and Lisa frequently changing by the original drafters of the Esti Kalms – are members of the AJR, schools. Declaration, who included Eleanor having arrived on the Kindertransport. Roosevelt, René Cassin and John Sara’s son David Schreiber helped them But soon with fears of Cyprus being Humphrey. to gather together all the correspondence invaded, they were evacuated and and get it translated and reproduced in set sail for Tanganyika via Palestine. The essays make a compelling and this lovely coffee table style book. This was David Livingstone and Masai detailed argument for the on-going Jo Briggs territory but there were always Jewish importance and significance of the refugee families not too far away. Here Declaration and human rights in our amongst the mango trees and pleasant rapidly changing world. BITTER SWEET way of life lurked deadly African by Stefan Popper dangers, snakes, scorpions, lions and Michael Newman’s co-editors were The Book Guild Ltd malaria. Boarding school beckoned Dr Carla Ferstman, Alexander ISBN 978-1-912362-35-6 at Arusha in the north east of the Goldberg, Dr Tony Gray and Dr Liz country, modelled on the English Ison and Richard Nathan – daughter Stefan Popper’s family could never have public school system. Many teachers and son of the late Clemens Nathan. imagined what an adventurous life lay had been missionaries and standards Kathy Cohen ahead when he was born in Vienna in were high, but it was two days from

12 AJR Journal | November 2018

home by rail and hazardous roads. NEWCASTLE OUTING TO BETH SHALOM

After the war Stefan’s father was repatriated to Cyprus so back they all went to tireless struggles with confectionery; it is certainly very interesting reading about the various enterprises. Sadly, soon his father’s health began to fail and he died in 1956 while on their first visit back to Vienna since being forced to leave. Stefan had studied law in his spare time and left Cyprus for England to further his career the following year.

Here his tale ends and the book We were privileged to visit Beth Shalom, people before and during the Holocaust. was published posthumously. Many the Holocaust Memorial Museum near relations perished and included are five Nottingham. Museum guide Dan Newton One member of our group, Gay additional moving stories of relatives welcomed us and gave a résumé of the Keenaghan, a Kindertransport survivor, and how they survived the war against exhibits on show, and then joined the shared her own experiences with us all odds. Tante Cilka hid in a nunnery, Group for lunch before we toured the before we laid stones in the Museum’s others lived underground in Vienna Museum. The Group was extremely garden in memory of the 1.5 million and the more distantly connected touched by the exhibits and memorabilia, children who perished. Chava Livni had a horrendous time which gave us an insight into the lives of Lucy Gibbons and Ronnie Boam in camps. Yet she lived eventually to become a great-grandmother.

Stefan died in 2016. He became a EDITH POULSEN solicitor, later qualifying as a doctor The October issue of the AJR Journal point out that her daughter Sylvia, who before becoming a coroner for South carried a lovely photo of Edith Poulsen was mentioned in the accompanying Yorkshire where he worked on the taken at her 100th birthday party. Edith report, was born in 1941 to Edith and her first Hillsborough inquests. A truly came from Austria in 1939, just a week first husband, who sadly passed away just fascinating life and book. before her 21st birthday, and worked as a two years later. Edith then married Charles Janet Weston housemaid. At Edith’s request we should Poulsen in 1949.

INTERNATIONAL CONSENSUS IS STILL ELUSIVE On 26 September, diplomats Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in Representing the UK, Lord Ahmad of participating in the 73rd United adopting a definition of antisemitism which Wimbledon, spoke powerfully about was agreed upon by its 31 member states. his own experience visiting Auschwitz- Nations General Assembly However, many of the prepared remarks Birkenau as part of the Holocaust joined a meeting organised highlighted the fact that international Educational Trust’s Lessons from consensus on the nature and causes of Auschwitz Project. He cited this as an by UNESCO on the topic of antisemitism remains elusive. effective example of a government- “Education to prevent racism sponsored educational initiative and discrimination: the case of The Prime Minister of Morocco, Saadeddine highlighting the consequences of Othmani, decried the international antisemitism taken to its extreme. antisemitism”. The AJR was stigmatisation of migrants and refugees, represented at the event by our then minutes later Hungary’s representative blamed these very migrants for rising Head of Educational Grants and antisemitism. His remarks, which fit Projects, Alex Maws. squarely within the context of Hungary’s well documented recent turn towards The very fact that such a multilateral xenophobia and Holocaust distortion, went meeting took place was significant, and unchallenged, yet the same Hungarian introductory remarks by Antonio Guterres, minister earned applause for asserting his Secretary General of the United Nations, country’s support within the UN Human praised the work of the International Rights Council for the State of Israel.

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ESSEX PINNER Louis M. Gottschalk, American composer The social historian Pam Fox, supported by Around 1829-1869. What a treat we had listening her husband as reader of short paragraphs, to the music of this outstanding pianist entertained us with portrayals of Jewish second only to Liszt in his time. We enjoyed Golders Green from the beginning of the the AJR pieces he had written, all played on CD 20th century to more recent times. for us by Henry Goldstein. There’s always Most of these reports are summaries of something new to learn! Her book should be interesting. much longer reviews which, due to lack Meta Roseneil Henri Obstfeld of space, we are unable to include in their entirety. If you would like further information on the actual event please contact either the author or the AJR regional co-ordinator. LEEDS The group met EDINBURGH in a lovely new Our subject this month was “The Healing café at a local Power of Music” and was chosen by our dairy farm, which charming 89 years-young hostess, Pamela, serves homemade and her talented son, Karl. Italian ice cream. It was a great We each related a personal story on way to celebrate how music had played a part in our lives. Arek Hersh’s 90th This was followed by a splendid tea, birthday. accompanied by music of course! Wendy Bott Lilian Bell

CONTACTS NOVEMBER GROUP EVENTS

Susan Harrod All AJR members are welcome at any of these events; you do not have to be affiliated Events and Outreach Manager to that particular group. As the exact timings of these events are often subject to last 020 8385 3070 [email protected] minute changes we do not include them in the AJR Journal and suggest you contact Wendy Bott the relevant regional contact for full details. Northern Outreach Co-ordinator 07908 156 365 [email protected] Pinner 1 November Andy Thomas – Conspiracies: The Facts, The Theories, The Evidence. Agnes Isaacs Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Radlett 2 November Nick Dobson: Florence Nightingale and Mary 07908 156 361 [email protected] Seacole – two extraordinary Victorian ladies.

Ros Hart Glasgow 4 November Kristallnacht Commemoration Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Ealing 6 November Maurice Kanareck - Refuseniks 07966 969 951 [email protected] Ilford 7 November David Barnett – Tea Shops & Corner Houses: the Eva Stellman Story of Joe Lyons Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Harrogate/York 19 November Social get-together 07904 489 515 [email protected] Prestwich 21 November Social get-together Karen Diamond Kingston and Surrey 22 November Film: “Nina’s Children” Southern Outreach Co-ordinator 07966 631 778 Glasgow Book Club 22 November Book club [email protected] Kensington 26 November Social at Ruth & Peter Kraus KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Edgware 27 November Maurice Kanareck - Refuseniks Susan Harrod Book Club 28 November Social get-together 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Newcastle 28 November Pre-Chanukah lunch Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Muswell Hill 29 November Leslie Sommer- My time in the Civil Service Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 [email protected] North London 29 November Jo Briggs, Editor of the AJR Journal

14 AJR Journal | November 2018 LOOKING FOR?

The AJR regularly receives ELSE URY lived at 10 Kensington Palace Gardens. British biographer Clare Mulley is They were donors to the Synagogue in messages from members and researching the popular German Heppenheim which was inaugurated in others looking for people or help Jewish children’s author Else Ury, who 1900 and destroyed in 1938. Several was murdered at Auschwitz in 1943. family members lived in Heppenheim in particular subjects. Here are Clare hopes to look at issues around until 1942 when they fell victim to the imagination and censorship and to pay Nazis. The Heppenheim Stolperstein some of the most recent requests attention to some of the children who Association would like to contact their may have read Ury’s books or known English relatives. – please get in touch directly with of her as an author – both among those [email protected] the person concerned if you can who survived the war and those who tragically did not. UK DOMESTIC PERMITS help in any way. Eve Kugler, whose late cousin came Sadly, in her diaries Anne Frank did not from Germany in June 1939 aged 19 BIRKENAU HOSTEL IN ANNAN mention Else Ury or the main character and worked as a domestic servant, is Henry Herner, now of Florida, USA, from her most famous Nesthäkchen book interested to hear more about people was placed at the above hostel in series, but it is possible that others might who took in Jewish refugees as servants, Dumfriesshire and attended school in have made references in diaries or letters. what their motive was, what they Greenock, Renfrewshire, together with [email protected] or expected of their household employees about 50 other Kindertransport boys and 07713 485 188 and the relationship between them. girls from Austria and Germany. He would Her cousin never spoke of her own be delighted to hear from any of them. FRANK CLIFFORD HEINZMANN experiences. [email protected] AJEX Archivist Martin Sugarman is [email protected] seeking information on Frank Clifford DR. L.G.T. KING – RESTITUTION Heinzmann who was killed in France in SOROKSAR (HUNGARY) LAWYER 1944, serving in the Hussars (Armoured Tom Horvath Neumann is researching Bridget King would like to hear from anyone Div). He has a Cross on his grave which the history of Soroksar (just south of who remembers her grandparents Alice one can get changed with proof that he Budapest) and of its Jews, only a few and Lutz King (originally Königsberger) was Jewish. of whom survived the events of 1944. from Berlin. He was a restitution lawyer, [email protected] Almost all of those who survived left usually known as L.G.T. King, with an office Hungary for various destinations and on Cricklewood Broadway. They lived in HIRSCH FAMILY OF HEPPENHEIM Tom would be pleased to hear from their Gladstone Park Gardens. Adolph, Leopold and Heinrich Hirsch descendants. [email protected] came to London in the 19th century and [email protected]

Some of the popular Nesthaekchen series of children’s books, written by Else Ury, who was murdered at Auschwitz. British biographer Clare Mulley is hoping to find people who read these books or even met their author.

15 AJR Journal | November 2018 Creating a day to remember

Holocaust Memorial Day has felt as enriched or privileged as she does in Olivia’s own family mostly came to England expanded almost beyond her current role. around the turn of the 20th century and, like most Jews, has always felt a strong recognition since it was first “The modern world sometimes feels very connection to those who were directly introduced to the UK by Tony divided and frightening. It is wonderful to affected by the Holocaust. She believes Blair in 2001. Jo Briggs talks to help people come together to learn from passionately that everyone, regardless of the scars of genocide and pledge towards a age or background, should know about Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief better future,” she explains. the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and the Executive of the Holocaust subsequent genocides, and should set aside Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), the A study into the impact of HMD, carried time to remember all those who suffered. out by the Centre for Regional Economic charity which has promoted and and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam Each Holocaust Memorial Day has a supported this vitally important University in 2016, found 70% of different theme, to provide event planners day across the UK since 2005. respondents who had taken part in an with fresh ideas and to create a platform HMD activity were afterwards more aware for its participants to learn new things. The of the causes and conditions that can lead 2018 theme was ‘The Power of Words’ When the HMDT ‘inherited’ Holocaust to genocide. 66% said they felt more and readers of this Journal will remember Memorial Day from the Home Office just sympathetic toward people from different reading about the popular HMD event that 300 events were taking place under its backgrounds and 93% of respondents took the AJR held to advise members what to do banner. In 2018 over 11,000 HMD events some form of action as a result of an HMD with their own personal archives. took place across the UK and the date event. of 27 January is now firmly fixed in the The theme for the 2019 HMD is ‘Torn from minds of pretty much every event planner Achieving the right balance between the home’. Olivia and her team hope it will or programmer in both the public and the Holocaust and other genocides can be encourage audiences to reflect on how the private sectors. tricky and comes under close scrutiny. enforced loss of a safe place to call ‘home’ Olivia is adamant that the Holocaust will is part of the trauma faced by anyone The HMDT provides ideas, materials always have primacy. Its scale in terms of experiencing persecution and genocide. and support but leaves the format and numbers and transition across national It will help participants consider what execution of individual events entirely to boundaries was unprecedented, as was happens when individuals, families and the event planners. Olivia and her team the level of sophistication employed communities are driven out of, or wrenched are constantly amazed by the creativity by its perpetrators.“But many of the from, their homes, because of persecution, and enthusiasm demonstrated. characteristics of the Holocaust were sadly alongside the continuing difficulties far from unique,” she explains. “The Khmer survivors face as they strive for new homes Approximately half of the events Rouge forced its victims in Cambodia to when the genocide is over. are targeted at adult audiences, wear a blue scarf, Bosnian Muslims were encompassing churches, cinemas, village forced into concentration camps, and HMD 2019 will also include marking halls, museums and galleries, prisons the Rwandan Hutus employed high level the 25th anniversary of the genocide in and workplaces. The other half are run propaganda techniques to label the Tutsis Rwanda, which included the murder of by schools, designed mainly but not as ‘vermin’. These genocides may not have approximately one million Tutsis. The exclusively for their pupils. incorporated mass murder on such a horrific HMDT’s activity pack for 2019 includes scale as the Holocaust but their perpetrators stories from survivors of the Holocaust and The important thing to remember, Olivia were no less evil than the Nazis.” the Rwandan and Cambodian Genocides, stresses, is that the majority of events to help audiences identify commonalities are run by non-Jewish people for a non- When asked whether the HMDT is likely and also differences between people forced Jewish audience. This clearly differentiates to shift its focus towards current day out of their homes during these three HMD from Yom HaShoah, which is the genocides Oliva says the Trust’s own separate but similarly tragic events. Jewish community’s own special day for resources are strictly limited to events honouring all our people affected by the where the alleged perpetrators have already Real life stories of this type are at the heart Holocaust. been indicted for the crime of genocide of all the HMDT’s activities and the Trust at an international tribunal. “There is enormously grateful to all AJR members Olivia joined HMDT in 2012, heading is sadly no shortage of terrible things who have chosen to share their stories and up a team of twelve outreach, happening in the world, and we encourage take part in various HMD events. Their communications and operational staff. local communities and organisations to testimonies are typically published by the She has worked in the charity sector for understand the relevance of the Holocaust HMDT in long and short versions, the latter most of her career but says she has never to today’s world.” being particularly suitable for children and

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Pledges are made as Creating a day to remember people mark HMD

Olivia Marks-Woldman

adults with low level literacy skills. When Holocaust by hiding in barns, farms and Interfaith Scotland, the Aegis Trust and used effectively they can have a profound convents until, in 1943, her parents made the Ishani Foundation as well – of course impact. the agonising decision to send Renee and – as the AJR, meets quarterly. It helps her two siblings to Switzerland. Marianne create effective working relationships, As an example, Olivia quotes the case Cohn, a resistance worker, was murdered avoid duplication by sharing ideas and of the Polmont Young Offenders by the Gestapo for helping Renee and other information and extend the reach and Institute, the largest of its kind in Scotland. children escape. Renee eventually married impact of Holocaust Memorial Day. The At the request of the Prison Governor another Holocaust survivor and, thanks AJR is represented on the partnership the HMDT helped the Institute to create largely to the warmth of the Manchester group by our Head of Volunteering Carol a broad programme around HMD which Jewish community, they were able to heal Hart. The AJR and HMDT also work included the production and subsequent and bring their children up with Jewish together within the IHRA (International presentation of a special piece of artwork. identities. Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) The ceremony attracted the local MSP network, represented by our CEO, and various other dignitaries. However the School pupils and other people who take Michael Newman and Olivia. AJR’s input highlight for many of the young offenders part in the various HMD 2019 events is highly valued by the HMDT – “The was learning about the individuals will be encouraged to send a postcard to AJR is a pleasure to work with,” says persecuted, for example, Johann ‘Rukeli’ either Renee or to Sokphal Din, whose Olivia. Trollmann, the popular German Sinto boxer family were forced from their home during who was discriminated against, sterilised, the genocide in Cambodia. Every class It’s this collaborative approach, combined and finally deported to a concentration or organisation that writes will receive a with the inspiring vision of Olivia and camp, where he was murdered. Rukeli’s response. her team, which has helped to make story so inspired one young offender that, the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Day such despite having never spoken in public Although thousands of schools and a presence on the world stage. Most before, he insisted on personally presenting organisations have already registered for countries around the globe now mark the Rukeli’s story. HMD 2019, planning their actual events International Holocaust Remembrance is often left until much closer to the date. Day to some extent, but the UK is Another positive example comes from The Trust is well prepared for this, with respected as leading the way. Our mix a special needs school in Harrow where a catalogue of instantly downloadable of national and local events and our a pupil with severe autism was so resources and numerous suggestions for inclusion of other genocides is seen as motivated by attending the national HMD HMD-related activities that require little or a model for other nations who have commemoration service that for the first no advance planning. perhaps not been as effective at engaging time he addressed his school assembly to different sectors of society and making raise wider awareness of the Holocaust As the number of Holocaust Memorial the theme relevant for contemporary and genocides. The school has now revised Day events increases and more and more audiences. upwards his educational targets and long organisations get involved, it is important to term prospects. maintain absolute clarity about who does The UK’s Holocaust Memorial Day what. In 2013 the HMDT established an has become far more than one day. The Holocaust survivor who will be HMD Partnership Group. The group, whose Activities take place over a month and featured in the 2019 HMD activity is Renee members include the Holocaust Educational the impact lasts far longer. People come Bornstein, née Konig, born in Strasbourg Trust, the Wiener Library, the Imperial together from different communities in 1934. When she was five years old War Museum, the Council for Christians to learn from the past, increase their the family moved to a small town thirty and Jews, JW3, the Jewish Museum, the empathy for others, and do more to miles from Limoges. They survived the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, create a better future.

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I would like to live a little longer, I would like to belong to you a little more. TO MY I would like to see you getting older And more beautiful and clever. Even more GRAND I would like to share your achievements, CHILDREN Joy and happiness – and more and more. Leaving I would like to help you when you need me I would like to dry your tears with my love. By Faina Michlin I would like to shield you from misfortune a legacy If it (God forbid) would fall on you Like lightning from above. This month is Jewish Legacy Awareness Month, which helps I would like to encourage you for ever to promote the concept of “post In the situations sent by life I would like you to endeavour everything life-time” donations. With the help of my undying love. The campaign is run by the charity Jewish Legacy which was established in 2012 in response to the fact that, although 75 per cent of the Jewish community give to Jewish causes during their life-time, only 1 in 4 leave a gift in their Will to charity.

Working with almost 50 other Jewish charities, including AJR, Jewish Legacy promotes the idea about how, upon our death, we can improve someone else’s life.

Gina Ross, the Jewish Legacy’s Chief Executive, explains: “Legacy giving applies to all ages and levels of income. Whilst we realise that friends and family are obviously a priority, leaving a gift to a cause that is important to you doesn’t need to affect the gifts you leave to them.”

Watch out for campaign information throughout the Jewish media as well as in pharmacies, Kosher shops and online.

“We want to show how important legacies are to our charity partners. As part of our Awareness Month, we will be posting daily case studies on Facebook. These case studies are from our charity partners, showing how each of them have used and/or would use money they received from gifts in Wills to improve lives,” says Gina.

For more information visit www.jewishlegacy.org.uk or call Gina on 020 3375 6248.

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JOSEPH PEREIRA Kindertransport

A special interest group of (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) The Association of Jewish Refugees is now available for DIY repairs AJR FILM CLUB and general maintenance. LUNCH No job too small, Wednesday 14 November 2018 HAMPSTEAD very reasonable rates. Starring Diane Keaton Please telephone 07966 887 485. At New North London Synagogue 80 East End Road, London, N3 2SY 12.30pm PillarCare We are delighted to be joined by Quality support and care at home Miriam Halamy Author of  Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours The Emergency Zoo  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care Miriam will be talking to us  Convalescent and Personal Health Care about her new book due for  Compassionate and Affordable Service publication early 2019. on MONDAY 12 November 2018 at 12.30pm  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff We will also be joined by Sha’arei Tsedek North London Reform  at Registered with the CQC and UKHCA the pupils of Akiva School Synagogue, 120 Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone, N20 9EZ Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 Call Susan Harrod on Lunch of smoked salmon bagels, Danish PILLARCARE 020 8385 3070 or email pastries and tea or coffee will be served first: THE BUSINESS CENTRE [email protected] 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE Based on a true story, Diane Keaton plays LONDON NW1 7BB £7.00 per person. PHONE: 020 7482 2188 Booking is essential. an American widow who finds unexpected FAX: 020 7900 2308 love with a man living wild on Hampstead www.pillarcare.co.uk Heath when they take on the developers who want to destroy his home. WHY NOT TRY AJR’S MEALS ON WHEELS Guaranteed feel good to JACKMAN . SERVICE? make you laugh and cry SILVERMAN £8.00 per person inc lunch The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS service delivered to your door once a week. Please either call Ros Hart The delicious meals are freshly cooked on 07966 969951 or email every week by Kosher to Go. They are then [email protected] frozen prior to delivery.

Telephone: 020 7209 5532 The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal (soup, main course, dessert) www.fishburnbooks.com [email protected] plus a £1 delivery fee. Jonathan Fishburn For further details, please call buys and sells Jewish and Hebrew books, AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070. ephemera and items of Jewish interest. switch on electrics Rewires and all household He is a member of the Antiquarian electrical work Booksellers Association. PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 spring grove London’s Most Luxurious Contact Jonathan on Mobile: 0795 614 8566 020 8455 9139 RETIREMENT HOME or 07813 803 889 214 Finchley Road London NW3 for more information WHY NOT CONVERT  Entertainment YOUR OLD CINE  Activities FILMS  Stress Free Living Books Bought AND PUT THEM  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine ON DVDS  Full En-Suite Facilities Modern and Old FREE OF CHARGE? Call for more information or a personal tour Eric Levene 020 8446 2117 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 Contact Alf Buechler at [email protected] or or 020 7794 4455 tel 020 8252 0375 or 07488 774 414 [email protected] [email protected]

19 AJR Journal | November 2018

Events and Exhibitions

TESTAMENT TO DEMOCRACY Critical Approaches to Kindertransport KRISTALLNACHT SERVICE Research and Historiography will A Service of Solemn Remembrance bring together academics from across and Hope on the 80th anniversary of the UK, the USA, Israel, Australia, Kristallnacht. Canada, Italy, Germany, France, 6.30pm on 8 November 2018 and Croatia. Papers will cover all Westminster Abbey aspects of the Kindertransport’s www.westminster-abbey.org/events history, historiography, literature, Josiah representation and legacy. Wedgwood KINDERTRANSPORT EXHIBITION in 1915 Keynote speakers will include Ruth Part sponsored by the AJR, this Barnett, former Kind and noted special exhibition will share the stories psychologist and educator, Diane of six Kinder in their own words. Samuels, author of the acclaimed play 8 November 2018 - 10 February 2019 Kindertransport, James Bulgin, Content Jewish Museum Leader of the Holocaust Galleries, www.jewishmuseum.org.uk Imperial War Museum, and Dean Mary Fulbrook, Professor of German History, 2018 is the 75th anniversary of the UCL. death of Josiah C. Wedgwood, MP AJR ANNUAL for Newcastle-under-Lyme and a For further information please contact CHANUKAH PARTY man who campaigned passionately [email protected] All Welcome for wide-ranging causes, not least the fight against Nazism and fascism in the 1930s and early ‘40s, He KINDERTRANSPORT guaranteed over 200 adults, enabling COMMEMORATION them to get visas, and hosted many Lord Alf Dubs and Barbara Winton at his house. invite everyone connected to the Kindertransport to the commemoration At a special conference at Keel event for its 80th anniversary, which Wednesday 12th December 2018 at North West Reform Synagogue University on 22 November AJR is being organised by the Safe Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN member Lesley Urbach will present Passage movement. Cost £10.00 per person a paper on Wedgwood’s efforts to 15 November at 3.00pm payable at the door persuade the British government to Friends Meeting House, London (Places must be booked in advance) give refuge to Jews and socialists [email protected] Starts at 12.00pm Ends at 3.00pm from Nazi- occupied Europe between A welcome by the 1933-1939. Chief Executive of AJR LAST TRAIN TO TOMORROW Michael Newman 22 November 2018 A special performance of Carl Magician Zap will perform table magic to Keel University Davis’ musical drama about the amaze and entertain you during a delicious Tickets £15, from Kindertransport, to mark its 80th two-course lunch. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ anniversary. The young Herefordshire After lunch the Choir of Akiva School will commemorating-josiah-c- singers will premier a brand new song perform a selection of Chanukah and wedgwood-public-lecture- that Carl Davis has written especially popular songs for our enjoyment. tickets-49281521357 for this event. 1 December 2018 It is essential that we know Leominster Priory exact numbers for catering. KINDERTRANSPORT ACADEMIC www.lasttraintotomorrow.eventbrite.co.uk Please call Susan Harrod SYMPOSIUM on 020 8385 3070 or email The Kindertransport 80 Years On: [email protected]

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

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