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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 1 AJR Journal | November 2018 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