AJ R Info rma tio n Volume LII No. 6 June 1997 £3 (to non-members)

Don't miss... ? Further thoughts on the 1997 General Election

AJR Information and the Second Generation Andiony Grenville p5 May Day call by xenophobes

Sublime enigma Ronald Channing pi3 t the risk of annoying readers who consider the whole issue; in other words, the anti-Tory tide our remit to be strictly parochial, we focus impartially swept away Europhiles and Europhobes Auschwitz - the on the events at Westminster for the second ahke. view from on high A Lionel Simmonds p 16 month running. Once again our intention is to do so Re the latter we cannot but rejoice at the demise of without allowing party-political bias to creep in. the Judeophobic Tony Marlowe, the bigoted David Nonetheless it can be said that the Labour landslide Evans and the racist Peter Griffith (whom Harold of the First of May has reversed a rightwards drift - Wilson memorably dubbed a 'parliamentary leper' Good both in the economic and political (i.e. nationalistic) back in the 1960s). Nor will many tears be shed over meanings of the term - that had been gathering mo­ the absence from the Commons of the greatest, in parts mentum for nearly two decades. Now, while we may because most influential, xenophobe of the Nineties, have no quarrel with the economic Right, we can do Michael Portillo. olitically no other than be ultra-sensitive to all manifestations From this son of a Spanish emigre it is but a short present day of ultra-Right politics. step to his (ex) colleague and fellow Eurosceptic who PGermany is The British 'first-past-the-post' electoral system had been fathered by a Jewish refugee from Romania. a curate's egg, inhibits the growth of smaller parties. Consequently, Rumour has it that Michael Howard wanted to with the bad parts extremists of any stripe who didn't want to court make immigration an election issue but was - fortu­ in the South and marginalisation have long tried to creep in under the nately - overruled by the level-headed John Major. East. In Bavaria Labour or Tory umbrellas. In the case of Old If the rumour is substantiated it would indicate the Crimes of the Labour, weak leadership in the 1970s allowed bomb- that Sir James Goldsmith was not the only Wehrmacht happy left zealots like Arthur Scargill to render them (part)Jewish candidate in the election who recklessly exhibition unelectable for many years. banged the xenophobic drum in pursuit of power prompted counter- In the Conservative camp xenophobia has been a and influence D demonstrations, latent presence for even longer. In the Sixties it and an influential focused on the issue of coloured immigration, but MP (see April issue) once Enoch Powell switched from predictions of AJRANNUAL GENERAL MEETING wants Jewish inter-racial bloodshed to opposing the EEC the focus will be held at immigration changed and new battle lines were drawn. These 15 Cleve Road,West Hampstead. London NW6 3RL curbed. In the ex- bisected the Channel. Gradually over the years on SUNDAY 8 JUNE 1997 at 3pm DDR foreigners are Europhobia spread through the Tory grassroots as routinely attacked, well as the parliamentary party. AGENDA Potsdam denies the One of the longterm results was the receptiveness Annual Report 1996 Wehrmacht to delusion of the Europhobe MPs. Thus, in a mirror Hon.Treasurer's Report, Discussion exhibition image of Tony Benn's 'spin' that the minority vote Election of Committee of permanent house for Michael Foot's Labour Party in the '80s Management (see page 2) room and two showed the commitment of eight million voters to a Guest speaker: Stephen Smith, Director, formerly prestigious Socialist programme, the La Pasionaria of the Right, Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Centre, East Berlin stages Teresa Gorman, ascribed her recent re-election not who will talk on 'Forgotten Places - are occupied by to her previously unassailable majority, but to the The Holocaust, its Memory and its Meaning' plays about anti-European gut feelings of her constituents. respectively Eva Actually analysis of the nationwide election results Enquiries: AJR, I Hampstead Gate, Braun and Emmy showed that voters, while hardly enthusiasts for Eu­ la Frognal,London NW3 6AL Tel:OI7l 431 6161 Goering D ropean integration, were less than preoccupied with AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

with which to generate funds to con­ and non-Jewish Polish intellectuals, pro­ Profile tribute to the Centre's operating costs. vide unforgettable insights in the places During this formative stage, Britain's where many of the crimes were perpe­ Jewish community (with few exceptions) trated. He is in international demand as a Stephen Smith was almost totally unaware of his ambi­ lecturer, returning recently from Latvia iving in the idyllic village of Laxton tious plans and played no part in and South Africa, and is a member of the in the heart of Nottingham's Sher­ contributing to its establishment. advisory panel of the Imperial War Mu­ Lwood Forest, the elder son of a Europe's first Holocaust Memorial seum currently establishing a Holocaust Methodist minister and a communally Centre was opened at Laxton on 17th exhibition and education project. active mother, made it quite probable that September 1995 in the presence of a Paradoxically, as a gentile and student Stephen Smith would be either a farmer number of survivors. The existence of the of Jewish history, not the least of or a vicar. He still lives and works in the Centre was then revealed to the wider Stephen's achievements has been to countryside, but his work is of a unique Jewish community through the columns provide a ready-made, unaffiliated meet­ and quite unexpected nature. of the Jewish Chronicle. ing place for members of a seemingly After early success in farming, he took a increasingly fragmented Anglo-Jewish new career path in 1991 when he was community, a new-style 'Jewish' institu­ drawn to the study of theology and tion whose subject matter fosters a learned of the genocide of European common cause no longer regarded as the Jewry during World War II. "Like other exclusive territory of survivors or relatives British children," he recalls, "I'd gone of victims. through the entire school system knowing Above all, he has set out to challenge nothing about the Holocaust." the churches' traditional malevolence to­ While deepening his knowledge at the wards Jews, to bring them to recognise Hebrew University, a visit to Yad Vashem and accept the consequences of their his­ made an impact on him for which he was torical antagonism, and to acknowledge unprepared. "I felt sad and was frustrated Christianity's debt to Judaism. "After that noone had taught us even the essen­ centuries of antisemitism, the Holocaust tial facts of the Holocaust," he recalls, could have been predicted" he said. "Peo­ "and was angry that seemingly responsi­ ple must be prepared to tackle and deal ble people were not prepared to deal with with antisemitism." the subject at all!" He set out to make a D Ronald Channing personal contribution to filling what he perceived as a gaping omission in the Stephen Smith, director of Beth Shalom teaching of European history. The Centre houses exhibits which were Election of Committee Though only 24 years of age, Stephen personally researched, designed and often of Management 1997/98 was determined to implement his plans. made by Stephen. It offers many addi­ He took a diploma in advanced Holo­ tional facilities which include a lofty caust studies at the Oxford Centre for meeting hall, a library with audio-visual ACM 8 JUNE 1997 Hebrew and Jewish Studies, then began a resources, a restaurant, residential accom­ Ph.D. on 'The Impact of the Holocaust modation for students and peaceful The following members of the Committee are on Christian Thought and Practice'. memorial gardens of great beauty. retiring by rotation and are being proposed for re-election: But Stephen is a man of action. Enlist­ The Centre has also established three ing the active involvement of his brother travelling exhibitions which tour schools, Mr A.C. Kaufman Chairman Mr W.D. Rothenberg Vice-Chairman James, a surgeon, and the full backing of accompanied by Stephen and a survivor & Treasurer to bear witness and respond to questions. his parents, he decided to conceive, de­ Mrs E.5.Angel Secretary sign, fund and build a Holocaust In its first year alone Beth Shalom hosted memorial and education centre in the en­ the astonishing number of 20,000 school­ The fbOoMng remain members of^e Committee and tirely improbable location of the family's children! are proposed as Trustees: 19th-century farm house. The preceding Not content with these achievements, Mr P. Dannenberg half a century had not seen any organisa­ Stephen has established Beth Shalom as a Mr C.W. Dunston tion succeed in establishing a Holocaust publishing house for survivors' testi­ The following remain members of the museum in Europe outside the concentra­ monies; he edits promotional material and Committee without need for re-election in tion camps; Stephen's very idea and newsletters which are designed and pro­ 1997: concept were audacious in the extreme. duced to the highest standards, and has Mr M. Durst Trustee A feasibility study revealed that half a even taken his design of the Centre's Mrs j. Field million pounds was required to imple­ Hebrew emblem and produced it as a Mrs }. Kessler ment the project. Not only did he harness jewel! Mrs S. Landau the resources of the Smith family for the As an extension of his own many visits Mr H.E. Levy major part of the expense and enlist prac­ to and detailed knowledge of Holocaust The following have been proposed for election tical help from friends and local sites, Stephen leads week-long study mis­ to the Committee: wellwishers, Stephen also set up and con­ sions to Poland which, in the company of Mrs G.R. Glassman Mrs D. Franklin tinues to run a confectionery business a survivor and in meetings with Jewish AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

- were emotionally so stable that they Crucible and author of Timebends - the (Senti) mental could easily have qualified as bankers. other a melodramatist nurtured in the What sets Shine apart from run-of-the- conventions of the barnstorming Yiddish aberrations mill "mad genius" stories are two theatre of his youth. Miller already lvis Presley was simply "the king", aspects: a) it recounts the life of the still showed a propensity for dipping his quill Johann Strauss was "the waltz living David Helfgott, and b) ends with in schmaltz half a century ago, with The E king". Who, I hear you ask - him regaining his sanity. In order to en­ Death of a Salesman. What could be goggle-eyed from watching the Oscar cer­ hance the feel-good factor at its end, the more bathetic than the crie-de-coeur the emony - are "the schmaltz kings?" film accentuates every negative ingredient much put-upon salesman's wife intermit­ Any answer to this burning question in the earlier reels. Thus Helfgott pere, in tently addresses to no one in particular, needs to carry a caveat: just as there were reality a Polish-Jewish Australian immi­ "Attention - attention must finally be Waltz composers in the First and Second grant, is turned into a half deranged camp paid: a man is drowning!"? Division - Tchaikovsky vs Josef Lanner - survivor whose absurd tyrannical conduct D Richard Grunberger so a distinction has to be made between - entering David for music scholarships, Higher and Lower schmaltz. but forbidding him to leave home to take Lower schmaltz bears the imprint of them up - triggers the latter's eventual Mills & Boon; Higher schmaltz is exem­ mental breakdown. plified by The English Patient. In fact, Another Oscar-nominated, yet shame­ that Oscar-garlanded film is the highest fully unrewarded, film with a more schmaltz: a box-office hit suffused with tenuous Jewish connection was Secrets the doom-laden passion of a latter-day and Lies (directed by Mike Leigh, ne BELSIZE SQUARE Tristan and Isolde. In parallel with Liebowitz). Here the schmaltz only in­ SYNAGOGUE Wagner's opera culminating in a truded at the very end, when a hitherto Uebestod, the affaire between Catherine authentically depicted dysfunctional 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 (Krystin Scott Thomas) and Count Cockney family comes together in an at­ Almasy (Ralph Fiennes) reaches its cli­ mosphere of sweetness and light to We offer a traditional style of max, via some startling reversals en route, welcome a West Indian girl as a blood re­ religious service with Cantor, with death transfigured by all-encompass- lation. Choir and organ ing love. By coincidence my TV viewing of the Initially Almasy tries to keep his dis­ week that had started on Oscar night Further details can be obtained tance from the newly-wed Catherine, but ended with the transmission of Arthur from our synagogue secretary she tempts him by recounting the myth of Miller's Broken Glass. This play focuses Gyges and the naked Lydian queen on a on the effect of Kristallnacht on a sympa­ Telephone 0171-794 3949 starlit desert night. When Almasy catches thetic and sensitive New York Jewess. Minister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner hre she capriciously remembers her mar­ When grief over her loveless marriage is Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine riage vows, which fills him with raging compounded by outrage at the wide­ despair. Eventually the lovers are vouch­ spread indifference towards pogrom Regular services: Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, safed an intermission of erotic bliss - victims, she lapses into hysterical paraly­ Saturday mornings at 10 am Religion school: Sundays at 10 am fo 1 pm Only to be torn asunder by the pressures sis and loses the use of her legs. oi convention, and the Second World War. Accentuating her marital problems is the Space donated by Pafra Limited finally Catherine expires in a desert rock realisation that the husband hates himself '^ave and Almasy carries the corpse, for being - and looking - Jewish. In a ^tapped in a white silken "number" sug­ superbly bathetic moment a friend of the gestive of a wedding dress, on to the rock husband offers him solace by suggesting ^(Uf *t tHiaa. out escarpment - for all the world like a that to a Chinese Jew he wouldn't look Enjoy gtoom bearing his bride aloft on the Jewish at all. Bathos, in fact creeps in all • Excellent food threshold of the nuptial chamber. the time with characters mouthing lines • Stimulating talk If The English Patient belonged to a like "I walk around my past like a "^f- Enlivening discussion newer brand of schmaltz a la Wagner, the stranger" and "I have a knife in my "^ Meeting new friends '^ss lavishly Oscar-decorated Shine con­ heart". at the tinues the venerable tradition of the So far, so bad - but Miller saves up his A;R LUNCHEON CLUB 'lemented artist epic - motto: "Great strongest bid for the schmaltz king's genius is to madness near-allied" - a cin- crown till the end. As the curtain descends on Wednesday 18th June 1997 ^niatic genre memorably illustrated by the the husband succumbs to a heart attack at at l5CleveRoad,NW6 3RL ^an Gogh-inspired Lust for Life of forty the same moment that the wife regains 11.45 for 12.15pm years ago. the use of her legs. Guest speaker: Jo Kessler JP *t is an undoubted fact that several crea­ This lurid confection is the latest offer­ '25 years in the tive geniuses - Gogol, Schumann, Hugo ing of the man some have elevated into Citizens Advice Bureau' the "world's greatest living playwright". Wolf - went mad, but the great majority Reservations (il) How can we make sense of this paradox? '^'dn't. On the contrary, a number of cul­ from Sylvia, Ren6e and Susie I would suggest that there are two Arthur tural luminaries - Bach, Goethe, Henry Tel: 0171 328 0208 James, Charles Ives come to mind at once Millers: one the gritty dramatist of The AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

But some of the children did survive Dorrith M. Sim. IN MY POCKET, ABC Publishers, RtwityNS and, on the urging of the Central British 1996. £7.95 Fund for Refugees, this country offered he author tells the story of how asylum to 1000 of them: 732 were found she, a seven-and-a-half year old Survival and continuity and flown to Britain; 300 from Prague in T child, left Hamburg on a 12 Lancaster bombers, some from Mu­ Martin Gilbert,THE BOYS.TRIUMPH OVER Kindertransport train at the end of July nich; the rest were transported by boat ADVERSITY.Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996. £20 1939. It is a 25-page children's book, from Gdynia. They had been rescued. beautifully illustrated by Gerald y presenting the stories of the 732 Teenagers now, they were bereft of par­ Fitzgerald. men and women to whom this ents, education, health - strangers in Dorrith's story is simply told and in its book is dedicated "with admi­ strange surroundings. But care and love B direct and unsentimental approach ration, affection and gratitude", Martin restored their health, updated their ne­ achieves a poignancy that any child Gilbert has accomplished an outstanding glected education, helped them to come would appreciate. It can be read aloud to example of what the late Barbara into their own again as human beings and a four-or five-year-old who might well ask Tuchman described as the historian's as Jews. questions about the 'little girl'. Any task. "What his imagination is to the They made their own way in the world; older child would read the book on his or poet," she wrote, "facts are to the his­ but the comradeship of their shared fate her own. torian. His exercise of judgment comes in held them together. In their adolescence This book offers a wonderful way in their selection, his art in their they met in the Primrose Club; in adult­ which to introduce the subject of the arrangement." By making known the hood they formed the '45 Aid Society. Holocaust to the younger generation. I story of these 732 Boys, Gilbert has pro­ And after years of silence over 100 of found it very touching and would recom­ vided his readers with the opportunity to them told their story - to Martin Gilbert mend any grandparent to obtain it for pay tribute to the ability to triumph over and through him to the world. some little one's next birthday. adversity which characterises the lives of Each one of these biographies, says Gil­ n Bea Green this group of Holocaust survivors. bert, would have made a book in itself. The Boys (and girls) were born in a pre- They offer no less fascinating reading as War Central Europe which did not collated by him in this book. Ben succeed in hiding its endemic anti-semitic Helfgott, for example, Olympic sports­ 5 YEARS AND STILL NO tendencies behind a screen of formal legis­ man, dedicated champion of their cause PROGRESS ON YOUR lation designed, in principle, to give its and that of others; or Roman Halter, PROPERTY CLAIM Jewish citizens equal status. All the same, architect, creator of works of stained life for Jewish children was, as most of glass art; that of Harry Balsam, owner of IN BERLIN & EAST the Boys recall, not all that different from menswear shops; Arthur Poznanski, GERMANY? that of their Christian neighbours. Out­ singer, choirmaster of his synagogue; We are specialists in speeding up cases. bursts of verbal abuse and not infrequent Simon Gilbert, US soldier, watchmaker, We buy and/or process claims. violence at school and in the street was jeweller; Meir Sosnowicz/Michael Novice, References of satisfied claimants with something which they learned to endure. distinguished scientist. completed claims are available. But nothing prepared them for what was The author is indebted to them all. But NAGEL

fought the good fight and won; ours was ing to rival it, in the way that it manages AJR Information and the something that our parents kept from us, to marry a richness of information with a or tried to drip-feed to us in small doses, depth of commitment, combining facts Second Generation so as to accustom us gradually to the idea with emotion. On its side too, the AJR he past, William Faulkner once that our roots lay in another country and Information needs to reach out to a new wrote, is never dead; it is not even another culture. I remember, as a six-year- generation of readers. It aims in future to Tpast. I can think of few groups for old about to go to Austria for the first publish more articles of interest to the whom this adage rings more true than the time, jibbing at repeated references to the second generation. So I would appeal to Second Generation, those of us who were scale of the Alpine peaks with an excess all those who, like myself, are part of the born in Britain of parents who escaped or of childish patriotism: 'Aber Hampstead generation born out of the emigration survived the destruction of German and Heath ist auch ein hoher Berg!'. So there from Central Europe to Great Britain, to Austrian Jewry by the Nazis. As we reach we were, in a world where the last echoes become readers of this journal, and so to our middle years, when the older gene­ of Viennese coffee-houses and Berlin subscribe to their own unique corner of ration fades away and the next generation cabaret, of holidays by the Worthersee history. comes into maturity, it seems to me that and window-shopping sprees along the n Anthony Grenville We acquire a sense of our own history, the Kurfiirstendamm rang, like a faint tinkle awareness that generations have gone be­ of airs from Der Rosenkavalier, over the fore us and will come after us. But unlike Finchley Road and down into St John's A sort of homecoming the native British, with their long-estab­ Wood (if you were one of the lucky ones). he thought of ever returning to lished traditions, their history of stability But by now the first generation that Frankfurt, which I left aged eight, and continuity, we are confronted by his­ came here, our parents, is slowly passing Tseemed inconceivable to me for tory as an abrupt rift, a discontinuity in away. Now it is we who are moving into fifty-eight years. What first changed my the flow of families from generation to the front line of our little community's mind was the receipt of a memorial book generation. history, and it is up to us to transmit that to the 11,134 Shoah victims from Frank­ We do not know the world in which our history, if only at second hand, to the furt - including my parents - sent out parents grew up, in Vienna or Berlin, third generation. That is not easy, seeing by the city's Lord Mayor. Frankfurt or Breslau, because it no longer that we never knew pre-war Germany Then I saw an ad in AJR Information exists. We can never know most of the and Austria, that pre-Hitler Welt von for a conference on the Kindertransporte generation of our grandparents - those gestern from which, in part, we come. We at Frankfurt during March, and my wife 'aces that gaze out at us from the mono­ know it from the stories of our parents' and I decided to attend. chrome sepia of old photographs, those earlier - I almost said 'previous' - The accommodation couldn't have snippets of correspondence in unfamiliar lives, from their memories of Gymnasium been better. There was also a fine exhibi­ script that held the tenuous link across the and Lyzeum, of spacious flats with solid tion. At the conference itself I found the Wartime void between the generation that furniture, unthinkable without a grand pi­ lectures rather long, with insufficient time escaped and the generation that didn't. ano, shuttered against the summer heat, to talk to other participants. Even so I In the case of my grandparents, the corre­ stove-warmed against the winter cold, of met someone who had been in the same spondence ends with one of the 25-word persecution, escape and arrival in their infant class as me and who, to my amaze­ ^ed Cross messages allowed out of land of refuge, and of countless relatives ment, lives in Frankfurt again. Vienna: "Erwarten Abtransport Theresien- dead or dispersed about the globe. But we For me the most important lecture was ^tadt morgen ". And then nothing more. know all that only at one remove. that given by Ruth Barnett (from the Link We are the generation for whom history There is, however, one secure repository Psychotherapy Centre) about the experi­ "<^gan anew. We grew up in post-war Brit­ of the history of the Jewish refugees from ence of uprooting. This made me tell of ain, we were the first to go to British Hitler who came from the German-speak­ my own reminiscences of the day I left. I schools, to speak English without an ac­ ing lands to settle in Britain, and that is had blanked out everything, except that I cent, to assimilate into British values and this very journal. AJR Information has asked my parents "what about my elec­ habits, to say 'Sorry' and 'I do beg your been chronicling for over fifty years the tric train set?" as we said goodbye. They Pardon' and 'Yes, it is wet today'. In a events and issues, the controversies and replied "We'll bring it when we come." *ay, we had no history, at least in the concerns that affected our parents' gen­ (How awful they must have felt knowing Sense of a palpable history shared with all eration and that are now passing on to us. they couldn't leave at this late stage, only the others around us, in a common cel­ If we want to stay in touch with our par­ about two months before the war!) ebration of Englishness: grandfather who ents' memories - and in my view that is There followed a lecture commenting could remember the relief of Mafeking to keep faith with a heritage which, on Diana Samuels' play Kindertransport and had fought on the Western Front, fa­ placed in our trust, might otherwise van­ which stirred a deal of controversy. ther who had been in the Desert with ish into oblivion - then we should make At the very end I spoke again to thank "Montgomery, the Jarrow marchers and the effort to reach back into their culture the organisers for their kindness and ^tacie Fields, the Boat Race and Lyons and their world, so as to bring those for­ goodwill - and to say how much the Corner Houses and the Dam Busters ward into our present and into the future occasion had affected me for the better. "larch. that belongs to the next generation. Six months ago, if anybody had asked me Our history, we already sensed in child­ The AJR Information seems to me an whether I'd go back to Frankfurt, I hood, was not one that could be spoken ideal means of doing so, and that is one would have said NEVER - and now I 'f the same tones of relaxed confidence, reason why I read it devotedly. Another is will come again. ^he confidence of a Britain that had the journal's sheer quality. I know noth­ • From a report by HerbertY/olff AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

Sir - What makes the author of the amusing Message from a bygone age as­ sume that there weren't any yoghurts in "the good old days"? They were available not only in this country, but on the Conti­ nent as well, where they were sold in small glass bottles. College Crescent (Mrs) Margarete Stern FOOTBALL HERO X-FACTOR London NW3 Sir - Friedrich Torberg, a highly reliable Sir - Rabbi Wolff expounds an interest­ chronicler of interwar Vienna, lists a ing theory in the April editorial. He NON-EVENT number of Jewish sportsmen of the time believes that the rabbis of old expunged Sir - Mr Ernest David referred in his col­ and refers to the fact that the Moses from the Haggadah to make sure umn (April issue) to the state visit of Verbandskapitdn Hugo Meisl, who cre­ we wouldn't forget God's influence - President Weizman being a non event on ated the Austrian "Wunderteam", was the so-called X-factor - in the escape the television news of both BBC and ITV. Jewish. He does not say this about from Egypt. Fair enough. I was so incensed by this, I phoned the Sindelar and, unless the Guiness Record Then comes the sermon: We are guilty of BBC. After being put through to the right of World Soccer can produce compelling being unfair to God most of the time department, I asked the woman who took evidence, I must conclude that it is wrong. because we do not pay due regard to the X- the call if the BBC was aware that a state It may be that its authors were led astray factor in our lives. For example, the stories visit by the Israeli President was taking by the fact that Sindelar sadly committed of nice historical events - the Exodus, the place. There was silence, so I added "I suicide soon after the Anschluss. creation of Israel, the liberation of East­ just wanted to let you know". Her re­ Guildford Professor Lewis Elton ern Europe from Communism - would sponse was one word: "Right". I hoped Surrey be distorted without acknowledging the someone else would make a more effec­ X-factor (ie: God's influence). tive protest than I was able to. But what about the Holocaust, the Sir - We called Sindelar der Papierene I continue to look forward to AJR Spanish Inquisition, the Russian Po­ because he fell over as soon as an oppos­ Information each month. groms? Rabbi Wolff doesn't mention any ing player shouldered him out of the way. Netherhall Gardens Michael Hellman of these not so nice historical events. The club Austria played in RC colours; London NW3 Maybe the X-factor was working for the I don't think those antisemites would opposition at the time? I suspect he is have tolerated him. copying the rabbis of old by being selec­ ACCENT PRONE Southgate Heinz Drechsler tive in his examples - for the greater Sir - Your article (April issue) stated that London NI4 glory of God. 'everybody at Stoatley Rough School - Whetstone, London j Rumney matron, staff, pupils - was of refugee Sir - Your contributor is right in refer­ origin'. This is not completely accurate. I ring to Sindelar as the greatest centre myself taught there from 1937 to 1939, forward of his time. However, had he STAMP OF TRUTH during which time there were at least been Jewish, Sindi would have played for Sir - The stamp of a large envelope we three British teachers who spoke English Hakoah, not Austria. recently received depicted blue-striped all the time. I was appointed partly be­ Chigwell Fred Rosner prisoners' clothing flanked by barbed cause I knew no German at all. wire with the text "Befreiung der Essex It was, of course, true that many of the Gefangenen aus den Konzentrations- pupils spoke German-accented English, lagern". probably owing to the influence of adults Sir - I have had numerous letters and The stamp perforation had an unusually who learned English late in life. However, telephone calls from your readers. The large surround listing the names of 23 at the 1994 reunion of former Stoatley consensus is that Sindelar was not Jewish, camps. Rough pupils, American accents were the but probably a socialist. His girlfriend We do appreciate this latest, postally most prevalent; I do not remember hear­ might have been Jewish. They were found widespread German expression of good­ ing any German ones at all. dead together in a gas-filled room in will. Dunmore Gardens Margaret K Faulkner Vienna ten months after the Anschluss. Alba Gardens R I Rosenfelder Dundee (nee Dovej Suicide is probable but not proven. London NWl I With what affection Sindelar is remem­ bered by readers now in their seventies TRAVEL GUIDES and eighties! He expressed, with a foot­ MESSAGE FROM A BYGONE Sir - Readers may be interested to know ball, the wit and grace which are part of AGE that the publishers Marsilio of Venice Austria's heritage. In too many Austrians, Sir - You described the message as have brought out a series of Jewish itiner­ alas, these qualities were overwhelmed by anonymous. This is incorrect. It is quoted aries in Italy. These books, with less appealing traits. in Irene White's book / came as a interesting texts covering the places, their Greenh(7/ Ludwig Berlin Stranger which I enjoyed very much. history and art, are beautifully illustrated. Hampstead High Street Otto Schiff House Miss I Guttmann They deal with a region at a time and I London NW3 Netherho// Gardens. NY/3 assume that in time they will be covering AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

the whole country. To the best of my perfect answer as to whether the UK knowledge two volumes dealing with Tus­ should join Europe. It should, if only to cany and Emilia-Romagna have already exert a civilising influence on the barbar­ NEWTONS appeared in an English translation. ians beyond the Channel. Leading Hampstead Solicitors Harrow Peter Ross Ipswich Frank Bright 22 FiGjohns Avenue, Middlesex Suffolk London NW3 5NB ^ All legal woric undertaken ILLEGAL OCCUPATION CORRECTION - Specialising in Wills Sir - The Golan was indeed occupied by Sir - Just for the record, and because and Estates Israel in 1967, when she repelled a com­ credit should go where it is due, the spon­ '^ German spoken bined attack by all her Arab neighbours. soring body for the erection of the '^ Home visits arranged Because it overlooks much of Israel's monument to Raoul Wallenberg was the 'A' Associated offices in Hamburg, 4 low-lying North it enabled Syrian gunners International Council of Christians and Los Angeles.Tel Aviv, Sydney, indiscriminately to bombard the Kibbut­ Jews and not the Council of Christians Zurich zim and villages below. For years Israeli and Jews. I am chairman of the executive Tel: 0171 435 5351 children were obliged to play, learn, eat of the International Council and had the Fax: 0171 435 8881 and sleep in shelters in order to survive. honour to serve as chairman of the It is important to remember that though Wallenberg Appeal. pre-1967 there were no disputed Israeli- Grafton Road Sir Sigmund Sternberg occupied areas, her Arab neighbours London NWS nonetheless found countless reasons to AUSTRIAN and GERMAN terrorise her civilian population. Today Koenigsberg is Russian, Stettin PENSIONS Polish and Strassburg French. The reason: SEARCH NOTICES a militaristic regime attacked its neigh­ Jewish historian-author would like to PROPERTY RESTITUTION bours and then lost the war. interview or communicate with any Bridge Lane M Friedman CLAIMS Jewish refugees residing in Switzerland EAST GERMANY- BERLIN London NWl I during World War II. Kindly contact AJR Box No. 1231 and, if at all possible, supply On instructions our office will Sir - I find George Abendstern's letter a fax number as well as your address and assist to deal with your (April issue) curious both in content and tel. no. applications and pursue the expression. I wonder what he means by Robert Augenfeld (or Arnfeld), a matter with the authorities. radical views', what interest he has in Kindertransportee fron Vienna, who the origin of Golan wines, and why a gen­ arrived In Dovercourt in late 1938 or For further information and tleman with a Jewish name (if it be his) early 1939 and was later in Manchester appointment please should feel compelled to defend the Syr­ Any information please to Prof. Wolfgang contact: ians, who need no support for their Rindler, Physics Department, University of ICS CLAIMS hatred of Israel and their continuous Texas, Box 830688, Richardson TX 75083- 146-154 Kilburn High Road shelling before Israel silenced their guns in 0688, USA London NW6 4JD 1967. St John's Wood Park Mrs I Koppel Isaak Shmulovich Shevetyov Tel: 0171-328 7251 (Ext. 107) London NWS (Shevelev), and his cousin Izrail, both Fax:0171-624 5002 born in the town of Vitebsk in the Russian Empire around 1880, emigrated BOUQUET to Sheffield, England, prior to 1914. Sir - Allow me to express my sincere ap­ Anatolii llich Khaesh, grandson of a cousin preciation of AJR Information, and my (named Freida ShmulovH Igudina/ PARTNER Unbounded admiration for its polymath lagudina nee Shevelyova) is searching for in long established English Solicitors editor Richard Grunberger. We are enor- relations of the above. Please write to (bi-lingual German) would be happy niously fortunate to have a man of his him at PO Box 521, St Petersburg, Russia to assist clients with English, German encyclopedic knowledge and trained eru­ 190068. and Austrian problems. Contact dition and wise opinions at the helm of this valued publication. Henry Ebner University of Texas Prof Wolfgang Rindler Myers Ebner & Deaner BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE 103 Shepherds Bush Road 51 Belsize Square, London N.W.3 C^OMING IN ON QUEUE London W6 7LP Telephone 0171 602 4631 Sir - Surely RG's encounter with ill-dis- Our communal hall is available for cultural and social functions. ^iplined continental queue jumpers (April ALLLEGALWORK 'ssue) who raise the heckles of all right- Tel: 0171-794 3949 UNDERTAKEN thinking assimilated refugees provides the AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997 Tfu 31Z ^^^ Celebration of freedom A week to remember In our week's holiday in Bournemouth, as usual we enjoyed the beautiful sur­ ore than 70 members attended the roundings, very pleasant hotel, excellent second night Seder at the AJR food, most attentive service and not least, MPaul Balint Day Centre in Lon­ the very enjoyable entertainments organ­ don. The traditional service, begun by ised by Sylvia, Renee and David Lee. Yakov Azulay, Andrew Kaufman, Ernest During a wonderful visit to the New David and Howard Matus, was taken up Forest in fine weather, the meadows full by Rabbi William Wolff, who pointed out of blossom, we visited the birthplace of that several of the prayers and customs of 'Alice in Wonderland' which proved to the Seder originated in early German- be a charming thatched cottage. Jewish communities. After an excellent meal - which regu­ On behalf of everybody let us tell the lar participants have become accustomed hardworking organisers how grateful to expect - Rabbi Wolff broke with tra­ we are for giving us such a week to dition when, with an opened door, instead remember. D MFW of pouring wrath upon the heathen, he Use Driels, Laura Biegler, Mela Peck and Melanie Ernest and I thank you for a most en­ substituted a prayer for peace and recon­ Lobel. joyable holiday which was well needed ciliation. and organised beautifully. D Jennie The evening was greatly enjoyed by Thankyou for taking us 'Golden Oldies' everyone present who, for another year, once again to Bournemouth for a much Just to thank you for letting me join took the opportunity to participate in the needed break. It was very enjoyable and you all in Bournemouth. I enjoyed my age-old Jewish celebration of freedom you deserve our thanks for being so pa­ stay there, especially under your caring from persecution. tient and trying hard to do your best for leadership. Please put my name on your • £D all of us. Dllse waiting list for the next trip! D Gerdo

Welfare day Team, who have experience both in ob­ meet to enjoy one another's company in taining benefit entitlements and a convivial environment. nderstanding State Benefits' was contesting incorrect decisions. The next meeting of the group wel­ the challenge put to members of Debbie Picker always welcomes new comes ex-Berliner Louis Rudnic who is to 'uI:AJR' s dedicated team of volun­ volunteer recruits. Tel: 0171431 6161 U talk on his army experiences: Escort and teers, together with Social Service Interpreter to a British General, on Sun­ Department staff, at a recent in-house day 13th July, 2pm, at the Morris training seminar. The seminar, which ex­ Northern comfort Feinman Home. Please phone Werner plored the welfare rights of older and Lachs, 0161 798 7969, for further Since AJR's Northern Group began its disabled people, was led by AJR member details D Hilde Ambrose, an experienced welfare activities, the development of a friendly rights adviser. atmosphere has been most heartwarming. People who share similar backgrounds Volunteers who befriend elderly AJR AJR 'Drop in'Advice Centre members are often asked basic welfare at the questions and readily appreciate the value Paul Balint AJR Day Centre OPEN DAYS IN THE of a clearer understanding of the rights of IS Cleve Road,London NW6 3RL people they visit. Hilde Ambrose ex­ OTTO SCHIFF HOMES betv^en 10am and 12 noon on the plained that the system divided into Leo Baeck House following dates: means-tested benefits, which depended on 15 June at 3pm Wednesday 4 June the individual's financial situation, such Entrance £3 Thursday 12 June as housing benefit and income support, Balint House Supper Tuesday 16 June and non-means-tested benefits, such as at­ Belsize Square Synagogue Tuesday 24 June tendance and disability living allowances. Wednesday 2 July Of course, one day's training did not 22 June at 6.45pm and every Thursday from attempt to turn AJR volunteers into ad­ Tickets £20 10am to 12 noon at: visers, but hopefully put them into a Osmond House AJR, I Hampstead Gate, I a position to pass on' information which 20 July at 3pm Frognal, London NW3 6AL could increase income and enhance the Entrance £3 quality of life. All volunteers and AJR Heinrich Stahl House No oppo/ntment is necessary, but please bring ahng all relevant documents, such as Benefit members are invited to continue taking 31 August at 3pm Books, letters, bills, etc. any problems they may encounter with Entrance £3 state benefits to AJR's Social Work AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

^ It occurs to me ... PAUL BALINT AJR Valerie Hewitt DAY CENTRE (Soprano) accompanied « hen I use a word, it means just by Anne Berryman Tel. 0171 328 0208 (Piano) what I want it to mean," said Wednesday 18 DAY CENTRE OPEN Humpty Dumpty in Alice Open Tuesday and Thursday 9.30am -6.30pm, w Monday and Wednesday 9.30am - 3.30pm, - LUNCHEON CLUB Through the Looking Glass. I wonder if it Sunday 2 pm - 6.30pm. Thursday 19 MUSICAL GEMS - is because I am a refugee, educated in a Jack Davidoff (Violin) language which is not my mother tongue, Morning Activities - Bridge, kaiookie, scrabble, &C Jules Ruben (Piano) or because I was trained as a lawyer chess, etc., keep fit, discussion group, choir Sunday 22 DAY CENTRE OPEN where the meaning of words often pro­ (Mondays), art class [Tuesdays and Thursdays). - NO vides the problems which keep lawyers ENTTERTAINMENT busy, that I tend to analyse the meaning Afternoon entertainment • Monday 23 SONGS FROM OUR of words. I have also learned to treat ALBUM - Sheila words with caution. JUNE 1997 Games (Piano) &C While we all know how important it is Sunday 1 DAY CENTRE OPEN - Cantor Michael Rothstein (Baritone) to read the small print in a contract, we NO ENTERTAINMENT Monday 2 SUMMER Tuesday 24 SHOW-TIME - Helena are unfortunately often deceived by politi­ Guest (Soprano) cians or people in authority who seek to GREETINGS - Rona Israel (Soprano) accompanied by Happy persuade us that black is white or that accompanied by Ian Branston (Piano) Wrong is right. Goebbels discovered that Pace (Piano) Wednesday25 FANFARE TO JUNE - by constant, loud repetition, lies would be Tuesday 3 SUMMER MUSIC & Joanna McDonald believed and the bigger the lie, the more SONG - Sue Kennett (Soprano) accompanied acceptance it found. Words frequently (Soprano) accompanied by David Mackie used by politicians to pull the wool over by Gordon Weaver (Piano) our eyes are 'reform' or 'simplification' (Piano) Thursday 26 THE GEOFFREY or 'justice'. Wednesday 4 AN AFTERNOON OF STRUM & HELE^ In this vein the previous government hid YOUR FAVOURITE BLAKE DUO OPERA POPS - their attack on the National Health Serv­ SONGS - Suzanna Sunday 29 accompanied by ice by talking of Health Service reform. Marks (Soprano) Margaret Gibbs This reform resulted in closures of hospi­ accompanied by Janet Beale (Piano & Monday 30 SHOW TUNES &c tals, excessive layers of well-paid Accordion) OTHER FAVOURITES bureaucrats, and doctors retiring early be­ Thursday 5 MEMBERS OF THE - Elizabeth Freed cause of the load of additional LONDON (Soprano) accompanied paperwork. SYMPHONY by Marek Dabrowski Sometimes words are so misused that I ORCHESTRA - Robin (Piano) despair of the people who have authority & Amalia Brightman JULY over us. When a complaint was made to (Violin &C Piano) Tuesday 1 Impromptu - With the Ministry of Transport about the con­ Sunday 8 DAY CENTRE CLOSED Madeleine Whitelaw & fusion caused by dotted yellow lines being AGM - 3pm her Students replaced by solid yellow lines, they replied Monday 9 EUROPEAN MEDLEY Wednesday 2 CELLO &C PIANO 't was because of the need to simplify - Claude May DUO - Zoe Solomon (Baritone) accompanied &C Robert Max toad markings. The fact that the solid yel­ by Jack Davis (Piano) Thursday 3 THE SUNSHINE low line may now mean many different SONGS OF LOVE & SINGERS things on the same stretch of road, and is Tuesday 10 SPRINGTIME - Tine Sunday 6 A PARTY the most confusing description of regula­ Birkeland (Soprano) AFTERNOON - tions that can be imagined, is nevertheless accompanied by Philip Dorothy Sayers (Piano sold to the public as simplification. Mountford (Piano) &C Accordion) It is not only the use of words that is Wednesdayll CLOSED- significant. In some cases the deceit lies in SHAVUOTH the non-use of words. In the words of Thursday 12 CLOSED- Sherlock Holmes, "Why did the dog not SHAVUOTH S)iwiy. iDate: oark in the night?" An example of such Sunday 15 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO ENTERTAINMENT AJR/Self-Aid Concert Omissions is the pledge by our new leaders Monday 16 KISSIN-TIME - Henry MELVYN TAN that they would, for a period of time, not Kissin accompanied by Fortepiano, with the •"aise income tax. Is it not similar to a pick Gilmuir Mcleod (Piano) New Mozart Ensemble Pocket saying he will not rob your back JENNY LIND - THE Tuesday 17 pocket? SWEDISH Sunday 21 September at 3pm Don't say you have not been warned! NIGHTINGALE by Queen Elizabeth Hall, SWl • Ernest David AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

FAMILY Dr H Alan Shields SHELTERED FLAT PROGRESSIVE Birthday available to Jewish refugee JEWISH MARRIAGE Simson. Mrs Emmy Simson, a MB ChB BDS LDS RCS couple at 15 Cleve Road, very happy 90th Birthday to a West Hampstead. BUREAU lovely lady from her daughter DENTAL SURGEON MazalToY Eva, son-in-law Tony, grand­ I bedroom with robes, SPONSORED BY Full Dental Service bathroom/WC, lounge, children Adele & Davina. UNION OF LIBERAL & brand-new fitted kitchen with Deaths Home visits, Emergencies PROGRESSIVE washer/dryer, fridge/freezer, Eden. Gertrude (Gerty) Eden. electric hob/oven/grill. SYNAGOGUES Passed away April 26th in her 46, BRAMPTON GROVE Resident caretaker plus 92nd year. Now together again HENDON, NW4 Why Mazal Tov? People to­ Camden Careline for added day lead very busy and with her beloved 'Burschi'. TEL 0181 203 0405 Deeply missed by her son Peter security. demanding lives; they often re­ and Marika Eden, daughter In-house meals, entertainment main single with few Wendy and Allan Blacher, her & other amenities of the opportunities for Jewish social grandchildren Kathy and SPENCER Paul Balint AJR Day Centre, contact. We ensure discreet, Jeremy Berg, Marc and his EXECUTIVE CARS an additional benefit BUT caring and totally confidential fiancee Gayle, Tracy and Perry applicants must be in introductions which can help A Reliable Car Service and her great-granddaughter reasonable health & able to you to find that 'special some­ Natasha. Short or long distances care for themselves. one', perhaps with a similar In Memoriam Airports & theatres a speciality Rent £IOOpw incl. central background to your own, to Heyman. Manon Heyman died heating/hot water. provide companionship so 26th May 1987. Fondly our service includes that with Mazal Tov you may remembered by her daughter assistance with luggage Please apply to Katia Gould, progress to a happy marriage. Madeleine and son-in-law AJR, I Hampstead Gate, 46 Ravensdale Avenue Ricardo. la Frognal NW3 6AL How does Mazal Tov work? NI2 9HT CLASSIFIED Tel:OI7l 431 6161 We ask you to complete a Tel: 0181 445 1839 Mons.&Thurs. 10am-Ipm confidential Application Form Companionship Mobile: 0374 177 807 Retired businessman, widower, and then come for a personal varied interests, Amersham BELSiZE SQUARE interview which is totally area, would like to meet APARTMENTS confidential with a trained congenial readers for compan­ SAKU JEWELLERY 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NWS interviewer who will tell you ionship. Box 1232, AJR established 1979 Tel: 0171-794 4307 or all about our service - and do Information. 0171-435 2557 their best to answer all your Miscellaneous Specialise in repairing questions. Mobile Home Hairdresser, jewellery, watches & clocks, MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY Edgware/Stanmore area. Tel: pearls & beads restrung ROOMS, RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER What does it cost? Only a MODERATETERMS stamped, addressed envelope Lynda 0181 905 3496. insurance & probate NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION Electrician. City & Guilds valuations to begin with. This will bring qualified. All domestic work you an Application Form for 139A Park Road, St Johns Wood undertaken. Y. Steinreich. Tel: TORRINGTON HOMES you to complete and forward Tel: 0171 586 8167 MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N. 0181 455 5262. MATRON with your request for an in­ Manicure 8c Pedicure in the For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent terview. comfort of your own home. {Licensed Oy Borough ol Barnet) • Single and Double Rooms. Applicants usually find that Telephone 0181 455 7582. ALTERATIONS • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. World Wars. I collect cards and OF ANY KIND TO • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. the confidential consultation envelopes from the camps. LADIES' FASHIONS • Nurse on duty 24 hours. at an interview is very helpful I also design and make • Long and short term, including Please send with price asked to in clarifying many personal children's clothes trial period il required. Peter Rickenbach, 14 Rosslyn matters, even if actual mem­ West Hampstead area From C275 per week Hill, London NW3 IPE 0171-328 6571 0181-445 1171 Oflice hours bership of Mazal TOY is not 0181-455 1335 other times pursued. NORTH FINCHLEY ADVERTISEMENT RATES A £10 charge is made for each FAMILY EVENTS C.H.WILSON Carpenter First 15 words Iree ol charge, interview.The membership fee Painter and Decorator DIN DELIS HOUSE £2.00 per 5 words therealter will cost an additional £75 for French Polisher CLASSIFIED £2.00 per five words. Residential Care Home Antique Furniture Repaired the first year. BOX NUMBERS £3.00 extra. Tel: 0181-452 6324 for Senior Citizens DISPLAY, SEARCH NOTICES Car: 0831 103707 Religion highly honoured What to do next? Simply per single column inch 65 mm (3 column page) £12.00 Pleasant relaxed atmosphere send your stamped, addressed 48mm (4 column page) £10.00 All single rooms with TV envelope to:- COPYDATE 5 weeks prior to putjiication SWITCH ON & telephone Ann-Ruth Green, ELECTRICS For information contact: Private & Confidential, The AJR does not accept Rewires and ail household Mrs HR Fearon Pennant Progressive Jewish Marriage responsibility for the standard electrical work. Phone 0181 903 7592 Bureau, 21 Maple Street, of service rendered by PHONE PAUL: 0181-200 3518 London WIP6DS advertisers Fax 0181 903 4195

10 AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

Alice Schv^ab from cellotape, silver Mylar and paper, re­ weite Land in Hamburg. Several adapta­ sulting in a delicate chain-mail like tions by Tom Stoppard - The Lonely reflective mesh. Also showing at the same Road, La Ronde - have been seen in time is Antonio Malinowski's exhibition Britain; on June 24 and 25 a dramatised of recent paintings. His delicate and pre­ version of Frdulein Else will be performed cise brush marks emerge from his at the London Austrian Cultural Institute. engagement with Chinese painting and Dessau. The fifth annual festival in hon­ philosophy and his interest in modern our of Kurt Weill (born in Dessau in avid Hockney, Flowers, Faces and physics D 1900) saw the performance of works by Spaces at Annely Juda Fine Art will Weill, George Gershwin and Leonard D be on show until the 19 July 1997. Bernstein. A 100 page two volume illustrated cata­ Birthday. On the occasion of the 85th logue in colour is available at the birthday of Carl Raddatz some of his exhibition. outstanding films were screened again. At The Royal Academy the 229th Sum­ These included Gabriela with Zarah mer Exhibition will be shown in the Main Leander and Rosen im Herbst, based on Gallery from 1 June to 10 August and you Fontane's Effi Briest. He also dubbed the can also still see the Berlin of George voices of many American film actors such Grosz drawings, watercolours and prints, as Robert Taylor, Burt Lancaster, 1912-1930 until 8 June. Humphrey Bogart and Kirk Douglas. Contemporary Scottish artists will be Soprano jubilees. Renata Tebaldi who shown at the Air Gallery 32 Dover Street has just celebrated her 75th birthday was Until 14 June. at the height of her fame during the for­ At the Manor House Society in associa­ Gladioli with Two Oranges, David Hockney, 1996. ties and fifties, when she rivalled Maria tion with the Osband Press until 27 June, Callas. At home in all the great opera the Book of Ruth, an exhibition of wood­ houses, she was outstanding in Puccini cuts by Maty Griinberg will be on show. and Verdi parts, and as Madeleine in Maty Griinberg's dramatic woodcuts - SB's Column Andre Chenier. - 60th birthday honours together with the new translation by go to Hildegard Behrens, a most intelli­ Linda Zisquit - combine to form a pow­ rthur Schnitzler's plays are per­ gent soprano combining lyrical singing erful evocation of the biblical text as well formed Europe-wide and trans­ with dramatic intensity. An impressive as showing the story's contemporary rel­ A lated into several languages. Salome, she is also a great Wagnerian evance in its portrayal of women as Recently, Anatol was staged in Salzburg, singer who was recently feted as orchestrators of their own fate. Maty Professor Bernhardi in Bregenz and Das Briinnhilde at the New York Met D Griinberg, born in Skopje, Yugoslavia in 1943 emigrated to Israel in 1948. He completed a Fine Arts Degree at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusa­ lem, before spending three years as a stage designer in experimental theatre in german and austrian Israel. He now lives and works in London both as a graphic artist and as a sculptor, AUCTION: London, 9 October 1997 with bronzes in many public collections. CONTACTS: London, Mark Poltimore, At Spink &c Son, an exhibition of pot­ tery by William Plumptre from 16 June to 19th Century Pictures (44171) 389 2430 19 9 7 H July in a one-man exhibition is on dis­ Jussi Pyll

II AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

FORTHCOMING EVENTS - KINDERTRANSPORT JUNE 1997 Wed 18 Jo Kessler JP: 25 Years in REUNION 1939-1999 CAB. AJR Luncheon Club, £7. Reservations 0171 328 ollowing the Kristallnacht in Ger­ many in November 1938, the British Sun 1 Visit to Holocaust Memorial 0208 Centre, Notts. AJR Wed 18 Bnai Brith, Scholars' FGovernment of the day granted Sun 1 Mischlinge in Nazi Evening: 11 Fitzjohns 10,000 visas to children from Austria and Germany: Wiener Library Avenue NW3, 8pm Germany, an act of mercy that will never seminar. Birkbeck College, Thur 19 An Evening with Benny be forgotten. These Kinder grew up and Malet Street, WCl, 2-5pm, Green: Jewish Museum, made their contribution to national life in £7 (cons) Sternberg Centre, 7.30pm, the UK as well as in Israel, the USA and Tue Prof Eric Moonman: The £6 elsewhere. They created new families and National Health Service. Fri 20 Representations of the today have children and grandchildren. JACS, 2pm Holocaust: Two-day Incredibly, sixty years will have passed Tue Prof Edward Timms: A conference organised by the in 1999 and an umbrella organisation Re­ Gemini in German Studies. Wiener Library at University union of Kindertransport (RoK), led and Sussex University, 5pm College, London, £25 guided by that veteran lady Bertha Thur Dr Rainer Liedtke (Berlin): (cones) Leverton, compiler of the famous book / Jewish Welfare in 19th Mon 23 Austria's role in Central Came Alone, has decided to organise a Century Hamburg &c Europe: Dr Emil Brix, last reunion for up to 1,000 Kinder dur­ Manchester. Wiener Library, Director of Austrian ing mid-June 1999. The theme of the 6.30pm, £2 CuUural Institute. Club 43, reunion will be 'Survival and Achieve­ Sun 8 AJR Annual General 8pm ment'. Tributes will be paid to the many Meeting: 15 Cleve Road Tue 24 Elizabeth Fried: Music to organisations which assisted at that time: NW6, 3pm Charm You. JACS, 2pm the Quakers, the churches, the Refugee Sun 8 Jewish Wife/Jewish Wed 25 Bnai Brith, Concert with Children's Movement and of course the Daughter: plays by Brecht Caledon Singers: 11 government of the day. and Sonja Lyndon. The Bull, Fitzjohns Avenue NW3, 8pm The AJR is supporting this event and is 68 High Street, Barnet, 8pm, Thur 26 Jewish Carpets: Anton participating with the RoK on the organ­ £5 (cones) 0181 449 0048 Felton, Jewish Museum ising committee whose members are Mon 9 Club 43, Annual General Camden Town, 2pm, £4 Bertha Leverton, Ernest David, Bea Green Meeting, 8pm Mon 30 Petroleum, Lifeblood of the and David Jedwab. Prominent personali­ Tue 10 The Glories of York: Sidney West: Harry Leyrer MA, ties in the fields of academia, politics, Heppel, JACS, 2pm Club 43, 8pm communal organisations etc. will be in­ Tue 10 Anita Lasker-Walfisch: A vited to address the conference and there Narrative of Survival, Ongoing The Life & Times of Miriam Breslau Prison, Auschwitz & Moses and Hannah Billig, will be separate workshops, giving all par­ Belsen. Sussex University, The Angel of Cable Street: ticipants a chance to compare notes, 5pm Jewish Museum Finchley relive old memories and rejoice in their Mon 16 Moglichkeiten und until 14 Sept survival. Psychologic des deutschen Jewish Carpets: Jewish To ensure that the second and indeed Widerstandes: Isa von der Museum Camden Town the third generation will continue to re­ Schulenburg (Lugano), in until 14 Sept member and honour the Kindertransport German. Joint meeting with generation, it is intended to establish a PEN Centre, Club 43, 8pm ORGANISATION CONTACTS permanent scholarship scheme that will Sun 15 The Three Sopranos: JACS at Belsize Square Synagogue, collate, study and teach the subject at an Mozart, Puccini, Delibes, NW3 4HX. Tel: 0171 794 3949 appropriate academic institute. Bernstein with Hebrew & Club '43, at Belsize Square Synagogue. The two-day conference is to culminate Yiddish songs. Sternberg Hans Seelig 01442 254 360 in a Gala Concert in which well known Centre, 8pm, £7.50 (£5.50 Wiener Library, 4 Devonshire Street, choirs, soloists and Klezmer bands will be members) London Wl. 0171 636 7247 invited to participate. Arrangements will Tue 17 A journey to Petra: Jewish Museum, 129/131 Albert Street, be made to record the event on video and Chistopher Richard cycles Camden Town, NWl 7NB. perhaps also to obtain media coverage. It for charity. JACS, 2pm Tel: 0171 284 1997, and at Sternberg is hoped that it will prove to be such an Tue 17 Life & Times of Miriam Centre. unforgettable experience that its memory Moses: Aumie Shapiro, Sternberg Centre for Judaism, 80 East will stay always with those who took part. Jewish Museum, Sternberg End Road, Finchley, NW3 2SY. Tel: D Kindertransport Reunion Committee Centre, 8pm, £3 0181 346 2288 Tue 17 The Work of Arnold University of Sussex Centre for AJR/SelfAid Daghani: Monica Bohm- German-Jewish Studies. Diana Duchen. Sussex University, Franklin 0181 455 4785 or 01273 678 CONCERT BROCHURE 5.15pm 495 Include wellwishers, children & grandchildren on enclosed form.

12 AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

committee of the newly-formed Second AJR ANNUAL GENERAL Generation Network responsible for liai­ MEETING son with similar groups in other 8 JUNE 1997 countries. Gaby is married with two children D Election of Committee of Management DIANA FRANKLIN Biographical notes on Diana's father came to England as a refu­ new candidates: gee from Fiirth, Germany in 1936 and her mother descends from the Samuel family. Diana played the piano from an early age, GABY GLASSMAN became an associate of the Royal College Gaby Glassman was born after the war, of Music in 1977 and now teaches and the daughter of refugees from Germany. performs as an accompanist. With an MA thesis on transgenerational Diana's work at the Centre for German- transmission in survivor families. Gaby Jewish Studies, University of Sussex, with has been in private practice for ten years Professor Edward Timms, is primarily and specialises in counselling victims of concerned with promoting contracts with Nazi persecution and their descendants. organisations and individuals interested in She is active in raising the level of aware­ the Centre's activities, and organising ness of second generation issues and academic events. She also contributes to ANDREW KAUFMAN writes and lectures on the subject. She is a the administrative organisation of the Andrew Kaufman, who completes his first year in co-founder of the Holocaust Survivors' Centre. Diana is married with four office as Chairman of the AJR at this year's AGM, is a solicitor and specialist in UK-German trade. Centre and a member of the executive school-age children D

Milstein, the most miraculous player of player (now conducting at the age of 80) Sublime enigma all, gave recitals into his 80s. Bronislav whose playing was in the Russian tradi­ he names of Heifetz, Milstein, Hubermann from Poland took his last les­ tion. Oistrakh, Elman and Huberman son at the age of twelve! With his mighty However, Hurwitz left the enigma of Tconjure up magic violinists who Jewish violin-playing unresolved. Undeni­ hailed from Russia and Eastern Europe in ably, over the centuries Jews had acquired the late nineteenth and early twentieth an exceptional vocabulary of music - the centuries. At the Manor House Society, chanting of prayers and readings is inher­ the distinguished violinist and teacher, ent in Judaism's rituals - but lacked an Emanuel Hurwitz, former leader of the instrumental tradition. The violin, being Philharmonia Orchestra, English Cham­ closest to the human voice in its range ber Orchestra and the Aeolian Quartet, and expression, was probably the Jews' discussed the common threads which had first choice of instrument since David put niade Jewish fiddle playing extraordinary down his lyre. Does this thesis account and poignant. satisfactorily for the creation of a unique The period from 1890 to 1915 saw a expression of the sublime and a tradition flowering of Jewish violin playing in Rus­ maintained today in Russia, the USA and sia with an exceptional number of great Israel? Russian-Jewish exponents. Hurwitz could n Ronald Channing offer no single explanation. The violin Was inexpensive and portable, but as the quality of instruments was poor, excep­ Paul Balint tional talent was required to make an AJR Day Centre acceptable sound. He recalled St Petersburg's most influ­ Emanuel Hurwitz, a violinist in the Russian-Jewish ential teacher, Leopold Auer, a Hungarian tradition. who studied under the legendary Joachim talent - no-one could play faster - he ~ with pupils who read like a roll of didn't need vibrato to create great music. Sunday 13th July honour among virtuoso violinists - then David Oistrakh was a great violinist at 2pm characterised and played recordings de­ who could do everything with consumate monstrating their genius. honesty. Joseph Szigeti (Hungarian-born Family and friends are all welcome to Misha Elman played from the heart, but Joshke Singer) was highly regarded by his join us for an enjoyable afternoon out at Was an orchestra's nightmare as he re­ peers. The Vienesse Fritz Kreisler possibly 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 had the most influence with his rich fused to play in tempo. Jasha Heifetz' Entrance £3 vibrato. Yehudi Menuhin was also in­ incredible talent and aristocratic playing including tea & refreshments Tiade others sound pedestrian. Nathan cluded as the greatest contemporary

13 AjR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

CALL FOR AUSTRIAN- MUTTERAUGEN JEWISH MEMOIRS Mutteraugen schauen SPRING he Leo Baeck Institute and the immer voU Vertrauen ihre Kinder an GROVE Institut fiir Geschichte der Juden in 4 Finchley Road Osterreich continue to seek unpub­ Mutteraugen wachen T Mutteraugen lachen London NW3 lished autobiographies written by former wachst das Kind heran London's Most Luxurious Austrian Jews. Very often, these memoirs RETIREMENT HOME have been recorded for the sake of the Mutteraugen strahlen * Entertainment-Activities author's own children and grandchildren. Mutteraugen prahlen wird das Kind zum Mann * Stress Free Living These documents, however, are of great * 24 Hour Staffing value to historians as well, since they pro­ Mutteraugen schweigen nie die Augen zeigen * Excellent Cuisine vide multifaceted information in such * Full En-Suite Facilities fields as the history of the family, religion was ein Mutterherz ertragen kann n Deborcj Kadisch Call for more information and the community, everyday life, or a personal tour antisemitism and persecution. (On the occasion of Debora Kadisch' 90th Birthday) 0181-446 2117 We are actively seeking and collecting memoirs written by any person who for­ or 0171-794 4455 merly lived in the territories of the double bill Hapsburg Monarchy and the Republic of THE JEWISH WIFE Austria. We would even feel a special Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. sense of gratification if this call for mem­ by Bertolt Brecht STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST oirs were to move you to commit the and Surgeries at: story of your life to writing. Future re­ 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) Telephone 0171-624 1576 search will be able to rely only on source THE JEWISH DAUGHTER 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) material which is made available to it. by Sonja Lyndon Edgware, Middx HAS 7PU Each individual's fate recorded for pos­ Sunday 8 June 8pm Telephone 0181-905 3264 terity in this way is of enormous The Bull, 68 High Street, Barnet Visiting chiropody service available significance. 'Lest it be forgotten'D £5 (£3 cones) Please contact: or: Box office: 0181 449 0048 Leo baeck Institute Institut fur Geschichte Brecht's 1937 play explores the dilemma of Dr Frank Mecklenburg Dr Albert Lichtblau a German doctor with a Jewish wife. Hilary's Care Agency 129 East 73rd Street Rudolfskai 42 Sonja Lyndon's counterpart is set in NewYork, NY 10021 A-5020 Salzburg HIGH QUALITY HOMECARE 1997 Britain. USA Austria FORTHE ELDERLY AND DISABLED • CARERS • COMPANIONS • HOUSEKEEPERS creations which won her the award. One • DOMESTICS Cooking with Gretel Beer of these - a Chocolate Souffle - is not at all difficult to prepare and it is delicious. Flexible service tailored to your needs Daily & Live-in - I -24 hours - 7 days a week To serve 4: COVERING NORTH & NORTHWEST LONDON, 100g/3'/2OZ bitter chocolate EAST LONDON & ESSEX 40g/l '/20Z butter lOg/VAOZ caster sugar 0181 559 II 10 4 eggs 40g/l'/2oz muscovado sugar butter for the moulds cocoa powder OSHA Preheat the oven to 200°C, 400°F, Gas Homecare Services Mark 6. Butter 4 souffle dishes measuring The complete care and support service in your oum home \lctx\J4V4" in diameter. Separate egg yolks and whites. Break chocolate into small Personal Care • Hospiul Escort Service • [Ximestic Assistance * Emergency Phone System * Resident Carers Lea Linster's pieces, dot with the butter and set in a warm place to melt. Whisk together With over 50 years experience providing quality care for Chocolate Souffle the Jewish community, particularly Refugees from Nazi eggyolks and sugar over steam - or in a persecution. The Otto Schiff Housing AssiKiation is proud ea Linster is the only woman to bain-marie - until thick and creamy. Add to launch OSHA Homecare Services: dedicated to have been awarded a Bocuse d'or melted - but not hot - chocolate and helping older and frailer members of the community retain and she owns two restaurants in butter and fold in not too stiffly beaten independence in the security of their own home. L For information call our Homecare Services Manager Luxembourg: one specialising in typical eggwhites. Divide mixture between the local fare and the other one, called simply four souffle dishes and bake for about 8 on 0181 458 4088 or write to OSHA Homecare Services. Osmond House, The Bishop's Avenue, London N2 OBG 'Lea Linster', a great gastronomic shrine minutes. Dust cocoa powder over the top Registered Charily No 210169 where one can enjoy all the special and serve immediately D AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

which interrogated Heinrich Himmler, Obituary and while a district governor took part in GERMAN BOOKS the first Jewish DP conference at the We are always buying: Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Books, Autographs, Judaica and German works of art Chaim Herzog After the war, Herzog headed Israeli haim Herzog, who has died at the Army intelligence, playing a key role in Antiquariat Metropolis Leerbachstr. 85 age of 77, brought the courtesy breaking the siege of Jerusalem in the War D-60322 Frankfurt a/M and bravery of a British officer to of Independence. He retired in 1962 as C Tel: 0049 69 559451 his roles as general, diplomat, military commander of Israel's southern army. REGULAR VISITS TO LONDON historian, and President of the State of Is­ In both the Six Day and the Yom rael from 1983 to 1993. Herzog was born Kippur wars he was recalled to broadcast in 1919, the son of the Chief Rabbi of Ire­ as the reassuring and informed interna­ land. At school he proved an all-round tional voice of Israel. In 1975 Golda Meir GERMAN and ENGLISH sportsman, leaving in 1935 to study at a appointed him ambassador to the UN. He BOOKS BOUGHT yeshiva in Palestine and joining Israel's returned to enter the Knesset in 1981 on fledgling army, the Haganah. the opposition Labour list, and was Antiquarian, secondhand and modern In World War II, having trained as a elected President in 1983 and again in books of quality always wanted paratroop officer at Sandhurst, he fought 1988. Herzog was last in England to Most subjects, but especially with the British Army in Normandy, launch his autobiography. Living History, ARCHITECTURE, ART, PHOTOGRAPHY through France and Germany, and rose to at this year's Jewish Book Week. MUSIC the rank of majon He was in the team DRDC EROTICA MOUNTAINS, LANDSCAPES, GARDENS EASTERN EUROPE, ASIA POLAR REGIONS FEMINISM, ANARCHISM, ANTI-FASCISM tations or incomplete documentation", Allianz to settle said Rupprecht. Worldwide telephone ECONOMICS & PHILOSOPHY Holocaust victims' helplines are to be established to enable SCIENCE,TECHNOLOGY, MEDICINE everyone concerned to contact the insur­ BIBUOGRAPHY & FINE PRINTING claims ance company direct. However, no such MANUSCRIPTS & ORIGINAL DRAWINGS claims had been received by Allianz Life Immediate response to your letter llianz Life Insurance AG will settle in the past ten years. or phone call. claims by Holocaust victims in an In 1938 Allianz, according to its own We pay good prices and come to collect Aunbureaucratic manner, declared records, had one million individuals in­ Gerhard Rupprecht, Allianz Board Chair- sured and one and a half million group Please contact: nian. In cases of doubt, verification will insurance contracts. The average sum in­ Robert Hornung, MA (Oxon) 2 Mount View, Ealing, be sufficient even without an insurance sured was 5,900 Reichsmark, as on 31st December 1939, and 3,160 D-mark on London WS IPR policy. The company was currently carry­ Telephone 0181-998 0546 21st June 1948. ing out an internal audit to ascertain (5pm to 9pm is best) whether or not any claims were still out­ D Reuter, Stuttgart standing. He assumed that only a few isolated cases were likely. Bring your friends to an However, in the USA victims of the per­ 50 YEARS AGO secution of Jews in the Third Reich and Italian Evening their families have lodged claims for dam­ FROM BELSENTO PALESTINE ages amounting to billions against seven . "/ The 'Grand National' Scheme whereby every European insurers. The plaintiffs accuse month Jewish DPs in the British Zone are Good J^ood 4^ Music the insurers of having failed, after the allowed to leave for Palestine, is in full swing. Sunday 22 June 1997 War, to pay out Holocaust victims' A special Transit Camp, consisting of wooden claims. Their petition estimates that there huts, the remnants of a former Stalag, has been at 6.45 for 7pm Could be 10,000 potential claimants. set up for this purpose at Bocholt, near the Belsize Square Synagogue Hall German-Dutch frontier, and a team of relief London NWS Rupprecht said that the law suit was worlcers of the principal Jewish volunury lot directed solely against Allianz Life, agencies operating in Germany are running the In aid of Europe's largest insurance company. welfare, medical and documentation work of the Balint House Residents' Fund Other insurance companies, which now camp. 'Orm part of the combine - in Italy for People stay there for a period of up to 14 days, 'A most enjoyable evening' Example - have been cited. and a special train then ukes them to Marseilles for embarkation to Palestine. At the beginning of Tickets at £20 from: Judith Unikower Allianz Life is employing the auditors April 400 people had left the British Zone; 41 Sunbury Avenue NW7 3SL 'Arthur Andersen to carry out a complete another 260 were sent off on May 2.With singing Tel: 0181 959 2228 Examination of its records. In the event and waving of Jewish flags and banners the and 'hat any open cases were discovered, "we people left, full of hopes for a better future in Palestine D Miriam Cohn, 3 Willow Way N3 2PL ^hall fulfil all our commitments, without AjR Information,June 1947 Tel: 0181 346 7086 'egal objections such as the statute of limi-

IS AJR INFORMATION JUNE 1997

privilege of interviewing my wartime NEWSROUND Auschwitz - the view chief, the much-maligned Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris in an article for the Jew­ Brazil, Portugal and Argentina from on high ish Chronicle which appeared in that Investigate Nazi links paper's issue of November 16, 1962. The he argument whether or not then Air Chief Marshal speaks far more President Cardoso of Brazil, Prime Minis­ Auschwitz could or should have eloquently than I on the subject. ter Guterres of Portugal and Foreign been bombed will rage intermina­ n Lionel Simmonds Minister di Telia of Argentina have each T bly. For the record, may I ask readers of announced the establishment of a com­ your May issue to consider the following? mission of enquiry into their country's acceptance of escaping Nazi war crimi­ Bombing in those days was not on a par nals and receipt of gold stolen from with today's accuracy, with its laser and Holocaust victims during and after World other refinements locking on to targets. War II. Marianne Walter mentions a raid on Ami­ ens prison in which a number of Second trial Resistance men, doomed to be executed, The retrial has commenced of SS officer were released as a result of an Allied air­ Erich Priebke who is accused of partici­ raid. But she omits to tell readers that pating in the massacre of 335 people in Operation Jericho, so-called, resulted in Israel's Finest Wines the Ardeatine Caves to the south of Rome the deaths of 95 prisoners with 87 in World War II. Remaining under house wounded out of 258 persons incarcerated. from the arrest in a Franciscan convent, Priebke re­ True, 12 Resistance leaders due to die Golan Heights fused to appear at further court hearings. made their escape, but at what a price! Amiens, as the crow flies, is a short dis­ Yarden, Golan & Gamla Spring opening tance from Britain while Auschwitz, some The Arnold Schoenberg Centre, in 40 miles due west of Cracow, could only Vienna's Palis Fanto, is due to open in have been attacked some hundreds of Write, phone or fax Spring 1998. It will house his musical miles distant from Italy where the nearest for full information scores, writings, paintings and collected RAF or USAAF bases were then situated. works of art. For any possible accuracy, only daylight House of Hallgarten raids could have been launched, deep into Dallow Road, Luton LU1 1UR New deal enemy territory without fighter escort, a Greville Janner, Chairman of the Holo­ Tel: 01582 22538 hazardous venture indeed. Night bombing Fax: 01582 23240 caust Education Trust, told a group of would have been out of the question. Swiss businessmen that the 1946 agree­ Without a doubt, the bombing of ment on the amount and disposition of Auschwitz would have resulted in fearful $120 million of gold looted from national Jewish casualties and as an ex-RAF treasuries and stolen from the Jews should bomb-aimer I thank God that I was never MICHAEL H SCOTT be renegotiated. At the time, half was called upon to take part in such a raid. handed to the victorious Allies, Britain, & COMPANY Also bear in mind that whereas Amiens France and the US, and half was retained and its surroundings was friendly Allied Chartered Accountants by the Swiss banks. territory, Poland was in a totally different FREEPHONE 0800 919 907 Romanian assets category. Then if by some miracle the cre­ During the Ceaucescu regime most of the matoria had been destroyed, what would Worried about self assessment? 400,000 Romanian Jews who emigrated have been achieved? Separated from their Just give us a call loved ones, where would the hapless in­ to Israel had their property and posses­ FREEPHONE 0800 919 907 sions confiscated. Senate President Petre mates have gone, had any escaped? The Roman has acknowledged the illegality of hostile Polish people would have rounded Tel: 0181 907 9200 these acts and pledged to consider the re­ them up and handed them over to the Fax: 0181 909 1503 turn of communal assets to be followed Germans and the German guards would 107 Kenton Road, Kenton, by restitution for individuals. have had no compunction in massacring Harrow, Middx HA3 OAN those trying to get away. It is said that the Stolen art railway lines leading to Auschwitz- Paintings and sculptures belonging to Birkenau could have been bombed but leading Jewish collectors and dealers, railway lines can be repaired in next to no Annely Juda which were confiscated in France by the time, even in war. Fine Art Germans and still remain in the posses­ Ask yourself which hastened the end of sion of French museums, have been put the war: mass raids on the German heart­ 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) on display. Prime Minister Alain Juppe land - the Ruhr, Berlin, Hamburg and Tel: 0171-629 7578 Fax:0171-4912139 has promoted a new initiative to locate vital communications centres, or a com­ CONTEMPORARY PAINTING their owners. paratively ineffective raid on an IG AND SCULPTURE n Lionel Simmonds Farben centre near Auschwitz. I had the

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