AJR Information Volume LII No. 4 April 1997 £3 (to non-members)
Don't miss... Stripping whitewash from the Wehrmacht l^chard Grunberger p2 Unfair to whom? How to tell our 'story* Rabbi Julia Neuberger or starters, let's have a quick quiz. Who won Moses wanted to teach Pharaoh a harsh lesson. The p5 the world war? Was it Churchill, Roosevelt, or sea did not divide at the moment of desperate need Failure of a mission FStalin, or all three? Or does the glory belong to simply because he pointed his staff at it. The sea did AW Freud pi3 Generals Montgomery, Eisenhower and Patten, with not go back to cover the dry strip - and drown the a little help from Marshal Zhukov and Bomber Egyptians - simply because the Israelites had fin Biased Harris? And who won the Battle of Waterloo? The ished their crossing. Just as some April day some British would say Wellington - and that is what I years ago, the sea around Holy Island, Northumber Broadcasting learned at Hendon County School. If I had stayed in land, did not recede because I wanted to drive over Corporation school in Berlin long enough, I expect I would have the causeway to see the vicar on some pastoral mat n the been taught it was Bluecher. And whom would the ter, and covered the causeway some hours later just March 10 French pick? Surely even they could not persuade because I had finished my business and was on my Oevening news themselves it was Napoleon! way home to Newcastle. bulletin Jeremy In talking about any war, any victory or defeat, And just as Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne Bowen reported surely you would not leave out the leaders, the could score no goals, or Will Carling could win no Israeli 'ethnic winners and losers. In discussing Waterloo, surely rugby match - and lose no wife - without factors cleansing' of East you would not even leave out the same Napoleon beyond their control. Jerusalem, which who lost that battle and with it his liberty for the To have left God - religion's shorthand for the 30 years after its rest of his life? And could you sensibly talk about unforeseen and unpredictable - out of the Passover conquest in the '67 War 'contained Israel's Six-Day War in 1967 without mentioning story would have been as unfair as to leave Moses far more Jews than Moshe Dayan? out of it. As far as God is concerned, it is an unfair Arabs'. What he So what were the rabbis of old up to in the ness of which we are guilty most of the time signally failed to Haggadah when they cut Moses out of the story of through most of our lives. We tend to pride our mention was that Passover? Were they the first and the greatest re- selves on our successes and blame ourselves for our pre-1967 no Jew was writers - and distorters - of history? failures, without giving any space, let alone weight, even permitted to Does not the first and most authentic draft of the to the unseen and unforeseen X-factor which reli visit Hashemite East story, in the Torah, give Moses a central role? And is gion calls God. Jerusalem - site of not the Haggadah, the rabbis' re-write therefore To tell the story the Wailing Wall - monstrously unfair to Moses? of the Second and that the Israeli conquest occurred The one explanation of their seemingly eccentric World War, as of after Jordan had behaviour which will not wash, is to write them off the Exodus, of the ignored urgent Israeli as ancient fossils who did not know what they were establishment of the pleas to stay out of doing. They were a lot clearer in their aims than State of Israel, as of the conflict and some of us are today. In writing Moses out of his the recent liberation joined Syria and story, they pursued one simple objective. They of Eastern Europe Egypt in attacking wanted to switch the spotlight on God alone and from Communism, the nascent Jewish that may have chipped away some of the credit of without any regard State. The earlier Moses, but was not totally unfair to him. Because whatever to that X- War of Israeli stunning as was this reluctant leader's achievement factor, is to leave a Independence had in loosening the dictator Pharaoh's grip on his little gap and distort the been accompanied by band of Hebrew slaves, and even more stupendous picture. the total expulsion of Jews from their as was this stutterer's feat in persuading these slaves Seder night and (sometimes to leave their safe and settled homes for a manna its Haggadah come London's memorial to Raoul century-old) places ramble around the desert, the deed was not that of on April 21 to re- Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat Moses alone. Store the balance "'^° T"' '^'''-°f-"'°"''"'d Hungar- of residence in E. _, tan jews from deportation to Jerusalem D The Egyptian first-born did not die simply because URabbi William Wolff Auschwitz from Budapest in 1944. AJR INFORMATION APR/L 1997
was soon back with Goldrei. In 1943 he Stripping whitewash Profile enlisted in the RAF, classified paradoxi cally as a 'friendly enemy alien'. Not cut from the Wehrmacht out to be a pilot, he became an inter Now't beyond our Ken preter, was posted to Paris and followed he Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhi the army into Germany. At the war's end bition has been touring German urt Abrahamsohn was born in he finished his degree while still in uni cities for the last two years, Stettin into a conventional middle- form and, at The Hyphen youth club, met T class German-Jewish family, prompting diametrically opposite species K his wife-to-be Hilde. of outrage. On the one hand thoughtful, headed by his lawyer father. He too In 1950 Ken joined Marks 8c Spencer and frequently younger, Germans react wanted to read law, but at the age of 16, where he spent twelve years in manage with horror to the irrefutable evidence of in 1936, his schooling was interrupted as ment. From 1962 to 1985 part-time Wehrmacht atrocities. On the other hand, the dictum 'get the children out' became lecturing for the WEA became full-time conservatives are appalled to see the myth the Jewish community's priority. An teaching of Management Studies and that Hitler's warriors in fieldgrey - un uncle's contacts enabled him to arrange a Training at Central London Polytechnic; like those in black - fought with clean place for Kurt at a private school in he also had consultancy assignments for hands evaporate before their eyes. Taunton, Somerset. the UN in Europe and the Far East. The myth was not of purely German Though now retired, he is active on a manufacture. In the postwar - and Cold number of public projects, enquiries and War - decades, Washington and London in voluntary work. It was his initiative colluded with Bonn to turn Denazification which launched the first local AJR group into little more than a cosmetic exercise. in South London in November 1994 They failed to remove the guilty men from which has not looked back under his con positions of power and sidestepped the tinued guidance. issue of general German complicity in Having a suitcaseful of family Nazi crimes. Whitewashing the army was documents, photographs and other part of that mendacious rewrite of history. memorabilia, Ken has spent three years Ultimately though, in the words of the sorting out and editing an account of his proverb, Liigen haben kurze Beine. Dur family's history from 1800 to 1950 - ing the time the exhibition criss-crossed much of it in their own words. At present the Bundesrepublik, more and more ex- he is 'just waiting for a publisher'. soldiers have come forward with n Ronald Cbanning gutwrenching photographs of atrocities. But there has also been a contrary Ken Ambrose conservative-shading-into-neo-Nazi mobi Austria's ex-Chancellor lisation of forces that aim to sweep He left that school at 18 and went to unpalatable truths under the carpet once work for A. Goldrei & Co Ltd. in Lon replies to AJR Director's more. In Erfurt, for instance, rightwingers don, suppliers of bakers' sundries, who letter sprayed exhibition panels with the word were happy to employ refugee children. 'lies'. Officially he was a 'student employee' Dear Mr David, The Wehrmacht exhibition is currently and his name was anglicised to Ken I cordially thank you for the kind agitating public opinion in arch-conserva Ambrose. As Ken he enrolled as an letter you sent on the occasion of my tive Bavaria, whose provincial cities - evening student at the London School of resignation from the political functions like Passau, featured in the film The Economics. I had been entrusted with. Nasty Girl - seem stuck in a swastika- His father was arrested during From my personal point of view, it is hued timewarp. In fact, Bavaria is turning Kristallnacht in November 1938. Ken with pleasure and satisfaction that I into a veritable battleground between worked hard to find a safe haven for his look back on all these years, on the truth seekers and self-designated parents in Britain and a family in Kent many experiences 1 have gathered and 'patriots'. The CSU Mayor of Regens agreed to act as guarantors. When his on the valuable contacts I have had. burg boycotted the opening of the parents arrived before Easter 1939, Ken That it was during my time in office exhibition in his town. In Munich the became their provider. In late August a that Austria has finally engaged in an local CSU leader did the same and con letter from the Jewish Refugee Committee open debate on its past and made in vened a 'counter-ceremony' at the Tomb asked when he intended moving on. But tense efforts to come to terms with the of the Unknown Soldier. the outbreak of war on 3rd September atrocities that had been committed un But even in Bavaria, a region whose tra meant that he remained in his 'protected der the Nazi regime, is something ditional ethos is succinctly evoked by three occupation' and doing firewatching at which I am particularly proud of. place names - Oberammergau, Bayreuth, night. Wishing you and the friends from Dachau - the truth seekers do not alto In June 1940 Ken was interned and the Association of Jewish Refugees all gether lack political clout: in Munich the shipped to Australia in the infamous the best and every success for future Social Democratic city council is playing Dunera. During his ten months there he endeavours, I remain, host to the exhibition at the Town Hall. was treated like a POW, but returned on Franz Vranitzky D Richard Grunberger the first boat, re-enrolled at the LSE and AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1997
Why Auschwitz was Army Airforce, was most sympathetic and requested the camp's precise location, a AUSTRIAN and GERMAN request passed to the Foreign Office, but not bombed their negative attitude meant that details PENSIONS Resume of a Wiener Library lecture by were never provided! Or Richard H. Levy Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. PROPERTY RESTITUTION Eisenhower always referred political mat wo escapees from Auschwitz in ters to President Roosevelt who, in this CLAIMS April 1944 had provided incontro case, would have consulted Jewish organi EAST GERMANY- BERLIN Tvertible proof of its function. Their sations and advisers. In fact, Washington On instructions our office will report to Jewish representatives in Hun was not informed of any consideration assist to deal with your gary and Geneva had a recommendation being given to a bombing project. to undertake bombing appended to it. When considering the RAF's ope applications and pursue the The British knew of the deportations rational capability to bomb Auschwitz, matter with the authorities. and where the victims were being gassed. Sinclair undoubtedly told the truth. For further information and However, while the British army's cap Nights were short at that time of year and appointment please ture of the Italian airbase at Foggia the RAF possessed no means of defending contact: notionally brought Auschwitz within their bombers at a range of up to 800 bombing range, RAF Bomber Command miles in daylight raids. No reconnaissance ICS CLAIMS •"emained based in Britain throughout the had been undertaken and the chances of 146-154 Kilburn High Road War. finding Auschwitz, let alone destroying London NW6 4JD A meeting of the Jewish Agency in Is- four blacked-out buildings at night from a Tel: 0171-328 7251 (Ext. 107) •"ael on 11th June, chaired by David height of 30,000 feet, were extremely re Fax: 0171-624 5002 J^en-Gurion, refused to request Allied mote if almost non-existent. bombing by a majority of 11:1 on the D Ronald Channing grounds that they "should not ask the Al- hes to bomb places where there are Jews." The Rescue Department of the World Jewish Congress in New York also ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING NEWTONS Opposed the bombing of Jews in the belief of the Leading Hampstead Solicitors that it could provide "a welcome pretext ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, lor the Germans to assert that their Jew- REFUGEES London NW3 5NB 'sh victims have been massacred not by fheir killers, but by Allied bombings." will be held on °^ All legal work undertal perbly researched reconstruction of a Russians or Poles, and though many more Reviews unique incident. He has interviewed nu German Jews could have been saved if merous surviving participants, including their fellow citizens had publicly resisted the first interview ever with Goebbels' Nazi antisemitism, that would have re Unique act of top deputy at the Propaganda Ministry, quired a different Germany. The situation resistance Leopold Gutterer. This personal testi of the Rosenstrasse women was untypical: mony, sometimes deeply moving, is having lost their husbands, they had noth Nathan Stoltzfus, RESISTANCE OFTHE HEART. skillfully interwoven with historical ing else to lose and could act with the Norton, $30 (1996) analysis of the issues raised by the protest. courage of despair, taking on the regime merican historian Stoltzfus tells Could more Jews have been saved by in a way that most Germans would have the extraordinary story of the similar methods? Should the Jewish com shunned as suicidal. A Rosenstrasse protest in February/ munal authorities faced with the Stoltzfus identified Goebbels, Party March 1943, when some 2,000 Berlin agonising choice between complicity and leader in Berlin, as a key figure. Sensing Jews were released from arrest by the martyrdom, have refused to co-operate in the popular mood immediately after the Nazis authorities. These 2,000 were either the deportations? disaster at Stalingrad, the Propaganda Jews married to Germans or Mischlinge The loyalty of the wives is awe-inspir Minister opted not to employ force with German relatives, and it was these ing. Only 7% of intermarried Germans against a public show of dissent by Ger Germans (mostly the wives of divorced their Jewish partners, despite 12 man women bent on freeing their intermarried Jews) who secured their years of daily abuse and harassment. Of husbands. The Nazis' obsession with the loved ones' release, by demonstrating the German Jews who survived the Holo defeat of 1918, which they attributed to a publicly in front of the building in the caust, 98% were intermarried and they collapse of civilian morale, also made Rosenstrasse where they were being held. largely owed their lives to the them unexpectedly responsive to this type The women continued their street protest Rosenstrasse protest. But the power of of protest. Lastly, the protest took place despite the terror apparatus of the Nazi street protests to save Jews was surely in Berlin; in Vienna, one imagines, popu state, defying threats from police and SS limited to the Reich itself. One can easily lar disapproval would have crushed any to shoot them down. imagine what would have happened to pro-Jewish demonstration. Stoltzfus has produced a meticulous, su the protesting women if they had been D Anthony Grenville reasonably substantial thriving commu Far-flung places nity. To continue our review of frequently THEjEWISHTRAVEL GUIDE 1997, published in visited locations: the former British association with The Jewish Chronicle, London, colony of Barbados currently accommo £10.95. dates only a very small community, but ost of us consider that the roots has a great deal of Jewish history. It was of our Jewish heritage can be founded by refugees from Brazil after its Mfound in the last two or three reconquest by the Portuguese in about hundred years somewhere in continental 1650. The synagogue and cemetery in the Europe. After the ravages of the aptly named Synagogue Lane in the island Holocaust these are not always so readily capital of Bridgetown are still in use - located. These days the ease and and are in the process of restoration after il frequency with which most of us travel years of neglect. Members are currently means that we should look for Jewish raising funds for the restoration of the history in some of the more seemingly tombstones, many of which date back unlikely places in the world. Curafao's Temple Emanuel synagogue, built in two or three hundred years. 1864 but no longer in use as a place of worship. The 1997 Jewish Travel Gidde is a de No matter where the Jewish visitor sets tailed listing of all Jewishly active places famous for its orange liqueur, there is a foot the local community extends a wel wherever in the world it is possible to still thriving community dating back to come; short stay visitors are advised to visit. Not only does it give details of the 1651. Curasao has two active syna contact the appropriate community (as obvious locations, such as the USA, Great gogues, {Ashkenazi and Sephardi), a detailed in the Jewish Travel Guide) in Britain and, of course, Israel, but of liter Jewish school, and supermarkets stocking advance. ally anywhere in the world where there is kosher food. The defunct Temple This annual publication is a reference an identifiable Jewish community. Emanuel (built in 1864) is a major tourist book no concerned Jewish traveller Many of us who have taken a Carib attraction on the island. Almost all cruise should be without when planning a trip at bean cruise, or holiday in the West Indies, ships leaving Miami call at San Juan in home or abroad. probably did not imagine that at almost Puerto Rico. Arriving Jewish passengers One slight cavil: the guide would be every port of call there would be a Jewish may be surprised to learn that the current even more valuable if it offered recom community with a history dating back Jewish population is more than 4,000. mendations and practical advice for the several hundred years. This compares with the Jewish commu travellers on a par with that found in In Curasao, the former Dutch Colony, nity of under 5,000 in, say. New Zealand travel guides of more general interest. j in the Netherlands Antilles, an island where we would all expect there to be a D Philip Goodmaker AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1997 selves of some of the pain, in order to How to tell our 'story' gain a form of spiritual peace. That may n the last few months, I have reviewed sound grandiose, but there is an element a great many books to do with the of wanting to extract accounts from peo Enjoy I Holocaust, from Martin Gilbert's The ple who for fifty years and more have % Excellent food Boys to Anne Karpf's extraordinary been unwilling, and often unable, to '^ Stimulating talk account of her childhood. But I am speak about their experiences. * Enlivening discussion increasingly aware of Holocaust Thirdly, we believe that a large number =f Meeting new friends survivors' accounts fatigue on the part of of accounts will somehow make it all at the many literary editors, something which more real to those who read them - our k\R LUNCHEON CLUB seems to me to be particularly British. It children, who were not there and did not seems as if more and more accounts are know the survivors in the early years in on Wednesday 16th April 1997 published in the United States to some this country; children at large who study at l5CleveRoad,NW6 3RL considerable acclaim, whilst the British the Holocaust at school; the world at 11.45 for 12.15pm public, or the literary editors, have large because for so long they did not Guest speaker: Katherine Klinger decided that enough is enough. know, or did not want to know, and then 'It is not only yesterday, It is worth considering why this might later they could not, or did not want to, it is tomorrow and today' be. People have felt their memories in believe it. (postponed from last month) some way released by the fiftieth These are some of our motives. Yet I am Reservations (£7) anniversary of the liberation of Ausch not sure that all of them are generalisable from Sylvia, Renee and Susie witz, or of the end of the war. There is to a wider reading public. Indeed, I think Tel: 0171 328 0208 also the sense that elderly survivors do that one of the magnificent things about not wish to go to the grave with their Martin Gilbert's The Boys was precisely Future guests: fnemories still intact inside them; al the nature of the group biography. That Ernest Kaye - 21 st May though they know it will be does not answer the individual need to tell Joanne Kessler - ISth June excruciatingly painful to recall some of the story, but it might answer the prob the worst nightmares, they feel it should lems of a reading public less keen to read "C, in some way, 'on the record'. individual stories (or perhaps it is only the Those seem to me to be perfectly good literary critics who are getting bored). explanations of why so much material is Whichever the case, I believe that we being published now. Yet the voices I hear need to think about why it should be that are saying things like 'There is too much. there is less public enthusiasm for reading People are bored...' or 'We have read the people's experiences just at the point story before...' or 'It's is very moving when more are willing to write them, and BELSIZE SQUARE but the writing is appalling...' and so on. may not have much time left. And per SYNAGOGUE None of the stories is exactly like any haps we should contemplate ways of other. Indeed, reading Martin Gilbert's telling a group story, or a series of group 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 group biography of The Boys, I was struck stories, as well as encouraging individuals oy the differences between the 732 people to tell their own stories, even though they We offer a traditional style of whose experiences he was recording. might not all be published right now. religious service with Cantor, But there is one point it is worth listen- This is painful stuff, and I am aware Choir and organ "ig to. And that is about how these that some AJR readers will think that I accounts read in the eyes of the reader should not be saying it. But I am certain Further details can be obtained who lacks family knowledge, or experi that we still have much to tell the wider from our synagogue secretary ence. This may well be someone who has world, let alone our children and grand I'eal sympathy (there is nothing antise- children, but that when we do it, we must Telephone 0171-794 3949 "litic or even unsympathetic about this make sure it gets the notice it deserves. ••esponse), but docs not share the curiosity And if that means a different tactic, so be Minister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner "lany of us have for every tiny detail. it. After all, the survivors who go round Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine We Jews want to read the personal ac schools talking to young children about Regular services; Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, counts for many reasons. First, we do not their experiences have made a whole gen Saturday mornings at 10 am Want the story forgotten, nor the names eration in some areas understand a little Religion school: Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm of those of our families who perished to of the Holocaust and its implications for Space donated by Pafra Limited Pass from historical accounts in daily use. families and fractured lives. If it can work These accounts are one way of ensuring to tell the history like that, and it is im Tiemory for relatives who probably never pressive and moving to see it, then surely even had a grave, whose place of death is we can think of new ways of publishing BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE Unknown. - with perhaps more material on video 51 Belsize Square, London N.W.3 Secondly, we think it important that in this extraordinarily screen orientated Our communal hall is available for people who have a story to tell should tell age, and look to telling the young just as cultural and social functions. " loud and clear - to put it on the much, but perhaps a little differently. Tel: 0171-794 3949 ••ecord, certainly, but also to free them D Julia Neuberger AJR INFORMATION APR;L 1997 reparations to their former forced employees. It should be noted that Daimler-Benz did not make any payments until 1988 U^^SomS^J^^ and then to the Claims Conference and the German Red Cross. They have never paid any compensation to individual slave labourers who helped to enrich the com EUROSCEPTIC RIPOSTE Parliament, is a toothless creature. He pany, nor have they contributed to the Sir - I heartily concur with Ernest does not mention that Britain has been in German social security system in respect David's comments (February issue) and the forefront of preventing this institution of such people. am puzzled why the majority of our from gaining any power lest it takes away I trust that people who buy Daimler- 'ilk', matured in a Liberal Jewish authority from the British Parliament. It is Benz products and those of other environment, should support sentiments hardly fair criticism first to make the companies who benefited from slave la tending towards the political left. Parliament powerless, and then criticise it bour do so in full consciousness of the Ludicrous laws have emanated from the for being so. facts. bureaucrats of Brussels concerning the If anyone believes in complete economic CroftWay M Lafontaine origin of Yorkshire pudding or the shape union, he must believe in a common cur London NW3 and colour of bananas and sausages. rency. Would the United States have EMU is the last straw and handover of in achieved their enormous wealth if every dependence. The total gold and foreign state had its own currency? A common ILLEGAL OCCUPATION currency does not necessarily mean politi currency reserves would be handed over Sir - I am astonished that AJR cal union. Britain and the Irish Republic to the Central European Bank in Frank Information which generally holds had a common currency for very many furt and we would have no more say over admirably radical views, advertises years, yet could not have been further wages, taxes, VAT, interest, pensions etc. 'Israel's Finest Wines' from the Golan apart politically. With many impoverished East European Heights (January issue). Nor is Ernest David's example of countries clamouring for admittance, our Perhaps I should remind readers that Bosnia relevant. The state of Bosnia was cost of living must invariably rise if the the Golan is not Israel, but a large part formed through a referendum with only common budget is to be balanced. How (13,000 sq. kilometres) of Syria under Is the Moslems supporting it. The Serbs and masochistic have we become? raeli occupation since 1967. Due to Israeli Croats were violently opposed. The Euro Wembley Anthony Go/dsm/th expulsion tactics, 130,000 Syrians were pean Union is a voluntary association. If M\ddx forced to flee and almost all their villages any nation wants to secede, nobody will destroyed. The remaining Syrian/Arab stop them. Sir - In 'It occurs to me' (February population has faced continuous repres llford Peter Prager sion. Furthermore, by the end of 1995, issue) I have found affirmation. It just Essex about summed up what we Central 13,500 Israeli settlers were living in the European refugees have long suspected: Golan in 38 illegal Jewish villages. the EU is more a unitary state in the THE PAST IN THE PRESENT Rochdale George S Abendstern making than a federation! Sir - 1 wholeheartedly agree with Mr Lancashire I personally feel that blood relations are Jaray's letter of February stating 'AJR The 'Golan issue' ivill only be settled more reliable bedfellows than can be Information breathes everywhere a cold ivhen Syria stops stirring the Lebanon pot found anywhere! They fought for your indifference to British interests and British and accepts co-existence tvith Israel. Even country and always came to its assistance, tradition'. a Likud government ivould then be even quite recently when your sole sailor New Cavendish Street RH Hellmann obliged to ivithdratv. Ed. had to be picked up by Australian efforts London WI which not only cost the country millions My 'indifference' to British interests of dollars, but demonstrated to the world NIGGARDLY HOME OFFICE its readiness, willingness and bonhomie. It resembles Edtvard Heath's. As to Sir - Further to your obituary of Ester is still not too late to renew old ties and tradition, I invite my critics to quote Simpson (January issue). She was a very forge them afresh in a world crying out instances ivhere AJR Information breached remarkable woman who helped countless just for this! the British tradition of democracy, tolerance and civilised values. Ed. refugee scholars as secretary of the I have found your thoughts most re Academic Assistance Council. freshing. Good luck to you for expressing The generosity of the academic commu them so lucidly in AJR Information for VORSPRUNG nity in the 1930s is in stark contrast with the first time ever! DURCH TECHNIK the overall attitude of the Home Office, Woo//ohro Ed/t/i Fischl-Lee Sir - It should perhaps have been made which allowed the 10,000 'Kinder' to Australia clear in your review of Zivangsarbeit bei enter Britain only after much pressurising Daimler-Benz (March issue), that this and after securing firm financial guaran Sir - Ernest David is quite right in work was actually commissioned by tees that the children would not be a stating that the only democratic Daimler-Benz and as such is not an burden on the state. Alas, many less fortu institution of the EU, the European independent unbiased account of their nately placed adults who would have ri'-ihM'ifriVfrnm'irT ri'-'i-iTir"-rr The atCVotJk Centenarians, Herta Arndt, Eve Green, Eva Jellineck and Regina Schneck planting a tree. GENERATION TO REGENERATION AJR MEALS ON WHEELS our lady residents of the Otto Schiff in 1893, watched by Mrs Eve Green, Mrs If you live in North or North West Housing Association, whose com Eva Jellineck and Mrs Regina Schneck London and wish to take advantage of bined ages of 400 years would take who were all born in 1897, is helped by this service, phone Susie Kaufman on F 0171-328 0208 for details and an us back to Elizabethan times, planted an Henry Jonas to trowel in the bedding soil. assessment Interview. apple tree in the grounds of Leo Baeck Otto Schiff residents plant a tree or shrub House in The Bishops Avenue, London, in every year for future generations to enjoy. celebration of Tu b'Shvat, the Jewish Mrs Arndt and Mrs Schneck have been New Year for Trees. AJR members for many years. Mrs Herta Arndt (above) who was born DTI AJR 'Drop in* Advice Centre at the Paul Balint AjR Day Centre A sense of loss 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL between I Gam and 12 noon on the any of the AJR's much- survivors, refugees from Nazi persecution following dates: appreciated voluntary workers and their families. In her experience, con Monday 1 April are themselves former refugees, or sciously or unconsciously, parents often M Tuesday 7 April are the children and grandchildren of put pressure on their children to succeed Thursday 24 April refugees. It was therefore both familiar in life beyond the realms of reasonable Wednesday 30 April and illuminating for a group of them to expectation. By so doing, they attempt to Tuesday 6 May hear psychologist and co-founder of compensate for their loss of educational and every Thursday from London's Holocaust Survivors' Centre, opportunities, families, homes and even I Cam to 12 noon at: Dr Gabby Glassman, discuss the their identities. AJR, I Hampstead Gate, la consequences of uprooting and loss at a Paradoxically, while their own experi Frognal, London NW3 6AL specially organised meeting held at the ences tend to make them lose sight of AJR Paul Balint Day Centre. religion or 'God', they still expect their No appointment is necessory, but please bring Dr Glassman, who was born in Holland children to adhere to the tradition and along all relevant documents, such as Benefit and whose parents were Holocaust survi practice of Judaism. Books, letters, bills, etc. vors, specialises in the counselling of DDP AJR INFORMATION APR/L /997 It occurs to me ... PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE QUARTET - Tracie Penwarden (Soprano) - ast month we published a cartoon Tel. 0171 328 0208 Andrew Farris which had appeared in a Swiss (Baritone) - Nigel French language newspaper, which Open Tuesday and Thursday 9.30ani -6.30pm, L Monday and Wednesday 9.30am - 3.30pm, Cassidy (Tenor) to any Jew appeared to be viciously anti Sunday 2 pm - 6.30pm. accompanied by Marek semitic. However, when we complained to Dabrowski (Piano) the Swiss Ambassador, we were told that Morning Activities - Bridge, kalookie, scrabble, Tuesday 15 SPRINGTIME IN in the paper's view "to any sensible chess, etc., keep fit, discussion group, choir VIENNA - Elizabeth Swiss citizen, the caricature refers to the {Mondays}, art class {Tuesdays and Thursdays). Ward (Soprano) Swiss Cabinet with the first figure depict accompanied by ing and reinforcing some characteristics Margaret Lion (Piano) Afternoon entertainment - of the nature of the previous President of Wednesday 16 DAY CENTRE OPEN - the Swiss Confederation." The editor of LUNCHEON CLUB the Swiss paper denied the cartoon was APRIL 1997 Thursday 17 COME DANCE WITH antisemitic. He merely used the symbol of ME - Carmen Lasok black coated, hook-nosed people praying Tuesday 1 A MUSICAL MEDLEY (Soprano) accompanied at a wall, to indicate how the Swiss wor FOR PIANO & VOICE by Phillip Mountford ship gold. - Melanie Mehta (Piano) In January, despite a subsequent (Soprano) accompanied Sunday 20 DAY CENTRE OPEN - apology, the Frattkfurter Allgemeine by Martin Sharpe NO ENTERTAINMENT Zeitung, supported its young journalist (Piano) Monday 21 CLOSED - EREV who thought it odd that a Jew, even a Wednesday 2 OPERA HIGHLIGHTS PESACH Foreign Secretary, should quote Luther. Thursday 3 MUSICAL Tuesday 22 CLOSED - PESACH One wonders if she thought of Luther ENTERTAINMENT Wednesday 23 CLOSED - PESACH merely as a Christian, or was her surprise FOR SPRING-Judi Thursday 24 A MEDLEY OF due to Luther's well known anti - Bimbi & Rufus CLASSICAL SONGS - Madge Duncan- semitism? Merrie-Frowde accompanied by June Sutherland (Soprano) In London the first visit in 49 years by Moore (Piano) accompanied by an Israeli Head of State, while well re Sunday 6 MY SONG OF LOVE Stephen Baron (Piano) ported by the press, with very favourable - Katinka Seiner Sunday 27 CLOSED editorial comment by The Times, was al accompanied by Leslie - EREV PESACH most a non event in both BBC and ITV's Barnes (Piano) with Monday 28 CLOSED - PHSACH main television evening news. Guest Artist Laszio Tuesday 29 CLOSED - PESACH Despite both chains showing pictures of Easton (Violin) Wednesday 30 A PIANO TRIO - riots in Israel, neither found a slot to Monday 7 CHANSON D'AVRIL Bridgcte Hurst - show President Weizman with the Queen. - Satya Barham Myrtle Bruce-Mitford These are but three recent examples of (Soprano) accompanied - Timothy Barratt apparent antisemitism, although in every by Geoffrey Whitworth (Piano) <^ase the perpetrator denies or would deny (Piano) any intention of being deliberately offen Tuesday 8 AN AFTERNOON OF MAY sive. Am 1 - are we - too sensitive? Are YOUR FAVOURITE Thursday MAY DAY CONCERT We too thin skinned in seeking out mani SONGS - Suzanna - Fiona Tanner festations of antisemitism? After all, we Marks (Soprano) (Soprano) accompanied live in free and democratic societies, accompanied by Janet by Geoffrey Whitworth where people are allowed to express their Beale (Piano & (Piano) opinions, poke a little fun and comment Accordion) Sunday MUSICAL SOIREE - On other peoples' characteristics, unless Wednesday 9 LESLIE TOWNSEND Arranged by Deborah they infringe the laws on racism. (Violin) & PHILIPPA Fink (Soprano) with However, we have six million good BALE (Piano) Entertain Piano Accompaniment reasons to be nervous and sensitive; we for an April Afternoon have the growth of extreme Nationalist Thursday 10 TFIE TRENTHAM parties in France and Austria; we have re DUO - (Violin & Cello) visionists denying that the Holocaust ever Origins GENERAL happened; and we have young people Sunday 13 Zaccaria (or Zachariah) Levy, an ancestor KNOWLEDGE QUIZ growing up knowing little about the re of Princess Anne's husband Commander - Compiled & Timothy Laurence, ivas born in Venice in cent past. Presented by Lily Remember that one definition of Rudolfer 1751 and married a member of the antisemitism is 'disliking Jews more than Montefiore family at London's Bevis Monday 14 THE DABROWSKI is absolutely necessary'. Marks Synagogue in 1786. He died in D Ernest David 1828 D AJR INFORMATION APR/L 1997 FAMILY NEV/ CLOTHES DIN DELIS HOUSE SHELTERED FLATS Birthdays Residential Care Home FOR SALE TO LET Steiner. Kurt Steiner of 29 Yale for Senior Citizens Court, Honeybourne Road, dresses, underwear, Religion highly honoured Attractive warden-controlled NW6, celebrated his 8Sth cardigans etc. Pleasant relaxed atmosphere flats are available Birthday on 23rd March 1997. All single rooms with TV Shirley Lever at the from time to time & telephone Deaths Paul Balint AJR Day at For information contact: Gordon. Eva Fanny Gordon, Centre Eleanor Rathbone House Mrs HR Fearon Pennant nee Goldschmidt, born Highgate N6 Thursday 3 April Phone 0181 903 7592 28.4.1917 in Berlin, died Wednesday 9 April Fax 0181 903 4195 Details from: 19.1.97 in Leicester after a Monday 19 May Mrs. K.Gould, AJR, on long illness. Deeply mourned 0171-431 6161 by her husband Harold, sons 9.45- 11.45am ALTERATIONS Tuesday and Thursday Peter and Michael, sister Use in OF ANY KIND TO mornings. America, family and many LADIES' FASHIONS friends. WANTED: Paintings & Prints I also design and make Viewing by appointment only Brandt. Jakob Eugen Brandt by German and Jewish artists children's clothes Good prices paid West Hampstead area passed away suddenly on 9th 0171-328 6571 January aged 85 years. Much Box No. 1230 BELSIZE SQUARE missed by his family and many APARTMENTS friends. C. H. WILSON 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 Carpenter Tel: 0171-794 4307 or Morgenstern. Erna Morgen Painter and Decorator 0171-435 2557 stern died 15th February 1997. Dr H Alan Shields French Polisher MB ChB BDS LDS RCS Antique Furniture Repaired Sadly missed by all who knew Tel: 0181-452 8324 MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY her at the Day Centre. Car: 0831103707 ROOMS, RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER DENTAL SURGEON MODERATE TERMS Alexander. Tamara, wife of NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION Paul A Alexander, died peace Full Dental Service fully at the North London Home visits, Emergencies SWITCH ON Hospice on 8th February 1997. ELECTRICS TORRINGTON HOMES 46 BRAMPTON GROVE Rewires and all household MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N. MATRON HENDON, NW4 In Memoriam electrical work. For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent PHONE PAUL: 0181-200 3518 (Licensed Dy Borough ol Barnet} Weiss. Karl Weiss, died March Tel: 0181 203 0405 • Single and Double Rooms. 1982, and Tommy Weiss, who • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. left us suddenly March 1956, • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. • Nurse on duty 24 hours. not quite 11 years old. "Es ist AJR INFORMATION • Long and short term, including bestimmt in Gottes Rat, dass is available on tape trial period if required. man vom Liebsten das man Optician From £275 per week hat, muss scheiden, ja Dr Howard Solomons If anyone would like to take 0181-445 1171 Office hours advantage of this service 0181-455 1335 other times scheiden." Lisl. BSc FBCO NORTH FINCHLEY & Please contact Chiropodist Mrs Irene White CLASSIFIED 0181-203 2733 Trevor Goldman SRC Residential Home Miscellaneous before 9am or after 6pm Clara Nehab House by appointment at (Lao Baack Housing Assoctalon t-td.) Electrician. City 8c Guilds 13-19 Laaslda Craacani NWll qualified. All domestic work The Paul Baiint All rooms with Shower W.C. and undertaken. Y. Steinreich. Tel: AJR Day Centre ADVERTISEMENT RATES H/C Basins en-suite 0181 455 5262. 15 Cleve Road, FAMILY EVENTS Spacious Garden - Lounge & First 15 words free of charge, Dining Room - Lift Manicure 8c Pedicure in the West Hampstead, NW6 E2.00 per 5 words thereafter. Near Shops and Public Transport comfort of your own home. CLASSIFIED 24 Hour Care - Physiotherapy Telephone 0181 455 7582. Please make appointments with E2.00 per five words. Sylvia Matus BOX NUMBERS Long & short Term - Respite Care World Wars. I collect cards and -Trial Periods Tel: 0171 328 0208 £3.00 extra. envelopes from the camps. DISPLAY, SEARCH NOTICES Enquiries: Josephine Woolf per single column inch Otto Schitf Housing Association Please send with price asked to The Bishops Avenue N2 OBG 65 mm (3 column page) C12.00 Peter Rickenbach, 14 Rosslyn Phone: 0181-209 0022 48mm (4 column page) £10.00 Hill, London NW3 IPR AJR GROUP CONTACTS COPYDATE 5 weeks prior to S. London: Ken Ambrose publication Organisation Contacts 0181 852 0262 The AJR does not accept AJEB (Association of Jewish Midlands: Edgar Glazer responsibility for the Ex-Berliners). For information 0121 777 6537 standard of service call Peter Sinclair 0181 882 North: Werner Lachs rendered by advertisers 1638. 0161 773 4091 AJR INFORMATION APR/L 1997 Alice Schwab created to give the recipients Swedish SB's Column protective status and immunity from deportation. he death of operetta had been Through his courageous efforts, some forecast for a long time, and when 100,000 Hungarian Jews were saved from Tthe last masters of that genre - deportation to Auschwitz where more Kalman, Lehar, Oscar Straus - died in the than half a million of their compatriots he Imperial War Museum is show postwar years, alarm bells started ringing. were murdered in 1944. Instead of being ing Forties Fashion and the Neiv Revivals have been attempted in Germany feted by the advancing Soviet army, he TLook till August 31. It marks the and Austria. However, younger audiences was captured and incarcerated; his fate fiftieth anniversary of Christian Dior's stayed away and nowadays only a few still remains unresolved. romantic but controversial New Look. standard works such as The Merry Widow The Wallenberg memorial project was Over a hundred costumes and accessories and Die Fledermaus still attract the public. led by Sir Sigmund Sternberg for the are displayed including elegant evening Offenbach also proves durable: English Council of Christians and Jews, and gowns, utility frocks, underwear, patriotic National Opera has performed a new ver Greville Janner MP for the Holocaust textiles, outfits improvised from blackout sion of La Belle Helene. Britain, Education Trust. The sculptor, Philip fabric and parachutes, Hollywood cos incidentally, appears attached to operetta: Jackson, has created a memorial of out tumes, uniforms, factory wear, the demob Gilbert and Sullivan are as popular as standing merit and well repays a visit to suit, children's clothing and cosmetics. ever, and Ivor Novello's Dancing Years Great Cumberland Place and the Western The Tate Gallery exhibition Lovis Cor and King's Rhapsody appear regularly in Marble Arch Synagogue, in front of inth Pioneer of German Impressionism the provincial amateur repertoire. which it stands, to pay homage. D RDC runs to May 4. Lovis Corinth is one of the Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an infant tiost fascinating 'undiscovered' artists prodigy whose first opera Violanta was of the early modern period. A pioneer of produced at the Vienna State Opera when GERMAN BOOKS German Impressionism, he went on to be the composer was 19 years old. He emi We are always buying: come one of the founders of Expressionist grated to the United States where he Books, Autographs, Judaica and German works of art art. This will be the first major retrospec turned out film scores and where he died, Antiquariat [\1etropolis tive of his work in the UK. 60 years old, in 1957. Korngold's Leerbachstr. 85 prentice work The Ring of Poly crates will D-60322 Frankfurt a/M be semi-staged (with piano) at London's Tel: 0049 69 559451 Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday 2 May to REGULAR VISITS TO LONDON celebrate the centenary of his birth. An indefatigable traveller. Dutch-born actor Johannes Heesters, now 93, is on tour again taking Flatow's comedy Fin GERMAN and ENGLISH gesegnetes Alter to many German cities. A highly successful operetta tenor, he still BOOKS BOUGHT sang Danilo in his seventies. Antiquarian, secondhand and modern Birthday. Austrian-born film director books of quality always wanted Fred Zinncmann would have been 90 this Most subjects, but especially month. He left Vienna in 1929 for Holly wood where he gave Marlon Brando and ARCHITECTURE, ART. PHOTOGRAPHY Ava Gardner their first major chances. MUSIC Zinnemann's oeuvre includes High Noon, EROTICA Man for All Seasons and the musical Okla MOUNTAINS, LANDSCAPES, GARDENS homa. He lived in retirement in England D EASTERN EUROPE, ASIA, POLAR REGIONS Lovis Corinth, self-portrait, 1924. FEMINISM, ANARCHISM, ANTI-FASCISM ECONOMICS & PHILOSOPHY The British Museum shows Heirs of London's Wallenberg SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY MEDICINE Rome: The Shaping of Britain AD 400- BIBUOGRAPHY & FINE PRINTING "00, as part of a European Science memorial MANUSCRIPTS & ORIGINAL DRAWINGS Foundation Research Programme. One of powerful and imposing memorial the most compelling works of early medi statue of Raoul Wallenberg, Immediate response to your letter eval art - the newly-restored great A former Swedish diplomat who or phone call. J^ictish stone shrine from St Andrew's saved Jewish lives in German-occupied We pay good prices and come to collect Cathedral, is displayed here for the first Budapest, was unveiled by The Queen in Please contact: London in the presence of President of time outside Scotland. The exhibition fin Robert Hornung, MA (Oxon) ishes on April 20. Israel Ezer Weizman during his state visit. 2 Mount View, Ealing, A reminder: the Denis Mahon collection The moving representation of Wallenberg LondonW5 IPR discovering the Italian Baroque is on stands before a wall draped with the Telephone 0181-998 0546 show at the National Gallery, Sainsbury Swedish flag and stacked at the rear with (5pm to 9pm Is best) ^ing until May 28 D 'Schutzpasse' - protective passports he .^^.t, • ^ ((^ ^^f»^r.y II AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1997 foreign: the Georgian Stalin. Conference to trace Accent-prone Not that France was a stranger to for here we were - my wife, myself eign-sounding near-despots, with Cardinal looted gold and Erika - waiting for the Mazarin hailing from Italy, and Napoleon delegation from the Inter- T National Theatre box office to from Corsica. Parliamentary Committee on open. As it did so, three characters Hungary probably got around the A Antisemitism, led by Greville materialised from nowhere and insinuated accent problem of its rulers by having all Janner MP, with David Hunt MP and themselves into the queue ahead of us. debates in the Diet conducted in Latin Glyn Ford MEP, obtained the support of Erika berated them. They stood their till the 1840s. On the other hand, Hun Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti in or ground and argued back in accented garians are known as probably the most ganising an international conference later English. Exasperated, Erika snapped at accent-prone speakers of other languages this year to establish what happened to them "typical Continental behaviour!" I ever. During a fairly recent TV interview Nazi gold during and after World War II. could hardly believe my ears: Erika had with Sir George Solti, Jeremy Isaacs felt In an address to the Guild of Jewish herself arrived on these shores from he had to assure viewers that the famous Journalists, Greville Janner emphasised Vienna as an adolescent, but sounds like a conductor was not speaking Hungarian. the progress which had already been native. In Hollywood the director Michael made, since the release of documents last The incident brought to mind another Curtiz (Kertesz) was renowned for giving October, in investigating dormant bank one of a few years ago. On a Sunday walk incomprehensible orders of the 'Bring accounts and valuables in deposit boxes with friends near Amersham, we rested in on the empty horses' variety to film left by Holocaust victims, and in identify the grass for a breather when some fellow crews. ing Nazi gold. walkers stopped to pass the time of day. A highly accent-conscious fellow coun Switzerland's response to mounting in As we chatted they enquired in the friend tryman of theirs was Arthur Koestler. ternational pressure had been to establish liest way if we were day-trippers from the Challenged by George Mikes why he, a commission of inquiry, though it is Continent. Mikes, always had to book the table feared that many deposits and accounts Clearly accent makes all the difference. when they dined out, Koestler replied would never be discovered. More recently, I used to think that a refugee's acquisi plaintively: "Because whenever I tele Swiss banks decided to create a humani tion of accent-free English depended on phone a restaurant I cannot make myself tarian fund and pledged to place 100 the age of arrival in this country - with understood!" (Actually I have a suspicion million Swiss francs in a holding account thirteen representing a sort of watershed. that Koestler switched from political cam for the benefit of Holocaust victims. Over the years, though, I noticed many paigning to scientific enquiry - a Greville Janner recalled that between exceptions that made the thirteen-year dramatic switch he announced to a pro 1938 and 1942, some 40,000 Jews strug rule of thumb untenable. The above-men test meeting at the time of the 1956 gling to escape persecution in Germany tioned Erika had been fifteen when she Hungarian Uprising - because of his ac and Austria, had reached the Swiss border came over - but had immediately been cent awareness). only to be refused entry. The Swiss re immersed in the atmosphere of a girls' n Richard Grunberger quested a 'J' to be stamped on German boarding school. At the other extreme, I Jews' passports to facilitate their recogni know a woman who had been fully ten tion. Most of the Jews were returned or years younger on arrival, yet still has an sent on to France to perish in the Holo accent. (The explanation must surely be caust. that she attended Stoatley Rough School After the war, under the terms of the in Surrey where everybody - matron, 1946 Tripartite Agreement between Britain, staff, pupils - was of refugee origin). France and the USA, Switzerland handed Not that a foreign accent is necessarily over $60 million of gold looted from the a handicap, as has been proved in Wash national treasuries of occupied countries ington where key decision-makers - and stolen from the Jews. The Bank of Eng Kissinger, Sonnenfeld, Brezinski - land recently halted its final distribution of sounded distinctly un-American. Their Israel's Finest Wines this gold and agreed that the residue should Westminster counterparts were merely a from the be held for Jewish and non-Jewish Holo handful of exotic MPs: Trebitsch-Lincoln, caust victims. According to Mr Janner, Goldschmidt, Maxwell. However, in this Golan Heights there was now a need to renegotiate the country not a few Royals could, on agreement with the Swiss as large amounts grounds of accent, have qualified for AJR Yarden, Golan & Gamla must still be held by Swiss banks. membership. This holds true not only of The international conference will invite the foreign-born first two Georges and Write, phone or fax the participation of all countries which Prince Consort Albert, but also for the for full information held Nazi gold, including Sweden, Portu latter's son, Edward VII. gal, Argentina and, not least, Germany. A German-born princess who never House of Hallgarten The pooling of information, said Mr fully mastered her adopted language - Dallow Road, Luton LU1 1UR Janner, should reveal the magnitude and Russian - was Catherine the Great. A destinations of Nazi gold and meet the hundred and fifty years after her Russia Tel: 01582 22538 aim of achieving a return to its owners again happened to be governed by a des Fax: 01582 23240 and their families. D Ronald Channing pot who sounded only marginally less 12 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1997 by a Yorkshire family, whose name he tion committee, he gave the sign for Failure of a mission took. He came from a poor background, jumping as soon as he saw some lights on was good-natured, kind and helpful if the ground. It would have been better if he location of the dropping zone over anxious, and not, in the opinion of a one of the parachutists had sat next to the had been carefully selected: a number of his colleagues, an ideal choice pilot to ensure correct identification of the Tmountain plateau, high up in the for SOE. He lacked co-ordination both in area. Italian Alps, between the valleys of the mind and body; hand grenade practice Thus, his four passengers were dropped Tagliamento and Piave rivers. The nearest with Priestley was a hazardous occupa from about 10,000 ft above ground-level, hamlet, Tramonti di Sopra, lay 1,000m tion, as he would throw the grenades instead of the prescribed 1,000 to 2,000 above sea-level. The spot was chosen for straight up instead of forward. But he vol ft. Naturally, the people at the end of the its difficulty of access with the nearest unteered to go on this dangerous early chutes took a long time to get down, and Well-known place, the skiing resort of mission to Italy, in spite of being terrified. during it drifted all over the place. When Cortina d'Ampezzo, some 30 miles to the He shamed others who, better educated at last they struck terra firma, they found West. and endowed, refused this opportunity of themselves nowhere near where they The parachute drop was to be sup a likely early death. should have been, but 15 miles to the east ported by a reception committee of Italian Finally, there was Lieutenant Stephen of it. Their reception committee consisted partisans. These would look after the four Dale, born Heinz Spanglet in Berlin in not of Italian partisans, but of German British arrivals during the critical first few 1917, and nicknamed Ziba, because of an Waffen-SS auxiliary troops, mainly Cos hours. By the way, "British" in this con alleged resemblance to a Zigeunerbaron. sacks. Apparently, the lights which the text does not mean that any of them were He had been, unusual for a Jew, a seaman Polish pilot had seen could have been a British-born or had British nationality; it in the German Merchant Navy. His cre badly blacked-out army camp! just indicated that they were fighting on dentials were impeccable. He was first Wolfgang Treichl knew what was in the British side. arrested as a boy of 16 in 1933 for anti- store for him when he was about to be The partisans waited in vain. Thinking Nazi activities. Being young, he was taken prisoner, and preferred to end his that they could hear a plane in the dis released from the Gestapo HQ in the Prinz life quickly; he shot himself. Nikolaus tance at about the appointed hour, they Albrecht Strasse after a relatively short Huetz probably landed somewhere less flashed their lights in the agreed code. But stay. He experienced another brush with exposed; he avoided capture and was the no plane appeared, nor did any parachut the Nazi authorities when arrested during only one to make it back to base at Bari, ist, and the party dispersed disappointedly Kristallnacht and he spent six weeks at after a three-month trek. at first light. They had looked forward to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where Poor Priestley landed in or next door to their supply of arms, ammunition and he was severely maltreated. Emigrating to the army camp; he described it as almost English cigarettes. England in 1939, he tried to volunteer for landing in the cooking-pots. He was in Who were the four parachutists, and the armed forces, but instead was interned uniform, but had a complete set of civil what had happened to them? They had and transported to Australia. On his ian identification papers on him. He had taken off the evening before, 11th Octo return, he was accepted into the Alien Pio cleverly insisted on carrying these papers ber 1944, from Brindisi airport, almost neer corps (87th Coy.) from where he in a special pouch, fitted with an ignition -^00 miles to the South. Their task was to volunteered to join SOE. He was physi device. harass the enemy in any way possible, cally and mentally very fit, and difficult to (To be continued) DAW Freud and in particular to support the Italian get to know. He, a Prussian, could not al Partisans active in that area. The war was ways hide his disapproval of his ^'ntering its last stage. With the whole of schlampige (slovenly) Austrian colleagues. Prance liberated and the Russians fighting Of his family, his sister was saved by a Making a Will? in East Prussia only the most diehard Na- Kindertransport to England, but his Please remember the AjR ^•is still believed in a German victory. younger brother and parents perished. Though we cannot take our worldly The four parachutists belonged to the A Polish air crew operated the Liberator possessions with us, we can see North Italian-Austrian Country Section, bomber which took them from the heel of that whatever is left behind goes Special Operation Executive (SOE). Little Italy to its northern rim. Not only was where it will be appreciated, 's known about two of them: Wolfgang there a distinct and fatal lack of commu do some good and is needed. Treichel, a German officer of Austrian de nication between the pilot of the aircraft Many former refugees scent, and his reputed batman, Nikolas and the parachutists, but also a conflict of have found their association Huetz. Both were recruited from a POW interest. The pilot wanted to minimise the with the AJR a rewarding one. '•'amp. It is possible that they volunteered time spent over enemy territory, and sec This is an opportunity to support to fight for the British in connection with ondly, he did not wish to fly into a the AJR Charitable Trust. the Officers' Plot of 20th July 1944. mountainside at night. He knew that the They could well have been implicated in highest peak in the eastern Alps, the 't, and wished to avenge the death of Grossglockner, was only a few flying-min '•"lends or relations. utes north of the dropping zone. Hence, Annely Juda Fine Art The other two were Jewish refugees. Pe in order to avoid hitting anything, he flew 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) ter Priestley (ne Lindenbaum) had arrived at 14,000 ft, well above the tallest moun Tel: 0171-629 7578 Fax: 0171-491 2139 3s a teenager from Vienna with a tain. And instead of spending time on CONTEMPORARY PAINTING i^indcrtransport, the only one of his fam carefully searching for the dropping zone, AND SCULPTURE ily to escape and survive. He was adopted and identifying the signals from the recep 13 AJR INFORMATION APRiL 1997 Cooking with Gretel Beer light lunch or supper dish. 1 slice white bread Hilary's Care Agency 1 cut clove garlic lOOg (3'/20z) grated Emmenthal cheese HIGH QUALITY HOMECARE FORTHE ELDERLY AND DISABLED 2 tablespoons white wine 3 tablespoons double cream • CARERS *: COMPANIONS pinch each pepper, grated nutmeg and • HOUSEKEEPERS crushed garlic • DOMESTICS 1 egg Flexible service tailored to your needs To garnish: sliced tomato, gherkins, small Dally & Live-In - I -24 hours - 7 days a week silverskin onions COVERING NORTH & NORTHWEST LONDON, EAST LONDON & ESSEX Toast the bread and rub with the cut garlic clove. Crush the garlic clove. Place 0181 559 I I 10 toast in a small, lightly buttered Croute au Fromage ovenproof dish. Put cheese into a blender, add white wine, cream and seasonings {per portion) and spin for 1 minute until all the ingredi SPRING interingham Fields at Winter- ents are mixed, then add the egg and ingham. South Humberside is a blend for 30 seconds. Spread over the GROVE W wonderful small hotel - a real toast and bake for 15 minutes at 190°- *^\J 214 Finchley Road find - with a superb restaurant. They've 200''C/375''-400°F, Gas 5-6. Serve in the J I London NW3 been inundated with awards, one of the dish, garnished with sliced tomato, gher London's Most Luxurious more recent ones being the Egon Ronay kins and small silverskin onions. RETIREMENT HOME kitchen of the year 1996 - where Swiss Note: You will notice that there is no •* Entertainment-Activities patron/chef Germain Schwab works abso salt in the ingredients - simply because * Stress Free Living lute wonders. Not all his dishes warrant a the Emmenthal cheese usually contains * 24 Hour Staffing chef's master touch - his Croute au enough, but you may care to taste the * Excellent Cuisine Fromage is simplicity itself. And served mixture before spreading it on the toast * Full En-Suite Facilities with a crisp green salad it makes a perfect as different makes of Emmenthal vary D Call for more information or a personal tour 0181-446 2117 FORTHCOMING EVENTS Dr EM Batley, Hon Director, APRIL 1997 London University Institute or 0171-794 4455 of Germanic Studies. Club fue 1 Anna Tzelniker, star of the 43, 8pm Yiddish theatre, presents 'A Tue 15 Care in the Community: song, a laugh 8c a tear'. Tony Shepherd, Chief Coming sooyi JACS, 2pm Executive of Otto Schiff Wed 2 Gloomy Sunday by Peter Housing Association. OSHA Mueller, a play adapted from JACS, 2pm HOMECARE SERVICES the -27 Hungarian by Tue 29 Paintings of Eugen Spiro: Andrew Merkler. InterACT Peter Spiro, Sussex Providing quality care at Theatro Technis, 26 University, 5pm just for you Crowndale Road, Camden Wed 30 Letztes Schlupfloch aus if you want to lead Town, NWl. Box office: Europa: Marseilles, die 0171 387 6617, £4-£8.50 F-Route und Lissabon, Hafen AN INDEPENDENT LIFE Mon 7 Morocco, a recent visit: Ernst der Hoffnung: Jens BriJning, IN YOUR OWN HOME Flesch iMA shows slides & journalist &c writer, talks in For further information recounts his experiences. German with slides &c video. Club 43, 8pm Club 43, 7.30pm. (Please telephone Pam Kenward Tue 8 Kenwood House Art note revised date &C time for on 0181 458 4088 Collection: Curator Kathy this meeting only) Power introduces their ORGANISATION CONTACTS Russian paintings. JACS, JACS at Belsize Square Synagogue, 2pm NW3 4HX. Tel: 0171 794 3949 Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. Sun 13 13th Birthday of the Manor Club '43, at Belsize Square Synagogue. STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST House: Star-studded Hans Seelig 01442 254 360 Surgeries at: programme 8c buffet supper, Sternberg Centre for Judaism, 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) Sternberg Centre, 7pm, 80 East End Road, Finchley, NW3 2SY. Telephone 0171-624 1576 £19.50 members &c £21.50 Tel: 0181 346 2288 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) Mon 14 Templars, Freemasons & University of Sussex Centre for Edgware, Middx HAS 7PU Controversy in German-Jewish Studies. Diana Franklin Telephone 0181-905 3264 EnlightenmentGermany: 0181 455 4785 or 01273 678 495. Visiting chiropody service available 14 AJR INFORMATION APR/L 1997 Message from a Tribute to Hugo Gryn AJR SEDER NIGHT hief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks bygone age paid a moving and powerful SECOND NIGHT SEDER SERVICE e were born before the age of C tribute to his friend. Holocaust will be led by television, penicillin, plastics, survivor and leader of the Reform Rabbi William Wolff Wpolio shots, frozen foods, movement, the late Rabbi Hugo Gryn, at Tuesday 22nd April Xerox, contact lenses, videos, camcorders, a commemorative meeting to celebrate his Paul Balint AJR Day Centre frisbees and the pill. We were born before life and work. "Sometimes it is harder to 15 Cleve Road, NW6 radar, credit cards, atom bombs, laser have faith in man than to have faith in Please phone: 0171 328 0208 beams and ball point pens, before God," said Dr Sacks, "but Hugo Gryn for reservations dishwashers, tumble dryers, electric didn't lose his faith in man." £18 per person blankets, air conditioners, drip dry clothes Although he was attending the memo Limited space available and before men walked on the moon. rial meeting in his capacity of President of for standard wheelchairs We got married and then lived together the Council of Christians and Jews, co- 5.45 for 6.15pm prompt start (how quaint can you be?). We thought hosts with the Board of Deputies, Dr 'fast food' was what you ate in Lent, a Sacks answered Orthodox critics of his 'Big Mac' was an oversized raincoat, participation. He said, the proposition and 'crumpet' we had for tea. We ex that "those who do not share my faith, isted before house husbands, computer my race or my ideology do not share my SEARCH NOTICES data, dual careers, and when a meaning humanity" had brought grief to the world Alfred Mathis. A Mahler scholar in ful relationship meant getting along with for thousands of years. Hugo Gryn and he Vienna is trying to trace relatives or your cousins, and where sheltered accom had worked together regardless of reli friends of the late musicologist Alfred modation was where you waited for a gious differences for the sake of their Mathis who died in London in 1949. bus. We were born before day care cen- common humanity. Please contact Hedi Stadlen, 49 •^res, group homes and disposable nappies. AJR Chairman Andrew Kaufman repre Downshire Hill. London NW3 I NX. We had never heard of FM Radio, tape sented the Association of Jewish Refugees Erika Eckstein, a teacher at Oak Hall decks, electric typewriters, artificial at the meeting which marked the passing School, Haslemere, Surrey, for a period of hearts, word processors, yoghurt and of one of Britain's most respected, hu three months in or around 1943, is being young men wearing earrings. For us manitarian and much-loved refugee sought by former pupil. Miss Eckstein Time Sharing' meant togetherness, a survivors of the Holocaust D arrived in the UK in 1934 and graduated chip was a piece of wood or a fried po from Bedford College in 1939. tato, 'hardware' meant nuts and bolts Subsequently taught in Kent Please write and 'software' wasn't a word. Media man to: Phyllis Horal, 42 Redington Road, Before 1940, 'Made in Japan' meant London NW3 7RT |unk. The term 'making out' referred to eon Pilpel, former letters' editor of how you did in your exams, a stud was The Times was the second guest to Ellen Stern, left Germany 1938 for something that fastened a collar to a shirt, speak at AJR's monthly Luncheon London. Evacuated to Northampton 1940 L with her cousin Eva Hertzfelder Returned and 'going all the way' meant stopping Club, choosing as his subject 'Privacy on a double decker bus to the bus depot. and the Media'. to London 1941/2 and emigrated to USA Pizza, MacDonalds and instant coffee In a nineteenth century editorial. The 1947. Any information please to R Bland, Tel:OI933 222 6l5. Were unheard of. Times expressed the view that the press In our day cigarette smoking was fash lived on disclosure, and even today an ionable, 'grass' was mown, coke was ever-increasing supply of gossip is being kept in the coal house, a joint was a piece published. Leon Pilpel recalled that an t>f meat you had on Sundays and 'pot' early proprietor of The Times had been 50 YEARS AGO Was something you cooked in. imprisoned for daring to suggest that the Rock music was Grandma's lullaby, then Prince of Wales was only waiting for REFUGEE CHILDREN Eldorado was an icecream, a 'gay' per the death of his father, George III, to in A warning to clergymen not to baptise Jewish son was the life and soul of the party and herit the throne! He maintained, however, refugee children without first consulting their •nothing more, while 'Aids' just meant that contemporary governments were not official guardian has been issued by the Archbishop beauty treatment or help for someone in anxious to legislate themselves power to of Canterbury. "Clearly these children and young trouble. control the media and any attempt to people should not be thus divorced from their parental faith without consultation with the person We who were born before 1940 must be muzzle the press would probably be frus who is in loco parer\tis with them." the Archbishop a hardy bunch, when you think of the trated. said. He reminded members that, unlike the Way the world has changed and the ad- "The Jewish community," said Dayan HM Lazarus, iustments we have had to make. No UK, the American Government was not Deputy for the Chief Rabbi, "deeply appreciates Wonder we are confused and there is a protected by an Official Secrets Act; con the Archbishop's directive against undue religious Beneration gap. sequently, the exposure of the Watergate influence on Jewish refugee children to alienate them from the faith in which they were born and BUT by the Grace of God we have sur break-in, which brought about the resig reared." vived. ALLELUIAH! nation of President Nixon, was perfectly A]R Information, April 1947 n Author unknown possible D 15 AJR INFORMATION APR/L 1997 and continues to play, a positive role in NEWSROUND Hark the Harold world affairs. Who helped Britain in her finest hour? Who fed starving postwar 49 steps angel sing Europe? Who faced down Soviet dictators President Ezer Weizman made Israel's in crises ranging from 1940s Berlin to , ecause it is the done thing to shriek first state visit to Britain 49 years after 1980s Afghanistan? Who promoted - or I 'Darling, you were wonderful!' the foundation of the State of Israel. The tried to promote - peace in the Balkans, : after first nights, theatre folk are Queen has yet to reciprocate, though B South Africa, Ireland and the Middle ; nowadays known as luvvies. Undeterred Prince Philip has visited the Royal Forest East? by the possibility that even this word may planted by British Jews in the Galilee to Pinter mentions the UN sanction-in not yet be in your dictionaries, I now mark the royal couple's silver wedding. duced death of Iraqi children without propose another new coinage: hatee. reference to Saddam - rather like air- 1 A 'hatee' (pronounced as in Haiti, of Victims' fund brushing Hitler out of the destruction of which more later) is someone who thinks Switzerland's President Arnold KoUer has Dresden. He also trivialises Hitler (as well footlights fame entitles them to consider announced a plan to establish a £3 billion as Stalin) in his rhetorical question: Did ation as political opinion formers. A foundation to compensate victims of pov the military coups in Argentina, Uruguay, founder member of the 'hatees' was erty, catastophe and genocide, including Brazil and Chile result in levels of repres John Osborne, who literally penned an 'I the Holocaust. In addition, an interim sion and depth of suffering comparable to hate you, Britain!' outburst in the heyday payment of £45 million will double the Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia? The of CND. Unsurprisingly Osborne later re funds being made available by Swiss comparison is outrageous, both in terms canted these views and turned into an banks for immediate payment to Holo of numbers and of intensity of suffering. abrasive Blimp figure. caust survivors. It constitutes an insult to both Holocaust Another pioneering 'hatee' was Jane and Gulag victims for the sake of crude Night watch Fonda, dubbed 'Hanoi Jane' on account political point scoring. Swiss nightwatchman Christophe Meile of her Vietcong sympathies. Jane is now Pinter was born a Jew and in his mind has been invited to Israel in appreciation contentedly married to a US media ty occupies the moral high ground conferred of his saving from destruction old bank coon. Then there was Vanessa Redgrave, by the term Socialist. He should be ledgers and other documents of the Union famed for her - offstage - performance ashamed of himself on both counts. Bank of Switzerland which could contain of the Kalashnikov rifle dance at a PLO ORG information on the accounts of Holocaust camp. She too, seems to have defected victims. from the hatees' ranks; at least she has Golden triangle not delivered herself of any controversial Shimon Samuels, director of the Paris- statements of late. based Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Which leaves Harold Pinter, most stead AJR European office, claimed that looted Nazi fast of the 'hatees'. An article of his in gold and works of art were passed December's Guardian was so charged through Spain and Portugal as part of a with hatred for the US that I expected the ^ happy and 'golden triangle' for transfer to Latin paper to combust in my hands. In a grand America and the Far East during World philippic Pinter charged Washington with enjoyable celebration War II. Spain, which bought substantial near-genocide in Indonesia, East Timor, amounts of gold from Nazi Germany, Haiti, Turkey and South America, as well of^esach to only returned eight ingots to the Allies' as diverse other crimes. Tripartite Gold Commission. I concede that during the Cold War the US backed unsavoury Third World dicta all our members Nothing like a Dame tors; nonetheless, overall she has played, A plaque commemorating the life of Dame Marie Rambert, born Cyvia Rambam in Warsaw in 1888, was unveiled at her house in London by her Bridge Players! first prima ballerina, Dame Alicia Markova, born Alice Marks in London. Start with excellent food and continue the evening \ playing rubber bridge by supporting the first > Not in the father's name Catherine Megret, wife of French 1^' y Madeleine Brook Bridge Evening <^* n^ National Front deputy to its leader Jean- // Wednesday 14 May Vs, Marie Le Pen, has been elected mayor of ^M rf 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 ^ V^^ VitroUes, the fourth city to fall under NF / Supper 6.30pm - Bridge 7.30-10.30pm V control in southern France. It is reported ^fSt^ 1 Q^T^ii ^^ that Mme. Megret's father, Dr Sergei { 1 Bring a partner, or better still, make up a table 1 ] Raskovski, whose parents were Jewish Tickets (£14) must be purchased in advance ——_i^ immigrants to France from Russia, has disowned his daughter. Call Sylvia, Renee & Susie: 0171 328 0208 DRDC Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain. I Hampstead Gate. lA Frognal. London NW3 6AL TehOITI-^BI 6161 Fax;OI7l-'43l 8'454 Printed in Great Britain by Freedman Brothers (Printers) Ltd London NWl I 7QB. Tel: 0181 -458 3220 Fax: 0181 -455 6860