VOLume 13 NO.11 november 2013 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

A wealth of memoirs he number of memoirs and to a new country; this she met in 1951, the skills of women who were homebound autobiographies by former refugees on taking British citizenship, when she by family responsibilities but could work from Hitler published over the past changed her surname from Buchthal to part-time as computer programmers, the twoT decades is rapidly approaching a flood. Brook and started using her middle name Inland Revenue concluded, with truly Partly the result of a natural tendency for as her first name. She thereby committed magnificent idiocy, that one of them must people who have reached a certain age to herself ‘to making a success of my life as be earning her income by running a brothel commit their memories to print, this also Stephanie Brook, Englishwoman’ (Shirley from her home. reflects the huge interest in the Holocaust The book relates how Dame Stephanie’s that has developed in recent years. In this entrepreneurial drive led her to found field, women outnumber men – in part her company, Freelance Programmers, for simple reasons of longevity. Women whose launch on the Stock Exchange refugees lost the status, security and settled as FI Group in 1996 made her a multi- lifestyle that they had enjoyed in their native millionaire. What makes this impressive lands. However, the experience of forced achievement even more remarkable is that emigration and the demands of building she was throughout struggling to care for a new lives in Britain sometimes brought severely autistic son, a harrowing experience about a reversal of roles between husbands that at one stage drove her to a nervous and wives, as the latter had perforce to breakdown; her son died in 1998, aged 35. take on tasks and responsibilities that had Projects connected with autism rank high in Germany or Austria fallen to the lot of among the beneficiaries of her charity. Her their menfolk. autobiography, Let IT Go, published by Two recently published autobiographies Andrews UK in 2012, is the record of a are by female refugees notable for their Dame Stephanie Shirley life full of ambition, vision and generosity, highly distinguished careers. Though these qualities that one may perhaps attribute, at books could easily fall into the familiar is her surname by marriage). But her least in part, to the German-Jewish values category of the ‘refugee success story’, transition to Britishness was by no means she inherited. they do not shy away from the trauma of unproblematical. In the absence of their Lisl Klein’s autobiography, Nobody Said forced emigration or from the difficulties parents, whose relationship had broken It Would Be Easy, was published by the Book that beset young refugee women starting down, she and her elder sister Renate were Guild in 2012. It follows the author’s life out on careers in post-war Britain. The brought up in the rural West Midlands by from her early childhood in Karlsbad in first of these remarkable women is Dame a British family, the Smiths. Her mother the German-speaking Sudetenland region Stephanie (Steve) Shirley, born Vera took a job in distant Shropshire and her of Czechoslovakia, where she was born in Stephanie Buchthal in Dortmund in 1933, father returned to Germany alone after the 1928, to her arrival in Britain in November who came to Britain on a Kindertransport War. Whereas Renate never felt settled in 1938, her years as a penniless and alienated in 1939. She became a highly successful and Britain, Stephanie flourished: she developed refugee child often separated from her pioneering entrepreneur, setting up her own a love of mathematics at school and moved parents, and on to her distinguished career company in the early days of information easily into the world of IT in the dawning pioneering the practical application of social technology, but then proceeding to divest computer era. science in the workplace. Klein, at ten, was herself of much of her wealth, as one of The second challenge was the brute older than Stephanie Shirley when she left Britain’s leading philanthropists; it is a rare sexism that dogged her career. This led her the country of her birth and she found it business magnate whose pride in being to sign her letters ‘Steve Shirley’, in the belief correspondingly more difficult to adapt to listed in the Sunday Times Rich List is that it would enable her to promote her the abrupt change in her circumstances. exceeded by her pleasure at dropping out of company free from the stereotype of female She too was unable to live with her parents it as a result of charitable donations. inferiority that infected the business world. and, unlike Dame Stephanie, experienced Dame Stephanie’s changes of name The litany of sexist slurs and inequities she a bewildering and mostly unhappy series of reflect two of the principal challenges that encountered is long and, for men, shaming. temporary ‘billets’. She also felt keenly the confronted her. The first was that of the When in the 1960s Dame Stephanie had separation from her relatives left behind: refugee from Nazism who has to adapt the idea of creating a business by utilising continued overleaf  journal NOVEMber 2013 Kramer Gesellschaft in Vienna as Für A wealth of memoirs continued mein Schurlikind: Tagebuch 1940-1944. KRISTALLNACHT Edited with exemplary devotion by the 75TH ANNIVERSARY SERVICES the figure of her cousin and childhood historian Evelyn Adunka, the diary was companion Peter, who died at Auschwitz AJR written under the crushing impact of the aged 15, haunts her memory. Wednesday 6 November 2013, death of Sophie Roth’s younger son Richard Although Klein passed successfully 2 pm at Imperial War Museum Georg, known as Schurli, who had arrived from grammar school to university, she North, Manchester in Britain with his parents in late August had difficulty as a young adult in finding Guest Speaker: David Cesarani, 1939 already terminally ill with cancer; he her place in British post-war society. Her Research Professor of History, died on 18 October 1939, a few days short Royal Holloway College, University father had died during the War, while of his eleventh birthday. Sophie Roth, née of London, and a leading historian her mother struggled with poverty and Landau, had been born in Vienna in 1901 on the Holocaust mental instability. Klein had inherited her and married Norbert Roth in 1921. The Refreshments will be served at the values from her admired aunt Fanni, a conclusion of the service – for catering couple also had an elder son, Erwin (later purposes, please contact Susan Harrod prominent Social Democrat. Those values Edwin), born in 1924. on 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] influenced the spirit of the work that she Sophie Roth began her diary on 26 later undertook, attempting to measure the AJR August 1940, the first anniversary of the impact of new technologies on the employees Thursday 7 November 2013, family’s last full day in Vienna, and the who had to work with them and to optimise 2 pm at Belsize Square subsequent daily entries recall milestones that impact, reasoning that any enterprise Synagogue in the last weeks of her younger son’s that took its workforce into account when Guest Speaker: Carl Davis, short life: their departure from Vienna, it introduced technological changes could the world-famous conductor and the journey across Germany and Holland, only benefit thereby. Her ‘life-long love composer who has written a new work their admission to Britain, and their arrival entitled The Last Train to Tomorrow affair with industry’ began during her first, in Manchester. The grief of a bereaved Refreshments will be served at the humble jobs in small firms in the early mother structures the diary as she recalls conclusion of the service – for catering 1950s. She developed a fascination with purposes, please contact Karin Pereira each day what she and Schurli had been diagnosing the organisational structures on 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] doing a year ago, until she reaches the and deficiencies of enterprises, which anniversary of his death, followed by what LIBERAL JEWISH SYNAGOGUE led to a distinguished career devoted to would have been his twelfth birthday. The IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE AJR improving the productivity of firms like diary thus becomes a means of expressing, Saturday 9 November 2013, 6.30 pm Esso (ExxonMobil). She worked for 19 and perhaps to some extent softening, the years at the Tavistock Institute of Human Service of Remembrance and pain of her loss; even so, that pain comes Commemoration Relations, then founded her own Bayswater across with almost unbearable intensity. Please contact Joanne Caplan on Institute in 1990. The entries are punctuated by repeated 020 7432 1283 or at [email protected] In Britain, the social culture of the Social air raids, while Roth’s sense of loneliness Democratic refugees from the Sudetenland is greatly accentuated by the absence of was restricted to a very small circle. As Jews her husband and elder son, interned as ANNUAL and as Social Democrats, Klein’s family ‘enemy aliens’, which left her to fend had been a minority among the German- MEMBERS’ MEETING alone in her time of greatest need. This is speaking population of the Sudetenland, Annual Meeting of the a deeply moving document, which sets the Association of Jewish Refugees most of which went over to the Nazis with individual tragedy of a family against the enthusiasm. But these ethnic Germans broader background of the sufferings and Tuesday 5 November 2013 themselves formed only a minority among at 11.00 am at the AJR Paul hardships of war and emigration. a Czech majority; when they were expelled Balint Centre, Belsize Square Anthony Grenville en masse after the war, the entire German- Synagogue, London NW3 4HX speaking culture of the Sudetenland was If you would like to attend, erased. But by then the Holocaust had AJR Chief Executive please reserve a place by also created an unbridgeable gulf between Michael Newman calling Head Office on Germans and Jews. These tensions and 020 8385 3070 conflicts of identity echo through Klein’s Directors Carol Rossen Lunch, if required, memoirs. Only when she unexpectedly David Kaye £7 – must be ordered and acquired the Richmond Park Hotel in Head of Department paid for in advance Karlsbad in the 1990s, as part of the Sue Kurlander Social Services (please telephone belated process of restitution by the Czech 020 7431 2744) government, was she able to re-establish a AJR Journal As we near the end of our first year Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor fruitful connection with her native town. as the newly constituted charitable Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor organisation, the meeting will be In complete contrast to these two Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements an informal opportunity for the autobiographies stands the diary of Directors (Trustees) and Executive Sophie Roth, written during the War Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not to report on our activities and plans necessarily those of the Association of Jewish and respond to your questions and published in 2012 by the Theodor Refugees and should not be regarded as such. about the services we provide.

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friend of mine always find those cardinal points. I also thought of herself as the know that trains from Paddington A world’s worst navigator – head west because they go to until she suffered my navigation. the West Country and those from No one, but no one, beats me. Victoria south because they go To say that I have no sense of to the South Coast. The rest is direction is the understatement ignorance. of the century – the 20th I still remember that terrible since the 21st is still too geography lesson at school - young to comprise the full I must have been 13 at the extent of my ineptitude Where time and in the 4th form in that area. I have been of the Gymnasium – when known, to the amusement a m I? Dr Ahammer, who taught us of my friends, to get lost on history and geography and my way from the ladies to our was also our form master, asked table in a restaurant. me to point out a mountain range The trouble is that I can’t tell right on the map of Turkey in front of me. from left. Even if I tell myself sternly After giving it some thought, I said that, since I have been turning right ‘The Dardanelles’. This reduced him and then left to get to a certain place I to temporary speechlessness but would have to turn left and then right caused much merriment among my on leaving it, I still find myself walking classmates. When Dr A had recovered in the wrong direction on my way out. he asked a girl to fetch a boy, a I’ve been to a friend’s place in a second-former, from his class, with Zemel Ch private road in Primrose Hill dozens the attendant master’s permission. he oi of times and still have trouble finding Needless to say, the bright little boy T r her house. Admittedly, the numbering not only knew all there was to know there is a bit confusing but still! After about the Dardanelles but could reel my visit she always takes me to my bus off all the mountains in Turkey, which stop to make quite sure I don’t end up is more than I can do to this day. The C in Buxtehude (the back of beyond), as Dardanelles, apparently, are a strait. e ng leb So we would have said in Vienna. I’m still a bit hazy as to the exact rate with In my driving days I was alright – function of a strait. Who needs straits, Sunday 17 November 2013 well, fairly alright – on a route with anyhow? 7.30 pm which I was thoroughly familiar, but I’ve never been able to live that one if – God forbid – there was a diversion, down. Decades later, in the South of at West London Synagogue I just felt like stopping the car and France, my friend Renée reminded me, 33 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AU bursting into tears. Fortunately this laughingly, of my faux pas. In fact, so Tickets £16.00 per person didn’t happen very often and, when hilarious did she find it that she even I had passengers, they usually kept related it to her husband. But he, bless The Zemel Choir is performing in London in their cool and pointed me in the right his heart, thought it easy to mistake November with singing workshops and performances direction. the Dardanelles for mountains. culminating in the above gala concert. Geography has never been my Well, I still think the Dardanelles The Choir embraces songs from all Jewish cultures strong suit. I am forever grateful to should be mountains. They sound like – Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Yiddish and Israeli. our primary school teacher who told mountains, like the Dolomites, and us always to think of ‘wo’ (where) they are – aren’t they? For further details, contact Susan Harrod when we consulted a map: this would Edith Argy on 020 8385 3078 or at [email protected] remind us that Westen (west) was on the left and Osten (east) on the right. And since Edinburgh is up north and London down south, I know where to PillarCare Quality support and care at home

 Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care  Convalescent and Personal Health Care  Compassionate and Affordable Service ‘Hurray for Hollywood’  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff concert at the AJR Centre with  Registered with the CQC and UKHCA international singer Robert Habermann accompanied by Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 Trevor Brown on piano. PILLARCARE 80 people had a wonderful day, THE BUSINESS CENTRE · 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE · LONDON NW1 7BB PHONE: 020 7482 2188 · FAX: 020 7900 2308 enjoying lunch and concert with www.pillarcare.co.uk our guest artistes.

3 journal NOVEMber 2013 Saturday morning we spent at the The Germans in control, familiar with Orthodox Synagogue, where Rabbi Bent the feelings of the Danes, were aware that Lexner initiated three b’nei mitzvoth – any interference in the Jews’ affairs would one boy and two girls. This beautiful provoke unrest among the population, synagogue was built in the 1830s. It something they wished to avoid. suffered an arson attack in the early 1930s Thus, at the beginning of the and a neo-Nazi bomb in 1979 but was not occupation, life in Denmark went on as greatly damaged. In 1933 King Christian X if nothing had changed. But gradually Copenhagen and Queen Alexandrine attended a there developed an anti-German feeling thanksgiving service on the synagogue’s among the population which resulted in revisited 100th anniversary and the royal family acts of sabotage in factories working for has attended services there on several the Germans and in the derailment of recently spent ten days in Copenhagen occasions. German trains by the Resistance. along with my wife Jacqueline. I lived The Jewish Museum, which due to Increasingly the Danish government Ithere before and during the War and tourism is also open on Saturdays, is small had to walk a tightrope between not have been back several times to see the and was designed by Daniel Libeskind, offending the Danish popular mood and family and spend holidays there. This who also designed the Jewish Museum assuring the Germans they were able time, apart from the ‘must sees’, we in Berlin. It has an unusual sloping floor to keep in check any unfriendly actions. were particularly interested in Jewish and depicts the history of the Jews in However, after a very serious act of Copenhagen and, before we left, we got Denmark. sabotage, the Germans made particularly in touch with the Progressive community. We also wanted to visit the Resistance draconian demands to the government They have been going for about five Museum. Unfortunately all we could see to deal with the matter. The government, years, holding their Shabbat evening and was a blackened ruin as it had recently conscious that agreeing to these demands morning services in a Unitarian church suffered an arson attack and had been would alienate them in the eyes of the in the town centre. This is not far from completely gutted. Neo-Nazis are again people, rejected them. The Germans’ reply the harbour, where 70 years ago my suspected as there was a debate in the was ‘If you can't control the situation, father and I lay in the hold of a fishing country as to whether to add the other then we will!’ On 29 August 1943 boat waiting to be ferried to the safety side of the picture - that of Danish Nazis the Danish government resigned, the of neutral Sweden as German officers who collaborated with the Germans. army was confined to barracks, and the patrolled nearby. The year 2013 is one of several occupying forces took over the running We were about 20 worshippers at anniversaries, one of which, this October, of the country. the Friday night service. This was led is the 70th anniversary of the rescue of the Several high-ranking politicians and by a young lay leader, a female Jewish- Jews of Denmark. others, Chief Rabbi Max Friediger among American former opera singer who had What made the German occupiers them, were arrested and taken to Germany visited Copenhagen some time before, wait three and a half years to introduce and a curfew imposed: everyone had to heard of the group, and they have been measures against the Jews, resulting in a be indoors after dark. The abrogation of together ever since. After the service a full-scale raid on Jewish homes and other rule by the Danish constitution had now number of us went for a meal at a nearby locations where Jews might be found? opened the door to making Denmark restaurant. This is a monthly event. We Since the outbreak of the War I had judenrein. It had taken a long time before learned that Rabbi Julia Neuberger had been working as a receptionist in a the Germans dared to take measures come over to speak to the group some suburban hotel in Copenhagen. In the against the Jews. time ago, that Rabbi Charles Middleburgh early hours of 9 April 1940 I was awakened Not everybody in the German of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue visits two by the almighty roar of aircraft overhead establishment in Copenhagen was or three times a year, and that a lady at – a colleague told me Denmark had been sympathetic to this action: the army our table in the restaurant had a daughter invaded by Germany. Having fled Nazi wanted to have nothing to do with it who is a rabbi in a north-west London Germany only a couple of years before, so that the Gestapo, who would be in Progressive synagogue. The congregation I became increasingly fearful for my and charge of the operation, had to request had recently been granted the right to my family’s safety but my fears were soon additional personnel from Berlin. conduct burials and marriages. calmed: in a hastily convened meeting Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, an attaché with the king, the government, in the German embassy, opposed the action realising armed resistance would against the Jews. Head of the naval section be futile, accepted the Germans’ in the embassy, he had been given the date surrender terms, which were not on which the ships would arrive to deport at all onerous. the Jews to Theresienstadt. He quickly Germany had no quarrel with went to the leader of the Social Democratic the Danes but, being at war with Party, who immediately informed the England, it needed control of the head of the Jewish community that what Danish (and Norwegian) west it had believed impossible – an action coast – as long as the Danish against the Jews -– was now imminent. government could guarantee Through Duckwitz’s action some 7,000 unhindered movement of troops Jews – over 95 per cent of the Danish and armaments, Germany would Jewish population – were saved. In 1971 not interfere in Denmark’s Yad Vashem named him Righteous among internal affairs. This meant king, the Nations. government, parliament, army, Everybody had to be warned police and judiciary retained immediately not to stay in their own their positions, governed by homes. The warning was given by Rabbi the Danish constitution, which, The author with current receptionist Christopher Beck Marcus Melchior in the Great Synagogue Jensen in the Hellerup Park Hotel, where he himself among other things, guaranteed on the eve of the Jewish New Year in 1943. worked as a receptionist during the War. Christopher's freedom of religion. Thus we When in the middle of the night of grandfather worked for the Resistance and was Jews could follow our daily lives imprisoned by the Germans for a time as before. continued overleaf 

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Rayleigh? Yes, just outside the hall. from any other angle reflects the I put my coat on (it was January after separation and fragmentation HAVE YOU all) and followed the crowd to a memorial caused by persecution. standing in a small flowerbed just outside The horizontal elements of the EVER BEEN TO the building. To my amazement, I saw concrete slab and its relationship three steel plates 120 mm (47 inches) with the constancy of the plinth high, 40 cm (16 inches) wide and 1 cm is to remind and encourage us RAYLEIGH? (0.4 inches) thick embedded behind each that from the solid basis of society other in concrete about 30 cm (12 inches) many developments can shape and apart mounted on a marble plinth with reshape society, but not always for two wooden beams passing through the good. them. Each had a 30 cm (12 inches) The vertical steel plates reflect a diameter hole in it. The first plate had straight line upwards, a symbol of nothing in the hole; the second had a seeking a higher power, regardless triangle in it with the apex pointing down; of faith or religion. the third had another triangle with the The planting around the apex pointing up. memorial is to remind us that the A plaque mounted on the concrete living world has the ability to grow reads ‘In Memory of Victims of Persecution’. in even the most barren places and A second plaque, next to the Memorial, is usually the first visible step to contains the artist’s comments on his work: reconciliation following conflict and The stone plinth represents a solid persecution. foundation upon which society rests. The structure is orientated on an The 3-finish concrete slab reflects East-West axis, reflecting the rising ell, have you? Do you know the ability of man to repair what has and setting of the sun. Being able where it is? Have you ever been damaged, but also reminds us to view the structure from each key W heard of a place called that we can destroy the perfect finish. compass point reminds us that we Rayleigh? The 3 steel posts in alternative all have different perceptions and I expect there are some people finishes represent the technological views on life, depending on our reading this who can answer yes to progress of man and reflect the diverse positions and faiths. these questions, but the majority of and varied state of development Mark O’Neill, Architect those to whom I have mentioned it throughout the world. It may be entitled ‘A Memorial to were as ignorant as I was. It was with The rough sawn and smooth posts Victims of Persecution’ and so not some surprise that I was asked to go running through the structure, while specifically or exclusively for the to Rayleigh to speak at a Holocaust reflecting the ability of man to turn Holocaust. But for me, it is the most memorial event. I found that Rayleigh raw materials into finished objects, moving Holocaust memorial I have seen was a small village in Essex just outside also demonstrate the unity of our in Europe. It certainly beats the small Westcliff and Southend, which I do man-made and -shaped society by memorial stone in Hyde Park - which is know. On arrival at the Mill Arts and organic living materials. so placed that most visitors never see it. Events Centre, where the event was to The Star of David is only viewed So, with great respect to its residents, take place, I was told that before we in full when standing directly in front why is it in Rayleigh? How many people were to start there would be a short of the memorial. This is a reminder get to see it? I have no answers to these service at the Holocaust Memorial. What of the Holocaust. The fragmentation questions. – a Holocaust Memorial right here in of this iconic symbol when viewed Harry Bibring

leaving every few minutes. I wondered were found for thousands of people and Copenhagen revisited continued which of them might be for me. transport was organised to get us to the In the morning I heard that an open safety of neutral Sweden. The Swedish 3 October I had to answer a call on the space next to the hotel had been used as government had expressed willingness night bell of my hotel, I wondered who an assembly point for those Jews who had to accept anyone who could come and might be out there, disregarding the been unlucky and been caught. I left the within a few weeks the vast majority of curfew. Opening the door, I found myself hotel in the morning, having been offered us were in Sweden. Within days my father confronting a Gestapo man, accompanied a place in which to sleep by a lady working and I boarded a shipping vessel and, after by a Danish Nazi who had volunteered as in a confectionery shop adjacent to the a wait of several hours, the skipper found a police assistant. They wanted to know hotel. I managed to get in touch with my an opportune moment to run us across whether any Jewish guests were staying family and heard they were all well. the water to Sweden, where we were in the hotel and whether I knew that, for The headlines of the following most heartily welcomed. the Germans, Jews were defined not only morning’s papers ran ‘Now that the Jews There is a midrash which says that by their religion but also by the ethnic have been eliminated from the public the Creator sometimes creates the cure origin of their parents and grandparents. life of the country there is no longer any before He creates the disease. In one of I replied that I had heard of this Aryan need to keep the Danish army interned.’ the wars between Denmark and Sweden concept and, although I knew that a The army officially refused to accept its in the 17th century, Denmark lost what couple of Jewish families had checked freedom at the cost of the Jews but they has been southern Sweden ever since. Had in during the day, there were none there were now free to go and the king, as Denmark not lost those lands to Sweden, now. We exchanged a few more words head of the army, resumed residence in the Jews of Denmark would have had no and they left. I went up to my room, the royal palace in Copenhagen. place to flee to. Gam su l’tovah – this too pondering what to do next. The rest of The Resistance had been busy too. is for the best. the night I heard trucks pulling up and Temporary shelter and hiding places Walter Goddard

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FATEFUL JOURNEY Sir – The major celebration of the Kindertransport is over, with publicity to a motley collection of celebrities, some of whom weren’t even born when we entered on our fateful journey. On coming to Britain, most of us became de facto orphans in a strange country with a foreign language and I have The Editor reserves the right the feeling we were never fully accepted by to shorten correspondence the English Jewish community – otherwise submitted for publication why the Association of Jewish Refugees, a refugee synagogue in Belsize Park, and separate welfare organisations? CORRECTIONS So, whenever the AJR Journal carries a Naturalisation was not automatic on Sir – Dare I correct the mighty Anthony letter over the signature of Leslie Baruch joining the Forces and, I believe, a very Grenville? He has obviously not been Brent, I metaphorically raise my hat to my important person mooted the idea of going to the theatre very much recently. most eminent quasi-Doppelgänger and sending us all back when the War was Terence Rattigan’s reputation has indeed read what he has to say. Usually I find over. ‘recovered from his fall in critical esteem myself at odds with his point of view and How different in the USA, where 60 years ago’. In the last couple of years sometimes I am pained by it. But of course refugees past and present are welcomed I have seen The Browning Version, Cause I respect his right to express his opinion and integrated into the community and Célèbre, Flare Path, After the Dance and and hitherto I have not felt impelled to are accepted as Americans! The Winslow Boy, all in the West End or react. However, Professor Brent’s latest I will shortly be going to Germany, at the National or the Old Vic and all to letter is not just an opinion piece. Rather, where I have been invited to speak to great critical acclaim. I missed The Deep it inveighs against Dorothea Shefer-Vanson schoolchildren, not for the first time. The Blue Sea, which was also revived. Tony for having written a ‘myopic, ill-informed young people of that country need to hear should look at the theatre guides more and hugely biased article’. As I invariably from somebody who was an eyewitness often! What’s more, may I assure him that enjoy Dorothea’s ‘Letter from Israel’, to the Kristallnacht pogrom. Most of us The Norman Conquests trilogy by Alan I hastened to re-read that surprisingly are now in our 80s or 90s so there is not Ayckbourn is hilarious and he shouldn’t offending piece. much time left for them to listen to and have given up after the first play! Like my fellow scientist, I try ‘to view learn from somebody who was there at It is with far less trepidation that I our sad world as objectively as possible’. the time. correct Leslie Baruch Brent. He attacks But, in my eyes, Leslie’s allegations do Ernest G. Kolman, Greenford, Middx Dorothea Shefer-Vanson’s ‘Letter from not stand up. For one thing, Dorothea’s Israel’ on the grounds that it is ‘hugely letter was in the main a report of a lecture NOT AMUSED biased’. Yet he cannot see that The given by Dr Alan Mendoza under the title Sir – Ruth David’s report on the Guardian and its sister newspaper The ‘Understanding Delegitimisation: The War Kindertransport Reunion event sounded Observer are hugely biased against Israel. Against Israel in Contemporary Britain’. So at times like an amusing ego-trip – Both these newspapers are in favour of a Professor Brent would have more properly meeting the German Ambassador’s wife trade boycott with Israel and are against tilted his verbal lance against Dr Mendoza. waiting for the loo and not forgetting Israel’s even taking part in international Besides, Ms Shefer-Vanson expressed her the Bundesverdienstkreuz awarded to sports events. What punishments has own opinion in the mildest possible terms, her. Finally, having to hide behind her son Mr Brent’s beloved newspaper ever viz ‘The version of Israel that is portrayed by (unsuccessfully) as Prince Charles came suggested should be meted out to Hamas the media in England tends to be skewed, towards her and seized her hand. or Hezbollah? probably because of the British predilection I am, however, not amused by her As for the BBC’s fairness – all I will say for supporting the “underdog”, in this endorsement of the inane remark that the to him are two words: Orla Guerin! case the Palestinians’; and ‘[T]he situation Kinder ‘had done more for Britain than any Blinkering yourself with The Guardian is not a straightforward black-and-white other immigrant group ever in the UK.’ and reading the tabloids at the hairdresser’s one, with the good guys on one side and I am still meeting with our rapidly is not good for you, Mr Brent. You may be the bad guys on the other’. Hardly stuff dwindling group of War veterans and a scientist and you may think you are that deserves the brickbats handed out to it would never occur to us to evaluate objective, but you are clearly not. Try her, I think! our efforts and denigrate those of other reading The Times or The Daily Telegraph I do not presume that I can influence sections of the refugee community. for a pleasant change! the outlook of anyone who relies on Peter H. Wayne, London W11 Peter Phillips, Loudwater, Herts The Guardian for news about Israel. As an ardent Zionist, blessed with a ‘WE MUST SAVE THE CHILDREN!’ ‘ANTI-ISRAELI BIAS’ goodly clutch of great-grandchildren in Sir – I am continuing to research for a Sir – We are contemporaries: he left on Israel, I would surely be regarded as a book on non-Jewish responses to the the first Kindertransport from Berlin as compromised character were I to try. But Kindertransport refugee crisis in the UK. a 13-year-old; I was 14 when I left on just in case Leslie Baruch Brent and any A few AJR members did get in touch with the first Kindertransport from Vienna a who shares his opinion are unaware of me about their non-Jewish foster parents week later. In subsequent years, each of the site, may I respectfully draw attention and their stories are truly inspiring. us gained a PhD from University College to Honest Reporting, the non-aligned I would like to urge others to tell London, in the 1950s each of us held watchdog that monitors the news for me about their experiences – good and a lectureship there (he in Zoology, I in bias, inaccuracies or other breaches of bad – with English families, schools or Physiology), and in 1990 both of us journalistic standards in the Arab-Israeli hostels. Many of them were ‘quiet heroes’ became Professors Emeriti at the end of conflict. and I would like to piece their stories our formal academic careers. Professor Otto Hutter, Bournemouth together and, if possible, contact relatives

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(perhaps siblings) of those non-Jews from the Home Office to tell me I was potential donors, all of whom are elderly. who heeded Greta Burkill’s cry ‘We must entitled to become a UK citizen under the Many of us do not have family or friends save the children!’ Please contact me at ORM (Orphan, Refugee Minor) scheme. A available to act as deliverymen. If we [email protected] few months later I duly swore allegiance cannot find someone to help us, the Mike Levy, to ‘King George VI, his heirs and successors alternative is to carry heavy books on Keystage Arts and Heritage, Cambridge according to the law’. A few days after that public transportation, or to drive to I was worrying over what I could do for London, where parking is at a premium, KINDERTRANSPORT LEADERS Britain to thank it. Halfway up Blackheath if it is available. Sir – Recent issues of your AJR Journal Road I had a ‘Damascus’ moment. Of We are prepared to give away these have understandably been devoted to the course, I should join the Labour Party - books for nothing. Many of them are 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport. then a socialist democratic organisation rare, out of print and valuable. These However, I didn’t see a single word about - enabling me to work towards improving institutions are getting something they the young Jewish men and women who the lot of the mass of the population want, something that is often not available led these transports but were allowed to by striving towards equality of esteem elsewhere. And they are getting it for free. do so as long as they returned. I knew in education, the nationalisation of the It should not be beyond their ability to a young Austrian woman in London in key sectors of British industry, providing find volunteers to transport these books. 1939 whose brother led some of these decent free health care, etc! The Wiener Library and London transports. However, he always had to For the same reason, but emotionally University are unfortunately not alone return home to Vienna for the Nazis re-charged because I had become a in their cavalier attitude to donors of threatened to kill his family if he failed father, I was active in the Direct Action German books. Several years ago I offered to return. I wonder if any study has been Committee, the Committee of 100 and a rare five-volume 1927 set of Jüdische made of what happened to some of these CND when it was founded. Ten or more Enzyklopädie, total weight over 15 kilos, brave young Jews. convictions are battle honours. It was a to the Centre for German-Jewish Studies Dr T. Scarlett Epstein OBE, Hove, Sussex pleasure to see the quality of life of the at the University of Sussex. They indicated broad mass improving till 1979, since they would be pleased to accept the books NO ALTERNATIVE when it has been a struggle to preserve and would ‘make arrangements’. I am Sir – In your October issue Michael those gains. still waiting for someone to come and Sherwood is ‘curious as to the motivation I am sure my history is typical of very get them. of individuals in returning to Germany many in the AJR, just as there are some Eve R. Kugler, London N3 after the 39-45 war.’ There is a very simple who no doubt share the Mail’s view that answer – they had nowhere else to go. we are undermining the Great in Great REMEMBERING THE REFUGEES A dear cousin of mine, Gusti Jassy, Britain. Never let it be said that the bulk FROM HUNGARY turned back on her way to the station of the active left acted other than in the Sir – Reading the comprehensive article to join a Kindertransport as she didn’t country’s best interest as we saw and by Anthony Grenville about the changes want to leave her widowed mother alone see it. in 1956, it occurs to me that many of us in Berlin. When life in Berlin became too With regard to Michael Sherwood’s escaped to England in 1956 thanks to the dangerous they went into hiding and were letter, among those who returned almost uprising in Hungary in that year. Whereas able to survive until 1944, when they were immediately after the War were loyal we cannot compete with the numbers denounced and sent to Ravensbrück. Communists carrying out party orders. or importance of the Kinder, maybe we My cousin managed to keep my aunt I heard from a London-born ‘second- merit a mention too. A change that is not alive and, after the War, in a DP camp, generation’ woman now living in Vienna mentioned is the one that was brought met and married a fellow survivor, Alex that her obedient Communist parents were about by the putting down of the uprising Neumark, together with whom she was ordered by the party to return to Vienna by the Russians, i.e. the waking up of some eventually repatriated to Berlin. Not in 1945-46. They suffered considerable of the fellow travellers in the West. Yves wishing to remain in Germany longer than hardship there. I also recollect reading of Montand and Simone Signoret come to necessary, as soon as they were able to a US Communist being ordered to return – mind. obtain the necessary travel documents, and returning – to East Germany at about Janos Fisher, Bushey Heath, Herts they left for Paris, where Alex had a sister the same time. who had survived the War. They lived Francis Deutsch, Saffron Walden ‘THE TABLECLOTH’ with her for six months but were unable Sir – I was pleased to see in your to obtain a permis de séjour and thus THANK YOU, AJR AND JFS October issue a letter by Marian McNulty neither work nor food coupons. They Sir – We would like to thank Jonathan Rose mentioning my poem ‘The Tablecloth’, therefore had no alternative but to return at the AJR as well as the JFS for enabling us which she heard on Mark Tulley’s Radio 4 to Berlin and live among the people who finally to learn how to access the internet. programme and liked. had murdered their families – like my own I am 87 and my wife 83. If she is interested, she could get my father – until they both passed away at Jack, the student who came to help New and Collected Poems, where this an early age. As they say in Hebrew: ‘ein us, was an excellent teacher who showed poem is published on page 44. Originally, breirah’ – no alternative. great patience and skill. it appeared in Family Arrivals, which is now Betty Bloom, London NW3 Avram and Vera Schaufeld, out of print. I didn’t know the poem was Wembley Park, Middx used in Mark Tully’s programme but am IN THE COUNTRY’S BEST INTEREST pleased it found a good response. Sir – I sincerely hope the AJR has publicised A GOOD HOME FOR GERMAN- Lotte Kramer, Peterborough its solidarity with the Miliband brothers as LANGUAGE BOOKS? with all victims of anti-Semitism, racism, Sir – In asking survivors and refugees from Sir – Marian McNulty asked for the source and sexism, whether coming from the Germany who want to donate books to of a poem by Lotte Kramer which had been Daily Mail or any other source. the Wiener Library and the University read on Radio 4 and which she believed I have particularly strong feelings of London to arrange for volunteers to was called ‘A Tablecloth Unravelled’. because my career was very similar to transport books there, these institutions The poem is actually called ‘The Ralph’s. Sometime in 1944 a lady came are putting too great a burden on the continued on page 16 

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These early Reformists thought so but their zealous rampage through Catholic monas- teries did not entirely succeed. Although REVIEWS some 90 per cent of medieval sculpture EXHIBITION ART was destroyed, some relics were sometimes salvaged and restored and are on show here. Berlin exhibition on German- NOTES The Statue of the Dead Christ Jewish engineers, inventors (c 1500-1520) was found broken but and photographers GLORIA TESSLER essentially whole as recently as 1954 in the ORENSTEIN & LOEWE: 20 DEUTSCH- Mercers’ Hall beneath its chapel floor and JÜDISCHE INGENIEURE, ERFINDER lashed paintings, desecrated stained is on loan to the Tate for the first time. UND FOTOGRAFEN 1933-1945 glass, statues torn from their pil- Such state-sponsored violence targeted (20 German-Jewish Engineers, Inven- tors and Photographers, 1933–1945) lars – these are the monumental sculptures from the Great Screen of Win- Special Exhibition, to 31 March 2014 Saffronts to art that Tate Britain features chester Cathedral, illuminated books from in Art under Attack: Histories of Brit- the British Library, and broken glass from at Deutsches Technikmuseum (German Technical Museum), Berlin ish Iconoclasm (until 5 January 2014). Christ Church Oxford - actually stamped Examples of 500 years of violence against on by Canon Henry Wilkinson. Some efore 1933 it was largely irrelevant whether a German engineer, inven- art from the Reformation to the postmod- medieval stained glass panels, c 1180, tor, photographer or industrialist was ern Chapman brothers also include the were taken from Canterbury Cathedral’s B a practising Jew or had any Jewish ancestry. Thomas iconoclasm of the Suffragettes, who took windows and are shown beside This changed dramatically when Hitler took meat cleavers to Pre-Raphaelite paintings Johnson’s mid-17th-century painting power in January 1933. Soon Jewish civil to emphasise that votes for women were illustrating the Puritans at work. Even the servants throughout Germany were being more important than celebrating their last prayer written by Charles I, pleading sacked, Jewish photographers and journal- beauty. Their targets were the Rokeby for divine forgiveness for his killers, was ists boycotted, and Jewish inventors and scrawled through by Portuguese industrialists driven into exile or murdered. inquisitors who seized it from a ship By the time of ‘Kristallnacht’ anti-Semitism which entered Portuguese waters. had become the order of the day, making (Certainly less forgiving was his no exception for the many Jews working in son, Charles II, who tracked down the fields covered by the Deutsches Tech- nikmuseum (DTM) such as inventors and and brutally killed those guilty of engineers. The ‘aryanisation’ of economic his regicide.) A 19th-century re- life deprived them of the means of earning sponse came in staunch monarchist a living and stripped them of their rights. Frederick Duleep Singh’s upside- Anyone who was able emigrated. down portrait of Oliver Cromwell. The DTM previously acquired consid- More recently, violence against erable renown through its permanent public art became political. We can exhibition ‘Rail Transport’, which addressed see fragments of the statue of William the involvement of German railways in the III and Nelson’s Pillar, both bombed murder of the European Jews. Already in Dublin after the Irish troubles in in 1988 the first worldwide display of a 1928 and 1936. With state monu- typical boxcar was among the exhibited objects. Allen Jones Chair (1969) Medium acrylic paint on ments a traditional target of political glass fibre and resin with Perspex and leather, In connection with the Berlin City Coun- 775 x 571 x 991 mm unrest, it is surprising that there are cil’s 2013 theme Zerstörte Vielfalt – Berlin no photographs of our own most in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (Diversity Venus by Velasquez and works by Edward powerful contemporary image – the toppling Destroyed – Berlin during the Nazi Period), Burne-Jones and John Singer Sargent. of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad. the DTM is holding a special exhibition on It is certainly not the most visual or Some iconoclasts are motivated by 20 German-Jewish engineers, inventors and appetizing exhibition. The images are personal or aesthetic rage and some are photographers whose life’s work was de- disturbing, but historically valid. As convinced that defacing art, even in the stroyed under the swastika. The exhibition curator Tabitha Barber points out, the Chapman brothers’ reproductions, is an act is very well documented, with each figure destruction of Christian art at the time of renewal. Feminists even attacked Allen represented by at least one portrait, four of the dissolution of the monasteries by Jones’s sexy Chair – a nonchalant near-nude photos and one object. The exhibition uses texts, photographs in high-heeled boots and black gloves in a Henry VIII was not a motiveless, wanton and objects to tell the stories of these promi- attack but an enforcement of the Second yoga position strapped to the seat of a chair. nent personalities from Jewish families, all Commandment forbidding graven im- of whom lived in Berlin and whose lives and ages. The new Protestants were concerned work are closely associated with the fields that beautiful religious images created in Annely Juda Fine Art addressed by the DTM. The 20 are: radio past centuries would be worshipped in 23 Dering Street manufacturer Manfred Aron, 1884-1967; their own right – and so destroyed them. (off New Bond Street) chemist Heinrich Brinn, 1874-1943; pharma- This theme runs through this part of the Tel: 020 7629 7578 cist Arthur Eichengrün, 1867-1949; railway exhibition. Could admiring a supreme work Fax: 020 7491 2139 photographer Fritz Eschen, 1900-1964; of religious art turn to worship in itself? CONTEMPORARY PAINTING torpedo expert Herbert von Klemperer, AND SCULPTURE continued opposite 

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1878-1951; of the 20 German-Jewish personalities at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Soho. The railway direc- throughout the Museum, visitors are en- company, Pipelinetheatre.com, intends to tor Paul Levy, couraged to learn more both about the find further venues for the play so this is 1876-1943; special exhibition and the permanent ex- well worth looking out for. sugar factory hibition and are elegantly led through the The play is set in the late 1970s with owner Edmund building as a whole. All texts are provided flashbacks to the 1930s-40s, the period that von Lippmann, in German and English. covers the Kindertransportees’ coming to 1857-1940; Due to strong public interest and the England and their struggles to acculturate. radio pioneer publishing of a biography of Reichsbahn The story of a Kindertransportee is entwined Siegmund director Ernst Spiro by Dr Gottwald, with that of a teenager transported from Loewe, 1885- the exhibition has been extended from home to home in the care system. 1962; auto 31 December 2013 to 31 March 2014. A pair of vertical railway tracks provides the backdrop of the stage and Alfred Orenstein, industrialist Stuart Wolfe represents the parallel journeys of the two 1885-1969 Arthur Müller, teenagers. These tracks are the main props. 1871-1935; di- Atmosphere is created by sound tracks rector general of a locomotive and rolling THEATRE of train and railway noises and a station stock factory Alfred Orenstein, 1885-1969; notice board that gives times and places. AEG Head of Social Policy Ernst Preuss, Gripping new approach The main actress, who plays both 1891-1966; photographer Henry Ries, to the Kindertransport 15-year-old girls, is the granddaughter of 1917-2004; inventor and journalist Georg TRANSPORTS a Holocaust survivor who is projected on Rothgiesser, 1858-1943; aeroplane and written and directed by Jon Welch a screen at the end of the play reciting automobile designer Edmund Rumpler, her poem. The other main actress plays 1872-1940; photo-journalist Erich Salomon, Tristan Bates Theatre, London the three adult roles. The final scene 1886-1944; engineer Carl Schapira, 1879- cast: Juliet Welch and Anna Munden; includes a child, about four years old, who 1957; aeroplane designer Erich Schatzki, produced by Pipeline Theatre; design by represents redemption and hope for the 1898-1991; steel furniture manufacturer Alan Munden future. Themes of separation, attachment, Julius Seligsohn-Netter, 1885-1964; train ransports is a gripping new approach transportation between cultures, problems ticket collector Georg Speyer, 1902-1971; to the Kindertransport. Very different of fostering, the generation gap, bullying railway central administrative director Ernst T to Diane Samuel’s brilliant play and judgemental narrow-mindedness are Spiro, 1873-1950. Kindertransport, it is equally dramatic, very powerfully portrayed. Curator Dr Alfred Gottwaldt and a team thought-provoking and gripping theatre. Transports provides an evening of high of nine colleagues have produced an in- It was premiered earlier in Cornwall and quality theatre not to be missed. novative exhibition. With the positioning staged in London from 16 to 21 September Ruth Barnett

n 2008 my sister Ros, cousin Max But at least Britain did something – as Reinhardt and I decided to mark the 70th opposed to the USA, whose position was Ianniversary of the Kindertransport by that it was against God to take a child from creating a site-specific performance piece. its parents. And so Suitcase was born. Performed three But what I can never accept is that large times on 2 December 2008 at Liverpool swathes of the Jewish population in this Street Station, Suitcase proved a massive but the reality was that beyond giving country opposed the arrival of their fellow success. It was hugely over-subscribed and grudging permission for the children to Jews fleeing for their lives. In the myopic we are resurrecting it this year to mark the come to the UK, the Government did belief that these foreign-looking, foreign- 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport. nothing. Not only did they demand a £50 acting Jews would threaten their position But this time, we’ve gone Big, with a bond – the equivalent of £2,000 today in British society, some British Jews turned ten-station, Arts Council-funded tour, – for each child (almost £20,000,000 their backs on these desperate individuals. beginning in Glasgow on 12 November in total) but they provided no help for Today there are 15 million refugees in and travelling down the country to end these vulnerable children, who had lost the world, 2 million of them created by at Liverpool Street Station in London on everything they knew. the current conflict in Syria. Almost half 2 December 2013. I had always felt incredibly sad that the of these refugees are under 18 years old. Ros and I grew up with a close man who was my uncle was left behind Every year in Britain 1,500 unaccompanied relationship to the Kindertransport as in Vienna as he was only ten months child refugees arrive seeking sanctuary. our mother, Jo Hacker, arrived with old at the time my mother came on the The story we tell in Suitcase of some of her two younger sisters on one of the Kindertransport and deemed too young the 10,000 children who came to Britain first trains from Vienna in December to be allowed to travel. Along with my 75 years ago is sadly relevant today. The 1938. We thought we understood what grandparents, Franziska and Koloman tragedy is that in all those years we haven’t had happened - Britain had opened its Hacker, he died in the Holocaust. But now found a way to protect these children and doors to almost 10,000 children and I became angry – why would the British keep them together with their families in in all probability saved those lives. But Government leave these people to die? Of their home countries and in safety. Given researching the history, talking to surviving course, in December 1938 it was possible our history, as Jews we have a greater ‘Kinder’ and thinking about the events to argue that no one could have imagined responsibility than others to make that made us realise that all was not quite as the genocide that was to follow – but happen. it seemed. the signs were absolutely there. One can For full details of Suitcase’s tour schedule, The line pedalled about the rationalise the attitude of the majority of please go to www.suitcase1938.org Kindertransport had always been one of the British public who, coming out of a or telephone 07551 050875. gratitude to the British Government for massive economic depression, feared the Jane Merkin allowing these children into the country effect of large numbers of poor refugees. Executive Producer, Suitcase

9 journal NOVEMber 2013 Albania’s culture of rescue Holocaust Memorial Book The Liverpool AJR Group are reprinting he history of Albanian-Jewish Quisling government had signed the initial the Liverpool Holocaust Memorial Book in time for distribution on Holocaust relations goes back to Roman agreement with the German invaders, Memorial Day 2014. If any member Ttimes. Not a single crime has been they had included the following provision: would like to remember the name/s of performed by Albanians in their country ‘The Germans have no right to intervene family members who did not survive that against Jews since the recording of the in the internal affairs of Albania.’ Rafael tragic time can he/she please contact first Jewish settlement there. Jakoel, an Albanian Jew, was summoned Susanne Green, AJR North West Groups In early 1930 there were in Albania to the Minister of the Interior, Xhafer Co-ordinator, on 0151 291 5734 or at an estimated 1,000 Jews. In 1945 the Deva, who served the Germans. To Rafael’s [email protected] number was about 3,000. When the pleasant surprise, the Minister said he had Nazis began to persecute Jews Albania’s called him only to tell him that the Jewish King Ahmet Zogu instructed all consular issue in the country was an internal one. Birmingham & West missions to grant a visa to any Jew ‘We will never,’ he said, ‘hand over our Midlands Committee for who, irrespective of whether his or her Jews, either those who have always been passport had a red ‘J’ stamped on it, here or those who took shelter in recent World Jewish Relief should be allowed to enter Albania for years.’ 2013 Appeal Brunch an indefinite period. The Albanians have a rich, and Sunday 10 November 2013 In 1938 Albania was the only country sometimes tragic, history but in their to offer asylum to any Jewish refugee long history of relations with neighbours, at Joseph Cotton Hall without asking any questions. From 1937 invaders, guests, sojourners, minorities – Reception 12.30 pm; Brunch 1.00 pm to the end of the War a large number of people in need – the story of how they Guest Speaker: Dr Anthony Grenville, Jews were sheltered in Albania, either saved 100 per cent of the Jews during the Historian and Consultant Editor, remaining there or making their way Holocaust is a jewel in their crown. onward to other safe countries. Albania His Excellency Mal Berisha AJR Journal is the only country in Europe in which no Albanian Ambassador to London ‘The Arrival and Settlement of the Jew’s life was lost and no Jew handed This article is adapted from a speech made Jewish Refugees from Hitler in Britain’ over to the Nazis. Jewish refugees were by Ambassador Berisha earlier in the year sheltered by Albanians, who were simply pursuing their traditional code of honour. A total of 69 Albanians are remembered in the Righteous among the Nations in ARTS AND EVENTS Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem. NOVEMBER DIARY In order better to understand this miraculous conduct on the part of Mon 4 Ben Urwand (Harvard University): ‘The Albanians, it is necessary to invoke besa, Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler’ the fundamental part of the Kanun, the Thu 21 and Wed 4 Dec Monica Bohm-Duchen: ancient code of Albanian society: ‘An ‘Art of the Holocaust: Creativity In Extremis’ Albanian’s house belongs to God and a guest.’ Every hour, day and night, a man All events at Wiener Library at 6.30 pm: must be ready to receive a guest with admission free but booking essential bread, salt and an open heart. To the tel 020 7636 7247 Paula Wilcox and Janet Dibley delight of the Jewish refugees seeking star in a UK tour of Diane Samuels’s shelter among Albanians – many of award-winning play them Muslims – from the Nazis, ‘guests’ www.fishburnbooks.com KINDERTRANSPORT meant guests in the country as well as during autumn 2013 and spring 2014. in the home. Jonathan Fishburn In 1943 the Germans demanded that buys and sells Jewish and Post-Show Discussions are planned the Albanian authorities summon Jewish Hebrew books, ephemera and and if Kinder and/or their descendants items of Jewish interest. are interested in contributing to these leaders in order that they present a list He is a member of the Antiquarian of Jews living in Albania. At that time, discussions, the producers are keen to Booksellers Association. share your personal experiences. the country was ruled by Albanians who Contact Jonathan on were forced to comply with the German 020 8455 9139 or 07813 803 889 Please contact Tracey Childs orders. However, when the Albanian for more information on 07778 984 365 or at [email protected] For venues and further information, he AJR is delighted once again to UK Jewish Film Festival visit www.kindertransport.co.uk be supporting the UK Jewish Film 30 October – 17 November 2013 TFestival and will be the exclusive sponsor of the ‘Refugees’ strand of this ‘Refugees’ screenings in London and Manchester will year’s Festival. include a Coffee & Bagel Brunch. ‘Refugees’ is built around five films, Q&A with one of the surviving refugees The screening of From Cable Street to each of which will be followed by a panel from Sweden and an introduction by the Brick Lane features a Q&A with director discussion and a Q&A session or special Swedish Ambassador to the UK. Phil Maxwell and a panel discussion with event. As well as five events in London, Directed by Rachel Goslins, Besa: The participants in the film on the Jewish there will be events in Manchester, Leeds Promise weaves Albania’s heroism in the immigrant experience. Incorporating and Glasgow. The ‘Refugees’ events Second World War through the vérité archival footage of the 1936 Battle of include: journeys of two men, a renowned Jewish- Cable Street, the film pays tribute to Orchestra of Exiles: directed by Josh American photographer and a Muslim- successive generations of immigrants Aronson, the film portrays the extraordinary Albanian. The film will be introduced by the and trade unionists in London’s East End story of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra Albanian Ambassador to the UK. and their triumph over prejudice and and the heroic feats of its founder, Polish In My German Friend, directed by Jeanine intolerance. violinist Bronislaw Huberman. Meerapfel, the daughter of German-Jewish Full details, including the dates and Harbour of Hope, directed by Magnus immigrants to Argentina befriends the son venues of the ‘Refugees’ films, together Gertten, recounts the lives of two of a senior SS officer and together they with all screenings in this year’s Festival, concentration camp survivors who found become embroiled in the radical politics are available at www.ukjewishfilm.org refuge in Sweden. The event features a of late-1960s student life in Germany. The Michael Newman

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here we sat, all of us bound together a plaintive voice. I listened, straining to repeating time and time again ‘Schick by one delicate thread. We were catch what it was saying. He was now mich nicht fort.’ Tunited by one experience, that of crying, uncontrollable tears streaming My ears throbbed, my eyes burned, having come over on the Kindertransport. down his face, his voice belying his age. my body trembled. Where was I? I was Of having been driven out of our country Now I could easily make out what he was now in a station full of children. I listened of birth, our only fault being that we saying: ‘Schick mich nicht fort, Mutti. Ich to my voice. I too was screaming, crying were Jewish. As I sat looking around werde immer artig sein.’ (Don’t send me ‘Schick mich nich fort, Mutti. Ich werde me listening to the voices which once away, Mummy. I promise I’ll always be immer artig sein.’ I could no longer must have sounded so different, so full good.’) The plea was repeated numerous breathe. I was drowning in the salty of mischief, so young and hopeful, but times, the voice louder and louder, no tears of the 10,000 sent away. Then I were now nostalgic and wistful, I heard longer a whisper. saw a figure before me. I recognised names ‘From Dortmund, Berlin, Frankfurt, I listened again. This time there was my mother. Her voice was soft, gentle, Hamburg’ – names of cities, towns and more than one voice – many more. They so restrained: ‘Sei brav, mein Kind. Wir hamlets. Some of these names were were repeating the same plea: ‘Schick sehen uns bald wieder’ (Be brave, my familiar. mich nicht fort, Mutti. Ich werde immer child. We’ll see each other again soon). I looked around and there sat an old artig sein.’ The voices echoed through the I woke with a start. The dream haunted man, his eyes wet with tears. I listened hall. Voices in unison. Pleading, weeping, me for days. The words ‘Wir sehen uns more intently, at first unable to decipher promising. The voices of little children. I bald wieder’ was a promise which could his words. I was perplexed. His voice looked around to see where the voices not be kept by so many. I was one of the had changed. It was no longer that of came from. The hall was filled now not lucky ones to see my mother again. an old man but that of a child. It was with old people but with tiny children Ruth Schwiening

argot Barnes was one of 400 ‘Until Kristallnacht I found Beuthen a ‘It was like a guests from around the world pleasant place. We had no trouble there. dream, I still keep Minvited to meet Prince Charles I lived with my uncle, his wife and their looking at the picture at a reception at St James’s Palace on two children. I also had a brother who Monday 24 June to commemorate the lived in Berlin. All perished in the of me and the Prince,’ 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport, Holocaust though my brother was said Margot which carried thousands of Jewish last seen in Auschwitz as late as children threatened by the Nazis in Central January 1945. He was dead by the Barnes and Eastern Europe to safety in the UK. time the Russians arrived. ‘I belong to the Association of Jewish ‘I went back to Beuthen [now Refugees and, with lots of others, I put Poland] many years later. All signs ‘I stayed in Southport my name down to be considered for of that beautiful synagogue until the War began. the Kindertransport Reunion. One day I had been obliterated and an When I was 16 I went was amazed to get an envelope with an ugly block of flats stood in to live in a hostel invitation from Prince Charles at Clarence its place.’ in Manchester but House. Margot explained how became fed up with ‘St James’s Palace was very nice,’ she got involved with the the work there so Margot said. ‘There were three state Kindertransport: ‘I was 14 I went to the army rooms with big portraits on the walls. and had joined the Maccabees (sports recruiting centre and joined up. I stayed There were an awful lot of people there. club) in Beuthen. With my friend Irene, in the army for three years, between 1943 One of the Prince’s entourage looked I put my name down to go to Palestine, and 1946. I first worked on anti-aircraft after me and led him to me because I England or Holland. guns at Hayling Island and Mitcham was sitting down. The Prince asked me if ‘One day my uncle turned up at school Junction. I knew anyone else there. I said “No”. He and took me out to join the exodus. I was ‘While working on the guns I got was very nice to me but I was so nervous the only girl with three boys who escaped blown up. I was at the command post I forgot to curtsey. I still can’t remember from my town. First we went to Berlin, with an officer when a doodlebug hit it. much that we talked about.’ where I saw my brother for the last time I was knocked out. Margot has a lot to be thankful for. She and spent the night at the station. They ‘I met my husband when I became a lived in Beuthen, a town in Upper Silesia took the local train to Holland and then driver in the army after the War was over. in Germany, near the border with Poland. on to England. We were married on 21 March 1946. We Just after Kristallnacht, in November 1938, ‘I had a cabin to myself on the boat had a son and a daughter. My son joined Goebbels came to Beuthen and made a from Holland to Harwich. In England I the police force. I became a traffic warden vicious anti-Semitic speech after which the was sent to a holiday camp at Dovercourt, in the City of London. synagogue was set alight and many Jews which was closed for the winter. (It later ‘We went to live in Israel. We stayed were forced to stand for hours in front of became the fictitious Maplins holiday for nine months but couldn’t settle so their synagogue until it was burnt to the camp and the set for Hi-de-Hi!, a sitcom we came back to England,’ Margot said. ground. It had been built in 1869. shown on the BBC from 1980 to 1988.) ‘I didn’t look Jewish, and I was indoors ‘It was very cold in the camp. We The above is adapted from an article near the synagogue with some other were given a hot water bottle and slept which appeared in Tekiah!, the magazine people when the arson took place. But four girls to a feather bed to keep warm. of the South London Synagogue, Rosh later I saw the tablets at the front of the We were told that Jewish families in Hashanah 2013 edition. It was written shul crash to the ground. My grandfather Southport would take ten girls, so I put and based on an interview by Tony was taken away, though released after a my name down and ended up there,’ Goldman, who also took the photograph couple of weeks. Margot said. of Margot Barnes.

11 journal NOVEMber 2013 West Midlands (Birmingham) A Very Enjoyable Gathering Glasgow CF We gathered at Birmingham Jewish A Real Family Atmosphere Community Care for a very enjoyable lunch, conversation and discussion of our future programme. INSIDE Philip Lesser the Pinner ‘The Carnaby Street That Was’ Jack Lynes gave us some of the history of AJR Carnaby Street as well as an understanding of his family’s business that had long been Dundee First Meeting established there. His anecdotes made the Our first meeting, in the synagogue hall, afternoon run all too quickly. brought together people not only from Robert Gellman Dundee but also from neighbouring towns. Introductions were made over a Leeds CF Favourite Music and a Zara and Joe Cent and Agnes Isaacs at delicious brunch. Already there are other Wonderful Tea Glasgow Yom Tov Nosh people coming forward to join our group. Members brought along a favourite piece Esther Finlay of music, explained their choice, and there The AJR ‘family’ – 21 members with were interesting stories to go with their some First Generation members accompanied by their sons and Bromley CF Terrible Twins selections. A wonderful afternoon tea, hosted by Barbara Cammerman, followed. daughters – turned out in force and Wendy Bott tucked into a traditional Yom Tov meal. There was a real family atmosphere, Brighton and Hove Sarid which brought back memories of such The Beautiful Songs of Irving Berlin gatherings from long ago. Judging by Janice Greenwood’s talk, laced with the its popularity, I will add this meeting to beautiful songs of Israel Isidore Beilin (Baline), our list of annual events. alias Irving Berlin, contributed to an enjoyable Agnes Isaacs morning. Born near Mogilyov in Russia, Irving Berlin came to the USA at the age of eight and became a self-taught musician Glasgow Book Club Good-natured, and lyricist. Slow Narrative How well our Terrible Twins, Lore Ceska Abrahams Meeting at the home of Anthea Berg, we Gordon (left) and Lore Robinson, born discussed Alexander McCall Smith’s novel a few miles from each other near York CF Delightful Meeting The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, Cologne and coming over days apart A delightful meeting at the home of Marc with whose good-natured, slow narrative on the Kindertransport, are bonding! and Rosl Schatzberger, with an interesting we were very content. Delicious tea and Now we have discovered they are the discussion followed by Rosl’s delicious snacks courtesy of the hostess as usual. same age! Thanks to Liane for hosting home baking. Wendy Bott Halina Moss these get-togethers, without which the Edgware ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ Terrible Twins would never have met. North West London A Lovely Lunch ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ helped at a jolly Hazel Beiny We met for a lovely lunch, great company birthday celebration for Harry Fleming’s and lively conversation. 90th. With entertainment from Lynne Margarete Weiss Ealing Jews and Jazz Bradley, who led us on a Hollywood sing- Peter Sampson gave us an excellent song, and - to top it all - a member from presentation on the Jewish contribution Edgware who had never been to the group to jazz. He described the key contributions before recognised Harry from Vienna 70 switch on electrics of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and other years ago. Hazel Beiny big band leaders in America, followed by Rewires and all household the work of their UK counterparts such as Café Imperial A New Member of the electrical work Joe Loss and, more recently, Dave Brubeck Team PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 and Ronnie Scott. Leslie Sommer A new member of the team, I found it such Mobile: 0795 614 8566 a pleasure to meet members of the group. Visit to Oshwal Centre I look forward to coming along again and We joined several other groups on a very getting to know these gentlemen better. well organised trip to the Oshwal Centre, Kathryn Prevezer where we were shown around by the spring grove assistant minister. Then we visited the Dutch London’s Most Luxurious Kingston upon Thames Nursery in Potters Bar, where we had the RETIREMENT HOME opportunity to look around before having Fantastic Spread A delightful sunny afternoon with tea in 214 Finchley Road an excellent vegetarian lunch. Finally, we London NW3 had a talk on the Nursery’s history and the the gardens. The Queen’s Garden Party plants they sell. Edgar H. Ring cannot top Suzie Zisman’s fantastic  Entertainment spread. Hazel Beiny  Activities Bradford CF Experiences of a  Stress Free Living ‘Hidden Child’ Surrey Catching Up on News and  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine We enjoyed listening to member Bronia Views  Full En-Suite Facilities Veitch talking about her autobiography Edmee Barta once again hosted a lovely Call for more information or a personal tour A Beautiful Resistance, which describes morning with coffee, cake and chat 020 8446 2117 between old and new friends. Everyone her experiences as a ‘hidden child’. Much or 020 7794 4455 enjoyed catching up on each other’s news discussion followed by a delicious tea. [email protected] Wendy Bott and views. Susan Harrod

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fter 15 years at the AJR, Groups involved in the development of this Co-ordinator Myrna Glass is to department – the ‘face’ of the AJR, A retire. as she describes it – and to have met Her work at the AJR has been ‘all these very special people’. She Myrna’s third career. Following a career is particularly happy that members in teaching in primary schools for over have developed inter-group personal 30 years, during which time she was friendships – in some instances even both a Headteacher and a Deputy Head, ending in marriage – and feels she she served as Head of the Youth and knows personally more members Education Department of the Jewish than most people involved in the National Fund in Great Britain for seven organisation. and a half years. To the great fortune of AJR Myrna began work at the AJR in members, Myrna will not be stepping November 1998 as the organisation’s down entirely. She is to continue her first Groups’ Co-ordinator. At that time, involvement in the organisation as a there were six groups throughout the part-time volunteer – and is awaiting country, with only the Pinner group Myrna was keen to promote the regular instructions! She hopes to keep in meeting monthly. South London met bi- publication in the Journal of reports on touch with those members with whom monthly but the others only a few times group activities. She feels strongly that she has been in phone contact in recent a year. They were self-organising with members should know what the AJR is years and may actually have time to visit very loose connections to the AJR. Today, providing for them. In fact, these reports them once in a while! there are more than 40 groups (mostly led to the establishment of some of the Among other things, Myrna is meeting monthly) – and six part-time groups. In addition, from the very start planning to do more exercise, play Group Co-ordinators, together with Myrna encouraged the involvement of the piano (something she hasn’t done an administrator, covering the length the Second, Third – and even Fourth for years!), and try and find out more and breadth of the country. Now, in – Generations in the AJR’s activities: about her own family. She has a long addition to individual group meetings, everyone is welcome to participate. list of things she still hopes to achieve. activities include joint group meetings, Myrna feels privileged to have been We wish her well for the future. regional meetings, and outings to the cinema, theatre and other locations, not forgetting the annual 3-Day London Visit. NOVEMber GROUP eventS With her typical commitment, Ealing 5 November Miriam Hallamy: ‘Asylum Seekers’ Edinburgh CF 6 November Social Ilford 6 November ‘Mitzvah Day Project’ contacts Pinner 7 November Lady Aurelia Young: ‘The Sculptor Oscar Nemon’ Hazel Beiny Glasgow 10 November ‘Kristallnacht’ Southern Groups Co-ordinator Café Imperial 11 November Harold Livingston’s 90th Birthday Party 07966 887 434 HGS 11 November Joyce Sheard of Wheelpower [email protected] Bromley 12 November Social/Lunch at home of Susan Zisman Wendy Bott Essex 12 November Pre-Chanukah Quiz Yorkshire Groups Co-ordinator (Westcliff) 07908 156 365 [email protected] Glasgow 12 November Suitcase – at Glasgow Station Manchester 12 November Jewish Film Festival Myrna Glass London South and Midlands Groups Didsbury 13 November At Bridge Club Co-ordinator Harrogate/York 13 November Social 07966 969 951 St John’s Wood 13 November Nadia Valman: ‘Going Back to the [email protected] Jewish East End with Israel Zangwill’ Susanne Green Bradford 14 November 100th Birthday Party for Lorle Michaelis North West Groups Co-ordinator Welwyn Garden City 14 November Anthony Grenville, Consultant Editor, 0151 291 5734 AJR Journal [email protected] Newcastle 17 November Chanukah Lunch Susan Harrod Brighton-Sarid 18 November Jenny Manson: ‘Public Sector on Groups’ Administrator (Sussex) the Brink’ 020 8385 3070 Bristol/Bath 18 November David Wass: ‘The Story behind Shoplifting’ [email protected] Prestwich/Whitefield 18 November At home of Ruth and Werner Lachs Agnes Isaacs Edgware 19 November Raymond Sturgess: ‘The Dreyfus Scandal’ Scotland and Newcastle Co-ordinator Leeds 19 November Theatre outing to Suitcase 07908 156 361 Broughton Park/ 20 November At Beenstock Home [email protected] Crumpsall Esther Rinkoff Radlett 20 November Sophie Clark: ‘WJR: Mitzvah Day’ Southern Region Co-ordinator Manchester 21 November Suitcase – at Piccadilly Station, 1.00 pm 07966 631 778 Liverpool 22 November Suitcase – at Lime Street, 1.00 pm [email protected] Glasgow 24 November Chanukah Lunch KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Nightingale 25 November Social Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 North West London 25 November David Peace, vocalist: ‘A Musical Morning’ [email protected] Cheshire 26 November Social Child Survivors Association–AJR Wembley 27 November Social get-together Henri Obstfeld Leeds 28 November Chanukah Party 020 8954 5298 North London 28 November Howard Lanning: ‘Trials and Tribulations of [email protected] Finding Locations’

13 journal NOVEMber 2013

The AJR Paul Balint Centre at Belsize Square Synagogue 51 Belsize Square, London NW3 4HX Telephone 020 7431 2744 Open Tuesdays and Thursdays – 9.30 am to 3.30 pm Meals-on-Wheels Activities November 2013 To order Meals-on-Wheels Lunch is served at 12.30 unless otherwise stated please telephone 020 8385 3075 Tuesday 5 November (this number is manned on Wednesdays only) or 020 8385 3070 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games 10-12 One-to-One Computer Lessons with Dora 11-12 Seated Exercises 12.30 KT LUNCH AND MEMBERS’ MEETING ART / CRAFT CLASS Thursday 7 November 10.30 AM alternate thursdays 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games ALL ABILITIES (and NONE) WELCOME 10.30 Art Class 11.15 Seated Exercises 14.00 KRISTALLNACHT SERVICE followed by tea ONE-TO-ONE Tuesday 12 November 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games BASIC COMPUTER LESSONS 10-12 One-to-One Computer Lessons with Dora at the AJR Centre To book a session with Dora 10.30 Current Affairs Discussion Group with John Kay call her on 020 8385 3070 11.30 Seated Exercises 13.45 Entertainer – Geoff Strum Thursday 14 November AJR 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games 10.00 French Conversation with Ruth CHANUKAH 10.30 Book Club PARTY 13.45 Mitzvah Day entertainment THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER Tuesday 19 November Do hope you can join us 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games Please book in by calling 020 7431 2744 10.12 One-to-One Computer Lessons with Dora on Tuesdays and Thursdays ONLY 11.00 Seated Exercises Please send a cheque for £7 pp (made payable 13.45 Entertainer – Will Smith to AJR) to Accounts Department at Head Office Thursday 21 November 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games 10-13 Art Class FANCY A MANICURE? 11.15 Seated Exercises BOOK IN WITH THE AJR CENTRE 13.45 Entertainer – Margaret Opdahl Appointments 10 am – 2.30 pm Tuesdays ONLY Tuesday 26 November Tel 020 7431 2744 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games 10-12 One-to-One Computer Lessons with Dora 11.00 Seated Exercises  family anouncements 13.45 Entertainer – Paul Coleman Thursday 28 November Birth 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Cards/Board Games Mazel tov to Eleanor and Tim Angel on the birth of their first 10.00 French Conversation with Ruth grandchild Mathew, born 15.9.13. Also a big mazel tov to great- 10.30 Book Club grandmother Anne Marx. 11.15 Seated Exercises Death 13.45 AJR Chanukah Party with Ronnie Goldberg Gertrude Evans (née Vandewart) died peacefully on 25 September, aged 93. She will be badly missed by her family and many friends.

LEO BAECK HOUSING ASSOCIATION CLARA NEHAB HOUSE RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME Books Bought Small caring residential home with large attractive gardens Modern and Old close to local shops and public transport 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities. Eric Levene 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care 020 8364 3554 07855387574 Entertainment & Activities provided. [email protected] Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room • Lift access to all floors. For further information please contact: The Manager, Clara Nehab House, I also purchase ephemera 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA Telephone: 020 8455 2286

14 NOVEMber 2013 journal ObituarIES Hannelore (Laura) Selo, born Berlin 23 November 1923, died London 17 September 2013

y mother-in-law, Hannelore, alone keeping three sisters together. The television known as Laura, Selo, has died girls’ saviour was Emily Harder, a 54-year- programme at the age of 89. She was one of old spinster who ran a tobacconist’s and picked up the Mthe dwindling band of 669 Kindertransport confectioner’s shop in Archway, north story. Several children rescued from Prague by Sir Nicholas London. She opened her small flat to the reunions of Winton and the British Committee for Gumpel sisters when they arrived and they former Winton Refugees shortly before the Second World stayed with her for some months until her children took War. She wrote a book about her experiences, death from tuberculosis. place in the Three Lives in Transit, published in 1992, and The sisters were moved on to boarding 1990s and early was well known to readers of the AJR Journal schools and hostels and Laura eventually 2000s. Many, as a prolific correspondent. joined the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service, including Lau- Laura was born on 23 November 1923, the women’s branch of the British Army ra, attended the the eldest of three daughters in a prosperous, during the Second World War). After the 100th birthday party given for Sir Nicholas assimilated Berlin family. Her father, Karl War, she met another young German refugee, at the Czech embassy in 2009. Gumpel, was advertising director of a large Walter Selo, whom she married in 1949. By In her 80s Laura learned to use the German grocery chain who lost his job when then both knew that many relatives, including internet and enjoyed corresponding with the Nazis came to power. In 1935 he moved Walter’s parents, had not survived. In 1951 friends and family around the world. the family to Prague but Czechoslovakia was their elder son, Louis, was born. Louis died Her sisters, who emigrated to the USA annexed by Germany in March 1939. Karl in 2006. My husband, David, was born in in the 1950s, both survive her. They had managed to escape to Poland and eventually 1956. Walter died in 1993. successful teaching careers in schools and to Britain, where he was reunited with his Laura, who had not spoken English higher education. Laura was a member of daughters, but his wife, Grete, and the three when she first arrived, acquired shorthand Belsize Square Synagogue and, although girls were trapped. and typing skills in the Army and worked unable to attend services in recent years, Laura, then aged 15, and her two sisters, as a secretary for most of her working life, appreciated the support she received from Liselotte (Lilo) and Rosemarie (Romie), aged principally for the National Union of Teachers the congregation. 13 and 12 respectively, were found places on and the Transport and General Workers’ Laura will be greatly missed by her one of the eight children’s evacuation trains Union. She had a great concern for welfare son David and me, as well as by her three by their mother, leaving Prague for the UK and social justice and was a prime mover in the grandchildren and her wider family in the on 1 June 1939. Grete was subsequently campaign to establish screening for cervical UK and USA. imprisoned by the Nazis and perished while cancer in the 1960s. If you need further information, please being deported to Lodz in 1942. Laura was unaware of the role Sir Nicholas contact Ruth Selo on 01273 325994 or It was difficult generally to place the Winton had played in rescuing her and her 07946 318966 or at [email protected] Kindertransport children in Britain, let sisters until 1988, when Esther Rantzen’s Ruth Selo

Jeanette Zimmermann (née Zwickel), born Vienna 12 February 1920, died London 19 August 2013

n 23 May 1939 my mother Jeanette with life due to her tough character and the Although this landed at Croydon Aerodrome on reality of her circumstances. was in some a flight from Vienna. She was 19 She started off as a nanny in Hampstead ways a harrow- yearsO old. All she had was a domestic work in north London. At this time, she met Klaus ing experience permit and a small piece of hand luggage. (her husband-to-be – he died with Alzheimer’s for her, it was Up to this point she had had a successful disease in 1998) at one of the dances put on for nevertheless school career. She was particularly good at emigres. Neither of them could dance. He was enjoyable as French and English as well as Hebrew and a political refugee, having been imprisoned by she was accom- the Yiddish which was spoken at home. She the Nazis for resistance activities. panied by one was planning to go to university in Vienna. Jeanette had a number of jobs such as of her grand- She had seen her family home stolen painting buttons in a factory. However, she daughters, who by the Nazis and watched her neighbours gained secretarial skills and subsequently was able to look take all the family's hand-carved furniture. had a varied career which included working after her, which was much appreciated. She and her family had to avoid the Nazis for the Socialist Medical Association, in the Some years previously she had been taken and for a time they stayed with the nephew news room at the BBC, and finally, before to visit Klaus's relatives in Berlin, which had of the chief rabbi of Vienna. She managed retirement, as a bilingual secretary at London also been a pleasure for her. to get papers for her flight to England but University. On account of her health her final two unfortunately her parents were unable to She took much interest in the family. She years were spent in Spring Lane Care Home, get out. Subsequently they were rounded was always pleased to see everybody. Both where she received excellent care. Following up and sent off to Majdanek concentration granddaughters took exceptional interest in a fall in February, Jeanette became increasing camp, where they perished, as did the rest her and gave her a lot of help. frail and died peacefully in the care home on of her family. Although Jeanette was active and staunchly 19 August. She is survived by her daughter Notwithstanding the appalling situation independent, her own health started to Eva, grandchildren Katie and Zoe, and in which she found herself with the loss of deteriorate. However, she was able to take great-granddaughter Elowen. Jeanette was her much loved family, Jeanette was now in a trip to Vienna through the AJR when she much loved and will be sorely missed. London alone but she managed to get on was 87, even though needing a wheelchair. Eva Trent

15 journal NOVEMber 2013

two characters begin to quarrel, still each in their own language. In addition, at one point a grandmotherly figure appears and adds her Dorothea Shefer-Vanson contribution (in Arabic speech and song) to the dialogue. The Hebrew-speaking girl then gets into the rubbish bin that dominates the stage and proceeds to offer paper sandwiches and rat tail soup to the others - hence the play’s title Take-Away. Anyone who like myself doesn’t fully understand both languages lost out on was sitting on the patio of Jerusalem’s for the 30 or so people who had turned up half of the dialogue, but at one point we YMCA building enjoying a cup of coffee to find good seats. The stage was already were given to understand that the man and and a croissant one morning, waiting for adorned with assorted plastic bottles, old woman undress and make love offstage (as Imy French class to begin, when someone newspapers and other debris, confirming shadows behind a screen), then come back with a friendly smile approached me and what we could learn from our programme and quarrel some more. Finally, the two thrust a brochure into my hand. This was (in Hebrew, English and Arabic) – that the begin to fight physically. This was actually an advertisement for a play to be given that play was set in a rubbish dump. Two actors, the best part of the play in theatrical terms, evening featuring Israeli and Palestinian a man and a woman, on separate sides of the as it involved some beautiful balletic and actors. The play, written mainly by its stage, were busy forming little figures from athletic movements without the intrusive participants, represented the culmination the debris or wrapping bottles in plastic film, sound effects that constituted the backdrop of two years’ work on the project and both concentrating in silence on what they to the first scene. At the end, however, the purportedly tackled the issue of Palestinian- were doing. The sound of traffic, rubbish stage was left in a sorry state, with both sides Israeli relations in a new way. collections, and helicopters overhead could dead or injured and rubbish strewn all over It seemed a worthy cause and, since we be heard. At one stage, the couple began to the place. weren’t busy that evening, my husband speak to one another - he in Arabic, she in At this point, a young man with a guitar and I decided to attend. When we got to Hebrew - and they seemed to understand came along and sang a sad song in Hebrew the YMCA we found a handful of people, one another. So far, so very metaphorical. and Arabic about the futility of a situation in all of them Israelis as far as we could make A woman dressed in outrageously which people are in conflict with one another out, waiting outside the hall for the doors fashionable clothes then appeared on stage, instead of co-operating. to open. This was done eventually, albeit her stance, actions and speech all serving All very noble and true, we thought as somewhat belatedly, to the accompaniment as a caricature of the ‘nasty Israeli’. After we filed out – but also how naive and over- of complaints by some of the people who had launching into an animated monologue (in simplified. Still, it’s important to try and get been standing there for a long time. Hebrew) about the real-estate potential of the message out into the world. It’s a pity, The YMCA auditorium has room for an the site, she offers money to the man, which though, that there were so few Palestinians audience of around 600 so it wasn’t difficult he apparently accepts. She disappears and the in the audience.

 letters to the editor cont. from p.7 Tablecloth’ and the three verses deal A UNIQUE SEDER DISH a letter from Major Layton (mentioned in with its unravelling. It is one of 60 Sir – I read with great interest Anthony Dr Grenville’s article) offering the sum of memorable poems by Lotte Kramer based Grenville’s article about internment in £31.10.6d for my father’s losses. on her own life experiences in the book Australia in a recent edition of the Journal. During his time in Tartura Camp 2, Kindertransport, Before and After: Elegy My father, Paul Gruneberg, had been my father became the camp’s cobbler – and Celebration (2007). It is edited, with interned on the Isle of Man before somewhat of a change as he had been in an informative introduction, by Dr Sybil being transported to Australia on the the textile business in Leipzig! During his Oldfield. I was a guest on its publication Dunera. The terrible treatment the time in Tartura, he became very friendly day and have a signed copy. A copy can internees received on board has been with another internee, Emil Frank, just be obtained by sending £10 + £2.50 to well documented. I believe that all the as my mother and I had become friendly the Centre for German-Jewish Studies, Arts internees on this vessel were eventually with his wife and children on the Isle of B, University of Sussex, Brighton BNI 9QN compensated to some degree and I have Man, where we had all been interned. (attention Diana Franklin). Emil Frank, a teacher by profession, Michael Spiro, London NW3 became the camp’s carpenter and chazan. He led the services and on Passover took Sir – Regarding Marian McNulty’s JACKMAN . the seder, for which he made a dish. This query about Lotte Kramer’s poem ‘The he gave us when he made aliya to Israel Tablecloth’, this can be found in Lotte’s SILVERMAN with his wife to join his family there. We Selected and New Poems 1980-1997, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS use this dish to this day. The younger published by Rockingham Press. The book grandchildren are intrigued about the should be available through any good Telephone: 020 7209 5532 story behind this seder dish, which must bookshop but is also available on Amazon. be unique. [email protected] John Buck, London N15 Gerry Gruneberg, Borehamwood

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters LLP, 26 St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected] 16