AJ R Information
Volume XLIX No. 9 September 1994
£3 (to non-members)
Don't miss . . . Of fruit, literal antj metaphorical - and repentance Irene's talking library p6 Pensions update Thoughts on the High Holy Days p9
Surnames and curnames pi6 he Yamim Tovim coincide with the advent of showing near-superhuman steadfastness in pursuit of Keats's season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. their peace agenda. —I TFruitfulness, Uterally in the shape of fruit, plays The coniing year will show whether the long- Speaking a key symbolic role during the rituals of the High Holy suffering population of the Jewish State will be with forked Days. allowed to enjoy the fruit of its leaders' gamble in tongues On Rosh Hashana Eve we eat apples dipped in trading land for peace. Diaspora Jewry can only hope honey; the next night we partake of new fruit for the and pray that for the Israelis the apple will be dipped n a gesture rich first time; for the Harvest Festival we decorate the in honey and not gall. in ambiguity, not Sukkah with fruit and foliage. The highest of the High Holy Days is, of course, to say downright I But fruit also has a metaphorical meaning for us; Yom Kippur. Popularly known as the Black Fast, it bad faith, the Vatican — currently nowhere more so than on the threshold of 5755. Israel involves more than physical abstention froiTi food. normalising its has, after four and a half decades of war and rumours "Fasting", runs the Yom Kippur commentary in the relations with the of war, embarked upon a high-risk strategy of Soncino Chumash, "in itself is not the fulfilment of the State of Israel — has hammering out an accord, amid a welter of conflict Divine Command and purpose of the Day of Atone conferred the order ing and, pace Hebron, bloody pressures, with the ment... Teshuvah (Repentance), Tefillah (prayer) and of Pius IX on Kurt Palestinians and Jordanians. Rabin and Peres are Tsedakah (beneficence) - these can change the whole Waldheim. It is a current of a man's life and destiny...." deeply worrying Repentance can also influence the current of a development. The nation's life. After 1945 most of Europe - first and mercifully near- forgotten quondam foremost Germany — stood in urgent need of repent Prisoner in the ance, but maintained a pose of self-justifying silence. Hofburg can now This moral Ice Age took decades to thaw. An early add the honorific turning point was Chancellor Willy Brandt's 1971 Papal Knight to gesture of dropping to his knees at the site of the such earlier titles as Warsaw Ghetto to ask the forgiveness of the dead. But Wehrmacht SS even subsequently, acts of national repentance were liaison officer at few and far between; Chancellor Kohl still spoke of Salonika and most- "the mercy of his belated birth", and President economical-with- Mitterrand had wreaths placed on Petain's grave on the-truth President the anniversary of the latter's death. of Austria. D Finally, during the aftershock of the collapse of the The Committee of Soviet Empire the climate changed significantly. The Management and President of the Ukraine and the Chancellor of Staff of the Austria - two nations indelibly stained by their AJR complicit)' in the Holocaust — spoke openly of their countries' guilt. Earlier this year Premier Gyula Horn wish all departed from his predecessor's glib equation of members a Jewish with Hungarian war-time suffering and France VERY HAPPY instituted 16 July, the anniversary- of the 1942 round NEW YEAR up of Parisian Jews by the French police, as a day of national commemoration. and thank them Slowly, all too slowly, but nonetheless steadily, for their continuing Europe is beginning to confront the monstrous ghosts support of its recent past. May it continue to do so in 5755. First page ofthe Schocken bible, 1300 a.d. L'shanah tovah. D AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
Frantisek Zelenka Profile An exhibition which was recently shown in the National Museum in Prague celebrating the life and work of Frantisek Zelenka Maradonna e mobile (1904 -1944), the avant-garde architect, Thurrock College, he established several artist, creator of interiors, furniture and sales training centres for students on the posters, is coming to London. The exhibi Continent. After seven years in full-time tion concentrates on the theatrical design Higher Education he resumed freelance aspects ofhis work from 1926 to 1944 and business activity — a pursuit which he has includes his Terezin productions, including continued, with varying degrees of success, the children's opera Brundibor. Zelenka up to the present day. perished in Auschwitz. It will form part of As to hobbies, he has played Sunday Scenofest! — the first international forum of football for close on half a century and Theatre Design. The exhibition will be in studied singing under Bruce Boyce, the the public Lethaby Gallery at Central Saint eminent Mozart interpreter, for half that Martin's College of Art and Design, South time. A founder member of the Philhar ampton Row, WCI and will be open to the monia Chorus, he appeared with them at public Mondays to Fridays from 5 to 23 the Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals - the September 1994, 10 am to 5 pm. latter under Sir Thomas Beecham's baton - A programme of cultural events has been and has recorded under Klemperer, Giulini, organised by the Cultural Department of Karajan and William Walton. the Spiro Institute and Mrs Rena Lewin to Solo recitals include a Wigmore Hall appearance in the 1970s which, he quips, coincide with the exhibition. Fred Rosner. On Thursday 8 September at 6pm a was simultaneously his debut and farewell lecture entitled Bauhaus and the Polymath ne Sunday afternoon in May Fred concert. That is not, strictly speaking, true - Artists will be delivered (The speaker has Rosner (bass) gave a recital before as Day Centre habitues and OSHA Home yet to be announced). Oan audience of fifty at the Day residents will gratefully testify. But just in Tuesday 13 September sees an evening on Centre. The following Sunday evening an case he may one day have to quit the recital the subject of creativity in defiance of audience of possibly five hundred thousand stage, alongside the football pitch, he has tyranny. The evening will include a talk by watched him on Carlton TV News — not as meanwhile been garnering useful "retire Professor Zdenko Lesic of Sarajevo Univer a singer but as a footballer. The occasion? ment" experience as a reviewer for the sity who, together with his wife, created the The programme makers' discovery that as a Munich-based Opera Magazine! theatre in besieged Bosnia. newly turned 70-year old Fred may well be D R.G. Afterwards, Mrs Alice Sommer (profiled the oldest soccer veteran in the country, in AJR Information, January 1994), a turning out every week, come rain or shine, renowned pianist who gave over 100 on Hackney Marshes. At last: a Heine monument concerts in Terezin while in the camp with Challenged on his puzzling mix of hob in Dusseldorf her six-year-old son Raphael (now an bies Fred answers, only half-jokingly, "My internationally acclaimed cellist), will be on maxim is mens sana in corpore sano". This After a 20 year struggle by a ivorld-wide the platform. The evening starts at 7.30pm. occasional recourse to Latin proverbs stems Citizen's Initiative, Diisseldorf University On Thursday 22 September there will be from a love of the classics instilled in him by was at last, in 1989, named Heinrich Heine a concert featuring "Songs of Ashes", still fondly remembered teachers at Vien University, Diisseldorf {see AJR Infor completed in 1991, which sets the words of na's Sperl Gymnasium. j mation, April 1989). the poet Jerzy Ficowski, from his cycle "A Fred owes an equal debt of gratitude to ' A model of the Heine Monument in reading of Ashes", to music. D his lawyer father and piano teacher mother. Hamburg, which Alfred Kerr inaugurated For details of these events phone the Spiro A kindertransportee in early '39, he pro in 1926, and the Nazis destroyed in 1933, Institute on: 071-431 0345. cured a guarantor for them, but since had been brought to England and saved continental legal qualifications weren't from Hitler's vandals. Taken back to Ger recognised over here and his father couldn't many after the war, it was acquired by the practise, Fred had to earn a living from spokesman of Diisseldorf's Citizen's Initia fifteen onwards. Starting as a packer in the tive, Otto Schonfeldt. On the basis of this HILARY'S AGENCY garment trade, he gradually rose to the model a new Heine statue has now been Specialists in Long and Short-Term position of despatch manager. Eventually erected in the grounds of Heinrich Heine Live-in Care he branched out into marketing as a free University, Diisseldorf, the poet's birth RESPITE AND EMERGENCY CARE CARE FOR THE ELDERLY lance and switched to the furniture trade. place. Thus the historical campaign for a HOUSEKEEPERS Married in his mid-twenties, he took Heine statue in the city, launched by the RECUPERATION CARE degrees in economics and marketing by MATERNITY NURSES Austrian Empress (and Heine's admirer), NANNIES AND MOTHER'S HELPS correspondence course. Elisabeth, in 1887, and thwarted by Kaiser EMERGENCY MOTHERS At 35 he launched the country's first Wilhelm, Court Chaplain Stoeker, Julius Caring and Experienced Staff Available Streicher and others, has at last been We will be happy to discuss your postgraduate course in International requirements Marketing at High Wycombe College of successfully concluded. PLEASE PHONE 081-559-1110 Higher Education. Later, on the staff of i D f Hellendall AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
while, so grateful was she to this country, On the street where I that she spent her nights fire-watching and Mordechai Gebirtig lived ended up in hospital in Kent, suffering from exhaustion. She never fully recovered, Julia Neuberger's reminiscences about the area becoming a grey-faced woman of little of Hampstead in which she grew up appeared energy, quietly content to be alive - just in the Daily Mail. The following is an edited coming and going as she pleased. version of that article. At that time Hampstead was full of German accents. The Dorice Cafe in Finch he flats in my street were all rented ley Road was a gathering place for middle- when I was a child. Rents were low aged women who had come from Germany because they were controlled, so a and Austria in their mid-thirties and forties T and wore rather tatty Persian lamb coats. great mix of famihes lived in the area. There were German refugees, like my My mother was different. She had been mother, some of whom rented rooms in younger when she came as a refugee. other people's apartments, quite against the Although she had done domestic work "no sub-letting" rules, but no-one minded. upon entering Britain, she joined Marks & Most of the people in those rooms were very Spencer as a counter-hand, later becoming a quiet and often rather isolated. buyer. By the time I was born she had I got to know one of them quite well: a become a social worker helping other, Miss Adler. She lived opposite us in a small older, refugees. room into which she had packed everything There were several refugees who estab she had been able to bring from Germany by lished hand-made chocolate businesses in hand — little bits of Meissen china that had the area. Ackermann's is still in business, belonged to her mother. Max Ernst litho producing the same elegant, bitter choco he fifth Festival of Jewish Culture graphs and other objects which she would lates they did then. Others, such as the two took place in Krakow, Poland, during later have to sell to keep herself going. elderly refugees who ran Blue And Red TJune this year. The memorial plaque There were screens covered in shawls and Chocolates in Belsize Park (and occasio (shown above) to commemorate the life and pictures, boxes full of papers, every inch of nally gave them away to us P'-cuy school work of Mordechai Gebirtig was erected in 1992 on the wall of the house where he lived wall covered, and the two chairs so deep in girls on our way home) have since disap in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of possessions they were impossible to sit on. peared. Krakow. One had to shuffle stuff along the bed to Another source of great joy to me in the Gerbirtig was born in 1877 and became find a place to perch. Her mother had died 1950s was the local delicatessen (this was famous as a Yiddish bard (writing both in 1939, leaving no money. Miss Adler had long before every supermarket boasted a words and music) between the wars. Work come to England to find work as a domestic "deli-counter", in fact not many places ing all his life as a carpenter, he expressed in servant, but her eyesight was so bad she could boast of a supermarket). The deli ownwers were Mr and Mrs Schwartz, who his songs the sufferings and hopes of the could not see the dust. poor and oppressed. His most famous song, had no known first names. The business ran Soon sacked, she had to find alternative Undzer Shtetl Brent (Our Town is Burning), on very old fashioned, formal lines. The means of earning a living: a bit of private was written under the impact of the pogrom Schwartzes, formerly a wood merchant and teaching, occasional translation jobs and in Przytyk in 1933, and proved terribly even some small-scale dressmaking. Mean- a teacher, had also come to England as prophetic of the destruction of shtetl culture refugees. They sold pickled cucumbers from by the Germans. The song was often sung in barrels, herrings in every shape and form, the ghettoes during the war. Gebirtig, piles of cream cheese and Mrs Schwartz's together with his wife and two daughters, home made sauerkraut. was murdered by the Nazis in the Krakow PARTNER Although childless themselves, the ghetto on June 4, 1942. Many of his later songs, written in the ghetto, were saved. D in long established English Solicitors Schwartzes were the soul of kindness to the (bi-lingual German) would be happy local children. Mrs Schwartz taught me to to assist clients with English, German cook - giving strict instructions and replac and Austrian problems. Contact ing the ingredients which I regularly ruined. CLUB 1943 Their lives had been totally disrupted by the Anglo-German Cultural Forum Nazi era, but their experiences seemed to Meetings on Mondays at 8 p.m. Henry Ebner have made them kinder and warmer, rather at the Comnnunal Hall than more suspicious and they rejoiced in Belsize Square Synagogue at the people they got to know. SI Belsize Square London NW3 Myers Ebner & Deaner The area's sense of neighbourhood has 103 Shepherds Bush Road largely evaporated, yet I would still like to Sept 12th - Mrs Evelyn Wilcock: The London W6 7LP live there, not only for sentimental reasons. experience of people with one Jewish parent under Nazism 1933-45. My parents still live in the same building I Sept 19th - No Lecture (Jewish Holyday). Telephone 071 602 4631 grew up in, and Hampstead is still charm Sept 26th - No Lecture (Jewish Holyday). ing. But I miss the warmth, and the feeling Oct 3rd - Mr Harald Leyrer: A contrasted pair ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN of World War 1 Generals: The Warlord that we all knew each other. (Ludendorff) and the Red (Groener). n Rabbi Julia Neuberger |J«; WBmmsimmsmf^,^Hmsgsmi!m^smmmii,«^.^i,^m^
AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
Reviews
cuation of Arabs from several localities in the times. The Haganah/IDF contained The unvarnished truth Palestine....Arab residents are advised to units of concentration camp survivors and flee Palestine as soon as possible, and after also some Oriental Jews who had been Benny Morris, 1948 AND AFTER, Clarendon its fall into the hands of the Arab govern expelled from their homes. Defeated Arab Press, Oxford, 1994. £14.95. ments, they will return as victors." In armies could return to their homes. The reality, Arab broadcasts urged Palestinians Jews fought with their backs to the sea. A he history of the State of Israel is to stay put, but a few Arab commanders did defeat for them meant annihilation. Benny based on a number of assumptions ask women and children to leave their Morris makes it clear that the Haganah/IDF Twhich a new generation of Israeli villages before they attacked. In this way, could not have acted differently in the historians, born after the establishment of Morris estimates, about 10% of Arab circumstances. the State, have refuted. Dr Benny Morris, a inhabitants fled the country. However, one As the refugee conflict is at the heart of fellow of the Truman Institute, Hebrew million refugees registered with the United the Middle East conflict it is vital to discover University of Jerusalem, has written an Nations. How did the rest become refugees? the facts. Only by knowing the truth can important book on the genesis of the The answer is that almost the entire both sides come to an understanding. We Palestinian refugee problem. The recent middle-class Arab population fled the owe Benny Morris a debt of gratitude for opening of the Israeli State archives, and country at the first whiff of hostilities. This informing a wider public of what really many others, has enabled researchers to left the population without leaders and happened. throw fresh light on important aspects of demoralised. The Irgun and the Stern n Peter Prager the founding of the State. Group (outlawed by Ben Gurion) caused Israeh children are still learning at school panic flights when they massacred 254 that in 1947-49 the Arab governments women and children who refused to leave What is a Jew? ordered the Palestinians to leave their their homes in Deir Yassin. There is evi homes in order to pave the way for the Arab dence of similar Haganah atrocities else Jonathan Webber (ed.), JEWISH IDENTITIES armies to drive the Jews into the sea, after where. Often the chief of staff of the IN THE NEW EUROPE, The Littleman Ubrary which the Palestinians could return. Benny Haganah/IDF ordered the enforced evacua of Jewish Civilisation (for The Oxford Centre for Morris denies that such orders existed. The tion of entire Arab villages and townships. Hebrew and Jewish Studies) 1994. myth derives from a document circulated by Yitzak Rabin describes in his autobiogra the Haganah Intelligence Service Daily phy how he was responsible for the compul s there such a thing as a "new" Europe? If Report of 24 April, 1948 which states: sory evacuation of Arabs in Lydda-Ramle. there is, will it encourage liberal democ "Rumours have it that the Arab Higher This chapter was cut out by the censors and, I racy in all its regions? Will it help Jews Committee in Jerusalem ordered the eva- to the embarrassment of the Likud govern and non-Jews to put behind them, at long ment, the deleted passage was published by last, centuries of enmity and persecution, or the Neiv York Times on 23 October, 1979. will it favour the spread of the New Age Some commanders, particularly Mapam spirituality's neo-fascist hate philosophy? members, protested when ordered to clear And if there is, after all, nothing essentially villages, but nearly all obeyed orders. (The new in the Europe ofthe 21st century, will it commander of Nazareth refused the order again submerge itself in ethnic conflict; will to evacuate the town and the Arabs are still it be typified by Maastricht or by Sarajevo? there.) BELSIZE SQUARE And how do today's European Jews see their identity? Do they, in effect, have a SYNAGOGUE The majority of Arabs left for the same reasons that civilians all over the world common history and will they have a common future? 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 leave — to seek safety away from the fighting. But when the firing stopped they These matters, and a good deal more, We offer a traditional style of were not allowed to return and became form the substance of a collection of essays religious service with Cantor, refugees. Agriculture Minister Zisling by a galaxy of distinguished scholars, Jews Choir and organ warned at the Cabinet Meeting on 16 June, and non-Jews. Far from being, in the 1948 that the Yishuv was on a course that editor's words, merely an introduction and would endanger any possibility of making a modest commentary, the book puts for Further details can be obtained from peace. "Hundreds of thousands of Arabs ward an insightful analysis of many of the our synagogue secretary are dispossessed are growing into haters issues which concern European Jews and Telephone 071-794-3949 who will promote war against us through stimulates awareness of some of the out the Middle East They will bear in dangers, both internal and external, which Minister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner their breasts the desire for revenge, compen face them once again. Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine sation, and a return...." The scene is set in Jonathan Webber's Clearly, the refugee problem occurred for wide-ranging editorial introduction. The Regular services: Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, a diversity of reasons and was not due, as book's basic theme of a changing Europe is Saturday mornings at 10 am Religion school; Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm Arab propaganda would have it, to a pre taken up by Lord Beloff, speaking as a planned Zionist plot for compulsory ejec professional historian rather than as a Jew, Space donated by Pafra Umited tion. The creation of refugees is a sad tale while Professor Schweid of the Hebrew but it must be understood in the context of University, speaking as both, ventures a AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
positive conclusion, namely the prospect of examination by a Russian-Jewish anthropo a global Jewish national culture resulting logist of developing Jewish identities and Brave - but ineffectual from the centrality of Israel, since it is identifications, particularly in Russia and THE RESTLESS CONSCIENCE, Channel 4, 20 the Ukraine, makes fascinating reading. The "basically only there that the life of the July, 1994 Jewish people as such can be renewed". situation in Poland is discussed movingly on Three contributors, Sergio Della Pergola, a largely personal basis by the Jetvish Jonathan Webber and Norman Solomon, Chronicle's Warsaw correspondent. As far ermany is now remembering its bring a more systematic approach to the as this country is concerned. Professor resisters — though there are dis study of contemporary demographic and Geoffrey Alderman envisages a transition G agreements about the inclusion of sociological developments. They each point from a purely religious to an ethnic status the subsequent rulers of the DDR. to the disintegration of traditional Jewish for the Jews of Britain. The Restless Conscience did not touch on identities and suggest the kind of criteria to No book on modern Jewish history this controversy. The programme was eager which new definitions might be related. would be complete without due consider to allow Germans their measure of oppo Indeed, Rabbi Solomon is able to establish ation to the Holocaust and its effect on both sition, but even this sympathetic approach guidelines which point the way towards Jews and non-Jews. Five of the essays deal could not conceal the paucity of the res determining who in the Europe of today is with it. Professor Wistrich voices concerns ponse in the nation as a whole, nor the Jewish, either by choice or by imposition. about the resurgence of antisemitism in prevarications, the useless agonising, the In another section of the volume, three parts of the new Europe. Elisabeth Maxwell excuses for not acting until it was very late rabbis examine current rehgious trends and analyses Christian perceptions of the new in the day. their significance in the context of the Jewish identity in the light of Auschwitz, The names that issued forth were like a current debate. Speaking for, and about, and Margaret Brearley highlights the anti- mixture of the social register and a roll-call orthodoxy, the American Rabbi Norman Jewish content of New Age neo-paganism. of the Prusso-German Army leadership Lamm ventures the "fallible prediction" Arguably one of the most significant through the ages. Again and again we heard that the silent majority of moderately ortho chapters in this section contains the thesis of von Moltke, von der Schulenburg, von dox Jews will gain in strength, while Chief which the Israeli historian Evyatar Friesel Yorck, von Tresckow, von Trott zu Solz, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks takes the view advances in his passionately argued essay. von Witzleben, Beck. All brave, all con that the Jewish world's present fragmen He takes the view that certain forms of cerned, some even anxious over the fate of tation need not prevent communal commit remembrance of the Holocaust may, in the Jews. All at the time so confused that ment to "spiritual continuity". Drawing on time, become counterproductive. His out they courted failure in their efforts at his experience as Principal of Leo Baeck spoken critique of "museumania" (and, one practical resistance. College, Rabbi Jonathan Magonet looks at could add, commercialisation) is no doubt Their dilemma was real, even under the role to be played by the rabbinate in the controversial but it is difficult to contradict standable. Hitler had cleverly manoeuvered Jewish communities of the new Europe. his contention that "the most impressive them into swearing an oath of loyalty to him A substantial section of the book is, shrine to the memory of the six-million Jews personally. Time and again we heard that indeed, devoted to a tour d'horizon of murdered in the Holocaust is not a museum, they did their duty at the front, were shaken present-day communities in key regions but a living Jewish people able to carry on by what they saw and tried to kill the Fiihrer (from the Jewish point of view) of Europe: the Jewish heritage and transmit its values". by means not much less inept than the CIA's the former Communist countries, notably This book goes a long way towards achiev later plans to deal with Castro. Russia, Hungary and Poland; France, Ger ing that objective. They paid for their failures, many with many and Britain. Here, the scholarly D David Maier their lives, and by gruesome methods of hanging. In reflecting on their failures, the survi vors of the resistance did not spare the THE MANOR HOUSE LEO BAECK (LONDON) LODGE Alhes, and particularly Britain. When emis SOCIETY PRESENTS B'NAI B'RITH saries approached this country's rulers they Sunday 2 October, 1994, 3.00 p.m. SEPTEMBER PROGRAMME were rebuffed as suspicious characters or MANOR MASTERMINDS traitors. Even Churchill and Roosevelt Sunday 25 Sept. 3.00 pm Third Annual Intersynagogue Jewish Dr Alexander Knapp of the City regarded them as hindering their strategy. Culture Quiz with compere George Layton. University: Louis Lewandowski and his Clearly, there was a fatal flaw in the (All comers are invited to pit their wits music, with musical illustrations. thought processes of the Establishment. against the synagogue teams.) Wednesday 5 Oct. 8.00 p.m. Having, at last, been cured of the folly of Tuesday 25 October, 1994, 8.00 p.m. Mr Edward Preston, Secretary of the appeasement, once war broke out they Dickens Society: Charles Dickens. An Evening of Poetry and Music, with spurned those who could have shortened it! Wednesday 19 Oct. 8.00 p.m. Anne Ranasinghe, Hannah Lang n John Rossall (flute) and Peter Hewlett (piano). Mr Robin Spiro, Director of the Spiro Institute: The Dreyfus Affair - 100 years after. WOMEN FOR WOMEN THE STERNBERG CENTRE Wednesday 26 Oct. 8.00 p.m. Independent of any other Jewish social service FOR JUDAISM Mr Andre Singer: Tales from the Secret Not a statutory service THE MANOR HOUSE Archives of Moscow. JEWISH WOMEN'S AID is an independent body SO EAST END ROAD ottering free confidential advice and support to all LONDON N? 2SY All meetings will be held at 11 Fitzjohn's Jewish women in need. TELEPHONE: 081-546 2288 Avenue, NW3. Guests will be very FAX NO: 081-349 0694 ni"rrr"3 rxinn Watch this space for news of our planned Refuge. tJl^fmn^r^a welcome. If you are a woman In need call our Freephone Helpline: 0800 59 12 03 i^ «;-«g?^sggWf:'sg^,.^gy?a»a
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Irene's talking library
fe have it on good authority that most AJR Information readers look forward to receiving their GERMAN PENSIONS wmonthly ;journal . It is one of the most reasons, which should be treated with Sir - My experience may be of help to tolerance and not with hatred, even if you thoroughly read publications of its kind, eligible persons who have not applied so far. do not understand them. with a readership who enjoy engaging in I was born in Berlin in 1920 and my three College Crescent Mr E Stern debates that spring from its contents (as children were born in this country during London NW3 illustrated each month by the letters page). the forties. I hesitantly applied! It ill behoves a Jew - of whatever persuasion Alas, a gradually increasing number of members are visually impaired, or totally I filled in the form sent to me, which was — to draw comparisons bettveen democratic blind; for these the monthly journal can be not very difficult at all, and was fairly Israel and Nazi Germany. Ed. ordered in the form of an audio-cassette. quickly asked to send documentation such The "talking journals" are prepared by as my birth certificate and those of my POPPYSEED NOODLES Irene White and her small band of volun children. Copies (costing £5.50 each) were Sir — H Needham's hypothetical situation teers, who travel each month to her Hendon accepted. Sent off at the end of May, they (July issue) where Robert Fisk, asked to home to put the magazine on tape. The were returned about three weeks later. acknowledge that Israel has planted mil service has been running for over eight years I have just been informed that I will get a lions of trees, maintains a stony silence now and, last July, AJR Information "lis small monthly pension in respect of my reminded me of the following Jewish joke: teners" received their 100th taped issue. three children and also an arrears payment When Miriam died no one could think of Over the years, Irene has learned a great from October 1990 — very welcome for little anything positive to say about her, so at the effort. deal about recording processes and the funeral the Rebbe said ''Aber Mohn- needs of the visually impaired. She has My advice would be: Apply, a little is niidelach hat ste gern gegessen." better than nothing! branched out into recording novels and Far be it from me to say that the millions music. Today, those who cannot read Cheadle Hulme Mrs Eva E Gillatt of trees can be compared to Miriam's Cheshire (nee Oppenheim) themselves can choose books and/or music Mohnnudelach; nor would anybody in their from a library of 1500 tapes by listening to right mind deny the many positive aspects WHIPS AT WHIPSNADE pre-recorded index tapes (postage in the UK of Israel. However, that should not blind is free). Sir - The "Blond Beast from Spengler"? one to what is going wrong. This system has evolved naturally, and (I may be a Quengler) Just as Mr Needham says "For him (R Irene is quick to point out that she has had a But Richard, our teacher, Fisk) Israel simply cannot do right." I great deal of help from many quarters — Should it not have been Nietzsche? am saying: "For Mr Needham (and Richard including discounts on new equipment from Abedare Gardens Ezra Jurman Grunberger?) Israel can do no wrong." "supportive" shops and technical help from London NW6 Quarry Park Road Inge Trott the sound studios where she goes to produce Cheam, Surrey duplicate tapes. The "readers", chosen for AWAITING MOSHIACH their clear voices and correct pronunciation, Sir — The Lubavitcher Rebbe was convinced BOUQUET though drawn from varied backgrounds, that the peace agreement with Yasser Arafat come largely from within the refugee Sir - I would just like to mention that I find would be a disaster for Israel. It was his the journal very interesting and read it from communiry. duty, therefore, to speak out against it. The cover to cover. Amongst the tapes available from the fact that he was a US resident is irrelevant. Brant Road Gertrude Murray library are readings of Irene's own books. He spoke as a Jew to fellow Jews. Lincoln She is now working on her fifth, a novel set I, moreover, do not understand why you in North London. Her most recent. The attack the Satmarer Rebbe for not "recog Modest Blackmailer, is set to go into a nising" Israel. Would you have condemned second edition. Considering Irene never a Russian who did not recognise the Soviet attempted authorship until she was past Union, or a German who did not recognise JACKMAN retirement age her output has been remark the Nazi State? If the Satmarer Rebbe does able. She is also well known amongst AJR not "recognise" the State of Israel he has his SILVERMAN members in the Homes and at Belsize £MMERC;IA L PROPERTY CONSILT.ANTS Square Synagogue, where she runs art classes. Many people have been encouraged to discover and explore previously unsus HOUSE FOR SALE pected talent by her enthusiastic approach. Tufnell Park N7. Attractive, compact, D M.N. architect designed 2-bed house in conservation area. Open-plan ground floor, mahogany spiral staircase, 25-foot If you would like to find out more about patio garden, gas central heating, drive. the "talking book" service provided by New conversion on Edwardian Avenue. 26 Conduit Street, LonJon WIR 9T.A £120,000. Box No. 1261. Telephone: 071 409 0771 Fax: 071 49? 8017 Irene and her helpers, please phone: 081- 203 2733 before 9 am or after 6 pm. D AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
Second Generation sentences: something about the desire to heard and been so touched by his? Surely one come together and acknowledge the enor of the points of holding such a confer Conference mity of our parents' past, and the struggle to ence, is precisely to create a space in which find our own identity and roots. In addition, we are away from our parents and speaking n Sunday June 12th 1994 over 200 the need to break the silence and remove the with our voice, that of the Second Gene Children of Holocaust Survivors taboo on the possibihty that we may be ration — a voice that has never before been and Refugees attended the first affected by something that did not happen heard either publicly or communally in this O to us; and to mourn the lost cultural country. We need to practise and identify the ever U.K. conference organised by Link, the Jewish Psychotherapy Centre. Similar meet traditions and the threat to our very exis themes for ourselves; how revealing, thus, ings have been held in Israel and the U.S., tence and continuity. These themes, among that even in his forum it was quite a struggle and it was unanimously agreed that it was many, are experienced as so enormous a to achieve this. There is certainly a need to long overdue in this country. rupture, that the need to heal, to grieve and bring both generations together at some to reconnect (if only to then separate), is for point, but the issues must be defined amongst The day's session, opened by Rabbi Hugo some of us, the Generation after, a necess ourselves first, before linking with others. Gryn, was a mixture of personal reflection, ary part of our hfe's work. discussion, workshops and the showing of a An interesting and contentious theme film. So what were we all, mostly 30 and 40 These are difficult issues, not only to that repeatedly emerged concerned feelings somethings, from a variety of backgrounds, consider on a personal level, but to address about the Anglo-Jewish Community. A hfest)les, experiences and work doing at a conference. For some, it was their first number of people commented that they felt there? It is difficult to express in a few meeting with anyone from a similar back alienated from the Community, often not ground; for others there was the additional listened to, and rarely understood. I believe complexity of definition: hidden perhaps as this theme uncannily echoes experiences of very young children, babies even, during the our parents and touches on a minefield of Search Notices war, they are part ofa Generation straddling anger, rejection and mutual mistrust. The Helen Falik, born Rishawy, is searching for two generations. Often with little or no Jeivish Chronicle, read by two-thirds of the her niece Edith Singer, born 11 April 1929, memory, they are Survivors, yet they are also Community, failed to mention the Confer and Paul Singer, born 29 September 1934, children of Survivors and many of their ence, in spite of the organisers' attempts to both in Sitzendorf. Austria. Please contact preoccupations echo those of the Second supply them with information. In an unpub me at Heinrich Stahl House, The Bishops Avenue. London N2 OBG Generation. Our definition, in the strictest lished letter to the Editor, I concluded: "If sense, refers to those of us born after the war, these issues are not considered of interest to For my family tree I would be grateful for born precisely into a world that is safe and our own Community, then I fear that the information about the descendants of the following (all late 19th century): 1. Family secure, often years away from the historical Holocaust will indeed become a 'footnote in Joseph, Pleschen. Province Posen. and geographical actuahty of the events that history', consigned to this as much by the 2. Family Friedmann, Breslau. 3. Family took place in Europe. But just as there is a Jewish Community, as the rest of society". Tobias, Waren Mecklenburg. If you have uniqueness to every Survivor, for every child Subsequent to receiving this letter the very any information please contact John Levy, 15 Norman Court. Nether Street, London of Survivors and Refugees, there is a particu youthful Youth Reporter was dispatched to N3 1QQ. lar set of circumstances and experience that meet me and a number of others. It is with Peter Meyerstein, born 2 March 1925 in lies outside of neat category and psycho interest that I await her article on a subject Leipzig. Came to UK in 1939 by logical analysis. We must therefore be which, by her own admission she knows Kindertransport, His parents, Walter and careful in considering the generational absolutely nothing about. I can only reflect Lena, both went to Shanghai, but little is transmission of trauma as a blanket term. in astonishment that she, and presumably known of their fate. Walter is my first cousin - I have never been in contact with Peter, However, the concept of trauma that is too many others, could easily have continued but would like to hear from him. Please painful to be integrated into a single life and not to know, as the newspaper considered it contact Ralph Meyerstein. 1005 Society is therefore absorbed by the next generation, of insufficient interest to write about unless Place, Newtown. PA. 18940, USA. is a significant hypothesis. Studies in Israel prompted. Why this silence and disregard Can anyone supply information about the and the U.S. suggest that through under from the Anglo-Jewish Community? I move whereabouts of Mr Jan Hans Minnich and standing and research in this field, we may between survivor guilt, reflected by silence, Mrs Malka Minnich, formerly of London use our experiences as a model for the effects and the inability born out of ignorance to be and Shiplake/Oxon and former employers of Helga Holt? Please send any replies to: Mrs of trauma in general, whether collectively open to the experience of others. Barbara Jeanty. c/o Mr John Flood, (e.g. Rwanda) or individually experienced. Crestway. Redhill. Oxford Road, Denham, I know some co-religionists believe we Middlesex UB9 4LD. In my opinion, the conference was an should leave the Holocaust behind: there is enormously important event and first step. much more to Judaism than this dark period Anzeige 1: In einem Restitutionsverfahren werden Erben/Verwandte gesucht von: Interestingly, some of the themes we may in our history. Ironically, for a number of Erich Bruckmann geb. 9/8/1894 Witwe: consider 'classic' were actually enacted people I spoke to this is their only experi Margarete Bruckmann geb Rohler, during the course of the day. A key issue ence of being Jewish. Much as we may Stephan geb. 9/7/1907. concerns separation, unclear boundaries desire it, the Holocaust will not just go Anzeige 2: In einem Restitutionsverfahren and the search for our own personal iden away, its effects disappear and its rever werden Erben/Verwandte gesucht von: tity, away from that of our parents. The berations cease. On the contrary, it is only Joanna Edith Bach, Witwe von Dr Kurt choice of Rabbi Gryn, surely one of the by engaging with it and creating some sort Bach, verst. 9/6/75 und Ellen Elisabeth Jarrett, fruher Glasgow, Poilockshield, most eloquent, profound and moving of of a direct relationship to it, that a genuine Rechtsanwalte Hess-Niedermoller und speakers, and a Survivor, took us in many healing process can take place and succeed von Strunk. Kreuzstrasse 24, 40210 ways straight to the heart of some of the ing generations, including our own, emerge Dusseldorf, Germany. Tel: 211-325047. most important issues. How can we find from under the shadows of the past. Fax:211-134839. ourselves and our own lives, when we have D K.K. smiKmtms^mK^m^^mK'^f^ni
AjR INFORMATION SEPTEAiBER 1994
Message from Ernest David Educating Auntie singer...", followed by a brief explanation of "karaoke" which was interrupted by ow quickly the year goes round. olunteering with our elderly Auntie: Before we know where we are, the members can have its depressing "Hey, isn't that Madonna she's taking off H High Holy Days are with us again, a Vmoments, but from time to time we there?" time for reflection and a time for looking also see the lighter side. One such occasion Before the volunteer could formulate the forward — reflections on the happy and sad recently occurred when a volunteer invited question "How do you know that?" Auntie events of the previous year and longing for the lady she visits to spend an evening with continued: "Can't quite catch the words of the next year to bring only happiness. her family in her own home. the song...." At the AJR we have seen many changes, After supper, the family gathered around Answering pianissimo (in order to leave including a new Chairman and my arrival to watch the latest instalment of Birds of a the ears of her infant son unsullied) the on the scene. I have found my contacts with Feather, in which Lesley Joseph was giving a volunteer informed Auntie that the title is those of you that I have met, both stimulat virtuoso performance as a karaoke singer. "Like a Virgin". ing and rewarding, and I look forward to (Auntie, by the way, claims not to have Auntie, failing to catch the answer meeting many more of our members and watched TV in over twenty years.) shouted "What's that?", forcing the volun hearing from you. After a couple of moments the volunteer teer into making the reply again, fortissimo, Our objective is to serve our membership turned to Auntie and informed her — with an "I said. Like a Virgin". and I personally am committed to try and air of importance — that this was Lesley After a brief pause the acknowledgement achieve excellence in this endeavour. We Joseph, a well-known Jewish actress... came (in Viennese dialect) "I must say, she may not always succeed, but we shall try to Auntie's unimpressed reply was: "Well, looks like one..." be as flexible as possible in order to meet obviously — anyone can see that she's As so often with "Auntie", the family your requirements. Mostly we shall Jewish. remain confused as to who is educating continue old ways, but sometimes we shall Undaunted, the volunteer continued: ivhom! n experiment with new ideas. In all our "She's playing the part of a karaoke activities we need, and look forward to your participation, and help as volunteers, and as AJR INFORMATION financial benefactors. Making a will? For many people the AJR is an extended is available on tape family. I should like to wish all members of Remember the AJR If you, or anyone you know, would like this family a happy, peaceful, healthy and to take advantage of this valuable Something that none of us should prosperous New Year. D service avoid is making a will and keeping it up to date. Please contact: DDnnnDnnnnnnnnDn Mrs Irene White 081-203 2733 We know we cannot take our before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. worldly possessions with us but we s AJR s can - at least - see that whatever is left behind goes: AJR MEALS ON WHEELS D & D (a) where it will be appreciated, (b) where it will do some good, A wide variety of high quality kosher D SELF AID D frozen food is available, ready made (c) where it is needed. ^ 46th ANNUAL CHARITY CONCERT '-' and delivered to your door, via the AJR D D Many of our former refugees have meals on wheels service. The food is D ERICH GRUENBERG & D found their association with the AJR cooked in our own kitchens in Cleve Road, NW6, by our experienced staff. • ANTHONY GOLDSTONE \j a rewarding one. This is an • will perform ilie following programme: • opportunity to support the AJR This service is available to those Q SCHUBERT Sonata op. Posth. 172 in A. D574 • Charitable Trust. Your solicitor will members with mobility problems or D CHOPIN Grande valse brillante A Flat - op. 34 D be able to help you; alternatively other difficulties. • No. 1 • you can consult with rn CHOPIN Berceuse op. 57 p, The cost for a kosher 3 course meal is £3.50. CHOPIN Polonaise A Flat - op. 53 our welfare rights advisor, Agi Delivery charge SOp. Payment for meals to '-' KREISLER Recitativo & Scherzo Caprice '-' Alexander, on 071-483 2536 (Tues, be made to the Driver. • KREISLER Liebesleid D Weds, Thurs) or the social workers If you live in North or North West n KREISLER Liebesfreud • at the Day Centre 071-328 0208. • BEETHOVEN Kreutzer Sonata • London and wish to take advantage of If you have already made a will, it is this service phone Susie Kaufmann on • on Sunday, 4 September, 1994 at 3 p.m. • quite easy to add a codicil. 071-328 0208 for details and an |—1 in the Purcell Room, South Bank Centre rn Whatever amount you are able to assessment interview. • A small number of tickets, priced at £9, £12 and • leave to the AJR, it will be well Meals can still be collected from 15 [—] £15 will be on sale in the foyer half an hour ri received, carefully applied and l—. before the performance j—, Cleve Road on weekdays (Mondays- nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn remembered with gratitude. Thursdays) for £3.50 per meal. m«m^:^^m^m^^^^mm^m^m,ims^^,«mm ^§ wm mmsmm
AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
AJR Social Services Department update - if they now make a request to pay Not in N W London? voluntary contributions and re Current regulations re German acquire German nationality. This only Retirement Pensions for applies to people who held German e have realised for a long time that not all our members live in refugees nationality before emigrating. (There is some doubt whether people over 65 Wor near North West London. may make voluntary contributions.) Elsewhere in this issue, the AJR has been (Please note that this statement of regula The amount of pension granted depends described as an extended family. We believe tions is very broad. The detail of the very much on the individual case, as it is a that a family provides companionship regulations is very complex, constantly result of personal credits and total among people with a common background, changing, and can only be ascertained personal insurance contributions and so we should like to establish some when specific applications are made.) recorded, including contributions to the "Schmooze Groups". UK National Insurance Scheme. The We have been lucky enough to find a 1. German Retirement Pensions depend on more contributions altogether, the volunteer in Birmingham and another in contributions. Credits {Ersatzzeiten) will higher the value of these credits (please South East London, both of whom are be given for some of the period of note that contributions made at the prepared to co-ordinate such groups. emigration and will count towards the married women's rate do not count as At this point, there is no fixed concept of pension. credits). what such groups might do except get 2 Jewish refugees from Germany resident together from time to time and schmooze, in the UK may be entitled to pensions: but undoubtedly as and when you do get — if they have made at least one together, ideas will be generated. These may contribution to the pension system involve purely local activities, mutual sup before leaving Germany, or AJR 'Drop in' Advice Centre port, or may establish a need for further — if they are entitled to credits granted to Paul Balint AJR Day Centre AJR involvement. 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 parents born in or after 1921, for If you are interested in meeting together between 10 a.m. and 12 noon on the following dates: bringing up children born or adopted in Birmingham or in South East London, Monday 12 September on or before 31.12.49 [Kindererzie- Monday 19 September please write to Ernest David, AJR, 1 Hamp hungszeiten) which may count as Thursday 29 September stead Gate, la Frognal, London NW3 6AL. contributions, irrespective of nationa- Tuesday 4 October While there is no accommodation problem lit)-. It is recommended that anyone and every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at: in Birmingham, offers of premises for a AJR, I Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, who has not yet applied to the BFA London NW3 meeting would be welcome in or near South should do so before 31.12.94. or East London. No appointment is necessary, but please bring along — if they have already made a request to all relevant documents, such as Benefit Books, Once we have evaluated the results of pay voluntary contributions and have, /etters, bills, etc. such meetings, we can launch groups in or re-acquire, German nationality, or other areas, n
PAUL BAUNT AJR Monday 5 CLOSED AFTER LUNCH - Sunday 25 DAY CENTRE OPEN - DAY CENTRE EREV ROSH HASHANAH NO ENTERTAINMENT Tuesday 6 CLOSED - ROSH Monday 26 LE JAZZ - Dave Kelbie & HASHANAH Steve Elsworth 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Wednesday 7 CLOSED - ROSH Tuesday 27 CLOSED - SIMCHATH Tel. 071 328 0208 HASHANAH TORAH Thursday 8 THE BEST POPULAR Wednesday 28 CLOSED - SIMCHATH SONGS - David Lee (Piano TORAH Open Tuesday and Thursday 9.30 a.m.— & Voice) Thursday 29 THE ELLERDALE TRIO - 6.30 p.m., Monday and Wednesday 9.30 Sunday 11 DAY CENTRE OPEN - Sarah Down (Piano), Martin a.m.-3.30 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m.-6.30 p.m. NO ENTERTAINMENT Smith (Violin) &: Melanie Monday 12 SONGS WITH MEMORIES Woodcock (Cello) - Jack Harris accompanied by Happy Branston (Piano) Morning Activities - Bridge, kalookie, Tuesday 13 NOW LET'S BE BRITISH - OCTOBER scrabble, chess, etc., keep fit, discussion Songs and Arias by Audrey Sunda\ 2 DAY CENTRE OPEN - group, choir {Mondays), art class {Tuesdays Samson and Thursdays). NO ENTERTAINMENT Wednesday 14 CLOSED AFTER LUNCH - Monday 3 MUSICAL EREV YOM KIPPUR ENTERTAINMENT AT Thursday 15 CLOSED - YOM KIPPUR THE PIANO Afternoon entertainment - J, Simday 18 WIZO CHOIR Tuesday 4 PL\NO - PIANO Jeremy Monday 19 A FEAST OF SONGS - SEPTEXtBER Henderson Terri Thomas (Soprano) Wednesday 5 (a) Outing to Theatre Thursday 1 CONTINENTAL with Piano Accompaniment (b) MUSICAL DELIGHTS - COCKTAIL - Helen Tuesday 20 CLOSED - SUCCOTH Angi Boothroyd Mignano (Soprano) Wednesday 21 CLOSED - SUCCOTH (Soprano) accompanied accompanied by Sylvia Thursday 22 THE SONG OF THE bv Ruth Leber (Piano) Cohen (Piano) CELLO - Ellison Arttisa Thursday 6 VIENNESE MUSIC - Sunday 4 DAY CENTRE OPEN - accompanied by Nigel Foster Claude May (Baritone) with AjR CONCERT (Piano) Self Accompaniment wd-im^Zf'--:-- r;sa>'':Ba5.'Wg?gy--'-ts"; »:il;
AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
FAMILY EVENTS Kogut Dr Margot Kogut (nee Companion/Carers Bronia Sarah Laden and Pessia Batmltzvah Silberbach) of 19b Fitzjohns Ave, Rent-Free extra-large fully-fur Kapan are sought. If you have Lenten Hilde Weinstein (nee NW3, died on 19 August, after an nished bed-sit room and bathroom information about the Greblers or Davidsohn), sole survivor of the illness courageously borne. Deeply in private modern house offered to their nieces please phone 081-458 Davidsohn family of Berlin, is mourned and much missed by reliable middle-aged lady. No cook 7096 (Office hours). pleased to announce the Batmitzvah family and friends. ing or housework (companionship Electrician City and Guilds quali of her granddaughter Jennifer Nass Regina Nass, widow of Leo, only). Excellent references required. fied. All domestic work undertaken. Lenten on 8 October, 1994 at died 13 July. Sadly missed by her Box No. 1263. Y. Steinreich. Tel: 081-455 5262. Menorah Synagogue, Sharston, sister, nephew, sister-in-law, rela Manicure and pedicure in the com Manchester. tives and friends. Miscellaneous fort of your own home. Telephone Walter James Julius Walter The daughters of the late Jacob 081-455 7582. (Warschauer) died suddenly on Omer (Vienna) wish to contact Deaths English/German shorthand typist — Monday 18 July, eleven days before relatives of Hersch &:/or Branchie Aire Hedy Arie (nee Glaser) died hourly fees. Tel: 081-452 8687. his 87th birthday. Sadly missed by Grebler, for whom they may have at home m Reading on 16 July. Experienced part-time short-hand his wife Ellen and all his familv. good news. In particular the nieces Originally from Prague, she was the typist required, English and Ger widow of Otto Arie and mother of man. Ian Walters Ltd, Kimberley Tom Arie. She is much mourned by Road (off Willesdon Lane), London her family, her friends and her IRENE FASHIONS NW6 7SG. Tel: 071-328 1128 (day) former pupils. 081-203 1510 (eve). formerly of Swiss Cottage. Fabian Ethel 'Otti' Fabian, nee Sizes 10 to 50 hips Radbil, passed away on 13 July in NEW WEST END SYNAGOGUE Cambridge. Formerly of Danzig and CLOSING DOWN SALE ' 'Almost' free seats for the High Konigsberg. Deeply mourned by Everything Must Go Holidays. Inspiring surroundings. daughter Sarah, son-in-law Colin, Special educational service on Yom Summer & Autumn Dresses and 2-pieces, suits, skirts, slacks, Kippur afternoon. Children's grandsons Ivor, David, Daniel, his jackets, blouses, cocktail wear and rainwear. services. wife Moniq"e and great-grand Buy Rosh Hashanah outfit now and save £££s Please contact Synagogue Office daughter Dionna Baddiel. Nephew For an early appointment l
10 AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
Alice Schwab SB's Column
o lack of }ewish authors. Whilst present-day German playwrights Nremain almost unknown beyond the borders of Central Europe (Handke and hitechapel-born Abram Games, Thomas Bernard perhaps the only excep Britain's greatest poster designer, tions), German-speaking audiences receive Wis eighty'. To mark the occasion, a plethora of translated imports from the Imperial War Museum mounted a small western countries to enliven their reper exhibition of his original designs for war toires. Among these is Arthur Miller's posters. The artist had started his career in Broken Glass (shown at London's Lyttleton the 1930s, designing posters for London Theatre since the end of July), Kushner's Transport, the Cooperative Building Angels in America, the latest Neil Simon Socien.-, Shell and the GPO. Renewing his play Laughter on the 23rd Floor and The commercial career postwar, he won the Sisters Rosenzweig by Wendy Wasserstein. competition to design the Festival of Britain 70 years ago. 1924 was a very fertile year symbol in 1951. Abram Games has always for international operetta: Rudolf Friml, been most generous in supplying designs for W. E. Gladstone, photographed by Eveleen Myers. son of a Prague baker who emigrated to the Anglo-Jewish and Israeli organisations. He National Portrait GaUery. USA in 1906, created the spectacular Rose was married to the late Marian Sahlfeld, Marie. Hungarian-born Sigmund Romberg granddaughter of Rabbi Sahlfeld of Mainz. tember) original prints by Irene Scheinmann converted the tearjerker Alt Heidelberg into and Gea Karhof. Rocks, broken trees and The Imperial War Museum is also exhi the melodious Student Prince, whilst Kal the sky form an apocalyptic vision in biting works by former Slade School man launched Countess Maritza which, Scheinmann's richly textured etchings. students who became official war artists, dripping with red, white and green nostal including Orpen, John, McEvoy, Colin Gill, Camden Arts Centre is showing Big gia, became an enduring success. Schwabe, William Roberts and Wadsworth. Paintings 1994 by Patrick Heron (until 13 Woton - then and now. Wagnerians will November). This will be Heron's first public The Impressionism and Symbolism exhi be looking forward to a new production of gallery show in this country for nine years. bition at rhe Royal Academy illustrates the The Ring at London's Royal Opera House. The South Bank Centre will be showing remarkable artistic revolution which Rheingold and Die Walkiire will have four The Romantic Spirit in German Art 1790 - occured in Belgium between 1880 and the performances each during October with 1990 (until 8 January, 1995). The exhibi turn of the century (until 2 October). John Tomlinson, much acclaimed in Bay tion is divided into five sections: Romanti The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manches reuth, singing Wotan. The best-known cism, Symbolism, Modernism, Expressio ter, Foyer Gallery displays (until 24 Sep- Wotan of recent decades was, undoubtedly, nism and Art in the Third Reich and eiM!rf3^^?iafirtv±L •^isiimaeaiimssi'iH Hans Hotter who, aged 85, made his debut postwar art. Artists exhibited include at the Albert Hall in July when he per Fuseli, Schinkel, Caspar David Friedrich, formed Schonberg's Gurrelieder. AUSTRIAN and GERMAN Hodler, Nolde, Marc, Kandinsky, Klee, PENSIONS Schwitters and Max Ernst. Birthdays. German actor Will Quadflieg, whose long career included the lead in Faust Hobbema's The Avenue, Middlehamis is under Gruendgens, and who was Salzburg's one of the best known of all seventeenth Jedermann for a number of years, has century Dutch landscape paintings. It is PROPERTY RESTITUTION turned 80. His poetry recitals are still much being toured as part of a scheme by the CLAIMS in demand. National Gallery to enable the British EAST GERMANY - BERLIN Baritone Hermann Prey has had his 65th public to see major paintings from its birthday. From early beginnings in Wies collections. The exhibition will be at the On instructions our office will baden (1952) the range of his work has Ulster Museum, Belfast (until 30 Sep assist to deal with your stretched from Hamburg to Vienna, from tember), the Laing Gallery, Newcastle (18 applications and pursue the Berlin to Bayreuth to Covent Garden. From November - 22 January 1995) and at the matter with the authorities. 1973 onwards, he impressed audiences with Castle Museum, Norwich (28 January - 16 his noble voice and the charm of his ever- March 1995). For further information and present and strong stage personality, as appointment please The Line Plus Movement exhibition at Beckmesser and as Eisenstein in Die Fleder contact: Annely Juda Fine Art continues until 27 maus. He remains as active as ever. D September and includes works by Gabo, ICS CLAIMS Moholy-Nagy, Mondrian and Vordem 146-154 Kllburn High Road berge-Gildewart, to name but a few. London NW6 4JD Finally, a reminder to see the Edwardian Annely Juda Fine Art Women Photographers exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (until 25 Sep 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) Tel: 071-328 7251 (Ext. 107) Tel: 071-629 7578, Fax: 071-491 2139 Fax: 071-624 5002 tember). This is a wonderful display of superb photographs of royalty, politicians, CONTEMPORARY PAINTING the aristocracy and of public events. D AND SCULPTURE
II mf^S'it'S::^>*!'iii-:'r'iSSK:: T-si-agiriWiiggiw-iaiBsagi
AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
other hard currencies like Swiss francs and two other surviving members of the squad, Before the anticlimax US dollars and some gold coins - twenty- Fred Warner and Frank Kelly, who both five francs Louis D'ors. It must be said that maintain that there was an aperture. I, A W Freud with the Special Operations the authorities did everything possible to however, distinctly recall stepping out of Executive in Austria make our sortie a success. In addition to all that rear door into nothing. It amounts to this we were also given our objectives, the the same thing but demonstrates the unre ur luggage was divided into three reasons for all that investment in training liability of memories; either mine or theirs!) parts, like ancient Gaul. The heavy and preparation. The objectives proved In addition to our two parties of six the Ostuff, like the radio transmitter- surprisingly vague. plane carried a number of other passengers. receiver, the explosives, the bulk of the Firstly, we were to make contact with the I recall an American Secret Agent with ammunition and the food, was in a separate local population to find out if, and to what whom I had a long conversation about the container. This would be dropped by para degree, they would be prepared to co use of salt in food. It helped to pass the time. chute by the crew of the aircraft for us to operate with the Allies. Secondly, we were The pilot, who was either American or retrieve on the ground. The more personal to carry out sabotage operations, if conve Polish, confirmed that he knew where to belongings, sleeping bags etc, would be nient targets presented themselves. Thirdly, drop us. But this, as it turned out, was a dropped with us. I carried the most import we were to establish a British presence if the bloody lie. ant items in my pockets, including the radio Russians should advance towards our area We had arrived at the airport at dusk, codes, maps, compass, hand guns and in Austria, in particular at the Zeltweg collected our chutes and checked our lug money. Even if I lost everything but the Aerodrome which was the most important gage. The whole scene was very dark and clothes I stood up in, I would be able to air base in Southern Austria at the time (it is sombre, like an under-exposed black and survive for some time. now a motor racing track). I took this last white film, and very nervous making. After Our weapons had to be tried and cali objective to be the most important. Its aim, I much bustling about we climbed aboard. As brated; each of us got quite an arsenal. imagined, was based upon the principle of soon as we were airborne the gunners tested There was a .30 American Carbine (a "first come — first served". If Austria was to their weapons. This was noisy and not wonderfully light, reliable and accurate be partitioned between the Russian and calming on the nerves. rifle, the best of its kind), a .38 Automatic Western Occupation Forces our presence Amongst the crew there was a des- Pistol (easy to use, not heavy and yet quite would reinforce a British claim. patcher, who would see to it that our effective) and a .22 Belgian Automatic Our intended dropping zone was aerially parachutes were properly fitted and that we Browning (it looked like a toy, tiny and easy photographed; a mountain meadow high jumped at the right moment. I imagine he to hide in one's clothes). Of course, using a above the Mur Valley in Central Southern was also responsible for dropping our heavy small calibre weapon like the latter, one had Austria. The nearest town was, not inap luggage container after us. It was dark to hit a vital spot to immobilise a man. propriately, called Judenburg, Jewsbor- inside the plane and pitch dark outside. Naturally, we carried sufficient ammunition ough. It was to be a "blind drop". Parachute Flying over enemy territory was an unplea for each of these guns. drops in France and Yugoslavia were sant experience. One cannot admire the Finally, on the day prior to departure, so usually conducted with a "reception com bomber crews, who did this voluntarily, that I shouldn't spend it before we went, I mittee" who would direct the plane in with night after night for years, too much. D was issued with quite a large amount of radio beacons or lights and look after the To be continued money. I received German marks, some new arrivals. We did not have these comforts.
We departed from an aerodrome some CITIZENSHIP, NATIONALITY where between Sienna and Livorno, an area AND MIGRATION IN EUROPE which had been liberated in 1944. It was about 320 miles to the drop-zone so the A conference organised jointly by the flight should have been less than two hours; Centre for European Studies, UCL, it seemed much longer at the time. and the institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library, in It was a large aircraft, a Liberator or a conjunction with the Friedrich Ebert Flying Fortress. There was no aperture in Foundation. the floor of the fuselage, like the Whitley bombers used in training. Instead, one 21-23 September 1994 Israel's Finest Wines jumped by walking out through the rear door. The rip cord, attached to the plane, Bringing together international experts from the from a range of disciplines, this conference was pulled automatically. (On this point my explores key questions concerning patterns Golan Heights memory is not in accord with that of the of migration, different national policies and their relation to political, social and cultural Yarden, Golan & Gamla policies. The focus is on four selected countries - Britain, France, Germany and Write, phone or fax CAMPS INTERNMENT-P.O.W.- Italy - v^ithin the broader European context. for full information FORCED LABOUR-KZ I wish to buy cards, envelopes and folded post For further information please contact: House of Hallgarten marked letters from all camps of both world wars. Please send, registered mail, stating price, to: The Wiener Library, 4 Devonshire Street, Dallow Road, Luton LU1 1UR London WIN 2BH. 14 Rosslyn Hill, London NW3 Tel: 0582 22538 Phone: 071-636 7247/7248 Fax: 0582 23240 PETER C. RICKENBACK
12 AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
The Club's popularity grew quickly, and touched all who came into contact with her. Thirty-six happy years it had to extend its opening hours to She, with the warm-hearted, motherly Ger he AJR Club was founded in 1956 by accommodate those who worked during the trud by her side, made a huge contribution Dr Adelheid Levy, who had been a day. This fulfilled a real need, as many to the happy family atmosphere of the Club. Tsocial worker in Berlin and became members lived in modest bed-sits and had There were special functions every Head of the AJR's Social Department from little income. Not only did the Club allow month: concerts, talks, films and celeb the organisation's beginning. them to enjoy the company of others with rations of Jewish holidays. Dr Levy's inter Dr Levy had become very aware of the similar backgrounds, but also to save on pretations ofthe festivals and the Chanukah fact that loneliness and isolation, more than electricity and heating bills. Of course, the gramophone concerts and Seders given by material need, were the main causes of rooms soon became too small and over Dr Arnold Horwell and his wife Susanne depression in those people who came to visit crowded, but there was a wonderful atmos (Susi) — the Club's last Chairperson — were and ask her advice. In response, she invited phere. unforgettable highlights. Other memorable tvi'enty-five people for Sunday afternoon tea For nine years Mrs Jacoby persevered, events included outings to stately homes and cakes at the AJR offices in Fairfax using great initiative in running the Club in and places of historical interest, organised Mansions and encouraged them to talk and just two rooms, until one day Dr Reich with efficiency, charm and good humour by entertain each other. The event was a great mann told her that she could buy a house to Mrs Eva Brand-Woodman, the daughter of success and several more afternoon teas accommodate the Club. Almost unable to Mrs Schachne. The untimely deaths of Susi followed. Dr Levy's enthusiasm for the believe her ears, Mrs Jacoby wasted no Horwell and Eva Brand-Woodman in 1992 project proved infectious and before long time. Knowing that number 9 Adamson were grievous losses. Mrs Margaret Jacoby and Mrs Gertrud Road (formerly Pension Sachs) had become Dr Adelheid Levy and I had become Vice- Schachne became interested in the idea of vacant, she bought it. The building was Chairmen when Mrs Schachne died. Warm starting a club. officially opened on 12 December 1965 by tributes should also go to other Club The ladies approached the Chairman of the Mayor and Mayoress of Camden and officials such as Hertha Gelhar, Lotte the AJR, Dr Hans Reichmann, with a Mr A S Dresel, who had recently become the Saenger and Hilde Baban. The Hon. Trea request for premises for the meetings. Dr AJR Chairman. It was the first house owned surer and Hostess for many, many years, Reichmann agreed — with some reluctance, solely by the AJR Charitable Trust and Mrs Hildegard Sussmann, should also be and only on a trial basis — to rent a room at remained a centre of AJR activity until remembered with gratitude. Zion House in Eton Avenue. 1993. The AJR Club no longer exists in its The first meeting of the Club was in At the suggestion of Mrs Jacoby it was original form. The Paul Balint AJR Day February 1956. Only one married couple named Hannah Karminski House in honour Centre, after extending its opening hours, attended; Mrs Jacoby and Mrs Schachne of that remarkable lady. The first AJR Club has absorbed former members and they were so pleased to see them that they gave event at Hannah Karminski House took now enjoy the Day Centre's varied activities them all the cakes which had been bought place on Chanukah, 1965. Rabbiner Dr and, as an additional bonus, its good food. for that day to take home. At the next Salzberger kindled the lights and I spoke We wish the Day Centre good fortune meeting six people turned up. Before long, about the life and work of the unforgettable and the same happiness which AJR Club however, the membership had grown so Hannah Karminski. Hannah could have members and helpers enjoyed over almost much that a second room had to be taken to emigrated to Switzerland or England, but thirty-six years. hold all the visitors. she stayed behind in Berlin to work in the D Dora Segall Reichsvertretung giving help and comfort to the last, with courage and devotion, in the full knowledge of what her fate would be. The house did not only serve as a venue East-Germany for AJR Club functions. It soon became a very popular venue for diverse activities in COMPANIONS and Berlin the wider Jewish community and the upper floors were converted to provide low-cost OF LONDON We give immediate attention. accommodation for elderly refugees. We process and buy properties/claims. By 1968 the Club had 350 members, A specialist home care service growing to 420 by the end of the year. It to assist the elderly, people lived up to its motto, given by Margaret with disabilities, help during We pay cash. Jacoby, through all the years of its exis and after illness, childcare tence: Heiterkeit, Hilfsbereitschaft, Herz and household needs. We have proven track records and furnish lichkeit. It was a home from home, and documentation. For a service tailored to your individual needs many lifelong friendships were formed. by Companions who care - Please call The Club has been more than fortunate to Wrrte tc 071-483 0212 have had two such women as Margaret and Nagel & Partner 071-483 0213 Uhiandstrasse 156- 10719 Beriin Gertrud at its helm. Margaret Jacoby - Dr. Phone:030-882 56 31 Werner Rosenstock called her the Eighth 110 Gloucester Avenue, Fax:030-881 39 16 Wonder of the World - was 74 years old Primrose Hill, when she became Chairman of the Club in Undon NWl 8JA 1956. Her good humour, ever ready smile (Emp Agy) and joie de vivre, combined with her untiring care for every Club member.
13 AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
Auschwitz began only after the German triors without offending them. While Ger Anaesthetised army invaded Hungary in March 1944. many and Austria, and now Poland and Memory Government officials point out that Buda Ukraine, have issued formal apologies for pest was a haven for Jews and 100,000 their parts in mass murder, no government emory plays tricks after half a remain to this day. Jewish schools, culture official in Hungary has said, simply, sorry. century. The anniversaries of the and business have flourished since the fall of Guilt has stopped the tongue, some M Holocaust have ticked past, empty communism. "We still have the biggest liberals believe. "These things happened in of meaning. Through the decades, Hungary Jewish community east of Paris. That is the front of millions of Hungarians who did was numbed by communist rule. This only thing we can be proud of", says Tamas nothing to stop it," says Laszlo. "There was month (April), fifty years after the first Katona, State Secretary at the Prime Minis no gesture that could have freed them from deportations to the death camps, Hungary, ter's office. their feelings of guilt. We should admit we finally, has the opportunity to commemor But interpretations of history have were responsible for the death of the ate the 600,000 Jews who never came back. diverged after fifty years. The critics of the 600,000. And we cannot hide behind the The president, Arpad Goncz, recalled, wartime regime remember rather that backs of the tens or hundreds who saved simply and movingly, how he witnessed the Hungary was Nazi Germany's most faithful Jews." persecution of his classmates and bid fare ally. Before 1944 the Hungarian authori Jews were complicit in Hungary's collec well to his friends. Or there was the man ties, under German pressure but still sover tive amnesia. Terez Virag survived in the who stood outside the cattle wagons that eign, sent many Jews to death by cold, Budapest ghetto aged 14, but lost her house the new travelling exhibition of the disease, hunger and murder in labour parents in Auschwitz and now runs a Holocaust he was too young to have camps. My grandfather was among them. Holocaust workshop to allow survivors, known, tears dripping down his face with After Germany invaded and the Final and their descendants, to reclaim their the rain. Solution began, the local gendarmerie admi memories. She says: "We missed out on the But they are the exceptions. "On this side nistered the round-up with efficiency that catharsis. We didn't say how much it hurt of Europe we are still waiting for an honest won the praise of Adolf Eichmann, the and they didn't apologise." reckoning. And until we look into our own logistician of the Holocaust. Admiral Mik Now Hungary's Jews are finally finding eyes, we wait in vain for inner peace and los Horthy, Hungary's interwar Regent, their voice, and defying the argument that essential purification," Goncz said. gave legitimacy to the regime by remaining they just fuel antisemitism by so doing. But Of inner peace, there has been little. Geza in office: this the man honoured by half the there is still no answer to their call. "There Jeszensky, the Conservative government's Cabinet at his reburial last year, regarded was some kind of apology, but only rounda foreign minister, could not find the right more as a De Gaulle than a Petain, praised bout," says Ivan Beer, president of the words for a conference on the Holocaust in by the previous Prime Minister, Peter Bor- Jewish community's Holocaust Commem Budapest; participants jeered him off the oss, as a "true Hungarian" and possessor of oration Committee. "They don't take re podium. After that no minister dared make "manly virtues." sponsibility for the crime." a speech at the official remembrance cere And it was Hungarian Arrow Cross By they, Jewish leaders mean the mony. The government invited the anti fascists who conducted their own, anarchic Conservatives, the self-styled "national semitic Hungarian Truth and Life Party to massacres, taking Budapest Jews down to forces." For their apology would mean the delegate an MP onto the commemoration the bank of the Danube, shooting them in most. It is they who have tapped the committee and Jewish leaders resigned in the head and dumping their bodies in the traditions of the interwar regime, and protest. river. therefore they who can most meaningfully Varying histories of the Holocaust co "The situation was ambiguous", says shoulder responsibility for Hungary's Holo exist, jarringly. Conservative leaders like Katona. In the rankings of national guilt, he caust and attempt a reconciliation. Jeszensky play down the Hungarian role. says: "I think we were somewhere in the But many Hungarians question why they They say that the killing of Hungary's Jews middle." But the fog of history still does not should feel remorse when they too endured was a tragedy but blame Nazi Germany, explain why so many on the Right find it so so much. Communist propaganda after the domestic fascists and disembodied "forces difficult to take responsibility, not for the war propagated the notion that Hungary of evil". The argument is a variant of the "I entirety of the Hungarian Holocaust, but was a "sinful nation" and the severity of the was only following orders" defence in war for their share; or for why they cannot find regime was punishment enough. At the crimes trials. "It is as if the Holocaust the sensitivity to talk to their Jewish compa- opening of the ghetto memorial, the former happened in a different country," says Conservative Prime Minister said in Laszlo, a young Catholic. "They say: We are sorry for the dead but it was the war." It is a fact that the deportations to DENTAL SURGEON WE CARE FOR YOUR SMILE Dr H. Alan Shields, MB ChB. BDS. LDS RCS(Eng) Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. 46 Brampton Grove, HENDON, London NW4 ^AQ STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST ALL TYPES OF DENTAL CARE GERMAN BOOKS Surgery hours: We are always buying: Home visits for the disabled Dentures and cosmetic dentistry 8.30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday Books, Autographs, Judaica Emergencies 8.30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and German works of art TOP QUALITY DENTAL TREATMENT Antiquariat Metropolis AT PRICES YOU CAN AFFORD Visiting chiropody service available Leerbachstr. 85 Phone: 081-203-0405 for appointment 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp. M&S) D-60322 Frankfurt a/M man spricht deutsch Tel: 0104969559451 CARING AND PERSONAL SERVICE Telephone 071-624 1576 REGULAR VISITS TO LONDON
14 AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
essence: we suffered losses, they did too. One of the society's aims is the creation of Many Hungarian soldiers died by the Not a day like any a documentary centre or museum in a small Don River fighting alongside the Germans other old house at Spiegelgasse 11. The building in Russia. Jeszenszky said these other had once been part of some Jewish property victims should be remembered alongside n 30 August 1993, 50th annivers there - at least since the early 1730s Jewish Hungarians and one should simulta ary of the deportation of of Jews according to records - and had been used as neously condemn both Nazism and Ofrom Wiesbaden, a unique cere an inn, a shul and a mikva. Wiesbaden, once communism. mony took place in the town. A large group, a famous German spa, is a flourishing city It was this equation that so infuriated the consisting mainly of schoolchildren, assem today (pop. 260,000). For centuries, many participanrs at the Holocaust conference. bled on the steps of the Schloss, seat of the Jews lived there as well but, today, besides Beer describes it as if someone were to tell a Land parliament of Hesse. Here, each this tiny building and three Jewish cemeter family at a graveside to mourn for all the schoolchild in turn called out the name of a ies, the city has no other reminder of its dead in the cemetery. He says: "This is not a deported person. Then, each bearing an Jewish past - not since the Nazis burnt mass grave. This is my grief, that is yours." individual name tag, they marched in down its grandiose main synagogue. And Jews like Terez Virag say their grief silence through the town, followed by 300 The Foerderkreis Aktives Museum per is deeper: "War means that a mother residents. The memorial march ended with suaded the city to buy the little house with survives with six children and becomes a a recital of Kaddish by the local chazan — at the purpose of saving it from decay. It wants war widow. Genocide means no father, no the abbatoir where, 50 years earlier, the the city to confront its own history, of mother, no children, no grandmother." deportees had been loaded onto Eastbound which a rich Jewish life and culture had One thing Jeszenszky did not add, but he cattle-trucks. once been an integral part. did not need to, is that many Christians feel During the Mahngang a video crew of The words "Aktives Museum" were cho they suffered at the hands of Jews, so why two teachers and five students interviewed sen by the founding members to indicate should they apologise. Jews, out of all marchers about the fate of "their" depor that they do not simply wish to relegate the proportion to their numbers, made up the tees, as well as former neighbours and a few- past to a museum — thus minimising the leadership of the brutal postwar Stalinist survivors. The resultant programme, enti impact of history. To this effect the society regime and staffed the hated secret police. tled Kein Tag wie jeder andere, is currently has already been very active indeed. "To Hungarians of the time said they were living being shown at Wiesbaden schools where realise all we lost..." was the title of its first through the "revenge of the Jews". the Holocaust is part of the curriculum. exhibition in 1989. In 1991 a second "We hear from many that communist The initiators of the march were the exhibition focused on the theme "East horrors balance the Nazi horrors," says Foerderkreis Aktives Museum Deutsch- European Jews in Wiesbaden". Further Geza Komoroczy, head of Jewish studies at Jtidischer Geschichte in Wiesbaden, publications are to follow and the exhibi the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. "And founded in 1988 to call to mind the city's tions will go from school to school. the underlying principle is that the Jews, German-Jewish past. n P Yogi Mayer either in advance or afterwards, got what they deserved." - That, however, is not the final twist of become adept at passing the conversational historical revenge. Komoroczy warns: "If Football-free zone )all and exhibit little shyness in coming we don't look in the eye at what happened, brward to welcome people into their home. at what we did, there won't be a moment of ^^ ravely flying in the face of convention, It is one of the most striking collective our histor)' and our present about which we P^^the Strausses, Edwin and Sally, dec- :haracteristics of the ACJR that newcomers can speak honestly and openly." l^Flared a tiny corner of Edgware a are made to feel at home upon arrival, with And time is running out for Hungary to football-free zone during the Quarter Finals rhe absolute minimum of social anxiety. come to terms with its past. For an apology of the 1994 World Cup. Whilst the rest of The fact that all ACJR members have from a "national" prime minister, the London remained glued to the TV screen, jomething as fundamental as their parental opportunity has been missed. There could hanging on Jimmy Hill's every utterance, no arigins in common adds an element of have been no better time than the 50th matter how bland, boring or blatantly :omfort. When "strangers" join, they can anniversary of the Holocaust. idiotic, the ACJR (Association of Children 5e safe in the knowledge that they already Of course the 60th anniversary will come of Jewish Refugees) dined al fresco and ulfil an essential pre-condition for member round and Hungary's Right may, even discussed weightier matters. Well, not all ship and that no explanations are required, tually, swallow its pride and hurt, and that weighty, but at least participants didn't rhis shared background acts as a social attempt a reconciliation. But still fewer of debate the effectiveness of the Bulgarian ubricant — just as effective as a mutual the agents, the observers and the survivors attack in the air or the complexities of the ondness for football, and twice as exciting. will be around to be reconciled. Italian squad's haircuts. D M.N. "It is never too late," says Terez Virag. The Strauss household has become a \fyou would like to find out more about the But even she, who says she holds no regular venue for the Association's food- ACJR contact Anne or Ian via the AJR Box bitterness, wonders whether Nazism and fests. In addition to the annual barbecues, No. 1250 communism together were too much for the they have hosted a communal Seder every Hungarians' moral sense: "A soul cannot Pesach for the last five years. Their survive two dictatorships. That is the dou daughters, Claire and Paula, are now used F. GOLDMAN ble tragedy of Holocaust survivors and the to having dozens of people "dropping in" Curtains made to measure. Select material In your own home. Tracks, blinds supplied and Hungarian people." bearing bowls of houmous, baskets of bread fitted. and other comestibles too numerous to list; Telephone: 081-205 9232 n Nicholas Denton they have also, by a process of osmosis,
IS AJR INFORMATION SEPTEMBER 1994
Madame Lupescu - lupus is Latin for wolf- Two Farthings fame - while the related Surnames and cur was known as the Titian-haired mistress of Wolfie is a diminutive for Wolfgang. (The names the king of Romania throughout the civi late Anthony Burgess wrote a piece wittily lised, or at least gossip column-reading, entitled Mozart and the Wolf Gang.) world. To move from gossip to politics: the Psychologists have identified an abnor t a friend's house I was handed an father-and-son team of Friedrich and Mar mal state of mind - lycanthropy - in which ingenious nut-cracking gadget from kus Wolf were partly famous, partly notori patients imagine themselves to be wolf-men. Israel. Told it was the product of a A ous. Wolf pere, a doctor-turned-dramatist, Lycanthropy has always attracted Fascist kibbutz industry I asked after the name of achieved prominence in the 1920s with dictators. Mussolini dubbed the cubs of the the kibbutz. The answer — 'Kfar Hess' — Zyankali (Cyanide), an attack on the anti- Ballila Youth Movement 'children of the startled me. Surely not even Kach members abortion law of the Weimar Republic. In she-wolf. Hitler actually personalised would name a settlement after the Fuehrer's 1933 he went to Russia, whence his anti- lycanthropy. Known to his intimates as deputy! Thinks: what famous Jewish Hesses Nazi film Professor Mamlock went out to Wolf, he called his favourite Alsatian bitch have there been? Myra Hess, the pianist, cinemas in all democratic countries. (It Wolfie, and named his wartime military maybe? Then the penny (or shekel) packed out the Academy Cinema, Oxford headquarters in the depths of East Prussia dropped: the name commemorates Moses Street, throughout 1938.) During the war Wolfsschanze. Hess, whose book Rome and Jerusalem Wolf was evacuated with other Comintern And now, it seems, we have a Hitler incubated the ideas which Herzl articulated notables to Central Asia; postwar he served in Der Judenstaat some thirty years later. revividus with the not dissimilar sounding the DDR as ambassador to Czechoslovakia. patronymic Wolfovitch. (A patronymic der Rudolf Hess was, in fact, only one of a The son Markus — nicknamed Misha ived from the father's first name is every number of top Nazis with Jewish-sounding thanks to his Russian upbringing — served Russian's middle name.) In other words surnames. The man who put together a the DDR in a far more crucial role: as head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the would-be Rus tome of pagan-Nordic claptrap porten of its intelligence service. In that capacity he sian Fuehrer, had a father by the name of tously entitled The Mythos ofthe Twentieth outclassed all his Iron Curtain colleagues Wolf. This, coupled with the fact that 'mad Century — 'philosophical companion by, inter alia, bringing down Chancellor Vlad' says his father was a lawyer, makes it volume to Mein Kampf' - was named Brandt. He, a Jew, also trained Arab almost certain that he is half-Jewish. But let Arthur Rosenberg. terrorists to wreak mayhem in Israel and the us not build any false hopes on Zhiri As for the name Wolf (or Wolff) it was West. (Currently he is awaiting the outcome novsky's mischling origins. Monomaniacs indiscriminately borne by Nazi perpetrators of an appeal against a 6-year jail sentence hate everybody, including - and sometimes, and Jewish victims alike. SS general Karl handed down by a court in Diisseldorf.) even especially — their own parents. Wolff was in charge of the genocide pro As a forename Wolf is also essentially The bitch, as Brecht said in Arturo Ui, is gramme in the Treblinka area; later his Jewish - pace Wolf Mankowitz of A Kid for still on heat. D R.G. negotiation of the German surrender in Italy earned him an Allied pardon. In complete contrast Theodor Wolff had 3 tablespoons very strong black coffee edited the Berliner Tageblatt, a journalistic Cookery Corner pillar of Weimar democracy; a refugee in 1 small carton (5 fl. oz) single cream France after 1933, he perished during the Dash of Rum Occupation. Whipped cream and finely ground coffee beans for decoration The most prominent bearers of the sur name Wolf all seem to have been Jews. Cream together butter and icing sugar until very light and fluffy. Gradually beat the eggyoiks, vanilla sugar and 2 tablespoons of FOR THOSE YOU CARE MOST ABOUT the coffee. Tip the single cream into a soup plate and add the remaining tablespoon of black Springdene coffee and a dash of rum. Pull some boudoir
A modern nursing home with biscuits quickly through the cream - one by 26 yrs of excellence in health Coffee Brick one so that they do not become soggy - and care to the community. Ucensed by Barnet area health arrange them side by side so they form a authority and recognised by o cooking is required for this deli square. Spread some butter cream over BUPA & PPP, cious gateau, but as the size of them and cover with more boudoir biscuits HYDROTHERAPY & boudoir biscuits can vary quite which have also been pulled through the PHYSIOTHERAPY N 'cares . provided by full time chartered considerably, it is impossible to give the coffee-flavoured single cream, laying them physiotherapists for inpatients at right angles across the first layer. and outpatients. exact numbers of biscuits required. Simply aim for a square-shaped gateau! Continue "building" until all the butter SPRINGDENE 55 Oakleigh Park North, Whetstone, cream has been used up. Cover the resulting London N.20 081-446 2117 Ingredients "brick" lightly with foil and set to chill in a SPRINGVIEW 6-10 Crescent Road, Enfield, Our Boudoir Biscuits cold place overnight. connpletely new purpose built hotel style retirement home. All rooms with bathroom en-suite from £305 5oz (140g) unsalted butter Just before serving, mask the gateau with per week, 081-446 2117. 5oz (140g) icing sugar whipped, slightly sweetened, cream and 3-4 eggyoiks sprinkle with very finely-ground coffee 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar beans. D
Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, 1 Hampstead Gate, 1A Frognal, London NWS 6AL Telephone 071-431 6161 Fax: 071-431 8454 Printed in Great Britain by Black Bear Press Limited, Cambridge