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The Truth Will Not Be Gainsaid

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The Truth Will Not Be Gainsaid AJR mation Volume LII No. 3 March 1997 £3 (to non-members) Don't miss... Imperial Hov/ ex-occupied and neutral countries face tJieir wartime past War Museum's Holocaust Project p2 The truth will not be gainsaid It occurs to ne of the best known products of the so- ration is the unvarnished truth'. Alas, judging by the me... p9 called Theatre of the Absurd is the play correspondence column of the Neue Ziiricher Some unfamiliar oAsmodee, in which an offstage corpse Zeitung, many Swiss feel aggrieved at the spotlight family trees pi3 continues to grow till it invades the acting space. of world publicity turned on them. Asmodee could serve as a metaphor for Europe's No tour d'horizon of Holocaust-tainted Europe relationship to its own Holocaust-tainted past. can omit Italy, for all that the country behaved Increasingly uncomfortable truths, buried for dec­ better than most in the 1940s. Even so the deplor­ P for Purim ades, refuse to stay buried and poke through the able outcome of the Priebke Trial indicates that some and partitions designed to wall off the business-as-usual of her judges are still steeped in the ethos of the pulchritude present from the murky past. Berlin-Rome Axis. Mid-nineties Europe is alive with the sound of But let us end with France and the Theatre of the urim usually crumbling edifices of evasion. Chancellor Vranitzky Absurd. Papon's knee-jerk reaction to his arraign­ connotes fancy has spoken candidly about Austria's long-denied co- ment was to accuse a coalition of Communists, the Pdress and responsibility for the Holocaust. Poland, which saw 'Left lobby' and foreigners of denigrating France play-acting. Let us itself purely as a martyred hero nation, has begun to by linking the Vichy regime to the Holocaust. "What not forget that it correct this flattering self-image. The Catholic pub- I face" he went on "is a political trial whose out- also celebrates the Heist Jan Blonski has highlighted Polish indifference come the authorities have decided in advance. I have beauty of Jewish to Jewish wartime suffering, and Premier Cimo- fallen victim to a deliberate miscarriage of justice, women in the szewicz spoke words of atonement at Kielce, site of just like Captain Dreyfus". person of F^sther Europe's only postwar pogrom. Other post- One's blood runs cold on seeing a Jew-hunter who captivated Communist heads of state - in Hungary, Ukraine comparing himself to a victim of Judcophobia. King Ahasveros. etc.- made similar confessions of national guilt. Gcr- Despite the nauseating comparison Papon's state- Esther started a many has fixed the anniversary of the liberation of ment does, however, provide some welcome trend. Others in Auschwitz as Holocaust Day in the national calendar, reassurance. It is evidence of the fact that in contem- that poetically Currently France is exorcising the demons of its porary French usage the name Captain Dreyfus embellished past by trying the wartime Jew-hunter-turned-post- conjures up an image - not of treason, as his de- tradition are war minister Maurice Papon, and by investigating tractors intended - but of scapegoating and Berenice (the why, half a century after Liberation, many exprop- victimhood D betrothed of Titus), riated Jewish art treasures and Rachel (heroine of apartments remain public property. .va-4v.».»y.''--. Scott's Ivanhoe), While Jacques Chirac has given a pow- Lope de Vega's I erful impetus to this process, Swiss This plaque and Grillparzer's (ex-)President Dclamuraz responded to ^^^^O^^^H'^'^IS^T^^. Jeivess of Toledo, , compensation demands for Most' Jewish r939 U'he TRANSIT CAMP and King Carol's fro mNaz,;XuS>l??„T"^°_^"U men foundd rrefuge e i property with cries of blackmail, and his • •"-' persct^uiion oonn ihfe Continent real-life Madame palpably antisemitic response has brought '^'''.'''S.^l^e Second World Warmest of them Lupescu. Julius Streicher back from the dead (See vol un leered to fight for the AE ?duse Nowadays, cartoon, p.5). however, brainy ( (Other neutral states with economically Erected ingratitude to the citizens of Jewish women carry beneficial links to Nazi Germany, like Sandwich and East Kent more clout than Sweden, Portugal and Spain, still await who. as in the past.welcomed the refugees beautiful ones. The international pressure to yield up secrets proof: Secretary of of their profitable wartime collusion). State Madeleine -TL c • • k I- ,1 ^^^^rr,r,rr.<^ '''"''"' ^"'"""''"ordfmg the accommodation of Jewish refugees at Albright D The Swiss imbrogho recently prompted ^.^orough. Kent, ,n the years prior to World War 11. for which rnembers of I a Times editorial headed 'The best repa- the AJR subscribed in 1971. AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1997 versities of Hamburg, Vienna and Profile Perugia. Eventually he qualified, and set up as a chartered accountant. His was a one-man enterprise, work which totally The filial imperative absorbed him into middle age. His mother had meanwhile filled in the elievers in astrology attach unique gaps in his knowledge of his father's importance to their natal month. quite spectacular career. This made B Of all the people I know Andrew Andrew conceive the ambition of becom­ Merkler is the person with the strongest ing a writer himself - not least because reason for doing so - having been born he wanted to pay tribute to the father in January 1933, birth month of the Nazi whose creative life had been so tragically regime. This malign coincidence cast a curtailed. shadow over his whole subsequent life. The ambition was realised with the Andrew's father, a habitue of Buda­ performance of Unknoivn Author at pest's Literatencafes, wrote plays, film Hampstead's New End Theatre last au­ scripts and song lyrics. Being an accom­ tumn. As ill luck would have it, two other plished wordsmith, he was even asked to Holocaust-related plays - Kindertrans­ continue his work - under a Gentile Andrew Merkler port and Flight into Egypt - were on at pseudonym - after the passage of about the same time. In consequence Vn- Horthy's anti-Jewish laws. behind cowering in the cellar of a Swiss- knotvn Author played to poor houses and Meanwhile the Merkler marriage had protected house which sustained Russian attracted little critical attention. broken up and the mother had gone to bomb damage, but somehow escaped Ar­ Andrew Merkler remains determined, England as a domestic just before the out­ row Cross razzias. nonetheless, to persevere with play- break of war. A year after the war he joined his writing. His resolve is strengthened by the Hungarian Jewry was sucked into the mother in England, where he also had a fact that half a century after the father's inferno late in the war. In the first round­ more distant relative: Alexander Korda. death his films are still treasured by Hun­ up of Jews aged 16 to 60 the father and The film mogul paid for him to be edu­ garian cineastes, and his song lyrics still Andrew's elder brother disappeared for­ cated privately. Later, German restitution remembered by the man in the Budapest ever. Eleven-year-old Andrew was left payments enabled him to attend the uni­ street. D RG - progressing to the floor below for an Memorial Centre in Nottinghamshire, the Imperial War Museum's account of the Holocaust. The project work of Stephen Smith and his family. i team aim to create a unique 'controlled The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the I Holocaust project experience' of some two hours duration, project £12.6 million, and the remaining he Imperial War Museum's plans akin to a documentary film, beginning at £4.5 million has all but been pledged for a Holocaust Exhibition to open one end and concluding at the other. thanks to the Wolfson Foundation, Marks Tin the year 2000 were presented by A huge store of documents, photo- &: Spencer, Harry Djanogly and other the project's director, Suzanne Bardgett, generous benefactors. D Ronald Channing and her research colleague, James Taylor, ACQUISITIONS SOUGHT to AJR management committee members and trustees, senior staff and AJR The Imperial War Museum asks refugees who came to Britain in the members holding responsible positions in AJR other Jewish organisations. 1930s, their children and others, who Last year a Holocaust Project Office may have documents, photographs invites you to a special presentadon was established and architect Stephen and memorabilia of the period in their and discussion of Greenberg and exhibition designer Bob possession whether they would Baxter appointed. An advisory committee consider donating such material to the *In Extremis' comprises Prof. Sir Martin (iilbcrt. Prof. Holocaust Exhibition project. a new play on David Cesarani, Ben Helfgott, documen­ Project Office: 0171 416 5286 Miraculous Moments of Survival tary film-maker Martin Smith, and Tony by the PolyglotTheatre Co. Lerman of Jewish Policy Research. graphs, artifacts and an extensive sound Suzanne Bardgett explained that since archive of testimonies already exists at the Young Vic Theatre, its foundation in 1917 the IWM's ori­ within the Museum. To acquire additional The Cut, SEI ginal commemorative function has material, staff visited museums in Ger­ Wednesday 12th March at 7.15pm changed; today it sees itself as Britain's many, Israel, the Czech Republic, the (Refreshments & meals available) 'museum of 20th century conflict'. Ukraine and USA. Suzanne Bardgett Tickets for unnumbered seats £6 Two floors of a new extension will be favoured the Washington Holocaust devoted exclusively to the Holocaust Museum's "high standard in historical Booking direct for Special AJR Evening - Exhibition. Visitors will enter on an upper understatement", and praised the excel­ 0171 431 6161 floor - covering the years 1933 to 1939 lence of the Beth Shalom Holocaust 4 AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1997 selves to be used in its schools because of Book learning is its emphasis on the individual, the ques­ tions it raises about issues, and the critical NEWTONS not enough thinking skills it fosters.
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