VOLUME 8 NO. 10 OCTOBER 2008 fflfl journal ^^^^1 l^l^l ^ Association of Jewish Refugees

Wartime heroines and celluloid heroines

es Femmes de I'ombre, the original Harbours were conceived and constructed French title of the film Female in Britain; credit for this extraordinary feat Agents currently showing in of engineering inventiveness must go to the L London, invites comparison with British. It is true that an American naval Jean-Paul Melville's 1969 classic L'Armee officer, Edward Ellsberg, played a key part des ombres (Army of Shadows), one of the in ensuring that the Phoenixes functioned finest films about the French Resistance, properly, but he was operating under with a superb performance by Lino Ventura British command and was effectively as the principal character and a supporting ignored by his countrymen. Indeed, so cast including Simone Signoret and Jean- careless were the Americans of the Pierre Cassel. But where Melville's film is a Mulberry Harbour that serviced their gripping, realistic portrayal of the beaches that they allowed it to sink in the underground struggle of the Resistance great storm of 19 June 1944, only days after against the Gestapo and its accomplices, it had been set up. The harbour on the Female Agents is an implausible piece of British beaches continued to function for hokum in which a team of suitably gorgeous eight months, and four million tons of Frenchwomen is recruited in Britain by the supplies, 500,000 vehicles and over 2.5 Special Operations Executive (SOE) to carry million men landed through it. out a mission in France on which the success The real stories of SOE's female of the D-Day landings may depend. operatives are in any case more dramatic, Actually, the film reminded me of the more heroic and more heartrending than the Hollywood war movie The Dirty Dozen lip-gloss theatricals of Female Agents. One (1967, with Lee Marvin), a rousing piece of of the most moving is that of Noor Inayat box-office escapism in which a team of Khan (Nora Baker), bom in Russia of Indian Odette Hallowes, G.C. suitably villainous American soldier- Muslim princely descent in 1914 and convicts is recruited in Britain to carry out French films and documentaries. The female educated in France, who was parachuted a mission on which etc etc. agents in this film, though SOE operatives into France in June 1943 as a wireless Female Agents struck me as an example and therefore under British command, are operator and was captured by the Germans. of the reluctance of the French to improbably transported to France from a US When the head of F (for France) Section of acknowledge properly the vital contribution Air Force base on an American plane, not SOE, Vera Atkins, went to Europe after the made by British forces to the liberation of on the usual RAF Lysander. The film's plot war to search for her missing agents, she France. Like other nations, the French prefer revolves around the Mulberry Harbours, the assumed that Noor had shared the fate of to dwell on the heroic role of their own floating harbours that were towed across the Diana Rowden, Vera Leigh and Andree forces, the Free French and the Resistance, Channel to the Normandy beachheads, Borel, agents who after their capture were and they freely recognise the part played where they were used to land the supplies taken to Natzweiler concentration camp in by the Americans in 1944 - there's no shame without which the soldiers could not fight. Alsace, where they were drugged and in being liberated by a transatlantic The name Mulberry Harbour is never shoved, still alive, into a furnace. Only later superpower. But the contrast between the mentioned in the film, though it is obvious did Atkins discover that Noor had survived, humiliated France which was defeated in to anyone familiar with the D-Day landings revealing nothing to her captors, until 1940 and occupied until 1944 and the what the mysterious constructions are. September 1944, when she was taken to victorious Britain which defied Hitler in 1940 Instead, the film refers to 'Phoenixes', the Dachau concentration camp and murdered. and liberated much of North-Western name for the harbours' concrete caissons, The heroic stories of the women agents Europe in 1944-45 is evidently too much for which it claims to have been constructed by of SOE make compelling reading. The most Gallic pride to bear. Americans for the 'American invasion'. But famous was Odette Hallowes (Odette So the British contribution to the as the naval side of the D-Day landings was Churchill), a Frenchwoman married to an Normandy campaign is often minimised in a British responsibility, the two Mulberry continued overleaf AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

German-Jewish refugees on the BBC 70th Anniversary of ugust 2008 saw two notable members sought urgently to emigrate. the Kindertransport commemorations by the BBC of the Jerry Springer's parents obtained a German-Jewish refugee experience. British visa thanks to a lady who was willing On 21 November 1938 the AOn 27 August, BBC TV devoted a to act as guarantor for them, and arrived in British Parliament made a historic programme in the series 'Who Do You Britain shortly before war broke out. As the decision to allow 10,000 children Think You Are?' to Jerry Springer, bom in programme shows very movingly, the older from Europe entry into the UK. North-West London in 1944 to Jewish generation of the grandparents were unable This decision saved their lives. parents who had fled to Britain from Berlin to emigrate and were left defenceless to face Join the Kinder, 70 years on, to in 1939. The family stayed in London for their fate under the Nazis. Springer's celebrate this unique event ten years before emigrating to the USA. parents, however, were happy in England, Sunday 23 November 2008 As readers who have seen the finding life in Hampstead Garden Suburb JFS School Harrow 10 am - 5 pm programme will know, I made a brief congenial despite the bombing and the in the presence of appearance in it, as the AJR's historical hazards of war. It was only fear of a third The Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks world war empting in Europe that drove expert on the Jewish refugees who settled and them to re-emigrate to the USA; otherwise in Britain after 1933. I filmed with Jerry The Minister for Home Affairs Jerry Springer would have grown up a good Springer for about two hours last autumn The Right Honourable Hampstead Garden Suburb boy. in Golders Hill Park, trying to recreate his Tony McNulty MP family's experiences in London and to relate From Monday 18 August to Friday 22 their story to the general history of the August, Week 5 of BBC Radio 4's 'Writing The keynote address will be given refugees from Hitler in Britain. As the the Century' dramatised two sets of letters, by the eminent historian excellent director of the programme. Sue one of which was the correspondence Sir Martin Gilbert on 'The British Hills, effectively let me interview Jerry between the young Marianne Josephy, a Government, the British People Springer, I found it a nerve-wracking but Jewish girl bom in Rostock in 1923 who had and the Kinder rewarding experience. come to Britain on a Kindertransport in Sir Martin recently visited Lady The Springers were classic German- 1939, and her parents back in Germany. The Thatcher to discuss her recollections Jewish refugees. Originally from what is letters were taken from the collection of the Jewish girl to whom she and now Poland, the family had settled in Berlin, published by Marianne Elsley (the married her family gave a home in 1939. where Jerry Springer's father ran his own Marianne Josephy), Voices in the Night: Other highlights of the day include: business. Though conscious of their Jewish Letters from My Parents: 1939-44 An interview by Edwina Curry origins, they had assimilated culturally and (Deddington, Oxon: The Old House Press, with the founder of the occupationally into the German middle class 1995), and are deeply moving. Franz and Kindertransport Reunion and were probably largely indistinguishable Edith Josephy remained in Berlin until 1943, Bertha Leverton OBE from their gentile environment. They stayed when they were sent to Theresienstadt; they 'Question Time' in Germany after 1933 but, with the were deported to Auschwitz on 28 October with a panel of Kinder! intensification of anti-Semitic measures by 1944. I am pleased to say that I the Nazis after the Kristallnacht pogrom of recommended the letters to the BBC. A Klezmer Concert November 1938, the younger family Anthony Grenville by the amazing Jewish music quartet SHIR WARTIME flEROINES continued from page I Tickets, including lunch, £70 from Andrea Goodmaker Englishman, who worked as a wireless Pearl Witherington, another apparently on 020 8385 3070 operator with Captain Peter Churchill, was ordinary woman from an Anglo-French Closing date for applications arrested near Annecy in April 1943, background who proved capable of to attend: 1 November withstood Gestapo torture and survived remarkable courage and initiative, died only Kinder, their next generations Ravensbruck concentration camp; her story last year. Parachuted into France in 1943 as and families, come and celebrate was told in the film Odette (1950, with Anna a courier aged 27, she took charge of a this special occasion, probably Neagle). The exploits of Violette Szabo, bom thousand Maquisards when her organiser for the last time! in Paris to a British father, who was twice was captured in May 1944, cutting railway sent on missions to France in 1944 at the lines to assist the D-Day landings and age of 23 and helped organise and lead inflicting losses on the Germans that AJR Directors French resistance networks, were com­ exceeded 1,000 dead. As so often, the story Gordon Greenfield Michael Newman memorated in the film Carve Her Name with of resistance to Nazism has a Jewish Carol Rossen Pride (1953, with Virginia McKenna); after dimension. Amazingly, Vera Atkins, as AJR Heads of Department her capture in June 1944, Szabo withstood revealed in Sarah Helm's engrossing study Susie Kaufman Organiser. AjR Centre appalling treatment by the Gestapo without AJR Journal A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor talking. She was shot at Ravensbruck con­ and the Lost Agents of SOE, was bora Vera Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements centration camp in Febmary 1945, leaving Rosenberg, a Romanian Jew, and Jean-Paul a small daughter by her French husband, Melville was bom in 1917 as Jean-Paul Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not Etienne Szabo, who had himself fallen in Gmmbach, a Jew of Alsatian descent. necessarily those of the Association of Jewish Refugees and should not be regarded as such. North Africa in 1942. Anthony Grenville AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

The proletariat unleashed: NEWTONS Vienna's Jews and the comrades Leading Hampstead Solicitors advise on Property, Wills, Family Trusts ictor Adler, a Jew, founded the many who had professed to be ardent and Charitable Trusts Austrian Social Democratic Party social democrats, had been on the best V in 1889 and became its first of terms with their Jewish acquaint­ French and German spoken leader He died in 1918, to be succeeded ances, and in many cases had shown IHome visits arranged by Otto Bauer, also a Jew. Indeed, it was them great kindness, turned up in Nazi Jewish liberal thinking that shaped uniforms or proudly wore the badge 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, much of the party's policies. which only former 'illegals' were London NWS SNB Although in 1920 the socialists did awarded. This was true not only of blue- not have an overall majority in the collar workers but also of professionals Tel: 020 7435 5351 country, 60 per cent of the Viennese like doctors and teachers. Fax: 020 7435 8881 voted for them, and Red Vienna was What Hitler offered the working class born. It was Vienna, a province in its was notjust employment and a dashing own right, which was to be their New uniform, but something they found Jerusalem. They started on an innova­ irresistible: power They, who had been tive municipal building programme, of nobodies, often unemployed and ill- which the Karl-Marx Hof in Heiligen- educated, were now empowered to stadt was the most ambitious example. despise a whole group of people who, JACKMAN • They reformed and liberalised schools. they were told, were not just inferior SILVERMAN Kindergarten, nursery care and work­ to them but poisonous vermin, no COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS ers' education classes were all top longer protected by the law. Like all priorities. Julius Tandler, an eminent converts, the former comrades had to physician and also a Jew, who was the prove themselves by displaying extra city councillor for health and social zeal in taunting and humiliating Jews. services, introduced free medical care For the first time, they felt they had truly and greatly improved the city's health. lost their chains. 26 Conduit Street Regular visits to free dental clinics were The proletariat unleashed was not a London WIR 9TA compulsory for primary school pupils. pretty sight. Reports of vicious attacks The Social Democrats were the on Jews immedlately after the Anschluss, Telephone: 020 7409 0771 natural home for Austrian Jews, applauded by onlookers, circulated in Fax: 020 7493 8017 although some, nervous about the the foreign press. 'Marxist' element, chose to vote for the There can be no doubt that most Christian Socials, despite the party's Austrians welcomed the arrival of the inbuilt anti-Semitism. Nazi era, but the church-going At the age of 12, spurred on by my bourgeoisie, who had always supported best friend, Lisl, both of whose parents the Christian Socials, showed greater AUSTRIAN and GERMAN were active members of the Social restraint. They may have been more PENSIONS Democratic Party (and were later to squeamish or inhibited by their religious perish in the camps), I was briefly a beliefs. PROPERTY member of the League of Socialist The most paradoxical was the attitude RESTITUTION CLAIMS Grammar School Pupils. On May Day we of some former illegal Nazis, of which EAST GERMANY - BERLIN marched along the Ring, singing stirring our lodger, Fraulein Oeser, was a typical songs, reminding the working class of example. Although a civil servant, she On instructions our office will the need for solidarity. had been a member of the Nazi Party assist to deal with your Alas, the socialist dream didn't last for years - yet it never seemed to bother applications and pursue the long. By the early 1930s, with massive her that she was living with us, matter with the authorities unemployment and an acute housing practically a member of the family, at shortage, it had already turned sour and the same time. Like so many others, she For further information in February 1934, after a brief but had been beguiled by the vision of a and an appointment bloody civil war, it was ended brutally Greater Germany led by the Fuhrer with please contact: by the victorious Dollfuss, who declared the piercing blue eyes. That her Jews the Social Democratic Party illegal. might come to any harm had never ICS CLAIMS So, what about the non-Jewish occurred to her. 707 High Road, Finchley comrades? Some of them remained Despite everything that happened in London N12 OBT loyal to the socialist ideal, but many Austria between 1938 and 1945, I'm joined the also illegal Nazi Party, which still grateful to all the people, Jews and Tel: 020 8492 0555 swelled and flourished underground non-Jews, who made the city in which Fax: 020 8348 4959 between 1934 and 1938. I grew up a better place to live in. Email: [email protected] Sadly, at the time of the Anschluss, Edith Argy A|R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

Calling all ex-Hamburgers!

ecently my wife Carol and I Meinhardt had arranged a full programme conducted entirely in Hebrew and accompanied our friend Gerd which included, on most days, a few rest attended mainly by a smattering of R Nathan on his sentimental journey periods in the early afternoon. The week­ Russian Jews. to Hamburg, the city of his birth, at the end was free and enabled us to make Apart from this Jewish dimension, we invitation of the Senat of the Freien und individual visits, such as to the district in were taken on a tour of the city, which Hansestadt. It was the latest of a number which Gerd had lived as a child - pretty was immensely impressive with its lakes of visits, lasting the best part of a week, well undamaged in the war and with the (the Alster), canals, harbour and trees, on organised for those driven from Hamburg house in which his parents had a flat, and boat trips in the harbour, now a massive during the Nazi period. Other German other landmarks, left wholly intact. We container port, as well as on the lake and cities, prominent among them Berlin, learned a great deal about Jewish life in its canals, and a visit to the Hamburg State invite their former citizens in the same the city before the war by visiting the Opera to hear Madame Butterfly. We were way as an act of reconciliation and of Talmud Tora Schule, which now provides entertained to lunch in the Rathaus and making amends. This one was organised offices for the Jewish community (some greeted with warmth by the second with loving care and great thoughtfulness 3,000-strong) and a Jewish Kindergarten, Burgermeisterin, Frau Christa Goetsch, by Frau Carola Meinhardt, working in the as well as the former Jewish Tochterschule who heads the Green Party, which recently Senatskanzlei, whose responsibility it is to and Gedenk- und Bildungsstatte (Dr Alberto formed a coalition with the Christian arrange the visits to Hamburg and to Jonas Haus), where we saw a poignant Democrats. Gerd was accorded the create a meaningful programme of exhibition illustrating the life and fate of honour on this occasion of expressing our sightseeing, visits and events. the Jewish population before the war thanks for all this wonderful hospitality. There were 22 of us, though only seven We also visited the Jewish cemeteries We were taken everywhere by coach, were ex-Hamburgers; the rest were part­ in Ohlsdorf and Langenfelde, both of accompanied by Frau Ulrike Schroder, a ners or accompanying persons or family which, astonishingly, had been left knowledgeable and empathetic tour members. They came from the USA, Israel, undisturbed by the Nazis, and several of guide who spoke excellent English. Our Nigeria and the UK and included one the ex-Hamburgers, including Gerd, were tour of the city included a stop at the site concentration camp survivor with a hor­ able to visit the graves of their relatives. of the Hannoversche Bahnhof, where a rendous history of incarceration. The visits (For me, one of the highlights were the large plaque served as a reminder of the commenced in 1972 and (at the time of 37 magnificent stained-glass windows in deportation of hundreds of Jews to Riga writing) there is to be another one later Ohlsdorf crematorium, created in the and other destinations. this year Frau Meinhardt would be glad 1930s by Ervin Bossanyi, a Hungarian Jew The Senat covers travel expenses for to hear of any ex-Hamburger who has not whose son I got to know many years ago each ex-Hamburger and one companion, yet been on one of these visits and would at the University of Southampton.) We the cost of the hotel rooms and a daily welcome an invitation. Her address is: met and had discussions with young allowance of 25 Euros. Frau Meinhardt is Senat der Freien und Hansestadt Ham­ people from a Haupt- und Realschule who due to retire in two years and, while the burg, Senatskanzlei-Staatsamt ST 26, were very interested to hear about programme will no doubt continue, I Postfach 10 55 20, 20038 Hamburg, individual histories, and met students would advise a visit under her Germany. Her email address is: carrying out research on those Hamburg stewardship, as I cannot imagine that [email protected] Jews who had been deported to Riga. This anyone could possibly equal her in the The week was extremely interesting, was based in part on close inspection of excellence of the arrangements. informative and enjoyable. We were the Stolpersteine laid down for such Leslie Baruch Brent accommodated in a 5-star hotel in the people. A few of us opted to attend the middle of the city, not far from the Friday evening service in a beautiful Sadly, Gerd Nathan died on 12 September modern synagogue - an orthodox service Michaeliskirche and the Rathaus, and Frau An obituary will follow (LBB).

Old ferities revisited - fttetfiories of a school confrontution

r Olinski was form master in stairs and involved Mr Olinski and a senior worse still - draw his dagger? I need not my third and fourth years at pupil, who was attired in full Hitler Youth have worried. After a momentary hesi­ Mthe Volksschule in Elbing, my uniform, complete with dagger. This tation, he tamely slunk out of sight. Mr place of birth. Pupils and parents were in young Nazi towered over the teacher by Olinski nonchalantly strode away with a awe of him. He was middle-aged, well more than a head, adding a certain air of look of 'all in the day's work' written over dressed in sober suits, short of stature, menace. I was never to know the his face. Whether the Nazi establishment broad, bald, bespectacled, bull-necked, a substance of their argument. Suffice it to took their revenge in due course, I was dedicated teacher and, of course, an say that the next thing that occurred was never to find out. 'aryan'. At times, when too many voices a most resounding smack delivered by Mr What is certain is that the brief scene I in the class were clamouring for his Olinski to an ear of the colossus. Only have described gave a boost to my morale attention, he might exclaim in mock briefly did I marvel at the consummate at the time, though Mr Olinski would have exasperation 'Olinski hier, Olinski da, skill with which the chastisement against been totally unaware of this particular Olinski in Amerika!', but deep down we a steep 'uphill' gradient was delivered. beneficial fall-out from his action. For this, all knew he liked nothing better than to My thoughts concentrated on what as for his pedagogic prowess, I keep this be in demand. might happen next. How would the Nazi teacher of the 'old school' in grateful One day in 1934, I was witness to a lad respond? Would he flatten the master memory. confrontation. It happened on the school with one mighty blow from above or - Klaus Heymann AJR JOURNAL OCTOBER 2008 s of V Jn memory his is the true story of my cousin s found that all her family, including her Lisa Pollack (Liza Prylova), born in r cousin Lisa husband, had perished - but her little T1921 in Prague. Her mother- my brother, now a teenager, had survived! aunt - died giving life to her daughter, I by SusaSusanni e Medas I She decided to forego her opportunity but her paternal grandmother and four to study languages - her love - to seek uncles gave her a good start in life until whatever work she could to enable her her father, hard at work in the capital, brother to complete his education. remarried so he could ensure Lisa's Honza was later able to study and is further development and give her a now happily married and lives in good education. Germany. Lisa was then five. She and her Lisa, who spoke German, Czech, stepmother became good friends, even English and French, found a niche in more so when Honza, her half-brother, what soon became communist Czecho­ was born. Lisa was adored by all - a slovakia. She remarried but, as a result gifted child, excelling in sports and of her trials in concentration camps, languages, with hopes of an academic was unable to have children. I didn't career She attended both Czech and know that any of my own family had German schools and hoped to study survived until she gave me good news languages. of four other cousins. With her help, I When the Germans invaded Czecho­ met them all again in due course. slovakia, entrance to Charles University We got to know each other well. I was denied her Emigration for the then spent more and more time in Prague 18-year-oid was no longer a possibility: and was with her in the summer of she had fallen in love with Otto, a newly 1994 when she became ill with cancer qualified doctor, and, when Jews had In January 1995 I phoned her from to vacate their homes, her father man­ London, as I did often. Herta answered aged to squeeze 14 people into their Lisa the phone. It seems that Lisa, now living small flat, including the young doctor I was one of the lucky ones - alone, had begged Herta to come to and his mother Kindertransport to England in 1939. I Prague to look after her at home, which The flat was in a house overlooking knew nothing of Lisa's fate until 1982. of course she did. Herta told me they the wooden hut to which Jews were We met in Crete and later in Prague. At were waiting for the ambulance to take brought from all over Prague before this time, she began to tell meher life Lisa to hospital. Four days later, Lisa died boarding the nearby trains to story. She was unable to write it down - in the arms of the woman who had Theresienstadt - all 14 of them having before she died and now is the time to saved her life exactly 50 years earlier. to witness this from their window until do so in her memory. it was their turn. Lisa was on one ofthe death marches To remain together, Lisa and Otto from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen which tKracing |9our iSncesitrp married and, once in this camp, were began in January 1945. People were 'allowed' to see each other for 20 dying daily. Everyone knew how much 'Ancestral Footsteps' offers you minutes a day. Lisa took charge of a time was left to them before they too the opportunity to retrace your group of small children while their were bound to die. When the last group family's history in person. It mothers were at work. Soon the young of prisoners from Auschwitz arrived, investigates clients' family history doctor was told he was needed else­ Lisa's friend Herta was among them. She using genealogical researchers where - and he left for an unknown recognised Lisa, who was barely alive. and historians, then uses this destination. Lisa was informed that if She wanted to give her her own small information to create an individu­ she 'volunteered' for the next transport, ration of water, but Lisa wouldn't take ally customised journey in which she would be reunited with her hus­ it, saying 'Please, Herta, drink it yourself. clients spend a week discovering band. This meant leaving her parents, You stand a better chance of surviving - their past. Each journey includes a her brother and her mother-in-law I only have a few hours to live.' researcher-guide and luxury travel behind. Fortunately, she was warned by But Herta insisted on helping her arrangements. a friend that it was unlikely that she friend and the following day - 15 April Prices start at £5,000 per person would be able to see Otto and she stayed 1945 - British troops freed the camp! for a family of 4 travelling in Theresienstadt for the time being. With other survivors, Lisa was taken But she didn't escape Auschwitz. to the hospital which had been used together. Came the time when most adults were by their captors - clean sheets, nurses Consult transported there, leaving many of their in white caps and aprons, loving care. www.ancestralfootsteps.com or small charges behind. In Auschwitz she As she recovered, she asked herself over contact Sue Hills (Director for BBC shared a bunk with a Moravian girl by and over again why she had been TV's Who Do You Think You Are?) the name of Herta - who later saved spared. on 01227 281 222. her life. On her return to her home town, she A|R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

teacher in a local grammar school. Once, the parents of a Jewish gid in the class objected strongly and wanted the play taken off the syllabus. The school reached The Editor reserves the right an English compromise whereby I con­ to shorten correspondence tinued to teach it but the Jewish girl was submitted for publication excused the lessons on it. Unlike Dr Grenville, I do not see an 'irreducible core of villainy' in Shylock. In fact, I sympathise with him. He hates the Christians, as well he might. He makes his living charging interest on loans and sees AUSTRIANS REVISITED nothing wrong in this, any more than My hope is that one (or more!) of your modern bankers do. He sees a way of Sir - I am dismayed to find letters from readers may remember something about revenging himself when he strikes a readers who are eager to embrace the this remarkable woman, the dynamic force bargain with Antonio. Antonio doesn't take cuddly Lederhosen-clad Austrians, yearn for in the fashion house Schwestern Floge, the bond seriously, but Shylock does the Tyrolean mountains, and hunker after which she created with her two sisters in because he is a man of principle. He follows such delights as Sachertorte - all this, while Vienna in 1904. the law - to the letter Shakespeare depicts survivors are still around. One Located at Mariahilferstrasse lb in the him as a just man, but brings on Portia to correspondent praises the country for its Casa Piccola building (now opposite the say that justice should be tempered with laudable changes after only one week's stay Mariahilf entrance to MuseumsQuartier), mercy. 'Mercy' is what the play is about. I there and must be blissfully unaware that their clientele included Clarisse Rothschild, am not Jewish, though my husband was. Jbrg Haider is currently gaining support for Serena Lederer, Sonja Knips and many more Maybe this is why I see the play differently. a comeback. from Vienna's haute bourgeoisie. Netta Goldsmith I am amazed at the short memories of Schwestern Floge flourished until the Tunbridge Wells, Kent those who ought to know better Austria Anschluss. Emilie and her niece Helene has always maintained it was the victim of Donner (nee Klimt) moved to Ungargasse HATE SLOGANS Nazi-German aggression yet they were its 39, Vienna, but spent most of the war years Sir - As a side comment to Eric Saunders's most enthusiastic supporters as well as some in Weissenbach, Attersee before returning remark (May) that he does not recall certain of the most odious war criminals, starting in 1946 to Vienna, where Emilie died. anti-Jewish hate slogans, I certainly do, with Hitler himself. Austrians formed only I have been researching ELF for a num­ having arrived in London as a ten-year-old about 5 per cent of the Reich's population ber of years. There are many unanswered with the Kindertransport. This is what they yet a vastly disproportionate number of the questions about her relationships, business shouted: SS were Austrian by birth. and personal alike. If any readers knew her, Heil Schussnig, unser Fuhrer According to the historian Hans or know someone who did, please contact Das Volk wird immer dijrrer Marsaiek, Reinhard Heydrich's department me. Paul H. Simpson Die Juden immer fetter divided the concentration camp system into Colwinston, Vale of Glamorgan Heil Hitler unser Retter categories of ascending severity. At the top, tel +44(0)1656 657 219 Henry Herner, Caracas, Venezuela way above Auschwitz, were the vicious [email protected] facilities of Mauthausen and Gusen, situ­ SECOND GENERATION TV ated in densely populated areas of Austria VIENNESE TART PROGRAMME 'NEGATIVE' and in full view of the locals, who simply Sir - I refer to Paul Samet's article in the Sir - Like Sue Rutherford (August, Letters) didn't care. To this hell were assigned the August issue on Josefine Mutzenbacher: I found the recent BBC4 programme on the 'severely charged, unreformable criminals The Autobiography of a Viennese Prostitute second generation very negative. My and asocials', like my poor, gentle father as Told by Herself. Viewed at its lowest parents fled Vienna just before the war and three devoted brothers. It is also no level, this book is a piece of unadulterated broke out after a very difficult time. My coincidence that the cruellest SS and paedophilic pornography. maternal grandparents fled to Palestine Gestapo sadists in my hometown in Poland My attention was first drawn to the and my mother never saw her father again were Viennese, as was the local camp com­ book some four years ago by an and her mother only once. As for my mandant Zwierzyna, an Austrian with a enthusiastic article in the Kurier in Vienna father, his parents and siblings perished in Polish-sounding name. and I got a hard-back copy direct from Poland. Yet neither of my parents was I can only think that the difference in bol.de in Germany. traumatised. They gave me a huge amount this willingness to promote everything The author of the book, Felix Salten, of love and affection. They certainly did not Austrian - when it isn't even solicited - lies moved in the same circles as Sigmund - unlike some of the participants in the between those who were happily Freud, Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, all programme - speak of not feeling at home ensconced in this country during the war of whom had some interest in pre- here: they always spoke of their gratitude and those who were unlucky enough to be pubescent sexuality. At a higher level, the at being allowed to enter the safety of this trapped in Europe. publication could well be regarded as a country and how good people had been Rubin Katz, London NWl 1 treatise on the subject and a serious study to them. No men were interviewed in this of this behaviour in children and its effect programme - I wonder what this signifies. EMILIE LOUISE FLOGE - ELF on adults. Freud in particular describes a Thea Valman, London NWl 1 Sir - Austria's most famous fashion number of observations in this context designer is probably better known as the which helped him understand the results THE BRITAIN WE LIVE IN companion, or muse, of Austria's most of his regression therapy. Sir - I didn't much care for Roman Licht's famous painter, Gustav Klimt. In her time What is it about Austrians? Freud and grudging remark 'Yes, Britain fought quite she rivalled Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli Salten were Jewish, but the others and well against the Germans ...' (August, for haute couture designs which adorned those in the more recent bits of Austrian Letters). Vienna's urban elite for over 30 years. Yet notoriety (Priklopil and Fritzi) were not. With the bulk of Continental Europe in little is known about Emilie Louise Floge - Stefan Ruff, York German hands, we fought on alone, at the ELF (1874-1952). Had it not been for Klimt's same time keeping up the spirits of those comparatively recent meteoric rise to SHYLOCK A MAN OF PRINCIPLE living under German occupation. The super­ become one of the world's most prized Sir - I was particularly struck by Anthony human efforts of those involved in the painters, only the Austrian cognoscenti and Grenville's comments on The Merchant of Battle of Britain (airmen and planners alike) students of fin-de-siecle Vienna would have Venice (September). I read the play with stopped Hitler from his invasion plans. Our known anything about her classes several times while I was an English brave seamen and airmen prevented the AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

Germans from seizing Malta by supplying Sir - Coming from Vienna and having been with PM Olmert {Ha'Aretz, 29 November her through the convoys which were un­ at Oxford in the eady Fifties, I realise that 2007) that a failure of the present peace der constant attack and suffered heavy these two facts are not in themselves a talks will ultimately result in a one-state losses. My husband was torpedoed in the guarantee against spreading the right-wing solution with Jews being in the minority. course of such a convoy, but miraculously claptrap that is now all the rage. Nor do I The extension of the illegal settlements, the survived. As if we did not have enough on need to prove my Zionist credentials, hav­ destruction of Palestinian homes, the our plates, we helped Russia by supplying ing spent two years in Israel by choice. Nor building of the illegal wall in occupied her via the North Atlantic convoys! am I a member of Jews for a Just Peace or territory, the increase of checkpoints Among other things, the country's Alternative Jewish Voices. preventing the movement of people from 'brains' broke the German secret codes and The present label for those who take village to village - all these make a two- devised radar, all of which helped us to beat exception to a particular failure by the state state solution increasingly difficult. If those a formidable enemy. Throughout these of Israel to observe its own laws is, accord­ who criticise us want the state of Israel to difficult times the people of this country ing to Peter Phillips (August issue), 'Jewish continue, they should join us instead of pulled together and, what's more, never anti-Semite'. Fifteen years ago, it was 'Oslo continuing their doctrinaire support of the lost their sense of humour The attitude of criminal', a favourite epithet of the right. government of Israel come what may. the British government to the problem of Is one a Jewish anti-Semite for Peter Prager. London N12 Palestine cannot detract from the fact that denouncing the Israeli army's prevention democracy was kept alive in this tiny island of 250 Peace Now supporters from visiting Sir - Will you please reduce the publication through superhuman efforts - even before Hebron and failing to prevent attacks on of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel letters by the the Americans came to help us. them by Hebron settlers? For applauding same people. Bronia Snow, Esher the actions of Israeli Human Rights J. Herzog, London SW3 organisation B'Tselem in supplying ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS cameras to Arab farmers in the West Bank DEADLY WEAPON Sir - Despite my age of 82, I am not in my so they can take pictures of settlers Sir - Victor Ross (July) brings back dotage and am still able to tell an apple beating them? For drawing attention to memories of the cosh - exactly as he from a pear (September, Letters), unlike the attempts by Professor Friedmann, describes it - and a revolver (and a horse!), your correspondents K. G. Speyer, Heinz Israeli Ministerof Justice, to emasculate the which my father brought back from the Grunwald and the 'brave' Inge Trott, who Israeli Supreme Court in its efforts to First WoHd War My mother wanted to get cannot see that common-or-garden anti- maintain human and civil rights in Israel rid of these items in case our house was Semitism, while still not salonfahig, has and the Territories? searched. We wrapped it all in a newspaper, progressed in some circles into its new Hillel said: 'Do not do unto others what took it to the River Weser and dropped it manifestation of Israel-bashing. you would not like others to do unto you.' in the deepest part of the river, where no Over the centuries, anti-Semitism has If that means being branded a Jewish anti- doubt it lies today. changed from the religious to the political Semite, so be it. Liselotte Southam, Guildford, Surrey to racial discrimination and, in all its Fred Barshak, London NW6 previous forms, some Jews have supported our detractors - nothing has basically Sir - I was more than a little surprised to changed. Ernest G. Kolman read Peter Phillips's attack on those who SPRING Greenford, Middx criticise the activities of the Israeli state and the IDF regarding its treatment of the Arab GROVE Sir - One does not have to look at events residents of the West Bank. As a son of a in the immediate postwar period regard­ refugee who escaped from Hitler's Ger­ 214 Finchley Road ing population shifts in Europe as referred many to this country, it is clear that one of London NWS to by Henry Schragenheim (September). It the prime differences between.the two London's Most Luxurious is happening before our very eyes - except countries is that, in Germany, attacking the that the media chooses to ignore it - in government in any way was an extremely RETIREMENT HOME South Ossetia/Abkhazia, courtesy of the dangerous activity. In the UK, one has only • Entertainment - Activities Russian occupation. And that is the vital to pick up a paper any day of the week to difference: the Western media is given full read attacks on the government and the • Stress Free Living access to every place in Israel/West Bank military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine and relishes its role as so-called protector It's called a democracy. As for suggesting • Full En-Suite Facilities of the Arab population (aided and abet­ that the Israeli state does nothing that Call for more information ted by some of your readers, who regard deserves criticism, one of my Israeli cousins or a personal tour themselves as liberals). The UN as ever is has been helping poor West Bank villagers not to be seen - it is too busy condemning for many years. 020 8446 2117 or 020 7794 4455 Israel for its alleged offences, most of Steven Schrier, Hayling Island which are trumped-up/stage-managed. [email protected] Peter Simpson, Jerusalem Sir - We are aware of Israel's achievements in a wide range of fields. However, it took Sir - Henry Schragenheim hit the nail on a wrong turn after the Six-Day War in its the head with his common sense and policy of establishing settlements beyond WANTED TO BUY factual comments. the 'Green Line'. Peter Phillips's response - When I took part in a documentary for and sadly so much of the Israeli response - German TV, the German director also said to the Palestinian uprising is: (a) We've got German and he could not understand the constant talk to defend ourselves; (b) Much of the world about Israel's occupied territories. His is against us; (c) We haven't got anybody English Books family came from a part of Germany which to talk to - the Palestinians have only them­ Bookdealer, AJR member, was now Poland. In his opinion, the selves to blame for the mess they're in. Mr welcomes invitations to view and aggressors had to take the consequences. Phillips and I seem to live in different wodds purchase valuable books. If Inge Trott was not so blindly against despite our Austrian origins. Israel but prepared to see the faults on both Meir Weiss, Reading Rot>ert Hornung sides and the history leading up to this 10 Mount View, Ealing Sir - As a signatory to Jews for Justice to situation, there would be room for London W5 IPR Palestinians, I reject Rubin Katz's allegation discussion. But one has to be prepared to Email: [email protected] be even-handed. (July) that we 'espouse the Palestinian Tel: 020 8998 0546 Gisela Feldman, Manchester cause at the expense of Israel.' We agree However, the man who freed slaves and grieved at the death of his young Greek lover, Antinous, was to the Jews a hideous REVIEWS antisemite, a Hitlerian prototype. The Israel NOTES Museum has provided moving evidence of A moving family memoir Gloria Tessler life for the Jews hidden in the Cave of Letters, MY FATHER'S ROSES: ONE FAMILY, west of the Dead Sea, including bronze TWO WARS, THREE GENERATIONS implements and utensils, rough knives and DIVIDED BY FATE AND BOUND keys, coins on which Hadrian's head is THROUGH LOVE adrian - may his bones rot' was daringly over-struck with Temple and other by Nancy Kohner the Hebrew curse against the Jewish motifs, including a perfect cut glass Hodder and Stoughton, 2008, 304 pp. Roman emperor during Bar Hi bowl, all preserved by the climate of the hardcover Kochba's revolt in AD 132. Sixty years after Judean desert. The revolt of Bar-Kochba, ancy Kohner's father Rudi came to Masada, Hadrian quashed Jewish Son of the Star, was finally suppressed in Bradford before the war from aspirations for independence in three short AD 136. NCzechoslovakia, but her mother years, killing 580,000 people and razing 985 Wyndham Lewis was an apologist for Olive was a Yorkshire lass. Although Nancy villages. Countless more were starved and Hitler who refused to take Nazi had grown up surrounded by possessions antisemitism seriously. Athough he which Rudi had managed to bring over from home, it was only after his death later recanted, his reputation never that she began to piece together the story recovered. An exhibition of his 58 of his family from the many letters, photos portraits at the National Portrait and journals she found. Gallery describes a confused I too grew up in Bradford. Before the personality of multiple gifts and Second World War Bradford was the wool H fc electrifying personality. He founded centre of the world and many Jewish f^ the Vorticist movement in 1914 and refugees from Germany and Eastern ^^ edited the cult journal Blast, in Europe were grateful to find a new home which he attacked Victorian there. Rudi seems to have put his early life behind him and, as far as I know, had provincialism and prescribed a nothing to do with the Jewish community. pure, English art form. A somewhat Both of my parents came from Germany uncouth Modernist of energy and and German was the lingua franca the wit, Lewis wrote ten books and refugees spoke among themselves. When produced paintings in diverse I started school, I was surprised to find styles in an attempt to recreate the that no one there understood German. Avant-Garde movement which died Many of the things Nancy mentions in the wake of the First World War. about her father are familiar (the Odol His striking portraits of literary mouthwash and the tidily stacked shirts, for instance), but what I found particularly celebs, notably T. S. Eliot, Ezra touching was the tone of the letters from Pound, Stephen Spender, James Rudi's parents to their children - the Joyce and Edith Sitwell, first rather philosophical exhortations to work marked him as an artist of style, hard at school (both boys were sent to rather than substance. He won school in Prague and had to lodge with suffocated in the caves where they took plaudits probably in excess of his talents, friends from the age of ten). I have similar refuge and whose escape route he blocked. particularly from Walter Sickert, who letters from my father, who wrote To ensure that Judea would never rise again, hundreds of letters to me from all over described him as 'the greatest portraitist of Hadrian renamed it Syria-Palestina, the world in his capacity as export this or any other time' for his incisive art- deepening the country's desolation and manager for a textile firm. deco drawing of Dame Rebecca West. economic decline. Rudi had an older brother and sister After illness and poverty softened The British Museum has a natural The brother was called Franz after Franz Lewis's character, his portraits reflected a interest in the man who built a wall from Josef, the Austro-Hungarian emperor He kinder, more compassionate artist at work, fought in the First World War and was Cumbria to South Shields, the furthest reach particularly those of his long-suffering wife, wounded in Italy. The parents had a shop of his empire. In Hadrian: Empire and Froanna. Almost blinded by a terminal brain in Podersam and a beautiful garden. The Conflict (until 26 October), this man of war tumour, his final portrait of T. S. Eliot father, Heinrich, would go every morning is equally a man of culture with a penchant to fetch a rose for his button hole, as did poignantly suggests a mirror of what Lewis for architecture. Hadrian consolidated, Rudi, who was an enthusiastic rose- might have been - a great artist and Nobel rather than expanded, the Roman Empire, grower in Bradford. My father did exactly laureate. and his Roman Pantheon has been famously the same thing. copied, notably in the Museum's own mag­ One terrible letter is written by Franz nificent Reading Room, where architectural to his wife in 1939, when the Germans Annely Juda Fine Art had entered the Sudetenland and Edith treasures and sculptural fragments loaned 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) had taken the children to relatives in the from Israel and Europe recreate an exten­ Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 country. Franz, now a lawyer, is trying to sive joumey back to ancient Rome. There is CONTEMPORARY PAINTING tie up his affairs so they can emigrate to an impressive model of Hadrian's luxurious AND SCULPTURE Ireland, but he writes of the difficulties villa, the Tivoli Gardens, just outside Rome. of getting hold of the right people and

8 AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008 overcoming the bureaucratic nightmare. went into hiding. The children needed to religious persecution. In one sense, they What comes over so strongly in this be placed elsewhere and the mothers were welcomed as they were leaving beautifully written book is the deep became the first rescuers, hoping to find countries such as France, with which affection of the family members for each help from neighbours, priests and England was frequently at war A second other and how they try to support one boarding schools. wave came some 100 years later When another Particularly moving are the letters The rescue operation depended on an later they were given full legal status from the mother, Valerie. She was left in active resistance network which enabled there was an outcry, due partly to British Prague and finally died in Treblinka. Her Jews and non-Jews to smuggle the protectionism and partly to anti-French only thought is that her family, who have children away and the clandestine feelings, accompanied by rioting. This emigrated, should be well and happy. Committee for the Defence of the Jews, double standard - offering help to Nancy's desire to identify with the who were instrumental in keeping a people fleeing persecution while family she knew through their letters and system of Jewish households with resenting their presence - has continued photos is compelling. Sadly, she died of children without revealing names and ever since. cancer before the book was published. addresses. As the authors note, on many Catherine Reuben The convents, and in some cases occasions a group of settled refugees orphanages, integrated the children into often resents the arrival of the next wave. existing institutions with a new identity. Quite apart from the feelings of other They frequently experienced difficulties in residents, Jews arriving in England Humanitarian values in the providing additional food in times of towards the end of the nineteenth true sense scarcity. For the children, the sudden century, largely from Poland and Russia, displacement caused much anxiety and were not welcomed by Jews who had HIDDEN CHILDREN OFTHE Vromen comments on the emotional settled here earlier Readers of this journal HOLOCAUST: BELGIAN NUNS AND problems experienced then as well as in are, of course, familiar with the treatment THEIR DARING RESCUE OF YOUNG later life. of refugees from the Nazis. Yes, we were JEWS FROM THE NAZIS The wealth of information regarding given assistance by the 'natives', but there by Suzanne Vromen the motivation of the sisters and, in were also many problems, not least Oxford University Press, 2008, 178 pp. particular, the mother superiors to take internment. For the government, it was a risks for the purpose of saving lives makes question of 'What do we do with the ore than 50 Belgian sisters and heart-warming reading. Humanitarian Jews?' rather than 'How can we help mother superiors have been values in the true sense were their guiding these people avoid persecution and honoured by Yad Vashem as MIi principle and these acts instilled a healing death?' In 1945 residents of Hampstead Righteous among the Nations for their process on the lives of the hidden in their organised a petition requesting the selfless mission to rescue and hide Jewish adulthood. repatriation of the 'aliens of Hampstead' children, often infants, from the relentless Susan Pollack to free up housing for returning ex- round-ups of the Nazis. servicemen. Professor of Sociology Suzanne There have been other, more recent Vromen is herself Belgian-born. Her close arrivals, such as Ugandan Asians and family having escaped to the former refugees from conflicts in many parts of Belgian Congo, she too experienced the A question of double the world. Those seeking asylum have a sudden dislocation and fearful standards tough job. The tidy minds of civil servants atmosphere that pervaded the Jewish RELUCTANT REFUGE: create difficult rules. You must have a valid community following the 1940 German THE STORY OF ASYLUM IN BRITAIN passport and many other documents: occupation. But this book is not only a by Edie Friedman and Reva Klein without these you cannot enter the sociological study of the organisation of country. Yet if you are fleeing real education, health and care for the elderly, The British Library, 2008, 153 pp. persecution you may find it difficult to all of which was the responsibility of the paper, £14.95 obtain such documents. And if you do Church: with penetrating insight, it takes e in this country tend to believe have all these documents, the the reader to the heart of those critical that immigration is a recent immigration officer will often refuse days, when one could almost say that issue. But this little book shows W entry because you cannot be a genuine snatching children away from their us that things have not really changed - asylum-seeker Applying for asylum is a parents moments before the Nazis over several hundred years in fact. lengthy process too. The person seeking knocked on the door was the only hope We must first distinguish between entry has to do everything in a hurry but for their survival. 'refugees' - those who leave their homes the immigration service often takes The terse style underscores not only the to escape persecution - and 'migrants' - weeks, even months, to rule on the case. emotional turmoil of the mother but also those who come seeking better economic While the case is being considered, the the cool, swift reasoning of the escort conditions. An action of the United asylum-seeker is held in a detention who secreted the child to an unknown Nations, in the immediate aftermath of centre, at state expense, without money destination with a new name and a new the existence of large numbers of and not permitted to work. Children, who faith, Catholicism. displaced persons, mainly in Europe, was should be at school, are frequently denied Vromen reveals a world of difficult the establishment of protocols for the such facilities. There is much ignorance choices. By 1942 the round-up of Jews rights of refugees. The basic principles still too - many people seem to believe that had begun and there was hardly any apply, but the overall situation is very most of the world's refugees are in the public outcry from the higher echelons of different. There is much confusion about UK. the churches. The divided population, immigrants, often fostered by the press The authors write passionately and with the Flemish, many of them steeped and politicians. persuasively. One shares their anger at the in the culture of their National League and The first large influx into England after injustices of the UK immigration system with a collaborative fascist ideology, tilted 1066 was that of many thousands of as currently implemented. An informative the survival rate of the Jews in favour of Huguenots at the end of the sixteenth but depressing book. the French-speaking population. About century - Protestants from the Low Paul Samet half of the 60,000 Jews living in Belgium Countries, France and elsewhere fleeing I Reviews continued on page 10] AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

MOMDA\Y MORMIMG MEWS

onday 30 June 2008, the day but worse, the government generously ies and the hospitals are increasingly in­ after a huge celebration by awards our money to African nations undated with people who have not MJewish people on Trafalgar which support that monstrous regime. contributed to the cost of running them. Square for the 60th anniversary of the Also, yet more youths were reported The only solution, apparently, is to throw State of Israel, was marked by deafening to have been killed on the streets of more of our money at these institutions. silence on television and other media, Britain and more British soldiers have died To cap it all, one bank after another is supported by our money. Not a word in Afghanistan - for Queen and country! begging us for billions, responsible for about the enthusiasm or the speeches by That state produces the vast majority of bringing the world's economy to its knees the Chief Rabbi, the Mayor of London and the world's drugs, which support and by sheer mismanagement, misjudgement others - instead, an article appeared about increase the numbers of marauders whom and incompetence and blaming one an­ a demonstration by opponents! Other Britain's youth is fighting. Those drugs other for their own failures. They have lost news, however, made the headlines. cost unaccountable lives throughout the our trust and confidence. With unprec­ On that day, Mugabe, who has been world, as well as vast amounts of our edented audacity they ask us to rescue sworn in as president of Zimbabwe for money in hunting down their users and them with our money. They have failed, the sixth time, was welcomed by African distributors. The destruction of Afghani­ demonstrating their inability to foresee leaders at their gathering in Sharm el stan's odious industry at its source would the obvious consequences, demonstrat­ Sheikh, once captured and returned by end this disastrous practice at a stroke. ing their ineptitude yet again. The Israeli forces. His continuing tenure of The media were also celebrating the inevitably ensuing universal turmoil they office, following the sham election, could 60th anniversary of the health service, after have created is happening before our be terminated instantly by sequestrating earlier predicting its total collapse. All the eyes. The future is bleak indeed. his worldwide bank accounts. Words by government's optimistic speeches will not The occasional good weather is the British and other leaders have no effect - produce any improvements. The surger- British contribution to global warming. Ir­ respective, it is no wonder that more and more of the indigenous population are REVIEWS continued from page 9 leaving this country, making room for oth­ ers with our money. Yet where do we 'What we believe we create' brothers and other community members, scarcely referring to his feelings then or go? Israel is probably the safest country MY HOMETOWN CONCENTRATION in retrospect. in the woHd, but language and heat may CAMP: A SURVIVOR'S ACCOUNT OF Settled in the USA after the war, be problems. At least there is no anti- LIFE IN THE KRAKOW GHETTO AND Bernard, like so many survivors and Semitism, no police surveillance of our PLASZOW CONCENTRATION CAMP refugees, devoted himself to raising a gatherings, and my tombstone is not likely to be desecrated! by Bernard Offen, with Norman G. family and putting the past behind him. But on retirement he recognised his need Jacobs When, as the only true refugees, we fled to address his wartime experiences - and to this country from Germany and Austria, London: Vallentine l^itchell 2008, relate them to today's world. Some we felt free and life was good. But now, 144 pp. paper readers may struggle with this part of the as Jews, we are almost insignificant, was privileged to meet Bernard Offen book, though I - especially perhaps after despite the encouraging words spoken of and Norman Jacobs when visiting having met the author - find it our disproportionate, yet tremendous IKrakow in 2001 to research the fate inspirational. contribution to British society and the of my paternal grandfather I will never Some paragraphs describe stages of a economy. Let us continue to demonstrate forget the bizarre experience of arriving guided walk Bernard created to show our virtues and our bonds with Israel! in the city for the first time (with all the visitors key points in his wartime Fred Stern trepidation one has on such occasions), experiences: his aim was to train young This is an updated version of a letter meeting Norman Jacobs in the Rynek - Krakovians to lead these walks which appeared in the Jewish News on the central square - and sitting as themselves. The book contains sufficient 10 July 2008. peaceful as you like in the afternoon historical detail to put his experiences and sunshine, drinking delicious Polish beer outlook into context. with him and one Bernard Offen, survivor Bernard has reached the conclusion of five concentration camps. that 'what we believe we create', and this Bernard's account begins with his is why we live in a world with conflicts f The Cnairman, ^ upbringing in Podgorze, Krakow, in a and genocidal acts. He is a supporter of family of six not materially well off but, dialogue and reconciliation. He is as he movingly says, enriched by their prepared to practise what he preaches, Management Committee family and community links. Born in 1929, giving talks and participating in Bernard learned a variety of children's play discussions in several countries, including ana Stajj wish, all skills that were to help him survive life Poland and Germany, with survivors of under the Nazis: finding places to hide, other traumatic events as well as with the AJR members a negotiation, and bartering for special descendant of a perpetrator treats. A challenging read then and probably Happy, Healthy and Family life was incrementally affected an uncomfortable one for those who by the occupation: they had to move don't share Bernard Offen's Weltan­ when the ghetto area was reduced and schauung. But in my opinion, this is a Peaceful Neiv Year then some of his relatives were deported. book well worth reading and reflecting Bernard describes, often in stark detail, on. i what happened to him, his father and two Barbara Dresner Dorrity

10 AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

Hannele with Scnlagobers

^ I ^ he first-night audience greeted one the part of a hump-back, my small stature being the same - breakfast in the I another like the old friends they would be no obstacle. The part of Hannele poorhouse, lunch with the Angel of Death, .1 were and settled back in their went to my cousin, who was 14, the exact dinner by the pale light of Hannele's death chairs. I could hear the hum of anticipation age of the character she portrayed: she even bed - we lived a theatrical dream. I slept from the other side of the curtain. There had the long red tresses called for. My sister, with my wings beside me. We were were only about 40 of them in the dining much older than I, played the principal male children, but bewitched and transformed, room of our house in Hietzing, but they part of teacher Gottwald; the equally transcending our limitations in a cloud of were of the cream - the very Schlagobers - important part of the deaconess went to a Hauptmann's fairy dust. Drunk with of Vienna. Taking a forbidden peek, I spot­ young patient of Anna Freud, Minna Mach, elation, I expected the public to tear ted old father Freud, his daughter Anna, who was to enter psychoanalytic history for through the silk curtain and enfold us in Kokoschka, Alban I^rg, the violinist Rostal, reasons other than her amazing its arms. Instead, on the first night, there Adolf Loos, my mother's aunt Yvette performance. I learned my lines, rehearsed was total silence as my father drew the final Guilbert, the chanteuse inimortalised by a grotesque walk in secret, and was duly curtain - and then the relief of a detonation Toulouse-Lautrec, Max Reinhardt with a auditioned by my parents. Nothing was said of applause. cohort of disciples, and more. They had all at the time, but later my mother took me to We gave three perfomiances and could been inveigled to watch an amateur perfor­ one side and explained that I was too young have filled our dining room ten times over. mance of Gerhart Hauptmann's Hanneles for the part and would be given the lesser Our Hannele was the talk of Vienna. Himmelfahrt (Hannele Heavenbound). role of an angel instead. It was the first of Reinhardt asked whether we would do the Hauptmann, then Germany's foremost many auditions in which I failed to get the show in his theatre school in nearby living dramatist, considered himself the part. Schonbmnn. But Anna Freud, notoriously reincarnation of Goethe, cultivating the Rehearsals started with my father sitting publicity-averse, vetoed the idea. And master's very looks and locks, and going one us down and explaining the play. He was in Sigmund Freud confined himself to a better than the old man by being awarded his element. Between delivering psycho- cryptic compliment addressed to my father: the Nobel Prize in 1912. His social dramas, sociological interpretations, he rigged up the 'Anyone who can produce an anxiety with their unsparing depiction of proletarian complicated lighting which was to mark the attack with a vacuum cleaner is wasted as degradation, provided the kitchen sink plays difference between raw reality and the a lawyer!' The boy who played the tailor of his day. Later, in his fairy tale plays, he dream scenes, wrote incidental music under was much better than I would have been added an element of fantasy to grim reality. the tutelage of Alban Berg, rushing back and in the part. Hanneles Himmelfahrt was his masterpiece forth between piano and harmonium to play Victor Ross in that genre. it, and worked the vacuum cleaner to I don't know whether my father was simulate the storm outside every time the ARTS AND mm DIART - OCTOBIR attracted by magical naturalism or whether door to the poorhouse was opened. All props he thought that this strange mixture made were made in the school; I particularly Mon 6 Geoffrey Ben-Nathan 'The it possible for a very adult play to be per­ remember the sword of the Angel of Death Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Its History and Achievements' Club 43 formed by children and adolescents. Maybe with flames spurting from it as demanded Mon 13 No lecture (hall not available) he was just dragooned by my mother into by Hauptmann, and my cardboard angel's Club 43 participating in a 'project' for the young wings, the left irritatingly lower than the Mon 20 No lecture (hall not available) people living as boarders in my parents' right. Only one professional was involved, Club 43 house. Many of them attended an experi­ a make-up artist to age our childish Mon 27 Ken Baldry 'The Cross-Swiss mental school in our back garden, run under faces. The layout of the ground floor and Walk' Club 43 Tues 28 Kristallnacht 70th: Kaddish the aegis of Anna Freud on the project stairs made the perfect stage. Loos had Commemorative Concert Lucerne principle. Which meant that at any one time, provided a silk curtain which conveniently Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the entire school worked on the same divided dining room from hall and staircase, John Axelrod. Programme includes subject, each age group according to its and thus stalls from stage. Only the Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 3 capacity. During my brief time as a pupil telephone mounted on the wall struck a false (Kaddish). Holocaust Centre in there, I did Eskimos with a thoroughness note - indeed spectacularly so when one day association with AJR (among others) that has left me an expert on blubber to this during rehearsal it rang just as the Barbican Hall, London EC2, 7.30 pm Tel Holocaust Centre on 01623 836 day; there was a rumour that a rich Ameri­ deaconess had to speak the words 'Be brief, 627 can parent had donated an Eskimo for the thou black and awful ghost.' Helpless Mon 3 Nov Gerald Holm 'Karajan older students to dissect. laughter put an end to rehearsals for that 100'Club 43 Casting began. I had my eye on the part aftemoon. Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square of the tailor, small but important, with As the first night approached, the tension Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans Seelig on 01442 254360 plenty of scope for hamming it up. Playing became almost unbearable. Stage and home

11 First Marquis of Reading. Among many other things, Rufus, born in 1860, became Solicitor General, Attorney General, Lord Chief Justice, Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary. Shirley Huberman Next meeting: 20 Oct. Wendy Funnel, 'Around the Golden Ring of Russia'

Leeds HSFA: 'Self-construct as Harrogate CF: An emotional trip a Holocaust victim' Meeting at the home of RosI and Marc Mervyn Lebor told us about Sylvia Plath's Schatzberger in York, we saw pictures of 'self-construction' as a Holocaust victim. This their recent trip to Vienna as guests of the eminent poet, wife of the poet Ted Hughes, Austrian government. RosI also told us was of German and Austrian descent, but about the emotional effect the trip had had A 'mind-blowing' experience: Guest not Jewish. She strongly identified with the on a granddaughter who had accompanied speaker Suzanne Bardgett, Project Director victims of the Holocaust and there is much them. We hope to meet again in Harrogate of the Imperial War Museum's Holocaust Holocaust imagery in her poems. on 10 November Inge Little Exhibition, pictured with Peter Kurer, who Martin Kapel gave the vote of thanks, at the annual Hendon police briefing Northern Get-together in Manchester's Enchanting morning In Essex Two local police officers spoke to us about Stenecourt Synagogue. Over 75 AJR We were entertained magnificently by Tony problems such as mugging, burglary and members were present. A member from Compton on his accordion. Some of the girls identity theft. Neighbourhood Watch and Ellesmere Port, at his first AJR meeting, even danced to the enthralling tunes. An Victim Support were very useful in dealing remarked: 'It's been mind-blowing!' unforgettable, enchanting morning. with cnme, they told us. Ken Ward Annette Saville Next meeting: 27 Oct. George Layton, 'An Surrey annual garden party llford fifth birthday party Actor's Life' Twenty-eight people attended our fifth Once again Vernon and Jutta Saunders hosted the summer lunch, having also birthday party - Edith Poulsen had the North London discussion hosted the spring coffee morning. They honour of blowing out the candles on the Ronald Channing ably led a discussion on served guests in the most charming manner cake. Myrna encouraged members to recall a number of subjects, largely with a post­ with food, soft drinks and wine, while their a special party in their lives and we heard war perspective, with most members some interesting anecdotes. present joining in. Regrettably the clock granddaughter entertained us with card Meta Roseneil forced us to call 'time'. tricks. Hans Meyer Herbert Haberberg Wembley CF: Holiday stories Temple Fortune: Where there's a will A very well-attended meeting. The Stantons Manchester power-point Solicitor Michael Anvoner gave us an spoke about their recent trip to Brazil, Fred demonstration informative talk on the sensitive issue of 'Making Your Will'. His advice was very well Stern about his holiday in Iceland and Wiener Library Archivist Howard Falksohn received. Esther Rinkoff Norway, and Otto Hornung about a visit to gave a power-point demonstration on the Mexico years ago. No meeting in October origins of the Library and the important Next meeting: 16 October. Social Get- due to Jewish holidays. work it does. The audience was spell-bound. together in succah Irene Stanton Susanne Green gave a brief report on AJR Dance therapy at Cleve Road activities. Werner Lachs Cambridge: The remarkable Dance and movement therapist Jacqueline Bertha Leverton Waltz demonstrated modern dance Pinner tea party Kindertransport doyenne Bertha Leverton techniques. Using a variety of props, There were three dozen of us at Vera told us how she organised reunions to members saw how dance can help people Gellman's house for our annual tea party. commemorate the 50th and 60th feel better about themselves - even if one The rain stopped, enabling us to spend some anniversaries of the Kindertransport and remains seated! Myrna Glass time in her lovely garden before coming in spoke about the 70th anniversary reunion Next meeting: 28 Oct. Roger Beales, Bank for an excellent tea and a good chat. due this November A remarkable lady! of England Robert Gellman Keith Lawson Outing to Bletchley Park, 2 October Next meeting: 30 Oct. Fred Nissin, 'The Essex magical operatic morning Geneziah Collections' A magical operatic morning spent listening Picnic on a wet day in Oxford to Alan Bilgora's collection of famous Jewish On another wet day in August, Susie Bates West Midlands (Birmingham) talk on singers. Alan's presentation never fails to and her family hosted a most enjoyable Kitchener Camp stimulate. No meeting in October due to picnic in her large conservatory. Prof Clare Ungerson showed a film, and Jewish holidays. Esther Rinkoff gave a talk about, Kitchener Camp, set up Anne Selinger in Kent for refugees from Nazism. A number Welwyn Garden City discussion Edgware: 'The Science of God' of these refugees later joined the Pioneer of past Ivor Richards gave a well presented talk on Corps. Joe Seager Once more Monica Rosenbaum extended 'The Science of God'. In the discussion that Next meeting: 4 November hospitality to us with warm drinks and super followed, ideas from the Bible were biscuits. We talked about our past, discussed and names such as Rashi, HGS: A fascinating life concentrating on our working lives. Nachmanides and Darwin were mentioned. Our speaker, Geoffrey Perry, came to Susanne Graham England from Berlin in 1936 and, following No meeting In October due to Jewish holidays. Next meeting: 23 Oct. Social Get-together internment, joined the British Army. In at home of Monica Rosenbaum 1945 he shot and arrested William Joyce Felix Winkler in a forest near Hamburg. The following year Leeds CF: A rare sunny day he left the Army with the rank of major He Radlett musical presentation We held our annual garden party at the had a successful post-war career in Walter Woyda gave a presentation on The home of volunteer Pippa Landey in the publishing. No meeting In October due to Rothschilds - A Musical. The attractiveness pretty nearby village of Thorner Ruth Jewish holidays. Laszio Roman of the music led to a discussion on why, Rogoff gave a fascinating talk about a recent having been successful on Broadway, it had visit to her maternal birthplace, Siret, in Brighton & Hove Sarid: A rare treat never been performed in the UK. No Romania. We enjoyed afternoon tea in the It was a rare treat to hear local historian meeting in October due to Jewish garden on a rare sunny day. Godfrey Gould speak about Rufus Isaacs, the holidays. Fritz Starer Barbara Cammerman

12 AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

North London 7th birthday party Our 7th birthday party was very successful. PAUL BALINT AJR CENTRE Paul Balint AJR Centre We were entertained by Naomi Hyamson, 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 ably accompanied by Jenny Gould, with a WHY NOT TRY OUR selection of songs. In between, conversation Tel: 020 7328 0208 flowed, as has become customary at our MEALS-ON-WHEELS SERVICE? functions. Herbert Haberberg ALL MEALS ARE FROZEN KT-AJR Next meeting: 30 Oct. Rabbi Daniela WE DELIVER TUESDAYS Thau, 'Diversity in Faith - The Nine World Kindertransport special Faiths' AND FRIDAYS interest group For the first time, we have obtained Monday 6 October 2008 compartmentalised containers suitable ALSO MEETING IN OCTOBER for microwave and conventional ovens. Deborah Hass Kingston upon Thames CF 28 Oct. The meat/fish will now be separated 'Creating Exhibitions' Social Get-together from vegetables and easier to handle when hot. KINDLY NOTE THAT LUNCH WILL BE WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU SERVED AT 1.00 PM ON MONDAYS JUST GIVE US A CALL ON 020 7328 0208 Scotland and Newcastle Reservations required Get-together: A very Please telephone 020 7328 0208 stimulating day DIARY DATES Some 40 members met for our Sunday 26 October - Sunday 2 Nov Monday, Wednesday & Thursday annual summer Get-together in Eastbourne Holiday (Lansdowne Hotel) 9.30 am - 3.30 pm Edinburgh. The day's programme For further information, please call us started with an attractive choice of on 020 8385 3070 PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS CLOSED ON TUESDAYS discussion groups (Legacy, Second Generation or Experience of Child­ NORTHERN SECOND October Afternoon Entertainment: hood in a New Country). After lunch GENERATION MEETING Wed 1 CLOSED - ROSH we heard an excellent presentation Our 12th meeting will HASHANA from Anita Parmar, of the Holocaust take place in Leeds Thur 2 Guyathrie Peiris & Educational Trust. The day ended on Bill Patrick with musical enter-tainment by Gica Sunday 12 October 2008, Mon KT LUNCH - Kards & Loening. A very stimulating day. 10.30 am to 4 pm Games Klub Tue CLOSED Philip Mason We will be discussing recent images of second generation people Wed CLOSED portrayed on the television - YOM KIPPUR Thur CLOSED AJR GROUP CONTACTS For further information, please contact Barbara on 0161 368 5088 - YOM KIPPUR Bradford Continental Friends or at [email protected] Mon 13 Kards & Games Klub Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 Tue 14 CLOSED Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) Wed 15 CLOSED - SUCCOTH Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 Liverpool Thur 16 Michael Heaton Bristol/Bath Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Mon 20 Kards & Games Klub Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 Manchester Tue 21 CLOSED Cambridge Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 Wed 22 CLOSED Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Newcastle - SIMCHATH TORAH Cardiff Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Thur 23 Katinka Seiner Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Norfolk (Norwich) Mon 27 Kards & Games Klub Cleve Road, AJR Centre Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Tue 28 CLOSED Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 North London Wed 29 Jen Gould Dundee Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Thur 30 Sheila Games Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Oxford East Midlands (Nottingham) Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Bob Norton 01159 212 494 Pinner (HA Postal District) Edgware Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Ruth Urban 020 8931 2542 Radlett Members requiring benefit advice please telephone Edinburgh Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 to make an appointment at AJR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Franqoise Robertson 0131 337 3406 Sheffield Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Essex (Westcliff) Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Larry Lisner 01702 300812 South London Glasgow Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 South West Midlands (Worcester area) Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator Harrogate Myrna Glass 020 8385 3070 020 8385 3070 Inge Little 01423 886254 Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Surrey Groups Co-ordinator Hendon Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Temple Fortune Susanne Green, Northern Groups Co-ordinator Hertfordshire Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 0151 291 5734 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Weald of Kent Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator Max and Jane Dickson HGS 020 8385 3070 Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 01892 541026 Esther Rinkoff, Southern Region Co-ordinator Wembley Hull 020 8385 3077 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Laura Levy 020 8904 5527 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Wessex (Bournemouth) llford Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 Child Survivors Association-AJR West Midlands (Birmingham) Leeds HSFA Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 Trude Silman 0113 2251628 Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437 AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS KINDERTRANSPORT JOIN VS FOR 70™ ANNIVERSARY REUNION Birthday ANOTHER FANTASTIC ELY EVACUEES Bieber, Lyddia (Traute) Congratulations In order to create a small exhibition on on her 100th birthday from all her family. U/EEK AT THE 23 November at JFS, we are looking for LANSDOU/NE IN memorabilia - letters, pictures, Stem, Fred Congratulations on your 85th photographs etc - from Kinder who birthday. We all enjoyed the memorable day EASTBOURNE were evacuated with JFS to Ely. we spent with you on your birthday and wish Please contact Andrea Goodmaker at 26 October to 2 November 2008 the AJR on 020 8385 3070 if you have you many more years of good health and anything that might be suitable. happiness. Love from all your family and £400 plus £40 single Hetty. supplement to include transport, 'Oma Goodness - Austrian Deaths half-board, outings Magic In an English Kitchen' Black (nee Amiel), Lela Bom 15 January and entertainment RosI Schatzberger shares an expert cook's favourite recipes and captures fascinating 1918 in Salonica, Greece, died 7 August 2008 Please contact Carol Rossen or nuggets from a pre-war childhood in Vienna, in London. Daughter Marcelle, son-in-law Jeff, Lorna Moss on 020 8385 3070 and entertaining anecdotes from her life since. and granddaughters Jacqueline and Danielle 280 pp. £12.95, from Jessie's Fund, ASAP as numbers are limited 15 Priory Street, York YOl 6ET would like to thank the staff at AJR for all their tel/fax 01904 658 189 support and kindness throughout Lela's [email protected] illness. In aid of Jessie's Fund, which helps severely and terminally ill children to express Brainin, Julius (Jussi) We are sad to (^OIAM>^ Home Care themselves by means of Music Therapy announce the death of our dear husband and Care through quality and father. Born Vienna 11 August 1919, died professionalisnfi Oxford 22 August 2008. He took care of Celebrating our 25di Anniversary PillarCare Quality support and care at home everyone. His wife Liesl, children Carole, Kay 25 years of experience in providing the Oack) and Danny (Dany), grandchildren Tom, highest standards of care in the comfort • ffourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours of your own home Ben, Joe, Kira (Iain), Katie, Hannah, Jesse and • Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care Julia, great-grandchildren Liliana and Imogen • Convalescent and Personal HeaJth Care (see Obituaries). • Compassionate and Affordable Service Clark, May Passed away suddenly on 11 July • Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff to the deep sorrow of the Shreir family and • Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA many friends. He will be missed always. Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 Shalom. 1 hour to 24 hours care Studio 1 Utopia Village Registered through the National Care Standard Commission 7 Chalcot Road, NVVl 8L11 Panofsky (nee Hirschland), Margot Died Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 in Tucson, Arizona on 28 August 2008. She www.colvin-nursing.co.uk was 88 years old and came to the UK in 1939. ACACIA LODGE LEO BAECK HOUSING Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron PAUL BALINT AJR CENTRE ASSOCIATION LTD For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Jackie Waltz will be at the Centre on SHELTERED ACCOMMODATION (Licensed by Borough of Barnet} • Single and Double Rooms. Wednesday 29 October at 11 am for ONE BEDROOM FLAT TO LET • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. music and movement. SITUATED NEAR SWISS COTTAGE • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. LOUNGE•BEDROOM • Nurse on duty 24 hours. • BATHROOM WITH SHOWER • Long and short term and respite, • FULLY FITTED KITCHEN including trial period if required. • RESIDENT WARDEN SWITCH ON ELECTRICS • CAMDEN CARE LINE Between £400 and £500 per week 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND 020 8455 1335 other times Rewires and all household VIEWING CONTACT DAVID UGHTBURN 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley electrical work ON 020 8455 2286 London N12 9TB PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Mobile: 0795 614 8566 Sometimes life is easier ^ ADVERTISEMENT RATES with a little bit of help ,j FAMILY EVENTS First 15 words free of charge, ANA Nursing can provide professional carers £2.00 per 5 words thereafter and nurses to help with any of your needs. CLASSIFIED, SEARCH NOTICES 24 hr service, 7 days a week. Personal care, £2.00 per 5 words Respite care, From 1-24 hours BOX NUMBERS £3.00 extra call us on: DISPLAY ADVERTS Per single column inch 65mm £12.00 020 8905 7701 COPY DATE 5 weeks prior to publication

14 AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

OBITUARIES

Michael Newman Julius (Jussi) Brainin his business so badly that he ussi was the son of Margaret decided to retum to the UK. He Austrian Remembrance Grant Beck, from a family long and his wife arrived in 1978, with To commemorate the 70th anniversary established in Vienna, and little left from their 30 good of the Anschluss, the Austrian govern­ JSigmund Brainin, from what was Canadian years. Undaunted, Jussi ment has announced it will make a then Russia. Both sides of the soon set up his ovm management one-time 1,000 Euros (approximately £800) Remembrance Grant to certain family were Jewish, but no longer consultancy for insurance Austrian Holocaust victims. practising, and Jussi himself was firmly brokers. For the second time, he built up a Eligibility is restricted to those who secular all his life. successful business, and this time history have an Austrian Victim's Identity Card (Opferausweis or Amtsbescheinigung), As a youth, he was a passionate Zionist let him keep it. He worked until he was over those who have a Liberation Medal, and and longed to join the Israeli navy, but his 80, retiring in 1999. those who have received certain 'support His retirement was darkened by the benefits' from the Austrian National parents wouldn't allow it. In 1937, when he Fund. You are also entitled to receive the was 17, his father sent him to England to descent into dementia of Liesl, with whom Remembrance Grant if you are in receipt leam the textile trade. Later his parents fled he celebrated 68 years of marriage this year. of a victim's pension (Opferrente) (this is not the same as the pension paid by to the United States; most of the rest of his But he retumed to an old passion - writing the Pensionsversicherungsanstalt). family escaped the Holocaust as well. - and produced several volumes of memoirs. To be entitled to receive an Opfer­ In September 1939 Jussi met Liesl Kelsen, Having lived most of his life in cities, he ausweis you must have been imprisoned also from Vienna, and in July 1940 they enjoyed his retirement in the English for a minimum of three months or forced to leave Austria for more than three and married. A week after their wedding Jussi countryside. a half years having been a victim of Nazi was interned on the Isle of Man. Three Jussi Brainin made friends everywhere. persecution. To receive the Amts­ months later he was released to join the He loved history, politics and travel. And bescheinigung you must demonstrate that you were in prison for at least one Pioneer Corps; he ended the war in food, especially Middle European food. He year or incarcerated in a concentration Intelligence. was the complete Victorian paterfamilias, camp for a minimum of six months. In 1948 he emigrated with his wife devoted to his family, never owing a penny. For both, you must also hold current Austrian citizenship. If you are interested and small daughter to Canada. There he He was extraordinarily brave, pulling his life in applying for Austrian citizenship, you succeeded triumphantly, building up an up by the bootstraps several times over. should contact the Austrian embassy on insurance brokerage in Montreal and adding Above all, he was independent, and would 020 7344 3266. Please note that you must be able to demonstrate that you a second daughter and a son to his family. have hated a long decline. When all is said lived in Austria between 1918 and 1938 In the 1970s, Quebec separatism affected and done, he was a lucky man. or that your father held Austrian citizen­ ship during this time. As well as completing the application form, you will Alice Rischer and in time made contact with Alice's brother need to supply, as far as is possible, copies of documents such as your birth lice Rischer died on 1 July at the in England. The only way to get to Eng­ certificate, proof of your father's resi­ age of 100. She had the unusual land for people in their position at that time dency - and citizenship - in Austria, and distinction of surviving the Third was as domestic servants. Alice became cook your marriage certificate (for women A who may have changed their name). You Reich and the Second World War in Germany. and Paul butler (despite speaking no must also submit a copy of the photo­ Alice lived in Breslau (now Wroclaw) English) to an aristocratic family in Glouces­ graph page in your current passport. with her husband Paul and her mother. Paul tershire. They were treated kindly and offered To find out if you are entitled to the was a non-Jew, an upright man of unbending a permanent position and a small house, but Remembrance Grant, you can also contact the City of Vienna, MA 40, principle who hated the Nazis. When the they wanted to start a new life. They moved Victims' Welfare on 0043-1-4000-40782 round-up of Jews began, Alice and her mother to London and found work, both with small (contact address: Thomas Klestil-Platz were taken to the local prison to await the wholesale companies. Paul died at the age 8/2, 1030 Vienna, Austria). Depending on your wartime experiences, the Victims' departure of the next transport for the camps. of 60. Alice went on working, living alone, Welfare department will send you a letter Paul knew the gaoler and bribed him, so that but with a circle of good friends and close confirming your entitlement to the Alice remained in the gaol. But her mother links with her elder sister in America, her Remembrance Grant. The deadline to apply for Opferaus­ could not be saved and was deported and brothers (one in London, the other in Brazil), weis, Amtsbescheinigung or Opferrente never heard of again. Paul eventually got and Paul's family in Germany. is 31 December 2008. The deadline to his wife out and she found work in a clothing Alice had an equable temperament, bore apply for the Remembrance Grant is 7 May 2009. factory. Paul had been thrown out of the no marks of trauma or rancour from her army for refusing to divorce his Jewish wife, experiences, and was much loved. She lived Enquiries seeking advice and clarification on Holocaust restitution and compen­ which may also have saved his life. Together to the end of her life in her one-room flat in sation matters should continue to be sent they dodged the Nazis and the Russian West Hampstead, sustained in her final to Michael Newman at Central Office for bombardment in 1945, when 70 per cent of years by kind carers, uncomplaining, lucid Holocaust Claims (UK), Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 the city was destroyed. and interested in people and the world until 4RL, by fax to 020 8385 3075, or by email When Breslau became Polish, Alice and the day of her death. to [email protected] her husband joined the exodus to the west, Walter Gratzer

15 AJR JOURNAL OCTOBER 2008

LETTER FROM Newsround ISRAEL Nazi records on forced labourers digitalised The International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has digitalised over 6.7 Creating a dialogue million documents relating to forced and slave labour during the Nazi regime and he Jemsalem Theatre foyer was and Sheikh Dinun in Westem Galilee with immediate post-war period. The lists contain abuzz with unfamiliar activity Ofek, to name but a few. The youngsters details of places of residence, employers, when we arrived for our sub­ meet regularly, get to know one another, employment periods, marriages, births and T gravesites. scription concert with the Jerusalem work together on writing a play about their Symphony Orchestra a few weeks ago. lives, and finally put on bilingual Arabic- Rescuer of Slovak Jews celebrates Tables were being set up with food and Hebrew performances for schools as well hundredth birthday soft drinks. Furthermore, unusually large as for adult audiences. After each per­ Andre Steiner, who was behind one of the numbers of young people were to be seen formance the young actors come out onto most daring - and overlooked - missions to rescue Jews in the Holocaust, has turned in that generally rather staid environment. the stage and engage in a question-and- 100. As a member of the underground A word is in order at this point about answer session with the audience, thus Bratislava Working Group, Steiner the Jemsalem Theatre, one of the foci of stimulating further discussion. engineered a plan to stave off the the city's cultural and artistic life. It has Since this has been going on for 20 deportation of Slovakia's Jews through a several auditoria where plays and concerts years, there are by now many 'graduates' network of work camps and bribes that possibly saved the lives of thousands. After are performed and films are shown of the programme, adults working in the war he became a celebrated architect simultaneously. In addition, there is a various spheres of life who are eager to in the USA. bookshop which also sells CDs, a pleasant share their experience with the younger Kafka, Zionism and Israel restaurant-cum-cafe, and public areas generation. In addition, many prominent The recent discovery of writings by Franz where works of local artists are exhibited. Jewish and Arab musicians and actors in Kafka in a Tel Aviv flat has prompted Its streamlined architecture manages at the Israel are involved in the programme, renewed speculation into his attitude to same time to be warm and friendly. One donating their time, energy and talents to Zionism. The New York Times cites a 1949 almost invariably bumps into someone one fostering the youngsters' abilities and letter from Kafka's lover Dora Diamant to his friend Max Brod claiming that Kafka had knows, as many of Jemsalem's 'culture aiding them in writing and putting on their always wanted 'to make aliyah and come vultures' seem to move in the same circles. own plays. to Israel'. In his new book, The Tremendous It must be said, however, that the audience Of course, the most important facet of World I Have Inside My Head: Franz Kafka: generally tends towards the upper age the programme is the creation of a dialogue A Biographical Essay, Louis Begley quotes range of the population. between the younger generations of the Kafka as saying 'I admire Zionism and am nauseated by it.' On the evening in question, however, it two nations, helping them to overcome was obvious that the audience was not the prejudices and to get to know the person Rome mayor's remarks on usual homogeneous mix. The event that behind the stereotype. There have even Fascism condemned we happened upon was a special reunion been attempts to extend the programme Italian Jewish leaders have criticised Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, for declaring that performance marking the twentieth to include Palestinian teenagers from East Italy's Fascist-era anti-Semitic laws - and anniversary of Peace Child Israel, a venture Jemsalem. not Fascism itself - constitute 'absolute that brings Arab and Jewish youngsters The anniversary event brought evil'. The mayor's remark came in an inter­ together. together current and former participants view with Corriere della Sera while he was The aim of the organisation, as stated in the programme, including singer Shlomo on a visit to Israel. Riccardo Pacific!, presi­ dent of Rome's Jewish community, said, in its mission statement, is 'to promote and Gronich, who composed the organisation's according to a report in the Jewish Tele­ contribute to a life of peace and equality anthem, and other well-known figures graphic Agency, 'We are awaiting a strong between Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel'. from Israel's entertainment world such as public clarification.' The enterprise, the brainchild of the late Moni Moshonov and Dan Almagor. Painter revisits lost world Habima actress Yael Drouyanoff, was set The programme was featured on the of childhood up in 1988 as a drama workshop for both BBC World News a few months ago, and Born in the Polish town of Opatow (Apt in Arab and Jewish teenagers. It began in Tel is supported by the War Child Yiddish), Mayer Kirshenblatt has taken part Aviv/Jaffa but has gradually spread to the organisation in the Netherlands. Although in this year's Cracow Jewish Cultural Festi­ rest of Israel. some funds were initially provided by the val. In 1990, aged 73, Kirshenblatt taught himself to paint and began recording the In the framework of the organisation's Israeli govemment, these have now dried lost world of his childhood town. His activities, youngsters from the Arab town up, so that the organisation is eager to recollections of pre-war Jewish life in Apt, of Tira have been paired with their raise funds from other sources. More conveyed to his daughter, Barbara counterparts from Kochav Yair, Ramie information is available on its website: Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, were published last with Petah Tikva, Nazareth with Yagur, www.mideastweb.org/peacechild year along with 200 of his paintings in the book They Called Me Mayer July (slang at Dorothea Shefer-Vanson the time for 'Crazy Mayer').

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website vvww.ajr.org.uk

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