VOLume 13 NO.2 february 2013 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

The culture of Viennese Jewry at the fin de siècle (Part II)

rom 1848, and especially from least outside the Leopoldstadt, the Second classes, especially into the self-employed 1867, Jews from elsewhere in District. commercial and entrepreneurial class, the F the Austro-Hungarian Empire The acculturation of Vienna’s Jews was liberal professions and the new class of flocked to Vienna, with its opportunities among the fastest and most thoroughgoing white-collar salaried staff created by mod- for economic and social betterment, for in Europe; Viennese Jewry had the highest ern commercial and financial enterprises. life in a modern metropolis, and for a rate of conversion of any European city. Jews had been active as bankers and widening of horizons far beyond those of However, Jews did not assimilate entirely financiers in Vienna well before 1848. They the traditional Jewish communities of the into Viennese society, to the extent of had also traditionally acted as middlemen East. The creation of Vienna as a modern losing their separate identity and being between the urban and rural markets in city was symbolised by the building of seen as indistinguishable from other Eastern Europe, and were to some extent the Ringstrasse, which had begun in Austrians. They tended to go to the already urbanised. They were thus well the 1850s but came to exemplify the same schools, to cluster together at the adapted, as traders and merchants, to the emergence of a new, liberal, modernised University of Vienna (where they were liberal, free-market economy that they capital. For Jews at this time, Vienna encountered on their arrival in Vienna seemed to hold the prospect of almost during the heyday of liberal economic limitless opportunities, and part of their doctrine. Over three generations, Jews response was the remarkable cultural could rise from being small traders or efflorescence created by the city’s Jewish shopkeepers to more prosperous and community. higher-status occupations in commerce or The most obvious feature of that as independent entrepreneurs, and then community was its sheer dynamism, into the liberal professions (law, medicine, reflected in its rapid growth. From a journalism, academia) or the world of small, semi-legal settlement of Jews, the culture and the arts. community increased by leaps and bounds The Burgtheater on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, The residential patterns of the built 1888 until it reached nearly 200,000, about one Jews of Vienna were as distinctive as tenth of the city’s population. In 1847, the banned from such student bodies as their professional profile. They mostly Jewish population of Vienna was estimated fraternities by the 1890s), to live in the settled in clearly defined areas of the at some 4,000, about 1 per cent of the city’s same districts and to enter the same city, where the concentration of Jews total population. That number increased professions. The particular culture and allowed a distinctive type of Viennese to some 40,000 by 1869, to 118,000 in achievements of Viennese Jewry were Jewish community to develop. The three 1890 and to 175,000 in 1910; the city’s those of an assimilated Jewry, but one areas concerned were the Innenstadt total population also increased, but ‘only’ that preserved its social and communal (inner city), the wealthy First District about fivefold. identity. within the Ringstrasse; the Second The dynamism of the community was Jews came to Vienna in three succes- District, the Leopoldstadt, known as also reflected in its eagerness to integrate sive waves: from Bohemia and Moravia, the ‘Mazzesinsel’ (‘matzoh island’) on into Viennese life and society. Viennese from Hungary, and lastly from Galicia account of its concentration of traditional Jewry contained a high proportion of (Austrian Poland). These immigrant Jews Jews recently arrived from the East, often emancipated, secularised Jews who had developed a distinctive occupational pro- still poor, religiously observant and true discarded the traditional lifestyle and file. Many, especially in the Leopoldstadt, to traditional dress and lifestyle; and religious practice of their forefathers and remained poor. But the patterns of Jewish the Ninth District, Alsergrund, which adopted the German-speaking culture of economic activity were radically different became home to the new middle class of Vienna; significantly, Vienna produced from those of non-Jewish Viennese, in Jews active in the liberal professions and relatively little Yiddish culture, and that Jews rose in far greater numbers, as white-collar employees in the larger Yiddish was not spoken widely there, at proportionally speaking, into the middle continued overleaf  AJR JOURNAL february 2013

 The culture of Viennese Jewry (Part II) continued Reception at the private enterprises (but not the public the Erzherzog-Rainer-Gymnasium and the Austrian Embassy service, where Jews were notably few). Sophien-Gymnasium, where Jews made There were Jews in other areas, such up between two-thirds and three-quarters To commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Anschluss as Mariahilf and Neubau (the Sixth and of the students. Even among the poorer Seventh Districts) and the leafy outlying Jews of the Leopoldstadt, a powerful Wednesday 13 March 2013 districts of Währing and Döbling (the impetus towards social and economic at 6.30 pm Eighteenth and Nineteenth Districts). betterment through education was at His Excellency Ambassador Though there was an established pat- work. Though the Austrian educational Emil Brix will host a reception for AJR members tern of upwardly mobile Jews leaving the system was a closed system that made Refreshments will be provided. Leopoldstadt for more prosperous areas it difficult for children from lower-class For catering and security purposes, inhabited by a more assimilated commu- families to rise in society, Jews were places must be reserved. nity, the Jewish population of the Second exceptional in being able to use that The AJR will be providing transport. District was continually replenished by system to propel themselves into the Pick-up points and timings will be immigration. The patterns of Jewish resi- higher reaches of society. confirmed once all applications dence clearly bear out the middle-class From the Gymnasien, Jews proceeded are received. profile of the community: Jews were thin in large numbers to the University of Please contact Susan Harrod on the ground in working-class areas, just Vienna, where they were famously over- on 020 8385 3078 or at as they were relatively few among those represented in such fields as law, medi- [email protected] Viennese employed in heavy manual cine and the arts and humanities; it was labour. In this they were quite unlike the the celebrated professor of medicine the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment other great immigrant group, the Czechs, Billroth who publicly introduced anti- of the late eighteenth century, and the who remained anchored in Vienna’s Semitic discourse into academic life at the opening up of the narrow world of the ­industrial proletariat. University of Vienna by protesting at the Eastern Jews to the liberal, humanist Education was the escalator that bore number of Jews from the East. By 1910, culture of the German-speaking world. so many of Vienna’s Jews up into the Jews made up 37.5 per cent of students From this sprang the veneration shown professional middle classes. This is evident in the Faculty of Law, 21.6 per cent in the by Jews towards such figures as Goethe from the very marked over-representation Faculty of Philosophy, and 51.2 per cent in and Schiller, Kant and Beethoven, which of Jewish students at Vienna’s Gymnasien; the Faculty of Medicine. The result of the impelled much of Central European Jewry the Gymnasium (grammar school) was mass influx of Jewish students into these to embrace German-language culture so the elite educational institution that academic disciplines was that Jews went enthusiastically. opened the way to university entrance, on into the middle-class professions and From the 1870s, Vienna’s Jews were to a degree in law or medicine, to a white-collar salaried employment, where confronted by the growth of a new, racial career in education or to the skills and they played a leading role as consumers anti-Semitism, both in the form of the qualifications that enabled young Jews of culture. Some, like the many noted Pan-Germanism advocated by Georg to embark on careers largely closed to Jewish writers, artists, scholars and other von Schönerer and in the specifically the proletariat or lower middle class. intellectuals, became creators of culture, Viennese phenomenon of Karl Lueger’s Only establishments which put up giving rise to the phenomenon of Vien- Christian Social Party, which swept specific barriers could keep Jews out: the nese Jewish culture. to electoral success in the 1890s. The Benedictine-run Schottengymnasium with The success of Jews in the fields of assimilated Jews responded by creating its religious bias and the Theresianum, education and culture can in part be ex- the Österreichisch-Israelitische Union, which catered for the scions of the plained by the tradition of learning long affirming their rights as Austrian citizens; aristocracy. Otherwise, Jewish students established among the People of the Book. those who despaired of assimilation flooded into the Gymnasien, like the To this should be added the impact of espoused Zionism or Jewish nationalism. prestigious Akademisches Gymnasium With the collapse of the Empire in 1918, AJR Chief Executive in the First District, where between 1875 Michael Newman Vienna became the capital of the rump and 1910 Jews regularly made up 40 per Directors state of Austria, where Jews were an Carol Rossen cent of the students. David Kaye increasingly beleaguered minority. These figures were matched by Head of Department Nevertheless, Vienna’s cultural scene the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium in the Sue Kurlander Social Services continued to be heavily influenced by its First District, and by the Maximilian- AJR Journal Jews, from the concert hall to the cabaret, Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor Gymnasium in the Wasagasse in the Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor from the theatre to the lecture hall and Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements Ninth District, where the proportion of the psychoanalyst’s couch, until the Jews doubled from 33 per cent in 1875 to Anschluss put an end to Vienna’s status Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not 66 per cent in 1910, and were exceeded by necessarily those of the Association of Jewish as a leading European centre of culture. the two Gymnasien in the Second District, Refugees and should not be regarded as such. Anthony Grenville

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About thyme ANNUAL AJR LONDON TRIP was going to meet an English-born In the early 1990s I volunteered to help Tuesday 12 March – friend at a restaurant in Victoria. ‘It’s children with reading difficulties. I was Thursday 14 March 2013 Icalled About Time,’ she said. ‘You assigned to a Church of England primary can look it up.’ I had looked it up. ‘You school in my area and was to have 30 mean About Thyme, don’t you?’ ‘It’s minutes’ one-to-one sessions with each pronounced time,’ she insisted. child. Two of the children – a boy and The trip will include a visit to Kensington Incredulous, I rushed – metaphorically a girl – were English; another boy was Palace; a relaxing evening and dinner at an speaking – to my dictionary. She was right! Irish. They were all between nine and ten award-winning kosher Chinese restaurant; a 14c: from French thym, Greek thymon. years old. I was particularly taken with the tour of the Houses of Parliament, followed by I was incensed. Since when have the English boy, who seemed bright enough lunch with an MP; a matinee performance of English been squeamish about anglicising and spoke fluently. Sadly, he, like the other The Audience with Helen Mirren – it is hoped the pronunciation of Greek words? What two, was unable to read the simplest Dame Helen will speak to our ­members after the performance; a visit to the RAF Museum; about theatre, pathos, therapy? The list words. I knew nothing about his back- lunch at the London ­Jewish Cultural Centre, is endless. Nor do they shrink from van- ground but quite possibly both his parents where we will be joined by Eve Pollard, dalising French. When my husband and I were working and there were very few former editor of the Sunday Mirror; and the were driving in the New Forest we were books at his home. The class teacher told opportunity to meet friends old and new. encouraged to visit a place that sounded me that about one third of her 30 charges Members will also have the opportunity to like Bjuli. It was Beaulieu! struggled with reading and writing. attend a reception at the Austrian Embassy Admittedly, English grammar is child’s Although I tried hard, I fear I didn’t hosted by the Austrian Ambassador. play compared to German or Latin, but make much difference. My heart went out Accommodation will be at a London hotel what about its pronunciation? You never to these children, who would go on to sec- for members based outside London. Members living in London can participate know where you are. Just when you think ondary school the following year illiterate in the daily events. you have mastered all the oughs – though, and leave school at 16, in all probability For further details, please contact through, thought and tough – you get still illiterate. And things don’t seem to Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 trough and bough! have changed much in two decades. Only or at [email protected] The other day a couple of tourists the other day I read that one in five adult asked me the way to Le-ce-ster Square. Britons was struggling with the first two To save them further embarrassment, I of the ‘3 Rs’. told them how to get to Leicester Square, Of course, a number of factors are pronouncing it correctly. They looked to blame for this – the system, lack of spring grove bewildered, as well they might. Why parental support and overcrowded classes RETIREMENT HOME Lester? Why indeed? If there has to be a – but the vagaries of the English language contraction, why not Leister as in reign, or certainly play a part. In German, my 214 Finchley Road Leester as in receive? The pitfalls for the mother tongue, everything is pronounced London NW3 unsuspecting foreigner are myriad. exactly as it is written. Not so in English. London’s Most Luxurious For more years than I care to admit I was How can you explain to a child why, if convinced that coherent was pronounced the but in butler, but and butter read the  Entertainment  Activities with the stress on the first syllable and same, a butcher is different?  Stress Free Living a short e. And I must have pronounced Well, I did learn to read and write  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine theologian with a short second o, as in English but I wonder if I’m still guilty of  Full En-Suite Facilities logic, more than once because finally a mispronunciations that my English friends Call for more information or a personal tour German-Jewish friend snapped ‘For God’s are too polite to correct. 020 8446 2117 sake, it’s theolo(long o)gian!’ There is no I’m running out of space. It’s about or 020 7794 4455 logic to the pronunciation of English. thyme I stopped. [email protected] And what about the words that are Edith Argy spelt alike but have different meanings? A cousin of mine who had studied English and Latin at Vienna University and even switch on electrics got herself a doctorate, after having lived Rewires and all household in English-speaking countries for some electrical work JACKMAN . years pronounced row, as in quarrel, like PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 SILVERMAN row, as in tier. I didn’t have the heart to Mobile: 0795 614 8566 correct her. COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS

VISIT TO SANDY’S ROW SYNAGOGUE AND THE JEWISH EAST END MONDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2013

Sandy’s Row Synagogue is the A coach will go from Stanmore, oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in stopping at Finchley Road. We will London and the last remaining be joined on the coach by Rachel Telephone: 020 7209 5532 synagogue in Spitalfields. Kolsky, a prize-winning Blue Badge [email protected] We will have a guided tour of the Guide, whose passion is the East Synagogue and the exhibition of End of London, in particular areas photographs of C. A. Mathew, a selection of of Jewish interest. Her first book, Jewish photographs of Spitalfields taken on 20 April London, is published this year. Rachel will 1912. It is the first time that many of these tell us the history behind the buildings, in images have been put on public display. particular the ‘human stories’. Annely Juda Fine Art We will also have the opportunity to see 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) Lunch will be provided at the Synagogue. a film made by the Open University on the Tel: 020 7629 7578 history of the Synagogue, together with For further details, please contact Fax: 020 7491 2139 another short film, The Tenth Man, which Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 CONTEMPORARY PAINTING was filmed at Sandy’s Row. or at [email protected] AND SCULPTURE

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A very special relationship

n November 2011 I and members servants. My grandma was a maid and America for many years and that I was of my family travelled to Berlin to then a cook, my grandfather a butler. well. He told me I was assumed to have Iattend a memorial recital in honour For Anneliese, academic life in Italy died even before the war – they had of my grandmother, Ilse Strauss, and became impossible and she fled to the received information I had drowned in her cousins, Elsa and Anneliese Riess. USA in April 1939 to join her recently a river in northern Italy. The source of All three had long and eventful lives. arrived parents. She settled in New this information was unclear. My grandparents grew up in York. Her brother Hans went to South Karli then told me he had been Germany. My grandma Ilse was an Africa, but died when I was a child. His widowed for the last nine years and he only child and her family was quite wife, Ruth, now lives in Australia, but had three sons, one daughter and many assimilated. As a teenager, she became came to Berlin for the memorial recital. grandchildren. I gave him my address. involved in a Jewish youth movement Anneliese’s elder sister, Elsa, emigrated My excitement was indescribable. My and met my Socialist Zionist granddad to the USA after the war, having had heart was racing like crazy and I didn’t Walter. The young couple fell in love a tough time in a concentration camp know what to do. I was alone at home and, although not easily accepted by in Italy. and just had to talk to somebody. I Ilse’s parents, married. They lived in phoned Elsa, broke into tears and Berlin briefly (working for Youth Aliyah) blurted out ‘I’ve just spoken to Karli.’ before heading to a Hasharah camp in I was shaking all over. This excitement Yugoslavia en route to Palestine. But lasted a long time. The impossible in late 1938 they moved to the UK and unimaginable had come to pass. when they realised war was coming Karli was still alive and I had found and – as there was some family here – him and now he knew I too was alive. thought they might be able to get my Immediately we wrote many letters to grandma’s parents out of Germany (but each other and both of us wanted the were unable to do so). They eventually other to know as much about our lives settled in Welwyn Garden City and then as possible. Southgate in north London when my But Karli wasn’t in good health. mum and her sister were teenagers (so Within a few weeks Anneliese travelled as to find them suitable husbands!). to Germany to visit him and received Growing up, my grandma Ilse was a tremendous welcome from all the close to her aunt and cousins, in Elsa Riess (left), at top Ilse Strauss, Anneliese family. She wrote: particular her cousin Anneliese. They Riess. Elsa and Anneliese never married Since my first visit in 1995, I have visited were close in age and grandma told me Karli every year. Unfortunately he is how they would stay up late chatting In her 80s, Anneliese was encouraged not well enough to make the long trip and whispering together. As with many to write her life story. She explored her across the Atlantic. I would have loved families, there are numerous stories to memories and the treasure trove of to show him how and where I live. tell, but it is Anneliese’s story – a love letters she had managed to preserve. However, we write and phone a lot. story – that brought us to Berlin on Among them, she found and re-read His large family have become involved this occasion. Karli’s letters and wondered, as she had – children and grandchildren – some Anneliese was in her early twenties many times before, what had happened of whom have already been here to when she met Karli in Berlin in May 1932. to him. visit me in New York and others have He was not Jewish and was studying With help from the German promised to come. Despite the fact medicine. They developed an intense consulate in New York, Annaliese got that we come from totally different relationship, but events intervened. in touch with the town hall in Karli’s worlds and despite the difference in Shortly after Hitler came to power, home town. In her autobiography she age, this has spontaneously developed Anneliese left to study archaeology in writes: into a warm human relationship. All Rome. Karli visited her in 1934 and On 18 August I received a reply with of them gave me the feeling I would they corresponded by letter. Anneliese his address. be welcome at any time. They have included many of their animated and My heart stood still. He was still even invited me to come to live with moving letters in her autobiography alive! What now? In my excitement, them when I am no longer able to do Exile Becomes Homeland (Exil wird I’m sure I didn’t do the most sensible so alone. This suggestion brings tears Heimat, English translation by Eugene thing. Within five minutes I had his to my eyes. I have not only found Karli Strauss) and it is clear that it was a very phone number and called him. He but a whole new family has taken me special relationship. Karli’s last letter himself answered the phone. I hadn’t into their hearts, as I have them. It’s a to her arrived on her birthday in 1936. expected that. It was the same voice. miracle that such riches can be found But in 1938 she received a postcard At first, he couldn’t understand me. I late in life. Sometime I think I am in a announcing his marriage with no repeated my name several times. He dream from which I will awaken at any covering letter, so this seemed to be the repeated ‘Anneliese Riess’ several times moment. end of the love story. to himself as if the name meant nothing That I found again the old attraction As war approached, some of the to him. Then all of a sudden the penny to Karli after all these years attests to the family were able to emigrate. As dropped and he asked: ‘You are alive? strength and reality of our interrupted mentioned, my grandparents came Where are you? Are you well? How is youthful friendship. The world events to the UK and worked as domestic your heart?’ I told him I had been in continued opposite 

4 AJR JOURNAL february 2013 an incredible gathering

y father’s who had also ancestors organised the event. Mwere born This was followed in and lived many by lunch courtesy generations in the of the village. It was German village of amazing to consult Meudt (Rhineland- the family trees Palatinate) from the based on information 1700s onwards. Even researched by Mr today, Meudt, though Assmann and then to greatly expanded, has meet there in person only around 1,800 third, fourth and fifth inhabitants. cousins all present About a quarter of The entire group of 60 descendants of Meudt Jewish families. In front are local archivist with similar purpose. the 950-page book Stefan Assmann (left) and Mayor Karl-Heinz Müller The ceremony of 900 Jahre Meudt remembrance which 1097-1997, published by the village to regime. Thankfully, others escaped and took place in front of the Holocaust commemorate its 900th anniversary, fled, mostly to the USA, the UK and memorial in the Jewish­ cemetery proudly charts the history of its small South America. included addresses by the mayor, Karl- Jewish community. Stefan Assmann, the Unusually, especially given the size Heinz Müller, local Church clergy and a local archivist, took the time and trouble of the village, every three years the very moving speech by two Falkenstein to research the descendant lines and all mayor of Meudt writes to all known family descendants. Finally, there were published in detail in this book. descendants around the world and was a poignant address in German In the early 1700s, there were only invites them to attend a reunion and a and English by Rabbi William Wolff, four Jewish couples. Two of these Holocaust remembrance ceremony. Landesrabbiner based in Schwerin and lines, the descendants of Jakob son of The book, published by the village, Rostock. All of this was interspersed by Feist and Esther daughter of Löw, who aided by growing interest in genealogy the obligatory German brass band and became the Falkenstein family, and the and helped enormously by use of the a separate male and female choir. descendants of Jakob son of Moses internet, has led to a growing number Kaddish was recited once again and Sara, who became the Heilberg, of these descendants coming into email in Meudt by a goodly minyan, all Löwenstein, Stern and other families, contact with each other. But who would mishpacha of those who perished. The were quite prolific. believe that 60 descendants would ceremony evoked much emotion and One Löwenstein descendant, Haium all make their way to Meudt and be it was in many respects quite cathartic son of David, born in Meudt in 1808, present on Sunday 18 November 2012? to be able to pay our respects. It was famously had 20 children all with the Over half came especially from the USA also moving to see our group of 60 same wife – and 18 of these survived but others also attended from the UK, descendants gathered in pouring rain into adulthood! The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, under umbrellas and swelled threefold Around 25 Jewish residents of Meudt Israel and Germany. by villagers who came to pay their still living there in the 1940s were The day began with a guided tour of respects. deported and murdered by the Nazi Jewish Meudt led by Stefan Assmann, Gerald Stern

A very special relationship cont. Following Elsa’s death in March by the recital – the words, the music which separated us could not destroy 2011, Karli’s children suggested a and the effort everyone had taken to those old feelings. I am grateful that memorial recital for the ‘three ladies’. be there and organise the day. fate blessed us with the opportunity All were lovers of classical music and the Of course, we saw something of to be together once more in our old arts. The recital was held at St Thomas’s the city too and wandered over the age. The loving acceptance by Karli’s Church in Berlin and was a mixture of commemorative stumbling stones and family has made my reconciliation with beautiful music, stories and a short film through the very moving Holocaust Germany easier. of the two New York sisters. Memorial. The girls climbed trees in Anneliese visited several times, and Some 40 members of Karli’s family the Tiergarten and we made them walk sadly Karli passed away three years travelled to Berlin, including all his and walk and walk around this most later, in 1998. She made a special children and most of his grandchildren fascinating city! connection with Karli’s family and they and great-grandchildren. Others came How special and how very important became close to her sister, Elsa, and my too – the daughter of a German school to have had this time to be together! grandmother, Ilse, as well as my parents friend of my grandma and a couple What a great opportunity to think and our generation, many of them from my grandma’s home town (Halle, about and share our memories and travelling to New York and London for near Leipzig). stories and to show our children the significant birthdays. We four travelled to Berlin with my connections with the previous and The three ladies all lived long lives: parents, my sister and her daughter. We current generations of our family and Anneliese was 95 when she died, my were greeted as part of the family and Karli’s family. grandma Ilse 96, Elsa 103. as good friends. We were all so moved Louise Gellman

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HORTHY AND THE HOLOCAUST Sir – I refer to the review in your January issue of Paul Lendvai’s book Hungary: Between Democracy and Authoritarianism. I was deeply saddened by the way in which Lendvai shows how Hungary has, similarly to Putin’s Russia, moved from a relatively brief post-Communist democratic dawn The Editor reserves the right back to authoritarianism, but I slightly to shorten correspondence disagree with a statement that appears submitted for publication to make Admiral Horthy solely responsible for wiping out Hungary’s Jews. I do not know if this was a mis­under­ standing in the original book or in Mr Ország-Land’s review. Granted the Regent IDENTICAL JOURNEY at the Golders Green Hippodrome. Papa intervened too late – after the deporta- Sir – I was delighted to read the letter had chosen me, his youngest child, to tions began, following the arrival of the ‘From Theresienstadt to Switzerland’ accompany him to the theatre. I clung German ‘envoy’ Veesenmayer – but he from Dorothy Graff, Melbourne, in your to him throughout the performance, did intervene eventually and stopped the December 2012 issue. She described the excited and frightened in equal measure deportations. As a result, at the end of identical journey my dear late mother by the colourful costumes and loud the war Hungary appears to have been undertook in February 1945. singing. When the show finished and the left with the largest number of survivors My parents had been in Theresienstadt applause had died down, Papa, holding of the indigenous Jewish community of since September 1942. My father had just my hand firmly, asked if I would like to any Continental country (possibly after passed away from typhus at the end of meet ‘Onkel’ Tauber. I nodded dumbly France). Nor can Horthy be blamed for the 1944 and, when my mother was asked and we went backstage. massacres in Budapest, when the Arrow­ if she wanted to go to Switzerland, she I wasn’t then aware that the singer Cross storm-troopers – men and boys fully expected to be sent to another camp. had been a client of my father in Vienna, who turned out Horthy himself – went Naturally she did not believe this was at Gebrüder Brainin Pelze on the Bauern­ on the rampage in the final weeks of the where she was being sent but thought she markt, and, following emigration, at siege of the city. There are sufficient sticks had nothing to lose. She also thought she Brainin Brothers in London’s New Bond to beat this questionable figure without might just see her two children again – and Street, where my father and uncles were blaming him for what he eventually, and by a miracle she actually did. fortunate enough to be able to continue inadequately, tried to prevent. Your correspondent mentioned all the making and selling elegant furs. There they Francis Steiner, places my mother went to. The first post- supplied Mr Tauber’s wife (as well as his Deddington, Oxfordshire card, saying that she was alive and that my mistress!) and were introduced to several dear father had passed away, came from St of his influential friends. BUT STATUES DON’T TALK … Gallen. I couldn’t believe the miracle. I im- In the Artists’ Room, I hid behind Papa Sir – I am writing in connection with mediately sent a prepaid letter to verify it. while the two men shook hands. Then he the article by Ruth Schwiening in your The hotel my mother lived at was the pulled me forward and introduced me, December issue. In Vienna in 2010 for Edelweiss, and her job was to take care of saying ‘Das ist meine Kleine, die Putzi’ a Stolpersteine ceremony for members the hotel linen. (This is Putzi, my little one). Herr Tauber of my mother’s family who had been I am trying to remember the names of bent down to shake my hand and I saw murdered in the Holocaust, I spent my some of my mother’s friends in Switzerland. the greasepaint on his face. I was ready last evening walking along the Path of One was a lady called Löwensen and there to hide once more when my father said Remembrance in Leopoldstadt. Rounding was a Hungarian couple, Dr Braun and confidently ‘Komm, Du kannst dem Onkel a corner, I too saw a man on his knees and, his wife. Also, there was a nursing sister ruhig ein Pusserl geben!’ (Go on, you can as I drew closer, I could see he had a small called Hirsch in Lucerne – she had a sister give Uncle a little kiss, can’t you!) Hot with scrubbing brush in his hand. However, he in Manchester, with whom we became embarrassment, I gave the great singer a was not a statue but a real person who very friendly. quick peck on the cheek, clinging on to then stood up and entered his home My mother was Anna Horn and my father Papa the while. Within a few moments the after cleaning the Stolpersteine on the Herman Horn of Chemnitz, Saxony. He arr­ men shook hands again and we were safely pavement outside his home. anged many musical and cultural evenings outside, Papa carrying a large envelope. The irony of the situation was not lost. in Theresienstadt during his time there. Back home, the family crowded round Judith Gordon, I would love to hear from anyone who us. The envelope was opened. It contained Handforth, Wilmslow knew my mother. Please contact me through a black-and-white studio photograph of my daughter at [email protected]. the singer across which he had scrawled IN DEFENCE OF WEISSENSEE Ann Cohen (Hannelore Horn), his name and added ‘Für die liebe Putzi’ Sir – In response to the letter by Rudi Leavor Manchester (For dear Putzi). The following week my (January), the last word I would use to describe mother had it framed and for a while I the Weissensee cemetery is ‘deplorable’. THE DAY I KISSED RICHARD TAUBER was the envy of my siblings (my English When I came home from Berlin in Sir – Like Inga Joseph (December, Letters), friends, of course, had never heard October 2012, having attended the laying I, a fellow refugee from Vienna, met of him!). The photograph, alas, did of four Stolpersteine, my mother told me Richard Tauber in London. But it was I who not survive our move to a new home. there was a family grave at Weissensee and gave the great singer a kiss. Mary Brainin Huttrer, London N3 that after the War my Oma had returned Our meeting in 1939 was, however, to Berlin but had been unable to find the unrecorded by me as I was not yet seven Sir – How anyone could have been excited grave on account of bomb damage. years old at the time. It came about after by a kiss from Richard Tauber with his Due to the kind help of Mary Bianchi my father, Salamon Brainin, had been monocle and schmaltzy ‘Leise flehen and Herr Pohl at Weissensee, I was sent a given two complimentary tickets for an meine Lieder’ beats me. Huh! map showing the location of two family operetta called Land of Smiles, performed Margarete Stern, London NW3 graves. I returned to Berlin and went to

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Weissensee map in hand and found the provided financial assistance for Jewish in 1938 to the delight of the Austrian grounds beautiful. Much has been done refugees during the war and, I believe, population. But after the war the Austrians to put right the damage; the paths were for some years afterwards. There are a ‘pretended’ to have been victims. cleared and it had been snowing recently. number of references to him in the AJR No, the Bavarians did not throw me The walk to the grave was emotional for Journal archives but I am very interested out. At one point, the Chief of Police of me but I found within a few minutes the in hearing from people who encountered Munich advised my father, a lawyer, to graves of my great-great-grandparents, him in person. try and get out as things were hotting one perfect, the other demolished. On Regarding my background, I am a up: ‘Machens dass S’ rauskommen, hier my return home, my mother then told me former librarian and archivist who now wird’s brenzlig!’ about another family grave there. volunteers at the Bill Douglas Centre The Weisse Rose movement occurred Herr Pohl not only located this grave but for the History of Cinema and Popular in Munich. And, after the War, several of also obtained copies of the death certifi- Culture, part of Exeter University Library. my non-Jewish classmates ‘found’ me in cate of my great-great-grandmother and I wrote a short article on Walbrook for England. other papers and her last two addresses. the Centre’s website and was interviewed As for Norman Tebbit: I wouldn’t go So again I flew to Berlin, this time with my at his graveside for the ‘Life and Death to him for advice on any subject! What daughter, and we visited both addresses in Hampstead Project’. I recently gave a does trouble me is anti-Semitism in this and Weissensee. The grave of my great- paper on Walbrook at a conference in country. Will my grandchildren emigrate great-grandmother, Lea Luise Nebenzahl­ Senate House, London, where I spoke on to Germany? (née Siodmak), is amazing, with the most his portrayal of Prince Albert in two films And finally, to soothe Peter Phillips’s beautiful words. Two of the three graves he made after arriving in England: Victoria brow, a little grammar lesson: Bavarian have been there since 1902 and 1903 and the Great (1937) and Sixty Glorious Years and Jewish are both used adjectivally look perfect. I am now waiting for a quote (1938). I am a devoted fan of his films and qualifying the noun ‘Brit’. to have a new stone erected in place of enjoy collecting Walbrook memorabilia. A belated happy New Year from the one demolished. Sadly not everyone Most of my published work to date has Bavarian-Jewish Brit Bea Green. there has survivors to do this. been on the history of photography, Bea Green, London SW13 Also in your January issue was an article although in 1991 I curated an exhibition entitled ‘Jewish film-makers in Germany at Glasgow University Library on another THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS during the silent era’. Mentioned in the Viennese-born émigré, Rudolf Schlesinger Sir – Further to my November letter, article is Seymour Nebenzahl. He was my (1901-69). I appreciate the lengthy responses great-great-grandmother’s brother-in-law James Downs, Exeter (December) of Mark Schuck and Rubin and managed to go to the USA before [email protected] Katz, but both attribute to me thoughts war broke out. Also mentioned are Robert I do not hold and considerations or and Curt Siodmak – could they be broth- LOOKING FOR STORIES analogies I can only regard as irrelevant ers of Lea Luise Nebenzahl née Siodmak? Sir – Following the interest in my book on to the basic question I raised. Another trip to Berlin beckons …. Holocaust rescuers, The Other Schindlers, Indeed, I might agree with some of Lauren Collins, Watford, Herts l am now researching into those who what both have to say but the Balfour betrayed Jews in the Holocaust. Declaration was cautiously drafted and THANKS FOR THE COOKBOOK I should be really grateful to hear from imprecise and no legal case can be built Sir – Just to say a big thank you to the AJR any of your readers who have stories to on it. for the cookbook you sent as a seasonal tell. I am particularly interested in cases Israel exists. The question is: Where gift. It is much appreciated and I’m really of betrayal by neighbours, school-friends, does it go from here? Not far on present looking forward to trying some of the teachers and others but want to hear evidence – and please do not misinterpret delicious recipes during the rather dull- from as wide a spread of countries as that! seeming months of January and February. possible. Any photos will be copied and May I add only my regret at Mr Katz’s The AJR is so valued by all the elderly returned or can be emailed. All stories reference to ‘uncivilised’ and ‘backward- folks who go to regional meetings and is will be clearly acknowledged as in The ness’ (people and region). Do I hear, again, of very real therapeutic value, so thank you Other Schindlers. the sound of broken glass? so much for all your hard work. Agnes Grunwald-Spier Alan S. Kaye, Marlow, Bucks Janet Weston, [email protected] Westerham, Kent tel 07816196517 CLOAK-AND-DAGGER OPERATIONS Sir – I was pleasantly surprised to see the THANKS FROM STOKE MANDEVILLE letter (November) from Solly Kaplinski, Sir – Thank you for your kind words about DOES ANYONE KNOW? Executive Director, Joint Ventures, JDC, the AJR visit here. I thoroughly enjoyed Sir – Do any of your readers know why in Jerusalem. I had the honour of meeting hosting the day and meeting so many of her 1946 novel Westwood (Vintage reprint him only once, but I never forgot the your members. 2011), Stella Gibbons drew such a vicious mentsch or the name. At the time, Solly Will you please pass on thanks from picture of Zita, the German-Jewish refugee? was with Yad Vashem. It was on Yom WheelPower to all who attended for their Also, do any readers have any Hashoah 2005, at a world gathering of generosity on the day and subsequent information on Elsa Olga Hollis, author of Survivors and Liberators in Jerusalem donations, which to date have reached Mistress und Maedchen, a comprehensive marking the 60th anniversary of the end just over £300. German and English domestic phrase- of the war. We mingled with retired Red Joyce Sheard, WheelPower book containing simple recipes in both Army generals, their chests festooned with Stoke Mandeville Stadium, languages (Cobden-Sanderson, 1937, 3rd medals. One high-ranking officer pointed Buckinghamshire impression, 3s 6d)? (Mrs) Lilly Lewy, London NW9 to a medal on his chest: ‘For the Freedom ANTON WALBROOK BIOGRAPHY of Warsaw’, where I had been liberated. Sir – I am writing a biography of the GREETINGS FROM A On that notable day, Solly gave me the émigré actor Anton Walbrook and BAVARIAN-JEWISH BRIT honour of placing a wreath on behalf of wondered if any AJR members might have Sir – I do understand Peter Phillips the Child Survivors at the Warsaw Ghetto personal recollections, anecdotes or other (January, Letters) not wanting to be an Fighters’ Memorial and of reciting the information they might wish to share. Austrian: Jews in Vienna suffered terrible Kaddish at the eternal flame. As you are no doubt aware, Walbrook humiliation when Germany took over continued on page 16 

7 AJR JOURNAL february 2013

a selection of Ben Uri’s collection of the artist’s contemporaries, including Chagall, who fled native restriction and persecution REVIEWs for the artistic freedom of Paris. A rt Soutine sold La Soubrette at auction in Paris in 1937. In the expectation that the Notes name Chaim would limit his appeal, his A record of the fate first name was changed by his dealer or of Polish Jewry Gloria Tessler the auction house to Charles. GONE TO PITCHIPOI This portrait of a young servant girl by Rubin Katz whose eloquent nose points down to her Academic Studies Press, wo years ago the Ben Uri acquired white rumpled apron demonstrates the 2012, 326 pp. hardback, Marc Chagall’s Apocalypse en Lilas, depth of the artist’s vision. The back- ISBN 978-1-61811-234-7 Tthe artist’s powerful response to the ground is dark, the girl’s face a rounded his is one of the few books about the Holocaust, in which the crucified Christ triangle with an inverted, pointed chin, Shoah reviewed in the AJR Journal in a tallit is shown with a Nazi at the base also reflected in the shape of the apron, Tthat relates to the experiences of the rare survivors from Poland. ‘Gone to of the cross, an upside-down clock and and her eyes and clenched mouth suggest Pitchipoi’ was the term used by Polish Jews two flying figures holding a Sefer Torah. cynicism and sadness at her domestic lot. to describe fellow Jews sent to unknown The Museum’s latest acquisition, Chaim The outline of the jug to her left is the destinations by the Nazis, knowing that Soutine’s La Soubrette (The Waiting Maid, only other detail and sketchily emphasises few would be seen again. c. 1933), suggests something apparently the unusual shape of her face and her Only eight years old when the Nazis calmer, yet with an equally disturbing otherness – the sense that she is there invaded, the author had led a very pleasant message – about time and place in society. to serve but has a deep and impenetrable life with his middle-class family, who were active in the community and owned a private life of her own, no less fragile confectionery factory. In a fascinating 40- than the glass jug. page prologue, he describes life in pre-war You can’t help asking – is this a Ostrowiec, a town of 30,000 inhabitants, Jewish painting? In its servile and where over a third of the population humbled character, does it prefigure were Jewish. The general description of the fate of European Jewry, which the community is enlivened with many the artist escaped by his early death? personal anecdotes and pen-portraits of its various characters. Perhaps this is too much to read The invasion of September 1939 had into it but, as I study this painting, catastrophic effects on Rubin Katz’s family it seems to me increasingly that the and on the Jewish population of the town. face tells a story that dares not speak What had been a child’s carefree existence its name. Certainly, the interior life turned into a bitter five-year battle for of the Minsk-born artist is present survival. Rubin, a frequent contributor to in this portrait, as it is in many of his this journal’s correspondence columns, other works, including his dreamy chronicles the gradual deterioration of the life of his family and community. landscapes of tumbledown shtetl Initially the Jews were treated as slave houses that to us today strongly labour but remained in their homes. Later evoke Sholem Aleichem and the they, together with several thousand Anatevka of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. co-religionists from the surrounding But it is portraits like La Sou- area, were crammed into a ghetto in the Chaim Soutine La Soubrette Oil on Canvas, 46.7 x brette that speak to us of an eccen- town. In October 1942 the first major 41 cm 1928-33 tric and private anguish. Typical of deportation – destination ‘Pitchipoi’ – took place. During 1943 there were further The Soutine was purchased after 18 Express­ionism – although some critics deportations and mass shootings within months of negotiations with Sotheby’s, argue that Soutine cannot be simply de- the town, and Jewish life in Ostrowiec supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, fined by it – many border on caricature ceased to exist. the Arts Council, England and other public but for their artistic integrity. These faces Using elaborately planned hiding bodies, including several philanthropists are so asymmetrical that they cannot be places, and with the encouragement of and private donors. Other than three contained by their bone structure and his family, Rubin escaped and the greater landscapes at the Tate and a portrait of a seem to leap out of the canvas, urging part of the book relates to the period when he was living under cover. Part of young woman at the Courtauld, this work us to look, look and look again in order the time he was in hiding but for the rest is only the fifth by Soutine in a public to grasp something that is ungraspable he assumed the role of a Polish Christian collection in London. The artist falls within – Soutine’s secret universe. orphan, changed his name and attended church. However, the continuous threat of The Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies exposure to the Nazis remained. The most at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London challenging aspect was that in round-ups requests the pleasure of your company at the the Nazis could identify men suspected of 2nd Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Memorial Lecture being Jewish simply by telling them to pull down their trousers. Rubin used ingenious The Hitler Emigrés Revisited techniques to overcome this problem. At to be given by Daniel Snowman (writer and broadcaster) one time, he even became leader of a gang on Thursday, 21 February 2013, at 6 p.m. Reception afterwards. of young Poles and with them managed to Venue: The Court Room, University of London, Senate House, scrape together enough food for survival. Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU The author’s older sister had managed RSVP by Friday, 8 February 2013 to [email protected] (tel: 020 7862 8966) to escape to Warsaw and she too was

8 AJR JOURNAL february 2013 living with an assumed identity. For some interested in the Modernist movement. who offered their professional expertise to time they shared dangers together, and In work for his diploma, he presented a the community wherever life took them. Rubin feels he owes his survival to her. highly avant-garde model of a theatre. It also illustrates their idealism, which as There were individual Poles who either This prompted Walter Gropius to invite in the case of Sebök, often rendered them knew or suspected that he was Jewish and him to join his group in Dessau and Berlin. victims of totalitarian regimes. turned a blind eye or even helped. This also There he also worked with fellow Hungar- The book contains numerous superb applied to a German soldier who helped ian émigré Laszlo illustrations of Sebök’s design work and him to avoid starvation. He is very bitter, Moholy­ Nagy. essays on the Hungarian and Soviet however, about the great majority of Poles, With the rise context by Eva Forgacs and Richard who, he feels, were only too happy to of the National Anderson. This is an unusual scholarly turn Jews over to the Nazis or demanded Socialist move- piece of literature that illustrates both extortionate bribes to keep silent, at least ment in Germany the dilemma of creative personalities for a while. in the early 1930s, faced with a totalitarian regime and the Throughout the book the author puts the ­flourishing importance of uncovering and bringing his own dramatic story in the wider context cultural life in to light the work of creative individuals of the Nazi campaign to liquidate all Polish Germany was whatever the effort involved. Jewry as well as of the war itself. During suppressed. The Sebök’s biography also uncovers new the Warsaw Uprising he was particularly persecution of aspects of the persecution of European shocked when he saw leaflets with the Jews and other Jews in the 20th century and illustrates message ‘CITIZENS OF WARSAW! We are Stefan Sebök anti-Nazi individ- the loss to European cultural life resulting fighting for a FREE POLAND – a Poland uals prevented the further development of from the domination of two dictatorships. without Germans, Russians and Jews.’ new ideas and forced creative individuals­ Gerta Vrbova There is a moving account of the day wishing to continue their work into Rubin and his sister were liberated by the emigration. This applied equally to rep- Red Army, but their troubles did not end resentatives of the Modernist movement. Internment reports by there. They were initially looked after in a Members of Gropius’s group scattered to Jewish emergency centre in Lublin, where various European countries that allowed ‘enemy aliens’ Rubin was even able to go to school for them to continue their work. In the early CIVILIAN INTERNMENT IN BRITAIN the first time in over five years, but then 1930s cultural life in the Soviet Union DURING WW2: HUYTON CAMP. EYE- they decided to return to Ostrowiec. There seemed to flourish and architecture in WITNESS ACCOUNTS they and a few Jewish survivors were particular provided an attractive possi­ bility­ edited and introduced by exposed to a hostile reception from the for young creative architects like Sebök. Jennifer Taylor Polish population, who had not expected Accordingly he moved to the Soviet Union any returnees. There was good news, to work with the Contructivist­ architects London: Anglo-German Family History however, as their mother and two of their Ginsburg, El Lissitzky and the Vesnin Society, 2012, 118 pp. four brothers had survived after horrific brothers. n May/June 1940, as Britain faced experiences in camps. As it was not safe Unfortunately, refugees from Germany the threat of imminent invasion, to stay in Poland the survivors left for and other countries living in the Soviet Ithe government ordered the mass Palestine – or in Rubin’s case for England, Union were less fortunate then those internment of ‘enemy aliens’ as a supposed as he was one of those rescued by Rabbi who moved to other parts of the world security measure. This short volume Solomon Schonfeld. The concluding part as, during the subsequent years of Stalin’s contains eye-witness reports by internees of the book describes his initial difficulties rule, most were arrested and many killed. at Huyton Camp in Liverpool, which the in settling down in England but these Sebök was imprisoned in 1941 and died government had created by requisitioning were followed eventually by a successful there of malnutrition. a newly-built housing estate. Huyton life in this country. The author ends with Both in Germany and in the Soviet functioned as a transit camp, housing fuller accounts of the individual fates of Union, Sebök carried out numerous prisoners who were transferred to the members of his family and of his return original projects which became central to Isle of Man or, in some cases, deported visits to the place of his childhood. a generation of emerging young architects to the Dominions. During the early weeks Rubin Katz’s remarkable memory has throughout the world. of internment, conditions were hard. enabled him to produce an account not In this book, Sebök’s niece Lilly Dubowitz Behind barbed wire and guarded by armed only about his own life and family, but describes in meticulous detail her search soldiers, internees were held in isolation also a record of the fate of Polish Jewry. for his work. Following various clues, she from the outside world; newspapers and The only minor criticism is that some of uncovers details of her uncle’s life and radios were banned; post was censored. In the photos are of poor quality and do not work in the manner of an architectural addition, Nazis and anti-Nazis were forced add to the value of the record. detective, providing a compelling account to live cheek by jowl – a source of great George Vulkan of the work and short life of a once- resentment. forgotten architect. This volume contains four accounts Lilly Dubowitz’s research has ­uncovered of life in Huyton, only two of which have The work and short life of Sebök’s substantial contribution to some been published before (and only one in of the Bauhaus’s iconic architecture and English). The first is the anonymous diary Stefan Sebök designs as well as the important work in of an Austrian refugee, held at Huyton IN SEARCH OF A FORGOTTEN the Soviet Union. It reflects the current from May to July, which the Council of ARCHITECT: STEFAN SEBÖK, 1901-1941 trend towards a more detailed examination Austrians sent to Eleanor Rathbone MP for by Lilly Dubowitz of the legacy of Modernism. This book not use in her campaign against internment. only uncovers Sebök’s contribution to This account first appeared in 1940 in London: Architectural Association, the Modernist movement but highlights François Lafitte’s indictment of internment 2012, 212 pp. paperback, personalities who were indispensable in policy The Internment of Aliens. It is ISBN 9781907896217 inspiring many first-rate projects but were followed by the report ‘Experiences and his book is an account of the work overshadowed by the signatories of those Observations over Two Months’, compiled and life of Stefan Sebök, a Hungar- projects. by the well-known pacifist Otto Lehmann- Tian-born architect who was unable Sebök’s career path from Hungary Russbueldt, which was submitted to Lord to study in Hungary due to his Jewish through Germany to the Soviet Union, Lytton’s Advisory Council on Aliens. Also origins. Like many other Hungarian in- combined with his international outlook in published are pages from the diary of tellectuals, he emigrated to Germany in architecture and kinetic art, epitomises the the Austrian composer Hans Gál, written the 1920s and during his studies became journey of those capable young specialists Reviews continued overleaf 

9 AJR JOURNAL february 2013 reviews cont. from page 9 during his brief stay at Huyton. Gál The passion Finler, an occasional contrib- forehead higher – whose result bore little considered the conditions there ‘primitive’ utor to this Journal, exhibits for movie stills resemblance to the subject being filmed. but miraculously managed to compose his as a genre undervalued by writers, critics The author analyses the development Huyton Suite – which was later performed and film historians is clear. He explores of these photographic techniques, trick in Central Promenade Camp, Douglas. the role of the photographer – sometimes shots, double exposures, subtle lighting, Finally, the volume contains shunted out of the way by pompous and vertical lighting, shadow and silhouette extracts from the diary of Paul Bondy, shots. a businessman, journalist and Social narcissistic directors, sometimes hounded Democrat who was detained at Huyton off the set, as in the case of the mistreated But it would all end soon. The post- from June to December 1940. Bondy’s Cecil Beaton, even though the still was war years generated a more natural look diary, hitherto unpublished and indeed essential pre-publicity. for the stars with the development of unknown, begins with a detached account It all began in 1910, with the birth of the film noir genre, plus the invention of of his own arrest and goes on to record the stars like Theda Bara, the scary, animalistic less clunky, lighter, smaller cameras. The circumstances which ruled the detainees’ femme fatale (whose name is an anagram black-and-white period had reached its daily lives – and their reactions. While for Arab death!). The era of tinsel-town zenith by the 1950s; the following decade this short volume adds little to academic glamour flourished in the early 1930s, but of colour filming drove black-and-white discourse on internment, thanks are due that period also saw the birth of horror photography into decline. to Jennifer Taylor and the Anglo-German – there’s a photo of King Kong hovering This book is a must for all who love Family History Society for making these over New York’s Empire State Building beauty – you can gaze at it for hours on interesting sources accessible to a wider end …. audience. holding a terrified Fay Wray in his paw Gloria Tessler Richard Dove with planes surging towards him – the image can’t help but suggest a horrific fast-forward to 9/11. MBE for Holocaust A backward look at glamour And then there’s Marilyn with her skirt famously blowing in the wind, a cheeky Survivor Mayer Hersh HOLLYWOOD MOVIE STILLS: ART shot of Betty Grable in swimsuit and high AND TECHNIQUE IN THE GOLDEN heels, and the inimitable Fred Astaire and AGE OF THE STUDIOS Rita Hayworth giving Strictly Come Danc- by Joel W. Finler ing a run for its money. Jean Harlow, her Titan, 2012, 224 pp. hardcover, platinum hair matching her white silky ISBN 9781781161937 dress, betrays a secret: for the gowns t first glance, this is a book of to stay wrinkle-free when worn off-set, yesterdays. But we all love our someone designed a lean-to against which yesterdays, especially if we’re film the star could rest without sitting down! A One sculptural shot of Harlow prefigures buffs, because they are full of romance, sentiment and nostalgia. The recent by 30 years the yet unborn Twiggy, down to the wan face, pale hair and huge, dark © Matt Writtle/Portraits for revival of interest in Hollywood’s golden Posterity 2009 chalky eyes. age has spawned art exhibitions and ayer Hersh, a survivor of nine encouraged retrospectives by leading Between the 1920s and 1950s concentration camps who photographers like Eve Arnold who Hollywood spawned an outpouring of black-and-white photographs. Stars were now lives in ­Manchester, captured the glamour images of the M Hollywood stars. Last December BBC4 snapped at parties, restaurants, award has been awarded an MBE. What a showed a new series: ‘Screen Goddesses’. ceremonies, night clubs, and their own ­wonderful achievement and his fel- So Joel Finler’s coffee-table book of stunning homes – just like today’s Hello! low survivors in the ’45 Aid Society black-and-white images, which he claims and OK! magazines. are very proud of him! As Secretary Although most stars were no more than is the first collection of movie stills for over of that Society, I have known Mayer 40 years, is well timed. His new, expanded wholly owned subsidiaries of the power- ful studios, with little input of their own, for many years and you could always edition includes over 30 pages of photos rely on him to assist in any project we and captions, including an original feistier ones like Lauren Bacall bucked had. At one time, he regularly visited contact sheet for the film Witness for the trend. She famously asked her stills the Prosecution, stuntmen in action and photographer for a ‘police photo’! Most schools and colleges and gave talks the stars themselves as photographers. stars had to submit to the system of clever on the Holocaust. It also includes photos of Humphrey re-touching – and even, in the case of Louise Elliott Bogart in High Sierra by Scotty Welbourne Rita Hayworth, electrolysis to make her and Conrad Veidt in Casablanca by Jack Woods. There are rare photos of leading Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award stillsmen at work in Hollywood studios and for Ladislaus Löb an expanded bibliography. The book offers five chapters of insight adislaus Löb, Professor Emeritus of German at the University into the studio and star system, reproduc- Lof Sussex, received the award for his book Dealing­ with Satan: Rezsö Kasztner’s Daring Rescue Mission. Professor Löb was a pas- ing the studio shots of the most famous senger on the ‘Kasztner train’, which saw almost 1,700 Jews given stars of the first half of the 20th century safe passage out of Hungary to Switzerland during the Holocaust. – Greta Garbo, described by her stillsman Ladislaus Löb is the first UK recipient of the Austrian Holocaust as having the most inspirational face he Professor Ladislaus Löb Memorial Award, which is sponsored by Austrian Service Abroad, received the award from had ever seen, Marlene Dietrich, the trans- the Aust­rian Ambassador an organisation which has sent hundreds of young Austrians to the UK, His Excellency lucent Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Swanson abroad for a year of service of social, peace or Holocaust Emil Brix, at a ceremony – many of which would have ended up on at the Austrian Residence remembrance work. in London the cutting-room floor, lost to posterity.

10 AJR JOURNAL february 2013 Children of Resistance Fighters and Exiles conference in Berlin last October was Sühnker discussed their interviews with refugees and Holocaust survivors founded aimed at the children of resistance over 200 children of anti-fascist activists in 1985 in East Berlin and reconstituted as A fighters and exiles. Funded by, among in Wuppertal who witnessed their parents’ the Jüdischer Kulturverein Berlin in 1989. others, ‘Helle Panke’ e.V-Rosa-Luxemburg resistance and imprisonment first-hand Wolfgang Herzberg examined patterns Stiftung Berlin, and organised by the VVN- early during the Nazi period. The three- of the mental inheritance and barriers BdA (Union of People Persecuted by the year project of the Bergische Universität ­damaging both First and Second Genera- Nazi Regime-Association of Anti-Fascists), Wuppertal documents the effects of their tions in the GDR, the chasm between their it followed two conferences on the ‘Second parents’ persecution on their own lives. ­understanding of socialism and the reality Generation’ whose parents had found Some refused any political involvement as of living in ‘real existing­ socialism’. Micha asylum in the USSR and frequently become a result of their experience; others, e.g. Brumlik and Irene Dieckmann introduced victims of the purges. Christa Bröcher and Klara Tuchscherer, who their research: interviews­ with people born in The conference addressed itself to those spoke of their Second Generation activities in exile in ‘the West’ who moved to the Soviet­ who had found exile in ‘the West’. Those North-Rhine Westphalia, resolved to oppose Zone, later the GDR, with their parents. present spent their early childhood anywhere actively ignorance, injustice and amnesia, Oswald Schneidratus, born in the USSR to from Shanghai to Uruguay and included widespread in the FRG, where a number of parents persecuted not only in Germany but children of resistance fighters who had active Nazis achieved influential positions. also in the USSR, made a plea to bring together survived in Germany itself. Merilyn Moos – ‘Breaking the Silence’ – the different memories. He, and other par- ‘At last we are talking to each other’ – discussed her research among the British ticipants, opposed ‘hierarchies of suffering’. this was the feeling among the over 100 cohort; I contributed to the discourse about There were opportunities for informal participants. The need to tell their story – and the Second Generation and its organisations exchanges too. What emerged was that that of their parents – was palpable. Many in Britain; and Helene Maimann from Vienna whatever the individual history of the contributors came from the descendants of spoke about the Jewish socialist Kinderjause. participants, all felt the long-lasting effects those persecuted, displaced, imprisoned, Irene Runge’s subject was ‘Wir für uns’, a of Nazism, exile and dislocation. tortured, or executed, from the descendants group of secular children of political Jewish Irene Fick of refugees, and those who fought with the Republicans in the Spanish War, with the Child Survivors at Cleveland conference Allied armies or underground. Parents’ complicated life stories have ive members of the CSAGB-AJR attended topics presented ranged from ‘The Claims the recent 24th annual conference of Conference and Child Survivors’ and ‘Jews an effect on their children, often ­causing the World Federation of Jewish Child Rescuing Jews’. identity crises. Hans Coppi had been born F Survivors of the Holocaust and Descendants, Some of the workshops covered issues in prison; his father saw him once before he in Cleveland, Ohio. Over 500 delegates from which many survivors find increasingly rele­ was executed; his mother was executed after all over the world attended the event. In vant as they age, e.g. ‘Memories and Their he was weaned. Both were in the resistance addition to socialising and reminiscing, there Impact on Our Ageing’ and ‘Facing Today with and were caught with many others active was a full programme of panels, workshops Yesterday’s Baggage’. Others were of a more in the Red Orchestra or the Herbert Baum and seminars. practical nature, such as ‘Art, Writing and group. Andrée Fischer-Marun spoke of her Robert Krell, himself a Child Survivor, gave Music and Movement’. Several workshops grandfather, a Jewish Social Democratic the keynote address on ‘Child Holocaust were geared to the Second and Third Genera- member of the Reichstag murdered in 1934, Survivors: 30 Years of Friendship, Healing tion attendees. and her Communist parents, who found and Education – Our Legacy’. It was based on The arrival of Superstorm Sandy, which exile in France and Mexico. Alice Czyborra, his address to the United Nations earlier in hit Cleveland a day after the east coast, did daughter of Peter Gingold, a Jewish Commu- the year. Another speaker was the physicist focus the mind of delegates in that it badly nist active in the French Resistance, told how Henry Fenichel, who gave an amusing affected our travel plans. But then, most of us Jewish Communists faced discrimination and talk about the astronauts who in 2006 have endured a worse journey and survived! persecution in the FRG long after the war. took a miniature Torah into space. Other Joan Salter, Chair, CSAGB-AJR Dieter Nelles, Armin Nolzen and Heinz

Kindertransport 75th Anniversary he AJR is delighted to announce a series of events that we are organising this year to mark the 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport. T The central event will be the Kinder reunion on Sunday 23 June at the JFS. We will shortly be sending out invitations with details of the day, which will include contributions from Kinder, JFS pupils and guest speakers. We very much encourage the participation of the Second and Third Generations of Kinder. The reunion will also incorporate a new exhibition to be curated by the Wiener Library which will be on display at the Library from May. The day after the reunion, on Monday 24 June, the Leo Baeck Institute London, together with the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, will be holding a symposium at the ­German Historical Institute in London. The conference will focus on the experiences of Kinder after their arrival in Britain and will be a great opportunity for scholars and Kinder to exchange thoughts and ideas. As with the reunion, it is hoped that younger generations will come along as well as Kinder from out of town and overseas who hope to come to JFS. Later in the year, on Wednesday 20 November, we are organising, with the help of Lord (Alf) Dubs, a special Tea in the Houses of Parliament to mark the debate held there on 21 November 1938 which paved the way for the arrival of the Kindertransport. To round off the year, World Jewish Relief, in conjunction with the AJR, will be organising a memorial service at Liverpool Street Station on Sunday 1 December, For more information about the Library and our current exhibitions, visit our which recalls the arrival 75 years to the day of the first transport of children. website at www.wienerlibrary.co.uk. The Wiener Library is always interested in We look forward to welcoming Kinder and their families at these historic events acquiring new material. If you do not have anything for this exhibition but have other documents, artefacts or books related to the Holocaust, please contact us. as well as of course to the monthly Kinder lunches at the Belsize Square Synagogue. Invitations will be sent out shortly Sir Erich Reich

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with a medley of Yiddish, Chanukah in the film industry, following which we and traditional songs – much enjoyed enjoyed Chanukah refreshments. by all. We welcomed new member Faye Anne Selinger Healey, who came to Liverpool on the Kindertransport and to the day it was the Essex Chanukah Lunch INSIDE 74th anniversary of Rita Abram’s arrival in Westcliff and Southend Synagogue Ladies this country on the first Kindertransport. Guild hosted a Chanukah lunch to which Guido Alis AJR members were invited. Esther Rinkoff the AJR A Most Pleasant Meeting: Chanukah Party for Glasgow CF North London groups New Year’s Eve Recreated Our slightly belated Chanukah Party, New Year’s Eve was recreated on 19 Decem- at the Sha’arei Tsedek Synagogue in ber when we, 17 members and volunteers, Edinburgh A Delightful Afternoon Whetstone, was attended by some 35 finished the year off in true Scottish style and sat down to an afternoon of socialis- Having gathered for a pre-Chanukah guests from Edgware, Hendon, HGS, ing and relaxation with soft background get-together at the beautiful home of North London, Temple Fortune and WGC music and balloons and mulled wine, Françoise Robertson, we were regaled by groups. We were entertained by Lynne haggis neeps, tatties and trifle. Taking fiddle player Gica Loening, who told us Bradley with songs and commentary bookings for next year already …. the fascinating history of klezmer music, interspersed by a light, but very pleasant Agnes Isaacs illustrating it with toe-tapping examples lunch. Our thanks to Myrna, Hazel and of the various tunes for weddings in volunteers for a most pleasant meeting. Herbert Haberberg St John’s Wood Unconventional the shtetl. Following a scrumptious tea, Account of Bank of England a reading of the comic poem ‘Twas the The Bank of England’s Tim Pike gave a Night before Chanukah’ rounded off the Ilford Early Chanukah Party We had an early Chanukah Party with lots riveting and unconventional account afternoon. Warm thanks to Agnes Isaacs of food! Myrna Glass then set us a lively of the Bank and those responsible for for organising this delightful afternoon quiz with prizes and this was followed by running it plus an overview of our financial and, of course, to our generous hostess a second dip into the wonderful André situation and prospects for the future. We Françoise. Flora Selwyn Rieu DVD recorded in front of the Hofburg would have Tim back any time! Yvonne Klemperer BRIGHTON AJR GROUP Palace in Vienna. Mark Finkletaub Monday 18 February 2013 Café Imperial at 10.45 am Leeds Members Say Farewell Superb Memorial to Willie Field to Susanne Green Over 20 of us celebrated the life of A fond farewell was said to Suzanne Willie Field at Giacomo’s in Finchley Green for her many years of hard Road. Judy, Willie’s wife, their two sons work over here in the ‘North East’. The and his twin sister from Westcliff were We are delighted we will be joined by occasion was the local Chanukah Party present, as was Dr Helen Fry, who helped The Mayor of Brighton & Hove, and there were so many accolades Willie write his book. It was suggested Cllr Bill Randall that we lost count! Susanne gave that this superb memorial to Willie, Meetings held at Ralli Hall, Denmark us all so much – she cared about us, organised by the AJR along with Lord Villas in Hove (nr Hove Station) organised us, encouraged us to meet Peter Eden, might become an annual and socialise. She could be counted on event. Hazel Beiny All members in the area welcome to offer real friendship and support. For further details, please contact Her commitment to the refugees and Newcastle Chanukah Lunch and Esther Rinkoff on 020 8385 3070 or survivors shone through and could Highlight of the Year Concert at [email protected] be seen in her smile. We will miss her Soprano Lynne Harvey Allen and Alaister dearly over here but we know it’s not Sim of Glasgow enthralled us with Ealing My Life at the Home Office ‘goodbye’ but ‘au revoir’ as no doubt favourites from Fiddler on the Roof, The Member Leslie Sommer spoke about his we will see her again at the Northern Merry Widow, Carmen plus Yiddish songs career as a civil servant. From Town Plan- gatherings. The bonds between this to name but a few. The three-course lunch, ning he went on to work at the Parole Unit, band of brothers and sisters has been catered by Brenda Dinsdale, including Immigration Deportation, Fire Services, strengthened by her endeavours and home-made bread, hand-made chocolate Passport Agency and Coroner’s Unit. He we can only wish her all the very best spoons and latkes, was simply delicious. also sat on the Home Office’s Equality and for her future, as she concentrates on Flowers were presented to our Social Human Rights’ Commission. the North West. She can count on a Worker Eileen Brady, who is leaving the Esther Rinkoff grand reception if she ventures ‘over AJR and will be much missed. It was a the border’. Susanne, thank you for chance to meet locum Social Worker Jim Birmingham/West Midlands everything and we hope you have fond Sutherland. The Chanukah concert was The Complex Technology of Blood memories of us all here. undoubtedly the highlight of the year. Transfusion Lilian Black Agnes Isaacs Our member Walter Loeb, retired head of the Midlands Blood Transfusion Centre, Pinner Chanukah Party Wessex Light-hearted Quiz and spoke about his former work. From the We enjoyed the annual Chanukah Party Sumptuous Tea relatively basic beginnings of giving and with latkes and lots of other savoury Over 30 members and guests gathered receiving blood, it has become a most and sweet food. Entertainment was in Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation complex technology. Ruth Shire delightfully provided by Gayathrie, who Communal Hall. Myrna welcomed sang a wide range of songs accompanied everyone and began the afternoon with Liverpool KT Anniversary by her husband Bill. a light-hearted quiz, following which we Our Chanukah Party was held at the home Robert Gellman had a sumptuous tea including latkes and of Inge and Eric Goldrein, to whom we are doughnuts. Candles were lit by Walter once again indebted for their hospitality. Oxford 80 Years of the Film Industry Kammerling and we concluded with the We were entertained by Greg Abrams, son Howard Lanning gave us a Powerpoint singing of Ma’oz Tsur. of our member Rita, and his wife Shelley presentation on 80 years of his family Renee Oberlander

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Manchester Chanukah Social february GROUP MEETINGS Neither ‘Pre’ nor ‘Post’ Café Imperial Date tba Social Get-together We held our very popular Chanukah Social, Glasgow CF 3 Feb Social this year neither ‘pre’ nor ‘post’ but with Ealing 5 Feb Winter Warmer – Social Get-together just a few hours of the festival remaining. Edinburgh CF 6 Feb Jewish Poetry Some 50 members and friends enjoyed Ilford 6 Feb David Barnett: ‘Shops and Shopping in Regency London’ tasty seasonal refreshments. The musical Pinner 7 Feb Howard Lanning: ’80 Years in the Film Industry’ entertainment this year was provided by Newcastle 10 Feb Screening of Watermarks Liverpool-based Bobby Abrahams, himself HGS 11 Feb Prof Michael Spiro: ‘The Story of Penicillin’ Essex 12 Feb Sharon Wheeler, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Third Generation from refugee stock, Bradford 13 Feb Introducing Wendy Bott who regaled us with songs in the style St John’s Wood 13 Feb Representative from Wallace Collection of Sinatra and Michael Bublé. There is Welwyn GC 14 Feb (Thur at synagogue) Ros Nagler: ‘Light-Hearted Poetry’ continued enthusiasm for the Social – long Brighton 18 Feb The Mayor of Brighton (see box, page 12) may it remain so! Thanks are due once Edgware 19 Feb Discussion Group – An object that means a lot to you again to Susanne Green for all her help Kent 19 Feb Film: Alice Sommer Hertz, still playing piano at 107 Oxford 19 Feb Angela Schluter: ‘Jewish Mother, Nazi Father’ in ensuring the success of the occasion. Liverpool 20 Feb Members share stories and research Werner Lachs Radlett 20 Feb Local Council Member Cambridge 21 Feb David Barnett: ‘The Story of Joseph Nathan and GlaxoSmithKline’ Brighton-Sarid (Sussex) Hull 24 Feb Introducing Wendy Bott A Most Interesting Morning North West London 25 Feb (Mon at Hendon) Ruth Berman – Extend Exercises We enjoyed Esther’s doughnuts with Marlow CF 26 Feb Social Get-together with Lunch our Chanukah quiz – amazing how Book Club 27 Feb Social much we didn’t know we knew! Having Wembley 27 Feb Social Get-together North London 28 Feb Andy Epstein, Trustee of WIZO UK congratulated ourselves, we heard a little about the lives of our members, during contacts and after the War. A very interesting Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator Agnes Isaacs, Scotland and Newcastle 020 8385 3070 Co-ordinator morning and we look forward to our next Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands 0755 1968 593 meeting. Shirley Huberman Groups Co-ordinator Esther Rinkoff, Southern Region Co-ordinator 020 8385 3077 020 8385 3077 Kent Chanukah Get-together Susanne Green, Northern Groups Co-ordinator KT-AJR (Kindertransport) At our Chanukah get-together we lit 0151 291 5734 Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 candles and ate doughnuts and mince Susan Harrod, Groups’ Administrator Child Survivors Association–AJR pies, then answered questions in a fairly 020 8385 3070 Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 light-hearted quiz prepared by Esther. American musical. At that time, Jews speakers, but our meetings have a warm Josephine Singer constituted about 3% of the American and friendly intimacy and are always Book Club Delicious Cake and population. It’s therefore astonishing, as greatly enjoyed. Ingrid Morland the Usual Group Therapy Brian Nathan pointed out to us, that over Meeting at Joseph’s Bookstore in Temple 50% of the musicals were written by Jews Fortune, we enjoyed delicious cake and the same is true for other types of Books Bought and our usual group therapy session. popular music. Brian produced an almost Deborah Feldman’s Unorthodox: The unending list of Jewish composers and Modern and Old Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots librettists, including later ones writing film was considered one of the best books music. Often their Jewish origins came as Eric Levene a surprise to us. Fritz Starer we’ve read to date. For our 27 February 020 8364 3554 meeting, we’ll be reading The Seamstress Wembley Warm and Friendly Intimacy by Maria Duenas. Hazel Beiny 07855387574 At our belated Chanukah get-together [email protected] Myrna laid on a very special tea – one of Yorkshire Chanukah Party our members had turned 103 years old. I also purchase ephemera Klezmer and Crooning We are a small group and hence have no We held a pre-Chanukah celebration combined with fond farewells to Susanne Green. First and Second Generation ‘Like a Film Star’ – Search for a Precious Photo members came from Hull, Sheffield, ast year Garry Mandel of Manchester they had a newspaper archive. Put through Bradford, Doncaster and Leeds to enjoy Lsaid he would love to see again a photo to the archive, Barbara asked archivist a wonderful mixture of klezmer and of his elder brother Leo that had appeared Brenda whether they might have a paper crooning music followed by afternoon in an East Anglian newspaper dated 17 November 1938 tea. Ruth Rogoff told us the story and when the first Kindertransport and explained why. Brenda significance of Chanukah and how it group arrived there on 17 said she’d look and ring back. relates to life today. Rudi Leavor sang the ­December 1938. Leo was the Fifteen minutes later Brenda brachot whilst members lit candles and first of four siblings to come to rang back and said ‘Bingo!’ we all sang Ma’oz Tsur. There was much the UK from Vienna. He then She had found the photo, plus emotion due to Susanne’s retirement arranged guarantors for his associated articles. She too from Yorkshire after 11 years of travel- two brothers and sister. Their had put her Sherlock Holmes ling over the Pennines. Pippa Landey had mother obtained a domestic hat on – the photo was not in organised tributes by Veronika Keczkes visa and their father survived the Lowestoft newspaper, but from Hull, Heinz Skyte from Leeds, Rudi the war in hiding, so eventu- the East Anglian Daily Press. Leavor from Bradford and Rachel Hunter ally the family was reunited in It would cost £16.00 for cop- from Sheffield. Susanne introduced Manchester. They were very ies of the papers to be made Wendy Bott, the new Yorkshire Group aware of how lucky they were. (there are rules as to who can Co-ordinator. Barbara Cammerman Garry said the photo showed Leo looking receive copies of archive papers). out of the train window ‘like a film star’. At the end of the year a delighted Garry AJR Northern Social Worker Barbara Dresner showed Barbara the photo he’d spoken of so Radlett Disproportionate Role of heard this and put her Sherlock Holmes hat warmly. There was his brother Leo – exactly US Jewish Composers on. She rang Lowes­toft ­Library and asked if as described! The early 1900s were the heyday of the

13 AJR JOURNAL february 2013 The AJR Paul Balint Centre at Belsize Square Synagogue 51 Belsize Square, London NW3 4HX Telephone 020 7431 2744 Open Tuesdays and Thursdays – 9.30 am to 3.30 pm Activities February 2013 THE AJR PAUL BALINT CENTRE Lunch is served at 12.30 unless otherwise stated – LUNCHES FRESHLY PREPARED Please note that lunches at the New Timing Centre are freshly prepared on the premises by Please note: Current Affairs Discussion our in-house chef Cassie Group will now start at 10.30 am

One-to-One Basic Computer Lessons To book a session with Rim, please call her on 020 8385 3070 Meals-on-Wheels To order Meals-on-Wheels Tuesday 5 February 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games please telephone 020 8385 3075 10-12 One-to-One Computer Tuition (this number is manned on Wednesdays only) or 020 8385 3070 10.45 Seated Exercises with Jacky 12.30 KT LUNCH Speaker Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Thursday 7 February Thursday 21 February 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games 10.30 Current Affairs Discussion 11.15 Seated Exercises with Rosalie 11.15 Seated Exercises with Rosalie Group 13.45 Lynne and Michael Valentine’s 12 pm LUNCHEON CLUB Speaker David 11.30 Seated Exercises with Jacky show ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart’ Lawson, ‘Steel and Schnapps, 13.45 Entertainer – Ronnie Goldberg Sausages and Soldiers, Scrolls Tuesday 12 February and Survival – the Story of Ostrava’ Thursday 28 February 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games 12.45 Lunch 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games 10-12 One-to-One Computer Tuition 10.00 French Conversation 10.30 Current Affairs Discussion Group Tuesday 26 February 10.45 Let’s Read and Discuss 11.30 Seated Exercises with Jacky 10.12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games 11.15 Seated Exercises with Rosalie 13.45 Entertainer – Mike Marandi 10-12 One-to-One Computer Tuition 13.45 Entertainer – Mike Ryan

Thursday 14 February 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games family anouncements 10.00 French Conversation  10.30 Let’s Read and Discuss Birthday 11.00 Seated Exercises with Rosalie Eve Mary Kolman (née Rosenberg) Congratulations with love 12.00 Lunch and best wishes on her 90th birthday from her husband, children, 12.45 Film Show ‘Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ grandchildren, family and friends Tuesday 19 February Engagement 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games Congratulations to Eleanor and Tim Angel and grandmother 10-12 One-to-One Computer Tuition Anne Marx on the engagement of Jeremy and Anne-Marie 10.45 Seated Exercises with Jacky 13.45 Entertainer – Margaret Opdahl Death Condolences to Agi Alexander and sons Michael and Nicholas on the death of Simon

Home Care ARTS AND EVENTS PillarCare ColvinCare through quality and january DIARY Quality support and care at home professionalism Celebrating our 25th Anniversary Wed 30 January (until 12 May 2013) ‘Schwitters in Britain’ Exhibition of  Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours 25 years of experience in providing the art at internment camp on Isle of highest standards of care in the comfort  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care of your own home Man. At Tate Britain, London SW1. £10, concessions available  Convalescent and Personal Health Care Mon 18 Feb Prof Neil Gregor  Compassionate and Affordable Service (University of Southampton), ‘Mockery as Politics: The Degenerate Art  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Exhibition, 1937’ At Wiener Library,  Registered with the CQC and UKHCA 6.30 pm. Tel 020 7636 7247 1 hour to 24 hours care Registered through the National Care Standard Commission Wed 20 Feb B’nai B’rith Jerusalem Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 Lodge. Dennis Hart, More Tales of a PILLARCARE Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 Fleet Street Photographic Journalist THE BUSINESS CENTRE · 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE · LONDON NW1 7BB PHONE: 020 7482 2188 · FAX: 020 7900 2308 www.colvin-nursing.co.uk 2.30 pm, venue to be arranged www.pillarcare.co.uk

14 AJR JOURNAL february 2013 Obituaries

Ruth Whyte (née Kremnitzer), 11 August 1914 – 2 September 2012

uth Gudrun Kremnitzer was born safe, she returned to London, where her in Leipzig the daughter of Rosi and parents were now living in the Belsize R Gerhard Kremnitzer. Her father, Park district. born on the Polish-Austrian border, took During the war years Ruth provided Austrian nationality but chose to live in translation services for the BBC, which Leipzig. Here he built up a flourishing fur covered all aspects of war reporting, and business, enabling Ruth and her younger in 1946 she started work with the Office brother Ernst to enjoy a happy childhood. of War Information. She was deeply All this changed in 1933 when Hitler involved in helping other refugees who came to power. Ruth had just left school had escaped to London and was always and vividly remembered her last carefree grateful for the help and support she summer spent with friends dancing, herself had received. partying and playing tennis. By autumn In 1947 she rented a flat in Thurlow the idyll was over and Gerhard decided Road, Hampstead. This was a time of to move his fur business to Milan. The London, Ruth became restless and going to the theatre and parties and family started a new life in Italy, where returned to her beloved Italy, settling celebrating the end of the war, and it was they spent five happy years and Ruth in Venice and working in a fashionable here that she died some 65 years later. She learned fluent Italian. When the onset couturier shop adjacent to the Piazza loved her life in Hampstead and moved in of hostilities forced them to move to San Marco. Realising Italy was no longer a circle of cultural-artistic Mittel-European friends. She developed great skill in mounting drawings and paintings, and Clare Barrington, 30 October 1923 – 25 November 2012 her first big assignment was an exhibition of Gwen John at the Matthiesen Gallery, y dear mum, Clare Barrington, whose mounts were admired by Gwen’s passed away peacefully in brother Augustus. Ruth went on to make Mthe early hours at Peterhead many mounts for the great artist and he Cottage Hospital, Aberdeenshire, after became a good friend. a short illness. She was 89 years of age. Ruth’s life was further enriched when She was born Klara Albina Fränkel in 1959 she met John Whyte at a dinner in Vienna of Polish parents and came party given by her best friend Lore to England on 10 August 1939 with the Petzal. After discovering a shared passion Kindertransport. Her father, Abraham for travel and opera, Ruth and John, a David Fränkel, died in Dachau in widower with two teenage sons, fell in love February 1940, her brother, Ignatz, in and were married in 1961. He moved into Buchenwald before his 26th birthday. her Hampstead home, where they lived Her mother (née Pesel Gittel) and sister happily until John died in 1984. were sent to a Polish concentration camp. Ruth continued to enjoy the company of Her mother died after liberation in 1945 close friends, who supported her through though she never learned what became two years ago. this sad time, and she loved going to of her sister. With the passing away of my mum, concerts, art exhibitions and visiting Clare married in 1951. I was her although I am naturally very sad, I have family in New York and Vermont. She only child, born in 1952. Unfortunately a distinct feeling that Clare – a Survivor was upset as she started to lose her sight her marriage lasted barely five years, with a capital ‘S’ – has finally escaped and and hearing and became increasingly partly due to the pressures of struggling the memories of her dreadful childhood housebound. She was grateful to the financially and partly due to her mental experiences are now far, far away from library for their selection of large-print condition (floating anxiety), directly her, where they can do no more harm. books and television became a lifeline. She linked to her experience of being uprooted I would like to thank all at the AJR enjoyed listening to music, especially the at a tender age and the total loss of her for helping Clare both practically and Proms, and never missed the famous New own family and culture. Of necessity, I materially. Even though she moved 500 Year concert from Vienna. She was also a was taken into care, never experiencing miles north, she was not beyond your huge sports fan and regretted it when she normal family life after the age of five reach and a special thanks to Eileen was no longer able to follow Wimbledon. and finally moving to Scotland aged 23, Brady in Newcastle and Jim Sutherland Ruth’s amazing memory never deserted where I married and have two children. in Dundee for your personal assistance. her: she remembered dates and loved My parents lived separately in London but, You helped my mother in many ways and, celebrating anniversaries. Even as she as age crept up on them, I moved them in doing so, you certainly helped me too. grew older, she was always brilliant at one by one to nearby, where I could care Norman Barrington remembering birthdays. for them in their old age. My father died [email protected] Genista Toland

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Sinclair gives a detailed account of the way the Nazis ravaged her grandparents’ Dorothea Shefer-Vanson former home and place of business as well as how, after the War, her grandfather succeeded in reclaiming much of what had been stolen from him. The last book, Monuments Men by Truly inspiring events Robert Edsel, was mentioned to me hree books I have read in the Anne Sinclair, in a French supermarket. in passing by my sister after hearing last few months, all of them well- I read it in French, but it may also exist about Anne Sinclair’s book from me. I T researched and dealing in one in an English version. The author is, by was intrigued by what she told me and way or another with art or artists and now, the ex-wife of Dominique Strauss- promptly ordered the book from Amazon. the Second World War, have given me Kahn, someone whose reputation is rather It gives a detailed account of the work of many hours of interest and plenty to problematic, but she is a journalist and TV a special Allied unit, consisting mainly think about. personality in her own right in France. She of Americans but also of representatives The first, which I picked up by chance starts her story in 2010, when she was from England and France, whose job it last year in the bookshop near our required to submit identity documents was to protect the monuments of Europe hotel in Bloomsbury, Villa Air-Bel by at a French town hall and was asked from destruction and damage by both the Rosemary Sullivan, describes the events where her grandparents were born. All retreating Germans and the advancing in a house on the outskirts of Marseille her grandparents were Jewish and her Allied forces in the final years of the where several of the leading Surrealist maternal grandfather, Paul Rosenberg, War. The unit also worked valiantly to and Dadaist artists of Europe found had been a renowned art dealer in trace and rescue the art that had been refuge from the Nazis while they awaited pre-war Paris, representing, inter alia, filched by the Nazis throughout Europe rescue and escape from France. The Matisse, Braque and Picasso. In fact, he and secreted in over a thousand (yes, story of Varian Fry’s efforts to rescue and Picasso became good friends, with one thousand!) hiding places, mainly in leading Jewish intellectuals and artists Picasso living next door to the family Germany and Austria. These included from Vichy France is fairly widely known in the early years of his first marriage. salt mines, castles, marshland and other by now, but this story has not been When the Nazis invaded France the sites too numerous to mention. The entire brought into the public eye until recently. family escaped to the south of France book reads like a detective story and Artists such as Marc Chagall, Max Ernst and eventually the USA. Paul Rosenberg involves heroic and courageous acts by and André Breton, together with several managed to send many of his paintings men whose pre-War life had been spent others, were able to survive and even ahead and was therefore able to open in libraries and museums and whose continue their creative work thanks to an art gallery in New York. It is thanks principal motivation was to rescue the art the efforts of the French Resistance, to his efforts and acumen that many treasures of Europe and restore them to American benefactors and Fry (who Impressionist and Post-Impressionist their rightful owners. actually lived in the house too). works have survived since they were All three books describe events I happened to pick up the second book regarded as ‘degenerate art’ by the Nazis, that are amazing, admirable and truly on a similar subject, 21 Rue la Boetie by who even destroyed some pieces. Anne inspiring.

 LETTERS cont. from p.7 Further to Dr Scarlett Epstein’s ­reference contact with a Polish courier from the DISTURBING BUT LOVELY FILM to the American Joint’s good work, I would Joint, whom she would meet secretly in Sir – A DVD of the disturbing but lovely like to bring up an example of their cloak- a park, and he handed her an envelope film The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and-dagger operations in wartime Poland containing about 20 US dollars, which directed by Vittorio de Sica, has just that is little known. This goes back to the went some way during the War. It’s amaz- been released. The film contrasts greatly dark days of 1944 in Warsaw, which had ing how the Joint managed to operate with most of de Sica’s other work, the been declared judenfrei by Hans Frank, in Warsaw right under the nose of the most famous of which is Bicycle Thieves the Nazi hangman of Poland, as a birthday Gestapo. They apparently got the funds (regarded by some professional critics as present to his Führer. This was after the into Poland via diplomatic channels and the best film ever made). epic Ghetto Revolt the previous year. At the Polish Home Army distributed it to any In The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, a this time, my elder sister and I were ‘pass- covert Jews they could locate, with the wealthy Jewish family leads an idyllic life ing for’ non-Jews in ‘Aryan’ Warsaw. She Home Army taking their cut. Regrettably, in pre-war Ferrara during the Mussolini had a forged Kennkarte and I, a 12-year- contact was lost when on 1 August 1944 era. But the family ignores the rising old, was armed with a baptism certificate. a general uprising erupted in the capital fascism and pays the ultimate price for This was genuine enough – except that I and, in the ensuing street fighting, the city doing so. I strongly urge readers who was not that baptised boy, though I was was obliterated and the entire population have not previously seen this film to take pretty well versed in the catechism for ruthlessly driven out. As a result, I lost my this opportunity to see it. children. safe house. Janos Fisher, My resourceful sister somehow made Rubin Katz, London NW11 Bushey Heath

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

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