VOLUME 5 NO. 8 AUGUST 2005 EjllS journal ^^^^1 ^l^^l ^ Association of Jewish Refugees
Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, host reception for Kindertransport members
Ronald Channing Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, honoured 100 Kindertransportees with a reception in Clarence House as part of the country's commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
Kindertransport members of the Association of Jewish Refugees, chosen by ballot, came from all parts of the country to enjoy the Prince and the Duchess's informal hospitality and to recount their experiences in reaching safety in Britain. The invitation was received through the good offices of World Jewish Relief, with whose project in Cracow Prince Charles is personally associated. Under its former name, Central British Fund, World Jewish Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, receiving an Inscribed copy of I Came Alone, a collection of Kindertransport memoirs, from Hermann Hirschberger, Continued on page 2 Chairman of the AJR's KT Group
AJR in 1950s keen to preserve memory of British officials such as Frank Foley
The June edition of the AJR Journal AJR Information strove to preserve the for funds to plant a memorial forest in contained a report by Ruth Rothenberg memory of British officials who had honour of his memory. Donations were to on the recent unveiling of a memorial to helped Jews to survive the Third Reich, be sent to an account in Tel Aviv in the the British agent Frank Foley in his notably Frank Foley, Passport Control name of Hubert Pollack, a Jew from hometown of Highbridge in Somerset. Officer (and spy) at the Consulate in Germany who had been one of Foley's The following extract from Anthony Berlin, who otherwise remained largely agents in the rescue of Jews. The Grenville's forthcoming history of the forgotten in Britain until Michael Smith consecration of the forest, at which the memorial stone was unveiled by Siegfried Jewish refugees from Central Europe in published his best-selling biography in Moses, State Comptroller of Israel and a Britain, 'Aliens' and After: A Social History 1999. In July 1958, the journal reported leading figure among the Jews from of the Jewish Refugees from the German- the death two months previously of Germany there, was reported the speaking Countries in Britain, 1945-1970, Major Francis Edward Foley, who had following month. Clearly eager to shows that the AJR was concerned as far been 'extremely helpful to the persecuted associate itself actively with this back as the 1950s with preserving the Jews', in recognition of which his name memorial to a government official who memory of Frank Foley and like-minded had been inscribed in the Golden Book of had at the same time been a benefactor British officials. Dr Grenville's book is thejewish National Fund. of the refugees, the AJR announced that based largely on intensive research in The following June, the journal contributions could now be sent direct to AJR Information, generously supported publicised the appeal by a group of its offices, whence they would be by the AJR. German Jewish friends of Foley in Israel transferred en bloc to Tel Aviv. AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
Relief had been largely responsible for the unique and historic act of the initiating the rescue of 10,000 mainly Kindertransport which saved our lives', AJR TEA Jewish children on the Kindertransports he said. Leading Israeli sculptor and SUNDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2005, 3.00 PM in 1938-39. Kind Frank Meisler presented the at Nigel Layton and Linda Rosenblatt, Prince and Duchess with one of his own THE HILTON HOTEL WATFORD representing World Jewish Rehef, and works. A booking form is inserted into this Bertha Leverton MBE and Hermann In his response. Prince Charles issue of the Journal. On the back Hirschberger, representing the expressed his pride in Britain for having of the ticket application form there Kindertransportees, were presented to given refuge to the children of the is a form for brochure space. If you their Royal Highnesses. Prince Charles Kindertransport and to many others in would like to support the AJR even congratulated Bertha on her recent award need, and spoke of a debt of gratitude for further, kindly complete the and Hermann presented the Royal couple the services the Kinder had given the brochure form and return it to us. with an inscribed copy of / Came Alone, country in retum. It was necessary to We look forward to seeing you at the AJR Tea. the book of Kinder memoirs. learn lessons from the past, to share a Should you require further details, moral and cultural heritage and to be 'Kinder' described to the Prince their please telephone us on places of origin and arrival in Britain, constantly on one's guard to prevent 020 8385 3070 many expressing gratitude to Britain for history repeating itself. 'When my wife having saved their lives. The Duchess and I think about being separated from Arts and Events Diary spoke particularly with the lady guests, our children', he said, 'it is too much to AUGUST seeking details of their individual stories, bear. We are incredibly honoured to and was much interested in items of salute you and we remember you and 25-30 July 'Memory - The Forgotten memorabilia. your loved ones who did not survive.' Jews of Shanghai'. Arndean Gallery, 23 Cork Street, London Wl . Nigel Layton, World Jewish Reliefs AJR's Chairman, Andrew Kaufman, For further information, telephone Chairman, wished the Royal couple who had acquainted the Prince with the 07717 231597 or visit www. 'Mazel Tov' on their recent marriage. He Association's history and current arndeangallery.com/exhibition.html stressed the importance of educating the responsibilities, admired the Prince's 28 June to 8 August The Art of Eva next generation on the significance of the genuine sympathy and moving speech. 'I Hirschberger' at the Etz Chaim Gallery, Northwood and Pinner Liberal Kindertransports and 'the tremendous have the overwhelming feeling', he said, Synagogue, Oaklands Gate, Northwood. sacrifice' of devoted parents. Hermann 'that the Kinder would not have dreamt Tel 01923 822592
Hirschberger, Chairman of the AJR's KT that they would one day be presented to Until 21 August 'Closing the Door? Group, said that in the six decades since the future King of England.' Bertha Immigrants to Britain 1905-2005' their arrival many had made conspicuous Leverton declared that 'Both the Prince Special exhibition marking the centenary contributions in commerce, industry, and the Duchess showed warmth and of the 1905 Aliens Act. Jewish Museum, Camden Town tel 020 72841997 medicine, science, politics and the arts: compassion for the fate the Kinder 'We recall with deep gratitude to the UK endured.' Until 2 October 'The Last Goodbye: The Rescue of Children from Nazi Europe' Exhibition on the Kindertransport. Jewish Museum, Finchley tel 020 8349 1143 JACKMAN • SILVERMAN REGIONAL CO-ORDINATOR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS (PART-TIME) FOR AJR GROUPS The AJR is looking for an energetic co-ordinator with excellent inter 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA personal skills to develop our existing Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 8017 nationwide network of regional groups. The successful applicant will be responsible for managing existing AJR Heads of Department gatherings of /UR members in the Gordon Greenfield Finance Midlands and on the south coast as Carol Rossen Administration and Personnel Marcia Goodman Social Services well as developing new groups in the Michael Newman Media and West Country and Wales. He or she will Public Relations Ken Saunders, 84, was among AJR members hold a full UK driving licence. who shared their wartime stories when a BBC team visited the Day Centre to gather If you are interested (or know of AJR Journal someone who would be), please Howard Spier Executive Editor material for Its WW2 People's War archive. contact Carol Rossen at Head Office on Andrea Goodmaker Born In Vienna, Ken was a British Army Secretarial/Advertisements sergeant during the war. WW2 People's War [email protected] is at bbc.co.uk/ww2 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
The joys of travel NEWTONS Martha Blend Leading Hampstead Solicitors advise on Time was when you planned your trip, seized as a suspicious object. That bottle Property, Wills, Family Trusts and Charitable Trusts loaded up your car with luggage and the of whisky, which seemed such a good kids, and set off on a journey that might idea for a present, is dragging you down. French and German spoken take days to complete. I remember It can't be long before take-off now. Or Home visits arranged having a yen to see the South of France, can it? an almost unimaginable distance away as No, it's alright. You're propelled into a 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, it seemed then. So we plotted our route tube loud with the sound of roaring London NW3 SNB on the map. Not along the Rhone-Saone engines, at the end of which a smiling Tel: 020 7435 5351 Fax: 020 7435 8881 valley in the east - that was bound to be face welcomes you. You've asked for an congested with traffic and we always had aisle seat, but the distance between the to take our holidays at the height of the fixed arm on the outside ofyour seat and tourist season to fit in with my teaching the seat in front is just a few inches. It commitments. No, we would go down takes a skilful sideways contortion to the west side. get you out. This creates problems CONSULTANT to long established English On that first day we drove to the port, when your fellow passengers decide Solicitors (bi-lingual German) they must visit the restroom, as the stowed our car in the bowels of the ship, would be happy to assist clients and faced a rough crossing, which American crew charmingly call it, or with English, German and resulted in my being sick in a lady's have a rendezvous with a firiend in Austrian problems. handbag. Then, driving on the vwong another part ofthe plane. Contact Henry Ebner side of the road firomth e Ras de Calais, A spate of turbulence puts a stop to Myers Ebner & Deaner already weary, we stopped for the night these activities. The demonstration of 103 Shepherds Bush Road at Pontoise, north of Paris. blow-up equipment for landing on the London W6 7LP Next day, as we unsteadily pushed ocean isn't entirely reassuring - there's Telephone 020 7602 4631 southwards, we realised our mistake. an awful lot of water down there. As a ALL LEGAL WORK We hadn't studied a relief map so what consolation, on the seat in firont of you is UNDERTAKEN seemed a straightforward road turned a tiny glass panel - a TV screen in out to include the Massif Central, a disguise. On offer is a feature film, a mountainous area stretching for miles. kiddie programme or Discovery. I opt for There was relief when we reached the the last. It's a programme about apes - AUSTRIAN and GERMAN small towns and villages of the South. their pecking order and mating patterns. PENSIONS Here were shuttered houses with rusty Interesting. drainpipes innocent of repair and Now, plastic food is dispensed on PROPERTY everywhere men in blue berets plastic plates to be eaten with plastic RESTITUTION CLAIMS solemnly playing petanques in the dusty cutlery. A half-thawed roll, tired EAST GERMANY - BERLIN squares in the cool of the evening, lettuce, an undercooked chicken. Still, On instructions our office will delicious French bread, and an absence we arrive safely only an hour late. The assist to deal with your of plumbing. We had arrived. Now you next leg of my journey is to Tampa, applications and pursue the matter can reach Agde, our finaldestination , in a Florida, where thankfully I am met. As with the authorities. few hours by plane and I hear that the my cousin's large car sweeps along the For further information once-stately resort has gone nudist. fireeway, there are no dusty villages but and an appointment We're all air travellers now. I had a monster high-rise apartments dotted please contact: taste of it recently. After much showing about at random. We swing into a of passports, security checks, luggage gatehouse manned by a security guard, ICS CLAIMS 146-154 Kilburn High Road check-ins and boarding card checks, you drive into an underground car park, a London NW6 4JD arrive in the departure lounge, making key is inserted into a panel at the side of sure you hump your luggage with you a lift. And, in no time at all, we're on the Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) when going to the loo in case it gets 15th floor. Ah, the joys of travel. Fax: 020 7624 5002 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005 'Inspired' year for Kindertransport members. Chairman tells Annual General Meeting
The following are highlights from was feted on her retirement with a Andrew Kaufman's report to the moving party at the Day Centre. My Association's AGM at the Paul Balint wife Susie is now responsible for '^. :[ Day Centre on Sunday 19 June: dispensing the Tender Loving Care. I would like today to focus my Gerry Ingram, our driver, has also comments on people. We are, after all, retired - another great loss to the a members' organisation and still, to organisation. some extent, a self-aid organisation. It The social workers too suffered a saddens me that we have lost so many grievous loss when Wendi Wilson members recently - 146 in 2004 alone. passed away after bravely fighting Although it is invidious to single out illness for many months. She served the The highs and lows: guest speaker Ned any individual, I am sure you will agree AJR for over 20 years and helped so Temko, with AJR Chairman Andrew that it is fitting on such an occasion to Kaufman looking on, recalls the 15 years he many of our members. Marcia spent at theJC acknowledge the hugely influential Goodman and her team work so role of our late editor, Richard professionally with our members, who 2005) was Holocaust Memorial Day. Grunberger He was an intellectual are becoming ever frailer but still wish Not just the ceremony at Westminster giant who spread the reputation of the to live in their own homes. Many of the Abbey, but the opportunity afforded to AJR far and wide. We will never be able problems they encounter are so many of our members to meet the to replace him at the Journal. We are horrendous. We should acknowledge Queen and Prince Philip at St. James's actively looking for a new editor and the enormous debt we owe to them - Palace. Who would have believed this would rather take our time before and to our Day Centre team - who in could happen to our people when you announcing a successor in order to very stressful circumstances help to think back to the dark days ofthe war? make sure we have made the correct ease the lives of our members. Finally, my thanks to my committee choice. I would like to pay tribute here We must not forget the rest of our for their support over the past year. I to Howard Spier, who is editing and team in Stanmore who provide the am fortunate to have such an producing the Journal. Without much-needed support for all our outstanding committee. Howard we would have no Journal services. In particular, I would like to today. thank our Directors, Carol Rossen and Former JC editor looks We owe an enormous debt of Gordon Greenfield, who make my life gratitude to our members who have so much easier. back over his 15 years passed away. They have been hugely We have created a new post of Head at the helm generous with legacies to the AJR of Media and Public Relations, which is AGM guest speaker Ned Temko, now Charitable Trust - without the legacies being expertly filled by Michael Chief Political Correspondent of the we simply could not provide the Newman, who still devotes part of his Oibsen^er, looked back wrily on his 15 services we offer. This year we will be time to the Claims Office. It is vital that years as editor of the Jewish Chronicle. spending over £1 million more than our the work of the AJR be publicised Having previously worked, among income, and the only way we can make throughout the country as - with the many other things, as a war up this deficit is through legacies and help of our 36 regional groups - we are correspondent in Lebanon, he had donations. It is a myth that the AJR amazingly still finding refugees all over hoped that the editorship of the JC does not need further monies. We the UK. Michael has brought youth, would be a rest cure. No chance of intend to continue as a welfare vitality and imagination to his new job that! One of the biggest challenges he organisation as long as the first and is a breath of fresh air for us. had faced was the threat of law suits by generation needs our help - we believe I have so many other people to thank, disgruntled readers - often over the it will be for at least another 15 years - in particular our volunteers - our most trivial matters. but in order to be able to provide all our unsung heroes. Like every similar With regard to UK Jewry, Ned Temko life-enhancing services, we rely on organisation, we have great difficulty said it was organisationally and receiving these much-needed legacies. in recruiting new volunteers. My thanks individually strong - but lacking in self- Last year we also received £443,000 go to Carol Hart, who has a great knack confidence; elements of it were from the Claims Conference, for which of persuading friends, acquaintances 'intellectually narrow'. Nevertheless, as we are very grateful. and strangers to help the AJR. long as the community's There have been many changes over The Kinder, under the leadership of characteristically Jewish 'genius for the past year or so. At the Day Centre, Hermann Hirschberger, have had an argument' remained, he said, its future our beloved Sylvia Matus has retired - inspired year The Barmitzvah service at was assured. her own decision, although we would Stanmore was very moving, but an Howard Spier have loved her to go on and on. She equal highlight (though actually in
4 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
Berlin Jewish orphanage for boys: second reunion Leslie Baruch Brent
The building of the Jewish orphanage in Thejewish Museum plaques, its vulnerability to abuse, and the Pankow, Berlin survived the war and the The programme was an attractive mix of exclusion of other minorities who postwar period though it is no longer used the enjoyable, nostalgic and poignant. suffered. The fact that among the as an orphanage. It was totally renovated Among the latter was a visit to the Jewish hundreds of visitors that Sunday afternoon in the late 1990s thanks to the Walter and Museum, which I had previously seen there were some who sat on the low Margarete Cajewitz Stiftung, a trust when it was still empty. It continues to be a stones near the circumference eating ice whose primary function is to provide hugely impressive and moving building, cream did not disturb me at all. The comfortable accommodation for elderly the welter of historical exhibits, artefacts, atmosphere was contemplative and people and chose to turn the orphanage memorabilia, videos, and interactive respectful and there were no graffiti. building into a community centre for computer terminals detracting only Holocaust Information Centre Pankow. This now comprises a public slightly from its symbolic significance. library on three floors and a centre for the The Garden of Exile, with its leaning The extensive Underground Holocaust rehabilitation of drug addicts on another. columns, tilting gangways and fohage now Information Centre was brilliantly devised On the second floor is the Betsaal - the forming a canopy, is as disorienting and and the exhibits movingly displayed, with former synagogue, the ornate ceiling of discomforting as ever, and the largest of stark historical facts and photographs which has been lovingly restored to the 'voids', the Holocaust Tower (the only followed by family histories from a variety something of its former glory. This large void one can enter), still utterly daunting of countries, eye witness accounts by room is now used by the local community and alienating. Three hours seemed survivors and non-survivors and and by the committee 'ofthe association of inadequate to do justice to the exhibition interactive exhibits such as the computer supporters and friends of the former (which now includes a section on some terminals to the archives kept at Yad Jewish orphanage' for public concerts, non-religious Jews such as Karl Marx), Vashem, permitting visitors to look up talks and discussions. (I had my which seemed overcrowded but biographical details of relatives who died Barmitzvah in it two months before my nonetheless gave a fascinating account of in the Holocaust. departure from Berlin in the first of the the history of German and European Jews Art in Auschwitz exhibition Kindertransports.) over the last 2,000 years. The renovation was orchestrated and An exhibition of Art in Auschwit2 opened supervised with the utmost care by Memorial to the Murdered Jews of on the last day of our reunion in the Professor R-A. Albrecht, Trustee of the Europe Centrum Judaicum and we were given the Stiftung, and it is partly thanks to his opportunity to view it. This was the first continuing interest and generosity that major exhibition based on Auschwitz, this kind of reunion has become possible. organised in collaboration with the The committee, led by Dr H. Simon ofthe Museum authorities there. On the face of Centrum Judaicum, Dr Inge Lammel, it, the idea that art could flourish in the writer and local historian ofthe orphanage camp seems incredible and bizarre, but the and the local Jewish community, Eva high quality of many of the deeply moving Bentzien, welfare officer of the Stiftung, paintings and drawings of life in the camp, and Karin Manns, teacher at the nearby the numerous portraits of inmates as well Rosa-Luxemburg Gymnasium, worked as of some SS officers and their families indefatigably to make the four-day reunion (and even dogs) and some escapist and Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a resounding success. romantic landscapes was a reminder ofthe designed by Peter Eisenman The 2001 reunion saw 15 men who had wealth of talent that was destroyed there. been Zoglinge (pupils) at one time or The visit to the recently opened Memorial Get-togethers and concerts another before - and, in a few cases, even to the Murdered Jews of Europe was very On the lighter side, we had several get- after - the outbreak of the Second World poignant. Its 2,700 slabs of slate-coloured War. This time we were reduced to seven, stone, arranged in straight intersecting togethers, always with wonderful food, though some of us were accompanied by rows, cover an area the size of two football allowing us to reminisce, listen to readings our wives. Represented were the UK (3), pitches, right in the heart of Berlin, close from the autobiography of one man who the USA (1), Argentina (1) and Berlin (2). to the Brandenburger Tor and the described the harsh life in the orphanage This smaller reunion, no doubt Reichstag. The narrow walkways between early in the twentieth century, and watch a determined by the fact that we were the stones, which vary considerably in video of a film made at the first reunion becoming older and more decrepit, lent height, often undulate and tilt disturbingly. which focused on the lives of five former itself to a more informal programme and to The memorial had a long and stormy orphanage pupils, including myself. We greater intimacy, though absent friends gestation and it has been much criticised also listened to a delightfully light-hearted were greatly missed. because of its size, the absence of any Continued on page 10 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
people were unable to do because their German was not good enough The Editor reserves the right (no change there!). to shorten correspondence For myself, I at first had to put 1 TO THE 1 submitted for publication German war communiques on stencils. They were usually incomplete with whole sentences missing so that only a native speaker would be able to make sense of them. Later, I became editorial secretary of a German- JEWISH SOLDIERS IN THE FIRST they served in greater numbers than language paper designed to teach WORLD WAR anyone else. German prisoners of war the merits of Sir - There seems to be considerable The question of exclusion from the democracy, though I don't know how interest in your columns concerning officer corps of certain regiments successful we were in this respect. It German Jewish soldiers in the First undoubtedly existed, but Jewish was fascinating work and it certainly World War May I suggest that those members of regiments in the Prussian gave me the feeling of contributing to who have knowledge of any Jewish army, for instance, were promoted to the war effort. Even the bomb that fell soldiers killed in action should find out officer rank or made a career of it, as one lunch time on our building and whether any plaques commemorating was also the case in certain Austrian destroyed most of the paper work we them were destroyed during the Nazi regiments and elsewhere in the had done that morning didn't dampen era. There were also small towns and empire. Regiments in Bavaria our enthusiasm to help in the villages where the names of German discriminated more on a social basis. destruction of Nazi Germany. Jewish soldiers were erased from For instance, my father, a long Marion Smith monuments. established lawyer and notary public, London NW9 The responsibility for making good was called up in 1914 as an unmarried this disgraceful vandalism is that of reservist in his early forties and he CRISIS OF IDENTITY the local authority - not the state. I served throughout the war on the Sir - As a Kindertransport child, I have hope in September to have a memorial eastern front in his pre-war rank of always considered myself first plaque erected to six local Jewish Offiziersstellvertreter - equivalent to generation - only to be told recently, soldiers killed in action, replacing one the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major by a Holocaust Centre board member, destroyed on Kristallnacht in my home or Chief Warrant Officer - even if on that I am second generation. Where town of Wesel a. Rh. some occasions, when there was a do I stand in this crisis of identity? It is never too late to right a wrong. shortage of officers, he was put in Incidentally, an interesting We are concerned with patriotic, charge of the entire outfit. He survived programme was broadcast recently on heroic Jewish soldiers who died 'Mit with his Iron Cross and, after Hitler's BBC4: 'The Children of Guernica'. They Gott fur Konig und Vaterland' accession, was issued with the werethefirst Kindertransport of 4,000 inscribed on their helmets. What Frontkampfer medal on Hitler's orders children taken in by Britain in 1937. happened later is another story. in 1934, though none of this The images on the television were Ernest G Kolman prevented the vandalisation of his reminiscent of train stations in Berlin, Greenford Middx home on Kristallnacht, the loss of his Vienna and Prague in 1938-39. livelihood, and his imprisonment in Marion Goldwater Sir - With regard to Jewish serving Buchenwald. London W5 soldiers in Germany and Austria, such K G Speyer service was commonplace. Before New Barnet, Herts 1914 military service was compulsory BERLIN MEMORIAL for all German citizens - Catholics, Sir -1 was dismayed to learn by chance Protestants, Jews alike - for up to two GERMAN REFUGEES DURING THE that the new Berlin memorial was years followed by 'Reserve', with the SECOND WORLD WAR unveiled without any notification or exception of students in higher Sir - I am surprised that among the invitation. On enquiring, I learned that education whose military service was various items published on the the event was for dignitaries only and restricted to one year. Compulsory activities of German refugees during that no ticket was available to military training was abolished after the war, no mention has been made of survivors. Not only were individual 1918 and was forbidden under the the small number of us who were Berlin survivors not circulated with Versailles treaty. employed by the Foreign Office to information about the memorial, the Jewish soldiers served faithfully in assist in the propaganda war against organisations representing survivors the German forces and an the Germans. Although, technically, were also not informed or invited. unpublished census carried out during we were enemy aliens, we were The first proposed memorial to the 1914-18 war shows that pro rata recruited to do the work English contain all the names of our relatives AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005 from Berlin who perished in the COUNTRY OF THE MIND Holocaust was turned down because Sir - I was greatly heartened by Peter ARE YOU ON A LOW it would have been too large! Now Prager's article 'My Country' (June issue). INCOME AND IN NEED this further insult. What is this When I fled from Austria in December OF HOMECARE HELP? memorial about? For many of us, this 1938, Israel was also my country of the is the only memorial to our lost mind. 'Then came the settlements', as AJR might be able to offer you financial assistance for cleaning, families. Peter Prager writes. I believe that they gardening and caring. There is a suggestion that we could have been and still are the main request a special event for survivors, obstacle to any lasting peace in the Members who might not area. I feel now that only an end to the but somehow I feel that it is too little otherwise be able to afford Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands homecare please contact: too late and that the moment has and the evacuation of all settlements passed. I would be interested to Estelle Brookner, Secretary can bring about a meaningful peace. know what others feel about this. AJR Social Sen/ices Dept Inge Trott Joanna Millan Tel: 020 8385 3070 Surrey London NW8 Sir - Peter Prager should thank his lucky CREDIT TO THOMAS FRAME stars that when in Hebron he got away Companions Sir - I read with interest the letter with just hateful looks from of London Palestinians. Had he been there on the from Leo Klag in Montreal, who gave Incorporating credit to Sir Thomas Frame for saving night of 23 August 1929 they would HampsteaJ Home Care his life. I am happy to say that I am have cut his throat with gay abandon. That's what they did to 67 Jews. The rest A long established company one of the fortunate ones who also were 'relocated'. For the first time in providing care in your home owe their life to Mr Thomas Frame, as hundreds of years Hebron was made Assistance tvith personal care he was then. His position as trade judenrein and remained so until the General household duties secretary at the British embassy in Respite care miracle of 1967. Berlin enabled him to help many Medical appointment service Frank Bright people of Jewish origin to obtain a Ipswich •OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' permit to enter Britain. In my case, he 020 7483 0212/0213 did this through Lt-Col Stanley MARRED REVIEW OF PROFESSOR Holmes, who was the secretary of the BERNHARDI Industrial Development Board in Sir - Your sympathetic review of the f\j SPRING Newcastle-upon-Tyne. London production of Schnitzler's GROVE These boards were responsible for Professor Bernhardi (June issue) is 214 Finchley Road setting up new industries in areas of slightly marred by two mistranslations. London NWS high unemployment in Britain. Lt-Col The words 'regimental doctor' sound London's Most Luxurious Holmes travelled to Berlin in late descriptive but are, in fact, the RETIREMENT HOME 1938 to inspect the factory where I translation of a very precise rank (or • Entertainment-Activities worked as a designer and production professional title). 'Regimentsarzt' is the • Stress Free Living engineer to establish whether I was title of an army doctor of the rank of • 24 Hour Staffing • Excellent Cuisine eligible to obtain a permit under his captain. A good translation into English • Full En-Suite Facilities scheme. Tragically, my permit arrived might be surgeon-captain. Your Call for more Information in January 1939 when my mother lay reviewer may not be aware of the or a personal tour on her deathbed. identification, before 1914 at any rate, 020 8446 2117 Mr Frame was also of assistance to of the image of army doctor with Jewish or 020 7794 4455 doctor me when I was interned in Canada in [email protected] 1940. He wrote to the Home Office in Also, the highly unsympathetic Flint an effort to obtain my release. On my was not Minister of Education and Culture. His job was Minister fur Kultus Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. return, I enlisted in the Pioneer Corps. STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST und Unterricht. In other words, he was Eventually I settled in South Wales Surgeries at: responsible for religious affairs - a not and after the war they both agreed to 67 Kllburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) become directors of the engineering insignificant job in a country where the Telephone 020 7624 1576 sovereign appointed both the Catholic company which we established 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) bishops and the administrative head of (Fairfax Engineering Ltd). I owe my Edgware, Middx HA87PU at least one of the Protestant churches. Telephone 020 8905 3264 lifeto both of them. Visiting chiropody service available Cad Werner Zikel Francis Steiner London N2 Deddington, Oxon AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
REVIEWS
Memoir of a subversive broadcaster For a Russian artist born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the late NO FIXED ABODE: A JEWISH nineteenth century, the religious and ODYSSEY TO AFRICA political freedom of early twentieth- Peter Fraenkel century Paris represented both 'lumiere' / B Tauris, hardback, 249 pp., and 'liberte'. That is how the 23-year-old £24.50 Marc Chagall saw it when he emigrated there. Although the imagery Here, you may groan, is yet another of the many autobiographies written of his work had been forged in his native Marc Chagall, Lovers & Flowers, oil on Vitebsk, it was in Paris that he panel, 82 x 72 cm, signed, 1925, in recent years by ageing Jewish developed contacts with other Jewish Private Collection refugees from Nazi Germany. You would be right and you would be artists and writers like Apollinaire, Bela Kadar's stylised The Musicians is wrong. It is indeed such a book, but Femand Leger, Modigliani, Abraham a duet of form and colour and Soutine's Peter Fraenkel's history is unusual in Mintchine and Bela Kadar, and where Deux Enfants carries a darker message that he and his family emigrated in since the two children in blue wear old the 'light of Paris' nourished an 1939 from Breslau to Northern men's faces. This contrasts with Jules unprecedented flowering of Jevnsh art. Rhodesia, where he forged a For the artistic luminaries who were the Pascine's Deux Femmes, a drawing in successful career, first as a journalist forum for a virtual Jewish school of which two women are intertwined. and later as an Assistant Paris, Yiddish and Russian rather than Kisling's Paysage de Gloucester is flatter Broadcasting Officer in the Central French were the lingua franca, and the and less romantic than anything seen African Broadcasting Service. Beehive or La Ruche in Montparnasse here by Chagall, whose rapt and child Fraenkel was thus given the was the central point, where Chagall like vision is, as always, entirely opportunity of using his undoubted quipped 'One either died or came out captivating and completely different skills as a broadcaster to help in the famous.' from that of these contemporaries. His education of black people, using new For artists like Chagall, this creative Lovers and Flowers is more like a burst of methods of mass education. These memoirs end in 1957, the year in freedom meant they were citizens ofthe shrubbery than a floral arrangement, in which he left Africa to make a home world. And yet the question was: did the which human faces can be glimpsed and in Britain. This is regrettable - work of these Jewish artists actually beneath which the obligatory lovers perhaps another volume is in the appear as more hint than reality. Some represent a Jewish expressionist style? pipeline? - for his life at Reuters and read an 'assimilationist impulse' into this Or was it mere nostalgia? The work of later as Controller of European Chagall, Moise Kisling, Mintchine, painting, but beyond even that Chagall is Services at the BBC should make for Kadar, Mane-Katz Soutine, Jules Pascin seeking a genuine synthesis of form, very interesting reading. and others, on loan from private spirit and imagination, which makes him This book is exclusively concerned collections and currently showing at the a more interesting painter than he with the history of his family in Ben Uri exhibition Chagall and His appears at face value. His surrealism is Germany and his childhood years well served by his love of the Bible and Circle, cannot really answer this there, followed by a lively account of Jewish mysticism. Chagall's pen and question since the artists themselves life in Northern Rhodesia (later are so varied. The sculptor and painter Indian ink drawing oiRabbi Akiva shows Zambia). Anyone keen on dates will Archipenko, for instance, is a the sage and martyr wrapped in his tallit, have to work hard to uncover them. protagonist of Parisian Cubism, while from which it is said that the words of the For example, even the year of his Soutine blends Jewish anxiety with Torah flew up to heaven at the point of birth -1926 - has to be deduced from Fauvism and Cubism. Like Chagall, his death. Though celebrated for his his age at the time of Kristallnacht. It Mane-Katz absorbed Jewish mysticism ferusalem Windows at the Hadassah would seem that his sojourn in from his Ukrainian Jewish heritage but, Hospital, it is really the work of Northern Rhodesia came to an end in in contrast, Mintchine's Montmartre, Chagall's two Bible series which I find 1957, a few years after the country Paris contains a dark thread suggesting the most compelling. They are on sale in was refashioned by the British hidden turbulence. the gallery below. government as the Federation of
8 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
Rhodesia and Nyasaland - a big took in a minority of girls. For him it programmes, making use of Bemba mistake, Fraenkel thinks, and one was a tough initiation as one of the proverbs, soap opera and other ways that wasn't undone until much later first of the new immigrant children, of getting through to a largely when the independent state of with a poor knowledge of English. illiterate audience, were designed to Zambia was created. His love affair 'Joed? Not another bleedy Yid', his educate, and in this they were with Africa came to an end, and he classmates exclaimed. The young eventually successful. He was one of felt impelled to leave, because of his Fraenkel soon became aware of the the reporters who accompanied 'dislike of racist politics in this degrading way black people were Clement Attlee and his wife on a visit bastion of white privilege'. The treated in the community and it made to a 'typical' African village. 'I suppose violence that became commonplace him want to work for their it will be a model village with was officially blamed on the district betterment. handpicked government stooges', commissioners and on broadcasts by Being sent to boarding school in said an accompanying British the Central African Broadcasting Bulawayo proved, unexpectedly, to journalist. You are not in the Soviet Service for 'giving the natives ideas' - be a great success. Although not a Union', was Fraenkel's reply. It turned which didn't exactly let him off the sportsman, Fraenkel diplomatically out alright, with the chief entirely hook. And so Fraenkel decided that went in for rugby and middle- unscripted, and the account of this the time had come for him to leave a distance running and, although meeting is both amusing and country in which he had sunk deep conspicuously unsuccessful, proved instructive. roots. It had proved to be 'no fixed that he 'had guts'. Outside school, The book is written in a very lively abode'. thanks to a friendship with two girls, manner and there are countless Early chapters deal with his family. he developed an interest in left-wing anecdotes, many of them in direct His father, having studied law, politics. Having been rejected for a speech. I expect Fraenkel used a became a civil servant, a somewhat scholarship (even before sitting the certain amount of poetic licence, but unusual profession for a Jew, and, examination), he was offered an it makes the book very accessible. I like many other German Jews, he had interest-free loan by the government recommend it strongly. served the Kaiser in the First World which, supplemented by a grant by Leslie Baruch Brent War. (He was, in fact, retrospectively some local Jews, enabled him to decorated with the Iron Cross for study English and history at the heroism under enemy fire.) The University of Witwatersrand, Poet on the Nazi era and family were not particularly religious, Johannesburg. There he became much else but 'remaining Jewish was a matter involved with the anti-apartheid of honour'. They were comfortably movement. On graduating, he BLACK OVER RED off: emigration, when it finally came, returned to Northern Rhodesia, but by Lotte Kramer was with 12 large wooden cases and not before he was selected to join a Rockingham Press, 2005, 64 pp., travel to South Africa was by first team of debaters to tour some £7.95 class. Kristallnacht provided the English universities. In Oxford it fell to Those who travel by Tube may well impetus, and Fraenkel describes him (he drew the short straw) to have come across Poems on the touchingly 'how we became Jews' as defend apartheid policies, a debate in Underground. Among them is an the result of Nazi persecution. It was t which Jeremy Thorpe and Robin Day arresting metaphor by Lotte Kramer, only then that his father accepted his took part on the other side: 'I did my who compares the Kindertransports wife's pleadings to emigrate, and best. My side lost, but by a far to England in the 1930s with the they were given the choice between narrower margin than anticipated.' infant Moses in the bulrushes: Swaziland and Northern Rhodesia, The subsequent approach by a South having received visas for both. African public relations officer, For all mothers in anguish Northern Rhodesia won because it offering him employment, was Pushing out their babies was deemed to be a wealthier dismissed. In a small basket country. After working for some time as an To let the river cradle them Peter Fraenkel's account of the 20 accounts clerk in the office of the And kind hands find years in Northern Rhodesia is registrar of co-operative societies, And nurture them... absorbing. Once in Lusaka, his father Fraenkel found a job at the Lusaka and a friend opened Rhodesian Dry broadcasting station, and there are There are other telling poems Cleaners, which proved to be a riveting chapters on his activities as a about the Nazi era and its aftermath successful venture. Fraenkel was sent somewhat subversive broadcaster, in Black over Red, Lotte Kramer's to Lusaka Boys' school - all white, of working together with like-minded latest collection. For instance. In 'At course - which, despite its name. whites and Blacks. Their the Erich Kastner Museum, Dresden', AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
Kastner is described 'as a lone figure Berlin Jewish orphanage for boys: at the back/ Of the crowd, watching' second reunion, continued from page 5 Letter the burning of his own books. In 'No choral concert, with soloist singers and from Return', a former resident who instrumentalists, given by a choir from revisits Vienna is met by 'that the Rosa-Luxemburg Gymnasium. The Jm Israel concert was, appropriately, performed in Austrian rustic look ... a sick/ Having forsworn principles as the Gemiitlichkeit - and the forbidding the Betsaal ofthe orphanage building and root of all human misery, while face/ Of the post-war owner shutting well attended by local people. Some of adhering only to one - to have none -1 the door on us'. Berlin offers a far the older boys and girls had volunteered decided to accept the invitation to happier picture, to the poet's worried to help with some ofthe catering and did attend my nephew's engagement so with great charm. party deep in the heart of the surprise: 'Green and bright, even Another agreeable concert of ancient Territories, in the fortified friendly*. In 'Mascots', she treasures 'a 'settlement' of Eilon Moreh. small silver pencil ... a present from Italian music took place in Pankow Town Hall, an ornate red-brick building that Principles apart, the fear factor my father", 'Good to hold between/ could also be a reason not to cross the had survived the war, and a very pleasant Arthritic fingers/Writing these so-called Green Line, which evening was spent on a pleasure boat words'. constitutes Israel's once-and-future cruising through central Berlin on the border, but since I am no longer the Lotte Kramer's work ranges widely River Spree, giving us a good idea of the mother of young children and am and there are also vivid descriptions adventurous design of many of the new therefore biologically dispensible, I of landscapes, poems about buildings. decided that my departure from this paintings, and some translations earth would be no great loss. Besides, A vibrant city from the German, among them a terrorist attacks have declined Berlin has done a good deal to confront lovely lyrical one the author describes considerably in recent months. and acknowledge its murky past - there as 'after Georg Trakl'. The particularly A bullet-proof bus had been laid on are numerous memorials and plaques for the revellers by the family and, strong poem Tower' describes an commemorating different aspects of the after some delays, we set off on our eerie dungeon, where the author's Holocaust in all parts of the city, and the way. The long, light evenings that eye is suddenly caught by a letter of kind of event hosted on this occasion is a prevail at this time of year enabled us to enjoy the view as we passed. rejection that somebody has left clear indication of the continuing wish to behind. She muses: 'It brings me back make amends and not to forget. I came The soft contours of the Judean Hills looked inviting and peacefiil, to today's world/And the pain of away from Berlin, a city from which my with Arab villages and Jewish living in it.' family were sent to their deaths, without settlements dotted here and there, Kramer is good on loners. One bitterness for the first time and I could seeming to blend in with the scenery. recalls her marvellous, melancholy see it for what it is now - a vibrant, The setting sun cast a rosy glow over depiction of a piano teacher in an diverse and interesting city. everything, and no more idyllic or earlier volume. Here, there is a pastoral sight could be imagined. widower who loses interest in all his We reached our destination hobbies, lonely women in Swiss without any untoward occurrences, hotels facing empty rooms, and, WANTED TO BUY and made our way to the synagogue hall, where the festive meal was to be touchingly, 'Library Men/ In deep German and served. The walls were plastered with conversation/With weeklies and posters glorifying the stmggle to dailies'. English Books establish the initial settlements in the Readers will find this book Territories some 38 years previously accessible, enjoyable and thought- Established bookdealer and praising the heroic efforts of all provoking. (AJR member) those who had followed in the footsteps of those early pioneers. Gerda Mayer always welcomes The meal was punctuated by invitations to view and speeches from the fathers ofthe bride purchase and the groom with, as is customary Annely Juda Fine Art in such circles, biblical quotations valuable books 23 Dering Street considered appropriate for the For an immediate response, occasion. In this case, these were (off Nev\/ Bond Street) please contact: culled from passages regarding the Tel: 020 7629 7578 Robert Hornung settlement of the Land of Israel in 2 Mount View, Ealing, Fax: 020 7491 2139 ancient times. Thus was a family London W5 IPR celebration tumed into a political CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Email: [email protected] Tel: 020 8998 0546 statement. AND SCULPTURE (Spm to 9pm is best) Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
10 AIR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
A dull vibrating oppressiveness hovered over the and counterpoint at a Swiss scene and all those present. Fear drove away any conservatory. feeling of hope. It was no longer a parting from loving, self-sacrificing parents; it was parting from PROFILE In applying for jobs, Hans love itself, from everything that had still seemed Howard Spier experienced rejection once again, secure: the embrace of one's parental home. We sensing an ill-conceived prejudice had no inkling of what was to come. This leave- towards his 'alien' background. taking, this feeling of uncertainty, of insecurity, this fear of the unknown would never leave the Eventually he found a job teaching emotional life of the majority of these children; Hans Seelig German together with some music at a they would reappear in all crisis situations in Overcoming rejection grammar school in Manchester He the future. was happy there but after eight years, So wrote Hans Seelig some 60 years to be closer to his family, he took a job after boarding a Kindertransport train. as head of German in a school in Hemel The feeling of rejection, of being an Hempstead, where he was to remain outsider, has never totally deserted him for seven years. to this day. He continued his musical studies, Nor has his sense of humour 'Have having several of his compositions you brought your mountaineering performed. But the old problem equipment with you?', Hans grinned as I resurfaced time and again: self-doubt, pushed my way through the door of his panic before performances of his music house in a leafy quarter of Hemel - the fear of rejection he traced back to Hempstead. I saw what he meant: the Germany. hallway, stairs, every room as far as I Fifteen years was enough of could see was stuffed solid with books teaching children. He obtained a job and CDs - 3,000 ofthe latter. I didn't ask as head of German at the then Hendon how many books were there. I'm not College of Technology. Here he sure Hans would have known. remained for 18 years before obtaining When I had squeezed my way into the an advantageous early retirement clustered lounge, this amiable man with instinctively, wasn't all-consuming: he package. a professorial air, so well known to AJR just didn't have the passion needed to In the late 1970s Hans was asked to members for his unfailingly courteous devote his life to it. And then there was give a talk to a cultiural association of stewardship of Club '43, spoke to me of a living to make. former refugees from Germany: Club the conflicting emotions that had For his mother, the Kindertransport '43 (the title indicating the year in shaped his life since his enforced train to Sweden didn't take Hans far which the group was formed). Some departure from Germany. away enough from Germany: she time later, he gave a second talk and, in Hans was born precisely 75 years ago wanted 'more water' between her 1993, finding himself increasingly into a middle class family in Mannheim. native land and their adopted country. drawn into the association, he took It's not necessary to look far for his England was ideal. He met up with his over the chairmanship. Under Hans's cultural pedigree. His father, self- parents in Brighton. Hans wasn't happy steady hand. Club '43 is doing very taught, played the violin and was on at junior school, experiencing the nicely. The programme of weekly fiiendly terms with musicians from familiar feeling of rejection. lectures continues to provide an Mannheim's prestigious opera house. The family moved to Oxford. Having astonishing array of subject matter While sharing this love of music, his inherited from his father not only an Hans estimates that around two in mother was devoted to literature and unusual musical ability but also a every three members are members of wrote poetry. 'You attended yoiu^ first linguistic gift, he decided on a career in the AJR as well. concert at the age of minus 9 months!', modern languages. He entered Besides his stewardship of Club '43, she told Hans. Worcester College - he remembers Hans is a long-time member of the Hans 'took to music naturally', as he someone called Rupert Murdoch Laboiu: Party and an active anti-racist; says. At the age of fiveh e taught himself occupying the room above his - in order he is Vice Chairman and Social to read music. At the same time, he to study German and French. Secretary of Bedfordshire Progressive began to play the recorder At the age of Hans didn't neglect his music. He Synagogue; and he has published quite six, he began to play the piano and to wrote a number of compositions which a lot of poetry. Last but by no means compose. Later, he took up the flute,i n were performed at college and, least, he is a finecoo k and a wine lover which, he told me, he is most proficient. immediately on taking his degree, he to boot. But the fear of rejection, it But Hans's interest in music, he felt took an advanced course in harmony would seem, still lies dormant.
11 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005 INSIDE theAJR
Group formed in Oxford Meeting at the Oxford synagogue under the guidance of AJR Groups Co-ordinator Myrna Glass, it was proposed that a group which would meet on a regular basis be formed. This announcement is an appeal to those of you who live in the city and its Look this way please!: members at last month's get-together in Cambridge environs to join us at our next meeting. Edith Kozdon partnership with society photographer Brighton & Hove Sarid: miracle or mind Paul Kaye: how they developed and over matter? Next meeting: Tues 16 Aug, to be confirmed exploited the technique of printing Our speaker Brian Rubin was diagnosed photographs on canvas to appear as with cancer when he lived in South Africa. Finding happiness in Cambridge portraits. They built up a successful After one operation further tumours Well-known actress and broadcaster market among heads of state, including were discovered and another operation Bettine Le Beau gave a delightful talk to Nigeria, Malaysia and Brunei, who wanted was to follow. He consulted a 18 members on 'Happiness is an Attitude large numbers of the portraits for public reflectologist, who massaged the of Mind'. She stressed the importance of buildings and embassies worldwide. An location of his tumours. Eventually, to the self-esteem and declared that 'thinking entertaining afternoon, concluding with surprise of his doctors, the tumours went young' was essential at any age. There's no the usual tea and chat. and have not recurred. Do miracles doubt that many of those present will Paul Samet happen? Is it a question of mind over have returned home with a renewed zest matter? Rudi Simmonds and outlook for the future. Keith Lawson Next meeting: Thur 4 Aug, 2.00 pm. Garden Party. Details tba Next meeting: Mon 15 Aug. Joy Markham Next meeting: Thur 11 Aug. Ilse Mann, and Cynthia Laurie, 'Spiritual Healing: A 'Magistrates are Only Human' Essex: Israel in the media Demonstration' Jack de Metz gave us an impressive picture Happy ambiance in West Midlands of the power of the media regarding Liverpool caricaturist (Birmingham) Israel. It is not what they write or Following a tasty annual salmon lunch we We met in the beautiful environment of broadcast, but what they omit when they were entertained by an illustrated the spectacular home and garden of our inform us of events in the Middle East. It is musical talk by John Minnion based on hosts Ernest and Eileen Aris. The therefore the duty of every member of our his book Hitler's List. As a caricaturist, he ambiance was a most happy one, community to challenge these misleading had drawn many of the refugees who culminating in a mouth-watering array of reports as soon as they appear Only if we were, or later became, famous but were goodies. WernerAbraham change our passive attitude can we hope regarded as 'degenerates' by the Nazis. for an end to the injustice of the media These refugees, mostly Jewish, intrigued Socialising in East Midlands towards Israel. him. He researched their lives, and Over 20 members met for our summer Julie Franks combined them with his drawings in his meeting, a delicious lunch as previously. Next meeting: Tues 9 Aug. Details tba book. It also made us think of the lost Since most members do not see each unknown famous ones among the other between the four meetings per year, millions who could not escape the Shoah. llford concern with media image of everyone seems just to enjoy socialising Israel Gerald Jayson in a private home with each other and without a speaker or theme. We There was an outstanding attendance for Wessex graphologist cover a large area of Leicestershire, Shiomit Naor, the Redbridge community Almost 40 members enjoyed lunch at the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire so that schlicha. Her enthusiasm for Israel was Normandie Hotel, Bournemouth. Myrna AJR's help with transport is of great value. touching though some of those present Glass congratulated Irmgard Isaacs on Neady every meeting a Continental Briton were dismayed by the poor picture of her ninetieth birthday before speaking to turns up happy to share a lifetime's Israel constantly painted by our media. It us of the continuing work of Yad Vashem was suggested that more positive articles experience with us. Bob Norton in Jerusalem and reminding us of the should be published in the Jewish importance of identifying the over 2 Next meeting: September Invitations will be Chronicle and other Jewish publications. million Holocaust victims not so far sent out Meta Roseneil identified. Our guest speaker was Allan 'Famous faces' in Pinner Next meeting: Wed 3 Aug. Dr Fred Rosner, 'Sir Conway, a full-time graphologist whose Speaking on the subject 'Famous Faces', Rudolf Bing: A Summary of his major activity is the selection of staff, Michael Freedman told us about his Achievements' including top management. It was most
12 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005 interesting to hear his experiences when Paul Balint AJR Day Centre meeting major public figures in the UK, An outing to remember Over 60 people from the Cambridge, Norfolk, Israel and the US after he had analysed 1 5 Cleve Road, London, NW6 llford and North London Groups got together Tel: 020 7328 0208 their handwriting. George Ettinger in Wesley House in Cambridge for a most reported briefly on Israel, saying that enjoyable day. Following a warm welcome terrorism and the continued missile from Michael Newman, oiu' guest speaker, |XT_ A IP Kindertransport Ix I ~rK3 I\ special interest group bombardment of Israeli towns and Alan Conway, a well-known graphologist, villages were hardly mentioned by gave a most interesting talk on detecting both MONTHLY MEETINGS AT CLEVE ROAD genius and criminal tendencies by examining government spokesmen in Israel or by the Monday 1 AUGUST 2005 a person's handwriting. He is shortly to be British media. George Ettinger included in the Guinness Book of Records lor 11.45 am for 12.15 pm having kept a daily diary without a break for Dr Simcha-Shalom Brooks 55 years. North London: Wills, family and the 'Explaining the Bible in Archaeological Social workers were present so anyone taxman and Historical Terms' with a problem could discuss this as well as Michael Anvoner spoke to us on the raise queries pertaining to pension claims. Reservations required subject of 'Wills - Leaving it to your family An excellent lunch provided by AJR Please telephone 020 7328 0208 rather than the taxman'. Not a volunteers was served, giving everyone an opportunity to mix socially and to discover old particularly beguiling subject, but he Monday, Wednesday & Thursday acquaintances from their respective towns. managed to present the facts in such a 9.30 am - 3.30 pm, coherent and meaningful manner that it A Question and Answer session followed Sunday 2 pm - 5.30 pm plus reports from all the groups present and engendered a lively set of questions, all of the afternoon closed on a pleasant note with August Afternoon Entertainment which were answered tactfully and strudel and tea. Mon 1 KT LUNCH - Kards & comprehensively. Herbert Haberberg This was definitely an outing to remember Games Klub and we hope there will be many more in the Tue 2 CLOSED Next meeting: Thur 25 Aug. Fourth Birthday months ahead. plus Rabbi Alan Plancey Meta Roseneil Wed 3 Nicola Smedley Thur 4 Michael Heaton FORTHCOMING MEETINGS Sun 7 CLOSED South London Thur 18 Aug. Tea at 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Mon 8 Kards & Games Klub Nightingale House Members requiring benefit advice please Tue 9 CLOSED Surrey Sun 21 Aug. Lunchtime get-together telephone Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 Wed 10 Geoffrey Strum Details sent out to make an appointment at AJR, South West Midlands Tues 23 Aug. Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Thur 11 Paul Coleman Lunchtime get-together Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Sun14 CLOSED Mon 15 Kards & Games Klub Tue 16 CLOSED Wed 17 Nikki Van Der Zyl AJR GROUP CONTACTS Newcastle Ronnie Goldberg Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Thur18 Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 Norfolk (Norwich) Sun 21 DAY CENTRE OPEN Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Bristol/Bath Mon 22 Kards & Games Klub Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 North London Tue 23 CLOSED Cambridge Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Lisel Eisner 01223 356721 Oxford Wed 24 Margaret Opdahl Dundee Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Thur 25 Mark Rosen Pinner (HA Postal District) Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Sun 28 CLOSED East Midlands (Nottingham) Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 Bob Norton 01159 212 494 Sheffield Mon 29 CLOSED - BANK HOLIDAY Edinburgh Steve Mendelssohn 0114 2630666 Tue 30 CLOSED Fran^oise Robertson 0131 337 3406 South London Wed 31 Jenny Kossew Essex (Westcllff) Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Larry Lisner 01702 300812 South West Midlands (Worcester area) Glasgow Ruth Jackson 01386 552264 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 Surrey Harrogate Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 DIARY DATES Inge Little 01423 886254 Weald of Kent 16 August Northern Groups Max and Jane Dickson HGS 01892 541026 Get-together, Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 Manchester Hull Wessex (Bournemouth) Bob Rosner 0148 2649156 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 18 September Annual Tea, Watford llford West Midlands (Birmingham) 23-30 October Bournemouth holiday Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437 Meta Roseneil 020 8505 0063 9 November Kristallnacht Leeds HSFA Myrna Glass, AJR South and Midlands Groups Co-ordinator Please make a note in your diary - this Trude Silman 0113 2251628 020 8385 3077 year's annual tea will be held at the Liverpool Susanne Green, AJR Northern Groups Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Hilton Hotel in Watford on Sunday 18 Co-ordlnator Manchester 0151 291 5734 September Ticket application forms can Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) be found in this and future issues of the Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 AJR Journal. For information about any of the above Editorials and articles published, and opinions expressed, in AJRJournal are not necessarily events, please call us on 020 8385 3070. those of the Association of Jewish Refugees and should not be regarded as such.
13 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS Deaths EXHIBITION Kew. Ruth Kew passed away on 7 Jime 2005 aged 88. She is survived by her son Dennis and The Art of Eva Hirschberger daughter Monica, four grandchildren and six will be on show at great-grandchildren. ETZChaim Gallery ^ Lippman. Gerda (n6e Fleischmann), born in Northwood & Pinner Vienna 26 (3ctober 1925, died in London 28 May A Yahrzeit Memorial in Jerusalem at 2005. She will be greatly missed by her friends Liberal Synagogue the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre and family, especially Dan, Jonathan, Teresa, Oaklands Gate, It is in the noblest Jewish tradition to Julen and Ric. Northwood, HA6 3AA honour and cherish the memory of Salter. Yetty passed away in Jime 2005 aged 94. those we have loved and lost. Tel 01923 822592 Yetty was a great, independent lady, always a By participating in Shaare Zedek's good fiiend, very fond of life and interested in 28 June - 8 August Yahrzeit programme you have the everything. I miss her very much - Ruth Young. Mon to Fri 10 am - 4 pm opportunity to perpetuate their memory Schneider (n^ Balbierer). Sylvia, bom in the sacred city of Jerusalem. Cologne 4.5.1928, died New York 20.6.2005 Your participation will also be a gift of after a spirited battle against leukaemia. Deeply life to those patients who depend on mourned by her husband Milton, daughter Jewisfi Care & Shaare Zedek Medical Centre to care Melanie, her 'Beacon sisters' and many friends. tfie Otto Schiff for them and to heal them. Zucker. Hedy, bom in Vieima, died in London Housing Association For further details please call Joanna on 8 May 2005 aged 82. Greatly missed by her sons, meet the personal and nursing care needs 020 8201 8933. daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister, of the Jewish Refugee Community. grandchildren and family as well as her many Shaare Zedek UK 766 Finchley Road, fiiends. Balint House, Leo Baeck House & Osmond House London, NWll 7TH are situated in The Bishops Avenue, where Reg. Charity No. 262870 Day Centre residents live in spacious and comfortable surroundings, looked after in a warm and caring Chiropodist. Trevor Goldman at the Paul environment. Residents can enjoy a variety of Balint AJR Day Centre Wednesday 24 activities and outings, as well as take part in August 10-11.30 am. traditional synagogue services and the celebration of Jewish festivals. ACACIA LODGE Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. MATRON Short term respite care also available. For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd For more Information call Jewish Care Direct fLicensed by Borough of Bamet} Clara Nehab House on 020 8922 2222 or email us at • Single and Double Rooms. Residential Care Home jewlshcaredlrect6jcare.org • Ensuite facilities, CH In all rooms. • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. All single rooms with en suite bath/shower Jewish Care Charity Registration Number 802559 • Nurse on duty 24 hours. Short stays/Respite and 24 hour • Long and short term and respite, Permanent Care. Large attractive gardens, including trial period if required. Ground Floor Lounge and Dining rooms, Between £400 and £500 per week Lift access to all floors. Easy access to i^^ycrto^^^ Home Care 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours local shops and public transport 020 8455 1335 other times Care through quality and 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley, Enquiries and further Information please contact: London N12 9TB The Manager, Clara Nehab House professionalism 13-19 Leeslde Crescent, London NWII ODA Phone: 020 8455 2286 Celebrating our 25th Anniversary 25 years of experience in providing PillarCflre the highest standards of care in the North London's Premier Care Agency. 2s COMPANY comfort of your own home We specialise in professionalHome-Care. 2s Company specialises in If you or a loved one need a reliable, companionship, whether for yourself, compassionate and affordable service, call your family or friends. We can be us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 or e-mail there at any time and any place to us at [email protected] accompany you on any shopping V Live-In and hourly rates. trips, journeys, holidays, walks or even a cuppa. Living in or living out. Why not call us for an informal chat RELY ON ROD FOR on 020 7586 8988 decorating, household maintenance, mobile: 0778 880 8907 1 hour to 24 hours care flat pack assembly, shelving, tiling ALL STAFF SCREENED AND VETTED Registered through the National Care Standard Commission & office installations FREE ESTIMATES Reasonable Rates Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 020 8958 3229 or 07774 839 743 ADVERTISEMENT RATES www.colvin-nursing.co.uk NO JOB TOO SMALL FAMILY EVENTS First 15 words free of charge, £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. SWITCH ON ELECTRICS ALTERATIONS CLASSIFIED, SEARCH NOTICES Revi^ires and all household OF ANY KIND TO LADIES' FASHIONS £2.00 per 5 words. electrical work BOX NUMBERS - £3.00 extra I also design and make children's clothes PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 DISPUY ADVERTS West Hampstead area 020 7328 6571 per single column inch 65mnn £12.00 Mobile: 0795 614 8566
14 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
Obituaries Search Notices Central Office for Holocaust Claims Berman, Hedi, born March 1919 in Michael Newman Vienna. Lived in London during the war, later moved to Paris and USA. Hardship Fund Any information please tel 020 8529 Victims of Nazi persecution who fled 1983 or email amayerl [email protected] Austria following the Anschluss and who Frankel, Harav Avraham, my have not previously received uncle, was the rabbi of compensation from the German government may now be entitled to Nyaradszereda in Transylvania until receive a one-time compensation he, his family and community were payment from the Claims Conference- taken to Marosvasarhej and put on operated Hardship Fund. Austrian Eric Ledermann cattle trucks for Auschwitz, where Holocaust survivors not in receipt of a A physician and homoeopath concerned the family was murdered. He arrived victim's pension from Austria and who with the philosophy and psychology of in Auschwitz on the second day of did not receive any previous healing Shavuot in June 1944. We are compensation from the German Dr Eric Ledermann, a physician and government in the 1950s or 1960s are homoeopath, has died at the age of 96. searching for individuals born in the eligible for the €2,550 (approx £1,700) Eric Karl Ledermann was born in Berlin; above community over whose award made by the Claims Conference his father was a general practitioner As a barmitzvahs he officiated and would young doctor working in a paediatric with money endowed from the German be eternally grateful for any hospital, he avoided a Nazi attempt to government. arrest him only through the intervention information. Please contact Bracha Survivors from Austria who have of his non-Jewish consultant. Frankel at [email protected] received payments from the Austrian He left Germany for good in 1939. Hess, Frank Stanley (formerly National Fund or who are in receipt of an Having settled in Scotland, he studied at Fritz), born 28.01.1886, emigrated Austrian social security pension are the Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital. In entitled to apply. Application forms and to England April 1934 from Berlin. 1935 he moved to London to start his guidelines are available from this office. own practice. He worked for 20 years at Lived Daleham Mews, Camden, the Children's Homoeopathic Dispensary London; died November 1975. Restitution in Ukraine in Shepherds Bush. In the mid-fifties he Children: Michael Andrew and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko joined the Royal Homoeopathic Hospital, Yvonne Bridgett. Also Edgar has held an exploratory meeting with becoming a consultant in 1965. representatives of the Jewish community Hammond and Miriam Siodmak. The objective of Eric Ledermann's in Ukraine with a view to setting up a Last known address of Michael psychotherapy was 'to make the process for the restitution of Jewish unconscious conscience of the patient Andrew is 56 Hillside Road, communal properties confiscated during conscious' - the answers to people's Ashstead Surrey. Information on the Soviet era. Suggestions include the problems were already within them. In relatives/descendants please tel 020 creation of a commission to oversee the his nineties he was awarded an honorary return of properties or the passing of degree in traditional Chinese medicine. 8908 0582 Jarosch/Parker, Eva, born legislation to establish formal guidelines. 25.04.31 Vienna, went on One logistical difficulty is that the present territory of Ukraine includes part Kindertransport 20.02.39 to Holland. Arnold Pomerans of what used to be Poland and concern Translator with special affinity for works Later apparently adopted in UK and has been raised as to how to address of Freud may have married a Mr Parker property claims where a border or Arnold Pomerans was born in Konigsberg Appears to have lived at 66 territory has changed. in 1920. In 1936 he left for South Africa, Ashburton Road, Addiscombe, East In return for progress on restitution, but, dissatisfied with the regime, he Jewish groups have pledged to assist the settled in the UK in 1948 and till 1955 Croydon, Surrey. Information please country's trade developments. taught physics in London. email [email protected] In 1955 he became a full-time Dr Weisner, Paul (Berthold), left Further help translator and had almost 200 major Vienna in 1930s for London. Married Written enquiries should be sent to works issued by British and US publishers. Dr Mary Barton and they established Central Office for Holocaust Claims (UK), He translated from most European Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, languages, his wife Erica working as his a gynaecological clinic in Welbeck Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, by fax to 020 editor Among the authors he translated Street. Any information on him or 8385 3075, or by email to are Louis de Broglle, Anne Frank, living relatives please to Peter Natt, [email protected] Assistance can be Sigmund Freud, George Grosz, Jean The Old Ram and Hurdle, Luffenhall Piaget, Jules Romain and Van Gogh. He provided strictly by appointment at the Walkern, Stevenage, Herts SG2 7PX had a particular feel for the language of Holocaust Survivors Centre in Hendon, psychoanalysis and translated the works tel 01438 861 685 email north London. For an appointment, of many analysts in addition to Freud. [email protected] please ring 020 8385 3074.
15 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2005
Y" and O with Ronald Channing Newsround ABOUT Museum for German-speaking Jewry opens in Israel Anne Frank + me A Museum for German-speaking Jewry has been opened on the site of the Open I exited from Aldgate Station, arriving at incarceration, Aime died of typhus and Museum in Tefen Industrial Park in Western the very heart of what the late artist, starvation in Bergen-Belsen not long Galilee. The Museum depicts both the raconteur and author Harry Blacker before its liberation. history of German-speaking Jews and their called the 'native quarter' which, from the It is a life-sized replica of Anne's room contribution to building the State of Israel. turn of the nineteenth century, housed in the secret annexe, with its precious Israeli journalist awarded top German the East End of London's teaming, few pictures of her family and filmstar s honour Yiddish-speaking, immigrant Jewish on the sparse walls, which I found most Ari Rath, 80, a former editor of the population. Much ofthe environment has moving. The 14-year-old girl, who came Jerusalem Post, has been awarded changed little in the intervening 100 to recognise her own literary gift, wrote Germany's highest state honour, the Merit years - far fewer Jews and Jewish the pages of her diary here despite what Cross of the Federal Republic. Rath, who businesses, of course, but immigrants she called the 'stifling atmosphere' fled Nazi-occupied Austria for Palestine, is aplenty of other cultures bustling along behind the shuttered window which she the subject of a new documentary by Austrian historian Helga Embacher and the Whitechapel streets. My father spent could not open to the world. filmmaker Hannes Klein. a tough boyhood and adolescence here The new exhibition, whose before marriage permitted an escape to a adventurous design team included Berlin Nazi shelter to become art gallery leafy north London suburb where my Stephen Greenberg, co-creator of the Plans have been announced to turn a brother and I were nurtured. A stroll up Imperial War Museum's outstanding former Nazi air-raid shelter in Berlin into an art gallery complete with its own luxurious Brick Lane brought me to what is called Holocaust Exhibition, calls on young The Old Truman Brewery, no longer penthouse. The project is the brainchild of people to build a society based on mutual Christian Boros, a part-time modern art quenching the thirsts of sweat-shop respect and moral courage. Sections of master tailors, Mw^er-pressers and collector and Frankfurt-based advertising the exhibition are delineated by giant executive who has purchased the seven- market boys, now a trendy leisure exhibition panels, each of which carries a story concrete building on Berlin's complex with exhibition space. relevant excerpt from Anne's diary Albrechtstrasse. Berlin's city government Here Gillian Walnes, the spirit and together with present-day examples in had been at a loss over what to do about driving force behind the immensely picture and print. Its themes cover the massive grey concrete eyesore for successful team which is the Anne Frank identity, prejudice and racism, conflict decades. Trust, chose to reveal their newly and peace, moral responsibility and Israel-Diaspora forum to be set up conceived and designed exhibition Anne freedom and democracy. Televisual Meeting in Jerusalem, Israeli and Diaspora Frank [+ you}. This most graphically displays show today's schoolchildren leaders have decided that an annual striking and solid-looking of travelling discussing these issues as they affect gathering - Beit Yisrael: World Jewish exhibitions continues to relate the tragic them in a contemporary context. Forum - will be convened for the first time story of Anne, born in Frankfurt in 1929, A new teaching pack, which next year as an advisory body helping the Jewish world to co-ordinate responses to then living in Amsterdam. Following accompanies the exhibition, was Nazi Germany's occupation of the the challenges of contemporary Jewish generously sponsored by the life. 'We're becoming two different Netherlands in May 1940, Jews were Association of Jewish Refugees. The peoples, both called Jews, and we need a increasingly deprived of their freedom to Anne Frank exhibition has toured common forum to work together', a Wodd move, go to school, make a living and own Britain since 1986 and, in that time, Jewish Congress representative said. The property as a precursor to ending their reached nearly two and a half million forum is modelled on the World Economic right to life itself. visitors. Always presented as a focus for Forum at Davos. In 1942 a desperate Frank family, with discussion, the exhibition has been Re-establishment of War Crimes Unit four others in the same plight, secreted shown in cathedrals, town halls, schools, demanded themselves in the attic of their business community centres, police-training Hendon (North London) MP Andrew premises, the entrance of which was establishments, shopping malls and Dismore has called on the Metropolitan concealed behind a false bookcase, in the even in prisons! The new exhibition Police to re-establish its War Crimes Unit now world-famous house on will begin a five-year nationwide tour after the Home Office revealed that Prinsengracht. On 4 August 1944 they this summer, commencing with the hundreds of former Nazis could still be were betrayed and arrested by an SS Brent Cross centre in north London living in the UK. The War Crimes Unit was disbanded in 1999, when its duties passed officer and seven Dutch policemen. The this month. It is an experience not to be missed. to the Anti-Terrorist Branch, which has a author of a heart-rending diary of her Crimes Against Humanity section.
Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website www.ajrorg.uk
16