The AJR Response
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VOLUME 20 NO.4 APRIL 2020 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees EXTRAORDINARY How should we TIMES As the AJR Journal went to press the country seemed to be on the verge of total lockdown and all our celebrate VE Day? own events and activities have been cancelled - please read the letter from Next month we should be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the our Chairman and Chief Executive on page 3. end of World War II in Europe. The May Day Bank Holiday has We hope that you and all our readers been moved from Monday 4 May to Friday 8 May, only the second are staying well and positive during this difficult period. Keeping in time ever that the early May Bank Holiday has been moved – the touch with one another is even more first was in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day. But with important than ever and we would love to hear your stories of how you the country currently in crisis, can we actually celebrate? are coping, especially if you have any suggestions for other AJR members who might be affected. Wishing you a happy, kosher and above all healthy Pesach. Coronavirus: the AJR response ..................... 3 From Leopoldstadt to Loudwater ................. 4 The hostel in Lebanon Park .......................... 5 Letters to the Editor ...................................... 6 Looking For .................................................. 7 Art Notes...................................................... 8 Hardly a holiday! .......................................... 9 Holocaust Memorial Day Reflections.....10-11 Safe Haven ................................................. 12 “Have a good day” .................................... 13 Around the AJR .......................................... 14 Notice from the Claims Conference ........... 15 Reviews .................................................16-17 Obituaries ...........................................18 - 19 Letter from Israel ........................................ 20 Please note that the views expressed throughout this publication are not necessarily the views of the AJR. The Queen, The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret watch a procession of vintage planes fly over Buckingham Palace during VE Day commemorations in 1995 (PA) AJR Team Chief Executive Michael Newman Finance Director David Kaye Original plans included commemorative Churchill. A special gala event should Heads of Department Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart events across the country to honour the be being broadcast live from the Royal HR & Administration Karen Markham sacrifice so many men and women made Albert Hall. Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws during the Second World War, including Social Work Nicole Valens church bells ringing across the country, Some of this may sound familiar. In AJR Journal local street parties across the three-day 2005, to mark the 60th anniversary of Editor Jo Briggs weekend, the playing of popular songs the end of World War II in Europe, the Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy from the war and speeches by Winston Continued on page 2 Contributing Editor David Herman 1 AJR Journal | April 2020 How should we kind of story from the one traditionally Soviet security forces started to fill them celebrated on VE Day. There is a growing with new inmates. The new histories of celebrate VE Day (cont.) gap between the popular British memory the war are a moral grey zone. of the war, with its cherished myths, Queen and the Prime Minister, Tony and the most interesting new historical Sir Antony Beevor has introduced a new Blair, attended a ‘memorial show’ on research. The tectonic plates are shifting: generation of readers to the savagery Horse Guards Parade. In his book, from the western front to east Europe, and scale of the battles in the east from Europe at War, 1939-1945: No Simple from books on diplomacy (AJP Taylor’s Stalingrad to the fall of Berlin in 1945. Victory (2006), Norman Davies describes famous The Origins of the Second World Jan T Gross has told us about how this show: “It took the form of a series War), battles involving the British (the antisemitic Poles slaughtered their Jewish of musical and comic items from the Battle of Britain, North Africa, the Pacific neighbours during and after the war. wartime repertoire linked by a historical to D-Day) and famous British figures to After the fall of Communism, archives narrative. The latter was read by the the very different experience of the war opened up in eastern Europe and the actor Simon Callow and was interspersed in central and east Europe. former Soviet Union, and historians like with a selection of Churchill’s speeches… Gross, Norman Davies and Timothy Hence ‘Bluebirds over the White Cliffs As Norman Davies writes in Europe Snyder, who read Polish, Russian and of Dover’ alternated with ‘We shall fight at War, ‘the open-minded observer Ukrainian, revealed the scale of atrocities on the beaches!’, and Flanagan and will be tempted to view the war effort in the east, by local collaborators and Allen numbers were followed by the of the Western powers as something by Stalin’s NKVD as well as by the theme tune from Schindler’s List, by “A of a sideshow.’ 4,650 were killed at Nazis. Stalin’s crimes against civilians in Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” El Alamein. Nearly a million died at Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and the Baltic and, in the grand finale, by “We’ll meet Stalingrad. Another 900,000 died in Republics were fully exposed. again, don’t know where, don’t know the Siege of Leningrad. A few hundred when.” died in the bombing of Coventry or The Second World War seems darker Rotterdam; 90,000 died in the bombing and more morally complex than ever Fifteen years on, I imagine BBC of Warsaw in September 1939. before. The war films of Jack Hawkins, programmes would still be full of all too John Mills and Anthony Quayle and the familiar images of young service men In his book, Bloodlands (2010), Timothy cosy comedy of Dad’s Army and Allo and women dancing and hugging in Snyder shows that the centre of gravity ‘Allo all seem a long way away, more Piccadilly Circus, of Churchill and King of the war in Europe was not the than thirty years on. During the 1980s George VI waving to huge crowds from western front but Poland, Byelorussia and ‘90s the Holocaust and the Eastern the balcony at Buckingham Palace, (now Belarus) and Ukraine. They saw Front took centre stage, both in terms all intercut with popular songs from the most intense warfare and the worst of morality and in terms of the sheer Vera Lynn. These would portray a very civilian horrors from the very beginning scale of the violence. This is the lesson nostalgic vision of Britain, a frozen vision of the war in September 1939 to the of the histories of the Second World War of the past. last Soviet battles against Germany in and the Holocaust written over the past 1945. Belarus lost a higher proportion thirty years. The current health crisis aside, there is of its civilian population than any other still an excuse to celebrate VE Day. But country in Europe. Ukraine lost the Our popular memories of the war, also much to mourn. Almost 400,000 highest absolute number. however, remain out of step. The 75th servicemen and women were killed, anniversary of VE-Day is a chance for wounded or missing in action (including The new histories of the Second World us to catch up. Yes, there is much to deaths from the colonies). Nearly 70,000 War have moved from the centres to celebrate. There is also much to mourn British civilians were killed, including the peripheries of Europe, from Paris and much to learn. 43,000 who died in London during the and London to the Baltic and Soviet Blitz. On 8 May many will be thinking borders. Myths have collapsed under David Herman of those they have lost. And of homes their scrutiny. The myths of Austria they have lost. There were 30 million as the “first victim”, of the “decent refugees in Europe when the war ended. Wehrmacht” and of “Uncle Joe”. There Many never returned to their homes. has been much debate about the war EU Passport Refugees who came to Britain will be crimes committed by the allies: the fire- thinking of the people and the world bombing of Dresden and Hamburg, Applications they lost. When I think of VE-Day I the deportation of Cossacks by Britain think of an image of my father, a Jewish to the Soviet Union to face certain The Jewish Historical Society of refugee from Warsaw who lost his entire death, the atrocities against German England invites anyone in Britain family during the Holocaust. As others civilians by the Red Army. It was not with Jewish ancestry through celebrated around him on 8 May 1945, until Gorbachev that we finally learned which they and/or their children he stood alone, silent, lost in his own of the war crime against Polish officers are seeking an EU27 citizenship to thoughts. at Katyn. We betrayed the Czechs but participate in an online survey. More Prague survived. We stood by the Poles information on https://jhse.org/ Recent histories of the Second World but Warsaw was destroyed. As the inner-passport-system/ War have started to tell a very different concentration camps were liberated, 2 AJR Journal | April 2020 Coronavirus: the AJR response Dear Friend At this challenging time when your everyday lives will be impacted by the spread of the coronavirus, we are writing to assure you that the AJR will do everything possible to continue to support you, our members. At the time of going to press, the government had just announced advice for the over-70s to self-isolate, a decision that we recognise will profoundly affect you. In response, the way we deliver our frontline services has been altered.