VOLUME 17 NO.7 JULY 2017 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees

Hitler’s ROOTS AND ALL Family roots are very much at the heart of this month’s journal, with Channel Islands several stories about AJR members, trustees and staff commemorating and in some cases discovering their lost ancestors.

Fans of arts and culture will enjoy a fascinating article about the huge contribution that Jewish immigrants made to Hollywood, as well as reviews of recent productions at the Southbank Centre and JW3, in addition to our usual book reviews and Art Notes.

We also have a report and some lovely photos from the AJR’s recent summer trip to Liverpool, complementing our regular round up of regional meetings and events.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue.

Actor and author John Nettles stands next to a German occupation observation tower in Les Landes, Jersey. News...... 3, 20 Photo: UKTV Family lost and found...... 4 Letter from Israel...... 5 During World War II, the infant AJR, founded in 1941, could only Letters to the Editor...... 6-7 communicate with its members through irregularly appearing Art Notes...... 8 circulars. One subject about which these circulars sought to inform At Your Service...... 9 Reviews...... 10 anxious refugee readers was the fate of family members who had Opinion piece: Primo Levi...... 12 been deported by the Nazis to destinations in the East, cloaked in Looking for...... 13 ominous mystery. The few camps named included the internment Around the AJR...... 14 My missing grandfather...... 15 camps at Biberach in south-west Germany and Laufen in Bavaria, Hollywood history...... 16-17 which were known to the British authorities because many hundreds Discovering my roots...... 18 of those deported from the Channel Islands by the occupying Liverpool report...... 19 Germans had been interned there; the two waves of deportations, carried out in September 1942 and February 1943, were acts of AJR Team Chief Executive Michael Newman reprisal that demonstrated the harsher side of what has otherwise Finance Director David Kaye been termed a ‘model occupation’. Heads of Department HR & Administration Karen Markham The occupation of the Channel Islands, authorities on the islands appeared to Social Services Sue Kurlander Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart the only part of British soil to fall have cooperated with their occupiers under Nazi rule, is a sensitive subject, was hard to accept, as it ran directly AJR Journal largely shunned by historians until the counter to the carefully cultivated Consultant Editor Dr Anthony Grenville Editor Jo Briggs 1990s and since then a matter of acute image of Britain and its people as Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira controversy. The extent to which the Continued on page 2

1 AJR Journal | July 2017

Hitler’s Channel Islands style raids on the islands, some of which were executed with staggering continued… incompetence and all of which achieved nothing beyond the pointless loss of unwavering in their defiance of the British lives and the implementation Nazis. Commentators sympathetic of German retaliatory measures, to the islanders have pointed to the including the removal of the able extreme difficulty of mounting any Attorney General of Guernsey, Ambrose resistance to a powerful and ruthless Sherwill, from his post as President invader in an area as restricted and of the Controlling Committee on the as easily overseen as the Channel island. After the war, the eagerness of Islands. The hardships that the islanders the British authorities to avoid any full endured have been vividly portrayed investigation into the issues of wartime in works of fiction like The Guernsey collaboration on the islands was, Nettles Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by argues, fuelled by the government’s Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows guilty awareness of its having left them (2009); the title proclaims the near- in the lurch in June 1940. Neither Prime starvation to which the population was Minister Churchill nor the King ever reduced in the later stages of the war, broadcast to the islanders during the once the islands, still under German five long years of German occupation. occupation, had been cut off from mainland France by the Normandy John Nettles’ book The Germans were fully aware of the landings. propaganda value of the occupation of British territory and exploited their On the other hand, Madeleine kind of Gibraltar of the English Channel. unopposed takeover of the Channel Bunting’s hard-hitting study The Model That cost the lives of unnumbered slave Islands to the full. The stage was thus Occupation. The Channel Islands under labourers brought in to carry out the set for the creation of the image of German Rule (1995) is highly critical construction work, while contributing a peaceful and largely benevolent of the island authorities’ apparent nothing of military value to the defence occupation, in which occupiers and collaboration with the Germans. of Nazi-occupied France, except for occupied cooperated to their mutual Bunting highlights their eagerness to the effective incarceration of an entire advantage. That image was furthered discourage resistance activities for German division, which could only by the relatively restrained and fear of provoking retaliation from the stand by uselessly while the Allies civilised behaviour of the German Germans and also the assistance that bypassed the islands on their advance military – at least initially – and by they rendered to the Germans in the into Europe. the personal qualities of the senior implementation of their anti-Jewish German personnel. Nettles gives measures; these ultimately led to the After the Germans, the principal detailed and not unattractive portraits deportation to Auschwitz of three non- villain of the piece is for Nettles of men like Baron von Aufseß, the British Jews, two refugees from Vienna, the British government. The threat officer in charge of civilian affairs in the Therese Steiner and Auguste Spitz, and from the advancing German forces military administration, and Count von Marianne Grünfeld from Germany. Julia to the Channel Islands caught the Schmettow, military commander of the Pascal’s play Theresa (1990) uses the British unprepared. The government, Channel Islands until his replacement in story of one of these Jews, abandoned considering the islands to be of no February 1945 by the ardent Nazi Vice- to her fate by a largely indifferent island strategic importance, had no clear Admiral Hüffmeier. community, to powerful dramatic effect. plan of action until the disastrous deterioration of the military situation by The counterparts to these German More recently, a comprehensive mid-June 1940 forced it to withdraw all officers were the Bailiff of Jersey, and sensibly balanced history of the British forces from the islands, leaving Alexander Coutanche, and Victor occupation of the Channel Islands has them undefended, and to declare them Carey, his less effective counterpart appeared from the pen of John Nettles, demilitarised, the equivalent of an open on Guernsey, where Sherwill and his famous for his portrayal of the hero city. But the British neglected to inform successor, John Leale, played key of the TV series Bergerac (1981-91), the Germans who, assuming the islands parts. Under Coutanche, an able man, which was set in Jersey. His study, were still defended, launched air raids the civil administration continued Jewels and Jackboots: Hitler’s British on 28 June that cost 38 lives on Jersey to function, but as directed by the Channel Islands, published in 2013, and Guernsey, wholly unnecessarily. Germans; crucial to Coutanche was appeared in German in 2015 as Hitlers that this arrangement still permitted Inselwahn: Die britischen Kanalinseln Nettles believes that this ‘betrayal’ of the administration a certain freedom unter deutscher Besetzung 1940-1945. the islanders influenced British policy of manoeuvre, enabling it to act as a The first part of that title translates as towards the Channel Islands during the buffer between the islanders and the ‘Hitler’s Island Delusion’, a reference war and after their liberation in May occupying forces and thus preserving to the Führer’s obsession with turning 1945. In the early years of the war, the the former from the worst excesses of the islands into an offshore fortress, a British launched a series of commando- Nazi rule. If Coutanche had opposed

2 AJR Journal | July 2017 the Germans’ demands outright, the islanders would, he believed, have faced the full harshness of direct German, even SS, control. Victor Carey fell into FUN the trap of prioritising good relations with the occupiers, apparently adopting AT THE RUN a mode of collaboration that favoured German interests over British loyalties. Chief Executive Michael On 8 July 1941, he notoriously issued a Newman donned his running proclamation offering a reward of £25 shorts to represent AJR at to anyone informing the authorities the Maccabi Community Fun about persons making the V-for-Victory Run on 11 June. AJR staff sign; while intended to halt behaviour manned a stand at the event that threatened to trigger German to chat with members of reprisals, this looked like an appeal to the public about ways they denounce acts of patriotic resistance to can get involved with the the enemy. organisation and Michael, accompanied by his seven The authorities on the Channel Islands year old son Jack, stopped by made little attempt to resist the anti- for a quick photo opportunity Jewish measures brought in by the before jogging off. Germans, the first of which, by the decrees of 21 October 1940 on Jersey AJR Chairman Andrew and 23 October 1940 on Guernsey, Kaufman also took part in the set in train the process of registering fun run along with his wife and identifying Jews, laying the basis Susie, daughter, son-in-law for their subsequent deportation; the and grandchildren. Great Michael Newman and his son Jack officers responsible, Clifford Orange on effort by the AJR team! at Maccabi Fun Run Jersey and police chief William Sculpher on Guernsey, were diligent in performing these duties. As in other Nazi-occupied In conclusion, one must record the the journalists who established the countries, Jews of foreign nationality great courage displayed by many of the Guernsey Underground News Service were arguably sacrificed in the interest islanders. The roll of honour includes (GUNS) and paid the price when of conciliating the Germans and thus those who braved the hazards of the their secret press was betrayed to the alleviating conditions for the ‘native’ sea crossing to make their escape on Germans. population. Jews of British nationality small, makeshift craft, sometimes at the were subject to deportation, but to the cost of their lives. There were those like Anthony Grenville same internment camps as the other Louisa Gould, née Le Druillenec, who civilian deportees, not to Auschwitz. Of hid an escaped slave labourer from the the subsequent nine anti-Jewish decrees, Soviet Union, Feodor Polycarpovich only Coutanche on Jersey opposed one, Burriy (renamed Bill by the islanders), AGNES AWARD that requiring Jews to wear the yellow but was denounced to the Germans star; a supply bottleneck in France in and died at Ravensbrück concentration Congratulations to Agnes Isaacs in any case meant that no yellow stars ever camp; or Albert Bedane, who gave the AJR’s Volunteers and Regional reached the islands. It seems that when sanctuary to Erica Richardson, née Groups team, who last month was the Germans moved against freemasons, Olvenich, a Jew born in Holland; or awarded the Philip Jacobson Award the Channel Islands authorities closed for service to the Glasgow Jewish ranks and succeeded in protecting their Community by the Glasgow Jewish own. Representative Council. CATERINA ANDREAE TRANSLATOR www.fishburnbooks.com BEREAVEMENT English to German / Jonathan Fishburn German to English buys and sells Jewish and Hebrew STRAUSS, Inge (neé Lissner) formerly No job too small or too big books, ephemera and items of of Breslau. Born 10 July 1920, widow Jewish interest. of Charles, passed away peacefully Competitive rates and references He is a member of the Antiquarian on 25 May. Forever loved and provided Booksellers Association. remembered by sons Edwin and John, Contact Jonathan on daughter in law Sally, granddaughters 00 34 971 886 566 020 8455 9139 or 07813 803 889 Claire and Paula, family and friends. [email protected] for more information

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FAMILY LOST AND FOUND

“deeply mourned by his wife, children and grandchildren”. I had no idea that my grandfather was not only alive, but had lived in London until I was 21.

I then received the handwritten family tree from Israel, and found that Berthold had married twice after my grandmother’s death. He had two daughters with his second wife Regina neé Schoenberger: Fela, born in 1921, and Susanna, born in 1924. Regina died in 1928, and Berthold then married Senta Ehrmann who brought up her step daughters as her own.

To shorten the story, I discovered that Susanna Millar Berthold Friedmann Fela had gone to America where she married Werner Klugman and had Therese Friedmann, my Meanwhile all trace of Berthold three daughters, Carol, Deborah and grandmother, died aged 34 in disappeared. I visited Berlin 10 years ago, Margaret, with whom my sister now and located my grandmother’s grave in in New York is in contact. Fela – now Berlin in 1917. She was one Weissensee Cemetery. From the cemetery Phila – Klugman died in 1977. of three daughters of a kosher records I found my grandparents’ address. I tried for many years to trace Berthold Even more exciting for me was that butcher, Julius Joseph. She Friedmann or Freedman through Jewish Susanna, my aunt, was still alive, and married Berthold Friedmann, a communal records in Berlin, and through a healthy 93 year old retired academic Chazan from Berlin. My father the internet, but always without success. living in Oxford. She is married to a distinguished ancient historian Sir Herbert (her only child) was You can imagine my surprise to receive an Fergus Millar, with two sons, Andrew born in the Charlottenberg email this March to tell me that a “match” and Jonathan, and a daughter, Sarah. to Berthold Friedmann had appeared in district of Berlin in 1911. Ivrit on an Israeli family tree website; it My wife and I visited her in April, and suggested that Herbert had two sisters and discovered that her knowledge of When Therese died, her two sisters – even more importantly – that Berthold events mirrored my own. She found a (who married two brothers named had died in London. The keeper of the couple of family photographs, one of Mayer) persuaded Berthold that website had married into the Friedmann my grandfather, and one of my father they should look after Herbert in family of which his mother in law had a as a little boy on his father’s shoulders. Halberstadt. He was brought up handwritten family tree. He promised to as the son of one of these aunts, email it to me. She told me Herbert had occasionally Martha, who had no children of her visited them in Berlin, and that her own. Meanwhile more research unearthed father Berthold had always regretted mention in a German Festschrift of giving up his son. She had not known Herbert married Annema Hannes, Berthold Friedmann having been in of Herbert’s marriage in Amsterdam or who had fled from Breslau to London during the war under the auspices of his children. Apparently Berthold, Amsterdam. They moved to London of the Jewish Refugees Committee. This his wife Senta and Susanna had lived in 1939 with my older sister Eve; suggested he had anglicised his name to in the Maida Vale area, whilst I was I was born in London in 1940 but Freeman, not Freedman, as I had thought. brought up in Hampstead Garden Herbert died in 1943 while serving Suburb, where the Mayer families also in the Pioneer Corps as Herbert Now I had a new name to work with. lived. Freedman. My mother married First port of call United Synagogue Burial Helmut Rothenberg in 1945. Society website: here for the first time, So in just five weeks I had found using the surname Freeman, I found hard an aunt and six cousins, of none of Helmut raised Eve and me as his own facts. According to a photo of his (and whose existence was I previously children together with his own two his wife Senta’s) gravestone in Bushey aware. sons and a daughter. I still miss him Cemetery, Berthold Baruch Freeman every day. [Friedmann] had died on 2 July 1961, David Rothenberg

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LETTER FROM ISRAEL BY DOROTHEA SHEFER-VANSON

HEARTBREAKING on the fifth floor of the new wing. Not all decorated communal areas, are attached the floors have been opened and are in on a more or less permanent basis to AND INSPIRING use as yet, due primarily to lack of funds. respiratory equipment of various kinds. The intake consists of infants as young After some words of welcome and warm as three months of age and upwards, The history of the praise for the hospital’s dedicated staff and some of these remain in the ward Herzog Hospital from its CEO, Dr. Yehezkel Caine, the until they reach adolescence, when they (formerly known first speaker was the Minister of Health, are moved to another department. Both as Ezrat Nashim) Rabbi Yaakov Litzman. He emphasised Arab and Israeli children are cared for, goes back to the importance the Ministry attaches to and in many cases their parents establish 1895 and the meeting the needs of Israel’s growing warm friendships as they attend to their establishment elderly population, and the important role bedridden children. of a society to provide care for the played in this by the Herzog Hospital. The chronically ill. Since then the facility mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, stressed Passing one ward we heard lovely has expanded both in physical terms the crucial contribution to medical research music. We peered in and saw a young and in its medical scope. In the 1960s it made by Jerusalem’s many start-ups in flautist standing by one of the beds, moved to its new building in Jerusalem’s the field of life sciences, and Isaac Herzog, playing for the young patient. As Givat Shaul neighbourhood, and added leader of Israel’s Opposition Labour we proceeded along the corridor we specialised care for geriatric patients to Party and the grandson of Rabbanit Sara encountered another person carrying an its psychiatric wards. Herzog, for whom the hospital is named, accordion, evidently about to perform spoke of his family’s close association with for other young patients. Petting In May this year I was privileged to be it. He also made a point of mentioning animals are brought in from time to present at the official dedication of the Israel’s seminal role in medical research time, and therapies of various kinds new Samson Medical Pavilion, which and services, noting that a recent edition (e.g., music, hugging, movement) are greatly increases the number of beds of The Lancet was devoted entirely to also part of the treatment provided. A in the hospital as well as incorporating medicine in Israel. cadre of devoted volunteers plays an additional medical services. In recent important role in helping to care for the years the hospital has added the Following the affixing of a mezuzah children and brighten their lives. treatment of children needing constant by Isaac Herzog and the cutting of the respiratory care to its spheres of ribbon by Mrs. Lewis, the attendees were While it broke my heart to see the cribs treatment, and the new wing provides divided into small groups and given a where tiny babies are hooked up to extensive state-of-the-art nursing in this tour of the new facility. My group was heart-lung machines, oxygen and other field. taken round the department for children items of medical equipment, there is with respiratory problems. In some cases no doubt that the hospital does work In addition to Mrs. Karen Lewis, the these are genetic in nature and in others of the highest importance. The caring daughter of the donors, Dr. Heinz and the result of accidents or illnesses of dedication of the ever cheerful staff is Dr. Edith Samson, various dignitaries various kinds. Almost all the children in both inspiring and admirable, providing addressed those attending the this section, which encompasses several an additional source of pride in Israel’s dedication ceremony, which took place well-equipped wards as well as cheerfully- medical achievements.

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5 AJR Journal | July 2017 Letters to the Editor The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence submitted for publication.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY risk, the gas chambers were not so protected My own father, a fairly senior judge, was Sir – I do not wish to enter into an and there was no risk of being shot at. The suspended from duty but on full pay, from argument with Rabbi Rothschild (May omission to bomb the rails and particularly mid-March until I think mid-June (vom 2017) on whether German railway lines the gas chambers where the casualties were Dienst enthoben), and then retired on were, should have been or could not be destined to die anyway, was a deliberately full pension as from July; I think this was bombed, though it is an important subject missed opportunity by fickle friends. That paid to him until my parents left Austria since everything and everybody went by was all I had really said in the April issue. in early 1940. The contrast came out rail. Those leading to Blechhammer were Frank Bright, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk even more sharply in an older generation: bombed; this was an Auschwitz satellite my grandmother had two private sector camp where petrol was made from brown incomes, one a widow’s pension under her coal extracted by Jewish slave labourers BIBLE ENTHUSIASTS husband’s occupational pension scheme with a life expectancy of one month. Sir – Mrs Shaffer Vanson is not quite and the other I think an insurance annuity. Felix Weinberg FRS, AJR member before up to date about the Catholic religion Both were stopped immediately once the his death four years ago, described in his discouraging the reading of the Bible. That Germans arrived; fortunately she had other memoir “what bombs did to our rails was was certainly true some centuries ago when resources. Her two unmarried sisters had quite spectacular, especially if they struck the Church also obstructed the translation both been grammar school teachers and between them.” He was taken from the of the Scriptures into the various vernacular therefore federal civil servants, drawing civil rail head at Gross-Rosen to Buchenwald by languages and when these two obsolete service pensions as they had both retired rail. The trains bringing prisoners to Dachau attitudes were, at least partially, the causes before 1938. Their pensions were paid at were so long as to extend past villas of the Reformation in central and Western least until 1941 before all three left Vienna outside it (“Lee Miller’s War” by A Penrose, Europe. But fortunately that is no longer for Theresienstadt, and for all I know may Thames & Hudson, 2008, pp. 182 & 183) true. For over 100 years now with ever have been paid even there until their deaths and prisoners were taken to Belsen, etc. more frequently updated translation into from allegedly natural causes. by rail which could be cut and they were, modern languages, Catholics have pursued when and if it suited. biblical studies with enthusiasm and the I wonder what the comparable experience laity is encouraged to read the Scriptures. in Germany was, where there was nothing Neither do I wish to pass an opinion on Of course some centuries ago few people similar to the cataclysm which hit Austria whether the late appearance of the Me262 could read so the fact that no adequate within the three days of mid-March 1938. would have turned the tide. Delivery was translations were available mattered less Did the federal structure of the pre-1945 erratic and there are too many ifs and buts. but modern scriptural learning has spread in Altreich make any difference, leaving the The Allies could have had an equal to the line with increased literacy. Länder to make their own employment Me262. The Gloster Meteor had the Frank F. Steiner, Deddington, Banbury, Oxon policies? I believe that at some time Whittle jet engines, better than the German in 1933 there was a law dealing with ones because here better materials were Berufsbeamtentum but I have no idea of its available, but it was never used in combat. PENSION ANOMALY contents and would welcome answers to The USAAF losses were terrible because they Sir – It occurs to me that as time goes these questions. didn’t have an escort fighter until the equally on ever fewer people will remember one F Steiner, Banbury late appearance of the P-51 Mustang curious anomaly of the repressive measures managed to protect the bombers all the way of the Anschluss in 1938 which shows that to Berlin and back. This reduced casualties viciousness can be tempered by illogically MORE CONTRAST PLEASE considerably and achieved the air superiority favourable outcomes. Sir – I am one of your older readers. The so essential for D-Day and beyond. AJR journal is important to me, and I read Within a few days of the Nazi takeover it from cover to cover each month. This What is a fact though is that nobody all private occupational and insurance month I see there is a new format. It uses cared about Jewish lives. Auschwitz III, pensions payable to Jews were simply pale coloured inks for the print and some of or Monowitz, the private fiefdom of I G stopped without any compensation, the text is on a coloured background. Farben, now Bayer, was bombed out of outright theft which predated the later action on four occasions, causing the death confiscatory measures. It is thought that I can’t speak for all older readers, but I find of thousands of Jews who were barred from the high numbers of Jewish suicides of it very tiring to read print whose contrast shelters. On each occasion the US bombers those few weeks were partially caused to its background is low. Unless the print is were less than 1.5 minutes flight time from by older Jews realising that on top of black on a white background I can’t read the gas chambers and railway line. There everything else, they were now destitute. large blocks of text in detail, however much was no need for a special effort. They were One exception to this daylight robbery I want to. Could you please reconsider? already there. Auschwitz III was protected was that civil service pensions were not Frank Beck by anti-aircraft guns and the raid carried a withheld.

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Sir – Received latest issue of AJR-Journal. identification should be the strongest To ensure accurate reporting in the As usual it is most excellent. The only ideological influence, it should be a cause excellent AJR Journal (congratulations quibble I have is the colour of the print. I for celebration, whether one is modern, on the superb new format, by the way – don’t know about you but I am really quite orthodox or any other sector of the Anglo stylish, professional, attractive, accessible) I old and my eyes are definitely not what Jewish community. need to correct an inaccuracy in the photo they used to be. I need contrast and black Peter Simpson, Jerusalem caption. Carl Davis did not conduct the on white is a far better contrast than blue performances – I did. Carl accompanied on white, which I find a strain to read. I them on the piano, which was a great gave up reading books years ago but I BONHOEFFER RIGHTLY RECOGNISED privilege for all involved. would like to continue reading the Journal. Sir – With reference to your article ‘The I have no problem with my computer, I use Holocaust and the Law’ in June 2017: As you may know, my late father Fred large fonts and enlarge e-mailed articles When after the war the family of Dietrich Dunston was directly involved in the saving by 130% (Gatestone Institute, Melanie Bonhoeffer, pastor and outspoken of a hundred children from Vienna in Phillips, Caroline Glick, Honest Reporting, opponent of the Nazi regime, wanted to the Kindertransport. That story has been etc.) but I can’t do that with the Journal. If exonerate him from the verdict of treason recorded in several publications. I will at all possible, can we please be less chic, (for which he was executed a few weeks always be sad that he did not live to see less progressive, a bit more conservative before the end of the war in Flossenbürg his son conduct Last Train to Tomorrow, and have it black on white? camp) the authorities claimed that he was accompanied by the composer. Frank Bright duly convicted under the law in existence NOTE FROM EDITOR: We are very sorry at the time and the verdict would stand. I hope you will be glad to have the error if anyone else has had problems reading Fortunately his fame overrode this infamous pointed out. Incidentally, there should be our smart newly designed Journal. We attitude. A stone statue of Bonhoeffer now a link and possibly also a DVD available have darkened the font and increased stands outside the frontage of Westminster soon which will enable AJR members – and the contrast wherever possible within Abbey, the consecration of which I particularly Kinder – to see and enjoy what this issue. Please let us know if you have attended a few years ago. I am still in touch was an intensely powerful and moving further suggestions of how we might with his niece, who is in a home in Bremen, production. improve the reader experience. and his great-nephew, who is a cellist and conductor in London. By coincidence, a letter from AJR member Rudi Leavor, Bradford Peter Briess appeared in the same issue of REAL PASSENGERS the Journal. The Maidenhead production In your latest book review section I see was sponsored by Peter, in memory of his a book called THE VOYAGE about the EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT uncle, the pianist Erich Schulhof. MS ST.LOUIS. A second book about Sir – From your June issue I learn that Dr this journey published recently is THE Bogdanor objects to my critical review Finally, thank you for the excellent article A GERMAN GIRL by Armando Lucas of his book… Yet I was unlucky enough Life-affirming Journey in the June edition. Correra. Both books are about imaginary, to be on the spot in Budapest in 1944 to As it happens, to mark what would have fictionalised passengers, but there are still witness the close and valuable collaboration been Fred’s 100th birthday on 29 May, real passengers around such as my sister between Rezso Kasztner, Otto Komoly and my brother Colin and I are embarking on and me in England and several in America. other members of the Vaad. Clearly if you the process of trying to get Stolpersteine In fact I have just returned from California denigrate one you denigrate them all and placed in front of the appropriate buildings where I talked to 100 students about the similarly if you praise one you praise them in Vienna where his and our mother’s Holocaust, my life before and after 1933 all. Dr Bogdanor makes it obvious that he families lived. and my journey on the boat and after that was not only fortunate enough not to be John Dunston in England. an eye-witness, but also that he has made Gisela Feldman, Manchester no attempt to understand conditions of the period. I am afraid this makes it impossible for me to accept him as a credible historian. WHY NOT TRY AJR’S CELEBRATE OUR JUDAISM George Donath MEALS ON WHEELS Peter Phillips wants to know what ‘modern’ SERVICE? orthodoxy means. I would love to know The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels what his understanding of ‘British’ values THE CORRECT CONDUCTOR service delivered to your door once a week. is. If British values means Christian values Sir – You published in the June AJR Journal The meals are freshly cooked every week then sure it is absolutely no surprise that a notice of the recent performances in by Kosher to Go. They are then frozen prior there is a difference between Jewish values Maidenhead of Last Train to Tomorrow, to delivery. and Christian values, such as turning the composed by Carl Davis, whose credits The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal other cheek. If British values equate with include the music for the film Anne (soup, main course, desert) EU values (which today appear to be little Frank Remembered. The Maidenhead plus a £1 delivery fee. more than lighting candles and the like in performances had special significance Our aim is to bring good food to your door response to Muslim terrorist outrages) it because of the link with the late Sir without the worry of shopping or cooking. surely should be no surprise that this does Nicholas Winton, whose daughter For further details, please call not equate to Jewish values at all. So far Barbara and son Nick attended the final AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070. from bemoaning that one’s Jewish religious performance.

7 AJR Journal | July 2017 ART NOTES: by Gloria Tessler

Inspired by Maya Angelou’s autobiographical novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Turner Prize-winner Chris Ofili, a controversial figure for his early 1990s collages comprising paint, glitter and elephant dung, has excelled himself with his latest exhibition, Weaving Magic, which takes up the entire Sunley Room at the National Gallery. It is in the the form of a large and whimsical triptych called The Caged Bird’s Song which draws one into an immersive experience in which he collaborated with master weavers at the Edinburgh-based Dovecot Tapestry Studios who hand- wove his vision into an innocent theme of water, trees, a caged bird and two lovers. Weaving Magic by Chris Ofili

This is Ofili’s first exhibition at their background of fronds, mountains the National Gallery since Titian: and seas, and their hands resemble GUIDED TOUR Metamorphosis 2012, in which he and curved pipes. OF HOOP LANE two other contemporary artists, were JEWISH CEMETRY invited to respond to the Italian painter’s The work is full of sound and energy. It is great mythological works, Diana and the first time Ofili has worked in tapestry BY RACHEL KOSKY Actaeon, The Death of Actaeon and and his colourful preparatory works on BLUE BADGE GUIDE Diana and Callisto, which depict stories paper can be seen in the adjoining room. from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is clear The Dovecot Tapestry Studio, took two and Thursday 17th August 2017 from Ofili’s new show that he continues a half years to complete the conversion of to draw inspiration from classical Ofili’s designs into a tapestry. Those of you who heard Rachel mythology, while transposing it to his give a tour of the National Gallery personal Trinidadian background. The artist describes the work as “marriage will know how knowledgeable and of watercolour and weaving.” It was informative her tours are. As you stare longer into the swirling commissioned by the Clothworkers’ This guided tour highlights the history of shapes, the demigods and the classical Company, a 16th Century Livery Company the Hoop Lane cemeteries in Golders Green. myth of this tapestry, you realise there is which oversaw the cloth-finished trade in Opened in 1897 for both the Reform and something deeply anarchic, ancient and the City of London. Manchester-born Ofili, Sephardi Jewish communities there is an array even suggestive of the biblical Garden who lives and works in Trinidad, draws of fascinating personalities for whom this is their final resting place. of Eden. The central tapestry is bordered from many other sources, including jazz, on each side by a ghostly wall featuring hip hop, William Blake and the Bible. The They include those of religious leaders such paler human beings in African dress or Caged Bird’s Song will be permanently as Hugo Gryn and Albert Friedlander, actor simple togas, hard men and sinuous displayed in Clothworkers’ Hall after the Sydney Tafler, philanthropist and youth leader Sir Basil Henriques, writer Jack Rosenthal, the women. They may suggest earth spirits exhibition. Concludes on August 28. parents of Maurice and Charles Saatchi and guiding you into the central work, except agony aunt, Marjorie Proops. that despite their greyness, they are very alive. They seem to throb and sing with a The tour will start at 1.30pm and following on afterwards we will go to a local restuarant and distant African harmony. Annely Juda Fine Art have tea and cake and the chance to speak to 23 Dering Street Rachel in more detail. Central to the tapestry is a troubadour (off New Bond Street) We will provide transport between the and each panel features a man naked Tel: 020 7629 7578 but for his emerald robe, and a reflective Cemetery and the restaurant. Fax: 020 7491 2139 woman. She is very delicate and her hand For details please speak to Susan is on her chin, so the sensuality between CONTEMPORARY Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or email them is nuanced rather than expressed. PAINTING AND SCULPTURE [email protected] The figures seem to weave in and out of

8 AJR Journal | July 2017

AT YOUR SERVICE: Telephone Friends The second in our series of articles showcasing the work of the AJR A CLIENT’S focuses on our Telephone Friends PERSPECTIVE service, through which over 50 of our members regularly receive 99 year old Edith Poulsen has great calls from one of 20+ volunteers, trouble walking and finds it very difficult to get out of her house. So establishing what we hope will be she describes her telephone friendship valuable and mutually rewarding with Charlotte as a “lifeline” to the friendships. outside world.

The service is co-ordinated by Ros Collin, Twice-widowed Edith has always who joined the AJR five years ago and Ros Collin (standing) and Charlotte been very active, but a combination introduced Telephone Friends in late 2014 of disabilities and arthritis makes to provide a broader range of outreach “It takes time to build up trust, like any simple things like hanging up her options for our members. friendship,” explains Charlotte. “But it’s a clothes virtually impossible these days. real privilege when one of these members, Her daughter is also disabled and her “We have a great network of social whose own lives have been so interesting granddaughter lives the other side of workers and volunteers who make and challenging, chooses to confide in me. London, meaning that she rarely sees house calls, but not all our members I lost my own parents when I was quite them. want someone visiting them, or live young, so this is my way of connecting with somewhere easy to get to,” Ros explains. and giving back to their generation.” Edith, who is originally from Vienna, “Telephone Friends is ideal for members first got involved with the AJR in 1990 who are able to chat on the phone. We Both Charlotte and Ros are quick to when her second husband fell ill. As pair them with a volunteer and over time point out that the content of the calls is friends who couldn’t bear to watch his they develop a relationship. It’s all very completely confidential. “Within the AJR gradual deterioration withdrew, she informal – we leave it up to the member we have the ability to assist our members started to rely more and more on the and the volunteer to agree how often with many aspects of their lives. But I would Ilford AJR social get-togethers. But they wish to speak and for how long, never dream of passing anything on to my when her own health began to fail and what topics they feel comfortable colleagues unless my ‘friend’ specifically asks even these became a challenge. discussing.” me to,” Charlotte says. Instead she is tasked to send Ros brief emails to simply confirm She became Telephone Friends with The service is particularly suitable for when calls have been made. Charlotte a year ago. “She rings me older AJR members who live alone and once a week and is very nice and find it difficult to get out of the house. AJR members are sent details of their friendly and always so helpful,” says “As people get older, it is sadly quite volunteer before the first telephone call is Edith. “She laughs at all my jokes and common to feel isolated and alone. made, along with an introduction to the always asks how I am and what I’ve Perhaps they have lost their partner and/ service and some simple do’s and don’ts. been doing. I feel she genuinely cares or friends, or perhaps their own children These include an explanation that the about me.” live far away. Perhaps they are no longer volunteer makes the calls, not the other physically able to join social clubs and way round (in fact volunteers’ telephone While working full time Edith always interest groups. Having a good friend just numbers are automatically withheld) had a very wide network of friends at the end of the phone line makes all the although the member can request the within the community. She was difference,” says Ros. optimum days and times for calls. twice Deputy Mayoress and once Mayoress of Waltham Forest and Charlotte is one of the volunteers aiming “It’s not a once-a-year call like some shuls served on numerous committees. But to make a difference. Nearing retirement do, and it doesn’t suit everyone. Some without leaving the house she has from her job as an administrator for one people don’t enjoy talking on the phone found it difficult to keep up these of the Royal Colleges, she decided to while others feel they don’t need another relationships. throw herself into volunteering three friend,” says Ros. “But when we pair up the years’ ago and currently has three AJR right people they can, over time, develop a “I know so few people these days Telephone Friends. She calls each of them genuinely close friendship.” that at weekends I’m quite likely not once a week on average, just to see to see another human face for two how they are and discuss events that are If you are interested in making an AJR days,” she says. “So a phone call from happening in their lives or in the wider Telephone Friend please call Ros on Charlotte really cheers me up.” world. 020 8385 3070 or email her at [email protected]

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that Bolchover poses is, given the massive in England, rising from employment in REVIEWS impact that early 20th century Jews had on Birmingham as a humble domestic to moulding European football and introducing a responsible position in London with THE GREATEST COMEBACK strategy and thought into the sport, who Marks and Spencer her role in the family From Genocide to Football Glory knows what course football might have changed from that of wayward daughter by David Bolchover taken if the Holocaust had never happened, to responsible young adult; she arranged Biteback Publishing just as with so many aspects of modern life? for her younger brother Helmut to ISBN 978-1-785-90139-3 attend a school in Brighton, then helped Jo Briggs to bring her parents to safety in Britain. This is the story of Bela Guttman, star Schlör’s conceptualisation of letters player of the New York Giants in the ‘LIESEL, IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO LEAVE’ written to/from emigration as a specific 1920s and coach of the European Die Flucht der Familie Rosenthal vor der form of writing allows him to analyse in Cup-winning Benfica in 1961. It is also nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung depth the interaction in the Rosenthal the story of triumph over adversity, (The Flight of the Rosenthal Family from correspondence between private family as Guttman narrowly dodged death Nazi Persecution) affairs and events of historical significance throughout the Holocaust while many of by Joachim Schlör affecting the fate of German Jewry. his close family and friends perished at the Stadtarchiv Heilbronn 2015, 259pp hands of the Nazis. ISBN 978-3-940646-19-4 hardback Anthony Grenville

Bolchover, whose previous books have Liesel Rosenthal was better known to readers BIOGRAPHY OF HEINZ LIEPMAN included the bestselling 90-Minute of this journal in former years as Alice A New Book by an Old Friend Manager, has done his research well. He Schwab (1915-2001), our long-standing by Wilfried Weinke vividly brings to life America’s roaring 20s and much-admired art correspondent. Born and its subsequent depression, followed in Heilbronn, she emigrated alone, aged 22, Many of those conducting research by the horrific sweep of antisemitism to Britain, where in 1942 she married Walter into the Jewish refugees from Nazism throughout Europe. He explains how Schwab, the son of Anna Schwab, one of in Britain will be familiar with Wilfried Guttman’s all-consuming passion for the leading figures in the Jewish Refugees Weinke who has made it his life’s work football drove him to return from the Committee that played a vital part in the to expose the extent of National Socialist US to the terrifying Europe of 1938, as admission of Jews from the Third Reich activities in Hamburg, his hometown, and other Jews tried desperately to leave it. into Britain. Some years after Alice’s death, to show the ugly reality behind the city’s Although only a small percentage of the her daughter, Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger, artfully constructed image of itself as a book is devoted to Guttman’s experiences allowed Professor Joachim Schlör of bastion of liberalism where Hitler never during WW2 (he himself usually glossed Southampton University access to a bundle dared set foot. He has also been tireless over them with a sentence or two), we of letters and postcards from the years 1937- in researching the history of the Jewish learn that he spent months crawling 47, left behind by her mother and previously community of Hamburg, especially in around a Budapest attic before being unread by anyone save the recipient. the area known as the Grindel, and has deported, somehow escaping just as frequently travelled to Britain, to interview he was about to be transported from a From this source, Professor Schlör, himself Jews from Hamburg, some of whom came labour camp to an almost certain death in a native of Heilbronn and one of the most to know him well. Nazi Germany. discerning authorities on the emigration of the Jews from Germany and their settlement Weinke has recently published his The author explores the impact that in new lands, has fashioned this engrossing monumental piece of work on the writer these experiences had on Guttman’s life study. He has not only recreated the and journalist Heinz Liepman, born in and coaching career. Realising the world narrative of Liesel Rosenthal’s emigration and Hamburg in 1905, a Jew and an active was not going to do him any favours, settlement in Britain but has embedded that opponent of the Nazis who was forced Guttman was fiercely independent, narrative in an illuminating commentary on into exile in 1933, where he continued ambitious, and blessed with an iron individual letters, employing a sophisticated to produce powerful literary indictments will and stubborn resolve to overcome and well developed theoretical framework. of Nazism. He arrived in Britain in April appalling tragedy and hardship. Not only Some readers may baulk at reading a 1935, staying until October 1937, when did he survive, he conquered Europe – the study in academic German, but those who his permit to stay was revoked and he was only Jewish coach to do so. persevere will be amply rewarded. obliged to move on to the United States. After his return from America to Hamburg Having read the book, I was surprised Liesel received letters from a variety of in 1947, Liepman resumed his career with to discover that Guttman’s significance relatives and friends, especially from her considerable success, but, dissatisfied with in footballing history is not widely parents, Ludwig and Hermine Rosenthal, the political atmosphere of West Germany recognised. Although acknowledged by whose often reproachful missives from under Konrad Adenauer, re-emigrated the cognoscenti as the Jose Mourinho of Heilbronn to England enable Schlör to in 1961 to Switzerland, where he died in his day, Guttman’s renown among the demonstrate how emigration changed 1966. general football fan population is patchy the dynamics of previously settled family to say the least. But the biggest question relationships. As Liesel established herself Anthony Grenville

10 AJR Journal | July 2017

DAY TRIP TO THE SEASIDE Regents Park Open Air Theatre Tuesday 8th August 2017 THURSDAY 20th JULY Coach Leaving at 2.15pm finishing at 5.00pm AJR FILM CLUB Finchley Road Our next film showing will be at and Edgware A TALE OF TWO CITIES Sha’arei Tsedek North London Reform First stop – Synagogue, 120 Oakleigh Road North, Hyde Hall A new play by MATTHEW DUNSTER Whetstone N20 9EZ Gardens Adapted from the novel by CHARLES DICKENS on Monday 24 July 2017 Your one-hour garden tour with a trained It was the best of at 12.30pm guide will cover RHS Garden Hyde Hall’s times, it was the humble beginnings as a farm, to all the worst of times; it was Lunch of smoked salmon bagels, exciting new developments being planned. the age of wisdom, Danish pastries and tea or coffee will The Rose Garden, Dry Garden and Courtyard it was the age of be served first. Garden will be included, and with ample foolishness; it was the opportunity to ask questions along the way. spring of hope, it was ONE CHANCE Second stop – Lunch the winter of despair; we had everything Biopic starring James Corden as ‘Britain’s A Delicious Fish and Chip Lunch on before us, we had Got Talent’ winner Paul Potts. The film Southend Sea Front nothing before us. charts Potts’ rise to fame, from his humble Please call Susan Harrod on beginnings as a timid shop assistant to an 020 8385 3070 or email Sound familiar? How much more do those in internationally-renowned opera singer thanks [email protected] or [email protected] power think Europe’s poor can take? When will the people take to the streets of the to his success on the 2007 British talent show. for a booking form and full details Following a string of failed chances, dismissals cities and roar enough is enough? from his idol Pavarotti and unforeseeable Tickets £22.50 per person accidents, Paul’s determination and talent Thursday 13th July 2017 In the event of bad weather alternative enabled him to battle through against the dates/performances will be offered. odds and achieve his lifelong dream. Outing to Whitechapel Gallery Followed by lunch at Rinkoff’s Baker Starring Julie Walters and James Corden. For booking form please call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or email A must for Opera buffs. Please join us for a visit to The Whitechapel Gallery to see the exhibition [email protected] £7.00 per person BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL ARTISTS IN Please call Susan Harrod on CONVERSATION JO SOVIN 020 8385 3070 Artists’ interviews are an important platform CHAOS CONQUEROR or email [email protected] for the interpretation of artists’ ideas and their Do you need help with communication to a wider public. de-cluttering, preparing for Stylistically they vary from snappy press downsizing and moving, or finding interview to profound conversations between organising art historians and artists, and art works in and storage solutions? their own right. I can help This display delves into archives at the Whitechapel Gallery to enable visitors to Jo Sovin – Chaos Conqueror LUNCH MARCH 2017 hear, see and read artists in their own words. [email protected] Editor: Rev. WednesdayBernd Koschland 12th Chairman: July Sir Erich 2017 Reich [email protected] You will then have time to tour the Gallery www.josovin.com Contact at AtAJR: AlythSusan Harrod Gardens Previous Synagogue issues at: [email protected] or www.ajr.org.uk/kindertransport at your leisure before we go onto Rinkoff’s 44 (0) 20 8385 3078 12.30pm 020 7263 8229 / 07905 581 794 Family Bakery for a delicious sandwich lunch. Please join us for lunch when we will Rinkoff bakery is a family run business which Impeccable references provided be From joined the Editor’s by Desk a special guest speaker. has been producing speciality bread cakes and Dear Kinder and Friends rolls for over 100 years. ThisFor edition details has again aplease wide variety call of contribution Susan including Harrod one held on over from Chanukah. There is a welcome article from Michael Newman as well as a variety of letters including020 two8385 from California.3070 The previous edition For details please call Susan Harrod on receives a coupleor of email pats on the [email protected] back. 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected] switch on electrics חג שמח .Chag sameach to all Kinder, friends and your families

Rewires and all household My dear fellow Kinder electrical work Thanks Godp winterring is slowly receding and grovewe can begin to look forward to a little warmer sunshine. In most parks the crocuses are blooming in their PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 various colours. FurthermoreLond weon’s are nearing Most what I would Luxurious call the festival of freedom, Pesach. I am sure most of us will be with our families as the Mobile: 0795 614 8566 youngest starts the fiveRE Kushiot.TIRE MENT HOME I use this opportunity to wish you214 all a wonderful Finchley and haRoadppy Chag. Sameach

London NW3 10-DAY VISIT TO ISRAEL WHY NOT CONVERT  Entertainment NOVEMBER 2017 YOUR OLD CINE  Activities The AJR is considering organising a  Stress Free Living 10-day trip to Israel in early November this year. FILMS  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine The cost of the visit is not yet decided. AND PUT THEM  Full En-Suite Facilities Carol Rossen will be accompanying the trip. ON DVDS Call for more information or a personal tour If you would like to join the trip, FREE OF CHARGE? 020 8446 2117 please contact Lorna Moss or 020 7794 4455 on 020 8385 3070 or at Contact Alf Buechler at [email protected] [email protected] as soon as possible. [email protected] or tel 020 8554 5635

11 AJR Journal | July 2017 OPINION PIECE Southbank fail to do justice to Levi On 30 April as part of the ‘Belief and Beyond Belief‘ festival the reading of Primo Levi’s book ‘If this is a man’ was presented at the Southbank Centre.

The six-hour long public reading at the bland and uninformative general notion Festival Hall of If This Is a Man, perhaps of a timeless refugee. The sufferings of Southbank Centre Primo Levi the greatest classic of survivor literature, desperate survivors in the Europe of 1945-7 conceived by the distinguished writers were jarringly assimilated to that of post-war Grossmann’s ‘The hell of Treblinka’ and AL Kennedy and Philippe Sands, was Londoners sharing in the Festival of Britain. more recently the film ‘Son of Saul’ directed an admirably ambitious idea, eloquently by Laszlo Nemes, it is impossible to share publicised in advance. Fifteen different One is also bound to ask why the those events collectively. readers of varying skill, some of them inescapable Jewish dimension of the story well-known figures, and among them two was entirely obliterated from the framework I (Gerta Vrbova) am myself a Holocaust survivors, were combined with carefully – although mentioned often enough, of survivor and my late husband Rudolf chosen chamber music. course, in the book itself, once the reading Vrba was one of the only five prisoners of started. Auschwitz who managed to escape and The reading clearly attracted a varied provide accurate information to the world audience, including several young people Trying to incorporate into your in the Vrba-Wetzler report about the killing who previously may have known little of the consciousness the utterly unbelievable on an industrial scale that took place in Holocaust. We felt that they should have events of the Holocaust is a very special Auschwitz. I was therefore expecting an been given more background about Primo personal experience. In our opinion, the afternoon and evening of deep reflection, Levi himself as a person and writer. Although well-meant attempt of the Southbank engagement, witness and remembrance. his portrait appeared on the screen, not even creative team to present If This Is a Man But the Southbank performance left me the barest facts of his life figured either in failed to involve the large audience in the strangely unaffected. At a time when the program notes, or in the performance. horrors of Primo Levi’s description of his year the events of the Holocaust are being in Auschwitz. Visual images related to the questioned or even denied, and when many We also felt that the introductory remarks text would have helped, as well as a clearer people just prefer to forget them, there is offered on behalf of the Southbank linkage between the finely executed music great danger that performances like this creative team were designed to subsume and the read text. simply provide ammunition to those who do the event, the author and the work into a not want to remember. contemporary world-view, equating Levi’s Without truly exceptional works, such exposure to ultimate human evil with a as Claude Lanzman’s’Shoah’, Vasilij Prof. Gerta Vrbova and Prof. Tessa Rajak

THE SOUTHBANK RESPONDS

We were glad to read that the reviewers ways to communicate this experience than experience, including Holocaust survivors. admired the ambition of the event, but by being faithful to the original but, in such While we regret that the event left the saddened to receive these criticisms. a format, unfortunately this didn’t allow for reviewers ‘unaffected’ we would urge discussion as part of the event. them to reconsider the notion that In attempting a live reading of Levi on this this event was intended to obscure or unprecedented scale, we accept that there The introduction sought to underline Levi’s minimise Jewish suffering during the are always elements we can improve particular identity as a Jewish author while Holocaust: this was absolutely not our on, and greater biographical detail in connecting him to the post-war origins intention. In providing a platform for our programme notes is a criticism duly and inclusive values of Southbank Centre, Levi’s words we had hoped to create a noted. However, our primary goal was and more broadly the way his work alerts space to hear words which are impossible to immerse the audience in the detail of us to the ‘dehumanising tendencies’ of the to forget, and need to be heard at the Levi’s experience of Auschwitz in his own present. Aware of the sensitivities of the present time. words, rather than distract from its great subject matter, particularly in the current power through extensive introduction. political climate, it was important that the Ted Hodgkinson, Philippe Sands and We believe there are few more powerful reading represented a range of voices and AL Kennedy (Co-curators of the event)

12 AJR Journal | July 2017 LOOKING FOR?

The AJR regularly receives Farber family Any information about their time in Yvonne Ward is looking for any Switzerland, mechanisms for coming to messages from our members information about her father, grandparents England and the English addresses would and others looking for people or and uncle who came separately from be greatly appreciated. Vienna after Kristallnacht. [email protected] for help in particular subjects. • Michael Heinrich Farber was smuggled Bunce Court School Here are some of the most at the age of 17 by train to a refugee Heidi Goldsmith would love to find camp in Switzerland, eventually landing anyone who remembers her from her recent requests – please get in in Croydon in January 1939. He worked brief time at Bunce Court School in touch directly with the person at a mill in Cheetham and lived in 1940, when she was just seven years Broughton. Enlisted AMPC Feb 1940 in old. She particularly recollects being concerned if you can help. Manchester; changed name to Fulton. friendly with a young Czech-speaking boy. • Robert Farber, aged 45, arrived in [email protected] Upper Silesia Feb 1939 on business after 6 weeks Mike Ticher is researching former in Switzerland and was granted Meanwhile Amsterdam-based Jewish communities in Upper Silesia, permission to extend his stay. Interned experimental filmmaker Barbara Meter particularly Beuthen (Bytom), Gleiwitz June 1940, released October, AMPC. is currently developing a personal/ (Gliwice) and Kattowitz (Katowice) experimental documentary that deals and would like to get in touch with • Johanna Farber, aged 39, arrived in with (amongst other things) her descendants of anyone who lived there July 1939 with Hannes Ferdinand childhood trips and memories of Bunce in the early 1920s. Farber, aged 14, after eight months Court. She is particularly interested in [email protected] in Switzerland. She initially stayed connecting with Marion Gaze, whose in London W9 and then became a mother wrote Die Kinderchronik. Peter Kronthal domestic at a Manchester vicarage. [email protected] Sandra Schmidt is hoping to find someone who knew her great-uncle If you would like to place a search notice in a future issue of the AJR Journal, please email Peter Paul Kronthal, a German art [email protected] including the words SEARCH REQUEST in the title of your email. dealer who came to England from Berlin in September 1937. He lived in London at 46 North End Road and worked as an art dealer until his death in 1967. Books Bought JOSEPH PEREIRA [email protected] (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) is now Modern and Old available for DIY repairs and general maintenance. Spier’s descendants Eric Levene No job too small, Margaret Brewer, daughter of Jack Spier 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 very reasonable rates. (born Hans Joachim Spier) would like [email protected] Please telephone 07966 887 485. to make contact with the daughter, and her children, of Eugen and Henny Spier who lived in Paddington, London. [email protected] AJR CARD AND GAMES CLUB Please join us at our Card and Games Club Safety in Buxton Monday 7 August 2017 at 1.00pm Historians in the Peak District spa town at North Western Reform Synagogue, of Buxton are interested in reconnecting Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN with any of the 300 Jewish families who Open to all levels Bridge players – come and join us We also offer card games, backgammon, scrabble. You decide. sought refuge there during WW2. They Games are dependent on numbers being sufficient – the more the merrier are hoping to find enough information A sandwich lunch will be served upon arrival with tea, coffee and Danish pastries. to build up a complete picture of where £7.00 per person all the Jewish people lived, prayed, Booking is essential – when you book please let us know your choice of game. studied and played. Please either call Esther Rinkoff on 07966 631 778 or email [email protected] [email protected]

13 AJR Journal | July 2017

Bradford C.F.: ‘KAFFEEKLATSCH’ Ealing: OPERA IN THE U.K. On a sun-blessed day we met in Ilkley Frances Long spoke about the history Around for tea. The discussion touched on the of opera in the UK and then led an rumour that those applying for German interesting discussion about challenges citizenship would have to relinquish their faced by opera today. British nationality. Leslie Sommer the AJR Stephen Tendlow Essex: FLOWERS IN WESTCLIFF CONGRATULATIONS Brighton & Hove: THE WORK OF Nick Dobson gave an enjoyable talk on RUDI THE UJIA flowers in the UK and around the world Harvey Bratt and his assistant spoke and we had a short quiz about the about the educational work of UJIA in flowers of other countries. Israel and the U.K. They fund schools/ Linda Fisher colleges for Jews and Arabs in the Galilee and for young people in the U.K they Kensington: A DAY OF BIRTHDAYS arrange Birthright or gap year trips to Israel’s 69th Independence Day Israel. coincided with the birthday of our host, Ceska Abrahams Peter Wayne, and we were delighted to mark both happy events. Cardiff: INTRICACIES OF LAW Eva Stellman The AJR is delighted to congratulate Retired solicitor Colin Davey enlightened our long-standing member Dr Rudolph the group with explanations of many Pinner Group: FEMALE PAINTERS (Rudi) Leavor on being recognised in legal terms that have become common Mylene Goodman spoke fascinatingly Her Majesty The Queen’s birthday parlance, such as contract, consideration on Adelaide Labille-Guiard and honours with a British Empire Medal. and negligence. He was preceded by a Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, two female talk on the AJR Homecare scheme. artists working in Paris around the time Rudi Leavor came to Bradford with Stella Lightman of the French Revolution. his parents and younger sister Winnie Robert Gellman as a refugee from Nazi Germany in Cards and Games Club 1937 aged 11, having been raised Larger numbers than usual enjoyed a in Berlin. He spent his career as a convivial lunch; then the atmosphere dentist having a successful practice in became more competitive for the CONTACTS Heckmondwike, near Batley. He was afternoon’s games. made President and Chairman of the David Lang Bradford Synagogue in 1975. He lives Susan Harrod in Bradford with his wife Marianne. Cheshire: A GOOD LAUGH Lead Outreach & Events Co-ordinator This award is rightful recognition of A ‘full house’ of 21 members met at 020 8385 3070 [email protected] the home of Peter Kurer. Over excellent Rudi’s tireless work in interfaith and in Wendy Bott refreshments we shared amusing jokes, Holocaust education. We very much Northern Outreach Co-ordinator as told by our favourite comedians. A hope it brings him and his family and 07908 156 365 [email protected] friends much joy and pride. delightful get-together. Tom Einstein Agnes Isaacs Northern Outreach Co-ordinator OUTING TO ISABELLA PLANTATION 07908 156 361 [email protected] Kathryn Prevezer 15 members went on a mini Southern Outreach Co-ordinator bus to the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park on 11th 07966 969 951 [email protected] May. With an excellent Esther Rinkoff and well-informed guide Southern Outreach Co-ordinator we walked amongst the 07966 631 778 [email protected] rhododendrons, azaleas and beautiful trees for two hours. Eva Stellman The colours were wonderful. Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Afterwards we had a cream 07904 489 515 [email protected] tea at the Maids of Honour KT-AJR (Kindertransport) in Kew. We all had an Susan Harrod enjoyable afternoon and 020 8385 3070 [email protected] thanks are due to Eva, Esther, Kathryn and our driver, Tony. Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Joan Kalb Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 [email protected]

14 AJR Journal | July 2017

MY MISSING GRANDFATHER

My grandfather had a kind face, scrubbing brushes and made to scrub the twinkling eyes and a beautiful streets of Vienna. I thought to myself “The white beard. He was a Chassid streets must have been very dirty for them to have to do that.” and I was his first grandchild. I loved playing with him and Some months after Kristallnacht we left stroking his beard. Vienna. “We are going to a nice country called England,” my parents told me. “And When Kristallnacht happened in Vienna what about Oma and Opa?” I asked. “They I, could not understand what was are going to Palestine.” happening. I heard noise, shouting and screams in the night. No one told me “Will we be able to see them?” “Perhaps, anything. My father disappeared for one day, but in the meantime we can write Hersh Ephraim Schechter, Thea’s grandfather several days and when he returned, to them,” said my parents. covered in bruises and blood and One day, soon after our arrival, my wearing dirty clothes, he was no longer Once in England we received a weekly letter mother and I were travelling on that my father. Some days Iater, I heard from my grandparents and we sent them strange method of transport, an the adults saying that old Jewish men, a weekly aerogram. My father wrote my underground train. As we sat there, including my grandfather, had been messages out for me in Yiddish and I copied I looked around at the people in the given buckets of water, soap and them into the letter. carriage and there, straight opposite, was an old man with a long white beard. I burst into tears and rushed across to him, calling “Opa, Opa!” My mother was very embarrassed and dragged me back. The JULY GROUP EVENTS old man smiled at me sympathetically, but said nothing. As the exact timings of these events are often subject to last minute changes we do not include them in the AJR Journal and suggest you contact the relevant regional contact After the war, my mother visited my for full details. grandparents in Palestine. She travelled by train and ship and was away for Ealing 4 July Nick Dobson: A Literary Cruise quite a long time. When she returned Ilford 5 July David Barnett – New talk on Adam Worth, she gave me a beautiful Siddur, which Criminal Mastermind my grandparents had sent me. It had Glasgow 6 July Summertime BBQ a wooden cover with inlaid decoration Oxford 6 July Lunchtime social and I kept it by my bed all the time. Pinner 6 July Diana Barnett – The Portuguese Consul De Sousa Mendes and how he saved so many Jewish people Some years later, my grandfather died Book Club 12 July Social get-together and we received an obituary from a Bradford 13 July Outing to Garden Centre Yiddish newspaper. A few years later, my Hull 16 July Outing to Ferrans Art Gallery grandmother also died. Brighton 17 July Film: “The Forgotten Refugees” When I was in my teens I visited Israel for Whitefield/Prestwich 17 July Social get-together the first time by boat. As we drew near the Kensington 17 July Tea at the home of Judy & David De Haas harbour everyone surged to the deck to Edgware 18 July Avital Baruch, author of “Frozen Mud and Red Ribbons” (a novel about surviving Holocaust enjoy the beautiful view of Haifa. Below Romania and life in Israel) us, in the dock, was a crowd of people Edinburgh 19 July Social get-together awaiting relatives and friends. Amongst Glasgow Book Club 20 July Social get-together them I spotted an old man with a long Radlett 19 July Alf Kieles: Musical Morning white beard anxiously scouring the deck. Wessex 19 July Rhinefeld House As I looked, I burst into tears. “There, Cheshire 24 July Social get-together there,“ said a kindly Englishman next to Wembley 26 July Social get-together me, patting my shoulder. ”I know how Bromley CF 27 July Churchill’s German army emotional you must feel, returning to your Muswell Hill 27 July Social get-together homeland.” But that was not the reason North London 27 July Nigel Colman – Frank Sinatra talk with music for my tears. I was crying for my lost Bristol 31 July Lunch grandfather. NW London 31 July David Harris, former Deputy Head of JFS: “A Four Sites Saga: a short history of JFS” Thea Valman

15 AJR Journal | July 2017

LIGHTS…CAMERA…ACTION !!! How Hitler helped Hollywood

Several German Jewish immigrants, including Lubin, Laemmle and Lubitsch, made a great contribution to the early American silent cinema. They were joined by a new, younger group of producers and directors in the 1920s. But it was only after the Nazi rise to power early in 1933, when all Jewish film-makers were banned from the German film industry, that large numbers of German Jewish talents arrived in Hollywood, especially directors, writers and composers. Many of them had just started out in the early 1930s with the arrival of the talkies but had seen their promising careers suddenly cut short by the antisemitic policies of Hitler and Goebbels. The German cinema’s loss was Hollywood’s gain. The Cat and Canary

In the beginning there was one major young Irving Thalberg, born in New York to Canary and the extraordinary drama The figure—Sigmund Lubin, born Lubzynski, German immigrant parents who were also Man Who Laughs starring Conrad Veidt, in Breslau in 1851, who began producing related to Laemmle, was first signed up as both filmed in 1927. But his sudden and his first films in Philadelphia in 1897. His an assistant and secretary, then moved to unexpected death from blood poisoning in Lubin Company, with the Liberty Bell as California to become production chief for 1929 cut short a promising career. its symbol, expanded into film exhibition Laemmle’s Universal studio. Carl’s young and distribution and remained an active son, Carl Laemmle Jr, became a producer, Similarly drawing on the Germanic competitor to the larger American film too, leading to the memorable catch-phrase tradition of low-keyed drama and horror companies for almost 20 years. A highly coined by poet Ogden Nash, “Uncle Carl from the silent years, Karl Freund is also original and enterprising character who Laemmle has a very large faemmle”. best remembered for his contribution to spoke English with a thick German the iconic horror film cycle at Universal: accent, “Pop” Lubin’s paternalistic Ernst Lubitsch arrived in the US in 1922, cameraman on Dracula (1931) and Murders attitude toward his employees and attracted to Hollywood by the opportunities in the Rue Morgue (1932), he went on competitive nature mark him out as offered by the many large and successful to direct The Mummy (1932) and an a truly unique forerunner of those film studios. With his highly original and extraordinary horror-drama at MGM, Mad celebrated Jewish immigrant moguls who sophisticated approach to comedy, he Love (1935), starring Peter Lorre newly founded the leading Hollywood studios adapted well to the Hollywood mode of arrived in Hollywood. in later years... such as Carl Laemmle. film-making. He provided a bit of prestige to the newly formed Warner Bros. studio in In marked contrast, the Alsace-born William Born in Laupheim in 1867, Laemmle had the 1920s, then moved on to Paramount Wyler emerged as a leading director of first entered the film industry in 1906 in where he directed a number of witty drama and comedy at Universal in the early Chicago with a chain of nickelodeons. and entertaining comedies and musicals 1930s. A well-made adaptation of Elmer He then moved to New York, the early featuring many of the studio’s leading stars Rice’s play, Councillor at Law, starring John centre of the film industry, in 1909, including Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich and Barrymore as a troubled Jewish lawyer, was where he produced his first short films. Maurice Chevalier. followed by a delightful romantic comedy, He was one of the first producers to The Good Fairy (1934), from a Molnar play. promote his new film stars by name and Other German-Jewish directors who And for over thirty years Wyler continued as to open a major new studio in California, followed Lubitsch to Hollywood included a top Hollywood director including Ben- not far from Hollywood, known as Paul Leni (née Levi) and Lothar Mendes, Hur (1959) and Funny Girl (1966) starring Universal City. He hired many Jewish the Austrian-born Paul Stein and Berthold Barbra Streisand. and immigrant directors, such as the Viertel as well as the Czech cameraman, Karl Viennese-born Erich von Stroheim, and Freund, who had been one of the leading During the 1920s, a new, younger group relatives including Ernest and Edward figures in the flourishing German silent of German-Jewish producers started out Laemmle and a young William Wyler, cinema of the 1920s. Paul Leni specialized in at many of the leading studios, including whose mother was a distant cousin. The low-keyed horror such as The Cat and the an interesting mixture of immigrants and

16 AJR Journal | JulyMay 2017 2017

first generation. For example, Lubitsch MEMORY OF THE CAMPS LIGHTS…CAMERA…ACTION !!! had brought with him a young assistant, Henry (Heinrich) Blanke, who continued at Warner Bros. after Lubitsch left the studio. He was responsible for many memorable productions such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), co-directed by Max Reinhardt, and The Life of Emile Zola (1937) dealing with the notorious Dreyfus case with Paul Muni and Joseph Schildkraut as the stars. Walter Wanger, born Feuchtwanger to German immigrant parents, began as a A woman inmate of Belsen concentration camp kisses producer at Paramount, then Columbia the hand of Army Film & Photographic Unit cameraman and United Artists and continued as a Lieutenant Martyn Wilson on liberation. Film shot by leading independent up to Cleopatra Sergeant Mike Lewis, AFPU, 17 April 1945. © Imperial War Museums (IWM FLM 1226). (1963) written and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. And when producer Irving The Imperial War Museum has made the Thalberg moved from Universal to MGM definitive film German Concentration Camps in 1924 he hired Berlin-born Paul Bern Factual Survey available on DVD/Blu-ray for the (nee Levy) as his most trusted production Live Once (1937) co-starring Miss first time. assistant. MGM had been founded Sidney and Henry Fonda as a young by Marcus Loew, the son of Austrian man framed for murder, a memorable Commissioned by the British Ministry of immigrant parents, just as Columbia crime drama which further established Information in 1945, the film was designed to Pictures was founded by the sons of Lang’s reputation in Hollywood. be shown to Germans and POWs after the fall immigrants, Harry and Jack Cohn. of the Third Reich and was to be the Allied film In a lighter vein, the Hungarian-born about the subject, but was never completed. In By 1934, after Hitler’s rise to power, the producer, Joe Pasternak, tells in his February 1984, the Imperial War Museum made first of the many Jewish refugees had autobiography how he and his director it publicly available in its unfinished form with arrived in Hollywood. For example, Joe Henry Koster (Hermann Kosterlitz) the allocated title Memory of the Camps, and May (nee Mandel) was employed as a arrived at Universal in 1936. Carl in 2010, a team at the IWM began restoring producer at Columbia and was able to Laemmle had just sold the struggling and completing the film, following the original offer Billy Wilder his first script-writing studio and the situation looked filmmakers’ directions. job, while the half-Jewish, Austrian-born hopeless for the two newcomers. Fritz Lang was signed up by producer But they had a five-picture contract This definitive version received its world David Selznick at MGM. Similarly, when and were determined. According to premiere at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival and has producer Erich Pommer arrived at Fox he Pasternak, they invented a title, Three since been shown widely at various film festivals was able to employ his immigrant friends Smart Girls, and claimed they had a and museums. A dual DVD/Blu-ray edition on his first two films. Music in the Air musical ready to go into production. with subtitles for hard of hearing and nine (1934), adapted from the Hammerstein Fortunately, they found a fourteen- foreign languages, can now be purchased via: and Kern musical, was directed by Joe year-old singer who had just been http://www.iwmshop.org.uk/product/26062/ May, adapted for the screen by Franz signed by the studio to star in their German_Concentration_Camps_Factual_ Waxman and scripted by Billy Wilder and picture, thus launching the Hollywood Survey_DVD_BluRay Robert Liebmann, while Lottery Lover career of Deanna Durbin. (1935) was directed by Wilhelm Thiele, According to the IWM’s Senior Curator Dr co-scripted by Wilder, Franz Schulz and Finally, anticipating developments in Toby Haggith: “The brilliance of the editing Hanns Schwartz. the 1940s, the Russian-born Anatole in combination with the clarity of the digital Litvak,who had first made his name as restoration, gives today’s viewer the impression Meanwhile, over at MGM, an aspiring an editor, then director, in Germany,was that they are seeing these searing images for young writer-producer, Joseph L. hired by Warner Bros. to direct the first the first time. Despite the harrowing nature of Mankiewicz, was able to launch Fritz major anti-Nazi feature, Confessions of the content, it is undoubtedly a film made with Lang on his American career with a a Nazi Spy. artistry and poetic reflection. Several survivors downbeat project called Fury. A film of have praised the film’s essential truth and urged contemporary social comment dealing Joel Finler us to make it as widely available as possible.” with lynch mob hysteria in a small town, very different from the typically glossy NOTE FROM EDITOR: A follow up A new Outro film has been made to accompany MGM style, it starred Spencer Tracy article, looking at the influence of the documentary. In this Belsen survivor Peter and Sylvia Sidney and was a surprise hit. Jewish refugees on Hollywood after Lantos explains: “…. in a way, by the repetition Lang then teamed up with independent WW2, will appear in a future edition of of these horrid images, people must realise that producer Walter Wanger on You Only the AJR Journal. actually it was like that and you can’t escape from it, and you shouldn’t escape from it.”

17 AJR Journal | July 2017 Discovering my roots

Rosenzweig (née Neugeboren) born in 1856, was a merchant selling paraffin. In those days there were no street names, just numbers (our family house was number 65). Although the house no longer exists, the Mayor was able to show us its exact location. It would have been a The Blonder family in Berlin, 1928. Charles’ mother, seated, and two of his aunts made it to wooden construction London. One uncle went to South America, the other to New York. Both grandparents and with three families his eldest aunt perished in the camps. A page from my mother’s passport (19 people) living in it, which was the My mother died when she was My new found cousin, Tetra, explained norm in those days; amongst them was only 47, never having recovered how she had found me through the my great-great-grandmother Breindel Jewish Refugees Committee. We had Rosenzweig, born 1820. He also told us from the trauma of living under much to talk about and in June 2006 there were other records in a museum the Nazis. She was born Sara the two of us, together with my cousin in the nearby town of Bochnia. We Sabina Blonder, 25 miles from Ruth and our respective partners, thanked the Mayor for his time and Krakow in 1917. She was the decided to visit Poland to trace our patience and presented him with a roots. bottle of Glenfiddich. youngest of six children. Around 1925 the family left Poland to The six of us journeyed from Krakow The following day we went to Bochnia. make a better life in Berlin. With to Nowy Wisnicz where my mother We uncovered more documents the rise of the Nazis five of the was born. There we were taken to including the marriage certificate of my the Jewish cemetery where my great grandparents, records of my mother’s children managed to escape. The grandparents were buried. It was birth, her siblings and extended family. parents stayed behind with the overgrown but most of the stones were eldest daughter, Bertha, who intact although difficult to read. We I had sent Mr Drozdz photographs and was now married. The parents said Kaddish and then made our way details of my family. He replied that he to the museum. The curator phoned had been friendly with a family with were taken to Ravensbruck a former resident of Wisnicz, Marian the same surname as my grandparents, Concentration Camp where they Drozdz, now living in Gdansk. He had although he was not sure it was the perished in 1942. Bertha died in lived there in the 1920s and said the same family. He went on to say that he Auschwitz in 1943. family name was familiar and gave an saved the life of a six year old Jewish indication of where they had lived. boy by transporting him to a secret A few years’ ago I received a telephone destination and many times took food call from a lady claiming to be the Our final stop was a meeting with to the Jews interned in the Bochnia daughter of my Aunt Rose. Apparently the Mayor of Nowy Wisnicz. Through ghetto. He was also a member of the when her birth mother made her way our interpreter, he told us about the Polish Home Army, working alongside from Berlin to Glasgow she was pregnant approximately 2,000 Jews who once the Jewish Fighting Organisation. He and penniless, unable to speak English lived there, about half the population; has forwarded the family details to a or work. She gave birth to a daughter most were merchants. Now there are former school friend from Nowy Wisnicz and an advert was placed in the Jewish no Jewish families. The next evening now resident in Israel to see if he can Chronicle putting the child up for our guide called to say the Mayor had shed any more light on my family. adoption. The baby (who would be my found some interesting documents and first cousin) was adopted by a London could we return to Nowy Wisnicz. It was a most exciting and emotional family, and Aunt Rose later settled trip and filled many gaps in my family in London and married. Mother and The documents related to the history daughter lived within 20 miles of one Rosenzweig family. One showed that another but their paths never crossed. my great grandmother, Beila Riffka Charles J Drecksler

18 AJR Journal | July 2017 A LORRA LAUGHS IN LIVERPOOL

AJR Liverpool members and enjoyed listening to a wonderful Klezmer band from Manchester. Meanwhile an undoubted highlight of the entire trip was joining Rabbi Harry Jacobi and his daughter at the Albert Dock to commemorate the 77th anniversary of his arrival from Holland on the SS Bodegraven in 1940, following his double escape from the Nazis.

Glowing reports have poured in from many members of the group. Ruth Ramsay wrote “I cannot praise highly enough the complete organisation and support that the AJR team provided” In front of Princes Road Synagogue while June Wertheim said “from the start it was a delight to meet so many At the end of May 22 AJR members welfare schemes, he also provided for old friends and to make new ones.” from throughout the UK made a the education and entertainment of his Patricia Tausz and Alan Hinson, both five-day visit to Liverpool and the workforce, encouraging recreation and first time participants in an AJR trip, surrounding area as one of our most facilitating the pursuit of art, literature, said they were “very impressed by the enjoyable and action packed annual science or music. precision and attention to every detail” outings to date. while Peter Briess, who had visited Equally fascinating was a tour of the Liverpool 67 years earlier with the Escorted by five staff from the AJR’s ‘Beatles’ Liverpool’ where our group RAF, described himself as “thoroughly Outreach Department, the group saw many attractions associated with spoilt”. enjoyed a whistle stop coach tour the Fab Four, including Penny Lane, around Liverpool, as well as plenty Strawberry Fields and, of course, the The destination and dates for next of time to explore many of its finest Cavern Club. year’s trip are currently being finalised, attractions such as Albert Dock, the and the AJR also runs many shorter Walker and Tate Galleries and the Of course several parts of the itinerary outings and day trips throughout the Museum of Slavery. They also had a turn related to Liverpool’s Jewish heritage. year. Please contact Susan Harrod on on The Big Wheel, giving them splendid Princes Road Synagogue was built in the [email protected] or 020 8385 3078 for views of the whole city. 1870s at a cost of £13,000 (£100 million more details. in today’s terms) and its sheer size and Further afield, the group visited ornateness reflect the importance and Meanwhile the group would like to the seaside town of Southport, the wealth of the community at the time. personally thank the AJR team behind wonderful Tudor property Speke Today’s much smaller community has a the trip, particularly the Outreach Hall – now managed by the National challenge in preserving this impressive Department led by Susan Harrod and Trust – and Port Sunlight, where they 900 seat Grade 1 listed building. including Wendy Bott, Agnes Isaacs, particularly enjoyed learning about Kathryn Prevezer and Esther Rinkoff, the history of the philanthropic Lever The group also visited King David and the ‘local’ social workers Christine family. William Lever not only introduced School where they met up with many Brazier and Dave Moon.

Jackie & Jack Sheldon with Cilla Black’s statue The group vising Penny Lane

19 AJR Journal | July 2017

A PIECE OF FAMILY HISTORY ALONE IN BERLIN The producers of the new WW2 film Alone in Berlin are offering the chance for Jewish communities around the UK to hold special screenings at their local cinemas.

Based on the bestselling book by Hans Fallada and starring Brendan If you would like to organise a private Gleeson, Emma Thompson and Daniel screening please email Bruhl, Alone in Berlin focuses on a [email protected] or log German couple who become secretly onto www.ourscreen.com/film/Alone- anti-Nazi. In-Berlin.

AJR’s Debra Barnes recently got the chance to see and hold a precious THE CEREMONY handbag belonging to her grandmother when she visited the National Holocaust The AJR recently supported the first Even the Centre in Nottinghamshire. staged reading of a powerful new play deeply by Eva Hoffman, whose own parents cynical Debra, who joined the AJR in January survived the Holocaust by hiding in female to co-ordinate the My Voice project in Ukraine. lawyer from London, was aware that her late mother Baltimore, had donated the handbag to Beth Shalom, Set at a commemorative ceremony in whose grandfather perished in the but knew very little about its history. the small Polish town of Jedwabne, massacre and who is attending the where during WWII a massacre ceremony under duress from her “My mother lost both her parents, one was perpetrated by neighbours parents, leaves with an enlightened older brother and her twin sister at upon neighbours, The Ceremony understanding of fear and indecision Auschwitz but she never wanted to talk offers a dark but urgently relevant and a pledge to always remember about it,” explains Debra. “She passed dramatization of the terrible violence where she came from. Meanwhile, away quite suddenly in 2010 and I felt of ethnic and religious conflict. the US Ambassador receives regular the need to find out more about her phone cries for help throughout the background. The stories are fascinating On 21 May at JW3 a 16-strong cast ceremony, reminding him – and us and it is lovely to know that a little piece of gave the first public reading of the – that many people in the world are her family history is commemorated here drama, in which descendants of those being persecuted today. in Nottingham.” who had perished come together to mark 60th anniversary of the In the Q&A after the reading Eva The handbag is on permanent display massacre, along with local dignitaries Hoffman explained that the main in The Journey, the National Holocaust and various international ambassadors. purpose of the play is to demonstrate Centre’s special exhibition for primary how such a horrific event could come school children, which opened in 2008. One of the main perpetrators of about in what was hitherto a peaceful Following the story of Leo Stein, a 10 year the massacre makes an unwelcome community with Jews and Poles living old German Jewish boy living with his appearance, much to the disgust of and working happily side by side. The parents and younger sister Hannah as Nazi the ghosts of some of those who died play demonstrates how mistrust and propaganda spread, the exhibition was and their relatives. It seems at first as resentment grew, with Jews becoming part sponsored by the AJR, making the though he has come to gloat, until he the scapegoat for all of Poland’s location of Debra’s family heirloom doubly admits to his disturbed conscience. troubles. fitting. Eva Hoffman and the reading’s director, Braham Murray, are now raising funds Debra is now writing a novel based on her towards staging a full theatrical production of The Ceremony. For more information family’s experiences during the Shoah in please contact their Head of Development on 07976 918 476 or via France, and hopes to publish it later this [email protected]. year.

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Winston House, 2 Dollis Park, Finchley, London N3 1HF Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 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, 26 St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected]

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