Not As Black As He Was Shirted

AJR information Volume UV No. 11 November 1999 £3 (to non-members)

Don't miss. An open letter to the Editor, Daily Telegrapt) Might-have-beens of history Richard Crunberger pl

Austria - unable Not as black as he was shirted to apologise Ralph Blumenau p4 ir - The School of Historical Revisionism Lastly, Wilson presents the onetime Tory/Labour The Mozart House - Joint Principals David Irving and Roger politician's metamorphosis into a Hitler clone as Martha Blend pl3 f SGaraudy - has recruited a newcomer to the eminently understandable, since nearly all visitors to faculty: your contributor AN Wilson. Berlin were charmed by the Fuehrer. Besides 'in On the same day, 29 September, that the Almeida 1936 the Nazi horrors were all in the future'. In Wil Haider ante Theatre restaged Marlowe's Jew of Malta, featuring son's estimate, the incarceration and torture of a Jewish monster in human shape, the Daily thousands of concentration camp inmates, the kill portas Telegraph carried an article by Wilson which at ing of hundreds during the Night of the Long he hills are tempted the exact opposite on Mosley's behalf: it Knives, stripping the Jews of their civic rights and alive with portrayed a genuine monster in engagingly human, the murder of the Peace Nobel laureate Carl von T the sound not to say superman shape. Ossietzky do not, apparently, constitute horror. of music. Irving's chef d'oeuvre is the denial of Hitler's com The term has, of course, widely varied connota Lederhosen-clad plicity in the Holocaust - which, according to tions. We can legitimately invoke it when we read a voters are marching Garaudy, never actually took place. Compared to historically illiterate rehabilitation of the putative to the beat of those big hitters Wilson makes a distinctly minor Gauleiter of German-occupied Britain in your influ Foreigners out. Bar contribution to Revisionism: he merely pours gal ential newspaper. asylum seekers and lons of whitewash over the British blackshirt leader. n Editor, AJR Information Austria for the He dubs Mosley a 'patriot' who in 1939 called Austrians. upon his followers to join up. He conveniently fails Sixty years ago to mention Mosley's most prominent follower 'Lord their fathers' Haw-Haw', who did join up in 1939 - as a volun ecstatic welcome to teer serving on Goebbels' Radio Berlin. Several Hitler was ascribed hundred other British Fascists, including Mosley to poverty. Today's himself, were simultaneously detained in this coun Austria, the worid's try under Emergency Regulation 18B. seventh richest Wilson approvingly quotes Mosley's subsequent country in terms of statement that he was 'proud to have gone to prison per capita income, rather than fight an unnecessary (our italics) war apparently still which cost millions of lives'. (In his heart of hearts, craves a leader of course, Mosley was unlikely to regret most of the figure. lives lost, i.e. twenty million Communist Russians Up till now the and six million Jews.) widely execrated Apropos of the latter, the term Jew doesn't even 'pariah' states Iraq, appear in Wilson's article. Now, writing about Iran, Burma and Mosley without a single mention of his Jew-baiting N Korea have all is on a par with composing a piece on Captain Scott come from die that totally omits the Antarctic. Diana Franklin, who played the Andantino from Mozart's 'Jeunehomme' piano concerto at the AJR Third World. Are In his rhetoric the Jews, a term interchangeable Concert at Imperial College, with Richard Dickins, '^he Austrians really with 'international financiers', were the root cause who conducted the players of the London Concertino. prepared to emerge of Britain's plight in the 1930s. On the streets poor Together with internationally acclaimed soloists as the first pariah East End Jews, only one generation removed from Raphael Wallfisch, cello, and David Juritz, violin, the high standard of performance and a well-chosen country in the heart the Russian pogroms, served as a soft target for his programme delighted a very appreciative audience. of Europe? D incitement to mob violence. AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

In the late 1950s, they had a son and Profile daughter who, to Lilly's intense pride, were to do well at school and go on to university. The son is now a consultant A lady who makes psychiatrist - which for Lilly is vicarious fulfilment of her own girlish ambition to things happen study medicine. orn in mid-twenties' Vienna, Lilly In 1985, convinced that the offspring of Allen grew up in its Jewish district, refugees had problems integrating into Baka the Matzo Island. Her English - or even Anglo-Jewish - society coffeehouse owner father and mother she launched (together with John brought up three children with loving Dunston) the Association of Children of care. For all that, Lilly feels that the Jewish Refugees. Not content with that, mother discriminated against the girls: the she soon afterwards set up a club for brother was sent to grammar school older age groups called FJR (Former Jew while she and her sister had to make do ish Refugees). The 40-strong FJR now in with secondary moderns. its thirteenth^) year, meets monthly at a After the Anschluss the mother con West Kensington hotel owned by the trived, via Quaker connections, to brother of a member. Though turn-out dispatch all three children to England. fluctuates, Lilly's own brother and sister She and the father stayed behind and are always in attendance. Lilly Allen perished in the Shoah. Never one to let grass grow under her In England Lilly completed her school feet, Lilly is now actively thinking 01 ing and did office work, eventually from Czechoslovakia. During the follow setting up a successor body to RoK acquiring the skills of bilingual secretary. ing years she kept working to enable (Reunion of Kindertransport), as well as (The brother, meanwhile, studied for a her husband to be trained as a diamond running Keep Fit classes for elderly refu degree in his spare time and ultimately polisher. When he, too, started earning gees. Which only proves that age 'S became Senior Maths' master at a good money they took long holidays in more of a state of mind than a physical school). Israel and Italy, where they met up with condition. In 1949 Lilly married a fellow refugee surviving relatives. D Richard Grunberger

In fact, chance plays a huge role in his been spared the outbreak of the Second Might-have-beens tory - as I hope to demonstrate through Worid War in September 1939- more trenchant examples than genetic Now consider the following hypo of history modifications to the Portillo family tree. thetical scenario: Two years later, after ad Michael Portillo's experiments If, in 1763, Tsarina Catherine (aka the months of heavy bombing, the British with homosexuality come to light Great) and her fellow conspirators had war cabinet meets. Defence Minister H in Franco Spain, his six fiercely murdered Tsar Peter III a few months Alan Clark urges acceptance of Hitler s Catholic uncles might, for the sake of earlier he could not have made a sepa peace offer which lets Germany keep consistency, have been obliged to kill rate peace with Frederick the Great Europe and Britain her Empire. Churchil' him. Homosexuality was one of the which saved the latter from the conse objects to handing over half a million cankers, alongside democracy and quences of his defeat by Russia and her Jews. Clark retorts: that's exactly the atheism, which patriots enrolled in allies. In that hypothetical case Prussia number of British lives our separate Franco's crusade aimed to eradicate. Had would have remained a third rate power, peace will have saved by 1945. If ^^ they not shot the great Garcia Lorca as instead of graduating into the second stay in the war Labour will come to much for his sexual as for his political rank, from which position Bismarck el power, in that year and Stalin will swal orientation? evated her to grand Imperial status. low half of Europe. Churchill is voted The uncles may even have shot Likewise, if Friedrich III, the liberal father out of office and hardly any Jew remains Michael's father, had he not fled to Eng of Wilhelm II, had not died of throat can alive in Britain. land. (After all, a civil war is fratricide cer in 1888, the German Imperial crown Next scene: the Kremlin, November writ large.) would not have passed to the Kaiser and i960. The Politburo agonises over Fidel In history hardly anything is ever inevi the world would have been spared the Castro's demand that more Soviet nuclear table. Inheriting the same genes and Great War. missiles be despatched to Cuba- subjected to the identical family environ Without that war there would have Khrushchev argues the opposite, urging ment, one of the seven Portillo brothers been no Ludendorff in the position to put that the missiles already there should be became a Socialist, while the other six Lenin aboard the sealed train in 1917 and withdrawn. He loses the vote. World War turned fascist; and that solitary Socialist to participate in Hitler's Munich Putsch in Three breaks out. Hardly anybody is 1^^ subsequently fathered a son who became 1923. alive. standard bearer of the British Right. Without Hitler mankind would have AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

Wheels within wheels and DNA - where the English didn't have to copy the Austrians? NEWTONS Bruno We tried to lift it, couldn't even Bruno That's a real brain teased shift it, we were getting no Certainly Fortnum, of Fortnum Leading Hampstead Solicitors where, so we had a cup of tea... and Mason fame, left George the Third's service like Sacher, of 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, Arthur What are you talking about-' Torte fame, left Metternich's. London NW3 SNB Bnino The Millennium Wheel, of course. Shelley died as young as Schu if All English legal work Arthur Oh that! Don't worry, it'll be up bert and Kipling hailed England's undertaken and German, 'dominion over palm and pine' by the year 2000. Swiss & Austrian claims after Grillparzer had told "Hino I wouldn't be so sure Radetzky: Tn deinem Lager ist 'k German spoken Arthur Why not? Osterreich'... Apropos of the ir Home visits arranged latter, it was only after Johann °nmo For the same reason that Vienna Strauss had written the Radetzky Tel: 0171 435 5351 had the Riesenrad in the Prater March that Elgar composed Fax: 017! 435 888! for a hundred years before Pomp and Circumstance. London thought about it. Arthur Talking of generals, I suppose Arthur You call that a reason? you will claim that Eugene of °nino The English only started thinking Savoy and not Marlborough, PARTNER about it seriously 50 years ago, won the Batde of Blenheim. In long established English Solicitors when Orson Welles came back Bruno I wouldn't go so far as that - but (bi-lingual German) would be happy from filming The Third Man and you must admit that the art at the to assist clients with English, German said: We ought to have this sort Belvedere is superior to that at and Austrian problems. Contact of thing Blenheim Palace: Klimt, Schiele, ^hur But Orson Welles was an Kokoschka... Henry Ebner American. Arthur Not to forget the postcard painter Myers Ebner & Deaner "Hino (tapping his forehead) Of course Hided 103 Shepherds Bush Road he was! That's why he became London W6 7LP Bruno Listen! Even when it comes to so fat. Telephone 0171 602 4631 top Fascists, Austria has the edge Arthur You do go in for stereotyping. over England. Whoever heard of ALL LEGAL WORK the Mosleys before Sir Oswald? "Hino Stereotypes, shamereotypes - UNDERTAKEN But the Starhembergs were they always have a grain of truth famous centuries before Prince in them. Rijdiger. So famous, in fact, that Arthur Give me an example. the Pope obliged Riidiger by annulling his marriage. Bruno People read One Fat Englishman AUSTRIAN and GERMAN because it was so unusual. Arthur But the Pope couldn't have done PENSIONS Arthur You think the English are all so the same for Mosley because he thin? wasn't a Catholic. PROPERTY RESTITUTION Brtino If they are not, they would like Bruno And that's another thing about CLAIMS to be. That's why they adored the backwardness of the English. Princess Diana. From King Charles II to Lord EAST GERMANY- BERLIN Clark of Civilisation, they Arthur Have you seen Vanessa Feltz? thought they had to wait till they On instructions our office will Brtino (pensively) Come to think of it were on their death bed before assist to deal with your Princess Di, too, like the Millen they could become Catholics. As applications and pursue the nium Wheel, imitated an Austrian with the Millennium Wheel, they nnatter with the authorities. model. are between 50 and 100 years behind the times. For further Information and •^hur What model? DRG appointment please ^no Sissy, of course! The Empress contact: Elizabeth was anorexic, bulimic, ICS CLAIMS unhappily married, a fitness freak Annely Juda Fine Art 146-154 Kilburn High Road and died tragically. 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) London NW6 4JD Arthi Tel: 0171 -629 7578 Fax: 0171 -491 2139 ur (tongue-in-cheek) Is there any Tel: 0171-328 7251 (Ext. 107) thing - apart from Shakespeare, CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Fax:0171-624 5002 Newton, Darwin, the jet engine AND SCULPTURE AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

Literary and theatrical reviews

Many Jewish refugees had rejected invi candidate for the presidency of Austria. It Austria - unable tations to attend the celebrations of 1980; was only now that rumours surfaced to apologise and inside Austria Simon Wiesenthal tried about his Nazi past and presence in Yu to make the country face up to its war goslavia, where members of his unit Hella Pick, UNDWELCHE ROLLE SPIELT time guilt; but in 1980 his was a lonely carried out massacres. Waldheim denied OSTERREICH? Kremayer & Scheriau.Vienna. voice. In 1943 the Allies had dubbed membership of any such unit; but World 348 Schillings. Austria 'Hitler's first victim' and in 1955 Jewish Congress investigation proved him his excellent and judicious book, the State Treaty omitted any Austrian ac a liar. News leaked out that the American (hopefully soon to appear in knowledgement of responsibility for government contemplated barring him TEnglish), traces the history of having participated in Hider's war. Gen from entry into the United States. Instead Austria's standing in the post-war world. eral Clark, Commander of the US forces of giving up his candidature, Waldheim H. Pick opens with the celebrations in in Austria, declared that in Austria, unlike used the leak to urge the Austrians to re 1980 of the 25th anniversary of the State in Germany, the task of the Allies was sist foreign pressure and he persuaded Treaty which had given Austria her not the re-education of a people but the nearly fifty-four percent of them to vote independence in 1955. The Soviets had restoration of a state. So when Jewish for him in the second round. agreed to withdraw their troops because, organisations began to press for compen During his six-year presidency not only at that time, Khrushchev was pursuing sation, Austrian governments told them was he himself treated as a pariah by detente and during the celebrations to address their demands to the successor Western governments, but his image Macmillan characterised the Treaty as the government in Germany. In 1961 they set rubbed off on the country: the world be only real success in international politics up a risibly small fund of just six million came aware that it had never confronted for 25 years. dollars to pay pensions to some 4,000 the past. In 1988 a British historian pub In 1980 the prestige of Austria was at Jews. lished his researches into Cabinet its height. Her economy owed its remark Austrian democratic governments minutes which revealed the outspoken able success partly to a disproportionate aimed for consensus even with ex-Nazis. antisemitic terms in which Austrian minis amount of Marshall Aid, but also to full Four members of Kreisky's Cabinet had ters had long debated and then resisted employment, absence of strikes and low belonged to the Nazi Party, one of them Jewish demands for adequate repara inflation. Voters had rejected communism even to the Waffen-SS. Kreisky had tions, although that obligation had been and embraced western-style democracy. friendly relations with the right-wing Aus laid upon them by the 1955 State Treaty. Austria's political system was very stable: trian Freedom Party, home for many Austrians, for their part, initially dug i" it was based on consensus, both under ex-Nazis and had even considered form their heels in bitter resentment, but in coalition governments and one-party ing a coalition with them rather than with every election Jorg Haider and his Free rule. Abroad Austria pursued "active neu the more Centrist Austrian conservative dom Party, gained more votes. As he had trality": although committed to western Party. He bitterly resented Simon Wiesen- praised Hitler's employment policies, values, she had good relations with both thal's attempt to disturb this complacent inherited confiscated Jewish property, blocs and especially under Bruno Kreisky attitude towards the past. He both at opposed immigration of foreigners and (foreign minister and later. Chancellor), tacked Wiesenthal personally and, in a urged Austrians to vote "no" in the refer played a mediating role between them. moment of exasperation, described the endum to join the European Community, He tried to play mediator in the Middle Jews, in an interview with the Spiegel, as his rise caused great unease and did East also, being in 1974 the first western a wretched people (ein mieses Volk). further damage to Austria's image in the statesman to engage in public discussion But eventually Wiesenthal gained a wider world. with the PLO, then still regarded by the hearing in the world outside Austria and Now that the question of the country s West as a terrorist organisation but con the rosy picture of the 1980 celebrations past had been so sharply raised and her sidered vital by Kreisky to any Middle began to be tarnished. In 1983 Kreisky's standing in the world so besmirched, Eastern settlement. Socialist Party lost its overall majority; other Austrians woke up to their respon His small country had in 1956 offered Kreisky retired; and his successor, Fred sibilities. When Haider became leader oi asylum to 180,000 Hungarian refugees Sinowatz, actually made a coalition with the Freedom Party in 1986, Chancellor and in 1968 to 96,000 Czechs. When the the Freedom Party. In 1985 his Defence Franz Vranitsky ended his alliance with it Soviet bloc began to allow Jewish emi Minister welcomed home with a handshake and went back into coalition with the gration to Israel, Austria provided transit the former SS-Major Walter Reder, a con Conservatives. A determined effort was facilities for a quarter million without victed Nazi war-criminal who, at the behest now made to confront the past: in 1991 thereby endangering her relationships of both Kreisky's and Sinowatz's govern Vranitsky publicly admitted the guilt ot with the Soviet Union. Ex-foreign minis ments had been released from his Italian many Austrians and apologised for it ^^ ter Kurt Waldheim, had been chosen by life-sentence. This created a major storm the name of the whole nation. Real ef East and West alike to be UN Secretary both inside and outside Austria; but a rising forts were now made in the areas o' General: his wartime career had, amaz member of the Freedom Party, Jorg Haider, education, memorials, commemorative ingly, not then been investigated. And defended Reder as a soldier who had only events and reparations. In 1995 a fund o' the fact that Kreisky had been elected done his duty. 500 million dollars was set up, fron^ Chancellor seemed to acquit Austria of And then Kurt Waldheim, at the end of which all Austrian Jewish survivors were continuing antisemitism. his term at the United Nations, became a paid 70,000 Schillings (about £3,500)- continued on nextp^S^ AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

iiterary and theatrical reviews

ôrks of art which had been plundered passengers are cleverly disguised speci from hand to mouth, with literary ambi from Jews were restored to them. mens of their own ilk. In this instance I tions but no success. He moves in a Hella Picks book was published only did not appreciate the irony and failed to circle of Jewish as well as gentile ac "3ys before the recent elections in Aus see the intention. The Holocaust does not quaintances only some of whom are tria. While this review is being written, it lend itself to allegory. much better off then he. Chief among 's touch and go whether the Freedom The remaining stories are truly those is the successful lawyer Astel who Party has replaced the Conservatives as entertaining and enjoyable. They are sim pays for the group's cafe, wine bar and the second largest in the state. The con ultaneously all-Jewish and ail-American, restaurant excursions. During one of servatives have said that they would not although in one case, The Gilgul of Park those, Rudolf picks up, almost literally, stay in the coalition if they fell to third Avenue, the Jewishness is somewhat Thea von Takow, a retired officer's daugh place. The next few weeks may see problematical. Charles Luger, a 100 per ter. To everybody's astonishment the •Haider in government. It seems that cent goy, with an equally goyish wife, small, wiry, nervy Jew and the powerful tâny Austrians are prepared once more suddenly becomes convinced that he is Briinhilde get married. She converts to to risk their country's good name in the an ultra-Orthodox Jew, in which delusion Judaism - this seems unbelievable, yet fest of die worid. D Ralph Blumenau he is supported by a really madcap rabbi, Vogel makes it absolutely convincing. It himself as unorthodox in spirit as he is is her only concession to wifehood - she orthodox in garb. Take it or leave it - but bullies him unmercifully, mostly mentally, you will laugh. but also physically. She even uses their Wit from woe You will equally enjoy Englander's tales child of whom he may not be the father, ôthan Englander, FORTHE RELIEF OF of dysfunctional husbands and batde-axe to torture him with. Rudolf is literature's '^^BEARABLE URGES. Faber & Faber. 1999. wives. One story is of real madness. An first house-husband; she is the breadwin £9.99. other features a Jewish Father Christmas. ner as secretary to a doctor. or an American-born and now This collection will certainly provide you The child dies, but this is not the only Israel-resident, author to be men with some entertaining hours. tragedy resulting from that misalliance. Ftioned in the same breath as Bellow, n John Rossall Yet greater upheavals follow, not least 'âlamud and Philip Roth - as Englander the fate of a Jewish girl who adores the has been - is praise indeed. Without wayward Rudolf. *ômparing him to anybody else, I will A great strength of the book is the al ây that he is a masterly writer of short Lost and found most painterly description of Vierma in all stories, of which nine are on offer here. DavidVogel,MARRIED LOVE, Halban, 1998. its moods. But, above all, we 'survivors' The first tale. The Twenty-Seventh Man, £11.99. cannot read it without the knowledge of •"êks of the shabby murderousness of Paolo Maurensig,THE LUNEBURGVARIATION, what was to come. One has the feeling Stalin's regime. Twenty-six Soviet-Jewish Phoenix, 1998. £5.99. that it lurks around every corner and yet Writers are grabbed at the dead of night hat links those two stories - the the writer and his characters can scarcely ^t^d put into miserable overcrowded first lengthy and introspective, have had even an inkling of it. êlls. The twenty-seventh man should not Wthe other short and pithy - is By contrast. The Liineburg Variation, have been on the list at all, since he is a the city of Vienna. which also had its beginning and its end Writer only in his own mind. But he Vogel's book, alas his only one, in Vienna, is not a Traumnovelle but a Spends a fascinating time with the writers achieved publication by something of a Schachnovelle. It is a short tale and ê adores, the victims of Stalin's hidden. miracle. It was found hidden in France bizarrely mixes the memory of the Holo but virulent, Jew-hatred. Being intellectu- after Hider's war. Vogel was a true Vien caust with an obsession for the game of 's they do not realise their peril. They nese, Jewish but totally assimilated and chess. •^Sue and quarrel about the quality of yet the book was written in Hebrew It has been said that this novella can be ^îi work and their loyalty to the regime. (translated by Dalya Bilu) and underwent read by people who know nothing about /* the morning they are, still unsuspect- something of an odyssey. chess; I would say that a knowledge of "^Sly, led to their execution. Twenty-six The English version reads wonderfully and interest in, the game, even as rudi fe down for the treatment'. The execu- well and seems to convey a true distilla mentary as mine, are a help. Essentially it toners don't know what to do with the tion of Vienna of the mid-twenties. plots a duel to the death, after the war, "ênty-seventh. So they shoot him, too. Inevitably the author has been compared between an extermination-camp grandee ^hile I appreciate the irony of that to Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Kafka and and a young Jewish genius - on the |e. I object to ne Tumblers which deals Elias Canetti. I find the reference to the chessboard. 'th the Holocaust. It features, like the latter far fetched but seem to detect ech In the camp the chess-obsessed mur her stories, its quota of helpless people oes of Stefan Zweig, Robert Musil and derer offered the lives of prisoners as '^^ a confused leader. He gets a group even Leopold Sacher-Masoch (without prizes. In the course of this tautly and Jews, destined for a death train, onto the eroticism of the last-named). Not that skilfully written work, his passion for the 'Mother train, with fairly comfortable there is even the slightest hint of plagia game deprives the Nazi of his mask of î^partments occupied by acrobats on rism; it is just the time and the place. benevolent businessman and he becomes their way to entertain the living. The per- The protagonist, Rudolf Gurtweill, is his own executioner in his beautiful f, Qrrners think their new fellow drifting through the metropolis, living Vienna garden. DJR AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

still living comfortably in the Diaspora - tries to justify everything that is done over here. T^wte^j^^ Kiriat-Shmonah Fedor Sc/io" Israel

IGNAZ BUBIS International Red Cross, we may be NOT QUITE AT HOME Sir - I read your obituary with committed to a relaxation of our financial Sir - I read the three excellent articles by considerable dismay. The choice of blockade... but providing the enemy with Anthony Grenville on the development words and the implied criticism are foreign currency may increase his power of a community identity among the unacceptable. The AJR should have gone of resistance and so ultimately cause German-speaking refugees, with great out of its way to write an obit of this more suffering than will be relieved." interest. However, adaptation to British outstanding leader, who set an example In a minute dated 1 September 1944, life has not always been quite as easy as to all who feel German-Jewish Eden's head of the Southern Department, he seems to suggest. After more than 60 reconciliation to be one of the most AR Drew, complained: "In my opinion a years in this country, many former important goals of the new German disproportionate amount of time is refugees still do not feel entirely at home. democracy. To talk about, as you do, of wasted in dealing with these wailing They have stayed here only because they "the child of Ostjuden", "a strong lad", Jews" (PRO FO 371/42817/16). My book have nowhere else to go. who "astonishingly, chose to settle in ne Unrelenting Conflict: Britain, Balfour Even members of the Second Genera Frankfurt" shows great prejudice. It also & Betrayal, gives a full account of these tion, of whom I am one, who were born shows ignorance of the traditions of policies and will be published early in in this country and have lived here all deeply religious Jews that burial in Israel the new year. our lives, are treated with a certain re is something everybody hopes for but Poole Sidney Sugarman serve, even hostility, by the native British only few can manage. That Bubis had Dorset population, because we are obviously been strengthened in his wish to be "different". buried in Israel by the outrageous attacks The Anglo-Jewish community, for the on him by the German writer Walser and ISRAEL-WARTS AND ALL reasons outlined in Dr Grenville's articles, the politician Dohnanyi, is not surprising, Sir - Nearly sixty years ago two hundred has litde appeal for us. because it has been the most unpleasant of the last refugees to escape from Nazi- This has resulted in the formation of event since the end of the war in occupied Europe - my parents among groups such as the Association of Chil Germany. You had also invited Mr them - died when the Patria was blown dren of Jewish Refugees and the Second Dillman to write an appreciation of Bubis up in Haifa harbour. Generation Network. and it is a first-class piece, but it was not This was just one of the many bloody London N3 John Levy made clear that it referred to Bubis. incidents that led to the creation of the It appears that you are much more State of Israel. Despite all these sacrifices VARIETIES OF XENOPHOBIA taken in by the late Alan Clark. There is Israel has not turned into the ideal state Sir - There are numerous arguments for no reason whatsoever to publish a piece of our Zionist vision. keeping out of the Euro-zone. That has on Alan Clark, a great admirer of Hider. The reasons for this are manifold. After nothing to do with fear of Germany, stiU He has no place in your publication. the first decade of statehood the influ less loathing of the United States. London NW8 Peter Galliner ence of Central European Liberals like They include: the loss of British inde Longsuffering in the face of gratuitous brickbats Pinhas Ruthenberg and Gideon Hausner pendence explicit in a common currency; I pass over t/ie first paragraph in silence. As to gave way to that of the East Europeans, the disability of smaller, not larger, self the second, die Jewish Chmnicle recently devoted Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Zalman governing units; the absence of a shared half a page to the US politician Pat Buchanan's Rubashov, etc, with their background in poliUcal culture between Britain and con denunciation of Roosevelt as a warmonger Alan Tsarist Russian and Pilsudski's Poland. tinental Europe; the track record and cost Clark and Churchill formed an almost exact Then there was the obscurantist influence of the EU to date etc, etc. The federalists BritJsh parallel. Ed. of the rabbis. Thirdly - with Rabin and have failed to make a convincing case fof now Barak - we have political leaders handing over our admittedly imperfect reared in the undemocratic environment democracy to an assortment of remote •NO RESCUE' POLICY of the army. Fourthly, there are second Pan-European cliques. Sir - Anthony Eden commented on the generation Sephardi politicians who Bath DC Kernek (2nd generatior^) 1944 American rescue plan: "If we object, come from the bakshish culture and grew Somerset we run the risk of being held up by the up here under conditions of almost crimi War Refugee Board as obstacles to a nal negligence. humanitarian measure which would No wonder Israeli cabinet ministers Sir - Allow me to congratulate you on probably save many Jewish lives. If we lack a sense for proper administration, your excellent September leader, but 1 merely acquiesce, we allow the democratic procedure and honourable take issue with your correspondent, En'^ Government to get the credit for a piece behaviour. Alexander. In fact I would draw the exact of rescue work which critics will say My observations will probably not go opposite conclusion. Writing on the day should have been attempted long ago. If down well with the Editor, who - prob of the regrettable Austrian election result. we, too, agree to remit money to the ably from a mistaken sense of guilt over Mr Alexander is surely right: there are AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

neo-Nazi elements, not just in Germany Does it mean the "second generation of Also why don't you check on the spell and Austria, but elsewhere. Holocaust survivors", or the "second ing of foreign place names and phrases? It is precisely against their gaining in generation of refugees", or the "second Recent errors include Vakova (instead of fluence that the EU can protect. Of generation of the AJR"? Vukovar), Sabenica (Srebrenica) Ustaches course it should be more transparent, but Oakhill Park London NW3 Herta Reik (Ustase) and del amore (dell'amore). the same applies to the UK. An inde London NW3 Mrs M Stern pendent UK would be helpless in the Unlikely event of the Far Right gaining HOPE FORTHE FUTURE power in Germany. The EU, on the other Sir - In August our family spent a week BON MOTS hand, by taking power from national in my birthplace, Ulm. Our guide was a Sir - A long time ago I came across this governments, can substantially neutralise very knowledgeable young woman who retort to "How odd of God to choose the their evil influence. The neo-fascists have works for the KZ Gedenkstdtte at Ulm. Jews": "But not so odd as those who just about enough members in the Euro She is one of the young Germans who choose a Jewish God and spurn the pean Parliament to form a "group", but give one hope for the future. We were Jews". are ignored by the democratic majority. received by the Mayor who is very London NW3 Michael Hellman It is unfortunately a historic truth that interested in the Jewish problem, specially now, as there are many Russian the EU started as a market, originally in Sir - Very many years ago, as a young Jews in Ulm. We also visited nearby coal and steel. To t>e meaningful a mar- child in Palestine, I saw a competition to Laupheim, whose cemetery is tended by •êt has to have a level base and that find the best answer to "How odd of God a German who is a student of Jewish têans a common currency. This does not to choose the Jews". The winner was history and gives all his spare time to 'mpair the tax-raising powers of the con "Why odd of God? His son was one!" restoring grave stones and helping in the stituent governments. London NWl I Hannah Toeg London NW4 Francis Deutsch Christian/Jewish Museum. Wembley Park Ruth Young-Laupheimer Middx AUTHOR! CHAMBERLAIN'S CLONES Sir - Unfortunately I cannot help you îr - The only thing that has been establish the author of the German achieved in Kosovo is continued hatred THE UNTRANSLATABLE nonsense verse Dunkel war's der Mond and Albanians now killing Serbians. They INSCRIPTION schien helle but I do know the author of ^re six of one and half a dozen of the Sir - Otto Hutter misremembers the Nazi the translation:- Dark it was the moon other. Remember that the Serbs were our slogan (which still rings in his ears) as shone brightning/ when a car as quick as Only allies in that region 60 years ago. Ein Land, Ein Volk, Ein Fiihrer. lightning/ slowly round the corner drove. Leicester Henry P Mortimer The correct version is quoted in Mr Inside people sat in silence/ standing up Schon's letter in the same issue, is Ein in fierce debate/ as a shot dead little CZECH SCROLLS Volk, ein Reich, ein Fiihrer. rabbit/ on a sandbank had a skate! London NW9 Fred Dunston Sutton Coldfield Werner Abraham îr - 7wo years ago you reported the ^2ech Scrolls conference which North- W Midlands ôod & Pinner Liberal Synagogue were ORPHANED FOREVER hosting. Sir - In connection with your review of Sir - Like many such nonsense verses, Since then, work has progressed both my book Heimweh/Homesick (October loved by children and propagated by 'n our "Scroll towns" of Kolin and Trebon issue) would you mention that word of mouth, the ditty has no known ^nd at the State archives in Prague. We appreciation is due to Dr Beate Horr who author and several variants. now have for Kolin a database of births not only selected and translated the The Queen's College, Oxford SS Prawer Since 1931, marriages since 1900 and poems but was also the editor and in deaths for the periods 1864-80 and 1938- charge of production of the book. "^^ and also the June 1942 transport list. Peterborough Lotte Kramer For Trebon, we have copied the indices Lotte Kramer will be reading at the 'Voice 50 YEARS AGO Or the births, marriages and deaths regis- Box', Festival Hall, 18 November at 7.30. [^rs covering 1892-1942 and the transport THE'HYPHEN' list Concession tickets are £3. to Terezin in April 1942. Over singularly bad coffee and sticky buns, the idea If any readers are interested in this in- of tiie 'Hyphen' was born. The initial meeting was fo rmation, they can contact me on followed by others, each growing in size and noise. <01923) 774637. NO MENTION OF FESTIVALS At last some 15 debators heatedly and vigorouly Sir - It strikes me as odd that but for a aired their views around an AJR table in the encour OoWonds Gate TS Crosby aging - and yet mildly restraining - presence of Dr yjêen Lane, Nordiwood, brief announcement in your September Rosenstock. Middlesex HAb 3AA issue you made no mention of any of our The finding of a name for the Club also caused great festivals occurring at this season. considerable headache. But eventually somebody struck on 'The Hyphen' as our generation is obvi After all, AJR Information as the name ously an 'in-between' one. SECOND GENERATION implies, is intended for Jews. It almost By far the most passionate complaint is 'Too ^ ~ I believe that in order to understand seems to me that in your view the many girls!' - the one thing the Committee is not empowered to amend. ^ aims of the "second generation" we "Holocaust" is the only event which n AJR Information, November / 949 ^^d to know the meaning of the term. binds us together. AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

Brighton & Hove Pinner =§h Ellen Rosen gave the Sarid group and its A psychologist with special expertise in Paul Balint AJR Day Centre new members a fascinating account of counselling victims of the Holocaust, AJR the five years she spent in Burma with Management Committee member Gaby §ing~a-fcong her husband, there to work for the World Glassman was the guest of Pinner AJR. Health Organisation between 1962 and She explained that while survivors may T^af)5nei3 1967. At the time there were many apparently have been successful in with Shelley Weldon Israelis who were also working on a coping with complex psychological number of aid projects, but following the burdens, such as abandonment, fear or 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 change of government to a Maoist regime guilt, similar problems could well surface SUNDAY 5TH DECEMBER 1999 - still in power today - the presence of among members of the succeeding 3pm to 6pm foreigners was discouraged and they had generation unless correctly and promptly 'Lighting of die 3rd Chanukah candle' to go. D Frank Goldberg addressed. The most significant factor was, in all probability, the level of Tickets £6 Madeleine Joyce will recount her experiences in Apply Sylvia, Renee or Susie the French Resistance to the group on Monday communication - or lack of it - between ISth November at 10.45am. the generations. =r Gaby Glassman's talk evoked an immense amount of interest which exten Northern ded through question time and well into AJR'Drop In'Advice Centre Not even the thousands of runners taking tea. n Walter Weg at the part in the Manchester Marathon could Paul Balint AJR Day Centre Jenny Nemko will be talking to die group about prevent an excellent attendance by the the work of a Jewish broadcaster at the next 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL members to hear self-confessed opera meeting at Pinner Synagogue on Thursday 4th between I Oam and 12 noon on the buff Aubrey Kreike talk about the November at 2pm. following dates: composer Puccini. Treated to an erudite Wednesday 3 November history of his life and works, Aubrey, Thursday I I November ably assisted by his wife Esther, played Wessex Tuesday 16 November recordings from several of Puccini's Thursday 25 November Sixty years to the day when Germany operas in a wide variety of moods, many Wednesday I December invaded Poland, members of Wessex AJR not well known, but all quite sublime. and every Thursday from heard Jim Kowaczyk explain how he - The opportunity was taken to explain I Oam to 12 noon at: then 13-year-old Danek - managed to particular aspects of the form requested AJR, I Hampstead Gate, I a Frognal, survive many round-ups and arrests for by claimants of the Swiss Humanitarian London NW3 6AL three years before being taken to Fund n Werner Lochs No appointment is necessary, but please bring Germany as a slave labourer. Later he along all relevant documents, such as Benefit South London learned that his parents had been Books, letters, bills, etc. betrayed by Polish neighbours and David Rothenberg, Vice-Chairman and murdered, probably by Volksdeutsche. Hon Treasurer of the AJR, spoke to South His own luck held when a sympathetic London members on the complex and Polish doctor destroyed a file revealing sometime baffling subject of the Claims his Jewish ancestry and a certain death. Conference, of which he is a member. He Pearl and Ralph Dale acted as hosts explained in some detail the overriding and served a most-enjoyable tea. of the 1992 deadline for claimants of D George Ettinger properties in the former East Germany AJR LUNCHEON CLUB (see page 13 AJR Information October 1999) and also discussed the five West Midlands on Wednesday 17th November 1999 qualifying classes under which claims at l5CleveRoad,NW6 3RL Walter Woyda, an AJR member from I 1.45 for 12.15pm could be made on the Swiss Humani London, delighted the group by tarian Fund. D Rut/i Leggett entertaining them, appropriately enough, Guest speaker: Alex Faiman At SLAJR's meeting on I Ith November at Prentis with tunes from the new hit show The 'History of Russian Jews Road Synagogue, Ronald Channing, the AJR's Rothschilds'. The well-attended meeting in Manchuria' newly appointed Head of Media. Development took place in the group's usual venue, on Reservations £7.50 for everyone! and Communal Rela^ons, will discuss the work the premises of Birmingham Progressive from Sylvia, Renee and Susie of the AJR today and how it may continue to Syngagogue in Sheepcote Street. Tel: 0171 328 0208 serve in the future. D Edgar Glaser

8 AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

The Book of Snobs • • • Vle>vpclnt • • • n one of her stories. Vita Sackville-West described a maid simply as 'the London's pride drudge'. In a similar vein her husband I oel Coward encapsulated the sessive Conservative government. Yet its Harold Nicholson would refer to dim- wartime spirit when he penned lowering of Underground fares and witted people as bedint (after the 'London Pride has been handed carpark charges, which took a myriad of German bedient, i.e. in domestic service). N down to us'. Myth or no, pride helped cars off the roads, counterbalanced pos The youthful Evelyn Waugh walked miles London's civilian population survive sibly overgenerous support for fringe to have his letters postmarked NW3 devastating nightly air-raids with minority causes. instead of (downmarket) NW7. George minimal protection against direct Now it's London's chance to rise Orwell dubbed the thriller writers of the attack. While the authorities did their phoenix-like and reassert its position as Thirties collectively the 'snobbery with darndest to prevent ordinary Lon one of the world's great metropolises; a violence' school. doners find refuge in the deep stations city in which to live a satisfying life The scribbling classes' deeply ingrained of the Underground, public pressure style, bring up a family, travel on Veneration for snobs surfaced once again forced them to open overnight, efficient, safe and inexpensive trans 'n the quality papers" obituaries for Alan creating Hogarthian scenes of crowded port, afford theatres, museums, art Clark - the most loathsome figure in Brit platforms on which thousands lived, galleries, attend universities, colleges ish politics since Sir Oswald Mosley (and, slept and entertained themselves. and schools, enjoy concert halls, res Possibly, Enoch Powell). No Londoner was surprised that his taurants, pubs and clubs, parks and The Times editor Peter Stothard, a clas great city boasted its own government unrivalled shopping, not to mention sicist, called Clark a Renaissance man'. with majestic headquarters on the south the big wheel. The Independent's Alan Watkins thought bank of the Thames, the London Well-worn politicians contend for the 't Worth his while to point out that Clark County Council, later enlarged to in accolade of London's new Mayor: had merely repeated - and not actually clude the urbanised areas of Middlesex doughty opportunist Lord Archer, vaci- Coined - the gibe about (the nouveau- and Surrey in a Greater London Coun llating-wanting-the-job Frank Dobson, riche) Michael Heseltine having had to cil. Only the anachronistic presence of a Hampstead's Glenda Jackson, ethnic ouy his own furniture". He also quoted Lord Mayor, whose bailiwick was lim vote-catching Trevor Phillips and Susan J^ne Clark's comment on the Harkness ited to the area within the square mile Kramer for the Lib-Denis. But very *niother-and-rwo-daughters) brouhaha: 'If of the medieval city, confused native much obscuring their view is the popu you bed people of the below-stairs class and foreigner alike. list Ken Livingstone. Will it be he who they go to the papers, don't they?' The GLC and its Labour admini confounds them all by returning to re Watkins likewise emphasised that at stration, provocatively led by Ken store London's tarnished pride? '•^tts, the exclusive St James club, Clark Livingstone, was swept away by an ob D Ronald Channing Would order treacle tart not only for his '""St, but also for his second and even his third course (!). On the same theme Daily Telegraph PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE editor Charles Moore recalled that in res- 15 Cleve Road.West Hampstead, NW6 ûrants Clark, spurning all dishes printed Mon.,Tues. & Weds. 9.30am-3.30pm.Thurs. 9.30am-6.30pm. Suns. 2pm-6.30pm ^" the menu, would devise one specially 'Or himself and insist that the kitchen Afternoon entertainment programme - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1999 produce it. Sun 21 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO ^ter these mindblowing banalities Mon 1 KARD & GAMES KLUB ENTERTAINMENT Tue 2 Amanda Palmer, soprano Moor e described Clark as fascinated by Mon 22 KARD & GAMES KLUB Wed 3 Sue Kennett, soprano, Tue 23 HOUNSLOW COMMUNITY âr because it stilled die steady tap of the accompanied by Gordon OPERA Counting house'. This mindset made him Weaver, piano Wed 24 MEMORIES LANE SINGING ^^11 himself a Nazi and not a Fascist, on Thur 4 Nicola Smedley accompanied by GROUP ^^^ grounds that (in Clark's own words) Jan Cunningham, piano Thur 25 Robert Lowe, bass, accompanied ascists are shopkeepers looking after Sun 7 Helen Mignano accompanied by by Bobby Marks, piano neir dividends'. Readers may remember Sylvia Cohen, piano Sun 28 Ann Kenton-Barker & Basil Mon 8 KARD & GAMES KLUB êrner Sombarts defmition of the Great Taylor, baritone, accompanied Tue 9 The Geoffrey Whirworth Duo by Margaret Gibbs, piano ar as one between Handler and Helden. Wed 10 Paul and Sinikka Coleman Mon 29 KARD & GAMES KLUB nie deceased had, of course, been im- Thur 11 Lucy White and Juliet Davey Tue 30 THE GEOFFREY STRUM & ensely wealthy. Whats more, he owed Sun 14 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO HELEN BLAKE DUO *s wealdi - one blushes to reveal it - to ENTERTAINMENT Wed 1 Sylvia Eaves accompanied by r'e faa that Lord Kenneth (.Civilisation), Mon 15 KARD & GAMES KLUB Margaret Eaves, piano tark's father, had, just like Michael Tue 16 Primrose Powell accompanied Thur 2 Alia Kravchuk, soprano, by Andrew Wells, piano eseltines, been in trade. In odier words, accompanied by Simon Townly, Wed 17 LUNCHEON CLUB piano ^ Nazi supersnobs grandsire turns out Thur 18 Guyathrie Peiris accompanied Sun TEA DANCE - Live Music by have been a dividend-counting cotton by William Patrick Shelly Weldon "manufacturer in Paisley, Scodand. D RG AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

FAMILY SWITCH ON ELECTRICS TORRINGTON HOMES WHO'S WHO ANNOUNCEMENTS Rewires and all household Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. MATRON Birthdays electrical work. For Eiderly, Retired and Convalescent IN THE AJR PHONE PAUL: 0181-200 3518 (Licensed by Borough of Barnel) Durst. The AJR would like to • Single and Double Rooms. extend their best wishes to Fred • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. HEAD OFFICE: Durst on the occasion of his • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. Ronald Channing Head of Media, 75th birthday. ALTERATIONS • Nurse on duly 24 hours. Development & OF ANY KIND TO • Long and short term, including Communal Relations Deaths LADIES' FASHIONS trial period if required. Gordon Greenfield Head of Finance Ballheimer. Rudolph Ballheimer I also design and make From £300 per week Carol Rossen Head of Administration children's clothes 0181-445 1171 Office hours & Personnel died 8 September. Much missed 0181-455 1335 other times by wife Margaret, brother Fred, West Hampstead area NORTH FINCHLEY 0171-328 6571 children and grandchildren. Marcia Goodman Head of Social Services Ruth Finestone Social Worker Graff. Werner Graff born 1 Helena Reid Social Worker March 1907, died 24 February BELSIZE SQUARE Wendi Wilson Social Worker 1999. A leader of the Berlin APARTMENTS Estelle Brookner Social Services DJJB (Deutsch Juedischer Ecko heated hostess trolley 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 Secretary Jugendbund), during the 1920's 5 smoked glass wall lights Tel: 0171-794 4307 or and 1930's. He will be Nest of three glass top tables 0171-435 2557 Richard Grunbergei Editor AJR /nformotion remembered for his integrity, edged in brass. Andrea Goodmaker Departmental Secretary* intelligence, love of family and Mid-green pure wool lounge and MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY Advertising Co-ordinator commitment to many organi dining room carpets, ROOMS, RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER together with a few other MODERATETERMS sations in Australia, the country NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION Agi Alexander Welfare Rights Adviser household items. of his adoption. Sadly missed Norah Gittins Senior Social Worker No reasonable offer refused. Volunteers Co-ordinator by his daughter Dorothy and Amanda Clark If interested in any item please Viviana Markstein Reception/Membership countless friends. Telephone 018! 386 6386 Residential Home Heymann. Gilli Heymann nee eveniags Clara Nehab House (Leo Baeck Housing Atsoclaton Ltd.) DAY CENTRE: Oppenheim. Born Berlin 1925. 13-19 Leeslde CreacenI NWII Sylvia Matus Day Centre Manager Beloved wife of Klaus. Mother All rooms with Shower W.C. and Renee Lee Assistant Manager of Anthony and Tim. Grand H/C Basins en-suite Susie Kaufman Catering Manager mother of Daniel, Adam, Anita, Optfc/an Spacious Garden - Lounge & Joanne Fresco Receptionist/Secretary Theo and Joanna. A valiant and Dr Howard Solomons BSc FBCO Dining Room - Lift Joan Kupler Day Centre Assistant loving heart. Her labours truly Near Shops and PublicTransport Doreen Frankel Sunday Organiser Dental Surgeon 24 Hour Care - Physiotherapy Sandra Lessman MoW Assistant done. Long & short Term - Respite Care - Jeff Heywood Head Chef Dr H Alan Shields Trial Periods Levi. Franz Levi died peacefully Ya'akov Azulay Assistant Chef & 28 September. Greatly missed Enquiries: Josephine Woolf Mary Matovu Kitchen Assistant Otto Schiff Housing Association by Trude, Jonathan, Marina and Chiropodist The Bishops Avenue N2 OBG Lawrence Zahara Kitchen Assistant Phone:0181-209 0022 Gerald Ingram AJR Driver friends. Trevor Goldman SRC Matthew Barber Minibus/MoW Driver Stewart. Alice (Litzi) Stewart by appointment at Joseph Pereira Caretaker died on 15 September 1999. The Paul Balint AJR Day Centre OSMOND HOUSE Deeply mourned by son Roger IS C/eve Road,West Hampstead, NW6 and nephew Tom. Volunteers are needed to man the Please moke appointments with reception desk in our newly refurbished Sylvia Matus.Tel: 0171 328 0208 Home in The Bishop's Avenue. AJR CLASSIFIED If you have a morning or afternoon free Companion. Elderly gentleman to work in lovely surroundings please MEALS ON living in Edgware requires com contactjudy Marks on 0181 731 7360 panion/housekeeper to live in. ADVERTISEMENT RATES who will be pleased to give you more WHEELS Some light dudes, own comfor FAMILY EVENTS information and have an informal chat table room. References required. First 15 words free of charge, Variety of high quality kosher Tlease reply to Box No.1252. £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. frozen food is available, ready CLASSIFIED, SEARCH AJR GROUP CONTACTS made and delivered to your Miscellaneous Services NOTICES - £2.00 per five words. Leeds HSFA: Heinz Skyte door via the AJR Manicure & Pedicure in the BOX NUMBERS - £3.00 extra. 0113 268 5739 Meals on Wheels service. comfort of your own home. DISPLAY ADVERTS West Midlands: Edgar Glaser Telephone 0181 343 0976. per single column inch (Birmingham) 0121 777 6537 Service available to members in 65 mm (3 column page) £12.00 North: Werner Lachs North and North West London. Day Centre 48mm (4 column page) £10.00 (Manchester) 0161 773 4091 Shirley Lever at the Paul AJR COPYDATE 5 weeks prior to East Midlands Bob Norton 3-course meals cost £4.50 each Day Centre. New Clothes for publication (Nottingham) 01159 212 494 plus £1 per delivery. Sale, dresses, underwear, cardi Pinner: Vera Gellman gans etc. Thursday 11 and (HA Postal District) 0181 866 4833 Phone Susie Kaufman on Tuesday 23 November 9.45- WHY NOT S. London: Ken Ambrose 0171-328 0208 0181 852 0262 for details and assessment 11.45am. ADVERTISE IN Surrey: Ernest Simon interview. Societies AJR INFORMATION? 01737 643 900 Brighton & Hove Fausta Shelton Meals can also be collected Association of Jewish Ex- Please telephone (Sussex Region) 01273 688 226 from 15 Cleve Road, Berliners. Please contact Peter the Advertisement Dept Sinclair 0181 882 1638 for Wessex: Ralph Dale Mondays-Thursdays. 0171-431 6161 (Bournemouth) 01202 762 270 information.

10 AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

from which she has total control over her term which encompasses both our perception of us - the viewers? parents', grandparents' and for some, At 80 years old, Prunella Clough has great-grandparents' contemporaries. The the rate gift of being able to see some term Second Generation would appear thing eternally for the first time. to disregard the fact that, among the Regularly shown by Annely Juda Fhie 65,000 Jewish Refugees who were he issue of exile and dispersal Art in Dering Street, Wl, Clough's work granted entry into Britain before the links eight artists including Hans is held in major collections, including war, many were of our grandparents' TFeibusch and Fred Feigl in a new London's Tate Gallery and New York's generation. Who, after all, were the exhibition of paintings, drawings and Museum of Modern Art. founders of the AJR? prints at the John Denham Gallery in The Art of Bloomsbury, sponsored by If the term is to be applied exclusively êst Hampstead from November 14. prudential, opens this month at the Tate to children of Kindertransportees and Although these refugee artists' work Gallery, claiming to be the first compre Camp Survivors, then it would still, in my •"arely reflects the emotions triggered by hensive exhibition of the lives of the view, be ill-chosen. First, it appears to exile, they were all touched by war as is early century artists, writers and intellec ignore those of our parents' generation clear from the derelict imagery of derelict tuals who were known as the whose own parents did survive even in bomb sites and battle zones among the Bloomsbury set, led by Vanessa Bell, this context - a tiny minority, it is true, subject matter. Duncan Grant and Roger Fry. Until the but one that should not be disregarded in Such personal turmoil as war and exile end of January. the language we choose to use. Sec 'ây be absent from the vocabulary of The National Portrait Gallery has ondly, the children of Kindertransportees British artist Prunella Clough, popular collaborated with Sainsbury's to capture and Camp Survivors were not exposed to dinner of the ±30,000 1999 Jerwood the vital images of the last 100 years in direct persecution or torture, but were Painting prize, the highest prize awarded Faces of the Century. Open until the the first generation to experience the ô a single artist, but the opposite sense end of January. traumas of their parents' (and grand of roots, of being centred in the land, is Images from India opens on Novem parents') generation indirectly. This is not clearly manifest in her work. When, in in ber 24 at Browse and Darby in Cork to belittle whatever anxieties and anguish troducing her, the novelist AS Byatt, Street, London Wl, showing recent work my contemporaries have felt and still may êscribed the language and grammar of by the painter-traveller, Anthony Fry. Un feel, but an acknowledgement that our 3rt as being incomparable with that of lit til December 23. post-war experiences are distinct from erature, she was expressing a view that The Metal Mirror opens this month at those of our parents. ^he subtlety and individuality of percep the British Museum with an exhibition I myself am active in the Association of tion cannot be measured in quantitative of coin-photographs by the New Jersey Children of Jewish Refugees, formed in êrms. dough's oil paintings contain a artist, Stephen Sack. The works were de 1985 before the term Second Generation Private language that seems beyond emo- rived from numismatic collections of the became common currency. While this ^'on. The granular and sometimes visceral British Museum and the Cabinet des name, too, is not perfect, we debated 'rnages she conveys, are born of land Medailles in Brussels. Until December 5. long and hard to arrive at a terminology scape - of leaves, of bird shapes which Lapada - the Association of Art and An which at least was accurate in its descrip probably had no bird-like genesis in the tique dealers - has published an updated tion of its members as a whole. ^'îst's mind - of a sense of sharing, of edition of its pocket handbook. Buying D Caroline Salinger Volume and a contrasting weightlessness. antiques in Britain. Available from Lapada Despite a major exhibition recently at on 0171 823 3522. D Gloria Tessler kettle's Yard in Cambridge, there has GERMAl^f and 'êver been a true retrospective of SB is on holiday; his next contribution will appear Plough's works. This could be because of in the December issue. E]\GLISH BOOKS •êr aversion to past references, to an ac BOUGHT ceptance of her status and probably even Antiquarian, secondhand and ^ the sense of completion itself. The vi- What's in a name? modern books of quality ^"ty and freshness of her work indicates always wanted. 'ât she is constantly on the move, ex- n response to Herta Reik's letter (AJR We're long-standing advertisers P'orative, zestful and strangely innocent, Information, September 1999), Second here and leading buyers of books et to define her work is to limit it. She I Generation is a term I vigorously avoid from A)R members. '^ts you a task of personal discovery, when referring to my contemporaries, the Immediate response to your letter 'th no narrative clues to guide you. sons and daughters of refugees from Nazi or phone call. Plough often conveys a feeling of the Europe. Even when applied to those We pay good prices and ^^rth and its fruitfulness. Creeper 1997 is who, tragically, lost their grandparents in come to collect. 'eafy, ruby red canvas with the typical the Shoah, it would appear to me to be a ough mystery signature - a tiny blue misnomer. Please contact: Robert Hornung MA(Oxon) . ^^ orange squared-off grille. What does We are the first generation to be born 2 Mount View, Ealing, suggest? A personal prison? A window in the UK and the first generation to suf London W5 IPR escape? A brilliance of clashing colours fer the indirect rather than direct Telephone 0181-998 0546 .Mattering the harmony of the main sub- experiences of Nazi persecution, as op (Spm to 9pin is best) '^ct.^ Or is the window the artist's eye posed to the eyewitness generations - a

II vamL. \ L.a-iM AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

HOUSE DOCTOR HOMECARE SERVICE The AJR is pleased to offer members the benefit of a Computers in medicine Homecare Service scheme any patients bemoan the fact particular test is due and can draw the The service is intended to help members that their doctor spends time doctor's attention to allergies and drug remain in their ov^n homes looking at the computer, not at incompatibilities when prescribing. It M Financial assistance is available them. I shall attempt to explain why also helps remind patients receiving where needed. computers are increasingly being used repeat prescriptions to visit their doc in general practice in preference to tor for a review of their medication. For further information please apply to the written records. Information about particular illnesses Social Services team on Seventy or eighty years of written can be loaded onto the system and 0171 431 6161 or write to AJR Social Services, I Hampstead Gate, records are difficult to work with, not patients can be provided with print la Frognal, London NW3 6AL least because of doctors' handwriting! outs of treatment guidelines or special __i Among a huge quantity of letters and diets. In addition, the Government is notes, even recovering five-year-old linking all Health Service computer documents can be difficult. Computer systems to enable hospital appoint /? =^ ised records not only enable such data ments to be made from the GP's Companions I to be easily located, but enable medical surgery and results to be transmitted of London problems from previous years to be back directly. Incorporating highlighted. This requires a constant in While the computer helps the doctor Hampstead Home Care put of information, often during the to provide good care, no-one has yet ^ ^ consultation. suggested that he will be replaced by A long established company The computer also acts as an aide- computers and robots! providing care in your home memoire to remind the doctor that a n Dr Max Bayer * Assistance xvith personal care * General household duties Regretfully, personal correspondence cannot be entered into * Respite care * Medical appointment service

SEARCH NOTICES OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' 0171 483 0212/0213 Erica Sitte from Vienna sought by her friend living at Rehov Nahal Katlab 9/12, Ramat Bet- Helly Prochnik from Buenos Aires. Information Shemesh, Israel. please to F Hogan 0181 340 4155. Elsa Herzog (1876-1964). Biographical Infor Family Pam, Neunklrchen, Austria, owned a mation on Jewish fashion journalist Elsa Herzog, SPRING paper mill and were the town's leading Jewish who emigrated from Berlin to London in 1939 GROVE family.They included Adele, Bertha, Cecllle, Erik, where she lived until 1964, being sought by Ger Ernot, Julie, Max and Stephanie Pam who emi man journalism student. Please contact MIcaela 214 Finchley Road grated to Australia in 1938. Please contact Thimm, Kirchhbrder Kopf 13,44229 Dortmund, London NW3 Gerhard Mllchram, Curator, Jewish Museum Vi Germany.Tel/Fax: 01049 231 73 2492. London's Most Luxurious enna, Palais Eskeles, Dorotheergasse II, A-1010 RETIREMENT HOME Lucie Schachne-Kozuszek/Lucie Kaye, Vienna. born January 1918, Berlin, daughter born 1944, * Entertainment-Activities * Stress Free Living Budapester Orpheum Gesellschaft. Wer moved to UK after WWII, editor-in-chief of Ber * 24 Hour Staffing * Excellent Cuisine kennt Mitglieder, Autoren, Komponisten, lin's Jewish magazine Der Weg from 1949. Being * Full En-Suite Facilities Musiker oder Nachfahren der beriimten sought by post graduate research student. 'Budapester' aus Wien. Wer kennt zum Beisplel Please contact Jael Gels, Sonnenallee 137, D Call for more information Louis Taufstein, Otto Tausig oder Franz Modi? 12059 Berlin, Germany. or a personal tour Ich suche biographisches Material. Tel. Georg Karoline Schwartz, niece of Leo Werner 0181-446 2117 Wacks on 01932 85 8332. (both formerly from Vienna), being sought as or 0171-794 4455 Leo Less from Berlin, arrived UK during 1940s. possible legatee. Contact Brian Tobin, 3428 Please call Jo Rogger on 0181 346 7530. Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034, USA.Tel: 310 836 9076. Walter Oppenheim, previously of Johan Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. nesburg, is being sought by Ernst Simon now of Kurt Schmeltzer (1888-1972) and Werner STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST Toronto, Canada. In first Instance call Herbert Turk (1901-?), German emigre writers who Surgeries at: lived in UK during 1930s and 40s where they Goldschmidt on 0171 435 8880. 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) died. Both wrote children's books. Compiler of Telephone 0171-624 1576 Edward Gutman, born 1915, father Moshe bibliography of German children's literature 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) Isaacovich, mother Nadel Laura (Lea), believed written in exile 1933-1950 is seeking informa Edgware, Middx HAB 7PU to be living in England. Being sought by daughter tion. Zlata Phillips, University at Albany, 135 Telephone 0181-905 3264 of the late Efim (Haim) Gutman, Ukraine, 1914- Western Avenue, Albany New York 12222. Tel: Visiting chiropody service available 1974, Angela Tarnovskaya, formerly of Kiev, now 518/442 SHOD

12 AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

na's Westbahnhof. and music were intertwined. There are The Mozart House Salzburg is tucked away between also pictures of the young Wolfgang and tories by Holocaust survivors tend mountains which surround it on all sides. his sister Nannerl performing at the pi to follow a pattern: there are The main street is flanked by shops sell ano. He is dressed sumptuously in a Sdescriptions of a large and close- ing Mozartkugel and souvenirs. At one scarlet coat with braided edging. A touch knit Jewish family whose members are point a hoarding offers tours of the town ing portrait is a later one of the family - almost invariably rich and cultured. There and its surroundings (including the father, brother and sister - with the 3re memories of travel to fashionable Berghof of evil memory). Further on the mother, now dead, in a cameo in the spas like Bad Gastein and Karlsbad and visitor reaches a square, on one side of middle. Around the room in glass cases happy holidays under a cloudless sky. which is the Mozart House. Stories of are some original manuscripts and letters. Then along comes Hider - and all change. Mozart's pauper funeral hardly prepare A particularly moving one is from One wonders whether distance has you for its size and splendour. You have Wolfgang written after attending his ^metimes lent enchantment to the view. to remind yourself that it is the home of mother's deathbed which begins "Now I can claim no such felicity. My parents, Leopold, the father and not his more fa grieve with me.." There are recordings though from large families, were isolated mous son. of excerpts from famous compositions 'fom them. Only my mother's sister lived Once inside visitors are given a handset which you can hear through the hand 'êar enough to visit. I have since discov which connects with various receptors in set, one of them a ravishing aria from // ered a bevy of lawyers, academics, a the rooms and conveys information Re Pastore which brings tears to the prosperous tobacco-merchant, a famous about their contents and about the eyes. photographer and a member of the Aus Mozart family. In the entrance-hall a Perhaps the most interesting exhibit is a trian Parliament among my distant model of the house is the only object large wallmap of Europe. At the press of •"elatives (even one who survived the war one is allowed to photograph. In the a button it lights up the tracks of the "^ Vienna), but they were remote and I large salon are an organ, a harpsichord Mozart itineraries for that year. Wherever •êver knew them. My parents were rela and Mozart's own piano. It is very small - there was a court or a likely patron, tively poor, so the only holidays I can has only five keys and this makes it all whether it be Paris, London, Prague or ''eiTiember are a day by the Danube or a the more awesome that such splendid Milan - the Mozarts were to be found. Of '•^P up the river to Budapest. I lived in works could derive from such modest in ten the journeys had to be made over ^^'enna, but the triangle between our flat, struments. bumpy roads and the stops at squalid •^y school and the Inner City was practi Round the wall are pictures of local inns. On one journey young Wolfgang cally all I knew. I had heard of dignitaries who needed to be placated by was so exhausted that his father had to 'fountains, but never seen one; I had Leopold, who had to make a living as a carry his sleeping son to a sofa and wrap heard of Salzburg, but never been there, Kapellmeister. One is of the Prince- him in his coat. Even genius had a price- ô I was fulfilling a childhood wish when Bishop who was Mozart's employer, ticket of sheer slog! 'ast December I took the train from Vien which shows how the Church, politics D Martha Blend

FORTHCOMING EVENTS - NOVEMBER 1999

1-14 The Armenian Genocide: University, 5.15pm Lucie Skeaping, Howard exhibition. 'VCiener Library Mon 15 'Remnants'- living after the Cooper, Spike Milligan, Stephen Mon 1 Prof Leon Yudkin: Life & Holocaust, a play by Henry Robins. llam-lOpm, Box Office Death of Yiddish Literature in Greenspan. Camden Centre, 0171 960 4242 the USSR. The Case of Peretz Euston Road NWl, £5, 7pm. Mon 29 The Asian Financial Crisis: Mari

13 AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

support for the Copernican theory that have transformed our view of the world- Science Notebook the planets revolve around the sun and Suggestions are welcome! What is impor not the earth brought him before the In tant to recognise is that really great quisition on charges of heresy (he was discoveries depend not only on careful The most famous not rehabilitated by the Catholic Church observation and experimentation, but until 1992); Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), even more on the interpretation of the scientists in the world the English scientist who enunciated the results. Only then can we discern the un hom would you regard as the three laws of motion and the general derlying laws of nature. Moreover, it is 2 greatest scientist who ever equation of gravitation as well as making sobering thought that the work of many Wlived? Many people would discoveries in optics and mathematics; now famous scientists was initially met nominate Albert Einstein for this role. Michael Faraday (1791-1867), the English with indifference or outright hostility. However, it might be more difficult to physicist and chemist whose experiments Mendel's work lay unrecognised for decide the top six. Channel Four have led to the laws of electrolysis and the in many years and Einstein's Nobel Prize had to make this choice in their vention of the transformer and the electric was given, not for relativity theory which forthcoming TV series on 'Six experi motor which, in time, made possible the was not understood at the time, but fof ments that changed the world'. These generation of electricity for everyone; his dramatic application of Max Planck's half-hour programmes should begin to be Marie Curie (1867-1934), die Polish-French hitherto unappreciated quantum theory- screened on successive Sunday evenings scientist who discovered radium and other And Galileo is a prime example of a man during the winter schedules. Each pro radioactive elements and received two whose conclusions, though based on gramme will portray the chosen scientist's Nobel Prizes, first in physics and then in good evidence, were anathema to the life and scientific work in an interesting chemistry and, of course, Albert Einstein prevailing orthodoxy. It has sometimes way, in some cases with interviews of (1879-1955), the German-Swiss-American been said that original contributions to living descendants. mathematical physicist best known for his knowledge are first ridiculed as untrue, The scientists they have chosen are theories of relativity, the special theory later criticised as not being of any practi Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), the Austrian dealing with the speed of light and the cal use and finally, when the discovery botanist and monk whose painstaking ex general theory with gravity. has received general recognition, there periments on peas laid the basis for our A formidable list. However, it should are always cynics who say it was not re understanding of heredity; Galileo Galilei not be difficult to produce another list of ally original and had been anticipated by (1562-1642), the Italian scientist whose equally illustrious scientists who, too. the early Greeks! D Prof Michael Spiro

nage, carried by the Luftwaffe on air-raids she was arrested by the Gestapo and hef Through a dark lens and even used by German propaganda release after three months imprisonment photographers in the Warsaw Ghetto. was achieved only after the payment of * brightly The noted Jewish photographer Mendel huge bribe. D Ronald Channir^g hotography began replacing portrait Grossman also used a Leica when docu Rabbi Smith is currendy making a study of'Leitl painting as early as the mid- menting life in the Lodz Ghetto. and the Jews' and would welcome contact v/id^ Pnineteenth century, but the Ernst Leitz, who founded the company Jewish refugees who may have been helped of development and use of the camera in 1849, established a paternal concern Leitz to leave Germany.Tel: 0181 904 8581. which followed in the ensuing hundred for his employees which characterised years made phototgraphy "a major factor the family's continued ownership of the in the history of civilisation", according to firm up to and including World War II. Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith in an address Typically, Oscar Barnack, the Leica's de Lorelei presented by Leo Baeck College. signer, was taken on by Leitz though an "Die Luft ist kiihl und es dunkelt The Leica, manufactured and intro asthmatic. As the firm's employees were Und ruhig fliesst der Rhein..." duced in the 1920s by Ernest Leitz of exceptionally skilled workers and engi Die Manner, die Frauen und die Kinder, Wetzlar in Germany, which pioneered the neers, they were highly regarded and Die trieb man ins Gas hinein. use of 35mm film, can claim to be the well paid. Der Rauch stieg aus den Schloten, world's first truly modern camera. Among Leitz's Jewish employees were no ex Der dichte, schwarze Rauch. serious photographers it soon earned a ception. With the rise of National Er stieg hinauf zum Himmel, reputation second to none for its com Socialism they were protected, even Die armen Seelen auch. pact design, quality of construction and given further training, before transfer to Da wurden die armen Seelen high-definition interchangeable lenses. the safety of the New York branch. As a Von Mannern, Frauen und Kind Being light, portable and ready for imme key supplier for Germany's war machine, Dort oben zu weissen Schwanen. diate use, the Leica brought a revolution however, Leitz had a forced labour camp Nach Osteii trug sie der Wind. to the whole process of taking photo attached to the factory. Incredibly, Elsie Sie flogen iiber das Wasser graphs. Kiihn Leitz, daughter of the factory's LJnd iiber die Felder griin, Propaganda chief Goebbels was quick owner, made sure that the labourers had Sie flogen durch Nacht und durch to realise the Leica's potential, a modern, enough food and clothing, even gaining Wolken, precision instrument and 'glory' of Nazi them a measure of freedom. She also Bis nach Jerusalem hin. Germany and insisted on its use by the tried to help Jewish women escape to D Harald Brain'"^ press. The Leica was also ideal for espio Switzerland in 1943- For these activities

14 AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

over many years; as a translator, a me Niirnberger Nachrichten on the 60th an Obituaries ticulous proof-reader and above all, as an niversary of Kristallnacht, which Veronika indexer. With the 1976-1994 Index Vol read. Dr Manfred Altman ume of the Leo Baeck Institute's Year Imagine Rudi's amazement when he re Book, she created a superb tool for the ceived a letter from the paper to say that alzburg-born Dr Manfred Altman has researcher. a reader called Veronika Breuer claimed died aged 87. Manfred was one of Even when she retired to Ottery St she was his niece! At first he was Sfive children of the Rabbi of Trier. As Mary with her cats, she went on working shocked and incredulous, but after three ^ 15-year-old, he helped to found the for us. This well-educated, versatile, de long phone calls from Veronika, during Jewish Scouts movement in Germany. lightful and always cheerful woman will which he heard of her mother's fruitless His elder brother Alexander became be greatly missed by her many friends. search, he warmed to her. She planned to successively a rabbi in Berlin, Communal n Arnold Paucker visit him over Christmas '98, but Rudi •âbbi of Manchester and Professor of died within a month of learning of her Jewish Philosophy at Brandeis University. existence. Manfred himself arrived in Britain in This July Veronika visited all her re ^939 from Holland, where he had been maining relatives in England. I took her Employed for five years as a lawyer for a Bloodline to Rudi's grave and she came to our Jewish company. Here he worked for the month before Rudi Bamber's house and met my sons. We could see Jewish National Fund and, in 1947, death (see obituary, February the family likeness, the Bamberger dim formed his own import-export business, A issue) he learnt that he had a ple in her chin. This healing meeting "^ due course pioneering the import of half-sister Charlotte - the result of his came about due to Rudi's courage in textiles from Israel and forging a close father's pre-marital relationship with a bearing witness, towards the end of his Connection with Marks & Spencer. Catholic German girl during the first life, of the terrible persecution his family Later his efforts were largely directed World War. Charlotte was fostered from had suffered. In this year leading up to towards developing the Institute of Jew- the age of two weeks by a family who the Millennium one can only be grateful '^h Studies at University College London, were glad of the monthly payments. She to the fearless archivists of the Jews, at 'ê was instrumental in helping to create only saw her real father Carl Bamberger work even in Germany, recording their lour new professorships and lectureships once, when she was l6 and he gave her sufferings before it is too late. Who 'n Jewish Studies at UCL. his portrait and told her that she had a knows how many other healing re-un He firmly believed that "his" Institute half-brother, Rudi. ions remain to be made? 'ôuld form a bridge between the aca- Carl Bamberger married Rudi's mother O Jill Bamber 'êinic and wider communities and could and by the mid-thirties they were running Serve as a unifying force within British a Jewish cafe and family pension in the Jewry. Lindenaststrasse, one of the last places In 1992 he was appointed an Honorary where Niirnberg's Jews could gather. On ••ellow of UCL, in which his extensive Kristallnacht Rudi's father was murdered 'Last days 'amily archives will now be deposited. by the Nazis. Subsequently his mother Through his own life, he applied him obtained an agricultural student's place of the century' self devotedly to causes that advanced for Rudi who arrived in England in July he Second Generation Trust, fê State of Israel and the intellectual en- 1939. The mother perished in Maidanek. together with Amnesty International *êavours of Jewish people D Charlotte survived the war; being only Tand the Medical Foundation for the half-Jewish and female, she kept her job Care of Victims of Torture, on Sunday 5th in an engineering firm in Nurnberg until December at London's Piccadilly Theatre, Janet Langmaid dismissed in 1942 as a non-Aryan. After are presenting an evening of drama, the war she married and had a daughter, music and discussion, reflecting on the anet Langmaid was an Englishwoman Veronika, who grew up with her Jewish issues of human rights and key historical ^ho was closely connected with the grandfather's portrait hanging on the wall moments in a retrospective of the J organisations and institutes set up by and a sense of her mother's mission to century. fefugggg from Germany and Austria who trace her English relatives. When Char Introduced by the distinguished broad âme to this country. She died in her lotte had started her search for Rudi she casters Sue MacGregor and Jon Snow, 'th year. After working for Sadler's even came to England in her sixties but among leading writers, actors and musi *'ells, BBC radio and television, she still failed - not surprisingly - considering cians participating are Helen Bamber, Sir 'îried the Wiener Library as librarian, that Rudi had anglicised his name to Ian Holm, Anita Lasker Wallfisch, the ^^taloguer and bibliographer and she was Ralph Bamber. Mostar Youth Theatre, Ben Porter, Gidon ^•author of several of their catalogue After retirement Rudi began to bear Saks, Juliet Stevenson, Shelley von Volumes. witness to his sufferings at the hands of Strunckel, Janet Suzman and Billie ''or many years she was also associated the Nazis and many will have seen him Whitelaw. Proceeds from the evening will 'th AJR Information, aaing as a transla- on the Timewatch TV series ne Nazis, a support continuing efforts to uphold and ^'" and had begun working on the - very Warning from History. He contacted an defend human rights in the new century. ^^ch needed — comprehensive index of archivist in Nurnberg who is compiling For reservations (seats from 115 to £50) J 's journal. Her connection with the the history of the town's Jews. The latter please call 0171 369 1734. ^ridon Leo Baeck Institute stretched supplied material for an article in the n Kotherine Klinger

15 AJR INFORMATION NOVEMBER 1999

NBW5ROUND At die site of the Old Walled Cemetery Kazimierz, Krakow's a commemorative inscription recalls the Papal promotion fate which ultimately laid to rest the vi Edith Stein, the Jewish-born nun who historic Jewish quarter brant soul of Jewish Kazimierz while, was killed in Auschwitz and canonised ll that remains today in one of further along, a building project dedi last year, has been proclaimed a 'co- Europe's major Jewish centres is a cated to another cultural centre patroness of the European continent' by hundred or so souls who illum symbolizes the growing interest over the Pope John Paul II. Despite her con A inate a forgotten corner of Polish history. last decade in Krakow's Jewish heritage- version to Catholicism in 1922 and While much of the quarter's external Time will tell whether this has been a becoming a Carmelite nun, she was transported to Auschwitz with other fabric remains, the silence of the snow- false dawn or whether it will lead to the converts in 1942. covered streets speaks of the despair, taming of the spectre of Polish anti persecution and ultimate destruction of semitism which still plagues many Poles Remaining funds Krakow's pre-war Jewish community, and prevents them from coming to terms After distributing $l68 each to 310,000 reminding any visitor of the integral role with their nation's treatment of its Jewish needy Holocaust survivors - including played by Jewish communities through population. D Christopher Ejsmona Jews, gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses and out Polish history. Member of the Institute fof the disabled - the Swiss Humanitarian Fund, set up in 1997, still holds $15 Many street names - Jozefa, Izaaka, Polish-Jewish Studies, Oxford million. Applications may still be Jakuba, Estery - bear testimony to the considered for hardship cases. Jewish presence; others, such as ulica Bozego Ciala (Corpus Christi), with the Belated justice main church of the same name poised Remembering for Extradited from Argentina, 78-year-od within the heartland of the Jewish district, Dinko Sakic, former commandant of the the future Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia, intersperse a measure of the-ever-present was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment Catholic church in this country and of its major conference is to be held in in Zagreb for war crimes, including intimate bond with patriotic expressions London and Oxford next year personal responsibility for the murder of of Polishness. A with the theme, 'Remembering 2,000 people. Jasenovac slaughtered Jews, On entering Kazimierz I pass the Jew for the Year 2000 - The Holocaust in an Serbs, gypsies and anti-fascists in 1944 ish Cultural Centre, now into its sixth Age of Genocides'. Under the chairman during Croatia's 'independence' as a Nazi year and, like the nearby Szalom Gallery, ship of Dr Elisabeth Maxwell, the puppet state between 1941 and 1945. one of the many signs in the area of re conference will be in two parts: a gather Slave offer 'derisory' viving interest in all things Jewish. The ing of survivors and children of survivors At talks in Washington, a reported offer of structures of eight synagogues remain, in London on l6th July 2000, to be $3.8 billion compensation to former slave their interiors invariably devastated dur followed by an academic conference to labourers from 16 German companies, has ing the Nazi occupation. Only two, the be held in Oxford from 17th to 23rd July- been called an insult', reports the Jewish Remuh (1557) and the Tempi (1860s), RFTF 2000 will examine how victims of Chronicle. Estimates of the number of have been restored and returned to their Nazi persecution and their children have surviving former slave labourers are former use; the Izaak (l630s), the largest been affected by their experiences and between 600,000 and 2.4 million. Israeli of Kazimierz's synagogues, provides for how the memory of those who suffered child slave labourers have started separate will be passed to future generations. The proceedings in a New York court seeking occasional congregations from Israel but $3-75 billion compensation from German functions mainly as a museum. These are conference will assess the legacy of ih^ and Au,strian companies. the only surviving links in the continuity Holocaust, encourage the development of a 700-year tradition of Jewish religious of Holocaust studies in the next century Berlin cemetery vandalised worship in Krakow. and help counteract Holocaust denial. More than 100 gravestones have been The focal point of the old community The first session, to be held at the im' upturned and damaged in the huge perial War Museum on Sunday l6th July- Weissensee Jewish cemetery in East and the oldest Jewish religious structure will provide one of the last opportunities Berlin. The cemetery also serves as a in Poland, the Stara (Old) Synagogue Holocaust memorial. (1570s), which had played an integral for Holocaust scholars of international re role among Krakow Jewry and in Polish pute to seek the guidance of a significant Anne Frank's house re-opens history, is now a local history museum. number of Holocaust survivors togethef Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands has re Nearby the Jewish presence in the old in one place. opened the newly-extended and restored While the deliberations of the acaden^' Anne Frank House in Amsterdam in which buildings - synagogues, the mikvah, the ics are taking place in Oxford, a numbef Anne, author of the famous diary and her site of the Old Walled Cemetery - breaks family hid for two years during the Nazi the eery wintery silence. Entering the of related cultural events will be prO' occupation. They were betrayed in 1944. courtyard of the Remuh Synagogue, I am moted in London, including films, an art greeted by the keeper, Jankiel, who exhibition and musical performances- Holocaust known in 1942 ushers me inside and discourses enthusi culminating in a public meeting in Cen' Researcher Barbara Rogers has found a astically on the history of this building. tral Hall Westminster on Friday 2ist report in the Public Records Office, dated JulyD 8th December 1942, detailing the Nazis' When seized by the Nazis it was trans mass murder of 2 million Jews in ghettos formed into a 'wardrobe' for uniforms, Further details of 'Remembering f** and at Auschwitz. It was shown to thereby being spared the destruction the Future 2000' are obtainable fron^' President Roosevelt and passed to meted out to many of the district's other RFTF 2000, PO Box 20349, Londo" Britain's Foreign Office D synagogues. NWII OZE.

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees In Great Brloln, I Hampstead Gate. lA Frognal. London NW3 5AL Tel:OI7l-43l 6161 Fax:0171-431 8454 Printed In Great Britain by Freedman Brothers (Printers) Ltd. London NW 11 7QB. Tel: 0181 -458 3220 Fax:OI81 -455 6860