Journal Association of Jewish Refugees

VOLUME 1 No.3 MARCH 2001 journal Association of Jewish Refugees

'MJik-rf Unquiet on the Westminster front Reflections on the interaction of politicians, press and public

ast November Americans cast their politicians as much as it needs teachers ^lots. In February Israelis went to the POLLING^ and doctors if it is to fimction properly. Wlls. Within weeks we are likely to be Waugh's cynicism also infected '^"ig the same in this coimtry. The US STATION journalists who didn't necessarily share Action result looked seriously flawed. his dyspeptic disposition - pace the ^ Israeli election was called endless column inches of unwarranted '^^^cipitatejy to overcome a security obloquy heaped upon the Dome, which, îs compounded by parliamentary as far as it was a disaster, was a media- ®^^lock. By contrast, the UK general manufactured one. And, as if cynical ^<^tion looks set to be a routine affair, journos weren't enough, the 'licensed' ^'^" nobody challenging the outcome. Jewish jester Jackie Mason has recently ^ before we crow too loudly about been invited by BBC2 to make inane '^tain's greater stabihty and maturity. comments about the US elections. (Not let ^s remember that a bare six months to be outdone, the Jeivish Chronicle gave ^80 a Poujadist fuel protest half- him an opportunity to further envenom Paraiyse d the country, threatened the the Arab-Israeli conflict). If some ^•ect^, d government, and reduced the sections of the media generate cynicism Polio^ to passive bystanders in the face - and therefore apathy - others do the ofi "itimidation. This was a spasm of the Harold and Mary Wilson leaving the polling opposite, but with equally malign intent. station in Great Smith Street fi: tish body politic - a lurch into They run populist scare campaigns '^ssness triggered by a group of outlines of the political process by designed to stir local grassroots action sSneved individuals set on reversing emitting a smoke screen of cynicism. against easily identifiable targets such as Visions of the democratically chosen The resulting miasma allows certain paedophiles and asylum seekers. ^cutive Something similar had swamp flowers to flourish - such as the However, notwithstanding all these PPened in the miners' strike of the Judeophobic Taki, the Ezra Pound fan AN defects, British democracy continues to ^f^ly 1980s - with the vital difference Wilson, and the late Auberon Waugh, evolve. It is no exaggeration to say that m those days the Prime Minister who once penned a humorous piece in certain important respects it has '^ôyed media support. about Auschwitz as a tourist attraction. evolved fiirther than similar systems /*hich brings us to the role in politics Waugh's worst defects - defects which elsewhere. Hugely contentious issues, ''^^dia moguls, like Rupert Murdoch vitiated everything he WTOte - however, like capital punishment or the right to Coru-ad Black. It is axiomatic that were his snobbery and an ingrained view abortion, which still disturb the internal ' nien are happier with nght-of- of all politics as corrupt, and of all peace of the USA, were laid to rest over , "ê than left-of-centre governments - politicians as self-seeking here decades ago. Nor are immigrants '^ doesn't necessarily follow that they megalomaniacs. This entertainingly into this country (as we know from actually 'deliver' the electorate's gloomy view of public affairs may have personal experience) subjected to the l^^^s. (After all, till January 2001 all chimed in well with the image he same discrimination as they are in ^ "ig Western countries had left-of- cultivated of himself as a world-weary present-day democratic Germany. So let • ""^ administrations). What the media Catholic country squire - but it is of no us be thankful for Westminster - and ,iO ^Pable of, however, is bliuring the possible use to society, which needs come polling day, go out and vote! ffi^ AJR contributes to success of UK's first Holocaust Memorial Day by Ronald Channing As its contribution to the first Holocaust harrowing footage of Bergen - Belsen Memorial Day in the United Kingdom, the taken by Sydney Bernstein - film evidence AJR initiated and sponsored events on the that had remained censored until 1997! campuses of the University of Sussex and Janina Fischler-Martinho moved the Imperial College London, altogether audience deeply with her account of reaching some 2,000 students. survival in the Lodz Ghetto against seemingly impossible odds. Other 'Remembrance Through Film' minorities victimised by the Nazis were Lecturers and teachers joined students remembered in a session led by Jack from Sussex and Brighton Universities, Gilbert with film-makers Luke Holland and and a number of Holocaust refugees and Judy Ironside and local broadcaster Simon survivors from the city, to participate Fanshawe. Gaby Glassman conducted a freely in a full day of sessions on workshop on the Holocaust's Prince Charles and Ben Helfgott after Holocaust Remembrance Through Film. lighting memorial candles at psychological legacy, well attended by The opening session was chaired by Central Hall, Westminster students and survivors, one of whose Professor Edward Timms, Head of the accounts left an indelible impression. Centre for German-Jewish Studies which on national television, at which Prince developed and organised the day's Campus's musical commemoration Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair and programme. University Vice-Chancellor, Imperial College, and its director of music Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks were Professor Aiasdair Smith, said that one Richard Dickins, in co-operation with the joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury could not be neutral between good and AJR, presented a concert featuring Olivier and the Roman Catholic Archbishop o^ evil and stressed the virtues of tolerance Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, Westminster, as well as the leaders of the on a campus of cultural and ethnic played with immense musicality and opposition, together with Holocaust diversity. He thanked the AJR for their passion. Messiaen composed this for the survivors and victims of more recent support and anticipated that a rewarding players and instruments - violin, cello, genocides who presented powerful day would carry a wider message. AJR's clarinet and piano - available to him whilst testimony. Head of Community Relations, Ronald a prisoner in Stalag VII where it was first It is anticipated that the AJR'' Channing, invited Prof Smith to feature performed in 1941. As in Sussex, a full experience and support in marking the event permanently in the university's concert hall validated this as the Holocaust Memorial Day in the annual calendar university's contribution to Holocaust universities will also be called upon fo^ Following a showing of The Children Memorial Day. next year's commemoration by othe^ Who Cheated Hitler, a film on the Other Holocaust Memorial Day events in campuses. Kindertransport, witness Bea Green and which AJR members or representatives the film's producer Sue Read responded played a role included former Kinder Berlin child survivor to lively questioning. Holocaust course David Jedwab and Bea Green returning to convenor John Jacobs led a session on Liverpool Street Station where they first gathering Victims and Survivors, showing film of arrived in Britain 62 years ago; a ceremony Coinciding with the German HolocaU** ghettos and camps which included in Camden Council Chamber led by the Memorial Day, the tenth gathering ° Mayor at which Cllr. Roger Robinson child survivors took place at the Europe^'' recalled the long fight against fascism, Academy in Bedin. The purpose of ^^^ and the vivid testimony of two survivors gathering was to enable participants t" was given; at the University of York where discuss, without inhibition, problert^* Dr Erika Harris, whose parents suffered connected with their past. Participant' persecution in Slovakia, related the came from all over Germany and spo''^ Holocaust to modern genocide; in the about their experiences of raci^ Ma West Midlands, Belsen survivor Paul persecution as children of 16 or young^ Oppenheimer spoke at universities and and the impact this had had on their li^^ schools; and AJR historian Dr Anthony subsequently. Having been uprooted' Grenville was interviewed on BBC radio. many lived in other countries befo"^ National ceremony returning to Germany in an attempt * Prof Edward Timms, with students, The AJR was well represented at the reconnect with their roots. participating in the day-long Holocaust ceremony of commemoration held in the To mark Holocaust Memorial DaVj Remembrance Through Film. Central Hall, Westminster, and broadcast participants walked to Grunewal Station and recited kaddish on platfof"^ 17 - from where Berlin Jews v*'^'^ Pro: AJR Journal Personnel deported. A plaque specified that ZiJ9 Richard Grunberger Editor-in-Chief Ronald Channing Executive Editor Marion Koebner Staff Reporter Andrea Goodmalcer Dept Secretary & Advertising Co-ordinator (trains) had deported them, th^^ Gloria Tessler Arts Correspondent Dr Anthony Grenville Historical Researcher avoiding mention of person^ Katia Gould Editorial Adviser Gerta Regensburger & Lionel Simmonds Proof Readers responsibility. AJR Journal, 1 Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, London NW3 6AL Gaby Glasstria'' Tel: 020 7431 6161 Fax: 020 7431 8454 e-mail: [email protected] Cler Band of brothers Richard Grunberger NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors he US Declaration of Independence sometime MP and dog food salesman, 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, states: "We hold this truth to be self- was a similarly gifted networker. (In London NW3 SNB evident that all men are created equal." contrast to his bohemien brother he "> the same vein Kipling wrote: 'The belongs to the Anglican Church - as he • All English legal work Colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady are was at pains to point out when undertaken and German, Swiss & Austrian claims S'sters under the skin.' Unfortunately erroneously listed among Jewish neither is the case, as IQ tests and DNA Members of Parliament). The Freud • German spoken ^Ples prove. People are simply born charisma is still at work in the fourth • Home visits arranged ""equal (and by this I am not referring to generation, as exemplified by the •êir economic circumstances which is a Tel: 020 7435 5351 (subsequently filmed) novel Hideous Fax: 020 7435 8881 otally different topic). Sometimes this Kinky, describing the hippy existence °3sic inequality is highlighted by the Lucien's daughter led in 1970s Morocco. ^^^ family producing not just one, but K the star of the Freud siblings rose 0, or even more, outstanding talents, under the penumbra of their illustrious painting we had the Caraccis and the ancestor, the fame of the Elton brothers ellinis, in music assorted Bachs and PARTNER is quite overshadowed by that of trausses, and in literature the Mann in long established English yûnderkind Ben, respectively their son /others, as well as Joshua and Isaac Solicitors (bi-lingual German) . ^shevis Singer. Anglo-Jewish literati and nephew. Scions of an academic would be happy to assist clients elude the playwriting twins Peter dynasty, Sir Geoffrey Elton was Regius with English, German and ^»iadeus) and Anthony (Sleuth) Shaffer Professor of History at Oxford, while Austrian problems. Lewis had a chair at the University of /I the brothers Emmanuel and Bamet Contact Henry Ebner 'tvinoff. Politics has thrown up such Surrey. What rather set them apart was Myers Ebner & Deaner 'Verse types as Otto and Gregor that Geoffrey admired, and Lewis 103 Shepherds Bush Road trasser, John and Robert Kennedy - loathed, Mrs Thatcher. Ben has London W6 7LP obviously inherited Lewis' radicalism, eternally united by assassins' bullets Telephone 020 7602 4631 en in death - and Austen and Neville though, given the puritanical tradition of "amberlain. Among Anglo-Jewish the Left, one wonders if the father is ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN '^"ticians one could mention the comfortable with the son's reliance on ^"^sterial Silkins and the less elevated smut for comic effect. Germans - as well as Leon Brittan and The Hamburgers, like the (^ financial journalist brother. Their Ehrensteins and the Freuds, were ^ 'et Russian counterparts were the solidly middle class in Germany, and AUSTRIAN and GERMAN Sanovitches whom one would rather continued their lifestyle as best they PENSIONS lot could in this country. Michael went to mention, whose sister Bella was Oxford and became a respected poet and to PROPERTY .. 'loured to have been romantically critic. The list of his translations reads RESTITUTION CLAIMS ^'"ked to Stalin. On the distaff side there like a roll call of 20th century German EAST GERMANY-BERLIN the Bronte sisters, Virginia Woolf literature: Rilke, Hofmaimsthal, Trakl, ^^ Vanessa Bell, and AS Byatt and Hans Magnus Enzensberger - as well as On instructions our office will ^garet Drabble, to name but a few. Paul Celan. Today he lives in Suffolk, assist to deal with your Ven our relatively small refugee diligently cultivating his garden in the applications and pursue the matter J ^munity has thrown up three pairs of literal sense of the word. His brother with the authorities. ^•ôus brothers: the Freuds, the j^ênstein-Eltons, and the Hambiurger- Paul changed his name to Hamlyn, went For further information ^^tiilyns. into publishing and amassed a veritable and appointment fortune. He has been a munificent b, '^cien and Clement Freud, of coiurse, please contact: lai' 'ear one of the most famous names of supporter of good causes, notably in the if* t- •^^ventieth centiuy - but owe their cultural sphere. He has given deprived ICS CLAIMS 146-154 Kilburn High Road 'înence entirely to their own children access to the Royal Opera London NW6 4JD hU* j- "^ts. Lucien, thought to be the finest House, Covent Garden, and his recent nal (5!^9tive painter at work in the UK gift of £17m to the Royal Festival Hall Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) , . ^y. had an additional gift for attracting should go a long way towards Fax: 020 7624 5002 5ri 13" P^'S t-ocrati c sitters and patrons, transforming the South Bank. Oh 'ênt, the gastronomic guru. brother, indeed! V][EW]p(0)][NT Culturally challenged nation by Ronald Channing Ronald Channing

Land locked The fundamental assertion that immigrants contribute to the societies Home Secretary Jack Straw is corralling they join and may bring about changes fellow European Union members into adopting co-ordinated policies and fair- within them, was made by Prof Stanley share quotas against what is seen as the Waterman of Haifa University when threat of untrammelled illegal discussing the influences of immigrant immigration. Migrants elude national cultures on Israel, at a lecture organised border controls and fall into the hands by Jewish Policy Research. of traffickers. Israel was almost entirely an As an open economy espousing the immigrant society "members of whose free movement of capital and labour in the EU, whilst retaining a permanent population have recently arrived from bond with its old Empire, the UK's legal elsewhere", as he put it, and newcomers immigration is at an all-time high. Of had to adopt the local language and learn Prof Stanley Waterman 150,000 non-European newcomers local skills. The traditional Ashkenazi expected this year, by far the largest dominance of Israeli political and Israel's various Sephardi nationalities number will be returning expatriates, the cultural life meant that they set about were seeking far more multiculturalism- vast majority white, as are the 250,000 replacing others' identities with new An amorphous 'oriental' style of populaf students given permission to stay ones. In the arts, for example, the high music was already universal and temporarily after completing their courses. Neither presence receives status European-derived cultiu-es of the Klezmer from Eastern Europe had attention from the more strident theatre, orchestras and museums undergone a renaissance. American elements of the press, nor should they. retained their long-term government cultiu'al influences largely centred on Where the intending immigrant is of a support at the expense of the new, the need for commercial gain. different culture and skin colour, unless Yemeni dancing being perhaps a rare The large proportion of Israel's he can play football the reaction is quite exception! Those deemed to possess at population today, which is and remains different. Yet the evidence shows that best only a heritage, were expected to Russian-speaking, means that theii" newcomers either undertake low-grade adopt the dominant cidture at the children continue to study Russian and jobs that the host community's members expense of their own. to maintain their contact with Russia'' shun, or arrive with professional skills and qualifications much in demand. Our But "not everybody wants culture, just as the Yekkes did some 6^ health service, for example, could not Shakespeare," said Prof Waterman. years ago. function without its foreign-born doctors, nurses and ancillary workers. In 1999, 75,000 people claimed asylum Giving testimony memories of kindergarten to a possible in the UK (35,000 in 1997) while 66,000 understanding of the effects of th^ applications are still being processed. The life stories of one himdred and ten Holocaust on his/her life. The interview Statistically, 80% of these applications Holocaust survivors and refugees have usually takes place at the interviewee s are refused, yet just 8,000 people were been recorded on audiotape providing a home. actually deported so the rest must have valuable contribution to a 'history from stayed! Having arrived at some dirty and Whilst it is primarily intended for tb^ below', an important part of ensuring disagreeable reception centre well away interviewee and their family, a copy c^ that the history of the Holocaust and its from sources of cultural and linguistic be kept at The Sound Archives at th^ support, they have to complete an far-reaching consequences are available British Library. With the interviewee' incomprehensible twenty - page asylum for posterity as well as for the families of application form in English within 14 those affected. consent, the life story is transferred an" coded into the computer syste"'^ days, and a seven - day appeal form, also A small group of trained and in English. One questions the automatic enabling it to be accessed by anyon^ supervised volunteers at Shalvata refusal which follows hard on so-called interested or who is researching tn eso non-compliance! (Jewish Care) have been taking testimonies for the past seven years, the Holocaust. Arriving asylum seekers surely deserve majority from the Holocaust Survivors secure and decent accommodation, If you are considering relating your M contact with co-nationals, food and Centre. Their aim is to create a story and ivould like to discuss thisfurti^ < clothing, schools and welfare services for testimony that reflects all aspects of the you are invited to contact The Holocd^ their families and the immediate right to life of the interviewee from early Survivors Centre 020 8202 9844. seek work. i Whither Jewish history? Messenger Marion Koebner Addressing the joint forces of the from Poland Institute of Jewish Studies and the Jewish Historical Society as its new President, Ronald Channing Professor Bernard Wasserstein, holder of the Chair of Modern History at Glasgow University, gave a learned and not uncontroversial lecture on the theme of °"sh diplomat and soldier, Jan Karski, been reduced by starvation, brutality and the'disappearance'of the Jews in modern ^ho died last year, was in 1942 the first deportation fromit s peak of 450,000. The times through a combination of ''Assailable witness to inform leaders "indescribable misery" he witnessed, demographics, intermarriage and ^' the western Allies, including with corpses lining the streets, was redefinition. ''esident Roosevelt, Supreme Coiul reinforced by a further mission, Quoting Isaiah Bedin's statement that Justice Felix Frankfurter and Britain's disguised as a Ukrainian guard, into what the Jews are steeped in history more than "•êign Secretary Anthony Eden, that he took to be Belzec death camp, but was any other surviving people - and ^ German occupiers of Poland were probably the satellite extermination acknowledging that Jews are the most historically conscious of all peoples - Prof ystematically committing a barbaric camp of Izbica Lubelska. Wasserstein briefly reviewed some S^nocide against the country's three and After escaping to London in nineteenth century Christian historians of ^half million Jews. November, he contacted the government the Jews and found that their pessimism In a retrospective statement filmed by in London and Foreign Secretary Eden to as to the likelihood of survival of the Jews ^în Smith, first shown in 1986 and relate that "the Jews in Poland are was matched by that of Jewish historians ^cently presented at the Imperial War helpless" and that their only hope of writing in the wake of the Emancipation. "seum in association with the Polish siuîval was in the hands of the Allies, to No twentieth century historian had emulated the great Jewish historians of ^"Itural Institute, Karski relates in which Eden's reported response was that ^ ^cise English and chilling imagery the the nineteenth century - Heinrich Graetz "nothing can be done". Even an in Germany and Simon Dubnov in Russia; . ^^nts to which he bore witness and the influential American Jew, Justice the American Jewish historian Salo Baron •Sedulity with which he was met. Frankfurter, in 1943 found himself stopped at the point where he was to "unable to believe what you told me". write about contemporary Jewish history; ^lish resistance B, David Vital's most recent work could be _ îTi a Catholic in the city of Lodz, Jan Moral outrage described as 'a last gasp' or a 'last ozielewski (Karski was a nom de A panel discussion followed between flowering' of the genre. Y^ê) was not unfamiliar with the city's Martin Smith, Professor David Cesarani In the early twentieth century, Jewish "^Se Jewish community who were and Jacek Nowakowski of Washington's history was to be reborn with the Land of J^tive in its manufacturing industry, Holocaust Museiun, chaired by Suzanne Israel. But Israel today was probably only '^^r to the outbreak of war he served as Bardgett, Director of the IWM's three-quarters Jewish so could she ^'Plomat in Bucharest, Berlin, Geneva Holocaust Exhibition. It was suggested continue to regard herself as a Jewish . ^ London before joining the army as a state? These were uncharted waters. In a that, with his Jesuit education, Karski topical allusion. Prof Wasserstein referred "lor officer Captured by the invading had held a deep moral sense of outrage "Asians, he escaped the Katyn to the "profound sense of lost bearings and anger. and shifting ground" since the events 9ssacre of Polish officers by feigning As an eyewitness of absolute which led to what some have seen as a "^ a private and on his release joined credibility, it was he who placed the fate second intifada. In terms of the wodd's ^ Polish resistance, of the Jews at the top of the agenda, but Jewish population, a reading of the US ^'s fluency in languages and the the Jews were not regarded as being a big statistics showed a declining birth rate, J. ^Session of an exceptional memory increasing intermarriage and decreasing enough issue either in London or ^' the spoken word marked him as a immigration. Secularisation also Washington and his isolation even êr, but on retuming from his accounted for a diminishing Jewish extended to the Polish Government in ônd mission to Paris in 1940 he was population. The American iceberg took exile. It is argued that there were few longer to melt than the European one but ^sted by the Gestapo. Following preventive actions that the Allies could was equally affected by global warming! , ^re torture he attempted suicide, but have taken in the autumn and winter of Did not the acceptance by both sides of Sent back to hospital in Poland and 1942; although Nazi atrocities were the emancipatory contract spell the end ^Ped after implying he was dying and condemned after Karski's mission, of Jewish history? êd of confession. 700,000 Jews had already perished in the In a brief but concentrated 'feedback' JJ'^rsaw Ghetto gas chambers. session at the conclusion of his lecture, Prof Wasserstein fielded a number of . October 1942 Karski was smuggled After the war Karski married a Jewess thought-provoking questions from the ^ the Warsaw Ghetto, whose and in 1994 was proud to be made an floor and began his presidential term ^Pi'lation of some 50,000 had akeady honorary citizen of the State of Israel. in style. have gone into my dustbin had I not been LETTERS^ so nosey as to the treasures awaiting me. Frank Bright i TO THE Ipswich, Suffolk

V^EDITOR RDITOR / Sir - What would I do without your monthly input? So carry on, even if the new blue printing ink looks "cheap"! DEFENCE MATTERS REPREHENSIBLE But thanks! Sir - Your reference to John Foster Dulles' Sir - Criticising an entire ethnic group is Edith Fischl-Lee part in "depriving Israel of all the territory reprehensible: "... the notion of Woollahara, Australia gained during the 1956 Suez Campaign" compromise is quite alien to the Arab requires correction in the interests of mindset." (January issue). This certainly Sir - How much does the blue colour add historical accuracy. The plot hatched by does not apply to Yasser Arafat who to the cost of the latest edition, I wonder? Pineau and Eden aimed at re-occupying made an historic compromise in signing Being used to eternal thrift, I feel sad to the Suez Canal Zone. Israel's participation the 1993 Oslo Accord. He agreed to the see print becoming unnecessarily was justified on the grounds that 1967 border of Israel which constituted luxurious and expensive when it is the Palestinian guerrillas used Gaza as a 78% of the former UN Mandate of contents we are really after! springboard for attacks on Israeli Palestine and left 22% to the Palestinians. settlements, and Egypt was still officially Barak was willing to return 90%-95% of Dr Ruth Biswas at war with Israel. the 22% to a Palestinian state, but this Berlin When the UN condemned the action, it territory was split up into three parts was Eisenhower, and not Dulles, who crossed by roads under Israeli Sir - My compliments to all concerned intervened and forced Britain and France sovereignty. The Palestinians were asked in producing the superb layout and Dir to withdraw. Dulles was a very sick man at to compromise on their compromise. new journal. the time and, in any case, really sided Peter Prager GabyLov^ with Eden. Israel refused to withdraw llford, Essex Otto Schiff House from Gaza and the western shore of the Gulf of Aqaba unless the UN guaranteed PASSING ON EXPERIENCE that 1) the Gulf which had been blocked Sir - As to the contents of the AJR Journal I Sir -1 would like to assure all who helped to Israeli ships for six years was open to all must tell you that it contains things ' to rescue so many of us, that they or their shipping, and 2) the Gaza Strip could no disagree with and things I very much parents have earned our thanks. Families longer be used by Palestinian fedayeen agree with so the mixture must be very hosting refugees did their best without for attacking Israel. When these fair and very good. Congratulations. any counselling on how to treat us. My guarantees, which included stationing a brother's love for his foster family was FKingsleH UN force (UNEF) on the relevant borders, certainly essential for his rehabilitation. Bexleyheath were received, Israel's armies withdrew After the death of her husband, 'Aunty from Gaza and Aqaba in March 1957. Doroth/, as he called his foster mother, Sir - May I congratulate you on the r\e^ fr/c Sanders visited him in Australia after the birth of layout, which is much easier to read, ano tonofon W12 each of her 'grandchildren' there and the modern look which is more in keepif 9 either invited, or visited, me to report on with the 21 century. Sir - Thank you for your reasoned and fair their life. I was part of her family too! I David Lightburn, (Manage''^ comments. Sadly, the 'in thing' just now is hope that all former refugees are able to Clara Nehab House, London NW^ ^ Jew/Israeli bashing and surely we should put their experiences to good use in close ranks. Yes, Israel has done some helping other refugees. I only had the brutal and foolish things but the opportunity once, with the arrival of PUBLISHER SOUGHT! suffering and hurt isn't just on one side. In refugees from Hungary in 1956. It would Sir Your readers may be interested ^° 1948 my brother and 28 others were be good to read in your pages about any know that the first edition of my book o<^ ambushed and killed by Palestinians; a work done by AJR members to help to the history of Germans and Austria" settlement was bulldozed. Neither of integrate present - day refugees as well as serving in HM Forces dunng the ^^' working towards resolving conflicts, the these was reported. Ships of 'broken' X steht fiir unbekannt, sold out, thU* cause of so many people needing to refugees were turned away as Palestine warranting a second edition, this time in seek asylum! had its "quota of Jews." If I returned to paperback (ISBN 3-8305-0138-2 - DM ^^ Austria to ask for even a small token of my Bettina Cohn -I- postage from Berlin Verla^' family's home or shop, I would be Bristol Auslieferung Nomos Verlag, Waldsees refused. The media have been patchy in 3 5, 76530 Baden-Baden). I have ^'^ THE NEW LOOK reporting both sides. English language version ready ^ Sir - Say not the struggle naught availeth! So let us speak out for justice and publication but have yet to fino The parcel containing the new version of mercy. But if there is no Israel, where does publisher the AJR Journal presented a real the next batch of Jewish refugees go? Peter Leighton-Lan^^ challenge. I had to take a serrated knife to ^ate R Willis the very tough envelope. With no Neumarkt 3, D-64635 Benshe'"^ Loughborough, Leics. indication as to the contents, it would Gemnai^' Central Office For Arts and Events Diary March Holocaust Claims

3-11 Jewish Book Week. Royal National Hotel, Bloomsbury, London WCl. '"s column informs and advises victims °' A/az; persecution and the Holocaust Box office: 020 8201 8206. ^^d their heirs on procedures for claiming Mon 5 Ernst Flesch: A journey through India. Club 43, Belsize Sq Synagogue, '•°'^pensation for persecution and for 7.45pm "^ restitution of assets stolen or looted Tues 6 Book launch: Backing Hitler Consent & Coercion in Nazi Germany. ^^ring the Second World War Prof Robert Gellately, Clark University, Massachusetts. Wiener Library 6.30pm. holocaust era insurance policies Admission free. Stalls of more than 20,000 insurance Tues 6 Vera Grodzinski: Paul Cassirer Si artistic patronage in Imperial Berlin. Policies taken out by Holocaust victims Centre for German-Jewish Studies, Sussex University. 5.15pm. "0 originated from Eastern Europe are Contact Andrea Hammel 01273 877178. "°^ available on the website of the Wed 7 Prof Saul Friedlander: The Wehrmacht, German Society & the f'ternational Commission on Holocaust knowledge about the exterminations during the early phase of the 'Final /^ Insurance Claims. For further Solution'. Lecture Theatre 2, Cruciform BIdg, Gower St, WCl. 6.30 pm. 'orrnation about the claim procedure Admission free. Institute of Jewish Studies. J^ll free on 0800 169 8318 and to search "6 lists visit www.icheic.org Wed 7 Suitcases & Sanctuary Susie Symes (Spitalfields Centre) talks about London's Museum of Immigration. Wiener Library 6.30pm. Admission £2. ®'9ian compensation claims Mon 12 Prof John Klier and others: Distinguishing British Jewry: Men & îiis for compensation for looted and Women who mattered 1830-1930. 6.30 pm Gustave Tuck Theatre, Gower Street, °len property in Belgium should be sent WCl. Admission free. Institute of Jewish Studies. *o MIr Rudi Van Doorslaer, Scientific Di "^^ctor. Research & Management Mon 12 Hans Seelig: Guiseppe Verdi. Club 43, Belsize Sq Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Divi vision, Commission pour I'Etude des Tues 13 Hitler's Spies: Talk about the contribution they made to the Allied war f^s Juifs, 114 Boulevard Bishoffhein, effort. £5.50 inc. wine. 7 pm. Imperial War Museum. °00 Brussels, Belgium. Tel: 0032 2214 Tues 13 Providing for Difference. Panel discussion with representatives of Jewish ^10. Fax: 0032 22140911. Care and Board of Deputies. 8 pm. £5 + cones. UCC. ^^ding with the Enemy Thurs 15 Chansons Judeo-Espagnoles: Noa Lachman (sop) & William Hancox pplications for assets seized by the (pno). Exploring the Sephardi repertoire. UCC. 12.45 1.30 pm 'iish Government under Trading with Sun 18 Klaus Hinrichsen talks about Erich Kahn. 5 pm. UCC. £5. .^ Enemy legislation can be filed at the Mon 19 Dr Richard Dove (University of Greenwich): "Journey of no return" "1 London. Further information and a German-speaking literary exiles in London. ^tabase of 30,000 names are posted at Club 43, Belsize Sq Synagogue, 7.45 pm. ^W.enemyproperty.gov.uk Written -•^Plications should be addressed to Tues 20 The spirit of Spitalfields Huguenots, Jews 8i Bangladeshis: îiy Property, Department of Trade Jewish Museum, Finchley. ^'^ Industry, 10 Victoria Street, London Sun 25 Berthold Goldschmidt concert in collaboration with Jewish Music 'H OET. The telephone number is Institute. UCC 7.30 pm. £10, cones £8. "^^072153485. Mon 26 Monica Lowenberg: Education as a factor in the contribution of Sja: "eLabour German-Jewish refugees to British society. Club 43, Belsize Sq Synagogue, 7.45 pm. °caust victims used as slave and Until 25 March I am a Camera. Mixed show of artists. Photographs become J'êd labourers „.are. filing^ claims fo.„,r paintings and paintings become photographs. The Saatchi Gallery NW8. J, "^Pensation through the Foundation Thurs - Sun 12 pm - 6 pm. Admission £5, cones £3. Details 020 7624 8299 P fêmbrance. Responsibility and the r ^""e. established jointly by the German Thurs 29 Hyam Maccob/s 77je Disputation. New End Theatre, 7.30 pm. £17.50 ^, ^^""nment and German industry. Those from UCC. , ° have not received prior information Mon 2 April Howard Isenberg: Arturo Toscanini. Club 43. Belsize Sq Synagogue, suk*^^ the claim's procedure and wish to 7.45pm. , f^'t a claim are invited to obtain an ^Pp"catiol n form from this office. Organisation Contacts Club '43, Belsize Square Synagogue. Hans Seelig. Tel: 01442 254360 49 ^^^^herhelp Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Rd., London SEI 6HZ. 020 7416 5320 ag- ^ 'stance with the completion of Plication forms is available (by Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL, Gower Street, London WCl E 6BI a" rv^Pointment only) from the Central Tel 020 7679 3520. Email: [email protected] "îce for Holocaust Claims at the fof London Jewish Cultural Centre (UCC), The Old House, c/o Kings College, ^^'îce .-^s^ of the AJR in Hampstead. Kidderpore Ave., London NW3 7SZ. 020 7431 0345. 1^. ^^n enquiries should be sent to J^hael Newman, Central Office for Sternberg Centre for Judaism/Jewish Museum, Finchley. 80 East End Road, Q '^'âust Claims (UK), 1 Hampstead London N3 2SY Tel: 020 8346 2288/ 8349 1143 *^- la Frognal, London NW3 6AL. Wiener Library, 4 Devonshire Street. London Wl .Tel. 020 7636 7247 The launch of the Gallery offers an explanation: "Why should the Jewish RG'S INT6RFAC6 people be ignorant of its own art treasures?" asked Judah Beach in the Movie classics. The B(ritish) F(ilm) 1930 Ben Uri catalogue. The timing of l(nstitute) Millennium Poll voted Carol the opening of its first gallery in 1944 at Reed's The Third Man (1949) Best 14 Portman Street is portentous. It may British Film Ever The cast of this celebrate Jewish survival, but despite a cinematic classic had a sizable refugee Art Notes phalanx of paintings by Chagall, component: Ernst Deutsch, Siegried Gloria Tessler Modigliani, Soutine, Pissaro, Epstein Breuer and Erich Ponto, with Fritz Schrecker, Lily Kann, Hannah Norbert The Ben Uri is on the move again and and Lieberman, time and again the Ben Uri's shaky financialfoundation s led to and Karel Stepanek appearing in with it comes media speculation over smaller parts. In addition script writer an itinerant life. Dwindling finances the need for a Jewish art gallery - a Graham Greene relied on refugee specious argument because the Ben Uri continue to block the path to a journalist Peter Smolka for Art Gallery exists and is simply looking permanent home: The Ben Uri's background material. Michael Curtiz' for a new home. The deeper question is considerable collection is in store, top-rated American movie whether a Jetvish art actually exists and frustrating the dreams of those Casablanca (1942) featured an even more prominent refugee cast. They should do so in a separate space. dedicated to the future of Jewish art from its inception until the present day. were either 'politicals' (Conrad Veidt Epstein, Auerbach, Modigliani, and the mediocre Paul Henreid) or Bomberg, Chagall are all great artists Jewish: Peter Lorre, Curt Bois, Soke extending beyond the orbit of their Szakall, Ludwig StossI, Marcel Dalio Jewishness. It is arguable that the way and Leonid Kinskey. Lucien Freud painted a tree or a face green and pink tinged with his Theatrical legend. Totally forgotten today, the Albanian Jew Alexander characteristic mark of human frailty is in Moissi was a star of the German stage itself a Jewish gesture. But if artists in the 1920s. Max Reinhardt cast him transcend a narrow place, do they not as the first ever Jedermann at the also belong in the wider world? Salzburg Festival; his celebrity was In an international loan exhibition, such that Ernst Lubitsch quipped: Phillips the Auctioneers showed 80 'Herr Moissi, allow me to embrace you, so people can see that I am works by 50 artists which tell the Ben somebody.' A Moissi biography by Uri story: From Art Society to Rijdiger Schaper has just appeared in Museum. The Influence of Anglo - the German Argon Verlag. Jewish Artists on the Modern British Movement. In company with Multiculturism. The Schauspielhaus, Epstein's prophetic/?ocfe Drill, in which Graz, is staging Nestro/s Einen Jux wilier sich machen. This play, adapted man and machine blend in an from John Oxenford's English farce A uncompromising tower of invincibility, Bernard Meninsky: Mother & child. Day Well Spent, later returned to its there's Rothenstein's intense painting Watercolour, 1918. country of origin as the Czech-born oi Rabbis Reading the Book of Esther. In In a six-point objective for the Gallery's dramatist Tom Stoppard's On the Jacob Kramer's familiar Day of future, it is the last which is the most Razzte. In the interim it had crossed Atonement, the recumbent figures in resonant: "To support and play an active the Atlantic as Thornton Wilder's their prayer shawls suggest one-ness - role in the creation of one large, all- Merchant of Yonkers (which in turn spawned the musical Hello Dolly). the essence of Yom Kippur. Kramer's embracing centre of artistic excellence." tallitot could be a metaphor for shrouds That, siurely, is the main raison d'etre of a and in 1919 this seems a frightening Jewish art gallery. To provide a prediction. Alfred Walmark's communal space where art is not merely atmospheric Shabbat Afternoon has an hung, but discussed, alongside other JACKMAN • equally clear message. But there's also artistic or creative endeavours, whether Enmijmuel Levy's Nude in the Artist's it is visual, literary or musical. An arts SILVERMAN COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS Studio so geometrically dispelling the centre involving the community. This is gloom with her pugnacious redhead and what Jewish London is crying out fon K Yolanda Sonnabend's delicate the London Jewish Cultural Centre, impressionistic Portrait of a Lady, dark based at Kidderpore Avenue in hair falling from a widow's peak. Are Hampstead can think this big, surely they as intrinsically Jewish? And there is room for the Ben Uri to expand 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA perhaps more important, does it matter? its vision too. Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 801'

8 Reviews surprisingly, sunk to a very low level. This Music Ueview downward trend was, however, reversed by 'a new beginning' in the United States Forthe record and the new State of Israel, as well as "in JUDISCHE OLYMPIASIEGER. SPORT EIN other countries to which German Jews had emigrated." Unfortunately Since its launch in the mid 1980s, the SPRUNGBRETT FUR MINORITATEN, confidence in the future was shaken to Compact Disc has provided classical Paul Yogi Mayer, AGON Sportverlag, the core by the events in 1972. As the 'iiusic lovers with an almost Kassel, 2000, £10. author points out, the Munich Games of unparalleled choice of repertory, from Unlike accountancy, law and medicine, that year were "of particular importance 3 seemingly endless stream of serious sport is not one of the for Germany as well as for Jewish alternative versions of standard works occupations proverbially favoured by competitors." They also became the scene to material that is clearly aimed at the Jewish mothers for their exceptionally of "the most horrific incident in the gifted sons. It may therefore come as specialist. For those who avidly history of the Olympic games" when 11 something of a surprise that from 1896 to collected 78s and Long-Playing Israeli athletes were brutally murdered by 1996, no fewer than 402 Olympic medals records, the CD has also proved a boon Arab terrorists. The Games went on and have been won by competitors who were 'n offering listeners the chance to hear many Jews won medals, including the Jews and Jewesses, as well as heroic Sreat performances of the past American swimmer Mark Spitz, whose representatives of the countries under •"efurbished in wonderfully vivid career, in the course of which he broke whose flag they had entered the Games. Sound. All too often, however, too several wodd records, began as a 15-year- A further seven can be added to this total •iiany record companies have signally old in one of Israel's Maccabiah Games. for Sydney 2000. ^led to provide a co-ordinated or Spitz's name appears, together with the Dr Paul Yogi Mayer MBE, 88, jogically structured programme of re- names of all the other Jewish medallists - sportsman, writer, teacher and youth 'ssues, but this shoiUd change with the from the German swimmer Alfred Flatow, worker, traces the history of the Olympic decent launch of Universal Classics' Athens 1896, to the French canoeist Games in the context of Jewish budget-price Eloquence series which Miryam Fox-Jerushalmi, Atlanta 1996 - in participation and contribution - 'Jewish' '•etailsatunderES. the skilfully presented table of relevant not only in the relatively narrow sense of data appended to the text. The label draws on a rich treasure religious persuasion, but also in the wider <^hest of recordings of mainly familiar sense of ethnicity, minority status and, An English version of the book, now in "material from the vaults of Deutsche since 1948, nationhood. preparation, will deservedly widen its appeal. '-rammophon. Philips and Decca. Beginning with the 1896 revival of the "île some may be put off by the lack Olympics in Athens (where Jews David Maier *^f any liner notes on the music, many accounted for 14 medals), he offers a Fighters and visionaries 'î the performances can be regarded as fascinating insight into each of the definitive. Highlights from the initial subsequent Games, both from a general, THE AVENGERS ""eleases include Artur Grumiaux's as well as a personal, point of view. Rich Cohen, Jonathan Cape, 2000 'ôble interpretation of the Beethoven Assessing the first six events held until the Rich Cohen's new book pays tribute to the Violin Concerto (4681142), Sir Colin First World War interrupted the Jewish resistance fighters whose âvis' electrifying Berlioz Symphonic sequence, he concludes that, contribution to the defeat of the Nazis fântastique with the LSO (4681272) significantly, for Jews, success in "modern has been insufficiently recognised. In the ^nd Rafael Kubelik's highly expressive sport represented a means of individual Rudnicki forest near Vilna where Jewish •Mahler 4, generously coupled with and social advancement." On the other partisans had their base, he remarks: "A ^'etrich Fischer-Dieskau's hand, political prejudice and social plaque identifies these dugouts as the Unforgettable singing of the Lieder discrimination survived the war years in home of Communists who fought the înesfahrenden Gesellen (4696372). sport as well as other spheres, as fascists. The Jews have been written out Pôr those who love Rachmaninov, illustrated by the story-line of the Oscar- of history." Behind his account of exploits "^ne inclusion of Vladimir Ashkenazy's winning film Chariots of Fire. of a courage born equally of vision and ^960s performances of the Four Piano A detailed discussion of the Berlin desperation is a determination to make Concertos (4674192 & 4674532) is Games of 1936 constitutes one of the an imprint on posterity. ^Specially gratifying. It's also highlights of Mayer's study. As an Cohen's acquaintance with The heartening that chamber music is authoritative eyewitness, he represents a Avengers', or at least the three main S'Ven considerable prominence with well-documented account of the protagonists, Abba Kovner, Vitka 'ê Amadeus Quartet's fine historical background as well as the Kempner and Ruzka Korczac, the latter a "Beethoven disc combining the first events before, during and after the cousin of his father's, gives the book a •âzumovsky Quartet with the Harp Games. He interprets the significance of personal edge. He first met them as a boy (4696882), and a Mozart and Haydn the happenings at the time - and in the of ten in 1977 and over the years heard P'"ogramme from the marvellous light of the subsequent course of history - sketches of deeds and happenings he felt Pârtetto Italiano (4681152). Finally, with clarity and precision. Perhaps the compelled to bring to life. His extensively for more adventurous fare, the most poignant part of this chapter is the researched narrative is rich in action and story of Helene Mayer, the 'non-Aryan' "Coupling of Alban Berg's Violin moral purpose. silver medallist who is pictured standing Concerto and the Schoenberg Violin The three young Jews from Poland and to attention giving the Nazi salute. their associates formed a branch of the ^^d Piano Concertos (4681272) IS According to Dr Mayer, the London Zionist 'Young Guard' in the Vilna ghetto. strongly recommended. Games of 1948 were characterised by the The tall, slender Vitka led the group of fact that Jewish participation had, not underground fighters who blew up a German train, the first act of sabotage in Distorting screen occupied Europe. Her counterpart, the AREYOUONALOW petite, dark-haired Ruzka became THE MAN WHO CRIED. invaluable as an emissary and was sent to Sally Potter, At selected cinemas. INCOMEANDINNEED mandated Palestine to inform the Jews An eagedy awaited film by the brilliant OFHOIVIECAREHELP? living there of the catastrophe in Europe. maker of Orlando and yet an almost In the background was the frontman, complete disappointment. A potpourri of AJR might be able to offer Abba, a visionary and strategist cliches and historical incongruities. The financial assistance. consumed with a mission to resist Man who Cried tells the story of a young Members who might not and avenge. Russian-Jewish girl, Feigele (Christina Ricci), who is separated from her cantor otherwise be able to afford More fascinating, perhaps, than father and ends up with a family in homecare please contact: Cohen's ably reconstructed landscape of England, where she becomes Susan. struggle, breathtaking escapes, Estelle Brookner, Secretary Susan goes to Paris in the hope of devastation and survival are conflicting AJR, Social Services Dept fulfilling her musical talents, and shares a moral perspectives that emanate from Phone No: 020 7431 6161 room with a Russian, non-Jewish, the attitudes and actions of various antisemitic, good-hearted dancer of personalities. Ghetto leader Jacob Gens loose morals. While still in Paris, she falls perceived the ghetto as a microcosm of in love with Cesar, a gypsy horse-trainer the Jewish people; to preserve it any (Johnny Depp, glamorous but compromise with the German authorities uninspired). When Paris becomes unsafe Companions seemed preferable to armed insurgence for her, Susan travels to America, where of London and certain death. David Ben Gurion, she is reunited with her dying father, an Incorporating seemingly indifferent to the fate of the ailing Hollywood tycoon. Hampstead Home Care Jews in Europe, was single-minded in his This synopsis reflects an ovedoaded, objective of establishing a Jewish state. inconsistent narrative that starts with an A long established company Abba's plan to revenge the life of improbable pogrom in Russia in 1927(1). providing care in your home coundess Jews by striking at random into Later, deportation devastates the gypsy Assistance tvith personal care the heart of Germany raises not only family in Paris, where another improbable General household duties moral questions but calls into character, a Jewish concierge, is likewise Respite care consideration the purpose of life itself. It being deported. Although Sally Potter Medical appointment service is Meir Ya'ari, leader of The Young Guard values historical accuracy and was in Palestine, who tells him: 'You will never extremely well advised in this area, she 'OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' give up the war... Please allow us has unfortunately failed to override her 020 7483 0212/021 artistic instincts, which go against the to teach you how to live a life we can grain of these all too familiar historical give to our children." The moment of events. transformation when, in an Egyptian prison, Abba can focus for the first time Nevertheless, the film offers some redeeming features. Feigele and her ^^ SPRING on the future rather than the past, is father speak and sing in correct and particularly moving. C<3^ GROVE beautiful Yiddish - which leads us to Sally Emma Klein Potter's forte: her excellence in conveying 214 Finchley Road music and dance, be it opera, Folies London NWS Bergeres, moving lyrics in Yiddish, London's Most Luxurious GERMAIN and thoroughly researched gypsy folksong, RETIREMENT HOME chamber music, or delightful piano • Entertainment-Activities EMGLIi^H BOOKS playing. Scattered here and there are • Stress Free Living moments of daring, convincing BOUGHT 24 Hour Staffing • Excellent Cuisine imagination and sensitive, precise • Full En-Sulte Facilities Antiquarian, secondhand and camerawork. Call for more information Whilst claiming that "the lessons of the modern boolcs of quality or a personal tour Second World War don't seem to have always wanted. been learnt", the director has failed in her 020 8446 2117 We're long-standing advertisers declared mission because of loose or 020 7794 4455 here and leading buyers of structuring and historical negligence boolfs from AJR members. Eva Urbach We pay good prices and r 1 Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. come to collect. Annely Juda Fine Art STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST Surgeries at: 23 Dering Street For immediate response, 67 Kilbum High Road, NW6 (opp iVI&S) please contact: (off New Bond Street) Telephone 020 7624 1576 Robert Hornung MA(Oxon) Tel: 020 7629 7578 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) 2 Mount View, Ealing, Fax: 020 7491 2139 Edgware.Middx HA87PU London W5 IPR Telephone 020 8905 3264 CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Email: hornungbooks@aoLcom Visiting chiropody service available Tel: 020 8998 0546 (Spm to Spm is best) AND SCULPTURE

10 t-ven in these days of longevity, a man their countries' national banks. His uke Richard Fry, who celebrated his PROFILE discretion and judgment could always be 100th birthday last September, is a by Ruth Rothenberg counted on. rarity. Now living in Balint House, he With war's end, his advice was sought 'ooks back on a tumultuous centiu^ in in 1946 on the re-establishment of the *hich he played his part as a Richard Fry Banque de France. He also visited the distinguished journalist. And he can still USA in 1947, talking to its financial and 8ive sharp advice and opinion on major industrial leaders, and was deeply ^Contemporary issues. impressed by the country's economic He was Richard Freund when he was boom. He was particularly interested to "^rn in Berlin of Bohemian parents. Old meet Germany's Nazi Reichsbank enough to be called up for the Kaiser's Governor, Dr Hjalmar Schacht, on a visit ^rmy just as the First World War reached to London in 1955. He had followed Dr "^s end, he studied at Heidelberg and Schacht's operations and distrusted but °^rlin Universities. Interested in respected him. Current affairs, he worked as a foreign Britain meanwhile was suffering from Political correspondent for a German exhaustion and austerity, as well as the Publishing group in Rome in the early Labour Government's financial ^20s. Mussolini had just come to inexperience. With the difficulty of Power and Richard saw the tyrannical evaluating renascent economic life, 'olence of his Fascist regime at first Richard Fry thought up the idea of ^d, a foretaste of what was yet to come regular national industrial surveys "> Nazi Germany. carried out by regional reporters. The A few years later he moved to London, able to respond to their wishes from a Manchester Guardian Industrial Survey "^re he married a beautiful Hungarian position of responsibility. started in the early 1950s. Although list's model, Katherine Maritz, who Back in London, he wrote two fairly short-lived, it was the forerunner ^'•^t Worked in stage design with Oliver prophetic books on the deepening of many later surveys for up-to-date ^^ssel. They married two weeks before European crisis, Zero Hour in 1936 and information on multiple areas of *e Wall Street financial crash of 1929 - a Watch Czechoslovakia in 1937. He business activity. Richard ^tershed which Richard confesses to admired Czech President Dr Benes, Fry also got a journalistic scoop on ^niembering only hazily. Meanwhile he whom he interviewed for his book, but European currency convertibility at the **oserved the rise of Hitler and was the logic of the situation was inexorable. end of 1958 through his earlier ^^ked by his publishing employer on With a growing journalistic Continental contacts. ^he day Hitler came to power in 1933. As reputation, he was invited to be a leader When he retired in 1965 and was liberal Jewish journalist, he was writer on The Times. But he responded appointed CBE, London had already '^'"sona non grata on every count. But, to an offer firom an old fiiend from his started on the path of financial though penniless, he at least had a safe Rome days, Cecil Sprigge, who worked regeneration. Fry continued to follow ^ê - "a tiny flat in Baker Street and a on the financial pages of the Manchester events closely and comment on them. ''^ who knew how to be very Guardian. The paper suited his liberal From 1965 - 1975 he wrote for the ^^ônomical." inclinations and he wrote occasional specialist journal. The Banker. In 1970 l^he 1930s, years of recession and leaders advocating, among other things, he published A Banker's World: The êmployment, produced a strange Indian independence. Although initially Revival of the City 1957-70 and in 1976 'êrlude when he was recommended to deputy financial editor, he was soon Bankers in West Africa. At the age of 89 J* Indian maharajah who was looking for appointed editor, as his colleagues were he wTote a three-page assessment of ^ assistance with his forthcoming called up for active service. It vras an world financial journalism for The ^'^'den jubilee celebrations. Despite the interesting but abnormal period for Economist under the title When Money erwhelming experience of India at its financial activity and reporting. Makes News and News Makes Money. '^st crowded, vibrant and brilliant at Through his friendship with such Visitors still find him spry, th ^ celebration in Bikaner, Richard figures as the Governor of the Bank of knowledgeable, and with a shrewd âged to meet modern-minded Canada, Richard learned about the judgment of today's financial world. S'ou,n g politicians - including Nehru - and secret transfer of gold reserves across As one regular visitor remarked: 11^1 ^ their aspirations for independence the Atlantic to Canada. He met refugees "Talking to him is like having a weekly ^m the British Empire. He was later who were to become futiu-e governors of history lesson."

11 INSIDE Next meetings: 1 March - Susannah Alexander (Jewish Museum) on The History of Anglo- KINDERTRANSPORT NEWS Jewry'. 5 April: Jack Davidoff (violin) & Jules David Jedwab the AJR Rubin (piano). Kinder return to Liverpool Leeds Street Station In a talk spanning two and a half West Midlands A number of Kinder attended a gathering A full meeting came to hear Ronald centuries, ranging from Mozart's 1778 at London's Liverpool Street Station to Channing, AJR's Head of Community Paris Symphony to Ravel's Pavane, mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Organised Relations, talk about the future of the David Fligg - lecturer at Leeds College of by the Jewish Council for Racial Equality AJR and to discuss the UK's first Music - gave a fascinating historical tour under the heading 'Unaccompanied Holocaust Memorial Day. When of Paris surprising even the cognoscenti Refugee Children: have the lessons been members were invited to express their of the streets of Paris and musicologists learned?' the event drew attention to opinions the consensus was that the among us with new knowledge about the over 3,000 unaccompanied children who day's title should also reflect great city and its musical connections. reach the UK every year. Is the Kinder remembrance, intended for all victims of 'Righteous gentiles' equivalents appear experience comparable to happenings genocide. AJR member and Belsen to have existed even dining the French today? As Bea Green pointed out in her survivor Paul Oppenheimer delivered a Revolution. moving speech recalling her arrival 62 dozen talks and interviews dining the years ago: "If you are white, you can John Chillag escape into the crowd. If not, it must be week in support of Holocaust Memorial awful." Day in schools, universities, on the Next meeting: 29 April - Ronald Channing on media and at a Birmingham civic 'The AJR - 60 years on.' What happened after their arrival does not constitute the happiest chapter- ceremony. South London Some Kinder went to relatives, some to Henny Rednall Percy Gourgey MBE, a member of the hostels run by adults, but others, Board of Deputies, spoke about the particularly the younger ones from ^ Next meeting: 22 April - informal coffee and years upwards, were picked out at the cake do. history of the Board, its present role and its international concerns. Founded in station as if at a cattle auction and taken 1760 to present a loyal address to the to far away homes where they were newly crowned King George III on adopted and converted to live in a totally behalf of the Jews in the UK, it had to strange social and religious environment- deal with a revival of ritual murder Even today the KT-AJR office receives accusations in 1840 and to plead, in 1906, requests from people for assistance i"^ for an understanding of increased finding their true identity, to rediscover immigration of Jews escaping from the their original names and places of birth- Russian pogroms. When, in 1917, its The then Jewish community bears a heavy responsibility for failing to meet th^ President opposed the Balfour Left to right, Corinne Oppenheimer, spiritual and physical needs of their Declaration, the Board forced his Helen Freedland, Ann Shearer, guest speaker young co-religionists. Ronald Channing, chairman Henny Rednall, and resignation and continued to support We would wish to encourage the Charlotte Robinson Aliyah. Mr Gourgey went on to trace the compatriots of today's refugee arrivals^ civilising Jewish influence in the Near already living in Britain - some of whon^ Pinner East fi-om Babylonian captivity to the have prospered - to mobilise financial- Richard Tauber was brought back to life Roman and Muslim conquests. He cultural and educational help so tha by AJR member Hanna Graber as she appealed for a historically and legally their own nationals, the 'Kinder' of today recalled in fascinating detail his correct interpretation of events since are not lost to their culture or thei nation. Having granted asylum, ^^^ struggles and successes as singer and 1947 to counteract current Arab government should organise hostels rui^ conductor. Her talk was interspersed propaganda. by responsible adults, including those o with selections of the fabulous Tauber ML Meyer the newcomer's nationality, to speed uP voice with extracts from his legendary Next meeting: 15 March - Alf Keiles on the the integration ofthe asylum seekers. repertoire, courtesy of Alf Keiles' Jewish contribution to jazz. selected recordings in German and New Year Honour English. Memorable music included Brighton Members from all over Sussex met Hans Eilenberg has been appointed MB 'Vilja' (from The Merry Widow), 'Love for 'service to the ex-service community' together informally at Ralli Hall and brings the dawn' and 'The Blue Born in Wurzburg in 1918, he came t" Danube.' As Paul Samet observed in thoroughly enjoyed each other's Britain in the late 1930s where h« his vote of thanks, there was keen company. graduated with a BSc in civil engineering^ audience participation in these 'Desert Fausta Shelton He saw service in the British Army ar^ Island Discs'. Next meeting: 19 March - Rabbi Frank Dabba served on War Pensions Committees an Smith on the Leitz family and how they helped on BLESMA's executive council and is st' Walter Weg Jews during the Nazi period. involved in welfare work.

12 A)R SEDER NIGHT AJR VISIT TO Second Night Seder Service THE LONDON EYE Sunday 8 April on Monday 4 June 2001 Paul Baiint AJR Day Centre £12.50 per person to include coach fare, entrance and lunch 15 Cleve Road, NW6 at the Day Centre

Please phone: 020 7328 0208 for reservations Limited space £20 per person Please apply by 12 April to Carol Rossen or Joan Altman Limited space available for standard wheelchairs Tel: 020 7431 6161 5.45pm for 6.15pm prompt start AJR VISIT TO THE GILBERT COLLECTION AJR-KT LUNCHEON CLUB at Somerset House FOURTH GREAT SEASON! Monday 14 May Guest speaker: Wednesday 21 March 2001 £10 per person to include David Marks 15 Cleve Road NW6 3RL coach fare, entrance and lunch at the Day Centre Designer of 11.45 am for 12.15 pm the London Eye . Please contact Carol Rossen or Joan Altman Tel: 020 7431 616 Reservations , £7.50 for everyone! From Sylvia, Renee and Susie Join us for a fantastic WEEK AWAY at the Cumberland Hotel in Bournemouth 1-8 July 2001 Paul Balint AJR Day Centre 15 Cleve Road, West Hampstead, NW6 £350 per week plus £70 per week single supplement Mon & Wed 9 30am-3.30pm, Tues & Thurs 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 2pm-6.30pm to include transport, half-board, MARCH Afternoon entertainment outings and entertainment Thur 1 Piano & voice - Amanda Palmer Sun 4 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO ENTERTAINMENT Please contact Carol Rossen or Mon 5 KARD & GAMES KLUB Joan Altman on 020 7431 6161 as soon as possible as Tue 6 Pamela Kolirin accompanied by Geoffrey Whitworth numbers are limited Wed 7 Leslie Townsend, violin accompanied by piano Thur 8 PURIM with Katinka Seiner & Laszio Eston Sun 11 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO ENTERTAINMENT Mon 12 KARD & GAMES KLUB AJR 'Drop in' Advice Centre Tue 13 Elizabeth Winton accompanied by David Gosling, piano at the Wed 14 OPERA POPS - Accompanied by Margaret Gibbs, piano Paul Balint AJR Day Centre Thur 15 CURTAIN UP - Accompanied by Michael Heaton, piano 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Sun 18 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO ENTERTAINMENT between 10am and 12 noon on the Mon 19 KARD & GAMES KLUB following dates: Tue 20 Rebecca Ivey, soprano, accompanied by Thursday 8 March Andrew Mathews-Owen, piano Tuesday 13 March Wed 21 LUNCHEON CLUB Thursday 22 March Thur 22 Guyatherie Peiris, soprano, accompanied by William Patrick, piano Wednesday 28 March Sun 25 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO ENTERTAINMENT Tuesday 3 April Mon 26 KARD & GAMES KLUB Tue 27 THE EDDY SIMMONS DUO No appointment is necessary, but Wed 28 Elaine Gee, guitar please bring along all relevant Thur 29 Francoise Geller & Gordon Griffin accompanied by documents, such as Benefit Books, Margaret Eaves, piano letters, bills, etc.

13 Announcements TORRINGTON HOMES Lily Freeman Birthday invites all her friends to the 100th Birthday - Elsbeth Smith (n^e Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. MATRON For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent opening of her exhibition Dunkel), bom Berlin 12.2.1901. Tel: 020 (Licensed by Borough of Bamet) 8904151 l(London). • Single and Double Rooms. • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. •HAPPY PAINTINGS' Deaths • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. at Hampstead Museum Reiner. Isabella Reiner born Vienna 26 June • Nurse on duty 24 hours. Burgh House, 1909, died peacefully London 11 January • Long and short term, including trial period if required. 2001. Sadly missed by family and friends. New End Square, NW3 From £300 per week on Thursday 8 March Seglow. Dorothy Seglow (n6e Dorte Koch) 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours 020 8455 1335 other times 6.30-8.30pm beloved mother and grandmother, died at NORTH FINCHLEY home 21 November, aged 84. Sadly missed by family, friends, colleagues, patients. Exhibition continuing 9-25 March Wittelson. I^ula Wittelson passed away Residential Home Wed-Sun inclusive 12-5pm peacefully on 27 December. Mourned by Clara Nehab House Marion and all other friends. (Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd.) 13-19 Leeside Crescent NWII In memorieun Martin and Lotte Reichenbach and All rooms with Shower W.C.and H/C Basins en-suite • Spacious Garden • Widely Published Author the 281 Jews of Dresden, who were deported Lounge & Dining Room • Lift • Near Shops (English - German) from Hellenberg camp and murdered in and Public Transport • 24 Hour Care Auschwitz that very night 3rd/4th • Physiotherapy • Long & Short Term Requires part-time March 1943. • Respite Care • Trial Periods secretarial assistance. Shorthand and word processing. Enquiries: Classified Clara Nehab House 13-19 Leeslde Crescent Regents Park area Mr Alfons (Alfred) Muller - Ex- London NW11 ODA Phone: 020 8455 2286 serviceman in Pioneer Corps in 251 and 69 Please reply to box number 1261 Company (Darlington) wishes to meet up or Fax 0207 587 8187 with CV with old comrades. Telephone 020 8450 and quoting hourly rate 6794. BELSIZE SQUARE Miscellaneous Services APARTMENTS Manicure & Pedicure in the comfort of 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NWS Tel: 020 7794 4307 or 020 7435 2557 your own home. Telephone 020 8343 0976. # Modern Self-catering Holiday Rooms, Societies Resident Housekeeper, Moderate Terms Near Swiss Cottage Station Kaffee Klatsch Klub, established 1986. BELSIZE SQUARE Monthly entertainment for Jewish SYNAGOGUE Europeans, 60 plus. For further details telephone 020 8554 0443. AOR 51 Belsize Square, NW3 4HX Association of Jewish Ex-Berliners and We organise social and cultural events We offer a traditional style of religious service with Cantor Choir and organ Ex-Breslauers. Please contact Peter to bring together the children of refugees from Nazi persecution. Sinclair 020 88821638 for information. Further details can be obtained from the If you share this background synagogue secretary DayCentre why not join us? Telephone 020 7794 3949

Shirley Lever at the Paul Balint AJR For details contact Oliver on Minister: Rabbi Rodney J Mariner Day Centre. New Clothes for sale, dresses, 020 8427 4091 or email Cantor: Rev Lawrence H Fine underwear, cardigans, etc. Wednesday 14 [email protected] Regular Services: March 9.45-11.45am. Friday evenings at 6.45pni Amanda Goldring at the Paul Balint AJR Saturday mornings at 10am Day Centre will be selling small gifts and a SWITCH ON ELECTRICS Religion School: Sundays at 10am to Ipm Nursery School: 9.15am to 12.15pm selection of outerwear etc. Thursday 29 Rewires and all household Belsize under 3's: 9.30am to 11.30am March 9.45-11.45am. electrical work. PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Space donated by Pafra Limited

AJR AGM ALTERATIONS BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE OF ANY KIND TO LADIES' FASHIONS 51 Belsize Square, London NW3 Sunday 24 June I also design and make Our communal hall is available io( children's clothes cultural and social functions. 2001 West Hampstead area 020 7328 6571 Tel: 020 7794 3949

14 Science Notebook prof Michael spiro Search Notices Samuel Katz, known as Freddie. Born 21 January 1923, brother of Grete (born 1 Uranium and World Events released during fission. A self- October 1920). Son of Marcus and Once again uranium, the heaviest sustaining chain reaction would Malvine Katz from Vienna. Grete left "letal found on Earth, has come into therefore be possible inside a big Vienna to come to England in 1939. the news. Shells coated with depleted enough lump of uranium, releasing Married Josef Teitelbaum, changed name "ranium had been used by NATO in huge amounts of energy. Aware that to Teba. Please contact Grete's daughter the Gulf and Balkan conflicts in order this could lead to an atomic bomb, urgently if you are related or know his to penetrate enemy armour. However, refugee scientists spearheaded a drive whereabouts. Sue Kushner, 79 Brook the impacts produced toxic and mildly to develop one before Nazi Germany Ave., Edgware, Mddx. HAS 9UZ. radioactive dust and concerns were did. Initial developments were carried Tel 020 8958 6793. Email: •"aised in the media about the health out in Britain but after America entered [email protected] effects on those who had inhaled or the war in 1941, the project was swallowed such dust. Uranium has transferred to USA with its greater Flusser. Liesel (Lieselotte) and Susie tigured prominently, in peace and war, resources (see Hitler's Gift, reviewed in (Suzanne), twins, born 1928 in Prague. throughout the 20th century It was December). Came to England in 1939 and lived in discovered in the mineral pitchblende A major problem which was Bankton House, Crawley Don, Sussex in W Klaproth in 1789 and named after eventually overcome was the 1940. Known to have lived in Edinburgh the recently discovered planet Uranus. separation of the two forms (called in 1995 according to Anita Grosz's list. Sought by Jan Rocek (formedy Kurt Over a century later, in 1896, Henri isotopes) of natural uranium. The metal Robitschek), their mother's cousin. Please exists mainly (99.27%) in the isotopic oecquerel found that uranium gave off write to 2636 Laurel Lane, Wilmette, form U-238 while only 0.72% is present •radiation which affected a Illinois 60091-2202, USA. Tel: 847 251 as the isotope U-235. (U is the chemical Photographic plate. Soon afterwards, 159^2. Email: [email protected] 'ârie and Pierre Curie isolated from symbol for uranium; 238 and 235 refer Pitchblende the even more radioactive to the relative weights of the two Nathan Lichtmann-Holler, born ''letal radium (later shown to be nuclei.) Only U-235 is directly Cologne ca. 1920, pupil at the Jawne tormed as part of the slow radioactive fissionable, and to concentrate enough Gymnasium. Left Germany ca. 1938 for decay of the uranium). It was to extract of this minor constituent required a Brussels. May have escaped to Britain in the small amounts of radium (once special chemical engineering plant. the eady war years. Ruth Oppenheimer, Used in cancer treatment) that Uranium is called depleted when most born Cologne, pupil at the Jawne ^'^îum ores were initially mined. The ofthe more radioactive U-235 has been Gymnasium. Left Germany ca. 1938 for ânium was a useless by-product, removed from it. London. Anyone who has known or ^though some was employed as a On 6 August 1945 the first atomic knows anything about either person, <ôlouring agent for ceramics and glass. bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, with please contact Baruch Alon (formerly All this changed after 1939. Hahn well known consequences. The first Schleien), 21 Rosenstreet, Ramat-Gan ^d Strassmaim in Berlin discovered atomic powered submarine was built in 52224, Israel. Tel: 00972 3631 3080. that bombarding uranium with 1955 and the first nuclear powered Fax: 00972 3631 9091. Email: '^ûtrons unexpectedly produced the electricity generator in 1957. Over 20% [email protected] "ghter metal barium. Puzzled, Hahn of Britain's electricity is now supplied ôte to Lise Meitner, his bright by nuclear power, and a much higher German-Jewish ex-serviceman who Jewish co-worker who had fled to percentage in France, Switzerland, was involved with Bomber Command "^êden. She and her fellow refugee Japan, and other countries. The fission during WW2, or Kindertransportee who Otto Frisch then reahsed that the of 1 gram of uranium liberates as fought in any branch of the armed forces, *^nium nucleus must have split apart much energy as burning three tons of or anyone knowing a like character, 'fission). It was soon shown that for coal and, whatever the drawbacks of sought by script writer who would love to ^Very neutron absorbed by the nuclear power, it produces no hear your story! Please contact Jim ânium, more than two others were greenhouse gases. Richardson, 21 Mayeswood Road, Grove Park, London SEI 2 9RR. Tel: 07930- 184522. Email: [email protected] tefan Bukowitz, a valued long-term Stefan Bukowitz professional singer at that time. Later ^°ntributor to AJR Information, has they became aware of the openings îed a few days short of his 90th Interned in 1940 Stefan was shipped out provided by the growing tourist trade, "^hday. He was born into a middle- to Australia and, on his release, joined the and both qualified as a 'Blue Badge ^^s family in Vienna, attended a Pioneer Corps. He served for four years Tour Guides'. After 1975 Stefan took yftinasium and went on to learn the and after demob resumed working with up tour guiding full-time. A year eadier '^'n trade, first in Leipzig and then his father in the skin trade. Peace he had started to write SB's Column for '^nna. Widowed prematurely, his permitted him to indulge his interests, our journal a task he discharged 3ther emigrated to London where including a love of music and the theatre. meticulously for over a quarter of a t^fan joined him after the Anschluss. In 1948 he married Hilde who was a century. He will be missed.

15 H- "

Newsround The exclusivity of death New Ukrainian inquiry Richard Grunberger Lord Janner is asking the Home Secretary to open a new investigation into the existence in Britain of over 1,000 The televised Holocaust Day ceremony Therefore Pol Pot's murder of a million Ukrainians, members of the 14th SS was so moving and dignified that it ought Cambodian 'capitalists' and intellectuals Division Galizien during WW2, some of to have silenced those who criticised cannot be so classified since killers and whom are alleged to have committed war the very concept of an annual killed belonged to the same nationality. crimes. His request follows the Yorkshire commemoration. Its success ought not, Nor does the savage Nazi persecution of TV documentary SS in Britain, which however, blind us to the fact that the homosexuals fit into the category of disclosed new research on massacres in precise nature of the event at Central genocide. Gays do not constitute a Poland. genetic entity; they appear in every Hall, Westminster, left several issues Lithuanian extradition application unresolved. The most fundamental of racial group and 'recur' in every Anton Gecas, an 83-year-old Lithuanian them is whether the Shoah was unique generation. Consequently they can living in Scotland since 1947, could be or fitted into a broader pattern of mega- never be exterminated, as the Jews of extradited to Lithuania eight years after a atrocities. Here, alas, considerations of Europe nearly were. It is equally Scottish civil court was satisfied that he what is true, and what is palatable to debatable whether the dead in recent committed war crimes. The Lithuanian public opinion, are in conflict. The public Balkans conflicts 'qualify' as victims of government is to present new evidence to would presumably view any insistence genocide. In the 1940s Croats be used in the proposed prosecution. In committed atrocities against Serbs - and the light of the case, the Home Office is on the uniqueness ofthe Shoah as a form to of Jewish exclusivity, re-affirming the fifty years later the Serbs behaved reviewing procedures intended to hasten the extradition of suspected waf much-resented claim to 'chosen people' similarly towards Bosnian Muslims. In criminals. status. neither case did the governments responsible intend to liquidate the The organisers of the ceremony at Hungarian accord entire 'enemy' population. Which only An agreement between the Hungarian Central Hall resisted the Armenian leaves the Tutsis of Rwanda and the claim to have been victims of Turkish Government and Hungary's Jewish Gypsies as victims of genocide in the communities records the Government's genocide. This has been criticised as the true sense of the word. But even those support for Holocaust education i" UK's supine response to pressure from a two cases are not quite comparable to schools, commemoration of Holocaust NATO ally - but it needs to be borne in that of European Jewry. One doesn't victims and assistance with the mind that the Turkish massacres of want to quibble about statistics - but the preservation of Jewish memorial sites. 1 Armenians in 1915 were different from fact remains that present-day visitors to including cemeteries. The Government | the Nazi 'Final Solution'. For one, since the Czech Republic, Slovakia or has also given an assurance that it wii' the Turks were religious, but not racist, Romania will find far more evidence of a fund a public Holocaust memorial. fanatics some Armenian women and continuing Gypsy, than Jewish, Wallenberg deal was rejected children were handed over as chattels to presence in those countries. A Swedish newspaper has suggested tha Ottoman officials; for another the US As regards the Tutsis, Hutu atrocities Raoul Wallenberg could have been saveO ambassador and the French Navy if the Swedish Government had accepte" organised effective humanitarian were truly genocidal, but they still had their roots in the long-established a Russian proposal that he be exchange" intervention. That is not to deny that pattern of inter-tribal conflict that for Soviet immigrants in Sweden. Th^ what happened in Syria was a earned the Congo region the soubriquet then Foreign Minister is said to hav^ horrendous crime - for which no refused, disapproving of "trading "^ 'the Heart of Darkness'. Though it punishment was ever exacted. Twenty- human beings." may be ethnocentric - as well as odd years later Hitler cynically undiplomatic - to say so, I am left with remarked "Who now remembers the Too old for prison the impression that the Shoah was Armenians'? One person whom a visit to Maurice Papon, convicted for his part i'' unique. And what made it unique was deporting Jews from France during WW*' the area prompted to jog the memory of the 'philosophical' intention behind it. is applying to the European Court " the world was Franz Werfel. He viewed Hitler, the Catholic-educated arch- Human Rights to be released from prison what the Turks had done to the pagan, intended to create a world from on the grounds of old age. Armenians as foreshadowing what the which the kernel of all religions, i.e. South African Jewish Museum opens Germans were about to do to the Jews - morality, was totally expunged. One of Nelson Mandela opened South Africa and permed The Forty Days ofMusa Dagh his most revealing obiter dicta was as, simultaneously, a chronicle of a half- Jewish Museum and paid tribute to th 'conscience is a Jewish invention'. role of Jewish lawyers during the rr\o( forgotten atrocity and a warning of one Seeing the Jews as what he would term yet to come. recent apartheid era, reports th 'germ carriers' ofthe morality enshrined Jewish Chronicle. The Museum trace Strictly speaking, genocide means the in Mosaic Law, he wanted them wiped the history of, and contribution made by' killing of a genus, or race, of people. off the surfece ofthe globe. the country's Jewish community. ,

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