AJR Information

Volume XLIX No. 4 April 1994

£3 (to non-members)

Don't miss . . . Reflections on the Hidden Children

New title competition p3 Dare we forget? The Survivor's ta.\e pi2 welve days into the countdown from the but to speak out in order to lighten their burden and A Republic Second Seder Night to the beginning of Shavuot to help themselves and each other to come to terms there is a day of quite distinctive sadness which, with their traumatic legacy. without T in the opinion of one Jewish theologian, 'the thinkers Republicans p/6 A book has just been published which records in and the rabbis do not yet know how to observe'. deeply moving fashion the details of a number of these In 1991 it was observed by sixteen hundred Jewish 'secret survivors of the Holocaust'. In it, the 'few men and women meeting in New York for what was speak for the many' of their shared past, of their False analogy possibly one of the most significant experiences of ordeal in the hiding places of their war-time years, their adult lives. They came together to remember that their liberation from immediate danger and its which they would rather have forgotten and to aftermath and of their need to find a way to being fter the Hebron examine that which, after five decades, they were healed at last and so to be released from the prison mosque unable to forget: their childhood innocence destroyed without bars of their mental anguish and despair. A for no good reason other than that they were Jews. massacre a Daily The author of The Hidden Children'' brings Telegraph cartoon Some did not even know until the time in question together twenty-three experiences of long and lonely of a bloodstained that they were of that religion or that 'race'. And weeks and months in 'sewers, closets, barns and hand clutching a others had been raised in the strict tradition of their fields'. Some children were more fortunate than piece of paper ancestors. All owe their adulthood to their own others, finding refuge with a kind and caring Christian amidst spent courage in the midst of fear and to the defiant altruism family or in an orphanage or convent, so that they cartridge cases was of a few, too few, good people. Their forearms do not were at least protected from the harshness of the captioned bear the numbers of camp inmates, since they were elements. But none could hope for more than the Goldstein's List. never caught, but in peculiar ways their personalities slimmest chance of being ultimately spared the dire Drawing and are scarred as though they, too, had been tattooed. words alike fate of parents, brothers, sisters, friends; and all were packed a punch They and their like had been the 'hidden children' forced to learn such lessons as not ever to give way to but the analogy and, at their gathering three years ago, some of them tears or sickness since this might have betrayed them. was woefully took the difficult decision not to stay silent any longer. Thus, they became adults overnight. incorrect. Their stories are both personal and part of a Schindler's List A SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING cohesive whole. Nicole David now lives in London was set among a with her husband. When she was four years old, the continent-wide Germans occupied her native and when the bloodbath, Will be held at 15 Cleve Road, Allies liberated Belgium, she had survived by being executed by the most powerful West Hampstead, London NW6 3RL hidden first by nuns in a convent, then in an attic, later government in on with a large family of Catholics. Her father, too, was still alive, but not her mother. At twelve she made up Europe. Hebron - THURSDAY 12 MAY, 1994, AT 7.30 p.m. site of a pogrom in her mind never to have children of her own lest she 1929 - witnessed a AGENDA would burden them with her own past. local bloodbath Marie-Claire Rakowski was four years old in 1947 carried out by a Revision of Rules of Association of Jewish Refugees In Great Britain when she was taken from her Belgian rescuers and solitary Jewish reunited with her mother and her sister, both seriously fanatic, albeit with A draft of the proposed revised rules will be sent to flawed by their experiences. Her life with them proved the approval of members with the May issue of AJR lnformatior\ and to be one gigantic nightmare and to this day she only fellow settlers. The members wishing to submit amendments should do so majority of settlers in writing to: thinks with love and gratitude of her Catholic and of the Israeli 'parents' who gave her all the childhood happiness she pubhc at large The Director, AJR, I Hampstead Gate, ever had. don't share those la Frognal, London NW3 6AL Joseph Steiner survived the destruction of the views; the Israeli to reach him by Monday 9 May, 1994. Warsaw ghetto. After the war he spent two years in a govemment abhors DP camp near West Berlin. He now lives safely and in them, n comfort in the USA; but 'in himself he is still 'hiding', AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

still 'a runner'. This year, as in the years gone by, the Profile Holocaust Remembrance Day will be observed by a gathering at the Memorial in Director with a seat on the board. In this Hyde Park in order to pay tribute to the six A man exuding capacity he was responsible for installing air million dead. Those called upon to be there warmth conditioning at the National Theatre, St. are enjoined to ask themselves this Thomas' Hospital Extension and other question: '49 years on - dare we forget?' public, as well as commercial buildings. Needless to say, the names of loved ones lost A long-standing AJR member. Wolf will stay forever in the memory of those chaired the Otto Schiff House Committee who mourn them. But if Yom Ha'shoah is a for 10 years, and now does voluntary work day of mourning, it is, in Jewish tradition, at Stanmore Hospital. also a day of consolation. Let us hope that A devoted family man, he also suffered consolation in full measure will descend on the loss of his other brother (on an Israeli those of our 'hidden children' who, forty- aid mission to West Africa) — but in nine years on, dare not remember. compensation he has a granddaughter and a D DLM growing number of Israeli grand nephews ("THE HIDDEN CHILDREN by Jane and nieces. Marks is published in hardback by Judy After many years of generating warmth, Piatkus, London £17.99.) so to speak, professionally, he continues to do so on a personal level. Gecas case dropped The Scottish Crown Office has abandoned its case against Anton Gecas, the Lithuanian Mancunian candidates branded a mass murderer by a judge. The Wolf Salinger. Photo: Newman. Lord Advocate, Lord Roger of Queensferry, olf Salinger was born in Berlin in wo close associates of the Morris said a three-year enquiry had not produced 1915, the eldest son of a dentist Feinmann Home in Manchester enough evidence to prosecute either Gecas and an ex-dental student who received awards in the New Year or any of the other 16 alleged war criminals W T later on had twin boys. In Weimar days he Honours list. living in Scotland. In the light of collapsed attended a Gymnasium expecting to enter Tony Russell, who was introduced to the cases in Canada, Australia and, most no­ his father's profession as a matter of course. Morris Feinmann Home by Heinz Kroch, toriously, the John Demjanjuk acquittal in Alas, his Abitur coincided with the Nazi whom he succeeded as Chairman at Lankro Israel, it has been said that if this case could takeover and he was denied university Chemicals, received a CBE for public not be won, no other ever will. admission. services to the North West. He came to the Mr Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon In this emergency an uncle procured an Home's Management Committee as a col­ Wiesenthal Centre, said: 'Justice has not apprenticeship for him with a Jewish heat­ league and is now a Trustee. been served. If anything, the opposite has ing firm. For the next few semi-normal years Mr Russell has been Chairman of UMIST happened. The result will only encourage of Nazi rule he worked at Berlin building (University of Manchester Institute of crimes of this sort in the future.' D sites, meeting little overt hostility from Science and Technology) Council, Chair­ fellow workers. Eventually he became a man of the Industrial Development Board pipe fitter, cleaning boilers in blocks of flats. for the North West and Chairman of In 1939 (the twins meanwhile having Trafford Family Health Services Authority. COMPANIONS made aliyah) he came to Manchester as a He is currently Deputy Chairman of Traf­ pipefitter/foreman. English acquaintances ford Park Development Corporation and OF LONDON made applications on behalf of his parents, Chairman of Stockport District Health but the war intervened, aborting all rescue Authority. In addition to all the above, he A specialist home care service attempts. After internment on the Isle of considers it: 'a privilege to be associated to assist the elderly, people Man, Wolf went to an underground ammu­ with the Morris Feinmann Home'. with disabilities, help during nitions factory where he welded shell-filling Peter Weidenbaum, who has maintained and after illness, childcare equipment. Such war work involved many close links with the home for many years, and household needs. hours of overtime; even so he managed to received an OBE for this role as a founder meet and marry Margaret, with whom he For a service tailored to your individual needs member of the Bolton Bury Training and by Companions who care - Please call will soon celebrate their golden wedding. Enterprise Council. He is Managing Direc­ Postwar Wolf renewed boiler plants, and tor of Truemeter Ltd, a Radcliffe-based 071-483 0212 installed air conditioning in the card rooms manufacturer of counting, timing and 071-483 0213 and spinning sheds of cotton mills. Then measuring instrumentation which exports 50 per cent of its products worldwide. He is 110 Gloucester Avenue, came a switch-back reversal of fortune: Primrose HIII, after the tragically early death of a brother also President of the regional Engineering London NWl 8JA in Israel's Independence War, Wolf Employers Federation and is a member of (Emp Agy) obtained the post of senior heating engineer its national council. D with a London firm. He was to stay there for Printed by courtesy of Morris Feinmann 32 years, rising to the position of Contracts Home Magazine AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

Dreyfus Affair Centenary events New Title Competition

f this centennial year offers far more than fering. Finally it is the social injustice and . JR Information has been in existence could have been reasonably expected, i.e. ridicule, to which Dreyfus is shown to be for almost fifty years. It began life in I the conventional symposia, memorial exposed in the trilogy's third work, in the A 1946 as an 8 page journal which dealt lectures, exhibitions and new editions of form of a musical satire. Rage and Outrage. specifically with aspects of everyday life relevant books, this is largely due to Buda­ Whyte's two-Act Opera, set to music by affecting members of the refugee commun­ pest-born British-naturalised George R. the young Swiss composer Jost Meier is a ity, concentrating on restitution, immi­ Whyte, who has been devoting the last co-production of the Basel Theater and the gration and news from the Continent. seven years to exhaustive research of every Deutsche Oper Berlin, and due to have its Nowadays, however, as the concerns of conceivable historical aspect of the Affair. World premiere in Berlin on the 8 May. The AJR members have shifted in emphasis When meeting George Whyte these days, musical style is inspired by Berg and Zim­ from those first hard days, the journal's one encounters an almost obsessive urge to merman, very much in keeping with contents cover a much wider canvass: the get to the bottom of any minute detail that Whyte's powerful libretto and its theme of arts, books, travel, comment and, oc­ may have direct or indirect bearing on the unjust imprisonment. (Shades of F). casionally, controversy all form part of its case, or its after-effects. Thus he asked me to The second work of the Trilogy, Dreyfus regular format. Each month, the magazine check in Theodor Herzl's diaries on infor­ — J'accuse, ein Tanzdrama, with music by devotes two pages to covering events of mation gleaned by the Romanian King Alfred Schnittke, libretto by George Whyte, particular interest to members while four­ Carol and related by him to the German and Valery Panov and Josef Svoboda colla­ teen pages cover a diversity of subjects. Emperor, regarding the French General borating in choreography and production, In the course of this evolution, from Staff's abortive attempt to bribe Dreyfus will have its world premiere at the Bonn Association Newsletter to widely-read into becoming one of their criminal Opera House on 4 September. journal, the title AJR Information has accomplices. become somewhat of a misnomer. It no Through the Dreyfus Centenary Bulletin longer reflects the varied content of the of Events (edited by Whyte at Suite 23a, 78 Zorn und Schande magazine, which would hold a great deal of Buckingham Gate, London SWE 6PD) a It will be within the framework of the interest for many people who, whether part comprehensive and up-to-date picture is established Schleswig Holstein Musik Festi­ of the 'refugee community' or not, have presented on all Dreyfus events pro­ val that the world premiere of the musical never bothered to read it since they believe it grammed in Israel, France, Germany, Great satire Zorn und Schande is taking place on to be little more than a bulletin board for Britain and Switzerland. The Centenary's the 5 August in Hamburg. the AJR. piece de resistance is provided by Whyte's Script and libretto are by George Whyte, To correct this misconception of what own dramatic trilogy. Whilst such trilogies who has looked to the writings of Emile AJR Information is actually about, a name as Schiller's Wallenstein, Feuchrwanger's Zola and Edouard Drumont and to chan­ change has been suggested. AJR members Josephus Flavius or Manes Sperber's auto­ sons from the time of the Dreyfus Affair for are invited to submit suggestions for a new biographical works normally possess chro­ inspiration, thereby lending the work a title. nological links, Whyte's musical trilogy certain Cabaret ambience. Luciano Berio If you would like to propose a new name consists ofthree works, each of which looks has done the orchestration and George for this journal please write it on a postcard at the Affair from a different emotional Tabori is producing. and send it to: Mr E. David, AJR Director, angle. Thus the two-Act Opera Dreyfus-Die Whyte makes a point of emphasising the 1 Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, London Affare, illuminates the mental anguish suf­ absolute factual authenticity of all the NW3 6AL. fered by the protagonist, whereas the dance events depicted in his Trilogy. He considers The final selection, which will be made by drama Dreyfus - J'Accuse tends to focus it to be his function to dramatise but not to the AJR Editoral Committee, will take place attention on the protagonist's physical suf- distort. Whilst Whyte thus shows himself to in mid-August. The proposer of the chosen be a firm adherent to historical accuracy — title will receive a £20 Marks and Spencer 'In the Dreyfus Affair the drama is in the gift voucher. D CLUB 1943 truth' - one can only contrast this approach Anglo-German Cultural Forum with a play such as John Osborne's A Meetings on Mondays at 8 p.m. Patriot For Me, where the Austrian traitor at the Communal Hall Redl serves merely as a somewhat feeble YAD VASHEM COMMITTEE Belsize Square Synagogue background to enable the author to lend his 51 Belsize Square sensationalised and completely distorted London NW3 fiction some local colour. TRIBUTE

Apr. 4th. No lecture (Bank Holiday) Looking at the kaleidoscopic Dreyfus to the 6 million dead Apr. 11th. Mr Peter Mayer. 'Caught between Centenary Bulletin of Events, which owes three fires'. .\ family's memories of a Russian pogrom, the Holocaust and the Stahn terror. so much to its planners, its eminent partici­ JOIN the Yom Ha'shoah gathering The search for survivors. pants and last but not least to its spiritus at the Holocaust Memorial Apr. 18th. Mr Daniel Marks. 'Without a City rector, one can only express the belief that Wall' (Film, in German with subtitles). Berlin after the fall of the wall. the creative genius devoted to the memory THE DELL - HYDE PARK Apr. 25th. Mrs Ruth Boswell (TV producer of of this tragic victim of antisemitism will 'The Chief). 'The Making of a Television have produced permanent monuments aere Sunday 10 April, 1994, 11.30 a.m. Series.' perennius. May 2nd. No lecture (Bank Hohday). D F. W. Rosner AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

Reviews

not a fake but a double who moreover Doppelganger greets him with every sign of affection. Pest-watcher from From then onwards all goes helter- Philip Roth, OPERATION SHYLOCK, Cape, Buda skelter. The author, who is adored by many 1993, £14.99 and hated by others - mainly Jews who Andrew Szanton, THE RECOLLECTIONS OF his novel is sub-titled 'A Confession'; regard him with the affection the Moslems EUGENE WIGNER, Plenum Press, New York, at times the reader might be tempted have for Salman Rushdie - does not know $24.50 Tto change that to 'A Confusion'. what to do. Roth-the-Second has him in his Roth's manipulation of 'the twilight of the power. If Number One were to go to the characters' which he so briUiantly demon­ police they would suggest he see a psy­ s a preamble to this review I need to strated in the The Counterlife is even more chiatrist. So he cuts his losses and meets declare an interest: I don't have even pronounced in this his yet more brilliant fellow-writer Appelfeld in an East Jerusa­ AO'level Physics, but my father was book. This time we get two protagonists lem restaurant. Their conversation is inter­ Hungarian. The definition of a Hungarian is calling themselves Philip Roth. rupted by the arrival of a crippled phil­ - allegedly - someone who enters a revolv­ Philip One lives in Massachusetts, USA, anthropist who introduces himself as Louis ing door behind you and comes out in front. and works on his famous and notorious B. Smilesburger and hands the real Roth a Whatever the truth of this piece of folk books. He has a minor knee operation million-dollar cheque to further the cause of wisdom, Hungarian Jews, at any rate, have which is bungled, and since he is in much Diasporism. The stunned Philip accepts the created three major phenomena of the pain he is prescribed the drug Halcion. He cheque. modern world: Zionism (Herzl, Nordau), the British film industry (Korda, Leslie suffers hallucinations and eventually life- As if that were not enough, in a market Howard, Gabriel Pascal) and the atom threatening withdrawal symptoms. During place the real Philip meets his old friend and bomb (von Neumann, Szilard, Teller, his recovery he decides to embark on a series erstwhile fellow student, the Palestinian Wigner). of interviews, for the New York Times, with Arab George Ziad, once a liberal and now the Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld. And an ardent PLO supporter. Ziad embraces as The last-named is the author, though not that is when Philip Roth-the-Second comes an ally the man he takes to be the new, the actual writer, of this biography. Eugene, on the scene. Diasporist, Herzl. For further good measure alias Jeno, Wigner was born in turn-of-the- In Jerusalem this character expounds, the befuddled Philip finds himself playing century Budapest, the son of a prosperous clothed in the aura of the celebrated author, just that role before his long-lost friend. tannery manager. Nominally Jewish, he his gospel of Zionism-in-reverse: if another In the end Philip Roth, eventually back in attended a Lutheran gymnasium where a (Arab-instigated) Holocaust is to be pre­ the US of A, is confronted by 'Smilesburger' whole raft of budding geniuses, such as the vented all Ashkenazim must leave Israel and now revealed as a Mossad executive who mathematician Johnny von Neumann, and reemigrate to Germany, Russia and Poland has driven Phil into using George Ziad to Wigner himself, enjoyed the tutelage of and all the places where their cultural roots introduce him to Yasser Arafat (in Athens). inspirational teachers. (and murdered kin) lie. This piece of Ziad is assassinated, and Smilesburger uses After the Great War Hungary briefly political sleight-of-hand is called every ploy he knows to coerce Philip R. into came under the control of Communists, Diasporism. not revealing the Athens story. Thus the many of whom were Jewish. Purged from The real Roth is incensed; he feels he must book ends abruptly without its final chapter his job Wigner senior expressed his anti- confront the fraudster and spoil his game. (eleven). Instead there is an avowal that the Communism in a bizarre manner by con­ So off he flies to Israel. Still shaky from his whole thing is fiction . . . but the last four verting to Protestantism. Nationally anti­ recent illness he attends a session of the words negate this avowal. semitism was on the increase, and with a Demjanjuk trial, and, while deeply shocked My advice to Jewish lovers of literature: quota limiting Jewish admission to by what he has heard and seen in the court read, shake your heads and enjoy. universities, Eugene Wigner went to Berlin room, is suddenly confronted by himself, D John Rossall to study. Although initially intending to become a chemical engineer, so he might follow his father into the tannery, Eugene F. GOLDMAN was soon drawn into the study of Physics. Curtains made to measure. Select material in JACKMAN• The time and place were propitious. your own home. Tracks, blinds supplied and fitted. Einstein's Relativity Theory had recently Telephone: 081-205 9232 SILVERMAN been proven, and Planck was working on COMMERCIAL PROrERTY CONSULTANT^ quantum mechanics; these two giants, and other scientific luminaries like von Laue and GERMAN BOOKS Heisenberg, were all to be met with in We are always buying: Berlin. By 1930 Wigner had made enough Books, Autographs, Judaica of a name for himself in scientific circles to and German works of art be invited to Princeton. From 1933 Antiquariat Metropolis onwards he used his influence to bring Leerbachstr. 85 threatened colleagues to America. D-60322 Frankfurt a/M More importantly, when in 1939 he Tel: 0104969559451 [""""""""16 ConduiCond t Street, London WIR 9TA heard of Berlin-based Otto Hahn's success REGULAR VISITS TO LONDON Telephone: 071 409 0771 Fax: 071 493 801', in bringing about nuclear fission, he alerted AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

the U.S. authorities to the need for under­ Rudolf Hess's son, Hans Riidiger, is trying taking atomic research in order to forestall See Naples and die to rival Alessandra Mussolini — but without Hitler. Wigner was one of the troika of similar success. scientists who in July 1939 persuaded modern Rip van Winkle wakened In North Korea meanwhile, the ultimate Einstein to send the letter to Roosevelt that after 50 years would find one fam­ Orwellian fantasy figure Kim II Sung is triggered the Manhattan Project. As a Ailiar name in the headlines - that of grooming his son for the succession, unde­ collaborator on the Project he was also Mussolini. What a strange rehabilitation for terred by the fate of the Ceausescus. present when in December 1942 Enrico the bullfrog, the only horseman of the In the civilised world, by a quirk of fate, Fermi initiated the world's first controlled European Apocalypse to die at the hands of the great Winston Churchill has been suc­ chain reaction in a large underground room his own people! Fancy the Duce legitimising ceeded by a namesake who sheds little glory of the University of Chicago; the rest is his genetic-as-well-as-political successor, on the family name. But let's not write off history. It could therefore be said that Alessandra, who ran for Mayor of Naples. genetic endowment: Israel once again has a Wigner was both politically and scientifi­ She, at any rate, ascribes her frighteningly President Weizman, just as it did in 1948, cally involved in the making of the A-bomb. large following to the undimmed charisma the year of its birth. Postwar, too, he remained alert to the of her grandfather. D R.G. threat to America and freedom. The Sovieti- Can a sizable number of Neapolitans sation of his native Hungary pained him really only remember the man who 'made deeply, and, together with Edward Teller, the trains run on time', and not the dis­ THE WALKING the so-called father of the H-bomb, he penser of castor oil, instigator of political tirelessly warned the U.S. public of the murder, bomber of Abyssinian tribesmen STICK Russian threat. His sense of foreboding and dispatcher of thousands to perish in My constant companion and trusted friend about America's future deepened in the frozen Russia? Will see me through right to the end! 1960s, the period of campus revolts and Maybe they remember him as the play­ Such a comfort to know it's there 'flower power'. wright who wrote the Napoleon drama Its manifold uses beyond compare! But that decade also brought compensa­ Hundred Days. By coincidence, after Napo­ tions: in 1963 Wigner received the Nobel leon's death the family name also served as a Apart from giving support as required Prize for Physics for his researches into rallying cry. The Emperor's son, the Duke It buys safe passage across the road. quantum mechanics. of Reichstadt, was sprung by Bonapartists Invaluable when boarding a bus Publicly his life had thus been one of great from his golden cage at the Hofburg All seats taken? One is offered without fuss! achievement. Privately over eight decades and spirited back to France, only to die en he experienced traumas — two of his wives route before he could be crowned Napoleon Retrieving shoes from under the bed died - as well as great joy. He was able to II. Better luck attended the Emperor's Closing small windows save his parents from the Holocaust, and his nephew Louis Bonaparte who, taking Out of reach, overhead U.S.-born children, to his great satisfaction, advantage of the turmoil after the 1848 Once, when in great need came through the disorientating Age of Revolution, made himself Napoleon III and To locate a loo — Time was short Aquarius quite unscathed. A remarkable presided over the outwardly glittering, but What was one to do? and - largely - fortunate man. corrupt deuxieme empire. When finally found D R.G. Subsequent Bonapartist claimants have Oh, what dismay. been known as pretenders — a word not The lock on the door was not O.K. unknown in British history. After 1688 we To help a damsel in distress firstly had the uninspiring Old Pretender, Who came to the rescue, can you guess? and then the much more romantic Bonnie Held at a horizontal stance East-Germany Prince Charlie of '45 fame. In conformity It formed a buffer. At a glance with the more benign historical tradition of The occupier felt secure these Isles both men died in bed. and Berlin Equilibrium was restored once more. That has never been the fate of claimants We give immediate attention. I to the Tsarist throne. Already in Tudor When visiting friends they mean to be kind We process and buy properties/claims. j times, when Henry VII made Lambert 'Don't leave your walking stick behind!' Simnel - impersonator of one of the princes Little they know that could never be We pay cash. murdered in the Tower by Richard III - For my constant companion merely a scullion in the royal kitchen (hence Is part of me. the Simnel cake), Muscovy had a number of Lilly Cyvia documentetion. false Dimitris who died bloody deaths. Opera-goers who have seen Boris Godunov Write to: will be familiar with the story. Even in BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE Nagel & Partner Catherine the Great's reign rebel leader 51 Belsize Square, London, N.W.S UhiandsL'-asse i56 • 10719 Berlin Pugachev, who claimed to be the Tsarina's Phone:030-882 56 31 1 discarded and murdered husband, was able Our communal hall Is available Fax:030-881 39 16 for cultural to cause absolute mayhem. and social functions. But to return to the great evil-doers of the For details apply to: Twentieth Century, Stalin's daughter ended Secretary, Synagogue Office. as a religious maniac, and Hitler left no Tel: 071-794 3949 acknowledged heir. On the other hand AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

who, between 1940 and 1943, as an employee of the Caritas organisation, used her contacts in the area to help many Jewish 2^^tew)£^fe people to escape across the border into Switzerland. Arrested in August 1943 she BLUMENAU BOUQUETS Nazis was a prerequisite of the enormous spent the rest of the war in the concent­ ration camp at Ravensbruck. In 1948 she Sir - I have followed Ralph Blumenau's numbers of people killed. Massacres on this started, and continued until 1987 to edit series of articles on the history of the Jews in scale would have been impossible in earlier single-handed, the 'Freiburger Rundbrief - the German-speaking lands with growing centuries. Furthermore, this technology was Beitrdge zur christlich-jtidischen Begeg­ interest and appreciation. I have found coupled with a bureaucratic organisation nung', which still appears. them most instructive, excellently written which made possible the diversion of vital and truly valuable. The concluding Reflec­ war resources for the arrest, transportation In 1951 she was the first German to tions (Part 17) in your current issue are a and assembly of milhons from all corners of receive an official invitation to visit Israel. In fitting, thoughtful, well-balanced drawing Europe. 1960 a 'Gertrud-Luckner-Hain' was together of the complex threads he has Thirdly, afl the other cases of so-called planted there in her honour. In 1966 she enabled us to pursue — an admirable piece of genocide (a term much too freely used these was presented with the Yad Vashem medal. writing. days), whether we are speaking of the At 93 she now lives in an old people's Thank you for bringing these articles Armenians or the Cambodians, took place home in Freiburg. before us. I hope Ralph Blumenau will within the framework of political conflict or Latimer Road K. Osdierg return to your pages before too long. I also socio-economic upheaval. It is only in the Barnet, Herts feel that this concluding instalment, Holocaust that the mass-murder was moti­ especially, deserves a wider audience, e.g. vated by demonic beliefs which led to an all- MISSING IN RUSSIA on radio and television (Channel 4?). consuming, irrational, ideological obsession which demanded the total eradi­ Sir - The media have been interesting Please convey my compliments and cation of an entire people. themselves in Americans missing in Viet­ thanks to the author. Crespigny Road (Dr) Henry Birnbaum nam. I have a personal interest in a far larger Northfield Road Mrs E. Houlton London NW4 number of totally innocent people who are London W3 missing in Russia, having emigrated there Sir - Mr Blumenau's last paragraph slightly from countries under Fascist control, only Sir - 'A History of the Jews in German- reeks of 'A horror shared is a horror to be caught up in Stalin's purges. This was Speaking Lands' by Ralph Blumenau has halved'. In the jargon of the current Winter the fate of my uncle Ludwig Grusemann, been particularly absorbing. Some months Olympics, I maintain that the downhill architect, my aunt Erna Grusemann, nee ago I had the opportunity to speak with Mr world record for sadism and brutality, set Herrmann, and my cousin Rolf Grusemann. Blumenau, and I put to him the idea that he up by Germany some 50 years ago, has I have found out some facts about them and should consider publishing the whole series never been broken. Rightly earning a gold have also written to various Russian organi­ in one volume. May I repeat this suggestion medal for the meticulous bureaucratic sations, so far without any result. I intend to now in the hope that your influence will thoroughness and scale of bestial achieve­ persist until I hear officially of their fate or help to bring this about? Our Synagogue ment! Not even Idi Amin of Uganda could whereabouts. Library has already got on its shelves Mr match the decline from Beethoven to I would hke to contact others in my Blumenau's complete set of articles from Buchenwald and from Brahms to Belsen, for situation. We could pool information and AJR Information, but were it published which Germany must surely stand unique in resources. T can get help with writing letters under a separate cover, that would of course the eyes of the world. in Russi".n, get names looked up in the Nazi be preferable. I have no doubt at all that Clarence Road Werner Abraham SD Sonderfahndungsliste UdSSR (1949) many libraries would welcome a copy. Sutton Coldfield and in the Protokolle der deutschen Genos­ 6e/s(ze Squore Synagogue Henry Kuttner West Midlands sen Moscow 1936 - 41. London NW3 75 Wellmeadow Road Karl Peter Mayer ONE OF THE JUST Hither Green ... AND BRICKBATS Sir - The review of Geschichte der Stadt London SEI3 Sir - I found the series 'A History of the Freiburg Bd.3 in the February issue refers to Jews in German-speaking Lands' extremely 'some marginal resistance to the Nazis', ANTI-AUSTRIAN interesting, but was shocked to learn, in the including some 'laudable examples of cour­ Sir - Unlike Mr Herbert Anderson (Febru­ very last paragraph, that in Ralph Blume­ ageous altruism'. ary issue) - I do not detect any traditional nau's view the 'Holocaust is a terrible and One such was that of Dr Gertrud Luckner anti-Austrian any more than any anti- haunting example, but not a unique one, of German — stance in AJR Information. Any the depths of unbridled barbarism ... to resentment that surfaces from time to time which mankind can sink'. Because here I CAMPS is surely anti-Nazi, and that is the common profoundly disagree with him. INTERNMENT-P.O.W.- denominator between all of us refugees Firstly, it is only in the attempted annihil­ FORCED LABOUR-KZ living in Britain, whatever our national ation of European Jewry that the eradi­ I wish to buy cards, envelopes and folded post­ origin or religion. In fact I believe that the marked letters from all camps of both world wars. cation of a whole people was planned. Please send, registered mail, stating price, to: Austrian Nazis deserve our detestation even more - if that is possible - than their more Every single Jew, man, women or child, was 14 Rosslyn HIII, London NWS targeted and none was exempt. PETER C. RICKENBACK Teutonic brethren. Austrian antisemitism Secondly, the technology available to the had its root even more directly in religious AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

anti-Judaism, and as such is an even greater life in the Occupied Territories. Did the abomination, for it is a betrayal of their own author of these unfunny verses imply that Museum's 10th Christian religion, which bids them love Robert Fisk's film was a deliberate misrep­ anniversary their 'enemies', charity being the corner­ resentation of what he saw - e.g. Israeli stone of their professed morality. soldiers brutally beating up Palestinian ecember 1, 1993 was an important Connought Avenue £. H. Kenneth youngsters? He does not tell us. landmark for the Hofgeismar Grimsby Quarry Road Park Inge Trott Judaica Museum in North Hesse, Cheam, Surrey D Germany. It was, in fact, its 10th annivers­ CZECH RESTITUTION In my 'Robert Fisk' clerihew I specifically ary. Perhaps this is not much compared Sir - Mr Korda's letter (February issue), took issue with the pro-Fundamentalist with some of the great international appealing for the formation of a Committee slant of his dispatches. The benefits Funda­ museums, but it is certainly impressive in to put pressure on the Czech Government to mentalism would bring to Muslim popu­ the context ofthe region's post-war history. award restitution to aU eligible Czech Jews lations can be clearly seen in present-day It is also impressive so far as the concept of around the world, must strike a cord with strife-torn Afghanistan. Ed. the permanent exhibition, its development many of our compatriots. and its growth are concerned. Perhaps his letter will encourage yet more BRESLAU BUILDING This museum is part of a larger complex of us to come forward and pledge their Sir — I was recently given a picture which is, devoted to local cultural history. It is support for such an action. Surely, given I believe, of a building in Breslau, possibly housed in a half timbered structure built as sufficient publicity, an able organiser — part of the University. As I left Breslau long ago as the year 1500, beautiful!) preferably someone with legal training and before I was two years old I unfortunately modernised and adapted for its present who is au fait with legislative procedure in cannot identify the building myself. If any of purpose. Michael Dohrs, now a pastor in today's Czech Republic - will emerge to your readers are able to help I would be nearby Kassel, has from its inception take the matter firmly in hand? most grateful if they would get in touch with j accepted responsibility for the Judaica I shall be interested to see ensuing corre­ me. I Collection. He stresses the importance of spondence resulting from Mr Korda's Replies to Box No. 1257. ! cultivating contacts with former Jewish initiative. Paul Honigmann residents of the North-Hessian districts and Edgwarebury Lane F. Flatter he likes to think that the Jewish exhibits Edgware, Middx OSSIETZKY I would have given some quiet satisfaction FRIENDLY FIRE CASUALTY Sir — You would have done better not to and gratification to their former owners. publish G Schmerling's letter about Carl It is of special interest that the annivers­ Sir - The difference in kind referred to by von Ossietzky in the February issue! The ary was considered important enough for Mr Zander is akin to speaking of a right and writer is either too young or too ignorant to the head ofthe Evangelical Hessian Church, left hand; both belong to the same body. refer to such an outstanding personality. Bishop Prof. Dr. Zippert, to pay an official - No Jew with any real understanding of URO Frankfurt David Atzmon visit to the Museum accompanied by a Judaism or of Rabbis Hillel and Maimo­ number of religious, civic and other digni- nides could possibly prefer the muddied 1 taries. The Jewish Museum is the proud waters of Catholicism or any other non- FUNNY PECULIAR ' possessor of a library of some 2000 volumes Jewish faith. Sir — Thank you for publishing an excerpt which, together with the exhibits, enhanced Some few have changed for not being able by the facihties available in the museum to cope with the terrible pressures of from my rejoinder to 'Diabolical follicles' in your February edition. building for study and meetings, strengthen antisemitism, and some simply belong to the efforts of Christian-Jewish co-oper­ With reference to your footnote, I am the 'League of Trembling Israelites'. As for ation. Equally, if not even more impor­ sorry that I did not detect the humour in the implied peace recipe: some wish to tantly, this makes it possible to teach school your article: to me, the whole matter simply honour their parents and antecedents and children and other young people this facet sounded ridiculous. do not want to assimilate. If there is room in of German as well as Jewish culture and Eost Hill, Ruth Willers this world for Teutons, Africans, and history. The Museum management feel that Wembley Park others, there is also room for Jews. some contribution is thus provided to make Middx Linsay Drive H Needham a recurrence of the tragic 1933/45 events Harrow, Middx impossible. D AUTO SUGGESTION Sir — I thought some of your readers might ISRAELI-TINTED SPECTACLES recall the following, in connection with the EAST BERLIN AND LEIPZIG Sir - The author of 'Robert Fisk' in takeover of Rover by BMW: Februar)-'s Verse and Worse must have been When the takeover of Rovers by BMW We want to buy properties/claims. We wearing Israeli-tinted spectacles whilst was announced, I remembered the early make immediate decisions and pay cash for future claims. watching Fisk's TV documentary on daily nickname of BMW cars. They were known by their Company's initials as Bayrische Please contact Fanni Prais, Mistivagen. Prais and Epstein, 13 Park Drive, Annely Juda Fine Art Today their image is more upmarket, so London NW11 7SN 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) Rovers will at least be spared this epithet. Tel: 071-629 7578, Fax: 071-491 2139 West Avenue, Eva Wittenberg Tel: 081-201 9484 Fax:081-209 0634 CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Pinner AND SCULPTURE Berlin: 0104930-217 7819 Middlesex AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

Concert series continues A A I ^^ members will be delighted ^^^^^^^^^l^iM»|t2^^^^H ^A I W^ to hear that the AJR An- # \ I I wiual Charity Concert, ^ which had to be cancelled due to problems in finding a suitable venue last year, will be going ahead as usual this '/''•''i'^ year, on 4 September. Once more, the South If Bank will play host. However, this year's venue will be the Purcell Room which has a seating capacity of only 370. The artists will be Erich Gruenberg and Anthony Gold- stone who will perform the programme originally planned for the 1993 concert, including works by Schubert, Chopin, Kreisler and Beethoven. Tbe AJR .Aiinuiil Charity Concert Series is set to make a welcome return. Photo of 1992 concert: Newman. In response to members who have over ii years ago and, in that time, have made a Details about these concerts and ticket the years pleaded for the Annual Concert to major contribution, far in excess of their apphcation forms will appear in AJR Infor­ be held at a time of the year when the numerical size, to British life in academe, mation over the coming months. weather is, theoretically, more clement, the the arts and business. Once a year they D M.N. 1995 concert has been booked for 30 April, gather to meet old friends, compare notes when it will return to the place which, over and catch up on gossip. When this commun­ AJR BOUQUET the past 28 years, has been its regular home: ity meets the atmosphere is rich, both the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The artists at this Dear Sir - Thank you very much for the intellectually and emotionally, and, no wonderful meals which have been delivered traditional get-together will be the inter­ matter who provides the musical entertain­ nationally renowned Schidloff Quartet. to my home during my illness. I cannot ment, each event is uniquely unforgettable. praise them highly enough: beautiful food The AJR concerts represent more than an of the highest quality, prepared with care afternoon out to our members. They are an and thought. I loved it, it saved me and I am, annual reaffirmation of the refugee and remain, extremely grateful to all those community's spirit and strength. Most of AJR INFORMATION concerned. You deserve very high praise. our members came to this country over 50 is available on tape I did not know that such kindness and If you, or anyone you know, would like skill existed. With many grateful thanks, to take advantage of this valuable E.F. AJR MEALS ON WHEELS service Please contact: A wide variety of high quality l

A Message from Ernest David to speak out. We are the living witnesses of history. Do not forget we were once refu­ ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING gees, and even if we have settled into our j ^^urim is behind us and we are in the new environment, let us not hide this from 1 P^middle of Pesach. Both mark the our children, and our Jewish and non- Will be held at IS Cleve Road, West Hampstead, London NW6 3RL 1 miraculous escape of Jews from their Jewish friends. D persecutors. There is as yet no religious holy 1 day to commemorate those Jews who did THURSDAY 2 JUNE. 1994, not escape from the Shoah, and those who Police Band AT 7,30 p.m. survived, from the camps, by hiding or as Please note that under the proposed new rules: refugees. Those who did survive had their No person other than a committee member lives shattered, or at least violently •^^"he Metropolitan Police Band, which 1 has provided a rich selection of music retiring by rotation shall be appointed or disturbed. reappointed a committee member at any In February, Spielberg's film Schindler's 1 to members of the Paul Balint AJR general meeting unless: Day Centre in the past, will be making a List opened to great acclaim. There are Jews (a) he or she is recommended by the who believe we do not need reminding of very welcome return visit on Wednesday 29 Committee or Management or June. The concert, provided as part of the these things, who even deny their Judaism, (b) not less than fourteen nor more than and hide their history from their children. Day Centre's regular entertainments calen­ thirty-five clear days before the date There are Jews who say: We know what dar, will begin at 2.30 p.m. A larger than appointed for the meeting, notice executed by 10 members qualified to vote happened — why harp on it? usual audience is expected for the event as the uniformed ensemble always present a at the meeting has been given to the j However, there are millions in the fine spectacle in addition to providing a Society of the intention to propose that 1 Western world, let alone elswhere, who do person for appointment or reappointment treat for music lovers with a varied menu not know, and it is axiomatic that those together with notice executed by that ranging from military marches to classical who ignore history are condemned to repeat person of his willingness to be appointed music medleys via well-remembered 'golden or reappointed. its disasters. We see this in many parts of the oldies'. • ^f^ world today, and so, my message to you, is

PAUL BALINT AJR Monday 11 OPERA & OPERETTA IN Sunday 24 THE HARROW SCHOOL DAY CENTRE APRIL - Laurence Hart FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS (Baritone) &C Joanne BIG BAND - Conducted bv 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Fellerman (Soprano) Dave McQuater Tel. 071 328 0208 accompanied by Geoffrey Monday 25 SINGING FOR FUN - The Whitworth (Piano) Longford Singers Tuesday 12 SPRING SONG & MUSIC accompanied by Margaret Open Tuesday and Thursday 9.30 a.m.- - Sue Kennett (Soprano) Eaves (Piano) 7 p.m., Monday and Wednesday 9.30 a.m. accompanied by Richard Tuesday 26 WELL-LOVED LIGHT 3.30 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m.-7 p.m. Hoyle (Piano) CLASSICAL FAVOURITES Wednesday 13 THE MELODIANS - Susan - Sarah-Jane Dale (Soprano) Reed, Alun Davies accompanied by Geoffrey accompanied by Ron Whirworth (Piano) Morfiiug Activities - Bridge, kalookie, Mitchell (Piano) Wednesday 27 •QUARTISSIMO' - Alison scrabble, chess, etc., keep fit, discussion Thursday 14 Tracey Thurloy & Geoffrey Friend - Norma Roth - group, choir {Mondays), art class {Tuesdays Whitworth Entertain on Suzanne Goodman - Ann and Thursdays). CLARINET & PIANO Sadan Sunday 17 SONGS FOR ALL - Shirley Thursday 28 DUO KINNER - Madeline Gurevitz with Piano Whitelaw (Piano) & David Accompaniment Richard () Aftemoon entertainment - Monday 18 THE RICHARD TAUBER APRIL MEMORIES - George ^^^^^^_ Kazanzi (Baritone) Sunday 3 CLOSED HHHHpi accompanied by Happy Monday 4 CLOSED Branston (Piano) MAY Tuesday 5 'SANG U. KLANG IP - Tuesday 19 MUSIC HALL & CABARET Angela &C Nicholas ENTERTAINMENT - Sunday 1 'OVERTURE &c Arratoon, Diana & Anita Elias BEGINNERS PLEASE- - Elizabeth Legroux Wednesday 20 TAKE A QUICK-STEP Accompanied by Margaret

accompanied by Maurice SE||^ BACK IN TIME - Geoffrey Eaves (Piano) Hermele (Piano) Strum (Tenor) accompanied Monday 2 CLOSED Wednesday 6 THE STANLEY & by Helen Blake (Soprano & Tuesday 3 LIGHT CLASSICS - Trinity BERTHA LISHAK DUO - Piano) College of Music (Violin & Piano) Thursday 21 SONGS - DUETS &c ARL\S Wednesday 4 'FRUEHLINGS GLAUBE' - Thursday 7 THE WILLIAM PENN BY VERDI &: MOZART & Ruth Warren (Soprano) SCHOOL ENTERTAIN YIDDISH & HEBREW accompanied by Gary Cole Sunday 10 SINGING AT 'SEVENTY' MELODIES - Michael Sabel (Piano) - Fred Rosner (Bass) &C HH^^^K & Satya Barham Thursday 5 HEALTH - SAFETY IN Guest Arrist accompanied ^^^^^^H accompanied by Geoffrey THE HOME - Talk by Paul by Rosa Burwick (Piano) HHB Whitworth (Piano) Mazzina AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

FAMILY EVENTS Staadecker Olga Staadecker Tommy who died suddenly March ing to learn, or improve their game, Deaths (formerly of Mannheim) peacefully 1956 not quite 11 years old. 'To the should apply to Box No. 1258. Plaut Olga F. Plaut. The passing of at Eastwood Court Nursing Home, world they were only grains of sand, Wanted Chess Player of medium Oily has left beautiful memories of a Glasgow, on 12 March 1994. She to me they were the world'. ability. Box No. 1246. lady whose life was an inspiration to will be sadly missed by all her many all who had the good fortune to friends. Notice know her. Her very existence in Memoriam created a memorial in the minds of Miscellaneous Please note that Mr Braham Weiss Karl Weiss who left me Lassman is no longer, in any way, her loving family and many friends Electrician City and Guilds quali­ heartbroken March 1982, also connected with AJR. all over the world. She will be sadly fied. All domestic work undertaken. 1 missed by her friends Elli and Grete, Hillside Court, Y. Steinreich. Tel: 081-455 5262. her nine great grandchildren, four Fi nchley Road NW3 Manicure and pedicure in the com­ j Spacious 1 bedroom flat on raised grandchildren and heartbroken fort of your own home. Telephone SEEKING FRIENDSHIP 1 ground floor of well-maintained daughter and son-in-laws Margot 081-455 7582. Are you looking for congenial i purpose- juilt block. Ready to move-in. and Henry Wallace and Harvey £79,950. Sole Agent West End Bridge teacher Edith Kaplan, who company in your area, or a Steinhart. Estates, Residential Sales and taught at the Paul Balint AJR Day new penfriend with shared Lettings Specialists. Centre, is now booking for spring interests? Why not advertise 071-794 1000. in AJR Information? MUSIC FROM TEREZIN and classes. Anyone wish- A concert of music from the Phone: 071-431 6161 and composers of Terezin will be ask for the advertising performed on IRENE FASHIONS department. formerly of Swiss Cottage. SUNDAY 10 APRIL, 1994 Sizes 10 to 50 hips AT 8 p.m. NEW SPRING & SUMMER COLLECTION OF at The Sternberg Centre for SHELTERED FLATS CONTINENTAL & ENGLISH FASHIONS Judaism, The Manor House, 80 TO LET East End Road, Finchley N3 Everything to appeal to the 'Woman of taste' at affordable prices and a comprehensive range of Separates e.g. blouses, trouser suits, A few flats still available at Tickets should be booked In trousers and skirts. advance from Pam Lewis on Eleanor Rathbone House 081-346 2288. For an early appointment kindly ring before I I a.m. Highgate N6 or after 7 p.m. 081-346 9057. Details from: Mrs K. Gould, AJR, on 071-431 6161 Tuesday and Thursday INSTITUTE OF ANTHONY J. NEWTON mornings. CONTEMPORARY Viewing by appointment only. HISTORY and WIENER &C0 LIBRARY SOLICITORS R.&G. Genocide and Rescue in Hungary, (ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS) 1944 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead, NW3 5NB LTD.

An international conference marking ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN 199b Belsize Road, NW6 the SOth anniversary of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry in Telephone: 071 435 5351/071 794 9696 624 2646/328 2646 March-July 1944. Members: E.C.A. 17-18 April 1994 at the N.I.C.E.I.C. Marylebone Room, International SHELTERED FLAT Students House, 229 Great BELSIZE SQUARE Leo Baeck Housing Association Portland Street, London Wl. APARTMENTS at 11 Fitzjohns Avenue NW3, near ALTERATIONS Registration fee: £35 full; Friends of the 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, N.W.3 Swiss Cottage. OF ANY KIND TO Wiener Ubrary and concessions £20. Tel: 071-794 4307 or 071-435 2557 Bed-sitting room, kitchenette, LADIES' FASHIONS bathroom, entrance hall, resident I also design and make

MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY warden. children's clothes CLARA NEHAB HOUSE ROOMS, RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER West Hampstead area Leo Baeck Housing Association) MODERATE TERMS. Contact Mr A. Flynn: 081-958 NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION 13-19 Leeside Crescent, NWll 5678 071-328 6571 has available for immediate (Hon. Adnninistrator/Treasurer) occupancy a room with facilities for an elderly person; trial period, if required. SWITCH ON Contact: Mrs Gloria Randall or Miss TORRINGTON HOMES Jackie Allan, OSHA, AUDLEY ELECTRICS The Bishops Avenue, N2 OBW MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N., REST HOME Rewires and all household Telephone: 081-209 0022 MATRON For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent (Hendon) electrical work. {Licensed by Borough of Barnet) for Elderly Retired Gentlefolk PHONE PAUL: 081-200 3518 ' Single and Double Rooms. Single and Double Rooms with wash FOR FAST EFFICIENT FRIDGE ' H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. basins and central heating. TV lounge & FREEZER REPAIRS • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. ' Nurse on duty 24 hours. and dining-room overlooking lovely C. H. WILSON 7-day service * Long and short term, including trial garden. Carpenter All parts guaranteed period if required. 24-hour care—long and short term. Painter and Decorator From £250 per week French Polisher J. B. Services 081-445 1244 Office hours Licensed by the Borough of Barnet Antique Furniture Repaired Tel. 081-202 4248 081-455 1335 Other times Enquiries 081-202 2773/8967 Tel: 081-452 8324 until 9 pm 39 Torrington Park, N.12 Car: 0831 103707

10 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

Alice Schwab's

icasso: Painter/Sculptor at the Tate Gallery (until 8 May), is a very Pimportant exhibition which should on no account be missed. Picasso is known to everyone as a brilliant painter, but this exhibition convincingly shows that his three-dimensional work was intimately connected with his paintings and drawings. The Ben Uri Art Gallery is showing (11 April-1 May) works by Leonard Baskin, the well-known American Jewish artist. Included in the exhibition are drawings, prints, books and sculpture. From 23 May— Three Heads. Giovanni Bellini (1459-1516). Photo courtesy of The British Museum. 3 July the Ben Uri will be showing new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery surviving oil paintings produced for the acquisitions and old favourites from its continues until 17 April. The National Royal Factory and which were Permanent Collection to mark the publica­ Portrait Gallery is also the first British venue translated by weavers into decorative hang­ tion of the revised and enlarged edition of its for the touring exhibition of work by the ings for the royal palaces. The National catalogue. celebrated American photographer Annie Gallery is showing Claude: The Poetic The Golden Age 1730-1760 exhibition Liebovitz (until 30 May). Landscape (until 10 April). at the Victoria and Albert Museum ends on Goya: Truth and Fantasy at the Royal Lily Freeman is showing once again at 24 April, but the magnificent new Glass Academy (until 12 June) is the first major Burgh House, New End Square, for three Gallery, displaying over 6,000 objects, exhibition of the painter's work to be held weeks from 27 April. She tells me that she opens on 27 April, and Pugin: A Gothic in London for nearly thirty years, and has a whole band of people who collect her Passion, the first exhibition to examine the includes many Goya portraits and the paintings. D work of Augustus Pugin (father of the Gothic revival) runs from 15 June to 11 September. Birthdays. George Tabori, Hungarian- born theatre director and author of some 20 As part of the Spanish Arts Festival in SB's Column plays, had his SOth birthday. A contro­ London the Hayward Gallery is showing versial figure, he worked in Hollywood Salvadore Dali: The Early Years (until 29 ^W ^^ Years ago. 1 April 1924 was the during the war, returned to Vienna in the May). Dah, showman and artist, experi­ M • • opening date for Max Rein- Fifties and had his latest play The 25th hour mented in youth with a bewildering variety M \w hardt's refurbished Josefstadt premiered there a short while ago. - Lisa of styles before finding his own individual theatre in Vienna with Goldoni's Diener della Casa, born in Switzerland, an operatic manner. Early works from his 'teens in zweier Herren. This comedy, together with soprano of outstanding beauty, is 75. Catalonia, his years as a rebellious student Schiller's Kabale und Liebe and Der Delightful in many Mozart and Strauss in , and his fully fledged Surrealist Schwierige by Hugo von Hofmannsthal parts, she made Arabella her own special works are all included in the exhibition. dominated the repertory for the first few role, performing that part also at London's The Embassy of the Federal Republic of months promoting the illustrious ensemble Royal Opera House in 1953 and 1965. Germany is sponsoring three exhibitions - Hugo, Helene and Hermann Thimig, which explore German Romanticism, Sybille Binder, Gustav Waldau, Anton Obituary. Film director Axel Corti has namely German printmaking in the Age of Edthofer, Hermann Romberg, Adrienne died at the early age of 60. He was an Goethe at the British Museum (20 May-11 Gessner and Egon Friedell — and managed indefatigable worker to the end, his last September); Friedrich to Hodler: A Roman­ to maintain a uniquely high standard until ambition being completion of the film tic Tradition, at the National Gallery (8 1938 when this theatre became just one of Radetzkymarsch, based on Joseph Roth's June^ September); and The Romantic Germany's many stages. novel. His trilogy of refugee tribulations, called Wohin und zuriick created a tele­ Spirit in German Art 1790 to 1990 at the Successes on the Contiryerit. British and vision event that left a lasting impression. Royal Scottish Academy and the Fruitmar- American plays rank highly in present-day ket, Edinburgh (28 July-4 September). German-speaking theatres. Recently one Interesting exhibitions currently at the could see Osborne's The Entertainer at the British Museum include The Study of Ita­ Thalia in Hamburg, Dancing in Lughnasa Correct/on. In our report on the first lian Old Master Drawings (until 24 April), and Oleana in Vienna, plays by O'Neill and Vienna performance of Lehar's Giuditta Victorian Illustrated Books: The Heyday of Orwell in Berlin, and Black Comedy by {AJR, February 1994) the name of Richard Wood-Engraving (also until 24 April) and Peter Shaffer in Ziirich. All these plays were Tauber's partner was erroneously given as Treasured Miniatures: Contemporary Net­ well attended, although numbers of perfor Vera Schwarz. It was, in fact, Jarmila suke (until 17 April). mances do not compare with figures Novotna (whose obituary appears on p. The Holbein and the Court of Henry VIII reached in this country. 15). The mistake is much regretted. D

II AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

wards, towards Germany. Mid-November origin. Life was very orderly and peaceful. The survivor's tale we arrived in Budapest, where I risked Towards the end of December we heard simply walking out of our barracks, while the distant rumblings of Russian guns. Day 50 years ago the Holocaust reached Hungary my comrades distracted one of the guards. by day the front line crept nearer. On 3rd 1 had a boy soldier's identity card on me, January 1945 in the early evening a German unday, the 19th of March 1944 is stolen during the summer from a shepherd officer came in and curtly told the Dea­ forever engraved on my mind. boy who worked near our camp. I adopted coness house-mother, to vacate our villa S A student at the Jewish Teachers' his name, Emil Pasztor, and identity. within hours; the Wehrmacht were going to Training College in Budapest when the I was lucky, nobody asked for my papers. instal a heavy gun in the garden and occupy Gestapo occupied it, I just managed to slip During the day I wandered in the street and the building. out of the building and travelled home to even went to the cinema. I slept in doorways We arranged by telephone to go to Pastor Miskolc. or cellars and heard the Arrow Cross gangs Sztehlo's house. We woke the younger In early summer we, my mother, sister round up Jews and shoot them on the banks children and filled up our pockets with and hundreds of fellow Jews were rounded of the Danube. One night I slept in the sugar cubes. The nurses packed some first up at the brick factory of Miskolc-Dios- annexe of the Dohany Street Synagogue, aid equipment in case of casualties. About gyor. The gendarmerie treated us very where I heard of a priest by the name of thirty children and ten adults, we walked roughly. It was a frightful day and night of Gabor Sztehlo who gave shelter to Jewish silently through deep snow in single file. In shooting, shouting and crying. We heard children. front and at the back German soldiers, guns the cattle wagons arriving as we huddled at the ready, escorted us, helping to carry together on the bare floor without sleep. Office in Buda sleeping Jewish toddlers. The morning brought a miracle. A Hun­ At the door Pastor Sztehlo and his young garian Army officer. Captain Kalman Hor­ On a late November afternoon I arrived at wife were awaiting us. In their flat we sat vath, ordered all men aged 15 to 70 to his office in Buda, only to be stopped by a where we could. After a short time Mrs. gather in the courtyard. The 40 of us had to fat doorman. We exchanged a few loud Ilona Sztehlo served us steaming hot car­ form a soldier-like company. When the words, when an elegantly dressed young, away-seed soup, and we ate up all her gendarmerie commander reprimanded Cpt but grey-haired man appeared. It was the family's reserve food that morning. The Horvath, the latter had his soldiers sur­ Pastor who smilingly invited me into his Sztehlo's had two young children. Their flat round our group with rifles drawn, and office. When, recovered from my surprise, I already sheltered the fat doorman and his shouted: 'These men are enlisted in the confessed my Jewishness, he said he would wife, as well as a Communist writer on the Hungarian Army Labour Corps'. Turning, send me to a children's home. Then he wanted list of the Arrow Cross. Days passed he ordered us to march towards the exit handed me a document (headed Comite and the firing got closer, but the proximity gate. International de la Croix Rouge - Delega­ of the Sztehlos gave me a secure feeling that At the beginning, life in the labour camp tion en Hongrie) to the effect that Emil 1 could only perish by accident of war like was bearable. However, after 15th October, Pasztor, refugee student, was employed as a any other person. when power passed into the hands of the messenger by the CICR; it was signed Gabor Sztehlo, Evangelical-Lutheran priest. Now I realised what heroic work Sztehlo Nazi Arrow Cross party, camp life changed was doing. With the help of the Inter- for the worse. A new sadistic officer took Director of the Childrens' Homes. command of our batallion. As the Russians In the children's home on Buda hilltop advanced, we were ordered to march west­ nearly everybody was Jewish, or of Jewish

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12 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

national Red Cross and the goodwill of its understanding. May from Auschwitz. I stayed with Sztehlo delegate, the Swiss Friedrich von Born, In the last days of January, after heavy until the summer of 1948. Sztehlo organised many homes for mainly fighting in our garden, the Russians liber­ He never wanted to convert any of us. In Jewish children. I visited some of them ated us. Our shelter's door was 'opened' by fact it was he who made me go to the during December as a messenger. Usually a hand grenade ... we pushed the frigh­ synagogue on Yom Kippur 1945. there was a sign on the door saying This tened Communist writer towards the door, After the war it came to light that Sztehlo Children's Home is under the protection of and he shouted in Russian 'Towarish! had saved over 900 children and more than the IRC. Sometimes, at Sztehlo's request, I Towarish! here are only civilians and chil­ 500 adults. took food to adults, who were hiding in dren.' Pastor Sztehlo stood there in his Pastor Gabor Sztehlo was the first Hun­ cellars and in ruined houses. cassock, oil lamp in his hands hfted up high. garian awarded Yad Vashem's Medal of the Opposite Sztehlo's house was the Japa­ The smoke had not cleared completely, Righteous, in 1972. As he was living in nese Ambassador's deserted residence. Its when the writer 'introduced' Sztehlo to one Switzerland at the time, the medal was given cellar was the H.Q. of the local German of the Russian officers. They shood hands. to him in Berne. I had the great privilege and command. The officers regularly visited our 'Nyemetzky soldat?' he asked, as they honour to speak at the ceremony, in the shelter. They talked to the Sztehlos, and looked for German soldiers. name of the rescued 'Sztehlo children'. He sometimes I could hear them talk. On one died in 1974 at Interlaken. occasion an older officer, a doctor from In 1984 his son Gabriel planted a tree in Hamburg, indicated that he guessed who Close call his memory at the Yad Vashem Garden of the children Sztehlo was sheltering were and All the men were ordered to come up to a Remembrance. expressed his admiration for him. The same ground floor room, one by one. As my turn Dear reader, when you visit Budapest, go officer assured Sztehlo, that no Hungarian came, the officer pointed at me: 'Nye­ up to the Castle District in Buda. Please Fascist was allowed to set foot in his sector metzky'! ... I nearly fainted ... he thought walk, less than 5 minutes from the Hilton of the front. He gave us practical help in the 1 was a German soldier in civilian dress. It Hotel, towards Becsi Kapu Ter Evangelical form of an army truck and driver to collect took a long time for Sztehlo to explain that I Church. On its wall is a plaque inscribed food from the Swiss Red Cross stores in was one of his charges and 'To the memory of Pastor Gabor Sztehlo, Buda Castle. Hungarian-Jewish. the saviour of the persecuted'. During this time the Fascist gangs were Liberated, I looked forward to a better We, the 'Sztehlo Children' erected this murdering Jews by the thousands. We got future. In the following month I continued memorial to the memory of the man, who the sad news about the massacre of the my studies at the Jewish Teachers' Training for us was a saint, in the Biblical sense of the inhabitants of the Maros Street Jewish Old College. At the same time I worked with word. People's Home. Dr. Roth and his wife were Pastor Sztehlo to organize a home, named I make my pilgrimage there every year. among the victims. Their two teenage PAX, for the countless homeless and There we meet, the grey haired 'children' children were with us. Sztehlo and his wife orphan children of the war. coming from all over the world with their comforted them with great love and My mother and sister returned home in children, to remember. G Pal Foti-Friedlander

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followed by many years in the legal pro­ Cooking with Gretel Beer Birthday fession from which he retired only a few years ago as partner in a prominent firm of London solicitors. Owen Franklyn - 80 Music, and in particular chamber music, Birthday greetings to Owen Franklyn who have always been his great joy. Although no will be 80 on 28 April. Born in Hamburg, a longer an active musician, his knowledge fact which has left a special imprint on him, and experience ensure that his advice and he looks back over a life which brought guidance are hstened to with respect. He much happiness, bur also a full measure of joined the executive of the AJR in 1972 and sadness. He had the good fortune to find as trustee of its Charitable Trust he served both satisfaction and success in his long until his retirement in 1989. He continues to professional career. The death of his wife represent the wider interests of the Lorfe 3 Gateau Helga was a great shock from which he community as a member of the Council of recovered, fortified by the love of his family Jew from Germany. From 1985 until 1989 he recipe for this very rich chocolate and that of his very many friends. he served on the council and management gateau was given to me originally by Following his father's sudden death he committee of the Otto Schiff Housing TLore Minich, late wife of Vienna's decided to leave Germany when the Nazis Association. His advice and devotion to the favourite tenor, Peter Minich, and in my came to power and reached England in cause were always most helpful. family it has always been known as 'Lore's 1933, having spent some months reading We extend to him our heartfelt wishes for Gateau'. Many years later an old friend of law in Grenoble and Geneva. His studies many years of good health and happiness. ours presented me with 'our special choco­ were completed in London and were D LS. late gateau recipe - it's been in the family for generations'. I accepted gratefully, but when 1 came to take a closer look, there it was: Lore's Gateau! Who's to say which came first and far be it from me to enquire, though I'd love to know how it came to be LANDAU, BAKER & CO passed on. Chartered Accountants Registered Auditors Ingredients Albany House, 324/326 Regent Street, 6 eggs London W1R5AA 180 g (62 oz) plain or bitter chocolate Company Audits, Individuals and Partnership Accounts and Taxation 180 g (6ioz) butter Wages; Acquisitions Systems and other specialist work 180 g (62 oz) icing sugar Initial free consultation. Competitive Fees. dash of rum Telephone: 071 636 2727 Fax: 071 436 0727 butter and flour for the cake tin chocolate shavings or grated chocolate for decoration THE JEWISH GENEALOGICAL Butter and flour a 25 cm (10 inch) spring- Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN clip cake tin. STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST would welcome donations of books, Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 1, 275°F, Surgery hours: 140°C. particularly 'Yizkor' books and any other 8.30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday items of genealogical interest - family trees, Separate eggs. Break the chocolate into 8.30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday maps etc in any language. We will collect or small pieces and set to melt in a warm place. pay delivery charges. Visiting chiropody service available Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggyoiks gradually, 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp. M&S) Please contact: Saul issroff beating well after each addition. Beat in the 29c Elsworthy Rd, London NW3 3BJ Telephone 071-624 1576 Tel: 071-722 4181 Fax: 071-483 1542 melted, but not hot, chocolate and the rum. Whisk eggwhites until stiff and fold into the mixture. Put a third of the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 35 minutes — WEST END ESTATES the cake will still be a httle moist inside. Carefully remove the spring-clip from the Commercial & Residential sales, lettings, management and tin, but leave the cake to sit on the base. Set investments. to cool and then pile remaining mixture on top and spread a little over sides of cake as Ralph Kossman well. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings or grated chocolate. Do not attempt to remove 322 West End Lane, Hampstead, London NW6 ILN the cake from the base - just set it on a Telephone: 071-794 1000 larger plate or dish and serve it from Fax:071-794 7444 there. D

14 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

failed to fill concerts halls. He resigned in arda, Franz Volker and Clemens Krauss. Obituaries 1962 and was appointed conductor of the Eventually choosing New York as her Northern Sinfonia at Newcastle upon Tyne domicile, she sang at the Met from 1939 to Rudolf Schwarz in 1964 and artistic director 3 years later. 1954. She loved the Czech repertory but He much enlarged the Northern Sinfonia also excelled as Pamina, Manon, Elvira and, The Vienna-born conductor, Rudolf and greatly enhanced its reputation. in particular, as Octavian in Rosenkavalier. Schwarz, has died aged 88. As a young man But by 1970 he was past his peak and Her one and only excursion into the field of he was inspired by the legendary Artur retired in 1973, having been appointed operetta was in Lehar's Giuditta. D Nikisch to take up conducting. He studied CBE. in Vienna under Hans Gal and then worked as coach in the Dusseldorf Opera and later His players admired him for his musical as assistant conductor at the Karlsruhe understanding, teaching ability, loyalty, Dr Joseph Adler generosity and total lack of ego and ruth­ Opera, until ousted by the Nazis. Liberated Dr J. Adler has died aged 83. Born in Vienna lessness. These characteristics may have from Belsen by the Allies in 1945 he came to and a graduate of the University of Vienna prevented his reaching the top of his pro­ England via Sweden as musical director to he fled to this country in 1938. His fiance fession. He married, in 1950, Greta Ohlson the then Bournemouth Municipal Orches­ Pepi, also a doctor, arrived shortly after­ who died in 1984. They had one son. D tra from 1947 to 1951 and of the Birm­ wards and the couple were later married in ingham Symphony Orchestra from 1951 to London. 1957. In 1957 he became prinicipal conduc­ Jarmila Novotna After studying at Edinburgh University tor to the BBC Symphony Orchestra as Jarmila Novotna, the Czech-born soprano, Dr Adler was appointed sole pathologist at successor to Malcolm Sargent, being more has died in the U.S.A. aged 86. After her Pinderfields Hospital in 1948. He concen­ inclined to tackle modern music than his debut as Violetta in Prague in 1926, she trated on building up the department which predecessor. He was also a champion of joined the Berlin Staatsoper in 1928. She left today has three pathologists. British composers. All this brought very Berlin for Vienna in 1933 - pointedly Following his retirement in 1975, Dr mixed reactions from critics and the public, moving in the opposite direction to such Adler actively maintained his interest in and he never became very popular and pro-Nazi opportunists as Josef Manow- pathology. D

German-born, New Zealand-based Pacifist National identity brings such loaded Concert of Europe cleric Canon Osterreicher. A Spaniard is ein words as native [Inlander) and foreigner Spanier; Ginette Spanier is a name to (Ausldnder) in its train as a matter of course. escriptions of the indescribable conjure with in the world of haute couture. Curiously enough there was a Jewish continue to pour off the presses. An Englishman is ein Engldnder; if few painter by the name of Henry Inlander, not Giuliana Tedeschi's Birkenau D people know the Vienna-born poet Richard to mention the Bukowina-based writer memoir There is a place on earth - a female Englander it is because he changed his name called Rosa Auslander. Ausldnder is an companion piece, so to speak, to Primo to Peter Altenberg. (Hence Alban Berg's epithet much bandied about in xenophobia- Levi's If This is a Man - has achieved critical Altenberg Lieder.) prone United Germany. In pre-unified Italy acclaim. In The Independent Jasper Rees the acronym V.E.R.D.I, (for Vittorio pointed to an irony inherent in the author's The most widespread Jewish surname Emmanuele Re D'ltalia) did as much for the name: to be a Jew called Tedeschi in linked to a national identity is probably composer as it did for the national cause; it Birkenau is Hke being a Kurd called Saddam. Pollak, of the Hollywood film director Sidney Pollack. (Little-known fact: the term is doubtful if the convergence of her name In Italian Tedeschi, plural of tedesco, Polack for an inhabitant of Poland already with the popular epithet will do as much for means Germans. It was a far from occurs in Shakespeare's Hamlet.) Rosa Auslander's poetry. D R.G. infrequent Jewish surname. North of the Alps its equivalent - Deutsch — was even more widespread. Prague produced the FOR THOSE YOU CARE MOST ABOUT actor Ernst Deutsch who appeared in the Third Man, Vienna the Social Democrat PARTNER Defence Minister Julius Deutsch, New York Springdene in long established English Solicitors the poetess and translator Babette Deutsch, (bi-lingual German) would be happy and London the cinema tycoon Oscar A modern nursing home with 26 yrs of excellence in health to assist clients with English, German Deutsch, head of Gaumont British. A vari­ care to the community. Licensed by Barnet area health and Austrian problems. Contact ant of that name was Cracow-born Isaac authority and recognised by Deutscher, Marxist critic and biographer of BUPA & PPP. Trotzki. HYDROTHERAPY & Henry Ebner PHYSIOTHERAPY The Russians call German njemez, after cares provided by full time chartered at the Lithuanian river Niemen which roughly physiotherapists for inpatients and outpatients. separates the two language areas. In conse­ Myers Ebner & Deaner quence there were Jews all over Central SPRINGDENE 55 Oaklelgh Park North, Whetstone, 103 Shepherds Bush Road London N.20 London W6 7LP Europe called Nemeth, such as the Hungar­ 081-446 2117 ian critic and Kafka expert Andor Nemeth. SPRINGVIEW 6-10 Crescent Road, Enfield. In German a Frenchman is ein Franzose — Ourcompletely new purpose built hotel style Telephone 071 602 4631 retirement honne. All roonns with bathroom en-suite and lo and behold we have the Polish-born from £305 per week. 081-446 2117. German language writer Karl Emil Franzos. ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN An Austrian is ein Osterreicher, hence the

15 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1994

SPD, Zentrum and the Deutsche Demokra­ reason they lost to the Nazis is because their A Republic without tische Volkspartei later called Deutsche leaders lacked the charisma of Hitler and Republicans Staatspartei. the propagandist genius of Goebbels. Once the right-wing considered the red The Communists campaigned against the danger past, they formed a permanent Weimar Repubhc throughout this period. hroughout Europe there has been an opposition undermining all democratic The Comintern had termed the SPD 'social increase in the extreme right. In institutions. In 1920 when the first Reichs­ fascists' and they believed that after a short TGermany this increase is often tag elections were held, the three democra­ period of Nazi rule, the disillusioned thought to be of special significance and a tic parties received only 43.6 per cent of the workers would rise to establish a red direct connection is assumed between the votes. In 1924 there were two elections and republic. So they did not worry that their rise of the Nazi Party in the thirties and that the three parties received 39.3 and 45.9 per anti-government campaign might help the of the Neo-Nazis today. A study of the cent respectively. Nazis. Rogalla, a prominent Communist, voting pattern during the Weimar Republic The presidential elections of 1925 were appeared at a Nazi party rally in 1932 and makes it possible to refute this link. an important pointer to the future, because called the Weimar Republic Sau- und When the armistice was signed in 1918, Hindenburg opposed Wilhelm Marx, the Schweinestall (a pig sty). The Berhn trans­ army and home front were on the point of democratic candidate. Hindenburg was port workers' strike in 1932 started by the disintegrating. Workers' and Soldiers' supported by all right-wing parties includ­ Communists was soon supported by the Councils on the Soviet model caused wide­ ing the small Nazi Party. He received 48.3 Nazis. This Nazi-Communist collaboration spread fear of red revolution among the per cent of the votes and the Communist was the final blow that brought the Weimar officer corps as well as the middle class. Thalmann obtained 6.4 per cent. For the Republic down. The Communists paid a However, the Social Democrats (SPD) dis­ extreme right this was a great victory for heavy price for their mistaken campaign as tanced themselves from the radical Indepen­ their cause and they celebrated it with almost all their officials were exterminated dent Socialists because they believed that a champagne parties all over Germany. Hin­ in concentration camps. socialist revolution must be based on the denburg, though a monarchist at heart, did A comparison of voting patterns of the consent of the people: society could not be swear an oath of allegiance to the republic. Weimar Republic with that of the Federal transformed unless a general election gave He agreed to serve the republic and had Republic shows how erroneous it is to draw this legitimacy. For this purpose the SPD stood as candidate only to prevent even conclusions from one to the other. Neo- proposed an elected National Assembly to greater extremists like Ludendorf (the Nazi Nazis do not poll more than about 10 per meet in Weimar. Berlin was considered too favourite) from being elected. Eyck in his cent at elections whilst the rest of the parties insecure because of the Soldiers' and monumental Geschichte der Weimarer support the Federal Republic. Even the Workers' Councils. Republik said 'the decisive importance of right-wing Bavarian CSU is welded to the Elections for the assembly took place in this election is the fact that republicans were Federal Constitution. Thus it is correct to 1919. To everyone's surprise, Hindenburg a minority in the Germany republic'. The say that a Neo-Nazi vote of 10—15 per cent issued a declaration of support for the SPD Berliner Tageblatt commented that Ger­ in 1994 would still represent a 85-90 per in order to prevent 'the spreading of terror­ many appeared to be a republic without cent vote in favour of democracy whilst in ist bolshevism'. He had sponsored the republicans. the election of 1924 the 6.6 per cent vote for Dolchstosslegende that the undefeated Ger­ The three democratic parties failed to the Nazis in their first electoral contest far man army had been stabbed in the back by a gain a majority in all subsequent elections. from represented a 93.4 per cent vote in cowardly home front. This had made him Their vote was reduced in 1930 to 40.1 per favour of the Weimar Republic. When we the rallying point for reactionary forces, cent and in 1933, when the Nazis were examine the voting pattern, it actually already preparing a war of revenge; now already in power, to 30.4 per cent. showed a 60.4 per cent vote against they rallied round Hindenburg to support The rise of the Nazis was phenomenal. democracy. the lesser evil. This is the only reason why From 12 deputies in 1928 they rose to 107 The present anti-foreigner outbursts must the parties which supported Weimar in 1930, becoming the second biggest party. be compared with similar events in France, received such overwhelming support Two years later they were the biggest, and Britain and the rest of Western Europe. It (nearly 80 per cent). The extreme right- the following year they were able to form has nothing to do with the murder and wing parties received 15.6 per cent and the the government. But most of their votes arson campaigns of the Nazis in the 1920s extreme left-wing parties obtained 8 per were not taken from the democratic parties and 30s. cent. It was the only occasion when a but from other right-wing extremists, par­ In contrast to Weimar the Federal majority of Germans voted in favour of the ticularly the Deutschnationale, as well as Republic is today more firmly embedded in Weimar Republic. from previous non-voters who voted for the democracy than at any time in Germany's There were only three parties which first time. The percentage of participation history. D Peter Prager consistently supported the republic: the rose from 75.6 per cent of those eligible to '^Mmfm^^s^^iii^*m^mLStmfimmriamLmi;^M vote in 1928 to 88.7 per cent in 1933. All right-wing parties were chauvinist and anti­ Therapeutic Massage semitic, and had all supported violence Aromatherapy, Reflexology against their opponents. In 1920 the GERMAN BOOKS by qualified continental therapist. Deutschnationale, the biggest right-wing party at the time, included in their pro­ BOUGHT For free initial consultation and gramme the exclusion of Jews from public an appointment phone: life. Walter Rathenau was perhaps the most A. W. MYTZE Mr I. Pressburg BA(Hons), MA, AIPTI 081-361 5962 prominent of the democrats murdered by 1 The Riding, London NW11. them before the Nazi Party existed. The

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