VOLUME 20 NO.7 JULY 2020 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees

ROUTES TO Fleeing from France FREEDOM France makes our headlines twice 2020 is an extraordinary year for anniversaries. The 75th this month, and not just because we still can’t travel there. Our lead story anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January, the 75th focuses on the huge wave of refugees anniversary of VE-Day in May, and, a few days ago, the 80th from France while an article on page 9 looks at the kindertransports that left anniversary of the Fall of France. France for the United States.

Other articles are based on recent online events hosted by the AJR, and on some fascinating stories about the late relatives of some of our members.

We hope you enjoy this issue and that you are staying well and enjoying the little bit more freedom that is gradually being afforded to us as lockdown slowly eases.

News...... 3 & 20 Born to Care...... 4 Letter from Israel...... 5 Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Letters to the Editor...... 6-7 were among the large and distinguished group of French artists, writers and Art Notes...... 8 intellectuals who fled to America to spend the war. Sending children across the pond...... 9 My cousin Otto...... 10-11 In six weeks from 10 May 1940 bills. At one point, Wilder was staying Great Britain rules the waves...... 12 German forces conquered Belgium, the in the same cheap boarding-house as Revisiting emotional visits...... 13 Netherlands and France. They occupied Peter Lorre and the great film composer, Austrian social workers in exile...... 14 Paris unopposed on 14 June. On 22 Franz Waxman. Our Sacha...... 15 June the French surrendered and the Obituaries...... 16 Vichy regime led by Marshal Pétain Paris wasn’t safe for long. In 1939-40 Looking for...... 17 replaced the Third Republic. there was a huge wave of refugees Reviews...... 18-19 from France. Few came to Britain. Most France played a fascinating part in the escaped to the United States. These history of refugees during the 1930s included some of the most famous artists Please note that the views expressed and 1940s. First, it was one of the main and intellectuals of the mid-20th century. throughout this publication are not centres of emigration after the rise necessarily the views of the AJR. of the Nazis and then the Anschluss. Many became what one might call, Brecht and his wife passed through ‘birds of passage’: people who fled from AJR Team Paris in 1933, meeting up briefly with France to Britain and America after Chief Executive Michael Newman Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. The film the German invasion, but returned to Finance Director David Kaye director Robert Siodmak directed the France after the war. They chose to Heads of Department Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart last Jewish-made movie to open in return for several reasons. First, unlike HR & Administration Karen Markham Nazi Germany. Goebbels accused him in central and east Europe, there were Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws of being a ‘corrupter of the German homes and families to return to. Many Social Work Nicole Valens family’ and he got on the next train to were non-Jews. Paris was not subject AJR Journal Paris. Billy Wilder left for Paris a few to the destruction of cities like Berlin or Editor Jo Briggs days after the Reichstag fire, taking Warsaw. Second, unlike east Europe, Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy with him $1,000 in hundred-dollar Continued on page 2 Contributing Editor David Herman

1 AJR Journal | July 2020

Fleeing from France in 1940. He and his mother returned to Interestingly, few of these were Jewish. Egypt after the war, and later came to They nearly all went back after the war. (cont.) Britain, just before the Suez Crisis in 1956. Their story is superbly told by Jeffrey there was no Communist takeover Mehlman in his book, Émigré New after the Soviet invasion. There was The critic George Steiner was born in York: French Intellectuals in Wartime more freedom of expression in France. Paris in 1929. ‘I was from Paris,’ he said Manhattan, 1940-1944 (2001). Universities, publishers and art galleries in 1986. ‘It was our concierge, who welcomed back artists and intellectuals. informed the Gestapo first who the Jews Among the French refugees who went were and how to get them.’ His family to America, only Lévi-Strauss was Among those who fled France for escaped to New York just in time. Steiner transformed by exile. New York opened Britain in 1940 were the physicists, was one of two Jewish children at his him to new ideas. In 1942 he met Roman Hans Halban and Lew Kowarski. school in Paris who survived the war. Jakobson, another European Jewish Halban was Austrian, Kowarski was refugee, and he discovered structural born in Russia. Both had worked at the And then there were those who never linguistics. The other key influence was Collège de France from 1937-40. They escaped. The parents of George Clare the Surrealists. Together with Breton left France for Falmouth on a British (author of Last Waltz in Vienna) died at and Max Ernst, he visited small antique collier with 26 cans of heavy water Auschwitz. Walter Benjamin, one of the shops on Third Avenue, shopping for and then worked at the Cavendish great cultural critics and essayists of the objects from the Pacific Northwest. Laboratory in Cambridge. 20th century, failed to cross the Pyrenees Through Breton, writes Mehlman, Lévi- into Spain and committed suicide on the Strauss learnt ‘the art of unexpected Arthur Koestler had been arrested French side of the border. juxtaposition.’ From Jakobson, he in France in September 1939 and learnt about systems and structures. was interned as a political prisoner What is striking about those who came Structuralism was born. in Le Vernet concentration camp to Britain is how young they were. until January 1940. He described his Many were in their 20s and early 30s. Curiously, most of the great names experiences there in Scum of the Earth Being so young meant they could learn of French culture stayed behind: (1941), his first book written in English. English (unlike poor Alfred Kerr) and Aragon and Artaud, Bataille, Camus On his release he joined the French have a full career in their new homeland and Cocteau, Colette and de Beauvoir, Foreign Legion, but deserted in 1941 (unlike Adler who never adjusted to the Genet and Gide, Matisse and Sartre. It and returned to England via Lisbon. British art scene). There was something was those who stayed in Paris who set else, too. Many of them found a dual the agenda. Life, of sorts, went on and On his way from the south to Paris he voice: part-English, part-European. Not left many of the refugees behind. For might have passed my father, the Polish just in terms of language, but also in French refugees, just as for refugees artist Josef Herman, who was going in terms of the tradition they identified from central and east Europe, exile was exactly the opposite direction. He had with. Josipovici was as happy writing rarely straightforward. met up with a young American woman, about Proust as he was about Jonathan June Peach July, who was touring France Swift; Steiner was as interested in David Herman and gave him a lift to La Rochelle. He was Racine as in Shakespeare. mistaken for a Polish airman and dragged onto a boat and ended up in Britain. Many never settled in Britain. Kerr and Adler died almost immediately. The WHY NOT CONVERT He was one of a number of east physicists, Kowarski and Halban, JL YOUR OLD CINE Europeans who left France for Britain. Talmon moved to Israel, Steiner and FILMS Others included the Polish painter, Koestler kept on the move. AND PUT THEM Jankel Adler, the Croatian sculptor, Oscar ON DVDS Nemon who left Paris for England in But only a small handful left France FREE OF CHARGE? 1939, and the great Polish historian of for Britain. A much larger and more ideas, JL Talmon. distinguished group spent the war Contact Alf Buechler at [email protected] or tel 020 8554 5635 or 07488 774 414 in America. It is an extraordinary Alfred Kerr, Weimar Germany’s leading list: intellectuals including Claude theatre critic, and his family, including Lévi-Strauss, the founder of French his daughter Judith, left Berlin in 1933 structuralism; the author, Antoine Write Your Life Story and came to Paris via Zurich. He was de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince); Record a Family History not successful in Paris. He wrote to his artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Whether you have begun writing, friend, Albert Einstein, “The articles I Ernst and Marc Chagall; film-makers, researched your ancestors, or wrote in French may have won over a Jean Renoir and René Clair; the never put pen to paper, we offer few readers, but they earned me very composers Nadia Boulanger and Darius a personalised service to help little.” The family moved on to London. Milhaud. Apart from the film-makers you preserve your precious who went straight to Hollywood, most memories for future generations. The writer and literary critic, Gabriel stayed on the East Coast. The range www.wordsbydesign.co.uk Josipovici, had a more circuitous is fascinating. Artists and physicists, [email protected] experience. He was born in Vichy France writers and film directors. 01869 327548

2 AJR Journal | July 2020 VA VA ZOOM Even before ‘Lockdown’ became the details of meetings are advertised in our feel it has been very important for AJR, official it was obvious we Monday e-newsletters. other organisations, families and friends to be able to connect in this way. I have could not risk the health of our If you are worried about using Zoom for the heard many psychologists speak about members or staff by continuing first time Larissa Jaffe, our Computer Help the possible mental health effects of this Co-Ordinator, has a team of volunteers who isolation period, especially for those living to run our Outreach Meetings can talk you through setting it up on your on their own, and feel that these Zoom around the country. laptop, ipad or phone. Please email Larissa at meetings have been particularly beneficial [email protected] if you need assistance. for those people as well as all those who The immediate issue was telling members use it.” and then contacting all speakers and We very much hope you will join in this – Jacques Weisser. venues to cancel our arrangements. Then new way of communicating and if you have we paused to think about how to ensure any queries please contact Susan Harrod on “I have to compliment AJR on the truly members were not isolated or without [email protected] or 020 8385 3078. magnificent programme it is laying on for social contact. The word Zoom came into its members during lockdown.” being and with it a completely new way of What members say – Jackie Cronheim. running the AJR’s Outreach programme. “Having been introduced to Zoom a few “I really enjoyed David Barnett’s talk - So far we have been able to run at least months ago, I have found it an amazing absolutely fascinating! Please book me one Zoom meeting per day, sometimes and helpful form of electronic audio and in for his next one. I also really enjoyed two, from Monday to Thursday each week. visual communication, especially at this the talk by Dan Fox about the Jewish Recent topics have included everything somewhat anxious and stressful time. I experience in the modern day army. Please from the stories behind the BBC News to have enjoyed joining in on the AJR Zoom thank not only the speakers but also Rosalind Franklin, the pioneer of DNA. meetings and being able to see and hear AJR for organising such a great array of other members and of course hearing the speakers for our members.” The meetings are all open to everyone and interesting and informative guest speakers. I – Janet Jacobs.

BARBED WIRE FEVER Barbed Wire Fever is a new literary project that explores what it means to seek and provide refuge. Its founder Linda Mannheim explains the story behind the project. The My Story testimony project is featured on the Barbed Wire Fever website It started as an exploration of my father’s story. Originally from Germany, he came to England on the What do non-refugees expect of refugees? I’m particularly interested in hearing Kindertransport in 1939. And, as I was What do refugees feel that they can tell? I from refugees and former refugees who thinking about how to tell my father’s couldn’t explore my father’s story without might want to contribute a post. No story, the balance of the world changed. exploring these questions too. one is expected to tell the story of how The greatest refugee crisis since the they became a refugee (though, you Second World War began. The first year of Barbed Wire Fever can tell that story if you want to). involved writing workshops with refugees, I was used to hearing from people discussions with refugees and non-refugees, Note from Editor: AJR’s Debra Barnes who - when they got an inkling of my and research in archives and at sites was recently invited to write a blog family’s refugee past - expressed a lot linked to my father’s years as a refugee. post for Barbed Wire Fever about her of sympathy, outrage, reassurance that In March 2020, the Barbed Wire Fever experience as a second generation they would have done the right thing blog launched, made up of guest posts by survivor working on the My Story back then. What were those people refugee writers and artists, representatives project. You can read Debra’s doing now? I wondered. Were they of refugee-led groups, and non-refugees and all the other posts at sticking up for present day refugees? involved with refugee support. www.barbedwirefever.com

3 AJR Journal | July 2020 Born to care

AJR’s social workers have always Paralympic Games. played a key role. Here we look A hospital co-worker told her about a back at the life and work of one gentleman in London who was very of our very first social workers, depressed because he was paralysed from the waist down due to contracting polio in Margot Williams, written by her his teens. She visited him and the following Margot Williams in 1995 daughter Diane Lobatto. year they were married; I was born in 1945. My father had been born in England but had spent three years in Vienna in an iron died at the age of 87. My mother, Margot Williams, née Hillel, lung. He had learnt to speak Viennese was born in Berlin in 1911, the only child German so I was brought up bilingually. She was thrilled to become a grandmother of an eminent neurologist father but I only for the first time in 1971 and again in 1974 know little about her mother. Her father By that time my mother had left the nursing and was extremely close to my two sons, died very suddenly when my mother was profession and trained to be a social worker. Howard and Matt. My mother imbued 21, and this severely traumatised her as she She worked full time but, with the help in both boys a great sense of culture and was very close to him. of a housekeeper, looked after my father love of the arts, always taking them to with true devotion. She joined the AJR museums, children’s concerts and the She had a cultured upbringing and wanted where she worked tirelessly for 32 years theatre. I am sure that it was from these to become a doctor but, with the rise of as a social worker, attending numerous visits that Howard’s love of London and Hitler, she only had enough time to train as meetings, writing reports and subsequently history, and Matt’s love of the theatre were a nurse. interviewing numerous older refugee born. applicants for admission to the care homes She was fortunate to secure a sponsor which had gradually become established. My mother always refused to return to and arrived in Britain in April 1939 with Berlin, but several years ago an opportunity just a few belongings, including some She also became extremely involved in arose for me to go with a group. After a monographed silver cutlery which I still Belsize Square Synagogue, the community lot of soul searching I decided to go and, have to this day. She had to leave her set up in 1939 by refugees. She performed having done much research, I was able to mother behind and they never ever saw the ritual cleansing of ladies who had retrace my mother’s footsteps and also visit each other again. My grandmother passed passed away and sat on the Ladies Guild the graves of my grandparents. I was also away with MS in an Amsterdam hospital and various other committees. pleased to travel recently to the Isle of Man in 1943. They were only allowed to write to meet the archivist in Douglas who found occasional Red Cross letters of 25 words. She learned to drive so that she could take the complete record not just of my mother’s This parting left my mother with an my father out and, from the mid-fifties arrival on the island, but also all the details insecurity of never seeing people again, as onwards, we were able to go abroad of her arrival in England, her last known a result of which she was fiercely protective on the car ferry to France. My mother address in Berlin, and the address to which of me, her only child. involved herself in many aspects of my she went when she left the Isle of Man. father’s interests. My father was a philatelic It had been her intention to go to New journalist and she accompanied him to When she was 84, I took my mother to see Zealand but she never actually travelled many functions and exhibitions, both Matt* in his pink baby-grow, banging the any further than England. Speaking little nationally and in Europe. drums in the live show of Shooting Stars at English, she was sent to nurse in a hospital the Hammersmith Apollo. She was by far in Frimley, Surrey. It was a huge cultural Just before my mother’s 65th birthday, my the oldest person in the audience and was change from the large city of Berlin to a father died very suddenly. Being a very completely bemused; she certainly did not small county hospital in a new country. determined lady my mother returned seem to understand what she was watching to work just five days later as she said it or to get the jokes. In May 1940 she was sent, as an enemy was the only way she could cope with alien, to the Isle of Man. She spent a year yet another big bereavement in her life. My mother always set a courageous there and had good memories of those She retired at the age of 72 and threw example, and proved that it is possible to days. On returning to London, she was sent herself into voluntary work at the enquiry rebuild a good and worthwhile life even to St Alphage’s Hospital in Greenwich. She desk of the Royal Free Hospital. She also after having had to flee one’s country, re-established contact with some of her learned to play bridge, become involved leaving loved ones behind, and having old school friends from Berlin and various with the B’nai Brith Lodge and retained one’s life totally disrupted. medical friends, one notably being Sir strong links with the AJR. She was still Ludwig Guttman, who worked at Stoke driving and doing voluntary work, rushing Note from Editor: * Diana’s son is the actor Mandeville Hospital and founded the around as usual, until shortly before she and comedian Matt Lucas.

4 AJR Journal | July 2020

LETTER FROM ISRAEL BY DOROTHEA SHEFER-VANSON

THEM AND US Another overriding principle underlying Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, enjoying most modern societies – Israel included – the Seder with his son who does not live There has always is that of justice, the concept of equality under his roof. Worse still, the President been a divide before the law, the view that no one can of Israel, Ruby Rivlin, was shown in the between rulers be considered above the law. And this company of his grandchildren, who do and ruled. That brings us to painful recent events which not live with him. is the way of the have further deepened the rift within world. Countries Israel. Israelis expressed outrage at the have to be hypocrisy of the self-same leaders governed, and some people have The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted who had called on them to observe the urge to govern them. Western societies all over the world, causing social isolation. But instead of calls for societies have accepted the system of lockdowns and hardship for many. The resignation, the public seems to have democracy, supposedly guaranteeing UK has recently been riven by a scandal shrugged its shoulders and carried equal representation for all, with over the unsanctioned cross-country on. At least the lockdown restrictions rule by the majority being generally drive (supposedly to obtain care for his were eased soon afterwards, whether accepted as the best solution. The child) by a senior government adviser, prematurely or not time will tell. overriding principle is that every thereby disobeying the lockdown rule individual is equally valuable to which the rest of the country has had to The most flagrant example of spurning society, and each person’s voice has obey. The Prime Minister has refused to the principle of equality before the the right to be heard. condemn that act, thus overturning the law is provided by the current Prime concept of equality before the law. Minister. After evading justice for In Israel today there is no entrenched years by a series of legal and political ruling class, and democracy prevails. The President of the USA has openly ploys, Benjamin Netanyahu was finally When Israel’s founding fathers declared that he will not wear a mask, brought before a court of law on established its governing institutions even though this is the recommended charges of corruption, bribery, and the emphasis was on the equal way of avoiding transmission of the misappropriation of funds. Any other distribution of wealth, the absence disease. He, too, evidently considers politician so charged would have of class distinctions and the need for himself above the law. resigned long since, but not Mr. Teflon. society to care for those in need (thus After avoiding being brought to justice following traditional Jewish values). At the recent Pesach (Passover) festival, for many years, just before he entered when it is customary for families to eat the courtroom he launched an unbridled The ethos underlying Israel’s social the festive meal (the Seder) together, for attack on the police, the media, the fabric has since shifted away from the first time in Israel’s history families judicial system (whose judges are his those principles. Today it is acceptable, were forbidden to congregate, and appointees) and the Attorney General. albeit not entirely desirable, to have many people were forced to sit alone a society of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’ or communicate with their relatives by Democracy is still maintained, at and despite attempts to provide for electronic means (Zoom, etc.). least in theory. The only problem the disadvantaged, this divide appears lies in the inability of the electorate to have become ever more firmly It did not take long, however, for the to see through politicians’ lies and entrenched. media to publish photos of the Prime manipulations.

spring grove TECH TALKS London’s Most Luxurious Most AJR members now rely on their take place each Thursday at 11.00am via RETIREMENT HOME phone and tablets more than ever before. Zoom with the aim of showing how to 214 Finchley Road London NW3 So make sure you use it effectively. get more out of your devices.  Entertainment Having retired in 2017 after spending 46 If you’d like to participate drop an email  Activities years in the IT profession, Steve Newton to Steve at [email protected]  Stress Free Living now volunteers for the AJR and other and you’ll receive a weekly invite and  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine  Full En-Suite Facilities organisations by providing IT advice for handouts from each session. You will also the organisations and our members. Since get Tech Talk Tips (useful tips about using Call for more information or a personal tour lockdown he has been offering free online your devices) arriving in your inbox from 020 8446 2117 or 020 7794 4455 talks under the name Tech Talk. They time to time. [email protected]

5 AJR Journal | July 2020 Letters to the Editor The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence submitted for publication and respectfully points out that the views expressed in the letters published are not necessarily the views of the AJR.

AMADEUS QUARTET about things coming full circle! genetic defects manifested in their offspring. The article by Jo Briggs (June) omitted Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Israel A conceived child carries one gene from the reference to circumstances that played a mother and one from the biological father. key role in the foundation of the Amadeus A pathological gene (or ‘sick gene’) can run Quartet. REMEMBERING…..OR NOT? in a family for generations but express itself Michael Brown writes (May) that he only if marriage is between blood relatives. In 1940/41 Norbert Brainin, Peter Schidlof remembers boarding the ferry at the Hook and Siegmund Nissel were interned, as of Holland in August 1939, but cannot recall Consanguinity amongst Jews was part of ‘enemy aliens’, at various locations including parting from his parents or boarding the their culture, to strengthen family links and the Isle of Man. During this time they met train and his journey through Germany and improve their financial situation. The genetic Dr. Ferdinand Rauter, a pianist and dedicated Holland. disorder haemophilia was first mentioned in teacher and lecturer on music, who strongly the Talmud; when the mother is a carrier it is encouraged them to form a quartet; he In the summer of 1941 I was part of a small transmitted to her sons. also at this time laid the foundations of the American Kindertransport from Vichy France Anglo-Austrian Music Society. to the United States. A dangerous train The truth is that inbreeding is common journey through occupied France took us worldwide. Queen Victoria and Prince Coincidentally, he also met my father, to the Spanish border where we changed Albert were first cousins and she another internee, and eventually became my trains under the watchful eyes of uniformed spread haemophilia across the whole of brother-in-law. Internment had some happy Gestapo, then continued to Lisbon to board Europe. Madness, porphyria and different outcomes! our ship. I also do not remember saying genetic disorders were not unusual in royalty. Freddy Kosten, London N3 goodbye to my parents. Nor do I have a single memory of the voyage across the In some countries consanguineous marriages Atlantic Ocean, or even being on the ship. are prohibited but in the UK marriage I wonder how many other readers of the between first cousins is allowed. It is AJR Journal were at the debut concert of For years I wondered how it was possible advisable, however, to seek a genetic the Amadeus Quartet (who had previously for a 10-year-old not to remember spending screening to reduce the risk. performed as the Brainin Quartet) at the two weeks on board a ship. Eventually Dr Elena Rowland, London SE18 Wigmore Hall, in January 1948. I came to understand that I found the experience of being parted from my parents Our extended family of Brainins - of which so traumatic that the only way I could deal A BETTER WORLD? I was the youngest member – attended with it was to banish it and the journey Ruth Barnett’s Reflections on a Better en masse and I well recall the post-concert taking me away from them from my World After (June) included an example crush in the Artists’ Room where much memory. It was not a conscious or voluntary of ‘quote mining’ that reveals how hard embracing took place but hardly a word of choice. It just happened. it is to escape conventional wisdom even English was heard. when envisaging a Better World. It is quite Mary Brainin Huttrer, London N3 I’m not surprised that Michael Brown does wrong to assert that: “Margaret Thatcher not remember parting from his parents and would have us think there is no such thing part of the journey after leaving them. I’m as society.” What Mrs Thatcher had been SUNSHINE HOSTEL certain there are others who coped with such referring to was that society is blamed for As a result of my Letter from Israel about the desperate separations exactly as we did. the failures of people’s lives, and for our Sunshine Hostel (May) I was contacted by Eve Kugler, London N3 social ills, while she advocated that people an AJR member wanting information about ought to take personal responsibility and the hostel before my parents were there. show civic virtue to change society. The While replying I suddenly remembered I had FAMILY MATTERS opposite philosophy, in fact, from the one the book No Longer a Stranger, edited by In the introduction to Family Matters (May) she is accused of holding. the late Inge Saddan and privately published. Victor Ross described complicated family The book contains testimony from some ties and marriages between relatives. He Even in the midst of pandemic, the Culture twenty Kindertransportees, including my late referred to a distant relative who “suffered Wars (that originated in the US between father, Manfred Vanson. Among the photos from dwarfism” and seems to have had ‘progressives’ and ‘conservatives’) poison is a group photo of children at Sunshine a metabolic or enzymatic disorder of the and embitter conversations, and set one Hostel, with myself as a baby on the lap digestive tract which caused him excessive Weltanschauung against another; it is a zero of one of the girls. I sent the text and the flatulence. sum game. I see little possibility of a Better photo to the member, and she replied with World emerging after Corona while this a message from her mother saying that she Consanguineous marriages between blood plague of ideology rages on. was the girl on whose lap I was sitting. Talk relatives have a statistically higher risk of Greg Lubinsky, London NW6

6 AJR Journal | July 2020

Who is there so bold as to tell the 7.954 borne typhus and typhoid in my book “No different from 103”. billion people who dwell on this earth what Epidemics and Genocide (Oxford 2000). Gaby Glassman, Pinner they may or may not do? No two people have lived, thought, spoken or acted alike I agree that Allied research in medicine for an infinite variety of reasons. What is was more successful than what the BEST HOLOCAUST LITERATURE good for one, is bad for another. To dictate Axis managed – Ernst Chain is rightly D.H. Dobson wrote (June) that the best one’s opinions is presumptive. History is mentioned; but despite a Nobel Prize in book about the Holocaust for him was Boy witness; the continuous unrest is proof…. 1945, he was disgracefully never more 30529: A Memoir by Felix Weinberg. The unlikely has become reality from than on a short term contract while at which we should all learn, because it has all Oxford. But look at the bigger picture: Very late in life Felix Weinberg discovered happened before and will probably happen 6226 refugees in health care came to that he and my husband Avram had a again. or through the UK, including 4470 who shared history. They had both been to Fred Stern, Wembley, Middx. were medically qualified or were refugee Auschwitz and on the death march to students who could complete their studies, Blechammer, Gross Rosen and Buchenwald, 537 in dental surgery (my father included, from where they were finally liberated. He A HISTORY OF DISEASE my kindertransportee mother eventually sent us his book and after many telephone While timely, your feature on A History of qualifying in dentistry), 759 can be conversations they arranged to meet, but as Disease (June) raises questions concerning identified who came as nurses or trained neither of them was well this was postponed the causes of different diseases at in nursing (actually the full number must until just before Felix died. Auschwitz. Fleas are known to transmit be nearer a thousand). Britain recognised typhus only in the tropics, whereas the all foreign medical degrees from January My husband had a large collection of body louse carried the typhus pathogen 1941. When it came to the new NHS in Holocaust literature but most often referred in Auschwitz and in German occupied 1948, the contribution of Jewish refugees to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Poland. Typhus had been eradicated from as clinicians and in health care was William L. Shirer. I am only now reading Germany by 1900, hence the Nazis’ fear enormous. Felix Weinberg’s excellent book for the first of typhus as it advanced eastwards. They time referred to typhus as a Judenfieber, and this The inconclusive Nazi search for a typhus Vera Schaufeld, Wembley was the pretext for walling off the Warsaw vaccine caused many prisoner deaths, Ghetto. Although typhus was hardly a especially in Buchenwald. See: https://www. problem where it was endemic - anyone wienerlibrary.co.uk/science-and-suffering- AJR PLAQUE IN BERLIN contracting typhus before adolescence online Your article (June) referred to British would experience something like mild Consulate staff across Germany who flu - it could be fatal to anyone from a Finally, who gets the Viennese Latin joke: worked “to expedite the emigration of non-endemic area: to German soldiers, or Wenn Dir ein Laus am Ohr ist, pax drux bis Jews from the Third Reich to Britain”. indeed to Jews from Western Europe in goris ? (Clue: pronounce the “Latin” in a Without doubt the most important of these Auschwitz. The fiction of typhus delousing Viennese accent). diplomats were Consul General Robert was the pretext for the murderous horror Professor Paul Weindling, Oxford T. Smallbones and his Vice Consul Arthur of the gas chambers, in terms of deception Dowden in Frankfurt. and in the genocidal use of Zyklon B, which was a delousing product since WWI for 104 IS NO DIFFERENT The extraordinary service rendered by clothes and enclosed spaces but which the Thank you for the fascinating article these two selfless diplomats to thousands Germans turned to deadly use in Auschwitz about Greta Simmons’ chance encounter of desperate German Jews was honoured and Majdanek. with Hitler (June). Greta was my aunt by on a bronze plaque unveiled on the site marriage and my mouth fell open when I of the former British Consulate General in Your article discusses nutritional issues saw her photo in the Journal. Your article Frankfurt on 8 May 2013 and fully reported but the problem was surely typhoid – brought back memories of being in her in your June 2013 issue. Several UK guests confusingly in German called Typhus – but lovely home in Pinner, listening to the many at the unveiling represented the families of with a bacterial cause carried by water or stories of her life. those rescued, including Rabbi Jonathan rotting food, whereas for what is in English Wittenberg, David Rothenberg (an AJR typhus but in German Fleckfieber the body When Greta was 100 she moved to a home trustee) and members of the Goldsmith- lice carry a rickettsial pathogen (rickettsia near Leeds to be near her granddaughter. Stanton families, who initiated the project. are neither bacteria nor viral). Auschwitz As she was the last Jew alive who had The entire project was financed by the City kitchen staff were routinely tested for met Hitler, the Yorkshire Post conducted a of Frankfurt. typhoid rather than for louse-borne typhus. birthday interview with her, asking: “What is John D. Goldsmith (Basel, Switzerland) & I addressed the confusion between louse- it like to be 104?” Her immediate reply was, Ann Stanton (London NW3)

7 AJR Journal | July 2020 ART NOTES: by Gloria Tessler © ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

Oxford’s Ashmolean opened its Young Rembrandt exhibition less than three weeks before lockdown. But now you can view it online. We learn from curator An Van Camp that the Dutch master was no genius or child Rembrandt, Self-portrait prodigy, but a rather insecure 16 year old wearing a whose hard work and diligence earned him soft cap, c. 1633 the eventual status of one of the greatest artists of all time.

Focusing on the decade between imperfection where we see his intense idealised female forms popularised by 1624 and 1634, from Rembrandt’s desire to learn, improve and experiment. artists like Titian, he went for realism, apprenticeship in his birth town of painting larger women with sagging Leiden, to his success in Amsterdam, In Leiden portraits of his elderly parents bodies. Realism also gave way to the exhibition explores the artist’s reveal his empathy with character rather vulgarity. He did not shrink from painting development through sketches, prints, than youthful beauty, a strong feature of peasants urinating or defecating! paintings and self-portraits. his maturing work. In An Old Woman, called ‘The Artist’s Mother’, (c. 1627–9) By his return to Amsterdam in 1631, he After university Rembrandt Harmensz age and wisdom contribute to a tight- had become one of the most sought van Rijn was apprenticed for three years lipped introspection in which the subject after portraitists, noted for the depths to a local painter, Jacob van Swanenburg. seems to search deep into her own soul. of his character painting, but also for But it was his subsequent six months in The light here does not come from her his nocturnal atmospheric scenes, his Amsterdam, studying with Pieter Lastman eyes but simply a glint on her mantle and dramatic contrasts of light and shade. He in 1624, which proved the catalyst. her white collar. married Saskia, a cousin of the art dealer Hendrick Van Uylenburgh, who had given Rembrandt’s early work, including an By now Rembrandt was working closely him studio space. Saskia’s appearances in impressionistic study of an old man, with his contemporary Jan Lievens and both his work made a youthful contrast to his probably his father, and a sketchy view of artists won the attention of the influential gallery of the elderly. You can view Young the outskirts of Leiden, demonstrate the art patron Constantijn Huygens, Secretary Rembrandt at https://www.ashmolean. sensitivity that became his hallmark, but to the Prince of Orange, Frederick Henry. org/youngrembrandt#widget-id-1964241 revealed a certain lack of confidence. This Huygens was so taken by Rembrandt’s tentative approach was emboldened on painting Judas Repentant while it was The Ashmolean hope to show Young his return to Leiden where he set up his still a work in progress that he became an Rembrandt, featuring 30 paintings and workshop a year later. enthusiastic collector of both artists and 90 drawings and prints from international commissions soon came from the Prince and private collections, beyond its original His early faulty perspective and and other court officials. Rembrandt closing date and plan to announce revised anatomical awkwardness are evident painted a series on the Passion of Christ exhibition dates as soon as possible. in The Spectacles Seller (Allegory of for the Prince, and in 1629 Charles 1 was Sight) and Christ Driving the Money presented with two of his paintings. In Changers from the Temple. There is order to boost his reputation and income Annely Juda Fine Art a burst of emotional energy but the Rembrandt made reproductions of some 23 Dering Street clumsiness makes the subjects appear of his works, aided by the professional (off New Bond Street) cartoonish. In The Baptism of the Eunuch printmaker Jan Gillisz Van Vliet. Tel: 020 7629 7578 his perspective has improved but the Fax: 020 7491 2139 emotional charge is gone and the figures A growing interest in naturalism led CONTEMPORARY are static. It was the same with his often Rembrandt to a new way of painting PAINTING AND SCULPTURE wobbly printmaking, but it is in the women and peasants. In contrast to the

8 AJR Journal | July 2020 SENDING CHILDREN ACROSS THE POND

About one thousand unaccompanied Jewish children were evacuated from Nazi Europe, some via France, to the United States. To find out more, I went to Paris to meet a leading authority, Laura Hobson Faure, professor of Modern Jewish History at the Université de Paris-1. Laura Hobson Faure, with her book Un Plan Marshall Juif (A Jewish Marshall Plan).

Sitting in a café opposite the Jardin du regions, for example in Bourboule, a small the goal rapid assimilation – through living Luxembourg, Laura told me more about town in central France that had specialised in with families around the country – or was it this harrowing and complex KT story. treating children’s ailments. After the Nazis respect for their background and traditions Several agencies - secular, Jewish and occupied Vichy France in 1942 and started by living together in dedicated children’s Quaker - were involved and they did not deporting Jews, including children, to the homes? With antisemitism rampant, some always work together harmoniously. death camps, the children were given false philanthropists thought it a bad idea to identities and ‘hidden’ with families, usually concentrate the Kinder in the New York Guided by its historian, Katy Hazan, Laura Catholic. region, and favoured their dispersal. focused her research on the contribution of the remarkable Oeuvre de Secours aux One of the most celebrated of the OSE’s Laura’s own family history stems from Enfants (OSE). Set up in St Petersburg workers was Andrée Salomon, who had shtetls in today’s Belarus, and that, along in 1912 to improve the health of Jewish been living in Strasbourg, where many with the late discovery of her Soviet Jewish populations, it continues to this day. In the Kinder entered France. She set up ‘colonies’ cousins, is the source of her interest in the US, OSE-Kinder or their descendants still in eastern and then in central France. Holocaust and its aftermath. She grew keep in touch with one another. Salomon, who died in Israel in 1985, up in Michigan and graduated from Bryn volunteered in 1941 to work in Vichy’s Mawr, the renowned women’s college in In the 1920s the OSE relocated to Berlin, internment camps. She joined the Résistance Philadelphia, before going to Paris to work and in 1933 it moved to Paris. After and was among the Jews and non-Jews, as a teacher. Kristallnacht, it helped to bring persecuted such as the Quakers, who smuggled German and Austrian Jewish children to children into Switzerland or Spain after With time on her hands, she enrolled at France – mainly the Paris region. So that 1942. She saved about 1,000 children from the Université de Paris-8, and that was the the children remained in a German Jewish deportation, and sent 300 children to the stepping-stone to an academic career as environment, the OSE placed them in US on the legal transports that left France in a historian. Her thesis, later published as care homes, where qualified staff looked 1941-42, organised by the US Committee a book in French, was ‘A Jewish Marshall after their welfare. Wealthy French Jews for the Care of European Children. Plan: The American Jewish Presence helped fund the work, among them two in Post-Holocaust France, 1944-1954’. baronnes: some 130 children lived in the The severe bureaucratic hurdles in the US Laura followed up that work with research Château de la Guette, outside Paris, run mirrored those in Europe. Congress was into the migration of Jewish children to by Germaine de Rothschild; Yvonne de unwilling to modify the quota rules, partly France and the United States during and Gunzburg raised money to acquire further because of the prevailing antisemitism, after WW2, and the networks they later accommodation. Both women left for the despite pressure from President Franklin established as Holocaust survivors. US early in the war. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. The welcoming organisations, moreover, She has completed the first volume, on When Hitler invaded northern France in disagreed on whether to place the children their experiences in Europe; a second 1940, the OSE and the Château de la with foster parents, or again arrange for volume will cover their years in the United Guette had to move their Kinder to the them to live communally. States. unoccupied Vichy zone. The children again lived in communal homes in different Behind the dispute lay a basic question: was Martin Mauthner

9 AJR Journal | July 2020 My Cousin Otto

I first met Otto in 1950 when I was occupied Amsterdam in May 1940. Otto thought of our large but ugly house. This really was not their scene. My mother had 15 years old and he was 40. We needed to go into hiding. His new friend Dolf, a homosexual, offered to shelter him in gave them two rooms on the top floor, next went to a football match in Vienna his small flat. They became lovers. The war to me. Homosexuals? What were they? Otto and Dolf didn’t stay long, preferring together with my father, Dr Marcus ended. Otto survived. to stay with Otto’s sister, Gisl, in busy buzzy Pfeffer. Austria FC, Vienna’s Otto went back to Vienna, taking Dolf London. foremost team, was playing. Otto with him. Homosexuality was forbidden in Austria. They could not live together, and A few years later Otto and Dolf split. Otto, was a big fan. My parents were could only meet in secret. Otto joined a film now highly successful, had bought Dolf two cinemas to manage in Munich – a goodbye visiting Vienna for the first time production company. There he met husband and wife, Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger present to thank Dolf for sheltering him in since we had fled in February - big stars in the theatre world but not yet Holland, saving his life, and for his unstinting friendship. However, Otto now had 1939. The only family member still in films. someone else in view. A woman. alive in Vienna was Otto. “Die Wessely”, as she became known, was considered a pro-German sympathiser, having Nina Sandt was 19 years younger than Otto. Otto was my first cousin, the youngest of acclaimed the Anschluss and appeared in She was an extra in one of Otto’s films and three children born to Joseph and Anna the Nazi propaganda film, Heimkehr. Otto very pretty. As an important figure in the Demant. My mother lived with them since needed to make her popular again. He Austrian film industry, Otto wanted someone she was orphaned when 14 years old. The acquired a film studio in Salzburg and made a beautiful on his arm, so proposed to Nina. Demants had done well since coming to series of films with her. “Die Wessely’s” name We first met Nina in 1956 in Bad Gastein, a Vienna from Tarnopol. As Otto was growing went up in lights once more. Small roles were mountain resort by the Gross Glockner. I was up, they moved from Sir Tom Stoppard’s found for Attila too. 21 and had just graduated from Oxford. Nina Leopoldstadt, the Jewish district, to an was 28. I quite fancied her. Otto and Nina apartment in the Innere Stadt, a more Austria was slowly becoming respected in were staying in a luxury 5-star hotel. I was affluent area. Joseph worked in, and later the international film industry, resulting in jealous. Nina had brought her uncle and aunt owned, a wallpaper factory. He drove a Otto being given an honorary professorship along. No doubt Otto was paying. I didn’t Daimler when hardly anyone in Vienna, by Vienna University. Also, Austria needed a like the uncle and aunt. They referred two or including my parents, owned a car. He representative at international conventions, three times to when the National Socialists became a Kommerzienrat, a title conferred and Otto was chosen for the job. At film ruled Austria. I couldn’t help myself. “Why only on distinguished businessmen. Yet, festivals he met up again with his old friend, don’t you call them Nazis, like everyone despite all this, Otto changed his surname the famous Billy Wilder, who, before going else does?” I asked. “Do you find the word from Demant to Durer. “Durer sounded to Hollywood, had once been one of Joseph “Nazi” embarrassing?” They walked away. more artistic”, he maintained. He was not at Demant’s lodgers. Otto and Nina weren’t pleased. Nor were all interested in the business world. my parents outwardly but I felt my father For us, it had been a joyful reunion with probably approved. Otto wanted to be an actor. He was Otto. My parents did not talk about his reasonably handsome but a bit lazy. He was relationship with Dolf. A few months later Nina started to play bigger roles in some of described as effeminate. His lifestyle had to they invited Otto and Dolf to our house in Otto’s films. Along with “Die Wessely”, she be subsidised by Joseph. While my parents Banbury, a market town near Oxford where starred in Trees are Blooming in Vienna, a talked a lot about Otto’s brother and sister, my father had had his medical practice since film that Paula herself produced. Very kitsch they never said much about Otto. early 1945. but very good box office.

After the war we discovered that Otto had Two years after we had gone to see AFC As a family, we began to see more of Otto. survived, and was back in Vienna. He had a Austria play in Vienna, we played football His brother Max had arranged for their job, but Austria FC seemed more important ourselves – in our back yard in Banbury. parents, the Demants, to move to London to him than anything else. Playing were Otto, Dolf and me. My father from Chicago, where they had been living was the referee. The game did not last long. since fleeing Vienna. He found them a flat I was wrong. There was Dolf. Otto had Otto shot at goal, I missed the ball and next door to their sister, Gisl. Otto visited escaped Vienna after Kristallnacht in 1938, it smashed against our kitchen window, at least twice a year. He also came to deciding Holland was a safe haven. Also, shattering it to smithereens. My mother and Banbury once with Paula and Attila. Some Holland was known to have a laxer moral grandmother, cooking lunch in the kitchen, disapproved of us giving hospitality to Paula code than most countries. Otto made were not pleased. because of her Nazi connection. Amsterdam his home, not far from where Anne Frank and her family lived. The Nazis I always wondered what Otto and Dolf In 1962 Otto was involved in the re-making

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Otto as a young man Peter Phillips (centre) with Otto (left) and Willi of Wedekind’s Lulu - a hugely successful Viennese dishes too but, sorry Mutti, they Why did Otto find Entertaining Mr Sloane film in 1929. The new film was to be shot weren’t as good as Frau Sorger’s. so interesting? Its story is of a brother and a in Salzburg where Otto had all the latest sister falling in love with the same man. Are camera and lighting equipment. The film Otto and Willi tried to introduce my children there any similarities with Otto and Nina starred the internationally known actress to opera. Otto had a copy of Zeffirelli’s La both fancying Willi? Perhaps. Hildegarde Neff. In the corner of the set Traviata, starring Placido Domingo. My Otto spied Willi Sorger. children didn’t become fans, but they did like Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s Otto the music. Otto’s flat was rich with culture. carried on making small-budget films, but Willi was Second Assistant Director on Hanging on the walls were, I was told, two young filmgoers were not interested in the film. He was not an important crew original Bruegels. I wonder what became of “Die Wessely” anymore, nor in kitsch tales member but Otto liked what he saw and them? about Vienna filmed to the music of Franz a new romance was born. Otto asked Lehar. Otto had to sell the studio and many Willi to move in with him. Was Willi also I made commercials in the UK. A few times of his possessions, including the Breugels. gay or did he just see this as a career I needed a mountainous background. Otto He still loved being called “Herr Professor” opportunity? Who knows? But what and Willi always proved helpful. They would and became a little more open about his about Nina? Perhaps they were living as organise the location, the casting, and relationship with Willi. a threesome? It was quite possible and, provide the equipment, crew and extras. The indeed, probable that Willi was bisexual. arrangement suited both of us. However, Otto found it embarrassing sharing But eventually Nina realised that she had rooms, particularly abroad, since they had to move on. As had happened with Dolf, It was during the making of one commercial different surnames. The solution? Willi Nina was given a very generous goodbye that Otto brought up the subject of Joe changed his surname to Durer. Willi Durer. kiss. Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane. He had the Then Otto decided to go a step further still. rights to the play. Did I want to help him turn He adopted Willi. His lover became his son. The Austrian film industry was thriving. the play into a film? A film was due to be made called The Otto and Willi lived happily together until Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews and It was 1968. I wanted to help but I produced Otto died in 1994, aged 85. My wife and I Christopher Plummer. The locations were the commercials, not feature films. I consulted saw them several times before Otto’s death. mountains around Salzburg. Otto offered a colleague, Doug Kentish and Otto sold Otto loved a melange coffee at the Hotel the producers his studio facilities. The offer him the film rights. I was given 12½% of Sacher, and Willi was always able to obtain was accepted. What phenomenal publicity the net profit (I didn’t know until later that opera tickets for the Staatsoper when, for Otto, besides lucrative rewards. Otto most feature films do not make a net profit). officially, they had sold out. We stayed in became very proud of the edelweiss. He also It premiered in 1970 in London’s West End, touch with Willi after Otto died but, just two continued making his very Austrian films, with Princess Margaret attending, and had years after his death, we received news that most very sugary. reasonably good reviews but was a box Willi had died too. He was still in his sixties. office failure. The main excuse was that it Whatever was left in the estate was to go to Willi moved in with Otto, bringing went on general release in the week that the dear old Frau Sorger. his mother, Frau Sorger, with him as World Cup started on TV. Anyway, there was housekeeper. I remember visiting with my no gross profit let alone my net profit. The “A Man in Hiding”. It has the makings of a wife Davida and my four children. Frau only one who made money was Otto. Many film. Anyone interested? Sorger cooked us the most sumptuous years later, however, some deemed the film a Viennese meal. My mother cooked beautiful “masterpiece”. Peter Phillips

11 AJR Journal | July 2020 Great Britain waves the rules

Once upon a time a storm raged in the English Channel. The evening papers headlined Continent Isolated. That is how the English always thought. We are us on our islands with an Empire behind us, they are them who live in strange ways. This postcard is The new immigrants from Nazi typical of the patriotic ephemera that was Germany were experiencing widely peddled their new home, a nation of throughout Britain during the First World honesty, kindness, fairness, War. reserve, humour. And geniuses at improvising their way out of (the English invented the loo and have sat for home use. No longer buy everything trouble. Only the English, my on it ever since). In this land of shop keepers from China; and no longer blame them for father commented, could turn the and great new ideas, people continued life their carbon emissions when so much is as grandpa did. Old ways die hard. Ernest due to our imports. England has become disaster of Dunkirk into a victory. Chain took on the great English innovation the dirty man of Europe, the one country of of penicillin and made it work in Oxford, the EU which consistently resists regulation. These natives welcomed them, yet were but production went to the USA. Over the And if the English look forward to being highly suspicious. So when the war came years, most of the great British businesses rid of EU bureaucracy, think again; any city they kept them out of harm’s way by ‘locking have been sold overseas or have outsourced administration like, say, Sheffield in England is them all up’ or sending them to the colonies. their production, from where we now buy as big as the whole EU admin in Brussels. our stuff. The shopkeepers are disappearing, In England, from 1937 onwards, my giving way to international financial services But Scotland is a bit different. Their split perceptions differed from those of my which facilitate corporate sales, and to loyalty to England and to Europe could school friends. I was confronted by the supermarkets in place of super markets. The lead to the best of both worlds; a Scotland schizophrenia in this new country. On whole is entangled in a huge bureaucracy. independent of England but within the the one hand, significant parts of the Now our choices and lifestyles are ruled European Union. (Provided nationalism of English establishment had been started by by huge distant corporations, whereas the the Braveheart sort is banished). immigrants (as remembered in this Journal). countries of our neighbours offered choices. On the other hand, the natives’ suspicious Such a move would fit well with what is attitudes lingered on, ‘they’ could never be Throughout all my 82 years of life in the needed to deal with global problems. Now ‘one of us’. UK, schizophrenia and paradoxes lurked in is the first time that we can do anything the background. Yet much also changed for about it and will also be the last unless we Then the class differences. I was a day-boy the better over the years. Understanding for do. Action involves all nations, cooperating at a public school; we were different from the foreigner and intolerance of racism have with fairness. This, as Leopold Kohr (another the boys in the local secondary schools. The become the norm. But still we don’t want immigrant) wrote, can be achieved only Empire was never far away; one of the eight ‘many more of them here’: the desire to rule by small nations joining in some sort of school houses was named after Clive of the waves with our islands at the centre, is federation. An independent Scotland joining India. I sensed something wrong but did not still strong. a union of nations like the EU is a small step understand what. The Empire was run by the in the right direction. The English could then upper classes. You rose to a job in the civil So, here is a nation long and deeply divided take down their new barrier, re-join the EU service with a degree in classics or economics, by class, by attitudes to other nations, and and regain their link to Scotland. European not science. by education and skills. Brexit should be Great Britain might indeed again lead a way, no surprise. The English will now have to and all could live happily ever after. Brilliant English inventors had created the create a new barrier across the Channel, industrial revolution, but now they rarely to isolate the continent forever. The older Dr Ulrich Loening FRSA brought their innovations to market. The socialist conservatives will have to rise from joke was Die Engländer haben das Klo their loos, get round bureaucracy and start Note from Editor: This is a shortened version erfunden und sind drauf sitzen geblieben to manufacture what we need, British-made of Dr Loening’s original article.

12 AJR Journal | July 2020 Revisiting emotional visits

In May the AJR hosted a used to visit in Berlin were no longer alive. I felt completely alone and inconsolable. fascinating discussion on ‘The emotional impact of visiting sites Fortunately, I had met Rabbi Walter Rothschild at Limmud conferences in connected with family history’, England. He was very much alive, with a aimed specifically at descendants big heart, and kindly agreed to host me over Shabbat and take me to synagogue. of Holocaust refugees and To cap it all, he secured my press pass for survivors. Our three panellists – the opening of the Jewish Museum.

David Clark, second generation On the Friday evening, at an Orthodox retired university lecturer, still synagogue, a young girl from a Russian background had her Bat Mitzvah. The actively involved in research and next morning, at the Orianenburgerstrasse in the creative writing field, and synagogue, another Bat Mitzvah took place, in a Reform service. The Bat Mitzvah Teresa von Sommaruga Howard, girl happened to be the daughter of Daniel second generation registered Libeskind, the architect for the Jewish Museum. David Clark had an emotional architect and systemic family revelation while at Berlin’s therapist, together with Rosemary This was a complete revelation to me; there Orianenburgerstrasse Synagogue I was mourning the passing of the older (aka Neue Synagogue) Schonfeld, second generation generation of German Jews, and right there who researched and wrote about and then I was witnessing the rebirth of a new and vital Jewish community, where of reasons, were unable to make these her family history – have since East meets West, where a new Jewish journeys until middle-age or later, and provided these reports. museum was being launched with great they are always emotional in one way or fanfare and new hopes for the future.” another.

David Clark: “My mother was born in Teresa von Sommaruga Howard described It has taken many of us years to formulate Berlin. Her father, Siegmund Weltlinger, had a visit to Berlin with her father. “Although our feelings, and a lot of us are still been a stockbroker, finding employment he had visited many times before the Wall working with and trying to understand in the Nazi era as an administrator for the came down, this was his first visit since what now has a name: Transmission Berlin Jewish community. Arrested after then, and the first time he had seen the of Massive Trauma. Returning to our Kristallnacht, he sent his children to safety many memorials to the Shoah around parents’ homelands means acknowledging, via the Kindertransport. My grandparents the city. Contemplating the Memorial to understanding and formulating how this remained in Berlin, hidden by a Christian the Auschwitz transports had a powerful manifests in us as individuals, in ways Scientist family, the Moehrings. After the impact. He suddenly recognised that if which are not always immediately clear. war my grandfather co-founded the society he had not left when he did, he probably I have made three separate visits to the for Christian-Jewish Co-operation and would not have been alive, and neither Czech Republic, and each one was different entered politics, becoming a deputy in the would I. The return to his birthplace was emotionally. I think for a lot of us, it is Berlin Senate. a profound experience, for re-awakening very difficult to describe our emotions in a both his love of all things German along detached manner. We all have important I had frequently visited my grandparents with the humiliating pain of being forced to stories, and are still grappling with how to and joined them on walks and outings. My leave as a lone 15 year old.” tell them in the most effective, positive and grandfather died in 1974, aged 88, and my productive way. grandmother two years later. I was present Rosemary Schonfeld wrote “I felt privileged at both their funerals. I also met up with to contribute to the AJR’s discussion about The full panel discussion is available to my great aunt, the last time in 1988, shortly the emotional impact of visiting my father’s view on https://www.youtube.com/ before her death. country of birth, the Czech Republic. watch?v=FEWg6zjeo0k&feature=youtu.be. There are many members of the Second David and Teresa are now co-editing a I re-visited Berlin in September 2001 to Generation making this kind of journey, and book on visits linked to family history, cover the opening of the Jewish Museum for all of us there are both commonalities provisionally entitled, ‘Retracing Family for Jewish Renaissance. On arrival I had a and a huge variety of experiences. No Steps: Gazing upon Ancestral Homes and shocking realisation. All the people that I two are the same. Many of us, for all sorts Haunts’.

13 AJR Journal | July 2020 Austrian Social Workers in British Exile

The annexation of Austria in 1938 put a sudden end to the professional development of social work in Austria. But until today very little has been known about persecuted Austrian social workers in exile. A research project, based in Vienna, is now looking at the forgotten history of the profession of social work.

The Anschluss caused devastating effects Else Federn Marie Köstler for both institutions and people engaged in social work. Jewish and otherwise persecuted social workers (in German Vienna municipality on 1 February 1938 office in Styria, and started a political Fürsorgerinnen) were dismissed from and also studied at the University of career in the social democratic party. their jobs. Some were tortured or killed Vienna. In spring 1938, she was excluded Therefore she was imprisoned in Graz in concentrations camps, others tried to from university for “racial reasons” and in February 1934. Being expelled from escape the Nazi regime and some of them dismissed by the municipality of Vienna. Austria she emigrated to London and were fortunate enough to find refuge She was able to emigrate to England at the returned in 1945, starting to work for the abroad. England was an important way out end of 1938 and after 1940 she continued communists. for them and, once in exile, a surprising her studies in the US. number of refugees studied social work or Anne Feuermann, born in 1913, was a became social workers. After the war, some Alice Friedmann was also able to escape member of the Socialist Workers’ Youth decided to stay, some returned to Austria. to the US via England. Born in 1912, and after February 1934 was active with she studied psychology in Vienna and the illegal Revolutionary Socialist Youth. Else Federn, born 1874, spent her summer received her doctorate in 1922. Interested In 1935 and 1937 she was imprisoned for holidays in 1900 working at the “Women’s in individual psychology she was working these activities. After the Anschluss, she University Settlement” in London. Inspired with Alfred Adler. In 1924, she ran homes emigrated via Paris to Scotland with the by these ideas and back in Vienna, she for children and young people with help of the Quakers, where she worked was one of the founding members of the difficulties using individual psychology. as a housemaid and then, from 1943, “Ottakringer Settlement”, which from This approach offered a new view on as a hospital social worker in Glasgow. 1901 onwards offered education and a juvenile care taking. In 1938 she fled She returned to Vienna in 1959, and was community centre in the poor Viennese to England and in 1939 to New York chairman of the Bund Werktätiger Juden district of Ottakring. She had a leading role where she became head psychologist in a – Poale Zion. In 1995, the Anne Kohn- in the settlement for years, retired in the hospital. Feuermann Day Care Centre was opened early 1930s, and continued as a volunteer. in the Maimonides Centre of the Vienna As she was defined as “half-Jewish” she Political or racial persecution did not start Jewish Community. had to leave Austria. In October 1938 she in 1938. For some social workers, 1934 managed to escape to England, where her gave urgent reasons to leave Austria and The one-year research project The brothers were living, and stayed for the rest emigrate: Jewish social workers because Persecution of Austrian Social Workers of her life. The Settlement movement has of the increasing antisemitism, socialist during National-Socialism aims to recover been a source of inspiration and exchange and communist social workers because of the life stories of those social workers who in the development of new approaches the prohibition of their political ideology. were humiliated, tortured or killed by the to social work and England has played a Nazi regime and the ones who were able particularly important role in that. The author of the article Die Fürsorgerin to flee, as well as emigrants who turned published in 1930 in the Handbuch der to social work in exile.Please read more on Eleonora Fried, born in Vienna in Frauenarbeit in Österreich (Handbook www.fuersorge-geschichte.at and get in 1916, attended the training for female on women’s work in Austria) Marie touch with any relevant information. Fürsorgerinnen at the Social Women’s Köstler, born 1879, mother of several School of Caritas. She started working children, was trained as a nurse. In 1922 Irene Messinger and Thomas Wallerberger at the Tuberculosis Welfare Office of the she became the head of the guardianship [email protected]

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OUR SACHA The maid Sacha Franziska with one of the children from John Martins writes: “During amazement at the picture Käthe’s family. this period of lockdown, I of the Madonna and the crucifix which hung up have been going through old above Sacha’s bed. She family photographs identifying was a pious Catholic. She went regularly to people and putting them into church on her free Sunday chronological order. I came and, at Christmas time, she took me with her across this article written by to the cathedral. I will my father’s older sister which never forget my fear and inner conflict when the paints a picture of life in their congregation knelt down town in the early 1900s. The and defiantly l remained on my feet. However, l was so town was called Gnesen in small it went unnoticed. province Posen, and my aunt’s Then came the first World name was Käthe Beutler. I War and Farmer Zuege, hope your readers find it who regularly sold his grain to my father was, like so interesting.” many others, obliged to take in a Russian prisoner- “I can also cook kosher” she said, of-war. When the farmer “I learnt it when I worked for the K was in my father’s office, family in Krotoschin but the head of the the Russian came into household died and I had to look for a our kitchen to ask for a glass of water. following day Farmer Zuegge came and new job”. She stood modestly in front Suddenly, Sacha ran to my mother told us that Jankel had fled. Yesterday of my mother, full of fear, wondering excitedly. “The Russian has kissed the afternoon he’d eaten with them and whether she would succeed in finding mezuzza and said Shema Israel to me. then, this morning, when the farmer another family which she could take He’s a Jew”. My mother went into the wanted to take him to the fields, his care of with all the love of which her kitchen immediately. There sat Jankel bedroom was empty. Had we seen him? soul was capable. My mother liked her Czemiak, a shoemaker from Grodno who We had no idea where he was. Some immediately. The following morning her had been taken prisoner in one of the hours later, the local police came and suitcase arrived, and Sacha came into first battles. He was clearly happy to have questioned my father who, with a clear our house where she stayed until the found a Jewish family and that he would conscience, confirmed that he had not end of her life. She was the good angel not starve living with a farming family. seen him. The following Sunday, Sacha of my youth. From then on he always accompanied went to church to confession. “It is the farmer when he went into town and, no sin”, she said, “I worried so much She wasn’t beautiful, our Sacha, with sometimes, he went to the synagogue about him. I hope he soon returns to his her wide protruding cheekbones, with my father. But, best of all, he liked family safe and sound.” scraped-back hair and long black to sit by Sacha in the kitchen and tell her dresses, but she could do the work of about his family, his wife and his two The war continued. We schoolchildren two people. When we got up in the small boys. He got a little money for his sang patriotic songs in the hospitals morning the shoes were clean, the fires work and he passed it regularly to Sacha. and distributed little gifts. One day lit and the breakfast table already laid. “He had to save for something”, she told my father also got his call-up papers. Her kingdom was the bright roomy us. I sat with Sacha in the kitchen where kitchen which always smelt of lovely she sobbed broken-heartedly into her things as she could cook and bake One dark and stormy night the yard dog apron. “Don’t cry, Sacha”, I said, “All really well. She was very aware of suddenly started barking and would not men have to protect their country, and, kashruth and woe betide us children if stop. We heard Sacha go to the front when my father gets back, he will be a we put our milchig spoon in the drawer door and speak to someone. “It was only hero. Perhaps he will also get the Iron with the fleischig ones. a farmer wanting to know the way to Cross.” Sacha did not even look at me. Tremessen,” she said when she got back. From behind her apron she just kept Only rarely were we children allowed to “He was starving so I quickly made him crying. “Oh, Katka, what do you know, enter into the maid’s room, to gaze in a parcel with bread and sausage”. The what do you know!”

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OBITUARIES

RUTH DAVID (née Oppenheimer) HENRY WERMUTH

Born: 17 March 1929, Frankfurt Born: 4 April 1923, Frankfurt Died: 6 April 2020, Leicester Died: 19 May 2020, London

Ruth David, a leading Holocaust educator, Perhaps best known for his attempt speaker and author has died, leaving a host to kill Hitler by derailing his train, of her memories preserved for future generations. Abraham Heinrich Wermuth was born in Frankfurt in 1923, the eldest Her work received wide recognition and she was an active reader and contributor to child of Bernhard and Ida. the AJR Journal until the end of her life. She is fondly remembered at the National Holocaust Centre where she was known for her “spirited, thoughtful and intelligent As a boy Henry was fiercely patriotic and nature”. Ruth shared her testimony with thousands of visitors who came to hear her experienced little antisemitism, although that talk and would always invite them to work with her to relate her story to contemporary of course changed dramatically after 1933. issues today. The Centre holds her photographic collection recalling her and her family’s story. One night in 1938 they were awoken by German troops and deported by train to After witnessing the devastation of Kristallnacht, including the ransacking of the family Krakow (his father’s family were from Poland). home and the beating up of her father, brother and uncle, Ruth escaped on one of the There they applied for US visas but, after the Kindertransport trains in June 1939. She never saw her parents again. German invasion, this proved impossible. The family moved to Bochnia and in 1942 they She arrived in Britain knowing no English and bitterly resenting the separation from were split up. Henry and his father were sent her family. She lived in refugee hostels and after the war won a scholarship to Bedford to the Klaj ammunition camp, his mother and College to study Modern Languages. It led to a thirty-year career, teaching French and sister to Belzec, where they were probably German to secondary school pupils. gassed on arrival. She met fellow teacher Andrew Finch on a language course and they married in 1958. Henry was 19 when a disgruntled German They had two children, Margaret – an immigration lawyer – and Simon – a filmmaker soldier whom he had befriended told him – but the marriage broke down in the 1970s. Twenty years later she married Herbert that Hitler would shortly pass by Klaj on his David, professor of statistics at the University of Iowa. In the US, Ruth finally felt able way to the Russian front. The night before to draft a childhood memoir. Child of Our Time was published in 2003, hailed by the the scheduled journey Henry broke out of Washington Post as “deeply moving”. The personality of its author radiated from every the camp and piled logs and stones on the page, unsentimental, generous and observant. It was followed in 2011 by a companion rail track, hoping to derail Hitler’s locomotive. volume Life-Lines revealing letters between the Oppenheimer parents and their children He waited anxiously for the sound of a crash in exile. which never came. He never found out why his ploy failed and assumed that someone After her second marriage ended, Ruth returned to the UK, and her commitment removed the obstruction. to Holocaust education grew stronger. She became a valued and regular speaker at the UK’s National Holocaust Centre and joined the National Holocaust Commission’s Henry may not have changed history but he board. Germany recognised her contribution formally, by awarding her its highest did survive eight camps, including Auschwitz. civilian honour, the Order of Merit, at a moving ceremony at the German Embassy, When the Americans liberated Mauthhausen Knightsbridge in 2012. It was covered by this Journal in October that year. in May 1945, Henry weighed just 72 lbs and had tuberculosis. His father – who had been For much of her life Ruth was a Quaker. Her son Simon explained: “She pursued incarcerated with him throughout - died of research into the vital role they played in helping Jewish refugees flee from Nazi- a head wound inflicted by a Nazi guard just occupied Europe. The Quakers had secured places for her and her sister on separate days before liberation. Kindertransports, and also ensured her younger brother Michael could escape from an internment camp in France, in February 1941”. In his memoir, Breathe Deeply my Son, Henry wrote: “When we were liberated and I knew Despite her traumatic background, Ruth was a vivid presence into her nineties, a the war was over I cried a stream of tears. I woman with an extraordinary gift for friendship and a vast network of acquaintances couldn’t believe I had so much water in me. across the world. She died at Leicester Royal Infirmary, from Covid-19. Only then I said to myself, ‘You are alive but you are alone’. I went out of barracks and Janet Weston

16 AJR Journal | July 2020 LOOKING

FOR? LIEBERG AND BLOCK Terry Anne Boyd of Perth, Australia, knows The AJR regularly receives that her grandparents, Wolfgang and Helena messages from our members and Lieberg of Northwick Park, and her great aunt Hilda Block (née Lieberg) of Golders others looking for people or for Green sheltered Jewish refugees. She would help in particular subjects. Here be delighted to receive more information. saw a skeleton in the window of the next [email protected] block. I saw it was me. I smiled at the are some of the most recent skeleton, it smiled back, and I said, ‘This requests – please get in touch skeleton is going to live.’” THE TIGER IN THE ATTIC directly with the person concerned Edith Milton, the author of this book, is After recuperating in an Italian refugee if you can help. being sought by Michael Salmon, whose camp Henry began making his way family looked after Edith in May 1944, around Europe in search of family and before he was born. She moved to the friends. He found none in Germany HISTORICAL RESEARCH States in 1947 and was last known to be but learned of an aunt in Stamford Hill. Lisa Bechner is keen to learn about any child living in New Hampshire. Initially granted a two-year visa, Henry refugees who came on the Kindertransport [email protected] wrote to the Queen Mother and was and later served in the British army, especially eventually allowed to settle here. if they were at the D-Day landings. [email protected] GERMAN-TO-ENGLISH TRANSLATOR He used compensation from the German Stav Meishar is a performer and academic, government to build up a successful currently writing a book about a Jewish circus property business in north London. He LOEBINGER FAMILY family in Germany ca. 1905-1945. He has met fellow German Elisabeth Stösser, Bridget King is looking for relatives of Berlin collected some German texts relevant to this who was working in an antique glass lawyer Günther Loebinger and his wife Maria, work and would be grateful for a volunteer to shop, and they married in 1963. née Heller, who died in London in 1997. help with German-to-English translations. Günther sadly died at Auschwitz. Bridget has [email protected] During the 1980s he wrote his memoirs applied for a Stolperstein for him. and published four fictional books. He [email protected] began devoting a great deal of his time WHY SURBITON? to Holocaust education, travelling to In August 1939 Arthur Goldman came, schools to share his testimony and raise CZECH MALT aged 3, from Beuthen (then Germany, now awareness of the dangers of antisemitism Thomas Kibelksties is writing a book about Poland) with his brother and mother. He and prejudice. In 1995, he was awarded beer and malt production in Landsberg by wants to know why the authorities sent the Johanna Kirchner Medal by the City the Aktien Malzfabrik Landsberg, Saale, them to Surbiton rather than the Jewish of Frankfurt for his attempt to assassinate which took over two malt-producing refugee centre in nearby Croydon. From Hitler. facilities in 1939: Milchspeiser und Surbiton, the family went to the Isle of Man Katscher (Ivanovice), later called Hanna and then to Luton. “All I wanted is to be normal and to Malzfabrik AG, Deutsch-Mährische Hanna [email protected] have a normal life,” he used to reflect. Malzfabrik AG in Hohenstadt (Zabreh), the “I wanted to create a Jewish family and former Klatscher & Lorenz (Prag). Thomas raise them with no fear of who they are needs details of the original owners’ families. but with a sense of pride. [email protected] Outstanding live-in and hourly care in “I owe it to my parents to keep their your home at flexible, affordable rates. memory alive. For me the pain never JACQUES AISCHMANN heals. I don’t want people to forget this Tom Gamble is seeking information on chapter of history and the lessons it Jacques Aischmann (1914 – 1962). Born in teaches us. It must never happen again.” London, son of Heinrich Aischmann (corset manufacturer from Cologne) and Suzanne Henry is survived by Elisabeth, their two Pequery, Jacques lived in Berlin in the daughters Ilana and Tricia, and their 1930s and was imprisoned in Oranienburg three grandchildren. concentration camp. 020 7482 2188 pillarcare.co.uk [email protected]

17 AJR Journal | July 2020

Alex – who had a much more colourful in an extremely engaging way. REVIEWS personality and was a friend of Dior and Chagall – meanwhile continued The majority of Holocaust literature, HOUSE OF GLASS: THE STORY AND with his work in Cannes. Disaster struck both factual and fiction, focuses on SECRETS OF A TWENTIETH-CENTURY after an evening at a nightclub when he Central and Eastern Europe, but in JEWISH FAMILY denounced the Germans and was sent to many cases the impact on Western By Hadley Freeman a concentration camp. Against all odds European Jewry was just as dramatic. 4th Estate he escaped by jumping from a carriage In all, approximately 77,000 Jews of a moving train and lived with a family living on French territory perished in This impressive chronicle tells the in the French countryside while working concentration camps and killing centres gripping story of a Jewish family for the Resistance. – the overwhelming majority of them through the 20th century from at Auschwitz – or died in detention impoverished roots in Poland to society Henri became a brilliant engineer, on French soil. The Young Survivors life in Paris cruelly interrupted by the surviving the war in hiding with his wife gives insight into their journeys and the war. Sonia under false identities. On the experiences of those who survived. surface, Sala’s war was less traumatic, Author Hadley Freeman found a spent in a New York suburb where she The book follows the lives of the shoebox of treasured belongings had reluctantly married an American. Laskowski family after Germany hidden away in her grandmother Sala’s She was introduced to him by Alex who invaded France. As the front cover of closet in Miami after she died and was had encouraged his sister to go, leaving the book hints, only three of the five so intrigued she traced the story back. her Jewish dentist and socialist fiancé children survived. Although fictional, The main players are Sala herself and behind. She stayed married for 55 years, the children’s experiences are inspired her three brothers – Henri, Jacques and continued to be beautifully groomed by those of the author’s mother and her Alex Glass who grew up in the pretty wearing Alex’s couture fashions, but four siblings. town of Chrzanow – eerily only 20 always had a sad look reflecting the kilometres from Auschwitz. sacrifice she made leaving her heart in Like many historical novels the book Paris. begins in a contemporary setting, with a Their father Reuben never recovered character reconnecting with someone or after being badly gassed fighting in Immediately after the war Alex’s something from their past. The narrative the First World War. He took a series couturier business flourished, graduating is then told in the first person and ‘real- of jobs but “each career was less to him becoming a respected art dealer time’ and in alternate chapters by the successful than the last” and he died and friend of Picasso while proudly Laskowski children who survived. In fact in 1925 leaving his impoverished wife retaining his Yiddish accent. Henri, the youngest child doesn’t start ‘writing’ Chaya struggling to feed her family. despite simple tastes, eventually became until late in the book, due to the fact Meanwhile antisemitism became rife very wealthy. that she would have been too young and, in the face of terrible pogroms, earlier on. one by one the family fled to the It is refreshing to read an account by a French capital, initially settling with third generation family member who I especially liked the way the book other Polish immigrants in the Pletzl. has produced an absolutely compelling describes events through the eyes page-turner. The book is especially of the different siblings, showing Here they prospered and assimilated strong on Polish life, the artistic milieu how different ages understand and to different degrees. Henri remained and the politics of wartime France, experience things very differently the intellectual one, Jacques was an including resistance and collaboration. according to their personal needs and unambitious tailor, Alex a fashion The descriptions of people are a great interests. While the eldest son rises connoisseur and Sala a pattern strength. Photographs – always used in nobly to the responsibility conferred designer. They became absorbed with exactly the right place – help the reader on him as the new head of the family, French culture but clouds gathered with to visualise the unique and interesting his younger brother finds intrigue and a rising anti-Jewish feeling culminating personalities involved and the times in teenage camaraderie in the various in the Occupation. Both Jacques and which they lived. new situations that he experiences. At Alex joined the French Foreign Legion Janet Weston kindergarten age their younger sisters’ where Jacques bravely escaped from needs are still very primal and she Cambrai prison. Unfortunately back instinctively trusts the adults around her. home he soon registered as Jewish THE YOUNG SURVIVORS and was one of the first to be taken By Debra Barnes Although the story is told through to Pithiviers camp. Amazingly he was Duckworth Press the eyes of children, it is by no means allowed home on a brief visit when a children’s book. It is an extremely his daughter was born but ignored I really loved reading this book. It is emotional story which brought me to advice not to return to the camp. A a beautifully constructed novel which tears on more than one occasion but few months later he was transported to provides a window into the experiences also made me smile numerous times. I Auschwitz and tragically died. of French Jews during World War Two, felt slightly lost after I finished it, which

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I always think is the sign of a genuinely childhood friend who floats in and out of of focus from perpetrators and victim compelling book. his life, and an ageing but beautiful starlet witnesses to encouraging survivor Jo Briggs with whom he shares a most seductive testimony; and tracing survivor and romance. And of course, there is the perpetrator post-war experiences. The Young Survivors is published on Metropol itself, which retains its glamour, 23 July. An article from its author, who as Russia loses hers. In my opinion, this book needs to works for the AJR, will appear in our be studied by anyone involved in August issue. I cannot recommend this exquisitely Holocaust education or concerned written book highly enough for, as we are about the current rise of fascism and currently confined, it will take you to an the fact that genocide is currently A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW enchanting place you will certainly not continuing. Fulbrook’s material is By Amor Towels wish to leave! rigorous and simultaneously fascinating Penguin Random House Fran Horwich and horrifying. Presented in a balanced style, it is easy to read but hard to An Englishman’s home is his castle, or so digest without considerable reflection. the maxim goes. Perhaps in these days of RECKONINGS The wider implications of such a toxic Covid restrictions, our homes have become By Mary Fulbrook legacy are daunting. more like fortresses, or even prisons. Oxford University Press Ruth Barnett Although, maybe we are learning to see our homes through fresh eyes; finding Mary Fulbrook’s magnificent summary little areas of tranquillity that we hadn’t of the documentary evidence of what considered before. Certainly those who are happened in Europe in the infamous switch on electrics lucky enough to have gardens or balconies Third Reich and the 75 years after VE Rewires and all household have never treasured them more. Day should be reviewed by a historian, electrical work which I am not. I can barely do more PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 I recently read the novel, A Gentleman than express my deep appreciation of in Moscow, by Amor Towels and it keeps Fulbrook’s work (539 pages of text and Mobile: 0795 614 8566 coming back to my thoughts as we 77 of notes). grapple with our restricted domesticity. The central character of the book, Count Apart from the introduction and Alexander Ilyich Rostov, is certainly conclusion, the book is in three www.fishburnbooks.com incarcerated, but not in prison or even his parts. The first 281 pages cover the Jonathan Fishburn home. “Patterns of Persecution”, analysing buys and sells Jewish and Hebrew books, ephemera and items of Jewish interest. the Nazi’s speedy creation of a The novel opens in 1922, and Count “Bystander Society” acclimatised to He is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association. Rostov comes from the wrong class. Being the institutionalisation of brutality, landed gentry, with his own estate in murder and the visible machinery of Contact Jonathan on 020 8455 9139 or 07813 803 889 Nizhny Novgorod, he is brought before extermination. Fulbrook elucidates for more information the Commissariat for Internal Affairs, differing policies for different victim narrowly escaping a sentence of execution. groups, all in the service of protecting Instead he is condemned to remain within the purity of the superior ‘Volk’ from the walls of the Metropol Hotel. If he steps inferior groups targeted as ‘enemies’ to JOSEPH PEREIRA outside, he will be shot. be cleansed out of the Reich. (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) is now available for DIY repairs How will the Count, who is used to The second part, 153 pages, covers the and general maintenance. travelling wherever he wished in the most failure of any real measure of justice. No job too small, opulent style, cope with living out his life Fulbrook analyses the very different very reasonable rates. in a small, cramped room in a hotel? Well, court systems and attitudes in Austria, Please telephone 07966 887 485. the answer is with grace and aplomb. It East and West Germany. The effects is as though, surrounded by Bolsheviks, of immediate post-war focus on the Rostov is the last gentleman in Moscow. ‘Cold War’ meant leaving former Nazi He is a man of honour, slow to judge judges biased towards the defendants those around him and quick to be of while survivor witnesses felt put on trial service. I can safely say that he is one of themselves. The vast majority involved Books Bought the most captivating characters I have in the perpetration were never called Modern and Old ever read! He is not dispirited or lonely, to account and full justice was an as he befriends the many visitors to the impossible task. Eric Levene hotel, and the staff alike. We have the 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 waiters in the hotel’s Boyarsky Restaurant, The third part, 156 pages, covers [email protected] where the Count takes a job; Mishka, his memorialisation and the gradual shift

19 AJR Journal | July 2020

DOUBLE CELEBRATIONS

The AJR wishes a hearty mazeltov to our Pinner members Bob and Ann Kirk on the joint occasions of their 70th wedding anniversary and Bob’s 95th birthday. They came to the UK separately on the Kindertransport and, sadly, neither of them saw their parents again. They later met and married in 1950, and now work together to share their experiences at activities for Holocaust Memorial Day and throughout the year. In the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours they were both awarded BEMs for Services to Holocaust education.

TO REPLICATE OR NOT? The Wiener Holocaust Library was recently game is packed, travelled, unpacked, and A piece approached by another organisation displayed, and affected by handling and from the wanting to create a replica of one of the light exposure, its condition deteriorates. infamous artefacts in its collection for their upcoming Although in the short term, this minor Juden exhibition. The item in question is the damage might not be visible to the human Raus! Juden Raus! board game, which uses crude eye, in terms of decades, or even centuries, it board antisemitic stereotypes. suddenly does matter.” game

The Library’s Head of Research, Dr Christine Schmidt raises further complex visitor? And in the case of Holocaust-era Christine Schmidt, and Head of Collections, questions: “Is it ethical to enter into and artefacts, is it advisable to produce replicas Greg Toth, considered the ethics in a embrace the chemical, mechanical and for education when one of the stated fascinating blog. artistic process of replicating an object justifications for Holocaust education is to that had such vile implications and uses, combat denial – wouldn’t ‘a fake’ object Greg Toth argues: “The Wiener Holocaust and which was originally created with the undermine these efforts?” Library is the only institution which has intention of tapping into and promulgating two full sets of the game. Consequently, racist views? Does the need for this object as Clearly this is a sensitive issue. We would there is a huge demand for the game an educational ‘tool’ outweigh the ethics of love to receive your thoughts and will pass and one copy is constantly on loan to aesthetic recreation? To what extent does a them onto the Wiener Holocaust Library. external institutions. The Library receives replica convey the same sort of meaning as You can also read the full blog and respond 6-8 requests per year and many of these the ‘authentic’ object to exhibition visitors, direct to the Library via the June issue of requests desire the game for long-term that ‘sacred aura’ that often captures the its excellent monthly e-newsletter – see exhibitions. However, every time the imagination and emotionally moves a https://wienerlibrary.co.uk/E-Newsletters.

BEING SECOND GENERATION

Children of Holocaust survivors and second generation and intergenerational second generation Holocaust survivors refugees will explore together how it has groups since the 1980s. and refugees, and costs £9. For more affected their lives in an online workshop info see: led by Gaby Glassman, a psychologist The workshop is on Sunday 26 July at https://www.jw3.org.uk/whats-on/ and psychotherapist who has facilitated 11.00am. It is only for those who are being-second-generation

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Winston House, 2 Dollis Park, Finchley, London N3 1HF Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 e-mail [email protected] AssociationofJewishRefugees @TheAJR_ For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters, Unit 5, St Albans House, St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected] The AJR Journal is printed on 100% recycled material and posted out in fully recyclable plastic mailing envelopes.

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