VOLUME 7 NO. 12 DECEMBER 2007 journal Association of Jewish Refugees

The British and the Mandate inety years ago this month, in worse) by the Arab majority once the latter eyes, as disadvantaging their cause - as December 1917, British forces took felt threatened by Jewish immigration. indeed it did, for their interests and those of Ncontrol of Palestine from the The first High Commissioner, heading the the Arabs were fundamentally and Ottoman Turks. So began the period of the British administration in Palestine, was irreconcilably opposed. British Mandate, which ended with the War Herbert Samuel, a leading British politician, The Zionist goal - that of building a of Independence and the foundation of the a Jew and a convinced Zionist. The second Jewish community numerous, cohesive and State of Israel in 1948. Some Jewish most important figure in the administration, powerful enough economically, politically commentators portray the years of the the Chief Secretary, was Wyndham Deedes, and militarily to live in security ~ could be Mandate as a heroic era of struggle achieved only at the expense of the against the British, out of which the Arabs, as the latter saw it. The Jewish state was bom. But was it error underlying British policy in quite like that? Did the Yishuv, the Palestine was the refusal to Jewish community in Palestine, acknowledge that by permitting throw off the yoke of British the establishment of the Jewish colonialism as, say, the American national home, they were setting colonists did in the late eighteenth Jews and Arabs on a collision century? course that made war virtually The British were hardly in­ inevitable. No commissions of volved in the war of 1948: they inquiry, no white papers, not even simply concentrated on extricating the mailed fist of military power could remove this primary cause of themselves from the mess they had High Commissioner John Chancellor, 1928 (Central Zionist Archive) created in Palestine. Indeed, the conflict: mass Jewish immigration British had formally abandoned authority a devout Christian who believed profoundly into Palestine galvanised the Arabs into over Palestine some months previously, in the retum of the Jews to the Holy Land. rejecting Jewish settlement, for all the when they handed their Mandate to the When he died in 1956, AfR Information called technological and economic benefits that it United Nations. Once they had given up India him 'a true, dedicated friend' of the Jewish promised to bring them. in 1947, they had no strategic reason for stay­ people: 'He was one of the famous company During the period of the Mandate, the ing in Palestine, no need to safeguard the of Englishmen who were inspired by the Yishuv undeniably flourished. The Jewish route to the sub-continent. In 1948 the Jews visions of the Bible. He staunchly believed population of Palestine increased by more were not fighting for independence against that it was the privilege of England to help than tenfold during those years, the Jewish an occupying or colonial power; they fought the Jewish people to a new dispensation.' economy was dynamic and progressive, and the Arabs, who had also been under British Attorney General Norman Bentwich was the Jewish educational system provided a rule. For these reasons, it is more accurate to another British Jew and Zionist at the apex literate, highly skilled workforce for a rapidly refer to the war of 1948 as the Arab-Israeli of the administration. modernising society. The Israeli historian War, though less stirring in tone. Evidently, though, British policy was not Tom Segev has listed the advances made Nor had the British Mandate begun in a identical with Zionist interests. The Balfour under British mle in his book One Palestine, spirit of conflict between Jewish interests and Declaration itself stated that the Jewish Complete: fews and Arabs Under the British British rule. On the contrary, it was Britain national home was to be established without Mandate (London: Abacus, 2001): 'The Jews that proclaimed the establishment of the prejudice to the civil and religious rights of were permitted to purchase land, develop 'Jewish national home' in Palestine in the the existing Arab population. In accordance agriculture, and establish industries and Balfour Declaration of November 1917. with this, the British strove to balance the banks. The British allowed them to set up Without the protection of a major power, Jews rights and interests of the two communities hundreds of new settlements, including could never have settled in substantial in a reasonably fair and even-handed manner. several towns. They created a school system numbers in Palestine; at the time of the Neither community saw it like that, of course: and an army; they had a political leadership Balfour Declaration, they formed about a both were convinced that Britain favoured and elected institutions; and with the help of tenth of the territory's popularion and would the other. Zionists saw any concession to all these they in the end defeated the Arabs.' almost certainly have been expelled (or Arab claims, however justified in British continued overleaf AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

THE BRITISH AND THE MANDATE con tinned from page 1

Plainly, the primary credit for these the British to the free-roaming desert civilians in Amritsar in 1919, or with the achievements must go to the Jews themselves. Bedouin. But the British administration in wholesale bmtality employed in the suppres­ But the British for the most part did nothing Palestine was bound to follow govemment sion of the Mau Mau in Kenya in the 1950s. to stop them. By contrast, the British allowed policy - and that remained the establishment The issue that arouses the strongest Arab society to remain backward and primi­ of thejewish national home, which favoured emotions - the British refusal to admit into tive, with a high rate of illiteracy, slow to the Jews, not the Arabs. The harsh suppres­ Palestine Jews fleeing the Holocaust - modernise and to develop an educated politi­ sion of the Arab rebellion of 1936-39, an demonstrated heartlessness rather than cal class and an effective political leadership. episode often overlooked, showed to what active brutality; Britain was not the original Even in the highly contentious area of lengths the British would go; 25,000 men perpetrator of the evil, though its reaction immigration, British and Zionists co-operated were sent to Palestine, a very substantial was one of callous disregard for the victims. to some extent, at least until the mid-1930s. force by interwar standards, and in 1938 The spectacle of Jews fleeing the Nazis from Initially, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish General Bernard Montgomery, no less, Black Sea ports, risking their lives on government-in-waiting, wanted free arrived to command them. The draconian ramshackle ships, only to be stopped from immigration into Palestine. But Herbert measures adopted against Arab terrorism entering Palestine by the Royal Navy, has Samuel pointed out that this would also mean effectively broke the back of the Arab fight­ not lost its power over the years. The case of free immigration for Arabs; far better, he ing capacity, thus unintentionally boosting the Struma, which sank in the Black Sea with argued, for the British to agree an annual the chances of a Jewish victory a decade later. the loss of over 700 Jewish lives, was the quota with thejewish Agency on a bilateral In the conflict between the British and the worst. Of those who arrived in Palestine on basis, shutting the Arabs out. Though these Jews that came to a head after 1945, both board the Patria, some 300 lost their lives in annual negotiations were often very heated, sides behaved with a measure of restraint; a botched Haganah bombing; the British saw the quota nevertheless brought one priceless incidents like the bombing of the King David fit to intem the survivors in Mauritius. advantage to the Jewish Agency: it could Hotel in Jemsalem in 1946 were the excep­ The hostility of the British towards the control the process of immigration. Jews who tion. The British took the usual measures, Jews increased as they came to see Jewish wished to leave their native lands to go to imprisoning, interrogating and sometimes immigration into Palestine as the destabi­ Palestine never went to the nearest British executing those convicted of terrorist lising element in a situation where, with war consulate; they went to the local offices of offences, while also resorting to illegal means approaching, they urgently needed stability. the Jewish Agency, which selected those to like torture, and imposing curfews and forci­ From about 1944, Jewish attacks on British be given immigration permits. ble searches on the Jewish population, like soldiers and officials not surprisingly caused the notorious 'Black Sabbath' arrests of June That antisemitic attitudes were common British attitudes to harden further. Ultimately, 1946. But Jews, however scorned, were among the British in Palestine is beyond the British were forced to acknowledge that Europeans and their lives were not as ex­ doubt. They were part of the casual racism their Mandate had ended in ignominious fail­ pendable as those of 'natives'. Nothing the of the day, part of the British sense of supe­ ure. It was the cmcible in which the war of British did in Palestine compares with the riority over colonial peoples - which included 1948 and what followed was forged. massacre of hundreds of peaceful Indian Arabs, despite the romantic attachment of Anthony Grenville

umtoit'-i^--'. !*•.... aiJJiMA.,., it.*i--' -ym^samssmm^ Letter to the Stars: Young Austrians visit survivors

bwards the end of the war, the over 20 young Austrians came to grandparents' generation had done. In Allies designated Austria as the London primarily to visit individual May next year, on the 70th anniversary Tfirst of Hitler's victims, rather than Shoah survivors and to hear their stories of the liberation of Mauthausen, there as a perpetrator at least equally so that they could tell their schools about will be a major rally in the Heldenplatz responsible for the crimes committed them. Most interviews were recorded for in Vienna sponsored by the government by the Nazis. The Austrian government possible use by the Austrian media. The and the city. For more background, visit of the time and later governments were group also visited the Holocaust www.lettertothestars.at only too happy to accept this view, but Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, George Vulkan in the last ten years the attitude has listened to a talk by Bertha Leverton at changed and now the government and the London Jewish Cultural Centre AJR Directors most, if not all, of the people have about the Kindertransport, participated Gordon Greenfield recognised the guilt Austria shares with in a Friday evening service and Carol Rossen Germany. A very good example of this explanatory talk by Henry Kuttner at AJR Heads of Department Michael Newman Media and Public Relations recognition is the work of a group called Belsize Square Synagogue, and Susie Kaufman Organiser, AJR Centre attended a very friendly Jause at the Letter to the Stars, which for the past AJR Journal four years has organised major events Austrian Embassy together with many Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor in the centre of Vienna involving of the survivors they had met. It was Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor thousands of schoolchildren. Pupils are very heartening and moving to meet Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements also encouraged to research the stories these young people, who obviously of individual victims or survivors so that were not themselves guilty of anything Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not they should not be forgotten. yet felt strongly the need to try and necessarily those of the Association of Jewish Refugees and should not be regarded as such. At the end of October, a group of make amends for what their AJRJOURNAl. DECEMBER 2007

D^ngeH Enemy Alien! NEWTONS y the beginning of 1940, English Biographical Dictionary tells me that Leading Hampstead Solicitors women began to join the Armed Montague William Lowry-Corry Rowton advise on Forces, and vacancies arose in (1838-1903) 'devoted his time and B Property, Wills, Family Trusts factories and offices. Consequently, the money to the provision of decent cheap Home Office relaxed the stringent accommodation for working men', the and Charitable Trusts conditions of employment under which institution we were sent to seemed French and German spoken we were allowed to remain in England, more like a Dickensian workhouse - a refuge for the flotsam and jetsam of and I got myself a job as an invoice Home visits arranged typist with a firm of printers in Exeter. society. There were children and old I had moved into the home of a people and confused people - all poor 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, and apparently unwanted. German woman, the widow of an London NWS SNB Englishman, who let a few rooms and We were housed in a large dormitory provided full board for £1 a week. My and the food was appalling. Neverthe­ Tel: 020 7435 5351 salary was 25/- a week, from which less, we had quite a good time there. A Fax: 020 7435 8881 1/6d was deducted for, I suppose, tax Quaker lady volunteered to organise and national insurance. This left me walks and even arranged an excursion with 3/6d net - not a great deal even in to Wells Cathedral. I used my unexpected those days. To augment my income, I leisure to adapt the shorthand I had gave German lessons to a couple of learned at school for use in English. doctors' wives two evenings a week. Right at the start of the war we had They had not experienced my domestic been issued with gas masks, and the JACKMAN- skills first-hand but knew of them by blackout regulations were rigidly reputation and probably felt I couldn't enforced - much to the anguish of Rosie SILVERMAN possibly be a worse teacher than I had COMMERCIA£ L PROPERTY CONSULTANTS Bergmann (sister of Richard, the table- been a servant. They were right. tennis wunderkind, worid champion at The firm I worked for was owned by 17), who suffered from claustrophobia a family of devout Baptists, who did all - but any air-raid warnings at that time they could to befriend me. They asked were promptly followed by the me to tea at weekends, and a maiden reassuring all-clear. (Over halfa century aunt (every family had one then) later, by an extraordinary coincidence, 26 Conduit Street sometimes drove me to the nearby a woman got talking to me at a bus seaside. But there was a small price to stop in Willesden Lane, and it emerged London WIR 9TA not only that we were both native pay for their kindness. The poor people Telephone: 020 7409 0771 were bent on saving my soul and asked Austrians and had been in Taunton at me to accompany them to chapel rather the same time, but also that we had Fax! 020 7493 8017 too often for my liking. Alas, my soul both worked in Munich for the US Army has always been stubbornly resistant after the war. She was to call it our 'me to proselytisers of any persuasion, too' conversation.) including ultra-orthodox Jews. Eventually, so everybody tells me - Just as I had contentedly settled in although I have no recollection of this AUSTRIAN and GERMAN my job, in the spring of 1940, the whatsoever - I must have appeared authorities decided that I lived too close before a tribunal. Be that as it may, all PENSIONS to the coast and, despite my employers' of us at Rowton House metamorphosed protestations, they conveyed me, from 'enemy alien' to 'refugee from together with a bunch of other Nazi oppression' and were free to go PROPERTY dangerous female Jewish 'enemy anywhere we liked. Once again I headed RESTITUTION CLAIMS aliens', to a Rowton House in Taunton, for London, just in time for the Blitz. EAST GERMANY - BERLIN Somerset. Although my Chambers Edith Argy On instructions our ofTice will Club 43: Looking to the future with optimism assist to deal with your applications and pursue the s part of our autumn programme. Club future German participation in creating an matter with the authorities A 43 welcomed Dr A. M. Schleich, atmosphere of European closeness and Minister Counsellor, Head of Culture and friendship. For further information Education at the German Embassy in This was a very successful and well- London, who spoke to us about Anglo- attended occasion. The German Embassy as and an appointment German cultural and educational relations. always gives us considerable support and, please contact: It was clear from Dr Schleich's talk that, with leading diplomatic functionaries like like most Germans, she strongly favoured Dr Schleich, we can be confident of future ICS CLAIMS closer European co-operation and German generous help in our endeavours to preserve 146-154 Kilburn High Road integration in European activities. She the cultural links of the former refugees with London NW6 4JD regretted what she saw as Britain's the lands of their birth and to further reluctance to get closer to Europe. reconciliation with the present, innocent Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) While by no means denying the vital German generation after the horrors of the Fax: 020 7624 5002 importance of Holocaust education, she said past. she placed greater emphasis on a vision of Ernst Flesch liyiggg.c^.'iiSJi^saHi

A|R JOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

A small cemetery in Bohemia

y grandparents lived in a small nally, the cemetery was now the prop­ town in central Bohemia - erty, and under the administration, of MHostomice, some 35 km from the Prague Jewish community, which Prague - where my grandfather had a had many calls on its attention and small draper's shop. My grandmother funds. Gradually, with the help of vol­ died before I was born and my unteers, some of the undergrowth was grandfather married again; my step- cleared, but a more fundamental ap­ grandmother was always 'my proach was required. In 1994-95 I grandmother' to me. My grandfather managed, with the help of surviving was a member and one-time head of relatives, to raise funds which, when the Jewish community, which included matched by funds from Prague, were all the neighbouring villages. He was sufficient to restore the damaged grave­ not particularly orthodox and was well stones and clear the site. There was no respected in the wider community, point in trying to rebuild the walls or playing chess with the local priest as restore the prayer house - the cemetery one of his pastimes. is not in use and funds were not avail­ As a boy, I spent many of my able. Furthermore, the cemetery is now Professor Pavel Novak vacations in Hostomice, roaming the surrounded by mature trees to make it countryside, swimming in the ponds, invisible from the road - you can find it collecting mushrooms and blackberries. The cemetery is being only if you know where to look. I remember being weighed on arrival A local couple (not Jewish), Marie on the scales in the hardware shop next regularly monitored by staff and Bohuslav, who have lived nearby to my grandfather's and again before from the administration of the since childhood (Marie actually departure when, to my grandmother's remembered my youngest aunt) took consternation, she found out that I had Prague feivish community. up the task of maintaining the restored put on 10 dkg in spite of being more It has been declared a cemetery by, among other things, than well fed for over a month. protected monument and is clearing the paths. When they grew too At that time, I didn't take particular old to continue, a younger relative took notice of the small Jewish cemetery now a site for peaceful over. outside Hostomice, which was used by contemplation. Thus, the On one of my visits, Marie told me families scattered throughout a fairly she had helped to establish a small wide region. My first real memory of story of the cemetery has museum in a room of the former school the cemetery, where my great- perhaps not a happy, but a - now the local council - in a nearby grandparents and my grandmother village. Marie, who is looking after the were buried, was when my grandfather satisfactory, ending. museum, showed me the exhibits. I died in 1934, when I was 16. I found local memorabilia, crafts, a docu­ remember well the funeral procession the whole it was not devastated. When ment signed by President Masaryk-and winding its way out of Hostomice and my uncle and aunt from the USA visited in a corner among others a page from through country lanes and meadows on us in 1964, a friend of mine (not Jewish) a book about the history of Jews in to the small hill with the cemetery. Little helped to clear the paths to 'our' graves. Bohemia dealing with Hostomice and did I realise then that this would be one Ten days after the Soviet invasion of featuring my grandfather's photo­ of the last - if not the last - funeral in Czechoslovakia in 1968, my family and graph. At Marie's request, I supplied the cemetery dating back to the late I left and within a short time made our more family photographs, copies of seventeenth century. way to England again - for my wife and documents, data on my family tree and In April 1939 I managed to make my me our second emigration. We settled suchlike. On my next visit to the way to England; my parents, my sister in Newcastle upon Tyne, where we have museum, I saw a whole display, arranged and her family and many other relatives lived since, and naturally didn't travel by Marie, under the title 'The Story of who stayed behind perished in the to Czechoslovakia for 22 years. One Jewish Family in our Region'. Holocaust. Among the very few After 1990 we returned to Prague on Marie and Bohuslav have become survivors was my grandmother from a visit and have had a holiday in what good friends. I wouldn't dream now of Hostomice, who survived in is now the Czech Republic every year visiting the cemetery without meeting Theresienstadt and in 1945 came to live since. them - and enjoying their hospitality. with me almost until her death at the Naturally we went to Hostomice as The cemetery is being regularly age of 95 in 1961. I returned to Prague soon as possible. I was appalled by the monitored by staff from the in June 1945 (on board the first devastation I found at the cemetery. Not administration of the Prague Jewish Lancaster bomber to land in only had the surrounding walls and the community. It has been declared a Czechoslovakia after the war) and lived small prayer house practically vanished protected monument and is now a site there with my family until 1968. During and the whole was completely over­ for peaceful contemplation. Thus, the that period I visited the cemetery several grown, but many of the gravestones story of the cemetery has perhaps not times. It was neglected, overgrown, had been vandalised, toppled over, a happy, but a satisfactory, ending. some stones were not upright - but on broken, any metal lettehng gone. Nomi­ Pavel Novak AJR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2007 Bending the rules The unsung hero Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld

by Rubin Katz

eading the review by Andrew we went by truck to Gdynia on the Levy of Chanan Tomlin's book on Baltic coast, where a Swedish ship was R Rabbi Dr Solomon Schonfeld waiting for us. How Rabbi Schonfeld (September) brought back many managed to arrange all this, at a time memories. I was on Rabbi Schonfeld's when Europe was still in turmoil, first postwar transport from Poland. To escapes me. corroborate what Andrew Levy had to It was a Friday night when we walked say about this formidable rabbi's up the gangplank and boarded the disregard for the 'rules of the game', freighter Ragne at Gdynia. We were all may I bring up a typical example? excited at the prospect of turning our I came from a small town in Poland back on that unhappy country. Soon with a long, unpronounceable name. after embarkation, Rabbi Schonfeld It was March 1946 when word reached assembled all the Kinder in the dining us that a 'nice English rabbi' was on a hall to welcome us on board and deliver rescue mission to Poland to take a few words in honour of the Shabbat orphans out of the country. His car was bride. He picked out two of the older actually fired on in the nearby Kielce Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld girls and invited them to light the area so he was forced to cut his journey candles. It was a touching scene that short and return to Warsaw. As it was down, refusing to be separated from none of us had experienced since our too dangerous for him to travel to the his ailing mother I could take his place mothers had performed it in our own provinces, where some of the children but I would have to take on his identity homes so very long ago. Some of the were to be found, word spread that too, and I might not be able to revert younger children couldn't even remem­ interested children should proceed to to my real name for some time to come. ber it, having recently emerged from Warsaw without delay. I let the good rabbi persuade me and convents, so the significance was On arriving at the community centre I assured him he could count on me - I entirely lost on them. That night the there, I was met by an imposing, tall had ali the right credentials, having Ragne weighed anchor and, with a blast gentleman with piercing blue eyes and survived the war by passing for a of the foghorn, pulled away from the a red Van Dyke beard. The rabbi looked Christian boy, with an assumed name shore, where we were clearly not resplendent in British army uniform, and a fake baptismal certificate. This wanted, heading for our adoptive coun­ with a badge of the Tablets of the Law would present no problem for me: it try, with our very own Scarlet Pimpernel on his officer's cap. Although he wasn't would mean just another alias, and this on board in the guise of a rabbi. in the army, he had no doubt donned time without the wartime danger, I The rabbi lost no time in introducing the uniform to protect him from the thought. As this was in the days of us to good English manners - how to Poles. He spoke no Polish and I spoke identity cards and having to report say 'Thankyou' and 'I beg your pardon' no English, but we managed to regularly to the police, it was no trivial -and, being a great Anglophile, he tried communicate in a mixture of German matter. Technically, I might have entered to turn us into instant 'little Englanders' and Yiddish. Regrettably, he informed the country illegally and I risked being by teaching us 'Rule Britannia', 'God me, the transport was full to capacity. I sent back to where I came from. Save the King' and so on. None of us explained that I didn't want to go to Adolf Bader, the boy whose identity understood the significance behind the England: we'd been pushed around long I adopted, was sponsored by a family stirring words that the rabbi wrote enough and I only wanted to go to named Swimer in London and, had I not phonetically on a blackboard and we Palestine, to join my two older brothers taken his place, it would have been a repeated them parrot-fashion. He was already there, to fight as soon as I was wasted opportunity. The admirable the only one on board to look after old enough to hold a gun. I was 14. rabbi didn't always adhere to conven­ some 125 adolescents angry with the The rabbi promised to help me, but tion and it was characteristic of the man world, in particular the boys. There was said I must first agree to go with him not to miss an opportunity to rescue even a plot brewing to force the crew to England, from where I would have a another child or to save a child who to change course and head for Palestine! better chance of getting to Palestine, might otherwise have been lost to Only the rabbi would command our which was controlled by the British. He Judaism. We were all supposed to be respect, both during and after the said this, it transpired, to lure me away below the age of 15, but there was even voyage. We worshipped him. Some of from Poland, where my life was in a pregnant young woman among us! the older girls were only too happy to danger. There had been a pogrom in We were settled in the Nozyk assist him in taking care of the very my small town, when five survivors out Synagogue, the only house of worship young, some of whom were sick and ofthe pitiful remnant had been brutally left standing in Warsaw as it had been needed attention. During the nine-day murdered, as well as in many other used as stables by the Germans. From voyage many of the teenage girls fell places. He told me there might be a way Warsaw we flew in a Russian bomber head-over-heeis forthe handsome rabbi. for me to join the transport after all as to Danzig, sitting on the floor, packed On the morning of Sunday 29 March one of the boys on the list was backing tightly in the empty fuselage, and then Continued on page 11 f'ssiK^^^'wm'mi^ga^^e^^g^s^ism

AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

last month. Not so many years ago, this night of terror was commemorated in prestigious venues throughout the country lETTERS^ The Editor reserves the right and special prayers were said in most synagogues for the victims. For me, that to shorten correspondence night has special significance for it was the submitted for publication last time I saw my father. I am surprised and disappointed that so many British-born Jews know nothing about it. In the vibrant community, one of the largest outside London, of which I have been a member for over 30 years, very few have knowledge of what happened that night in RECOLLECTIONS OF INTERNMENT magistrate and two assessors who 1938. In order that this gruesome event Sir - In June 1939 my two sisters and I, the questioned me to decide my status as an should not be forgotten, I have sponsored eldest, were rescued via the Kindertransport. alien - or, better, enemy alien. I was our weekly synagogue leaflet In At first, a marvellous English lady took us 'awarded' a black label to be attached to commemoration. It would be Interesting to into her humble home but, after her death the back of my Aliens Registration know if other communities remember that seven months later, my sisters went to Certificate (Category C) and reimbursed the day. Yes, we have National Holocaust Day foster-parents. I, just over 16, was employed two shillings and six pence I had spent to and Yom HaShoah as well as Memorial in domestic service. Our father had attend the hearing. Prayer during Ylzkor, but a special Kaddish managed to escape, but as he was already Little did they realise that a few days later should be said for a special day. in his early sixties and heartbroken he I would spend a week as a member of the couldn't look after his beloved daughters. Air Training Corps flying in Blenheim Otto Deutsch Apart from that, his wife, the mother of his bombers and Havoc nightfighters at the Southend-on-Sea three children, was left behind in Prague. A Operational Training Unit at Cranfield dire situation for a once successful father airfield. That was the beginning of a long WHAT IS A JEW? and provider who had already endured the story which culminated in flying at low level Sir - I should like to point out a mistake in trauma of uprooting his family from Berlin. in a B-17G (Flying Fortress) over the house in the Point of View article by Harold Saunders I was the only one at the time who Cologne I had left as a refugee child six years (November). He states that the criteria for managed to see my dad occasionally in his before. The wheel had turned full circle. being Jewish are based on being born of a furnished room in Tufnell Park, London. One Ernest G. Kolman, Jewish maternal line. Liberal Judaism (to day, his spiteful landlady nearly shut the Greenford, Middx which I proudly belong) accepts the door in my face, saying: 'Your father is gone. children of Jewish males, as long as they The police have taken him.' What a shock! Sir - During my 11 months' internment on have been brought up in the Jewish way of However, rumours about internment had the Isle of Man I encountered a non-Jewish life. I say this with no bias. Both my parents already circulated via the refugee network. German prisoner who told me he kept up . were born Jews. Furthermore, Mr Saunders I gathered myself together. My next correspondence with his next of kin. Each implies that Judaism is purely a religion. I thoughts were: 'It can't possibly be the same letter was headed 'Prisoner of War Mail' and disagree. Judaism is also a race. Compare, as being taken by the Gestapo.' Just the forwarded by the Red Cross. I sent a letter if you will, the difference between being of same, I was in a quandary. to my grandfather in ThiJringen by the same the Muslim race and following the Islamic What a relief when I heard from my dad method and had one answer back from religion. We have one word where they have at House 7: 0: Camp, Douglas, Isle of Man, Theresienstadt. The rest was silence. A few two. Religiously, there are many forms of saying I shouldn't worry-he was fine. I sent years ago I heard from Yad Vashem that he Judaism. Racially, there is just one. I belong him titbits from my ten-shillings-a-week was listed in the Terezin Memorial Book, to exactly the same race as Mr Saunders earnings. He was touched but said there was having been sent there on 20 September but, evidently, not exactly to the same no need. A few months later he was released. 1942, and that he died in the Terezin ghetto religion. Yet he spoke of his time in intemment with on 3 August 1944. Nazi bookkeeping! Peter Phillips affection, almost longing. A gregarious man, Anthony Goldsmith peterphillips@supanet. com he was in the company of fellow refugees. Wembley, Middx He joined in all the interesting cultural Sir - Having considered myself a non- activities. Apart from that, he was a great BRINGING BACK MEMORIES practising Jew, I was very interested in the sportsman and the self-defence sport of ]u- Sir - I enjoy the style, erudition and range Independent's obituary of Rabbi Sherwin jitsu was his hobby. To the amazement of of topics of Anthony Grenville's articles. Wine, the founder of Humanistic Judaism. his fellow intemees, the elderly man showed They frequently recall some long-forgotten Having been a Reform rabbi for some years, off his sporting skills to them. Most of them event or person. The following anecdote - he lost his belief in a personal god and were much younger He made friends there. almost certainly apocryphal - is a case in thought what was needed was a new kind He dreaded returning to his lonely life. point. A friend encountered Julius Fromm of Judaism for those who could not believe My father died in July 1946, in utter (see November issue) on a Sunday stroll, in a personal god. He founded the Society despair, aged 67. But his time as an internee leading a large group of small children. for Humanistic Judaism, which has grown was one of the few positive experiences of When asked who they were, Fromm replied and formed communities mainly In America, the later period of his sad and lonely life. curtly: 'Reklamationen' (advertisements). but also in Israel and Europe. He explained Also, he was not forgotten. When those Dr Grenville's versions of German phrases his beliefs In his book7uc/a/sm beyond God who knew him there heard my name, they are always very good and none better than in 1985, a book which is out of print but exclaimed: 'Are you the daughter of Karl the one that provoked the thought of Emil obtainable from public libraries. Gumpel?' Yes, I said with sorrow and pride. Jannings croaking 'cock-a-doodle-doo' in The R E. Roland 'He was a real character We shall always Blue Angel. Guy Bishop Leamington Spa remember him. He cheered us up. And the Newtown, Connecticut, USA jujitsu!' COMING TO TERMS Laura Selo (nee Gumpel), KRISTALLNACHT COMMEMORATION Sir - While reviewing The Single Light for London NWl 1 Sir - Though a hospital appointment last month's issue of the Journal, I was prevented me from attending, I am struck by the Insight of an SS guard who Sir - I well remember appearing at an delighted there was a Kristallnacht realised that he was participating in a internment tribunal in Cambridge before a commemoration service at the AJR Centre criminal act. A lot has been written about AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2007 how Jews came to terms with their per cent Jews, that is we were both Jews people who think they're educated but experiences after the war Has there been and Zionists. Did that count as two for each obviously are not. I don't mind in the least research into the post-war adjustment of of us, like BOGOF at Tesco? Nearly all of when people say 'me' instead of 'I', e.g. the SS? How did they convert from murder the surviving Mischlinge I know, i.e. Jews 'Me and my girlfriend' or 'It's me.' But to to becoming teachers, insurance agents, only by German definition, went to Israel hear these pronouns wrongly applied the civil servants? How did they rationalise their and served there in the army and air force. other way round makes me hopping mad, Nazi past? I would be glad if anyone has Did that cause a quantum leap from asso­ as does 'who' in the accusative or dative information on the subject. ciate to full membership, or did Aryan case. After all, people don't say 'That's for Martha Blend mothers and the absence of a mohel after he', do they? London N10 birth result in a hybrid yet to be defined to (Mrs)Margarete Stern fit a Grand Unified Theory? London NWS GO TO BLETCHLEY Frank Bright Sir - I urge those who have not visited Ipswich Sir - Thank you very much for sending me Bletchley Park to go forthwith. There are your newsletters, which are excellent. several reasons: KINDERTRANSPORTS CLEARLY Ms J. McLeod 1 .This top-secret government establishment DOCUMENTED Sheffield was Instrumental In breaking Nazi and Sir - Susanne Dyke feels (October) that 'the Japanese codes via the Colossus and adults who made these transports possible Enigma machines developed there by Alan were not researched and written up Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd Turing and others. properly.' She will be pleased to learn (prob­ 2.Without its help, Britain might not have ably with thousands of others) that the Clara Nehab House won the war, or the war may have events leading up to the creation and fund­ Residential Care Home dragged on. ing of the Kindertransports are clearly 3. One of the guides who take visitors round documented in Amy Zahl Gottlieb's book All single rooms with en suite Bletchley is Ruth Bourne, who worked Men of Vision: Anglo-Jewry's Aid to Victims bath/shower Short stays/Respite there during the war. She spoke to our of the Nazi Regime, 1933-1945 (London: and 24 hour Pennanent Care. Large Southgate group earlier this year and gave Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998). It lists all the attractive gardens. Ground Floor a memorable presentation of her war political issues of the era and the contribu­ Lounge and Dining Rooms. work. She is a remarkable lady, highly tions made in money and succour by Lift access to all floors. Easy access to local shops and public transport. knowledgable and fluent, and thus much institutions, individuals and families. And sought after. much more! This book made so much sense Enquiries and further information please contact: 4. Had not the war been won by the Allies, to me as an adult - explaining those factors The Manager, Clara Nehab House 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NWII ODA few Jews would have remained in these which had been a mystery to me as a child Phone: 020 8455 2286 islands. saved by the KT. Eric Adler Vernon Saunders London N20 Weybridge, Surrey SPRING ISRAELIS AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS THE YOUNGEST KINDERTRANSPORT Sir - According to your November issue REFUGEE? GROVE (Newsround), 37 per cent of Israelis believe Sir - I arrived at Liverpool Street Station on 214 Finchley Road the use of nuclear weapons to prevent a war 3 April 1939 at the age of three. I'm now London NW3 would be justified, while 35 percent believe 71. Does that make me the youngest the weapons could be justifiably used 'refugee' on the Kindertransport? London's Most Luxurious during a war Have these Israelis taken leave Congratulations on the monthly AJR RETIREMENT HOME of their senses? Have they never seen magazine - always a good read, even if you pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Israeli don't always agree with the writers/ • Entertainment - Activities possession of nuclear weapons, and the contributors. • Stress Free Living continued harassment of Vanunu for telling Erika Klausne • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine the world of it, is probably a motive for Wembley, Middx • Full En-Suite Facilities other countries In the region to wish to acquire them - to deter Israel. If ever a 'EXCELLENT NEWSLETTERS' Call for more information nuclear weapon is detonated in the Middle Sir - Your article 'A legacy for posterity' or a personal tour East, the carnage would spread far beyond (October) is an excellent example of why the 020 8446 2117 any intended target. Can't these 35-37 per AJR continues to inform and enlighten the or 020 7794 4455 cent think! Jewish community. You ask searching [email protected] Irene Gill questions about the Jewish future and the Oxford leadership which I find, sadly, missing from so many of the Jewish 'debates' among the WHO'S COUNTING? machers. Keep up the good work, continue WANTED TO BUY Sir - When Victor Ross attempted to find a to publish an admirably researched journal, common denominator to count Jews and inform Victor Ross that his current German and (October), it struck a chord. The AJR should article, 'Too few Jews', brought a smile - a sponsor a competition for the best means big smile - to many readers. English B

8 AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2007 remain in denial of their crimes pleading touch since she would, of course, die in The Jews of Vienna the injunction to obey orders, one of the Birkenau, a place of birch trees. The The latest issue of the quarterly actors finally asserts that 'the society that ending cleverly evokes the family death- Jewish Renaissance includes a produced the camps is our society'. In wish yet, despite its powerful major feature on 'The Jews of other words, there is a hidden drama subject-matter, the play somehow fails Vienna'. For details of a special going on between guards and prisoners, to move. between perpetrators and victims - and Gloria Tessler offer, contact the editor, Janet that drama is the collusion of fear Levin, on 020 8876 1891. Lotte's Journey gives us what The In­ vestigation cannot: the true story of a (Devid Striesow), is very different from single Holocaust victim. The young SCREEN his fellows in the camp. Rather than the German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon usual Nazi brute, he is shown as a painted her life in a feverish autobiogra­ The devil's work pragmatist intent on getting the job phy of 1,300 gouaches entitled Life? Or THE COUNTERFEITERS done and not averse to turning a blind Theatre?, a vivid narrative which survived (DIE FALSCHER) eye from time to time or to sullying his her death at 26 at the hands of the Na­ starring Karl Markovics, August 'purity' with the odd display of friendship zis in 1943. Her work was admired by Diehl, Devid Striesow for the useful Untermenschen. Indeed, Marc Chagall and was exhibited in the directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky part of the film's fascination is the Royal Academy in 1999 to considerable at selected cinemas complexity of the men's moral acclaim. predicament and the relationships The paintings express her anguish at hat price survival? This is the between themselves and with their learning that the women in her family dilemma at the heart of captor. Stefan Ruzowitzky's powerful were all suicidal. Her mother, Franziska, W A particularly touching feature is film. Forced to choose between fortifying grief-stricken at the suicide of her 18- Sally's relationship with Kolya, a starving the Nazi war effort and imminent death, year-old sister, throws herself out of a young Russian artist he meets on the what should a multifaceted team of fourth-floor window. Her grandmother, train to Sachsenhausen. Sally's initial talented Jews decide to do? While these who has lost two daughters, makes an gesture in giving Kolya his own rations men were, for the most part, artists, attempt on her own life in September develops later into a protector/protege forgers and printers, there were also one 1939 after Kristallnacht. Charlotte grows relationship and it is in Sally's reactions or two former banking executives, up believing her mother died of to Kolya's fate that his essential humanity dismayed at their forced association with pneumonia and is told the truth at the can be perceived. age of 13 by her grandfather, who cruelly such 'lowlife'. And the key to survival? Forging millions of banknotes of various Austrian director Ruzowitzky, who has describes the depressive illness which has read extensively about the Holocaust, has devastated her matrilineal line. denominations for the benefit of the Reich. based his film of the counterfeiting And now Charlotte and her successful Operation Bernhard on Burger's memoir, Forger-in-chief Salamon Sorovitsch - family - her father a famous surgeon, Tfie Devil's Workshop. Ruzowitzky, his real-life counterpart was Salamon her stepmother an opera diva - must whose grandparents were involved in the Smolianoff - is introduced enjoying not confront their own Jewishness as Hitler Nazi regime - his great-uncle was pho­ only his survival but also the riches he turns Germany into a Nazi fortress. tographed escorting Hitler - took on the has managed to acquire before liberation In Candida Cave's new play, the family project as a form of expiation. 'It's my at Monte Carlo's gaming tables and the tragedy is recalled as Lotte and her history too,' he has been quoted as luxurious Hotel de Paris. But 'Sally', husband find themselves with others on saying. movingly played by Karl Markovics, a transport to the East, enduring filthy Emma Klein remains haunted. And his expressive face conditions and near starvation. Haunted frequently betrays the seemingly cold­ by the suicidal tendencies of the women blooded demeanour he presents to his in her family, Lotte faces an ultimate test Fact and fiction fellow prisoners. A Russian Jew based in of character as realisation dawns that WINNIE AND WOLF: A NOVEL Berlin and an accomplished artist, who Auschwitz-Birkenau is her destination. As decided before the war to engage in by A. N. Wilson the destructive threads of Charlotte's forgery as an easy way to make money, Hutchinson, 2007, 361 pp. matriarchs begin to unravel, the Nazi Sally owes his survival at Mauthausen to presence hovers in the shadows of their he supposed narrator of this semi- his skills at portraiture and is later taken dark narcissism. Perhaps Cave, like Weiss, fictional work is the secretary at to Sachsenhausen to lead the team of is also making the point that genocide T the Wagner House in Bayreuth. The counterfeiters. and self-destruction can be uneasy Winnie of the title is the Welsh-born wife bedfellows. His antagonist is Adolf Burger, a of Siegfried Wagner, son of the composer Richard, and Wolf is the intimate name Selina Chilton gives an incandescent younger man who has been transported of Adolf Hitler The ostensible core of the performance as Charlotte, whose silent from Auschwitz, where he lost his wife. 'novel' is the relationship between these rage contrasts with Valerie Colgan's Burger, in a compelling performance by two, played out against the history of compelling performance as the whining August Diehl, is the 'conscience' of the Germany between the World Wars, as and clumsy Franziska and the tragic team, who can barely be persuaded to seen through German eyes. grandmother. The same cannot be said carry out the 'devil's work'. Frequently for the male actors, who appear wooden he is on the point of inciting a rebellion The known facts are that Winifred and ill at ease in their roles. that would put everyone's life at risk. The Williams was rescued from an orphanage brutality of conditions outside the 'gilded in East Grinstead by a German musician The play gathers pace after a cage' where the counterfeiters benefit named Klindworth, who was in the somewhat stilted first half and uses from soft beds, adequate rations and Wagner circle. She married Siegfried symbolism to good effect. For example washing facilities is tellingly conveyed. Wagner, son of the composer, and bore Lotte's first love, Amadeus, sees her face Their jailor, SS officer Friedrich Herzog in her drawing of birch trees - a haunting Reviews continued on page 10

9 AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

RI'IVIF'AVS con I ill lied from page 9 him four children, one of whom, insights into the German mentality in the Wieland, became an innovator in the 1920s-30s. production of Wagner operas. She Martha Blend helped her husband run the Bayreuth Theatre in his lifetime and, after his death, became the sole director Autobiography or novel? Oasis of serenity Wilson gives us a fascinating account TILL FIRST MORNING LIGHT: sraelis like spending Saturdays in of the rivalries between, and personal TALES OF HUNGARIAN JEWRY the open air. The working week idiosyncracies of, conductors such as by Yaakov Barzilai begins on Sunday and Friday tends London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2007, I Furtwangler and Toscanini. The latter, to to be a day for running errands, so that his credit, avoided Bayreuth after the 136pp., £14.50 paper the weekend is all too brief. Thus Nazis came to power. Against this y heart sank when I saw on the Saturday is the only day many families personal story are set events in the wider, front cover that this book can spend time together, as is evinced political world. belonged to the publishers' M by the clogged state of the roads. Of Winifred met 'Wolf when he had Library of Holocaust Testimonies. One wonders whether there is any need for course, those who consider Shabbat a 'If you ignored the brutal yet more testimonies running to more day on which to pray and rest are not than 100 pages. My heart sank even part of this equation, but they are a imprisonment of trouble­ lower when I looked at the back cover: minority. 'This is an autobiographical novel.' makers, the bullying and So on Saturdays the beaches are Which was it: autobiography or novel? harassment of fews, you A contradiction in terms. crowded and parks are full. Those could persuade yourself that Yaakov Barzilai is a well-known poet shopping areas and markets which of Hungarian origin living in Israel. His remain open are thronged with families all was well in Germany.' book amply demonstrates his leaning out shopping, eating in crowded towards poetry. He grew up in Debrecen, restaurants or hunting for bargains. spent years in Vienna, disappointed in a large city with a sizeable Jewish Picnic areas abound with barbecues, or his artistic ambition. His love of opera minority. Despite limited opportunities, mangals; these are traditionally men's and delight in romps with the Wagner most of the city's Jews prospered and work, though I confess that the sight of children made 'Uncle Wolf a popular led a more or less harmonious life among visitor at Bayreuth. As for Hitler's political their Christian neighbours. bare-chested males sweating over hot career, there were many dips in the Nazis' The book begins with the hero coals does not arouse my appetite. fortunes when their power might have observing the woHd from his mother's There are, however, one or two oases been curtailed. Winnie helped to restore belly, listening to everything but not of serenity where one can spend a his spirits during these periods, especially seeing. This chapter sets the tone for the Saturday outside without being after the tragic death of his niece Geli. poetic side, which alternates with a subjected to the cut-and-thrust of life en A most interesting aspect of the book description ofthe horrors experienced by masse. Deep in the heartland of Israel, is its portrayal of the attitudes of middle- the hero's family and friends. class Germans. Aware of Nazi thuggery, The idyllic life is shattered by the in the area known as the Elah Valley, they dismissed it as a passing phase. As Germans' march into town. We are given close to open fields and the JNF's Britain the narrator puts it: 'If you ignored the a graphic description of the explosion of Forest, there is an old Turkish building brutal imprisonment of trouble-makers, hatred on the part of even the most which was once a khan or way-station the bullying and harassment of Jews, you trusted and long-serving employees of for travellers. could persuade yourself that all was well the author's father. One such employee, The building houses a musical family. in Germany.' entrusted with the family's valuables, The mother, Kochava Taragan, an As for Winnie and Wolf, they are promptly starts wearing the jewellery supposed to have had a relationship and returns nothing after the liberation. accomplished flautist, arranges chamber which resulted in the birth of a daughter The author's bitterness at his family's concerts which are held on the terrace or who was adopted by the narrator and fate is expressed in, for example, a in the large living room every Saturday his wife. She grows up to be a musician sarcastic description of the terrible at noon. Before the concert everyone is living with her adoptive parents in journey to the 'Bergen-Belsen holiday treated to a bowl of nourishing soup with Communist East Germany. While on tour, camp' as well as the image of 'religious home-made croutons. The chamber she defects to the West and ends up in Jews sending faxes to heaven'. ensembles, often including Kochava the United States having reclaimed the Eventually liberation comes as the family name 'Hiedler', the married name American tanks overtake their train from herself, play a selection of pieces for an of Hitler's mother Belsen. The book ends movingly albeit hour or two, often interspersed by some Make what you will of that! Winnie in an unrealistic fashion. words of explanation. Sometimes the herself was interrogated by the Allies Re the translation: Arrow Cross and not birds outside add their own contribution after the war for her allegiance to the Crossbow is the correct translation of the to the music. Afterwards most of the Nazis, but was spared long imprisonment name of the Hungarian fascists; and the audience repairs to one of the local through the testimony of musicians she name Robbie should be spelled Robi. restaurants for lunch, though if you had rescued from concentration camps. To conclude, the mixing of fact with haven't booked a table in advance you This intriguing book includes fiction devalues the book as a testimony, interesting comments on the Wagner but the poetic style causes it to stand might find yourself obliged to go home. operas and the background to the out among similar works. Dorothea Shefer-Vanson performances in Bayreuth as well as Janos Fisher

10 AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

S^in^ur^A w^ariors ^tib suicibc bombers

eter Fraenkel, BBC World Service the shogun in a palace coup. They Controller for Eastern European succeeded in the Meiji Restoration, PServices (retired), delivered at the bringing back to power the long sidelined end of October the 2007 Professor Bill emperor. A state Shinto religion was then Epstein Memorial Lecture entitled 'The used to deify the emperor, to counter the German-Jewish Consul and the Samurai'. spread of Christianity, and to fuel agitation The lecture, given in memory of my against Buddhism. husband at the University of Sussex, was The Samurai assassin had never met sponsored by the University's (Centre for his victim, the German-Jewish, liberal- German-Jewish Studies. minded trader-consul. But he was Peter Fraenkel discussed the ideologi­ determined to kill at least one foreigner. cally motivated murder in August 1874 He followed Haber out walking and of Ludwig Haber, a 32-year-old German- hacked him to pieces with a sword. He Jewish trader and acting German consul then gave himself up to the police, in the Japanese port of Hakodate. Our knowing he would be condemned to death. twenty-first century is familiar with He explained that he had been ordered in suicide bombers; the nineteenth and the a dream to get rid of these heinous earlier twentieth centuries were not. But Ludwig Haber foreigners so as to pacify the mind of the even in the nineteenth century there was Founder God and let the light of Japan in Japan a series of assassinations by virtually isolated until the 1850s, when shine throughout the world. He was killers determined to die along with their American ships wath superior weaponry executed six weeks later. Can an analogy victims. Haber's murderer, Hidechika forced her to sign treaties opening the be drawn between what motivated the Tazaki, 23, a Samurai from Akita on the country to foreign trade. This humiliation Samurai and what motivates present-day main island of Japan, was steeped in lingered on and may even have helped to suicide bombers? Shinto texts and prepared to give his life motivate the admiral who led the Pearl A fuller account of this nineteenth- in order to rid Japan of foreigners. Harbor attack. It certainly caused tensions century cause celebre is available on The economic and political background between Japanese factions. In 1868 a group www.ludwighaber.blogspot.com of this event is that Japan had remained of Samurai used these tensions to dislodge T. Scarlett Epstein

HKNDING THK Kl l-KS coiiliiiiicil from pof^

1946 our boat tied up next to Tower never came. Furthermore, when we got time in 1982 at a gathering to celebrate Bridge and we were taken in coaches older, as 'aliens' we were not consid­ his seventieth birthday at Raleigh Close to a mansion in Woodberry Down, near ered suitable escorts for their daughters Synagogue in London. He was already Manor House. This large building had either. frail, having suffered a stroke. This been fitted out to accommodate all of In due course, I managed to locate largely unsung hero, who rescued us, with nurses in crisp white uniforms an uncle, who had come here from thousands, died two years later, at the lined up outside waiting to take care of Halberstadt, and I went to stay with him age of 72. Those who had the privilege us. Some of the children spent weeks in Leeds. Some readers may wonder of knowing this larger-than life figure, there until foster homes could be how I fared as a schoolboy in Yorkshire in particular those he saved and helped, arranged for them, to make room for with a name like Adolf so soon after will cherish his memory with deep future transports. I fondly recall that on the war. Well, I was often greeted with affection. As far as his detractors at the Rabbi Schonfeld's visits to the hostel he two fingers of the one hand pressed time are concerned, all I can say is that would often greet his/C/nder with 'Have against the upper lip and with the other compared with him they were pygmies you had your Taschengeld this week?' hand raised in a Hitler salute. But all - while they debated and kvetched he and produce a half-crown out of his this was more than offset by the acted! pocket. illustrious surname Bader. The name I have been wanting to say this for a was then on everyone's lips and a mere long time: during my time at the Wood­ hint of 'Uncle Douglas' was sufficient Annely Juda Fine Art berry Down hostel, the Anglo-Jewish to make the boys turn green with envy 23 Daring Street (off New Bond Street) community at large showed little - and baffle them at the same time: Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 interest in us. I waited patiently for an how come, unlike my 'uncle', I had an CONTEMPORARY PAINTING invitation to experience again a Shabbat accent! AND SCULPTURE dinner in a family environment, but it I saw Rabbi Schonfeld for the last

M spoke about his family background and his duties as a liberal councillor on the planning and licensing committees. Southend has had quite a few Jewish mayors compared with the population at large. Larry Lisner Next meeting: 11 Dec. Chanukah Party AJR Director Carol Rossen was so Oxford ABC taken aback by the New group formed: Radlett, A good number of members attended Jussi surprise 60th birth­ Brainin's talk on the ups and downs of his Bushey and Elstree day party the staff eventful life which he entitled 'My A (For Where did the We got off to an excellent start, expertly threw in her honour Austria), B (For Britain) and C (For Canada) that, at first, she time go?' handled by Esther Rinkoff and Hazel Beiny. Trilogy'. Jussi Brainin Having all introduced ourselves, we recalled couldn't even recognise her own Next meeting: 11 Dec. Chanukah Party how we arrived in this country and the first grandchildren waiting there to see and Quiz few years of our lives here. We were evenly her! She could hardly believe she'd divided between former Berliners and llford: The Nuremberg Trials been working at the AJR for almost former Viennese. Eric Newman Leslie Sutton spoke about the strict security three decades, Carol said. Where on Next meeting: 12 Dec. Chanukah Party and the process of selecting translators for earth had the time gone? these unique trials, which he personally Bertha Leverton in Cardiff attended. We learned a lot about this most visit to talk to us about the history of the Our special guest. Bertha Leverton, famous event. Meta Roseneil Jews in England, this time from Disraeli explained how and why she had become so Next meeting: 5 Dec. Chanukah Party and onwards. She divided her talk into: patterns interested in the Kindertransport. She left Quiz of Jewish immigration; development of home in Munich at the age of 16 and had Zionist and counter-Zionist movements; the the joy of seeing her parents again later, in Glasgow: Yet another story of rise of Jewish religious diversity. From contrast with so many others whose parents survival solved January 2008, our meetings will be held on never made it. Charles Meyer Michael Tobias of www.jewishgen.org the last Tuesday of each month.Dav/dLang solved yet another story of survival and Next meeting: 18 Dec. George Layton, 'An Newcastle speaker's impressions family reunion, that of Moniek Garber, Actor's Life' of Poland Glasgow, and Moshe Porat-Perelman, Kvar Henry Ross JP gave his personal impressions Saba, Israel - cousins, childhood friends and Edgware talk on British Jewry of a recent visit to Poland. He said the descendents of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhyn, Elkan Levy gave us a very interesting talk country was rapidly changing and becoming Belarus. Both served as soldiers during the on the history of British Jewry, which goes actively involved in the EU and NATO. Due war, their cruel 'adventures' taking them in back much longer than most of us thought. to the general focus on Auschwitz, he many directions in Europe, Asia, Africa and How many of our co-religionists have reflected, it was sometimes not fully Canada, finally bringing them together elevated themselves from the poverty of their appreciated that there were five other major again in Paris. Jonathan Kish forefathers to their present-day status, he extermination sites in Poland. asked. Felix Winkler Walter Knoblauch Surrey get-together Next meeting: 18 Dec. Late Chanukah Next meeting: 12 Dec. Chanukah Party Some 15 of us met in the congenial sur­ Party and Noami Hyamson and Quiz roundings of the Chertsey home of Janet Clark and Anthony Portner to enjoy coffee A welcome for Wembleyites Hendon discussion on intermarriage and cakes and to exchange views and expe­ We met once again in the surrounding of Following our Succot party. Rabbi Stephen riences of the past. Alfred Kessler Harris Court, welcoming about 20 Katz initiated an extremely interesting Next meeting: 6 Dec. At home of Edmee 'Wembleyites', including two new visitors. discussion on intermarriage, a problem Barta We understand there are quite a few more caused in part by the difficulty of finding AJR members residing in our area whom we Jewish partners. Annette Saville Pinner: What is art? haven't seen yet. 7bm Heinemann Next meeting: 11 Dec. Chanukah Party Around 50 of us listened to Alan Cohen ex­ Next meeting: 17 Dec. plore the characteristics an artist must Edinburgh: Visit to Berlin possess: imagination, creativity, originality, Harrogate Continental Friends Dorothea Bandler described her visit to Ber­ communication skills, understanding of We mourned the loss of Ruth Simmonds, lin as a guest of the city of 'families originally form. All boiled down, he said, to 'Do you one of our original members, who had from Germany'. She drew attention to the like it?' Much to think about and talk about, recently died. Five absentees missed an city's revival, the flowering of Jewish life, which we did over tea. interesting afternoon during which, the culture, the greenness, the German thor­ Paul Samet inevitably, experiences of long ago evoked oughness, the attitude of making amends, Next meeting: 6 Dec. Chanukah Party animated discussion. Of special interest was and the lavish hospitality. The visit included Suzanne Ripton's account of a visit to a group experiences that deeply affected all mem­ Brighton & Hove Sarid: Kitchener of Muslim youngsters in Bradford; hopefully, bers of the group. Jonathan Kish Camp her story will help these teenagers look at Prof Claire Ungerson spoke about the life without prejudice. Inge Little Edgware and Pinner outing establishment of Kitchener Camp, run by the Next meeting: 13 or 20 Feb (tbc) We had a fascinating outing to the relatively brothers Jonas and Phinneas May. When the unknown Foundling Museum in Blooms­ Pioneer Corps was formed at the outbreak Cambridge: South African Jewry bury. The Museum houses the remains of of WWII, those who joined it were sent to Dr Sheila Marshall told us that Jewish refu­ the 'hospital' set up in the eighteenth France, while the remaining few Dover Court gees from Eastern Europe and, later, from century by Sea Captain Thomas Coram, who Boys were interned on the Isle of Man. Nazi Germany settled in South Africa. Fol­ was appalled at seeing so many abandoned Ceska Abrahams lowing the Apartheid years, the black babies on the streets of London. Next meeting: 10 Dec. Chanukah Party Africans with the help of Jewish sympathis­ Eve Glicksman ers set up their own government. Today, Cleve Road: History of the Jews of unfortunately, crime and corruption are rife, Essex talk by former mayor England she said. Ruth Brown Or Alan Crystal, former mayor of Southend, Susannah Alexander made a welcome return Next meeting: 20 Dec. Chanukah Party

12 AJR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

Weald of Kent: The story of been eaten and enjoyed for many years - Kitchener Camp and was so once again at the end of the Paul Balint AJR Centre Prof Clare Ungerson spoke about the refu­ talk by over 40 members with cream cheese 15 Cieve Road, London NW6 gee camp in her native town of Sandwich and smoked salmon (or lox if one prefers Tel: 020 7328 0208 which provided a haven for over 4,000 men the American name). thrown into concentration camps after Herbert Haberberg Kristallnacht. We learned ofthe tireless efforts Next meeting: 20 Dec. Late Chanukah AJR of influential Jewish leaders and local com­ Party CHANUKAH munity members to welcome the men FORTHCOMING MEETINGS and provide for their welfare. Janet Weston PARTY Wessex Chanukah Party and Naomi Wednesday 12 December 2007 Enjoying bagels in North London Hyamson. Details to follow 11.45 am for 12.15 pm Frank Miller spoke about the history of the Kingston Continental Friends Details to bagel. Suffice it to say that the bagel has follow Please be aware that members should not automatically assume that they are on the Luncheon Club list. It is now necessary, on receipt THE Fiddler in the of your copy of the AJR Journal, to phone the Dress Circle Centre on 020 7328 0208 to book your place. JEWISH HOLOCAUST The Savoy Theatre EXPERIENCE saw an invasion of KT-AJR elderly but very lively A Liverpool Commemoration people who laid through Art and Literature claim to the best KT CHANUKAH 24 January 2008 seats in the Dress Cir­ cle. The occasion was PARTY For research purposes for the above event, an AJR outing to Monday 10 December 2007 which is taking place as a National see Fiddler on Holocaust Memorial Day event prior to the Roof, starring Reservations required Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January Henry Goodman. Please telephone 020 7328 0208 2008, the organisers would like to make Some 100 members Fiddler on the Roof contact with anyone who came to took the opportunity star Henry Goodman both to see the per­ Monday, Wednesday & Thursday Liverpool in 1938-46 as a refugee or a took time out with formance and to AIR members 9.30 am - 3.30 pm survivor from Nazi Europe. meet up with friends. If you know of anyone who came to It was generally agreed that this production Kindly note that with immediate Liverpool at that time, please contact was one of the best. effect, lunch will be served at Susanne Green on 0151 291 5734 or at After the performance, we were asked 1.00pm on Mondays to stay behind when the rest of the audi­ [email protected] ence left and, to our surprise, Henry PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS Goodman joined us in the Dress Circle. He CLOSED ON TUESDAYS had suddenly become much younger than AJR GROUP CONTACTS a short time before when he was Tevye the December Afternoon Entertainment Milkman! As he was due to go on stage Bradford Continental Friends again that evening, his time was limited but Mon 3 Kards & Games Klub Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 he happily chatted to members. Congratu­ Tue 4 CLOSED Brighton 8i Hove (Sussex Region) lations to the AJR for arranging such an Wed 5 Margaret Opdahl Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 excellent afternoon! Thur 6 Francis Spiegel Bristol/Bath George Vulkan Mon 10 KT CHANUKAH PARW Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 Tue 11 CLOSED Cambridge Wed 12 AJR CHANUKAH PARTY Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Liverpool Thur 13 Michael Heaton Cardiff Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Mon 17 Kards & Games Klub Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Manchester Tue 18 CLOSED Cleve Road, AJR Centre Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 Wed 19 Jack & Rita Davis Thur Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Newcastle 20 Naomi Hyamson Dundee Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Mon 24 CLOSED Tue 25 CLOSED Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Norfolk (Norwich) Wed 26 CLOSED East Midlands (Nottingham) Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Thur 27 CLOSED Bob Norton 01159 212 494 North London Edgware Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Ruth Urban 020 8931 2542 Oxford 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Edinburgh Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Members requiring benefit advice please telephone Fran^olse Robertson 0131 337 3406 Pinner (HA Postal District) Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 to make an Essex (Westcliff) Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 appointment at AJR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Larry Lisner 01702 300812 Sheffield Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Glasgow Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 South London Harrogate Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator Inge Little 01423 886254 South West Midlands (Worcester area) 020 8385 3070 Hendon Myma Glass 020 8385 3070 Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Surrey Groups Co-ordinator Hertfordshire Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Weald of Kent Susanne Green. Northern Groups Co-ordinator HGS Max and Jane Dickson 0151 291 5734 Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 01892 541026 Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator Hull Wembley 020 8385 3070 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Laura Levy 020 8904 5527 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) llford Wessex (Bournemouth) Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 Child Survivors Association-AJR Leeds HSFA West Midlands (Birmingham) Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 TrudeSilman 0113 2251628 Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437

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FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS AJR TRIP TO ISRAEL ARE YOU ON A LOW Death A\ARCH 2008 Eton Bruce (ne Bruno Einhom) MBE, MD, INCOME AND IN NEED At the request of our membersy FRCOG. I report with regret the death of my the AJR are arranging a lo-day OF HOMECARE HELP? husband, at the age of 93. He was bom in trip to Israel next March AJR might be able to offer you Berlin, studied medicine in Italy and finally This will be a fantastic financial assistance for cleaning, qualified in Manchester. He served in the gardening and caring. opportunity to travel in a group RAMC until 1946 and, after specialising, was and enable you to visit places Members who might not consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to such as Jerusalemy the North, otherwise be able to afford the Hastings group of hospitals. He will be Tel Aviv and Lake Kinneret homecare please contact: sadly missed by his daughter Rachel, son- The group are planning to stay at Estelle Brookner, Secretary in-law Martin and grandsons Jonathan and the 4-star King Solomon Hotel in AJR Social Services Dept Matthew; his son David, daughter-in-law Netanya on a half-board basis Tel: 020 8385 3070 Nicole and granddaughter Millie; and his Please note that there will be many patients in the Hastings area. walking involved and it is important that you are able to walk SWITCH ON ELECTRICS LEO BAECK HOUSE independently Rewires and all household & OSMOND HOUSE If you wish to go on this trip, please electrical work fill in the form enclosed with this PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Offering expert residential and nursing care Mobile: 0795 614 8566 for refugees and survivors of the Holocaust. issue of the Joumal 124-hour empathetlc, knowledgeable care t En suite facilities LEO BAECK HOUSING PillarCare I Activities & outings ASSOCIATION LTD Quality support and care at Jiome I Shabbat & festivals celebrated SHELTERED ACCOMMODATION For more information Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours ONE BEDROOM FLAT TO LET Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care call Jewish Care Direct SITUATED NEAR SWISS COTTAGE on 020 8922 2222 LOLTNGE • BEDROOM WITH FITTED Convalescent and Personal Health Care WARDROBES Compassionate and Affordable Service In partnership with th« Otto Schiff Housing Association • BATHROOM WITH SHOWER Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff • FULLY FITTED KITCHEN JEWISH CARE • RESIDENT WARDEN Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA • CAMDEN CARE LINE OSHA Charity Registration Number 210396 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 Jewish Care Charity Registration Number B02559 AND VIEWING CONTACT DAVID Studio 1 Utopiti Village LIGHTBURN ON 020 8455 2286 7 Chalcot Road, NWl 8LH

Qcrtol^ Home Care LEO BAECK Care through quality and ACACIA LODGE HOUSING ASSOCIATION professionalism Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Celebrating our 25th Anniversary BUNGALOW TO LET (Licensed by Borougfi ol Bamet) 25 years of experience In providing the GOLDERS GREEN AREA ' Single and Double Rooms. tiighest standards of care in the comfort LARGE LOUNGE AREA, • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. of your own home BEDROOM WITH FITTED WARDROBES, • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. BATHROOM WITH SHOWER, • Nurse on duty 24 hours. FULLY FITTED KITCHEN/DINER • Long and short term and respite, including trial period if required. 24-HOUR CALL BELL SYSTEM Between £400 and £500 per weeit FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours AND VIEWING CONTACT 020 8455 1335 other times DAVID LIGHTBURN 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley ON 020 8455 2286 London N12 9TB 1 hour to 24 hours care Registered through the National Care Standard Commission Sometimes life is easier Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 www.colvln-nursing.co.uk ^ with a little bit of help A \ A ADVERTISEMENT RATES ANA Nursing can provide professional carers FAMILY EVENTS and nurses to help with any of your needs. First 15 words free of charge, £2.00 per 5 words thereafter 24 hr sen/ice, 7 days a week. Personal care, Respite care, From 1-24 hours CLASSIFIED, SEARCH NOTICES £2.00 per 5 words call us on: BOX NUMBERS £3.00 extra DISPLAY ADVERTS 020 8905 7701 Per single colunnn Inch 65mm £12.00 COPY DATE 5 weeks prior to publication

14 AjR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

Central Office for Can you help? Holocaust Claims Michael Newman Giving a guarantee in Nazi times saved Jews Holocaust insurance here are still gaps in the records might become a financial burden on the claims of how many of us got out of Nazi country. Under the terms of the Holocaust T Europe. At that tinne of I am keen to discover what Insurance Accountability Act, unspeakable danger, everyone was busy obligation the guarantors undertook insurance companies which operate striving to survive. Fortunately, due to and need answers to the following in the United States now have to our ancestors getting out of Nazi- questions: disclose the names of all Holocaust- occupied Europe, finding work, and 1. How long was the period for which era policy-holders and create a recovering after internment camps, a guarantor was liable? registry of those lists for survivors bombing, or army service, very many 2. What did the guarantee cover - and their heirs. The Act also of us are now here and alive to tell the presumably shelter and food? provides funds to the US Secretary tale. 3. In those times there was no free of State to work with European Recording those who saved us or education. Were guarantors respon­ countries in order to make helped us, and what assistance they sible for paying for our education? information on the policies more gave 50 years and more later, is not Quakers gave my brother and me publicly available. easy! If you are able to assist, so that two free years at a Quaker board­ The new law also makes provi­ any records we leave behind are more ing school, after which my father sion for survivors to bring claims accurate, please take this opportunity. was able to afford to pay the fees. against insurance companies in US The Quakers, also known as the Did providing a guarantee oblige the courts. Society of Friends, burned their records guarantor to pay school fees? Passing the bill in October, the of the London Refugee Committee at a 4. As a child of ten, I had a hernia US House of Representatives Foreign time when it seemed possible that Hitler operation and remember being Affairs Committee was heavily might invade Britain. They did not wish given my first-ever watch as a critical of the work of the Inter­ present by our guarantor. There was national Commission on Holocaust no National Health Service in those Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC). The / believe it is our obligation days. Were guarantors responsible bill's sponsors assert that only 5 per to record our history, for our medical and dental care? cent of claims submitted to ICHEIC Will readers of the AJR Journal who were settled satisfactorily. especially when we owe have any information on what obli­ ICHEIC distributed over $305 our lives to others. gations those who saved us undertook, million (approximately £150m) to or can advise on where I can obtain just over 48,000 claimants, having Better late than never! further information on the subject, received claims from over 91,000 please contact me! applicants. to risk leaving names and addresses of I believe it is our obligation to record the Jews they had saved and helped our history, especially when we owe our German Association falling into the wrong hands. lives to others. Better late than never! Although the Insurance Commission I am now trying to get information If you can, please help. (ICHEIC) wound up its work in on the obligations that were Dr Peter F. Kurer March this year, it is still possible to undertaken by any person who stood 7 Bruntwood Lane enter claims for policies sold by as guarantor for a Jew to escape from Cheadle, Cheshire insurers which had previously been Nazi Europe. The then prime minister, SK8 1HS part of the Commission. The German Neville Chamberlain, did not want to [email protected] Insurance Association (GOV) has have people admitted to the UK who tel 0161 428 5080 announced that its members will continue to consider any Holocaust- era claims filed directly with a Arts and Events Diary - December company. To contact a company direct, visit the GDV's website Sundays 2, 9, 16 December '3GH: A and Austrian Refugees in the British www.gdv.de Workshop for 3rd Generation Armed Forces In World War M' Club 43 Claims for policies sold by Holocaust Descendants' Venue: Wiener Wed 12 Prof Jan Gross, 'Antisemitism Generali can still be submitted to Library. Contact [email protected] in Poland after Auschwitz' Wiener the Italian insurer. Further details or tel 07851 754 824 Library, 7.00 pm. Tel 020 7636 7247 or about this scheme are available at Mon 3 Peter Ritzer, 'Life in Germany email wienerlibrary.co.uk ww/w.nazierainsurancesettlement.com Today' Club 43 Mon 17 Informal Chanumas Evening Written enquiries should be sent Thur 6 Chanukah Party B'nai B'rith with Readings in English and German to Central Office for Holocaust Jerusalem Lodge. Tel Tom Heinemann Club 43 Claims (UK), Jubilee House, Merrion on 07973 137 718 Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square by fax to 020 8385 3075, or by Mon 10 Dr Steven Kern, '"His Majesty's Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans Seelig on Most Loyal Enemy Aliens": German 01442 254360 email to [email protected]

15 A)R JOURNAL DECEMBER 2007

Newsround

In retrospect Sir Nicholas Winton nominated for Nobel Prize s I am retiring from the AJR, may I be the AJR to give key support to organisers of Following a nationwide campaign in the forgiven for looking back on HMD events at Imperial College and Sussex Czech Republic, Karel Schwarzenberg, Ahighlights of my service to the refu­ University, which continues to present a the Czech Foreign Minister, has nomi­ gee community? The Jewish environment and purposeful programme on campus, backed by nated the 98-year-old Sir Nicholas camaraderie have been a pleasure to work in AJR funding. I represented the AJR on World Winton for the Nobel Prize. The an­ and my relationship with AJR members has Jewish Relief's committee organising the nouncement was made as Sir Nicholas been very warm, especially with the Kinder­ installation ceremonies of the Kindertransport was given a hero's welcome in Prague, transportees, whose formal entry into the AJR statue at Liverpool Street Station, a great from where he rescued hundreds of Jewish children from death in Nazi I am pleased to have helped negotiate with occasion for Anglo-Jewry. concentration camps. In an emotional Bertha Leverton and the late David Jedwab. Having conceived the idea of narrating the ceremony attended by some of the - It was a privilege to work with Richard refugees' outstanding contribution to their now elderly - children he rescued, he Grunberger, distinguished editor of AJR country of adoption by way of an exhibition was also awarded the Czech Republic's Information. My responsibilities were to write, marking the 60th anniversary of the AJR, the top military honour. commission and edit articles, report events and project received the generous support of the lectures, take photographs for publication, and AJR in co-operation with the Jewish Museum, New memorial centre for produce a monthly layout and design. I the Wiener Library, the Imperial War Museum Bergen-Belsen reported my visit to Polish death camps, and thejewish Music Festival. Lord Moser was A new memorial exhibition centre has scripted the first AJR website, and wrote my the opening night's guest of honour. Tony opened at the former concentration own opinion columns. Having persuaded the Grenville added a splendid short refugee camp of Bergen-Belsen. The exhibition AJR that an updated presentation would help history and E5ea Lewkowicz produced a film is the first stage of an overall renovation ofthe camp intended to document more to maintain the AJR's unique monthly of refugee testimonies and, with Carol Seigel, accurately prisoners' experiences there. publication, Nova Western's design was developed a series of complementary events. It will be several years before all the adopted by the Association as its new image. Manchester AJR Chairman Werner Lachs suggested changes are completed. I appreciated the knowledge possessed by rose to my challenge to record their own Marion Koebner and Howard Spier, who special history. With the co-operation of Holocaust memorial planned succeeded me as Executive Editor. Manchester University, and support from the for Milan In 1995 I visited the recently opened AJR, respected local historian Bill Williams Italy's first Holocaust museum is to be Holocaust Education Centre at Beth Shalom masterminded an extensive research project completed in 2009 and located in a Milan in Nottinghamshire and reported the genuine and a resultant book. railway station which was used to deport inspiration of Stephen Smith and his family, I was pleased to be part of Anne Marx's Jews in the Second World War Italy is the only major European country which which has developed over 12 years. Their luncheon club at the AJR Day Centre. Similarly does not have a Holocaust memorial. ambitious educational programmes soon successful have been the monthly Kinder- received the AJR's continuing support. transport lunches, which I helped to establish. 'Storm trooper' church for sale Having introduced Tony Grenville to the Thanks to Susie Kaufman, I played the piano The Martin Luther Memorial Church in bound copies of AJR Information and invited in public there for the firsttim e and also expe­ the southern BeHin district of Marien- him to write a history of the Association, he rienced my only Chazanut performance when dorf, which contains altar carvings of undertook soon after to research among the singing Yom HaShoah memorial prayers. German storm troopers, is to be offered magazines one day a week from that time on. As a 'younger' and always active element for sale. Originally consecrated in 1933, His completed book will be a major landmark among the membership, I assisted Hermann the church was closed for safety reasons three years ago. Parishioners failed to in preserving the history of the German- Hirschberger, Chairman of the Kinder, and raise some of the estimated £2.5 million speaking Jewish refugee community and its Bertha Leverton to create a questionnaire for required to restore its tower, while try­ heartland. He co-authored, with Bea a major survey of their experiences, backed ing to secure the rest of the money from Lewkowicz, the Continental Britons' exhibition by the AJR, which should provide a definitive the government in Berlin. - whose organising committee I chaired - and Kindertransport archive. Together, we are the AJR's Refugee Voices video archive. planning a 70th anniversary celebration for 'Hitler and Wagner would turn in Appointed a Director of the AJR with en­ 2008! their graves' hanced responsibilities, I oversaw the I take pride in that during my term of office Daniel Barenboim is to lead his ensem­ development of additional groups with Claims the standards of the magazine have been ble, the Divan Orchestra, which features Conference funds, to 35-40 today, making the retained, the cultural and historical record of Israeli and Palestinian musicians, in a per­ formance of Die Walkure by Hitler's AJR a truly national organisation. Myma Glass the refugee immigration has been augmented favourite composer, Wagner, next year. in the South and Susanne Green in the North, and strengthened, while the membership level The performance is to take place at the who reported to me and benefited from Marcia has been maintained against the odds, thereby Waldbuhne, the outdoor arena built for Goodman's input, achieved exceptional success. providing social and practical help and the Beriin Olympics in 1936. 'Hitler and With the introduction of Holocaust support for many more ageing refugees and Wagner would turn in their graves,' Memorial Day (HMD) in 2000, I encouraged survivors in all parts of the country. Barenboim said.

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website www.ajr.org.uk

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