WA September 2006-AJR
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VOLUME 6 NO. 9 SEPTEMBER 2006 AJR journal Association of Jewish Refugees September surrenders The most momentous formal cessation of generations of schoolchildren, The Parable of hostilities to take place in the month of the Old Man and the Young, notable for Jews September in modern times was that signed because its subject is the Akedah, is little by Imperial Japan on 2 September 1945, after known. Owen's poem follows the Biblical the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and account of the story of Abraham and Isaac, Nagasaki had demonstrated even to the until elements of First World War obdurate Japanese military that they were paraphernalia gradually infiltrate the verse: defeated. The first, crucial move towards the Abraham 'bound the youth with belts and German surrender in the First World War straps' and ' builded parapets and trenches' for took place on 29 September 1918, when the sacrifice - preparatory to the poem's General Ludendorff, strong man of the devastating conclusion, when the Angel calls German Army High Command and out to Abraham, who represents the eminence grise behind Field-Marshal von generation of elders and leaders, to spare his Hindenburg, lost his nerve and prevailed on son, the youth of Owen's own generation: 'But his nominal superior to advise Kaiser the old man would not so, but slew his son,- Wilhelm II that Germany must sue for peace. /And half the seed of Europe, one by one.' Like the Japanese militarists, Ludendorff One of the principal motives behind had gambled on securing peace through Ludendorff's precipitate offer of peace terms military victory on the battlefield, the was his intention to offload responsibility for 'Siegfrieden', spurning a peace by negotiating peace in defeat onto the civilian negotiation. Having knocked Russia out of politicians of Germany's parliamentary the war, he concentrated his forces on the General Ludendorff political parties, who had been largely Western front, launching a massive offensive excluded from the wartime decision-making in March 1918. He aimed to divide the frontier and regroup there in defensive process, as a means of discrediting them. In British and French forces and to drive the positions. Equally importantly, the German this he succeeded all too well, burdening the former back to the Channel, rather as Army High Command wished to maintain democratic Weimar Republic that followed Napoleon had hoped at Waterloo to prevent the political status quo in Germany, an the collapsed Empire with the odium of Wellington's forces linking up with Blücher's imperial autocracy where power rested with defeat, revolution and the harsh terms Prussians and, having defeated them the Prusso-German ruling elites, the dictated by the victors to Germany at separately, to drive them in opposite military, the aristocracy, the governing Versailles, all of which were in reality the end directions back towards their home bases. bureaucracy and the controlling industrial- results of the failed policies of Germany's Ludendorff went for broke, and Germany economic interests. It was to prevent the wartime leadership. paid the price. Typically of the Prussian dual disasters of military defeat at the front Right-wingers like Ludendorff were able to military, he despised politicians and had and radical reform at home that Ludendorff allege that the German armies had been refused to countenance the alternative sought to delay the inevitable, thereby 'stabbed in the back' by hostile forces behind political strategy of conducting negotiations inflicting fearful losses on his own men by the front - socialists, left-wing radicals, with the Allies. By the summer, his weeks of unnecessary fighting. parliamentarians, pacifists, Jews. The offensives had lost momentum, and the great No one who has read E. M. Remarque's All Weimar Republic was in a sense undermined British counteroffensive that began on 8 Quiet on the Western Front will forget his even before it had come into being, giving August 1918 - 'the black day of the German evocation of the sufferings of the German agitators like Hitler a god-given opportunity Army', as Ludendorff termed it - marked the soldiers in autumn 1918 in the face of to ride to power 15 years later on a wave of start of a spectacular series of Allied overwhelmingly superior Allied forces: popular disillusionment with parliamentary victories that took the British through the 'Shells, poison gas and squadrons of tanks - democracy. Leaders from Ludendorff to allegedly impregnable Hindenburg Line and crushing, corroding, death. Dysentery, Hitler and his Japanese allies staked their won the war. When the military balance influenza, typhus - vomiting, burning, death. countries' fates unconditionally on victory, turned against him, Ludendorff, lacking a Trench, field hospital, mass grave - no other but ended by taking their peoples down to Plan B, had no choice but to acknowledge the alternatives exist.' Nor did the Germans utter defeat, for want of an alternative bankruptcy of his strategy and sue for peace. suffer alone. strategy. All wartime leaders need a Plan B - Predictably, the Allies rejected the The British poet Wilfred Owen was killed especially if, as seems to be the case with the armistice terms that he offered on 29 on 4 November 1918, seven days before the American occupation of Iraq, they have no September, as they were clearly intended to armistice. Though poems like Anthem for Plan A either. allow his armies to retreat to the German Doomed Youth have been taught to Anthony Grenville AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2006 The AJR and the Wiener Library As our members will know, the Wiener organisations are moving even closer Library is one of the leading archives, together to ensure that our vital work and certainly the oldest archive, can continue to perpetuate the memory recording the Holocaust and Nazi era. of a remarkable generation. The Wiener Its reputation extends far beyond our Library is far more than a collection of shores and the importance of its books and documents - it is a living collection is as relevant today as when Dr symbol of Jewish survival.' Wiener began his work in Germany soon Ben Barkow, the Library's Director, after the end of the First World War. It is added: 'As the Wiener Library moves unique in that, unlike other Holocaust forward into the new century, our archives, much of its collection was growing links with the AJR help to made at the time the events occurred. connect us to our origins and to remind This gives it a powerful immediacy, us why we are here. The AJR's decision to which is both chilling and inspiring. help us in this way means that all the The Library has a collection of material Library's activities will be securely consisting of 60,000 books, 2,000 Anthony Spiro, Chairman of the anchored in the memory of the periodicals (of which 200 are current), Wiener Library sufferings and triumphs of the Jewish original documents, eyewitness The AJR has always recognised refugees.’ testimonies, unpublished memoirs and a the significance of the Wiener huge collection of press cuttings dating Library. Many AJR members will have Kristallnacht service back to the 1930s. In addition, it has an visited the Library or perhaps Please join us at the AJR Centre, important photographic archive accessed its catalogue online at Cleve Road for a service to approaching 15,000 images. The Library www.wienerlibrary.co.uk and will is also the proposed home of our commemorate Kristallnacht on have realised for themselves that its Refugee Voices project once it is Thursday 9 November at 12-30 pm. continued work is of great importance. completed. Following lunch, Rev Fine will Andrew Kaufman, Chairman of the The Library today provides a resource address members and lead a short AJR, commented: 'When we heard that to oppose antisemitism and other forms service, which will conclude with the Library needed to raise £4 million for of intolerance. Many AJR members will Kaddish. a new home, the Trustees of the AJR have had first-hand experience of its Charitable Trust felt that it was entirely To reserve a space for lunch (on a work and maybe also attended one of its right that the Trust should become first-come-first-served basis) and/or conferences or excellent lectures. involved. The Trustees see the Library as a the commemorative service, please The Institute of Contemporary History principal partner for the future; both ring the Centre on 020 7328 0208. and Wiener Library, to use its full name, organisations have a common goal, to moved to its present address, an ensure that the memory of our loved Edwardian terraced house in London's ones, who perished or were forced to flee Devonshire Street, in 1958. The lease Daniel Finkelstein at the their homeland, should never be comes to an end in mid-2009 so the forgotten. The Trustees have decided to Imperial War Museum search for a new home is gathering pace. grant the Library £150,000 towards the Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein Also, the needs of the collection for cost of its new home. The Trustees will will be the guest speaker at an AJR stable environmental conditions to recommend renewing this grant annually national get-together at the promote the preservation of increasingly in the same amount for four years.' Imperial War Museum on fragile and rare contemporary materials can no longer be met in the current Anthony Spiro, Chairman of the Wiener Wednesday 8 November. building. The Library is focusing its Library, endorsed Andrew's comments The day-long gathering - open to all search on central London, particularly and added: 'We are thrilled that the AJR members of the AJR - is part of a the WC1 area, which is the academic has made this very generous gesture.