AJ R Info r mation Volume LIV No. 3 March 1999 ±•3 (to non-members)
Don't miss... I Reflections on a seven-century-long symbiosis OSHA - new plans j Man blacher p2
What a tangled web Poles and Jews life weaves Richard Grunberger p3 itler and his executioners reduced the generalised 'victims of Fascism'. population of Poland by six million, half of Things remained frozen till the demise of Soviet Home Is where the them Jews. The latter formed nine tenths of power. For the past decade democratic Poland has foots aren't H all Polish Jews; the three million Polish victims l^aniel Snowman p5 worked towards a rapprochement with Israel and formed one tenth of the endre Polish nation. These world Jewry - though disputes over the convent sombre statistics are not quoted out of any sense of (and the crosses) at Auschwitz have created 'martyr envy' - although that neurotic emotion obstacles on the way. Bloodstained infests the world Hitler bequeathed to us. Recently the fraught topic of Jews in Stalin's fieldgrey Polish-Jewish history can be viewed from bewil- security apparatus has resurfaced. It now seems that deringly different angles. Around 1350, at a time the case against UK resident Helena Brus will not he Crimes when waves of oppression and expulsion swept the be proceeded with. On the other hand Warsaw is of the rest of Europe, the Polish Crown offered asylum to still asking Israel to extradite Solomon Morel, and TWehrmacht' Jews fleeing the Rhineland massacres and granted the Jewish State is refusing to do so. It would Exhibition, trigger their successors wideranging autonomy. A last ves require the wisdom of Solomon to decide who is of recent neo-Nazi tige of this ancient liberal Poland flickered in the right D violence in Kiel, multicultural vision of Adam Miczkiewicz, the coun „/;<•(' tests the Germans' try's revered national poet. resolve to confront Then, from around 1650 onwards, a series of the past. Even anti- disasters impacting equally on Poles and Jews - first Goldhagen the Chimelnitzki pogroms and then the Partitions historians attest to of Poland - led to impoverishment and a the Wehrmacht's deterioration in Polish-Jewish relations that share in Nazi culminated in the Church-approved anti-Jewish atrocities. Many boycott between the wars. Bundesbiirger, Under the Nazi occupation the Polish Home Army however, ascribe all was indifferent to Jewish suffering, but fought such crimes to the heroically in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After the SS - a myth war both Jewish survivors and Poles suffered grave designed to absoh-e disappointments. The former encountered hostility their own kin of climaxing in the Kielce Pogrom; the latter were guilt. This is where again robbed of independence by the Russians. humanly Stalin employed a small number of highly visible understandable Jews in the security services; these Jews, many lone self-delusion survivors, had ample reason to hate Rightwing merges with Poles. What they failed to realise was their own malevolent political built-in obsolescence'. In 1968 an antisemitic design. The miasma faction in the Polish Communist Party jumped on of neo-Nazism will the Kremlins anti-Zionist bandwaggon and only lift when instigated the expulsion of 20,000 Jewish civil today's Germans ser\'ants, journalists etc. from the country. realise that their The sixties also saw a bizarre convergence of anti- predecessors, with and pro-Communist Poles in the 'appropriadon' of few exceptions, Auschwitz. Rightwingers, habituated to calling acted as robotic Poland the Christ among nations', hyped Auschwitz sen^ants of a as a shrine to Polish martyrdom while anti-Zionist Stark exterior of Berlin's new Jewish Museum designed by Daniel monstrous regime D Soviet propaganda dejudaised martyred Jews as Libeskind. (See report on Page 16.) WSB AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999
went to London to train as a nurse. She Profile met her husband and married after his demob. In those days hospital nurses had to be single - so she retrained as a Our friend from nursery nurse. Later she did teachers' training and eventually became head the North teacher of a nursery school. In addition obody would take her for one of she undertook research into nursery us', either in looks or speech. It teaching - work for which she was made N is a truism that refugees who an MBE. arrived as children are accent free. In parallel with her career, she and her Czech-born Suzanne Pearson, however, woodwork teacher husband not only doesn't merely sound English - she raised three daughters, but also did sounds Yorkshire-born and bred. additional fostering. Even so the scars of The only child of an assimilated the Holocaust have never healed. middle-class family, Suzanne had enjoyed For the last ten years Suzanne has been a happy early childhood. Things changed Suzanne Pearson giving talks to Sheffield schoolchildren drastically with the Nazi occupation of about her own experience of racism- Prague when she was eleven. War was Arrived in the UK, she lived with a Asked about her motivation, she quotes only a few months away. Like several Woodcraft family in Sheffield. Though the programme of the Anne Frank hundred more Czech-Jewish children, under these circumstances she picked up Foundation: 'The rejection of Suzie owes her survival to the intrepid English quickly, she did not, because of discrimination must start at an early age; rescue work of Nicholas Winton (plus, in wartime disruption, receive much of an each of us has a personal responsibility her own case, fundraising efforts by the education. She left school at fourteen towards achieving that goal.' Woodcraft Folk). and, after a false start in a drawing office.
OSHA Chairman announces new plans for German banks' residential care and sheltered accommodation complicity
ver the past few years the Otto accommodation in a new location rather irm evidence that Deutsche Bank, Schiff Housing Association has than attempt to repair the present building. Germany's largest, part-funded the Ofaced increasing pressure on its The search for a site has commmenced. Fconstruction of the Auschwitz death financial resources, due primarily to the Once a satisfactory location has been camp was revealed in recently need to provide higher levels of care to identified a further two years or so are likely discovered documents. The bank's increasingly frail residents coupled with the to be required for completion of the new historian, Manfred Pohl, said that their uneconomical fees paid by Local premises. In the unlikely event that a branch in the Polish town of Katowice Authorities. satisfactory site could not be found, OSHA knew of the purpose to which the loan Following an extensive review it became would of course have to re-examine its long- was being put. Degesch, a subsidiary ot clear that .sub.stimtial funds would have to term strategy. Frankfurt-based Degussa precious metal be spent on certain properties to ensure The Council and Executive Group of smelters which manufactured Zyklon the maintenance of high standards of OSHA are well aware of the uncertainty that B gas, was also a recipient. Deutsche accommodation. As a consequence the these decisions, no matter how important Bank is currently hoping to secure a OSHA Council has decided to sell two for the future, will have for tenants, $10 billion takeover of the US properties - Heinrich Stahl House in the residents, relatives and volunteers. OSHA has Bankers' Trust. Bishops Avenue and Eleanor Rathbone undertaken to do all within its power to Together with the Dresdner Bank, House (which is one-third owned by the safeguard the interests of everyone involved. Deutsche Bank is being sued in New AJR) in Highgate, as both are in need of Tenants and residents will be given the York by 10,000 Holocaust victims and extensive refurbishment. utmost consideration and no-one will be their relatives for profiting from These two properties are relatively asked to move without extensive confiscated Jewish property and stolen poorly located for public transport, shops consultation and di,scu.ssion of all options. assets deposited with the banks. and other facilities and, even after major The Otto Schiff Housing Association Following a study by historian Johannes investment, would be unable to meet the remains committed to providing an Baehr, the Dresdner Bank, which had future requirements of tenants and exceptionally high quality service to its close connections with the SS, is residents. clients for many years to come and is reported to have agreed to contribute to Heinrich Stahl House stands on an confident that the changes now being a Government-led compensation fund extremely valuable site in the Bishops initiated will ensure that this commitment for former slave labourers due to be Avenue and a proportion of its land value will te met. estabUshed this year. could be used to provide new D Allan Blacher DRDC -4 - AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 What a tangled web the father's own serfs had murdered him, this fulfilment of his repressed PARTNER life weaves wishes brought on his first epileptic fit. in long established English Solicitors Characteristically the theme of parri (bi-lingual German) would be happy he recent Glenn Hoddle brouhaha cide is also central to Dostoevsky's The refocused attention on an impor to assist clients with English, German Brothers Karamazov (which novel like and Austrian problems. Contact Ttant issue, namely the prejudice wise contains a reference to the blood ^surrounding physical handicap. One of libel charge against the Jews - a charge Henry Ebner ue more effective ways of countering Alyosha Karamazov, Dostoevsky's fa such prejudice is to point out that vourite character, signally fails to refute). Myers Ebner & Deaner 'Beethoven and Smetana went deaf, 103 Shepherds Bush Road Given all this, the epileptic 'Hilton and Jorge Borges became blind, London W6 7LP Dostoevsky, an antisemite and fanatical Alexander Pope and Toulouse-Lautrec anti-Westerner, would make an unlikely Telephone 0171 602 4631 *ere deformed, and Dostoevsky suffered hero for the disabled. The same applies from epilepsy. ALLLEGALWORK to his fellow-epileptic Rasputin. Equally UNDERTAKEN "ainters like El Greco and Guercino unsuitable would be Czar Peter the ' the squinter') even turned their Great, whose facial tic was seized on as abnormal' vision to advantage. The proof by the Orthodox church that he Composer Alexander Zemlinsky dealt was 'the spawn of Satan'. ^ith his totally different physical defect - Alas, it was in Germany that physical 'minutive stature - by making a dwarf deformity was the driving force behind NEWTONS "^ protagonist of his opera Der Zwerg. the truly satanic quartet of Kaiser Leading Hampstead Solicitors ^ a textbook example of rationalising, Wilhelm with the withered arm, 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, emlinsky's youthful lover Alma, who club-footed Goebbels, myopic, pigeon- London NW3 SNB ^ter married Mahler, wrote in her diary: chested Himmler, and Hitler of the 'A' All English legal work "en of genius are always short'. undescended - or otherwise missing- undertaken and German, that sentiment would have appealed to testicle. Swiss & Austrian claims ^ uniformly pintsized pioneers of D Richard Grunberger •^ German spoken potion pictures. It was said that if all the Hollywood moguls - Louis B Meyer, Sam "^ Home visits arranged Goldwyn, Cad Laemmle, William Fox, 'A' Associated offices in Hamburg, Jack Warner - had gathered in a room Los Angeles,Tel Aviv, Sydney, here someone swung a sword at a Zurich ^'ght of five feet three inches from the Inside the post-war Tel: 0171 435 5351 '^^or, not a single hair on their heads Fax: 0171 435 8881 ^ould have been harmed, refugee community '^ut not all 'vertically challenged' r Anthony Grenville, who has re 8omaniacs in history tried to cently spent much of his time rnpensate by making movies - quite a delving into the veritable mine of AUSTRIAN and GERMAN ^ rnade war. King Louis the Fourteenth D information to be found in early issues of Conquered Alsace and wore three-inch PENSIONS AJR Information, is to present his initial ^^Rues; Napoleon conquered Europe findings at a lecture entitled 'The d donned the Imperial crown; Formation of a Refugee Community Chancellor Dollfuss - Millimeternich - PROPERTY RESTITUTION Identity: AJR Information 1946-1950'. ^onquered the Social Democrats and CLAIMS Dr Grenville sets out to examine the ekled on a steel helmet which EAST GERMANY- BERUN development of a distinctive identity , °rnptly earned him the soubriquet tortoise'. among the German-speaking Jewish On instructions our office will refugees from Hitler who settled in he diminutive Stalin liked to pile up assist to deal with your Britain, as reflected in the post-war pages rpses, metaphorically speaking, round applications and pursue the of 'their' journal. He intends exploring *" feet to elevate himself. That, at any matter with the authorities. the nature and extent of their integration ^' Was the writer Elias Canetti's into British society, their attitudes For further information and P'anation for the recurrent purges in Russia. towards their home countries and to appointment please Palestine/Israel, their relations with ts hardly surprising that Canetti, a contact: Anglo-Jewry, and their preservation of an ICS CLAIMS |t ondam resident of Vienna, used the identity based largely on German "chologjcal approach pioneered by language and culture D 146-154 Kllburn High Road '8rnund Freud. As for Freud himself, he London NW6 4JD P^ an interesting explanation for Jointly sponsored by the Wiener Library and the ^ ostoevskys epilepsy, to wit: the latter AJR, Dr Grenville's lecture will take place on Tel: 0171-328 7251 (Ext. 107) hated his father that he secretly Sunday 9di May at 3pm (Gustave Tuck Lecture Fax:0171-624 5002 'shed him dead. When he heard that Theatre, UCL). AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999
Beattie's intellecmal bankruptcy is finally Birobidjan, for Jews. Surely this would be Reviews revealed in Senator Bulworth's recipe for the answer to fascism. But by 1938 racial harmony: 'Let everyone have sex Koestler was disillusioned with Soviet Black Marx with everyone else till all Americans are Russia and quit the Party. Interestingly, it the same colour.' (If I had couched that was in this year, before the outbreak of Warren Beattie, BULWORTH recipe in the words on the actual war, that Koestler revisited Palestine. A On General Release soundtrack AJR Information would cease year before the end of the war he again hat Don Juan was to Seville, to be a family newspaper.) travelled to Palestine in order to write Casanova to Venice and URG Thieves in The Night. Here he came under W Jonathan Aitken to Belgravia, the spell of Begin who, like Jabotinsky Warren Beattie is to Hollywood. But he The guru that failed earlier, converted him to supporting the has another ruling passion, namely Irgun Zvai Leumi in its underground war Marxism. This has had a variable effect David Cesarani, ARTHUR KOESTLER, against the British. This alienated Koestler on his film making. Reds was an THE HOMELESS MIND. William Heineman. from mainstream opinion to the extent engrossing movie about an American 1998, £25. that he felt he had no place in the journalist caught up in the Russian irst I must confess to special plead emerging country, despite the fact that he Revolution, in which action sequences ing in respect of this book. As a had held dual Palestinian and Hungarian were punctuated by eye witnesses of the Fteenager there were two luminaries nationality since 1928. events in 1917 speaking directly to that lit the way ahead for me. One was At this stage he endeavoured to solve camera. George Orwell, and the other Arthur his identity problem by stopping being In contrast to the engrossing and Koestler. Both Oi"well and Koestler were Jewish. In an interview he gave in 1952, innovative Reds, Bulworth is a political activists - and they wrote he asserted that the creation of the State tendentious farrago. Exposes of brilliant books, which in Koestler's case of Israel presented Jews in the diaspora corruption in US politics have a included The Yogi and the Commissar, with the choice of either making aliya or venerable pedigree dating back to the Darkness at Noon and Thieves in the assimilating with their host country. For pre-war Mr Smith goes to Washington, but Night. Although a deeply committed Koestler, who was a non-believer, the latterly, with Wag the Dog, Primary Communist Party member of choice was simple - either "go to Israel" Colours etc. they have become formulaic. longstanding, Koestler saw through or shed your Jewish identity. Buliuorth has been made from the same Marxism comparatively eariy on. He was In 1976 he published a curiosity. The template, but it compounds the brilliant in many spheres. His writings on Thirteenth Tribe, in which he argued that trademark cynicism of those films with science introduced millions - his work European Jews were descended from near-childish naivete. was translated into many languages - to Khazars, a Caucasian tribe that converted Actually even its cynicism borders on post-Darwin theories of evolution and to Judaism in the seventh century. This the infantile. To suggest that Democrats the working of the mind. book was largely pooh-poohed by are indistinguishable from Republicans is, However, being an unashamed admirer historians as being considerably flawed, in the face of the Clinton impeachment of an idol in one's youth, is one thing. To but it was a final attempt by Koesder to hearings, simply ludicrous. In similarly read about him, warts and all, when one renounce his identity by tracing his synthetic-cynical mode the film's Senator is long in the tooth oneself, is quite genetic origins elsewhere. Bulworth alleges a conspiracy between another. For Koestler was an impossible, Despite his attempts to de-Judaise media and politicians to hoodwink the boorish, albeit at times charming, man. himself and melt into the English US public. (It makes one wonder if He was violent with women, even to the countryside, which he truly loved, he Warren Beattie ever heard of Watergate). extent of rape. Only recently a bust of ended his days in virtual Jewish self- The naivete of Beattie's vision comes his, which had been erected in his hatred, and his search for identity was, out in his syrupy idealisation of Afro- honour at a Scottish University, was put not surprisingly, a failure. Americans. He credits them with a vivacity under wraps as a result of Cesarani's It is with good reason that Prof- and warmth totally lacking in other revelations. Cesarani subtitles his biography The Americans, and ascribes crime in the Although Koestler was born in Homeless Mind, for Koestler was a man ghettoes solely to capitalist exploitation. Budapest, his parents moved to Vienna uprooted by war and revolution. His This is an oversimplification on a par with before he reached the age of nine. A few search for meaning, identity and the portrayal of slavery as a purely years later he applauded, with precocious belonging took him along the paths of European imposition on Africa. (In reality adolescent enthusiasm, Bela Kun and the Zionism, Communism, anti-Communism, it was warrior tribes who sold their fellow short-lived Soviet style regime he helped science and, finally, mysticism. African captives as slaves to White install in Hungary. In his early Zionist Prof. Cesarani has researched his traders.) Essentially what Beattie has done days Koestler came under the spell of subject fully and told the story well. This is adapt Orwell's Four legs good - two Jabotinsky and resided for many years in biography is comprehensively written legs bad' slogan to read 'Black skin good mandated Palestine. However, with the and well annotated. It will be of interest - white skin bad'. And, I am tempted to upsurge of the extreme right in Germany, to anyone concerned with the history of add, 'No foreskin - very bad', because he Koestler joined the Communist Party in our times. I am grateful to the author for casts Jews among the film's villains. He 1931. Theoretically he appeared to be on the effort spent on the work of a brilliant, shows them as linked to the porn movie firm ground. The Soviet Union had not but contradictory person who, all things industry and more concerned about the only outlawed antisemitism but had, considered, possessed feet of clay. West Bank than die USA. furthermore, set aside a homeland. D Martin Hasseck
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acknowledges, 'fitted in with a preferred heimishe food. For ever after, with the Home is where the emphasis on my Englishness and a reluc gangsters imprisoned, executed or tance to proclaim my German origins'. retired, respectable co-religionists still •"oots aren't And Grenville tells us how his non-Brit reminisced about those 'heroes' in ^^terAlter, Ed OUT OFTHETHIRD REICH: ish background and enforced colourful wiseguy language. '^^fugee Historians in Post-war Britain I B Taurisl bi-lingualism gradually pointed him to The author contends that, if there had German Historical Institute, London 1998. wards comparative and international been more Jews like those gangsters, the • know where my roots are, but I also history. But there's not a lot of Freud (or Holocaust would not have happened. I • know where my home is. I do not Woody Allen) in these pages. Maybe our consider this a questionable theory. He •Want to change either of them." Thus authors were so grateful for the success goes so far as to endow them with the the Vienna-born Peter Pulzer in this and recognition that came their way that virtues - in terms of personal courage Anthology of autobiographical essays by they were ill-inclined to disturb the and efficiency - of the Israeli Defence historians who fled to Britain from the smouldering coals of childhood memory. Force, and even the heroes of Entebbe! Third Reich. Prof Peter Alter, University And who can blame them? They are writ An untenable comparison if one '•^^ Duisburg, has put together a ing, one senses, not for their psychiatrists remembers that these gangs included On screen a German U-boat captain, and a scientist, complained bitterly that Hitler had interfered with their work by forbidding further research on radar because it was long-term; he wanted quick results, and so they fell behind. Hitler had also interfered with the generals' plans at Stalingrad, thus causing the beginning of the end. Generals, U- twist this statement into the assertion GOMBRICH'S BLOTTING boat captains and scientists resented that there are no top-rank Jewish PAPER II Hider interfering with their war for which philosophers in this century? Sir - To my intense regret, Mr they had well prepared and had been There is a final irony in Mr Gamberger's attempt to rebut my charge looking forward to. Grunberger's confidence that the of having borne false witness (911.'99), It therefore appears to me that the July Viennese interwar cabaret must confirm has made matters so much worse that he Plot was caused by corporal Hitler his original argument. He could not leaves me no option but to encroach on meddling in military affairs, and making a possibly know that I was marginally your space once more. mess of them. Nothing to do with Jews. involved in that tradition, since together Having at last admitted that my brief in Ipswich Frank Bright with the late Hans Weigel, I wrote a skit the lecture at the Liberal Synagogue in Suffolk for the Kleinkunstbuebne, poking fun at November 1996 (and published by the German pomposity and Austrian Austrian Cultural Insdtute as the first of Sir - In answer to HL Meyer's letter (Feb complacency. I never heard that we their pamphlets Occasions), was to 99 issue) I would like to say that this 'stood on the shoulders' of one Heinrich discuss The Visual Arts in Vienna circa correspondence was about the possibility Eisenbach, and I do not believe it. I 1900, he exclaims, with an air of injured of the Shoah influencing the Officer cannot accept Mr Grunberger's version of innocence: "How is it that I read Plotters in their decision to kill Hider. I the history of German language satire, references to the absence of Jews from did not find this theory substantiated. which omits the name of Johann Nestroy, the top rank of Viennese composers of It is my belief that the percentage of whose witticisms and gags were still the 19th century, and from that of Non-Eliminationist Germans was 2% and frequently quoted in the Vienna of my philosophers subsequently...?" Needless I arrive at the same figure for the Officer youth. Incidentally, I never use blotting to say, these statements are a figment of Plotters. paper. Mr Grunberger's imagination. Let the In contrast to my previous letters on London NW3 Prof Sir Ernst Gombrich reader judge: Referring, quite legitimately the subject where my views were (p.24), to the utterance by Stefan Zweig It is symptomatic that Sir Ernst's prewar friend supported by reputed historians - at this quoted as a motto of the Festival of and collaborator was Hans Weigel, a 1945 time I will only point to the paucity of Jetvish Culture at which I spoke, that returnee to Vienna who subsequently asserted trees commemorating German 'Righteous nine tenths of what the world celebrated that he encountered no antisemitism in postwar Gentiles' in Yad Vashem. The number is as Viennese culture of the nineteenth Austria. Ed. 324 out of 17000 or just about 2% of this century was a culture promoted, total. This is a fact, not a value judgement nurtured, or in some cases even created Sir - May I - a mere proofreader - or innuendo. by Viennese Jewry', I merely remarked make so bold as to point out that the My best hope is that Stauffenberg, that I did not know what his units of offence to which RG owns up, was surely Reichwein and Moltke were part of the measurement were, but Beethoven and either a "mini" one, or minuscule - but 2%. Schubert, Bruckner and Brahms, who definitely not miniscule! London N6 H Fisher London WI Helen Gregory lived in Vienna, "were not particularly associated with people of Jewish descent". Where, I ask, did I speak of THE SHOAHANDTHE DESERT ISLAND DISCS the "absence of Jews from the top rank OFFICERS PLOT Sir - Among 'our' celebrities who have of Viennese composers"? Sir - Recently I watched a documentary appeared on the above programme. Sir But worse is to come. I also touched on radar from 1940 onwards. Claus Moser and Professor George on an advertisement circulated by my In the Atlantic German U-boats Steiner stand out in my memory. Now I hosts, the Austrian Cultural Institute, wrought havoc with Allied shipping. also include Ruth Prawer Jhabvala in my which read (p.25): If you want to know Detectable by early radar built into the recollections. why most of the twentieth century noses of long-range aircraft, the Germans Numerous listeners, especially of our intellectual life was invented in Vienna, learned to listen to pulse-signals and dive background, must have been moved by please contact us'. A claim that prompted out of sight, but when new, shorter her reminiscences. Her sorrow at the me to remark that the founding fathers wave-lengths were used they failed to tragic fate that befell her family appeared of the Vienna School of Art History (to find a counter-measure. ingrained in the intonation of her voice. which I belong), were not Jewish, nor Allied advances in cavity magnetrons Her choice of records included a were the fathers of the 'Vienna Circle' of also enabled bombers to 'see' the land wonderful rendition of the AvetiU philosophers, "though some other below through clouds, and in the dark, Malkenu prayer, whose significance she members of that circle were, or may and drop their bombs on target rather explained. have been Jews". How could anyone than miles away. London NWl I Laura Selo AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 ACTION AGAINST OBLIVION are not afflicted with the Beckmesser REMEMBERING A BLACK DAY Sir - I recently attended a moving syndrome, coupled with total ignorance. Sir - Sitting here safe and sound I cannot ceremony in deep snow to honour and Chigwell, Fred Rosner help reflecting on today's date (30.1.99). remember the four teachers at the former Essex 66 years ago, the Machtubernahme took Luther Lyceum (now Hector Peterson- place. I was then a student, at an institute Oberschule) who had fallen victim to the Sir - There was no monetary situated in a working-class area of Berlin Holocaust. compensation for those homosexuals where every window showed a red flag Following an invitation to Berlin by the who survived the concentration camps. on the eve of the election. When I went Oberbiirgermeister in 1994 I had made They had been imprisoned under the law back to the institute every window Contact with my old school and found of the Kaiser and not under Nazi sprouted a swastika. Later that day all that there was no mention of the laws....the only group that was again students were made to attend the "lartyred schoolmasters. I then set to shamefully discriminated against. hoisting and saluting of the new flag. All ^ork to persuade the school to sponsor a Isle ofWight Mrs Erica Prean followed like sheep, including Jews, with "memorial plaque. It took four years to the exception of myself; I said they complete this task and I assisted in would have to carry me out. I was lucky raising funds for the bronze relief. They and got away with it, unlike others PROPAGANDATRIUMPH held an exhibition last year, proclaiming elsewhere. Sir - Why does Mr Channing (Feb 99 success in their investigation into the fate Little did I dream 1 would be alive 66 issue) think that only a dictatorial regime of the former teachers. The exhibition years - and a spell in a concentration can provide the resources for political •"eflected great credit on the headmaster, camp - later to remember the date, now and social propaganda? ^r Dietmar Pagel, and his pupils. a citizen of another, beloved country, Did open market forces not produce, in Herr Pagel in\ited me to do the school which was then regarded as hostile and the inter-war USA, the expression of 'he 'honour' to come to Berlin and unveil beyond the moon. unpleasant racial stereotyping, of which ^he completed beautiful bronze relief. London NW3 £ Mitchell we may now justifiably be somewhat My husband and I flew to Berlin to ashamed? complete the task I had set out to do. It I also suggest that Mr Channing's basic ^as a most moving and dignified event, ROME AND JERUSALEM question has long been answered by 'nvolving local dignitaries, the press, Sir - The presentation of Edith Stein's history. The post-revolutionary Russian Kletzmer musicians and the school. canonisation has certainly been cinema, with its seminal contribution to *^embley Eva Freeman mishandled; what looks like a mistaken f^iddx film technique, is not reviled because of attempt to hijack her martyrdom has its origins. been particularly resented by Bishop The Odessa Steps may have been a Hugh Montefiore and the "Jewish '^INKTRIANGLEAND mythical construction but, surely, we can Christians". Whatever the motives, it was YELLOW STAR distinguish the intention and effect of a certainly hamhanded. On the grounds of cream separator sequence from the "" - Mr Rolf Weinberg should sign his personal sanctity this contemplative nun banality of a Nazi speech, however well- '^tter 'Disgusted. Tunbridge Wells'. It and mystic may well have deserved recorded. Appears perfectly legitimate to me for AJR canonisation, but then the present Pope Chalfont St Giles Alan S Kaye ^formation to examine Nazi treatment of has created more Beati and Saints than Buckinghamshire another persecuted minority, and to any of his predecessors I agree with R Ascribe some distinguished members of Channing (December issue) that she that minority, and their contribution to cannot have been in Auschwitz long eimar culture. I escaped wearing either Sir - Your article (February issue) reveals enough to have done many works of ^ yellow star or the pink triangle Riefenstahl's association with an mercy there; was she at Westerbork long erely by the accident of time and luck: exhibition of her life and work, and her enough to deserve the reputation of a "^y parents got me out in October 1933-1 endeavour to justify herself and her camp angel? vise Mr Weinberg to read Magnus support for Hitler. I always knew that the present Pope irschfeld for enlightenment. At 96 she seems to have forgotten has kept up with old school friends from ^°"^onVV; Peter Zander whom she served with such dedication Wadowice, including Holocaust survivors and ambition. Talented as she was, she like Jerzy Kluger, but I have just found did everything to glorify the regime with out that his Cracow friends include Meir ~ May I say how much I enjoyed your her films. Lau, the present Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi ornpendium of history's gays'. Actually, I can live with the new generation of of Jerusalem. remember the good old days, when Germans, but I can never forgive those Deddington Francis Steiner §oin 8 to see Gay Rosalinda meant Die still around for having witnessed and Oxon Pled,ermaus in English, with Richard supported callous persecution and Taub(e r conducting. murder. Leni Riefenstahl would serve s always, your summary sparkles with herself better to live on in obscurity and Wit ^nd erudition. try to come to terms with her conscience AJR SEDER NIGHT ^as, it seems that you cannot please all - if she has one. THURSDAY I ST APRIL you ^ readers. However, you will do well Cascais Peter Frankel to BOOKING DETAILS ON PAGE 10 Continue catering for those of us who Portugal !f;wm^iasmsf^mm-m^m^s!«3^mmBBmmmss^ AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 AJR Keports TEACHING BRIDGE AT AJR KARD & GAMES CLUB DEVELOPING AJR GROUPS IR Outreach Worker Myrna Glass is m^ Lf^'*"^ _ soon hoping to establish a tenth AAJR-associated group, possibly in the Cardiff area. If you live in South Wales ll and would like to know more, please call her on Thursdays at 0171 431 6l6l. Ic/^M^V On a recent visit to the Midlands Group, Myrna spoke about her new role ^B liaising between the groups and Head Office where specialist help was often available to meet individual needs. Monthly meetings of like-minded people t from a common background strength ened the voice of survivors and it was ^-^1K^ ^^^t^S^^^^B ^^Cj^'^^''IMiil^^^^^H ^taii9ik.^>j becoming easier to share good ideas and Wj^^^*^ ^^^Kr foster common interests. ^^M^^nff ^.''V""*' At Pinner AJR music-lover. Jack Kinkier, gave a masterly talk on composers of Jewish ancestry. Among •BBJ ipPf those he selected as having stood the test of time were Felix Mendelssohn, Gustav Shirley Tucker left, leading Trudie Poiver, Marion Lesser and Fred Wyall through the subtleties of bridge at AJR's Mahler, Ernst Bloch, George Gershwin, Monday Kard & Games Klub. Kurt Weill, Aaron Copland and the incomparable Leonard Bernstein. The he AJR's Kard & Games Club, up Club members. Every Monday, with recordings Jack played helped to enliven and running for the past six patience and understanding, she explains his insight into their lives and months, has gained a regular the basics of play, which are soon T achievements. following of players. Now they are grasped, before moving on to the Fay Granat will speak about her recent inviting both aspiring and less expert subtleties and intricacies of the game. spectacular walk through Sinai in aid of bridge players to join them on Mondays After less than six months Shirley reckons One-to-One, which helps disadvantaged between 9.30am and 3.30pm at 15 Cleve that a novice should be able to hold his families in Israel. Pinner Synagogue, 4th Road, NW6. or her own in bridge-playing company! March at 2pm. Every Monday, volunteer expert bridge Of course, members can play any of U WW teacher Shirley Tucker imparts the regular games they prefer. Chess is confidence to wary and novice players, popular, as are scrabble, kalooki and South London AJR guests Norah enabling them to take their places at the dominoes. Morning coffee is included Gittins and Hilde Ambrose discussed the card tables and join in the social life. and a full buffet lunch includes a glass of many aspects to be considered when Describing herself as "a good club wine. Entrance is &6 for Day Centre making a claim for compensation. Norah player", on her retirement as members and £10 for non-members. reported that the AJR regularly offered administrator at Shalvata counselling Please call Sylvia, Renee & Susie on advice on a number of potential sources, centre last year, Shirley decided to bring 0171 328 0208 to make your reser\'ation. including the British Fund, the Swiss her skills to benefit AJR Kard & Games D Ronald Channing Humanitarian Fund and recent u*^'.>.vr .<*^?y»v--- developments in Austria. Hilde discussed pensions granted on the grounds of ill New appointments We also wel health. Claims which may previously manda Clark, three of whose come Sandra have been rejected, such as those for grandparents are refugees, has Lessman who post-traumatic stress, could possibly now Ajoined AJR's has joined the be accepted. While any advice from the Head Office as AJR as Meals-on- AJR was free to members, lawyers' fees, Volunteers Services Co wheels Assistant of course, had to be paid. ordinator. PreviousK based at the Day James Taylor, who is working on the she spent a number of Centre. Members Imperial War Museum's new Holocaust years as a residential wishing to tele exhibition, will speak on Holocaust homes manager for ^ ^^^., phone in their Memoirs' on Thursday llth March cit Norwood requirements will often be placing their Prentis Road Synagogue, South London. Ravenswood. orders directly with her D URL ^''^^^^^^ mss^ wm AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 rfT Grand opening of the > • Vle>vpcliit • • % AJR # fCAM ^ &AMi3 KLW Houses of cards? all day play of hen the mandated powers strangle Egypt's vital tourist trade. bridge, kalooki, chess, scrabble, dominoes Britain and France carved Yasser Arafat - whose PLO murdered at 15 Cleve Road, NW6 Wnation states from the Near Ma'alot school-children and Benyamin every Monday Eastern territories of the defeated Natanyahu's brother Jonathan at 9.30am to 3.30pm Ottoman Empire, they appointed and Entebbe - shows clear signs of including morning coffee & supported absolute rulers. With the trembling and lapses of memory full buffet lunch with wine death of King Hussein of the consistent with Parkinsons' disease. Please call Sylvia, Renee & Susie on Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Ironically, Saddam Hussein of Iraq 0171 328 0208 for reservations, area's longest-serving head of appears in rude health, though should £6 a day fully inclusive government, eyes are turning towards he succumb to a stray US guided (£10 non-members) the region's Arab states ruled by ailing missile or an assassin's bullet, his sons l^ard Klub will be open on Mondays as septuagenarians. demonstrate a frightening bestiality. published programme piTt?^ in AJR Information King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, whose The new King of the region's key _ Members old & new kingdom also boasts a dynastic name, buffer state, unknown and unregarded, 45 are most welcome at 77 continues to spend his not is thrust into this situation. Abdullah, inconsiderable fortune on surgery in King Hussein's eldest son from his western hopitals. Saudi Crown Prince union with British Toni Gardiner, was Abdullah's confidence in his succession preferred to his uncle, the urbane may now be somewhat shaken by Hebrew-speaking Hassan who held the recent events which, by the same reins as Crown Prince for 33 years. token, may offer encouragement to his Enjoy No doubt Hussein's wish to see his half-brothers. • Excellent food favourite son, 18-year-old Hamza (by • Stimulating talk President Hafez Assad of Syria, at 70 American-born Queen Noor) succeed, • Enlivening discussion a well-worn credit to modern medi had to be compromised by making * Meeting new friends cine and ruthless retention of power, Hamza Crown Prince to Abdullah's AjR LUNCHEON CLUB plans to cement his line by anointing King. For the stability and progress of his second son Bashir. In Cairo, Presi peace in the Middle East it was not the onWednesday 17th March 1999 dent Hosni Mubarak, past his 71st decision of a clear-headed statesman. at l5CleveRoad,NW6 3RL birthday, remains pre-occupied with Jordan and its neighbours could pay I 1.45 for 12.1 Spm Muslim fundamentalists who, having dearly for this archaic attempt to secure Guest speaker: Hella Pick assassinated his predecessor, Anwar the Hashemite blood line. on Simon Wiesenthal Sadat, are now doing their best to D Ronald Channing Reservations: Members £6 (Non-members £10) from Sylvia, Renee and Susie PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE Tel:OI7l 328 0208 15 Cleve Road.West Hampstead, NW6 Mon. & Weds. 9.30am-3.30pm.Tues. 9.30am-5.30pm.Thurs. 9.30am-6.30pm. Suns. 2pm-6.30pm Call Sylvia Matus - 0171 328 0208 AJR'Drop in'Advice Centre Afternoon entertainment programme • at the Tue 16 Leslie Townsend, violin and Paul Balint AJR Day Centre MARCH/APRIL 1999 Bridget Cunningham, piano Wed 17 LUNCHEON CLUB IS Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Mon 1 KARD & GAMES KLUB Thur18 Carol-Ann Grainger, soprano between I Oam and 12 noon on the Tue 2 Angela Arratoon and and Stephen Dickin.son, piano following dates: Margaret Eave.s, piano Sun 21 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO Wednesday 3 March Wed 3 Tricia Dina, soprano and ENTERTAINMENT Thursday 1 1 March Gordon Cochran accompanied Mon 22 KARD & GAMES KLUB Tuesday 16 March by Margaret Gibbs, piano Tue 23 Margaret Gibbs, piano Wednesday 24 March Thur 4 Valerie Hewitt (Voice - Guitar Wed 24 Jenny and her accordion Tuesday 30 March and Piano) Thur25 The Eddy Simmons Duo Wednesday 14 April Sun 7 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO Sun 28 Gina Fergione, soprano and and every Th jrsday from ENTERTAINMENT Angus Cunningham, piano 1 Oam to 1. inoo n at: Mon 8 KARD & GAMES KLUB Mon 29 KARD & GAMES KLUB Fenella Humphreys, violin and ^JR, 1 Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, Tue 9 Tue 30 Shelley Weldon entertains for Siobhain OHiggins, piano London NW3 6AL Pesach Wed 10 Helen Blake and Kathryn Jenkin Wed 31 CLOSED - PESACH ° oppointment is necessory, but please bring Thur 11 Sylvia Eaves and Margaret Eaves Thur 1 CLOSED - PESACH along all relevant documents, such as Benefit Sun 14 Mark Ro.sen and Daphne Lewis Sun 4 CLOSED - EASTER SUNDAY Books, letters, bills, etc. Mon 15 KARD & GAMES KLUB Mon 5 CLOSED - EASTER MONDAY AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 FAMILY Societies AJR TORRINGTON HOMES ANNOUNCEMENTS Ex-Breslauers. The next MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N. SEDER NIGHT MATRON meeting of former Breslauers For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Michael Radbil will be held on Wednesday, 3 SECOND NIGHT (Licensed by Borough ot Barnet) would like to thank The March at 4pm, 15 Cleve Road, SEDER SERVICE • Single and Double Rooms. Chairman, Hon Officers, staff NW6. Please let Vera Bass know • H/C Basins and CH In all rooms. whether or not you will be able Thursday I April • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. and coundess members of the • Nurse on duty 24 hours. to attend. Tel: 0181-349 3394. Paul Balint AJR Day Centre AJR for their kind expressions • Long and short term, Including (Previous number given in 15 Cleve Road, NW6 trial period if required. of sympathy and support. error.) Please phone: 0171 328 0208 From £275 per weel< for reservations 0181-445 1171 Office hours Deaths Beacon Reunion June 17. For £20 per person 0181 -455 1335 Other times NORTH FINCHLEY Abrahamson. Trixi Abrahamson information contact Erica Prean, Limited space available born in Munich, has died aged 12 Marlborough Road, Ryde, for standard w/heelchairs 6 o'clock for 6.30pm prompt start 79- She did so much for others Isle of Wight P033 lAA. 01983 BELSIZE SQUARE 562747. and is enormously missed by APARTMENTS Hazel, John, family and many Association of Jewish BOOKS 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NWS friends. Ex-Berliners. Please contact PURCHASED Tel: 0171-794 4307 or Peter Sinclair 0181 882 1638 for Pre-1950 Children's* 0171-435 2557 Fuss. Markus Fuss passed information. Illustrated Books away on 10 January 1999. He Published in Germany, Russia, MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary ROOMS, RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER will be sadly missed by MODERATETERMS his beloved wife Grete, Brian Mills: Books NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION OPTICIAN [ 8 North Road, Glossop, daughters, Diana and Vivien Derbys. SKI 3 9AS and grandchildren, Tara, Dr Howard Solomons BSc Tel/Fax 01457-85 6878 Residential Home Alexander, Tanya and Adam. FBCO Clara Nehab House (Leo Baeck Housing Associaton Ltd.) Koebner. Adolf (Miinne) will be at Typewriters, etc. 13-19 Lraside Crescent NWII Koebner born Ludwigshafen, The Paul Balint Quality repairs & All rooms with Shower W.C. and died on 2 January 1999 aged 85. AJR Day Centre H/C Basins en-suite servicing Spacious Garden - Lounge & No words can express how much 15 Cleve Road, West he will be missed by his family. Carried out by Dining Room - Lift Hampstead, NW6 experienced engineer Near Shops and PublicTransport Moss. Thea Moss died on 30 on Thursday Morning Collections arranged 24 Hour Care - Physiotherapy Free quotations & details from: Long & short Term - Respite Care • December 1998. Sadly missed 15 April 1999 Trial Periods by all the Sisters of the Leo Gordon Spencer, Please make Tel: 0181 445 1839 Enquiries: Josephine Woolf Baeck Womens Lodge. Otto Sctiiff Housing Association appointments with The Bishops Avenue N2 OBG Phone:0181-209 0022 Pollard. Eva Pollard, nee Sylvia Matus SWITCH ON ELECTRICS Perlhoefter, died peacefully at Tel: 0171 328 0208 home on 25 January. Dearly Rewires and all household AJR MEALS ON WHEELS loved by her husband Walter, electrical work. A wide variety of high quality kosher daughter Anita, and by her PHONE PAUL: 0181-200 3518 j frozen food is available, ready made and family abroad. delivered to your door via the AJR meals Dental Surgeon on wheels service,The food is cooked in ALTERATIONS our own kitchens in Cleve Road, NW6, CLASSIFIED Dr H Alan Shields OF ANY KIND TO by our experienced staff. & LADIES' FASHIONS If you live in North or North West Miscellaneous London and wish to take advantage of I also design and make Reichsmark Coins. If anyone Chiropodist this service, phone Susie Kaufman on children's clothes 0171-328 0208 for details and an Trevor Goldman SRC still has any Reichsmark coins West Hampstead area assessment interview. brought over 60 years ago, 0171-328 6571 by appointment at please contact Flor Kent, 40 The Paul Balint AjR Day Centre ADVERTISEMENT RATES "Vineyard Hill Road, Wimbledon, IS Cleve Rood, West Hampstead, NW6 AJR GROUP CONTACTS London SW19 7JH. Tel: 0181 Leeds HSFA: Heinz Skyte FAMILY EVENTS First 15 words free of charge, Please make appointments with 0113 268 5739 944 5350. Fax 0181 944 0028. £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. email JO AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 came an opera producer, in which capac ity he directed Wagner's Ring cycle in London during the sixties. Obituary. Swiss-bom Rolf Liebermann died aged 88. An opera composer, he administered the opera houses of Hamburg and Paris. While head of the Paris opera he he exhibition of works by employed Sir Georg Solti as music director; Francis Bacon at the Tate this period is still referred to as the 'Golden T Gallery provides the first Years'. Liebermann was also director of the •Opportunity for the public to see some of international academy at the Salzburg ^he working drawings that Bacon Mozarteum D deliberately kept secret over many years, included are more than 40 sketches riewly acquired by the Tate. Made in Annely Juda Fine Art Pencil, ballpoint pen, gouache and oil, 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) they reveal Bacon's obsessive concern Tel: 0171-629 7578 Fax: 0171-491 2139 *ith the human figure. Together with the CONTEMPORARY PAINTING *ell-known paintings on view, they AND SCULPTURE Convey his violent images of people ^'storted, depraved or depressed which nave earned him international study, Portrait of Van Gogh, Francis Bacon. •"ecognition. Until May 2. Tate Gallery GERMAN and At the Whitechapel Art Gallery are ENGLISH BOOKS ^orks by Henri Michaux, an artist much March 7. Orozio Gentileschi f 1563-1639) admired by Francis Bacon. This is the of Pisa became court painter to BOUGHT Antiquarian, secondhand and "'-'^t public show of Michaux's work in Charles I. The paintings, which owe much modern books of quality Britain, coinciding with the anniversary to Caravaggio, include loans from the Royal always wanted. ^^ his birth. Michaux is an enigmatic Collection and from major museums 'gure. Born in Paris, he had a successful throughout Europe. Until May 23. We're long-standing advertisers here and leading buyers of books career as a poet, only turning to painting n Barry Fealdman from AJR members. "^ the late 1920s as a way of expressing ''^ates of mind which were inaccessible to Immediate response to your letter or phone call. Poetry. His vibrant, highly original works SB's Column 'n ink, gouache, pencil and crayon, some We pay good prices and come to collect. °' which draw on his knowledge of 125 years i^o. Born in Bielitz in 1874, the fiiriese calligraphy, have a quality which outstanding coloratura Sehna Kurz was Please contact: ^ strangely moving. Also at the engaged by Gustav Mahler to sing at the Robert Hornung MA(Oxon) hitechapel are paintings and drawings Vienna Opera. She appeared at Covent 2 Mount View, Ealing, °y the New York-based artist Terry Garden in 1904/5 but owing to Dame London W5 IPR *^ters. Among them are large striking Melba's jealousy not again until 1924. Telephone 0181-998 0546 (Spin to 9pni is best) Paintings created with thick, often harsh Selma Kurz took many popular coloratura " colours, built up in geometric lines, parts and was Strauss' Zerbinetta in '^yer by layer. UntU AprU 25. Ariadne in 1916. She and her gynaecologist 'o mark the three-hundredth husband had a daughter who enjoyed a GERMAN BOOKS anniversary of the birth of the Baal Shem short singing career in the thirties. °^. the Ben Uri Art Society is mounting Rainer Maria Fassbinder was WHY MOT COIVTACT US ^^^ exhibition from March 7-21 at ORT doubtlessly the most prominent personality FOR A VALUATION? ^°'Jse, 126 Albert Street, NWl, of 15 in the German postwar cinema. Between We are always seeking pre-1 950 German J^^'our lithographs by the Hungarian artist 1966 and 1982 (when he died at the young books in ALL subject areas, especially J^''^nc Flamm entitled The Legends of age of 37) he made over 40 films. They Exile/Internment literature and Judaica. ^ Baal Shem Tov. Completed o\ er two were original and imaginative, and We also buy interesting Autographs, ^•"s, during which the artist studied featured, among others, Hanna SchyguUa, Original Manuscripts, Etchings and 3ssidic philosophy and legend and the Werner Finck and Luise Ullrich. London's Drawings and Art Photographs. '^•ngs of Martin Buber, the images National Film Theatre put on a Fassbinder ^ct the rich Jewish life of a bygone era. season during February. Eric Brueck '^^o small exhibitions at the National Birthday. 90-year old Hans Hotter was Antiqnariat Metropolis , '^ry include superb paintings from honoured by the Vienna State Opera in Leerbachstr. 85, D-60322 Frankfurt a/M Gallerys own collection not normally January. He was their leading baritone from Tel; 0049 69745919 1937 to 1972 but made frequent guest ap View. Of particular interest are the Members of the PBFA pearances at Milan, Bayreuth and New |,^'"ks of Zanobi Strozzi (1412-1468), a REGULAR VISITS TO LONDON ^ known pupil of Fra Angelica. Until York. Towards the end of his career he be II AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 harmoniously. In fact, Arab nationalism Faith I, Reason 0 everywhere has a pro-Islamic anti- UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Christian bias that feeds on ancient folk Centre for German-Jewish Studies wo thousand years ago a certain memories of the Crusades. (Examples Paul - formerly Saul - of Tarsus Doctoral Research Scholarship abound: the Lebanese Civil War, attacks had a blinding vision on the Road Applications invited for 3-year full-time T on Copts in Egypt, the flight of Christian Research Scholarship from October 1999 for to Damascus. The vision thing' occurred Arabs from places like Bethlehem). well-qualified graduate (fluent in English and again at the end of this January. It As to President Assad, he is a dictator German) to write DPhil dissertation on the happened to a well known Englishman who wiped out 20,000 inhabitants of the History of Belsize Square with a religious bent by the name of Synagogue 1939-1999 rebel city of Homs. In the past he Carey. No, I don't mean Peter Carey, Value of scholarship £6,500 per annum plus harboured Eichmann's assistant Alois prizewinning author of Oscar and university fees at Home and EU rate and Brunner - currently he gives houseroom Lucinda, a novel about a cathedral made research expenses allowance. to Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hizbollah. of glass that is floated to Australia. I refer Closing date for applications His soldiers occupy, and virtually govern, to Dr George Carey, Archbishop of 2nd April 1999 the sovereign state of Lebanon, and he Canterbury. Application forms & further details from: has thousands of agents currently This man of the cloth took the Postgraduate Office, exploiting the succession crisis in the University of Sussex, Falmer, Damascus Road to improve Christian- Kingdom of Jordan. Brighton BNI 9RH.Tel: 01273 678412 Muslim relations and had the wool No wonder when I first read the J pulled well and truly over his eyes. He encomium on Assad I thought it had described Assad's Syria as a haven of been penned by the other Carey, winner religious toleration in which Moslems Hilary's Care Agency of the Booker Prize for Fiction. ^ and Christians of all stripes co-exist LJ KO HIGH QUALITY HOMECARE FORTHE ELDERLY AND DISABLED * CARERS * COMPANIONS *• HOUSEKEEPERS SEARCH NOTICES * DOMESTICS Dr Rudolf Stern and daughter staying with the Hyams family in Flexible service tailored to your needs Harriet, last known living in France. Westgate-on-Sea in Kent. Liese moved to Daily & Live-in - 1-24 hours - 7 days a week Composer Roger Quilter helped their Brantswood Road, Broughton Park, COVER/NG NORTH & NORTH WEST LONDON, escape from 1930s Vienna. Harriet Salford, Lancashire, then into Booth Hall EAST LONDON pivotal role played by neutral Switzerland also been made on the recovery of stolen Us Government's when, from 1941 onwards, it received works of art which are being tracked ongoing commitment German bullion in exchange for down by organisations such as the Art internationally tradeable Swiss francs. Loss Register in co-operation with the to Holocaust Published in May 1997, the report caused leading auction houses and art galleries. a considerable stir, not least in The Russian Government also agreed to f'eparations Switzerland. A second US Government open its archives to reveal looted art. A report which followed in June 1998 non-binding consensus was reached in "Marking the 60th anniversary of the investigated other neutral countries - Washington to aid the restitution of Nazi- 'Viener Library in London, Bennett including Argentina, Sweden, Spain, plundered artworks. '^'"eeman, special advisor to US Under Portugal and Turkey - and the degree to An upsurge in demand for Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat, which they too were involved in helping compensatory justice for slave and forced Save an address on 'Nazi Gold and to finance the Nazi war effort. labourers has now brought this issue to "olocaust-Era Assets: Completing the The Nazi Gold Conference, held in the forefront of attention. The present Unfinished Business of the Second London in December 1997, was regarded German Government's positive attitude to ^oHdWar'. by Bennett Freeman as "a landmark Holocaust restitution, and recent ennett Freeman blamed the Cold event" which focused the attention of the agreements, gave cause for optimism that War for having displaced, for half a international community and spurred further settlements would be reached. Bcentury, attempts to gain more countries into action. From it The need to enhance the propagation of Compensation for gold stolen from living emerged a consensus to compensate the Holocaust education was also reflected in ^rid murdered Holocaust victims, as well survivors. Last year a $1.25 billion the Washington Conference. 3s looted assets and so-called 'dormant' settlement was reached with the Swiss Since it became apparent that the °ank accounts. World Jewish Congress banks. Washington Conference could not be the chairman Edgar Bronfman brought the The issues of unpaid insurance policies last, further conferences have been subject back on to the agenda in 1995 and plundered artworks were taken up at planned: in Austria, to give consideration ••nd Won active support from the White a second conference, held in Washington to stolen property and works of art, in ^oiJse and the State Department. in December 1998. A commission headed Poland, on the return of communal The US Government then initiated an by former Secretary of State Lawrence property, and in Sweden to further enquiry into the whole subject of 'Nazi Eagleburger is due to report on Holocaust education. c>ld', including an investigation of the Holocaust-related insurance. Progress has D Ronald Channing Jewish bit-players? What about the great antisemitism, I can only make this Cedars in the Will himself? Admittedly neither his fore- rejoinder: Shakespeare would not have nor surname sound particularly Jewish? been the only one of our co-religionist •^orest of Arden On the other hand, was he not of scribblers to suffer from Jewish aving always suspected a hidden Mediterranean cast of feature? And hadn't selfhatred. Think of that other great Jewish dimension to the Shake his father been a glover at Stratford - the creative artist, Karl Marx! Hspeare phenomenon, I was not same calling Kafka senior and Werfel D Bard-of-Avon maven ^^rprised to read that Gwv'neth Paltrow, senior followed in Prague? ho plays the crossdressing Romeo in I concede that John Shakespeare was f"*kespeare in Love, had rabbinical rumoured to have been Catholic, but that ,°rbears. After all, she is only following could easily have been a codeword for ^he footsteps of Sarah Bernhardt who Jew - both faiths being equally despised P%ed Hamlet. (This is all in the best in the fiercely anti-Popish atmosphere of •Edition of the transvestite Purimspiel; Elizabethan England. We do know that J cln't Rosalind in ^5 You Like It. and John encountered problems in Stratford °gen in Cymbeline. likewise disguise in 1577 and can only guess at their Sir Sigmund Sternberg, right, receives Ihe airard themselves as boys? precise nature. But the pieces of the from Hesse PM Hans Eichel. *^ore importantly, what chance would jigsaw do fall into place if we remember German award for 'Midsummer Night's Dream have stood the date of Will's birth: 1564. In other hout Mendelssohn's score. Max words, he was thirteen in the crisis year Sternberg J^inhardt's Hollywood film (with Mickey 1577 - and which Jewish father doesn't ir Sigmund Sternberg has been ooney as Puck!) and Peter Brook's stage undergo a crisis (either financial or awarded the Wilhelm Leuschner ^lon? And would there have been a menopausal) at his son's barmitzvah? SMedal for his work for the obe Theatre at Bankside without Sam Later, when Will fell in love, to whom International Council of Christians and ^namaker? Come to that, what would did he address his Sonnets? The 'Dark Jews by Hesse State PM Hans Eichel. lovelorn Shakespeare have had to say Lady', who according to the eminent Leuschner, a German trades unionist and /^ himself but for the words Tom scholar A L Rowse belonged to a family pre-Nazi Hesse Interior Minister, was PPard (alias Straussler) put into his of Italian-Jewish musicians named executed for his part in von 'i^ouih. Lanyado. As to the objection that The Stauffenberg's plot to assassinate Hitler. But why concentrate on all these Merchant of Venice exudes a degree of URDC 13 AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 diverse accomplishment - above all in Kindertransport model sought Resonant names music, but also in banking, and in archi tecture. In addition there was an obscure s a permanent reminder of the t the beginning of the - ultimately immigrant to Britain with the misspelt children who came to Britain on unachieved - German-Jewish sym name Mandelson, whose grandson is the Kindertransports before the biosis stood two men: the A A rarely out of the headlines. The latter's war, and as a token of gratitude to the Protestant Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and tabloid-inspired nickname Mandy, of British people and Parliament of the time, the Jew Moses Mendelssohn, hero of course, carries unmistakable sexual World Jewish Relief has commissioned a Lessing's play Nathan der Weise (1779). implications of the know-what-I-mean- sculpture, to be erected on a prominent Less than half a century later the Prussian nudge-nudge' variety. site in London in the year 2000. Minister Karl August von Hardenberg How one wishes that the immigration A direct descendant of a Kindertransport initiated changes in the law which officer responsible for the misspelling child is needed as a model for the removed many Jewish disabilities. As a had been more culturally aware - or less sculpture, preferably a granddaughter or tribute to him the Jewish journalist illogical (after all, an almond can't have a great-granddaughter who should be 6-7 Witkowski renamed himself Maximilian son)! Had he been either, our current years old. Harden in the 1880s. tabloid headlines would look refreshingly Please contact: Flor Kent, 40 Vineyard This is a fact from which I extrapolate a different. Hill Road, Wimbledon, London SWl9 pet theory of mine, viz that some Jewish DRG 7JH. Tel/Fax: 0181 944 5350 D families surnamed Lesser changed their name to Lessing in tribute to the great Enlightenment playwright. FORTHCOMING EVENTS - MARCH 1999 The best known of the Jewish Lessings was the controversial philosopher Theo Ongoing: Jewish Book Week, Mon 15 John Maynard Keynes & dor Lessing who in 1933 coined the 7- 14 March, Royal Sir Hans Singer: H Leyrer, famous bon mot 'after Zero - Hindenburg National Hotel, Bedford Club 43, 8pm - comes Nero - Hitler'. Theodor Lessing Way, London WCl (Info Tue 16 Beth Shalom Holocaust also achieved a sadder sort of fame as & bookings: Tel:0181- 201 Centre: Spiro Institute visit the earliest victim of a Nazi murder squad 8206) 9am- 6.30pm, ±23.50 operating outside Germany. Mon 1 Erik Satie, Composer & Thur 18 German Exile Writers on Then there was a Communist emigre to Eccentric: Hans Seelig, FBI Files: Prof Alexander South Africa who married the novelist Club 43, 8pm Stephan (Florida University). Doris Lessing, divorced her and became Tue 2 4/^ Information & the Wiener Library, 6.30pm, ±3 East German ambassador to Uganda. Experiences of Refugees: Sun 21 'A View from the Bridge' And now we have a fictitious (non- Richard Grunberger, Sussex by Arthur Miller: Essential Jewish) Lessing who will probably University, Room A155, Theatre Company, Sternberg become better known than any of the Arts Building,5.15pm Centre, 7.30pm, ±5 others. In the Italian film Life is Beautiful Thur 4 Creativity in the Mon 22 Der Streit zwischen which attempts to treat the camps Holocaust: Monica Bohm- Gabriele Tergit und Kurt humorously, Dr Lessing appears as an Duchen. Wiener Library, Hiller im Exil, 1941: Jens archetypal stonehearted German. I think 6.30, £3 Briining (Berlin). Club 43, it a shame that Roberto Benigni, who Mon 8 The Siege of Jerusalem 8pm scripted and directed the film, should 1948: A Wittenberg, Club Mon 29 Kafka's 'In the Penal have attached the revered name Lessing 43, 8pm Colony': Dr Margot Zutschi, to such a morally repellent figure. Tue 9 Fiction & Historicity: Club 43, 8pm Jonathan Long (Durham), Sussex University, 5.15pm *** Thur 11 Lunchtime Recital: Nicola ORGANISATION CONTACTS I Rowlands, flute, and Peter Club '43, at Belsize Square Synagogue. One needn't be a linguist to know that Hewitt, piano, play Bach & Hans Seelig 01442 254 360 Mendelssohn means son of Mendel, just Hamilton Harty. Sternberg Wiener Library, 4 Devonshire Street, as Ivanovitch means son of Ivan. Centre 1.15pm, £2 London Wl. 0171 636 7247 Interestingly enough, the most famous Thur11 Women's Campaign for Sternberg Centre for Judaism/ Mendel was a Moravian monk and Soviet Jewry: Dapiine Jewish Museum, Finchley, 80 East botanist who gave his name to the Gerlis, Jewish Museum End Roac1 , N3 2SY. Tel: 0181 346 2288/ Mendelian laws of genetic inheritance. Camden Town, 2pm, £4 349 1143 There were also some half-forgotten Sun 14 Jerome Kern, the Man & Spiro Institute, Kidderpore Avenue, fictitious Mendels in early twentieth His Music: Mel Cooper, London NW3 7SZ. Tel: 0171 431 0345 century literature: the hero of a Spiro Institute, 7.30pm, £10 University of Sussex Centre for fictionalised biography of the painter Sun 14 The Pianist by Wladislaw German-Jewish Studies. David Mark Gertler, and the somewhat better Szpilman: Wiener Library Groiser Tel/Fax: 01273 877 l69 known Buch Mendel by Stefan Zweig. book launch. Royal Jewish Museum, Camden Town, 129/ Mendelssohns, on the other hand, were National Hotel, Bedford 131 Albert Street, NWl 7NB. Tel: 0171 palpable living figures of the most Way, WCl, 8pm, ±4 284 1997 and at Sternberg Centre 14 AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 'The Presence of the Absence' Obituones First Second & weddings with a joint function. Her Margot Williams daughter Diana and our Barbara, Third Generation he first memories of my cousin go being of a similar age, carry on the International Holocaust family ties. back to children's parties in 1920s Conference Berlin. Margot, whose family lived At Margot's funeral her two grandsons T University of Vienna, Austria •lear ours, was close to my mother and in spoke with great affection of their 1-3 September 1999 ^937 temporarily acted as my father's grandmother and the influence she had For details please contact: Cental assistant prior to her emigration to on their lives. Howard recalled her England. strength of character, their visits to Second Generation Trust In 1940 we were both interned on the museums, her joy at family gatherings PO Box 2863 ^^le of Man where Margot immediately and her wider refugee family, as well as London NWS 5BQ UK ^^t to work as a camp nurse for the her love of Israel which she visited Tel:+44 171 431 2610 refugee internees. We only managed one many times. Matthew remembered her Fax:+44 171 431 0210 'Meeting then, at the cinema in Douglas. never revealing her true age, Email:[email protected] Towards the war's end, Margot married accompanying her on visits to homes ^ell-known philatelist Maurice Williams and hospitals, playing scrabble together, ^ho, due to polio, was confined to a sharing concerts at the Barbican and JACKMAN • wheelchair. I married about the same Royal Festival Hall and her inspirational hme and we all became very close love of the theatre. SILVERMAN hiends, spending holidays together on D Wolf Salinger COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS 'he Continent and in Israel, my wife and Margot Williams was associated with the AJR regarding Margot more as a sister than a since 1950 and for 32 years was the cousin. Association's homes admissions officer Although ^e shared a love of music and went to she retired in 1985, as a volunteer she Concerts together; a performance of dedicated herself to befriending the residents °2ch's St Matthew Passion was a must at of OSHA homes and visiting them when in 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA 'faster. We also celebrated our silver hospital, especially those from Osmond House. Telephone: 0171 409 0771 Fax: 0171 493 8017 Bentwich, Chairman of the Board of URO. t^r Otto Haas He left the URO in the 70s, on less iirzburg-born Otto Haas, a than amicable terms, after the founders of URO had died and the general member of the AJR since its BELSIZE SQUARE Winception, has died aged a directorship changed. Despite the praise J^Undred. He gained his Doctorate of he had earned, this inflicted a wound SYNAGOGUE ^^, following in the footsteps of his which never healed. 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 /^ther Justizrat Dr Gerson Haas, long the He found solace and recreation in ''esident of the Jewish community in Cornwall, where he replanted a forest, We offer a traditional style of ^iJrzburg. marvelling anew at the progress of the religious service with Cantor, "e left Germany in 1933 for Yugoslavia, trees on each visit. The locals soon Choir and organ •"^aching the UK in 1939- Here he ob- accepted him as a neighbour and friend. 'ned an office job in a Birmingham He leaves a widow and a son. His Further details can be obtained ctory, and contributed to the war effort, family and friends remember him with from our synagogue secretary •"le started to undertake restitution work love and gratitude. hortly after the war, and devoted the next DES 2o Telephone 0171-794 3949 years to helping clients obtain IVIinister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner ^nipensation and restitution. UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine n the eariy 50s he was called to Paris to Regular services: Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, 'P ADIVA (an association of Jewish ad- Progress & Emancipation Saturday mornings at 10 am Religion school: Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm cates from Germany) which was in the Age of Metternich Space donated by Pafra Limited , ^rloaded with work but understaffed Jews & Modernisation In I Cause the low wages failed to attract Austria & Germany 1815-1848 ^^ers. But he held die fort. He became ^d of the Paris bureau and integrated Conference 12th - 14th April 1999 BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE ^ith the URO (United Restitution 51 Belsize Square, London N.W.3 0 Contact: Andrea Hammel S^nisation), which had developed si- Our communal hall is available for . '^neously in London and other cities. Centre for German-Jewish Studies cultural and social functions. ^as much praised for his work by, Tel: 01273 877 178 Tel: 0171-794 3949 cng others. Professor Norman 15 AJR INFORMATION MARCH 1999 NEWSROUND Berlin Holocaust memorial compromise A compromise solution Is emerging in None too enthusiastic Berlin CDLI Model exhibition the stormy ten-year debate over the Mayor Eberhard Diepgen has reserved Plans for the Holocaust Exhibition to character and design of a Holocaust his opinion until the new plans have open at the Imperial War Museum in the Memorial in Berlin. been published. Green Party spokesman year 2,000 are well advanced. Lead he new proposal would com •Volker Beck, however, welcomed the designer Stephen Greenberg's model bine a reduced version of US proposals on the assumption that layout of the exhibits emphasises the fate architect Peter Eisenman's the new centre complemented of individual victims as well as presenting T and explained the memorial. The envisaged forest of 2,700 concrete slabs an historical narrative. with an archive centre proposed by SDP compromise plan also received the approval of FDP Parliamentary Chairman *A purely Jewish war' Culture Minister Michael Naumann. A Jorg van Essen. Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of broadly representative advisory Social Democrat Party Chief Peter Fascists, which placed the blame for committee, being appointed by the Struck said that following a favourable World War II on the Jews, were reported Bundestag's SDP President Wolfgang vote in the Bundestag, a foundation- by Ml6 as prepared to support Nazi- Thierse, will finalise proposals to be put stone would be laid on the previously German invaders. According to recently to a free vote in the Bundestag before designated site near the Reichstag latef. released papers, the Home Office refused the summer recess. this year. Architect Peter Eisenman had to act on these warnings, though Mosley, Lea Rosh, whose organisation has been already been commissioned to design a who expected to take over Britain's promoting the Holocaust memorial, 'House of Remembrance' containing a government, was eventually interned. welcomed the decision in principle, but warned of the dangers of reducing the library, exhibition space and a Heads you win memorial to the point where it could no department for research into the threat Headmaster and former AJR management longer be recognised as such. Ignatz of genocide. committee member John Dunston, son of Bubis, President of the Central Council of D Ronald Channing AJR volunteer Fred Dunston, has been Jews in Germany, said that 'he could live' (This report draws on information from ths appointed chairman of the Society of with such an outcome. Tagesspiegel'translated by Bea Green) Heads of Independent Schools. Head of a Quaker school since 1996, he was the first chairman of the Association of Children of Jewish Refugees where he met his wife Susie. Paula Kissinger Berlin's inspired Jewish Museum Dr Henry Kissinger's mother Paula has died at the age of 97. After Hitler came to here could be litde more satisfying conditioning, it feels cold and damp- power Mrs Kissinger made the decision for a survivor who was hidden in Three alternative routes are presented: to which took the family from Furth to New T Berlin during World War II than to the exhibition centre, to a desolate York. Following a visit to Germany, see the opening of a Jewish Museum in garden and, most traumatic of all, to a where Dr Kissinger was given an the heart of the city with a powerful dead end - a Holocaust void. honorary degree, she remarked: "First message from the Holocaust. It is sited The cold surfaces of uneven walls and you get chased away and then you get on the Lindenstrasse, within a mile of the floors of slate-grey concrete are treated like royalty". place where Hitler blew his brains out. interspersed with arrows expressing the After many years of discussion, the abandonment, hopelessness and Terror campaigner charged eminent architect Daniel Libeskind was beginning of the last journey. Narro^ Far-right Austrian extremist Franz Fuchs entrusted with designing a building to slits of windows set at erratic angles cast went on trial accused of committing a exhibit the rich history of German Jewry sparse rays of light which recall th^ letter-bombing campaign which left four and, as a lasting memorial to a lost victims' final journeys in cattle trucks- dead and many injured in the past four generation, bear witness to the suffering Claustrophobic funnels, where only one years. Among those he maimed was of millions of the Nazis' victims. person can stand, offer glimpses of the Helmut Zilk, former Mayor of Vienna. I visited this most modern of museums sky and an outside world meant only f(^^ on its opening, though it is still an empty others. Belarus war crimes shell awaiting memorabilia, displays, For me, feelings of isolation, terror and Polish-born Anthony Sawoniuk, aged 76, photographs and manuscripts which will utter dispair exude from these interiors- is standing trial at the Old Bailey for his take many more months to install. Its Should anyone, however, remaii' alleged participation in the murder of a unprecedented design and layout, in the unaffected by the deep symbolism of thi* number of Jews in the Belarus town shape of a crushed Star of David, is structure and be anxious to leave, they of Domachevo, occupied by the Germans breathtaking. could find themselves climbing ^ in 1942. Sawoniuk volunteered to be Though free-standing, the museum's seemingly endless staircase which leads ^ a policeman working with the sole entrance, through the basement of to a high stark white wall barring any Einsatzgruppen. the adjacent Baroque KoUegienhaus, is in escape. DRDC semi-darkness. Without heating or air- D Margot Lincz/^ Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, I Hampstead Gate. IA Frognal. London NW3 6AL Tel: 0171 -431 6161 Fax: 0171 -431 8454 Printed in Great Britain by Freedman Brothers (Printers) Ltd. London NW II 7QB. Tel: 0181 -458 3220 Fax: 0181 -455 6860