VOLume 16 NO.2 FEBRUARY 2016 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

Sigmaringen’s secret story arl Marx’s famous dictum, victory at Sedan (1 September 1870). in his essay The Eighteenth Napoleon III was taken prisoner and Brumaire of Louis Napoleon abdicated. On 18 February 1871, (1852)K – that history repeats itself, the in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, first time as tragedy, the second time King Wilhelm of Prussia was declared as farce – can appositely be applied to German Emperor, and the unification the two occasions on which the small of Germany was complete. No prince German town of Sigmaringen made of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ever sat an appearance on the stage of modern on the Spanish throne. European history. Sigmaringen is an In September 1944, Sigmaringen attractive small town of just under became the setting for an extraordinary 20,000 inhabitants, situated on the episode in the Second World War, upper reaches of the River Danube when it witnessed the final days of in the south-western Land of Baden- the Vichy government that had ruled Württemberg, south of Tübingen that part of France not occupied by and about 25 miles north of Lake Sigmaringen Castle the Germans in 1940, until it fled in Constance. face of the Allied invasion of France The town is dominated by Sigmaringen stunning Prussian victory over Austria and in 1944. Marshal Philippe Pétain, the head of Castle, which was built on the Schlossberg the emergence across the Rhine of a powerful the collaborationist Vichy state, Pierre Laval, his (castle hill) high above the Danube and Prussia ruling over the greater part of Germany; prime minister from April 1942 until August was until 1850 the seat of the house of they now faced the prospect of a relative of the 1944, along with a number of their political Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The house of King of Prussia, Wilhelm of Hohenzollern, associates, were evacuated from France by Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was a cadet branch taking the throne of Spain across their southern Hitler and sent to Sigmaringen, where their of the Hohenzollern dynasty that ruled first border. government-in-exile lived out its final months. Brandenburg, then Prussia and finally, after Leopold accepted the Spanish throne, and The farcical spectacle of a government with 1871, the German Empire. The house of France and Prussia prepared for war. But when no country to govern and ministers with Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was Catholic, in Count Benedetti, the French ambassador no ministerial powers to exercise combined sharp contrast to the imperial Hohenzollerns, to Prussia, approached King Wilhelm of bizarrely with the poisonous cocktail of fascism, who were closely associated with the Protestant Prussia on 11 July 1870 at the spa of Ems and collaborationist adulation of the Nazis and state of Prussia. That Catholic faith briefly asked him to refuse his consent to Leopold’s virulent anti-Semitism that constituted the propelled the house of Hohenzollern- candidature to the throne of Spain, Wilhelm politics of the Vichy elite. This band of vipers Sigmaringen into the limelight, when it played consented, agreeing to order Leopold to was housed in the castle at Sigmaringen, where a small but significant role in the events leading withdraw. This appeared to be a triumph for Pétain, sulking in his tent, refused to take any up to the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and France and Emperor Napoleon III. But the part in politics or to have any contact with the unification of Germany under the Prussian French ministers overplayed their hand, by Laval, with whom he was by then united in crown in 1871; that historic development was instructing Benedetti to seek another audience mutual loathing. engineered – brilliantly if ruthlessly – by Otto with the Prussian king and to secure from him The story of Vichy’s last months in von Bismarck, Prime Minister of Prussia from further guarantees and an undertaking that Sigmaringen, from September 1944 until 1862 and Chancellor of the German Empire Leopold would never be allowed to assume April 1945, is the subject of Pierre Assouline’s from 1871 to 1890. the Spanish throne, assurances that on 13 July novel Sigmaringen, published by Gallimard Under Bismarck, Prussia had in 1866 Wilhelm refused to give. in Paris in 2014. The novel, which is perhaps defeated Austria, its longstanding rival for When Bismarck, in despair at Prussia’s of greater historical than literary merit, is primacy among the German states, and had apparent climb-down in face of French narrated by Julius Stein, butler to the Prince of established its dominance over the North pressure, received a dispatch from Ems to Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and in charge of German Confederation, comprising all the Berlin reporting on this second meeting, the castle’s household arrangements. So wedded states of northern Germany. Bismarck now he seized his chance. He issued a cunningly to his function is he that he seems, like his prepared for war with France and for the doctored version of the dispatch to the press, model, the butler Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro’s incorporation of the southern states into a making it appear to the German public that The Remains of the Day, to have little character united Germany. The pretext for hostilities the French ambassador had approached the beyond it. Through Stein’s eyes, we observe arose when Queen Isabella of Spain was forced Prussian king in a high-handed fashion and to the daily life of the Vichy politicians and their to abdicate in 1868 and the Spanish throne the French public that the Prussian king had hangers-on, their intrigues, their self-deluding became vacant. It was proposed that Prince abruptly rebuffed the French ambassador. With hopes of a triumphant return to France on Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a public opinion in both countries inflamed, the coat-tails of a German victory, and their Catholic, should take the throne. This alarmed war became unavoidable. The Prussian armies gradual descent into desperation as the Allied the French, who were already dismayed by the advanced into France and won a decisive continued on page 2  journal FEBRUARY 2016

Sigmaringen’s secret story  continued AJR unveils plaque to honour Rabbi Dr Leo Baeck he AJR has unveiled a armies approach. plaque in memory of With Pétain maintaining that he was being held prisoner in Sigmaringen and with Laval also TRabbi Dr Leo Baeck. refusing to exercise his functions, the leadership The plaque was unveiled of the Vichy government-in-exile, officially at Colmore Court, 283 called the French Governmental Commission, Watford Way, London fell to a second-rank figure, Fernand de NW4 4TQ. Rabbi Baeck Brinon, previously Vichy’s representative to lived in a house on this the German High Command in Paris, who site from 1945 until his became President of the Commission. He death in 1956. was condemned to death after the war and executed. Among those vying for influence and Rabbi Baeck was position was Jacques Doriot, an ex-Communist President of the who had founded the far-right Parti Populaire umbrella organisation Français in 1936. Doriot was an activist; he of German Jewry, the had fought on the Eastern Front with a unit of Reich Representation of French volunteers in German uniform and after German Jews, from 1933 September 1944 sought to secure a leading role to his deportation to for his party in the government-in-exile. Doriot Theriesenstadt in 1943. was not based in Sigmaringen; on 22 February 1945 he was killed on his way there, when his He refused various offers car was attacked by Allied aircraft. from the US to escape A rival to Doriot was Marcel Déat, who had Nazi oppression and was been appointed Minister of Labour and National quoted as saying ‘I will Solidarity when Laval formed his government go when I am the last Jew in 1942. Déat, an ex-Socialist, had created a alive in Germany.’ After political party, the Rassemblement National (photo from left) Rabbi Jonathan the war he moved to London, Wittenberg; Joanna Millan, AJR Populaire, in 1941; it was collaborationist, anti- where he became Chairman of Trustee; Vivienne Kaye, great-niece Semitic and fascist in its ideology, though less the World Union for Progressive of Leo Baeck; Rabbi Colin Eimer; extreme than Doriot’s PPF. Déat maintained Judaism. Jim Dreyfuss, great-grandson of Leo close relations with Otto Abetz, formerly the Baeck; Michael Newman, CEO, AJR; German Ambassador in Paris, who remained AJR Trustee Frank Harding said Ellen Dreyfuss, wife of Jim Dreyfuss; an influential figure in Sigmaringen. Déat was ‘It is an enormous honour for us Rabbi Harry Jacobi; (behind) Emma sentenced to death after the war but fled to Italy, to commemorate the life of Rabbi Watts, Notting Hill Housing (NHH); where he was hidden by a religious order, the Baeck, one of the principal Jewish Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris; Ellie Desborough, NHH; Leonie Bartlett, Institution Jeanne-d’Arc in Turin; he lived there, thinkers of the 20th Century surrounded by nuns, until his death in 1955. NHH; Councillor Alison Cornelius, whose work has helped shape the Deputy Mayor, Barnet; Frank Harding, The head of the RNP’s youth wing, Roland British-Jewish community.’ AJR Trustee Gaucher, was also in Sigmaringen. Sentenced to five years in prison after the war, Gaucher was later one of the co-founders of the Front the far right in the 1930s. Darnand founded National, with Jean-Marie Le Pen, in October the collaborationist militia known as the Holocaust survivors 1972. He soon fell out with Le Pen, whom he Milice (see Louis Malle’s 1974 film Lacombe recognised in New Year’s considered too moderate; ironically, the recent Lucien), which conducted operations against honours list electoral successes of the Front National owe the French Resistance. Darnand, who held much to the rejection of Le Pen’s extremism by the rank of an SS officer, was captured in Italy, en Holocaust survivors have its current, seemingly more moderate leader, his sent back to France and executed. Among been recognised in the Queen’s daughter, Marine Le Pen. the hangers-on in Sigmaringen were Vichyite TNew Year’s honours list for A third significant figure in Sigmaringen literati like Lucien Rebatet, author of the anti- their contributions to Holocaust education. was Joseph Darnand, who had played an active Semitic pamphlet Les Décombres (The Ruins) role in extreme and violent organisations of Agnes Grunwald-Spier and Susan (1942), who was sentenced to death after the Pollack were made Members of the war but had his sentence commuted to a spell Order of the British Empire (MBE). AJR Chief Executive of imprisonment, from which he was freed in Lily Ebert, Chaim Ferster, Jack Kagan, Michael Newman 1952 thanks to the amnesty of 1951. Now Freddie Knoller, Rudi Oppenheimer, Finance Director regarded in some quarters as a major literary Ivor Perl, Renee Salt and Zigi Shipper David Kaye figure, Louis-Ferdinand Céline was already received the Heads of Department famous before the war for his novel Voyage au British Empire Karen Markham Human Resources & Administration Medal (BEM). Sue Kurlander Social Services bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) Carol Hart Community & Volunteer Services (1932); sentenced to a year’s imprisonment AJR Journal in absentia, after the amnesty he returned to Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor Agnes Grunwald- Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor France where, without renouncing his crude Spier has been Karin Pereira Secretarial/Advertisements anti-Semitism, he published, among other awarded an works, a book about his time at Sigmaringen: MBE for services Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not D’un château l’autre (Castle to Castle) (1957). to Holocaust necessarily those of the Association of Jewish education Refugees and should not be regarded as such. Anthony Grenville

2 FEBRUARY 2016 journal Remembering Eleanor Rathbone, 1872-1946 eaders of the AJR in 1929 Eleanor personal responsibility towards the Czech Journal are no doubt became, it has been refugees and, through her contact with Rfamiliar with the argued, the most the British Committee for Refugees from name of Eleanor Rathbone, effective backbench Czechoslovakia, she travelled to Prague the Independent MP who politician of her in early January 1939 to personally assess became renowned for her era, continuing the refugee crisis, returning home to campaigning on behalf the work she had campaign on behalf of the refugees. of Jewish refugees in begun in 1897 as Eleanor Rathbone was, above all, an and from Nazi-occupied the voice of the exceptional human being who would never Europe before and during underrepresented in have contemplated being a bystander of the Second World War. society, regardless the Nazi atrocities and who, in her own I make no apologies for of race, religion or determined way, took action. In November her reappearance in this gender. 1938 she established, at her own expense, issue of the Journal as Eleanor was the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees 2 January 2016 marks the never afraid to put and gathered around her a cross-party, 70th anniversary of her her head above the voluntary committee of over 200 members, death. parapet and was spearheading their activities and working During her working the first female closely with the Board of Deputies of British life Eleanor made an politician to warn Jews, acting as a conduit between them invaluable contribution to her fellow MPs, in and government officials. She was an the betterment of many Photo courtesy of Phillip Norton Collins April 1933, of the active member of numerous other Jewish aspects of British life and threat posed by Hitler’s and non-Jewish refugee organisations, society, not least as the architect of the newly elected regime. She recognised both she proposed and led deputations, asked family allowance. In recognition of the the danger to world peace and the threat more than 80 parliamentary questions on latter, a Blue Plaque was placed outside her to the lives of Jews and others, whose only internment alone, doggedly challenged former home, Tufton Court, Tufton Street, crime, as she described it, was to belong ministers, visited many of the internment London, in 1986 and she was one of six to a ‘particular race or religion or profess camps, enlisted support from any quarter pioneering women whose image appeared certain political views’. she thought could help her cause, and on a set of commemorative stamps in 2008. A staunch anti-fascist and anti- took up innumerable individual cases, Her social and welfare work has led to appeaser, she watched the political responding personally and kindly to many community and university buildings situation deteriorating in Europe and distressed refugees and their relatives. Her being named after her in and around protested against the atrocities aimed at second committee, the National Committee Liverpool and annual memorial lectures German Jewry and the implementation for Rescue from Nazi Terror, attempted, have been endowed in her name. She of draconian legislation intended to unsuccessfully, to obtain news of the and her father, also a social reformer, are dispossess and disenfranchise them. In atrocities more widely publicised through commemorated on a Blue Plaque outside 1935-36 she was party to a campaign the BBC and the press and to engage the the family home, ‘Greenbank’, in Liverpool, that sought to impose an economic and government in small-scale rescue schemes. and Somerville College, Oxford, Eleanor’s social boycott on Germany but, with King The effect on her health was immense and alma mater, are naming a room after her Edward VIII urging the British Legion contributed to her untimely death. in January 2016. How sad then that her to go there ‘and make friends with the It was Children and Youth Aliyah refugee work, and the commitment she Germans’, her efforts were doomed to of Great Britain who approached her made to the rescue and welfare of Jews, failure. She saw a human disaster looming friend, Elizabeth Macadam, in early 1946, people with whom she had no personal or ahead, precipitated by the annexation of proposing a lasting memorial to Eleanor in religious connection, have not received the Austria, the Munich agreement and the Palestine, as it then was. The outcome was same public recognition at home. Notable occupation of the Sudetenland, but it Beit Rathbone in Magdiel, inaugurated exceptions are the new centre at the Jewish was the events of Kristallnacht that were in October 1949, and the building still Care facility in Friern Barnet, named in her the turning point. Eleanor was thrown stands proudly as a testimony to Eleanor’s honour, and, thanks to Lesley Urbach’s almost headlong into a new refugee devotion to the refugees. Plans are hard work, a commemorative plaque was crisis – vastly different from helping underway to re-dedicate the building in unveiled at Hoop Lane cemetery in October rescue children from the combat zone of 2016, just one of the many events that the 2013. the Spanish Civil War in 1936. There was Remembering Eleanor Rathbone Group From gaining her seat in parliament no doubt in her mind that Britain had a – another purely voluntary committee, but made up of just two individuals – are arranging to celebrate and commemorate WELCOME TO BRITAIN? REFUGEES, THEN AND NOW, Eleanor and all her achievements. Organisations, schools, universities and IN MEMORY OF ELEANOR RATHBONE, 1872-1946, individuals, including members of the THE ‘MP FOR REFUGEES’ Rathbone family and parliamentarians, are working with and supporting us to ensure An All-Day Conference will be held on World Refugee Day that Eleanor receives the recognition she Monday 20 June 2016 so richly deserves. We hope the Jewish at community will embrace this opportunity King’s College, London, Strand Campus as we all owe Eleanor a special debt of courtesy of the Institute of Contemporary British History gratitude. Without her personal sacrifices organised by the Remembering Eleanor Rathbone Group and commitment, Jewish refugees would in conjunction with not have had such a powerful and Jcore • The Wiener Library • CARA • The Parkes Institute humanitarian advocate and ally during • The Institute of Contemporary British History • Refugee Week • The Refugee Council the 1930s and 1940s. For further information, please contract Dr Susan Cohen at [email protected] Susan Cohen or Lesley Urbach at [email protected] www.rememberingeleanorrathbone. www. rememberingeleanorrathbone.wordpress.com wordpress.com

3 journal FEBRUARY 2016 A milestone: 50 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany, 1965-2015

his jubilee, perceived today as self- A small measure of justice in the welfare country, Israelis enjoy evident and normal, is interlaced a peaceful and tranquil environment with an intricate, multi-disciplinary Siegfried Moses, an advocate and leading under the auspices of an enlightened T member of German Zionism, later Israel’s structure. The mutual succession of constitution – whose first clause declares needs, wishes, interests and human first State Comptroller and President the irrevocable right of human dignity. nature have almost entirely overcome of the Association of German and The dreadful past, though seemingly historical barriers which merely a few Central European Jews, laid the legal non-existent, is far from repressed and years ago would have been considered and moral infrastructure in 1944 for is widely commemorated by the German impassable. the material claims of the Jewish people state and many of its citizens by anti- Suffice it to recall the initial vehement against postwar Germany. This was the racial legislation and the courageous reaction with which dialogues over cornerstone for the establishment of the and enlightened leadership of President reparations were met just 15 years earlier ’Claims Conference on Jewish Material Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Angela – mass demonstrations and storming Claims against Germany’ in 1951, headed Merkel. This is particularly salient in of the Knesset inflamed by Menachem by Dr Nahum Goldmann. From the outset, light of racist and anti-Israel sentiments Begin. They were an expression of bitter the Conference steered negotiations with engulfing Europe, often whitewashing public reactions caused by the Shoah Germany over reparations alongside state- anti-Semitic expressions. aftermath – this singular calamity in level negotiations between Germany and It is far from my intention to paint a terms of magnitude, agony and human Israel, headed by Moshe Sharett, which rosy picture. But against the background suffering. But by the summer of 1965, effected the 1952 reparations agreement. of such a gloomy reality in Europe, things looked a little different: loud Undoubtedly, the meticulous Germany’s enlightened and courageous protests still sounded and the West execution of the terms of agreement, leadership shines. The German and German Ambassador, Rolf Pauls, while which contributed so significantly to Central European community in Israel presenting his charter to the President strengthening Israel’s paltry infrastructure, played a significant role in building of Israel, Yitzhak Ben Zvi, was greeted was to become a valued component in bridges and strengthening ties by a clamorous demonstration. But this the comprehensive relationship between with ‘the other’ Germany – a major wave of protest gradually succumbed. the two countries. contribution of the Israeli foreign This is an intriguing episode in every service. The economic-fiscal guidelines, aspect: how, in spite of everything, Realpolitik at play the framework of the reparations were these two countries able to resolve Both countries prudently recognised agreements, negotiations and their a framework of relations so rapidly? the significance of establishing relations implementation under the direction of This question has been contemplated in Realpolitik currency: Germany, in Pinhas Shin’ar and Giora Yoseftal and extensively and there will always be receiving legitimisation and recognition their peers, were the bedrock for the those who will devote more time and by joining the family of nations and efforts and achievements in Germany methodical effort to its solution. But it a developing state with scientific, and Israel. Most of our ambassadors appears that even as co-spectators we economic, technological and defence to Germany, beginning with Arthur can – indeed we must – relate to its potential and all it entailed; and Israel, Ben-Nathan, who set exceptionally high various aspects: which identified the advantages of standards for the task, were of Central European roots. The same applied A brief history of time joining a European state, the capstone of the European Community, an economic to directors-general and senior civil The great philosopher Yesha’ayahu and world power, a friendly arena and a servants of the Foreign Ministry, who Leibowitz is on record as claiming that faithful and constant partner in a diverse also played a cardinal role in shaping in human perceptions, as we know them and close relationship. relations with Germany. Their intimate from time immemorial, nothing has knowledge of this arena and its culture changed except for the awareness of A cultural and ethical affinity contributed significantly to influencing time: we think faster, we absorb faster, these relations, for which they earned The cultural and ethical communities and we communicate faster than our the respect of their German peers. forefathers. It is therefore conceivable of Israel and Germany share a rich The German side too excelled in its that sensations of pain and suffering and diverse common denominator sensitivity and efforts, acknowledging will be repressed faster than subsequent spanning a tradition of generations of the unique circumstances and their experiences. We have merely to recollect accomplishments. Despite its abrupt subsequent obligations. The guiding the centuries-old ban imposed by curtailment with the rise to power of the principles of its administration were leaders of our community on Spain for Nazi regime eight decades ago, it endured commitment and an ethical enactment, its banishment of Jews: any suffering it and even produced successors. Their without shouldering the guilt but with may have caused is surely dwarfed by vitality and vigour are the oxygen that an underlying sense of responsibility the Shoah catastrophe. nourishes both countries, alongside their for Israel’s destiny and prosperity. It growing mutual curiosity. A testament is reasonable to assume that relations A leadership of vision to that are the exchange students, with Germany and the staunch co- The leaders of both Israel and Germany thousands of German youngsters who operation with its leadership will were men of standing, who were stay in Israel for extended periods while continue to be an indispensable pillar of able to transcend past calamities playing active social roles, studying the Israel’s foreign policy and its security in and current distress, squarely face language and other targeted studies, the future. This is despite an increasing the future and shape an approach and, of course, the fruitful scientific co- public outcry calling on the German of forbearance. Although neither operation between the two countries. Government not to overlook the situation in the Occupied Territories and of the two giants – Ben-Gurion and A human-pragmatic affinity Adenauer – was still in power in the year to join vociferous European reservations relations were established, it was their An untold number of Israelis have applied over Israel’s policy there. spirit which guided their successors, for German citizenship devoid of any Reuven Merhav notwithstanding opposition on the reticence or inhibitions and thousands This article first appeared in Yakinton, home front in Israel and concerns in are swarming to Germany, finding it a No. 276, Chanukah 2015. Yakinton, based West Germany of a likely recognition of forthcoming host in every respect. Apart in Tel Aviv, is a bimonthly publication in East Germany by the Arab states. from the clear economic advantages Hebrew and partly German.

4 FEBRUARY 2016 journal From Chanukah to Purim e are currently in the educated Jews, few theologians or intermediate period Alas, the results of both forms of liturgists or philosophers working between the festivals of in the field of Judaism and Jewish W tyranny characterise Jewish life Chanukah and Purim. Neither is studies. (Of course, there are many an especially important festival in in Germany today. There is very others working in culture or science!) terms of the Torah – which of course little quantity left and very little There are some polemicists and mentions neither – in terms of the quality. In terms of quantity, ‘publicists’ and chroniclers but few agricultural cycle, or in terms of the historians (chroniclers are not the entire Bundesländer have spiritual need for inner review and same as historians, who not only penitence. But both have a lot to almost no Jewish communities chronicle past events but also analyse teach us about Jewish history and and those which exist can be and contextualise them). There about the Jewish present – and this counted in the scores or the are few creative Jewish thinkers is independent of the fact that the and often those few there are get hundreds but not thousands; in actual historicity of neither festival marginalised, don’t get the positions can be asserted. They may be based terms of quality, there are few in universities and institutions. There on myths and legends – one of them educated Jews, few theologians is relatively little work on creative is not even mentioned in the Tanakh or liturgists or philosophers liturgies (as opposed to reprinting at all – but they explain a lot about working in the field and transliterating older ones). how Jews feel. Perhaps especially The Past dominates our thinking those in Europe. of Judaism and Jewish studies. – the pasts of the Hamans and the Put very, very briefly: The Purim Antiochuses of the past century. story as told in the Megillat Esther Not surprisingly, this leads also to describes a plan for a total genocide of a group of rebels from a family of a concern that future generations all Jews – men, women and children, priests were stimulated to rise against will not find in Judaism the answers old and young – to be carried out over what they saw as a heresy – the they will be seeking when coming an entire empire stretching out over establishment of a human partner to to terms with the decades to come. many occupied provinces (including, the only, invisible God. (I personally believe the answers are presumably, the province of Judea, What relevance does any of this there and can be found – let us not from which Mordechai had been have for us today? Only this: In forget that the area now known as forcibly transported). It really didn’t mainland Europe – specifically in Germany was the country not only of matter who the Jews were or what Germany, but one could add Poland Goethe and Heine but also of Rashi, they had done, or whether or not they and Hungary and the Balkans and Rabbenu Gershom, Jehuda heChasid, were involved in any alleged insult to the Baltic states and others – Hitler the Tosafists and the Reformers Haman, the descendant of Agag the and the Nazis were the successors – Judaism lived through regular Amalekite ... all that mattered was of Haman: they desired to wipe out adaptation and doses of pragmatism that he wanted to wipe them out, Jews, to kill them, massacre them, allied with idealism and faith.) physically, to kill them, to massacre remove them from the face of the Am I being too pessimistic? I them, and that he had the authority earth and leave them either under it hope so. This is, of course, only a of the government to do this. in mass graves or floating as smoke personal view and one could argue The Chanukah story, as described high above it. Whereas Stalin and the that we should be grateful the glass in the First and Second Books of the Communists formed the successors is half full rather than grumbling Maccabees, describes a plan whereby of Antiochus – they were quite about it being half empty. At annual all Jews in the Jewish kingdom should prepared to let Jews live, so long as Limmud conferences some interesting be compelled to acknowledge their they effectively gave up their Judaism speakers and intellectuals and human ruler as their divine ruler and raised the Great Comrade to be spiritual leaders may be encountered. too. King Antiochus IV of Syria the equivalent of God – the Party was The exceptions, perhaps, that prove desired to be worshipped as a god – the fount of all wisdom and their the rule. With Christianity in Europe apparently this was quite normal for saviour dwelt in the Kremlin rather now finding itself under threat from the times and most of the people he than in any Temple. radical Islam or ‘Islamism’, it is going encountered saw no problem with Alas, the results of both forms to be interesting to see how Judaism this, just adding the latest king to of tyranny characterise Jewish life develops too – to define itself and, their list of deities; even many of the in Germany today. There is very where necessary, to defend itself! inhabitants of Judea were prepared little quantity left and very little Walter Rothschild quality. In terms of quantity, entire to make this compromise for the sake Rabbi Dr Walter Rothschild was of peace and stability. After all, we in Bundesländer have almost no Jewish born in Bradford, UK, was ordained England see no problem with having communities and those which exist by Leo Baeck College, and has lived an image of the Queen on bank notes can be counted in the scores or in Berlin since 1998 serving mainly and postage stamps, or her picture the hundreds but not thousands; communities around Germany and hanging in public buildings. Only in terms of quality, there are few Austria.

5 journal FEBRUARY 2016

In another letter, Fred Stern criticises Churchill’s pronouncement ‘Collar the lot!’, when it was decided by the British Government to intern refugees. Again, let’s look at it from the British point of view. There may have been some German spies hiding among the refugees. How were they to be singled out? ‘Collar the lot!’ seemed a good solution. Perhaps in the New The Editor reserves the right Year we too should be more careful to shorten correspondence when letting in refugees. Are there any submitted for publication Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists hiding among them? Lastly, there is Frank Bright’s letter. I SPECIAL 70TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE think his accusation that the Arabs are as guilty of the murder of his parents as Sir – The early arrival of the AJR Journal to pass them on. the Nazis is, obviously, an exaggeration. was welcome and gave one a chance Alice Anson [email protected] However, I agree with him that the Arabs during the holiday season to follow the want Israel destroyed. Thank goodness interesting resume of the early days. It Sir – Thank you for the January AJR Journal Israel has an ally in the United States – just shows how far we have come since with its many moving insights into our even with Barack Obama as president. 1938 and earlier. history and the tragedy that befell the Interestingly, the Democrats have never But I was disappointed that there was Jews of Europe during the 1930s and been as sympathetic towards Israel as no mention of the war years and of the 1940s – and the heart-breaking stories the Republicans – remember Jimmy fact that many – in fact 10,000 men and of the Kindertransport children and their Carter? Yet, oddly, the Jewish vote tends women, all refugees – gave their youths families who suffered and lost so much to go to the Democrats. Over here, Israel and their lives to fight for this country. and so many precious people 70 years seems to be a more decisive factor when We willingly volunteered and served ago. We still feel the hurt of all they have we vote – which must make the Labour for quite a few years despite the fact that endured. Party, with Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, none of us had been naturalised but had Could I ask that the story of the almost a non-runner for us. sworn to serve King and Country. Lagerkinder, such as my husband Alfred Peter Phillips, Loudwater, Herts Just the very fact that these refugees and his family and extended family, who were part and parcel of the British forces too were included in the ‘Final Solution’, was enough to make us feel British and be covered in the Journal too? The British REFUGEES ON THE ZEEMANSHOOP proud to serve. But some of the most Government agreed to 1,000 healthy, Sir – On 14 May 1940, 46 men and amazing events and brave deeds they under-16-year-old concentration camp women, probably all Jewish, escaped committed have been recorded in many survivors coming to the UK. In the event, from the Netherlands aboard the Dutch books, including by the historian Helen no more than 730 could be found, my lifeboat Zeemanshoop. They were Fry (The King’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens) husband being one of them – he arrived picked up the following day by the and in some books written by ex-service here wearing a pair of ladies shorts and a persons. jacket with no possessions. British destroyer HMS Venomous and I can’t be alone in this surely? But Could the Journal find space to include taken to Dover. after four years of service in the WAAF the stories of the history and achievements Last May, on the 75th anniversary (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) and being of these survivors of the Holocaust? There of the rescue, 100 family members married to an ex-Army Commando were not many of them and few survivors from three continents assembled in – serving ten years between us – I remain. It would be sad if their stories The Hague. The ensuing publicity certainly feel very much at home and were not recorded. The Journal could give in the Dutch media regarding this comfortable and can hardly believe them a voice. meeting helped trace a further seven my past sometimes – especially as my Shirley Huberman, AJR Brighton and more passengers. However, help is three children, as well as my seven Hove Sarid Group now needed to trace the last eight grandchildren, were born here. We are passengers: Jacob Meier (Mayer?, a now well retired and settled for the few Sir – Congratulations on your Special 70th ‘merchant in London’), Singer, the years ahead of us. Anniversary Issue. I enjoyed it very much. ‘Arnheim’ family, the Czech P. Zajicek, And we are still in touch with the few I was particularly pleased to see the and Van Wezel. of our service colleagues still alive, never comment on G. Schmerling’s letter in If readers have any further regretting our past action to take part 1984 – ‘typical of that most valued in the war. This is despite the fact that information, could they please contact and esteemed breed, the controversial me at the address below. both our fathers were officers and were correspondent who delights in arousing Bill Forster wounded in the First World War on the disagreement by espousing a provocative [email protected] German side and we know they would point of view’. I hope I have been able to have been proud of our actions. fulfil that role in the last decade or so and Whilst writing, I would like to add would like to continue to do so in 2016. ‘PECUNIARY VALUE OF JEWISH that since the early 1930s I have had Let’s start with your January 2016 SCIENTISTS’ a number of autographs and photos letters’ pages. Looking at E. G. Kolman’s Sir – I refer to Sir Arnold Wolfendale’s of, and handwritten cards by, some letter from a British point of view rather letter in your January issue about the of the ‘notable’ people of those days: than a Jewish one, it makes sense that the pecuniary value of Jewish scientists. Erna Sachs, Alexander Girardi, Charles Royal Family does not visit Israel for the In the early 1960s I interviewed Sir Kullmann and Dr Ernst Lothar, to name reason he states: Realpolitik. The British Ernest Chain, co-discoverer of penicillin, just a few. Are there any collectors who cannot afford to upset the Muslim Arab for the BBC. The subject was new would like these? If so, I would be happy states because we need their oil. penicillins then being developed. Chain

6 FEBRUARY 2016 journal warned forcefully against indiscriminate REUNITED AT LAST in December of an article by Shelley use: it was obvious, he said, that this Sir – For just one magical moment, it felt Savage in the Tring and District Local would result in the development of like the intervening 74 years – with all History and Museum Society Newsletter resistant strains of bugs. their rich and redolent history – had never – about years I spent in Tring during When I switched off my recording happened. the war following evacuation from machine he told me that when penicillin Professor London – has brought me together with had first proved its effectiveness he Leslie Brent a wonderful bunch of relatives whom I had asked the British authorities to and his have never had the privilege of meeting register the patent. They had refused. wife Carol before. One of them is bound to be well A lifesaving drug should be free to all, entered the known to many of your members: Diana they said. He had had a long argument restaurant Franklin of Sussex University’s Centre for and remarks with a clearly anti-Semitic where we German-Jewish Studies. undertone implying ‘You Jews always were eating It turns out that Diana’s great- think of money’ had been made. before The grandmother Anna and my grandmother ‘But you know what happened?’, Last Train to Bettina were sisters and that Diana’s Chain told me. ‘An American company Tomorrow Ruth Danson and Leslie Brent great-grandfather Siegmund and my registered the drug and millions that in search of at last year’s AJR Kristallnacht grandmother were cousins as Siegmund should be coming to Britain are now my 90-year- Memorial Service and her great-grandmother were flowing to America!’ old mother, cousins married to each other. So we’re And Britain was broke at the time! Ruth (née Boronow) Danson. sort of doubly related! Peter Fraenkel, London EC2 Although there had recently been Diana’s father Gert Loewi and his REFUGEES IN BRITISH ARMY some brief correspondence, mainly in parents lived in the flat above ours in Sir – I’m writing an historical novel and relation to Ruth’s 90th, for which Leslie Nuremberg in 1933, just before our would like to appeal to your readers for had contributed an entry in a book of emigration to Yugoslavia. We knew each information. memories, they hadn’t seen each other other really well. Reading about our Did any Jewish refugees from Hitler’s since 1941 when, as refugees, they had mutual great-uncle Hermann Loewi in Germany or Austria serve in special been in the same class at Bunce Court, Shelley Savage’s article rang a bell with units like Commandos during WWII? I Anna Essinger’s progressive school in Diana. May only good come of it all. read somewhere that many of the men Kent, later evacuated to Trench Hall, Margarete Stern, London NW3 Shropshire. of Number 3 Commando who took AJR TRIP TO ISRAEL They recognised one another part in the Dieppe Raid in August 1942 Sir – My wife Mary, a member of the instantly and, as they embraced as ‘old’ were Jewish. Is this true and, if so, were AJR, has a strong affinity with those acquaintances, it was as if all present there British-born as well as refugee who were caught up in the maelstrom were transported back with them to the volunteers? My cousin Leslie Philip of the Nazi era, so being invited to special realm of the school, about which Tobias was killed in the Second Battle take a holiday in Israel would have the I’d heard so much, so fondly, so often. of Monte Cassino and is buried in Italy. bonus of meeting those with common Susanne, wife of the woodwork Please contact me at experiences. teacher at Bunce Court, the late Hans [email protected] I avoid air travel as much as possible Meyer, was partially instrumental in the Henry Tobias, Maale Adumim, Israel and was concerned whether I would reunion coming about. She and Leslie be able to cope. Fortunately, the AJR FORGOTTEN FIGURE were very close and they had kept in arranged all stages from home – airport, Sir – I am giving some talks to AJR groups touch after the war. hotel and trips – without which I could and elsewhere on Sir Isaac Shoenberg My mother had recently found in not have contemplated this trip. We (1880-1963). He played a key role in the her files an old letter from Susanne were accompanied by four delightful development of television broadcasting and Hans and got back in contact. The AJR members of staff: Rosalind, Carol, but his name is largely forgotten. women had quickly formed a close Rebecca and the one-and-only Jim Sir Isaac was a migrant from Russia friendship and, as my mother had been Sutherland from Scotland. who moved to England before the First reading, and loving, Sunday’s Child, We soon made up a friendly group, World War. He helped German engineers Leslie’s autobiography, he was naturally representing Serbia, Austria, Sweden, get out of Nazi Germany during the a shared topic of conversation. Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, 1930s and I wonder if any readers know We have met up with Leslie and Carol Romania, the USA and, of course, the anything about this? since and it is always just lovely. Some UK. Lesley Urbach, [email protected] may say that, with Susanne’s recent There were five arranged tours – death, the ‘Era of Bunce Court’ is now BERLIN JEWISH PHONEBOOK Western Wall and Tunnels; Hot Springs forever lost. I, however, am not one Sir – I’m trying to pull together some at Tiberias; Jerusalem Supreme Court, of them. It lives palpably on in their research on the Berlin Jewish Phonebook then Yad Vashem or Israel Museum; everyday lives, their values … and what – known as the Jüdisches Adressbuch Independence Hall, Tel Aviv; Jaffa – and they teach us, the next generation, für Gross-Berlin – from 1931. This was much more. through their example. reprinted by Arani in 1994, of which I I spoke to many people: everyone Jacqueline Boronow Danson, have found a PDF. wanted a discussion. It’s difficult to Whitehill, Hampshire I’m interested in finding out more be lonely in Israel but there are the about the book. Why was it put together? underprivileged, poor and unemployed Is it well known? Any information on the DOUBLY RELATED who exist in every country. text, its historical origins and publication Sir – Your journal has been the catalyst My thanks to the AJR for arranging the would be much appreciated. of a whole series of unexpected events trip and for assisting us with kindness, Matthew Harle lately, some of my letters having cast understanding and ability, and to our Birkbeck College, University ofLondon, ripples more widely than I had thought. close friends, Ernest and Anita Simon, [email protected] In the latest event, your publication continued on page 16 

7 journal FEBRUARY 2016

desert – a single image of human frailty – while others go for the peacock splendour of exotic dress. Look out for James Sant’s REVIEWS Captain Colin Mackenzie (c 1842) in A vital resource to historians ART splendid Moghul robes and turban or of the Holocaust Yousuf Karsh’s Sir John Buchan, 1st Baron PRELUDE TO THE HOLOCAUST: NOTES Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada POGROM NOVEMBER 1938: (1937), his angular, Scottish features GLORIA TESSLER TESTIMONIES FROM ‘KRISTALLNACHT’ adorned by a massive headdress of Indian edited by Ruth Levitt feathers. London: Souvenir Press, 2015, published t a time of intense upheaval in parts But the striking painting of a 102-year- in association with the Wiener Library of the globe once under the British old Indian by Rudolf Swoboda (1886) for the Study of the Holocaust and Empire, it can be an uncomfortable in Queen Elizabeth’s royal collection Genocide, 754 pp. hardback, illustrated, Aexperience visiting Tate Britain’s ‘Artist is a tragic face that tells another story map, £30.00 t the end of the Kristallnacht and Empire’ exhibition (to 10 April of British imperialism. There are self- Memorial Service in Belsize Square 2016), where slavery, war and conquest consciously beautiful paintings like John ASynagogue last November, the are portrayed by some of the greatest artists Griffiths’s portrait of A Sannyasi – A editor of the AJR Journal pressed this heavy of that time, including George Stubbs, Religious Mendicant (exhibited 1882) or a tome (1 kg. as it turned out) into my hands, Anthony Van Dyck and Johan Zoffany. bare-breasted slave girl on board ship by admittedly by prior arrangement. The book comprises 356 eyewitness accounts, J. Webber In the first room, Mapping and . Most moving and realistic ranging in length from many pages to a Marking, cartographers charted oceans, are the images of men boarding ships for few sentences, of the horrendous events coasts, land and resources, featuring an faraway destinations, desperately holding that took place infinitesimal Britain at the centre with all onto the hands of their loved ones. on 9 November power radiating out to the rest of the world. Contemporary artists have also reflected 1938 throughout Germany and The maps defined trade routes to be on the resonance of Empire today. Sonia Austria. colonised in the wake of Portuguese, Boyce’s Lay Back, Keep Quiet and Think These events Spanish and Dutch adventurers and it of What Makes Britain so Great (1986) clearly did not took many exploratory voyages to develop has a wallpaper effect of scattered leaves come about as the trading factories and forts built by the and iconic images culminating in an a spontaneous East India Company, which became great astonished ethnic face. It represents a expression of outrage by the cities in themselves. They are like an artistic two-way momentum. Today’s high profile population at the satnav of an unending historical journey. of Commonwealth artists, particularly assassination of The achievement of Empire was the Caribbean Artists’ Movement, is its Ernst vom Rath, an official at the German stunning and artists presented it as a heritage. embassy in Paris, as was claimed by the panoply of social factors, not least the German Government. Vom Rath had been killed a few days before by a young Polish subjugation and takeover of indigenous Jew who was desperate at the plight of nations, including the Aboriginals. There his parents, who were stranded in no is a striking and rare portrait of a Maori man’s land between Germany and Poland. chieftainess, Harata Rewiri Tarapata, by (Michael Tippett subsequently wrote a Charles Frederick Goldie, celebrated deeply moving oratorio about this event: painter of the Maori. A Child of Our Time.) The pogroms were undoubtedly A seven-foot painting by Pre-Raphaelite highly organised and synchronised, John Everett Millais, The North-West with the torching of 1,200 synagogues, Passage (1874), depicts an old mariner the destruction and vandalisation of holding his daughter’s hand as she reads Jewish shops and homes, brutal attacks from a logbook surrounded by maps, flags on Jews both in the streets and in their homes (90 were killed), and the arrest and historical pictures. It suggests the Charles Frederick Goldie Harata Rewiri Tarapata (1906) and deportation of some 25,000 men concept of Empire being handed down to Medium: oil paint on canvas to concentration camps such as Dachau, the next generation. The serious stance of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, where the two and the rare inclusion of a woman they were treated with the utmost hint at the coming dangers to home and brutality. All was meticulously organised Annely Juda Fine Art by the German Government and the Nazi country. This painting was a gift by Henry 23 Dering Street Party. (The term ‘Kristallnacht’ of course Tate to the national collection. derives its name – not liked by everyone What can the lens of art tell us about (off New Bond Street) – from the heaps of broken glass from this time? It was not all grandeur and Tel: 020 7629 7578 Jewish shop windows that filled the vainglory. Elizabeth Butler’s The Remnants Fax: 020 7491 2139 pavements. Unbelievably, the Jewish of an Army, Jellalabad, January 13, 1842 communities were required to foot the bill for their repair, the glass having to be (1879), expresses defeat: a lone, exhausted CONTEMPORARY specially imported from Holland …) rider and an expiring horse in a swirling PAINTING AND SCULPTURE These testimonies, which constitute

8 FEBRUARY 2016 journal an invaluable archive, were solicited population. Kristallnacht therefore marks few who protested were soon silenced by and collected by Dr Alfred Wiener, the the beginning of the Holocaust. She dire threats. This is backed up by B5 (Herr founder of the Wiener Library, soon after goes on to describe how she and her Bettelheim from Aachen), who states that Kristallnacht. By that time, he had already assistants set about the translation of the ‘the mood of the population was passive sought asylum in Holland, together with testimonies. They had been mainly typed, ... but abhorring the operation’. Although his family and his precious collection single-spaced, on flimsy paper and some doors and windows of homes had been of books on anti-Semitism in Germany. had handwritten annotations. Many had smashed, ‘there was no looting’. These provide powerful, depressing but been written in November or December This book, which covers a wide range historically compelling evidence of these 1938, either from notes or from memory. of German cities and villages, makes for atrocities, which presaged the Holocaust. They had been assigned numbers but not thoroughly depressing reading: there It can indeed be argued that Kristallnacht placed in any order and taken to London in seems to have been no limit to the marked the beginning of the Holocaust, 1939, when Dr Wiener wisely decided that brutality of the perpetrators. It is a book even though the infamous Wannsee Amsterdam was no longer a safe place for that will be a vital resource to historians Conference took place much later, in him and his precious library. of the Holocaust and to anyone eager to January 1942, and the late and much In the 1960s the reports were bound understand the events of Kristallnacht. lamented historian David Cesarani, in a between red leather boards; they had Despite some sleepless nights, I feel posthumous book, Final Solution: The Fate become increasingly fragile and were privileged to have been asked to review it. of the Jews, 1933-49, argues, according on the verge of disintegration. They Leslie Baruch Brent to a very brief preview in the Guardian were microfilmed in 1998. The sheets Review of 2 January 2016, that it was the were rebound in 2008, digitalised and pressures of war that led to the genocide. published in German by a German A determined struggle for The testimonies were recorded mainly publisher, and a ‘November Pogrom’ justice in German, though a few were written website (www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/ STOLEN LEGACY: NAZI THEFT in Dutch, English or French and they had novemberpogrom) was created. The AND THE QUEST FOR JUSTICE AT been buried in the extensive archives of future of this vital historical resource had KRAUSENSTRASSE 17/18, BERLIN the Wiener Library. Their format varied. thus been safeguarded. by Dina Gold They were provided by professional But what of the testimonies themselves? Washington 2015, 270 pp. hardback, men – reporters, lawyers, doctors and Numbered from B1 to B2003 (?), they are $26.95, ISBN 978-1-62722-970-8 rabbis – and took the form of interviews, uneven in terms of content, eyewitness lthough the title of this book refers although most were committed to paper veracity and length. It is clearly impossible only to the fight for compensation as letters or newspaper articles. The mood to summarise or even quote from them relating to the ‘aryanisation’ of a of the authors varied from anger and fear A in any depth, but I will briefly focus on large office block in Berlin, this understates to defiance and confusion. Whilst the B1, written at great length in Delf on 22 the fact that the book covers far more majority were eyewitness reports, some November 1938 by ‘Herr Oppenheimer, than simply a legal battle. It is also a well also summarised anti-Semitic actions now resident in New York’. His comments researched history of an interesting family. that had preceded Kristallnacht. They go well beyond mere eyewitness reports Dina Gold is the great-great- were translated into English by Dr Ruth and include a seemingly well researched granddaughter of Heimann Wolff, who Levitt, a Research Fellow, assisted by two and lucidly written account of anti-Semitic founded a fur trade company in 1850. groups of postgraduate students. The actions in the 1930s, including major In the first part of the book she describes project was made possible through the pogroms and riots, as well a description the rise of the company and the resulting support of the Dulverton Trust, to which of the anti-Jewish laws that increasingly increase in the wealth and status of the Wiener Library had been introduced restricted the lives of German Jews. the family. Although the author herself by Sir Malcolm Rifkind. (These early riots were totally unknown was born in London in rather different In his introduction, Ben Barkow, the to this writer who, admittedly, had been circumstances, she learned about her Director of the Wiener Library, explains ensconced in the Jewish Boys’ Orphanage family’s life in pre-war Germany from her how the testimonies were researched in Pankow-Berlin from 1936 to the end mother and grandmother and is able to and translated. He also gives a compelling of 1938 and was therefore isolated from describe what life was like for a cultured account of the origins of the Wiener the turbulent events of the times.) The and prominent Jewish family at that time. Library and a profile of the remarkable question needs to be asked, however, why As well as having a residence in Berlin, and farsighted Dr Alfred Wiener. Dr it was that the majority of my parents’ the family owned a villa on the Wannsee, Wiener was a Berlin Jew who, from the generation proved to be so blind to the of which her mother had many happy 1930s onwards, initiated research into dangers that were about to engulf them childhood memories. Following Hitler’s anti-Semitic manifestations in Germany fatally. rise to power life changed dramatically. and Austria. He was one of the few who Oppenheimer also describes in detail Based on discussions with surviving recognised the significance of the rising the ghastly events of Kristallnacht, family members and extensive research, tide of anti-Semitism and the world including the systematic demolition Dina Gold is able to cover in some detail owes him a great debt of gratitude for of the Munich synagogue after it had the experiences of her mother and recording and documenting the events been vandalised and plundered (it could grandparents, first moving to Palestine that ultimately led to the near annihilation not be burnt because it was closely and eventually settling in England. of European Jewry by the German state surrounded by buildings). He stresses the Dina’s mother Aviva had often talked led by Adolf Hitler. Barkow also expresses fact that the days between vom Rath’s about a large building in Berlin which his profound gratitude to Dr Levitt, who assassination and 9 November had been had originally been used as head office supervised and brought to fruition this wholly uneventful and that Hitler, in a and storage space for the H. Wolff fur ambitious project despite inadequate major speech, had not referred to the company and was later converted to funding. event, thus supporting the view that provide office accommodation for a In a further introduction, Dr Levitt the pogroms were highly organised number of companies. There was a recounts how, on 12 November 1938, in the interval. There is an interesting mortgage on the building with the Nazi leaders assessed the outcome of comment on the reaction of the civilian Victoria Insurance Company but after the operation and discussed further population to the scenes of destruction 1933, using pseudo-legal procedures, the measures for the expulsion, deportation all around them: they were generally Victoria asked for immediate repayments, and extermination of the Jewish silent, implying ‘a critical attitude’. Those continued on page 10 

9 journal FEBRUARY 2016

 Reviews continued with the result that H. Wolff was forced that Aviva was a legal heir. Unfortunately, piece together his story as one of the Jews into selling it at a nominal price. After once the case had eventually been won still in Berlin during the war but eventually the war Aviva felt there was little hope and damages agreed, there were family joining 1,500 others in March 1943 on of any compensation, especially as the disputes which also had to be resolved. the last transport to Auschwitz. He was building was now just inside the German One is full of admiration for the author’s murdered there shortly after he arrived. Democratic Republic and had become the persistence and courage in pursuing this Finally, the author determined to find headquarters of the Reichsbahn. After re- complex claim, although for many readers out more about those responsible for the unification the building was taken over by there may be too much legalistic detail in injustices her family had suffered under the Federal Ministry for Transport. this part of the book. the Nazis, and in particular the role of Dina Gold thought otherwise and, as Following the successful completion the Victoria Insurance Company. This had she had worked in financial journalism of the claim, Dina did not stop her many Jewish clients before 1933 and had and as an investigating reporter for the investigative work and the final third of a Jewish chairman who was replaced BBC’s Watchdog programme, she felt she the book covers this. She first employed by an ardent Nazi supporter, Dr Kurt could put this experience to good use. In the same determination to establish what Hamann. He was mainly responsible for July 1990, through an advert in the AJR had happened to her extended family the aryanisation of Jewish property and Journal, she selected a firm of London during the Nazi period and one chapter his company also provided the insurance solicitors specialising in restitution claims is headed ‘Those who survived and those for the Auschwitz death camp. Despite to assist her. The middle part of the book who did not’. She then concentrates all this he and the company prospered goes into considerable detail on the battle on her great-uncle Fritz, who was not after the war and Munich University even to obtain evidence that the building had only Jewish but had been a pre-war established a foundation in his name. fully belonged to her great-grandfather Communist. He had refused to leave It took a long time before the Victoria and had been the subject of what was in Germany and nothing was known of his acknowledged any part of its history under fact a forced sale. It also had to be proved fate. With great difficulty she was able to the Nazis. Dina Gold is to be commended for her persistence and determination not only in fighting for the return of her family’s property but also in tracing the fate of her relations and exposing the misdeeds of apparently respectable organisations and individuals. The book contains a very useful ‘Cast of Kindertransport Commemorative European Train Trip Characters’ accompanied by a family tree which helps the reader in following the Friday 24 June to Friday 1 July 2016 saga of the family. There is also a glossary A journey following in the footsteps of Kinder from 77 years ago, taking in the opportunity to view of German terms. Kindertransport statues and places of cultural interest, together with a full schedule of events including: George Vulkan Flight to Vienna, two nights in Vienna including Shabbat services Train to Prague for one night • Train to Berlin for two nights Train to Hamburg for one night • Ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich ADVANCE NOTICE • ADVANCE NOTICE Train from Harwich to Liverpool Street A fully accompanied trip including all travel, accommodation and meals Day Trip We particularly encourage Kinder to come along with their children and grandchildren by Special Train: on this historic trip to see your place of birth and share your history and heritage London to Harwich To register your interest, please speak to Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 1 July 2016 or email [email protected] On Friday 1 July 2016 a number of ‘Kindertransport 77’ special trains will run from London and elsewhere in the UK to AJR FILM CLUB Harwich to mark the first anniversary of Sir Nicholas Winton’s passing and the 77th Please join us at our new film club. We will be showing a variety of films anniversary of the arrival in Harwich of his and documentaries over the year and will let you know future dates well in largest single transport of 241 children. It will advance. also coincide with the arrival in Harwich of Our first film showing will be at the group above from Vienna, Prague, Berlin Sha’arei Tsedek North London Reform Synagogue in Whetsone on and Hamburg. Monday 29 February 2016 at 12.30 pm A lunch of smoked salmon bagels, Danish pastries and tea or coffee will be A Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving served first to give you a taste for our film: will be held in St Nicholas Church in Harwich together with other events in the town which The Sturgeon Queen welcomed many thousands of Kinder to Four generations of a Jewish immigrant family create Russ and Daughters, a Lower safety in 1938-39 and accommodated many East Side lox and herring emporium that survives and thrives. Produced to coincide hundreds at Dovercourt. with the 100th anniversary of the store, this documentary features an extensive The organisers wish to invite any Kinder interview with two of the original daughters – now 100 and 92 years old – for whom – not only those on the Czech transports the store was named. – to attend with their families. Booking is essential for catering purposes For further information, Please call Susan Harrod please phone 01908 410450, on 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected] email [email protected] or go to £7.00 pp www.papyrus-rail.com/kt77

10 FEBRUARY 2016 journal Danger on the streets – Vienna, November 1938 y mother and I are alone father will come to say goodbye to me. at home on the evening of I understand. M9 November 1938. Only it My bed is in the dining room. From isn’t really home because that has On 9 November we hear my bed, by the light of the street lamp, been requisitioned by a local Nazi far-away sounds of smashing I can see the heavy, carved legs of family. We are kind of squatting the table and chairs, almost black in the apartment of an Aryan glass and noises made by large crowds wood, with carved snakes and colleague of my father who left and later we see flames beyond the rooftops. grapes and mythical creatures. I everything behind when she fled We are frightened of course. We are used to can hear my parents talking but the country, including the keys not what they say. I am waiting. to her flat on the Schottenring, being frightened most of the time but this feels The doorbell rings at eight a rather smart and un-Jewish different. We don’t go to bed. I am allowed to o’clock. At last my father comes part of Vienna. And where is my stay up with my mother in and hugs me very hard. He has father? Dr Max Otto Schnabl is a to go now and he cannot tell me prisoner in Vienna’s largest prison on – an unimaginable treat at any how long he will be away. We are not the Rossauer Lände, serving a six-week other time. crying and then he is gone. I hear the sentence for offending the state. door of the apartment open and close. The morning my father was arrested I go to find my mother. We get into seemed the same as all mornings. We the big bed together and in the end had breakfast together before he went we sleep. to work. He had been taken on by a I have my mother’s attention. But I am My doll’s shoes are still in the pretty large law firm, unofficially, to help out not hungry packet. When I remember them next on a temporary basis. Vienna was rather In the afternoon we come to a morning, and put them on Susie, they short of lawyers just then because so well-known toy shop. The windows, are a perfect fit. They make me feel many of them had been Jews who which form an arcade, each represent ashamed but they are a consolation. were no longer allowed to practise. He a theme – a zoo, a fairground, a farm, bought a newspaper, as he always did, On 9 November we hear far-away a classroom, a railway station. There sounds of smashing glass and noises and read it while he drank his tea with is one celluloid doll with celluloid hair, lemon. He kissed us goodbye as usual made by large crowds and later we exactly like my own Susie. I love this see flames beyond the rooftops. We and handed my mother the paper. We doll. The Susie doll in the window is the watched him from the window with my are frightened of course. We are used teacher in the classroom. She is wearing to being frightened most of the time mother as worried as usual. a smart suit and the most wonderful Later a friend of my mother calls to but this feels different. We don’t go to pair of shoes. They are white with black bed. I am allowed to stay up with my ask ‘Has she seen the daily paper? No? stitching and a strap that fastens with Well, perhaps she has a paper? Then she mother – an unimaginable treat at any a button. My Susie doesn’t have shoes other time. Then the phone starts to had better sit down and look at it!’ My and I have a fierce longing to get these mother sits down and looks. There it is ring and, one after another, friends and shoes for her. I am also getting into relatives warn that something terrible on the front page. A small item on the a state because I know this is not the left-hand side in bold print. There is our is happening. My father is due to be time to be thinking of doll’s shoes. My released the next day. name – my father's Jewish name. He has mother takes me into the shop and The next day there is still danger defended a man accused of forging a buys the shoes and hands them to me on the streets; we do not go out and passport and he has told the judge that without words. my father does not come home. We in a country which legalises persecution, When it is dark we go home. The same do not know, cannot imagine, that forging a passport to avoid persecution two men are sitting in the communal cannot be a crime. entrance hall. They say good evening what has happened will probably save My father has gone to the office pleasantly, my mother nods again and his life. As he was leaving the prison but the news item says that he will be we go upstairs. I am carrying the small on the morning after Kristallnacht, a arrested. He has read it and said nothing package from the well-known toy shop. warden came up to him and said ‘Go and done nothing. He doesn’t believe My father comes back soon after us. For back, Herr Doktor, it’s not safe for you it will happen. My mother, who is a moment we believe that those men to be out.’ The warden hid my father constitutionally anxious, becomes calm have not come for him. But he has made for the next 24 hours and, when he and takes control. She will continue to an arrangement. He will not move from came home, the worst was over and be calm and in control until she breaks. home and they will return in two hours. we were given merely six weeks to We put on our coats. We must go They are court officers; they know my leave the country. Most of my father’s out before ‘they’ come. We go down father and they are embarrassed. friends and colleagues would never be two flights of stairs in the baroque It is six o’clock. We eat some bread seen again. We never even learned the apartment house. As we reach ground and sausage and drink tea. I am sent to warden’s name. level, we meet two men in black coats. bed early. My parents need to talk. My Hedi Schnabl Argent They say good morning, they are friendly, my mother nods to them, and we are outside on the street and walking fast. We think they have come to make Caution: ‘Phishing’ emails the arrest. We find a telephone and my mother speaks to my father. He says AJR members are advised to treat with caution speculative emails they may receive that he will not hide, that he will come in connection with dormant bank accounts and other Holocaust-era assets. home this evening. We have become aware of so-called ‘phishing’ emails sent by scammers to attract We walk all day. It is winter but not people to respond to what look like authoritative or legitimate approaches in yet snowing. We are not hungry. We connection with family heirlooms. One member received an email purportedly look at shop windows, we see Christmas decorations, I have not seen as much of from the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP), which has the city before. We chat about ordinary responsibility for identifying untouched bank accounts in Switzerland. things. I don’t ask about the men in You are advised to check with the AJR before replying, or simply delete the email. the black coats. I am enjoying myself;

11 journal FEBRUARY 2016 EALING/WEMBLEY A Lovely Musical Theatre’, including songs from Chanukah Party Bizet’s Carmen and Gershwin’s Porgy We had a lovely Chanukah Party with and Bess. excellent food provided by Esther and Walter Weg Kathryn and were well entertained by WESSEX Lovely Pre-Chanukah Party Richard Stanton with tapes of popular The Group met just before the start music. We finished off with music from INSIDE of the Chanukah festival. We were the ‘Last Night of the Proms’. A most delighted Rabbi Jesner could join us. the enjoyable afternoon. He gave an interesting talk and a lively Lesley Sommer AJR discussion followed. After a delicious ILFORD Memorable Get-together high tea, a fun quiz ended our lovely We were treated to a most enjoyable afternoon. YORKSHIRE CHANUKAH PARTY performance by the Chapel End Savoy Kathryn Prevezer A Wonderful Afternoon Tea Players. Special thanks to Mark Finkeltaub for organising the programme. His late IMPERIAL CAFÉ mother Gerti would have appreciated it Memories of Chanuka Past greatly, as we all did – above all perhaps the rendition of ‘If I Were a Rich Man’. A memorable get-together. Lucie Bernheim MANCHESTER CHANUKAH PARTY A Fabulous Afternoon Tea The Nicky Alliance Day Centre was the (from left): Rudi Leavor, Bronia Veitch, venue for AJR members, who enjoyed Martin Kapel, Berta Klipstein, Veronika Keczkes, Suzanne Ripton, Olive Rosner a fabulous afternoon tea with excellent musical accompaniment by our guest There was an excellent Yorkshire entertainer Jack Maurer. Everyone went turnout for our Chanukah Party! home with a smile! Imperial Café end of year lunch: (from Guests arrived not only from Leeds but Wendy Bott left) Peter Eden, Harry Stevens, Judy Field, also from Hull, Bradford, Harrogate Vera Meyer, Peter Wayne, Helen Fry, Felix Franks, Esther Rinkoff and Sheffield to enjoy a wonderful PINNER A Delicious Chanukah Party afternoon tea complete with latkes Tea A lively mob gathered at Giacomo to and doughnuts and to tap their feet Seated at tables spread with a delicious celebrate the end of another year in and sing along with Phil Cammerman Chanukah Party tea to follow the the trenches. Memories of Chanuka and his Klesmer band. entertainment, we had the pure pleasure and Christmas past. Felix Franks was Wendy Bott of listening to Bronwen Stephens’s treated on Christmas Day in the army delightful ‘Journey through Opera and to lunch served by the officers! Esther Rinkoff

KT OUTING CHANUKAH LUNCH AT ALYTH Wednesday 10 February 2016 About 70 members gathered for our FRANK AUERBACH EXHIBITION Chanukah Lunch at Alyth Gardens AT TATE BRITAIN Synagogue. After a warm welcome from FOLLOWED BY TEA AJR ANNUAL TRIP Michael Newman and Esther Rinkoff, we In February, instead of our normal monthly JOIN US THIS YEAR IN YORKSHIRE listened to Brian Goldich, accompanied lunch, we have arranged an outing to the Frank Sunday 22 May by Elizabeth Ellwood on the piano, Auerbach exhibition at Tate Britain. to Thursday 26 May 2016 perform a selection of German Lieder Frank Auerbach has made some of the Accompanied travel by train from in a superbly powerful voice that was most inventive paintings of recent times, of London to Harrogate, plus four nights’ a joy to hear. We sincerely thank the people and urban landscapes. He works every accommodation in Harrogate. We will AJR organisers and their volunteers, day, constantly returning to a narrow range of also help to arrange travel from other parts of England to Harrogate. who served up a most plentiful and subjects: landscapes near his studio in north delicious deli-lunch. Rabbi Colin Eimer London and a relatively small number of sitters. Highlights of the trip will include York lit the Chanukiah and we sang ‘M’aoz Born in Berlin in 1931, Auerbach came to Minster; the Chocolate Factory; a trip Tzur’. Post-prandial entertainment was Britain in 1939 as a refugee from the Nazis. to the home of the Bronte sisters; a Having attended Bunce Court School in Kent, provided by Kathleen Linton Ford, who journey on an old-fashioned steam has a most beautiful mezzo soprano he moved in 1947 to London, where he has train; a cream tea at Betty’s Tea Room lived since. in Harrogate; Harewood House; Harlow voice and treated us to a selection from After you have had the opportunity to tour Carr Gardens; the Thackray Medical the shows. the exhibition we will be having a cream tea. Museum; the Yorkshire Dales and lots Hanne R. Freedman Return coach travel from Stanmore and more. LIVERPOOL Fantastic Lunch Finchley Road All meals and travel included Liverpool’s own Justine Saville was the Booking essential Places are limited star turn at the AJR Chanukah Party. She For details and booking, please contact Please call Susan Harrod sang a medley of songs – some from the Susan Harrod at AJR on 020 8385 3070 or at on 020 8385 3070 for full information musicals and some Hebrew ones – and [email protected] pack and booking form everyone had a good singalong too! All We look forward to seeing you or email [email protected] this of course followed the customary

12 FEBRUARY 2016 journal fantastic lunch complete with jam doughnuts. AJR ‘LOOKING AHEAD TO PRESERVE ITS LEGACY’, Wendy Bott REPORTS CHAIRMAN WEST MIDLANDS (BIRMINGHAM) he AJR was ‘in its busiest communal matters, the AJR fully An Enjoyable Lunch time and will continue to be supported Sir Eric Pickles, who had Our Chanukah celebration included Tso for many years to come!’, recently taken over from Sir Andrew an enjoyable lunch, prepared by Chairman Andrew Kaufman told the Burns as UK Envoy on Post-Holocaust catering staff of Andrew Cohen House. organisation’s Annual General Meeting Issues, and the newly formed Holocaust Entertainment was provided by Ali Ince at Belsize Square Synagogue. It was Memorial Foundation. (violin), Lydia Handy (viola) and Miriam ‘looking ahead to preserve its legacy’, The AJR continued to support a Taylor (cello) – a programme of mainly he added. number of institutions, including classical music, which was greatly appreciated. Andrew outlined a successful year the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre Philip Lesser of events: group meetings, outings, in Glasgow, the Manchester Jewish Kinder lunches and much more. He Museum, and the University of ESSEX (WESTCLIFF) Otto Deutsch’s pointed out that the Social Welfare Huddersfield’s new Learning and Musical Programme Department was being extended as Leisure Centre. We were highly entertained by Otto demands on its resources became A degree of confusion was Deutsch’s musical programme: Joseph Schmidt; Jeanette MacDonald and increasingly complex. At the same time, expressed at the meeting over funding Nelson Eddy; Sophie Tucker’s ‘My disbursing the Claims Conference grant by the Memorial Foundation and Yiddishe Mama’; and finishing on a high entailed a larger administrative staff, by the German Government. It was note with ‘Hava Negilah’. while the Volunteer Department, in suggested that an article be published Esther Rinkoff particular where computer lessons and in the Journal to clarify this. KT LUNCH dementia problems were concerned, Andrew Kaufman, Joanna Millan Lunch with a Chanukah Flavour required ‘a huge umbrella of services’. and Sir Erich Reich were re-elected as Our last 2015 meeting was lunch with a With regard to general Jewish Trustees. Chanukah flavour. While we participated in a magnificent meal Mark Demza played some lovely piano music. After lunch, Bernd Koschland read from a FEBRUARY GROUP eventS book about the Jewish Brigade in Italy Kensington 1 Feb Social at home of Peter and Ruth Kraus during the war at Chanukah time. Whitefield/Prestwich 1 Feb Social Get-together In conclusion, we wished each other Ealing 2 Feb Marion Friend: ‘Desert Island Discs’ continued on page 14  Book Club 3 Feb Social Get-together Ilford 3 Feb David Barnett: ‘The Most Famous Jewish Business in Victorian London: The Story of CONTACTS E. Moses & Son’ Susan Harrod Pinner 4 Feb Ted Adams: ‘The History of Green Lead Outreach & Events Shield Stamps’ Co-ordinator Liverpool 7 Feb Musical Presentation 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Essex (Westcliff) 9 Feb Details to follow Wendy Bott KT LUNCH 10 Feb Outing to Frank Auerbach Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Exhibition at Tate Britain 07908 156 365 [email protected] Cambridge 11 Feb Musical Lunch Agnes Isaacs Imperial Café 11 Feb Lunchtime Social Get-together Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Edinburgh 14 Feb Social Get-together 07908 156 361 [email protected] Brighton 15 Feb Godfrey Gould, return of one of our regular speakers Kathryn Prevezer Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Bradford 16 Feb Social 07966 969 951 [email protected] Edgware 16 Feb Meet our new Co-ordinator Eva Stellman Glasgow CF 16 Feb Theatre outing: A Midsummer Night’s Esther Rinkoff Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Dream 07966 631 778 [email protected] Radlett 17 Feb Churchill’s Secret German Army (film) Welwyn GC 18 Feb Social Get-together Eva Stellman North West London 22 Feb Jenny Manson, Author, ‘From Pogrom to Southern Outreach Co-ordinator 07904 489 515 [email protected] Public School’ Kent 23 Feb Kent Fire and Rescue Services KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Wembley 24 Feb David Barnett: ‘The Life of Lady Judith Susan Harrod Montefiore’ 020 8385 3070 [email protected] North London 25 Feb Rabbi Harry Jacobi: ‘The Life of Moses Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Mendelssohn’ Henri Obstfeld Newcastle 28 Feb Barbara Winton: ‘Sir Nicky Winton’ 020 8954 5298 [email protected] Sheffield 28 Feb Speaker: Ian Vellins

13 journal FEBRUARY 2016  INSIDE THE AJR cont. from p.13 family anouncements Death Happy Chanukah and hoped we could through the decades, and an illustrated The Dresner and Dresner Barnes celebrate many more years together. talk on M&S through the war years. family regret to announce the death, on David Lang Wendy Bott 13.12.2015 after recent illness, of Colin Olek Dresner, much loved eldest son of KENT Sharing Chanukah Memories GLASGOW A Lovely Social Occasion the late Rolf and Irmgard Dresner, father How nice it was to relax and share As in previous years, the Early New Year of Linda, and elder brother of Barbara, Chanukah memories over a delicious Party was a lovely social occasion. Everyone Martin and Helen. fish and chip lunch. We talked about enjoyed getting out and socialising the history of the festival whilst enjoying over mulled wine and canapes. A most some seasonal jokes as we munched agreeable way to start the holidays. CLASSIFIED pies over coffee. Janet Weston Agnes Isaacs JOSEPH PEREIRA BOOK CLUB The Lady in the Van EDINBURGH Late Chanukah Party (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) is Meeting at Joseph’s Bookstore in Temple Edinburgh Friends spent a most pleasant now available for DIY repairs and Fortune, we discussed Alan Bennett’s afternoon at the home of Vivien general maintenance. book The Lady in the Van. Though there Anderson, who kindly hosted the Late No job too small, were mixed thoughts about the book, Chanukah Party. A brilliant tea with latkes very reasonable rates. the film was highly recommended. was enjoyed by all. Please telephone 07966 887 485. Irene Goodman Agnes Isaacs BRIGHTON AND HOVE SARID Dispersing the Winter Gloom JACKMAN . Our celebration of the Festival of Light was most enjoyable. With the help of the SILVERMAN latest technology we listened to the story COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS of Chanukah and the heroic Maccabians. Visit to St Albans Traditional songs, jokes and tea, as well Telephone: 020 7209 5532 as delicious mince pies supplied by Cathedral and Synagogue [email protected] Esther, dispersed the winter gloom. Monday 7 March 2016 Ceska Abrahams Please join us for a visit to St LEEDS CF Visit to Marks & Spencer Albans Cathedral, the oldest site Exhibition of continuous Christian worship. spring grove First and Second Generation members We will have a guided tour lasting London’s Most Luxurious enjoyed a most interesting visit to the approximately one hour, with some RETIREMENT HOME M&S Archives at Leeds University. We walking involved. 214 Finchley Road were given a guided tour of the exhibition, The tour will be followed by lunch London NW3 which traced the company’s history in a local restaurant and, in the afternoon, a visit to St Albans  Entertainment Synagogue. Established in 1933 and  Activities affiliated to the United Synagogue,  Stress Free Living the Synagogue contains two stained Books Bought  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine Modern and Old glass windows by artist and Hebrew scholar David Hillman which are  Full En-Suite Facilities Eric Levene considered among its most cherished Call for more information or a personal tour 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 ornaments. 020 8446 2117 [email protected] Coach travel provided or 020 7794 4455 I also purchase ephemera For full details, please call Susan [email protected] Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected] www.fishburnbooks.com LEO BAECK HOUSING ASSOCIATION CLARA NEHAB HOUSE Jonathan Fishburn RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME PillarCare Quality support and care at home buys and sells Small caring residential home Jewish and Hebrew books, with large attractive gardens ephemera and items of  Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours Jewish interest. close to local shops and public transport  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities.  Convalescent and Personal Health Care He is a member of the 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care  Compassionate and Affordable Service Antiquarian Booksellers Entertainment & Activities provided.  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Association. Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room  Registered with the CQC and UKHCA • Lift access to all floors. Contact Jonathan on For further information please contact: Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 020 8455 9139 The Manager, Clara Nehab House, PILLARCARE 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA THE BUSINESS CENTRE · 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE · LONDON NW1 7BB or 07813 803 889 Telephone: 020 8455 2286 PHONE: 020 7482 2188 · FAX: 020 7900 2308 www.pillarcare.co.uk for more information

14 FEBRUARY 2016 journal family anouncements ObituarIES Ruth Kollner, born Graz 30 August 1914, died London 23 November 2015 uth Kollner, née Freudman, was born from part-time office work settled in the USA, but again, in Graz, Austria, on 30 August 1914. when she was 75! with all her resilience, she travelled In December 1938, following the Heinz passed away with the family to his wedding RAnschluss and Kristallnacht, she obtained an in 1990 and eventually, in Washington DC at the age of affidavit to come to England on a domestic with all her strength and 93! And on her 100th birthday permit and was joined several weeks later by determination, Ruth in August 2014, she was able to her mother. The two worked during the early managed to rebuild her life. meet her youngest two great- part of the war as cook and parlourmaid in a She learned to play bridge grandchildren at a party for friends number of houses on the outskirts of London. at the age of 80, continued and family. Later she obtained a job in the Jewish Refugee her work as a volunteer Always immaculately turned Agency in Bloomsbury House. for many years at the AJR, out, Ruth enjoyed the company Ruth met her husband, Heinz Kollner, and attended classes at the of friends, took part in many towards the end of the war when both were University of the Third Age AJR activities, including trips to recuperating in a nursing home in Kent and in history, Jewish history and music, which Bournemouth, and missed the camaraderie they married in May 1945, three days before was her passion. at Cleve Road. VE Day. In 1946 their daughter Kitty was She enjoyed the theatre, cinema, concerts Ruth passed away peacefully at Spring born and they moved to a house in Dollis and opera and loved to travel to new places. Grove Residential Care Home, London. She Hill, where Ruth lived right up to the age Ruth took huge interest and great pride is survived by her daughter Kitty, son-in-law of 98. in her grandsons, Daniel and Nicholas, and Michael, two grandsons, and four great- Ruth worked hard all her life, mainly as a then their wives and, later still, her four grandchildren. She will be sadly missed by secretary/bookkeeper in the field of scientific great-grandchildren. There was a sadness all who knew her. and music publishing. In fact, she only retired because her younger grandson, Nicholas, Kitty Brod

Bernard (Bernd) Simon, born Berlin 9 November 1921, died Malvern, Worcestershire 29 September 2015 ernard had an eventful life. The was incarcerated for 18 months in Hay a mountain guide in Lauterbrunnen, only child of Wilhelm and Gerty internment camp where, among other things, Switzerland, before landing an important Simon – Gerty was a leading Berlin he helped teach English to many of the international post with the Time-Life Bphotographer – he attended Anna Essinger’s inmates, having already mastered the language Corporation, flitting between New York boarding school in Herrlingen near Ulm. to an exceptional degree, and was greatly and London while arranging European When Anna had the foresight to evacuate influenced by the musician Peter Stadlen, who conferences. He eventually retired to Bath her school in 1933 to Bunce Court in introduced him to the world of Beethoven but, following heart surgery when 83, Kent, Bernard went with her, becoming and Schubert chamber music, which became became increasingly frail and moved to a founder pupil. At the same time, his a lifelong passion. He also, surprisingly, fell in Malvern to be cared for by his long-term, mother moved to England and relaunched love with Australia, which he revisited several later civil, partner Joe. Music had always her photographic studio in the then times in later life. had a prominent place in his life – not unfashionable Chelsea. There, in school Bernard was eventually ‘pardoned’ and only chamber music but almost every holidays, Bernard beheld many notable able to return to the UK, enduring strafing classical genre. In 1957 he had driven personages attending the studio and one in Japanese planes in the Pacific and German Friedlind Wagner, whom he had got to particular, Lotte Lenya, became a surrogate U-boats in the Atlantic, in order to care for know somehow, to the Bayreuth Festival, ‘big sister’ to him. She regularly stayed in the his now ageing parents. He spent the rest of where he stayed with the entire Wagner clan Simon household when in London. the war in the Armstrong-Vickers armament in Wahnfried – a fairly unique experience, Wilhelm managed to escape to London works in Kingston-upon-Thames, building I suspect. in 1938 but, with the outbreak of war, it tanks and fire-watching at night. Despite his In Malvern Bernard was still able to enjoy wasn’t long before he and Bernard were unfair treatment he held no grudges against to a limited degree attending concerts and arrested as ‘enemy aliens’ and sent to the the government, being eternally grateful opera and even enjoying short holidays until Isle of Man. Wilhelm was released fairly to this country, and his parents, for having increasing frailty curtailed most physical speedily but Bernard was saved him from a stark future activity and music was now confined to ‘transported’ to Australia in Germany by giving him a DVDs and CDs from Joe’s vast collection. on the infamous Dunera, new home and life. He was Now needing 24-hour care, his last months thus becoming one of proudly naturalised after the were spent in a nearby nursing home with the ‘Dunera Boys’. He war, dropping his birth name Joe visiting daily. He died peacefully and was suffered all the privations and evolving into the perfect cremated in Worcester, his ashes scattered so well recorded ‘English gentleman’. on the Malvern Hills, which he loved. but, as a 19-year- The chance of university He had no living relatives but will always old, still found the having passed him by, Bernard be remembered with loving affection and experience something worked in many capacities, gratitude by me. of an adventure. He including six months as Joseph Brand

15 journal FEBRUARY 2016

in the audience. A richly illustrated brochure depicting the musical and artistic delights of the region of Saxony was distributed free in Dorothea Shefer-Vanson the foyer, evidently seeking to encourage its readers to make the trip to that area, which it described as ‘a paradise for music-lovers’. German-Israeli relations – 50 years on In one paragraph of the brochure, the phrase ‘Elector Augustus the Strong o mark both the fiftieth anniversary In association with the same anniversary, was addicted to porcelain’ caught my eye of the opening of the Israel Museum the Museum is also displaying a selection of and, on reading further, I learned that and 50 years of German-Israeli German Renaissance prints in an exhibition this eighteenth-century ruler did much to Tdiplomatic relations, the Museum is currently entitled ‘Dürer and Friends’, consisting encourage the manufacture of fine porcelain presenting an exhibition of masterworks of woodcuts and engravings culled from in his realm, which included Dresden, as well from the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The the Museum’s own Prints and Drawings as accumulating the largest, high-quality exhibition, entitled ‘Twilight over Berlin’ collection. Another allied exhibition, ‘New specialist collection of ceramics in the world. and showing works from the period 1905 Types: Three Pioneers of Hebrew Graphic Fifty years of diplomatic relations to 1945, provides a fascinating glimpse into Design’, is devoted to three graphic designers have served to foster artistic and musical the art scene of pre-WWII Germany. It also and originators of Hebrew typography who exchange between our two countries, as well constitutes an attempt to explain what the emigrated to pre-state Israel from pre-WWII as providing financial reparations, and it is Nazis defined as ‘degenerate art’ (entartete Germany. The three ‘yekkes’ – Franziska sobering to recall that just over 70 years ago Kunst) – as opposed to ‘genuine German Baruch, Moshe Spitzer and Henri Friedlander Germans were hunting down and murdering art’ – and to which they devoted separate, – lived and worked in Israel for many years, Jews at a rate unprecedented in human peripatetic exhibitions in the 1930s. leaving their imprint (sorry about the pun!) history. My own German-born parents The works on display in Jerusalem leave on Hebrew typefaces, which they sought to refused to ever set foot again in that country, the visitor with a sense of wonder at the simplify and modernise, each one in his or the country for which both my grandfathers wealth and originality of the creative minds her individual way. fought in the First World War. Today, that produced them, much of it representing In addition to these visual feasts, the German tourists and well-wishers come to the Expressionist school of painting and by anniversary of German-Israeli diplomatic Israel and I have visited Germany a couple painters affiliated with the Blue Rider and relations brought Leipzig’s renowned of times (once to be present at the launch Bridge groups, with only a relatively small Gewandhaus Orchestra and St Thomas of the book of my grandmother’s letters percentage being created by Jewish artists. Choir to Israel to perform Bach’s Christmas published by the Hamburg municipality). To The film screened at the entrance to the Oratorio. This was an occasion not to be be quite honest, I must confess – albeit with exhibition depicting ‘a typical day in Berlin’ missed and the performance was indeed mixed feelings – that I hope one day to visit and created in 1927 by director Walther memorable. The precision and musicality of Leipzig and hear the St Thomas Choir sing Ruttmann provides a fascinating glimpse instrumentalists and choristers alike, some of in the church where Bach once composed into the daily life of the population of the the latter still very young boys, constituted a and conducted his sublime music. metropolis. once-in-a-lifetime experience for many of us

 letters to the editor cont. from p.7 switch on electrics who encouraged us to come along. desperately short of water and unable to Rewires and all household Michael Green, Stanmore, Middx build or expand their homes. electrical work The Palestinians are subject to military PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 ‘ISRAEL RIGHT OR WRONG?’ law. This allows for house demolitions Mobile: 0795 614 8566 Sir – Since I wrote the piece on ‘Israel right or for example, for demonstrators to be wrong’ in your November issue, my husband met with bullets (the two women who Israel's civil courts for all offences as a Mike and I have visited the West Bank. We organise a women and children weekly result of a military order to authorise this were taken by various Israeli guides to Area demonstration against the military legal oddity. C, the home of approximately 250,000 outpost, which cuts them off from their Very worryingly, we were told back in Palestinians – and experienced shock beyond own well, have both been shot in the Israel that it is no longer safe for Israelis any expectation. leg), the arrest of minors and trial in to speak out against what is happening For the sake of the security and well- military courts. We visited these and were in the West Bank and that there is being of the ever expanding settlements warned, correctly as it turned out, that we resistance to hearing the accounts of such in Area C, established in contravention would not be able to forget the passivity organisations as Breaking the Silence, of international humanitarian law, some of the defendants and their families Machsom Watch and B’Tselem. So the even in contravention of Israeli law, the waiting all day just for a glimpse of their message we were given was that the Jews life of the Palestinians living there is child. There is a significant shortage of in the Diaspora must speak out. Many utterly miserable. Most are trapped in defence lawyers who will do the job at internal critics are leaving the country small dusty, impoverished villages, cut a price the Palestinians can afford and they have lived in and loved all their lives, off in many cases from their own farms most defendants plea bargain. Their in total despair. and from the local towns to obtain work, neighbours, the settlers, are subject to Jenny Manson, London NW11

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters LLP, 26 St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected]

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