VOLUME 8 NO.3 MARCH 2008

The 1960s: The refugees and student radicalism he attitudes of the refugees from with the Royal Air Force and for his chari­ Central Europe towards the table work thereafter. The instigators of the student radicalism of the 1960s demonstration, Rosenstock wrote, 'not only was influenced by events in West showed disrespect to the memory of tens of TGermany, where the student movement was thousands of heroes but were also oblivious far stronger and more purposeful than in of the fact that, but for the courage of those Britain. After the Bundestag elections of anti-Nazis, freedom of thought and speech 1965, the Federal Republic had been would have vanished from the European governed by a Grand Coalition of the two continent'. big parties, the CDU and the SPD, leaving Expressions of support for student radi­ Httle effective opposition in parliament. calism were unpopular with refugees, The radical left established the Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the student as C.C. Aronsfeld discovered when he wrote protesters during the May 1968 riots in AuBerparlamentarische Opposition (APO, France an ill-judged article in AJR Information of 'Extra-parliamentary Opposition') to fill this June 1968 on what he saw as the parlous state gap. though in reality the APO's aim was to historian Eva Reichmann regularly spoke at of West German politics. Beginning with the take on and, if possible, overthrow the West meetings held under its auspices, readers of stark pronouncement 'Something is rotten in German state. After the shooting of a student, the joumal would have been shocked to find the State of Bonn', he described the opposi­ Benno Ohnesorg, by police at a demonstra­ it lumped together with resurgent neo- tion offered by democratic forces to the tion against the visiting Shah of Iran in 1967, Nazism, as well as aggrieved by the neo-Nazi NPD as feeble even by comparison organised revolutionary groups emerged, suggestion that they had been taken in by with resistance to Hitler under the Weimar principally the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF), an exercise in German hypocrisy. Republic. better known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Worse was to follow. Wemer Rosenstock Greatly exaggerating the crisis facing For many refugees, the propensity of reported for AJR Information on the West German democracy and the threat these German student radicals for extremism ceremony held on 15 September 1968 to mark posed by the NPD, Aronsfeld argued that, and violence, their doctrinaire fanaticism and the unveiling of the memorial at Dachau should a revolutionary situation arise, or their impatience with Westem parliamentary Concentration Camp, at which he had should the ruling Grand Coalition break democracy were uncomfortably similar to the represented the AJR and the Council of Jews down, the extra-parliamentary opposition of wave of intolerant radicalism that had swept from Gemiany, alongside delegates from 15 the young should 'supplant, or at the very Germany in the early 1930s. In April 1968, countries. A small number of left-wing least supplement' parliamentary democracy. AJR Information reported that Oskar Seidlin, protesters, mainly students, carrying banners In effect, Aronsfeld was arguing that West a German Jew who had emigrated in 1933 with anti-Vietnam war or anti-NATO slogans, Germany in 19f)8 faced a situation like that and now held a chair at Ohio State had disrapted the proceedings and tried to confronting the Weimar Republic in the early University, had refused the offer of a shout down Klaus Schutz, the Mayor of West 1930s, where, with the democratic system professorship at Munich University: the Berlin and President of the Bundesrat, the weakened beyond repair, the only choice had dismption of university life, the shouting upper house of the West (German parliament, been between the Communists on the exfreme down of lecturers, and the denial of reasoned when he delivered a message on behalf of left and the Nazis on the extreme right; in debate were too reminiscent of 1932/33. the Federal Govemment. The insult to the the present case, a coalition around the APO Refugees were particularly shocked when memory of the many thousands who had would be the best altemative to replace the student radicals disrapted events connected died at Dachau was clear. parliamentary system of Bonn. to the Holocaust. In May 1968, the Joumal Rosenstock's dislike for what he saw as The response to this dubious historical reported that a joint meeting of Christians modish anti-establishment gestures came comparison - especially its negative attitude and Jews taking place in West Berlin's Opera across clearly when he compared the to parliamentary democracy in West Ger­ House as part of Brotherhood Week, an protestors' juvenile antics with the experi­ many - was predictably hostile. A letter to annual event held across West Germany to ences of delegates like Odette Hallowes, who the editor from R. Graupner took issue with promote reconciliation and tolerance, had had been captured working with the Aronsfeld, defending the Grand Coalition as been the object of a left-wing demonstration Resistance in France and had survived a stabilising factor in West German politics against neo-Nazism, the rise of the far-right torture by the Gestapo and incarceration in that had been absent in Weimar. Graupner NPD and the 'hypocrisy' of Brotherhood Ravensbriick concentration camp, and Group dismissed as mere wordplay Aronsfeld's ar­ Week itself. As the AJR supported Captain Leonard Cheshire, distinguished gument that the students' movement was Brotherhood Week, and as refugees like the both for winning the Victoria Cross as a pilot Continued on page 2 AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

THK UMiOs: KEFlKiEES ANI) STUDENT RADICALISM nmliiiiicd fn,ni Ini-; I took home the raw materials - four hours of film - to make a short version for our extra-parliamentary but not anti-parliamen­ When a unit of the West German GSG9 supporters and trustees. My grandchildren helped - the 17-year-old with editing; the tary, citing their frequently stated hostility (Grenzschutzgrappe 9) killed or captured the younger ones, aged 9 and 11, saw previews. to parliamentary democracy and their hijackers and freed the hostages, three They fell in love with the 'stars' on screen. eagemess for a revolution to overthrow it. leading figures of the RAF committed suicide One of my grandchildren took a copy to her class teacher at her village primary school. He concluded by questioning whether in Stammheim prison, where they were being Her teacher watched the film and asked if one Aronsfeld's indulgence towards revolution­ held. This gesture, which was followed by of the 'stars' could visit the school. She ary youth with its openly anti-democratic the murder of the West German employers' amended the curriculum for the year; the chil­ leader Hanns-Martin Schleyer, who had been dren read about the Kindertransport In class, aims belonged in the joumal at all. This was thought about local refugees, and discussed doubtless the view of the great majority of kidnapped by the RAF, symbolised the prejudice and stereotyping. A total of 27 9-year- readers, for no more was heard of sympathy interlinking of German left-wing radicalism olds interviewed their chosen star! One girl at with Palestinian exfremism. the school wrote: 'If something like this happens for the neo-Marxist left. Within a few years, again, I would like someone from a dangerous the student protest movement had run its Though the radicals of the 1960s did a country to come to be part of my family' course, and political radicalism itself became great deal to confront West Gennan society Our grateful thanks to Walter Weg, Hannah Lewis, Freddie Knoller, Ron Leaton and Alison yesterday's fashion. with the crimes committed under National Wood and all the schools. We'll be doing this Though the New Left in West Germany Socialism and to shake it out of its again In March and later in the year, so please actively sought to expose the crimes commit­ complacent forgetfulness about the past, they contact us If you are willing to be questioned also tended to instramentalise the Holocaust and filmed by our young journalists. ted under Hitler, thus siding demonstratively Judith Kramer with the victims of Nazi persecution, it was for their own purposes, as a weapon to use [email protected] often surprisingly heedless of the sensitivi­ against their elders, whom, in a phrase often tel 0845 0945 980 Charity 1119291 ties of Holocaust survivors. This was in part attributed to Gudran Ensslin of the RAF, due to the framework of theory by means of they termed 'the generation of Auschwitz'. which it attempted to understand National Most of the radical left-wingers showed little Berlin exhibition to Socialism. It used various theories of Fascism interest in the refugees from Hitler and other marli 70tli anniversary to explain Nazism, which it saw as just one Jews, especially when these did not fit into of KristaUnacht their ideological preconceptions. Widespread of a group of extreme right-wing totalitarian In November 2008, on the 70th anniversary movements operating in the interests of empathy with the experience of German Jews of Kristallnacht, an exhibition in Berlin is to capitalism and the mling classes and against under Nazism had to wait until the following document the pogrom on the Jews of decade, when the television series Hobcaust Germany - their synagogues, institutions, those of the working class. homes. The blanket category of 'Fascism' in­ was screened in Germany. The exhibition is being organised by the cluded the movements led by Mussolini in The Jews from Germany and Austria, Murdered Jews of Europe Foundation, the Topography of Terror Foundation, and the Italy and Franco in Spain, where racialism having experienced the Nazi dictatorship, New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum and antisemitism played no part (unless im­ were mostly unsympathetic towards the Foundation. It will be held on the premises ported at German insistence). The theories projects for a left-wing, 'proletarian' dictator­ of the Centrum. We ask readers of the AJR Journal for of Fascism sfressed class war, the exploita­ ship espoused by the student radicals. Hardly assistance. Do you have pictures of syna­ tion of the proletariat and the interests of the surprisingly, the refugees preferred the lib­ gogues that were destroyed on Kristallnacht? raling elites as key factors behind the rise of erty, democracy and prosperity of Britain to Did you or members of your family take photographs of the pogrom - your own resi­ Nazism. Consequently, they tended system­ totalitarian regimes of whatever stripe. dence, stores or other buildings? Do you atically to downplay the importance of racial Anthony Grenville possess memorabilia related to the events of ideology to Nazism and ultimately to ques­ that night? Do you remember individual offenders, but possibly also the solidarity of tion the centrality of the Holocaust itself. For non-Jewish neighbours, colleagues and the radical left, Jews were only secondary Act for Change: Encounters employees? players in the history of National Socialism. If you do have relevant photographs or with school students personal documentation, please contact: The radical left in West Germany also Dr Ulrich Baumann tended to sympathise with the Palestinian n July 2007 5 people with amazing personal Curator, Stiftung Denkmal fiir die stories met 40 14-year-old 'journalists'. Some cause, to the extent that the Rote Armee I ermordeten Juden Europas of the 5 people were AJR members who had StresemannstraBe 90, 10963 Berlin Fraktion co-operated with Palestinian responded to our request for Interviewees. One Tel -f49 30 26394327 radicals in anti-Western and anti-Israeli English lady had been part of the team who email: [email protected] went to help survivors of Bergen-Belsen. The actions, in some of which, like the hijacking 'journalists' had taken part in an Act for of an Air France flight from Israel to Entebbe Change workshop during the previous year. AJR Directors in June 1976, anti-Zionism shaded over into Act for Change began on Holocaust Gordon Greenfield Memorial Day 2002 in Northwood, when the Carol Rossen straightforward antisemitism. Of the four two synagogues jointly invited local schools hijackers, two Arabs and two Germans, it to listen to a survivor and participate In small AJR Heads of Department workshops to consider their individual Maisie Holland Social Services was the latter who took it upon themselves Michael Newman Media and Public Relations responses so that each could make a positive Susie Kaufman Organiser, AJR Centre to separate the Jewish passengers from the difference in their own communities. A charity others, in a chilling replay of the 'selections' was formed when schools unable to take part AJR Joumal that Germans had carried out in the camps In Northwood asked that the event be brought Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor to them. Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor three decades earlier. The Interviews were conducted and filmed Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements Amidst the campaign of radical action in by the students, with some help from Act for Change facilitators. Some of their questions 1977, the so-called 'deutscher Herbst' Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not were unexpected and the responses of the necessarily those of the Association of Jewish (German Autumn), Arab terrorists hijacked Interviewees sometimes surprised even Refugees and should not be regarded as such. a Lufthansa airliner to Mogadishu in Somalia. themselves. AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

IN SEARCH OF THE PASTt NAMES/ PLACES/ BUILDIN6S NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors n his review of a book on the history members of my family alive. I had one advise on of Pankow Jewry (January), Professor address, as it happened in the city Property, Wilis, Family Trusts IBrent writes that the large building centre. The lady had been alerted and, and Charitable Trusts of the local orphanage is 'astonishingly' on an August night with poor street still known as 'the former Jewish lighting, I set out towards Wenceslas French and German spolcen orphanage'. Indeed, it is amazing how Square and in the direction of where names stick to places we had lived. Not far Home visits arranged and buildings. from the top of the 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, My grandfather square, near the mu­ London NW3 SNB on my mother's side, seum, my father had Mudr Hugo Dasch, had his law practice. Tel: 020 7435 5351 was a village doctor Now, the building Fax: 020 7435 8881 in Seestadtl, or had gone and the Ervenice, in north­ place was boarded west Bohemia. After up. A stray American my grandmother bomber had mis­ died, the family taken Prague for moved to Teplice, Dresden! Another some years before two bombs had flat­ JACKMAN - the First World War tened two buildings I visited the place in closer to the mu­ SILVERMAN 1947. My approach seum. I was shocked COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS was on foot and the and walked on. There road led me into a are different ways to long square at the reach the Royal Vine­ corner of which was yards, the area in a little shop. The lady which we had lived. I Old-New Synagogue, Prague behind the counter chose the route past 26 Conduit Street interrupted me almost as soon as I the synagogue. Here, I experienced my London WIR 9TA started speaking, "you want the second shock: the synagogue in which doctor's house!', she told me. She went I'd had my barmitzvah was gone. An­ Telephone: 020 7409 0771 out into the street and pointed to the other bomb! I went on walking. At this Fax: 020 7493 8017 top of the square and a good-size time of night, it was clear I couldn't building. It transpired that apparently expect anyone to open the door for me. the doctor's surgery (and flat and I reached the street and stood in front dispensary) remained identified with of the house from which I'd gone on I the building to its end. Yes, to its end: the Kindertransport years earlier Then Ervenice was sitting on coal and just I turned and retraced my steps. AUSTRIAN and GERMAN about then work had begun preparing Henry Schermer PENSIONS I for opencast mining to feed the electricity works. Not far from that area there was a LEO BAECK HOUSING PROPERTY whole town which almost completely ASSOCIATION LTD RESTITUTION CLAIMS vanished to make way for opencast SHELTERED ACCOMMODATION EAST GERMANY - BERLIN mining. The name of the town was ONE BEDROOM FLAT TO LET SITUATED NEAR SWISS COTTAGE On instructions our office will Bruex, or Most. It was here that my LOUNGE • BEDROOM WITH FITTED father had spent eight years at WARDROBES assist to deal with your grammar school. It was here too that • BATHROOM WITH SHOWER applications and pursue the I an ancient church had been placed on • FULLY FITTED KITCHEN matter with the authorities ! • RESIDENT WARDEN rails and transferred to near the railway • CAMDEN CARE LINE For further information station. This side of the railway, all that FOR FURTHER INFORMATION is left of the original town are these two AND VIEWING CONTACT DAVID and an appointment buildings. On the opposite side, the LIGHTBURN ON 020 8455 2286 please contact: school to which my father went is still in use. And a new cluster of townhouses ICS CLAIIVIS has gone up. Annely Juda Fine Art 146-154 Kilburn High Road London NW6 4JD I have experienced the obverse side 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) of this too - the disappearance of build- Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) ings meaningful to me. After the CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Fax: 020 7624 5002 Second World War I came back to AND SCULPTURE Prague aware that I would not find any AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

'Imagine, f^emember, f^eflect, K^act': Molocaust M^rnorial C?atj, ZOOS

THE RETURN Liverpool, this year's by Joan Wolkers national HMD venue Eyes that had seen all sorrow - borne all shame: Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald - from a hut without a name Nameless, tottering, back they came. Living corpses among the dead Farewells unspoken - last words unsaid. A father, brother, nephew, son In prison clothes they all were one. Mrs Lilian Levy and Rev Rodney Mariner at Denuded, stinking in a common grave Belsize Square Synagogue service Who has decided - that one to die, this one to save? The spring sun was warm, the paving stones grey The following is extracted from an address From the height they stepped down with nothing to say. given by AJR member Lilian Levy to some s everyone now knows, Liverpool Corpses among the living still bearing a scar 200 people at this year's AJR HMD service A hosted this year's Holocaust A memory to haunt them wherever they are, at Belsize Square Synagogue: Victoria Station and the cool light of day Memorial Day on 27 January. AJR A few days before just a tom crust of bread magining for us, here, is a very painful member Kay Fine was one of the Now a taxi, running water, and sprung-mattress bed. procedure. We can imagine only too speakers. We were fully involved in The hats tried to shieW their deep staring eyes well in what circumstances our families the many activities taking place The white skin stretched taut was once food for the flies. perished. So it takes little imagination for leading up to the event and some Clothes hanging loose on a skeleton frame us to conjure up in our minds the horrors of us gave interviews to both BBC Hands looked gigantic, still twisted in pain. of Rwanda, Darfur and other massacres and ITV. On 20 January we were Nothing but bones where flesh once had been around the world. My heart could not bear what their eyes had seen. involved in 'Yiddish Culture and the When we reflect on what happened to But new life was before them, to build and renew Holocaust', featuring Yaacov To fan up the embers - and to see where they flew. us, we realise how much was violently taken from us: our families, our homes, Shapiro, who performed in a packed Joan Wolkers wrote this poem in 1945 at the age of above all our childhoods. Those of you Princess Road Synagogue. Copies of 16 on seeing concentration camp survivors arriving who arrived in Britain before 1939 spent our Holocaust Memorial Book were at Victoria Station. early years worrying about things with sold in substantial numbers. Guido which no child should ever have to be Alis presented Liverpool City Council burdened. Those who, like me, arrived with a copy of the book on 24 Kindertransport refugee here post-war had experienced things no January at an Arts and Literary Vera Gissing, pictured one should ever have to witness. And Evening. The HMD Exhibition 2008 here signing a copy of even after we all arrived here there was opened at the Town Hall on 21 her book. Pearls of Child­ no opportunity to live the normal life of hood, was guest speaker a youngster We were serious beyond our January and featured portraits of at Sussex University's our members together with Centre for German-Jew­ years. There was then - and there is now ish Studies on Holocaust - sadness in the depths of our souls. 'RESPECTacles', a most moving Memorial Day. Partici­ Yet we have been able to rebuild out­ display comprising some 100,000 pants were welcomed wardly useful lives. But some of those spectacles. Many of our members by Professor Joanne survivors who were older than we found attended the opening ceremony Wright, Pro-Vice Chancellor, and Profes­ it impossible to regain meaningful lives. sor Christian Wiese, Director of the Cen­ and some, pictured above, manned tre, with stimulating talks also given by Who remembers Dr Eisner? She obtained the AJR stand (from left: Margaret Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg and Dr Mark two PhDs in Germany in the 1920s but Strach, Eric Strach, Dr Sylvia Jason, Levene of Southampton University. by the end of the 1940s she was wander­ Albert Hastings, Dr Italo Calma, Ronald Channing spoke on behalf of the ing round north-west London 14 hours a Guido Alis, Eric Fahidi). AJR, which sponsors this annual event. day, carrying a dozen carrier bags Ronald Channing I Continued on page 10 | Guido Alls

Anschluss March 1938: History in an exercise book s an eight-year-old in primary school in It was heard throughout the world. The sense Adolf Hitler' This paragraph is heavily and A Vienna, I knew little about politics of the speech was "German Peace and angrily crossed out, either by myself or my except that my parents were very worried Austrian Independence".' father, but no doubt at a later date. about a man called Hitler, and that everyone On Friday 11 March I was at school and a Our next task was to learn how to draw seemed to want to prove how patriotic they description of the the swastika. Several weeks after the were. At school, we were all given enamel Ninth District I wrote Anschluss I, and all other Jewish children, was badges with the red-white-red flag of Austria was marked 'G'. Little expelled from school and moved to a school and on the first page of my new exercise did I know how much reserved for Jews. There, our education in­ book I had to draw the Kruppenkreuz, the was to change that "•''.•?' cluded being stoned and yelled at by Hitler pre-Anschluss symbol of Austria, flanked by day. The next para­ Youth thugs each day on leaving the school flags and with a heading along the lines of graph dictated to us, LrM- while the police stood by and laughed. This 'God Protect My Austria' (I can't quite read written the following i-Sr^^ •-^ continued until one day a patrol of German my writing!). A few pages on, on 24 February, week, was: 'German -,y»«..i--r^.^ soldiers appeared, chased away the thugs and the following was dictated to us: 'Yesterday Austria has become a ' f'T' the police, and reassured us that it wouldn't our Federal Chancellor, Dr Kurt von part of the German happen again. The school closed soon after­ Schuschnigg, made a very important speech. Reich. Our Reichschancellor, our Fuhrer, is wards. George Vulkan A|R JOURNAL MARCH 2008

Second World War internee records for the Isle of Man by Alan Franl

^^-jl^iMjj. This is the second, and concluding, part of this article. The Mrs Jeanette •f, first part appeared in last month's issue of the Journal. Kitzler nee Schacter Front of lOM Constabulary CID Aliens was the first of her The police records Branch Registration card for Jeanette Kitzler family to come to In 1922 Tynwald (the Manx parliament) passed an act to impose England in Septem­ i 13 fc:.^~£r^->»;j f^ "'^'Mvr restrictions on Aliens which, ahhough slightly amended in 1926 ber 1938. She worked and 1930, was in force for the entire war period. This act required as a parlour maid at <^/i Aliens aged 16 or over to register on arrival in the Island and the home of Lord and L-il listed the particulars to be furnished on registration as: Lady Hoke(?) of 1. Name in full and sex Berkhamsted. Her sis­ 2. Present nationality and flow and when acquired and previous ter, Frieda Schacter, nationality (if any) followed and her 3. Date and country of birth 4. Profession or occupation niece, Enka Klausner, came on the 5. Date, place and mode of arrival in the UK and date, place and mode Reverse of card for Jeanette Kitzler of arrival in the lOM Kindertransport. 6. Address of residence in the lOM Erika's parents, Kathe and Herman Klausner, followed and were 7. Address of last residence outside the lOM also interned on the Isle of Man. After release, she went to Man­ 8. Photograph (which if not furnished by the Alien, may be taken by chester, then returned to London where her sisters lived. In London the registration officer) she met her husband, Vaclav Kult, a Czech national who joined 9. Government services, name of country served, nature and duration of service, and rank of appointments held the British Army. Following the birth of her first child. Carmen 10. Particulars of passport or other document establishing nationality Elvira, she and her husband returned to Manchester Following or identity the death of this child, she continued her profession in dentistry 11. Signature (which if required shall be in the characters of the language with the Co-operative Society. She worked there until the birth of of the Alien's nationality) and finger prints if required (usually only her second child, Miranda, in 1949. She remained in Manchester if illiterate) until 1970, when she paid the first of many visits back to her 12. Any other matter of which particulars are required by the registration native Vienna, where she was able to find people she had known officer. dunng her formative years, both Jewish and non-Jewish. She died The cards produced under this act contain a wealth of from a heart attack in Vienna in May 1994. information about internees, including, in most cases, a black- The above information was supplied by her daughter, Miranda and-white photograph. The lOM police administered this system Nathans, and is used with her permission. and the following are some of the main files from which details have been extracted: Registration of Aliens; Registration of Femal^Austrian intemees; Internees From an entry reporting the death of an internee and movement permits; Escapes from internment camps; Permits for Surname Christian lOM Date Previous Reg. Cert Nat Aliens to leave camp to attend tribunals; USA visa applications; Rushen Names Card No Arrival Address No./ldentity Women's Internment camp administration records; Port Erin camp in l.o.M. or Camp Boole administration; Police occurrence books; Police charge books; Security Schindler Marqarete 2934 18.7.40 31, 757396 Ger files. Internees and special class internees such as IRA, Gestapo; Request (on list) Leopold Street, issued Margarethe Loughborough 28.8.39 at for permission to visit lOM. (on R.C.) Bow Street Details are entered in the lists in the following style: Rushen Camp. - Date of Birth 25.5.1892 in Ratibor - Occupation From a female Internee record card Domestic. - Address of last residence outside U.K. Berlin, Surname Christian lOM Date Previous National Reg Cert Nat Ludwigskirchplatz 12. - Single. - German passport No. II5171/39/Z Names Card No. Arrival Address Registration No./ldentity 14.8.39 Berlin. - 26.8.39 Con. landing at Harwich. - 6.12.39 Metro. in l.o.M. or Camp Identity Card Booii Tri. No. 27. Exempted internment & special restrictions. - Refugee Kitzler Jeannette 2471 30.5.40 43, DNHQ 676612 Ger/ from Nazi oppression. - 27.6.40 Reg. Adv. Com. No. 3. To be interned Henriette Randolph 40/6 issued Aust until further order. - Refugee from Nazi oppression. - 9.10.41 (on R.C.) Avenue, 8.10.38 at Deceased. - Letters attached to R.C. - First dated 10 October, 1941 W9 Hatfield, Janette from? Wilson Deputy Commandant to Chief Constable, Douglas. Ref (on list Ace Herts No. 9378 DJW/BM. "Dear Sir, I have to report that Margarete Schindler, born (part)). 25.5.92 at Ratibor, Silesia, died here on 9"" October, 1941, and to request (actual that you would kindly send her police registration book immediately name to the Police at the last place of Registration." - Second dated 11* Jeanette) October, 1941 from Major Chief Constable (Douglas) to The Chief Inspector, Aliens Registration Office, Piccadilly Place, London, Wl. Miscellaneous Ref. WEC/ACU. "Dear Sir, Margarethe Schindler, R.C. 757396, Bow Rushen Camp c/o Ballaqueeney, Port St. Mary. - Jewish. - Date of Street, 28.8.39. Enclosed please find Registration Certificate for the Birth 22.9.1905 in Vienna. - Occupation Domestic. - Last address above named alien who died at the Women's Internment Camp, Port outside of the UK, 8, Nussdorferstrasse. - Divorced. - German Passport Erin, Isle of Man, on the 9'" October, 1941." - Third a card No. 139. No. 23224 issued Vienna 12.9.38. - 25.9.38 Conditional landing at acknowledging the receipt of the letter dated 11* October From the Dover, 12 months in U.K. - 11.8.39 Con. cancelled. -13.10.39 Reigate Aliens Registration Office. No. 1214/10/41. Your Ref. WEC/ACU. - Tri. Exempt internment until further order - Refugee from Nazi Buried in Jewish section of Douglas Cemetery. Headstone reads oppression. - Police Permit for the purpose of proceeding to Douglas, Margarete Schindler 9 October 1941. to come before the Home Office Advisory Committee, at the Court House. Dated Friday 28'" February 1941. 9.45 a.m. (Box lOMC It is only to be expected that there would be a number of deaths Movement Permits) - 2.5.41 Leaving loM for 4a, Palatine Road, within the camps either from natural causes or, in some cases, Manchester. Continued on page 10 A|R JOURNAL MARCH 2008

ISLE OF MAN INTERNMENT: ONE MORE FOOTNOTE Sir - Regarding the footnotes in the Isle of Man article in your February issue: here The Editor reserves the right is another reference - Professor Maxine to shorten correspondence Sellers, We Built Up Our Lives (University submitted for publication of Chicago, October 2001). It is the story of the internment of Jewish refugees. There is a copy at the Wiener Library. Anthony Goldsmith Wembley, Middx

MY PRIVATE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL THE YOUNGEST KINDERTRANSPORT 'PEACE FOR OUR TIME' Sir - Memorials can take different forms. REFUGEE? Sir - Thank you for your article '"Peace In my case, it is my clothes hanger It has Sir - The late Trevor Chadwick who, for our time" rides again' (January). I am lived quietly in my wardrobe for many, together with Sir Nicholas Winton, old enough to remember the events of many years, among all the wire and plastic rescued the children from the 1930s only too well. hangers. This one - for me a very special Czechoslovakia, describes the first of his Professor E. H. Sondheimer one - is made of wood with a faded pink transports in Karen Gershon's We Came London N6 silk cover with black lettering saying: As Children (Gollancz, 1966): 'I took my Richard Brill, Praha 1, Celetna ul. 18. first air transport rather proudly, on a THE EXCITEMENT OF THE SIXTIES Richard and his wife were my mother's twenty-seater plane. They were all Sir - Dr Grenville manages in the February uncle and aunt. As the hanger says, they cheerfully sick, enticed by the little paper issue to capture some of the excitement had a ready-made ladies' dress shop in bags, except a baby of one who slept and promises of change offered by the Celetna Street, near the Old Town Square peacefully in my lap the whole time.' arts and politics of the 1960s. In addition, in Prague. They worked hard in their little Moreover, Trevor Chadwick's family there was the parallel exhilaration shop to make a living and to bring up their personally rescued three of us, i.e. they triggered by the 1967 Six-Day War, which daughter Rose well. became guarantors. Sadly, he died before offered a fleeting glimpse of potential When Rose grew up, she became a the Kindertransports became public peace between Arab and Jew. The cafes regular contributor to women's journals knowledge and he received none of the of Jerusalem, Paris and West Hampstead and wrote a novel or two. With the onset accolade now happily accorded to Sir were galvanised by the of Nazism in Germany, the Brill family, like Nicholas. I myself tried to have him possibilities. Sadly, many of these most of us Czech Jews, said: 'This cannot recognised by Yad Vashem as a 'righteous opportunities never came to fruition. happen here.' Rose married a gentile, a Gentile' - one winces at the oddity of the Arthur Oppenheimer dashing Czech pilot. It all seemed so phrase - but was unsuccessful. Hove good. However, the unthinkable Does it matter? Yes it does. It happened. When the Nazis occupied matters to his family, who are rightly WHAT IS A JEW? Czechoslovakia, the dashing pilot got proud of him. And it matters historically. Sir - Mr Phillips (February) must not put scared of losing his fine job, being married He should not be overlooked. his own spin on what I wrote. I neither to a Jewish woman. She loved him and Gerda Mayer, London E4 equated nor compared - I expressed a agreed to a divorce. He lost his job personal point of view. To be exact, I wrote anyway, but his wife and her parents lost VOYAGE OF THE DUNERA (January): 'I am quite happy to accept the their lives. These were just a few ordinary Sir - I have been reading with interest the paternal line as equally valid for being people among the 6 million who perished various items by Ray Fromm in your Jewish - but then, I am also ready to in the Holocaust. January issue. I too was shipped on the accept 'Jews for Jesus' as being Jews.' In My clothes hanger is only a tiny object, Dunera to Australia. This was not a Royal fact, I go further, I also accept anyone who but for me it has always been my private Navy ship. Prior to the war it was a cruise claims to be a Jew to be such without symbol and memorial. ship. It was commandeered by the delving into antecedents. Mr Phillips Hana Nermut, government to be used as a troop ship. It refers to a Mr Chapman who is unknown Harrow happened to be available at the time when to me but who, I am sure, can speak for internees were being shipped abroad. The himself. Personally, I have no desire to take 'MUSINGS FROM THE DEPARTURE ship's crew were merchant seamen. The this futile exchange of letters any further LOUNGE' internees had no contact with the crew Harold Saunders Sir - The following poem, by my mother, except with the ship's doctor The internees Manchester Eva Ehrenberg, was written in 1960 and were guarded by army soldiers under the reflects her experience as a refugee: command of Colonel Scott. He was later Sir - I don't wish to enter into any court-marshalled and demoted. argument with Peter Phillips on whether Andere kann ich trosten The military escort came from the Brit­ Judaism is a race rather than a religion, Aber nicht mich. ish Pioneer Corps, which, in effect, although the Liberal and Reform Die die Welt eriosten, consisted of ex-prisoners and the like. On movements are doing their very best to Eriosten sie sich? embarkation, they conhscated valuable undermine both aspects of it. What I do objects such as watches, fountain pens wish to point out, however, is that what Others I can comfort and gold rings. With their bayonets they he states about a Muslim race and an But not myself. slit open our luggage and took whatever Islamic religion shows a complete lack of Do those who redeem the world they fancied. They threw passports, docu­ knowledge of the subject. There is no such Redeem themselves? ments etc overboard. I feel it necessary thing as a Muslim race, Islam being a This seems to me a direct contradiction to put the record straight. The Royal Navy proselyting religion whose adherents can of Victor Ross's 'No one of note has was never involved in any of this. be found in many parts of the world and celebrated our terminal condition in Frank Berg (formerly Franz Juliusberg) among many races in, for example, poetry, the proper medium for swan Wembley, Middx Indonesia, Malaysia, Somalia, northern songs' in your January issue. UK Co-ordinator, Australian Dunera Nigeria, Bosnia, Pakistan, Iran, Professor Lewis Elton, Guildford Association Afghanistan - not to speak of the Arab AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008 wodd. Moreover, the words 'Islam' and read from end to end, and thoroughly 'Muslim' are both derived from the same enjoy it. LEO BAECK root, meaning submission to G-d in Arabic. HOUSING ASSOCIATION (Mrs) Margarete Stern PALESTINE AND PALESTINIANS London NW3 Sir - Please allow me, through your BUNGALOW TO LET columns, to congratulate Mendel Storz on GOLDERS GREEN AREA RONALD CHANNING, A MAN OF his excellent article in the February issue. LARGE LOUNGE AREA, MANY TALENTS For years I have asked anyone wishing BEDROOM WITH FITTED WARDROBES, Sir - I am sorry to see Ronald Channing to listen this question, but I have never BATHROOM WITH SHOWER, been able to back it up anywhere nearly FULLY FITTED KITCHEN/DINER retiring from his job. I always enjoyed 24-HOUR CALL BELL SYSTEM reading his articles and interviews in the as well as Mr Storz has done. I admire his Journal and he was a great credit to the research and the details of historical FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Kindertransport activities. It was always developments that he outlines. The AND VIEWING CONTACT nice to see his friendly face and sometimes interesting thing would be for anyone DAVID LIGHTBURN ON 020 8455 2286 we also enjoyed his wonderful piano- reading this to challenge his viewpoints playing. A man of many talents indeed, with equal back-up of history. he was a good organiser and I hope Mr Storz will send his article to communicator. Thank you, Ronald, we will the national press to see what debate he Leo Baeck miss you at the Cleve Road Centre. can start. What a wonderful thing it Housing Association Ltd Josie Dutch would be to have a public debate on this London NW2 topic with Mr Storz proposing a motion Clara Nehab House on the basis of his clear knowledge of this Residential Care Home COMING TO TERMS matter Perhaps the Oxford Union or a Sir- Martha Blend asks in your December similar body would take up the challenge. All single rooms with en suite bath/shower Short stays/Respite issue how the SS blended back into Harry Bibnng, Bushey Heath and 24 hour Permanent Care. Large normal post-war society. I doubt that a attractive gardens. Ground Floor wholly Nazi society suddenly became HATS OFF TO THE PALESTINE POLICE Lounge and Dining Rooms. 'normal'. Little happened to them. Some Lift access to all floors. Easy access had prison sentences which were not to local shops and public transport. carried out, as they had already waited in prison. The Americans were obsessed with Enquiries and further Information please contact: The Manager, Clara Nehab House the Soviet 'menace' and lost interest in 13-19 Leeslde Crescent, London NWII ODA German criminals - they might be useful Phone: 020 8455 2286 one day, e.g. Werner von Braun. Those who committed crimes against humanity in the occupied countries mainly got away. However, in Poland some of the SPRING worst were tried and executed by the Poles. In other places, e.g. France, they GROVE were tried in absentia, condemned to Mi 214 Finchley Road death or long imprisonment but, as they Sir - Further to Dr Anthony Grenville's London NW3 were not extradited from Germany, they article 'The British and the Mandate' in lived out their lives successfully as lawyers the December issue, your readers may be London's Most Luxurious and other professionals. Crime seems to interested to see the above photo of my RETIREMENT HOME pay. husband Charles when he was in the Ruth L David Palestine Police. • Entertainment - Activities Ames, Iowa, USA Charlotte Stenham, London N12 • Stress Free Living THREE LITTLE PIGS • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine KRISTALLNACHT COMMEMORATION Sir -1 heard with great sadness the news • Full En-Suite Facilities IN TORONTO that a re-issue of the story of the three Call for more Information Sir - I thought it might interest and little pigs - who tried various construction or a personal tour 'console' Otto Deutsch (December, methods to build themselves affordable Letters) that here in Toronto, even in our housing and of the big bad wolf who 020 8446 2117 or 020 7794 4455 small synagogue, there is a 'Kristallnacht huffed and puffed to blow them down - [email protected] Commemoration' every year. Our failed to be nominated for a prize for synagogue, Habonim, Reformed - to be some very spurious reasons which, one compared with a Liberal one in London - suspects, have to do with the is only a small one, founded just before dreadful PC. Such considerations WANTED TO BUY the Second World War by immigrants diminish the language, free expression from Europe, but it does keep all the and even heritage - another buzz word. German and 'memorable' events that happened during This could have serious repercussions. the Nazi period. As a matter of fact, I was For instance, is it still 'on' for grandparents English B(M)ks interviewed a few years ago by a TV crew to talk about 'This little pig went to about my experiences of Kristallnacht and market, this little pig stayed at home, this Bookdealer, AJR member, was rather surprised when a few days little pig ate all the roast beef, etc' without welcomes invitations to view and afterwards people in shops came up to being apprehended by the thought purchase valuable books. me to tell me they had seen the police? Will pigs still be able to fly? Will programme and did not realise I was a it cease to be possible to 'make a pig's Robert Hornung Holocaust survivor ear of it'? And what will be the 10 Mount View, Ealing Kitty Schafer alternative to silk purses? Our beloved London W5 IPR Email: [email protected] Toronto English is the poorer for such follies. Tel: 020 8998 0546 PS: Love your publication, which I always Frank Bright, Ipswich fuses French Cubism with Russian-Jewish folklore - largely disappointing. REVIEWS I was impressed by the work of the Austria's loss, Britain's gain NOTES early-nineteenth century Russian Realists 'IMMORTAL AUSTRIA'?: AUSTRIANS Gloria Tessler known as The Wanderers who focused on IN EXILE IN BRITAIN social issues and their personal culture. edited by Charmian Brinson, Most captivating is The Blessing by Pascal Richard Dove, Jennifer Taylor Dagnan-Bouveret, showing a kneeling Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi BV, 2007, 228 pp. paperback bride whose white veil is a metaphor for espite a major attack by the (Yearbook of the Research Centre for Evening Standards Brian Sewell, romantic purity amid peasant poverty and German and Austrian Exile Studies, DFrom Russia at the Royal simplicity. Opposite is James Tissot's Vol. 8, 2006) Academy (to 18 April) has survived Ruins, a poignant painting of beggars he ironic title of this book refers controversy with flying colours. In order amidst broken slates and tiles with strong to a revue produced by Austrian to appease the Russians, who feared Christian imagery. Trefugees in wartime London, putative claims on art expropriated by the Many Russian artists have a taste for representing their memories of a country Russian Revolution, former Culture dramatic pose - perhaps Matisse's famous of historical grandeur, mountain scenery and musical refinement - whereas the Secretary James Pumell scrambled an Act La Danse offers a metaphor - but, for reality at the time was very different. of Parliament to bring to the UK 120 French example, Ilya Repin's Leo Tolstoy The book itself is a compendium of and Russian paintings from Russia's tow Barefoot shows him animated as though academic papers presented at a major art collections and ensure their on the brink of an idea. Commedia dell'arte, conference on 'Austria in Exile' held by immunity from seizure. Sewell himself sees a joint self-portrait by Shukhayev and the Research Centre for German and parallels between such potential claims and Yakovlev dressed as Pierrot and Austrian Exile Studies in London in 2005. those of Holocaust heirs. Whatever the Harlequin and others, notably of Diaghilev, The introductory paper, by Anthony all strikingly deliver this Grenville, provides a very useful survey typically Russian theatrical, of Austrian immigration into Britain and narrative style. points out the differences between the The acerbic wit of the late German and Austrian experiences. writer and pundit Chaim While the former saw a gradual deterioration in Jewish life from 1933 Bermant is captured in a onwards, and were able to plan their series of spirited, poignant emigration with some choice of portraits by his widow Judy destination, the latter had just over a Bermant in her tribute solo year to attempt to leave Austria after Portraits of a Licensed many countries had already closed their I leretic at the Ben Uri. The borders to refugees. Dr Grenville also notes that the refugees in London were drawings, mainly charcoal or not a typical cross-section of Viennese Henri Matisse, The Dance, 1910. Oil on canvas, 260 x 391 aquatint, catch the writer's Jewry, as the more orthodox and cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Photo fleeting irony. Perhaps it takes Archives Matisse, Paris. © Succession H. Matisse/DACS 2008 generally poorer Viennese Jews, mainly a wife to penetrate one of the living in the Second District, found it provenance of the works on show, they cast finest and funniest Jewish minds of the more difficult to escape and were therefore underrepresented compared a long shadow over this much vaunted twentieth century. We shall not see his like to the more assimilated and middle- again, but Judy has done a great service to exhibition, following its unfettered success class Jews. his memory. in Dusseldorf. A major result of the pre-war So what can be said about the show More disturbing memories pepper the persecution of the Jews in Germany and itself? It has a vast remit: an examination mind of artist-sculptor Roman Halter. Austria was a great loss of talent in of the interchange between French and In an exhibition of paintings and many fields in the Nazi-dominated Russian art during a revolutionary phase. watercolours at the Redfern Gallery, countries, and a corresponding gain in the countries hosting the new refugees. It all turns on the foresight of two avant- which once exhibited the art of Jewish 'Immortal Austria'? brings this out very garde Russian collectors, Ivan Morosov and internee artists of the Second World War, clearly, with particular reference to the Sergei Shchukin, who brought French Halter's powerful, fractured work delivers Austrian refugees in Great Britain. Many Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to faces he remembers from the transports of the papers discuss the contributions Russia. Picasso's haunting Cubist work to the death camps. It is spiced with made by prominent individuals in fields Dryad has a breathtaking earthiness and landscape miniatures broken up by tiny, such as literature, music, art, medicine and psychology. Separate papers deal, power, resonant of Jacob Epstein's Genesis. marching brown figures which reflect his for example, with the lives of Sigmund However, the reflection of these artistic dreams - the rolling Dorset landscape into Freud, Stefan Zweig, Elias Canetti and genres on Russian art is, apart from the which the death march constantly Richard Tauber as well as topics such as work of Kandinsky and Chagall - who transposes itself. the film industry, women writers and

8 AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008 the problems ofthe medical profession. responsibility of being in power would exile. The work of refugees in anti-Nazi exhaust the regime or at least moderate In 1935 a writers' conference propaganda broadcasts is also its fanaticism.' They were wrong. The designed to defend European culture discussed. oppressive nature of the new against Nazi barbarism met in Paris and Although it is estimated that 85-90 government soon made life intolerable attracted many celebrated authors, per cent of the 33,000 Austrian for a long procession of writers and including E. M. Forster, Bertolt Brecht refugees were Jewish, there was also artists, many of them Jews, who were and Boris Pasternak. However, the an important anti-Nazi and generally forced into exile. They chose to settle conference was riven by disputes left-wing element among them. A in Sanary in the South of France because between the Communists, who were paper by Charmian Brinson covering the it seemed hospitable to refugees and the sponsors of the conference, and work of the journalist Eva Priester was near enough to Germany should a those opposed to far-left ideologies. describes the importance of the return be possible in the future. Sanary Ultimately, the words of intellectuals Austrian Centre and Free Austrian became known as Weimar by the Sea counted for little against the Nazi Movement, whose policies were more and gave shelter to famous names such juggernaut. At most, they may have concerned with the future of a post­ as Franz Werfel, Arnold Zweig, Lion prepared the thinking public for the war Austria than with the problems of Feuchtwanger and Heinrich Mann. Their necessity of fighting Nazi tyranny. As resettlement and integration in Britain numbers were swelled by visits from for Sanary, after the fall of France it was which concerned most Jews. British authors like Aldous Huxley, no longer a safe haven for the authors A final section of the book deals Evelyn Waugh and Cyril Connolly. When who had sheltered there and many tried with the post-war problems of either there was no sign of the Nazi regime to escape to neutral Switzerland or the integrating into British life or imploding, the authors settled down to United States. attempting to return to Austria and write and seek a new public for their Martha Blend continuing life there. For most Jews work. there was little incentive to return to a Meanwhile, many German Jews had country where their families had been little sense of the terrors to come. In a destroyed and which immediately after common joke, two Jews meet on the FILM the war had shown little inclination to Kurfurstendamm. One asks: 'Well?' The acknowledge its guilt. For the political other replies: 'I give the Nazis another Villainy and revenge in refugees, and for some of the three months!' Victorian London academics, the new Austria was not Mauthner focuses on the position of what they had hoped for and their Thomas Mann, the renowned non- SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON return did not receive the warm Jewish author who had a Jewish wife. BARBER OF FLEET STREET welcome they may have expected. While strongly opposed to the Nazi directed by Tim Burton Although this is a seriously academic ideology, Mann hesitated to condemn starring Johnny Depp and book (partly in German!), it is very the regime openly for fear of having to Helena Bonham Carter readable and demonstrates the give up his right to live in Germany, his have to confess to being a Sweeney important influence of the Austrian reading public and his property. His son Todd virgin. So, although I had Jews on British culture, as well as the and daughter were bolder and had to Ilearned about the plot of Tim effect of the British way of life on the flee the country in consequence. Burton's new film from glancing at the immigrants. In 1933 Goebbels's Ministry of odd review, I was not familiar with any George Vulkan Propaganda ordered students to previous version of Stephen Sondheim's 'cleanse' libraries and bookshops by musical about the legendary demon burning books of a Jewish, pacifist or barber and had nothing to pit my Weimar by the Sea pan-European or urban culture. A list impressions against. was drawn up of about 200 titles by These impressions, inevitably, revolve GERMAN WRITERS IN FRENCH EXILE 131 authors, thus fulfilling Heine's 1930-1940 around the theme, or themes, of the prophesy 'Where one burns books, one story as much as any critical perspective by Martin Mauthner will ultimately burn people.' of the actors, the songs, the set design London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2007, The episode provoked protests from and the production. From my point of 280pp. paperback British left-wingers such as Harold Laski, view, the fact that the film is a musical or those of us who were children Naomi Mitchison and J. B. Haldane. is a minor factor While hardly any song in the 1930s this book is both PEN, the world writers' association, was sticks in the memory, there is not the Fenlightening and tantalising. It in a dilemma, not wishing to alienate irritating immobilisation of the action shows that, contrary to popular belief, German writers who supported the Nazi that occurs in musicals when a song is the triumph of Nazism was not a done regime. In the event, H. G. Wells, its being performed. Here the characters deal. In fact, the party had many chairman, produced a fudged seem merely to be 'speaking in tune', opponents - after all, 56 per cent of resolution which had little effect. often repeating certain phrases but the German public had voted against During this time, the Fischer Verlag, carrying on acting at the same time. So Hitler Had the other political parties a major Jewish publisher, continued to I have no special praise or criticism for not been divided among themselves, walk a tightrope of appeasement of the the singing. we might still be in the country of our Nazis. For a time their tactics seemed The themes, of course, are more than birth. to pay off, but even their privileged compelling. While revenge is the prime Mauthner takes us through the early status was not allowed to last for long. aim of the barber, now naming himself days of the Nazi regime, when many Thomas Mann, one of the authors the Sweeney Todd, who was unjustly observers thought it could not last long: Verlag published, came off the fence, banished for 15 years by a judge who 'Some Germans expected that the condemning the Nazis and going into Reviews continued on page 10~\ AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

REVIEWS continued from page 9 HOLOC.U ST MEMORIAL DAY continued from page / containing screwed-up newspapers. If one And how did Britons react after the coveted his wife, the means of spoke to her she would look vacant but war? For the most part, they didn't react preparing for and carrying out this reply charmingly - with words that made at all. The subject was virtually taboo. And revenge present a new level of no sense. we ourselves did not talk about it to the barbarity. Yet the perpetrator, played How should we react? Should we tell outside world. We worked hard to re­ with considerable skill and conviction the next generation our experiences as a build our lives. Some 20 years ago, a new by Johnny Depp, remains a human warning to be ever-vigilant? Yes, but for generation began to ask those questions being in whose fate the spectator some of us it is too difficult to speak of and there was a rush to obtain testimony continues to take an interest. One these memories. What of the reactions of from those who had experienced the Holo­ others? For instance, what about the caust, before our generation died out. explanation, perhaps, lies in his fidelity reactions when we first arrived in this to his lost wife, whom he now believes That I survived the war can be country? I work on the archive of the attributed only to luck and to the fact that to be dead, evident in the pained Jewish Refugees Committee. Reading the I probably have a strong constitution. I indifference he is forced to overcome hies, I am often shocked by the ignorance was the only member of my family to when approached by his amorous of what had befallen us. The few social come out of a concentration camp and, neighbour and accomplice, Mrs Lovett. workers at Bloomsbury House were good- after the war, I was adopted by a Jewish Helena Bonham Carter excels in this natured but overwhelmed by their family who had come to London from role, combining the hardness of the caseloads. And the concept of 'trauma Berlin in 1933. They had a daughter of their manufacturer of the new 'meat pies' counselling' was unheard-of then. own so I now had a ready-made sister, 20 with lustful longing and even a quasi- Today, some of the young generation years older than myself. I also had new aunts, uncles and cousins. I came into the maternal tenderness. are trying to react positively. I'm thinking, for instance, of those young Germans, family in 1946 and no mention of my past Alan Rickman is suitably villainous Austrians and Poles who refuse to do history was ever made to me. It was not as Todd's nemesis Judge Turpin, with military service but join Aktion until 1995 that one of the family broached Timothy Spall as his ludicrous sidekick SQhnezeichenl Friedensdienste. You will the subject with me. When I asked 'Why Beadle Bamford. Another amusing - or find them at the Wiener Library and have you never asked me before today?', not so amusing - cameo is Sacha elsewhere. My husband Herbert, for many the reply was: 'I didn't want to remind Baron-Cohen's phoney Italian barber years Principal Guide with the Anne Frank you of things that would upset you.' But we can never forget what was done to us Pirelli. travelling exhibition, worked closely with several young Germans and Austrians and all and of what we were so cruelly robbed. A fascinating contrast to the themes we made many young friends this way. of villainy and revenge is the depiction Our only duty is to remember, and to Almost without exception they react with remember especially our families - our of innocence, evident in Jamie Campbell a collective guilt to the crimes of their parents, grandparents, siblings. Does a Bower's portrayal of Anthony Hope, the grandparents (or great-grandparents). day pass when we do not grieve for them? sailor who helps Todd return to Many have told us that their otherwise And because we remember, their breath England, and found in other characters, talkative elders became strangely silent of life lives on through us, and - through primarily the lovely Johanna, Todd's when asked about wartime experiences. our descendants - in perpetuity. daughter who is now the ward of the sheet after sheet till I almost dropped. evil judge, and Toby, the young boy Even So Even so. Would I prefer never to have Pirelli has rescued from the workhouse by Rose Scooler seen inside Theresienstadt? I would not. and who becomes Mrs Lovett's devoted There were fifty of us sleeping on one floor Here I've met a host of men and women 'foster child'. during the hardest time I'd ever known. who, living through a season of emergency, The gloomy vision of Victorian For many of those long nights I stayed awake lost what made them more than animal London, which predominates from hunger. And being chilled to the bone. - their basic human decency. throughout, provides a fitting backdrop I had lessons in the way that cruelty Yet I found others who'd persevere may consist of being left to rot. in acts of saving grace. No matter what. to the action, while the dramatic finale Even so. Would I prefer never to have So, while you might prefer never to have brings to mind two further memorable seen inside Theresienstadt? I would not seen inside Theresienstadt, I would not. themes: Oscar Wilde's immortal 'Each I was an attendant, running about This poem was translated from the German man kills the thing he loves' and Edith in heat and frost, every kind of weather, by Rose Scooter's niece, Ann Lewis, and the latter's Piaf's haunting 'Dieu reunit ceux qui up and down the different flights of steps. daughter, Sibyl Ruth. A manuscript containing more s'aiment.' Often I felt my feet could go no further. than 40 poems by Rose Scooler, who died in 1985, Emma Klein They had me splitting mica next: came to light only recently.

ISLE OF MAN continued fom page 5

suicide. A number of graves of former internees have been occupation; approximate date of arrival in UK; how long was removed to the German cemetery at Cannock Chase in the period of internment (some were only a few months, other Staffordshire. several years)? How you can help us complete the lists Summary of what happened to the internee on release - for example, did a male join the Pioneer Corps? MNH Library wishes to receive details about any individual who Any other internees known to you who were here at the same was an internee on the Isle of Man in either world war (there time. In some instances we have a note of wives and children, but was also a Jewish section of the Douglas camp in the First World not of the husbands as the men's records have largely been lost. War), especially correspondence and photographs, which we are happy to copy and return if you wish to retain originals. We Alan Franklin, Librarian have acquired fascinating memoirs in this way in recent years. Manx National Heritage Library Principal camps for German/Austrian refugees were the Onchan, Manx Museum, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3LY Hutchinson Square, Central, Rushen and Ramsey ones. e-mail [email protected] Basic details sought are: nationality; date and place of birth; Tel 01624-648042

10 AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

A TALE OF TWO GRAVEYARDS

rofessor Brent wrote in cemetery. The pieces were laid these columns (January, Let facing inwards to conceal them, but P ters) about his ancestor's here and there fragments were cemetery in Koszalin and an event reversed, revealing Hebrew commemorating Kristallnacht lettering. An American friend tells there, and remarked that 'Such acts me that the graveyard in his shtetl of remembrance do occur all over of Grodzisk had been tumed into a Poland'. Professor Brent cited these junkyard. Sadly, this is the acts as examples of how Poland is situation throughout the country, at undergoing a profound change - a least in the provinces. change which some are unwilling I encountered mainly hostility to recognise. One could obtain the there. When I enquired at the impression from his letter that municipality about pre-war plans, Kristallnacht is generally com­ I was told that all records had been memorated in Poland. However, destroyed in the war. There was a what takes place there is a result of his ef­ ancestors' resting place. The town of time when I would have been murdered for fort and it was in Germany that Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski had a Jewish less - the country has indeed imdergone a Kristallnacht took place. Indeed, the Poles population of 10,000. The first photograph profound change. I later obtained the plans are not responsible for Kristallnacht, but to shows some headstones bunched together I wanted through a Polish intermediary. say that they cannot be blamed for the af­ with a heap of shattered fragments, tucked In another instance, I took my family to termath is not entirely correct - not as far away in a comer of what had been a large a brick factory where I had once hidden. The as Polish Jews are concemed. Had they be­ Jewish cemetery. A sign reads that the gatekeeper said she would have to ask for haved differently and at least looked the Jewish graveyard was inaugurated in the permission to enter. I could hear only her other way, countless more Jews would be year 1657. Not a mention anywhere in a side of it: 'No, sir, he has no beard. No, sir, around today. During the war, on the 'Aryan town of 75,000 people that there was once a he dresses normally - like a Pole!' To satisfy side', it wasn't so much the Germans I was sizable Jewish presence there going back to his curiosity to set eyes on a Jew, he came trying to avoid - it was my compatriots I the seventeenth century. The rest was out saying he wanted to meet an 'original was running from. uprooted and ploughed under, with only the townsman', as there were now so many There is no mention of misdeeds com­ ancient trees remaining - silent witnesses newcomers. When we said goodbye, he mitted by Poles, except at Jedwabne, where to an extinct community. complimented me on my 'good accent' and the scale of the crime would not allow it to The second picture is of another cemetery on the fact that I didn't look Jewish! My part­ remain hidden. There, 1,600 men, women outside town. When I enquired about the ing words to him were: had he not allowed and children were burnt alive by me in, I would have still found a their Polish neighbours in June way, as 1 did during the war, with­ 1941. There was no monument out anyone knowing. He was there either: the plaque that was clearly an educated man, about 45 there told a lie - it put the blame on years old, who had probably never the Nazis. It is significant that this met a Jew in his life and had only a atrocity took place seven months stereotypical idea of one. before the decision for the 'Final On account of the European Solution' was taken. As I write, Union and public opinion abroad, news is coming through that the it's not difficult to see why the Polish-bom, American professor Polish authorities seek reconciliation Jan T. Gross may have to face - but there is no question of charges for slandering the Polish admitting collusion in the nation - they always did have a Holocaust and no property puffed-up sense of 'Polish honour'. The ancient matzevot that were still there after compensation either! The cornerstone has charge carries a three-year jail term. It was the Germans departed, one woman said the been laid for a Jewish museum in Warsaw. Jan Gross who brought to light the massacre graveyard was bombed by the Luftwaffe! I was asked to sign the petition supporting at Jedwabne. More recently, he has written Another blamed the Communists. Until one it, but I would hazard a guess that the a book on Anti-Semitism in Poland after genuine young man directed me to a place museum can never be entirely objective and Ausclttdtz. It is estimated that between 1,200 where no visitors go. I was appalled to find that the Poles will have to come up smelling and 3,000 Jews were murdered in Poland there that the headstones had been smashed of roses. after the war. into fragments and used in the constmction Rubin Katz I have a different story to tell about my of the perimeter wall to the 'New' Catholic

H Next meeting: 6 March. Tony Bernstein, Aaron from the AJR's Social Services Dept 'The Educational Work of the Technion, Anthony Goldsmith Haifa' Next meeting: 12 March. Social

South London update on Mid East 'White Mouse' story at Hendon The Israeli Embassy's Robin Hamilton- Abbegail Slavin told us the amazing story Taylor gave us a power-point presentation of Nancy Wake, the 'White Mouse' - one on current events in the Middle East. of the most decorated women of the Whether or not President Bush's recent Second World War Radlett visit by Ludwig Spiro visit to the area would influence the peace Annette Saville AJR Life President Ludwig Spiro, speaking talks remained to be seen. Next meeting: 31 March. Alan Bilgora, for over an hour without hesitation - and Myrna Glass 'Great Jewish Opera Singers' without notes - described the origins of Next meeting: 13 March. Susannah the AJR. His talk was highly illuminating. Alexander, 'Disraeli Onwards' Cleve Road: The amazing story of Hopefully, he'll come to us again. Ruth Bourne Harry Lorber Weald of Kent talk on Wiener Our speaker, Ruth Bourne, who had joined Next meeting: 19 March. Wiener Library Library the WRNS at the age of 18, was selected archivist Howard Falksohn Wiener Library archivist Howard Falksohn for Special Duties X, which meant she was gave us a very interesting talk about the part of the large group engaged in Surrey session history and ongoing worth of that breaking Nazi codes. After training at We were entertained by Edmee Barta, institution. Our thanks to Myrna for Bletchley Park, Ruth operated the assisted by Edith Vanstone, to our working so hard on our behalf and to the decoding machine known as the Bombe 'morning coffee', which tends to expand Dicksons for the very welcome at the Eastcote and Stanmore outstations. beyond it. As always, we enjoyed refreshments. She is now a tour guide at Bletchley Park. meeting friends and the occasional Inge Ball An amazing story! newcomer Amazing how Myrna and her colleagues keep finding more of David Lang these 'new' members, who are of our Edgware: The BoD and media bias Next meeting: 25 March. Otto own time and origin! Thanks again, towards Israel Deutsch, 'Viennese Coffee Houses' Myrna. Jerry Lewis spoke to us about the Board of Deputies, singling out among its duties Vernon Saunders Amazing reKoue mission dealing with the regrettable bias of the Next meeting: 26 March, details to be media regarding Israel. sent out Eve Glicksman Essex showing of Paperclips Next meeting: 18 March. Clive Lawton Barbara Newman spoke to us about a showing in the synagogue of Paperclips Brighton and Hove Sarid: 'Heroes (all donations to British Yad Vashem) on and Heroines' Holocaust Memorial Day as well as on A lively, well-attended talk in which Yom Hashoah. Abbegail Slavin entertained us with the Larry Lisner wonderful story of Nancy Wake, code- Next meeting: 11 March. Clare named the 'White Mouse' by the Gestapo. Ungerson, 'Kitchener Camp' We look forward to part 2. Sir Nicholas Winton and Bertha Leverton Esther Rinkoff llford entertainment by George at Hampstead Theatre showing of Next meeting: 17 March. Aubrey Winton's Children Layton Milstein, 'The Moral State We Are In' Our entertainment was supplied by actor- n January the AJR showed the film author George Layton, who read us one Welwyn Garden City: Safety in the Winton's Children at the Hampstead of his short stories. George also gave us Community ITheatre. My father, Max Fischler, 88, an impressive thumbnail sketch of how Two community support officers spoke wanted to see the film because he had he got into acting and the many stage to us. One was a Crime Prevention been a refugee in Prague in 1938-39. and TV series he has been in. A great start Officer, the other dealt with Hate Crime. Doreen Warriner was his saviour. As the to the new year There was much interaction with the Prague representative of the British Meta Roseneil audience, both lady officers being Committee for Refugees from Czecho­ Next meeting: 5 March. Jane King, extremely friendly. Much advice was slovakia, Doreen worked closely with 'Coram's Children' given, but we were also made to feel that Nicholas Winton. Sir Nicholas's respon­ we do live in one of the safer parts of sibility was to hnd funding and foster Pinner: 'Propaganda Photography' the country. families for children up to 17 years old, We had an interesting talk by Rabbi Frank Ruth Tuch while Miss Warriner's ofhce dealt with Dabba Smith on 'Propaganda Next meeting: 25 March. Bertha anyone over this age, including my Photography', dealing mostly with Leverton on the Kindertransport father, who was 19 at the time. So it pictures produced by the Nazis. The was a very emotional meeting for Max Wembley full agenda principal aim was to damage Jews by to have the opportunity to speak with Anthony Goldsmith reported on the portraying them and their activities in the Sir Nicholas, the only person he had exhibition at Brent Cross entitled '6 worst of bad lights. Some pictures were ever met who knew and worked with Million -I-', the brainchild of artist Antonia clearly faked, some posed. There were Doreen Warriner, in an amazing rescue Stowe, each button symbolising a also interesting photographs of life in the mission! Later, Esther Rantzen told us murdered human being. Holocaust Day Warsaw Ghetto, taken by Mendel how she had come to make the film versus Genocide Day was discussed - Grossman. This led to a lively discussion Winton's Children. on the sources of antisemitism. there appeared to be a predilection for Rhona Myers Paul Samet the former Myrna also introduced Darren

12 AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

HGS: The Royal Free Hospital A well attended meeting was enlightened HOLIDAY FOR Paul Balint AJR Centre and entertained by Dr Eva Blumenthal's NORTHERN MEMBERS 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 talk on the history of the Royal Free Sunday 20 July 2008 - Tel: 020 7328 0208 Hospital. 'Royal' because Queen Victoria Sunday 27 July 2008 gave it the Royal Charter in 1837 and 'Free' AT THE FERNLEA HOTEL AJR LUNCHEON CLUB because free access by all was what 11/17 South Promenade, St Annes Wednesday 19 March 2008 motivated the remarkable Yorkshireman Tel 01253 726 726 William Marsden, who founded the The cost, including Dinner, Bed and Alfons Silverman original dispensary and hospital at Hatton Breakfast, is £495 per person 'Dual Identity: To what degree Garden in 1828. It was at the Royal Free, The hotel charges a supplement per do we cause our own problems?' then at the Gray's Inn Road site, that the room for sea view or deluxe room first Medical School for women was Please be aware that members should not Programme includes opened in 1877. The present building has automatically assume that they are on the ENTERTAINMENT Luncheon Club list. It is now necessary, on receipt been at Belsize Park since 1975 and, not OUTINGS of your copy of the AJR Journal, to phone the least due to its location, it has always had Centre on 020 7328 0208 to book your place. MEET OLD AND NEW FRIENDS a strong Jewish connection, doctors and Travel to St Annes by RAIL, patients alike. Laszio Roman NATIONAL COACH or CAR KT-AJR Please contact Ruth Finestone on North London: 'Queen Elizabeth I's Kindertransport special 020 8385 3070 Jewish doctor' interest group Close on 30 members braved the elements Monday 3 March 2008 and attended a talk on 'Queen Elizabeth I's Jewish Doctor' by Phillipa Bernard, who DIARY DATES Blanche Benedick Monday 26 May - Sunday 1 June excelled in both presentation and content. 'My Escape from Bournemouth Holiday (Cliffside Hotel) Given the number of questions, a good Denmark to Sweden' and interesting time was had by all Tuesday 24 June KINDLY NOTE THAT LUNCH Day trip to Brighton and Hove WILL BE SERVED AT present. Herbert Haberberg Jewish Day Centre 1.00 PM ON MONDAYS ADDITIONAL MEETINGS Sunday 20 July - Sunday 27 July Reservations required Please telephone 020 7328 0208 Norwich 18 March - tbc St Annes Holiday (Fernlea Hotel) Temple Fortune 20 March - tbc Sunday 21 Sept Monday, Wednesday & Thursday West Midlands (Birmingham) AJR Tea at Hilton Watford 9.30 am-3.30 pm 11 March Social Get-together and Tea Sunday 26 October - Sunday 2 Nov PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS Eastbourne Holiday (Lansdowne Hotel) CLOSED ON TUESDAYS AJR GROUP CONTACTS For further information, please call us March Afternoon Entertainment Bradford Continental Friends on 020 8385 3070. Mon 3 KT LUNCH - Kards & Games Klub Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 Tue 4 CLOSED Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) Wed 5 Katinka Seiner Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 Liverpool Thur 6 Douglas Poster Bristol/Bath Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Mon 10 Kards & Games Klub Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 Manchester Tue 11 CLOSED Cambridge Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 Wed 12 Michael Heaton Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Newcastle Thur13 Sheila Games Mon 17 Kards 7 Games Klub Cardiff Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Tue 18 CLOSED Norfolk (Norwich) Wed 19 LUNCHEON CLUB Cleve Road, AJR Centre Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Thur20 Jack Davidoff Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 North London Mon 24 CLOSED - EASTER MONDAY Dundee Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Tue 25 CLOSED Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Oxford Wed 26 Ronnie Goldberg East Midlands (Nottingham) Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Thur 27 Paul Colemand Bob Norton 01159 212 494 Pinner (HA Postal District) Edgware Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Ruth Urban 020 8931 2542 Radlett Members requiring benefit advice please telephone Edinburgh Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 to make an Fran^oise Robertson 0131 337 3406 Sheffield appointment at AIR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Essex (Westcliff) Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Larry Lisner 01702 300812 South London Glasgow Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 South West Midlands (Worcester area) Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator Harrogate Myrna Glass 020 8385 3070 020 8385 3070 Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Inge Little 01423 886254 Surrey Hendon Groups Co-ordinator Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Temple Fortune Susanne Green, Northern Groups Co-ordinator Hertfordshire Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 0151 291 5734 Weald of Kent Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator HGS Max and Jane Dickson 020 8385 3070 Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 01892 541026 Esther Rinkoff, Southern Region Co-ordinator Hull Wembley 020 8385 3077 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Laura Levy 020 8904 5527 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) llford Wessex (Bournemouth) Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 Leeds HSFA Child Survivors Association-AJR West Midlands (Birmingham) Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 Trude Silman 0113 2251628 Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437

13 AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS Marriage - AJR HOLIDAY IN " Congratulations to Helena and Stephen MCKK SEDER BOURNEMOUTH Reid on the occasion of the marriage of their Thursday Monday 26 May to Sunday 1 June (6 days) daughter Alison to Barry. 17 April 2008 We are going back to Deaths 12.00 for 12.30 pm Bournemouth this summer It is with great sadness that the AJR marks and will be staying at the Led by Rabbi Katz the death of Carl Flesch (see forthcoming Cliffside Hotel obituary). £ 10.00 per person £400 + £25 single room supplement Rosenduft Ilse. We are devastated by the payable in advance Price includes dinner, bed & breakfast, loss of our dearest friend for 68 years, never transport from and back to Cleve Road NW6, to be forgotten by Martha and Ludwig Levy. First-come-first-served basis lunch on the journey to Bournemouth, Much love to Esther, Peter and children. Please send cheque outings and entertainment in the hotel Memoriam payable to AJR As always, places are limited so book early In .Memory of Martin and Lotte to AJR, 15 Cleve Road, Please call Carol or Lorna on 020 8385 3070 Reichenbach and the other 291 Jewish London NW6 3RL for a booking form inmates of the Judenlager Hellerberg in Dresden, transported to Auschwitz 2-3 March 1943 and mostly murdered there. SWITCH ON ELECTRICS Stone Setting AREYOUONALOW Rewires and all household The Stone Setting in memory of Leo Horn electrical work will take place at 11.30 am on Sunday 30 March INCOME AND IN NEED PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 at Bushey. OF HOMECARE HELP? Mobile: 0795 614 8566 Classified AJR might be able to offer you New buggy and wheel chair available free financial assistance for cleaning, PillarCflre of charge. Contact Susie at AJR Centre, tel 020 gardening and caring. Quality support and care at home 7328 0208. Members vtrho might not Bridge Looking for three partners to form a otherwise be able to afford Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours regular weekly afternoon game. Please homecare please contact: Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care telephone 020 8958 5080. Estelle Brookner, Secretary Convalescent and Personal Health Care Day Centre AJR Social Services Dept Compassionate and Affordable Service Pamela Bloch at the Paul Balint AJR Tel: 020 8385 3070 Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Centre Clothes sale, separates etc. Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA Wednesday 26 March, 9.30-11.45 am. LEO BAECK HOUSE LIS on Freephone 0800 028 4645 * BRID6E DAV & OSfAOND HOUSE Studio 1 Utopia Village Offering expert residential and nursing care 7 Chalcot Road, NWl 8LH AJR CENTRE for refugees and sun^lvors of the Holocaust. MONDAY 28 APRIL 2008 I 24-hour empathetic, knowledgeable care 10.00 om for coffee and biscuits I En suite facilities ACACIA LODGE A 3-course lunch at LOO pm Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron I Activities & outings Continue playing till 3 pm For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent I Shabbat & festivals celebrated Moke up your own four or (Licensed by Borough ol Barnet) come along and meet new people For more information ' Single and Double Rooms. • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. Entrance £5 call Jewish Care Direct • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. To book, please call the Centre on 020 8922 2222 • Nurse on duty 24 hours. • Long and short term and respite, on 0207 328 0208 In partnership with the Otto Schiff Housing Association including trial period if required. Between £400 and £500 per week JEWISH CARE 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours HA^ Home Care 020 8455 1335 other times (jott OSHA Chanty Registration Number 210396 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley Care through quality and Jewish Care Charity Registration Number 802559 London N12 9TB professionalism Celebrating our 25th Anniversary 25 years of experience in providing the Sometimes life is easier highest standards of care in the comfort of your own home with a little bit of help ANA ANA Nursing can provide professional carers ;>. • V and nurses to help with any of your needs. 24 hr service, 7 days a week. Personal care, Respite care, From 1-24 hours f hour to 24 hours care call US on: Registered through the National Care Standard Commission 020 8905 7701 Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 www.colvin-nursing.co.uk

14 AJRJOURNAL MARCH 2008

ms AND mm DIARY - MARCH Michael Newman To 29 March 3 Sisters on Hope Street, a 2007 by Lotte Kramer, published by the new play by Diane Samuels (author of Centre for German-Jewish Studies, Kindertransport). Hampstead Theatre, tel University of Sussex. Venue: Gustave Tuck New chairman for KT Group 020 7722 9301 Theatre, Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL, Following five years' sterling work, 4-5.30 pm Hermann Hirschberger has stood down To 26 March 'Lifelong Impressions: as chairman of the Kindertransport Paintings, Prints and Drawings by Milein Wed 12 Prof Christian Wiese (Sussex), Planning Committee. Although Cosman', Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 'Hans Jonas: Philosophy and Ethics in Hermann will continue to play a key role Rutland Gate, London SW7. Tel Dina a Post-Holocaust World' Centre for Wosner on 020 8371 7371 German-Jewish Studies, Univ of Sussex. in organising the KT Reunion later this Venue: Gustave Tuck Theatre, Institute of year and overseeing the Kinder Survey Mon 3 Mike Faulkner, 'Paul Robeson: His Jewish Studies, UCL, 6.15 pm for 6.45 pm project, Erich Reich has taken over as Turbulent Life, Music and Politics' Club 43 chairman. Erich will be supported in his Mon 17 Ken Baldry, 'The Faust Legend in new role by Rev Bernd Koschland. Wed 5 Prof Jose Arroyo, 'Jewish Identity Music' Club 43 in Body and Soul' In FilmTalk series All of us at the AJR wish to express organised by Leo Baeck Institute and Mon 24 Club 43 No lecture (Easter Monday) our gratitude to Hermann for expertly Wiener Library. Venue: Wiener Library, 7.00 Mon 31 Ms Merilyn Moos, 'The Life of leading and inspiring the Kinder in the pm. Tel 020 7580 3493 Margaret Charlotte (Lotte) Moos: wake of David Jedwab's untimely Mon 10 Dr Dorothea McEwan, 'Facing the Resistance to Nazism and Personal death. Anschluss (the Annexation of Austria by Repression' Club 43 Germany in March 1938)' Club 43 AJR membership success Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square Despite a membership with an average Wed 12 Book launch: Kindertransport, Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans Seelig on age of 82, the AJR was delighted to Before and After: Sixty Poems 1980- 01442 254360 enrol 197 new members in 2007. Although this success did not quite match the previous year's achievement SEARCH NOTKES of 221 new members, we were delighted to welcome many members I am writing a thesis on Austrian women pis to Daniela Torsh, 15 William Street, of the Second Generation and the Child who married British soldiers during the Balmain, NSW, 2041, Australia, tel 0438 Survivors' Association of Great Britain, occupation of Austria and moved with 889 032 (mob), 61 2 9810 5572 (home), as well as survivors from ghettos and them to the UK. I am also looking for info danielati @bigpond.com concentration camps. The AJR's total on British soldiers based in Austria at that I am writing a dissertation on musical membership now stands at 3,202. time who married Austrian women but activities in British internment camps in In contrast with the rest of the AJR remained in Austria. Pis reply to Judith the WW2 era. I am interested in musical membership, just over half of the new Moeslinger, 23 Pauling Road, Headington, activity of any kind. Any info pis to Suzanne members live in the London area - as Oxford OX 38 PU, tel 078264 79309 Snizek-Ubson at [email protected] against 70 per cent who live in London [email protected] and the South-East. Reflecting our In WW2 some refugees to the UK were Dinger sisters Steffi, Trude and Elsa national presence, we have new initially sent for screening to the Royal arrived In London from Vienna in 1938 members in Hull, Gateshead, Cardiff, Victoria Patriotic School (also known and lived in north London. They joined as the London Reception Centre) on Liverpool, Manchester, Kent, Finsbury Park branch of Austrian Society. Wandsworth Common. Anyone with info Cambridge, Surrey, Stirling and the Isle Each married: Steffi became Frocht, Trude on any individuals or other organisations of White. became Spitz (later Spencer), Elsa whose members might have spent time became Mowbray. Any info on them or at this building on arrival in the UK, pis Guest speaker Baroness Neuberger Steffi's husband Uszer/Edi Frucht/Frocht tel Simon McNeill-Ritchie on 07958- Following the successful visit to London pis to Gaby Weiner (nee Frocht) at 657522, [email protected] of AJR members from the North of [email protected] or tel 01786 England and Scotland last November, 462 915 Simon-Wilf, Gisela, born 16.02.20 in Baroness Neuberger will be the guest Hamburg, arrived UK 24.03.39. Lived in speaker at a dinner on 5 March - part Gottschalk, Walter, b. 1920 (?) in Danzig, Leeds and Gloucestershire, last known came by KT to England. His father, of a three-day visit to London for address (August 1946); 6 Andover Street, members living in the South of England Siegfried Gottschalk, died 1930 of scarlet Cheltenham. Any info pis contact Karin and Wales. fever. Grandparents: Helene and Adolf Ohisen, Eppendorfer Weg 154, 20253 We are also delighted to report that Gottschalk; aunt; Martha Gerechter; Hamburg, tel 040 420 1874, last year witnessed a significant increase cousin: Leo Gerechter. Any info pis contact [email protected] Amelie Doege [email protected] - 11 per cent - in the number of My cousin Weldon, Hugh Robert/ attendances at regional group Did you spend part of your childhood in Weinberg, Hans Robert, born 1921 in meetings. These increases are due in the Jewish Children's home at Fehrbelliner Borgholzhausen, Westphalia, went by part to events such as the above- Strasse 92, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin? I have Kindertransport to England and worked mentioned visit to London, but also to published a book about those children as gardener there in Loughborough. the formation of new groups in Radlett, who emigrated to the US and Israel and Interned as an enemy alien, he was Temple Fortune and South London - would like to add the stories of those who deported in July 1940 on the Dunera to and, of course, the excellent choice of settled in the UK. Pis contact me at Sydney, Australia. In September 1941 he entertainment, guest speakers and [email protected] enlisted in the Pioneer Corps of the British outings. Lichtblau, Alice, b. 23 May 1900 in Army, embarking for Liverpool. In 1943 Burggasse, 7'^ district of Vienna, to he joined the Royal Armoured Corps. Any Enquiries seeking advice and clarification Johanna nee Thorsch and Jacob Moses info on him please to Dr Robert A. on Holocaust restitution and compen­ Lichtblau of Vienna. In 1938 Alice worked Weinberg, MIT Ludwig Center for sation matters should continue to be sent as a sales assistant and was living at Molecular Oncology, 9 Cambridge Center, to Michael Newman at Central Office for Holocaust Claims (UK), Jubilee House, Stuckgasse 13 in the 7'" district. She told Cambridge MA 02142, tel 001 617 258 Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 the authorities she was going to England. 5159, fax 001 617 258 5213, Alice was my father's first cousin. Any info 4RL, by fax to 020 8385 3075, or by email [email protected] to [email protected]

IS A|R JOURNAL MARCH 2008

LETTER FROM Newsround ISRAEL German cabinet to visit Israel Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with the members of the German cabinet, are to visit Israel this month to mark Visit to a rubbish dump 60 years since the founding of the Jewish state. The two cabinets are to mong other things, I belong to the plastic sheeting and a further, deeper hold a joint session as an indication of Giving Circle, a group of ladies of layer of earth, thereby enabling plants Germany's close relations with Israel. Aa certain age (most of us recent and trees to grow. Pipes have been thrust retirees) who put a sum of money into the into the rubbish mountain, so that the German citizens honoured for preserving Jewish history kitty at each monthly meeting and at the methane gas it produces can be utilised Johanna Rau, a Protestant pastor who end of the year reach a democTatic decision for productive purposes, such as restored a dilapidated synagogue in the as to which charity, or charities, we will producing electricity for the various central German village of Heubach, a give the money. recycling plants which operate at the site, man who set up a Jewish museum and At our last meeting, due to the good the recently established visitors' centre, another who started a Jewish gene­ offices of one of the members, we were and other useful aims. alogical database are among six taken on a guided tour of the Hiriya The projected park, which is to be called Germans honoured for their efforts to preserve Jewish history. The annual Project. Mention the word Hiriya to any after Arik Sharon, in honour of his support awards are funded by Arthur Obermayer, Israeli and they will wrinkle their noses in for the undertaking, will extend over an a philanthropist from Boston. disgust. Hiriya used to be the site not far area which will exceed Hyde Park in size. Spanish Jews call for new law from Tel Aviv where the rubbish of the An intemational competition was held for punishing Holocaust denial region had been dumped for decades. Over planning the park, and the proposal Spain's Jewish leader Jacobo Israel the years the pile rose ever higher and submitted by the renowned German Garzon has called on the country's higher, eventually reaching mammoth landscape architect Professor Peter Latz parliament to punish the denial of the proportions and stinking to high heaven. was accepted. Work on the implementation Holocaust with imprisonment. Spanish More specifically, the smell penetrated the of the plan is being executed by a team of law had mandated a sentence of up to entire surrounding area, which included professionals in the field from Israel and two years in prison for Holocaust denial, but in November Spain's two main traffic arteries, to the extent that elsewhere, and the park, together with its Constitutional Court ruled that it fell as any vehicle approached the area vehicle attendant recycling projects, is gradually within 'freedom of speech' and would windows would be closed and noses would beginning to take shape. no longer be punishable with jail. be held. This is a long-term undertaking, as the Chinese companies eyeing US As a result of the activity of Dr Martin process of obtaining planning permission, kosher market Weyl, former director of the Israel gaining the co-operation of the various Chinese exporters, facing a US backlash Museum, and several 'green' organisations, municipalities and agencies involved, and, over tainted food products, are turning the site is now in the process of being above all, implementing this ambitious to rabbis to help clean up their act. converted into a gigantic park which will planning and building project, takes time According to the New York-based serve the entire Tel Aviv conurbation. not to mention money. But the project is Orthodox Union, kosher certifications by rabbis have doubled to over 300 in This is an ongoing project that was set in gradually beginning to take shape, and will China in the past two years. According motion several years ago. The initial stage eventually alter the entire character and to a Bloomberg report by Mark Drajem involved ensuring that rubbish was no concept of the surrounding landscape. (brought to our attention by Frank longer dumped on the top of the Drivers no longer have to close their Bright), Chinese exporters are eager to mountain, which dominates the flat windows and hold their noses when they gain access to the $11.5 billion US landscape of the Coastal Plain, instead pass Hiriya, and it is hoped that in three kosher market. digging a huge pit into which it was or four years families will be able to boat Israel says sorry for Beatles ban dumped before being loaded onto larger on the artificial lake, picnic on the lawns, Israel has apologised for banning the trucks and taken to a landfill site in the and stroll in the shade of the myriads of Beatles from the country in the 1960s south of the country. trees and shrubs that will be planted there. as a supposed threat to the morals of the nation's youth. Visiting the Beatles The hill was covered with earth, so that A cycle path has already been created, and museum in Liverpool, Israel's the stench ceased to pervade the it is merely a matter of time before this Ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, surrounding countryside. Plans for the visionary project comes into being. handed a letter of apology to Julia future include covering the entire site with Dorothea Shefer-Vanson Baird, sister of the late John Lennon, expressing regret over the 1963 snub.

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

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