VOLume 13 NO.3 march 2013 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

Lessons for UKIP from Germany and Austria

robably the most striking shift dissatisfied with the governing party of the to gain parliamentary representation and in the fortunes of British politi- day but cannot bring themselves to vote political power than one from the right of P cal parties recently has been the for the main opposition party. The Liberal the political spectrum. (Or indeed from rise in support for the United Kingdom Democrats learnt to play that role skilfully, the left: who remembers the success of Independence Party (UKIP), which now presenting themselves as a centre party the British Green Party at the European matches the Liberal Democrats in the attractive to disillusioned voters from parliamentary elections of 1989, when it opinion polls. UKIP also did well at the both Tory and Labour camps. The Social secured 15 per cent of the vote, far ahead last set of parliamentary by-elections and Democrat/Liberal Alliance took off in the of the Social and Liberal Democrats?) It is should perform strongly at next year’s 1980s, when the gulf between the right- important to differentiate between right- elections for the European Parliament. wing policies of the Thatcher government leaning ‘third parties’ like UKIP and par- That said, UKIP has come nowhere and the left-wing course of the Labour ties of the far right, like the Front National near winning a by-election, as the Social in France, Golden Dawn in Greece or the Democrats and the Social Democrat/Lib- BNP in Britain. The latter are parties that eral Alliance repeatedly did in the 1980s, are effectively excluded from government enabling the Liberal Democrats, their as they are not considered potential coali- successors, to break through to become a tion partners by the democratic parties of major political player. As for the European both right and left. elections, which the British electorate In Germany, one of the abiding features traditionally uses to give the government of politics has been the presence of a of the day a good kicking, they are a no- centrist, liberal third party, the Free toriously poor indicator of a party’s likely Democrats (FDP), in almost all the performance at the next general election; governments that have ruled West one can in any case question the value to Germany since 1949 and the united UKIP of success in elections to a parlia- Guido Westerwelle, leader of Germany’s FDP Germany since 1990. This is largely due ment that it openly despises. to Germany’s system of proportional The key to success for UKIP and all Party under Michael Foot opened up an representation, which has ensured that other English-based parties is to win inviting gap in the centre of British politics no party has gained a majority of seats seats at Westminster, and there UKIP that a third party could exploit. But since in parliament and been able to govern has so far failed and looks like continuing 2010 the Liberal Democrats have been in without coalition partners, with the sole to fail, as it did at the general election of government themselves and can no longer exception of the period 1957-61, when 2010. When Nigel Farage, the leader of appeal to those voters who would wish a Konrad Adenauer’s Christian Democrats UKIP and its only high-profile candidate, plague on both the government and the (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, stood against the Speaker of the House of Labour opposition. the CSU, held an overall majority. This Commons in 2010, he was easily defeated, UKIP has undoubtedly benefited from has given the FDP a crucial role in even though the Speaker by convention the unpopularity of the present govern- balancing between the two main parties, does not campaign and might therefore ment, especially as Labour, the principal the CDU/CSU on the right and the Social be seen as the softest of targets. And that opposition party, has yet to rebuild its Democrats (SPD) on the left. In 1969, defeat occurred soon after UKIP’s strong appeal to uncommitted voters after its when the FDP agreed to form a coalition showing at the European elections of 2009, defeat in 2010. But UKIP is plainly a with the SPD, the CDU/CSU had to when it scored 16.5 per cent of the vote, party of the right, standing to the right relinquish its position as a governing coming ahead of Labour and second only of the Conservatives on key issues like party for the first time in the history of to the Conservatives. immigration and education. An analysis West Germany; conversely, when the UKIP shows every sign of becoming of election results from Germany and FDP split with the SPD in 1982, it formed the party of protest, the ‘third party’ Austria since 1945 demonstrates that a part of a new coalition with the CDU/ that picks up votes from those who are third party of the centre is better placed continued overleaf  AJR JOURNAL march 2013

 Lessons for UKIP continued Reception at the CSU, as junior partner in Helmut Kohl’s two major parties and ‘third parties’ were Austrian Embassy government. squeezed out. Secondly, however, the very To commemorate the 75th Only rarely have there been coalitions closeness of the electoral battle between Anniversary of the Anschluss that have excluded the FDP. The prime the ÖVP and the SPÖ, as it developed from examples are the periods 1966-69 and the late 1940s, compelled both parties to Wednesday 13 March 2013 at 6.30 pm 2005-09 when a Grand Coalition of CDU/ compete for the votes of uncommitted vot- CSU and SPD held power. These were by ers, many of whom were not moderates or His Excellency Ambassador their very nature temporary governments liberals but people suspected of pro-Nazi Emil Brix will host a reception for AJR members that ended at the next general election, sympathies who had initially voted for the Refreshments will be provided. as soon as one of the two big parties so-called ‘Independents’, the Verband der For catering and security purposes, could form a coalition with the FDP, as Unabhängigen. places must be reserved. Willy Brandt’s SPD did in 1969 and as Consequently, the ‘third parties’ that The AJR will be providing transport. Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU did in 2009. have influenced the government of Austria Pick-up points and timings will be The great exception in German politics have often had a troubling component confirmed once all applications are received. was the period 1998-2005, when Gerhard from the far right. The Freedom Party Schröder led a governing coalition of the (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ), Please contact Susan Harrod SPD and the Greens, a purely left-wing founded in 1956, was twice led by ex- on 020 8385 3078 or at government. But that government was SS men, most notably Friedrich Peter, [email protected] hardly a model of socialist radicalism party chairman from 1958-78. The Social since its major achievement was arguably Democrat Bruno Kreisky, the outstanding Wolfgang Schüssel’s ÖVP. But at the the institution of measures to reform the chancellor of post-war Austria and a Jew, elections of 2002 the FPÖ lost almost German economy, the Hartz reforms that notoriously developed friendly relations two thirds of its vote and in 2005 it split, contributed so notably to the renewal of with Peter and the FPÖ, which supported with Haider forming his own party, the German economic competitiveness. Kreisky when he headed a minority BZÖ (Alliance for the Future of Austria); In Germany, the parties that stand to government after the SPÖ’s success at the BZÖ left government following its the right of the CDU/CSU have been the polls in 1970. With the election of a electoral defeat in 2006. Haider’s death excluded from government. The NPD, genuine liberal, Norbert Steger, as party in 2008 deprived the BZÖ of its principal in particular, often seen as neo-Nazi in chairman in 1980, the FPÖ seemed to electoral asset, condemning it to long-term sympathy, has been kept at the margin be rejecting its right-wing past and to be decline, while the FPÖ, under Heinz- of German politics. The same is true of transforming itself into a centrist ‘third Christian Strache, remains too extreme the left, if one counts Joschka Fischer’s party’. to be a potential partner in a coalition Greens as moderates on the basis of their But that process was put sharply into government. All in all, a story that offers performance in government in 1998-2005. reverse when Steger was replaced in 1986 little hope to ‘third parties’ from the right. The great success among the German by Jörg Haider, who steered the party Anthony Grenville third parties has unquestionably been the back onto a right-wing course. Haider FDP, operating from the centre and able to was a charismatic figure whose appeal AJR/British Academy switch between potential coalition parties extended well beyond the traditional funding appeal to its right or to its left. support base of the far right. He was that The joint appeal by the AJR and In Austria, however, the course of exceptional figure, the leader of a ‘third the British Academy to support politics since 1945 has differed from party’ from the right who led it to electoral academic research in the arts and that in Germany in two important re- success, albeit briefly. After his party’s social sciences has so far raised over £16,000 from 124 donors. That so spects. Firstly, the two main parties, the spectacular success in the elections of many AJR members have responded Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) on the 1999, it entered government alongside to the appeal is a moving tribute right and the Sozialdemokratische Partei AJR Chief Executive to their continuing commitment to Österreichs (SPÖ) on the left, drew on Michael Newman education and scholarship. almost equal shares of electoral support Directors On the basis of this support from Carol Rossen in the early post-war decades. To avoid the the former refugees from Nazism, David Kaye the British Academy will approach ruinous conflict between their predeces- Head of Department other potential donors in the Jewish Sue Kurlander Social Services sors that had so disastrously destabilised community. Further donations, AJR Journal Austria in the interwar period, the two gov- Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor addressed to Jennifer Hawton at erned together from 1947 until 1966 (and Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor the British Academy, 10-11 Carlton Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements for periods subsequently) in a coalition House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, and made out to the British that extended throughout Austrian public Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not Academy, are of course welcome. life, in a system known as the Proporz. The necessarily those of the Association of Jewish Anthony Grenville spoils of power were shared between the Refugees and should not be regarded as such.

2 AJR JOURNAL march 2013

A MORNING AT THE MOVIES A pointless topic Tuesday 30 April 2013 10.30 am for 11.00 am start (prompt) s for your Letters pages, what deeply for she was steeped in German ‘Song for Marion’ a pointless topic this feeling culture and considered herself just as At the Everyman Cinema, Belsize Park A British, Jewish or otherwise is! German as any non-Jew. How subjective! Instead of keeping out Almost half a year later, at some hotel of it, however, I am now quite happily in Bath, she was asked by one of the (or unhappily) airing my views. guests ‘Are you a follower of Hitler?’ Starring Terence Stamp and Vanessa When I was quite little and still in People were so abysmally stupid – she Redgrave and directed by Ken Marshall, the thrust of ‘Song for Marion’ is that the Fürth, Germany, although fully aware had no patience for that. joy of life is to truly live it. This sentiment that I was Jewish I also considered In the summer of 1933, on the point is underscored by terrific performances myself a German. My Jewishness was of leaving Nazi Germany, as she was from the entire cast and deliciously my religion, just as there were entering the station building in undercut by Stamp’s piercing gaze, which gives nothing and everything away. Protestants and Catholics, all Nuremberg, my mother was This is an exclusive showing for the AJR. born in Germany. Then, admittedly accosted by some female The Everyman is a state-of-the-art cinema, as I grew a little older, I I am a selling small badges or with luxurious seating. We are delighted began to realise that artificial flowers to to be able to offer seats at £5 per person. there was a bit more loyal British pin on one’s label The cinema is opposite Belsize Park Tube to being Jewish than subject but I do not in aid of some so- Station. just a religion. Didn’t called good cause For further details. please contact we also look a bit pretend to feel British. (obviously a Nazi Susan Harrod at [email protected] or on 020 8385 3070 different, maybe I feel exactly what I am one like all of them) talk a bit different? – a Franconian-born and snapped ‘Are Hitler and the Nazis you so poor at your spring grove also contributed to Jewess. Our birthplace racial studies (then London’s Most Luxurious this realisation. does rub off on us whether a subject taught in RETIREMENT HOME In 1933, when some schools) that we admit it or not, as do, 214 Finchley Road I was in my second you can’t tell the London NW3 year at school (in difference between albeit to a lesser degree,  Entertainment  Activities Nuremberg by then), a Jew and an Aryan?’ all the places where  Stress Free Living one of the girls in my Thereupon my father  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine class, whose father was we have lived. told my mother off for  Full En-Suite Facilities Jewish, arrived in school endangering us all. Had Call for more information or a personal tour quite flustered one day, the woman reported us, we 020 8446 2117 announcing loudly that on her could have been stopped from or 020 7794 4455 way to school someone had shouted leaving the country at the last moment. [email protected] ‘Juden stinken’ after her but that she And then …. had shouted back that she wasn’t I am a loyal British subject but I Jewish. (We met her and her family a do not pretend to feel British. I feel year later on holiday in Bled, the famous exactly what I am – a Franconian-born JACKMAN . lakeside resort in Slovenia, formerly part Jewess. Our birthplace does rub off on of Yugoslavia, where we had emigrated. us whether we admit it or not, as do, SILVERMAN COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS I hope they weren’t caught up in the albeit to a lesser degree, all the places Holocaust.) where we have lived. While at school in Maribor (Slovenia) My family’s ancestors all come from during my first year in that country, my south Germany for as many generations form mistress, filling in a questionnaire, as we can trace back. Talking in our own asked each child their citizenship and local dialect still comes quite naturally to Telephone: 020 7209 5532 nationality. I didn’t quite know the me even after all this time and I’d never [email protected] difference – I still don’t to this day – and pretend to be what I am not. replied ‘German’ to both, at which the A Jewish girl from Frankfurt we met teacher looked at me slightly puzzled at the hotel opposite Tring Station, and remarked ‘I think you should have where we spent three years during the Annely Juda Fine Art 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) replied “Jewish” rather than “German” War, changed the way she was holding Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 to the second question!’ Maybe the her knitting needles to the way it’s CONTEMPORARY PAINTING term ‘nationality’ meant ‘ethnicity’ to done in England, which to us looks AND SCULPTURE them! most awkward in comparison with Right at the start of the War – we the Continental way. My husband’s switch on electrics were in England by then – my mother stepfather got himself a pipe when he Rewires and all household was asked by someone ‘Are you a real came to this country thinking it looked electrical work German?’, implying that Jews weren’t more British. I am just so different! PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 ‘proper’ Germans. The question hurt her Margarete Stern Mobile: 0795 614 8566

3 AJR JOURNAL march 2013 A doughty volunteer – the papers of Greta Burkill

he University of Cambridge Library to be found for her. Mrs Burkill reports that difficult to visit children in rural areas and is a forbidding place – a vast 1930s if Susie will have her meals at the college, the work of obtaining welfare reports had Tedifice of learning containing millions ‘possibly she could live with Mrs. Grigg.’ been hampered. There is a report of a of books, papers and documents. Buried This is the level of detail – the small, group of German-Jewish refugee children deep within the Manuscript Room on everyday facts of surviving in a foreign who landed in May 1940 after the invasion the third floor is the collection of private country far away from one’s family, of Holland as well as a report about re- papers donated to the Library by the family many of whom these children will never emigration: ‘896 children left the country of Greta Burkill, the doughty volunteer see again – that makes these papers so during the year 1940. 761 went to the who did so much to help rescue and find compelling. They reveal an overworked USA, 51 to the British colonies …’ There a new life for so many ‘Kinder’. committee of volunteers struggling to is acknowledgement that these young Having received permission from the look after the many needs of the Jewish people will have difficulty in finding a ship surviving Burkill family, I filled in my refugee children. to take them to their new homes. application to work on ‘Add 8433’, the Opening these boxes is like opening The report notes that by 1941 great papers themselves. I am investigating Aladdin’s cave. What lies within? The progress may be made in the area of reli­ the work of Mrs Burkill with a view to a Burkill papers have not been catalogued gious instruction: ‘The cooperation of the community history project in Cambridge. or transcribed. And so on to another Jewish religious organisations has been After a wait of 15 minutes, the librarian two boxes: card indexes of children and obtained and will be the greater service wheeled in a trolley containing a half young people in the care of ‘Region 4’ for the 9534 children under the care of dozen boxes of papers – an insight into (East Anglia). The cards are arranged the Movement. Each child should receive the work of Mrs Burkill and her colleagues alphabetically according to surname. I instruction in the faith in which it was on the Cambridge Refugee Committee. haven’t counted them but there must brought up. And no child should change Though I am still working through be several hundred. As an example, one religion without every possible effort the boxes, the first one reveals a series card is for: made to ascertain the views of the parents of handwritten minute books. These MANASSE HELGA or near relatives.’ In practice, of course, provide a fascinating insight into the way Mvt number 64787 this was more aspiration than reality. the volunteer helpers looked after the Born 26.12.24 The next separate file concerns the children in their care. There are letters Guarantor: B’nai Brith fate of one Erik Neumann, who had come from local people incensed by the events Address 11 Little Youngs, Welwyn Gdn to England from Germany in 1939. His of Kristallnacht and offering whatever help City Herts. Gone 11 9 41 to Region 3. parents were of Polish nationality and, they can. One Alison Wood wrote to the Address of origin: Berlin Rolandufer, 9 though he wished to join the RAF, he was Committee: Nationality: German not allowed to do so; he joined instead the Is there anything in Cambridge where Religion: Jewish Polish air force under RAF command. The I could help with refugees? I would be Address of parents etc: Edwin and documents concern his attempts to obtain very glad to help with correspondence, Lucie M.s.a. naturalisation as a British citizen. After collecting clothes, knitting, cooking or The ‘movement’ referred to here is the War he is clearly thwarted by official anything else within reason …. Perhaps if likely to be the Refugee Children’s Move- red tape and one can read increasing you know any refugees who are lonely and ment (RCM). It was not usual for a Jewish frustration both on his and Greta Burkill’s would be glad of occasional hospitality. I organisation such as B’nai B’rith to act as part. She has clearly helped him to get a should be very glad to invite them round that all-important guarantor. Although place at one of the Cambridge colleges and here and try and help them to feel more we can’t discern too much about Helga, he has done very well – he was something at home in their new surroundings. it is clear that she was 15 going on 16 at of a war hero. His plane was shot down I had really meant to go winter sporting the outbreak of war. She initially stayed over Germany and he was taken prisoner. with some German friends on their holiday with the foster carers in Welwyn but was He managed to escape no fewer than six but since the terrible persecutions began sent, perhaps in 1941, to Region 3. What times, the last occasion being successful. it seemed heartless in the extreme to go happened to her parents? The documents show that he made his to Germany for pleasure. So I should like if In the next box is a collection of separate way to Switzerland and then on to join possible to do something for the refugees. manila files. The rules of the Manuscript the French resistance. He was awarded The concern for the Jewish refugees Room state that these can only be the Polish equivalent of the VC. Despite is reflected in the official minutes. One ­accessed individually. A long process. The all this, British officials dragged their feet records a meeting at the Burkill house in first has a handwritten title: ‘REFUGEES for years before giving him citizenship of Chaucer Road, Cambridge, at 11.00 am MOVEMENT 1938-45’. It contains the this country. Frustratingly, the documents on 1 November 1939. Many references are RCM’s second annual report, 1939-40, don’t tell us what happened to him. Did he made to a Susanne (Susi) Bernstein, whom and some typewritten notes relating to get his British citizenship? Perhaps readers many reader of this journal will know as training issues. can help me. ­Susanne Medas, a very active lady and The annual report states that ‘… I have only started to explore these ­family friend of Sir Nicholas Winton. during 1940 the greatest expenditure papers and hope to report on the various In the minute book, Mrs Burkill reports of energy was directed to bringing the files and boxes in a subsequent article. that a lady from Homerton College in children to this county and its work was Mike Levy Cambridge has agreed ‘to see Susi … to care for their every need – maintenance, with regard to training for nursery school education, religious teaching, health, Mike Levy is a playwright and director work’. At a subsequent meeting, it is training, employment … – emigration of Keystage Arts and Heritage Ltd, a reported that there will be no more room and all the subsidiary care which each of Cambridge-based organisation devoted to in the college for Susi to live in; she will these entails.’ bringing history to life through theatre and continue as a student but a home will have The report notes that it was especially the arts – www.keystage-company.co.uk

4 AJR JOURNAL march 2013 Days of the Dorice

often lose myself in lovely thoughts, Kalbsleberwurst and they read a special while enjoying cakes and lovely food. in memories, of the childhood days I little newspaper (I later learned it was I remember drinking lemon tea in tall Ispent with my Oma and Opa. I always the AJR Information). Their home was glasses with silver handles – as a child knew my grandparents were special – a vast collection of … things – nothing this was a real treat. People here were for a start they had eloped! thrown away because my Oma needed united in their language, home life and My Oma was Jewish, my Opa was it, a treasure trove for me to play in. How experience of loss, yet to me they were not. They met in Berlin and neither very lucky I was to be raised in such a all aunts and uncles who had known me family was happy, but their love for each Continental atmosphere whilst still very since birth. I loved the way they spoke, other spoke volumes and they married aware of my British roots and how lucky their accents, their everything. I went in 1933. I am happy to say both families I was to be here. from table to table talking to everyone. changed their minds and in 1935 my I stayed with my Opa and Oma I was spoilt by love and attention. mother was born. often. I even had my own room but There was an unspoken sense to me of I knew they had got out of Germany always ended up snuggled up in their being totally protected by them. They with many strokes of luck and the sheer bed. I went many, many, many times to all saw the next generation, the Jewish determination of my Opa – but that’s daughter of two refugee parents and another story. They spoke German at four refugee grandparents. After home – none of my friends’ families all they had lost and suffered, here spoke German. My Oma also had a very skipping around in front of them was strong German accent and my friends the next generation! So I spent a lot sometimes found it hard to understand of time at the Dorice or Schmitts or her. Also, my brother and I called them in the homes of my grandparents’ Oma and Opa – again, none of my friends, afternoons spent watching friends had an Oma or Opa – they had them playing Kalooki whilst pretending Grandmas and Grandpas or Nannies or to be their waitress. Nannas .... Next to the Dorice was Lessiter’s I knew they had been very poor chocolate shop. This was my second when they arrived here as refugees favourite place. Occasionally my Opa in 1939, especially when my Opa had would take me there and let me choose been interned and was then in the a marzipan animal. This wasn’t easy as British Army, and my Oma threw very there were a lot of animals to choose little away – she carried her world in from. The marzipan was always put her handbag, which was very heavy. She in a little gift box and I felt very lucky. always wore an apron in the kitchen, Incidentally, I rarely ate the marzipan. The author’s grandparents with her brother with pockets full of things. She cooked Adam at his barmitzvah, 1980 We also went to the Cosmo often. To amazing, delicious food like Eintopf ... have been able to spend time in these with lamb, potatoes and green beans, the Dorice on Finchley Road. Every week places with these amazing people is a amazing potato pancakes, and fish balls we headed from Edgware to the Dorice. privilege; my childhood was enriched by like no others. And her chicken soup was I knew the way with my eyes shut but knowing them, and the love I felt from the best I’ve ever tasted. When I was a the smell of roasting coffee beans them was great. child I called it ‘Edgware soup’ because meant we were almost there: on the For many years my grandparents had they lived in Edgware. I ate all the giblets corner of Finchley Road and Broadhurst a lodger living with them, a lady called and my brother and I would count how Gardens was a coffee shop that sold Elsa Rosenbaum. She too was a refugee many eggs we each had. and ground coffee beans for you. from Germany, a spinster, and I spent Their home was a warm, safe, secure John Barnes was a place we shopped a lot of time with her. Looking back, place. Often they had friends over for in often. I still remember the wooden I probably drove her mad, knocking tea/coffee and cakes, all fellow refugees escalators there and particularly the on her door and asking to play. She from Germany or Austria. So I had many haberdashery department. As my Opa had a two-ring tiny cooker and oven wonderful people who were like aunts was a tailor we went there often for in her room and as a child I loved it. and uncles to me. Their home was full cottons etc. There was also a Polish So I pretended to cook her dinner. She of lovely smells too ... amazing food, deli we went to a lot, near Ackermans was always so kind to me and I loved Youth Dew perfume, Elnet hairspray, chocolate shop. When my Oma arrived her lots. plus both cigar and cigarette smoke, in London in 1939, and during the war, Elsa Rosenbaum, Edith Klausner, Pledge furniture polish and coffee she worked at the 45 Club behind John Hannah Horowitz, Max and Finni Bellak, percolating (I can still remember the Barnes as a waitress. Suzie Weiss, Edith Nitze, Morris and noise the coffee made, dripping through Walking from the coffee shop to the Ruth Golden ... just spending time with the white filter papers) and no doubt a Dorice, we passed Sainsbury’s and Du these people is an enormous privilege. cake baking in the oven too. The table Du Du, a ladies clothes shop. Entering They enriched my life and I will always all laid beautifully, awaiting guests. the Dorice was like entering another remember them – happy, sat round my They drank peppermint tea before world – warm, welcoming, full of grandparents’ table playing cards and bedtime and slept under duvets, while familiar, smiling faces, a world in which chatting. To me, to be Third Generation all my school friends still used sheets I fitted perfectly. Here was a place where is an honour. and blankets. They ate dark bread and fellow refugees could relax and talk Lauren Collins

5 AJR JOURNAL march 2013

barmitzvah. In the event, I was taught the alphabet and two blessings for the Torah reading. I shared that ‘special’ day with another boy who was being barmitzvahed. He had been taught the full portion; I said my two blessings. Towards the end of the service we stood in front of the pulpit while the minister The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence explained that now we were men, we submitted for publication must participate in the community and be proud of our Judaism. The president of the congregation presented the other boy with two inscribed prayer books; I ANGLO-JEWRY AND THE REFUGEES belong but, though they helped us and got nothing. The other boy went home to Sir – Antony Grenville, in his leading article we appreciated this, they did not seem lunch and a party of friends and relatives; ‘Anglo-Jewry and the Jewish Refugees to realise our most basic human need I went home to lunch with my parents. from Nazism’ in your December 2012 – to be welcomed and made to feel we An ex-banker from Vienna, who had issue, described in great detail how much belonged to a group of like-minded worked as an odd job man and gardener British Jewry did in terms of financial and people. This made a lot of us join Young in the UK, unfortunately died just after the administrative assistance for us Jewish Austria with its left-wing background. war. He too had been refused synagogue refugees, wanting to point out to us that We dressed up ‘girls in dirndls and boys membership because he couldn’t afford it. we really shouldn’t complain that they in leather shorts’ and agreed to try to He was barred from the Jewish cemetery didn’t welcome us on a personal level. whitewash Austria’s persecution of us unless his widow came up with the full This reminded me of the Bangladesh Jews for it gave us a sense of belonging. fees. My father organised a collection floods, when the UN helpers took people We also attended the generous parties around all the refugee community and who were hanging down from trees and to which the Quakers invited us where he was given a decent Jewish funeral. settled them safely in tents and thought we listened to Mozart, Schubert, Strauss Sadly, there are as many stories of Anglo- this was all these people needed. However, etc, music which brought tears to our Jews’ rejection of their Central European having hung from a tree for some time, eyes. Unfortunately, we were not invited co-religionists as there are of help given they had become traumatised. To be put to participate in any synagogue service by some – and more by compassionate into a safe condition wasn’t enough for or Oneg Shabbat. If they had made us gentiles. them – they needed the warmth of a feel welcome I might have become an Bob Norton, Nottingham human relationship. Orthodox Jewish woman instead of an Similarly, when I came to England in active member of Young Austria. Sir – In your article you say ‘Saving the 1939 as a 17-year-old after a dangerous Eventually, I was fortunate in marrying young was a priority for Anglo-Jewry’. escape from Vienna through Yugoslavia an exceptional young man who came However, I would like to point out that it and Albania and a terrifying flight via from an Orthodox Jewish background and was actually the Quakers who arranged Germany, I much appreciated the formal who taught me to keep a kosher home. the Children’s Transport. They went to the help I received. I registered at Bloomsbury He also gave our daughters a Jewish House of Commons to do so. The Jewish House, where I was given a list of job identity. This gave me at last the feeling of Board of Guardians was more interested opportunities. This buried my dream belonging to the Jewish community that I in finding kosher homes for the children of becoming a medical doctor and I had lacked. This experience made me give but in many cases the children didn’t come began my working life as a machinist talks to numerous Jewish associations on from kosher backgrounds anyway. in one of the Jewish sweatshops in east the subject ‘From Assimilation to Jewish And, when my book Laugh or Cry, a London. As my wages during the first Identity’ – the opposite direction in which memoir of my journey on the Children’s few weeks weren’t enough to keep me numerous young British Jews are now Transport and afterwards, was published, alive, Bloomsbury House immediately, and moving, to the regret of their elders. I was given no write-up in any Jewish kindly, offered me another 10 shillings Dr. T. Scarlett Epstein OBE, paper, whereas British newspapers a week. Though my life then was quite Hove, Sussex showed much interest and I was even different from what I had expected it to given a number of pages on the BBC be, I was grateful for the help I received. Sir – Your December leading article website. I myself am from a multi-religious But I was like so many other refugees of brought back a few memories. My parents family and had a non-denominational my age who had grown up as assimilated and I arrived in England a few weeks background. Jews feeling we belonged to the country before the War as transit visitors on the Sylvia Hurst, Stanley, in which we were born but were then way to the USA. For various reasons County Durham persecuted because we were Jewish. When we could not proceed to the USA and I was thrown out of the Vienna high school so remained in England after war was Sir – While Anthony Grenville refers because I was Jewish I decided that if ever declared, with permission to stay but not to the German-Jewish refugees, who I got out of Austria and married and had to take up employment. We finished up were assimilated and settled mainly in children, I would try to make sure my impoverished in a south Leicestershire Hampstead, I am sure this applies also to children had a positive Jewish identity, village with my parents working illegally Austrian refugees. which I had lacked. to sustain us. However, I would like to point out that Thus, when I and many other Jewish My father approached the local there was another community of Austrian refugees like myself managed to come to synagogue for membership. As he refugees who settled in north and east England, we desperately needed to find couldn’t afford the fee we couldn’t London. My family lived in Stoke Newing- a group of people to whom we could become members. In 1944 he was given ton, where there was a large community, belong and identify with. British Orthodox permission to work and earned enough most of whom had lived in Vienna’s 2nd Jewry missed a great opportunity by money to join the synagogue so I could District. We had friends from our apart- not reaching out to us. We needed to go to Hebrew classes to study for my ment building who lived in the East End.

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The community was warm and friendly 200,000 Hungarian soldiers and 50,000 The Czechs’ desire for revenge is and, whilst they had some fond memories Jewish forced labourers, about 100,000 understandable – but not commendable of Vienna, most of these had been wiped were killed, 35,000 were wounded and – after the welcome of Hitler’s army by out by the horrors they had undergone. 60,000 were taken prisoners of war. Only many ethnic Germans and the atrocities We were unassimilated and traditional about 40,000 men returned to Hungary. of the occupation. However, particularly Jews; most of us were lower middle class Horthy did know that the war was as Jews, we should never forget that an and we struggled to make ends meet, effectively over for Hungary when on 19 ethnic group is not an undifferentiated but I have nothing but happy memories March 1944 the German army occupied mass, but a collection of individuals who of that time. the country. are humans like us. Thea Valman, London NW11 The most important point for me is that Annette Ray, among the 600,000 Jews who died were Southborough, Kent AJR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL my grandfather in Budapest and all my DAY SERVICE relatives who lived in the country. Sir – I would like to thank you very much Maria Combley, Sir – I refer to the review (December) by again for inviting me to the very tasteful Pinner, Middx Leslie Brent of Orderly and Humane: The and well thought-out memorial service, Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. I was in Prague from June 1938 with the speech of Sir Andrew Burns and IN MEMORY OF THE JEWS to July 1943, followed by Theresienstadt, the prayers being complemented by the OF DRESDEN Auschwitz and a slave labour camp, and children, who sang the beautiful songs Sir – Seventy years have passed since Victor I blame the Sudeten Germans for that so well. I felt very honoured once again Klemperer wrote in his diary (28 February): experience. I then spent autumn to spring to be at Belsize Square Synagogue and I ‘The Hellerberg camp is totally isolated, of 1945-46 in Teplitz/Teplice in the Sudeten enjoyed talking to people I already knew cut off from the world. Evacuation is when the remaining few Jews and Czechs as well as meeting new ones. imminent, expected early 2 March with spoke of the atrocities committed by the Christoph Weidinger, Minister, Deputy an early morning start tomorrow. None Sudeten Germans to the very end and Head of Mission, of them will we ever see again. Gassed if declared how relieved they were that the Austrian Embassy, London not already on the way, then certainly on place was now germanenrein. arrival in Poland.’ HORTHY AND THE HOLOCAUST The Sudeten Germans – actually This is in their memory: 281 Dresden Sir – With reference to Francis Steiner’s Austrians – were traitors, fifth columnists, Jews and my parents Martin and Lotte letter in your February issue, Miklos Horthy and the willing cause of Munich, the Reichenbach, who were murdered on arrived in Hungary and took power as disintegration of Czechoslovakia, and arrival in Auschwitz. governor of the country in 1920. In that the brutal occupation of the Czech lands, Peter C. Rickenback, London NW3 year, his government passed a numerus including Lidice, and they helped to clausus restricting Jewish enrolment in encircle Poland and turn the German idea universities to 5 per cent in order to reflect WIESBADEN JEWISH LAWYERS of a Shoah into reality. the percentage of the Jewish population. Sir – I have just received a wonderful Immediate pre-war Prague was full The Jews were blamed for what were book with very detailed biographies of of Jewish refugees, first from Germany considered the unjust conditions imposed Wiesbaden’s Jewish lawyers, published and Austria, then from the Sudetenland, by the Treaty of Trianon at the end of the in 2011: Wiesbadens juedische Juristen driven out by the Sudeten Germans, who First World War. – Leben und Schicksal von 65 juedische had taken to Nazism like ducks to water. Horthy’s government passed a series Rechtasanwaelten, Notaren, Richtern, Of the four families from the Sudetenland of anti-Jewish measures. The first, on Referendaren, Beamten und Angestellten. in our block of small flats in Prague-Liben, 29 May 1938, restricted the number of I understand this is now out of print. just one young man, Gottfried Bloch, Jews in each commercial enterprise, in The list of names is too long for survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald. The the press, among physicians, engineers printing. If an AJR member has a particular Fantls lived on the floor above us. They had and lawyers, to 20 per cent. The second interest, please send me the name and I fled from Dresden to Teplitz only to have anti-Jewish law was passed on 5 May shall be happy to send photocopies of the to flee from Teplitz to Prague. Three of 1939. For the first time it defined Jews relevant pages. them died in the Auschwitz family camp. racially. People with two, three or four Peter Hallgarten, London NW3, Their son Frederick, my schoolmate at the Jewish-born grandparents were declared [email protected] Jewish school, died on a ‘death march’ on Jewish. Employment in government was 7 May 1945 within sight of the ghetto, forbidden, they could not be editors of LAW OF THE JUNGLE the destination he and his family had left newspapers, and their numbers were Sir – I was saddened to read Eric Bourne’s 20 months earlier. He was one of tens of restricted to 6 per cent among theatre sweeping condemnation of the Sudeten thousands who perished in indescribable and film actors, physicians, lawyers Germans in the January Journal. He has circumstances as a result of the Sudeten and engineers. Private companies were made the mistake, as did the Nazis, of Germans’ voluntary choice of politics. forbidden to employ more than 12 per lumping everyone of the same ethnicity Having done the dirty spadework, their cent Jews. One result was that 250,000 into an indistinguishable group. enthusiasm for incorporation into Hitler’s Hungarian Jews lost their income and My mother and her two siblings were Germany meant that they fell into the pit their right to vote. The third ‘Jewish law’ brought up by a Sudeten German nanny. they had dug for themselves – after all, was passed on 8 August 1941. This law After the war, this unfortunate lady had they were sent heim ins Reich, even if prohibited intermarriage and penalised to hide in the woods with her elderly they had preferred the more barbaric one. intimate relations between Jews and father in fear of her life. She then escaped After they had unleashed a wave of non-Jews. to East Germany, where she led a life of terror on the 30,000 Jewish inhabitants The Hungarian Second Army is probably hardship under the Communist regime. from October 1938 onwards, only 2,373 the best known Hungarian wartime army My mother and aunt escaped before the Jews were left in the whole of the because of the part it played in the Battle outbreak of war and remained devoted Sudetenland by May 1939; they had of Stalingrad. During its 12 months of to this lady, sending food parcels and expelled over 90 per cent of the Jews and activity on the Russian front its losses were occasionally making the difficult journey seized their property. A total of 612 of enormous. Of an initial force of about to see her. continued on page 16 

7 AJR JOURNAL march 2013

layered together to provide a visual and almost tactile experience. But the Dadaist in him did not see REVIEWs A rt things conventionally. A scrap of an Old Master clipping would be edged into the Notes top half of his work: you’d have to squint Eavesdropping on to see it. So newspaper clippings become the enemy Gloria Tessler surfaces, string becomes brushstroke, THE M ROOM: SECRET LISTENERS and pencil stroke becomes line. A wire WHO BUGGED THE NAZIS netting over the painting or pasted on by Helen Fry grease paper becomes varnish and a CreateSpace Independent Publishing he German-Jewish refugee ­artist glass flower poised on a wooden stem Platform, 2012, available Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) was can make you smile. But Schwitters amazon.co.uk, 290 pp. paperback, T shaped by Dadaism and influenced painted portraits too, including one of ISBN 9 781481 020084 a generation of 20th-century European­ the noted painter and print-maker Fred n her latest book, Dr Helen Fry avant garde art, including conceptual and Uhlman. I was captivated by Untitled: describes the important contribution pop art. Lovely Portrait, whose pose suggests Ito winning the War made by a group He achieved this with a simplicity that Rule Britannia. of people who, because of the nature was profound and organic. Everything On entering Britain in 1940 Schwitters of their work, have remained virtually unknown. The ‘M Room’ (the ‘M’ stood could be used. From a spindle to a paper was interned on the Isle of Man but the for microphoned) was the code for a clipping, from a bus ticket to a cotton scarcity of raw materials there only fed secret operation which employed up to his imagination. He tore 1,000 staff, including some 100 listeners up the lino floor to paint on engaged in eavesdropping on captured and made sculpture from enemy soldiers, mainly senior officers porridge. He created over and including 59 German generals. 200 works during his 16 It was necessary to employ listeners months in the camp before with an excellent knowledge of German,­ his release in November including colloquial terms, and with 1941, when he came to the ability to understand various local dialects. The listeners also needed to be London. familiar with recent changes and political­ The fragmentary nature events in Germany. For this reason of wartime city life prompted ­Military Intelligence turned to Austrian him to make collages from and German refugees, many of whom London bus and train tickets had enrolled in the Auxiliary Military and even sweet papers, from Pioneer Corps. The author points out the which he ironically created irony that, after vetting, the recruits had Untitled (Quality Street). to sign the Official Secrets Act and were And yet a deeper message privy to much critical information yet persists: is it the stateless- had to wait several more years before obtaining British nationality! Obtaining ness of the refugee who information, which had been so highly ­gathers up the bits and secret during the War, involved trawling pieces of life to make them through around 100,000 documents in work? In London Schwitters the National­ Archives as well as interview­ ­ Kurt Schwitters En Morn (1947) Centre Georges Pompidou, became a performance artist, ing one of the only two known survivors Musée national d’art moderne, Paris / DACS 2012 producing his most famous of the surveillance teams. The fascinating reel, from a film star poster to an Old work, Ursonate, at the Modern Art Gal- ­stories resulting from this research sug- Master portrait – all the detritus of life lery in December 1944. Critical acclaim­ gest that the effort was well worthwhile. was as useful to him as paint itself. It followed but he failed to make ends meet A major part of the book deals with was all part of a radical concept: Merz. in London. He turned to small, hand-held the German generals and other senior officers. Considering that these people In a new exhibition at Tate Britain, colourful sculptures made of stone, wood were prisoners, they seem to have lived Schwitters in Britain (until 12 May), his and bone, sometimes held together with in reasonable comfort, with their own collages, paintings and sculpture comprise plaster, wire or dried fruit. These small batmen and the freedom to wander everything. Given his history, his use of works challenged the separation between round the grounds of the camp. This rubbish may reflect the fact that his own painting and sculpture. may have helped to make them relaxed art was rubbished as ‘degenerate’ by the In 1945 Schwitters moved to the Lake and chat more freely with their fellow Nazis. District, which evoked memories of prisoners and thus provide material In Germany before he fled to Norway Norway. Making collages from stamps for their eavesdroppers. One of the in 1937, Schwitters created the Merzbau, and envelopes now expressed contact important aspects arising from this a building he constructed in his own with distant friends. And finally he tried material shows that not all the officers were ardent Nazis and that there was home but was forced to abandon. The to complete what he had left unfinished in considerable friction between them Norwegian landscape influenced the Germany – a Merz Barn installation with with respect to their attitude to Hitler abstract and naturalistic forms which he stones, twigs and a cartwheel rim. and the conduct of the War. It was,

8 AJR JOURNAL march 2013 however, not only from high-ranking A vanished world Since he has literally no family at all, officers that useful information was the daughter of his Jewish employer obtained: military personnel at all levels IN THE SHADE OF THE TREES, undertakes to ‘send him off in style’. His often spoke about new equipment and IN THE SHADOW OF THE FLAMES funeral is remembered long after the procedures, sometimes to impress their by Chayim Perl Jews involved have perished. fellow prisoners with their knowledge. Jerusalem 2012, 332 pp. hardcover, Chayim Perl survived Auschwitz, Key information obtained in this way obtainable at Divrei Chayim Books, Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau and included details about German work on 13 St John’s Road, London NW11 0PE, was finally liberated in Bergen-Belsen. the development of rockets and radar. tel 020 8209 1017, and from His descriptions of the day-to-day routine From the point of view of readers of [email protected], in these infamous places often throw this journal, probably the most relevant ISBN: 978-965-91874-0-9 fresh light on what we think we already and interesting information relates to know all too well. Having been interned hile staying with my children their knowledge of the Holocaust. The in Cyprus as an illegal immigrant, he in Jerusalem, I came across a prisoners captured before 1942 and the finally made it to Israel in February 1949 book with a colourful, unusual Wannsee Conference may have been W and was promptly enlisted into the Israel cover for a publication dealing with the unaware of the full intentions of the Defence Forces. Holocaust. My daughter-in-law explained Nazis but generals captured later had In the words of Elie Wiesel, ‘I that it was written by the next-door no such excuse. There are harrowing recommend these memoirs from the neighbour of her grandparents: as a child transcripts of discussions and ­arguments bottom of my heart.’ she had often visited them and knew between officers, with some not be- Judith Moller them well. Now retired, this neighbour lieving ­Germans could carry out such had written a remarkable book, bringing atrocities and with others disapprov- back to life his childhood village in the ing of them but using the excuse of Exhibition Carpathian Mountains, as well as his ‘just carrying­ out orders’. Some of the horrific experiences yet ultimate survival. ­material also referred to mass murders Vive la France? I started to read and could hardly put being carried out by Latvians and Lithu- the book down. I am a Jewish history C’ÉTAIENT DES ENFANTS: anians, perhaps in an effort to shift the teacher and had read countless books DÉPORTATION ET SAUVETAGE DES blame. The effect of the revelations on about these events yet I found the book ENFANTS JUIFS À PARIS (They Were the secret listeners is discussed by the riveting, its tone invariably ringing true. Children: The Deportation and author, but it is not hard to imagine how Here was a survivor who had the gift Rescue of Jewish Children in Paris) frightening it must have been for many of literary writing. He set out to com- Paris, Hôtel de Ville, 2012 who had left relatives behind in Germany memorate his village and its inhabitants his exhibition, held last autumn or the occupied countries. – a vanished world. That is the first part at Paris’s Town Hall as part of In this connection, it is shocking of the book: ‘In the Shade of the Trees’. commemorations marking the 70th to learn that the evidence collected T The second part, ‘In the Shadow of the anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv (Vélodrome through listening to the prisoners was Flames’, documents in astonishing detail d’Hiver) roundup, the mass arrest of not available for use in the war-crime what befell him and his fellow villagers French Jews in July 1942, was organised trials, including Nuremberg. Because of from the day of the Nazi invasion of under the auspices of the mayor of Paris this, many self-confessed perpetrators Hungary on 19 March 1944. (admission free). It was timely in that the were able to escape justice. Even more There is a foreword by Nobel Laureate French have been slow in acknowledging disturbing is that the information could Elie Wiesel, a native of the same region their part in the Holocaust thanks largely perhaps have been used in some way as the author. There is also an extensive to the belief, fostered by General de during the War to stop the atrocities or introduction by the author, providing an Gaulle, that all Frenchmen conducted at least to provide proof to the world of historical survey of the region, Marmarosh themselves with rectitude and even what was happening. It was apparently (Maramures in Romanian), which used heroism during the War and were not feared that acknowledging how the to be part of the Austro-Hungarian tainted by collaboration with the German evidence was obtained could prejudice Empire, and the Jewish presence in this occupiers. future use of this method. underdeveloped agricultural region. I did not see the exhibition but French Unfortunately there is relatively little Perl and the villagers he describes were friends found it deeply moving and sent in the book about the actual personnel devout Jews, living in harmony with their me the English catalogue, which gives a carrying out the eavesdropping. The ma- gentile neighbours. They maintained detailed description of the contents of the jor exception to this is Fritz Lustig, whose their religious traditions whilst engaged exhibition. It recounts the history of mass fascinating story is interlinked with the in a variety of occupations typical of rural arrests by the French police, with tens setting up and development of the M life yet rarely associated with a Jewish of thousands, including many children, Room. Initially, he was interned as an lifestyle. eventually sent to extermination camps ‘enemy alien’ but was eventually ­allowed Through work interaction, we find following a cruel stay in the overcrowded to join the Pioneer Corps. At first, his out a great deal about the gentiles Vel’ d’Hiv. In the notorious round-up contribution to the war effort was as a too. In this respect, the almost pagan of July 1942, almost 14,000 Jews were cello player in the orchestra of the Enter­ ritual of the ‘gathering of the flocks for arrested, many of them children. More tainments Section, but in 1942 he was their communal summer pasture’ in the than half of the 11,400 children deported recruited into the intelligence services forests of the mountains stands out. The from France between 1942 and 1944 as a secret listener. The author also pays orphaned, youthful author witnessed were Parisians. These stark figures are tribute to Colonel Kendrick of Military the unfolding ceremonies as a guest of a reminder that the French police not Intelligence who enabled so many Jewish his regular benefactor to see how a Jew only followed instructions from their refugees to play an active and vital role in was chosen as head of the village herds. German masters but frequently did so the war effort. An interesting account of Also remarkable is the description with alacrity. a little-known aspect of the War. of a funeral, including the traditional The exhibition tells a tragic and George Vulkan keening, arranged for a gentile retainer. Reviews continued overleaf 

9 AJR JOURNAL march 2013 reviews cont. from page 9 moving story. Arrests began as early Many children were separated from their 1941 and 1944 up to 2,000 Parisian as August 1941, at the request of the parents and left to their own devices. children were thus saved. In France as a Gestapo, followed by internment in the On the positive side, the exhibition whole, some 10,000 children were saved notorious Drancy camp in the suburbs of also describes the many attempts to thanks to the existence of the rescue Paris. The first deportation to Auschwitz help and rescue some of the children. networks. The majority of foster families took place in March 1942. Hundreds of By November 1941 Jewish welfare did not attempt to convert the children French Jews were arrested by the German organisations were officially closed but there were exceptions, such as the authorities as a reprisal for attacks by down and a new Union Générale des Sisters of the St Vincent de Paul Convent, members of the Resistance, followed by Israélites de France, which ran children’s who not only converted their charges but deportation. Pierre Laval, head of the homes and clinics, was created under were reluctant to return them to their government at that time, asked that the auspices of the Vichy state. But guardians at the end of the war. children should be arrested alongside many of the welfare organisations – So, once again, we have a picture of their parents, and this was done. Jewish, Christian and secular – continued great cruelty on the part of the state In the Vel’d ‘Hiv round-up, more than to function clandestinely, creating a and the police and the indifference 12,000 Jews, including 4,000 children, nationwide network for the rescue of of the majority of citizens, tempered almost all French, were assembled in children. Some children were smuggled by the brave and selfless actions of the stadium in deplorable conditions into non-Jewish families in Paris and individuals and Catholic organisations that led to epidemics and some deaths. others were taken out of Paris with who, by helping Jews, put themselves at Some were sent to Drancy and others to ‘carers’ paid to look after them. Funding considerable risk. A great many French the Loiret camps, where conditions were came from a variety of sources, much Jews, probably the majority, survived the equally horrendous – gross overcrowding, of it from the American Jewish Joint war. Vive la France after all? poor hygiene, epidemics and starvation. Distribution Committee, and between Leslie Baruch Brent

Distinguished Jewish women converts to Catholicism wo ceremonies which took place in employment of women who had been celebrated philosopher Edmund Husserl January 2012 should be recorded, or ‘temporarily’ employed in men’s work and and soon made a name for herself as a Teven commemorated. Towards the she is credited with having first publicised writer and lecturer. Having accidentally end of that month, for the first time in the phrase ‘equal pay for equal work’. picked up a copy of the autobiography of the centuries-old history of St Stephen`s Hildegard Burjan soon attracted the the 16th-century Carmelite mystic Saint Cathedral in Vienna, there took place a attention of the leaders of the Christlich- Teresa of Avila and read it in one sitting, beatification presided over by a papal Soziale (conservative) party and became she became a Catholic. At around the time legate. The beatification celebrated the a parliamentary candidate and close and of Hitler`s rise to power, she realised her life of an Ordensgruenderin, a woman influential adviser to the party leader and vocation and in 1935 took her solemn who was the founder and superior of a long-time premier, Monsignor Ignaz Seipel. vows as a Carmelite nun under the name community of women in religious vows. Caritas Socialis, the institute she Sr Teresia Benedicta a Cruce. Being an Oddly enough, she was also a wife and founded, was the first to set up mother enclosed nun did not end her career as mother, a combination not seen for and baby homes for unmarried mothers as a published philosophical and eventually centuries, since the days of Queen Birgitta well as clinics for the homeless and is now spiritual writer. In 1938 her order trans- of Sweden. But then, St Bridget was active in, inter alia, helping AIDS victims ferred her from the Carmel in Cologne to a widow by the time she founded the in countries to which its work has spread. one in the Dutch town of Echt. This did Bridgettine Order. Following an impressive legislative not save her life. After the Dutch bishops Three weeks previously, there had been career, for instance in labour legislation, protested publicly against the anti-Jewish a Festsitzung in the lower house of the she retired from parliament after one measures of 1942, Governor Seyss-Inquart Austrian parliament to commemorate session, partly on grounds of failing health retaliated by arresting and eventually de- a politician, social reformer and trade and partly due to difficulties with her porting all Catholics of Jewish origin. It is union organiser who had entered the own party colleagues based not solely on disingenuous – if not worse – to describe parliament of the new Austrian republic jealousy regarding her influence over the Edith Stein as a martyr for the Catholic as the first conservative woman deputy. party leader but also on anti-Semitism. She Church, as some Catholics misguidedly did Even more strangely, the two ceremonies died in 1933 aged 50; in 1938 her husband when she was canonised: she died quite had commemorated the same woman: escaped the Holocaust by fleeing to Brazil, consciously as a victim of the Holocaust. It Hildegard Burjan. where he survived her for over 40 years. is reported that when they were arrested Hildegard Burjan, born Hildegard Her only daughter died fairly recently in she turned to her sister Rosa with the Freund in Saxony in 1883, studied her nineties. words ‘Gehen wir für unser Volk.’ philosophy and politics in Switzerland and If Hildegard Burjan’s life offers unusual The similarities and contrasts in the Hungary, married the Hungarian Alexander features, it is perhaps odder that her life lives of these two women present a vast Burjan and settled down with him in overlapped with that of another Jewish array of unexpected events and features. Vienna, where he became a successful woman, who had a distinguished career, Even more improbably, there was at the industrialist. Following an unexpected, became a Catholic and was to rise to even same time a Jewish woman philosopher not to say miraculous, cure from a higher canonical honours in the Catholic who prayerfully studied the work and life-threatening illness, she converted Church: Edith Stein. But there is one major doctrines of the Catholic Church but who to Catholicism and began to work on difference: Blessed Hildegard died of a quite deliberately decided not to accept social problems, including the wretched kidney disease; St Edith Stein died in the baptism. The writings of the Free French conditions of women home workers and gas chambers of Auschwitz. exile Simone Weil, who died in London the discrimination suffered by women Edith Stein was born in 1891 in Breslau in 1943, irritated General de Gaulle but in pay differentials and employment into a liberal Jewish family and studied have influenced two recent popes. But regulations in the public service. During philosophy at the universities of Breslau, that is, I think, really beyond the scope of the First World War she was already active Göttingen and Freiburg. She became a this journal. in fighting for the right to permanent disciple, and eventually assistant, of the Francis Steiner

10 AJR JOURNAL march 2013

Building a Bridge Return of ‘Double Exposure: Holocaust Memorial Day service Jewish Refugees from Austria he AJR’s annual Holocaust Memorial Reform Synagogue. in Britain’ on the 75th Day (HMD) service took place at Members attended the 13th Annual anniversary of the Anschluss Belsize Square Synagogue under Holocaust lecture at Glasgow University. T aving being shown at the this year’s national theme ’Communities The lectures were established by AJR Austrian Cultural Forum London, Together: Build a Bridge’. member Otto Hutter. This year’s lecture, the Literaturhaus in Vienna, and Guest speaker Sir Andrew Burns, UK by Professor Wendy Lower, was entitled H Aberystwyth Arts Centre, the exhibition Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues and ‘I Wanted to Prove Myself to the Men: ‘Double Exposure’ is returning to former British Ambassador to Israel, said German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields London and will be at the London there were three international fora which of Europe’. Jewish Cultural Centre from 12 March engaged his attention: the International Glasgow and Edinburgh members were to 11 April 2013. Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which guests of honour at the Scottish National On 20 March 2013 at 6-8 pm there promotes education and research; Holocaust Memorial Commemoration will be a Private View, with honoured the International Commission of the at Glasgow’s City Chambers, which was guests Dr Elisabeth Koegler, Director International Tracing Service – the huge addressed by Scotland’s Deputy First of the Austrian Cultural Forum, and archives at Bad Arolsen in Germany which Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Sir Erich Reich, Chairman of the AJR’s hold the records of the concentration Liverpool Kindertransport Special Interest Group. camps as well as the correspondence AJR members attended an event at the All AJR members are invited. If you tracing displaced people and bringing Museum of Liverpool, where Michael would like to attend, please email families back together again; and the Swerdlow gave a history of the Merseyside Sarah Gluckstein on [email protected] European Shoah Legacy Institute in Jewish community, which was followed by or telephone her on 020 8457 5013. Prague, whose objective is to resolve presentations by AJR members Eric Cohen 7 April 2013 at 4.30 pm: Film Screen- remaining issues of looted Holocaust-era (Second Generation) and Inge Goldrein ing and Panel Discussion assets. Sir Andrew added that there was a (KIndertransport). Following the screening of ‘Double renewed effort, led by the Czechs and the Speakers at the annual HMD service at Exposure’ (50 minutes), there will be Israelis, to look again at what can be done Liverpool Town Hall included AJR members a panel discussion with the film maker to improve the social welfare of Holocaust Sonia Strong on the Stolpersteine and and curator Dr Bea Lewkowicz and survivors around the world. Anita Canter on the survival of the Danish some of the interviewees who feature in The Akiva School Choir also took a community. her film, including Ernst Flesch, Henry prominent part in the event, which was Sonia Strong, Dr John Goldsmith and Ebner and Elly Miller. The discussion, held in the presence of, among others, Hana Eardley spoke to pupils at the Junior chaired by Dr Anthony Grenville, will representatives of the Austrian Embassy Schools Parliament at Liverpool Town Hall. focus on the experiences of the Jewish in London and the German organisation Manchester refugees from Austria, both in Vienna Action Reconciliation Service for Peace. Inge Goldrein spoke on Radio Manchester and in their adopted home in Britain, The service was led by Rabbi Stuart and AJR Director Joanna Millan at Man- and explore their identities and their impact on British culture and society. Altshuler and the event was introduced chester Jewish Museum. Please book at the London Jewish by AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman. Chester Cultural Centre, Ivy House, 94-96 Among HMD activities held around Members attended an event at the North End Road, London NW11 7SX, the country in which AJR members Catholic High School addressed by Lady telephone 020 8457 5000. Opening participated were: Milena Grenfell Baines. times for the exhibition vary. For Glasgow Widnes further details, visit the LJCC website Steven Anson gave an emotional account Eric Cohen and Inge Goldrein spoke at www.ljcc.org.uk of his family history at an event at the Wade Deacon School.

Kindertransport 75th Anniversary he AJR is delighted to announce a series of events that we are organising this year to mark the 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport. T The central event will be the Kinder reunion on Sunday 23 June at the JFS. We will shortly be sending out invitations with details of the day, which will include contributions from Kinder, JFS pupils and guest speakers. We very much encourage the participation of the Second and Third Generations of Kinder. The reunion will also incorporate a new exhibition to be curated by the Wiener Library which will be on display at the Library from May. The day after the reunion, on Monday 24 June, the Leo Baeck Institute London, together with the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, will be holding a symposium at the ­German Historical Institute in London. The conference will focus on the experiences of Kinder after their arrival in Britain and will be a great opportunity for scholars and Kinder to exchange thoughts and ideas. As with the reunion, it is hoped that younger generations will come along as well as Kinder from out of town and overseas who hope to come to JFS. Later in the year, on Wednesday 20 November, we are organising, with the help of Lord (Alf) Dubs, a special Tea in the Houses of Parliament to mark the debate held there on 21 November 1938 which paved the way for the arrival of the Kindertransport. To round off the year, World Jewish Relief, in conjunction with the AJR, will be organising a memorial service at Liverpool Street Station on Sunday 1 December, For more information about the Library and our current exhibitions, visit our which recalls the arrival 75 years to the day of the first transport of children. website at www.wienerlibrary.co.uk. The Wiener Library is always interested in We look forward to welcoming Kinder and their families at these historic events acquiring new material. If you do not have anything for this exhibition but have other documents, artefacts or books related to the Holocaust, please contact us. as well as of course to the monthly Kinder lunches at the Belsize Square Synagogue. Invitations will be sent out shortly Sir Erich Reich

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St John’s Wood Life as a GP Our speaker, Dr Lionel Kopelowitz, told us ‘SECRET LISTENERS’ about his career in general practice. Things were different then, when continuity of care was paramount for each patient with INSIDE a specific doctor on a 24/7 basis. We ended with a lively Q&A session. David Lang

HGS Encounter with a Genizah the AJR Evelyn Friedlander spoke about her unexpected encounter with a Genizah in 1988 and her subsequent involvement in rescuing Genizot in numerous small towns in Germany (there are also a number of Two surviving ‘secret listeners’, AJR Glasgow Book Club local museums in small German towns members Fritz Lustig (left) and Eric A Very Readable Book housing Judaica). She also spoke about the present Jewish community in Germany, Mark, were honoured at a special The book under discussion was The who are mainly of Russian origin and book event at the London Jewish Thread, a novel by Victoria Hislop about very different from the Jews of pre-war Cultural Centre for the launch of the 20th-century history of Thessaloniki Germany. Finally, she touched on her work Helen Fry’s new book The M Room: through the eyes of individuals, including with the Czech Memorial Scrolls – we look the Jewish Moreno family. A very readable Secret Listeners who Bugged the forward to a return visit to hear more book, whose narrative is underpinned by Nazis (see review on page 8), in about these. Harriet Hodes much scholarship and detailed research. which their stories are featured. Over A very pleasant afternoon at the home of 170 people gathered to hear their Eva Szirmais. Halina Moss Lunch with Eve Pollard interviews, with special readings Thursday 14 March 2013 by relatives of ‘secret listeners’ – Pinner The Olympics Revisited at 12.30 pm actor Roger Lloyd-Pack, Stephen We were delighted to hear about their The Association of Jewish Refugees in experiences from a number of Games association with the London Jewish Lustig, Adam Ganz, Jessica Pulay, and Makers, an Ambassador and a Torch Cultural Centre are pleased to announce comedian Helen Lederer. Afterwards Bearer, all resplendent in their Olympic a lunch at the LJCC, Ivy House, 94-96 Fritz and Eric were interviewed with uniforms. They all had a great time even North End Road, London NW11 7SX Helen Fry on BBC1’s The One Show though they had to work hard for long with special guest Eve Pollard. in a live TV broadcast. hours, but they certainly helped to make the London Olympics and Paralympics a great success. Robert Gellman Joseph Nathan, who invented dried milk and became the founder of Glaxo Surrey Old Friends and New Faces Laboratories, which has since grown into Once again we met at Edmee’s home, one of the world’s largest drug companies, our first meeting of the year, enjoying the GlaxoSmithKline. Eric Neuman usual high level of hospitality. It was so nice to see old friends and one or two new North West London A Hot Day at faces. The wide-ranging conversations Buckingham Palace were such that members seemed reluctant First event in new format: two neighbour- to leave Edmee’s house, even early into the ing branches met for a delicious lunch afternoon. Eva Gold Young Eve is the former Editor of The Sunday and illustrated talk at Alyth Gardens Harrogate/York Mirror and The Sunday Express and ­Synagogue – a success on all counts. Monica Gubbay, a guest at one of the New Face in the North East mother of Claudia Winkleman of Strictly Queen’s Jubilee Garden Parties on a hot We were pleased to meet our new Come Dancing. day last May, recounted the exciting occa- Group Co-ordinator, Wendy Bott, at She will talk about her Jewish roots and sion at Buckingham Palace with the Queen the home of the Littles. After we had entertain us with stories from her life and members of the Royal Family. expressed our appreciation of Susanne as a journalist guaranteed to make you Shirley Rodwell Green’s devoted work over many years, laugh and cry. Wendy introduced herself and initiated an £15.00 including lunch animated conversation about the group in Wembley CF For further details, please contact general and the kind of topics we might A Small but Friendly Group Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 wish to discuss in the future. We are a small (though growing) friendly or at [email protected] Marc Schatzberger group, always pleased to meet up again. Myrna as usual fed us with delicious Essex (Westcliff) A Good Natter Edinburgh CF ‘Oma and Bella’ refreshments and interesting information Our first meeting of the year started with a We attended a showing of ‘Oma and about the many options and outings small group of members – we had a good Bella’, a documentary which features available to us. Ingrid Morland natter and a good laugh. Hoping next Regina Karolinski and Bella Katz, Holocaust month will be a better turnout. survivors who share an apartment in Berlin North London Israeli Elections Linda Fisher and talk about the past as they cook and The Israeli Embassy’s Daniel Bacari spoke bake together and preserve memories of to us about the recent Israeli elections. Café Imperial Never a Dull Moment the Holocaust in the kitchen. A very nice Given the state of the parties it was Five of us met. Bill Howard announced film, directed by Regina’s granddaughter impossible to forecast the make-up of the ‘Not enough discipline in the unit – we Alexa Karolinski. Agnes Isaacs next government, which would obviously expect all units to report for duty next take weeks of negotiations. With Daniel’s month!’ Our topic was barmitzvahs past Radlett Victorian Jewish Boy Makes graphs and programme we did get some in Düsseldorf, Turin and Berlin. Never a dull Good – the Story of Joseph Nathan idea of the personalities involved. In all, we moment at Café Imperial. We were treated to a most interesting had a reasonably good turn-out. Hazel Beiny talk by David Barnett about the forgotten Herbert Haberberg

12 AJR JOURNAL march 2013

march GROUP MEETINGS Sheffield 3 March Introducing Wendy Bott Café Imperial 5 March Social Get-together Ealing 5 March Laurence Stein: ‘Boys Town VISIT TO THE ROYAL Jerusalem’ COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS Glasgow CF Cinema Club 6 March Tba Monday 22 April 2013 Ilford 6 March Joyce Sheard, WheelPower Our visit will begin with a guided tour of Bromley 7 March Social Get-together at home of the medicinal herb garden by the Head Lianne Segal Gardener. We will then have a guided Pinner 7 March Helen Hyde, Headmistress, Watford tour and history of the Museum. Grammar School for Girls William Harvey (1578-1657), discov­erer Norfolk 8 March Social Get-together of the circulation of blood, donated­ Cardiff 11 March David Wass: ‘The Story behind his own library and collections to the Shoplifting’ College in 1656, creating the Musaeum HGS 11 March Naomi Angelli: ‘Adoption Law’ Harveianum – possibly the earliest named ‘museum’ in England. Essex (Westcliff) 12 March David Barnett: ‘The Story of Joseph Nathan and GlaxoSmithKline’ The portraits, silver and medical St John’s Wood 13 March WIZO UK – the work they do in both instrument collections are displayed throughout the Museum, based in Israel and the UK Regent’s Park. Brighton-Sarid (Sussex) 18 March Godfrey Gould: ‘General Orde Wingate’ Edgware 19 March Prof Michael Spiro: ‘The Unknown The RCP holds nearly 300 oil and sculptural portraits and over 5,000 prints Story of Penicillin’ and drawings. Edinburgh CF 20 March Tba (at home of Judy Russells) We will be arranging transport and Radlett 20 March Tom Pike: ‘The Bank of England’ the cost of this half-day visit, including Wembley 20 March Social Get-together refreshments and transport, will be Glasgow Book Club 21 March Tba £10.00 per person. For further details, please contact contacts Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator Agnes Isaacs, Scotland and Newcastle 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Co-ordinator or at [email protected] 0755 1968 593 [email protected] Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Esther Rinkoff, Southern Region Groups Co-ordinator Co-ordinator Presented in association with 020 8385 3077 [email protected] 020 8385 3077 [email protected] Ivy House Music & Dance at the London Jewish Cultural Centre Susanne Green, Northern Groups KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Co-ordinator Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 ARCENSEMBLE 0151 291 5734 [email protected] [email protected] (Artists of The Royal Conservatory, Canada) Child Survivors Association–AJR Sunday 10 March 2013 at 7.30 pm Susan Harrod, Groups’ Administrator Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 020 8385 3070 [email protected] [email protected]

At Belmont Lodge, part of the Abbeyfield Camden Jewish Society, we have only one thing to say...

Our supported sheltered house in Bushey, Middlesex Support is provided by a professional and dedicated is for independent active older people. We offer: staff team and, where necessary, residents can • a balance of privacy, support and security arrange separate carers. Wigmore Hall • companionship and a warm, comfortable Jewish Room rates from £414 per week. Local authority assistance 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP ambiance available. Contact the Admissions Secretary Nicola Winkler www.wigmore-hall.org.uk • kosher meals 01923 826 402, [email protected] Tickets £15 • perfect peace of mind – no cooking, bills or repairs or call the House Manager 01923 213 964. can be purchased through the • a busy social calendar to participate in, should you Belmont Lodge, 59 Belmont Road, Bushey, Herts WD23 2JR wish to www.abbeyfield-belmontlodge.com Canadian Women’s Club Registered charity no. 200719 020 7258 6344 • strong links with the local Jewish community Company no. 574816 [email protected] • vacancies currently available www. canadianwomenlondon.org

13 AJR JOURNAL march 2013 The AJR Paul Balint Centre at Belsize Square Synagogue 51 Belsize Square, London NW3 4HX Telephone 020 7431 2744 Open Tuesdays and Thursdays – 9.30 am to 3.30 pm

Activities March 2013 Meals-on-Wheels To order Meals-on-Wheels Lunch is served at 12.30 unless otherwise stated please telephone 020 8385 3075 Tuesday 5 March (this number is manned on Wednesdays only) or 020 8385 3070 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games 10-12 One-to-One Computer Tuition 10.45 Seated Exercises with Jacky CURRENT AFFAIRS DISCUSSION GROUP 12.30 KT LUNCH Musical entertainment with Migonette Aarons Tuesday 12 March 10.30 am Thursday 7 March 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games with John Kay 11.15 Seated Exercises with Rosalie 13.45 Entertainer – Mike Marandi Tuesday 12 March MOCK SEDER – Tuesday 19 March at 12.00 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games with Rabbi Stephen Katz 10-12 One-to-One Computer Tuition 10.30 Current Affairs Discussion Group Come and enjoy the Seder service followed by a 11.30 Seated Exercises with Jacky traditional Seder meal and songs 13.45 Entertainer – Paul Coleman ALL WELCOME Thursday 14 March Please book to help with the catering 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games Tel 020 7431 2744 (Tuesday and Thursday only) 10.00 French Conversation 10.30 Let’s Read and Discuss 11.15 Seated Exercises with Rosalie 13.45 Entertainer – Geoff Strum ONE-TO-ONE BASIC COMPUTER LESSONS Tuesday 19 March at the Paul Balint Centre 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games To book a session with Rim call her on 020 8385 3070 10-12 One-to-One Computer Tuition 10.45 Seated Exercises with Jacky 12.00 MOCK SEDER with Rabbi Stephen Katz  family anouncements Thursday 21 March 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games Deaths 11.15 Seated Exercises with Rosalie Singer, Siegfried ‘Fritz’ Born Vienna 21.9.21, died London 11.1.13 aged 91. 12.00 LUNCHEON CLUB Speaker tbc Much loved and missed by ex-wife Esther, children Sarah Jenny and Paul 12.45 Lunch Ashley, grandchildren Faye and Rachel Singer-Clark, brother Dolfi and family Tuesday 26 March in USA, also extended family and many friends. FIRST DAY OF PESACH CENTRE CLOSED Weber, Gunter Very saddened by the passing of my cousin on 20 January. Thursday 28 March Inge Strauss and family. 10-12 Coffee/Chat/Knit/Board Games 10.00 French Conversation classified 10.45 Let’s Read and Discuss  11.15 Seated Exercises with Rosalie For Sale 13.45 Entertainer – Douglas Poster Rosenthal porcelain ‘Marie White’ pattern dinner plates and serving dishes, some unused (mid-1920s). Phone 01923 263568.

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14 AJR JOURNAL march 2013 Obituaries Grete Einstein, 11 November 1913 – 16 August 2012 rete Einstein came from a most in Industrial volunteered her services to the Women’s distinguished family in Berlin. Catering Man- Voluntary Service (WVS), where she ran GHer father was a lawyer with agement, she the snack counter at Manchester Royal many famous clients. At the end of her had a most Infirmary. She was quite taken aback education she was sent to finishing school successful when one day one of the WVS heads in Switzerland and France. ­career, encom- visited her on duty and presented her with In 1936, with the approach of war, passing being a 14-year service medal. Greta, 23, her husband Oscar and their for ten years One of Grete’s most enjoyable pastimes two boys, Peter and Tom, came to England Catering Man- was playing bridge, at which she was and set up home in Manchester. They ager at the quite adept. Many of her closest friends rented a flat in Chorlton for a short time Manchester were her bridge partners and she loved before buying the house Grete was to live Art College,­ going away for bridge weekends. She in for 70 years. where she loved being with the students kept very fit; she never drove but was In order to fund her sons’ education, and headed an excellent staff, who were a keen cyclist, skier and tennis player. Grete attended the Domestic Trades most loyal to her. She moved on to being There were many times when she would ­College in Hathersage Road in company Catering Manager at Tootals until her go to the Thursday Club and refuse the with the late, well-known cookery writer retirement at 60. lift home, preferring to walk the mile and Evelyn Rose. On receiving her diploma Not a person to stay at home, Grete a half back to Chorlton. Perhaps this was part of the secret of her long life. Grete remained in excellent health Peter Hans Meyer, 19 April 1925 – 6 September 2012 until her 95th birthday, soon after which she went into the Morris Feinmann y father, Peter Hans Meyer, born Peter was Home, where she happily spent the in Frankfurt, has died at the age a private per- last three and a half years of her life. Mof 87 at his much loved home in son but felt This was especially significant as her Surrey, where he lived for 47 years. it extremely husband Oscar was one of the six founder In 1936 at the age of 11, thanks to the important for members of the home and Grete had foresight of his father, Hans Emil Meyer, his children been much involved in the catering for who had understood what was happening and grand- the 16 residents at the first home in in Germany at the time, he moved with his children to Amhurst Road, Withington. Grete and parents to Halsingborg in Sweden, where know about Oscar had also devoted a great deal of his father created a partnership with a his past and their time to helping Jewish refugees Swede based on the chemical formulae of the reasons from Nazism, in the main from Germany. the leather preparation. Due to language for his com- Grete was a contented and peace- and education difficulties in Sweden he ing to England. A loyal member of the loving lady who always got on well with was sent to a German-Jewish school in AJR, he was able through the AJR Journal those around her and lived a fulfilled and Italy at Monte San Vigilio, near Merano, to reunite after years with an old friend long life. where he had his barmitzvah. of his from the school he went to in Italy. Eulogy by Rabbi Dr Ruben Silverman In 1938 his parents left Sweden and Jacqueline Meyer Manchester Reform Synagogue went to live in Clifton in Bristol. He was sent to Bristol Grammar School, where he had to learn English pretty quickly. ARTS AND EVENTS march DIARY Thanks to his father, who had invented an optical bleach and had subsequently Until 12 May 2013 ‘Schwitters Survival and Reconciliation’ Coffee and sold the patent to Unilever for £20,000 (a in Britain’ Exhibition of art at Conversation. At Wiener Library, 11.30 am, huge sum in those days), his parents were internment camp on Isle of Man. At tel 020 7636 7247, admission free Tate Britain, London SW1. Admission Mon 18 March B’nai B’rith Jerusalem allowed to build a house in Richmond £10, concessions available after the war. At this time, he attended Lodge Cyril Trup Memorial Lecture Hampton Grammar School followed by Wed 6 March Panel Discussion: Speaker: Laura Marks, founder, Mitzvah ‘Anglo-Jewish Responses to Domestic Day. At Bushey Country Club, 8.00 pm. £5 Battersea Polytechnic. In 1944 he joined Fascism in the 1930s’ Chair: Professor entrance, by ticket only the army and served four years. In 1948 David Feldman, Director, Pears Institute he was demobilised and given a govern- Wed 20 March Ruth Thomson: ‘Terezín, for the Study of Anti-Semitism. At Wiener A Story of the Holocaust’ At Wiener ment grant to study physics, chemistry Library, 6.30 pm, tel 020 7636 7247, Library, 6.30 pm, tel 020 7636 7247, and mathematics at Bristol University, admission free admission free where he received a Bachelor of Sci- Fri 8 March Eva Erben: ‘Escape Thur 21March Dr Claudia Prestel: ‘A ence ­deg­ree. In the four years he spent Story: Surviving the Holocaust as a Duty of Humanity and Honour of ­studying he travelled abroad and worked Young Girl’ Coffee and Conversation. German Jewry: The Institution for the during the holidays gaining experience, At Wiener Library, 11.30 am, tel 020 7636 Feeble-minded Jewish Children in returning to London to join the Polymark 7247, admission free Beelitz’ Centre for German-Jewish Studies, Ltd company his father had set up in the Thu 14 March Margot Barnard: ‘I’ll University of Sussex, Arts A Room 108, 4.00- meantime. Never See You Again: A Story of 5.30 pm, tel 01273 606755

15 AJR JOURNAL march 2013

have also attended this ceremony, with representatives from both groups, as well as Theresienstadt survivors, being among Dorothea Shefer-Vanson those lighting beacons. The Museum also engages in an outreach programme and the journal contains a report of talks given by A treasure trove of information representatives of the Museum and the survivors’ association to IDF soldiers in he Theresienstadt Memorial initiated by the Museum is the annual their bases around the country. Leaders Museum is situated in Israel’s conference on Music and Memory, who are due to accompany school T verdant Jezreel Valley, in premises held in conjunction with the Tel Aviv delegations to Poland are also given attached to Kibbutz Givat Chayim Ihud. Academy of Music, celebrating the briefings. Once or twice a year I receive the Museum creative musical talents which abounded The journal contains, in addition, an newsletter, continuing the subscription in the camp. In addition, several members account of an exhibition of drawings by taken out by my late father. For many of the Association of Former Inmates of former prisoner Albin Glazer depicting years it appeared in stencil form on plain Theresienstadt were provided with tickets sites in the camp as well as scenes from paper, making it easy to fold and stow in and transportation enabling them to daily life. Another feature describes the my handbag for reading while I waited for attend the stellar performance of Defiant exhibition of items commemorating a bus or to see the doctor. In the last few Requiem given in Jerusalem last year. the football ‘league’ that was instituted years, however, it has been revamped and Several pages of the journal are devoted in the camp. This is currently on loan appears as a highly professional glossy to visits to the Museum by well-known to the Theresienstadt Museum in the magazine, replete with full-colour photos, and less well-known persons. Thus, Czech Republic. In May last year, before making it much easier to read but far one distinguished visitor was Stuart E. the Czech national football team left to less easy to stuff into my handbag. Still, Eizenstat, former US Ambassador to the participate in the Euro 2012 tournament the information it contains is so rich and European Union and one of the sponsors in Poland, its members were taken to the varied that I feel impelled to make the of the Defiant Requiem project. Another site of the camp to view the exhibition. effort to study it and maintain my annual was an American teenager, Jordan Seri, Finally, a project is under way, in subscription. Although the Museum was who came accompanied by her family. conjunction with Yad Vashem, to scan recently accorded official recognition and Jordan has devised an original way to all the thousands of documents – letters, a budget was allocated for its upkeep, the raise money – she collects sea shells, articles, eye-witness accounts, pictures, money has not actually been released, paints them and sells them, donating all etc – in the Theresienstadt Museum’s which hampers the day-to-day running the proceeds to the Museum. archive and put them online. This will of the site. In addition, on Holocaust Day groups mean closing the archive for a year, but The journal itself is a treasure trove of IDF soldiers participate in a ceremony the end result will surely be worthwhile, of information, revealing a plethora of and tour the Museum. For some years ensuring that the precious material will activities and events associated with now pupils from the Ort High School in not be lost as a result of the ravages of Theresienstadt. One of the salient projects the nearby Druze town of Daliat-al-Carmel time.

 LETTERS cont. from p.7 the remaining men, women and children where such justice was not done and way – Ward is just following Galloway’s were deported to Theresienstadt between certainly was not seen to have been done example. 18 October 1942 and as late as 7 March as it was in this case. Janos Fisher, 1945, of whom 365 were murdered. Frank Bright, Bushey Heath, Herts The author of the reviewed book and Martlesham Heath, Suffolk Leslie Brent are entitled to their moral LEO BAECK HOUSING qualms. I, having seen the perpetrators GALLOWAY’S WAY ASSOCIATION and their victims at very close quarters, Sir – No one should be surprised by the CLARA NEHAB HOUSE take the side of the wholly innocent yet remark made by Davis Ward, the Liberal RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME humiliated, tortured, starved, hanged, Democrat MP, comparing the treatment Small caring residential home with large attractive gardens close to local shops and public transport shot and gassed Jews who have no of Palestinians by Israel to the death 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care known grave. There were also many camps for Jews. This remark will add to his Entertainment & Activities provided Czechs who suffered grievously from their popularity with many of his constituents Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room former fellow citizens. To me at least, the and make his seat more secure. Bradford Lift access to all floors. For further information please contact: expulsion of such a putrid body of Nazis has a population of, by a conservative The Manager, Clara Nehab House from the Sudeten was a fully justified estimate, 20 per cent of people of British 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA Telephone: 020 8455 2286 step. There were far too many instances Asian origin. George Galloway showed the

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

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