VOLume 16 NO.7 JULY 2016 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

Britain and the Holocaust he Wiener Library launched its what was intended to be a studiously neutral ‘many survivors and refugees had an extremely exhibition ‘Dilemmas, Choices, account of the arrival of the Jews from Europe difficult time after arriving in the UK’, though Responses: Britain and the Holocaust’ between 1933 and 1948. In a letter to the one cannot hold the British government onT 18 April 2016. The exhibition, co-curated editor published in May 2016, one reader took solely responsible for the misery caused by with the Holocaust Educational Trust, used issue with the ‘one-sided information’ that their forced emigration and their separation material from the Library’s rich archives from home and family, let alone for their to reassess the responses of the British treatment in Nazi camps. Secondly, few government and the British public to the would dispute that certain groups of Holocaust and – of particular interest to refugees, like domestic servants, met with many of our readers – to the arrival of a particularly poor reception. Many of thousands of Jewish refugees on these the young women who came to Britain shores. It is both fascinating and chilling on domestic service visas encountered to read the correspondence between appalling conditions, as accounts like Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and the Edith Argy’s The Childhood and Teens Air Ministry in which the latter set out its of a Jewish Girl in Inter-war Austria and reasons for not bombing the installations Subsequent Adventures make graphically at Auschwitz. The contribution made clear; but British and Irish girls were by the Holocaust Educational Trust’s treated no better in British households, (HET) regional ambassadors, young nor were German and Austrian girls in people who work with survivors of Nazi households, including Jewish ones, in persecution, was a special feature of the Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia detained by Berlin or Vienna. Most of these refugees launch. After speeches of welcome from police at Croydon Airport, March 1939 remained in domestic service only for a Anthony Spiro, Chair of the Library’s short time, as almost all of them found Board of Trustees, and Karen Pollock, Chief I had provided on the British government’s other jobs once war broke out and they were Executive of the HET, there was a heartfelt role in these matters, pointing out some needed in offices and factories, contributing account by one of the young ambassadors of of its failings, with the implication that to the war effort and restoring their pride and what the experience had meant to him, and I had adopted an attitude too favourable self-esteem; not infrequently, they went on to a graceful speech in response by one of the to the government by glossing them over. lead happier lives. survivors. But another reader remarked, quite to the In the case of refugee medical practitioners, This thought-provoking and expertly contrary, on my ‘timely, if gentle, reminder the restrictions that prevented them from produced exhibition raised the familiar and that Britain has not always been a safe haven practising were demanded not by the much disputed issue of the nature of the for those fleeing persecution’. It is surprising government but by professional bodies like the reception accorded to the Jewish refugees who how quickly one-sidedness can turn into two- British Medical Association, seldom restrained fled to Britain after 1933 to escape the Nazis. sidedness when one is dealing with an area as by human sympathies from defending its Down the decades, there have been, very problematic as this. members’ interests. The dispute involving broadly speaking, two rival schools of thought: It is instructive to consider the three points junior doctors and Health Secretary Jeremy those who have seen the British government’s raised by the first of these letters. Firstly, few Hunt demonstrates the risks governments response to the plight of the Jews under would dispute the writer’s contention that run in taking on the representative bodies of Nazi rule as inadequate and ungenerous, its the medical profession. Thirdly, few people immigration policy after 1933 as restrictive, would claim that the British government and its treatment of the refugees once admitted RELOCATION OF AJR was generous in its policy of admitting Jews as unnecessarily harsh, most obviously in the HEAD OFFICE from Europe after the end of the war (see mass internment of ‘enemy aliens’ in summer my article ‘The Miliband Controversy in 1940; and, on the other side, those refugees The AJR’s Head Office has moved to Historical Perspective’ in our December 2013 who felt gratitude to Britain for taking them Winston House issue). But how long did those admitted suffer in, for resisting Hitler when the nation ‘stood 2 Dollis Park under the conditions of entrance imposed alone’ in 1940-41, and for making it possible London N3 1HF on them? I note that the writer, complaining for them to build new and fulfilled lives as The new address is close to Finchley that the British government had admitted British citizens after the war. Central Tube Station, Northern Line, her ‘only on a temporary basis’, is writing The potential for disagreement in this and is on a number of bus routes. from Swiss Cottage some 70 years later. How area emerged clearly in the responses to my The AJR’s telephone number temporary, one might ask, is ‘temporary’? front-page article (April 2016 issue) on the remains 020 8385 3070. Pre-war refugees granted temporary residence, UK Holocaust Memorial, which contained continued on page 2  journal JULY 2016

Britain and the Holocaust  continued NORTHERN REGIONAL MANCHESTER Tuesday 19 July 2016 like the men from Nazi concentration camps Please join us at our annual Northern Regional Get-together admitted on transit visas and accommodated Our keynote speaker will be Mike Levy, at Kitchener Camp in Kent, were allowed to playwright, journalist and educator for the Holocaust Education Trust, stay permanently, while none of the Jewish children admitted to Britain after the war were whose subject will be ‘From Hitler to Hi-de-Hi’ ever deported abroad. This is the story of the Warner’s Camp which was used as a transit camp for the first This is, in truth, a grey area not suited to wave of Kindertransportees in December 1938 and later became the location for the black-and-white judgments. It can be argued BBC TV series ‘Hi-de-Hi’. with justice that Britain was lukewarm (and The day will include refreshments and lunch, discussion groups and musical entertainment. sometimes not even that) in its policy towards We will also have a demonstration of SPF Connect, a new project funded by Six Point Foundation the admission of Jews fleeing Nazism and to help older people get online by providing a free, easy-to-use touch-screen computer and in the reception that it extended to them. training. It’s an excellent opportunity to meet and socialise with friends old and new. Britain took in some 60,000 Jews before the For full details and an application form, please contact war, but six million perished. Plainly, it would Wendy Bott on 07908 156 365 or at [email protected] have been possible for the country to have taken more and to have treated those that it did take more hospitably – always bearing in mind that the government could not ignore AJR CARD AND GAMES CLUB public opinion, sections of which, then as Please join us at our new Card and Games Club now, were sharply hostile to the admission of on Monday 11 July at 1.00 pm immigrants, especially Jews from Germany. at North Western Reform Synagogue, But it is also true that in proportion to its Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN population and absorptive capacity, Britain Card games including Bridge, Backgammon, Scrabble – you decide. took in more Jewish refugees in the years before Games are dependent on numbers being sufficient. A sandwich lunch with tea, coffee and Danish pastries will be served on arrival. the Second World War than any other country except Palestine. Britain alone took in some 10 £7.00 per person Booking is essential – when you book please let us know your choice of game. per cent of the Jews from Germany, Austria Please call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected] and Czechoslovakia who escaped from Nazi rule before September 1939; of the 120,000 Austrian Jews who survived the Holocaust, British government introduced a visa system. about a quarter, just over 30,000, did so because This allowed the government to regulate the AJR FILM CLUB their first country of refuge was Britain. entry of refugees more systematically. Certain Please join us at This is not to claim that it was ever easy groups of refugees, like those willing to work Sha’arei Tsedek North London for Jews to gain entrance to Britain during as domestic servants, were granted visas, as Reform Synagogue, the 1930s and 1940s. Between 1933 and were those who could find someone resident 120 Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone, N20 9EZ 1938, Jews fleeing Nazism knew that if they in Britain willing to sponsor them, at a cost of on Monday 4 July 2016 at 12.30 pm sought entrance to Britain, they could be £50. Ten thousand children were admitted on refused admission by the immigration officer A lunch of smoked salmon bagels, Danish Kindertransports without visas – and without pastries and tea or coffee will be served first. at their port of arrival. The principal criterion their parents. for their admission was their ability to support The picture that accompanied the ‘The Comedy Harmonisters’ themselves; those few who were wealthy, famous exhibition at the Wiener Library was This fascinating film tells the story of or likely to create jobs for British workers were captioned ‘Members of a group of refugees the famous German sextet the Comedian welcome; those who could prove that they had from German-occupied Czechoslovakia being Harmonists, three of them Jewish, from the skills that qualified them for particular forms marched away by police at Croydon airport on day they first met in 1927 to the day in 1934 when they were banned. of employment were admitted, but most of 31 March 1939’. But does this picture, striking the rest could at best hope for admission as as it is, accurately reflect the historical reality £7.00 per person tourists. In 1938, following the exodus of Jews of British immigration policy in the last 18 Booking is essential provoked by Hitler’s annexation of Austria, the months before the war? These refugees had Please call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 indeed fled from Czechoslovakia, which had or email [email protected] been occupied by Nazi Germany earlier in AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman March 1939, and had arrived in Britain on a Britain without visas were routinely refused Finance Director plane from Poland. They were detained by the entry: the actress Hannah Norbert, who later David Kaye police because they had arrived without visas. married the famous comic actor Martin Miller, Heads of Department The humanitarian argument would, of course, was sent back to France when she first tried to Karen Markham Human Resources & Administration Sue Kurlander Social Services have been to admit them. enter Britain but was admitted without any Carol Hart Community & Volunteer Services But to admit refugees who arrived without difficulty once her family had secured a visa for AJR Journal visas would have undermined the very visa her. It is worth noting that, unlike countries like Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor system that permitted some 50,000 Jewish Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor Switzerland, the British authorities did not send Karin Pereira Secretarial/Advertisements refugees to enter Britain in 1938-39 – a very refugees back to Germany. In any case, the great substantial increase on the 10,000 or so who majority of refugees arriving in Britain were in Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not necessarily those of the Association of Jewish had been admitted during the previous five possession of entry visas; their lives were saved. Refugees and should not be regarded as such. years, from January 1933. Jews arriving in Anthony Grenville

2 JULY 2016 journal Two World Wars – on different sides Our Chairman

July 2016 is the centenary of Allied or German, where they are n July 1996, AJR Information one of the bloodiest battles of the Jewish faith the memorial announced the election of Andrew 1in human history. The Battle stones’ inscriptions include a IKaufman as Chairman of the of the Somme began on that day Star of David. In the First World Association of Jewish Refugees. On and lasted until 18 November War Jews fought on both sides. this anniversary that year. During this battle more During our visit to a First World of his election, than one million soldiers on both War German cemetery our we offer him our sides were killed or wounded. guide told us that during the congratulations Last year I visited the Somme Nazi period they removed all and our thanks battlefield with my wife. It was names and memorials of all for the time, very hard to imagine that in this Jewish soldiers in the cemetery. now peaceful agricultural area of Thankfully after the Second effort and hard northern France, so many people World War this was rectified and work that he has died 100 years ago. However, when you the names restored on the German grave devoted to his visit the many war graves and memorials markers. position at the in the area you start to comprehend the With his war record certificate among AJR. horror. There are the rows of memorial his papers, Karl Gumpel first escaped to stones, of soldiers who were all killed on the Czechoslovakia and then, in May 1939, to same date, or memorials with the names England. While he was proud of his war of soldiers who died during the battles and record for the other side, he wanted to Freddie Knoller BEM whose bodies were never found. show the British government that he had he AJR is I became interested in the First World now changed sides. While interned on delighted to War not only because of centenary the Isle of Man in 1940, he wrote to the Tcongratulate commemorations but also because when British government advising them how Freddie Knoller, who looking through family papers in 2014, I they could defeat the Nazis and win the has been awarded found the complete First World War army war. As a former director of advertising, he the British Empire record of my grandfather, Karl Gumpel. tells the British War Office, he understands Medal for telling the Karl died in July 1946, 70 years ago (before the mind of German people and, given the story of his survival I was born!). In 1914 he was a very proud opportunity, he could foment a revolution in to schoolchildren all over the UK. Since German, from Dortmund, who was in the Germany and prevent much bloodshed. He 2000 he has told his story to over 500 German army, mostly the artillery divisions, received a condescending response from the schools. throughout the First World War. For his war government. He kept this correspondence service he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd and even arranged at great expense to make Class by the Kaiser. photographic copies of it. As a German war hero, after 1918 Karl Sadly, for a man in his sixties the ‘deaf HITCHEN LAVENDER was able to build a successful life for himself, ear’ response to his correspondence and FARM with a beautiful family and promotion to the horrors of the Second World War took a fragrant day out senior jobs. He became the advertising their toll. He was released from internment director of the Edeka chain of stores. He was and lived in lodgings in London supported Thursday 21 July 2016 one of the highest-ranking Jewish members by the British Committee for Refugees Following a tour of the farm and a stroll of staff in the organisation. from Czechoslovakia for the remainder around part of the lavender field, we will When Hitler came to power Karl of the war. At the end of the war he hear about the history of lavender in the requested from the German War Office a discovered that his wife, trapped in Prague area, its benefits and uses, and how to certificate confirming his full First World in 1939, had been one of the victims of the grow and maintain it. We will be shown War record. He received the certificate with Holocaust. His health deteriorated and, just a selection of the 65 varieties that grow the government stamp and civil servant’s over a year after the end of Second World on the farm and discuss the wildlife it signature dated 13 April 1933. I would guess War, he died in London. attracts. Picking a bag of fresh lavender that he expected that this certificate would Interestingly, my grandfather must have is included in the tour. aid him in his future career. Alas, just as with made friends with a number of British Lunch in the Farm café and travel other German Jews, this was not to be the Jewish First World War veterans as during by coach are provided. case. The Nazis wanted to strike from the the Second World War he was made an For further details, please contact records that there had been Jews fighting honorary member of the Association of Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 for their country two decades earlier. Jewish Ex-servicemen and Women. or email [email protected] On memorial stones for fallen soldiers, David Selo

PROPOSED TRIP TO BETH HULL CF Lavish Lunch, SHALOM FROM NEWCASTLE Talk on Hull’s Jewish & SURROUNDING AREAS History, Tea in the Garden apa’s Fish and Chips Sunday 10 July 2016 Restaurant was the We are arranging a trip to Beth Shalom, Pvenue, with Veronika The National Holocaust Centre, in most generously treating Newark near Nottingham. us all to a lavish lunch. The AJR will arrange a return coach Afterwards, we were invited and lunch at Beth Shalom, including back to her home, where she entrance, at a cost of £13.00 per person. gave a short talk on Hull’s If you are interested Back row from left: Anne Martin, Chris Tweddell (Northern Jewish history, followed by please contact Agnes Isaacs at Social Worker),Wendy Bott (Northern Groups Co-Ordinator), afternoon tea and cakes in [email protected] Ian LeBoutillier; front row from left: Dena LeBoutillier, Ralph her beautiful garden. or on 07908 156 361 Black, Rose Abrahamson, Veronika Keczkes, Olive Rosner Wendy Bott

3 journal JULY 2016 • • Remembering the journey of the SS Bodegraven • • eventy-six years ago, on 19 taken to the cinema and cared May, a Dutch ship arrived in for. The children then moved to SLiverpool. It was not expected Manchester, where the younger by the port authorities and its ones went to school and the older cargo was 262 refugees from children, like Harry Jacobi, learnt Holland including 75 children, a trade. Like so many refugees, among them 15-year-old Heinz they went on to make a great Hirschberg, who was to become contribution to British society. Rabbi Harry Jacobi. Coming only a week after the The arrival of the SS Bodegraven Jacobis had visited the Calais was remembered on 22 May this refugee camp (see page 11), year in a ceremony at the Maritime Harry Jacobi and Carrie Sherman at the Liverpool we could not but be struck by Museum in Liverpool. Harry ceremony with Lynne and Tony Zeffert, married by Rabbi Jacobi almost 40 years ago the way history was repeating Jacobi, with his children Margaret itself. The commemoration was a and Richard, and Carrie Sherman, moving reminder that the journey who arrived on the Bodegraven just adult Jews who could be fitted on the of the Bodegraven continues to have before her first birthday, travelled by ship and to sail for Britain. As the ship resonance for our time. train on a journey organised by Peter left, its passengers heard shells being Harry, Margaret and Richard Jacobi Hedderly to be met by members of the fired and saw smoke rising from the Liverpool Jewish community. The local Shell refineries the Dutch had set on press and radio were there to cover fire. The ship was immediately attacked the event. We read moving testimonies by the Luftwaffe but, amazingly, there spring grove from other passengers who had been were no injuries. London’s Most Luxurious on the ship. Prayers followed in memory What should have been a short RETIREMENT HOME of those children and adults who had voyage turned out to be five days of 214 Finchley Road not been able to reach safety and also anxious waiting. At first the boat was London NW3 in memory of the remarkable woman diverted to Belfast by a British patrol who had saved the children, Geertruida but it made an emergency stop at  Entertainment Wijsmuller-Meijer. Falmouth. Initially, they were refused  Activities Tante Truus, as Geertruida was permission to disembark, but finally,  Stress Free Living known, was later recognised as a they were allowed to sail for Liverpool  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine ‘Righteous Gentile’ at Yad Vashem for and to disembark there.  Full En-Suite Facilities the work she had done in rescuing Jews. At Liverpool, those over 16 were Call for more information or a personal tour As Nazi troops entered Amsterdam she detained and sent to the Isle of Man. By 020 8446 2117 gathered the Jewish orphans from the happy contrast, several of the children or 020 7794 4455 Burgerweeshuis and persuaded Captain recall the wonderful welcome they [email protected] Huibrecht Regoort to take them and any were given in Wigan, where they were

High-spirited and careless: Louis (Büdi) Hagen In his article ‘Arnhem n the spring of 1937 we as each tried to crawl out, they were 1944’ (May 2016), were invited to Potsdam knocked back, until they died in Anthony Grenville gave Ifor a short holiday by the the mud. All this Büdi saw, out of prominence to the exploits German Jewish parents of a his barred window overlooking the of Louis Hagen, whom I young man whom we had courtyard. He was often singled out in knew as a frequent visitor met the year before. Louis the middle of the night for the brutal to the Hampstead home Hagen, nicknamed Büdi, amusement of the young guards, of Sir Peter and Lady was the second son of the delighted to have an opportunity of Medawar. Louis, who was head of one of the last beating up a contemporary whose known by the nickname private banks in Germany. life had been more privileged than Büdi, was a close friend Büdi was high-spirited and theirs, and who was a Jew, one of of the Medawar family and AJR careless. One day, away from home those whom they had been taught Journal readers may be interested in Potsdam, aged about seventeen, to hate. The prisoners had to clean in the following passage from he wrote a postcard to his sister and the latrines with their bare hands. Lady Medawar’s A Very Decided rashly allowed himself to add a rude The metal handles of the full buckets Preference: Life with Peter Medawar remark about Hitler. A housemaid, they then had to carry away took the (Oxford University Press, 1990). under notice for stealing his mother’s skin off their hands and the palms I have the permission of Charles jewellery, found and read it. If she was became infected. and Caroline Medawar to give you this dismissed, she told Frau Hagen, she One day a big Mercedes drove excerpt from Lady Medawar’s book. would report Büdi to the police. Büdi’s under the gate of the castle. Inside I worked with Sir Peter for 13 years, parents bravely told her to leave, she was a well-known judge, the father first as a PhD student and then as a informed, and Büdi was arrested. of one of Büdi’s school friends. He research colleague. He was awarded The prison he was taken to had demanded to see Louis Hagen – he the 1960 Nobel Prize in Medicine been adapted from an old fortified had a permit to release him. The and Physiology for studies carried castle. The prisoners were made to Commandant marched Büdi to the out in collaboration witch another run round the courtyard until the guard house. If he told anyone how colleague, R. E. Billingham, and older ones fell down, exhausted. The the prisoners were treated, he said, myself. Both he and Lady Medawar guards amused themselves by kicking “We will get you, wherever you are long since dead. those they particularly disliked into a are, and bring you back, and you Leslie Baruch Brent (Emeritus Professor) shallow pond within the castle walls; continued on page 5 

4 JULY 2016 journal Remembrance day in Rimbach ver the last few years I have come to know, and make a friend of, OEva-Gesine Wegner, a sculptor from Rimbach in the Odenwald, Hessen, the area in which I was brought up (though in a different village). Eva had learned that I had left Germany for Britain on the Kindertransport, of which she hadn’t previously heard: she was born after the war and, as in most cases, her predecessors had told their children little about the persecution and murder of their Jewish contemporaries. Eva was intrigued and wanted to know more. Beate Wilhelm, Principal of Rimbach’s Martin-Luther-Schule, gives a welcoming address. Eventually she told my story to a class Ruth David and Eva-Gesine Wegner are in the front row, third and fourth from left in each of the two local secondary We had slowly scattered to other At one stage, Eva asked the children schools in which she teaches art (mainly parts of England, to the USA, Palestine to write down their thoughts while pottery): the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer- (pre-State Israel), Australia, New they worked. This produced some very Schule and the Martin-Luther-Schule. Zealand and Canada. Two of us had moving reactions. They seemed to fully I had also spoken to those children left for South Africa but continued understand the fear the Kindertransport in annual readings I’d been giving in on to Australia. We’d got to know children had felt as they had left home; Hessen schools for 17 years. each so well we were like sisters. I one or two even said they didn’t think Eva wanted to mark the rescue remembered not only all their names they could have parted from their own of Jewish children from the area by and birthdays and which cities they’d families. It is very clear to me that much creating small towers of bricks – lived in in Germany: I knew who were has been learnt and understood. especially including bricks for some their siblings, not all of whom had It was finally on 6 June last year that the of the refugees who had made it to survived, and almost all our parents had work was unveiled by Kreis Bergstrasse freedom. To enable the children to do been murdered. Unfortunately it was a Landrat (District Administrator) Matthias this, she asked me to provide her with girls’ hostel only and I had little, if any, Wilkes. He spoke movingly about the the names and details of a number of knowledge of boy refugees. location. Other worthies came; the choir children who had fled Germany and I wrote all these details down and sang; musicians played suitable pieces; Austria. In this respect I was fortunate. the schoolchildren chose one girl and the Martin-Luther-Schule Principal, I had lived in a refugee hostel in the each whom they wanted to honour. Beate Wilhelm, gave a moving address. north of England for seven very long They then wrote letters to these girls There were many proud parents present years. We hadn’t found our parents informing them why they’d been and the children who had been so much alive at the end of the war and the chosen. Some of the addressees replied, a part of the event behaved beautifully committee in Newcastle that had on the whole with interest. The pupils and were happy to have been involved. looked after us so generously had were delighted and went ahead with It can only have done good. continued to do so until we were old the work Eva-Gesine was organising. Why did the event take place on enough to work and live on our own They were each to make a brick – largish 6 June? Eva had once asked me on what or find a home with surviving relatives. but with exact given dimensions – that date I had left Germany (forever as I had was to be incorporated with others thought). I had told her 6 June 1939. She High-spirited and careless into the small towers which can be remembered and gave this date a name:  continued seen on the picture. All the names are Tag der Achtung (Day of Remembrance). there with their individual descriptions, She asked both schools to mark this will never get out again”. Finally moulded or incised into the clay. It date in the future as one of respect Büdi was driven away in the car worked out very well. There are steles and remembrance. The little town of with the judge. The two SS men in between the towers on which some Rimbach, once a Nazi stronghold, has sitting in front with the driver were of the letters the children had written seen another episode in its history. separated from them by a glass have been transcribed. Ruth David panel. In spite of being overheard or observed, Büdi showed his hands and described what went on in the castle. The judge, then a member of the Nazi party, was appalled. He subsequently resigned his position and was banished to a small town in East Prussia. Büdi’s parents had influence enough to get him out and over to England, where he was found a lowly job in the Pressed Steel works in Oxford. After we got to know him, we made him an honorary member of our family and the godfather of our first child, Caroline, born in July 1938. He is now a grandfather, but is still ebullient, resourceful and kind. Eva-Gesine Wegner and Matthias Wilkes watch final unveiling of the bricks

5 journal JULY 2016

succeed as it certainly did, as confirmed by the verbal tributes already made. For me, not even the cold wet weather that prevailed during our visit to the beautiful Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate could spoil its enchantment. Now home, it’s time to take out those dreaded diet sheets and relax once more after having been so well fed and entertained on a relentless scale, starting The Editor reserves the right with the charming and warm welcome to shorten correspondence at the Ziff Centre – where the volume of submitted for publication chatter never diminished throughout – to our last meal together at the Thackray Medical Museum. The new friendships SECOND GENERATION MEMORIES forged an added testament to the success of the Yorkshire trip. Thank you AJR. Sir – Your front-page article ‘Second how we had fled from Vienna and how June Wertheim, Esher, Surrey generation memories’ (June) struck a my father was nearly taken to Dachau. chord with me. I too am of the second I remember watching with them on TV IS YOM HASHOAH REALLY A TIME TO generation. My father did not, however, Richard Dimbleby’s film of the liberation SMILE? arrive in this country as a refugee: he of Belsen. I was told that my cousin, her Sir – A well-known weekly Orthodox came here in 1957 to marry my mother. husband and child had been killed in Jewish publication recently suggested a During the war he lived in hiding in Belsen. I later found out that my aunt surprising response to Yom HaShaoh – that occupied France. He was one of four and uncle were murdered in Auschwitz. one could smile at the commemoration siblings. The oldest, Erich (after whom By the time I was 14, I had accompanied of this day. I was named), was the only one to be my parents back to Vienna for a visit and The author describes a week-long group captured by the Nazis and deported from learned even more. I knew what the Nazis visit to sites of former Jewish communities Drancy to Auschwitz. He died in 1945 ‘of had done. I knew the names of the war in pre-war Poland, culminating in a ‘March natural causes’ in Gross-Rosen. It was criminals at Nuremberg. of the Living’ from Auschwitz to Birkenau thanks to Erich that his parents, brothers Were Tony’s parents right in keeping on Yom HaShaoh itself. He states that and sister survived the Shoah as he him in the dark? Were my parents right originally this walk was to be undertaken arranged for them to be hidden through in giving me all the gory details? Perhaps in ‘sombre silence, reflecting the mood his contacts in the French Resistance. your readers have a view on this. of the day’. Yet on that day in those bleak I have tried very hard to piece together Peter Phillips, Loudwater, Herts surroundings, he witnessed large numbers the family history. My father, like so many of Jews present taking ‘selfies’, swapping who survived, never spoke about the Sir – Further to Anthony Grenville's badges and wrist bands, and creating a years in hiding. He passed away in 1991 article, referring to the beautiful refugee ‘carnival atmosphere’. having suffered from motor neurone film star Hedy Lamarr, your readers may He writes that initially he was shocked disease and I learned more about his not be aware that she was more than at what he was witnessing but he life in the Shoah from his sister during just a pretty face. subsequently reconsidered this reaction. the shiva week than I ever did from him. Hedy was interested in the newly He now smiles when he recalls how the I learned then that the family was split developed technology of radio ‘thousands of Jews, confident in their up and was hiding in separate places. I transmission and she suggested the faith, converge on one of the cruellest remember him screaming in the night stratagem called ‘channel hopping’ places on earth, to declare that despite and being told he had dreamed about to keep messages safe from unlawful all the efforts to destroy us … the people Allied bombers coming overhead and eavesdropping. She appears to be the of Israel lives on … we flourish, and we that that was what had scared him. uncontested inventor of this idea, which remain committed to our national project One can only imagine what it must have is used in mobile phones to this day. of promoting God’s Torah, ethics and been like for him, a child, living with a I discovered the above from a film on loving kindness in the world.’ constant fear of detection. He was just the Discovery Channel (https://vimeo. Whereas a positive message about 13 when the war ended. com/170454007), which incidentally Jewish identity is generally to be applauded, I do know that after the war he ran features my partner Frank Beck as well. surely it is misplaced in the context of Yom away from his family to Palestine/Israel, His touch button developments are also HaShoah. Positive messages relating to fought in the War of Independence in used in mobile phones! Frank, like me, the Holocaust can be left for other days 1947-48, and returned to his family in is an active AJR member. in the year. One does not smile when France in 1953. I would love to know Mary (Putzi) Huttrer, London N3 one attends a funeral or stone-setting or where he was hiding and who had marks a Yahrzeit, whatever positive mark kept him safe. In the meantime, I am or influence the departed one has left considering putting together the story YORKSHIRE TRIP – HOW DO THEY DO behind. Like these, Yom HaShoah marks for posterity. IT? loss. It must remain a day for solemn Eric Rendel, Edgware, Middx Sir – With Susan Harrod at the helm and remembrance of the lost six million. Wendy Bott ably assisting, especially David Wirth, London SE21 Sir – Tony Grenville’s article about how in the head-counting department – a his parents ‘hid’ the horrors of the requirement of the trip more necessary WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE? Holocaust from him fascinated me. than one would have imagined – they, Sir – The recent Channel 4 programme I was born in Vienna and came to together with their cheerful and friendly ‘Unreported World’ on ‘The Forgotten England aged only three, yet I knew helpers and social workers, and the coach Holocaust Survivors’, showing the bits and pieces about what was going driver too – he was superb – they did it. disgraceful poverty and neglect of the on throughout the war by just listening. This, coupled with the work that surely Holocaust survivors in Israel, was a shocking My parents did not stop talking about went into the planning of the trip for it to reminder of their suffering in the evening

6 JULY 2016 journal of their lives. The young volunteers working the pavement outside my grandmother's As for the Belz Chassidim and some of with the Foundation for the Benefit of the apartment on Neubaugasse in the 7th their weird customs, all I can say is that Holocaust Victims in Israel, chaired by Avi District. Elisabeth’s professionalism and it’s their business. Dichter, a former minister in the Israeli attention to detail were so admirable. For I think I will leave it at that for the time cabinet and the son of Holocaust survivors, my brother Paul's family as well as my own being. Let Peter Phillips put it in his pipe are doing sterling work. it has become a lasting memory, one we and smoke it! The millions Germany paid in will never forget. Margarete Stern, London NW3 Wiedergutmachung to all sorts of bodies Elisabeth worked tirelessly for a cause – the Claims Conference, slave labour in which she believed passionately. Her ERROR IN LORD WEIDENFELD payments, etc – should have alleviated databases are prolific and she shared them OBITUARY their having to live in such misery. Where with us all. Her legacy will live on and will Sir – There is one minor inaccuracy in has all the money gone? be continued by her daughter Daliah. your obituary of Lord Weidenfeld (March) Helga and George Lazarus, London N3 Judith Gordon (Second Generation), – the statement that he studied at the Handforth, Cheshire Diplomatic College at Vienna University. ‘HOSTILE TO ZIONISM’ There has never been such a college Sir – In the light of Jenny Manson's ‘CEDAR NIGHT’ there. Weidenfeld (Arthur had not yet recent criticisms of Israel's treatment of Not long ago we had a special celebration become George and was known as Turli the Palestinians and of David Hirsch’s called ‘Passover’, which we do for tradition to his fellow students) read law at the resignation from the organisation Jews because some of my family and I are university and I believe had help with for Justice for Palestinians on the grounds Jewish. We wear a yarmulke, which is his Skripten from his fellow student Kurt that it ‘is more part of this problem than it basically a kind of a hat. There is a plate Waldheim. At the same time, he attended is part of the solution’ (of left-wing anti- with special foods that we use for Passover. the Konsularakademie, which, under Semitism) and that it is ‘wholly hostile to I went to London to do it with Granny its admirable director, Generalkonsul “Zionists”’, one may be forgiven for asking Jenny and Grandpa Michael (we call him von Hlavac, was controlled by the whether Mrs Manson is still a member of Rara!). Other people came too. We did Foreign Office rather than the Ministry that organisation. songs and prayers. There were sad songs, of Education and thus got away with not Lionel Blumenthal, London NW11 happy songs, funny songs, exciting songs expelling its Jewish students. It was its tutor in English, Bassett Parry Jones, who JEWISH REFUGEES FROM HOLLAND and calm songs. We had prayer books called Haggadah. It was great fun. facilitated young Weidenfeld’s British visa Sir – I would like to contact Jewish Another tradition: Grandma Jenny and thus his subsequent career. refugees brought over to England from always moans about the prayers but she My own late brother, who was in his Holland by a youth councillor called Ellen makes a good ‘Cedar Night’ supper! She final year at the Academy, was able to take Sophie Meijer. She was my aunt and, on made chicken with baked potato and his diploma examination later that year her return to Holland, she was deported beans – it was very tasty! I stayed up very, even though the Pruefungskommission to Sobibor, where she was murdered. She very, very LATE!!! now included a representative of the left behind an 18-month-old baby boy and I think Passover brings people together Foreign Office in Berlin. Like the rest a two-year-old girl. The baby boy never in harmony. of the Austrian foreign service which knew his mother and it would mean the Amelia Sweeney, aged 8 had disappeared after the Anschluss, world to him to know about someone the ancient Konsularakademie was she saved. He now lives in Israel and is (granddaughter of Jenny and Michael Manson), Weybridge revived after the war under the name wheelchair-bound after having contracted Diplomatische Akademie (DA) and, when polio in Westerbork transit camp. my brother attended a party at the ‘A MALICIOUS DISTORTION OF Elisabeth Moller, Raanana, Israel, Austrian embassy in London some 60 years FACTS’ [email protected] later, he found himself wearing the same Sir – Well aware that I once decided not DA tie as at least one of his hosts. to comment on any of Peter Phillips’s JEWISH RELIEF UNITS There is a somewhat irrelevant but diatribes in future, I simply cannot resist Sir – I would like to ask your readers if they pleasant coda to all this. Some ten years the urge this time. know where I can find more information ago, years after my brother’s death, his Such incoherent rubbish defies all about the Jewish Relief Units founded by widow received a letter addressed to description! I am referring, of course, to the British Jewish community after the him from the then director of the DA his letter in your May issue. Second World War. The response to my apologising for the hurt and injury to To claim, for example, that ‘Rabbi last question in your journal was terrific those Nazi victims who had been unable Yitzchak Schochet of Mill Hill has suggested and it even resulted in my making contact to complete their studies at the Academy that examination times be changed for with distant family here in Israel. and inviting him to a diploma ceremony Jewish students at Shavuot simply because Henry Tobias, Maale Adumim, Israel, for the survivors. I replied on her behalf, some imams had suggested a change for [email protected] thanking the Ambassador for his kind Muslim students at Ramadan’ is utter drivel. thoughts, mentioning that he had in fact UNTIMELY DEATH The reason Rabbi Schochet mentioned the obtained his diploma (with honours I Sir – It was with great sadness that I Muslims was merely to point out that there think) but regretting the reasons for his heard of the untimely death in Vienna of are others besides us for whom concessions inevitable absence. In the end, the diploma Elisabeth (Liesl) Ben David-Hindler. have to be made for religious reasons from was sent to London and presented to my Elisabeth worked tirelessly on the time to time – but definitely not ‘because’ sister-in-law in the presence of some of Stolpersteine project in Vienna so that of them! Peter Phillips’s version is a pure her children and grandchildren at a small people like myself could experience closure and malicious distortion of facts, either ceremony by Ambassador Christiani. from the atrocities that befell our relatives deliberate or out of ignorance. Francis Steiner, Deddington, Oxfordshire during the Second World War. She will be As for Orthodox Jews not ‘letting’ their remembered and sorely missed by so many wives sit next to them in synagogue, who ARNHEM 1944 – ON THE OTHER SIDE people worldwide. told him that their wives do want to sit Sir – Further to the letter from Peter In May 2010 she organised our next to them? Those Jewish couples who Block (June), I have a lively memory of ceremony for the Gelber family (my late object to this Halachic ruling will obviously Sunday 17 September 1944. I was almost grandmother, aunt and uncle), which not even contemplate attending Orthodox four-and-a-half years old. We – my foster was held in a very dignified manner on services. continued on page 16 

7 journal JULY 2016

hidden by a towel over a rail from which he stares down at a blue waterscape containing a boat, houses, gardens and the dead donkey. REVIEWS Khakhar brings the veracity of Ghandhi A film masterpiece ART and European artists like Henri Rousseau SON OF SAUL and Pieter Breugel the Elder to his works, directed by László Nemes NOTES which become bleaker, looser, yet more starring Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, sensory as he ages. Cataracts cause him to GLORIA TESSLER Urs Rechn paint in a dull blur, making his sexual images less defined, but one of the very few works he exhibition at Tate Modern, depicting a woman shows a man staring at You Can’t Please All (until 6 himself in a mirror. November 2016), by Gujarati On recovering his eyesight, Khakhar Traconteur, playwright and painter Bhupen also regained precision in his luminous Khakhar, is a tapestry of Bhakti spiritual watercolours. He produced a series of traditions, Sanskrit, satire and blatant woodcuts to illustrate two stories by Salman homosexuality. The works have been culled Rushdie. But when cancer took hold he from international collections to provide projected the condition onto the canvas with this first international retrospective of the savage, physical realism. There is violence in on of Saul, a film about the atrocities committed at Auschwitz, has been Indian painter. his portrayal of his treatment. Demons are released in the UK, having received Born in Bombay in 1934, Khakhar tearing him apart in one of his last works, S immense critical acclaim. The film won visited Britain in 1979, teaching at the Bath Idiot, a semi-abstraction which shows him the Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes Film Academy of Arts as a guest of the painter surrounded by blurred images and a seated, Festival and the award for Best Foreign Howard Hodgkin. His colourful, slightly malicious laughing figure. Now the vibrant Film at the 88th Academy Awards. Directed naive early paintings depict men at work colours have disappeared into a small mono- by László Nemes, it has even made Claude beige canvas, rendering the pain all Lanzmann, the great French film-maker the more powerful. who believed that to present the Holocaust in fiction was a transgression, admit that The searing compassion it is possible to make a good feature film aroused by this painting, created about the unspeakable horrors of the in his dying year, 2003, signals Holocaust. Whether or not to see it posed a violence between Hindu and problem for me (Gerta Vrbova): having lost Muslim communities in 2001 and so many friends and family in Auschwitz referenced in Bollywood cinema and having barely survived the Holocaust imagery in which the actor plays myself, I wasn’t sure I would be able to watch a film depicting in visual images both the good guy and the bad the details of how the Auschwitz killing guy… blood and gore everywhere. factory worked. Many will flinch from explicit My late husband Rudi Vrba was one images – like colonic irrigation of the few who succeeded in escaping – and Khakhar treated his from Auschwitz in April 1944 so as to homosexuality just as palpably, warn the Hungarian Jews about what almost redolent of Francis Bacon’s to expect. He described to me in the summer of 1944 how the death factory in tormented portrayal of the death Auschwitz functioned and his description Bhupen Khakhar You Can't Please All 1981 of his lover, George Dyer, although haunts me to this day. I was therefore not © the estate of Bhupen Khakhar Khakhar lacks Bacon’s anguished, sure whether I would be able to watch whose mindlessness is conveyed through physical intensity. the visual images of the annihilation of brooding and vacant eyes and accentuated One beautiful painting is based on a my people. I discussed it with two of by the tiny tableaux without which no Sanskrit myth in which a dying man begs his my grandsons aged 17 and 19 and they volunteered to come with me and give composition is complete. Man in the Pub son to give him his youth. The surrendering me moral support. I am grateful to them derives from his English experience and here youth is seen as a golden angel making love for the film is a masterpiece, the filming the smartly dressed pale man holding a glass to him. innovative, and the impact of the images and a pair of gloves is defined against dainty unforgettable. One of my grandsons, blue wallpaper and little life tableaux. These Danny Hilton, helped me with writing the works are vivid, literal and narrative; a rare review. glimpse of abstraction comes later. Annely Juda Fine Art The plot takes place in Auschwitz in October 1944 at the height of the most Khakhar believed an artist must be 23 Dering Street frenzied killing of Hungarian Jews. It vulnerable and reflect this weakness in his (off New Bond Street) describes a day and a half in the life of work. The eponymous painting You Can’t Tel: 020 7629 7578 Saul Ausländer (played by Géza Röhrig), Please All is based on an Aesop Fable in Fax: 020 7491 2139 a Hungarian Jew and member of the which a donkey dies because his owners Sonderkommando, prisoners forced to take too much advice. The main image of a CONTEMPORARY help in the gas chambers and crematoria naked man is visible only to us because he is PAINTING AND SCULPTURE in the killing and burning of their fellow prisoners. Ausländer is first seen emerging

8 JULY 2016 journal from leafy woodlands chaperoning new perpetually in shallow focus. In many three-quarters of a arrivals into the gas chambers, where they ways, this highlights the extent of Saul’s century ago. Why so will be poisoned and their bodies burned in suffering, with the torture occurring late? Some are only the ovens of the crematoria. His expression around him: he is compelled not only to now, with enough reflects the horrors he is seeing. It is at this be complicit in, but also a contributor passage of time, able stage that the audience hears sounds of to, something to which he becomes to talk about what screams, barks, orders, cries and whispers desensitised, much in the same way as a happened. They in a mixture of languages which evokes the man or woman would be today. know that time is of vision of unbound evil and reminded me Saul manages to conceal the boy’s the essence: it is now of the title of the book by Alfred Wetzler body while searching for a rabbi. During that they must tell David Pryce-Jones – another escapee from Auschwitz – What his search we experience the atmosphere their families. And Dante Did Not See. of the camp, with attempts to degrade they must bear witness. Their descendants This beginning of the film is everything that is human in us beyond too are stepping up to tell their stories, simultaneously harrowing and perplexing, recognition by showing the bartering for perhaps emboldened by the runaway with an out-of-focus image of the the smallest favours through the exchange success of The Hare with Amber Eyes, leafy woodlands turning into the clear of stolen goods and other demeaning Edmund de Waal’s memoir of his wealthy expression of a mortified and humiliated activities. Viennese family (to whom the present man. The transformation from shallow- Among the new arrivals from Hungary author is distantly related). focus to in-focus very much reflects the who are being exterminated and burned in This memoir too is about an immensely purpose of the director, with the contrast ditches since the furnaces can’t cope with wealthy Viennese family, the Springers from confusion with the out-of-focus to the large number of corpses, Saul finds (and Foulds), most of whom survived the clarity of the countenance of Saul’s someone who pretends to be a rabbi. At through a mixture of good connections great risk to himself he rescues this man face exposing the shock for an ordinary and the requisite good luck, though only to discover that he is an imposter. audience member being introduced to not without losing a good deal of their Saul’s desperate search for a rabbi to cinematically untouched subject matter. property. But it is just as much the story give the child a dignified funeral represents The camera follows Saul’s movements of the Pryce-Joneses, a family as well a deeply human act, showing that even intimately as he administers the torture of connected in England as the Springers amid the stench of death and all the his own people. His blank but restrained were in Europe. facial expression reflects his humiliation attempts by the Nazis to degrade their prisoners, there is a deep voice within us Thérèse (‘Poppy’) Fould married Alan at the barbarity of his actions, with the Pryce-Jones, an Eton and Oxford-educated camera closely following his focused that helps us remain human. Nemes has said that he wanted to author, bon vivant and homosexual, action of removing the coats from the pegs thereby uniting not only two people but and emptying out the possessions of the ‘immerse’ the audience in his film. He two families that could hardly have been gassed Jews. His clinical approach to doing has succeeded for the audience ends up less alike. Poppy and Alan’s only child this gives the impression that he can no feeling the evil and horror of the place David has written a fascinating portrait longer become emotionally traumatised and is forced to confront the question of the extended family, eccentricities and by his actions. as to how to deal with evil on such an all, as well as an account of his own very On one occasion, a young boy is found enormous scale. interesting life and career. Fortunately somehow still breathing in the gas chamber Son of Saul is an important contribution a family tree is provided, essential for after all others have been killed. Having to understanding the Holocaust. It is a seen a Nazi physician suffocate the boy to particularly timely film that may help to such an extensive cast of characters. ensure his death, Saul believes this child to compensate for the information provided Revealing vignettes of famous friends be his own son, whom he feels compelled by the dwindling numbers of Holocaust and acquaintances abound, among them to bury with dignity. He sets out to find a survivors who can transmit their personal characters as disparate as Isaiah Berlin, rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish over experiences of the evil of concentration Greta Garbo and several of the Mitford the body of the child. His plight is desperate camps. sisters. and his actions threaten to compromise For those who may be worried about The author’s research is impeccable, the planned uprising of members of the the traumatic effect that viewing such a resulting in a wealth of detail – perhaps Sonderkommando, but it appears to be his harrowing film may have I would like to an overabundance of it (mentioning a last attempt to salvage his dignity. quote a comment Vasily Grossman made in house his parents visited briefly in 1940, In Son of Saul, Nemes provides us with his report ‘The Hell of Treblinka’ published he informs us that ‘This house belonged suffocating insight into the realities of a in 1944: ‘It is infinitely painful to read this. to Mary Loder, a relation of Alan’s because concentration camp in an extraordinarily The reader [viewer] must believe me when I her mother, Lady Wakehurst, otherwise vivid way. His decision to use a 4:3 aspect say it is equally hard to write it. “Why write Cousin Cuckoo, was born Grey’). He quotes ratio entraps us, with the claustrophobic about it then?” someone may well ask. extensively from letters and diaries (those nature of the frame constructing the “Why recall such things?” It is the writer’s by his father Alan are mostly literary gems), notion that the unfolding events are duty to tell the terrible truth and it is the but sometimes there is too much from inescapable. The 4:3 frame acts almost as a reader’s civic duty to learn this truth. To them too: he cites patriotic statements portal for a contemporary viewer, allowing turn away, to close one’s eyes is to insult of the ‘England the great shall win the the audience two hours to gaze into the the memory of those who have perished.’ war’ type from at least nine letters by his darkest hours of human existence. Nemes Gerta Vrbova and Danny Hilton nanny Jessie. That the book doesn’t groan displays the atrocities of this death camp under the weight of such detail is due to in the least melodramatic fashion, simply the author’s stylish and beautiful writing, depicting the portrait of a guilt-ridden A memoir not to be missed a subtle yet pungent sense of humour, man. No soundtrack is employed here – FAULT LINES and a perfectly judged sense of discretion rather the ominous howls, cries, gunshots by David Pryce-Jones and tone. of the suffering, evoking an apocalyptic New York: Criterion Books, 2015, This is a finely written and fascinating landscape of death. On several occasions 364 pp. paperback portrait not only of two very interesting throughout the film, we are invited to n the last few years there has been families but of the times in which they see only Saul’s face, with the peripheral a sudden abundance of memoirs found themselves. Not to be missed. suffering around him remaining almost Iby Jewish refugees and survivors of Tanya Tintner

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Yom Hashoah 2016: ‘Wir waren Nachbarn’ (We Were Neighbours) ‘From Poland to his unusual exhibition at 1933 lived in the same area as they Schöneberg Town Hall in Berlin now live were just like them, with Windermere’ Tis well worth a visit. Originally the same interests and experiences. only opened for three months, it is It is impossible to read all the ver 200 people, including all now intended to be a permanent 136 folders on one visit. The sections of the Scottish Jewish exhibition. exhibition is even more identified Ocommunity and dignitaries from The exhibition consists of 136 with Schöneberg since the walls of all the political parties, attended this folders, each in respect of one the room in which it is mounted year’s Yom HaShoah event at Glasgow’s individual – many of them children are lined with 6,000 record cards, Giffnock Synagogue. – who had lived in Schöneberg but lovingly transcribed by a local official Children from Calderwood Lodge had been forced to leave. Each folder from records found in the Town Hall Jewish Primary School, Giffnock Guides contains photographs, letters and archives. The cards are arranged by and members of the Ethiopian Bar/ other documents describing the street and show the address of each Bat Mitzvah Twinning Programme lit individual’s local background and Jew forced out by the Nazis. the candles with special guest speaker his or her personal history. It was from a balcony on Ben Helfgott MBE. On display was an Among those for whom there Schöneberg Town Hall that on 26 art project by children from the school is a folder are Albert Einstein, Billy June 1963 President Kennedy made inspired by the 45 Aid Society’s Memory Wilder, Emanuel Lasker and Wilhelm his famous speech ending with the Quilt, based on Ben’s story as well as that Reich. words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’, so it is of other survivors. What is remarkable about no surprise that the square in front First and second generation members the exhibition is the reaction of of the Town Hall is now named John- had the opportunity to meet Ben before schoolchildren, who are fascinated F.-Kennedy-Platz. the event and some were able to speak to learn that the Jews who prior to David Rothenberg with him in his native Polish. The Glasgow Jewish Singers under the direction of Eddie Binnie sang most movingly. Kaddish was recited by Ian Capacity audience for Pinner Synagogue’s Leifer. Professor Lev Atlas accompanied 27th Yom HaShoah Evening the Memorial Roll of names on the violin. JR member Eva their perilous journey to Following the showing of excerpts Mendelsson, born safety in Switzerland, from a documentary film on ‘The Boys’ Ben in Offenburg, again assisted by the shared his incredible story of suffering, A Germany, the youngest OSE. After two years in survival and tremendous achievements. of three sisters, spoke orphanages, Myriam and Having survived the camps, at the age animatedly to a capacity Eva were reunited with of 15 he was brought to Windermere audience at Pinner their father in England in in the UK with Synagogue’s 27th Yom 1945; they had last seen 732 orphaned HaShoah Evening of him in 1938. Following Jewish boys Remembrance. Many PHOTO: STEPHEN GEE his arrest on Kristallnacht and a number Eva Mendelsson lights civic and diplomatic remembrance candle and six-week detention of girls who dignitaries attended, in Dachau, he had been became with Jack Frohlich, a third the Polish Ambassador generation member of forced to leave Germany collectively HE Witold Sobków and Pinner Synagogue immediately. The seven- known as ‘The the Chargé d’Affaires year separation and Boys’. He went of the Romanian Embassy, Cosmin wartime after-effects took their toll on to become Onisii, among them. but Eva enjoyed a happy marriage, a champion The event began with a moving brought up three children, and weightlifter, candle-lighting ceremony by six managed a career as a textile artist Ben Helfgott MBE winning a survivors, including Eva, who as in north-west London. bronze medal children had endured years of Eva speaks frequently to German in the Commonwealth Games and hiding in France, together with third schoolchildren about her experiences. representing the UK in the Olympic generation youth members of the Last October she attended at Gurs Games. He also became a champion Synagogue. the 75th anniversary of the unique of Holocaust Remembrance, a founder Teenagers read heart-rending deportation ‘west’ of ‘Baden’ Jews, member and President of the 45 Aid poems written by Eva’s mother, Sylvia the so-called Wagner-Burckel Aktion. Society, and a leading figure on a number Cohn, and a diary entry by Esther, her She recently celebrated her 85th of Holocaust-related organisations. oldest sister, both of whom, aged birthday with her children and Asked how the Holocaust experience only 38 and 18 respectively, were grandchildren, a testimony to her had affected him, Ben said ‘I despaired murdered at Auschwitz. survival. but I did not let cruelty and injustice Pictures of the awful conditions Councillor Macleod-Cullinane break my spirit. I refused to poison my at Gurs and Rivesaltes camps in summed up: ‘We must not forget the life with revenge and hatred for hatred is south-west France were displayed monstrous evil that was perpetrated, corrosive. Instead, I was left with a dream as Eva spoke of the rescue of we must cherish those who survived, to live in a world of understanding, her sister Myriam and herself by and we must all strive together compassion, fraternity and love for my the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux to prevent any repetition of those fellow man.’ An important message for Enfants), of their hiding with other terrible acts befalling any peoples future generations. Jewish children at Château du anywhere in our world.’ Agnes Isaacs Masgelier in central France, and Sharon Mire

10 JULY 2016 journal Clemens N. Nathan PhD Scholarship Programme Memorial service for JR Chief Executive Michael Newman Studies is seeking further financial Sir Nicholas Winton announced a ground-breaking support to enable other students to held in London’s APhD scholarship programme at a access the scholarship funding in 2017 Guildhall memorial seminar held in honour of AJR and beyond. This is a particularly good member Clemens N. Nathan. The event time to contribute as matched funding took place in May 2016 at London’s has been made available from the Athenaeum Club. University of Sussex. The full scholarship, which In his address, Michael will be run by the Centre for Newman quoted part of the German-Jewish Studies at tribute to Clemens Nathan the University of Sussex, has written by the President of been endowed in memory of the Claims Conference, Julius Clemens N. Nathan, founding Berman: ‘[H]is beginnings, member and Honorary Life- as a German-Jewish refugee, memorial service for Sir Nicholas President of the Centre’s clearly influenced the person Winton, who rescued almost London Support Group, who Clemens became, including A700 children, most of them died last year. genuine interest in, and Jewish, from Czechoslovakia in the months before the war, was held in The scholarship will Clemens Nathan indefatigable efforts in support the study of the support of, the well-being London’s Guildhall. Sir Nicholas died complex spectrum of the German- of others. He was driven to become last year aged 106. Jewish experience, including topics such involved in a wide range of Jewish- Some 28 of those Sir Nicholas saved as history and memory with special related and human rights-related as children were among 400 people emphasis on the second and third causes. He always found a way. And he who attended the event along with generations, Jewish relief organisations, did it with a touch of British charm and Czech, Slovak and UK government and the German-Jewish refugee. a ready smile. He was, by any measure I representatives. After the memorial seminar, the know, a mentsch, an inspiration.’ The service was opened by Lord Board of Directors of the AJR decided to If you are interested in making Dubs, a Labour peer and himself a make a significant contribution towards a financial contribution to the Kindertransport child rescued by Sir the creation of the PhD, which, together scholarship, or would like further details Nicholas, and was addressed by Sir with generous funding from the Anglo- on the scholarship programme, please Nicholas’s daughter Barbara Winton. Jewish Association and the Nathan contact Diana Franklin or Dr Gideon Dame Esther Rantzen, whose BBC family, will enable the scholarship to get Reuveni at the Centre for German- TV programme That’s Life in 1988 underway in September 2016. Jewish Studies, University of Sussex revealed Sir Nicholas’s story, and The Centre for German-Jewish (www.sussex.ac.uk/cgjs). Michael Zantovsky, former Czech ambassador to Britain, also paid tribute.

he gratitude that Lord Alfred Dubs bystanders and led a small delegation stretch of the South Camp had been felt for his sanctuary in the UK in to see for themselves something of the laid waste by the French authorities T1939 was the driving force behind daily life of today’s refugees in the Calais this spring when they demolished the his recent successful initiative to persuade ‘Jungle’ camp. I was privileged to be part area, leaving only canisters of tear gas parliament to admit unaccompanied of that group and felt deeply moved and the ‘school’, the ‘library’ known as children who are now fleeing from because the children’s plight resonated ‘Jungle Books’, an Ethiopian ‘church’, oppression and war zones. He said that with me personally as my father had and a shack that serves as a youth centre. the example of the late Sir Nicholas been detained in French internment The refugees had been moved to the Winton had inspired him. However, camps in 1942. North Camp, further away from the the provisions of the Dublin III Treaty Our aim was to raise awareness and Eurostar station but no less exposed to that governs EU asylum applications so speed up the asylum application exploitation and worse. are being thwarted by bureaucracy and process for the 157 unaccompanied Food, meagre and lacking in nutrition, governmental legal action in both the children from Afghanistan, Eritrea, such as we ate in Sammy’s Restaurant, UK and France. Ethiopia, Iraq, Sudan and Syria who had been supplied by charity kitchens: Lord Dubs and fellow had family in the UK and therefore an there was no help from the state. There Kindertransportee Rabbi Harry Jacobi undisputed entitlement to live here. were some shops, a hairdresser and MBE felt they could no longer be The visit was planned with help phone-charging booths, arranged along from NGOs Citizens UK, Help a ‘high street’. A children’s centre was Refugees and Safe Passage housed in a double-decker bus bought UK, all active in the ‘Jungle’. on eBay. There were also two mosques It received extensive coverage and first aid was provided in caravans. by the BBC. As we left, some of the children tried The two Kinder told their to join us in our minibus. At the deserted stories to several of the Afghan Eurostar station, armed guards and children who were now about sniffer dogs were on duty. the same age as they had Later, I learned that the boys we had been when they arrived in the met had escaped to the UK in the back of UK. They promised to do all a lorry. Perhaps the kindness, compassion within their power to speed and humanity we had tried to convey had the settlement process. been an inspiration to them. The boys’ (from left) Rabbi Harry Jacobi MBE, Lord Dubs, The physical conditions spirit and hope inspired us. BBC reporter ©UNICEF UK/2016/Greg Jones were appalling. The vast Gaby Glassman

11 journal JULY 2016 after having been classified as ‘enemy This talk, on the EU referendum, was no aliens’. They served their country with exception. One of Tim’s conclusions: great courage. Michael Millodot Donald Trump is a kind man and skilled politician who will make a good American HGS A Well Behaved Discussion president and has been much maligned Eva facilitated an animated and well by the media. Not surprisingly, this and behaved discussion on the EU referendum. similar opinions led to a good deal of INSIDE Hortense brought photos of her life from discussion, which could have gone on all the toddler to cook/maid, marriage, training day! Fritz Starer as a nurse and ‘nurse of the year’. Details AJR of forthcoming days out and other EDINBURGH ‘My Favourite Famous attractive events were circulated. Thank Jewish Person’ you, Eva. Elfi Colman ‘My Favourite Famous Jewish Person’ was BRIGHTON AND HOVE SARID Miracle the theme of our get-together, generously Baby LEEDS CF Visit by Sikh Community hosted by Francoise. It was a split between We were held spellbound by Eva Clarke Members the ‘usual suspects’ from the world of art – the daughter born to Anka Bergman We had a wonderful opportunity to and showbiz on the one hand and far- just days before they were liberated from meet two members of the local Sikh sighted activists and charismatic specialists Auschwitz. Eva, this miracle baby whose community. They gave a most interesting on the other. A delightful afternoon. story appears in Wendy Holden’s book talk about their religion together with Jonathan Kish Born Survivors, related her amazing story an open invite to visit their temple and of bravery and love so beautifully. sample their hospitality. Wendy Bott KINDERTRANSPORT LUNCH Shirley Huberman Guest Speaker: ESSEX (WESTCLIFF) Christian Friend Dame Esther Rantzen EALING Computer Training of Israel The AJR’s Computer Co-ordinator Claude Moira Dare-Edwards, who taught English full house welcomed Dame Esther Vecht-Wolf described the work of his in the 1970s in Germany, joined the Rantzen as guest speaker. Having team of volunteers and referred to a new, Christian Friends of Israel soon after her Adeclared how incredibly lucky we simple touch-screen computer which return to the UK. She ended her very all were to be in this country, she spoke was being provided to members who interesting talk about her personal life by about her family, who were featured might need it. Claude also talked about showing a DVD about the Israeli coastal on the Who Do You Think You Are? TV his background as a trainee rabbi and IT town of Atlit and received a very warm programme, and explained how she set teacher. A most enjoyable afternoon ovation from the Westcliff members. up ChildLine and, later, The Silver Line. Leslie Sommer Larry Lisner One of the highlights of her long career was reuniting a number of Sir LIVERPOOL ‘A Leisurely Stroll around SHEFFIELD A Special Afternoon Nicholas Winton’s ‘children’ on TV. My Legal Career’ Guest speaker Michael Lewis gave an We were very happy to have a few of David Harris QC gave a fascinating talk account of his mother Helen’s book A Time Nicky Winton’s ‘children’ with us on entitled ‘A Leisurely Stroll around My Legal to Speak. It proved a most emotive and this occasion and they were delighted Career … the Case of the Conjoined Twins, special afternoon. Wendy Bott to meet Dame Esther once again. This the Rochdale Ritual Abuse Case, etc’. No historic lunch meeting ended with a Q&A other sound could be heard in the room KINGSTON AND SURREY Tea and session and a presentation to our guest. as we listened to David talking us through Planning David Lang the finer details of some of the cases he Members met at the beautiful home of has worked on. Wendy Bott Susan Zisman, who put on a fabulous EDGWARE 43 Years at the Home tea. We discussed plans for the rest of Office AJR CARD AND GAMES CLUB Enjoying the year with a September date now in Leslie Sommer entertained us with a the Fun Plus the Hospitality of AJR the diary. A huge thank you to Susan for fascinating history of his 43 years at Staff being a great hostess. the Home Office. He served in a variety After a light lunch, including delicious Kathryn Prevezer of departments ranging from Prisons Rinkoff cakes, we adjourned to do battle and Parole to Fires Service, Passport at Bridge, Scrabble and Backgammon. We PINNER Trip to Ethiopia Office, Immigration, Coroners, and many would like to see more members at our Our members Henri and Dorothy Obstfeld more. A thoroughly enjoyable talk much next meeting so they can enjoy the fun gave us a fascinating illustrated talk about appreciated by the large audience. and the usual great hospitality of the AJR their Jewish Renaissance trip to Ethiopia. Susan Jacobs staff. Anita Grant We were surprised to learn that there were still some 9,000 Jews remaining in NORTH LONDON Time-consuming ILFORD Quality If Not Quantity the country after so many had made it to Work of a Sofer Popular London Guide Elaine Wein gave Israel. Robert Gellman We were enthralled by a talk by Tony us an extremely interesting armchair tour Jacobs, a sofer who repairs and restores of the highlights of the City of London. It BRADFORD CF Celebrating Rudi’s 90th Torah scrolls. Tony explained how his work was a talk sadly missed by many of our We met for a ‘Springtime’ lunch at Salts is very time-consuming – to create a new members, who failed to turn up. We had Mill, Saltaire. We were greeted by Mill Torah scroll can take 18 months. quality if not quantity on this occasion. owner Robin Silver and we also celebrated David Lang Meta Roseneil Rudi Leavor’s forthcoming 90th birthday with a fabulous lemon curd cake! BOOK CLUB A Good Holiday Read CARDIFF Churchill’s Secret Army Wendy Bott We discussed Joël Dicker’s The Truth We had another pleasant lunch followed about the Harry Quebert Affair, a long by a screening of Churchill’s Secret Army, RADLETT A Man of Controversial book considered a good holiday read and which depicts the eventual acceptance Opinions translated from the French even though of German and Austrian Jewish refugees Tim Pike’s previous talks have been the events it depicts took place in Maine, who wished to serve in the British Army intensely interesting but very controversial. USA. Irene Goodman

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CONTACTS JULY GROUP eventS Susan Harrod Sheffield 3 July Summertime Lunch at Dore Moor Café Lead Outreach & Events Ealing 5 July Dr Susan Cohen: ‘The Life of Eleanor Rathbone’ Co-ordinator Oxford 5 July Annual Garden Party 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Bromley 6 July Social Get-together at home of Lianne Segal; Wendy Bott speaker: David Barnett: ‘Lady Judith Montefiore’ Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Didsbury 6 July Social Get-together 07908 156 365 [email protected] Glasgow 6 July Outing to Dumfries House Agnes Isaacs Ilford 6 July David Tomback: ‘From Sukkahs to Skyscrapers – Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Jews and Their Buildings’ 07908 156 361 [email protected] Pinner 7 July Bob Redman: ‘Elstree – British Hollywood’ Newcastle 10 July Outing to Beth Shalom Kathryn Prevezer Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Essex (Westcliff) 12 July Otto Deutsch: ‘My Birthday Memories’ 07966 969 951 [email protected] Nottingham 13 July Lunch at home of Ruth and Jurgen Schwiening Bradford 14 July Social Get-together Esther Rinkoff Glasgow Book Club 14 July Social Southern Outreach Co-ordinator 07966 631 778 [email protected] Brighton 18 July Marion Freund: ‘Desert Island Discs’ Bristol 18 July Artists Richard White and Lorna Brunstein: Eva Stellman ‘Forced Walks: Honouring Esther’ Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Edgware 19 July Carole Angier: ‘The Life of Primo Levi’ 07904 489 515 [email protected] Kensington 20 July Garden Party KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Radlett 20 July Lesley Urbach: ‘The Life of Isaac Shoenberg’ Susan Harrod North West London 26 July Diane Barnet: ‘Aristides de Sousa Mendes’ 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Harrogate/York 27 July Summer meal out Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Wembley 27 July David Barnett: ‘The Most Famous Jewish Business in Henri Obstfeld Victorian London – E. Moses & Son’ 020 8954 5298 [email protected] North London 28 July Paul Lang: ‘My Photographic Career’ Ealing 2 Aug Nick Dobson: ‘An Underground Guide – a Virtual Tour of the London Tube’ Norfolk 2 Aug Peter Beschorner: ‘The Music Survives – the Story of DIDSBURY CF How to Relax in the My Father Hans’ Dentist’s Chair Book Club 3 Aug Social Members enjoyed lunch followed by Ilford 3 Aug Film Morning: The Sturgeon Queen listening to pieces of music they had Pinner 4 Aug Annual Garden Party brought along, including German harmonies, a viola soloist and a German choir rendition. We listened intently as each member explained the reason for A truly memorable five days: AJR trip to Yorkshire their choice of music – one member said DAY 1 Once in Harrogate, we were off for it helped her relax in the dentist’s chair! Meeting at King’s Cross Station, we a short tour of the town and a leisurely Wendy Bott were all happy to see colleagues from wander around the town centre. last year’s trip to Glasgow and some WEMBLEY Connect Programme Easy- new faces too. At Leeds Station we DAY 2 to-Use were met by Joy, our Blue Badge Off to York accompanied by Joy, who Michelle Mendall told members about Guide, who pointed out the sights talked us through the history of the how Six Point Foundation came into of Leeds en route to Harrogate. We city and the stunning countryside on being and explained the Connect were delighted to mingle with local the way. We visited Clifford’s Tower, programme, showing members how AJR members at the Ziff Centre, where in 1190 some 150 Jews, having simple and easy-to-use it is. providing the opportunity to chat sought protection from the mob in Kathryn Prevezer with our compatriots and learn about what was then the royal castle, chose their origins. We were given a superb to die at each other’s hands rather IMPERIAL CAFÉ Inspiring Meetings dinner and tapped our toes to Phil than renounce their faith. We also We met probably for the last time in the Cammerman’s Klezmer Band. saw historic York, the Minster – the format of monthly meetings, with the largest medieval construction proposal to meet again at the end of in the UK – and enjoyed the year. On this occasion, we discussed York’s Chocolate Story, a ‘Brexit’, with most of us still confused! guided tour of Rowntree’s These meetings have been inspiring over chocolate manufacturers, the years and I feel honoured to have heard all the different stories of wartime which was founded in 1862 heroism recounted. Esther Rinkoff and developed a strong association with Quaker GLASGOW BOOK CLUB A Super philanthropy. Afternoon DAY 3 Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea was Although the whole of the novel up for lively discussion at our the Yorkshire tour was meeting, held in Agnes’s house. Given the delicious afternoon tea that followed, and thoroughly enjoyable the taking into consideration the beautiful trip to Howarth, the home At Clifford’s Tower, York, scene of an 1190 pogrom of the Bronte family, and the sunny afternoon, everyone agreed it was (from left) Leslie Kleinman, Eva Stellman, Agnes Isaacs, a super afternoon. Anthea Berg Leslie Brent, Miriam Kleinman continued on page 14 

13 journal JULY 2016  A truly memorable five days GUIDED TOUR OF ‘Eleanor Rathbone: continued from page 13 HOOP LANE journey to Bolton Abbey were for me JEWISH CEMETERY A Woman of Worth’ (Leslie Brent) the ‘jewel in the crown’. by Rachel Kosky, Blue Badge Guide The journey took us through Otley, Monday 8 August 2016 Sunday 17 July, 2.30-5.00 pm Shipley and Saltaire Mills (many of This tour highlights the history of the Hoop Lane at JFS School, The Mall, Kenton the local wool mills had apparently cemeteries in Golders Green. Opened in 1897 for Join the ‘Remembering Eleanor Rathbone’ been owned by a Jewish refugee both the Reform and Sephardi Jewish communities, family called Salt!). The parsonage they contain an array of fascinating personalities for group and students from JFS and in which the family had lived was whom this is their final resting place. Yavneh College for a unique afternoon of near the end of a steep and cobbled They include those of religious leaders such as entertainment, followed by tea street, as was the very well laid-out Hugo Gryn and Albert Friedlander, actor Sydney Tafler, To book, please email Museum, containing all the rooms philanthropist and youth leader Sir Basil Henriques, or of the family with their furniture and [email protected] writer Jack Rosenthal, the parents of Maurice and [email protected] belongings. Charles Saatchi, and ‘agony aunt’ Marjorie Proops. Later we were taken by steam Following the tour we will have lunch at a local train to Bolton Abbey, a noble ruin restaurant in Golders Green and the opportunity LEO BAECK HOUSING ASSOCIATION with a large intact arch. A truly to speak with Rachel. memorable day. CLARA NEHAB HOUSE Transport between the Cemetery DAY 4 and the restaurant will be provided. RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME We set off for Harewood House, Small caring residential home an impressive 18th-century stately For further details, please speak to with large attractive gardens Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 close to local shops and public transport home between Harrogate and 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities. Leeds filled with Chippendale or email [email protected] 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care furniture, highly decorated ceilings Entertainment & Activities provided. and some glorious Sèvres porcelain Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room • Lift access to all floors. in a small side room. Among the CLASSIFIED notable pictures were portraits by, For further information please contact: The Manager, Clara Nehab House, among others, Joshua Reynolds and Joseph Pereira (ex-AJR 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA Thomas Lawrence, paintings by El caretaker over 22 years) is now Telephone: 020 8455 2286 Greco, Veronese and Tintoretto, and available for DIY repairs and amazing ceiling panels by Angelica general maintenance. Kauffman. For those who had the No job too small, energy there was a Bird Garden switch on electrics very reasonable rates. and a Himalayan Garden. We drove Rewires and all household on to RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Please telephone where acres of woodland scented electrical work gardens, wildflower meadows and 07966 887 485. PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 a kitchen garden were waiting to Mobile: 0795 614 8566 be explored. DAY 5 In Leeds, on our way back, we visited PillarCare the Thackray Medical Museum, Quality support and care at home Books Bought admired today for its imposing Modern and Old architecture and grand entrance hall.  Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours It first opened in 1861 as the purpose-  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care  built Leeds Union Workhouse for Convalescent and Personal Health Care  poor and homeless people. Gradually Compassionate and Affordable Service  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Eric Levene new buildings were added, including  Registered with the CQC and UKHCA a separate infirmary. In 1925 it 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 was renamed St James’s Hospital Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 [email protected] PILLARCARE and in 1948 it became part of the THE BUSINESS CENTRE · 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE · LONDON NW1 7BB I also purchase ephemera NHS. By the 1990s the building PHONE: 020 7482 2188 · FAX: 020 7900 2308 was considered unsafe for modern www.pillarcare.co.uk medicine and in 1997 the Thackray www.fishburnbooks.com Medical Museum opened. This well organised, fun trip to Jonathan Fishburn Yorkshire wouldn’t have been possible JACKMAN . buys and sells without our dear co-ordinators and Jewish and Hebrew books, SILVERMAN ephemera and items of leaders: Susan Harrod, Kathryn Jewish interest. Prevezer, Eva Stellman, Wendy Bott, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS He is a member of the Antiquarian Agnes Isaacs and Esther Rinkoff. A Booksellers Association. truly memorable five days! Contact Jonathan on Leslie Brent, Veronika Keczkes, Telephone: 020 7209 5532 020 8455 9139 Francoise Robertson, Meta or 07813 803 889 Roseneil, Shirley Rothman [email protected] for more information

14 JULY 2016 journal ObituarIES Hana Liese Hornung (née Mautner), born Karlovy Vary 12 July 1925, died Edinburgh 19 September 2015 y mother was born in Karlovy parents wanting to send move once again, this time Vary, the family home on her the children to England on as refugees to London and, maternal side. She and her twin the Kindertransport. A year finally, to Edinburgh, where Msister Trudy were born while their mother later school was closed to all they settled and Berty was Anna (née Hirsch) was visiting for the Jews. When Hana was 15 able to continue his career. summer from Prague. Karlovy Vary was the family was transported In Edinburgh, which then in Sudetenland, where a large number to Terezin. became their home, Hana of German-speaking Jews lived. Her The next phase of for the first time in her mother’s first language was German. Her Hana’s life was very tough life had a chance to better father Arnost, a Czech Jew originally from but she was young and herself and she studied for southern Bohemia but living in Prague, was lucky and she survived. She lived in cramped an Open University degree in Social a general practitioner. conditions, under threat of starvation, Sciences and then a Librarianship degree. Hana’s early years spent in Prague learning to cope. A part of the forced At last she could work in her own right. influenced her outlook on life. Although the labour that worked in agriculture, she risked She was always striving to improve her family were respected and affluent middle smuggling out vegetables and exchanging knowledge. She worked hard on her class, they lived in a rented apartment in them for bread. She witnessed the regular languages. She enjoyed discussions with a working class neighbourhood, with the transportation of people to Auschwitz and people on current affairs, politics or medical practice taking up a part of the miraculously avoided being in the ‘wrong’ anything else that interested them, always home. Arnost Mautner was a kind and line. wanting to understand and appreciate generous man, totally committed to his After liberation by the Soviet army, Hana them. She visited new places and kept pace work and treating people according to returned to Prague, married Berty, whom she with art and culture everywhere she visited. their need rather than their ability to pay. had met in Terezin, and settled in Prague. Hana had a great zest for life with a While the family’s Jewish heritage was Having so little formal education, she found sense of fun that was at times mischievous. part of their life they were completely work in publishing, information science and She had a strong belief in people from all assimilated into the Czech non-Jewish translating, giving Berty a chance to continue walks of life and was always interested to community. Signs of antisemitism with his studies. The ensuing Communist learn from them. She respected her friends started to creep in while Hana was still at regime once again forced a change on and colleagues. She was a dignified person; primary school. Then Germany occupied the family and they moved to Slovakia so her standards of behaviour were high. Sudetenland and summer holidays there that Berty could continue working as an Hana died on 19 September 2015 ceased. The aunt and uncle fled to Prague. architect/town planner. They returned only having suffered a severe brain haemorrhage. The situation was deteriorating and Anna, at the time of the ‘Prague spring’ and that, She is survived by her two daughters, Vera aged 13, was sent to the English Ladies as it turned out, was also short-lived. The and Lucie, and six grandchildren. college to study English and French, her 1968 Soviet invasion forced the family to Lucie Green

Fred (Manfred) Naftalie, born Berlin 21 November 1923, died Hallandale, Florida, 23 February 2016 y father was born in Berlin, the for German POWs. After the war he was Detroit and Hallandale, Florida, where youngest of three children. In involved with the Bricha, helping to bring they settled permanently in 1993. 1938 he was sent to England illegal immigrants who had survived the war Throughout his life my father was active Mwith the Kindertransport. to Palestine. in B’nai B’rith and Magen David, was a After spending a short In 1948 he left England Shriner, and volunteered at the Holocaust time with an uncle, he for New York on the SS Memorial in Miami. He marched in went to boarding school Battory. While on board, numerous parades and always tried to get at Beaconsfield College he met my mother, Rosa back to London for the AJAX ceremony, in Hove, Sussex. In 1940, Gunsberg from Leipzig, who where he would proudly display the Israeli having returned to London, was travelling to the USA flag. he was apprenticed to a with her mother. Fred was a self-made man and a good furrier, where he would They married in 1949 father and had 54 years together with my learn his future trade. and set up house in Detroit, mother. Despite early hardships he had a In 1944 Fred joined the where my father owned a good and rewarding life. British Army, eventually business as a furrier and my He is survived by one daughter, Evelyn serving in the Palestine mother was a dressmaker and Tamary, of Hod Hasharon, Israel, three Regiment of the Jewish homemaker. grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Brigade. He saw action in They spent their May his memory be blessed. Italy and was a translator retirement years between Evelyn Tamary

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soothing words and insightful analysis of military developments broadcast by the late Chaim Herzog, who had retired from Dorothea Shefer-Vanson the IDF not long before with the rank of major-general. But apart from broadcasting momentous Radio exhibition in Sarona events, the radio is also a constant presence o mark 80 years of broadcasting taking place, sending eye-witness accounts in the lives of many people. I personally in Israel (and in Palestine under from there. am always accompanied by classical music the British Mandate), the Voice All the inhabitants of pre-State Israel were in every room of my house and in my car. Tof Israel (Kol Yisrael) held an exhibition glued to their radios in 1947 to hear the This was not always the case as initially in the Sarona area of Tel Aviv. The locale result of the vote on the Partition Plan at the the radio was a mixture of verbal and was originally settled by German Templers, United Nations and, when the result turned music programmes broadcast on only one who established agricultural settlements in out to be in favour of the establishment of a frequency. This gradually branched out into various parts of the Holy Land, building Jewish state alongside an Arab one, everyone several channels aimed at different tastes private homes interspersed with individual swarmed out into the streets and spontaneous and segments of the population. gardens and public parks. The remnants dancing erupted. Only the prescient Ben- In the years immediately following of settlements such as these may be found Gurion realised what this meant in terms of the Second World War, although Hebrew in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Galilee, the antagonism of the Arab countries and was the prevailing language, there were though the original German occupants are did not join in the general rejoicing. His programmes in Yiddish, French, German, long gone. announcement declaring the establishment English and various other languages aimed The first radio broadcasts were initiated of the State of Israel was broadcast live on at different groups of Israel’s polyglot by the British High Commissioner for the radio on 14 May 1948, marking another population, programmes listing the names Palestine, and programmes consisting of milestone in the life of the country. of relatives seeking family members, exercise lectures and music, in English as well as Thus it was – and I remember this programmes in the early morning, quizzes, Hebrew and Arabic, were transmitted over well – that during the Six Day War, when children’s programmes and music request the airwaves. The exhibition consisted television had not yet been introduced in programmes. I’ve been told that among primarily of photographs but also had a Israel, the radio reports played a crucial the most popular musical requests in pre- few examples of the actual old-style radios role in bringing the unfolding sequence of State Israel was Smetana’s Voltava because and broadcasting equipment in all their events to the listening public. I was living the melody bears a strong resemblance to original chunkiness on display. in Jerusalem at the time and, like the rest the national anthem, Hatikva. In my own The many dramatic events that have of the population, was required to remain case, the various programmes on the radio attended Israel’s birth and subsequent inside my home for several days as the city helped me to learn Hebrew. history were reported by intrepid newsmen was being bombed. The radio was my only Today the radio plays a less important who, accompanied by technicians schlepping source of contact with the outside world role in the life of the nation, having been heavy recording equipment, made their way and, although my grasp of Hebrew was superseded by television. Nonetheless, its to the front lines of battles, or the venues somewhat limited, I did my best to decipher importance in forging national unity and where events of national importance were the news reports and rejoiced to hear the culture will always redound to its credit.

 letters to the editor cont. from p.7 parents, their daughter, son-in-law and on for several days, during which we of Arnhem, was on fire. Very spooky granddaughter aged two – were having didn’t leave the flat. By now there was while shooting was going on around lunch. My foster parents and I were no electricity – I don’t remember whether us! Surprisingly our car didn’t get hit. living with their daughter on the western there was gas but water was still ‘on tap’. Eventually we reached our destination – outskirts of Arnhem because civilians had Because the flat was situated round the the house of the headmaster of the village been advised by the authorities to get out corner from a large hospital we saw from school of Harskamp. We stayed in that of the centre of town, where we lived. The time to time a horse and cart, with a red village for seven months, until the end reason was that the Germans expected an cross on a white flag, pass by. On these of the war, when we were liberated by attack by the Allied forces on the bridge carts were the injured, or the dying, being Canadian troops. across the River Rhine. The bridge was driven to the hospital. During my early professional work in situated in the centre of the city. On the third evening of the battle, London I came across three Britons who The adults got very excited when they my foster parents and I were driven by a recognised my accent. They told me they saw gliders approaching from the south. doctor friend who had a car (!) through had fought at Arnhem. It gave me the I got very excited when I saw puppets the battle zone. I remember clearly that in opportunity to explain that I had been dropping out of the gliders and an the woods a large hotel-restaurant called there too and to thank them for their ‘umbrella’ opening above each puppet! De leren doedel (The Leather Bagpipe), efforts to liberate us. Later the shooting started and went situated along the main road west out Henri Obstfeld, Stanmore, Middx

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