z^saiss "mm *\ Information

Volume XLVI No. 4 Aprd 1991

£3 (to non-members)

Don't miss . . . Different, and yet the same Sir Yehudi at 75

Re-working a legend p4 Exodus - then and now The tongue In exile p5 his Passover editorial was written on the Feast between a quarter and a third. This will inevitably set The perennial of Esther - ever a time of crisis. In pre-Purim up tensions as new olim compete with "natives' for Protocols pi3 Tdays when Jews met in Moscow one would ask jobs, housing and social service provisions. Even so, the other 'Are you off to Saddam's War, or are you however great the strain on Israel's social fabric, no staying for ours?' 'Ours' in this context meant the one is going to tell the newcomers to go back to their Shea debate incipient war of all against all - but especially against own country. update the Jews - that threatens to engulf the unravelling The absence of this jibe from the Israeli vocabulary Soviet Empire. constitutes the crucial difference between immi­ c Pen is fined As we know, many Russian Jews elected to brave gration into the Jewish State and any other on earth. heavily for the palpable danger of Saddam's Scud missiles rather Israel, of course, pursues a policy of 'ingathering Ldismissing the holocaust as a than the incorporeal but ever-present threat of exiles'. It is, however, not totally unique in so doing. bagatelle. Austrians Pamyat-instigated pogroms. How fittingly symbolic The Federal Republic receives ethnic Germans from denying the existence that we should celebrate this year's Passover against Eastern Europe, and former DDR residents, but its of Auschwitz are to the backdrop of the greatest Jewish exodus in citizens show little affection for the newcomers. be constrained hy modern history! Some forecasts predict that the influx Of late the catchphrase 'All men are Jews' has law. The DDP takes action against Lady of Soviet immigrants into Israel will ultimately gained a certain currency in intellectual circles. It Birdwood for increase the population of the Jewish State by implies that modern man facing ecological disaster or disseminating social disintegration shares the archetypal Jewish Stiirmer-xype experience of alienation. literature. The superficiality of the catchphrase can be Simultaneously gleaned from the reaction to immigrants in even the Edward Heath made a contribution to the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING most prosperous and pluralistic societies. debate on the War Germany, Croesus of the EEC and the object of Crimes Bill that defies praise for unifying without nationalist triumphalism, rational analysis. The The Association of Jewishi Refugees in has a much disparaged underclass of (mainly) man who as Prime Great Britain advises Members and Turkish Gastarbeiter. Guest workers have also met Minister displayed the Friends that the Annual General IVIeeting vision to take Britain with much antipathy in those oases of neutrality and into Kurope spoke in will be held on bien pensant prosperity, Switzerland and Austria. tones that fill one with France, with several million North African immi­ a mixture of disbelief THURSDAY 6 JUNE 1991, 7.30 p.m. grants, 'boasts' the numerically strongest racist party and horror. For an in the whole of Europe. elder Western statesman to endorse Not that the number of immigrants is directly the self-exculpating at proportionate to the degree of hatred they arouse. we-oiily-obeyed- The now defunct DDR imported around fifty thou­ orders chorus of the 15 CLEVE ROAD, LONDON NW6 sand "Vietnamese guest workers who are current accused at Nuremberg targets of vicious - and sometimes lethal - assault by is bad enough; but for him to describe Jewish neo-Nazi skinheads. representatives seeking A talk will be given by In the 199()s immigration, and its attendant prob­ belated punishment lems, bids to move to the top of the global agenda. for heinous crimes as Rabbi Hugo Gryn Driven by hunger, millions will want to cross the vengeful Shylocks metaphorical Rio Grande separating their squalid awakens echoes of what was shouted Full details and Annual Report will appear in homelands from the goldene medines of North from Nuremberg's the May issue. America and Western Europe. That this, too, forms rooftops for twelve part of the Jewish experience, is something it years before the Trial. behoves us to remember during Passover 5751. AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

Red top brass eyesight and other disabilities have, increas­ Child carer ingly, restricted her scope. Major General Filatow, who is about to Fortunately, a ticket scheme for the reprint the Protocols of Zion in the Soviet disabled operates in London, under which Journal of Military History {AJR volunteers take them to plays and concerts. Information March issue), flew to Baghdad Recently one such volunteer and her hus­ just before the land war started. He said band drove Elizabeth home from a concert Soviet experts had done a good job training at the Festival Hall. En route, they passed Saddam's soldiers. 'These people are very the unfinished British Library building cunning. They have prepared a lot of traps. which is festooned with blow-ups of such The Americans will find some and fall into all-time greats as Darwin and Einstein. The others. Blood will flow in torrents,' he sight of the latter prompted Elizabeth to say warned. D 'Einstein was my uncle; 1 still have a postcard he sent me'. 'And I know exactly An historic first what he wrote on that postcard', said the The Lubavitch movement organised the volunteer's husband, Mr H. Smolins, a distribution of Purim parcels for 2,000 former Physics lecturer steeped in Einstein's Jewish American soldiers serving in the life and work. (The postcard is the famous Gulf. Interestingly enough, this was the first one where Einstein, to compensate Elizabeth Ney. Photo: Nt'ii'ithiii. time in some 1,.300 years that Purim was Elizabeth - who had never seen him - for celebrated in Arabia. D her exclusion from a family outing, sent her lizabeth Ney's family had lived in a description of himself as having a modest Hamburg combats amnesia South-West Germany for generations. paunch, angular gait and a cigar in the EShe assumes that they migrated to mouth.) An exhibition Four Hundred Years of Jews Wiirttemberg in the 1700s, having pre­ Miss Ney shares many of her famous in Hamburg will open on 7 November viously lived in Hohenems. This small relative's attributes: modesty, musicality, a 1991, fiftieth anniversary of the start of Austrian town near the Swiss border hosts strong inclination to do good. Unlike him, deportations from the Hanseatic port. One an annual Schubert Festival often attended she is only known to a few. But those she key exhibit will be a menorah donated to by (the t)lder) Miss Ney. Love of music ran has helped remember her down the years: the community in 1662 by Jews fleeing in the family. Her mother played piano, her two former Kinder do her weekly shopping Chmelnitzki's pogroms. Another will be an brother violin; a more distant violin-playing now. • RG illuminated ketubah dated 1648; the groom relative was Albert Einstein. Professionally listed in that marriage contract was Manuel the Neys were engaged in the textile and Isaac Texeiras, Royal Swedish emissary to leather trades. the Hanse and donor of the copper roof of Elizabeth came to England in the THE STORY OF OUR GROUP! St Michael's church. The Hamburg Land Nazi-shadowed Thirties. Since she was The London Leo Baeck Institute committee of the FDP want to turn the unhappy as a domestic, Woburn has just published exhibition into a permanent memorial to House-based Anna Schwab arranged for Second Chance Hamburg Jewry, a community which in its her to attend Secretarial College on a loan, Two Centuries of heyday numbered over 20,000. n to be repaid out of subsequent earnings. German-speaking Jews After a stint with the scriptwriter of The in the United Kingdom Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel she went to Co-ordinating Editor work in Mrs Schwab's office, moving with Werner E. Mosse Let your body her to Bloomsbury House. Editors Julius Carlebach, Gerhard Hirschfeld take a holiday Initially her brief was the placing of Aubrey Newman, Arnold Paucker, Peter Pulzer domestics as well as catering to the mani­ Over thirty authors write on different aspects of the Whilst enjoying good quality hotels and history of the refugees from Central Europe who came excellent cuisine, v^^hy not ease your aches fold needs of refugee children. After a while to this country fleeing Nazi persecution. They also trace and pains with the famous Fango mud the 'Movement for the Care of Children' the story of those who had come before them seeking a treatments as well as Health, Beauty and new life in the United Kingdom. took up all her time. Work with the Kinder This volume marks the first systematic attempt to Fitness therapy. only ended in 1948 and included the post­ evaluate the German-Jewish experience in Britain. It ABANO SPA, ITALY covers Ihe process of migration, including the legal and war settlement of young Holocaust sur­ administrative problems that needed to be overcome, Abano is situated in beautiful countryside vivors in Britain. In all this she derived the patterns of settlement, the difficulties of adaptation just 45 minutes from Venice. and the two-way process of integration. The essays in guidance and support from such pivotal this collection show both what the newcomers received Schedule flights from Heathrow and figures in Refugee Aid as Joan Stiebel, Mrs from British society and what they were able to regional airports - Prices with or without contribute. In attempting to draw up a balance sheet the treatments - Private car transfers included. Gersdey and Mrs Blond. evidence suggests that for both parties the movement FOR COLOUR BROCHURE Hereafter Elizabeth took a Social Work to Britain of German-speaking Jews was an advan­ tageous bargain neither side had cause to regret. WRITE OR TELEPHONE diploma at LSE and served in various Until 30 June 1991 Second Chance can be bought for localities - London, Nottinghamshire, the Special Subscription Price of £36.00. clwards Surrey - as a Child Care officer, rising to a This offer only applies to the United Kingdom and is of Westminster Limited •• position where she herself supervised only available through 276 PRESTON ROAD, HARROW students. In retirement since 1976 she has Leo Baeck Institute MIDDLESEX HA3 OQA /^-> 4 Devonshire Street TEL: 081-904 2202 added art appreciation to music as a favour­ London W1N2BH. ite leisure time pursuit, though failing AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

own chamber orchestra, commenced an Sir Yehudi at 75 entirely new career as conductor, started a music school for gifted children in Surrey, Prodigy, polymath and publicity organised annual music festivals in Bath seeker and Gstaad, and wrote 13 books; in short, he engaged in feverish activity which made n 22 April Sir Yehudi Menuhin him the most talked about musician of our celebrates his 75th birthday. time. To help him achieve universal popu­ OAlthough New York-born, he larity he set in inotion a public relations belongs to the elite of Jewish violin virtu­ campaign of gigantic proportions. With the osos who originated in Russia. His father exception of Niccolo Paganini no violinist Moshe was the scion of a rabbinical dynasty has ever generated as much publicity as in Gomel, White Russia. His mother hailed Yehudi Menuhin. He used television as the from the Crimea. They named their first chief means for advertising his numerous born son Yehudi, which in Hebrew means enterprises. Programmes featured him 'the Jew'. rehearsing orchestras, conducting violin No performing art has produced as many master classes, entertaining friends at inti­ child prodigies as violin playing: Joachiin, mate chamber music sessions, teaming up Sarasate, Ysaye, Hubermann, Kreisler, with the famous jazz fiddler Stephane Elman, Milstein, Heifetz. Most reached the .S'/> Yehudi Menuhin. Grapelli, and being interviewed by Jimmy summit of excellence between the ages of Savile and other TV personalities. ten and twelve. What was special about the every wunderkind has to face the moment child Yehudi was the fact that he was hailed of truth when he ceases to be a prodigy. as an accomplished musician from his Everything one did instinctively or subcon­ Elitist earliest beginnings. Audiences were fasci­ sciously before, suddenly begs analysis in Some of his PR exercises bordered on nated beyond belief by his deeply moving conscious terms. This crisis confronted gimmickry. A few years ago a newspaper interpretations of the classics. There he Menuhin later than usual, at 27. Midway photograph showed him standing on his stood, clad in velvet shorts, making people through World War 11 he suffered a break­ head, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic coinpletely forget his age and all technical down leading to a sudden and steep decline Orchestra in Beethoven's 4th Symphony difficulties, involving them in a musical of his violinistic potential. This necessitated with his feet. To crown it all, a recent experience of immense depth and beauty an interruption of his normal concert television programme entitled Menuhin - A they were never likely to forget. schedule for several years, during which he Family Portrait afforded viewers an almost underwent intensive studies of a technical embarrassing insight into the artist's Peaked at thirteen nature under the guidance of two promi­ domestic circumstances. A subsequent nent teachers, Theodore and Alice Pashkus Menuhin reached his peak with his Berlin interview in the Irtdependent hardly gener­ of New York. debut on 19 April 1929, three days short of ated good publicity. Menuhin emerged as an elitist, a man who likes to mingle with this 13th birthday, an event which has gone Diversification down in music history as the 'Concert Of the mighty and takes a poor view of The Three Bs', because he played 3 violin He eventually returned to the concert ordinary folk. Told that he had an abnor- concertos — by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms platform, but it soon became obvious to inal childhood, he retorted crossly 'It was - to an ecstatic audience. After the concert many (and particularly to those who just different from being dragged up in the Professor Albert Einstein embraced the boy remeiTibered his peak in the thirties) that he street, from going to school every day - and in the artists' room and exclaimed 'Now 1 no longer engendered the magic that had so American schools always smell, they smell know that there is a God in heaven!'. delighted the music world in the past. of feet'. Menuhin maintained this superb standard Although he never referred to this tragedy - One must, nonetheless, admire Yehudi of perfonnance for more than a decade. His and it must be regarded as such — he realised Menuhin's fighting spirit, and the endur­ recordings during the thirties, since trans­ the change that had drastically affected his ance with which he turned adversity into ferred to LP records, are ample proof of the career. This was in all probability the reason one of the greatest musical success stories of unparalleled excellence of his artistic that prompted him to change course and this century. Knowing that he will never achievement. branch out into activities not normally retire one wishes him many more years of One day, usually during adolescence, pursued by violin virtuosos. He formed his active life. D J. Rotttr

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ever, and Yusef helps the old man to clean Re-working a legend up the synagogue. In return he is taught how For Habsburg and to be a 'real' tailor, learning on the antique Herzl sewing machine with which Mr Levy makes costumes for manikins constructed from potatoes and forks. riiben am Wiesenrandlhocken zwei In time. Levy tells the boy the story of the DohlenlFall ich am Donaustrand,/ Golem. It becomes a shared fantasy which D sterb ich in Polen;/ Was liegt daran.l forms a central part of their relationship. Eh sie meine Seele holen,lkdmpf ich als Unfortunately, the synagogue is due for Reitersmann. demolition and the poised bulldozers The verse may be a little uneven, but the threaten to destroy the old man's hoine, his sentiment was transparently sincere: the links with the past and his new friendship. writer of the Austrian Cavalry Song died in The two loners decide to build a Golem in action in 1915. the builders' yard and bring it to life with Hugo Zuckermann was born exactly 110 cabalist magic. Mr Levy, afraid of disap­ years ago at Eger (Cheb), Bohemia. He grew pointing Yusef, refuses to incant the spell, to manhood in the fin-de-siecle when anti­ making excuse after excuse to postpone the semitism was becoming a not-to-be- boy's disillusionment. Levy's equivocation overlooked political phenomenon in the exasperates Yusef and the two quarrel. The Habsburg State. Since his comfortably old man returns to the synagogue alone to situated assimilationist parents resolutely prepare for his inevitable eviction while closed their eyes to it Hugo grew up with a Yusef, determined to see the affair through divided sense of identity. Sharing his to the bitter end, remains in the yard. There father's Habsburg loyalities he nonetheless he is joined by some of the local boys who became an enthusiastic Zionist. llluslr.ilioii: llorst Uusscl. manage to get him drunk in order to play a He steeped himself in the Old Testament, cruel trick on him. They destroy the Golem wrote biblically inspired poetry, partici­ and substitute the stripped, muddied and pated in a Jewish Theatre project and served he legend of the Prague Golem has unconscious Yusef in its place. Levy prays as delegate to Zionist congresses. His inspired writers as diverse as Gustav throughout the night, unaware of this Habsburg patriotism found expression TMeyrink and Egon Erwin Kisch. It development. when, while working as a lawyer, he has also provided material for film makers. At dawn Levy returns to the yard for a adumbrated constitutional reform ideas A 1950s Czech film showed the Golem as a last look at the clay figure. Miraculously, it designed to prevent the dissolution of the Frankenstein monster capable of wreaking coines to life as Yusef revives. The boy's Dual Monarchy. destruction on its creator. Currently a much befuddled state maintains Levy's illusion The same Habsburg patriotism prompted more sensitive variation of the story, en­ that he has created an artificial man. This him to volunteer as soon as the Great War titled The Golem of Princelet Street is being misunderstanding results in a tragi-comic broke out; characteristically he also dubbed filined by Brett Turnbull, a Zimbabwe-born stand against progress in which Levy and this step his 'revenge for Kishinev' (site of Jewish director. his 'Golem' win an unexpected victory. But, the goriest Czarist pogrom). The film's action takes place mostly the triumph is fleeting as reality, inevitably, Zuckermann died in May 1915 from around the derelict synagogue in Princelet takes over with tragic results. wounds sustained on the Galician Front. Street, off Brick Lane in Spitalfields. The The filiTi's director says that his interest in His (non-Jewish) wife committed suicide at protagonists are both immigrants - a the story of the Golem was reawakened his graveside. D R.G. Muslim boy and an elderly Jewish character during a visit to the Old Jewish Quarter of loosely based on a former occupant of the Prague in the mid-eighties. He had heard the synagogue who was allowed to live in its story as a child and, on returning from attic for .30 years because of his lack of Czechoslovakia, read the Gustav Meyrink FOUNDER MEMBERS financial means. The plot revolves around version. Having lived in the East End for ten the touching friendship which develops years he was looking for a way to compare Did you join the AJR in between the elderly recluse and the young the old Jewish immigrant community with 1941? Muslim. the present one of Bengali Muslims. He used We wish to pay tribute to our Yusef is a recent immigrant from Bengal, the re-working of the Golem legend to founding members during this seen as somewhat of a 'yokel' by his achieve this aim. London-wise contemporaries. After school In these troubled tiines, when 'Scud' and our 50th anniversary year. hours he is employed in his uncle's rag-trade 'Jihad' are becoming household terins, it is If you have been a member sweatshop. Whilst on a lone expedition refreshing to find a work like this which since 1941 please contact exploring the seemingly abandoned syna­ promotes tolerance while others rejoice in Lydia Lassman at: gogue he unexpectedly meets its sole inhabi­ cultures clashing. Hannali Karminski House tant, Mr Levy. The chance meeting is the The film will be entered for competitions 9 Adamson Road beginning of a difficult relationship between and festivals internationally; if successful it the two who, although kindred spirits, are will be shown on British television later this London NW3 3HX separated by widely differing cultures. year. Telephone: 071 483 2536 They overcome these difficulties, how­ D M.N. AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

Reviews

refuge, he escaped via the Pyrenees, a The tongue in exile hazardous route taken by many without Israel's Havel? success. Now he lives by the Pacific, free of The CLIVE JAMES INTERVIEW Use R. Wolff (Ed) DOCH DIE SPRACHE professional duties and financial worries, Broadcast 10 February 1991, BBC2 BLIEB. Eine Prosa-Anthologie des but lonely, in declining health and full of PEN-Zentrums deutschsprachiger memories of the crises he had to go through. Autoren inrt Ausland. Bleicher Verlag. A fate more or less shared by many of his ebruary 10th was a red letter day: a DM 34.00 generation. prominent Israeli was not being har­ Another life story is encapsulated in the Fassed on British TV. Clive James contribution of Peter Baiken, a postwar conducted the encounter as a thoughtful his unique anthology by authors who emigrant to the U.S.A. He describes meeting interlocutor, and not, as usual, the scourge fled Nazi Germany, as well as by a highly cultured, elderly lady from Vienna of unimportant foibles. Tpostwar emigrants, brings together who, after emigration, uncomplainingly Amos Oz, Israel's most distinguished real and fictitious biographies. Some contri­ faced a life of domestic service and manual novelist and advocate of peace with the butors consider the degree of integration work. She never referred in her conver­ Palestinians, was the perfect interviewee. into the countries of resettlement, describ­ sation to what had happened to her after the Though the Gulf War kept him in his ing their unaccustomed environment with Anschluss, this only became apparent after homeland - the interview was conducted love, but also, often, with the distance of the her death, and in very curious circum­ via satellite - he displayed Jewish gallows newcomer. stances. Among her belongings an old humour, saying that if Israelis could cur­ One of the gems of the collection is the toothbrush was found, wrapped in a piece rently see light at the end of the tunnel it essay Unsere Strasse in London by the of newspaper. The cutting gloatingly meant that their gas-proof safety room was recently deceased Egon Larsen. Written in referred to the 'revenge' against the Jews, not properly sealed. More seriously, Oz 1970, it describes the street in North-West who, having 'dirtied' Vienna's streets, now opined that 85 per cent of the Israeli London, and its cosmopolitan population, had to clean them. The toothbrush had been population supported restraint in the face of which was Larsen's habitat. The prewar used for this cruel scrubbing job. A story Scud attacks and he argued that the latter houses, originally built for middle-class both impressive and well told. made a mockery of the worn-out strategic families with servants, were gradually parti­ The difficulties of integration into the concepts of secure borders. tioned into self-contained flats. Others new environment are dealt with by H. G. Saddam, he thought, wanted war even remained undivided and were shared by Adler. He writes about an invisible wall more than he wanted Kuwait, and while he, several occupants. One such had been separating his family from the indigenous Oz, strove for peace he did not abjure war turned into an Old Age Home for Jewish residents of Schaeferheide (Shepherds under all circuinstances. Force was justified refugees who, once accustomed to comfort­ Bush). Though this barrier gradually lessens in defence of the homeland, but not in such able flats on the Continent, now lived in it never disappears. 'optional' tactical manouevres as the greatly reduced circumstances. Manuel Wisnitzer's piece on Arnold Lebanon incursion which he condemned. Wrapped up in an allegorical story, a Zweig exemplifies the problems of Pressed on the question of PLO support moving description of the Kitchener Transit German-speaking intellectuals in Eretz for Saddam, Oz replied that one couldn't Camp in wartime is presented by Herbert Israel. Here the use of all languages other choose one's enemies the way one chose Freeden, the one-time co-editor of AJR than Hebrew (including Yiddish) was dis­ one's friends. Information. The inmates, most of them couraged; German, the language of the James' reminder to Oz that he had been former concentration camp prisoners, were enemy, was positively shunned. Ironically, called a 'traitor' drew the smiling, but firm, cut off from their families. Backgrounds the most prominent victim of this linguistic response that anyone who engages with differed, but the lawyer from Mannheim discrimination was Arnold Zweig, a lifelong sincerity in politics must bear such deni­ and the fur trader from Leipzig, sitting on Zionist and the only top rank gration with pride, like a medal. their field beds in the barracks, were, alike, German-Jewish writer to choose Palestine Amoz Oz has advocated partition, almost near to breakdown. 'The first bombs will as his country of emigration. He lacked an the building of a wall between Palestine and drop on Kitchener Camp', one man desper- outlet for his literary activities: one of his Israel - a solution embarrassingly remin­ 'itely exclaimed. Many who had not great disappointments was the rejection of iscent of that of fanatics at the other observed the Holy Days before attended the his play Bonaparte in Jaffa, written under extreme of the political spectrum who want Kosh Hashana service; prayer suddenly had the impact of his first encounter with the the Arabs 'transferred'. He defended his '1 topical meaning. Mediterranean world, by the Habimah concept; the house must be shared, but Many German Jewish refugee lives are Theatre. divided so that the families can develop 'Tiirrored in the reminiscence of octogen- The skilful editorship of Use Wolff has without constantly rubbing against each 'irian Hamburg-born Rudolph R. Bachner, welded these diverse contributions into an other. He refused to concur with what he now retired to the beautiful township of La organic entity, and the anthology is sees as the cynical despair of the Shamir Jolla, California. He recalls his youth under enhanced by a biographical index of its 44 Government. A future Arab-Israeli agree­ the Kaiser with its annual Sedan cel- authors. ment, as envisaged by him, will not be a love i-'brations, the First World War, the collapse The book is available at the European feast, but a peaceable standstill 'with of the Weimar Republic and his subsequent Bookshop, 4 Regents Place, London Wl. clenched teeth'. personal odyssey. From France, his first D Werner Rosenstock ... ,,.i,,n. .;... • John Rossall AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

chocolate cake and a Beethoven record. She Then the blow falls. Zilber hears that his Between playground is thus seeking to get back to the Ghetto and entire family in Poland has perished. and killing ground back in time to help her friends. No wonder Near-suicidal, he is kept alive by his sense of she is sent to a psychiatrist. duty and the sympathy of his tenants. When THE OUTLANDER. Broadcast 28 Finally running away from home, she is the half-starved residents celebrate New Year's Eve, Zilber begs Rosa to read his January and 4 February, BBC Radio 5 thrown out of a vehicle in the middle of nowhere . . . There, as she lies frozen and palm. Rosa, who doubts her 'gift', is very abandoned, bloodstained Sophie appears to reluctant. Zilber wants assurance that Mrs pril de Angelis' play accommodated her, a heroine of the Warsaw Uprising. Baum, and the good times, will soon return, at least three themes: the Holocaust, When Gayle wakes Sophie is lost to her, but but Rosa manages to stall him. Her mind is Athe woes of puberty, and a contro­ she has found herself. History gives her a on other things; Mario, whom she abhors, versial theory of history teaching. passport to her hostile peers . . . she can tell and who had vanished, has returned in It may be said that this is too rich a them how 'her friends' lived and died. disguise. mixture for an hour's play, like the layer The author took a great risk with her cake which plays a minor part in it. But inclusion of this 'history' theme but she Revenge trials overcoming the very disadvantages of radio integrated it convincingly and movingly. Sure enough Mario is the harbinger of compared to TV made this gentle tour de D J.R. force possible. In surreal flashes, discreetly disaster. To the accompaniment of martial underscored by the strains of Beethoven's music the revenge squads of the Resistance Pastoral, the play made the listeners live, for move in. Mario is tried as a collaborator, a brief while, in two worlds. Its heroine, and since Zilber was connected with him he, underachieving Gayle is a prickly outcast Aftermath of war too, is interrogated none too pleasantly. among her peers. She has six fingers on one Zilber insists that Mario saved him without hand and bears daily persecution by her jacki Kohnstamm THE HOUSE AT exacting payment. In fact, Mario had bar­ class-mates now with despair, now No. 9 RUE FLEURIE, Broadcast gained for a rent cut. (I thought that this defiance; their persecution includes the 14 February, BBC Radio 4 was no great extortion in return for a life.) comment that freaks like Gayle should not Perhaps Zilber's white lie saved Mario; one be allowed to live. was not told. But Mr Zilber is so upset that he time of the play was the end of the he can scarcely drag himself to a nearby Back in time Second World War, the place the barbershop where he collapses and dies. An Tpleasure resort of Monte Carlo. The impressive ending to a bitter-sweet, enter­ One day she visits a department store to buy protagonists were a handful of people living taining and imaginatively directed play. gloves to conceal her crippled hand. She in a house owned by the Baums, a German D j.R. drifts into the music section where she is refugee couple who had escaped to suddenly approached by three young people England, where the husband had died 'in speaking broken English. One, Sophie, has freedom'. vodka, a gun, and a chocolate layer cake. Warsaw-born Mr Zilber administers the Gayle goes with them into the street. . . and house for the widow, and does so with finds herself in the Warsaw Ghetto. The unerring conscientiousness. But he himself rough voices of Nazi Jew hunters drive them has to hide from the Germans, which he into flight . . . and Gayle comes to in the does with the help of the housekeeper and department store. an Italian 'wide-boy', Mario. In any case, in Bathos follows tragedy; she is interro­ Monte Carlo even the Nazis are preoccu­ 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 gated at her school as to why a girl of St pied with the pursuit of pleasure, specifi­ Ignatius was 'inebriated' in public. But cally gambling. At the casino one of the Gayle keeps her own stubborn counsel; she residents of the house, 'clairvoyant' Rosa, TUESDAY AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES reads up about the Holocaust at the local has done her bit for the Allied cause by TUESDAY CIRCLE library. foretelling the Nazi defeat. Entertainment in the form of a variety of Back at school the bullies harry her interesting and topical talks given by relentlessly, and she fights them. As she does guest speakers on the first Tuesday of Sunshine and roses each month at 2.30pm followed by so she finds herself back in the Ghetto in the refreshments thick of a Nazi 'action'. People are hunted The great wartime events punctuate the to the trains. Sophie asks Gayle where she lives of the protagonists. In fact the play SEW & SO comes from, and gets the reply: 'Forty-eight unrolls backwards. Early on the Germans A social group of people meeting on the years from now.' Her friends are only march out, accompanied by the distorted second Tuesday of each month at 1.30pm to participate in making knitted, concerned with resistance. They want her to cadences of the Horst Wessel song. For a crocheted and embroidered items for 'go out' to bring weapons — petrol if all else while they are still nearby, and gunfire can synagogue and charitable functions fails - and a whimsical chocolate cake. be heard. Then the Americans move in and Gayle is beaten by the guard for not wearing Zilber reports to Mrs Baum on the state of BRIDGE CLUB the yellow star, but instead of being dragged her property, which he is having repaired. All bridge players are welcome to join the to a transport she is pulled out of the He fervently hopes that when the war is Bridge Club which meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 1.30pm. schoolyard melee . . . with a black eye. really over Mrs Baum will return and they From then on she constantly goes about will remember, over tea, bygone days of Space donated by Pafra Limited with a rucksack containing a can of petrol, a sunshine and roses. AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

Whether his parents were fully acquainted Germany's 'gift' to with its educational theories I have never Figarotively speaking Britain asked, but the boy from Berlin would have had no difficulty in riding out any oddities his journal scored a notable first in of commuter-belt Surrey. He emerged September 1989 when it published unscathed only to be interned as an alien at Tthe Cjillette History Theorem. The the beginning of World War Two. We treat theorem postulates that a leader's character our friends very strangely, but Claus Moser can be deduced from the proportion of the used his detention to show a foretaste of surface of his face covered by hair. The most what was to come and instructed his guards malign Red Czars, for instance, were all in the best method of organising their hairy-faced: Lenin bearded, Stalin mous- statistical records. tached, Brezhnev beetle-browed. German Later he joined the Royal Air Force where history provides even more cogent proof of he served until 1946 when he became an the theorem's validity: when the four hir­ Assistant Lecturer at the London School of sute Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Economics. By 1961 he was a Professor at Bismarck, the Kaiser, Hindenburg and the School. Hitler were followed by the clean-shaven It was no surprise when, in 1967, Prime Chancellors Adenauer, Brandt and Kohl, Minister Harold Wilson invited Claus the rest of the world gathered that some­ Moser to become Head of the Government thing fairly fundamental had changed in the Statistical Service. He brought not only the Vaterland. Last, but by no means least, the freshness of an outsider, but the strict Anglo-American architects of victory over .S'/> Claus Moser. methodology which gave new authority to Hitler, Churchill and Roosevelt, were reports on social policy and assisted in clean-shaven. resenting Sir Glaus Moser for admis­ improving the quality of government sion to an honorary degree at the decision making. Barbarian symbol University of Wales ex-Prime Minister I have described only one part of a P The same holds good currently of President Lord Callaghan said: 'If it is possible for cultured man. He is Governor of the Royal good to come out of evil. Sir Glaus Moser's Shakespeare Theatre and a Trustee of the Bush and Prime Minister Major. And, pari presence here is such an illustration. Had it British Museum. Even more important in passu, what is it that luxuriates below not been for the Nazis' racist persecution in his life is his love of music which led to Saddam Hussein's nose - if not the barber- pre-war Germany it is almost certain that thirteen years as Chairman of the Royal crafted symbol of the barbarian? Claus Moser would have grown up in Berlin Opera House. At present he is Head of an In conformity with the Gillette theorem and would in due course have made an Oxford College, Chancellor of Keele Iraqi top brass sport moustaches to a man. outstanding contribution to the cultural and University, a Director of The Economist The ostentatious display of facial hair is, in commercial life of Germany. Instead this and also of a famous merchant bank. He has fact, the sine qua non of leadership in the country has been the beneficiary. great personal warmth, is a tremendous Arab world. Notable past examples were When his family left Germany, Claus conversationalist and, as those who know Kings Ibn Saud and Abdullah and President Moser was sent to Frensham Heights him best have testified, a man of instinctive Nasser. Today's hirsute Sultans are Fahd of School, a rather unorthodox establishment. and sympathetic understanding.' D Arabia and Assad of Syria. The fact that they are also members of the U.S.-led coalition should deceive no one. By their moustaches shall ye know them!

COMPANIONS ANTHONY J. NEWTON & CO Yasser stubble Solicitors If additional demonstration of the validity OF LONDON of the Gillette theorem is required one need We have established contacts with leading Berlin lawyers in preparation for property claims look no further than Yasser Arafat. His A specialist home care service in East Germany. perennial three days' growth of beard to assist the elderly, people indicates aspirations to leadership doomed For further enquiries with disabilities, help during to permanent disappointment. and after illness, childcare Tel: 071-794 9696 Islam teaches that God alone is capable of and household needs. perfection. Since every Muslim craftsman tries to live in conformity with this vener­ For a service tailored to your able precept, carpet weavers in Isfahan individual needs by Companions CLUB 1943 deliberately introduce tiny irregularities who care - Please call into their handiwork. By the same token the Anglo-German cultural forum Meetings on Gillette History Theorem cannot account 071-433 3869/79 Mondays at 8 p.m. at the Communal Hall, Belsize Square Synagogue, 51 Belsize for miniscule inconsistency: what is that 2a Belsize Park Mews, Square, London NW3. pepper-and-salt moustache doing snaking London NW3 SBL For details: — its way across Prime Minister Shamir's (Ennp Agy) Chairman: Berta Sterly, 4 Grey Close, gnarled countenance? NWl I 6QG. Tel: 081-455 1535. I D R.G. AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE

15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Tel. 071 328 0208 Untrumpeted volunteer Mrs Trude Oettinger presiding over the Reception and Membership Department. Morning Activities - Bridge, kalookie, At that time he was seventy years of age. scrabble, chess, etc., keep fit, discussion group, choir {Mondays), art class {Tuesdays Since then he has been a regular member of and Thursdays). the office team. When the move was made to Hannah Karminski House, in 1987, Mr Leon came too. Afternoon entertainment - During his ten years voluntary service APRIL Gary Leon has tackled a variety of chores Monday 1 CLOSED with great good humour and patience. His Tuesday 2 Piano and Cello Concert sterling work in transferring the AJR's - Atalia Weiss (Piano) paper-based filing system onto computer and Dominique Gurbois discs and in arranging the international (Violin) distribution of AJR Information has been European Songtime - Wednesday 3 invaluable. His approachability and good Ariana Prussner (Mezzo) accompanied by humour have often led to him being asked Elizabeth Upchurch to give staff the benefit of his experience (Piano) Gary Leon on his HOth hirthJiiy. I'hoto: Ncii'nhin. with both AJR related and personal Thursday 4 Music by The Bagatelles problems. - Francoise Geller This March Mr Leon reached his 80th ver the past decade a great number Monday 8 Making the Best of Old birthday. He is still sprightly, extremely of the most painstaking and time- Age - A Chat with Irene well organised and his popularity remains consuming tasks undertaken at the White O undiminished. AJR offices have been performed by an Tuesday 9 Hans Freund and Marion It is often said that no one is indispens­ Lewis (Mezzo) with unpaid volunteer. able. This may be true, but, over the years, piano accompaniment Mr Gary Leon, who joined the AJR over Mr Leon has come very close. Fortunately, Wednesday 10 An Hour of Variety, thirty five years ago, first became a volun­ it is unlikely that a replacement will be Songs and Tap Dancing - tary clerical worker when the offices were needed in the very near future since all the Joe Chisholm situated in Fairfax Mansions with the late Thursday 11 Isabel Beyer and Harvey evidence points to Gary Leon having no Dagul At The Piano trouble whatsoever in reaching a hundred Monday IS Musical Cocktail - Barry and twenty. Dawson APRIL The AJR would like to take this oppor­ Let's Be British - Songs Tuesday 16 Music That You Love - Monday 29 tunity to thank Gary Leon for his dedicated Sylvia Dorff (Soprano) and Stories of Ivor Novello, Noel Coward service and wish him all the best in this, his accompanied by Mabel and Vivian Ellis - 80th, year. ^ ^^^^ Witztum (Piano) Presented by Audrey Songs and Arias - Wednesday 17 Samson Geoffrey Strum (Tenor) accompanied by johnny Tuesday 30 Caspar Fawden (Tenor) Walton (Piano) Entertains With A Selection of European Thursday 18 From the Good Old Days Songs and Opera, accom­ AJR to Grand Opera - Eddy panied by Alexander Simmons with Piano Wells 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Accompaniment Monday 22 George Kanzanzi (Tenor) Twice weekly advice sessions offering accompanied by Gerald MAY help with filling in forms, checking bene­ Benson (Piano) Wednesday 1 Music In Spring - fits received, checking entitlements, Marianne Vidal claiming benefits, fuel problems, money Tuesday 23 Songs from Many Lands (Soprano) accompanied matters, etc., etc., are being held as - Lola Rand and Sarah by Joseph Phibbs (Piano) follows:— Aaronson accompanied Thursday 2 The Beaufort F^nsemble by Sylvia Cohen (Piano) TUESDAYS 10 am-12 noon at CLOSED Wednesday 24 Recital - Bernard Wilcox Monday 6 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 (Tenor) and Valerie Tuesday 7 Light Musical Monasi (Soprano) Entertainment - Shirley THURSDAYS 10 am-12 noon at accompanied by Leslie Gurevitz (Soprano) ac­ Hannah Karminski House, 9 Adamson Barnes (Piano) companied by Sylvia Road, London NW3 Thursday 25 Musical Entertainment by Cohen (Piano) Estelle Maier and Pamela Wednesday 8 The Channing Flutes No appointment necessary but please Majaro Entertain with Ruth bring along all relevant documents, such Newman as Benefit Books, letters, bills, etc. AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

Diary Dates APPRECIATION hall and the standard lamp spreading a Sir - As someone connected with the homes friendly light. I am delighted that so inany for two decades may I express my admir­ who had a hard life are finding a peaceful he Annual Ceneral Meeting of the AJR ation of the great improvement over the last home in their declining years. will be held on Thursday 6 June at the years. Osmond House, which houses the Soutbwood Lawn Road Eva Trent Paul Balint AJR Day Centre, 15 Cleve T most frail, is well staffed and has a specially London N6 Road, NW3 at 7.30 p.m. As always, refresh­ ments will be served after the meeting. This kind matron. New facilities such as invalid year the talk will be given by Rabbi Hugo chairs and special bath facilities have been HOUSE ANGELS Gryn. A large turn-out is expected for this, acquired since the late seventies. Activities AJR Golden Anniversary Year, AGM. are organised and clearly listed on a notice Sir — Before her death 1 used to visit Mrs Use board. Also the staff on duty are named on One set of dates which everyone should Bachner at least once a week in Heinrich the board in the entrance hall. keep in mind are the Open Days at the Stahl House. On these visits I was able to Residential Homes. The first one this year will Leo Baeck House always seems to me a observe at first-hand the immense care and be at Balint House on Sunday 9 June. Osmond haven of peace when I see people there, kindness with which the devoted staff House is opening its doors on Sunday 23 June. whom I used to visit in former times at looked after her. The dates for Leo Baeck and Heinrich Stahl Eleanor Rathbone House as a volunteer. It was a greatly deserved recognition of Houses have yet to be finalised but, as soon as A resident who moved from there to Leo all that the House had done for her over so they are available we will announce them. Baeck 6 months ago, asked me to express many months when the Reverend Fine, July sees the Golden Anniversary of the her appreciation of the help she gets every speaking at her cremation, ended his AJR. This 50th birthday celebration will be Monday from a volunteer who assists her address by referring to the many 'Angels' of marked by a number of special events, not with her personal correspondence. She is the House who, with such devotion, had least a 'bumper edition' of AJR Information. nicely settled in her cosy little room, enjoys cared for her and look after the other Our Annual Charity Concert will take place the good cuisine, the activities in the home residents in so exemplary a manner. on Sunday 10 November at the Queen and the outings by minibus to the Day Born Hill Anna Spiro Elizabeth Hall in the South Bank Centre. All Centre in Cleve Road. Wemb/ey Park concerned look forward to this yearly get- I peeped through the glass front doors of together with happy anticipation. newly opened Balint House when I visited Members should also look out for notice of the other 2 homes at the top end of Bishops an extra-special event planned for October in Avenue last Sunday. It certainly looked connection with the AJR's Residential Care welcoming with the elegant furniture in the 50th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE Appeal. Although details have yet to be finalised it is expected that there will be a huge WELL WISHERS demand for places at this gala occasion. There OUR DAY CENTRE NEEDS:- will, however, be a limited number of tickets For only £10 you can place your which will be distributed on a first come-first Volunteer drivers to take people to and from the Day Centre in Cleve Road NW6. name, or the name of a friend or served basis, so watch this space for further Also a volunteer hairdresser to give us relative, in the special July edition details. some time each week. of AdR Information. That about sums up the special events Please contact SYLVIA MATUS/ Telephone: Maurice Newman planned, so far, for this year. Details of these, RENEE LEE 071-328 0208. 081-483 2526 and any others which occur as the year unfolds, will be publicised in AJR Information. D AJR CLUB ROOM AVAILABLE IN 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 ONE OF OUR HOMES SUNDAY 21st APRIL at 3 p.m. FOR SHORT TERM WHO IS WHO 1 Harry Blacker (NERO), cartoonist RESPITE CARE. 'Just like it was' - a talk on IN THE AJR OFFICE • the Jewish East End. For further information Administrator Lydia Lassman Admission incl. tea, members 50p. guests £1 please contact :- Editor, AjR Richard Information Grunberger We welcome you and your friends from 2 p.m. Mrs Ruth Finestone Publications and Maurice TUESDAYS - THURSDAYS - SUNDAYS 071-483 2536 PR Manager Newman You will enjoy the friendly atmosphere you can talk - play cards - play games. Assistant to One Sunday a month - live Entertainment. Administrator Carol Rossen Sheltered Refreshments are available at nominal charges. SHELTERED FLATS Accommodation Katia Gould Our annual membership Fee is only £4. to let at Eleanor Rathbone House, Head of Homes Highgate, comprising bed-sitting room, Department Ruth Finestone kitchenette, bathroom and entrance hall. Head of Social Services Agnes Resident warden. Welfare Rights Advisor Alexander Eleanor Rathbone House Enquiries to:- Avenue Road, London N6 Day Centre Organiser Sylvia Matus AJR Volunteer car driver needed to shop once Volunteers Co-ordinator Laura Howe HANNAH KARMINSKI HOUSE weekly for elderly tenants. Membership/Reception Sarah Hannon 9 ADAMSON ROAD, LONDON NW3 3HX Details from Laura Hovi/e, AJR Office. 071-483 2536/7/8/9 , I Tel: 071-483 2536 f-i'!"».'^.m¥'!.i''wi»imwtw«ji;'>'jv»wjr""" -Ji-. "wa •.iVywpi'vr^yT'^.*,.*:*^"^!

AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

German honour VERSE AND WORSE Quotes of the month Peter Galliner, a longtime member of the FRIEDELL nee FRIEDMANN In a Radio .3 discussion on the Gulf War AJR, has been awarded the Knight A change of name - effort misspent entitled Cock-Up or Conspiracy Dr Yaqub Commander's Cross (Badge and Star) of the On camouflaging wrong descent. Zaki of the Moslem Institute prefaced a Order of Merit of the Federal Republic. The right descent: a fall to death denial that his theories of Zionist conspir­ Foreign manager of the Financial Times With Achtung frozen on the breath. 1947-60, and Chairman of the Ullstein acy were in any way antisemitic with the GORBACHEV words 'As Sir Oswald Mosley said ..." Publishing Company, Berlin 1960-64, Mr Both urhi and orbi Galliner headed the International Press The Independent, 19 February 1991 Let's be nice to Gorby Insdtute since 1975. Lest the Tartar increase The award was made for his work in Iraq's deliberate pollution of the Gulf has On his iron teeth. been a propaganda boon for the West. promoting press freedom throughout the Pictures of dying cormorants have done world and strengthening Anglo-German THOMAS MANN more to arouse public anger in Europe, relations. D He told the Germans: 'As to books. especially Germany, than any evidence of Trade in Mein Kampf for Buddenbrooks; President Saddam Hussein's cruelty to Tragic comic If you want lies, read Felix Krull's'. They painted crossbones under skulls. people. Just over fifty years ago the Viennese Michael Binyon, The Times cabaret performer Fritz Grtinbaum died in RILKE the Dachau camp 'hospital' as a result of His life spun round a narrow axis Let them (the Palestinians) look for me. I systematic ill-treatment and privation. Twixt praising Thurn and hailing Taxis have no phone in my bomb shelter and in GriJnbaum had earned the special hatred of The Adelsblatt complained 'Herr Rilke's my sealed nxnn I cannot hear the telephone his jailers by the pointed anti-Nazi remarks Keeping dowagers on shpilkes.' ring. he had made both on stage and in print in After the war, when 'Allah' is less great, pre-Anschluss days. As a camp inmate he No masquerade don't call me, I'll call you. was put to work in the quarry, pulling a cart During the Gulf War a Jewish group in Citizens' Rights Movement Knesset laden with stones; in the evenings he Vancouver collected money to buy gas Member Yossi Sarid occasionally entertained fellow prisoners at masks for West Bank Palestinians. D clandestine theatre evenings. Among his Ten minutes with a map will show the utter Jewish KZ colleagues were the Socialist unreasonableness of expecting Israel to politician Robert Danneberg, the dramatist Memo to Genscher withdraw from the heights of what it calls Jura Soyfer, Lehar's librettist Fritz The Los Angeles based Simon Wiesenthal Samaria overlooking the coastal plain. No Beda-Lohner and the Schlager composer Centre's leaders are meeting Rainat Gan Scud missiles ivould be needed to destroy Hermann Leopoldi. The last-named was the officials to discuss possible legal action Tel Aviv: a few short-range artillery pieces only one to obtain release (on the strength against German companies whose arma­ would finish the job in no time. of a U.S. affidavit); all the others ments have been used by Iraq to attack Tel Geoffrey Taylor, The Guardian perished. D Aviv. D

Making a will? FOR THOSE YOU CARE MOST ABOUT Remember the AjR Springdene A modern nursing home with 26 yrs of excellence in health care to the community. Licensed by Barnet area health Something that none of us should avoid is making a will and authority and recognised by BUPA & PPP, keeping it up to date. HYDROTHERAPY & PHYSIOTHERAPY We know we cannot take our worldly possessions with us but provided by full time chartered cares • physiotherapists for inpatients and we can - at least - see that whatever is left behind goes: outpatients. (a) where it will be appreciated, SPRINGDENE 55 Oakleigh Park North, Whetstone, London N.20 081-446 2117 (b) where it will do some good, SPRINGVIEW 6-10 Crescent Road, Enfield. Our completely new (c) where it is needed. purpose built hotel style retirement home. All rooms vi/ith bathroom en-suite from £305 per week. 081-446 2117, Many of our former refugees have found their association with the AJR a rewarding one. This is an opportunity to support the AJR Charitable Trust. Your solicitor will be able to help you; Property claims In the territory of the former German Democratic Republic Including East Berlin alternatively you can consult with our welfare rights advisor, Aggie Alexander, on 071-483 2536 (Tues, Weds, Thurs) or the PRITCHARD ENGLEFIELD & TOBIN, an international law firm with offices in London, Frankfurt and Hamburg, can assist you or your family with claims social workers at the Day Centre 071-328 0208. relating to propeilies and loss of any assets in the above mentioned part of If you have already made a will, it is quite easy to add a codicil. Germany, Under new regulations these claims must be submitted by way of application to the German authorities before March 31st 1991. Whatever amount you are able to leave to the AJR, it will be Please contact our German speaking partner Mr Hans H. Marcus or our well received, carefully applied and remembered with gratitude. resident German attorney Dr Karsten Kuehne at the following address: Pritchard Englefield & TobIn, 23 Great Castle Street, London Wl N 8NQ. Tel: 071-629 8883 Fax: 071-493 1891 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

Alice Schwab

irst of all - a correction: the price of the tickets for the Ben Uri Annual F Picture Fair was £50, not £5 as stated in the February issue. Some wonderful pictures were available and plenty of bargains for purchasers with a discriminat­ ing eye. The Evening Standard Art Machine exhi­ bition at the Barbican Centre's Concourse gallery (25 April-16 June) is a 'hands-on' event. An enormous success at the 'Glasgow 1990' exhibition, it includes a giant sea monster, a depiction of the Venice Carnival and over 80 other specially created works. Children can try their skills at almost anything. Also at the Barbican Centre (level 3 foyer) is a delightful exhibition Babies: Miire with foals (1912). By hrjnz Marc (ISfiO-1916). Photo courtesy of the National (iailery. Photographs by Sue Packer, one of Britain's finest portrait photographers (17 April- April to late July. While at the Tate, the It is very gratifying to know that, despite 2 June). opportunity should not be missed to see the financial restrictions, there is no let-up in After his most successful 60 Years of magnificent Max Frnst exhibition, (until 21 acquisitions by the great national galleries. Design exhibition at the Camden Arts April). The superb collection of pictures has Until 21 April it is possible to see Prints and Centre, Abram Games has been invited by been drawn from public galleries and Drawings: Acquisitions 1986-1990 at the the Ben Uri Art Society to exhibit his designs private collections all over the world. A British Museum. Among recent acquisitions for Jewish organisations and Israel in the comprehensive catalogue produced by are drawings by Henry Moore, Stanley gallery (15 April-12 May - Mon-Thurs Prestel-Verlag in association with the Tate, Spencer, Vanessa Bell, William Roberts, 10—5, Sunday 2—5). The exhibition will be is available (price £17.95). Ceri Richards and David Bomberg. opened by Chaim Bermant, the author and Ellen Kuhn, born in Germany in 1937, John Bratby (born 1928) is a contempor­ journalist, and examples of Games's work lived in the U.S.A. until she settled in Britain ary artist of considerable stature who will be available for sale. in 1961. A selection of her mixed media on during the 1950s was linked with the so- In 1983 Josef Herman presented an paper and silk screen prints is at the Manor called 'kitchen sink' school. A retrospective album of 159 drawings and watercolours to House Society (until 7 April). Art London exhibition of his work is at the National the Tate Gallery. A small selection from '91, the 6th International Contemporary Portrait Gallery (until 27 May) and an these, mainly of Welsh miners and their Art Fair is at Olympia (18-21 April). Over illustrated book on the artist is being work environment, will be on show in the 120 galleries from 16 countries will be published to coincide with the exhibition Coffee Shop Gallery at the Tate from early exhibidng over 3,500 works. (price £11.95). D

BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE PARTNER JACKMAN • 51 Belsize Square, London, N.W.3 Our communal hall is available for cultural in long established English Solicitors and social functions. For details apply to: (bilingual-German) would be happy to SILVERMAN assist clients with English, German and £CX-)1VIIVII-;RC;IA L I^IUIPKRTY C:ONSULTANT.S Secretary, Synagogue Office. Austrian problems. Contact Tel: 071-794 3949 Henry Ebner at CAMPS Myers Ebner & Deaner INTERNMENT-P.O.W.- 103 Shepherds Bush Road FORCED LABOUR-KZ London W6 7LP I wish to buy cards, envelopes and folded post­ Telephone 071 602 4631 marked letters from all camps of both world wars. 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA Please send, registered mail, stating price, to: ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN Telephone: 071 409 0771 Fax: 071 49? 8017 14 Rosslyn Hill, London NWS PETER C. RICKENBACK

II AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

had somehow been under the impression that charities are not supposed to use their publications to further political interests. T^^W^J^^^ Wembley Park Ruth Willers Middlesex Strictly speaking, AJR is not a charity, but a friendly society, and the demand that edi­ torials be confined to charitable matters is self-evidently absurd. Since developments in SEARCHING (?) QUESTIONS LEARNED IGNORAMUSES, A Israel concern all of us, we - including Ruth VARIANT Sir - I notice the mast-head of AJR Willers (see August 1988 issue) - have long Information no longer indicates that this is Sir - Chaim, a pious Jew asks his friend debated them in these columns. Why should the journal of the Association of Jewish ShIomo to join him for supper one Friday I be excluded from the debate? Ed. Refugees. evening. Shiomo accepts, but says / have to I would have thought that its Editor make hafdala first before I come to you. 'EXECUTORS' RACKET Chaim replies One does not make hafdala would strongly and loyally promulgate the Sir — Several people contacted me following on Friday, hut Saturday night. views of the AJR Council and Association. my letter in the July 1990 issue of AJR Shiomo; My late father always made haf­ It is amusing to observe the special notice Information. I continue my three year dala on Friday night. in the February issue to the effect that the struggle against the solicitor inflicted on me views expressed by the Editor are NOT Chaim: Then your father must have been an by my aunt's will, through the solicitors' necessarily those of the Association. Am-Ha-aretz. complaints bureau. (Or rather, as they are Is there a contradiction somewhere along Shiomo: Yes, that he was and a very famous so very compliant, now through the newly the line? one! appointed Legal Ombudsman.) Linfields (Mr) K. L Orpen Perceval Avenue W. Goddard It may be some value to readers if I Little Chalfont London NW3 mention another of the executor's tricks. He The change of masthead occurred in July made the old lady appoint his wife as joint 198.3! It had to do with the 'look', and not SHADOW OF TEMPLE MOUNT executor, so now avoids answering the contents, of the journal. The note in the Sir - Francis Steiner fears for the democratic questions by referring to her. She is not a February issue was an indication not of solicitor, but an accountant, and so is not divergence, but of editorial freedom. (Lord future of Israel, because it will be'populated by Sephardi and Russian immigrants from subject to the discipline of the Law Society. Beaverhrook allotved Michael Foot similar Dove Park Frank Selby leeway.) very undemocratic countries'. The early pioneers from Russia and Hatch End, Pinner Poland came from 'undemocratic' countries CRI DE COEUR THE RETORT COURTEOUS and started the Kibbutzim, a form of practical socialism which has survived the Sir — 1 have come no nearer to finding out Sir - The review A Unique Family in the Russian and East European varieties. why we Jews are so bitterly hated. If February issue reminded me of the follow­ I have no fear. Israel is now a more Christians really do love Jesus, they will be ing story: democratic country than present-day grateful to us for providing him — but for Moses Mendelssohn had a correspondence Poland with its rising anti-semitism. some reason it doesn't work that way at all. with the anti-Jewish Johann Caspar Hatfield Margaret Toch In sadness and confusion. Lavater. Lavater wrote to Mendelssohn An Herts Cricket Road Hans Hammerschmidt Gott den Vater glaubt Ihr scbtmlwarum Oxford glaubt Ihr nicht an Gott den Sohn^ to which Sir — The Land of Israel contains over 1 •, Mendelssohn replied Warum dem Sohn This letter has been reprinted without the million Palestinians who have no vote. If Kredit denn gebenlDer Vater wird doch unfortunate printers' error which appeared this is not a flawed democracy, what is? ewig leben. in the March edition, Ed. Roy Gardens Norrice Lea E. M. Jacob P. Prager Ilford, Essex London N2

MAGGILOMANIAC AND CAR HIRE JORDANIC VERSES UNCHARITABLE I Comfoilable, air conditioned car with ' helpful driver. His Royal Shortness King Hussein Sir- Your note on the February letters page Airports, stations, coast, etc. Fully A fence is his shaky domain suggests that, like Mrs Thatcher - 'We are a insured. He'll be Shiva sitting, it is feared grandmother' — you use the pluralis majes- Tony Burstein 081-204 0567. That is why he grew a beard tatis when writing your editorials. If such Car 0831 461066. editorials were devoted to AJR's charitable Old Yasser Arafat purposes, this would, of course, be perfectly GOLDMAN Has more lives than a cat in order. AJR Information, however, is the The way things take their course journal of an organisation which unites Curtains made to measure. Select material in your own home. It looks like he backed the wrong horse. under its umbrella people from right across Rail, blinds supplied and fitted. Mohl Netanya Ernest j. Sicher the political spectrum, who cannot be Telephone: 081-205 9232 Israel bunched together under an editorial 'we'. I sr«gaa»»TiF'',",e«-m'< ^.1^—S

AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

The perennial Nazi-Zionist collaboration in wartime SB's Column Hungary. Protocols However unpersuasive these carrion vul­ tatistics for opera goers. Visitors to tures feeding on charred remains may London sometimes complain that there appear, they are dangerous because of their S is little choice in the operatic repertoire s yet they are isolated voices lacking very persistence in the face of all proven when they come here for a limited period. the decibel strength of a chorus. facts. They have a point: taking February 1991 as AEdward Pearce hints at it in the The persistence of antisemitic poison in an indicator only three operas were pro­ Guardian. Andrew Faulds trumpets it in the the atmosphere is even more pronounced in duced at the Royal Opera House. During House of Commons. Bob Beckman asserts continental Europe. The Protocols of the the same period East Berlin staged eighteen it in his Investors Chronicle: the Israelis FJders of Zion are still producing toxic operas. West Berlin ten, the Vienna instigated the Gulf War. fallout ninety years after their first publica­ Staatsoper ten, Prague's Smetanatheater Characteristically none of these self- tion. No matter that in 1921 the Times nine and Dresden's Semperoper eight. appointed cotnmentators has any title to Istamboul correspondent exposed them as a However, somewhat surprisingly. La Scala political expertise. Pearce is a literateur, forgery perpetrated by Sergius Nilius in the (Milan), La Fenice (Venice) and the Paris Faulds an actor and Beckman a market service of the Czarist secret police. No Bastille Opera only 'clocked up' two each. analyst. In fact Beckman's powers of analy­ matter that in 1937 the Swiss Court of Perhaps it is not quantity, but quality, that sis in his proper metier are such that the Appeal handed down an identical judgment counts. Sunday Times called him 'the man who after judicial proceedings that had dragged always gets the markets wrong', and LBC on for two years (and in which Chaim Kleist in two versions. One of the lesser- radio dispensed with his services as resident Weitzmann appeared as a witness). known German classics of the early nine­ financial guru. Today new editions of the Protocols pour teenth century, Kleist's Der zerbrochene Given this track record one hopes that off the printing presses in many countries: Krug (occasionally performed in the U.K. subscribers to the Investors Chronicle will in the Polish language in Warsaw, in under the title The broken jug) has recently extend their scepticism about Beckman's Serbo-Croat in Zagreb, in Russia for the been the subject of widely differing interpre­ stock exchange tips to his ramblings on Pamyat readership. The Swedish authorities tations. At the Deutsche Theater, East what he terms the 'Zionist Factor'. Briefly felt compelled to close down the Berlin, a new version of the play pointedly his contention is that Hitler bears no blame Stockholm-based Radio Islam after it compares corruption in judicial circles with for the Holocaust; the culprits are the broadcast what is readily available in conditions in present-day Germany, whilst 'Zionists for whom the sacrifice of their Arabic print anywhere between the Atlantic the Vienna 'Burg' expanded it into a sur­ German and Polish brethren was a small and the Gulf. realistic piece of modern vulgarity. price to pay for the acquisition of a Such a mass readership for the Protocols Emphasizing the erotic nature of homeland'. almost persuades one of the truth of Hider's Dorfrichter Adam's nocturnal adventures, In other words Beckman's 'analysis' is a contennon, advanced in Mein Kampf, that the productions showed him arriving back rehash of the poisonous brew that Jim Allen any lie will be believed as long as it is big from his conquest in the nude. served up several year ago in Perdition, his enough. 60 yeors ago. 1931 was a vintage year for (unperformed, but published) play about n R.G. light popular music on stage and screen. Paul Abraham followed Victoria und ihr Husar with his second tuneful operetta Blume von Hawai; Robert Stolz composed Biicher in deutscher Sprache, Bilder RELIABLE AND CONSCIENTIOUS the first German language film comedy, the HANDY MAN musical Zwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakl und Autographen I can undertake the following; {Two hearts in waltztime) which has since sucht Heavy duty domestic cleaning, become one of the most frequently-heard A. W. MYTZE General repair work, garden clearance. evergreens of the period. 1 The Riding, London NW11. References supplied. Birthday. Marianne Hoppe, the German Tel: 071-586 7546 Telephone: 081-346 3186 actress, widow of the late Gustaf Griindgens, celebrated her 80th birthday. Ich bitte um detaillierte Angebote Extrovert and versatile, on occasion slightly eccentric, she is still a woman of many parts. THURLOW LODGE and Obituary. The death is announced of MICHAEL ANDRE FURS LTD HAMPSTEAD HOUSE Louis Segnier, one of the outstanding Director Michael Frenzel (Residential Homes) figures of the French theatre. He was 87. A for the elderly and retired, situated in an Specialists in fur-lined raincoats and fur exclusive part of Hampstead. Both homes great interpreter of the classics especially and leather. provide luxurious accommodation with Moliere, he joined the Comedie Frani^aise in 24-hour nursing care in a homely 1939. Never surpassed as King Lear, atmosphere. Strictly kosher cuisine. Long Why not convert your fur coat into a and short stays welcome. Many bedrooms i Cyrano or Lorenzaccio, he came to Britain raincoat lining? have en-suite facilities. Moderate fees. several times, appearing as Tartuffe at the For further information and brochure: St. James Theatre, London, and as Tel - Day: 081-203 0287 Tel. 071 794 7305/071 435 5326. Bourgeois Gentilhomme at the Edinburgh Eve: 081-958 4483 11/12 Thurlow Road, Hampstead, London NW3 Festival. D

13 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

FAMILY EVENTS away at Osmond House aged 69 In memoriam Companion/carers Birth years and 50 weeks. Beloved hus­ Weiss Karl Weiss who left me heart­ Live in companion required by band and father, devoted, unselfish, broken March 1982, also Tommy Schuman On 24 February 1991 to elderly lady. Light duties, no nurs­ courteous and brave to the end. who died suddenly March 1956 not ing. Suit early retired person. Box (iillian (nee Davies) and Martin Thank you, George, for being ours. quite eleven years old. 'To the world No. 1202. Schuman the birth of a son, Ever loved by his wife Audrey, they were only grains of sand, to me Jonathan Leo. First grandchild for Nurse has vacancy, sunny room, children Elizabeth and Clifford, they were the whole world." bathroom 'en suite', suit retired Lotte Davies. sister-in-law and brother-in-law person needing care, long or short Isobel and Martin Saphir, nephews CLASSIFIED stay. Tel. 071 328 6631. Deaths Julian and Andrew Saphir, cousin Miscellaneous C'aring lady with car, available to Elkan Margaret Elkan (nee H. C. Mayer and family and many Collector of old Jewish and elderly lady or gentleman — Laqucr) of Jerusalem died 18 March other friends. Palestine picture postcards. Single Shopping, cooking etc. Times and 1991 after a long illness in n cards purchased. David Pearlman, Silver Miss Herta Silver of remuneration to be agreed. Tel: Tel-Aviv nursing home. Mourned .56 Asnuins Hill, London NWll. Heinrich Stahl House, Bishops 081-341 7241. by her family and friends here and in 081-455 2149. Avenue passed away peacefully on Israel. Manicurist Visits your home 08 1- the 2nd of February. She will be Personal 445 2915. Hofheimer Erni Hofheimer (nee missed and remembered by all her Glamorous, intelligent housewife, Electrician City and Ciuilds quali­ Klebe, Fulda) dearly beloved friends. continental, seeks male partner of fied. All domestic work undertaken mother and mother-in-law of high calibre, 53 4-. She could make Weiss Helene Weiss (nee Stanke) Y. Steinreich. Tel: 081-455 5262. Marion and Freddie, passed away you happy. Hedi Fisher devoted wife of the late Erich, died Typing in English or Ccrman; on 18 March 1991 after a painful Introductions. Tel: 071-267 6066, peacefully at .Mapesbury Lodge, 081-455 6692. illness and much suffering. The evenings &C weekends 071-883 Kilburn on 19 February 1991 aged Antique furniture repaired, res­ example of her goodness and gener­ 91. Much missed and fondly 0401. osity and the inemory of her kind­ tored, French polished. Original remembered. Furniture Craft. Established since ness will remain forever in the hearts Bi-lingual secretary, ex-kinder- of her small and deeply grieving Wolfson Hans Wolfson. On 1947. Tel: 081-455 8420. transporte, will vi^ork in your home. family. 4 March my dear brother died Could you donate any classical Memoirs, correspondence, sorting peacefully in Heinrich Stahl House. piano sheet music to Osmond of books etc. Rosney George J. After many Sadly missed by his sister l.otte House? Please contact the Head of Also West End shopping if years of suffering Cieorge passed Kennett. Home: 081-458 1 185. required. Tel; 071-792 1675 r The AJR does not accept IRENE FASHIONS responsibility for the formerly of Swiss Cottage PHYSIOTHERAPY standard of service Sizes 10 to 50 hips ; •(; i U.K. registered German rendered by advertisers. Physiotherapist, age 35, Spring is here—Summer is on the way. Don't delay, come and available for private sessions in see our wonderful selection in time for your holidays. your ow^n home. Many specialist skills include Lymph Drainage FOR THAT SPECIAL OCCASION- ALTERATIONS and post-operative treatments. SOMETHING DIFFERENT AS ALWAYS OF ANY KIND TO Contact: Andrea Langfritz, For an early appointment kindly ring before 11 am 071-289 7716. LADIES' FASHIONS or after 7 pm 081-346 9057. I also design and make children's clothes West Hampstead area ANTHONY J. NEWTON SATELLITE INSTALLATION 071-328 6571 SALES & REPAIRS Television - Videos - Aerials - Radios - Stereos - Electrical Appliances &C0 NEW & SECONDHAND TVs/VIDEOS FOR SALE FOR FAST EFFICIENT FRIDGE SOLICITORS if Tel: 081-909 3169 Answerphone & FREEZER REPAIRS 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead, NW3 5NB AVrS TV SERVICE 7-day service With offices in: Europe/Jersey/USA All parts guaranteed A. EISENBERG J. B. Services ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN Tel. 081-202 4248 RELIABLE & CAPABLE until 9 pm Telephone: 071 435 5351/071 794 9696 PLUMBER

offers a complete 24-hour MAPESBURY LODGE TORRINGTON HOMES plumbing service. Small (Licensed by Ihe Borough of Brenl) AUDLEY MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N., jobs welcome. Please ring for the elderly, convalescent and partly REST HOME incapacitated. MATRON Lift to all floors. For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent (Hendon) JOHN ROSENFELD Luxurious double and single (Licensed by Borough ot Barnel) for Elderly Retired Gentlefolk on 071-837 4569 rooms. Colour TV, h/c, central heating, ' Single and Double Rooms. private telephones, etc., in all rooms. Single and Double Rooms with wash Excellent kosher cuisine. Colour TV • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. • Gardens. TV and reading rooms. basins and central heating. TV lounge lounge. Open visiting. Cultivated C. H. WILSON Gardens. ' Nurse on duty 24 hours. and dining-room overlooking lovely Full 24-hour nursing care ' Long and short term, including trial garden. Carpenter period if required. 24-hour care —long and short term. Painter and Decorator Please telephone From E210 per week French Polisher sister-in-charge, 081-450 4972 081-445 1244 Office hours Licensed by the Borough of Barnet Antique Furniture Repaired 17 IVIapesbury Road, N.W.2 081 -455 1335 other times Enquiries 081-202 2773/8967 Tel: 081-452 8324 39 Torrington Park, N.12 Car: 0831 103707

14 :';"»w?..>PWiiwiii»WiiiiWgwwirTW»^

AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

Obituaries 40 Years Ago this Month Gitta Alpar Andre Kaminski Old Acquaintances Showcase Berlin: - 'I wonder how much Gitta Alpar, operatic diva assoluta of 1920s The author Andre Kaminski has died in longer the Americans will pay for this Berlin, has died aged eighty-seven. The Ziirich, aged sixty-seven. The Geneva-born showcase of the West just to annoy the Russians?' said a Berliner. This month's daughter of a Budapest cantor, she had son of a Polish-Jewish psychiatrist, he had studied singing, and made her debut at the column reaches you from Berlin after a returned to his 'ancestral homeland' after short visit to Duesseldorf and a week's stay local opera house in 1923. After guest appear­ the Second World War to participate in in Hamburg. Life in Germany looks still as ances in Munich and Vienna she eventually, at what he perceived, with the idealism of incredible as a year ago, and more so. A new Erich Kleiber's invitation, went to the Berlin Kempinski Hotel is going up on youth, as the building of Socialism. Trained Staatsoper and won acclaim as Queen of the Kurfuerstendamm on Marshall Aid, and Night in Die Zauberflote, and Rosina in // as a television journalist in Warsaw, he this is what a third of Berlin's population is Barbiere di Siviglia. Then, abruptly changing went to North Africa in the late 1950s to living on too. There is nothing you cannot genres, she starred in the early sound film Die report the independence struggle in Algeria; get; the shops are full of goods you haven't oder Keine. afterwards he helped set up that country's seen in London for a long, long time. But they are so expensive that only very few That title also summed up how Richard nascent TV service. people can afford the prices. You meet the Tauber felt about her professionally. He inade In 1968, when government-instigated same people in the same posh places again her his partner, and got Franz Lehar to antisemitism swept Communist Poland, and again; every third person is on the dole. compose Schiin ist die Welt as a launching he returned to his native Switzerland. For But now austerity seems to be in sight. The vehicle for the new team. Other operettas in Berliners have the impression the Americans the next twenty years he divided his time which Gitta Alpar wowed the Berlin public will stop putting up more money to show were Der Bettelstudent and Die Duharry. between scriptwriting and directing for the East what free enterprise can do. But the The Nazi takeover in 1933 put an abrupt television, and creative authorship. He Six Days race attracted the masses, and the end to her career in Germany. It also ended her finally achieved widespread literary whole town seems to live in a world of make-believe. And no doubt, Berlin still has marriage to Gustav Frohlich, whose oppor­ recognition with the publication, in 1986, a certain attraction for visitors because the tunism in divorcing a Jewish wife contrasted of Next Year in Jerusalem, the tragi- spirit of the people is unbroken. with the steadfastness of an Albert coiTiic saga of a sprawling Polish-Jewish AjR Information April 1951. Bassermann or Joachim Gottschalk. family. D Thereafter Gitta lived in Vienna, and did film and stage work before emigrating to the U.S.A. in 1936. Her last film role was in Rene Clair's The Flame of New Orleans (1941) AMAZING CLEAN WATER CZECHOSLOVAKIA, PRAGUE starring Marlene Dietrich. There followed Filtered quality water system units, with Holidays, W/end breaks. Central half a life time of obscurity offset by her return three year guarantees. For a free accommodation. £30 double, £20 single. to Berlin in 1987; there, at the scene of her demonstration in your home or office greatest triumphs, she collected the Golden please contact: Telephone George Czaban: Riband of the Germanv Him industry. • Mr S. R. Wint - 081-455 1841 (0626)770211

LUXURY FLAT Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. Dr H. Alan Shields, M.B., Ch.B., B.D.S., L.D.S., R.C.S. (Eng) IN MODERN BLOCK STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST DENTAL SURGEON 3 rms, 1st fl, lift, balcony, 2 btfirtn- Surgery hours: 46 Bramptom Grove, Hendon NW4 4AQ toilets, Ctrl htg, best resid. area, 8.30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday All types of dental treatment given 8.30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday including cosmetic dentistry, dentures, Sutton near synagogue, shops and emergencies and home visits for station. Frequent trains i hour to Visiting chiropody service available the disabled. London - West End & City. Nice 67 Kilbum High Road, NW6 (opp. M&S) Deutsch wird auch gesprochen. neighbours, some Jewish. Phone: 081-203 0405 or 0831-511251 Telephone 071-624 1576 for appointment. Tel: 071-794 3594

HILARY'S AGENCY REMEDIAL MASSAGE ^imine §firnreicfi Specialists in Long and Short-Term Live-in (AIPTI) Care For the treatment of muscle and RESPITE AND EMERGENCY CARE joint conditions CARE FOR THE ELDERLY •-^p^ THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE HOUSEKEEPERS RECUPERATION CARE Back • Neck • Shoulder pain • IVW AROMATHERAPY MATERNITY NURSES *^ REFLEXOLOGY NANNIES AND MOTHER'S HELPS • General relaxation • EMERGENCY MOTHERS Relief of stress and tension Caring and Experienced Staff Available We will be happy to discuss your Sharon Winkler LCSP (Assoc.) 5, CHANOOS ROAO. requirements WIttESOEN. PLEASE PHONE Tel: 081-998 3410 LONDON NW2 4LS TEL: (GSl) 452 2924 081-559-1110

15 AJR INFORMATION APRIL 1991

old iiTiperial powers - 'as their League of people were coinplicit with the Fiihrer. Geopolitical Nations predecessor had been'. Hitler's and (Admittedly most victims of the expulsions gobbledegook Mussolini's sentiments precisely! Not for had resided outside the Reich, but the vast the first time the views of Far Left and Right majority of Czech and Polish Volksdeutsche coincide. The French have a word for it: les were thoroughly nazified.) he old Latin tag Si vis pacem para extremes ses touchent. So, incidentally, did The regrettable fact that virtually an helium — If you desire peace prepare the Germans: Gott mit uns\ entire nation may exhibit complicity with Tfor war - is currently being amended D R.G. their dictator is also demonstrated by the to 'If you desire peace after the war prepare recent history of Iraq. One of the repercus­ for it during hostilities'. All sorts of postwar sions of the 1948 Israeli War of scenarios are projected, some hopeful, Singular power, Independence was the wholesale expulsion others not. The Oxford philosopher of long-settled Jewish populations from all Michael Dummett predicts that the wrongs multiple guilt the Arab states. Forty years on vestigial of neither of the most oppressed groups in traces of Jewish life can, nonetheless, still be the Middle East - the Kurds and the f late the spotlight of public interest found in Morocco, Egypt and even Syria - Palestinians - will be remedied after the has increasingly been turned on but not in judenrein Iraq. Let it not be war. To help the former he argues that OAllied ill-treatment of Germans - forgotten that even pre-Baath Baghdad Kurdish Northern Iraq be granted soldiers and civilians alike - at the end of scored a notable first in barbarism by independence. the war. A recent television programme publicly hanging 'Zionist spies' and bussing Dummett's blithe disregard of the fact alleged that U.S. guards deliberately caused in parties of schoolchildren to observe the that there are also irredentist Kurds in Syria, the death of between 50,000 and 100,000 spectacle. Turkey and Iran is all of a piece with his POWs at Remagen camp. Though huge, The notion that in a dictatorship, even of indictment of President Bush. The U.S.A., those figures are only a fraction of the the Third World variety, all guilt originates he alleges, caused the war by refusing to call estimated casualities that resulted from from a single dictator is a highminded a conference on Palestine as a quid pro quo the expulsion of Germans from fallacy. for Saddam's withdrawal from Kuwait. Russian-liberated Eastern Europe. Equally fallacious is the idea that when it Fifty years ago a similar case could have Historians speak of over 2,000,000 fatal­ comes to apportioning guilt for wartiine been made out for Britain's and France's ities among a total of 12,000,000 expellees atrocities women can be exempt. It was an guilt for the Second World War: after all, - caused by a combination of cold, hunger all-female audience in 1940 Berlin that they had not put pressure on the Warsaw and deliberate massacre. (One often-cited cheered Hitler to the echo when he threat­ government to grant the demands of the example was the drowning of .3,000 ened, in response to some pin-prick RAF Germans in the Polish Corridor. (Strange to Sudeten Germans at Usti-nad-Labem.) raids, to obliterate {ausradieren) English relate, Michael Dummett is Professor of Such details are recalled in Germany, The and French towns. And who can forget the Logic (!) at Oxford University.) Enipire Within (Jonathan Cape) by Amity procession of Palestinian women in Amman A siinilar obfuscation of historical truth Shlaes, who nonetheless adds 'I find it hard demanding that Saddam drop poison gas on issued from the pen of Richard Gott. The to succumb to the pathos of these accounts'. Tel Aviv? leftist Guardian correspondent condemns Her comment prompted a reproof from the The fact that the Age of the Common UN action in response to Saddam's invasion Independent's Edward Steen. Demanding Man (and Woman) has seen the concen­ because the world body took no action dispassionate condemnation of all atrocities tration of power into ever fewer hands does when he 'invaded Iraq'. In other words the he argues that history, and above all the not, by any means, rule out a widespread highminded Gott disqualifies the United Holocaust, should be unharnessed from diffusion of guilt. Nations from combatting external aggres­ present political polemics. n R.G.

sion - i.e. from preserving peace - because Steen's prescription, admirable in its . .Ill: they do nothing about dictatorships inside liberal even-handedness, leaves one key countries. His prescription seems to be: factor out of account. That factor is the Dutch treat establish parliamentary govermnents from degree to which an entire population par­ About 50,000 Israelis found a small sur­ China to Albania, and Ethiopia to takes of the guilt of the dictator ruling them. prise in their mailboxes during the Gulf Guatemala, before you prevent the takeover Since no section of German society gainsaid War. This is the number of hand-written of one country by another. Hitler - in contrast to Fascist Italy, whose postcards offering prayers, love and support Unsurprisingly Gott goes on to derogate ariny sabotaged orders to deport Jews from sent there by a group of Dutch the United Nations as an instrument of the occupied territories - one concludes that the Christians. D M!m,ir!riir;-::!'iiraiix:i":pij[!;i^ - .•!:.i:.''M-pri;

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Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Hannah Karminski House, 9 Adamson Road, London NW3 3HX, Telephone 071-483 2536/7/8/9 Fax; 071-722 4652 Printed in Great Britain by Black Bear Press Limited, Cambridge