VOLUME 8 NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2008 journal diu^ Association of Jewish Refugees
Three perspectives on Venice nee did she hold the works of art that achieve a Classical gorgeous East in fee;/And perfection of form, a formal symmetry >,i was the safeguard of the and beauty that carry the edifying 0 West: the worth/ Of Ven appearance of purity, nobility and ice did not fall below her birth,/ harmony, thus seemingly exerting a Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.' morally elevating effect on his So begins Wordsworth's poem 'On readers; extracts from his later works the Extinction of the Venetian Repub are duly reprinted in school textbooks, lic' (1802), written in reaction to the a bitter irony in view of the tmths Napoleonic occupation which in 1797 revealed in the course of the novella. had marked the end of the proud For the impact of pure beauty is city's independence. Wordsworth's not moral at all. Formal beauty is lament for the fall of 'La Serenissima' conveyed to us through our senses: St Mark's Square, Venice recalled the city's dominance over the its appeal is sensuous and its effect trade routes to the East on which its fabled collection of sonnets, the Sonette aus aesthetic; it cannot be judged by moral wealth and power were founded. He also Venedig, by the homosexual poet August criteria or pressed into the service of moral used the 'democratic' elements in the Graf von Platen (1796-1835), who visited the values. Aschenbach's ideal of art is therefore Venetian constitution - the Doge owed his city in 1824. at best morally neutral; it can easily lurch office as head of state to election, not royal The subject of Death in Venice is art - into moral ambivalence or even downright birth, and his powers were constrained by art and its striving after beauty, both seen immorality. Aschenbach begins by deluding the city's central body of govemment, the as deeply ambiguous and double-edged himself into believing that he is admiring Signoria - to depict Venice as a freedom- phenomena. For when the writer Gustav von Tadzio disinterestedly, purely as an loving victim of Bonapartist tyranny, and Aschenbach encounters the beautiful Polish exemplar of formal beauty; he ends by thus as an example to Britons fighting to boy Tadzio at the Hotel des Bains on following him through the litter-strevra, fly preserve their freedoms from the French. Venice's Lido and falls prey to a homosexual blown, disease-ridden alleyways of Venice The British have been captivated by infatuation that lays low all his powers of in a degrading state of voyeuristic sexual Venice - from Tumer, Browning and Ruskin resistance, moral and ultimately physical, obsession. to John Julius Norwich and Jan Morris - and he is also encountering, incorporated in Setting the tale of Aschenbach's down so have the Germans, who have tended to human form, the ideal of perfect formal fall in Venice is Mann's masterstroke. For associate the city with concepts of art, beauty that he has been struggling to Venice is renowned for its beauty, but also beauty and perfection of form. Goethe recreate as an artist in his works. In other for the corruption that lurks beneath its visited Venice during his Italian journey words, it is perfect beauty of form that surface. The magnificent fagade that the (1786-88), the model for the many voyages destroys Aschenbach; it is art that kills him, city presents to those who approach it by of discovery made by German writers and not the cholera epidemic that stmck Venice sea is deceptive, its seemingly uplifting artists seeking inspiration from the Classical in 1911. nobility of aspect conceaUng a hinterland culture and civilisation of the Mediterranean The opposition of art to life is the central of decaying buildings and cutthroat South; Wagner, who died in the Palazzo theme mnning through Mann's early works, commercialism, as well as a longstanding Vendramin overlooking the Grand Canal, where 'healthy' life and conventional reputation for libertinism and sexual loved and was inspired by Venice. morality are contrasted with art, crime, licence. In the novella, this element of The most famous evocation of Venice in disease, immorality, perversion and death, hidden corruption is epitomised by the German literature is, of course, Thomas all seen as 'unhealthy' aberrations from the cholera that is breeding unseen in the Mann's novella Der Tod in Venedig {Death path of solid bourgeois normality. stagnant waters of Venice's canals, a lethal in Venice) (1912), widely known through Aschenbach had in his younger days menace tainting the very heart of its Luchino Visconti's 1971 film, starring Dirk indulged in the moral relativism typical of diseased beauty, and the worse for the fact Bogarde. Mann drew on his own visit to 'decadent' writers of the fin-de-siecle,wit h that the municipal authorities are covering Venice in 1911, but could also build on an its potential for undermining established the epidemic up to protect their tourist trade. established tradition of German writing moral values. To escape this risk of Aschenbach senses a complicity in crime. about Venice, notably the finely crafted immorality, he aspires in later years to create continued overleaf AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008
THREE PERSPECTIVES ON VENICE continued from page 1 recognising that the city's guilty seaet makes 5,000 in the mid-seventeenth century, the it the appropriate backdrop for the illicit ghetto expanded from the original 'ghetto passion to which he has himself succumbed. nuovo' ('new ghetto') to the confusingly Maim memorably describes Venice as the named 'ghetto vecchio' ('old ghetto', though 'flattering and suspect beauty' ('die dating only from 1541). schmeichlerische und verdachtige Schone'), Venice's association with antisemitic as a city 'half fairytale, half tourist trap'. He attitudes and prejudices is reinforced by the also highlights the Byzantine influence on most celebrated work of fiction to which it its architecture, which he uses to character gave rise, Shakespeare's The Merchant of ise the city as one of the ports where the Venice. The figure of Shylock - model for East gained entry to Westem Europe. Apart so many antisemitic caricatures - and the from evoking Venice's history of relations raw antisemitism expressed by the play's with the East, this also refers to the route Christian characters, remain deeply Bettine Le Beau, pictured here with taken by the cholera epidemic, which spread problematical, even disturbing, for Jews fellow actor Robert Rietti, was a guest speaker at the annual show- from its sources in the Ganges delta in India seeing or reading the play. For all the business charity event organised for via the trade routes of Asia to the coastal evidence in the play that Shylock is what a fans of The Prisoner, the 1960s cities of the Mediterranean. hostile gentile environment has made him, science fiction TV series starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan. But this incursion of the East into the for all the eloquence of his plea for Jews as Bettine appeared in three episodes settled realm of Westem civilisation also has human beings - 'If you prick us do we not of the cult series playing Lucette. At the event, which took place in a mythical dimension: the tigers that bleed?' - there remains in him, the Jew, an Portmeirion, Bettine was invited to Aschenbach imagines lurking in the apparently irreducible core of villainy. speak about her experiences and sign miasmic undergrowth of the delta swamps Readers of this joumal may be interested photos for the fans. are also the tigers that drew the chariot of to know that two Jewish scholars who had Dionysos, god of wine and intoxication, on fled to Britain from Germany after 1933 mi AND [VENH DIARr - SEPTEMBER his path from India to Greece. Dionysos, produced memorable studies of Shylock however, represents the elemental, irrational, after the war. One was the drama critic Mon 8 Dr Fred Rosner 'Busybodies and Champion Schnorrers: From instinctive forces in human nature that can Hermann Sinsheimer, who had made his Josephus and Jud Siiss to Bruno empt, as they do in Aschenbach's case, over name in pre-Hitler Berlin. The other was Kreisky and Lord Levy' Club 43 whelming the rationality and disciplined Rabbi Ignaz Maybaum, who took Shylock's Wed 10 Dr Frank Beck 'Kindertransport moral order of Westem civilisation; art, too, unwavering confidence in the sanctity of a from Vienna to London and Minehead for all its ordered beauty, originates in the legally binding contract - the contract in 1939' Memorial Hall, Wincanton, deeper, chaotic well-springs of inspiration guaranteeing him his pound of flesh, should Somerset, 7.00 pm. Talk sponsored by Wincanton and District Museum and and intuition. The cholera finds its way to his loan not be repaid - as the basis for his History Society. Contact Derek Hudson Venice, as the tigers of Dionysos find their arresting characterisation of Shylock as 'the on 01963 31663 or at way to Aschenbach. tragic champion of the law'. [email protected] By the Second World War, the Jewish Sun 14 Join the party at the third Jewish links with Venice community in Venice had greatly declined annual Simcha on the Square 2008. The Jewish perspective on Venice is very in numbers. Following the surrender of Italy Trafalgar Square, London, 1-7 pm. Contact Geraldine Auerbach MBE, different. For Jews, Venice carries strong to the Allies in September 1943, the Germans Director, Jewish Music Institute, or Di negative associations of stigmatisation and occupied Venice and deported some 200 Robson on 020 8909 2445 or at marginalisation alongside its aura of beauty. Jews to the extermination camps. The names [email protected] It was in Venice that the world's first ghetto of the victims are commemorated on a Mon 15 Dr Thomas Willimowski 'How was created, in 1516, to house the city's monument in the ghetto; though two a Berlin Journalist Kept Literary and Artistic Exiles from Hitler Together' Jewish population separately; an influx of synagogues in the ghetto remain in use, Jews Club 43 Jews fleeing from persecution in Spain after now live scattered across the city. Sat 20 (9-10 pm). Sun 21 (10.30-5.30 1492 probably caused the city authorities to Anthony Granville pm), Mon 22 (7-9.30 pm). 'When take this step. The area, in the Cannaregio Speech Forms a Bridge'. A Second district of the city, took its name from a AJR Directors and Third Generation Workshop. At Gordon Greenfield Wiener Library. Email Katherine Kllnger foundry, 'geto' in Venetian, that had been Michael Newman at [email protected] located there. Jews were confined to the Carol Rossen Mon 22 Jens Bruning 'Uber Hans AJR Heads of Department ghetto at night and had to wear identifying Jaeger: Sekretar und Prasident des Susie Kaufman Organiser. AjR Centre marks when they left the ghetto by day. The Club 1943 (von 1946-1975)' (in AJR Journal German) Club 43 name was subsequently given to areas Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor throughout the world where Jews were Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor Mon 29 No lecture (hall not available) Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements confined, and the practice of requiring Jews Club 43 to wear distinctive badges or caps also Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans Seelig on became widespread. As the Jewish necessarily those of the Association of Jewish 01442 254360 population of Venice grew, reaching over Refugees and should not be regarded as such. AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008
Mtmy kisses from little me' NEWTONS n article I wrote for By an amazing coinci the magazine eadier dence, shortly before this Leading Hampstead Solicitors AiL thi s year has brought event I was put in touch advise on me much good fortune: I with a genealogist in Property, Wills, Family Trusts have found family all over Vienna who had been and Charitable Trusts the world I never knew I contacted by a man in had. I was also put in Perth, Western Australia, French and German spoken touch with a group of who turned out to be my people in my home town second cousin: his mother l-lome visits arranged of Wolkersdorf after I had and my mother were first had no contact there since cousins who had come to 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, my parents and I were England in 1939 but then First meeting in May 2008 with two London NW3 SNB made to leave after the of Charlotte Lang's newly found lost touch. Now, this Anschluss. The group was cousins, Kathleen Pearce and Bernard branch of the family has Tel: 020 7435 5351 mounting an exhibition - Brady. Charlotte is in the centre been reunited with me. Fax: 020 7435 8881 'Wolkersdorf 1938' - about the Jewish My Australian cousin has siblings here and families who used to live there, to which we met for the first time recently and I contributed documents and photo formed a close friendship. He has also graphs. On top of that, I have been in introduced me to a cousin in Sweden and contact with pupils of the Wolkersdorf to one in California, with whom I am in grammar school. They attended a regular touch. memorial event this May at the Helden My new cousins had a letter which I JACKMAN • platz in Vienna 70 years after the Anschluss did not know existed. It had been sent in remembrance of the Austrian Jews, just before the war by my mother to their SILVERMAN including my grandparents and my uncle, mother when they first came over here. COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS who perished in the Holocaust. A placard At the end of the letter I had written was put up with my message to the people 'Many kisses from little me'. Now, after of Austria which included these words: all these years with almost no family, it is 'How could such evil happen in a civilised wonderful to be part of such a loving country like Austria? ... I hope and pray family again. that such evil will never happen again.' Charlotte Lang 26 Conduit Street :^,K^^r-:^->;"^ Telephones 020 7409 0771 My father's past: Searching and researching Fax: 020 7493 8017 y father died at the age of 38 in Vienna just after the Anschluss. MShortly after his death, I left for the UK with my HaShomer Hatzair group. We travelled with the Kindertransport. I AUSTRIAN and GERMAN never heard from my mother and sister PENSIONS again. Now, in relaxed retirement, I developed PROPERTY a strong urge to explore my linkage with the past. I knew nothing about my father RESTITUTION CLAIMS except that he was born in August 1901 David, Meir Weiss, Anton Hrebik, Mayor of EAST GERMANY - BERLIN in Luky in Slovakia and that he grew up Luky. A picture of the former synagogue is in the background there. What could I dig up? On instructions our office will In those days, Slovakia was part of Hun ledger of births and deaths, a register assist to deal with your gary and Jews enjoyed life under a which had survived two world wars. applications and pursue the relatively benign government as compared We visited the Jewish cemetery, matter with the authorities with the ghettos in the Russian Pale of serenely located on a green hillside, Settlement. Records suggested that Luky tombstones scattered, not so much For further information did have a functional Jewish community. destroyed as gently decayed, some of the and an appointment It was a meagre starting point - the inscriptions still legible. The mayor has please contact: time had come to visit Luky. Together with plans to preserve the area. my son David and with guidance from Dr Luky as we saw it was an old, but not ICS CLAIMS Maros Borsky, head of the Slovak Jewish impoverished, village of some 900 707 High Road, Finchley Heritage Centre, we met the present inhabitants nestling in a fairly wide valley London N12 OBT mayor of Luky, who was generous with surrounded by forested hills. his time. Over the fireplace in his office What I have learned suggests that Luky Tel: 020 8492 0555 hung a picture of the old synagogue, a was not a bad place to grow up in. Our Fax: 020 8348 4959 sizeable building demolished in the trip has added a little to our family history Email: [email protected] Communist era to make room for new and our son will keep it alive. housing. We were given access to a large Meir Weiss AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 Plucky little Belgium owhere does Anthony Grenville Hidden in Belgium, which 300 attended. mention my name or comment We had pride of place at the Yom Hashoah Non the contents - especially the The estimated commemoration at Yad Vashem. Two von Bargen telegrams - of my letter days later, at a Yad Vashem ceremony, entitled 'A gift of life' (July) in his August 100,000 child Andree Geulen was made an Honorary article 'The sorrow of Belgium'. Neither Citizen of Israel. he nor Emma Klein in her response to my survivors in occupied Historical novels only reflect events. letter seems to have read the chapter on Europe - when If these reflections are through a Belgium in Sir Martin Gilbert's The distorting mirror, that is the creative Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the 1,500,000 children were author's prerogative. The discipline Holocaust (only 30 pages!). Ideally, they of history is based on verifiable factual could have borrowed, from the Wiener murdered - are alive evidence from witnesses and documents. Library, the video or DVD of As If It Were due only to our rescuers' Emma Klein sought to evade blame Yesterday by Myriam Abramowicz and for the title 'A questionable claim'(May) Esther Hoffenberg (Belgium, 1980), selflessness, courage which - by not revealing that her whose parents were hidden. There is defamatory quotation was an anonymous nothing more authentic. The Jewish and spirit of common opinion - her insinuations prompted. and gentile Resisters of the Committee humanity. She should have rectified this in the for the Defence of Jews (CDJ) who appear June journal. in it - Yvonne Nevejean, Yvonne Jospa, Anthony Grenville omits mentioning Maurice Heiber, David Ferdman, Andree that 94 per cent of Jews in Belgium were Geulen among others - were closely 'assurance' was given to Queen Elisabeth non-citizens and that the AJB (Judenrat) involved in the rescue and placement that lone children would no longer be notables signed, and had 10,000 orders with Belgian gentile hiders of 3000-1- of deported. That day, 137 children with distributed (3,908 were obeyed), to the 4000-1- rescued children. This film their families were transported to report to Dossin camp for 'work in the inspired Nicole David to organise with Auschwitz. All were murdered. East' and -apart from in Antwerp - had rescued friends the First World The seven AJB (Association of Jews in the yellow stars distributed in June 1942 Gathering of Hidden Children in New Belgium-Judenrat) children's homes (they were soon discarded by wearers!). York in 1991. were opened from 1942 - Jewish The yellow stars had to be worn from the An April 1991 Newsweek article orphans like me during the occupation age of six (I wore one while still in the mentioned just 500 participants. The were in gentile homes before then - Wezembeek Home, before I was hidden). gathering was a miracle of organisation; because many children went astray, were This greatly shocked the Belgian participants who were hidden in hidden in cupboards or under beds etc population. He reverses the numbers of occupied Europe came from all over the when their parents were raided. After Jews in Brussels and Antwerp. According world. The only hidden child I had Wezembeek was raided, the CDJ realised to Maxime Steinberg (a hidden child like met was Nicole David in London one that children had to be separated, without Sylvain Brachfeld), 52 per cent of Jews, month before the gathering. Now, I was the knowledge of the official AJB, from mostly secular, lived in bilingual Brussels, among 1,600 'siblings'! Along with my the parents who sought help from the in seven districts; in Antwerp 38 per cent, arrival, on 5 December 1942, in my foster AJB, given new names and birth mainly very orthodox, lived around the family and the liberation of my hiding certificates and enabled to live as gentile station. The pre-invasion socialist mayor town, Sint Niklaas, in East Flanders, on 9 children. They were hidden in 262 of Antwerp, Camille Huysmans, fled to September 1944, it was the happiest institutions (Sylvain Brachfeld's 2006 England - he was reinstated after the event in my life. I met Marcel Choinacki, figure), mainly in convents or by parish Liberation. Leon Delwaide usurped who had been with me in the Wezembeek priests and in over 700 private homes. his position. The number deported - Home when we 56 children were taken The parents could then be more easily 25,475 (not 28,500!) - included 330 Roma. by the Gestapo on 30 October 1942 to hidden. The CDJ also hid over 10,000 Over 34,700 Jews survived hidden Dossin camp for deportation the next adults. (I omitted the 3,000-1- unregistered). Belgium was created in 1830. The vast day. The gentile housekeeper telephoned The children in the AJB homes, Yvonne Nevejean, the director of the majority of Belgians were patriotic - regularly inspected for numbers by the SS, young adults, if unemployed, were National Agency for children which were hostages. A week before Brussels financed the home and was secretly conscripted for compulsory work in was liberated, in late August 1944, an Germany. Very many 'refuseniks' joined involved in the CDJ, created under the order to deport the 517 children in the auspices of the Independence Front, the Resistance. The Belgian Catholic seven AJB homes and the 800-1- Church was exemplary in its rescue which acted in solidarity with all Belgian residents of old people's homes with resistance groups (including the famed efforts. Over 5,000 of Belgium's Jewish their respective Jewish staff was inter children were murdered - the 4,500-1- Fidelio Brigade in Antwerp). She alerted cepted by the Dossin commander's Queen Elisabeth who, with utmost child survivors were saved through this half-Jewish secretary, who alerted the CDJ. Jewish-gentile Resistance. The estimated urgency, interceded with the German During the night all the homes were High Command. A large ransom was also 100,000 child survivors in occupied emptied and residents hidden in Europe - when 1,500,000 children were paid to the SD chief by David Ferdman churches and schools. Andree Geulen, a and, in the early hours of 31 October, we murdered - are alive due only to our Righteous Belgian and now, aged 87, the rescuers' selflessness, courage and spirit were freed as lone children along with last CDJ member, told me this in 1995. eight children left in the camp when their of common humanity. parents and siblings were deported. An The film was again shown last year at the Gathering in Jerusalem of Children Bronia Veitch AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 My beloved Quaker school Delia Walker (nee Ruhm) had always thought that although I exceed. Our teachers regularly broke this We have been close friends ever since. experienced some family tragedies, rule and many other rules too. Most of My parents managed to get to England I my life during the Nazi period was not them ended up in prison. A brave and in February 1939. I visited them from worth recording in this journal, compared exceptional group of people. Eerde for my summer holidays in July with the heart-breaking and horrendous My elder sister, Beate Ruhm von Oppen 1939. At that time, Holland was still memoirs written by others. {inter alia editor and translator of James neutral and I was clamouring to go back I come from Bedin and I thought that von Moltke's Briefe an Freya), was by then to my beloved Eerde, but fortunately my my only claim to fame was that I daily living in England with a Quaker family. parents decided to keep me in England. rode on the tram that Emil and the She herself had been to the Eerde Quaker It is quite possible I wouldn't now be Detectives used! However, I was School and she urged my parents, who writing this if I had gone back. prompted to write something after were still stuck in Germany, to send me Some years ago, I went to a reunion reading the very moving article on the there as well. I then spent the next year of Old Eerdeners, which was sad because Quakers in the July issue of the journal. in Eerde, which I loved most dearly. Eerde of many absent faces. But it was wonder I began my 'education' in the Volksschule made the wrench from home and family ful to see my beloved music teacher, Billy - a fairly nasty experience. Luckily, most not only bearable, but turned it into a Hillsley (Hildesheimer), who had inspired of my memories have been blotted out. beautiful, educationally inspiring, exciting me to take up music professionally. I next went to the local Rudolf Steiner and maturing experience. I think all of us The school is now an ordinary board school, which was wonderful. The teach children who survived felt this in some ing school. In its grounds there is a ers did their best to protect the Jewish measure. This was due mainly to the memorial for the children who died. I children from the horrors that were going loving and intuitive staff. We were the wrote to the headmaster as I thought it on around us and to make us feel part of lucky ones. I knew Ernst-Rudolf Reiss and would be good for the children to know the class. I remember a tearful occasion Klaus Seckel and all the others, of course about this period, but he didn't reply. though, when it transpired that Jewish (see below), and mourn them deeply. There is an excellent book by Hans A. children were not allowed to join the In the Christmas holidays in 1938 I was Schmitt, himself an old Eerdener, entitled Ausflug into the country. I think the teach unable to go back to Germany from Quakers and Nazis: Inner Light in Outer ers were more upset than the children! Holland to be with my parents. The Darkness (Columbia: University of Missouri All schools had a quota of Jewish Quakers arranged for me to spend this Press, 1997). It contains several sections children which they were not allowed to vacation with an English family in Surrey. on Eerde and a lovely photo of Klaus Seckeri. The 14 Eerde children murdered because of their ethnic origin, by date of death Kurt Rosenthal 25 July 1941 Mauthausen (1) Otto-Edgar Rosenstern 18 September 1941 Mauthausen (1) Steffi Pinner 23 July 1943 Sobibor (1) Ursula-Lore Bein 24 September 1943 Auschwitz (2) Bernd Leffmann 24 September 1943 Auschwitz (2) Rosemarie Oppenheimer 24 September 1943 Auschwitz (2) Klaus Metz 5 December 1943 Auschwitz (2) Walter Vohssen 8 January 1944 Auschwitz (2) Ernst Binswanger 7 February 1944 Auschwitz (2) Klaus Herzberg 1 October 1944 Auschwitz (3) Hermann Isaak 21 January 1945 on Auschwitz-Gleiwitz transport (2) Klaus Seckel Date unknown on march from Auschwitz (2) Ernst-Rudolf Reiss 26 January 1945 shot during evacuation of Auschwitz (2) Ulrich Sanders 10 July 1945 in Enschede hospital following ill-treatment (4) (1) Had gone from school to parents or relatives, captured in round-up or similar (2) Had gone to Vught Camp from De Esch in accordance with order of occupying power (3) Accompanied his parents to Westerbork in good faith (4) Beaten almost to death after twice escaping from prison i 'J %eys against Foi^etting^ Servitengasse 1938 memorial project launched by Anschluss, it was not unusual to find that Details of the history of Servitengasse, A citizens of Vienna's 9th District seeks more than half the residents in such the inhabitants and the project itself can to trace the fate of the Jews who lived in streets were Jewish. be found in Birgit Johler and Maria one street - Servitengasse - before they A total of 462 'Keys against Fritsche (eds.), 1938: Adresse: Serviten were driven from their homes. The aim is Forgetting' - representing 462 people gasse (publ. Mandelbaum, ISBN to create a visual symbol in their memory, who once lived there - were placed in a 978-385476-233-1). restoring their rightful place in the glass showcase and embedded into the For further information, please contact: district's life and history. pavement. The memorial, designed by Peter Koppe 1090 Servitengasse 6/14, Servitengasse is representative of many Julia Schulz, was unveiled earlier this email: [email protected] streets in Vienna's 9th District. Before the year. website: wvvw.servitengasse1938.at A)R JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 Sir - I wonder how many of your correspondents giving almost euphoric accounts of their visits to Vienna walked The Editor reserves the right along the Path of Remembrance in the old Jewish quarter of Leopoldstadt and to shorten correspondence looked at the former home of Alfred Adler. ( TO THE ) submitted for publication A plaque commemorates the fact that from this house 70 people were deported V, EDITOIl^ and only six survived. On the other side of the street stands a car service station advertising its speciality: 'Vergaser'. Enough said? Herbert Haberberg, Barnet SUPPING WITH THE DEVIL cellor's formal statement acknowledging Sir - In response to Anthony Grenville's Austria's share in the Nazi atrocities, that Sir -1 am not a German- or Austrian-Jewish article, based on my book Dealing with Austria began to make amends for its evil refugee but I have childhood memories Satan: Rezso Kasztner's Danng Rescue deeds. However, this is not entirely true: of Vienna I would like to share. I was Mission (Jonathan Cape, London 2008), there were earlier signs of atonement. deported to Auschwitz from Hungary in Susan Pollack (August) calls Kasztner's The Austrian government introduced 1944. The camp was chock full at that rescue of some 1,600 Hungarian Jews soon after the war a generous pension time and the cattle wagons were sent to from the Nazis a 'remarkable achieve scheme for Jewish refugees which Austria. After a long journey we got out ment', but adds that 'further factual counted as if we had contributed over the of the cattle wagons in Strasshoff, recounting of that period is necessary for war years and thereby boosted our Austria. There was a selection camp: the evaluating the difficult tasks facing the pension entitlement, which I personally able-bodied were selected for slave Jewish Council and others.' much appreciate. labour The question of what the Jews of Also, Austria's Central European My family and several others were Hungary knew about Auschwitz and why location made the country a safe haven taken to Vienna's 21 st district, Floridsdorf. Kasztner did not publicise the Vrba- for asylum-seekers. Austria accepted in We were placed in a large building - Wetzler report is too complex to be the 1970s about 250,000 refugees, most apparently a disused school. The floor of answered in a few lines. I discuss it at ofthem Jews, from Eastern Europe. These the classrooms was covered with straw. length in my book and have no intention refugees were accommodated in large We were issued with army blankets and of discussing it here. I must, however, take camps while assisting their emigration to wooden clogs. issue with Mrs Pollack's allegation that Israel, America and elsewhere; many of Every morning at daybreak the grown 'Some 1,600 Jews paid Eichmann for their the Jewish refugees settled in Austria and ups left with SS guards to work in lives and liberty ... Mr Lob and others obtained citizenship. factories in Vienna. Every sunset we were in a position to do so as well as Mr Even when Austria still denied its Nazi children were marched on to the streets Kastner's [Kasztner's] family and were complicity, the government was prepared of Vienna with our SS guards and forced allowed to escape the fate of the other to offer Jews in need a helping hand. The to scrub the pavements. We cleared snow 435,000 victims.' Mrs Pollack is entitled back-to-Vienna reports highlight the from pavements in winter and broken to her opinions, but this is simply untrue change that has occurred in Austria in the masonry after air raids. and potentially harmful. past 20 years. One of my friends who also Several times we noticed a woman - a Mrs Pollack cites Anna Porter's book returned to Vienna last May told me she tramp look-alike - on those streets. on Kasztner, published in Canada a few had never been comfortable on previous Covered in a thick shawl and carrying a months before mine and in the UK shortly visits to Vienna because of the memories wicker basket, she tried to signal to us after Both my book and Porter's explain that haunted her 'However,' she added, when the SS guard wasn't looking. She that most of the ransom paid for the 'given what I have seen and heard during placed the basket on the edge of a group as a whole was provided by about this week in Austria, my feelings have window of a house we were passing and 150 wealthy individuals. In addition, my changed. It convinced me that among disappeared. One of us always managed book makes it clear that my father and I Austria's young generations there is now to steal the contents of the basket - were among the majority who had no a sincere mood of regret and a strong wish delicious sandwiches and hot drinks. I money and did not pay for their rescue. to make atonement. I personally believe don't know who this woman was. She Mrs Pollack's failure to follow her own that I experienced a catharsis of emotions was certainly risking her life by helping advice about the proper study of the facts during that week.' Austria now deserves us starving, freezing children. is bound to cast doubt on her evaluation our recognition of these laudable changes. Marianne Laszio, Edinburgh of Kasztner or of anything else. Dr T Scarlett Epstein OBE, Hove Professor Ladislaus Lob, Brighton Sir - I too have a mixed attitude to Sir - Dr Anthony Grenville's excellent Austria. Shortly before my departure to AUSTRIA AND AUSTRIANS REVISITED article was most interesting. I agree with England in September 1938, I was Sir - As a refugee from Austria fortunate all he says about the Austrians. I had to walking in central Vienna on an enough to leave Vienna in July 1938, leave in 1934 and have lived in London important errand. I knew of the danger albeit on an odyssey that took me to since 1935. I am concerned that Austro- of being stopped and having to scrub the Yugoslavia and Albania then via Germany Fascism should not be forgotten. pavement. And I was stopped - by an SS to England in April 1939,1 have had good Parliament was dissolved, trade unions man in black uniform. He asked why I reason to hate Austria and its people for were forbidden and their leaders wasn't wearing a swastika. I told him I the way they joined Hitler's persecution imprisoned. There was a civil war with was a Jew. He asked me to follow him. of the Jews. I thus read with great inter about 2,000 dead. He led the way to a nearby house and est Anthony Grenville's July article Still, there are mitigating aspects about opened the door to a room which was 'Reflections on Austria'. He eloquently the Austrians. I respect a small country totally bare except for a bucket of water, describes how Austria continued after which took in a great number of refugees a scrubbing brush and (thoughtfully) a the last war to perpetuate the myth of after the 'Prague Spring' and the Soviet chair I sprinkled water on the floor and having been the 'first victim of Nazi invasion as well as after the Hungarian sat down. It wasn't long before the SS aggression', which had its roots in an uprising. Furthermore, I love the man appeared again. 'You may go now!', Allied declaration. Dr Grenville states mountains in Austria - and the food. he said. And I did. that it was only in 1991, with the Chan- Wolf Suschitzky London W2 Herta Schenk, London NW3 AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING HALL was struck too by the references to the GETTING TO KNOW THE NATIVES OF FAME Quakers. A Quaker family took my Sir - Edith Argy's amusing article (August) Sir - I thought readers might be interested husband's brother into their home in reminds me of the almost identical in the following extracts from a letter I Dover in 1937 after he was stoned by beginning of my own career My first received from Debbie Bonaminio in the USA: thugs and his father sent him to England. secretarial job - after escaping from 'I am now finishing a second Masters He is about to celebrate his 90th birthday domestic service - was with a Hatton degree and have been an intern at the and would never have got that far Garden jeweler, a kindly Jew (himself a International Swimming Hall of Fame in without the Quakers.' refugee of an earlier period of Jewish Fort Lauderdale, Florida. My supervisor Also, since I wrote my article, the immigration to this country). I became his lent me a DVD. Because my dream is to Tapestry Centre has uncovered a secretary after his 'proper' was called up work for the Olympic Games, he thought document explaining how the Quakers for war work. I would find the film interesting. I was so tried to save the Jewish children at the One of the first letters he dictated moved after viewing Watermarks that I Eerde school through dialogue with the contained a word sounding like 'bonefied'. immediately began researching more Nazi authorities (obviously unsuccessfully). I sat puzzling over this word, fearing I about Hakoach, the Anschluss and the Janet Weston, Westerham, Kent would get the sack for inefficiency till I 1936 Berlin Games. thought of writing it down. And lo and I wish to tell you of my great ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS behold - our old friend 'bona fide' admiration for you and your fellow Sir - Critics of Inge Trott's alleged appeared to my great relief! My boss Hakoach team mates. As a female trying trivialisation of the Holocaust and lack of never found out what agony I had been to make a career in the sports industry, I assiduous consideration of foreign crimes in. I was lucky enough to get a job in the have been subjected to discrimination, in societies such as Burma and Darfur Foreign Office when the propaganda war but my inconveniences are not worthy of seem to stray from the point, which is 'a started - a position I was more suited to, mention compared to all you and your Jew criticising the policies of other Jews', as it turned out. family had to endure! Thank you for i.e. criticism of her own people. (Mrs) Marion Smith standing up for what you believe in but, Nationalist Zionists should not confuse Harrow, Middx most importantly, for who you are.' 'apples and pears' comparisons in their Anne Pisker, London SWl 5 arguments attacking her views. THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES K. G. Speyer, New Barnet, Herts Sir - I am not very well but Victor Ross LOYAL GERMANS cheers me up. His mention of Conrad Sir - Anthony Grenville's article 'From Sir - Reading the correspondence in your Veidt (July) brought back fond memories. police chief in Berlin to refugee in Britain' July issue from Ernest G. Kolman and He is good at that and the Journal (May) has stimulated me to convey to you others, I wish to claim the honour of refreshes my memory bank. Thank you, a parallel experience: my elder brother, belonging to Inge Trott's ilk. Evidently she Mr Editor Horst Jonas, was the police chief in is a brave woman, daring to express an Edith Harris, Stanton, Staffs Communist East Germany - but without opinion which is not blindly pro-Israeli. Bernhard Weiss's ultra-patriotism. The excesses of the Israeli military and the Horst was sentenced to four years for settlers are not enough - your political activity/high treason in 1935, to correspondents expect her to accept SPRING be released on 3 September 1939. From responsibility for Darfur, Burma and prison he wrote a desperate letter to my Zimbabwe. I am an ex-German-British GROVE parents and me to arrange for him to join Jew. I don't hate myself, I don't hate your 214 Finchley Road us in South Africa. My younger brother, correspondents. In fact, I can't think of London NW3 Werner, vowed he would not leave the anyone to hate. London's Most Luxurious country unless Horst was released. Heinz Grunewald, Pinner, Middx Werner paid dearly for this heroic RETIREMENT HOME sacrifice and later perished in Auschwitz. Sir - At the end of the Second World War, • Entertainment - Activities However, Horst was prevented from the Poles annexed a part of Eastern leaving due to the outbreak of the war Germany, expelled the local population • Stress Free Living He was sent to a concentration camp, and settled their own people there. The • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine survived to be recognised for various work United Nations and the great powers did • Full En-Suite Facilities qualifications and, after his release, was not try to pressurise the Poles to return elected police chief of Thuringia and later these occupied territories. Call for more information or a personal tour promoted to mayor of Neubrandenburg. The Arab countries attacked Israel at He died in 1967, presumably from the its birth and in 1967 were again poised 020 8446 2117 after-effects of his ill-treatment. A to attack and destroy the Jewish state. or 020 7794 4455 memorial book was published. Here After its miraculous victory in 1967, Israel [email protected] again, there se ems to be a replica of the should also have annexed the conquered loyal Germans. lands and expelled the Arabs. Tiny Israel Alfred Jonas, Macclesfield, Cheshire absorbed 700,000 refugees from the Arab countries and the vast oil-rich Arab WANTED TO BUY QUAKERS AND REFUGEES countries could easily have absorbed the Sir - Since your publication of my piece expelled Arabs. Then there would have German and on the Quaker Tapestry Centre in July, I've been no rockets launched at Israeli been amazed to hear about the number civilians, no terrorist attacks inside Israel English Books of people helped by the Quakers, and no talk of 'settlers'. Bookdealer, AJR member, including people connected with our Heno' Schragenheim, London N15 welcomes invitations to view and Weald of Kent AJR group. purchase valuable books. Netta Murray Goldsmith, whose book Sir - I find the sections on the refugees Magda and the Rat Catchers you recently and their history fascinating. However, I reviewed, wrote to me: 'I was very feel that this magazine is an Robert Mornung 10 Mount View, Ealing interested in your article in the latest AJR inappropriate place for the Israel/ London W5 IPR Journal and saddened, though not Palestine debate. surprised, to read of the fate of so many Email: [email protected] Rose Marie Whailey Tel: 020 8998 0546 members of your family What a waste! I Montreal, Canada in their painting. The latter artist - who once virtually painted every single blade of grass REVIEWS - devoted himself totally to Symbolism, with NOTES work like The Vanities and Nardssus. The Jews of Linz Longoni's Alone, in which a black-clad JUDISCHES LEBEN IN LINZ 1849-1943 Gloria Tessler young woman lies beside a coffin bearing BAND 1: INSTITUTIONEN lilies, has an unforgettable, morbid beauty. BAND 2: FAMILIEN The work, so evocative of pre-Raphaelite by Verena Wagner ight falling in a grid over rice paddy doom, was inspired by the loss of his nine- Linz: Wagner Verlag, 2008, 2 vols. 1,476 pp. fields, anarchist marchers, angelic year-old niece. he Jewish community in Linz was mothers and wild, wicked women - A different light illumines the sombre, L never very large, numbering just the Italian Divisionists say it all at the Nordic vision of another Symbolist, T under 1,000 members at its peak in National Gallery's Radical Light Vilhelm Hammershoi, in his first UK 1923 and now down to about 50. It may exhibition. Linking the discovery of optical retrospective, The Poetry of Silence, at be surprising therefore that it can provide science and the physics of light to the the Royal Academy. Hammershoi's Copen sufficiently fascinating and well-researched technique of dividing thin lines of colour, hagen home - with wife, table, window, material to cover two volumes and almost 1,500 pages. The author is an Evangelical they also politicised their subject matter. piano, china ttu-een - are domestic meta teacher who took an early interest in Divisionism dawned at the end of the phors for an interior landscape as beautiful Judaism and the Church's role in the nineteenth century with the unification of as it is gloomy. His subtle portraits of his antisemitism which eventually led to the Italy and the promise of social change. wife capture her deep introspection too, as Shoah. we watch her gracefully age. The first volume covers the early history and various institutions which made up Seen from the back, the soft and the small, but very active, community in wispy tendrils on the nape of her Linz. These ranged from the religious, neck have a tender eloquence. predominantly Liberal, synagogal Hammershoi decorated his organisations to B'nai B'rith, sport clubs and Zionist parties of left and right. The home starkly in white and grey, results of elections to the community from which a furtive light council are quoted and show the diversity throws up minute dust motes, so of views represented. The community was we can guess the time of day and not without its internal conflicts and these the seasons of the year. He has were evident from the mid-nineteenth century to its post-war revival. It is been compared to James McNeill encouraging, however, to note that there Whistler for his limited palette is again a synagogue in the city. For the and formal simplification. When benefit of non-Jewish readers and he finally has to move from his researchers, the author has also included home, he paints its sombre an overview of the Jewish religion, exterior; he paints the clouds including its life-cycle events and festivals. Subsequent chapters describe the edged with darkness, and it is in varying relationship between the Church these that you sense the violation and Judaism and discuss the growth of Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) Return from the Woods pre-war antisemitism, which eventually 1890 © Segantini Museum, St Moritz of his lonely spirit. Rainer Maria Rilke and Emil facilitated the actions of the Nazis. The last chapter of this volume covers in Artists like Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, Nolde both remarked on Hammershoi's considerable detail the fate of the Linz Giovanni Segantini, Gaetano Previati, mysterious melancholy, at odds with the community after the Anschluss, the forced Angelo Morbelli and Emilio Longoni led avant-garde of his time. But his domestic sales, Kristallnacht, emigration and the movement whose aim to was to fuse art paintings of women strikingly echo deportation. Sadly, the last page discusses with idealism. By the early twentieth Vermeer. Outstanding among them is his antisemitism even after the war The second volume deals in greater century, as thousands of rural workers portrait of his younger sister, Anna. Here is detail with the histories of many individual migrated to the countryside, artists the missing vitality, for not even the girl's families, from the beginning of the responded with such bucolic masterpieces simple, black dress can diminish the community up to its destruction during as Grubicy's eight-canvas Winter in the youthful energy and charm of this portrait, the Nazi period and its difficult post-war Mountains. The new working class helped so full of natural beauty, promise and revival. One of the most interesting stories is that of the Bloch family Dr Eduard Bloch the Divisionists shape their ideas of inteUigence. was one of several Jewish doctors in Linz. modernism. But the early work is limpid and Among his patients in 1907 was Klara pastoral: a shepherd sleeps amid his flock Hitler Although she eventually died, her in Segantini's Alpine Meadow. There are Annely Juda Fine Art son Adolf expressed his appreciation to omens too: a pink cloud implies death to 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) Dr Bloch, even giving him one of his Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 Morbello's young girl in a deckchair. Both paintings. An entire chapter is also CONTEMPORARY PAINTING devoted to the Taussig family, who were he and Segantini drift towards Symbolism, AND SCULPTURE prominent in the community from its with soft light emanating an ethereal quality foundation. Among those mentioned is AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 Viktor Taussig, who, at the beginning of tormented wanderings rather than on lining Lahwah's Rynkova Street and this the twentieth century, attended the Linz himself. vision serves as a relentless refrain all Realgymnasium. There is also a passing Can a non-fictionalised Holocaust through his book. reference to a fellow pupil: Ludwig testimony attain a similar level of literary Before writing his memoir Recollections Wittgenstein. Surprisingly, this is the only merit? I would have thought not, having and Reflections, Jack Brauns, a survivor mention of the future philosopher, come across a number of less than felici of the Kovno ghetto, the Stutthof although elsewhere a rather controversial tous texts. And certainly some of the concentration camp and Dachau, revisited book has been written about him 'literary' touches Wander employs cannot Kovno from the United States, where he (Kimberley Cornish, The Jew of Linz be replicated. Rather than using chrono lives, to make a documentary film about (1998)). logy to chart his storyline, for example. the ghetto, accompanied by his wife and The text is supported by numerous Wander's narration darts back and forth Martin Gilbert, a personal friend. Indeed, impressive and evocative photographs as in time and place in a manner which Sir Martin has written a special foreword well as reproductions of documents, sometimes proves confusing for the to Brauns's volume, as well as a brief posters and letters which bring the pre reader but has the virtue of concentrat foreword to all the volumes in the war community to life. Both volumes are ing more attention on the individual Vallentine Mitchell series. well referenced and indexed and there is whose unique personality and untimely While each book contains its quotient a list of victims of the Shoah giving dates end are being highlighted. of horrors and privations, the intensity of of birth and deportation, including final To my surprise, the three books from friendships forged with fellow prisoners destination. Although the books are in Vallentine Mitchell's Library of Holocaust or Jews on the run provides an element German, the introductory chapters of Testimonies were perfectly readable. of leavening. Particularly remarkable in both volumes are also translated into Kopel Kolpanitzky's Sentenced to Life, in Brauns's testimony is the humanity of English. an excellent translation by Harold some of his German captors in Dachau. These attractively produced volumes Jacobson, even contains the odd poetic Most striking is Hans Schmidt, a Volks- are clearly intended for libraries, univer touch, as in a lyrical description of the deutscher trom Yugoslavia, who confessed sities and research organisations rather Lahwah of his childhood. What stands out to hating the National Socialist Party. In than private homes, but would undoubt in his book, however, is the sheer element deed, the positive contribution of edly also be of great interest to anyone of adventure. From his survival of the non-Jews during the Holocaust years has having connections to Linz. destruction of the Lahwah ghetto, his often been underrated, unless the person George Vulkan struggle to join a partisan unit, his success in question has been recommended as a as a doughty fighter, his induction into Righteous Gentile. Kolpanitzky recounts the Red Army and his elevation as an the generosity of numerous Byelorussian A note of hope officer, to his eventual decision to desert villagers who, in contrast to the residents THE SEVENTH WELL and emigrate to 'Eretz Israel', the reader of Lahwah, who had rejoiced in the anni by Fred Wander is kept on tenterhooks. hilation of their Jewish fellow townsman, Granta Books, 2008, 192 pp., £12.99 The randomness - or, perhaps, the fed and housed him and other persecuted SENTENCED TO LIFE: THE STORY OF miracle of survival, as Yosef Govrin puts Jews. He ends his book with a 'Letter of A SURVIVOR OF THE LAHWAH it - is a factor common to all these Thanks to the Byelorussian People'. Brauns GHETTO testimonies, although in Kolpanitzky's tells of the Japanese consul general in by Kopel Kolpanitzky case, an element of ruthlessness was Kaunas who saved several thousand Jews. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2007, necessary. Govrin and his mother were He was also befriended by a Ukrainian 288 pp. paper, £14.50 interned in the Mogilev ghetto, where and, in Italy after the war, felt blessed by they struggled to survive for nearly three the warmth he encountered during his IN THE SHADOW OF DESTRUCTION: years after the German and Romanian years as a medical student. RECOLLECTIONS OF TRANSNISTRIA armies invaded Bessarabia and north AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TO While all three books bring the reader Bukovina. A few years after reaching ERETZ ISRAEL up to date with their protagonists' lives, 'Eretz Israel' following a period of by Yosef Govrin almost half of Brauns's volume, subtitled detention by the British navy, Govrin London: Vallentine IVIitchell (tel 020 How I Turned Despair into an joined the ministry of foreign affairs. 8952 9526), 2007, 116 pp. paper, Appreciation of Life, is devoted to life Returning to Romania in 1985 to present £16.50 after the war The romance which brought his credentials as Israel's ambassador to him his beautiful wife, Joyce, is RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS President Ceausescu was a particularly particularly heartening. Indeed, in a by Jack Brauns powerful experience, movingly described photograph showing Brauns, his wife, his London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2007, in his book In the Shadow of Destruction. three daughters, his son-in-law and his 283 pp. paper, £13.50 Govrin has based this book on the oral grandson, it is virtually impossible to was sitting on a bench on the Croisette evidence he gave in a video interview with make out which lovely woman is the in Cannes reading The Seventh Well. researchers from the Yad Vashem institute. mother! Another highlight is the way he I'I'm longing to read it,' said the friend Govrin confesses to not having managed to obtain permission for his who had come to meet me. Indeed, Fred returned to Mogilev 'so far', unable to parents to emigrate from Soviet Lithuania Wander's 'novel' - a semi-fictitious face the unbearably painful memories to the USA at the height of the Cold War representation of what he experienced each vista there would have aroused. All three testimonies finish on a note during the Holocaust years in a number Kolpanitzky had hoped to revisit Lahwah of hope. The Seventh Well, ending with of camps, including Auschwitz and to mourn at the mass grave where his the liberation of Buchenwald, depicts a Buchenwald, and on a 'death march' - mother, brother and sister would have beautifully written tableau of sickness, has received much acclaim from the great been interred after returning from death and life as the narrator, in a typhus- and the good of the literary world. Germany with the victorious Red Army. infected delirium, lies in the children's Elegantly translated by Michael Hoffman He never managed to and says it would barracks between a beatific dead man and from the 1971 East German version, what be 50 years before he was there again. a group of small brothers, with 'the sense stands out in this unusual narrative is the Subsequently, he makes an annual of being bedded on roses and magnolias'. anonymous narrator's focus on those he visit. But he has been haunted throughout Emma Klein comes across in the course of his his life by the vision of massacred Jews I Reviews continued on page 70] AJR JOUFtNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 Each Yom Kippur, during the Yiskor Warsaw Ghetto. From my research, service, my mother would cry. After her which differs slightly from what I was death, as with every family, I had to sort told, my grandmother died in the out her possessions. In a large old THE LETTEE REVIEWS continued from page 9 It was always on that Holy day, so meaningful and sombre A shattering picture of rity of the gentile, then for his fate - as Remembering those we all had loved also for the fate of the actress sister of the and with us now no longer corruption Jewish partner who is missing in Berlin. For whom my Mother wept. ADDRESS UNKNOWN And one fears for the friendship of the by Kressmann Taylor two men. I will not reveal the develop This special time must have recalled a ment of the dialogue, or its outcome, as first published in hardcover in the life she once enjoyed that would tamper with the reader's USA in 1938 by Simon & Schuster; The fun, the games, the laughter, the reception of the book. This review is es British edition published 2002 by loves cruelly destroyed sentially a recommendation to read it. Souvenir Press Ltd, reprinted 2002, Whilst my Mother wept. Kressmann Taylor, born in Portland, 2004, 2006, 2007 Oregon, in 1903, was profoundly Into the Warsaw Ghetto, a family torn his is a shattering and moving book. concerned about what was happening in apart It makes one gulp. A work of fiction, Germany and wanted to make her To streets of starving people and T it is in the form of a correspondence countrymen aware of the horrors that bodies on a cart between two German friends, partners in were being perpetrated there. Her name So my Mother wept. a successful art dealership in San Fran was Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, but the cisco. In 1932 the gentile partner returns story was thought 'too strong to appear Then their final train to hell, into the to live in Germany and writes to his Jew under the name of a woman' so she Holocaust ish friend and partner in America. The adopted a pseudonym. Her mother, father, sister too - the dialogue, as in a good play, slowly reveals There is an afterword by the author's lives they had were lost the changing situations of the two men - son and there are details on the internet How my Mother wept. the change in their characters and actions about this remarkable work - about, inter and the change in their relationship as the alia, the genesis of the book, its long and Now I light an extra candle, and gentile is seduced by the Nazi scene. For varied history of publication, and her watch it faintly glow the gentile, Herr Hitler, 'our Gentle other writings, on this and other subject A flickering memory for the lives I Leader!', will pull Germany out of its mis matter never got to know ery and poverty and restore its dignity, No clearer, more incisive picture could And because my Mother wept. self-respect and optimism. And he will have been drawn of the corruption which play a star role in that historic process, Hitler's government machinery wrought When names are read on Yom Kippur the violent antisemitism being in fact on German society. To me, this slim those moments re-appear quite salutary in the revolutionary situa volume encapsulates what happened to Her head bowed down, a tion. There is enormous tension in this us. And to them. handkerchief, wiping another tear, dialogue as one fears first for the integ- Peter Zander I know why my Mother wept. 10 AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 y mother was 19 years old when to turn down the chance of a lifetime. she moved from Berlin to Vienna Kokoschka had a reputation for exacting Mto marry her cousin. Berlin services beyond the purely artistic from his versus Vieima has always been a subject for models, and my mother felt strongly that it mutual derision - Prussian rectitude against would be wrong to invite the possibility of easy-going Habsburg. My future parents gossip reaching the ears of a husband were perfect stereotypes: she, serious, fighting at the front. Her friends thought her motivated by the moral imperative from an foolish - an over-scrupulous Prussian, who early age - at 15 she volunteered for work chose to forego a touch of immortality for in an institution for 'fallen women'; my fear of a whiff of scandal. father, playful, witty, at home in the literary Twenty years later, there appears to have and musical culture of the day. He opened been an odd sequel: Kokoschka's my mother's ears to Wagner and Werkverzeichnis, a catalogue of his works, Schoenberg and her mind to treasures of lists in his own hand 'Portrait of Dr. Valentin German literature from Goethe to Stefan Rosenfeld', painted around 1933. Neither of George. And, although the visual arts my parents ever mentioned the portrait; my loomed smaller in his sights, he had eye her first child and no longer on the A-list father was neither grand nor vain enough enough to have his writing paper and for the big parties. But when she found out to commission a painting of himself. I have bookplate designed by a prominent artist that the Scheus were giving a dinner for never seen it and only heard about it a few and his house decorated and furnished by Loos, a notorious party animal, she asked years ago, long after both my parents were the iconic Adolf Loos. But his interests Helene for an invitation. It had, after all, been dead. Its origin and whereabouts are a reached beyond the arts to the beauty he the Scheus who, having had their villa (still mystery. If anyone out there has it hanging saw in the harmony of numbers, in great a place of pilgrimage for students of on their wall, I am willing to make a totally feats of engineering, and he wondered about architecture in Vienna today) built by Loos, inadequate offer for its acquisition. the new psychology taught by Freud ~ so had suggested to my parents that they have Victor Ross much so that he attended Freud's lectures Loos design the interior of their house, which while studying for his law degree and asked my grandfather had bought as a wedding for his views on the marriage of first cousins. Holocaust Memorial Books gift for the young couple. The AJR groups in Scotland as well as in Unfortunately, Freud's letter in reply - my Helene had worked out her seating plan Sheffield and the Midlands are collating birth certificate as it were - was not kept registers of names from people in their areas and there was no room for my mother. whose family members perished in the by my parents, but he did not advise against, Seeing her disappointment, they hatched a Holocaust. confining himself to the opinion that it might plot whereby my mother was to dress up as The names, together with photographs, where possible, and short histories, will be reinforce in their offspring the one of the waitresses, in black with a white included in Memorial Books which will be characteristics common to both parents. apron and cap, so that she could be present on permanent display (locations yet to be decided). Copies of the books will be At the time of my parents' marriage, during the meal and miss none of the dinner- distributed to members and used for shortly before the outbreak of the First table conversation. My mother was up for education, ensuring that those who perished will be remembered by future generations. World War, their closest friends in Vienna the joke and had no sense of what I, many It is hoped to launch the South Yorkshire were the family Scheu: husband Gustav, an years later, interpreted as a subtle, possibly and Midlands Memorial Book at the National advocate, far richer and more successful even unconscious put-down on the part of Holocaust Memorial Day event in Coventry in 2009. It is planned to launch the Scotland than my father; his wife, Helene Scheu-Riesz, Helene Scheu. Everything went swimmingly Memorial Book on either Holocaust Memonal a minor literary figure but a major society - too swimmingly perhaps - since at a Day 2009 or on Yom Hashoah in April 2009. The Imperial War Museum considers the hostess who maintained a salon in which crucial moment my mother managed to AJR Memorial Books to be 'important artists, writers, intellectuals and politicians spill a whole sauceboat of zabaglione, historical records'. Yad Vashem and other museums and libraries have requested met and sparkled. It was in their home that painting Kokoschka's shirt front a bright copies of the books for their archives. my parents met Vienna's finest such as yellow. if you require further information or Kokoschka; Eugenie Schwarzwald, the would like your family names (parents, 'Exactly the coloiu" I would have chosen siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, noted educatrix; Alban Berg, the avant- to go with my jacket!', exclaimed cousins) to be included in the Scotland garde composer; Max Reinhardt, man of the Memorial Book or the South Yorkshire and Kokoschka. There was a great deal of Midlands Memorial Book, please contact: theatre; Loos, the architect; and even literary laughter, which increased when my mother Agnes Isaacs (Glasgow) 0141 620 1292 figures from abroad, Thornton Wilder discarded her disguise and joined in the or Philip Mason (Edinburgh) 0131 445 3437 among them. general merriment. Later, when she had Anthony Kaddish (Sheffield and Mid Once war broke out, my father quickly helped to clean him up, Kokoschka, after a lands) 0114 2367958 Bob Norton (Midlands) 01159 212494 joined up (anything to get away from few more jokes about his ruined clothes, We can help you complete the forms for lawyering), but the Scheus were able - for a asked her if she would stand model for him however many names you have - on your family page we can include 1 name or 50 time at least - to carry on life as before, as a caryatid for a painting he was working names. Gustav being too old (or too clever) to be on. My mother was very tempted, as you Replies must be collected by the end of called up. My mother was left behind with can imagine, but, after sleeping on it, decided September 2008. II Brighton 8i Hove Sarid: St Annes holiday Once again the CF Northern Groups had an Kasztner - a 'Jewish Schindler' enjoyable holiday in St Annes, ably organised It was very interesting to hear Prof Ladislaus by Ruth Finestone and Susanne Green. Lob, one of 1,684 Jews who left Hungary by A truly memorable event was meeting train for Switzerland in 1944, a journey made Ron Ibbitson, a second-generation family possible by negotiations between Reszo man from Windermere. Ron discovered his Kasztner and the Nazis. He based his talk on Bromley CF inaugural meeting mother's remarkable history as a survivor his book Dealing with Satan. It made me The meeting was held in Chislehurst, with of Auschwitz after her death by studying realise how little we know after all these years. Gerda James as our gracious host. Having been the contents of a shoeboxfull of documents Susan Dyke introduced by the AJR's Hazel Beiny, all present she had never talked about. Several of those Next meeting: 15 Sept. Travels in Argentina provided vignettes of themselves, including present helped him in his researches, and Welwyn Garden City: Jews and jazz place of birth and war/Holocaust experiences. the originals of his treasures plus some translations we made are going to the Though I initially had little interest in the 'Jewish Future meetings and other activities were Wiener Library. Dorothy Fleming Influence on Jazz', Alf Keiles's illustrated talk discussed and tentative plans made. soon had me hooked. We were all very Robert Shaw impressed. Susanne Graham llford: Jewish Care briefing seen in the note is not silver but 3% nickel - Next meeting: 25 Sept. Kurt Wicks, 'The Jews the rest is plastic. Ken Ward We welcomed back Richard Shone, now of Shanghai' General Manager at the recently renamed Next meeting: 9 Sept. Clare Ungerson, Redbridge Jewish Community Centre, who 'Kitchener Camp' Veteran's Lunch for 'Enemy Aliens' Hosting a Veteran's Lunch for former gave us a resume of the numerous ways in West Midlands (Birmingham) which Jewish Care serves the community. 'Enemy Aliens', Dr Helen Fry showed us a Garden Party Meridian TV film on refugees from Nazi Meta Roseneil Some 25 of us enjoyed our annual Lunchtime oppression in the British forces. It included Next meeting: 3 Sept. Fred Rosner, 'The Fate Garden Party, at the home of Eileen and Ernst excerpts from the film Lift Up Your Head, of Court Jews' Aris with its delightful gardens. The main Comrades by Arthur Koestler about 'aliens' in the Pioneer Corps as well as ex-Pioneers Pinner: 'Survival of the Next Generation' course was generously provided by Eileen and who subsequently served in other units As a 20-year-old in a team at Belsen in 1945, Ernst and members contributed salads and desserts. Philip Lesser throughout the forces. Twenty-four of us our speaker, Helen Bamber, was shocked to attended, including some of the veterans see how quickly compassion dies in East Midlands (Nottingham) Lunch featured in the TV film. organisations faced with brutality. Her current A successful meeting with a splendid concern is how the younger generation have lunch was held in the lovely period home Kingston CF made to feel welcome been affected by their parents' experiences. of Ruth and Jurgen Schwiening in Market Susan Zisman made us feel very welcome at f'aul Samet Bosworth. Esther Rinkoff's happy personality her New Maiden home. We were delighted to Next meeting: 4 Sept. George Vulkan, added to the party spirit. Bridget McGing, from meet a potential new AJR member (originally 'Holocaust Remembrance' the Wiener Library, spoke to us about the from Poland), who came with her Egyptian- born husband. Jackie Cronheim Cardiff Get-together history of that organisation. Bob Norton Besides enjoying the delicious food, we talked HGS: Coram's Children Weald of Kent talk on Ashkenazi Jewry about our early lives. We were especially happy Foundling Museum volunteer Jane King said Our well-attended meeting enjoyed an to meet Susan Plessner, daughter of the late Thomas Coram set up an institution for interesting talk by Ivor Richards about the Tony Plessner, who is a violinist with the Welsh abandoned children and the hospital was history of Ashkenazi Jewry. Inge Ball National Opera. Myrna Glass granted its Royal Charter in 1739. Until its Next meeting: 24 Sept. Ross White, 'Anne Norfolk Get-together closure in 1954, it looked after over 27,000 Frank Trust' children. Its famous art collection was started Wishing Frank Bright a speedy recovery, we Hendon discussion enjoyed lunch brought by Myrna. We shared by Hogarth, its musical tradition inspired by Handel. Laszio Roman We discussed the impression made on Austrian memories and spoke of the need to set these schoolchildren when a party went to Vienna Next meeting: 8 Sept. Suzanne Lewis (Ben in concrete form for future generations. to talk about their experiences under the Nazi Uri Gallery) Claudia Pirn regime. Annette Saville Lively meeting in Wembley Radlett memorabilia Next meeting: 23 Sep. Visit to Wiener Library Maurice Collins brought several 'eccentric We had a lively meeting, ably led by Myrna OTHER MEETINGS IN SEPTEMBER contraptions' to our meeting. We were Glass, who once again provided excellent Edgware and Temple Fortune 2 Sept. refreshments. We heard about an interesting challenged to identify their purpose - a task Outing to Kew Gardens new project initiated by Brent recording the which required imagination and some lives of immigrants in the borough. deductive thought. A most entertaining IVessex 16 Sept. Details sent out Tom Heinemann meeting. Fritz Starer Next meeting: 10 Sept. Social Get-together Next meeting: 17 Sept. Genealogist Alice From Kew Gardens to Moravska Joseph Ostrava, via East Finchley Current affairs discussion at Cleve Road South London: Hazel Beiny took a party of AJR members A very interesting current affairs discussion led to Kew Gardens. The guide, Judith Lawson, by Ronald Channing included such topics as: 'Great Jewish Opera Singers' told Hazel about her synagogue's involve Israel after 60 years; dependence on oil; also Alan Bilgora began his presentation with a ment with Czech refugees. Kingston upon knife crime; and the influence of Jewish beautiful 1904 recording by a soprano of Thames synagogue has a sefer torah on schools. David Lang Russian-Jewish origin. We were also given plot permanent loan from the Czech Memorial Next meeting: 23 Sept. Stuart Mcintosh, outlines of the varying operas and details of Scrolls Trust and this scroll came originally 'From Broom Cupboard to Bush House' the international careers of the featured from Moravska Ostrava. Judith's husband soloists. Edith Jayne David and colleagues have been research Edgware: The Cairo Geneziah Collection Next meeting: 18 Sept. Ross White, 'Anne ing the history of Ostrava and its Jewish Dr Friedrich Niessen, from Cambridge Frank Trust' community - see http://www.kingston- University library, gave an erudite talk about synagogue.org.uk/group.php?c=50 the 192,000-1- manuscripts the library holds. Temple Fortune: Bertha Leverton That is how David and Heinz Vogel, who The collection includes, inter alia, documents Bertha was 16 when she left Germany arrived from Ostrava as an 11 -year-old, came in Maimonides's original handwriting. accompanied by her younger brother. They to meet Anna Grant in her flat in East Finchley. Edgar H. Ring were fostered by a couple in the countryside - Anna was born in Moravska Ostrava. Her Next meeting: 16 Sept. Alan Bilgora, 'Great her three years with this family were 'very parents were Salomon Fink and Helena (nee Bergofen). David had prepared family trees Jewish Opera Singers' unhappy'. She emphasised how guilty she felt that her close family had been saved. Bertha for the Fink and Bergofen families and Anna Essex: The Bank of England told us she had never envisaged the 'enormity' was able to add to them. Christopher Bailey, BoE agent for the South of her idea of a Kindertransport reunion. If you are interested in this project, con East and East Anglia, told us, among many Rosette Wolf-Vecht tact Hazel on 020 8385 3070 or at other things, that it costs the bank 3p to Next meeting: 18 Sept. Clare Ungerson, [email protected] or David Lawson on 020 8390 [email protected] produce each £20 note and that the silver strip 'Kitchener Camp' 12 AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 Refugees in St Annes PAUL BALINT AJR CENTRE Paul Balint AJR Centre by Lisa Wolfe 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 The AJR holiday each year is run By our Motherhens Ruth and Susanne WHY NOT TRY OUR Tel: 020 7328 0208 At the Inn on the Prom not far from the pier MEALS-ON-WHEELS SERVICE? In St Annes, near Blackpool, in Lancashire. AJR LUNCHEON CLUB Our group, refugees from Nazi oppression. ALL MEALS ARE FROZEN Have come here six years in succession. WE DELIVER TUESDAYS Wednesday 17 September 2008 All have unique stories, but the same refrain: AND FRIDAYS Their families were torn apart, never to Marilyn Rose meet again. For the first time, we have obtained 'The Jews of Brazil' Some had no childhood, were robbed compartmentalised containers suitable Please be aware that members should not of their youth. for microwave and conventional ovens. automatically assume that they are on the Had to grow up in a hurry, mixed up The meat/fish will now be separated Luncheon Club list. It Is now necessary, on receipt and confused. from vegetables and easier to handle of your copy of the AJR Journal, to phone the Some were adopted, thus did rather well, when hot. Centre on 020 7328 0208 to book your place. Most were exploited and suffered hell. Friendships were formed, we bonded WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU together JUST GIVE US A CALL ON 020 7328 0208 KT-AJR For life - our history binds us forever. It's our common past we share today Kindertransport special Of horror and hardship, now far away. Joint outing to Hatfield House interest group All of us old now, need sticks to walk Hazel Beiny organised a trip for Cleve Road, Monciay 8 September 2008 And yet we are young again as we talk HGS and Hendon group members to this Of happiness long ago, in faraway places. ancient house. She also arranged for us to Kurt Wick Remembering our loved ones' faces be given a private guided tour by a most 'The Jews of Shanghai' Hear their voices bidding us farewell, competent and enthusiastic guide. We saw KINDLY NOTE THAT LUNCH But these are the stories we now have the glorious state rooms, rich in world- WILL BE SERVED AT to tell famous paintings, fine furniture, rare 1.00 PM ON MONDAYS Of new beginnings, creating new lives. tapestries and historic armour After lunch Reservations required Talking of children, their husbands and we were free to enjoy the wives delightful and spacious gardens, now in Please telephone 020 7328 0208 We kvell when photos of grandkids are full bloom. Max Sulzbacher Monday, Wednesday & Thursday shown 9.30 am - 3.30 pm Confirming that Hitler has not won. Through hardship and heartache we have DIARY DATES PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS proved our worth CLOSED ON TUESDAYS That Jewish people are the strongest on Sunday 21 Sept earth. AJR Tea at Hilton Watford September Afternoon Entertainment: Sunday 26 October - Sunday 2 Nov Mon 1 KARDS & GAMES KLUB Eastbourne Holiday (Lansdowne Hotel) Tue 2 CLOSED AJR GROUP CONTACTS Wed 3 SIMON GILBERT For further information, please call us Thur 4 GEOFFREY STRUM Bradford Continental Friends on 020 8385 3070 Mon 8 KT LUNCH AND Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 KARDS 8< GAMES KLUB Brighton 8i Hove (Sussex Region) Tue 9 CLOSED Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 Liverpool Wed 10 MADELEINE WHITESON Thur 11 RONNE GOLDBERG Bristol/Bath Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 Mon 15 KARDS & GAMES KLUB Manchester Tue 16 CLOSED Cambridge Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 Wed 17 LUNCHEON CLUB Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Newcastle Thur 18 JILL & JOHN Cardiff Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Mon 22 KARDS 8i GAMES KLUB Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Nortolk (Norwich) Tue 23 CLOSED Cleve Road, AJR Centre Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Wed 24 MARGARET OPDAHL Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 North London Thur 25 MIKE MIRANDI Dundee Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Mon 29 KARDS & GAMES KLUB Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Tue 30 CLOSED Oxford Thur 28 DOUGLAS POSTER East Midlands (Nottingham) Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Bob Norton 01159 212 494 Pinner (HA Postal District) Edgware Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Ruth Urban 020 8931 2542 Radlett Members requiring benefit advice please telephone Edinburgh Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 to make an Fran^oise Robertson 0131 337 3406 Sheffield appointment at AJR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Essex (Westcliff) Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Larry Lisner 01702 300812 South London Glasgow Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 South West Midlands (Worcester area) Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordlnator Harrogate Myrna Glass 020 8385 3070 020 8385 3070 Inge Little 01423 886254 Surrey Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Hendon Groups Co-ordinator Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Temple Fortune Susanne Green, Northern Groups Co-ordinator Hertfordshire Esther Rinkoff 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 0151 291 5734 Weald of Kent Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator HGS Max and Jane Dickson 020 8385 3070 Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 01892 541026 Esther Rinkoff, Southern Region Co-ordinator Hull Wembley 020 8385 3077 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Laura Levy 020 8904 5527 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) llford Wessex (Bournemouth) Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 Child Survivors Association-AJR Leeds HSFA West Midlands (Birmingham) Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 Trude Silman 0113 2251628 Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437 13 AJRJOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS JOIN VS FOR KINDERTRANSPORT Marriage 70" ANNIVERSARY Congratulations to Andrea and Philip ANOTHER FANTASTIC Goodmaker on the marriage of their son Nick to REUNION Sally-Anne. WEEK AT THE ELY EVACUEES LANSDOU/NE IN In order to create a small exhibition on Deaths 23 November at JFS, we are looking for Stent, Professor Gunther S. (born Stensch EASTBOURNE memorabilia - letters, pictures, in Berlin 1924) died 12 June in Haverford, PA. photographs etc - from Kinder who An early researcher in Molecular Biology, then 26 October to 2 November 2008 were evacuated with JFS to Ely. neurology and behaviour and finally he turned Please contact Andrea Goodmaker at to philosophy of science. Always a polymath. £400 plus £40 single supplement the AJR on 020 8385 3070 if you have to include transport, anything that might be suitable. The Wiener and Godfrey family have been overwhelmed and touched by the many messages half-board, outings of sympathy received on the recent deaths of Rosi and entertainment Wolff ('Auntie Rosi') and (ierda Wiener ('Mummy Please contact Carol Rossen or HELP WITH and Omi'). We would like to thank everybody Lorna Moss on 020 8385 3070 for their support, which we value very greatly at PAPERWORK this time of great sadness. I would also like to ASAP as numbers are limited Would you like help with paperwork take this opportunity of thanking the AJR for its (letters/bills etc) in your own home? valuable work in connection with former Please call Nicholas on refugees, including my aunt and my mother. The THE HOLOCAUST CENTRE 07726319867 or email him at AJR has been a lifeline for many. Marion Godfrey INVITES AJR MEMBERS TO THE [email protected] Excellent references available CLASSIFIED POST-OPENING VIEWING OF Susan Poole was cleaner, shopper and 'THE JOURNEY' companion to our aunt for 31 years and enabled AT BETH SHALOM, her to live happily and independently in her own THE HOLOCAUST CENTRE home until her death last December aged 95. FillarCare Susan is in her 50s and is a warm, kind, helpful, in Laxton, near Nottingham Quality support and care at home on Sunday 14 September 2008 reliable person whom we recommend highly to anyone seeking steadfast support for an elderly 'The Journey', partly created with a grant • Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours person. Anyone in NW London who is interested from the AJR Charitable Trust, tells the • Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care can telephone ELP or MFC on 020 7431 7136 or story of the Kindertransport - the refugees' Susan direct on 020 7431 9908. escape from Nazi-occupied Europe to • Convalescent and Persona! Health Care resettlement In Britain. • Compassionate and Affordable Service AJR CENTRE To reserve a place, please contact Chiropodist. Trevor Goldman at the Paul Susan Harrod at AJR head office • Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Balint AJR Centre Wednesday 3 on 020 8385 3070 • Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA September 2008, 10-11.30 am by the beginning of September. Pamela Bloch at the Paul Balint AJR There are 60 invitations, which Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 we are making available to members Centre Clothes sale, separates, etc. Wed 24 Studio 1 Utopia Village Sept. throughout the country on a first-come first-served basis. 7 Chalcot Road, NWl SLH LEO BAECK HOUSING Please let us know If you are concerned ASSOCIATION LTD about travel - transport can be SHELTERED ACCOMMODATION arranged from main centres. ACACIA LODGE 0^fE BEDROOM FLAT TO LET Members who have already received Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron SITUATED NEAR SWISS COTTAGE invitations from Beth Shalom for the For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent LOUNGE • BEDROOM opening of 'The Journey' should reply (Licensed by Borough of Barnet) • BATHROOM WITH SHOWER directly to The Holocaust Centre. • Single and Double Rooms. • FULLY FITTED KITCHEN • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. • RESIDENT WARDEN • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. • CAMDEN CARE LINE • Nurse on duty 24 hours. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND SWITCH ON ELECTRICS • Long and short term and respite, VIEWING CONTACT DAVID LIGHTBURN including trial period if required. ON 020 8455 2286 Rewires and all household Between £400 and £500 per week electrical work 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 020 8455 1335 other times (^oUn^t^ Home Care 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley Mobile: 0795 614 8566 London N12 STB Care through quality and professionalism Celebrating our 25th Anniversary Sometimes life is easier ^ 25 years of experience in providing the highest standards of care in the comfort of your own home with a little bit of help ,,/ ANA Nursing can provide professional carers ^. and nurses to help with any of your needs. 24 hr service, 7 days a week, Personal care, Respite care, From 1-24 hours call US on: 1 hour to 24 hours care Registered through the National Care Standard Commission 020 8905 7701 Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 www.colvin-nursing.co.uk 14 AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 OBITUARIES Michael Newman Lilo Anderson house, which later iselotte "Lilo' Anderson (nee Winter) became a Russian Kindertransport pensions MBE passed way peacefully at her naval headquarters After a long campaign spearheaded by home in Wembley in June, 98 years after in Kaliningrad. L former KT Chairman Hermann Hirsch her birth in Konigsberg, East Prussia. When the money berger, certain Kindertransport refugees Nazi laws prevented her from continuing came through, she who fled to Britain, and whose parents her legal studies and she came to the UK in immediately bought were of German nationality, may be en the late 1930s with her mother, joining her her first car in titled to an increase in their German brother Rolf. England. The hus retirement pensions following a change band-and-wife legal team helped numerous in British pension law announced by the The German legal profession's loss became Minister for Pensions Reform, Mike the gain of the British charity sector, especially friends and relatives with their compensation O'Brien. battles with Germany. Cancer Research and Wizo. She put her Following a ruling at the European exceptional eye for detail, super-charged drive Family was always extremely important to Court of Human Rights, in the 1990s the and organisational ability to good use raising Lilo: she kept in contact with cousins around German state pension system was funds for numerous charitable causes, the world, from Israel to Venezuela. She was opened up to Kindertransport survivors, including several in Israel. She was awarded immensely proud when the paintings of one enabling those without pre-war German an MBE in 1998. of her relatives - Elsa Berg - were discovered insurance contributions to 'buy in' to the German system provided they applied for, Her other great contribution to her adopted in Holland, to much artistic acclaim in the and were granted, German nationality. homeland was tackling red tape and slipshod 1980s. Lilo's fierce determination helped However, the contributions they had work wherever she could. Council officials and ensure that she and her family in England were made to the British social insurance many others felt the sharp end of her tongue. recognised as the rightfulheirs . system before 1948 had the effect of In the 1920s Lilo's family became one of Lilo was at the centre of an immense reducing the value of the German pen the first in Konigsberg to own a car. Despite network of friends, many of whom had also sion. Owing to pan-European rules on how periods of insurance in different being born into privilege and then losing fled Germany. Music was one of her greatest countries affect each other, the German everything, she always worked hard to pleasures: she was a regular visitor to the retirement pensions were reduced for improve her situation. Wigmore Hall. every year of contribution made in Although she never qualified as a lawyer, Lilo left a strong impression on everyone Britain between 1939 and 1948. Kinder Lilo played a huge role in the legal battle who met her, and the world, and north London who began making contributions in fought by her lawyer husband Kurt Anderson in particular, is a poorer place without her. She 1939, until 1948, therefore received no to secure compensation from the German gov German retirement pension, whereas is sorely missed by friends and family alike. some-one who began paying contri emment for the loss of the family mill and Jo Winter butions in 1943 would receive approximately 4/9 of the retirement pension. Martha Schlesinger-Bendoff talent for painting. The amendment now tabled by the artha Schlesinger-Bendoff (nee Her work was ex Department for Work and Pensions Bieler) was born in Vienna. Her hibited widely in (DWP) will enable Kinder who wish to MGalician father, Joachim, was a Manchester and apply to have their UK pre-1948 credits businessman whose fortunes waxed and London, winning removed from national insurance waned erratically. Her mother, Gittel, hailed prizes and commis records. In most cases, this is likely to from near Lemberg. sions. boost the value of their German pensions. The change could affect Martha grew up in a religious bourgeois Bela died in Kinder who entered employment household. The eldest daughter of five 1974. After years of between 1939 and 1948 in Britain. surviving siblings, she was educated at the widowhood, Martha remarried in her late Around 150 Kinder affected by the Schwarzwaldschule. Though showing early sixties. She moved south to join her new hus present rules are said to be known to artistic talent, she enrolled to study dentistry band, Hyman (Ben) Bendoff, in Streatham, the DWP and it is anticipated that at Vienna University', but did not complete her where she became a pillar of the local Jewish others will come forward once the studies when the family's fortunes hit the community. The couple were devoted to amendment becomes law. When buffers. applying for the proposed increase in Martha's two granddaughters and to her wider their pensions, it is envisaged that She left Vienna in July 1938. With her family. After Ben's sudden death in the mid- Kinder will also be able to claim for up younger sister, she entered domestic service 1990s, Martha kept up her numerous to four years' back-pay. for a Bolton GP. In 1941 she married Adalbert friendships and undertook even more chari It is expected that the Pensions Bill (Bela) Schlesinger, whom she had known in table work. including the proposed amendment will Austria. They settled in Manchester, where In 1999 she fell and fractured her hip. receive Royal Assent in late autumn and they had two sons, Emest and Philip. Combined with the deaths in rapid succession further information will be published in the Journal when it is available. of her two younger sisters, her loss of full Martha was the heartbeat of the family. In Kinder wishing to enquire about the often hard times, she did many jobs and, much mobility sapped her spirits. She took up possibility of receiving an increase in later, became secretary of the Manchester residence in Nightingale in Clapham, where their pensions are advised to contact Jewish Homes for the Aged. she continued to paint. the DWP International Pension Centre The Schlesinger home was for long the hub Though Martha's last years were robbed on 0191 218 7777 and ask to be re of a voluble refugee culture. When Bela's by vascular dementia, traces of her determi ferred to the claims department. The parents left Hungary in the late 1940s, she gave nation and humour would unexpectedly ap department can also be emailed at [email protected] them a home. She also took in displaced pear. Much loved by her carers and treasured Once registered, a case worker will cousins. For a long time, she was the fulcrum by her family, she died peacefully shortly af make contact to advise the next steps, of an extended family, as her sisters Bertha ter her 95th birthday. which will include having the claim and Sonia also settled in Manchester. Emest Schlesinger transferred to Germany for processing. On retirement, Martha rediscovered her Philip Schlesinger 15 A|R JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2008 LETTER FROM Newsround ISRAEL German citizenship test includes no reference to Holocaust German-Jewish community leaders have criticised the Interior Ministry's planned citizenship exam for new immigrants for The problem of acute featuring a questionnaire that makes no mention of the Holocaust. Stephen cognitive dissonance Kramer, of the Central Council of Jews, ardly surprisingly, a recent survey Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904, and said that omitting any Holocaust-related back again in 1924), though for loftier questions reflected a 'strange found that most Israelis have little understanding of history'. Hconfidence in the country's political motives. How tame the opprobrium leadership. They have slightly more attached to 'Kalanterism' seems today, Jud Suss screened in Budapest confidence - but still not much - in such when party allegiance is as stable as the The 1940 Nazi film Jud Suss has been screened publicly in Budapest by a neo- institutions as the courts, the police, and the latest opinion fX)ll results. Nazi organisation. The screening attracted attorney general's office. The current In Israel today you cannot open a protests from, among others, a lawyer president, Shimon Peres, is perceived as newspaper or watch the news on television who said that many of his family were being better than his predecessor - though, without being regaled with tales of the latest victims of Nazism. Speaking on condition bribe-taking scandal, sexual offences or of anonymity, he told a Hungarian again, coming hard on the heels of a serial newspaper that he would initiate legal sexual offender, that can hardly be political shenanigans of Knesset members, proceedings against the organisers. difficult. cabinet ministers, religious leaders, income So whom do Israelis trust? The answer tax officials, bankers, civil servants, Haider set to resume leadership of far-right party - the IDF and the media - is rather strange industrialists or members of the legal The executive board of Austria's Alliance for someone brought up to believe in the profession. If you are planning to become a for the Future of Austria has designated inherent benefits of the democratic system. public figure, expect to have salacious Jorg Haider as its new chief. The decision It is true that Israel's communications details of your finances and/or your private is expected to be approved shortly at a special party meeting. He is set to replace media, both printed and electronic, invest a life held up for public display. Peter Westenthaler, who was recently great deal of time and effort in Israel's political system is inherently convicted of providing false testimony endeavouring to show the true face of the flawed, its system of proportional about a brawl involving his former country's leaders. But that is just another representation inevitably preventing any bodyguard. Haider handed over the party's facet of what journalists the world over do, party from gaining a clear majority. A leadership to Westenthaler in 2006. whether genuinely in search of the truth or system of govemment based on coalitions Bodyguard describes Hitier's in order to boost circulation or ratings. After provides ample room for political blackmail. everyday life as 'banal' all, scandals are good for sales, and the England's system of representation has its Rochus Misch, 91, who became Hitler's chief bodyguard, reveals his own impres juicier the better. drawbacks, but at least you generally have sions in his book The Last Witness, just The IDF, for its part, is one of the great one clear winner. published in Germany. In the book he de levellers in Israeli society. It takes in a large High school students in Israel have to scribes Hitler's everyday life as banal and proportion of the country's 18-year-olds, pass an exam in Civics in order to obtain writes, among other things, that 'At no trains them in a variety of skills, gives them their full Bagrut (school-leaving certificate). time did [Hitler and his entourage] speak about the camps and what happened responsibility, and in many cases enables Students are required to prove their famili there.' An English-language version of the them to overcome the disadvantages of an arity with Israel's system of govemment, book is expected for the end of 2008. underprivileged background. Not all Israel's legal system, social institutions, demo soldiers serve at the front, and many emerge graphic makeup and history. Ukrainian monument vandalised A Holocaust monument has been after three years of service as mature, well- I don't envy anyone who has to teach vandalised in the city of Poltava in central rounded individuals. that subject. The theory is so far removed Ukraine. It was daubed with Ukrainian Israelis have always been fairly cynical from actual practice that a clash between nationalist symbols and anti-Semitic about their politicians. When I first came the two in the classroom is inevitable. graffiti. The monument remembers more than 3,000 local Jews who were killed by to Israel, in the sixties, the epitome of Israel's political system undoubtedly needs the Nazis on 23 November 1941. corruption was one Kalanter, whose name a thorough overhaul. I suspect that what had become a synonym for political eventually happens is that the students, Mass conversion to Judaism in Uganda dishonesty. The gentleman had had the who are in their last year or two of high More than 250 Africans have taken part temerity to cross the floor of the Knesset school and about to go into the army, suffer in a mass conversion to Judaism in and join a different political party, from acute cognitive dissonance. One way Uganda. The conversion was supervised apparently for personal gain. No one of coping with this is to become cynical, and by Gershom Sizomu, Africa's first native- bothered to point out that no less a that doubtless explains the results of the born black rabbi, and other Conservative rabbis from the USA. The ceremony, in personage than Winston Churchill had done survey. the Abayudaya village of Nabogoye, pretty much the same (he moved from the Dorothea Shefer-Vanson included converts from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website wvvw.ajr.org.uk 16