The Association of Jewish Refugees
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VOLUME 18 NO.10 OCTOBER 2018 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees Honouring our COME FOR LUNCH Czech Mates With the new year chaggim behind us we are now looking forward to On 1 October 1938, eighty years ago this week, Nazi Germany a packed Autumn, an undoubted highlight of which will be our Annual began its occupation of the Czech Sudetenland. It was the Lunch on Sunday 21 October. beginning of what the historian Richard J. Evans called, “The Rape There are still some tickets available of Czechoslovakia”. It marked the start of a terrible half-century for for the lunch, which is taking place Czechs and Slovaks and, above all, for Jews. at the Holiday Inn in Elstree. Please contact [email protected] or call the AJR office if you would like to book. Read on for details of other AJR events and activities taking place this Autumn. News ............................................................ 3 Northern England on display ........................ 4 Fritz Bayer and Frank Filey ........................... 5 Letters to the Editor ................................6 & 7 Reviews ........................................................ 8 Art Notes...................................................... 9 Three remarkable tributes...................10 & 11 Around the AJR .......................................... 12 Looking for................................................. 13 Antisemitism and Christianity .............14 & 15 From L-R: Dominic Raab, Herbert Lom, Vera Schaufeld, Robert Maxwell and Franz Kafka – Ferenc Molnar ............................................ 16 all part of Czechoslovkia’s rich Jewish heritage. Shipping stories .......................................... 17 Louise London, in her book, Whitehall the new, small countries which had Letter from Israel ........................................ 18 and the Jews, 1933-1948 (2000) shows emerged after Versailles and especially Adverts ....................................................... 19 how refugees from Sudetenland fell into in Chamberlain’s infamous phrase, “a Events & exhibitions .................................. 20 three main groups: Sudeten Germans, far-away country”. Czechoslovakia just ‘old Reich’ refugees who had already seemed too remote. escaped to Sudetenland from Germany AJR Team and Austria and some 20,000 Jews. There was little awareness of modern Chief Executive Michael Newman Most went to Czechoslovakia but after Czechoslovakia, a new world of cinemas Finance Director David Kaye the German invasion in March 1939 (the first cinema in Prague opened Heads of Department had to seek refuge elsewhere. in 1907), department stores, electric HR & Administration Karen Markham tramcars, clerks and salesmen like Social Services Sue Kurlander They met with a less generous response Gregor Samsa, the central character Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart from British officials than Jews seeking in Metamorphosis. And even less AJR Journal to escape Germany or Austria. Not awareness of the exciting new culture Editor Jo Briggs only did they have to deal with British emerging from the new Czechoslovakia. Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy antisemitism but also a curious snobbery Kafka was virtually unknown in Britain Contributing Editor David Herman Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira at the Foreign Office about people from Continued on page 2 1 AJR Journal | October 2018 Honouring our Czech South America, but most escaped film producer, Barney Reisz, sons of the to Britain and France. Among the filmmaker. Mates (cont.) extraordinary Jewish refugees who before the war. He was not translated came to Britain on the eve of the But some of the most moving stories into English in his lifetime and by the Second World War were the Labour are told by less well-known refugees. war only three novels and one short politician, Lord Alf Dubs, who came Last month I was fortunate to speak story had been translated. with the Kindertransport; the actor to Leo Wiener. Born in Ostrava, near Herbert Lom (born Herbert Charles the Polish border, he was only six Kafka, of course, was just part of Kucha evi ze Schluderpacheru), when his parents escaped to Cracow an explosion of cultural creativity in famous for playing Louis in The and then sailed from Gdynia (on the Czechoslovakia that included writers Ladykillers, Napoleon in War and Polish coast) to Tilbury, arriving in like Karel apek, Franz Werfel and Peace and, above all, the twitching May 1939. Seventy relatives were Jaroslav Hašek (The Good Soldier Svejk) Chief Inspector Dreyfus in The Pink killed in the Holocaust, including three and composers like Dvorak, Janá ek Panther films in the 1970s; the film grandparents, an aunt and uncle. His and Smetana. In the early years of the and theatre director, Karel Reisz, family ended up in Taunton where 20th century Prague had become one one of the key figures in the British his father, who had four university of the great centres of modern Europe. New Wave of the 1950s and ‘60s degrees, including law and political We often think of fin de siècleVienna and famous for films like Saturday economy, worked as a school cleaner. as the crucible of modernism but we Night And Sunday Morning (1960) Leo’s father thought of anglicising forget that Budapest and Prague were and The French Lieutenant’s Woman his name to “Wilson”, but his son also important centres. (1981); the great literary critics, Erich laughed and said that with his accent Heller, author of the classic study, The and central European looks he would Kafka died before the occupation of Disinherited Mind (1952) and JP Stern, never pass for a “Wilson”. After a Czechoslovakia. His sisters were less professor of German at UCL for many series of jobs in Taunton his parents fortunate. They were killed in the death years; the philosophers Ernest Gellner ended up catering at a Jewish golf club camps, among the 263,000 Jews from and Stephan Körner; Dorrit Dekk, the in Potters Bar. Leo who arrived here the Czechoslovak Republic who were graphic designer who also worked without a word of English, trained killed in the Holocaust. during the war at Bletchley Park; the as a pharmacist and settled in north conductor and pianist, Walter Süsskind; London. On Sundays he and his wife Some of Kafka’s closest friends were the historian, GR Elton (born Gottfried had lunch at the Czech Club in West luckier. Max Brod and his wife escaped Ehrenberg), who revolutionised our Hampstead where Herbert Lom was a to Palestine in 1939, taking Kafka’s understanding of the Tudors, and regular. manuscripts with him. Another literary taught at Cambridge for almost forty friend of Kafka’s, Felix Weltsch, left years, and his brother, Professor Vera Schaufeld also has a deeply Prague with Brod on the last train out Lewis Elton (born Ludwig Ehrenberg); moving story which she tells with of Czechoslovakia and also settled in Robert Maxwell (born Ján Hoch), the extraordinary dignity. Born in Prague Jerusalem. publishing magnate, MP and press in 1930 she was one of 669 Czech baron. children, most of them Jews, who Palestine was one destination. were rescued by Nicholas Winton Singapore another. Two years before Several things are striking about these on the Kindertransport and came Brod left, the Sträussler family sailed distinguished refugees. First, the range to England, where she grew up in to Singapore. Dr. Eugen Sträussler of achievements, from philosophy to a Christian family in Suffolk. Her worked for the Bata Shoe Company. He cinema. Second, how young they were. grandmother died at Terezin and her died during the Japanese invasion of Most came as children, teenagers or parents were killed at Travniki. She met Singapore but his wife and his two sons, in their 20s. From this list the oldest her husband, a Polish survivor from Petr and Tomas, escaped to India where was Erich Heller, born in 1911. Thirdly, Auschwitz, in Israel but they returned she married a British major, Kenneth the vast majority came from big cities, to live in London. She attends every Stoppard. They settled in Britain soon mostly from Prague or Ostrava. Finally, Kindertransport reunion. I asked her after and he anglicised his stepsons’ the personal terrible losses that so many whether she considers herself Czech, first names and changed their surname endured in their youth, losing parents Jewish or British? “100% Jewish,” she to his. Only in 1993 did Tom Stoppard and other relatives in the Holocaust. replied. “British-Jewish, Jewish-British. learn of his Jewish origins and that It is very difficult to say.” his four grandparents and three aunts In addition, there was the second died in death camps. One of his great generation: the comedian and writer, Despite such losses, Czech Jews have themes as a playwright, especially in Ben Elton, son of Lewis; the Brexit made an extraordinary contribution his breakthrough play, Rosencrantz and minister Dominic Raab, whose father to Britain. As we remember the 80th Guildenstern are Dead, was how lives came to Britain as a Czech Jewish anniversary of the Anschluss and can end up differently, how contingency refugee aged just six; the judge Kristallnacht we should also remember is so important. Sir Bernard Rix, whose family had what Czech Jews went through and owned the largest department store what they gave to this country. Many other Czech and Slovak Jews in Ostrava; and the literary journalist, emigrated to the United States and Matthew Reisz, and his brother, the David Herman 2 AJR Journal | October 2018 KRISTALLNACHT SERVICE AT THE ABBEY ENCOUNTERS In conjunction with the West WITH ALBION London, Belsize Square and New North London Synagogues, please join us for a special service to mark the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht at 6.30pm on Thursday 8th November at Westminster Abbey. Free entrance strictly by tickets available via the Westminster Abbey website: www.westminster-abbey.org or by contacting [email protected] The interior of Westminster Abbey WHY NOT TRY AJR’S DEBATE MEALS ON WHEELS SERVICE? OF THE MONTH A new book by Dr Anthony Grenville, the former consultant editor of the AJR The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels Journal, will look at the relationship service delivered to your door once a week.