VOLume 15 NO.11 NOVEMBER 2015 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

Royal salutes he British royal family has long It is, however, far from reassuring when held a special place in the hearts defenders of the royal family attempt to of AJR members. The monarch trivialise the giving of the Nazi salute by actsT as the figurehead of the nation that claiming, as the ‘historian’ (as the Daily admitted the Jewish refugees from Hitler Mail styles him) James Holland did, that after 1933 and, as head of state, is the there could hardly have been a British child symbol of the national community whose who did not give the salute in jest at some citizenship most of those refugees chose point in the 1930s; in point of fact, there to acquire after 1945. While the British were tens of thousands of Jewish children, politicians and civil servants responsible for a start, who would not have been seen for dealing with the Jewish refugees in the dead giving the Hitlergruß. 1930s and 1940s were almost all associated Enough is also known of the political with the complexities, ambiguities and views of the Prince of Wales, the future straightforward shortcomings of the Edward VIII, who was to abdicate in immigration policies of those years, most December 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, refugees have almost automatically assumed for readers not to be completely surprised at that the monarchy – standing above politics seeing him pictured laughing as he gives the – can be respected without reservation. Nazi salute. One cannot class the Duke of The AJR has since its earliest days been Windsor, as he became after his abdication, eager to show its respect for and loyalty to King George VI, 1895-1952 among the small band of British Nazis but the monarchy, taking pride in the fact that rather as one of those members of the upper in the post-war years most of its members acknowledged. Extensive extracts from classes who flirted with the Third Reich, came to regard themselves as loyal British some of the principal speeches are printed as his visit to Germany in October 1937 citizens. For example, when King George on this page, as we believe that our friends demonstrates. He is probably best defined VI died in February 1952, the AJR sent a who may have listened in to the broadcast as a potential sympathiser who chose to devotedly loyal message of condolence to part of the proceedings will wish to keep close his eyes to the more repellent aspects his widow, Queen Elizabeth (the Queen a record of the memorable utterances.’ of Nazi policy. It is absurd to claim, as the Mother), which appeared on the front Even allowing for the more deferential historian Andrew Roberts did, that the page of the March 1952 issue of AJR attitudes of the day, the terms of this photo published in the Sun shows him Information: ‘On behalf of the Jewish recommendation to AJR members (‘our mocking the Nazi salute, when he is plainly Refugees from Nazi oppression who have friends’) to read and keep the Duke’s words doing no such thing; it was in full earnest found a new home in this country we beg convey a profound sense of gratitude and that he gave the Nazi salute during his visit leave to express to Your Majesty and to pleasure at royal recognition of the refugee to Germany, when he and his wife were the Royal Family our deepest sympathy community. Much more recently, the AJR photographed smiling as they shook hands in your sad bereavement. The reign of has been honoured by the presence of the warmly with the Führer. His Majesty King George VI was of Prince of Wales at The Roundhouse in The Prince of Wales’s social circle special significance for the community Chalk Farm on 9 November 2014 for the included people who were close to Nazi we represent. While he was King, Jewish commemoration of the Kindertransports views and attitudes. Among them was persecutees from the Continent were that included the London premiere of Carl the socialite Alexandra Metcalfe, whose admitted to this island and later granted Davis’s The Last Train to Tomorrow. unrestrained admiration for Oswald Mosley British citizenship.’ Readers who share these sentiments and his fascists earned her the nickname On a happier occasion, when the will have been disturbed to see the images ‘Baba Blackshirt’. She was the daughter of tercentenary of the readmission of Jews to published in the Sun last July of four Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India at the time England in 1656 was celebrated at a grand members of the royal family giving the of her birth in 1903; his Indian servants banquet held at the Guildhall on 29 May Nazi salute in 1933. It is obvious that two had called her ‘Baba Sahib’ – ‘the Viceroy’s 1956, AJR Information published part of of those filmed, the Princesses Elizabeth (as baby’. In 1925, Alexandra married Major the speech given by the Duke of Edinburgh she then was) and Margaret, were far too Edward Dudley Metcalfe, known as Fruity, and stated with evident pride: ‘Mention young to understand the significance of a close friend and equerry to the then Prince was made especially and conspicuously the gesture they were being asked to make; of Wales; when, as Duke of Windsor, he of the recent refugees whose contribution the scene tells us precisely nothing about married Wallis Simpson in France on to the national cause was generously their political views when they were older. continued on page 2  journal NOVEMBER 2015

 Royal salutes continued KRISTALLNACHT MEMORIAL SERVICE at Belsize Square Synagogue 3 June 1937, Metcalfe acted as best man. He was a member of the January Club, a Wednesday 11 November 2015, 2 pm discussion group founded by Mosley in 1934 to attract support from Establishment Guest speaker: Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair, UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation figures for his British Union of Fascists. The Professor Leslie Baruch Brent will recall his experiences on Kristallnacht 1938 Duke played an ambiguous role during Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg will officiate the war. In summer 1940, when Hitler invaded France, he and the Duchess fled, We will be lighting memorial candles. Light refreshments will be served at the conclusion of the service. travelling to Spain and then to Portugal; the We are providing free transport to and from Belsize Square Synagogue with collections at Stanmore, Germans, possibly planning to install him Golders Green and Finchley Road Station. as a puppet monarch, hoped to persuade him to return to Franco’s Spain, if necessary Please contact Karin Pereira at AJR Head Office on by kidnapping him. That prospect so 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] if you would like to travel on the coach. alarmed Churchill that he ordered the Duke to return to Britain under threat of court martial and packed him off as Governor to the Bahamas, where he could do no were the Bolsheviks, who had murdered Annual Election Meeting of The further harm. Tsar Nicholas II, George V’s cousin, and his Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) More unexpected and more disconcerting family in 1918; the growth of the socialist for loyal admirers of the royal family is the left was seen in royal circles as a broadly he Annual Election Meeting of The image of Elizabeth, the wife of the future Association of Jewish Refugees similar threat to the existing order and to the T(AJR) will take place at 11 am on King George VI and later the much loved monarchy in particular. By comparison, the Tuesday 24 November 2015 at Belsize Queen Mother, holding up her hand in Third Reich initially appeared reassuringly Square Synagogue, 51 Belsize Square, the Nazi salute. For Queen Elizabeth, as patriotic, authoritarian and hierarchical. London NW3 4HX. she became when her husband replaced Can one ever imagine members of the Agenda: Annual Report, Financial Report, his brother Edward VIII on the throne, Discussion, Election of Trustees. royal family giving the clenched fist salute The following have been nominated for re- is widely admired for her role during the of the militant working class, even in jest, election as Trustees: Andrew Kaufman, Joanna war, when she joined the King on morale- as carelessly as they gave the Nazi salute in Millan and Sir Erich Reich. boosting visits to the blitzed East End and the images published in the Sun? All questions for the chair should be supported her husband, never confident in The brutality and excesses of the Nazi submitted by Monday 16 November 2015 to his royal role, during his time of trial. The the Chief Executive at Jubilee House, Merrion regime alienated many of those who were in Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL. usual crew of ‘royal historians’ appeared in 1933 potentially predisposed to sympathise the press to explain away the photograph. with it. But during the 1930s organisations If you wish to attend please contact One of these, Hugo Vickers, claimed that, Karin Pereira on were established that found a ready 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] far from being pro-German, Elizabeth membership, small but influential, among had become strongly anti-German during those on the right who remained attracted the First World War and had remained so to Nazi Germany. These organisations were well after 1945; Vickers fails to explain located politically between the mainstream why this resolute antipathy to all things of the Conservative Party, which, while German apparently did not extend to the supporting Prime Minister Chamberlain’s AJR GROUPS ANNUAL Nazi salute. policy of appeasement, regarded Nazism CHANUKAH PARTY The truth is probably that, like many with distaste, and the convinced supporters Thursday 10 December 2015 other members of the upper classes, of Nazism in Mosley’s British Union of at Elizabeth saw little harm in making the North West Reform Synagogue Fascists. They included the Anglo-German Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune Nazi salute in 1933, so soon after Hitler’s Fellowship, founded in 1935 to promote London NW11 7EN assumption of power. For the monarchy, links between Britain and Germany; its £8.00 per person payable on the door as for many on the right, the chief enemies members included Lord Redesdale, father (places must be booked in advance) of the five ‘Mitford girls’, the Duke of Starts at 11.30 am AJR Chief Executive Ends at 3.00 pm Michael Newman Wellington, an outspoken anti-Semite, and Admiral Sir Barry Domvile, who A welcome by AJR Chief Executive Finance Director Michael Newman David Kaye was detained during the war as a Nazi Morning entertainment by Brian Goldrich Heads of Department sympathiser. Domvile also founded The – Continental songs and poetry. This will be Karen Markham Human Resources & Administration Sue Kurlander Social Services Link in 1937, to promote Anglo-German followed by a delicious lunch. Carol Hart Community & Volunteer Services friendship. The Right Club, founded in After lunch we will have further entertainment by Bronwen Stephens, who AJR Journal May 1939 by the renegade Conservative Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor will perform a selection of well-known opera Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor MP Archibald Ramsay (also detained), had and songs from the theatre. Karin Pereira Secretarial/Advertisements on its badge the initials P.J., standing for It is essential that we know exact numbers for Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not ‘Perish Judah’, and stood at the extreme end catering. necessarily those of the Association of Jewish of these now forgotten groupings. Please call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 Refugees and should not be regarded as such. Anthony Grenville or email [email protected]

2 NOVEMBER 2015 journal ‘Melodic Memories’: AJR Celebration Lunch, October 2015 ‘Such a wonderful afternoon! Lovely sharing with Carol happy memories of Glenys Groves, tenor Alexandre to meet up with “old” friends and Adrian – ‘an unforgettable character’. Naoumenko, baritone Jonathan meet new folk. Lunch was beautifully In conclusion, Andrew welcomed Fisher, violinist Cormac Browne, and served, quite delicious, and the back ‘close friends’ of the AJR: soprano Diana Franklin on piano. musical entertainment was truly superb. Please convey our thanks to everyone at the AJR and at the Hilton Hotel who had a hand in organising this event’ – AJR members Hanne and Leslie Freedman n his address to members and staff, AJR Chairman Andrew IKaufman began by pointing out that 2015 was a significant year for anniversaries – all the way from Magna Carta in 1215 and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 to, among many others, the 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport (culminating in the exceptional success of the Roundhouse concert last November) and the present day’s start of events commemorating the AJR’s 75th anniversary. Alluding to the plight of today’s refugees, Andrew urged our elected officials to provide help wherever possible. Marvelling at the ‘sheer number’ of meetings and outings the AJR organises, Andrew praised the work of the Welfare Services – ‘our paramount concern’ – led by Sue Kurlander; Carol Hart and her team of Volunteer Managers; the Finance Department, led by David Kaye; and the Editors of the Journal. He thanked all staff, led by Chief Executive Michael Newman, for all their efforts over the past year. Andrew then paid tribute to Helena Reid and Andrea Goodmaker, each of whom had left the AJR after many years of dedicated service, and Awards for AJR volunteers welcomed the new Head of Human t this year’s in Hendon as well as Resources and Administration, Karen Wohl JVN representing survivors Markham. He expressed gratitude AVolunteering and refugees at the to Carol Rossen and Lorna Moss for Awards ceremony at Board of Deputies. organising today’s Lunch and was Finchley Synagogue, A Points of Light sure members would join him in the AJR had two award was also nominations presented to Colin shortlisted. The Stodel who, in addition Dementia Befriending to volunteering for Service was highly JVN, volunteers one commended and Colin Stodel Helen Sarkany day a week for the In Need of a Friendly Voice? Helen Sarkany, our nominee for Volunteer AJR’s Computer Help project. The Want to chat to someone who cares? of the Year, won the award. Points of Lights award, given by the Call The Silver Line Helen Sarkany is Chair of the Advisory Prime Minister, recognises outstanding Group that allocates funds from the individuals – those who are making a The national helpline for older people Claims Conference to UK survivors change in their community and inspiring Any time, day or night and refugees from Nazi oppression. others. She also chairs the Survivors’ Advisory Carol Hart, Head of AJR Volunteer From your landline: 0800 4 70 80 90 Group at the Holocaust Survivor Centre and Community Services From your mobile: 0300 4 70 80 90

3 journal NOVEMBER 2015

ighty years ago, on 15 September 1935, accomplished. Mortality and emigration arose to help individuals prove their Aryan Jews lost their German citizenship, provide the means.’ credentials. The churches made their baptismal Ewhen Hermann Göring, President of In late October, Rudolph Selz, a naturalised registers available for inspection by Nazi the Reichstag, announced new anti-Jewish British subject of German-Jewish origin officials to enable them to check an individual’s legislation to the specially convened session who had lived in Germany for ten years, was Aryan descent. of the Reichstag in Nuremberg. The so- arrested for having sexual relations with an The British Parliament did not sit in called ‘Nuremberg Laws’ were prefaced by Aryan woman. This matter raised the thorny September so the Nuremberg Laws were the statement ‘Moved by the understanding issue of whether the German Government not discussed by either House. As a result, that purity of German blood is the essential intended the Nuremberg Laws to apply to most MPs failed to appreciate that the Laws condition for the continued existence of the foreigners. The British protested and Selz had deprived Jews and non-Aryans of their German people, and inspired by the inflexible was ordered by the German authorities to citizenship and this was evident during determination to ensure the existence of the leave the country. In early November a court parliamentary debates about the internment German nation for all time.’ near Hamburg imprisoned a Polish Jew for of German and Austrian Jews between 1939 The laws comprised two main parts. Rassenschande (‘race shaming’). The presiding and 1941, when they were treated as ‘enemy First, the ‘Reich Citizenship Law’ restricted judge pointed out what was clearly the case: aliens’. citizenship of the Reich to ‘subjects of the that the new law extended to all Jews. The first mention of the Nuremberg Laws in state who were of German or related blood who On 14 November 1935 the ‘First Regulation Parliament seems to have been by the Bishop proved by [their] conduct that they were willing to the Reich Citizenship Law’ defined a Jew of Chichester during a debate in the Lords on and fit to faithfully serve the German people more precisely and introduced the notion of 27 July 1938. His concern lay with the non- and Reich.’ Only a Reich citizen (an Aryan) was a Mischling. Henceforth, anyone with three Aryan Christians, who, he stated, were ‘worse entitled to political and civic rights. Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew sufferers than the Jews. While the Jews have As the London Jewish Chronicle commented even if they themselves had converted to the great Jewish community behind them, the on 20 September: ‘in less time than it takes to Christianity or had long forgotten any Jewish non-Aryan Christians’ [claims] ... have not, I record the fact in writing they formally repealed practice. A Mischling of the First Degree was am sorry to say, been brought home in the way Jewish emancipation ... [and] henceforth anyone with two Jewish grandparents; those they should be brought home to the Christian formally robbed [Jews] of the full German with one Jewish grandparent were ‘Second Churches.’ citizenship and degraded [them] to the status Degree Mischlings’. The law took account of The Nuremberg Laws were neither the of an inferior class.’ other categories and combinations, each with first nor the last of the anti-Jewish legislative Second, the ‘Law for the Protection of its own terminology. On 27 October 1942 the measures introduced during the Nazi period. German Blood and German Honour’ banned Nazis decided that a Mischling of the First They were one step – albeit an important one marriages and extramarital relations between Degree would be sterilised, but a Mischling – in the process of isolating those defined as Jews and Aryans. Moreover, Jews could of the Second Degree was to be treated as Jews from mainstream German and, after 1938, no longer employ German women over the German but be subject to certain restrictions. Austrian society. age of 45 (reduced to 35 a month later) as A profession of licensed ‘family researchers’ Lesley Urbach maidservants. The laws also made the swastika the national flag. Göring declared: ‘Naturally the Jews will not be allowed to hoist this holy flag.’ Hitler told the Congress: ‘You have now AJR/BRITISH ACADEMY adopted a law the importance of which ... will Commemoration and Celebration: be recognised only after many centuries.’ The The British Academy and the Jewish Refugee Academics in Britain after 1933 meeting concluded with wild cheering and the 10 November 2015 singing of The Horst Wessel Song. The Jewish Chronicle described the laws 1:45pm – 2pm Guests arrive as a ‘scandalous affront to modern practice 2:00pm – 3:15pm First session which should place the Nazi Reich outside the chaired by Dr Eugene Rogan community of civilised people ... We protest indignantly against this savage handling of a Sir Otto Kahn-Freund helpless little minority in order to bolster up a by Professor Sandy Fredman FBA rotting system based on a bogus racial theory.’ Sir Ernst Gombrich Several local British newspapers printed a by Professor Richard Gombrich Reuters’ report which observed that ‘henceforth 3:15pm – 3:45pm Coffee Break the Jews have lost their right to vote and all other political rights. Considerable speculation 3:45pm – 5:00pm Second session has also been aroused by Hitler’s threat that chaired by Sir Erich Reich if the new laws do not succeed in solving the Sir Ernest Chain Jewish problem it will be handed over to the by Sir Ralph Kohn FRS party to solve.’ It is rather unsettling today to Sir Ludwig Guttmann read of this respected news agency talking by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson blandly of ‘the Jewish problem’. The Jewish Chronicle asked ‘What 5:00pm – 5:15pm Comfort Break guarantee is there that arbitrary bullying is now 5:15pm – 6:00pm The Thank-Offering to Britain Fund and the British Academy at an end?’ The truth was, as that newspaper by Dr Anthony Grenville guessed, that the Nuremberg Laws simply heralded a new wave of anti-Semitic legislation 6:00pm Reception that brought about the further segregation of the Jewish community. In October 1935 two 6:30pm Welcome and thanks from the President, Lord Stern Britons, Eric Mills, Commissioner for Migration Response from Andrew Kaufman, Chairman, AJR and Statistics in Palestine, and Frank Foley, 7:30pm Conclusion Passport Control Officer in Berlin, reported to the Foreign Office in London: ‘German policy To register, please contact Jennifer Hawton at the British Academy, is clearly to eliminate the Jew from German 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, on 020 7969 5258 or at [email protected] life, and the Nazis do not mind how this is

4 NOVEMBER 2015 journal The Königsberg Rowing Club and Siegfried Herman

form of help. My mother pushed to the front and at last the embassy doors opened. An official announced to the crowd that he was very sorry but diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Germany were to cease: the embassy had no option but to close its doors immediately. With that the official backed into the building and attempted to close the great doors. My mother threw herself against the doors and managed to persuade the officials at least to return her passport with or without the visa. She was pulled inside and told to wait on a seat. She remembered that as the longest half- hour of her life. The official returned with the passport stamped with the visa – it had already been processed and was ready to I have recently moved house and have n May 1939 members of the local be sent to her in Königsberg! been sorting out old photographs. I came Zionist organisation in Königsberg, East We continued our journey to England. across one in particular which shows a Prussia, came to my parents’ home late I lost my teddy bear overboard on the I sea journey but we arrived safely on 2 team picture of the Königsberg Rowing at night and told my father that he had Club circa 1930. (It was obviously a Jewish to leave immediately or the Nazis would September 1939. We were reunited with my father and then I went to live with a club but I call it the Königsberg Rowing come to take him the next day. Travel wonderful Quaker family in Broadbottom, Club for want of a better name.) arrangements were made quickly, but only Cheshire, for one year. My late father, Siegfried (Siegie) for my father as, although my parents had Danny Herman Herman (Herrmann), appears sitting visas and affidavits for themselves, they cross-legged in the front row holding the had not managed to find anyone prepared flags. It may be of interest to readers of to take me – a three-year-old boy. The men the AJR Journal and some of them may from the organisation assured my parents ‘TRIBUTE TO A even be able to give me more information that they would do everything to obtain TRUE HERO’ about the club or indeed may recognise the necessary papers for me but stressed some of the members. My father always that it was imperative for my father to he Royal Mail is to issue in 2016 seemed most reluctant to speak about his leave immediately. a special commemorative stamp honouring Sir Nicholas Winton. early life in Königsberg and, as far as the My mother had already written letters T The decision to issue the stamp follows Rowing Club is concerned, all I knew was to refugee and Zionist organisations, an online petition that he had been a member. churches, Quaker movements – tens of launched by the My father was born in Königsberg on letters all over the world – but until then London Jewish 30 October 1904. He left Germany in June she had had no positive response. In July News backed 1939 and arrived in England via Kitchener 1939 she heard from the Society of Friends by over 100,000 Camp. My mother, Gretchen Herman in Manchester that an old acquaintance of the family – a Mrs Schaefer – had people. (Herrmann), and I, aged three, followed translated letters from Germany and by AJR Chief on three months later and joined him in chance had read the letter sent by my Executive Michael Kitchener Camp on 2 September 1939, the mother. Mrs Schaefer persuaded them to Newman said: ‘This day before war broke out. find a home for me and the result was that recognition of Sir We all three left the camp in October an affidavit was granted, which in turn Nicholas by the Royal Mail will bring his 1939 and went to Manchester, where my allowed us to apply for a visa enabling us remarkable endeavours to the attention father had a short-lived job in a knitting to come to England. Only now could the of the British public and be a fitting factory before being interned on the Isle passport be sent to the British embassy in tribute to a true hero.’ of Man. My mother worked as a domestic Berlin for the coveted visa stamp. and I was placed with Quaker foster The passport was despatched and we parents for a year. Both my parents have awaited its return. By the beginning of now passed away, my father aged 74 August it had not been sent back and Frederick Feigl, 1884-1965 and my mother aged 96. I am looking everybody knew that time was running forward to my 80th birthday next month out. My mother packed a bag for me and Information and reminiscences relating to together with my wife, four children and a small suitcase and we set off on the long Czech émigré artist Frederick Feigl, his many their spouses, nine grandchildren and two and precarious journey through the Polish years in the UK, and his artwork sought for great-grandchildren. Corridor, arriving in Berlin in mid-August. retrospective exhibition in the Czech Republic The following article appeared, I She had friends living in the city and we in summer 2016 and accompanying bilingual believe, about five years ago in a booklet stayed with them overnight. Early the next publication. published by the Quakers commemorating morning I was left with the friends and my the Kindertransport. It describes how my mother went to the British embassy. The Please contact Rachel Dickson at mother and I received official permission scene outside was chaotic with hundreds [email protected] to travel to England in August 1939. of people all waiting and wanting some or on 07919 221 788

5 journal NOVEMBER 2015 Now we have commemorated anniversaries of the Kindertransport, as well as those who helped with the actual transportation, could there be something to remember those who, by opening their homes, made it possible to save so many children? Bettina Cohn, Bristol

IN PRAISE OF GREAT MEN (AND The Editor reserves the right WOMEN) to shorten correspondence Sir – I would like to congratulate our editor, submitted for publication Anthony Grenville, on his latest editorial. His discussion of ‘Germans, Greeks, Jews’ (October issue) was everything that a leading article should be: erudite, wide- REFUGEE CRISIS ranging, informative and well written. We are fortunate to have his monthly Sir – In July 1942 in Paris a policeman The letter was delivered by two deliberations. disobeyed orders and helped my mother, Kindertransportees, Rabbi Dr Harry Jacobi At the same time, our thanks should sister and me to escape the round- and Ernest Simon. More information and go to the executive editor, Howard Spier, up, in which nearly 13,000 people – the text of the letter can be found at for running the Journal so effectively and mainly foreign-born Jews and including http://www.tzelem.uk/#!pressreleases/ as a constant presence. And, whilst I am 4,000 children – were interned in the c1r2r praising great men, let us not forget the Vélodrome d’Hiver awaiting deportation. Annette Ray, Tunbridge Wells ever-present Gloria Tessler, who adorns Conditions were horrendous: no food, no the Journal with her monthly reports on water, no sanitation, during a heatwave. Sir – I have been gratified to read the many art exhibitions – always informative and Recently, I watched a report on letters in the October issue appealing to well-judged. (I am looking forward to her Greece. It showed thousands of people, our government to offer sanctuary to review of Tate Britain’s extraordinary Frank including women and children, being the Mediterranean migrants. This is only Auerbach retrospective; he and I were herded into a football stadium: no water, right and proper for a community which together at Bunce Court School.) no food, no sanitation. has so much to thank the British people Professor Leslie Baruch Brent, I, like many other Holocaust survivors, for with respect to their hospitality in the London N19 dedicate myself to speaking in schools pre-war era. and other institutions throughout However, is it right that massed WHITEWASH CONSPIRACY? the UK. Every year at an event to migrants should be forcing their Sir – All credit to Walter Goddard and commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, way across Europe’s borders without David Wirth (September) for bringing we listen to the great and the good, permission? Given the oft-expressed to our attention the gradual change including our prime minister, utter all hatred of our way of life and intent to in description of blame – away from the clichés: ‘Never again’, ‘Don’t be a harm us on the part of extremist Islamic ‘Germany and the Germans’ to the Nazis. bystander.’ groups, should we not be cautious about It is as if the two were quite separate Instead of demonising these people, whom exactly we allow into our country? entities. it is time that our politicians found Should this country really open its Over the last few years there has been their humanity, and that we in the UK doors to people who are only interested a marked tendency in the press and on TV accepted our share of responsibility for in taking advantage of the benefits to describe the oppressors of the Second our fellow human beings. on offer? Would we have complained World War, and the perpetrators of the Joan Salter, London N10 had we been fortunate enough to Holocaust, not as Germans but as Nazis. have received government food and As was pointed out most graphically in Sir – In response to Nick Sigler’s letter in accommodation, even if it wasn’t to both letters, we fought a war, nearly to the the October journal, he will be pleased our taste? death, against Germany – albeit controlled to know that Tzelem, a cross-community We live in very different times from by the evil of the Nazi Party. organisation of rabbis for social justice, the 1930s and must act with our heads It is as if the media had been instructed have written to the Prime Minister as well as our hearts. by the Government or the EU (?) not regarding the refugees. Peter Briess, NW3 to refer to Germany or the Germans in connection with the events of 1933-45 but to the Nazis. A similar whitewash has REMEMBERING THE HOSTS recreational organisations and, in many been applied to the first victim of Nazi Sir – What public expression of appreciation cases, their homes. oppression – namely ‘innocent’ Austria. has so far been offered to the families who In November 1938 their fathers were Roll the film of screaming swastika-flag- gave homes to the Kinder and without taken to concentration camps; any waving hordes in Vienna in March 1938! whom the Kindertransport would not have remaining shops were destroyed, as well Is there a ‘whitewash conspiracy’ afoot taken place? as synagogues, which had also served as or is history about to be rewritten? No doubt many Kinder showed their vital ‘soup kitchens’ in many areas. Peter Collins, Hatch End own appreciation but they may have been Many of the older Kinder felt guilty too young and too traumatised to fully about those they had left behind. Not understand what was happening at the an easy, happy bunch of children to take MEMORIES OF THE KITCHENER time. They would previously have lived responsibility for! Nor can there be any CAMP for up to six years in households where comparison with the war-time evacuees Sir – Recently some of my family there was unemployment and a boycott from endangered cities to the countryside, took me to Sandwich in Kent and we on businesses. Moreover, they would have when host families were compelled and managed to photograph the plaque that been expelled from schools and other paid to take in children. Kinder were taken commemorates the Kitchener Camp at educational institutions or from sports and in by volunteers without payment. Sandwich’s entrance.

6 NOVEMBER 2015 journal There is a larger plaque in the Sandwich Between 1938 The interview concluded, he and crew Museum as well as a very interesting book and 1942 my parents departed. The interview was to be shown containing many articles, diaries and notes escaped three times during the TV airing of the VIPs’ opening about the camp. – very narrowly each Rundgang on the Sunday morning. We This camp saved the lives of many time – from Vienna, were provided with a receiver to watch. Jewish men aged 17-70 who had been from Paris, and from Imagine our surprise when our dialogue arrested by the Nazis in Germany. My late a small village in was dubbed and we found ourselves husband, Heinz Weinberg (later Henry the south of France. offering praise for East German products Young), was one of these men. He was Each time, they each Ida Pollak, 1938 of which we had no knowledge. took only one There were also ’London Remigranten’ suitcase, so the book is entitled in the GDR, as I discovered many years Two Suitcases: Remembering What later. It was suggested that I might like Matters When Things Fall Apart. to have a meal at the GDR, Press Club. I know that my aunt Ida When my companion and I arrived we Baumohl (Pollak or Polak, Friedman were received by close on 20 individuals or Freedman) (b. 1909) came to all speaking fluent English. All they wanted England in January 1940 with a to know from me was whether the Cosmo 90-day visa under the name of café was still in the same place and Ida Pollak. The family story has it whether it was thriving. When I explained that she married an English-Jewish that I had only visited it once 10 years doctor named Rudi Pollak, who was earlier, their interest in me disappeared. making marriages of convenience Herbert Haberberg, Barnet to one woman in need of papers to released from Camp Hohenstein in Saxony the next, with a two-year wait in between. ‘UNCRITICAL REVIEW’ to enter the Kitchener Camp and he then In Vienna Ida was a kindergarten teacher Sir – I spent well over a year with Mark joined the 74th Pioneer Corps. and she worked as a nanny in England Lynton – as an internee in England, in We visited Sandwich when the plaque before going to Philadelphia. I don’t have the Isle of Man, in Canada, and in 251 was originally put up and met many old the date for her arrival there but it was Company of the Pioneer Corps. members of the camp at that time. Our probably the same year, 1940. Anthony Grenville’s August article is recent visit to the Sandwich Museum was I’d love to hear from anyone who has a very uncritical review of Lynton’s book very moving. I thought this photograph stories connected to such marriages of Accidental Journey, which is very much in might be of interest to some of your convenience. contrast with what Tom Bower had to say members. I’m also interested in anecdotes about about it: ‘No doubt Lynton has entertained (Mrs) Ruth Young, Sidcup, Kent any refugee who was active in the SDAP in countless idiots with his colourful stories Vienna between the wars. I realise I’m late of bravado and wisdom.’ He goes on to in trying to collect these stories – that’s say that Lynton could be exposed as ‘a BRIAN SEWELL – THE GOMBRICH why I’m writing the story as fiction (well, CONNECTION silly joker’. These are harsh words, and it’s more fun too!). Still, I want to get the partly quite unjustified. ‘De mortuis nil Sir – I felt I must tell you about a fact that details as exact as I can, so the more I can no writer of an obituary of the art critic nisi bonum’ has always been my maxim. find out the better. Peter Wayne, London W14 Brian Sewell has mentioned. Can someone direct me to any email I met him, quite by chance, in a hospital discussion group where such topics might department. He sat in the small corridor be discussed? THE GERMAN-JEWISH PILOT WHO waiting for another test. As I passed him I Eve Neuhaus, San Luis Obispo, BOMBED BERLIN noticed he was looking very miserable and California, USA Sir – I was surprised by the errors in Janet I said to him ‘Cheer up, you’re in the best Weston’s comments in your July issue possible hospital!’ (the Royal Brompton). about Peter Stevens (born George Franz As he started to say something, I knew THE ODIOUS KARL-EDUARD VON Hein) in her review of the biography immediately who he was – I’d heard him SCHNITZLER Escape, Evasion and Revenge. She referred frequently on Radio 4. Sir – I am somewhat mystified from which to Peter still being a German citizen at the We got talking and, in answer to his pit Anthony Grenville dragged up the start of the war. German Jews lost their query, I told him I had originally come name of the odious Dr Karl-Eduard von German citizenship on 15 September 1935 from Germany. That got him started and I Schnitzler (July). after the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. didn’t leave the hospital until a good hour I met this individual in 1959 when my She later suggests that had Peter’s identity later. He told me he had been extremely then employers decided to exhibit at the been known by the Germans when he was fortunate to have been taught all he knew Leipzig Spring Fair. Two German-speaking a POW in Germany, he would have been about art by German refugees, Gombrich colleagues and I were delegated to man shot as a traitor. In fact, he would have being the one he seemed to revere most! the exhibition stand. The day after our been murdered as a Jew. I kept in touch with him till his last days. arrival we were visited by the GDR TV While I am writing, I want to say thank Susie Shipman, Ilford, Essex Service and asked to participate in an you to Hazel Beiny for the excellent work interview. We agreed on condition that running AJR groups and for the care she three subjects were not mentioned: gave my mother and other family friends. MARRIAGES OF CONVENIENCE politics, religion and sex. That she is no longer with the AJR is a real Sir – I am the only child in a circle Next day, at the agreed time, the TV loss and I wish her the best of luck. of Viennese refugees who came to crew arrived, accompanied by von S. Lesley Urbach, London N3 Philadelphia and New York between 1939 Whilst the equipment was set up this and 1942. I am writing a book based on individual launched into a diatribe lasting the story of my parents, Fritz (b. 1911) ‘REASSURINGLY LIMMUD’ some 20 minutes maligning everything Sir – I am hoping to attend Limmud in and Gertrude (b. 1913) Baumohl, and their relating to the West. During this discourse circle through the Red Vienna years and December for the first time and I am trying he mentioned the name of Richard to locate like-minded people who might the rising darkness of the Fascist, and then Dimbleby at least 10 times – all to no Nazi takeover, of Austria. purpose and with no connection. continued on page 16 

7 journal NOVEMBER 2015

martyred. All the more reason to honour their courage, their dignity in the face of the disaster that second-generation Jews REVIEWS of the 21st century hope never to have to face as they did. A remarkable and successful ART life But it’s not just the question of Jewish art that the Ben Uri in its centenary is I WAS HITLER’S NEIGHBOUR NOTES by Edgar Feuchtwanger celebrating today. David Glasser and his Bretwalda Books 2015, 172 pp. GLORIA TESSLER colleagues, and the patrons and scholars paperback, £11.99, ISBN 978-1- associated with the Ben Uri, are also 910440-00-1 hen you read that the Ben mindful of the Gallery’s place within erhaps it is worth noting initially Uri’s centenary exhibition the whole panoply of immigrant art. that there is no connection Out of Chaos at Somerset In his preface to its programme, David Pbetween Edgar Feuchtwanger, eminent academic and historian, HouseW represents, in Chairman David Glasser dedicates the exhibition to all the immigrant artists who came to Britain in and Wilhelm Furtwängler, German Glasser’s words, ‘a snapshot of less than 5% composer and conductor! Edgar is, the 20th century. of this wonderful but hidden collection’, however, the nephew of the late the word ‘hidden’ says it all. But this view begs a different question. Lion Feuchtwanger, author of the It’s wonderful to gaze again on David Is there a Jewish art? The pogroms and the well-known Jud Süss and Erfolg Bomberg’s Ghetto Theatre, with its tragic Holocaust answer that with a resounding (Success) and one of the earliest desolation, Soutine’s wistful Soubrette, yes. If you pick only one painting at the writers to realise the danger of Jacob Kramer’s melancholic Day of exhibition, take Josef Herman’s Refugees Nazism, especially to the Jews. Edgar Feuchtwanger was born in Atonement, or Mark Gertler’s prophetic (1941), in which an aggressive cat with a mouse in its teeth is poised on a rooftop 1924 and lived in Munich in the same Merry-Go-Round (now in the Tate street in which Hitler had a private Collection). It’s like meeting old friends above a terrified couple with a child, eyes flat. Occasionally as a child he actually you know you won’t see again for years. round with terror. saw Hitler and remembers that from The exhibition, which includes a short The Ben Uri began life in 1915 in his window he could see Mercedes film on the Ben Uri’s history, is illuminating, London’s East End with 80 works. Today, it motorcades leaving Hitler’s home. well curated and full of artistic surprise. But counts over 1,300. Let’s hope its centenary I ask once again: why is this art hidden? will herald a progressive new phase. What’s wrong with the Jewish community that nobody of generosity, imagination and creative spirit can muster the resources to find a permanent London home for these treasures? Edgar Feuchtwanger And these are treasures, make no Edgar’s family was Jewish but fully assimilated and very much part of mistake – locked away in storage, out German intellectual life. His father of sight, in a virtual replica of the dark was a successful publisher and the times in which so many of these fine author describes how various well- works were painted – often courageously known literary figures came to the in the shadow of pogroms, anti-Semitism, family home. Although he did have Nazism, condemnation, mass murder. a bar mitzvah, religion did not play In the time of the Nazis, many fine an important part in his upbringing. Expressionistic and Symbolist works were He had a happy childhood within a large family and had many Jewish and banned as ‘degenerate’ and even exhibited non-Jewish friends. He also enjoyed as such. visiting the lakes of Upper Bavaria In the freedom of 21st-century Britain, Josef Herman Refugees c. 1941. Ben Uri, with his parents. The rise of Nazism why must these paintings be hidden at The London Jewish Museum of Art seems initially to have had little impact © Estate of Josef Herman all? They should be available to us all on him. This applied also to his early because every work, painting or sculpture schooldays, but things changed has a soul, a meaning beyond the mere dramatically after Kristallnacht, when his father was arrested and taken to making of it. Each one tells us a story Annely Juda Fine Art Dachau. of leave-takings, of uprootings, of fierce 23 Dering Street Soon afterwards Edgar was sent challenges, of deprivation and – most (off New Bond Street) to England and, due to good family important – of the loss of family life, of connections, he managed to obtain a together times forever splintered as the Tel: 020 7629 7578 place at Winchester, one of England’s artist makes his or her way across the Fax: 020 7491 2139 top public schools. His parents were seas to a new homeland, hopefully secure able to follow early in 1939. He enjoyed school and seems to have against past anguish. That was true at CONTEMPORARY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE easily fitted into his completely least for the survivor artists. Others were new environment. With an enviable

8 NOVEMBER 2015 journal memory he recounts many anecdotes in pre-war German-Jewish intellectual a certain level of contempt; they stop of his time at Winchester and writes circles to life within upper-middle- just short of calling her a Schvartze and of the numerous interesting and well- class society in England. all it implies. We learn, a known people he encountered there. George Vulkan few drops at a time, about The school also influenced his interest their mother, an interesting in the Church of England, within and rather subtle character which he felt quite at home, and in – was she as self-effacing later life he had little, if any, contact No Shakespearian as her daughters see her, with the Jewish community. Ironically, tragedy or did she merely find early during the war, Edgar’s father, LEVI KOENIG: A the best way of dealing who had been interned in Dachau CONTEMPORARY KING with her less than perfect a year earlier, was again interned, LEAR husband? What, and how this time on the Isle of Man, but by Dorothea Shefer- much, did she know? (Are fortunately under entirely different Vanson the home-made cookies conditions. He was also one of the 2015, 215 pp., available and rolls she left behind earliest to be released. During the war from Amazon in the freezer just a touch and after finishing school, Edgar was espite the reference passive-aggressive?) drafted into war work, helping to turn to Shakespeare’s tragic king in Putting reminiscences into a trees into railway sleepers – quite a Dthe subtitle and the eponymous character’s thoughts to provide contrast to life at Winchester! protagonist’s surname, the play necessary background is a valuable After a few months he won a has relatively little in common with literary device. But a vast quantity scholarship to Magdalene College in this novel beyond an aged father of this book is written as thoughts, Cambridge and he again describes the with three daughters. Lear decides sometimes running unbroken for many people, some later to become to award the largest share of his pages – Levi Koenig’s unspoken famous, whom he met there. There kingdom to the daughter who loves monologue runs from p. 64 to p.70, are interesting descriptions of life as him the most, but intrigue, murder unbroken but for a spoonful of soup an undergraduate in Cambridge at and mayhem ensue. He discovers too on p. 69. Not a few times the line that time and of the philosophical late that the older two daughters of thinking resembles not normal discussions with tutors and colleagues. are conniving shrews and only the rambling thoughts but a memoir, He mentions that during this time youngest is loving and true. He dies the sort of thing one would write he was gradually moving from his in madness and despair. out for historical or informative earlier leftish views and tending more The novel’s Koenig is elderly and five purposes – Levi’s description of towards the right. years widowed, leaving him with his what Kristallnacht was, for example. After graduating, Edgar three daughters – Gloria, Renata and (Would anyone preparing Shabbat Feuchtwanger began his academic Corinna – whose initials correspond dinner bother thinking about her career, mainly at what became with those of Lear’s daughters, husband’s reciting Kiddush over Southampton University. As well Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. The ‘the special braided Challah that’s as teaching at the university, he daughters love their father in their supposed to commemorate the bread became involved with the Workers’ own way, especially when his existence that was displayed in the Temple in Educational Association and lecturing doesn’t interfere too much with their Jerusalem’? For that matter, is Flora to military personnel both in the UK lives. They are strong-minded Gloria, really convincing in contemplating and, later, in Germany. who threw her husband out years the kitchen’s ‘decaying wooden During his career Edgar often ago; Renata, who gets through life cabinets and wobbly drawers’ when visited Germany and observed only with the aid of wee drinkies; and she has only the sketchiest grasp of the gradual changes in attitudes insecure Corinna, who over-eats and the tenses of ‘to be’?) And so many among the population from the time occasionally mangles her vocabulary of those interior monologues contain immediately after the war and after in a rather charming way. one or other of the daughters’ endless the reunification. Besides lecturing Because Levi has become frail the kvetching. This is where an editor (the and writing, during the later stages daughters have arranged a live-in book is self-published) might have of his career he was also frequently carer for him, a Filipina called Flora. done a little judicious pruning. engaged in organising conferences Matters take a surprise turn when Levi But these are minor quibbles. This on security and international relations. hands over control of his finances to is a very readable book, with deftly Throughout the book Edgar the daughters and Gloria discovers drawn characters who deal with recounts anecdotes, both serious he has been making substantial modern concerns that everyone will and amusing, about his life and makes payments from their mother’s foreign recognise: the care, and loss, of elderly frequent – possibly too frequent bank account to an unknown woman parents, disappointment in a spouse – references to the many different – and Levi is in no mood to explain one once adored, the realisation that people he met. At times, this drifts who she is. life didn’t turn out as expected – and into digression and confusion of The story is told largely through the not for the better either. timing but it does not detract from inner thoughts of all concerned. We Finally, Levi Koenig dies – far from the overall story of a remarkable soon discover that the daughters are madness or despair and without and successful life. Only in the last self-absorbed whiners, dealing with letting on who the mystery woman chapter does he refer to his private a failing but manipulative father and is. Yet disquiet thyself not – there’s life, including his happy marriage to what they see as their thoughtless, a delightful twist right at the end. the daughter of a brigadier, and to ungrateful families. Though Flora But only if you’ve been paying close the successful careers of his children. is the only person who offers Levi attention. Overall, the book vividly describes his unqualified care and affection, the Tanya Tintner remarkable journey from childhood sisters regard her with suspicion and

9 journal NOVEMBER 2015 ISRAEL RIGHT OR WRONG? ews face a complex dilemma in them. But what happened is that they relation to Israel: do we support thought they had to support Israel no JIsrael right or wrong? If this has ‘Support Israel, matter what. And I’m saying to them: to be yes for now, how bad does the don’t do that. Support Israel, definitely wrong have to get before criticism definitely – but support what – but support what you think is good for surfaces and is expressed? And then the State of Israel. If you think that the must we make sure we never show you think is good for the State of two-state solution is good for the State even a tiny crack in our wholehearted Israel. If you think that the two-state of Israel then this is what you have to support when talking to non-Jews? pursue. And by that you will help the solution is good for the State of Israel State of Israel to exist. And what if the account of wrong-and-right doings published by then this is what you have to pursue. Jenny Manson Israel’s information service sometimes And by that you will help the turns out to be misinformation – something we have come to expect State of Israel to exist.’ Out of Chaos: only from others? Ben Uri – 100 Years in London It took me a long time to question Presented in association with the Cultural Israel’s policy. Nothing takes away the extension of Holocaust education Institute at King’s College London the emotional bond of course. My to genocides that have followed grandmother, Nina Salaman Davis, ‘our’ Holocaust and suggests we also 2 July-13 December 2015 was a friend and supporter of the early support calls for the commemoration Inigo Rooms, Somerset House East Wing, English Zionists such as Israel Zangwill. of the earlier Ottoman massacre of the WC2R 2LS My grandfather, Redcliffe Salaman, Armenians. This reminded me of one wrote Palestine Reclaimed, letters from cheering aspect of the sorry situation FREE ENTRY a Jewish officer in Palestine in 1920. in Israel-Palestine – the capacity of Access: from the central door of the East He later amended parts of the book Jews historically and in the present Wing from the Somerset House courtyard or when he realised that investment from to look at things objectively and with from the King’s Quad via the King’s College outside was partly the reason for the compassion. Strand entrance relative fertility of Jewish, as compared So, for instance, there are several to Palestinian, farmed land. organisations in Israel and in the Gallery Open: Mon-Sun 11 am-6 pm But an even closer link comes from Diaspora which are monitoring the and Thursday: 11 am-8.30 pm my mother’s family, the Polianovskys, treatment of Palestinians in Israel and www.benuri.org.uk who escaped from the pogroms of the Occupied Territories. post-First World War Ukraine and For example, my husband and I settled in Haifa. My mother, Miriam, recently heard a spokesman for Rabbis lived there till she was 15: she came to for Human Rights, Arik Ascherman, England to visit her eldest sister and whose main concern has been ARTS AND EVENTS fell for her brother-in-law’s brother, attempting to stop the destruction Raphael Salaman (I can provide a of Palestinian olive harvests by Israeli NOVEMBER DIARY family tree!). They married four years settlers, the illegal demolition of later and lived in England, which my Palestinian houses, or Israeli soldiers Tues 3 Dr Lucy Noakes ‘A Broken mother loved – but for the rest of her roughing up young Palestinian civilians. Silence? Mass Observation, Armistice life she wept when she heard Hebrew, There are also many other such Day and “Everyday Life” in Britain attended a Passover service, or talked human rights organisations, including 1937-1941’ At Centre for German- about the loss of anyone’s mother. B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre Jewish Studies, The Keep Archives, Her mother, Bhatia Polianovsky, died for Human Rights in the Occupied Woollards Way, Brighton BN1 9BP. 5:30 of pneumonia in Palestine in the mid- Territories. B’Tselem is very worried pm. Contact Diana Franklin 1930s. Her best friend at school in Haifa currently about the lack of prosecutions T +44 (0)1273 678771 (University) was her Palestinian neighbour: she and in the cases of arson crimes: they report her mother became close to the whole T/F +44 (0)20 8455 4785 (London) that in the three years since August [email protected] family – her friend’s father would tell 2012 Israeli civilians set fire to nine Mum she must be a barrister when she Palestinian homes in the West Bank. ‘Nuremberg: An Evaluation 70 Years grew up because she was so good at Additionally, a Molotov cocktail was On: Reflections on the Holocaust, arguing (and cards!). thrown at a Palestinian taxi, severely Liberation and Aftermath’ Course But if anything, she and my late burning the family on board. No one by Dr Helen Fry: Week 1: Wed 4 Nov – aunt, Esther Hamburger Salaman, the has yet been charged in any of these Nuremberg: Hitler’s Henchmen Behind last of the Salaman siblings, were ahead cases. Bars; Week 2: Wed 11 Nov – The of me when I began to fear that Israel In the USA, where policy-makers can was losing its moral compass around Nuremberg Trial; Week 3: Wed 18 Nov make a real difference, the New Israel – The Enduring Mystery: Nuremberg & the time of the massacre at Sabra and Fund has its HQ and US organisations Shatila in 1982 and, for me at least, Rudolf Hess At JW3, tel 020 7433 8988 like J Street challenge Israel to show [email protected] worries began to harden by the time of its commitment to peace, including the second intifada in 2000, quickened recognising how great an obstacle the Mon 9 Dr Bea Lewkowicz: ’The by the assassination of Rabin in 1995. settlements are to a lasting agreement. Refugee Voices Archive, Part 2’ A short More than one of the ‘Gatekeepers’, I give the last word to film-maker film about the émigré artist Milein the Shin Bet (Israeli secret service), in Dror Moreh: Cosman and a presentation on the the interviews filmed in 2012 by Israeli The State of Israel was established film maker Dror Moreh, said that only AJR’s Refugee Voices project. 1.00pm. after the Holocaust, which was the Room 5 at ’Out of Chaos’ exhibition Rabin of the Israeli prime ministers of most devastating event in the history (see above) the last 40 or so years had truly wanted of the Jewish people, when six million a two-state solution and peace. Jews died. Israel was established so that Wed 18 ‘November 1938: Testimonies I decided to write a piece about Israel ‘never again’ could something like that from Kristallnacht’ At Wiener Library, 4 when I read Ruth Barnett’s contribution happen. Jews feel they have to support pm-7.30 pm. Tel 020 7636 7247 to the AJR Journal in July. She welcomes Israel today because it is a safe haven for

10 NOVEMBER 2015 journal What it means to I Remember Mutti be a refugee here had been Mama, who died in a tragic lived just around the corner from where we lived accident when I was four years old. I It means and Claire befriended Selma. Tremember throwing a tantrum shortly after Selma was a forceful woman with strongly for you, your family and friends to have been her death, demanding to know where she was held left-wing views. It was she who first instilled the victims of hate, persecution, violence and and when she would be back and being told by destruction in your own country, in me a horror of capital punishment. She was my father that she was in heaven. And people also an excellent needlewoman and she and to have been driven out of the home you were who were in heaven were blessed but unable Claire produced very wearable clothes from born in and risked your life fleeing, to return to earth. cheap remnants for Lisl and me. She came from having had to leave behind family and friends Then, when I was five years old, came Claire, Boskowitz in Moravia; Emil, a reserved and quiet and all that was familiar to you in the country whom I called Mutti and who looked after me, man, was from Lemberg in Poland. you loved, loved me, and made sacrifices for me until I left Back to the present: Vera wanted to know to find a country that might be willing to give Vienna in September 1938 almost 19 years old. what had happened to her grandparents and it you refuge, It took me about half a century to find out what emerged that they and Claire were on the same to be robbed of your nationality and all that had happened to Claire, my stepmother. A cousin transport to Izbica. Vera found the website for me goes with it, who, with a dead Jewish father (my uncle Bruno, and I forced myself to read it. to learn a new language, who died of a war wound in the 1920s) and a Between 9 April and 5 June 1942 four to understand a new culture and way of life, living fully ‘Aryan’ mother, had survived the war transports with a total of 4,000 Jewish in Austria, told me that Claire had been deported. to endeavour to be accepted but also to men, women and children were taken from realise that you are only tolerated and that My reluctance to make further enquiries was Aspangbahnhof in Vienna to Izbica in Poland. the permission to stay may be conditional or due to a mixture of cowardice and guilt: I was Izbica, of which I had never heard, was a small temporary, afraid of what I was going to hear and I felt partly town with a population before the start of the responsible for her death. Although I had done my to learn not to express your opinions too strongly deportations of 6,000, 90 per cent of whom for fear of being told ‘You can always go back to best to get her to England on a domestic visa, my were Jewish. Not far from Izbica was the death where you came from if you don’t like it here!’, best hadn’t been good enough. I had let her die. camp of Belzec, which operated from 17 March It wasn’t until the 1990s that I, supported by to have the feeling that you must be eternally 1942 to the end of December of that year. In that grateful for the new opportunity and should a Viennese friend, went to see the curator of the period, the Nazis murdered almost half a million therefore keep a low profile, Landstrasser Museum (the museum of the 3rd Jews there. District), who told us that Claire had been taken, They didn’t keep any records at either Izbica to have to work harder than the indigenous from some address in the 9th District, to Izbica population in order to prove your worth, or Belzec so I will never know if Claire died from on 12 May 1942. He gave me a slip of paper on exhaustion, starvation or mistreatment at Izbica to accept the feeling that you will be regarded which he had written the information – which or was gassed at Belzec. It is a fact that none of with some suspicion and perhaps fear, and seen I promptly mislaid. A Freudian slip, no doubt. I as a foreigner and not quite belonging, the 4,000 Viennese Jews taken to Izbica survived. didn’t really want to know. In June this year Vera had a stone laid in to learn to be ‘thick-skinned’ and not to show the Another quarter of a century was to pass memory of her grandparents in front of the house hurt inflicted by some who may see themselves until Vera, an American with very little German, as ‘superior’. where they had lived. It was inscribed with their decided, after the death of both her parents, names and dates and places of birth and the But being an immigrant also means to settle in Vienna to teach English. Vera is the words ‘Vertrieben, beraubt, ermordet’ (Expelled, to come with hope and goodwill and the daughter of Lisl née Schorr, who was my best robbed, murdered). Both Vera’s children and her enthusiasm to create a new life, friend throughout our childhood and adolescence brother came from America for the occasion. and, above all, to offer your own self to new until we both emigrated, she to the USA and I to I won’t have a stone laid for Claire. There is no friends and new challenges. England. Lisl and her parents, Emil and Selma one left to mourn her but me and I need no stone (Herr and Frau Schorr in those formal days when Ruth Schwiening née Auerbach to remind me of her. I remember Mutti. only children were called by their first names), Edith Argy

North West London Outreach Group KT LUNCH Monday 30 November 2015, 12.00 pm Wednesday 18 November 2015 SPECIAL GUEST: MIKE FREER, MP FOR FINCHLEY & GOLDERS GREEN Alyth Gardens Synagogue 12.30 pm Mike Freer was elected Member of Parliament in May 2010 with a majority We are delighted to be joined by David Barnett, who will give a of 5,809 and re-elected in 2015 with 50.9% of the vote and a majority most fascinating talk on the life of Judith Montefiore. of 5,662. Judith Cohen Montefiore was known for her social influence He has lived in Finchley for over 20 years and previously represented and generosity throughout the Jewish community. She married Finchley Church End as a local Councillor. He is a member of Conservative Moses Montefiore in 1812 and they became among the most Friends of Israel, Conservative Muslim Forum, Conservative Friends of well-known members of the Jewish elite. Cyprus, and British Asian Conservative Link. He is also Patron of the local charity Resources for Autism. While they participated in the upper-class Christian society in London, they also devoted much time and resources to Jewish Mike has worked over many years for inter-faith understanding. He was the causes. They helped fund the first settlement for farming in Israel. Chairman of Barnet’s Multi-Faith Forum and a member of both the All-Party They travelled several times to Israel, where they were always well Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism (serving as Vice-President) and received. Judith was acknowledged even by the most observant the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamaphobia. of rabbis and was honoured by taking part in Shabbat services. £7.00 payable at door includes light lunch For details and booking, please contact Susan Harrod at AJR on 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] For details and booking please contact Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] We look forward to seeing you

11 journal NOVEMBER 2015 afternoon and a lovely tea hosted by found out much more about each other Anthea. than hitherto. An altogether uplifting Agnes Isaacs experience. Edith Jayne PINNER Weird and Wonderful Objects INSIDE It wasn’t an instrument of torture but a NEWCASTLE Household Name the spring clamp keeping the map open on Guest speaker Fiona Frank told us that the driver’s knee! This early version of her mission had been to make her aunt satnav was one of many weird objects Hana, who died in 2008 at the age of AJR 100, a household name in her lifetime. displayed by our speaker, Brian Burford. His collection included a gophering iron, The film shown on Hana’s life was KENSINGTON New Group Bonds slave tokens (currency for paying African enjoyed by all, as was Fiona’s talk. The newly formed Kensington Group slaves), a winding apple-peeler, and a Agnes Isaacs met for a splendid afternoon tea at the left-handed mug with a biscuit shelf. home of Lisl Wertheim. Good food and Walter Weg company were enjoyed by all and a true WESSEX Kitchener Camp bond has already been formed between Professor Clare Ungerson gave a talk members of this delightful group. based on her book Four Thousand Lives Susan Harrod NEWCASTLE A Wonderful Film We saw Woman in Gold, a wonderful about the Kitchener Camp. Opened in film that brought back memories for 1939, the Camp was situated close to those who originated in Vienna – or, Sandwich in Kent and became home to EALING From Pogrom to Public indeed, all of us who had had to leave some 4,000 German/Austrian men aged School our homes and lives behind. Helen 17-45. Clare spoke of the fascist element Jenny Manson read out extracts from Mirren played to perfection the role of in Sandwich but said that most local the diaries of her father and her aunt Maria Altmann, a Holocaust survivor residents were kind and generous and relating to 1918-20. Her aunt had who successfully took on the Austrian forged lasting friendships with the men. a traumatic youth in Ukraine, the government over the return of Klimt’s Kathryn Prevezer diaries illustrating the horror of the painting of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer. pogroms she experienced. She escaped Agnes Isaacs to Palestine, where she was taught by GLASGOW Nosh Report Einstein, before moving to England. There was a large turnout for the annual Here she led a very full life, career-wise ESSEX (WESTCLIFF) Intimate Glasgow Yom Tov Nosh held at Agnes’s and as a mother. A most remarkable lady Gathering house. A traditional Yom Tov meal, from who lived to the age of 95. Miriam Kleinman told us Jewish jokes, chicken soup and kneidlach to honey Leslie Sommer while her husband Leslie told us a joke cake, was accompanied by stories of his father had told him when he was old events and discussions about plans the rabbi, mohel and schochet in his for the forthcoming Rosh Hashanah. It BRADFORD CF Wonderful Hospitality hometown of Ombud, Romania, before was a good opportunity both to catch Lily and Albert’s magnificent home was WWII. Herta Vari and Valerie Kutner read up with friends and meet newcomers. the venue for much group discussion poems. I read a lyric entitled ‘If You Wear Anthea Berg and a sumptuously delicious afternoon Blue Jeans’ written by my friend David tea. Our thanks to the Waxmans for their Kwiatkowski. An intimate gathering wonderful hospitality. with smiles and laughter! CAFÉ IMPERIAL The Peaceful 1970s Wendy Bott Larry Lisner Harry Stevens reminisced about his brief time at the Firth of Forth whilst on naval engineering duty. Maureen Rossney ST JOHN’S WOOD A Striking reflected on her dear Harry’s time, also ILFORD Sombre Morning Contrast spent in Scotland, where there was a Kathryn Prevezer took us on an armchair Jenny Manson read extracts from the possibility of forming the Austrian Free tour of WWI cemeteries with the help diary of her aunt, who was living in Army. Religion, the current refugee of outstanding photos she had taken Ukraine in 1918 at the height of the crisis, climate change – it was decided herself. It was sad to see numerous less pogroms, and from the diary of her the 70s had been the most peaceful well-known graveyards and realise how father, who was attending public school period in the lives of those present! many young lives had been lost in those in England in the same period. The Esther Rinkoff hostilities. An interesting if sombre contrast was striking and very moving. morning for us all. Susan Harrod Meta Roseneil BOOK CLUB Strong Opinions As always, ably led by Esther and, as HARROGATE/YORK Uplifting always, a very lively discussion. All GLASGOW BOOK CLUB A Very Good Experience of us have very strong opinions. We Read We met at Edith Jayne’s bungalow for discussed The Woman in the Picture by Naomi Alderman’s Disobedience a most interesting discussion – whom Katherine McMahon and One Night, touched on one or two taboo areas. we would invite to a dinner party (past Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Set in Hendon’s Orthodox community, it or present) and why. Also, as we were Currently we’re reading Elena Ferrante’s was a bit controversial but a very good welcoming a new member, Magda, and My Brilliant Friend. Many thanks to Café read – two very important ingredients Cathy, a volunteer driver, we all told Also for delicious tea and cake. for a book club! A most enjoyable ‘our stories’. For whatever reason, we Ruth Jacobs

12 NOVEMBER 2015 journal Volunteers’ Department sorry to lose Project Co-Ordinators he AJR Volunteers’ Department is very sorry to have to say goodbye Tto two of its Project Co-ordinators, Jonathan Rose and Lesley Woolfe. Jonathan joined the AJR in October 2012 to co-ordinate the Computer Help Project. He was the first person to have sole responsibility for this project and, during the past three years, he has matched over 80 AJR members with trained volunteers. Our members have learnt to use google, to skype, to do their internet shopping, and much more. One member has traced his journey once he arrived in the UK in 1939 using google maps, while another can now order her prescriptions online. He has also arranged for our members from memory loss. The volunteers under Lesley, who is planning to set up her to visit JFS and King Solomon School in Lesley’s supervision offered their clients own charity, has been a real asset to Ilford to meet students and use their a variety of ways to engage with them. the Department and is already missed computer suites; helped many of us in These included ‘painting’ with an iPad, by the volunteers she supported. She is the office with our computer queries; listening to poetry, hand massage, looking continuing her involvement with the AJR and instigated our Facebook page and at photographs, and visiting garden as a volunteer of the service. Twitter account. centres. Since the start of the project, Carol Hart, Head of AJR Volunteer Jonathan plans to develop his own over 60 members have received regular and Community Services business interests now that he has Volunteer Befriender visits. become a dad. Always helpful and always smiling, he will be greatly missed. NOVEMBER GROUP eventS Lesley joined the AJR in February 2013 to launch the Dementia Befriender Service. Kensington 2 Nov Tea-time Social This project, the first of its kind within Ealing 3 Nov Lesley Urbach: ‘Herbert Morrison, Labour MP and the Jewish community, matches trained volunteers with AJR members suffering Campaigner‘ Book Club 4 Nov Social Discussion Didsbury 4 Nov Social Ilford 4 Nov Colin Davey: ‘Jewish Developers in the City of London’ CONTACTS Harrogate/York 5 Nov Speaker: Ian Vellins Pinner 5 Nov Margaret Brearley: ‘Paganisms in Disguise – Wagner’s Wendy Bott Musical Religion’ Northern Groups Co-ordinator Newcastle 8 Nov Chanukah Lunch 07908 156 365 [email protected] HGS 9 Nov ‘The Harmonisers’ (film) Liverpool/Manchester 9 Nov Kristallnacht Service at IWM North Susan Harrod St John’s Wood 10 Nov Charlotte and Tony Balzacs: ‘The Dorice and Other Groups’ Administrator Landmarks’ 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Bromley CF 12 Nov Lunch-time Social Glasgow/Edinburgh 14 Nov Gala Opening of Jewish Film Festival Agnes Isaacs Scotland and Newcastle Groups Brighton 16 Nov Godfrey Gould: ‘Men Who Built the Railways’ Co-ordinator Bristol/Bath 16 Nov Kathryn Prevezer: ‘World War I Batttlefields’ 07908 156 361 [email protected] Edgware 17 Nov Toby Simpson (Wiener Library): ‘Jewish Men in the First World War’ Kathryn Prevezer Essex (Westcliff) 17 Nov ‘Watermarks‘ (film) Southern Groups Co-ordinator Book Club Theatre Outing 18 Nov ‘Gypsy’ 07966 969 951 [email protected] Radlett 18 Nov Paul Lang: ‘Women in Aviation’ Café Imperial 19 Nov Lunch Esther Rinkoff Glasgow Book Club 19 Nov Discussion Southern Groups Co-ordinator Marlow CF 23 Nov Lunch at home of Alan Kaye 07966 631 778 [email protected] Bradford 24 Nov Social at Bradford Synagogue Norfolk 24 Nov Frank Bright, Part 3 and Lunch KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Welwyn GC 25 Nov Susan Cohen, Six Point Foundation Susan Harrod Wembley 25 Nov Kathryn Prevezer: ‘My Trip to WWI Battlefields’ 020 8385 3070 [email protected] North London 26 Nov Colin Davey: ‘Jewish Developers in the City of London’ Harrogate/York 27 Nov Trip to Beth Shalom Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Glasgow 29 Nov Chanukah Lunch with Musical Entertainment Henri Obstfeld by Sheila Osbourne 020 8954 5298 [email protected] North West London 30 Nov Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley

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Were you, or someone you know, WHY NOT TRY AJR’S detained in British detention MEALS ON WHEELS camps on the Isle of Man, Cyprus SERVICE? or Atlit in the 1940s? The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels René Cassin is looking for people who were service delivered to your door once a week. incarcerated in British detention camps on the The meals are freshly cooked every week by Isle of Man, Cyprus and/or Atlit in the 1940s. Kosher to Go. They are then frozen prior to delivery. Are you, or is someone you René Cassin is a human rights charity that The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal know, a Jewish Holocaust uses Jewish experience and values to advocate (soup, main course, desert) plus a £1 survivor in financial difficulty? for universal human rights, particularly on delivery fee. issues – such as discrimination, asylum, Our aim is to bring good food to your door Six Point Foundation gives grants to help with genocide and modern slavery – that strongly without the worry of shopping or cooking. all kinds of one-off expenses such as home resonate with Jewish history. We take pride in our role of introducing a ‘Jewish voice’ to For further details, please call adaptations, medical bills, travel costs and the promotion of human rights for all people. AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070. temporary care. Today many refugees, who are escaping from countries where they are facing unprecedented We help UK-resident Jewish Holocaust levels of persecution, war or genocide and CLASSIFIED survivors/refugees with less than £10k p.a. are looking to Britain for refuge asylum, in income (excluding pensions/social security) JOSEPH PEREIRA are being detained. and less than £32k in assets (excluding primary We would like to hear your personal story. (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) is residence/car). We hope to use your story to underline the now available for DIY repairs and ‘shared experience’ that asylum seekers and general maintenance. For information please contact The Association refugees in the UK today share with those No job too small, who escaped the inferno in Europe and were very reasonable rates. of Jewish Refugees on 020 8385 3070. detained in the UK, Cyprus or Atlit. It is Please telephone 07966 887 485. important that these experiences and stories [email protected] are shared with the Jewish community in www.sixpointfoundation.org.uk Britain and this will help us to strengthen our work promoting the rights of, and improving the conditions for, asylum seekers in the UK JACKMAN . today. SILVERMAN If you would like to share your story with spring grove us, please email [email protected] London’s Most Luxurious or call us on 020 7443 5130. RETIREMENT HOME 214 Finchley Road COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS London NW3

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14 NOVEMBER 2015 journal ObituarIES Frederick Hugh ‘Freddie’ Edwards, born Düsseldorf 26 April 1922, died Wokingham, Berkshire, 20 August 2015 rederick Hugh ‘Freddie’ Edwards was Frederick Edwards was He was delighted on the one of ‘the King’s most loyal enemy born Fritz Ludwig Meyer in occasion of the 50th anniversary aliens’ (as they were described by Dr Düsseldorf in 1922. His parents of the Normandy landings in HelenF Fry in her book on the subject) and, were Katya and Wilhelm Meyer. 1994 to be invited by the Royal as a German subject, served with distinction His comfortable middle-class British Legion to take part in the in the British Army during the Second upbringing darkened after commemorative events and sailed World War. Hitler came to power and life with the Legion on board the Edwards took part in the Normandy became increasingly difficult SS Canberra. As he related campaign, initially in the construction of for Jews in Germany. His only afterwards, he was one of Bailey bridges, and later, as the need for brother died in a hit-and-run the few – possibly the only native German speakers was identified, road accident outside their – German present who had as a member of the Military Government home which, perhaps because of served in the British Army. The looking for Nazis in newly taken German the family’s Jewish background, commemorations also brought towns and villages. He had numerous narrow was never fully investigated. Edwards’s parents to mind his time building Bailey bridges escapes from death during the fighting and, arranged for their surviving son to be moved in Normandy, when the work was assisted as the advance continued into Germany, to England to study at Weymouth College by numerous German prisoners who were personally witnessed the liberation of Belsen for Boys, where he did very well. His parents surprised to be confronted by fully armed and Fallingbostel concentration camps. were able to join him from Germany in 1938 British soldiers speaking in German with Subsequently he was transferred and they purchased the family home in north Berlin, Viennese and Rhineland accents. temporarily to the US Army at Bremerhaven London, where Edwards was to live for the The prisoners imagined them to be deserters and was in charge of repatriating people of rest of his life. After the defeat of France but, of course, that was far from the truth. many nationalities, many of whom had many ‘enemy aliens’, including Edwards and Nonetheless, Fritz Ludwig Meyer had been used as slave labour. He humorously his father, were interned on the Isle of Man. become Frederick Hugh Edwards before recounted how one morning a queue of Happily this did not last long and, at the age the Normandy campaign began, after advice young German women, some with children of 18, Edwards joined up in October 1940. from the War Office that Germans fighting or heavily pregnant, arrived before him and After the War, in common with many in the British Army should anglicise their declared that they wanted to go with their demobbed soldiers, he found (and this was a names for, if captured and their true identity men (non-German nationals who were being tale he would recount with wry humour) that uncovered, they would very likely have repatriated) to their countries but under the his wartime experience counted for little in been shown little mercy by their German Nazi regime they were not allowed to marry the world of commerce. He applied for, and captors. The surname was chosen in memory such ‘inferior men’. Edwards advised the was offered, a job at Frederick Eisner Limited, of Edward’s grandfather Eduard but was women that the Nazi regime was no more exporters, importers and manufacturers’ frequently a cause of humour when he was and that they should go to the registrar’s agents, in Regent Street but, as he ‘had no asked if he was of Welsh origin! office to marry the men of their choice. commercial experience’, his salary was set at a After the death of his mother in 1989, After hostilities ceased he was transferred mere £3 per week. This, for a young man of Freddie remained in the family home but to the Military Government in Oldenburg Edward’s background and skills, might have enjoyed many trips abroad, particularly to as Chief Interpreter at the British Military been deflating but he took, with humour, the Germany, Switzerland and Austria, where Government Court and spent a year acting underassessment of his skills, and the job. It he would climb the hills and mountains as an interpreter in the War Crimes Trials. It wasn’t long, however, before he set up in the he had loved as a boy. He spent the last 16 was only after his release from the army in City on his own as an export and import agent months of his life at Glebelands Care Home September 1946 that he was granted British and remained successfully in that business for in Wokingham. nationality. the remainder of his working life. Peter McGeown

Eva Weill (née Matzdorf), born Berlin 24 December 2014, died Munich 2 August 2015 y Aunt Eva came to England English society, which had links with the Majesty The Queen. from Germany in February 1939 British Consulate. My aunt suffered from dementia for the with her sister Hilda, my mother. On 24 December 2014 she celebrated last seven years or so, although she seemed to SheM actually met her husband via the AJR her 100th birthday. Two days earlier Frau recognise my mother and myself. After a fall Journal. Ben Weill, a widower, put an advert Reiter, the wife of the Oberbürgermeister in January 2010 she needed full-time carers in the Journal to meet a fellow of Munich, came to her in her flat. In May 2015 she fell and broke refugee. In December 1955 flat with presents and a her hip. She had a successful hip replacement they married in Leeds. In 1970, letter from her husband. and came home again but she never fully when Ben retired, they moved On the day of her birthday, recovered from the accident. My mother and to Munich. Mr Heardman, the British I visited her in early July. In Munich Eva became a Consul in Munich, came to We were a very close family. My aunt was leading light in running the present her with the special very fond of her sister and especially myself. women’s group of the German- birthday card from Her Lydia Tichauer

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getting into the good books of the Great Accountant in the sky). I live just outside Jerusalem so am Dorothea Shefer-Vanson somewhat cut off from the events in the city, and even more so from those in the Tel Aviv area, but I gather from the media Whatever floats your boat that the situation is pretty much the same hroughout the month of September won’t go so far as to call on my compatriots in those places. The fact that some Jews Jews all over the world celebrated to abandon all that silliness and regard chose to use the occasion to go up on the their high holy days followed by simple residence in Israel as sufficient proof Temple Mount and some Arabs chose to Tthe harvest festival of Sukkot, the Festival of their allegiance to the Jewish nation, but react to this by resorting to violence has of Booths. nor will I consider myself to be in any way left me wondering what each set of people Living in Israel one is unable to escape inferior to those who adhere to every jot was thinking would be the outcome of being bombarded by media coverage of and tittle of what they consider to be Jewish their actions. the holidays, whether religious or secular, observance (and on which no two Jews are Now we learn that certain elements though a large segment of the population in agreement anyway). are aspiring to build the third temple in uses the opportunity to escape all this However, time, age, cynicism and the Jerusalem. Bearing in mind the fact that by going abroad. Of course, the fact that increasing awareness that certain elements the second temple was built by a tyrannical schools and many places of work are closed are making use of the Jewish religion for non-Jewish ruler and was destroyed for much of this period makes going their own ends, whether ideological or primarily because of internal strife within away even more attractive as no gainful political, have caused me to feel more than the Jewish population, this does not bode employment or vacation time is lost. a little disillusionment with the idea of well for Israel’s future, with or without a When I first came to live in Israel, ‘togetherness’ and ‘unity’ that the festivals temple. I find it difficult to believe that over 50 years ago, I found the festive once aroused in me. in this day and age there are people who atmosphere, the messages and programmes On Yom Kippur the population of Israel would happily revive the practice of animal broadcast over the radio (there was no is divided into two clear-cut camps – those sacrifice simply because that was done TV here then) and the feeling that the who dress in white, spend the day fasting 2,000 years ago. But then, what is the whole country was united in celebrating and going to synagogue, on the one hand, hope for a society based on practices and the festivals enjoyable, even inspiring. and those who may or may not fast and principles that are over 2,000 years old? I also realised that whereas in the dress in white but get out onto the roads on Fortunately, and going against all diaspora one needs to belong to a Jewish their bicycles, skateboards and other similar the Jeremiahs, the majority of Israel’s community in order to preserve one’s means of purely muscle-driven wheeled population is still avowedly secular. One Jewish identity, in Israel this is no longer transportation, on the other. Of course, if can only hope that the pernicious electoral necessary. The festivals are marked as a you don’t own a bicycle or skateboard you system that allows the minority to impose matter of course and simply by living in can simply go out and stroll around and its will on the majority because of the Israel I demonstrate that I belong to the enjoy the party atmosphere, though that’s need to form coalition governments will Jewish nation. My logical conclusion was hardly in the spirit of the day on which one day be amended to enable a more that there’s no need to bother any more one is supposed to engage in soul-searching accurate reflection of the composition of with all the niceties of Jewish observance. I and seeking forgiveness for one’s sins (and the country.

 letters to the editor cont. from p.7 be interested in joining me for this event. past occasions, over 2,000 people have was asked to start a clinic at the Stoke This year, it is taking place at the Hilton attended and all had an enjoyable few Mandeville Hospital, where he treated in Birmingham from Friday to Wednesday, days in good company. soldiers with spinal injuries. 24-30 December. I have been told that Meta Roseneil, Buckhurst Hill, Essex These patients were previously coaches will be laid on for participants described as ‘cripples’. Instead, he named from all over the UK and that many ‘THE BEST OF MEN‘ them ‘the best of men’ and insisted on interesting sessions will be on offer as Sir – Reading the obituaries honouring sport and physical exercises to help them well as the amenities of the hotel. The various people in the AJR Journal made recover. He then became the founder of slogan this year is ‘Refreshingly different, me think of the BBC film ‘The Best of Men‘ the Paralympic Games. Eventually he was reassuringly Limmud’. (2012), which was recently shown on honoured throughout the world and was The end of December is a dreary time Canadian TV. It is the story of Dr Ludwig knighted by the Queen in 1966. – with dark evenings, bleak weather, and Guttmann, the German-Jewish doctor who All this impressed me deeply and very old films on TV to bore us. Limmud is was recognised as a leading neurosurgeon I thought it might be worthwhile to the answer to this desolate time, especially and had to flee from Nazi Germany. He mention this fantastic human being, who for anyone on their own. managed to come to England shortly showed that by courage and willpower It would be a distinct pleasure if some before the outbreak of the Second World one can do something good. I wish there AJR members could join me for what War. There he continued his research into were many more people like him. should be a memorable experience. On the field of spinal injuries and in 1943 he Kitty Schafer, Toronto, Canada

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

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