VOLUME 19 NO.3 MARCH 2019 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees

A Synagogue for REMEMBER & REFLECT This month we celebrate the Refugees amazing work of Josiah Wedgwood, preview a landmark event about the Kindertransport, and share This month the Belsize Square Synagogue celebrates its 80th more insights into the year-long Insiders/Outsiders festival. birthday, a milestone in the history of the Jewish refugee Holocaust Memorial Day features community. Later this year, the AJR – which has maintained close prominently and we invite readers to cultural links with the Belsize Square community throughout the last look at the latest plans for the new Holocaust Memorial and Learning eight decades – will place the next in a series of special plaques on Centre. A powerful report of a recent visit to Poland provides sobering the site of the Synagogue at 51 Belsize Square. context for these initiatives.

We hope you find these articles interesting and, as always, look forward to receiving your comments.

News...... 3 Josiah Wedgwood...... 4-5 Letters to the Editor...... 6 Remembering & Rethinking...... 7 Art Notes...... 8 Sustaining the Ben Uri...... 9 Stick to the guidebook...... 10 Designed by Refugees...... 11 Reviews...... 12 Holocaust Memorial Day...... 13 Poland through fresh eyes...... 14 Letter from Israel...... 15 Obituaries...... 16 Looking for...... 17 Around the AJR...... 18 Adverts...... 19 The 2018 wedding of musical director of Belsize Square Synagogue, Dr Benjamin Wolf and Events & Exhibitions...... 20 his bride Rebekka, taken in front of the beautiful Aron ha’Kodesh

Jonathan Wittenberg begins his Holy Ark was broken: the Torah scrolls AJR Team fascinating book, Walking with the had been stolen.” Chief Executive Michael Newman Light (2013), with his grandfather’s Finance Director David Kaye detailed and haunting account of the His grandfather was Rabbi Dr George Heads of Department synagogue in Frankfurt as it was left Salzberger. A few days later he was Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws after Kristallnacht: “It offered a picture arrested and sent to Dachau where he HR & Administration Karen Markham of terrifying devastation. The great was regularly beaten. He never spoke Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart candelabrum lay on the floor, smashed to his family about his terrible ordeal in AJR Journal into a thousand pieces. The benches, Dachau. At home, his daughters were Editor Jo Briggs the lecterns, the pulpit where I had so forced to throw their family prayer books Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy Contributing Editor David Herman often stood, the glorious organ, the out of the window. Six months later Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira cantor’s prayer desk were all burnt. The Continued on page 2

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A Synagogue for Refugees comments of some members at Board Alexander would carry the scroll to every meetings were still recorded in German as service and carry it home afterwards. (cont.) late as the early 1960s. Rabbi Salzberger and his family managed The Synagogue didn’t move to 51 Belsize to escape from Nazi Germany and arrived There was something else Germanic about Square until 1951 when the Church in England in April 1939. the feel of the BSS. Godfrey tells a story Commissioners of St. Peters Church of Cantor Davidsohn going to the nearby sold the old Vicarage and some of the That Spring the first Friday night services Cosmo restaurant for his lunch. A waitress adjacent land for £6,750. Until then it took place at what was to become Belsize recognised him from Berlin. “How are had a peripatetic existence, moving from Square Synagogue, organised by a group you Magnus?” she said. “To you I am still one location to another around Belsize of German refugees. With the assistance Oberkantor Davidsohn,” he replied. Park. It changed name several times of the redoubtable Miss Lily Montagu and only became the Belsize Square they took place in the Montefiore Hall, Most important of all, the BSS was Synagogue in 1971. next door to the LJS, opposite Lord’s the first and only British synagogue in Cricket Ground. She was one of the key what is known as the Liberale tradition Change was slow. When Rabbi Salzberger figures in the early history of the newly within German Judaism, influenced retired at the end of 1956 he was named New Liberal Jewish Association by the ideas of Franz Rosenzweig and succeeded by another German refugee, and became its first Chairman. Leo Baeck. What also distinguished the Jacob Jankel Kokotek, who had studied in Liberale services was the importance of Breslau. Gradually the founding members The first six services were each conducted music, especially of 19th century German of the synagogue, nearly all German- by a different rabbi. All were German Romantic composers like Lewandowski speaking Jewish refugees, have been refugees. Rabbi Dr Werner van der Zyl, and Sulzer, performed by cantor, full choir joined by many families of non-German who had studied with Leo Baeck, had and organ accompaniment. origin. In particular, the rabbis have been a rabbi in Berlin. He later became changed. Rabbi Kokotek was succeeded a founder and President of Leo Baeck For the founding members of the by Rabbi Rodney Mariner, from Australia, College. Rabbi Rudolph Brasch and Rabbi Synagogue, it was a home from home, who became the longest serving rabbi Manfred Swarsenski were also both from an important connection with the in the history of the Belsize Square Berlin, Rabbi Bruno Italiener was from homeland they had been forced to Synagogue. Rodney Mariner brought Hamburg and Rabbi Salzberger (who leave. One cannot understand the huge with him a less formal and remote style presided over the service on 28 April) emotional attachment they felt for their than his two German predecessors. from Frankfurt. It was Salzberger who new synagogue without appreciating its Salzberger was almost sixty when he became the first rabbi of what was to place in their experience of exile. At a became Rabbi at BSS. Mariner was barely become the Belsize Square Synagogue. time of such displacement and loss, the forty. Salzberger had studied at the Synagogue represented continuity: the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg and Most of the people who attended the first Lewandowski liturgy, the Hebrew text, had been awarded the Iron Cross during service were also from Germany and this is Salzberger’s sermons in German and the WW1. Mariner, by contrast, left school what gave the Belsize Square Synagogue glorious choir and organ accompaniment. at fifteen and worked in engineering and (BSS) its unique feel. It was a synagogue as a schoolteacher before he became a for German-Jewish refugees and both Jonathan Wittenberg describes how at rabbi. Another non-German, Rabbi Dr its first two rabbis, Salzberger and Jakob the end of his life Rabbi Salzberger spoke Stuart Altshuler, born in Los Angeles, Kokotek, were Germans. The BSS’s first of “his threefold loyalty, to Judaism, his succeeded Mariner in 2011. non-German rabbi was not appointed until spiritual home, to Germany, his cultural the 1980s, when Rabbi Rodney Mariner home, and to England, which had saved his The story of the Belsize Square took over. Shards of stained glass from life and the lives of his family.” Frankfurt Synagogue is an important part of a one of the stained windows of the Neue was not just his home. It was where much larger story: how German-Jewish Synagogue in Berlin were later displayed in Goethe had been born and where Franz refugees came to north London and the foyer at 51 Belsize Square, a symbol of Rosenzweig and Martin Buber began their found a new home and identity there. It the connection between Germany’s dark German translation of the Hebrew Bible. has undergone many changes in its first past and the BSS. Frankfurt was part of that extraordinary eighty years. But there are important synthesis of Jewish and German culture continuities also. An expanded synagogue It was this which gave the BSS its which fed into the history of the BSS. hall in a new extension were added to distinctive atmosphere. In 1942 the New the existing building and opened in 2010. Liberal Jewish Congregation (as it had This continuity is symbolised by the story The opening address was given by Rabbi now become) held a fund-raising concert of the Alexander family Torah scroll. It Jonathan Wittenberg, Rabbi Salzberger’s at the Wigmore Hall. The programme is had been in the Alexander family since grandson. “This community,” he said, revealing, with music by Beethoven, Liszt the 18th century and Antony Godfrey “has a unique and deeply important and Brahms. This was 19th century central writes how, when the Alexanders fled identity. Its beginnings lie in the raw European Kultur transplanted to London. from Germany, devoted staff members hearts of refugees, a remnant of great In Three Rabbis in a Vicarage (2005), packed up their belongings and sent them continental congregations, who left his history of the BSS, Antony Godfrey to England, including the Alexander scroll, everything behind…” describes how Religion classes were carefully wrapped and hidden under conducted in German until 1952 and the some books. Dr Alfred and Mrs Henny David Herman

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Proposed view of the HOLOCAUST new UKHM in Victoria Gardens, looking south MEMORIAL PLANS

The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation invites AJR members to review its planning application for the new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre at Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.

Lord Pickles, who co-chairs the “At the core of the proposed Holocaust hatred and intolerance can lead if UKHMF along with Ed Balls, told the Memorial and Learning Centre is a left unchecked – a lesson that is AJR Journal: “The Holocaust had commitment to learn from this darkest vital given recent rises in reported a huge impact on Britain – we are chapter in our history, to ensure that antisemitism. the nation of Kindertransport and everyone has an opportunity to explore liberation; of post-war survival and the universal lessons of the Holocaust. “Our planning application now reconciliation. But it is only right been submitted to Westminster City to explore what more could have “To achieve this we will provide Council and each of us now has a been done to protect the Jewish a Holocaust education resource chance to say why we believe this communities of Europe from murder for people of all ages, faiths and memorial should be built at the very at the hands of the Nazi state. backgrounds, to increase awareness heart of our national life.”

The consultation on the planning application is available on the council’s website at the following link. HOW TO https://idoxpa.westminster.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails. SUBMIT do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=PL0CVYRP27O00&prevPage=inTray You can also write a letter to the council c/o David Doward at the following address. Include the YOUR planning reference 19/00114/FULL in your letter.

VIEWS Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QP

UK ANTISEMITISM AT RECORD HIGH Unveiling of AJR Plaque in memory of Professor Sir Ernst Chain FRS The number of antisemitic hate of Israel and Gaza, during those (1906 – 1979) incidents recorded in the UK rose months. Nobel Prize Winner, 1945, for the discovery of penicillin by 16 per cent in 2018, the third and its curative effect in various infectious diseases. year in a row to see a record Forty-five per cent of the Founder Imperial College’s Biochemistry Department, 1964 total of incidents, according incidents recorded by CST to figures released by the in 2018 involved the use of Community Security Trust (CST). extremist language or imagery, and 456 of these involved CST recorded 1,652 antisemitic language or imagery relating to incidents nationwide in 2018. the far right or the Nazi period, The highest monthly totals Almost a quarter of all incidents in 2018 came in May, with involved social media in some 182 incidents; April, with 151 form. The most common single incidents; August, with 150 type of incident involved verbal incidents; and September, with abuse randomly directed at visibly Tuesday 9 April 2019 148 incidents. It is likely that Jewish people in public. In fact at these higher monthly totals were a total of 724 incidents involved Sir Ernst Chain Building partly caused by reactions to verbal antisemitic abuse. Imperial College London, political events in the UK and South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ overseas, involving the Labour You can view the full report on Please contact Susan Harrod on Party and violence on the border www.cst.org.uk 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected] for details.

3 AJR Journal | March 2019 ‘For our honour’s A portrait of Josiah Wedgwood sake we dare not 1872 – 1943 keep them out’ – Josiah Wedgwood, March 1938

Josiah Wedgwood (1872-1943), the great-great-grandson of the potter of the same name, was the Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyne, 1909-1942.

After representing the Liberal Party and them’. Britain, he declared, needed to ‘show personal or compassionate reasons. Entry then sitting as an Independent Radical MP, the world what was decent behaviour and did not become easier as the persecution he joined the Labour Party in 1919. He was their reprobation of what was not decent grew in Germany and spread to Austria elevated to the Peerage in 1942, sitting behaviour.’ and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939 in the House of Lords until he died in July respectively, although certain additional 1943. On 13 April 1933, speaking in the House of categories of people were allowed Commons, he suggested that it was Britain’s temporary asylum such as those ready to be During his parliamentary career Wedgwood duty to grant hospitality to the oppressed domestic servants, unaccompanied children campaigned on issues such as home whatever ’the Prussian Aryan may feel about and in the case of Czechoslovakia, political rule for India, the creation of a British the Jews, or the peace-mongers or even the refugees. Britain’s national interests were put Commonwealth based on shared principles Socialists.’ Just over a month later the Home ahead of humanitarianism before and during of democracy and equality, the taxation of Secretary did not respond when Wedgwood WW2. Wedgwood did not, he declared in land value, the creation of a biographical asked whether the British government was July 1936, ‘like the part which England had dictionary of Members of Parliament, going to do anything to help the people played in the refugee question.’ Despite his and the establishment of a Jewish state in who were being persecuted in Germany to ceaseless efforts on behalf of the persecuted Palestine as part of a British Commonwealth. escape even though their situation worsened Jews and socialists, his opinion was not to In March 1936 the Jewish Chronicle called each day. He continued to make such change over the remaining seven years of Wedgwood ‘one of the earliest and most statements and ask parliamentary questions his life. zealous friends of the Zionist cause’ and up to and beyond the start of the Second thanked him ‘from our hearts’. World War. He asked for visas on behalf Wedgwood disliked injustice and cruelty of individuals as the war drew nearer. His and in November 1933 he told a meeting Wedgwood became one of the most last appeal, before the outbreak of war on that he saw all that was going on in determined opponents of appeasement 3 September 1939, for a permit for a Frau Germany as ‘a vast moral evil violating after Hitler became Chancellor in January Lasmann, destitute in Poland after being justice.’ And 30 months later he described 1933. He vociferously campaigned for expelled from Germany, was turned down. Germany as a country without justice where those seeking to escape persecution in people seemed to have been transported Nazi-occupied Europe to be given refuge However, Wedgwood was always going back to the fifteenth century. While the in the Colonies and Palestine and Britain. to have little success in his efforts to government’s position was that asylum This article focuses on his calls that the Jews secure refuge for the Jews as Britain’s could only be given if it was in the country’s be allowed into Britain between 1933 and immigration policy, established by the interests, Wedgwood believed that one the outbreak of the Second World War in 1905 Aliens Act and the 1919 Aliens should ‘do justice though the Heavens fall… September 1939. Restrictions Amendment Act, ruled out the it ought not to be a question of expediency entry of aliens for permanent settlement. but of justice.’ One could, he continued, At the end of March 1933 Wedgwood, There was no legal obligation on the justify any actions in the interests of the addressing a meeting of the Anglo- government to admit refugees. The only state, ‘people had been burned at the stake Palestinian Club, urged Britain to welcome people allowed permanent entry were in the interests of the state.’ In May 1934, he and absorb the persecuted Jews of Europe those whose presence offered some benefit told the House of Commons ‘I am not pro- and to make ‘Palestine a haven of peace for to the country, or people with strong Jew, but pro-English, I set a higher value on

4 AJR Journal | March 2019 the reputation of England all over the world House that there were thousands of people for justice than for anything else.’ who were huddling in doorways, hoping to come to England; yet the restrictions made Wedgwood regularly argued that Britain had it impossible for anyone without money or to help the Jews for the sake of its reputation contacts to get out. Given that the Nazis Josiah for hospitality, generosity and liberty, telling had taken away the Jews’ money, he asked Wedgwood MPs in April 1933 ‘Get these people in, ‘What can we expect these millions of poor and get them here to strengthen our home people to do?’ and our love of liberty.’ After Germany’s annexation of Austria in March 1938, He was infuriated when the government Wedgwood proposed that Austrian Jews blamed the voluntary groups involved be allowed into Britain and be naturalised. with the refugees for any failures in He reminded his fellow MPs that while they the immigration system, telling MPs in were sitting there in peace, all Jews, rich as April 1936 ‘There is too much of this Committee on Refugees. Wedgwood well as poor, were suffering terribly and gave desperate attempt by the Government to continued to campaign for the Jews after an example of a Jewish woman being made put the blame on somebody else. They the outbreak of the war, particularly arguing to scrub the streets with her tongue while are responsible for the visas and for the that they should be allowed into Palestine. crowds of Austrians looked on and jeered. conditions under which these people come Together with Eleanor Rathbone he led ‘We cannot conceive of these things...for our to this country.’ the calls for the end of internment of the honour’s sake we dare not keep them out.’ refugees detained in Britain, Austria and His proposal was rejected by the House. Wedgwood himself paid the guarantees Canada. for over 200 individuals of £50 each A year later, in a speech described by the (approximately £3200 in today’s money) While a Foreign Office official wrote that Sheffield Telegraph as ‘notable for its and housed many at his home in Wedgwood was hopelessly unbalanced undercurrent of emotion’, Wedgwood read Staffordshire. Dr Theresa Steuer, an Austrian on the subject of supporting the Jews, out a letter from a young Jewish Viennese refugee who, along with her husband, was the United Jewry Fellowship called him woman pleading for a telegraphed visa guaranteed by Wedgwood, paid tribute to ‘one of their greatest non-Jewish friends for herself and her four-year-old child. Her him at public meetings on several occasions. in the British Parliament’. And Dr Joshua husband was in a concentration camp and The biography of Gabriella Auspitz Labaon, Stein writes that ‘it is certainly likely that they were without money or food. ‘People a Jewish woman from the Carpathian Wedgwood’s constant harping helped to like these,’ Wedgwood exclaimed, needed Mountains whom he saved together with establish a climate whereby it became more to be given refuge and ‘not allowed to die of her brother, is entitled, My Righteous acceptable to help the Jews.’ starvation ... Surely, we in this country might Gentile: Lord Wedgwood and other do something to help these people here,’ Memories. In it she writes extremely warmly Like Eleanor Rathbone, Wedgwood’s name he begged. ‘To do nothing and leave these about Wedgwood’s hospitality and support and efforts on behalf of European Jews people to die or languish in concentration for her. deserves to be remembered and honoured camps because no country would take them by the Jewish community. Unfortunately it is in time should fill the average Englishman In May 1934 Wedgwood was founding not, while the image of the generosity of the with a feeling of pity and shame.’ In another chairman of the German Refugee Hospitality British government continues to be upheld. speech, he said that if people actually saw Committee. From December 1938 he sat the Jews begging in Regent Street he was on the newly established Parliamentary Lesley Urbach sure ‘the heart and conscience of England would be moved to do better than we are doing.’

Wedgwood believed that refugees and immigrants benefited the country and he described the view that refugees would take jobs and food from British people as ridiculous, uncharitable and ignorant. He pointed out on several occasions that refugees created as many jobs as they took. ‘It is not by national selfishness that the problem of unemployment will be solved,’ he wrote in March 1939.

Wedgwood condemned Britain’s restrictive immigration policy and the blockages in the system which slowed down or prevented the entry of the desperate refugees. In April 1939, referring to one of the many people A poster for a film based on the life of Gabriella Auspitz Labaon, who was among the many he could not help, Wedgwood told the Jews directly helped by Lord Wedgwood

5 AJR Journal | March 2019 Letters to the Editor The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence submitted for publication.

FROM TOASTERS TO POSTERS this little bit of family history to the pages INSIDERS/OUTSIDERS (February) (February) of the AJR Journal. In his erudite leading article David In writing about the refugee contribution Ernest Kochmann, West Bridgford, Notts. Herman draws attention to the planned to British life I do hope that the late Martin Festival to honour the contribution of Esslin will not be forgotten. He was born Jewish refugees to British life. in Hungary but his spiritual home was CZECH MATES (February) Vienna. As a young man he worked In response to Mr. Taussig’s mention We, largely of central or eastern with Max Reinhardt. Later, as head of of the Winton transports and later the European origin, normally regard the BBC’s radio drama department, Czechoslovak Kinderstransport children ourselves as “The Jewish Refugees” he introduced British listeners to many from Prague, I wish to point out that these even in the second and third generation previously unknown continental authors – are, of course, the same transports. As a but in this country there are also including Bertolt Brecht. “Winton child” I am concerned that there numbers of South African Jews who should be no confusion. escaped the intolerable political pressures Esslin (who was a personal friend and of their homeland. Many attained high introduced me to the BBC) offered the The 669 children saved by Nicky Winton status here in medicine, the arts and publisher George Weidenfeld a book and his associates were not part of in communal life. Should they not be he proposed to write about Brecht. the British 10,000 Kinderstransport included and honoured in our list? Weidenfeld declined saying “You and programme. Indeed children from the Hans L Eirew, Manchester I know and admire Brecht but here, in rump of Bohemia and Moravia after England, nobody has ever heard of him.” Munich were deliberately excluded: entry Esslin found another publisher! conditions for Kindertransport children KINDERTRANSPORT Peter Fraenkel (Retired Controller, BBC differed from those brought in through ‘COMPENSATION’ European Services) London EC2 the Winton mission. After endless postponements of the Tom Schrecker, Prague, Czech Republic compensation amount, the German government has at last announced that UNCOVERING YORKSHIRE’S … all living Kinder will receive a one-time SCHINDLER? LETTER FROM ISRAEL (February) amount of €2500 each. It is obvious that I found the February article on David I read Dorothea Shefer-Vanson’s Letter had it been paid at inception, it would Makofski very interesting as I only knew from Israel about who is a Holocaust have been very much greater. Yet even that my father, Max Kochmann, came to survivor with great interest. The late Otto taking account of inflation, the total the UK in early ‘39 under an apprentice Deutsch told me that he did not consider compensation would have been infinitely scheme offered to him in Leeds but knew himself a Holocaust survivor as he came smaller than the value Germany robbed nothing more. This prompted me to to England on the Kindertransport. He from the Kinder, not to mention other email an enquiry to the Leeds Archives. considered himself a refugee from his Jews in Germany and Austria. much loved home city of Vienna. He saw They asked for his date of birth and then Hitler, a fellow Austrian, march into their Based on inflation rates since WW2, sent confirmation showing his home country with his Nazi troops. Otto had a €2,500 would now be worth almost address in Berlin which coincided with my great respect for those who had survived €106 million per Kind! And €1,060 grandparents address there. He was offered ‘the Camps’ like my dad, Emil Stein, and million for 10,000 Kinder. The grand an apprenticeship at J Salinsky & Sons Ltd, David Kutner, who both attended local sum of it would not only break my but my father never went to Leeds once AJR meetings in Westcliff. calculator, but all our hearts, to state he arrived in England, having found an the amount, the German government engineering job in Welwyn Garden City It is really sad that antisemitism is raising would have to pay for our six million!! with another refugee enterprise. its head in the UK and around the world. I share Otto’s opinion about who is a Our people were worth that sum I have requested a digital copy of the Holocaust survivor, but more important to the Germans to pay for their record (for which they charge £7.80) for we are all fellow Jews who are just a war! In contrast, the measly €2,500 my own archives: All sorted within two quarter of one per cent of the world’s ‘compensation’ is being paid far too days. A great service and all done from population. We should stand shoulder to late to most of us, and is an insult of the home computer. It really brings home shoulder in these much troubled times, in the highest order. It was Hitler’s grand how valuable David Makofski’s work was the knowledge that we have ‘the right of strategy, realising that the rest of the in giving so many young people under return’ to Israel, which sadly we did not world would not be too bothered at the Nazi persecution an escape route. have during WW2, with the loss of six loss of Jewish lives! But they paid in the million men, women & children. end for their ignorance, as the result. Thank you Diane McKaye for bringing Larry Lisner, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex Fred Stern, London

6 AJR Journal | March 2019 REMEMBERING & RETHINKING

Eighty years after the British Britain on the Kindertransport. Hella Pick, An academic conference, operation to provide a safe haven the trailblazing foreign correspondent for Kindertransport Symposium – 80 The Guardian will discuss her life’s work, years On: Critical Approaches for 10,000 unaccompanied child and Melissa Hacker of the Kindertransport to Kindertransport Research and refugees from Nazism, how should Association will highlight many other Historiography, was held on 22- the Kindertransport be remembered? individuals’ stories. 24 January 2019 at the Centre for Advanced Studies, University College This is the central question that will AJR chief executive Michael Newman London. Approximately 90 people bring together experts, eyewitnesses explains: “Through this forum we hope to attended the three-day symposium, and stakeholders from numerous build bridges between scholars, educators, which involved 11 different panel practitioners, policy makers and those who discussions with speakers from the countries, when the AJR hosts may have a more personal or tangential USA, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Remembering & Rethinking: interest in the subject. We hope that many Israel, The Netherlands, India, AJR members and friends will take advantage The international forum on the Germany and Italy, as well as the UK. of this opportunity to work together to Kindertransport at 80. remember and rethink policy.” According to AJR member and former Kind, Professor Robert This landmark event, co-sponsored by the UK Central to this rethinking, Michael Shaw, attended the event: “The special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, The explains, is the need to consider the Symposium was refreshingly wide- Rt Hon. The Lord Pickles, will take place from contemporary relevance of the history of the ranging, not just a glorification of 15-16 April at the prestigious Lancaster House Kindertransport. Many of the organisations the humanitarian aspects of saving with a programme sure to interest many AJR that the AJR supports through its educational 10,000 innocent young lives, but also members. grant making programme will be represented, showing the emotional sufferings including the Holocaust Educational Trust, of young children wrest from their Speakers will shed light on lesser known The National Holocaust Centre and the parents and thrust into a country, strands of the history of the Kindertransport. Wiener Library. Particular attention will whose language and customs many Author Louise London will discuss the be paid to how our understanding of the did not understand.” Professor evolution of Government policy that led Kindertransport can contribute to today’s Shaw said he “…was quite intrigued to the Kindertranport. Dutch Filmmakers policies towards refugees. One special guest by the number of speakers doing Pamela Sturhoofd and Jessica van Tijn will will be Mark Hetfield, President of the their PhDs on the Kindertransport, preview their work to bring the story of HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Holocaust and related Studies. Truus Wijsmuller – an instrumental figure in Society), whose work to provide support for Large numbers of current refugees, organising the Kindertransport – to a wider refugees in America tragically came to light many unaccompanied minors, are audience. And Anna Hajkova will discuss following the recent shooting at the Tree of desperately trying to find a safe her research into Marie Schmolka, a central Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. place of refuge. Thus what has been figure in the effort to rescue Jewish children in Hetfield will be joined by some of his British learned, and is still being learnt, from Czechoslovakia. counterparts, including Barbara Winton, the the Kindertransport, both good and campaigner and daughter of Sir Nicholas not so good, has beneficial relevance Another emphasis will be on the noteworthy Winton, and representatives from Safe for the future.” accomplishments of those who came to Passage UK.

Registration & fees:

Two days: £60 / £40 concessions (students, AJR members) 15 – 16 April 2019 Lancaster House, London Single day: £40 / £30 concessions Speakers confirmed so far: The Rt Hon. The Lord Pickles, UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues | Hella Pick CBE, former journalist, The Guardian | Mark Hetfield, HIAS | Rebecca Singer, World Jewish Relief | Louise London, To register, please visit Author, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948 | Barbara Warnock, Wiener Library | Bea Lewkowicz, Refugee Voices: HTTPS:// The AJR’s testimony archive | Anna Hajkova, University of Warwick | Melissa Hacker, The Kindertransport Association INTERNATIONALFORUM. (KTA) | Brigitte Bailer, University of Vienna | Hannah Lessing, The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims EVENTBRITE.COM of National Socialism | Pamela Sturhoofd & Jessica van Tijn, Filmmakers, Truus’ Children | Mike Levy, Anglia Ruskin University | Representatives from Safe Passage UK and the Holocaust Educational Trust For more information, email Additional speakers will be announced in March 2019. [email protected]

7 AJR Journal | March 2019

The Boxer by Pierre Bonnard “A painter ART NOTES: should have two lives, one in by Gloria Tessler which to learn Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory at Tate and one in which Modern shows how Bonnard achieved both; his to practise his tendency to revisit works sometimes years later art” said the to recover the moment of its inspiration can be Impressionist a tall order for many artists who may prefer to embody the experience in something new. Not Pierre Bonnard so Monsieur Bonnard.

Recapturing the memory that inspired Monchaty, which he broke off in order to almost to prefigure the death of Marthe, an earlier painting was his driving force. marry Marthe two years later, resulting in cramped within the coffin-like tub, where Throughout his years he rarely deviated from Monchaty’s suicide. So not such a haven of the water seems like a mystical, vaporous his personal domestic life which seemed to domestic bliss, after all, but one shadowed aura around her. enclose him. A red checked tablecloth set for and mysterious. tea may be the main subject, with a woman These water paintings show a more holding a cup, leaning towards her dog, and These shadows loom in his own self- relaxed, fluid side to Bonnard; his nudes the bare shape of an extended arm reaching portraits, none of which shows a happy man tentatively dip in or out of the water as in for a cup beside her; colour and perspective but one openly troubled. In The Boxer, for Nude Crouching in the Tub, (1918). In The run riot. instance, his contorted face and raised fists in Mantelpiece he offers an oblique study of the mirror, presented without brush, palette the nude stretching before a mirror with a Or a door open at an odd angle invites or canvas, betray pure anger. Bonnard’s horizontal nude painting behind her. you into a blaze of yellow mimosa bringing developing sense of colour indicates a the garden into the house. Some sense romantic character, but these selfies tell a Bonnard seems so preoccupied with his of Cubism is at work here, with the long, different story. homely world that the outbreak of the asymetric angles defining what should take Great War in August 1914 seems almost your attention. These personal visions are On the romantic theme I was struck by to elude him. As German forces reached fleeting, insubstantial, an “à la recherche du the rigidity of his nudes, standing upright, the river Marne, 30 miles from Paris, the temps perdu” moment, and yet it is the view without a trace of the sensuality you might couple, living in St Germain-en-Laye found from the window, the garden pouring into expect of a Renoir or a Degas or a Picasso. themselves within earshot of the war. Then the house, a glimpsed landscape that tells us But as Marthe’s growing infirmity required aged 46 and eligible to serve in the French about space not opening out but drifting in, her to take several baths a day, he became army, Bonnard continued to paint but was somehow confined. fascinated by what happens to the nude not insensitive to his surroundings. A Village body under water. The Bath does have in Ruins near Ham, painted in 1917, shows There were two loves in Bonnard’s life: its own odd sensuality focusing on the the blurred soldiers reduced to miniscule his 30 year relationship with Marthe de stomach, part of the legs and the wondering figures in the ruined village. Méligny, his muse and later wife, and gaze of the bather herself, meditating on her his brief engagement in 1923 to Renée own body. Nude in the Bath 1936 seems The reduction of people to fleeting aspects of humanity often typifies Bonnard, but the A Village in ruins near Ham by Pierre Bonnard loss of his wife in 1942, devastated him. He illustrated a book of fictional letters between his family, recalling the happiness of first meeting Marthe and becoming recognised as an artist of substance.

Annely Juda Fine Art 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 CONTEMPORARY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

8 AJR Journal | March 2019 SUSTAINING THE BEN URI

The Art Notes column in our February issue speculated about the future fate of Ben Uri’s art collection and its

Jewish heritage. David Glasser, Ben Uri’s chair, explains why the concerns are unfounded and how its proud

Jewish heritage remains at the centre of its future. George Grosz, (1893-1959) Interrogation (of Erich Mühsam), 1938

Our Trustees and senior management are Uri has done since at least 1992). masterpieces by Auerbach, Bomberg, responsible for the long-term survival of One day, for example, we hope Chagall, Epstein, Gertler, Grosz (not Ben Uri as a nationally and internationally to have works by Kokoschka and Jewish), Herman, Rosenberg, Soutine and respected art museum. Our Jewish Schwitters, both non-Jewish artists, Wolmark. heritage is at the core of our existence who fled Nazi tyranny. They, too, are and, since 2001, we placed this within part of the wider story of genocide, Moreover, in some cases, our collection the wider artistic context, both inside and forced journeys and migration to contains many works by the same outside the Jewish community. Britain, a narrative which Ben Uri artist (often folios containing dozens of has successfully brought, and will prints or drawings), the majority never We receive no public funding nor do continue to bring, to audiences exhibited. There is no public benefit we have a permanent or well-located across the country. if they are never seen. In order that building to showcase our collection. We these works are exhibited and enjoyed, have worked incredibly hard to raise the • Develop accredited art interventions our strategy declares that we will offer necessary funds to run the museum at the using the Ben Uri art collection these works free to other museums and level to which we aspire and are hugely for those living with or at risk of community charities, including AJR day grateful to all those who do support us. dementia. These programmes, centres. The bottom line, however, is that without ten years already in the making, an adequate and permanent gallery and now have real potential of being It was also reported that the entire Ben sufficient funds, the fate of over 95% of nationally prescribed and will spread Uri Advisory Panel resigned, whereas, in our wonderful collection is to lie unseen benefit, our name and heritage fact, it was 11 of the 26 members. Their in an expensive art store. across the country. publicly-stated concern was the specific choice of artworks, and not the strategic The Trustees agreed that we needed an This is a formalisation and expansion of direction. ambitious strategy to ensure the survival our longstanding existing strategy, but of the Ben Uri in a purposeful and the charity has to be in funds to deliver its In conclusion, over the past 18 years, expansive form and, therefore, prioritised benefit. After years of effort, the Trustees we have built an international reputation achieving substantial, distinctive public and senior management reluctantly, for the institution and our collection. benefit. This is all set out in the Ben Uri but unanimously, concluded that the Our exhibitions have toured to over 20 Sustainability and Public Benefit Strategy only way to deliver a purposeful future venues across three continents. We were which was published on our website last and put the charity’s finances in a solid the first museum to tour an exhibition October. state was to sell certain pictures of value about Nazi-looted art. Our scholarship that were irregularly (or in some cases on Jewish, immigrant and refugee artists In short, we will: never) exhibited. This was certainly not is recognised internationally. We have by selling, as asserted last month, half published more than 40 books. Our • Research, and publish as an online of our collection. We have more than decade-long programme using art from resource: the Jewish and immigrant 1300 works; 24 were offered for sale at our collection to help those suffering contribution to British visual Sotheby’s, of which 14 sold. These were from dementia has also been widely arts, building upon our 15 years’ good works, but not the ‘crown jewels’, recognised. experience in this area. as we retained the best by these artists. Prior consultation with the artist or donor Now, with funds available, we can grow • Continue to qualitatively build is a pre-requisite before any sale. and flourish, continuing to proudly our art collection including works represent the Jewish community within by non-Jewish immigrant artists By contrast, over the past 18 years we the wider arts, academic and mental (which. perhaps inadvertently, Ben have acquired 300 works including health sectors.

9 AJR Journal | March 2019 Stick to the guidebook

It must be here somewhere. I looked at the map again; there “I don’t feel are so many unnamed side- comfortable streets in Vienna. I was tiring in in Austria. the afternoon heat. Left here? They haven’t Right there? No helpful signs. I’ll ask that policeman. “Excuse faced their me, where is the Holocaust past.” Memorial?” He stopped and Baroness stared at me. Then he pointed Neuberger, towards a narrow side-street The Times, and walked on. I entered an almost deserted Judenplatz and 25 October 2018 saw it. The memorial designed by Rachel Whiteread at Vienna’s Judenplatz

When we had visited Tate Britain, we saw prescribed for the sculptor. hate and violence.” In Austria ex- posters for a Rachel Whiteread exhibition. Nazi member Bruno Kreisky was four We entered and saw lots of sculpted I walked back and looked again. Was the times elected Chancellor (1970-1983) everyday objects. And a photo of her name of this Square a good reason (or and current Chancellor Sebastian Kurz Holocaust Memorial in Vienna. excuse) to keep it away from the main included the Austrian Freedom Party in tourist areas? his ruling coalition. The major German In Vienna I walked around it. A ‘house’, Party leaders completely ruled out but instead of bricks were thousands Behind the memorial was a tiny Jewish coalition with the AfD following the of ‘books’ filling the shelves, spines Museum, although there is a slightly 2018 election. Enough said. I leave the facing inwards. All anonymous. The bigger one elsewhere in Vienna. No visitors square. ‘doors’ to the ‘house’ had no handles, apparent, just a bored-looking security so could never be opened. There were guard. Restaurant tables reached out almost Huge numbers stand around the the names of the many camps to which to the memorial itself. At the other end of Stefansdom, taking photos (the ideal Austrian Jews were deported. This was the square was a pub. And a massive statue site for the memorial, I think.) I walk on a bunker-like structure, in contrast to of a serious-looking Gottfried Lessing, and cross into Resselpark, towards the the beautifully preserved magnificent 18th-century German writer, staring Belvedere Palace. Suddenly I stop. We architecture of Vienna. Simon Wiesenthal disapprovingly at the memorial. all gaze up at a huge memorial towering – an architect – once commented: “This over us. I come closer. It honours the monument shouldn’t be beautiful, it must The diners and drinkers and passers-by 17,000 Russian soldiers who died hurt.” But I could not sense this hurt. seemed not to see the memorial. Was it ‘liberating’ Vienna. Despite the human only visible to me? No-one approached it. rights abuses many Russian soldiers I read: ”In commemoration of more committed on civilians and retreating than 65,000 Austrian Jews who were In Berlin the vast ‘Memorial to the soldiers, Austria wasted no time – the killed by the Nazis between 1938 and Murdered Jews of Europe’ (no ambiguity or vast monument was already complete by 1945.” Interesting wording. Had not the lack of clarity with that wording) takes up a 1945’s end. And in such a high-footfall Austrian people welcomed the incoming large area near the Brandenburg Gate and area. But almost four times that number German Army in 1938? And willingly the Reichstag – a site that could have been of Austrian Jewish civilians had been acceped the Anschluss? Germany took sold for huge sums. In contrast, Vienna’s killed – and they had to wait until 2000 five years from Hitler’s accession to build memorial took up no potential building to be ‘remembered’. up to Kristallnacht. Austria did it in a space, can be walked round in seconds, and few months from the Anschluss. Austria offers very little information. The sun descends, the crowds is not noted for its wartime resistance disperse. Tomorrow I will be just a movement, nor for its high number of At Yad Vashem in October 2018, Angela normal tourist. Keep to the guide-book. ‘Righteous Gentiles’. The Jews were Merkel stated: “Germany has a perpetual Life is easier that way. killed by Austrians, not by invaders called responsibility to remember those crimes Nazis. But that exact wording had been and to confront antisemitism, xenophobia, David Wirth

10 AJR Journal | March 2019 Designed by Refugees

The contribution that refugee “Nyburg” is a modified form of the Dutch “Nijburg”. A few years ago she designers made to British received a letter from a family in Holland visual culture is a highlight of with that name, who thought they might be related. It turned out that the Anna Insiders/Outsiders, the year- Nijburgs were originally from a German- Nyburg speaking part of Europe, had been in the long, nationwide arts festival diamond trade – and were Jewish. supported by the AJR and which hand works of Jewish interest, and But, in fact, Anna Nyburg was by then occasionally presents her with a rare was previewed in our February already involved in exile research. She book that he has come across. had grown up in North America, where issue. Many may have been her father worked as a scientist. After Nyburg has enjoyed her years of unjustly forgotten or neglected – studying modern languages in Toronto, teaching and researching. It has Munich and Norwich, she resolved to enabled her to travel to places such but now, no longer. settle in Britain – and found she was as LA’s Getty Center and to meet unfamiliar with the British way of life, illustrious people. Cherie and Tony Anna Nyburg has spent years trawling herself something of an insider/outsider. Blair welcomed her into 10 Downing the relevant archives, and interviewing Street when she coached their eldest people with special knowledge of She had a spell as a lexicographer at son Euan in German. Lord Weidenfeld these artists in exile. Her research is Harraps, until the now defunct Holborn received her at his sumptuous summarised in a chapter of the book publisher declared her redundant. Embankment residence – Klimts and that will accompany the festival – Amusingly, although her interest was Schieles decorated the walls. Julian Insiders/Outsiders, edited by Monica languages and adult education, her first Barnes spoke to her about his late Bohm-Duchen. It will heighten books, such as French for Fun, were wife Pat Kavanagh, a leading literary awareness of these highly skilled and for children who had not yet learned to agent with friends from the refugee influential craftspeople. read. Anna Nyburg’s break came when community. Imperial College, in South Kensington, They include Hans Schleger (London recruited her to its modern languages Is German and Austrian Exile Studies Transport bus stop), Gaby Schreiber, department. There she met Charmian not a dying ‘industry’, I enquired. née Wolff (interior designs, including Brinson, today the doyenne of exile Nyburg will have none of that. Work Cunard liners), Grete Marks (ceramics studies in Britain; she encouraged Anna is under way to learn more about and glassware), Tibor Reich (Concorde Nyburg to complete in 2009 a doctoral refugees who found sanctuary in upholstery), Elisabeth Tomalin, née thesis that a few years later emerged as Britain’s colonies. And scholars have so Wallach (textiles, for Marks & Spencer, a well-received book about émigré art far tended to overlook refugees’ role in among others), Frederick Henri Kay publishing houses, especially Phaidon, developing Britain’s trade and industry. Henrion, né Heinrich Fritz Kohn, and Thames & Hudson. (regarded as a pioneer of corporate Reflecting on the topic, Anna Nyburg identity) and Max Gort-Bartens, né Anna Nyburg had by then published concludes that the fruits of scholars’ Grodzinski (Dualit toasters). a biography of the graphic artist research must be accessible. She wants Hellmuth Weissenborn, who fled to the wider public to appreciate more Over a cup of tea at her home near Britain because of his Jewish wife. She fully the remarkable extent to which Wandsworth Common, surrounded has since become an active committee refugees ‘repay’ their host country for by books, I asked Anna Nyburg how member of the Centre for German agreeing to offer them shelter. Anna she became interested in refugee/exile and Austrian Exile Studies, attached to Nyburg is helping to achieve that goal. studies. It is an unusual story. She is London University; it brings together British through and through, and has scholars from all over Britain. Even her Martin Uli Mauthner has published no family ties to anyone who fled from partner shares her research interest: books about German writers in French Nazi Europe. Her name might offer a he runs a bookshop in North London exile, and French writers groomed by clue, but that would be misleading. that specialises in new and second- Hitler’s Paris envoy, Otto Abetz.

11 AJR Journal | March 2019 REVIEWS

RETTET WENIGSTENS DIE KINDER descendants who wish to accept the my Mrs Ivy Chambers, his adoptive Ed. Angelika Rieber and Till Lieberz- City’s invitation to visit. The Projekt is mother – who was to prove devoted – Gross now working towards the erection of a and new sister Joy, 10 years his senior. Fachhochschulverlag Frankfurt am Kindertransport memorial to the Frankfurt He spoke no English so struggled Main children, their families and the helpers, to at school in south Croydon until ISBN 978-3-947273-11-9 be located within sight of the main train an unhappy evacuation interlude. station (the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof) Working class suburban life is well It is to be hoped that this excellent from which the children departed. described. book will receive an English translation in order to reach the The final section of the book is devoted Back with” Mum” and “Pop” much wider audience which it to short biographies of some of those calamity struck when the family was deserves. It contains the biographies who helped with the Kindertransports bombed out, Biss in pyjamas, Pop in of twenty former ‘Kinder’ from, or and travelled with them, as well as to a his postman’s trousers and Mum in a connected with, Frankfurt and is very comprehensive bibliography. There fur coat. Descriptions of the Blitz and powerful testimony to the appalling are dozens of high-quality photographs Doodlebug raids are very evocative. experiences of Jews in Germany of people, places and documents and this in the 1930s and ‘40s, as well as beautifully produced volume is an asset to Biss, who was an active member of the to the resilience of the children the corpus of work on this subject. local church choir and enjoyed sports and the bravery of their parents. Lilian Levy and scouts, eventually struck lucky The book’s title Rettet wenigstens with his education at Commercial die Kinder (“Save the Children at College. Proficient shorthand always Least”) refers to the correspondence WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? served him well. After naturalisation of families desperate to send their (THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY) he did two year’s National Service children to safety. by Gerhard Biss in the RAF and then resumed his ASIN: B00XNAV0WQ shipping career. Each of the poignant life histories Bound Biographies recounted in this volume differs from Some years later he joined the the others, as children from varying This is a fascinating autobiography of merchant navy, enjoying a life of backgrounds were transported to far- a “little Austrian boy” who waved at world travel and adventure. Back in flung countries, most of them never Hitler before arriving in the UK on the civvy street, despite the wanderlust, to be re-united with their families. Kindertransport. he worked in personnel in the Saudi In addition the book has erudite, Arabian heat for a staggering 22 comprehensive and well-researched Born in Vienna in July 1931 Gerhard’s years, including during the first Gulf sections on how the Kindertransports first memories were of being excluded War. Desert life meant segregation of were organised and which countries from school because he was Jewish the sexes, strict modesty and a – not opened their doors to the young and other children making racist jibes always successful – alcohol ban. Some refugees. A total of 20,000 children when he passed. Propaganda leaflets very amusing and sometimes bizarre were rescued, of whom nearly were dropped from Luftwaffe planes anecdotes are included. 10,000 came to Britain. A further promoting the Third Reich. He joined 10,000 were dispersed to Belgium, roaring crowds on the Danube Bridge for Biss never married, although he had France, Holland, Switzerland, the a good vantage when Hitler appeared as girlfriends, but reflects on matrimony, Scandinavian countries, amongst Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. psychology and the search for others. The USA was reluctant to “I waved to Herr Hitler and I’m sure he identity in the second part of this accept any on the grounds that “it is waved back to me,” he told his mother. lengthy book. He made a fleeting against God’s will to separate children She was not at all impressed. unannounced visit to see his birth from their parents” but finally mother while on a VSO vacation relented and approximately 2,500 By then his father had already fled the posting in southern Austria and found children were sent to Canada and the Gestapo to Switzerland. Six months later his immediate family had survived the United States. seven year old Gerhard was told to pack war. It would have been interesting to for England, where his younger brother know more about what happened to The editors and contributors to this Walter had already been sent, although them. But he was fully assimilated into book worked under the umbrella they were not to meet again for another the British way of life, even writing of the Projekt Jüdisches Leben 74 years. So he set off in lederhosen with to congratulate the Queen on her in Frankfurt, an independent a small bag and label round his neck on Diamond Jubilee as “one of those organisation which acts in close co- what seemed an endless journey. lucky little children who arrived on the operation with the City of Frankfurt Kindertransport”. to welcome former citizens and their At Liverpool Street Station he was met Janet Weston

12 AJR Journal | March 2019 Holocaust Memorial

AJR chairman Andrew Kaufman (2nd left) with, from left to right, the Day Ambassadors of Israel (Mark Regev), Slovakia (L’ubomir Rehak), Germany (Peter Wittig) and Austria (Michael Zimmerman)

AJR’s memorial service for Kalman, spoke movingly about what he a secondary schools event in Bury, and a sees as the second generation’s obligation commemoration service at Manchester Holocaust Memorial Day was held to remember their parents’ experiences and Cathedral featuring Manchester’s first on 22 January 2019 at Belsize proactively oppose racial persecution. elected Mayor, Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester Police, the students of Square Synagogue in London, The ceremony was very well-attended Manchester Hillel House and many of the by AJR members, their families and Local Authorities in the region also hosted under the theme of Torn from friends, as well as guests of honour Their HMD events this year. Home. Our keynote speaker was Excellencies the Ambassadors of Israel (Mark Regev), Germany (Dr Peter Wittig), AJR’s Northern Volunteers and Community Lord Eric Pickles, Co-Chair of the Austria (Michael Zimmerman), and Slovakia Co-ordinator Fran Horwich – who attended (L’ubomír Rehak). almost all of these events – wrote “In the Holocaust Memorial Foundation. current climate of growing antisemitism, it Also in attendance were representatives of is heartening to see so many organisations Freddy Kosten was interviewed as part the Claims Conference, who were in the honouring those lost during the Holocaust of the ceremony by Dr Bea Lewkowicz, UK to assist Kinder in registering for the and subsequent genocides, in the hope that director of AJR’s Refugee Voices testimony new payment from Germany and who took the lessons can be learned for the future.” archive. Freddy arrived in England on part in a special workshop for Kinder before the Kindertransport in March 1939 and the service. was taken in by Benn Levy – a successful playwright and screenwriter who became This service was one of dozens of events a Labour MP in 1945, and Benn’s wife, throughout the UK that were facilitated American-born actress Constance or attended by AJR members and staff. Cummings. Freddy was apparently picked Greater Manchester, in particular, hosted up from Liverpool Street Station in a Rolls a number of HMD events, some taking Royce, and got to meet people such as place for the very first time. They included Laurence Olivier. His fascinating story is a film event at the Home Arts Centre, available to view on a civic reception at Manchester Central www.refugeevoices.co.uk. Library, a moving performance by the BBC Philharmonic String Quartet in HMD Compensation Claims Conference Danny Kalman, the son of refugee Ernest Salford, an event at Heathlands Village, workshop

Lighting the six memorial candles at AJR’s memorial service Greater Manchester’s first city-region wide HMD event

13 AJR Journal | March 2019

POLAND The JRoots group between the barracks at Auschwitz THROUGH FRESH EYES

Many AJR staff have made it their mission to visit the countries and places that our members talk about. Here Ros Hart, one of our Southern Outreach Co-ordinators, shares her account of a recent trip to Poland with JRoots.

It was a trip that I knew I had to do but I went with trepidation and fear of what I would experience. We were fortunate enough to have a survivor, Mala Tribich, accompany us and we walked the streets of her youth whilst she explained spends her life educating people about the depths of winter. How anyone survived what happened to her and her family. horrors. is incomprehensible, but somehow Her story was haunting, from the some found an inner determination. ghetto of Piotrkow to the Ravensbrück We saw bullet holes in walls of an old Amongst the horror and despair was concentration camp and Bergen Belsen synagogue, and we walked in single file also comradeship and bonding, and where she contracted typhus. Most of through the forest in the pouring rain at some of the stories we were told were her family perished, but her brother, Ben night until we came to a memorial to 500 uplifting, showing how humanity and (Helfgott) and she somehow survived, innocent souls who were murdered simply love can win through. coming to England and building good for being Jewish. We visited the Lodz lives for themselves. Mala was so cemetery and saw over 40,000 graves We saw displays of human hair, dignified in the way she spoke. She of those slaughtered in the ghetto. We shaved from the Jews as they arrived does not hate and has no anger, yet she went to Chelmno, a clearing in the forest in Auschwitz, the discarded empty the size of two football pitches, where suitcases, the glasses and the mountain 350,000 Jews were taken to be murdered of shoes. It was heart-rending and in cold blood and thrown into deep holes distressing to see. We went into the one on top of the other. We lit candles and records room where names of all the said Kaddish for those dear departed souls. victims are listed alphabetically in We sang Am Yisrael Chai loudly as we left massive hanging books, taking up the – alive and defiant. entire room. We walked the pathways of the camps with barbed wire on Auschwitz was shocking. We stood in either side of us, we stood in the huge, the gas chambers where 1.2 million vacuous barracks and saw the bunks, beautiful Jewish souls were mercilessly three tiers high where they slept three killed by poisonous gasses, dying a slow, per bunk with a thin blanket to share. painful death. Birkenau was so vast, the We saw the cattle trucks where they barracks were stark and basic, and the were crammed in with no food or latrines offered no privacy or dignity. The water for days to get to the camp, One of the graves in the Lodz cemetery ‘prisoners’ wore thin cotton rags which many of them dying on the way. where 40,00 Jews from the Ghetto were never washed or changed, and Someone had brought armfuls of white were buried temperatures plummeted to – 25˚C in the Continued on page 15

14 AJR Journal | March 2019

LETTER FROM ISRAEL BY DOROTHEA SHEFER-VANSON

accommodation that was not always and elementary school, seeking to MUSIC: THE PATH best suited to its task, the Conservatory is expose very young children to the currently in the process of building its own fundamentals of music – rhythmic TO PROGRESS dedicated structure. Since its inception movement, dance, singing and the institution has employed first-rate improvisation – as well as enabling Not long ago I musicians as its teaching staff, enabling them to experiment with a variety of was privileged to youngsters from diverse backgrounds to instruments. The Conservatory has also attend a concert benefit from an education that would introduced a programme called ‘Bridges in a private home otherwise be unavailable to them. of Light’ which offers youngsters with given by young disabilities or special needs a course of musicians who While I was preparing material for this study that is adapted to their abilities. are students article my cleaner, who is of Ethiopian All these children learn piano, and some at Jerusalem’s Hassadna Music origin, noticed the page with a picture also learn voice, as well as participating Conservatory. Together with the rest of of some of the pupils on my desk. He in activities with the rest of the the audience, I was greatly impressed pointed to an Ethiopian youngster holding students. The project has won national by their professional standard and an oboe and said: “I know him. He’s and international renown as one of aplomb. Some of the musicians were the son of a friend of mine. He travels the most successful programmes for of Ethiopian background and displayed all over the world now.” Just one more children with special needs. admirable technical skill and musicality, illustration of the connection between the performing complex works – both different groups living in Jerusalem and the In fact, the Shalva Choir, consisting classical and jazz – for a variety of Conservatory’s contribution to this. of children with special needs, was a instruments, playing individually and in leading contender for inclusion as Israel’s small ensembles. The Conservatory now numbers 700 entry for the forthcoming Eurovision pupils aged from three to eighteen, contest, to be held in Tel-Aviv, but The Hassadna Music Conservatory was representing the full range of Jerusalem’s eventually withdrew as some of its founded in 1973 in the belief that all religious, national and economic members are observant Jews and could children are entitled to benefit from diversity. The staff comprises one not perform on Shabbat. being able to enjoy music, and that hundred professionals, some of them the way to help children from deprived born in Israel, others immigrants from Many of Hassadna’s students have and underprivileged backgrounds various countries. They include concert won prizes in Israeli and international to advance is through music. The artists, chamber musicians, established competitions, and have been awarded idea was to make musical education composers and members of Israel’s scholarships to continue with their available to all children, irrespective of leading orchestras. Together they provide musical studies. Several have received their physical or mental ability, socio- the careful guidance necessary to bring the status of ‘Distinguished Musician’ economic level, ethnicity or religious out the best in the gifted students, from the IDF, enabling them to pursue affiliation. enabling them to achieve excellence and their muical education while undertaking international acclaim. military service. The Conservatory’s Now, forty years later, the institution orchestral ensembles have performed is firmly established and has trained In the framework of its pre-music track, at music festivals in the USA and numbers of leading Israeli musicians. the Conservatory undertakes an outreach throughout Europe, winning prizes at After many years of being housed in programme for children in kindergarten several of them.

Chrysanthemums and stuck them in the Although a tough trip, I have come back so that we light up the world with snow and into the handles of the cattle a changed person. I feel blessed and knowledge to ensure that such horrors trucks – a little ray of hope within such grateful that I was born when and where are never allowed to happen again. I devastation. I was. I feel honoured to have spent three am already building those bonfires, and meaningful days in the company of fellow I urge and encourage everyone who We cried a lot, but we also sang and Jews, all sharing the same emotional hasn’t been, to go and see what our danced in defiance and unity. We prayed journey, which has built friendships and relatives went through. Some lucky ones and recited poems and meaningful words a deep bond. I am particularly in awe of survived – most didn’t. Only by going that some of the victims had written to Mala Tribich and the other survivors who and standing on those very sites of mass their loved ones. Not all the stories were of I am privileged to work with through AJR, murder is there any comprehension of horror and cruelty, we also heard wonderful and I feel duty bound to spread the word. the sheer enormity of inhumanity and tales of hope, courage, strength and love. Rabbi Garson told us to build bonfires madness of what took place.

15 AJR Journal | March 2019

OBITUARIES

HARRY GRENVILLE RALF KOLTAI Born: Ludwigsburg 22 February 1926 Born: 31 July 1924 Berlin Died: Dorchester 6 November 2018 Died: 15 December 2018 Châtellerault, France Harry Grenville, né Heinz Greilsamer, was born into a The late Ralph Koltai was a kindertransportee moderately prosperous family in Ludwigsburg, north who repaid Britain’s hospitality many times over. of Stuttgart, in 1926. His contribution was as a stage designer, one of the most There is no need to rehearse the events that led to Heinz and his sister influential of the second half of the 20th century. He Hannah being dispatched in 1939 to Cornwall on the Kindertransport, in the brought the aesthetic of Modernism to British theatre. expectation of their parents joining them to go to America. Alas, like so many, they perished in Auschwitz. A sculptor by instinct, he uncompromisingly used contemporary technology, and materials such as plastic, On joining the British army in 1944, Heinz changed his name to Henry metal and glass. His work for the RSC, National Theatre, Grenville, the latter chosen to honour the extraordinary kindness of the Jagos, ROH Covent Garden and English National Opera among his Cornish foster family, by picking a local name. The war ended before he saw many other companies both here and abroad left an active service but he was kept on as an interpreter and worked in POW camps. indelible impression. His fame was such that he was He met his future wife, Helen, a Dorset farmer’s daughter, during this period. commissioned to design the opening production for the iconic Sydney Opera House. Harry, as he was always known, took an accelerated two-year degree in Biology at King’s College London and trained to teach. His career was spent Born to Hungarian/German parents in Berlin where he in grammar schools in Cirencester and Belper and for the last 23 years, at attended a progressive Jewish school, he was sent to Britain Repton School, Derbyshire. Many who worked with or were taught by him in 1939. His first years were spent in Scotland where he were utterly oblivious of his history. He didn’t hide it – the few who caught his endured hardship and considerable hostility. In 1943 he minimal accent would be told, when they asked, which part of Germany he enrolled at Epsom School of Art to train as a commercial hailed from and why he had left, but he didn’t want his life or his children’s to artist before volunteering for the Army, ending up in the be defined by the catastrophe. Intelligence Corps. He served as a typist, translator and investigator for the British delegation to the International Only in the last years of his life, when retired in Dorset, did he become deeply Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. involved in Holocaust education, on the back of his attendance at a Dorchester HMD event in 2011. Chatting with him afterwards, the organisers persuaded From 1948-1951 he studied at Central School of Arts and him to offer a contribution in 2012. Thereafter he became a mainstay of the Crafts (now Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts event, even taking part in this year’s HMD commemorations when the local where he became head of Theatre Design between1965-7) event organisers replayed a recording of his last interview as a tribute to his and set out on a seven decade career that has involved immense contributions. designing more than 250 operas, ballets, plays and musicals around the world. He collaborated with the greatest Harry’s Holocaust education work extended to schools across Dorset and the directors of the day and his designs for the musical version south. He was tireless in presenting a precise, thoughtful narrative of what had of Fritz Lang’s expressionist masterpiece, Metropolis at happened, carefully making the point that it was the Nazis not the German London’s Piccadilly Theatre broke the £1m barrier for the people as a whole who were to blame, and that the lesson for today was first time. constant vigilance and political activity to forestall new outrages. Latterly, he was welcomed back to Ludwigsburg to lay Stolpersteine for his family and again for In 1975 he co-founded the Society of British Theatre the re-dedication of the Synagogenplatz. His death was as keenly mourned there Designers, was appointed CBE in 1983, and in the following as in England. At the time of his death, HMD organisers were considering his year was honoured as a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). nomination for the Honours List – it would have been richly deserved. In 1997 he published Ralf Koltai: Designer for the Stage.

Jane Grenville Ralf was a highly assimilated refugee but somehow

16 AJR Journal | March 2019

remained an exile all his life, DOROTHEE SMITH an independent spirit and Born: 28 April 1931 Corsica thinker. ‘I don’t respond Died: 22 July 2018 Liverpool well to being told what’s wanted’ he said in a Times Dorothee’s mother was Latvian and a interview, ‘I try to find staunch religious Zionist; her father ways of introducing art into theatre, and occasionally I was of Polish Chassidic origin, a leftist get somewhere near’. He political Zionist. made rural France his home Her proudest achievement was her longstanding from 1989, working from They married in Palestine and, while on a return chairmanship of the “Société Littéraire Française his beautiful house there, trip to Europe, their ship stopped in Corsica where de Liverpool” which promoted French culture increasingly focusing on Dorothee was born, the family returning to Latvia and language. In recognition of this the perhaps his greatest love, approximately six weeks after her birth. Her French Ministry of Culture awarded her the sculpture in metal. At 91 he younger sister, Gita Esther, was born in 1933 in prestigious “Chevalier de l`Ordre des Palmes designed three operas for Libau and Dorothee and her parents returned to Académiques”. Welsh National Opera. Corsica in 1936. They had entrusted the younger sister into the care of childless relatives. Gita and Dorothee was cheerful, bubbly and extrovert, with I first met Ralf in 1987 when her uncle and aunt were murdered in 1941 together a lively Mediterranean personality. She disliked he directed and designed with most of Libau`s Jewish community. injustice, and was an active member of the Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Liverpool 35s group which campaigned against for the Hong Kong Arts The war years were very difficult for Dorothee. the harsh treatment of Russian Jewish refuseniks. Festival of which I was Her father was a prisoner of war, and she and her She was a devoted and energetic grandparent international programme mother found it hard to survive. She was very and great-grandparent. She supported many director. It was a revelation to academic in school, developing a love for French communal societies, and would always help see how much his team loved literature and British culture. After the war she outsiders, as she had once been herself. and respected this larger than went to the University of Aix-en-Provence and life sixty-something, so cool in then to teach in Oxford and Edinburgh. She was Dorothee Smith had a difficult childhood in leather jacket with trademark an “assistante” in French in the early ‘50s, met her turbulent times, dodging the Holocaust, greatly long and slender cigar gripped future husband, Dr Ian Smith and they settled in scarred by the cruel loss of her sister and many between his teeth. We met Liverpool. other relatives. She loved Liverpool and her life often in the intervening years. was full and active; she would want people to He was wise, witty and fun. Dorothee spoke eight language and found work gain comfort from the many warm memories we A Titan. easily, teaching French in some of Liverpool`s have of her, rather than to mourn her passing. best schools. She became a well-known home He is survived by his second tutor to countless school chidren and adults and She is survived by her son and daughter, and a wife, Jane Alexander. was also skilled at interpreting: she coached the large extended family. executives of Liverpool’s insurance corporations in Joseph Seelig conversational and business French. Dr Maurice Smith

HOWICK FAMILY HANNELORE ASPIRING DOCUMENTARY STARS LOOKING Edith Einhorn left (Hannah Lora) Families are being sought to take part in a Vienna on a 1938 EHRLICH new documentary film which will coincide Kindertransport and Margaret Hill would with a major international conference about FOR? stayed with a family like to know the the Holocaust, scheduled to take place in Howick in Surrey whereabouts of this Canada in 2020. The AJR regularly receives before travelling to little girl who came messages from members and the USA in 1940. to her kindergarten Producers are hoping to interview three Her daughter, school in Cullompton generations of one family about the Holocaust others looking for people or Renée Kornfeld, is Devon. During WW2 and contemporary antisemitism. The ‘ideal’ help in particular subjects. seeking anyone who the Barbican Mission family would include one living Holocaust Here are some of the most was on the same placed Hannelore with survivor, one child of the survivor who has recent requests – please get in Kindertransport and the Metters family personally experienced antisemitism, one also information on at Craddock House, grandchild of the survivor who has personally touch directly with the person the Howick family. Uffculme, Devon. experienced antisemitism. concerned if you can help. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

17 AJR Journal | March 2019

ILFORD NORTH LONDON GROUP We had a most nostalgic morning invoking This talk was so much more than wonderful memories of our younger days an account of the (mis-)fortunes of Around as Charlotte Balazs related the history of a family in Hungary. Marcus Ferrar the famous Dorice and Cosmo restaurants. gave a most interesting talk about The former was owned by her Auntie Doris the life of Jews in that country during the AJR and her uncles were waiters in the latter. the war years where they were not Both of these ‘Finchleystrasse’ venues persecuted until 1944 and now live These are just two of the many recent AJR offered refugees the opportunity to meet in relative harmony with their fellow events around the country. and find comfort in their new country. citizens. Meta Roseneil Hanne R Freedman

MARCH GROUP EVENTS CONTACTS

All AJR members are welcome at any of these events; you do not have to be affiliated Susan Harrod to that particular group. Please contact the relevant regional contact for full details. Events and Outreach Manager 020 8385 3070 Edinburgh 3 March Exhibition at Scottish Arts Club [email protected] Kensington 4 March Ruth & Peter Kraus hosting Wendy Bott Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Ealing 5 March Paul Lang – Jewish view of the Selfie 07908 156 365 Liverpool 5 March Claude Vecht-Wolf – The Story of the Beatles [email protected]

Glasgow 2nd Gen 5 March Marks Deli Nosh and Natter Agnes Isaacs Ilford 6 March Jonathan Sumberg – Working for the BBC Northern Outreach Co-ordinator 07908 156 361 Wessex 6 March Rabbi Maurice Michaels. [email protected] Lunchtime social get-together Ros Hart Pinner 7 March Brian Nathan – A-Z of Jewish Band Leaders Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Newcastle 10 March Social get-together 07966 969 951 [email protected] Didsbury 11 March Social get-together Hull 11 March Social get-together Karen Diamond Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Bromley 12 March Social get-together 07966 631 778 Birmingham 13 March Social get-together [email protected]

KT Lunch 13 March Les Spitz – Travels with my Camera KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Susan Harrod Glasgow Book Club 14 March Social get-together 020 8385 3070 Film Club 18 March Finding Your Feet [email protected]

Edgware 19 March Jonathan Lewis – Jewish Chaplaincy in the Armed Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Forces Henri Obstfeld Leeds 20 March Pre-Purim party 020 8954 5298 [email protected] Radlett 20 March Rabbi Jeff Berger – Jewish Refugee Experience in Kobe during WW2 Oxford 21 March Social WHY NOT CONVERT Glasgow 24 March Steven Anson – Reviving Augsburg’s German Jewish Heritage YOUR OLD CINE FILMS Bath/Bristol 25 March Trevor Bedeman – Trips to Belarus AND PUT THEM Book Club 27 March Book Club ON DVDS FREE OF CHARGE? Muswell Hill 28 March David Barnet – Joe Lyons and his Corner Shops Contact Alf Buechler at [email protected] or North London 28 March Rabbi Celia Surget – The Marathon-Running Rabbi tel 020 8252 0375 or 07488 774 414

18 AJR Journal | March 2019

JOSEPH PEREIRA KindertransportThe Association of Jewish Refugees (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) A special interest group of is now available for DIY repairs AJR FILM CLUB and general maintenance. LUNCH No job too small, on MONDAY 18 March 2019 very reasonable rates. on Wednesday 13 March 2019 at 12.30pm Please telephone 07966 887 485. at 12.30pm Sha’arei Tsedek North London Reform at Alyth Gardens Synagogue Synagogue, 120 Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone, N20 9EZ Lunch of Sandwiches, Bridge Rolls, Danish pastries and tea or coffee will be served first

Outstanding live-in and hourly care in FINDING THEIR FEET your home at flexible, affordable rates.

Staring Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie and Timothy Spall

LES SPITZ On the eve of retirement a middle class, TRAVELS WITH MY CAMERA judgemental snob discovers her husband having an affair with her best friend and We are delighted to be joined by Les Spitz is forced to live with her bohemian sister who is an amazing photographer. Les will on an inner city council estate. She is like be showing an audio visual presentation of 020 7482 2188 pillarcare.co.uk a fish out of water next to her outspoken, photographs of his travels to South Africa, serial dating, free-spirited sibling, but she New York, Vietnam. A treat for the eye and reluctantly lets her sister drag her along to the ear, come along and see these beautiful her community dance class, where gradually pictures set to music. switch on electrics she starts finding her feet... and romance. Rewires and all household £7.00 per person incl. lunch In this hilarious and heart-warming modern electrical work BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL comedy, a colourful group of defiant and energetic ‘baby boomers’ shows her that PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Call Susan Harrod on retirement is only the beginning, and that Mobile: 0795 614 8566 020 8385 3070 or email divorce might just give her a whole new [email protected] lease of life – and love.

£8.00 per person incl. lunch JACKMAN . spring grove BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL London’s Most Luxurious Please either call Ros Hart on SILVERMAN 07966 969951 or email RETIREMENT HOME [email protected] COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS 214 Finchley Road London NW3

 Entertainment  Activities www.fishburnbooks.com  Stress Free Living Jonathan Fishburn  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine buys and sells Jewish and Hebrew books,  Full En-Suite Facilities ephemera and items of Call for more information or a personal tour Jewish interest. Telephone: 020 7209 5532 020 8446 2117 or 020 7794 4455 He is a member of the Antiquarian [email protected] [email protected] Booksellers Association. Contact Jonathan on 020 8455 9139 or 07813 803 889 AJR CARD AND GAMES CLUB for more information Monday 15 April 2019 at 1.00pm at North Western Reform Synagogue, Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN Books Bought Bridge, card games, backgammon, scrabble. You decide. Modern and Old £8.00 per person, inc lunch Eric Levene

Booking is essential – when you book please let us know your choice of game. 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 [email protected] Please either call Ros Hart on 07966 969951 or email [email protected]

19 AJR Journal | March 2019

Events and Exhibitions AWARD TO

ENEMY ALIENS JUDITH KERR Dr Rachel Pistol of King’s College London, and HANDS ON THE the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, Judith Kerr talks about Wartime experiences of Jewish GLASS illustrating refugees in Great Britain: The internment one of of enemy aliens. The event is hosted by the her many Kitchener Descendants group. bestselling Wednesday 20 March, 6.00pm children’s Wiener Library, WC1B 5DP books www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jewish-refugees-in- great-britain-internment-during-wwii-tickets- 55507640848?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

JEWISH HISTORY MONTH A Czech glassmaker installing the March is Jewish History Month and this year’s ‘hands on the glass’ memorial at Germany’s Society for Exile Studies theme is Big Screen Little Screen, Jews in Prague station in May 2017 (Gesellschaft für Exilforschung) is British Cinema and Television. Many top-class awarding honorary membership to the historians and well-known personalities are AJR is delighted to invite members world-famous author Judith Kerr. taking part in events in London, Manchester, to an exclusive screening of a new Leeds, Liverpool, Southampton, Bristol, documentary capturing the making of the Judith left Germany with her family in Sussex, Essex and Hertfordshire. On 28 March ‘farewell memorial’ installed in Prague’s 1933. She has created both enduring film historian Joel Findler, who has written main railway station in May 2017. picture books such as the Mog series several articles for the AJR Journal, talks about and The Tiger Who Came to Tea as well Immigrant Jews in the British Film Industry The memorial is a replica of the carriage as acclaimed novels for older children from the 1930s until the 1980s. door from Kindertransport train. One such as the semi-autobiographical www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/jewish-history- side of the window features children’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. month-18389915567 handprints, the other side their parents’. The Society will present Judith with CRIMES UNCOVERED The 80 minute film that captures the her award at an AJR-supported event A new exhibition traces the stories and the memorial’s creation and the heartbreaking featuring former consultant editor of legacies of the individuals and institutions stories behind it, will be screened on the AJR Journal, Dr Anthony Grenville. who worked during and immediately after the Tuesday 25 June at a special event hosted Monday 18 March, 6.30pm Holocaust to record and collect information of by the Slovakian Embassy in London. If you Wiener Library, WC1B 5DP atrocities and bring perpetrators to justice. would like to attend please contact www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ceremony- Until 17 May Susan Harrod on [email protected] to-award-honorary-membership-to- Wiener Library, WC1B 5DP or 020 8385 3078. judith-kerr-tickets-55070982792

These are just A CELEBRATION OF CZECHOSLOVAK SEEING DAYLIGHT two of the CULTURE IN WARTIME BRITAIN When fleeing the Nazis aged 13 Dorothy many events Historian Jana Barbora Buresova will Bohm was given a camera by her father. coming discuss the influence of London’s Since then she has become one of Britain’s up shortly Czechoslovakian refugees during World most eminent photographers. as part of War 2. 13 March, 6.30pm the 2019 27 March 2019, 6.00pm – 7.00pm V&A Museum of Childhood, Insiders/ Senate House, London WC1E 7HU London E2 9PA Outsiders https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/ www.vam.ac.uk/moc/events/seeing- Festival: events/event/17661 daylight-documentary-film-dorothy-bohm/

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Winston House, 2 Dollis Park, Finchley, London N3 1HF Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 e-mail [email protected] AssociationofJewishRefugees @TheAJR_ For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters, Unit 5, St Albans House, St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected] The AJR Journal is printed on 100% recycled material and posted out in fully recyclable plastic mailing envelopes.

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