VOLUME 7 NO.4 APRIL 2007 journal Association of Jewish Refugees

Prisoners remembered, prisoners forgotten

Researching my article on Herbert Sulzbach captives persisted down the decades. for our February issue, I was amazed at the This fascination does not extend to extent to which the history of German British PoWs in the First World War, about prisoners-of-war in Britain has fallen into whom very little is knovro. At most, a few oblivion. Today, nobody seems to know that people will have heard of the camp at there were some 400,000 German PoWs in Ruhleben, near Berlin, where British Britain in 1946, dispersed all over the civilians were interned. The presence of country in some 1,500 camp units. I even numerous British and French PoWs in discovered a mini-camp in Brondesbury Germany during the First World War also Park, London NW6, about two miles from vanished rapidly from German public where I live, where prisoners from Wilton consciousness, unlike that of Russian PoWs, Park in Buckinghamshire, selected to whose suffering is vividly depicted in such broadcast on the BBC, were lodged in bestsellers as Amold Zweig's Der Streit um London. Yet the record of the British in re­ den Sergeanten Grischa and E. M. educating the PoWs in their charge was Remarque's Im Westen nichts Neues. The thoroughly creditable. The official German fate of the Russian PoWs came to symbolise history of German PoWs in the Second the senseless suffering of the ordinary World War explicitly acknowledges that soldier in a hopeless war, which was the Britain surpassed all other custodian powers main lesson of the First World War for in teaching PoWs to respect democratic liberal intellectuals in post-1918 Germany. values and humane standards of behaviour. The theme reappeared in Jean Renoir's Nevertheless, compared to the level of magnificent anti-war film La Grande Illusion interest in British PoWs in Germany during The prisoners' yard at Colditz, Oflag IV-C (1937), which turns in part on the the Second World War, that in German relationship between the captvired French PoWs in Britain remains negligible. Who cast of Anglo-American stars headed by officer de Boeldieu and the camp now remembers that the original 'one that Steve McQueen's motorbike) - appropriately commandant, unforgettably played by Erich got away' was a captured Luftwaffe pilot, enough, since this mass escape, also from von Stroheim. Franz von Werra? Von Werra was in one Stalag Luft III, put an end to such attempts: For the British public after 1945, escape respect a rather 'British' PoW: he was the Germans shot 50 of the recaptured attempts from German camps by British determined to escape and eventually reached escapees as a deterrent. PoWs played their part in the structuring the then neutral USA, from Canada. As the The British love affair with escaped of the national image of the Second World title of the film about him, The One That PoWs continued with the 1970s TV series War as a heroic story of British resistance Got Away, implies, he is often thought to be Colditz (Oflag IV-C); this camp's name so to a menacingly powerful and authoritarian the only Axis PoW who escaped and penetrated the public consciousness that, regime. Given that for most of the war, reached Germany. But he is remembered, if like 'Dunkirk', 'Amhem' or, for that matter between Dunkirk (May 1940) and D-Day at all, only because his determination to 'Belsen', it came to encapsulate the nation's (June 1944), there was no all-important land escape aroused the interest of post-war collective memory of key episodes of the front in Europe where Britain confronted British audiences eager for stories about Second World War. The experience of Germany as it had on the Westem Front in escaped PoWs. British PoWs in the Far East, where they the First World War, the triumphant halo The British have an abiding fascination were exposed to the institutionalised sadism of resistance to the Nazis had to be displaced with British PoWs in the Second World War. of the Imperial Japanese Army, inspired to other areas. The most obvious of these Books and films about them abounded in David Lean's famous The Bridge on the was the war in the air, which acquired an the 1950s and 1960s, like the popular film River Kwai (1957), with a riveting almost mythical stature in public memory, The Wooden Horse (1950), the subject of performance by Alec Guinness. The 1980s as did civilian defiance of the Luftwaffe's which was a famous escape from Stalag Luft TV series Tenko, which depicted the blitz on British cities. ni (wfith a moving performance from Leo appalling treatment endured by British and Escape attempts from PoW camps Genn). The sequence of these films ended Allied women in Japanese intemment, also helped to fulfil this function of symbolising with The Great Escape (1963, with a mega- showed how interest in Second World War continued on page 2 AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007

H.G. Adler: scholar, poet, survivor

An exhibition devoted to H.G. Adler, to let her mother die alone and went Adler spoke movingly about his father's writer on and historian ofthe Holocaust, with her to the gas chamber - one of Holocaust experiences and his decision is currently showing at the Maughan those acts of selfless devotion by which to make their description and analysis Library, King's College London (in the Jews could assert their moral superiority his life's work. Professor Adler - der former Public Records Office building. over their persecutors even at the very Apfel fattt nicht welt vom Stamm - is Chancery Lane, until 20 April). The title, end. At Auschwitz, Adler, who came an eminent scholar who has written on 7 Will Bear Witness': H. G. Adler and the from an assimilated background, learnt subjects ranging from Goethe and Holocaust, describes it very aptly. about Judaism; he also became aware Kafka to Erich Fried and the Born in Prague in 1910, Adler of the extent to which the state could Expressionist poet August Stramm. He emerged from that crucible of German- misuse its power, a central theme in his occupies a place of honour among the speaking Jewish culture that produced study of Terezin, and beyond. children of exiles from the German- Franz Kafka, Franz Werfel, Max Brod, After liberation, Adler returned to speaking lands in Britain who have Egon Erwin Kisch, Leo Perutz and Ernst Prague, but in 1947, with a Communist distinguished themselves as scholars WeiS. He was a close friend of the takeover looming, he left for England, specialising in German literature. Prague-born ethnologist and poet Franz where he spent the rest of his life, dying Anthony Grenville Baermann Steiner; he had Steiner's there in 1988. Shamefully, no British works published after the latter's early university ever offered him an academic ANNUAL GENERAL death in exile in Britain. Adler studied post, and he refused to take one in literature, musicology and philosophy Germany. His first major work was his MEETING at Charles University, the prelude to his meticulously detailed study of life in ofthe career as a scholar, poet and novelist. Terezin, which appeared in 1955. This ASSOCIATION OF But in February 1942 he was deported was followed by Der verwaltete JEWISH REFUGEES to Terezin with his wife, Gertrud Mensch: Studien zur Deportation der TUESDAY 5 JUNE 2007, 11.30 AM Klepetar. As part of his strategy of Juden aus Deutschtand (1974), another at the survival, he determined to write a important contribution to the young Paul Balint AJR Centre 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 scholarly account of the camp, which discipline of the history of the became his pioneering study Holocaust. Among his many literary Lunch will be served at a cost of £5. Theresienstadt 1941-1945: Das Antlitz works, the novel Panorama (1968) is Space is limited. If you would like to reserve a place for lunch, please call einer Zwangsgemeinschaft. perhaps the best known. Head Office on 020 8385 3070 by In October 1944, Adler and his wife Regrettably, such early historical Thursday 24 May 2007. studies of the Holocaust as Adier's book were deported to Auschwitz. He was Agenda selected for labour, but his wife refused on Terezin and Gerald Reitlinger's book Annual Report 2006 on the Final Solution are now largely Hon. Treasurer's Report overlooked. So it is to the credit of Discussion continued from page 1 Cambridge University Press that at last Election of Committee of the successful resistance of the British and an English translation of the book on Management* Terezin is to appear in 2008. their values to Nazi power and tyranny, and *No person other than a committee Adier's works on the Holocaust made of anchoring it in post-war public member retiring by rotation shall be a considerable impact when they elected or re-elected at any general consciousness. Sadly, what began as the appeared. Theresienstadt formed an meeting unless:- (a) he or she is recommended by the symbol of a conflict of values has more important part of the legal evidence Committee of Management, or recently been hollowed out into mere that was presented to the Bundes- (b) not less than twenty one clear days nationalism and anti-German bigotry; the verfassungsgericht. West Germany's before the date appointed for the theme music from TIte Great Escape has Supreme Court, when it came to pass meeting, notice executed by ten members been adopted by England's football fans as the Restitution Laws of the 1950s. Adler qualified to vote at the meeting has been given to the Association of the intention also advised the prosecution in the their anthem, alongside their bone-headedly to propose that person for election or ignorant slogan 'Two World Wars and One 1961 trialof Adolf Eichmann; Eichmann re-election together with notice executed himself read Adier's study of Terezin in World Cup'. by that person of his or her willingness to prison, to remind himself of the facts. be elected or re-elected. Anthony Grenville Hannah Arendt's controversial book Eichmann in Jerusalem, with its notori­ AJR Directors ous concept of the 'banality of evil', also Gordon Greenfield JACKMAN- owed much to Adler, though he dis­ Carol Rossen approved of Arendt's selective use of AJR Heads of Department Marcia Goodman Social Services SILVERMAN his work. He is also cited as a respected Michael Newman Media and Public Relations COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS source in W.G. Sebald's last novel, Susie Kaufman Organiser, AJR Centre Austeditz. AJR Journal Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor On 30 January, a reception was held Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor in conjunction with the exhibition, at Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements which the highlight was an address by 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA Jeremy Adler, H.G. Adier's son by his Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 8017 second marriage and Emeritus Professor necessarily those of the Association of Jewish of German at King's College. Professor Refugees and should not be regarded as such. AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007

nr?"Vr How odd of God NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors advise on Property, Wills, Family Trusts There is a debate going on just now lobby, a cohesive power base with an and Charitable Trusts about multiculturalism and its dis­ overriding objective. If only! Early in contents. Can Christians and Muslims February an advertisement appeared in French and German spoken co-exist harmoniously under the same The Times calling for just such a coming Home visits arranged laws? How many Poles does it take to together on a programme of apple change an English light bulb? Can pieties, except that among the signa­ 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, Arsenal still call itself an English foot­ tories were the names of some London NW3 SNB ball club without an Englishman in notorious self-haters with whom one sight? And where do the Jews fit into would be wary of making common Tel: 020 7435 5351 all this? cause. Fax: 020 7435 8881 The natives are restless and it shows Exerting influence is another itself in open hostility or over­ matter. In some spheres of public life compensation. Some of the confusion Jews are prominent, making their is semantic, assimilation and integra­ individual impact on the economy, the tion being used interchangeably. But arts, science, medicine, and the CONSULTANT assimilation means, literally, 'becoming law. Two beards and a halo sufficed to similar' by surrendering identity, being change the climate of the twentieth to long-established English absorbed into the native culture to the century. Without Marx, Freud, Einstein Solicitors (bilingual German) point of becoming indistinguishable no book, no painting, no intellectual would be happy to assist clients from the majority. Integration describes debate could be what it is today. with English, German and a different process with a different out­ So are we Jews cleverer than other Austrian problems. come whereby shards of distinct people? That would give reasonable cultures, each retaining its own shape cause for complaint. Let's just say that Contact Henry Ebner and colour, embed themselves in the we are efficient converters. Even with cement of the host society to form a a well-laid fire, much of the heat goes Myers Ebner & Deaner harmonious mosaic. up the chimney; a Jewish fire tends to 103 Shepherds Bush Road Jews are rarely welcomed with open provide a warmer room for the same London W6 7LP arms whichever way they choose to amount of fuel. Telephone 020 7602 4631 go. When did you last hear someone This traditional devotion to achieve­ ALL LEGAL WORK say that they actually liked Jews, the ment - spiritual or material - causes UNDERTAKEN way people say they like Italians or discomfort among the competition. those cuddly Austrians? We are not There is an intensity about us, the considered cuddly. Antipathy towards wariness of the endangered species - Jews is a constant; what varies is the call it Jewish arithmetic: one of us has impunity with which it may be to equal a hundred ofthem. Dispropor­ expressed. At present, we are in a 'no- tion is the word that springs to mind, AUSTRIAN and GERMAN holds-barred' phase: antisemitism of numbers to achievements, of indi­ PENSIONS carries no odium; on the left, it is vidual suffering to collective survival. practised with the abandon that comes Remember when 'disproportionate' PROPERTY with being off the PC leash. was the buzzword? I never discovered The broad stream of antisemitism what would have been 'proportionate' RESTITUTION CLAIMS has been fed by many tributaries over in Lebanon. But I consoled myself with EAST GERMANY - BERLIN the statistic that while Jews form a the years - it has run with blood as well ^ as holy water. At present, daily fraction of one per cent of the world's On instructions our office will reinforcements arrive from the world of population, they have grabbed 20 per i assist to deal with your Islam, from the Arab tendency in some cent of all Nobel Prizes. Is this the applications and pursue the of the media; for the squeamish, there acceptable face of disproportion? matter with the authorities is the all-purpose cloak of anti-Zionism Concentrates tend to be unpalat­ For further information to cover anti-Jewish feeling. able. We Jews may produce an How much of it is our own doing? above-average amount of nectar, but and an appointment Jews enjoy high visibility: there to our detractors it tastes just like Camp please contact: appear to be more of us than can be Coffee straight from the bottle. Perhaps ICS CLAIMS accounted for by published statistics. our ultimate offence is survival against Herbert Morrison, Peter Mandelson's all odds. Being a survivor, I admit I feel 146-154 Kilburn High Road grandfather and wartime home secre­ different, I feel special. Antisemitism is London NW6 4JD tary, used to say that everybody knew the weather God made for the Jews. I Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) at least one Jew. It convinced him that put up with it and have long given up Fax: 020 7624 5002 there had to be 50 million in this banging the barometer country. Hence the myth of the Jewish Victor Ross A)R JOURNAL APRIL 2007

The Child Survivors' Association of Overwhelming response Great Britain-AJR to Kinder survey in June 1995 the Child Survivors' Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of 'Making New Lives in Britain', the Association of Great Britain (CSAGB) the Holocaust, which holds annual specially-devised survey launched earlier this year of children from was formed when the Chairman and conferences in North America and Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia Vice-chairman of its formative group elsewhere and represents the specific who arrived in Britain on the of child survivors of the Holocaust left interests of child survivors. At these Kindertransport in 1938-39, has thejewish Care-run Holocaust Survivor conferences, which have taken place for already received an enthusiastic response. Kinder Chairman Hermann Centre, which it had helped to found over 15 years, 500 or more child Hirschberger said that 'early signs are in 1991. We had survived the Second survivors and partners meet during a very promising.' World War, varying in age from older long weekend. In 2005 the conference Of some 1,000 questionnaires sent teenagers to babes-in-arms and had took place in Amsterdam and in 2006 out in the first phase, largely to AJR experienced Nazi persecution through­ near Detroit. This year the conference members, more than 500 former Kinder have already completed and out Hitler-dominated Europe. We is planned to take place in Israel; in 2008 returned them to AJR's head office in survived in different ways - in ghettos, the affiliated group in the Washington the reply-paid envelope provided. This on the run, in hiding, or in concentra­ DC area has offered to be the host. almost unheard-of rate of response demonstrates the warmth of feeling tion camps, and a few of our members The CSAGB is also a member of the that remains among Kinder who came on the Kindertransports. European Association of Child Survivors shared a common destiny. They and We hold regular monthly meetings. of the Holocaust, which includes groups their children have replied spontaneously to Bertha Leverton's The meetings are organised by an based behind the former Iron Curtain. and Hermann Hirschberger's letter annually elected committee. The In America there are a number of Cafe caling for help in creating an historical Association also publishes a newsletter Europa meeting places for survivors. We archive which will enshrine their unique For members living outside the London found that funding was provided by the story of parental sacrifice and settlement in Britain as children. area, it forms the link with the CSAGB. Claims Conference. We applied to the Survey questionnaires which are We have been, and remain, a very active Claims Conference and were directed being distributed by sister constituent of those survivors who to the AJR. The AJR provides such organisations in Israel and the United support the Beth Shalom Holocaust facilities and much more than the States on our behalf should add Centre, the London Jewish Cultural CSAGB, as a small self-help group, could immeasurably to the numbers responding and the store of personal Centre and the Anne Frank Foundation offer its members. memories and experiences. in their efforts to teach the history of Last November the membership To former Kindertransportees who the Holocaust in schools and other voted to become a Special Interest have yet to reply: we do hope you will institutions. Indeed, we will be the last Group of the Association of Jewish be able to take part in this unique survey and add to its authenticity. of the eye-witnesses able to give our Refugees. As we enter 2007, the Anyone wishing to receive a ques­ accounts. integration process has begun and we tionnaire, or a supplementary We are a truly international look forward to playing an active role. questionnaire for a deceased relative organisation. Our members were born To mark this new road, the Association or friend, please give your name and address to Andrea Goodmaker at AJR, will henceforth be known as the Child in many places, from Amsterdam via Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Cracow to Zagreb. The Association is a Survivors' Association of Great Britain- Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, tel 020 constituent member of the World AJR. 8385 3070. pp^- Henri Obstfeld, Chairman

'Remembering for the Future' TheAJR Pinner Synagogue will be hosting its 18th Pollack and Mrs Anita Lasker Wallfisch. His Yom HaShoah evening on Sunday 15 Excellency Mr Wolfgang Ischinger, wishes all its April. On this day, 62 years ago, Belsen Ambassador of the Federal Republic of members was liberated and a historical recording Germany, will also give a short address. by the BBC will be played. We do hope The evening will begin with a candle- a Happy Pesach that you will be able to attend and bring lighting ceremony, to be followed by a friends and family with you. short memorial service, readings by Pinner The theme of the evening will be youth, the formal addresses and a panel 'Remembering for the Future'. Any discussion. on the message of tolerance and memory. teenagers present on the night will hear If you have not been to a Yom HaShoah Yom HaShoah, An Evening of the stories direct from the mouths of evening before, you will definitely want Commemoration: 'Remembering for survivors and be able to recount them to to attend and, for those who have come the Future' will take place at Pinner their grandchildren and great­ in previous years, this will be another Synagogue (5 minutes walk from grandchildren 70 years from now. evening not to be missed. Our speakers Pinner Metropolitan Station) on Two distinguished guests will speak on will remind us of the special commitment Sunday 15 April at 8-10 pm (no charge). the night. They are survivors Mrs Susan they have made to ensure we can pass Gaby Glassman AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007 A heavy, lonely legacy by Jackie Kohnstamm Visit many a German town, and you born - these days an empty space with could easily overlook Stolpersteine - a tree; Kurfurstendamm 96, where she stumblestones - small brass plaques in grew up; the freemasons' building in the pavement outside house entrances. Emserstrasse; Littenstrasse, where the They are only 10 cm square. You have family's tie factory used to be; the rebuilt to bend down to read the dedication house at Heilbronnerstrasse 22, once the etched into the shiny surface: 'Here home of Max's sister and business part­ lived ...', followed by the person's ner Marie Greiffenhagen, which became name, dates of birth and deportation one of the infamous Judenhauser from and, where known, place of death. which she and many others were Restoring the individual's identity deported. I began to place my mother's m family in space as well as in time. and place in the world is the inspiration stolpersteine artist Gunter Demnig at work of Cologne artist Gunter Demnig. In In May, for the Stolpersteine 1996 he laid his first Stolpersteine for mother's maiden name. To my amaze­ project's tenth anniversary, I gave a talk people who have no grave. The majority ment, my grandparents leaped onto the in a Berlin school about the family's are for Jews, but other Nazi victims are screen, together with their address in experiences. Photos gave faces and per­ also commemorated - homosexuals, Berlin. I watched two pictures materi­ sonalities to the names engraved on the the disabled, Roma and political alise. Stumblestones. 'Here lived Max'; stones. People were keen to look at my opponents of the Third Reich. 'Here lived Amalie.' I dashed to the cup­ grandmother's locket, its first time in I grew up tiptoeing around this area board to check dates of birth, of Berlin for 67 years. Adults expressed of my family past. My mother, born in deportation to Theresienstadt, of death. surprise that so much had survived the Berlin, was the youngest of three Everything was accurate. But I am their turbulent years of flight and war, and children, the only one still at home only living descendant. Who had done gratitude at being allowed a personal when Hitler came to power By 1936 she this? Then I noticed the date the stones glimpse into the impact of persecution. had persuaded her parents to let her were laid: 30 November 2005. It was I was not the only one to have grown go and, with a domestic permit, now 4 December, only four days later. up during decades of silence - so had immigrated to London. Her parents, In January I stood outside an impos­ they. How much ofthe horrors had our plus a stream of uncles, aunts and ing block of flats in west Berlin. The parents and grandparents known about cousins, remained in Germany and were stumblestones resembled two tiny foot­ at the time? That had been a no-go- eventually deported and murdered. prints in the ice. So this is where my area for all of us. We each had a piece That much I knew - the bare facts. grandparents lived out their last years, missing from ourjigsaw ofthe past, and One day in the 1980s, my aunt, who I thought. A young man let himself into I realised in that schoolroom that I rep­ was visiting from New York, dumped the building. 'May I step inside for a resented their missing piece. It was a two plastic bags at my feet: photos, moment?', I asked. He and his partner disconcerting moment. jewellery smuggled out of Germany in invited me in for tea, for a ride in the In the project's early years, local 1939, papers entrusted to non-Jewish lift - 'The original one - your grand­ councils tried to block it. friends on the eve of deportation, parents will have gone up and down in StumWestones?! The bureaucratic brain letters of farewell to their children. it!' I was touched by their welcome and could not think beyond Health and When a few years later my uncle in struck by their wish to acknowledge this Safety. Eventually the message got Tel Aviv died, I was at it again, wading dark era of their history. through: you don't stumble over the through more yellowed papers: a 1905 My grandfather Max had been a stones - they are flush with the vaccination certificate, German school freemason, and I learned that his and pavement - you stumble upon them! reports, an inventory of possessions There are now 1,000 Stolpersteine in shipped from Hamburg to Haifa. Plus Berlin, over 8,000 throughout Germany, sheaves of letters from Beriin. I peered with a long waiting list for more. Local at my grandfather's tight, black co-ordinators help establish handwriting and at my grandmother's biographical details - particularly looser, spidery hand. My grandparents important for Jewish victims as the last were at last trying to emigrate, but the given address was usually not their outbreak of war and the rigour of the own, but a Judenhaus, where they were British censor put paid to any further herded before deportation. German correspondence. A terse two-liner from schools have been involved since the the British authorities in Palestine put beginning, the pupils helping to Mallyand Max, 1936 their immigration application on hold, research the fate of individuals and raise and that was the end of that. Mally's Stolpersteine were two among money - 95 euros each. I brought the folders back to London, several that Wolfgang Knoll - now Not all reactions are positive. 'Jews but my mother wouldn't look at them. project co-ordinator for Wilmersdorf- have had enough done for them!', said So I added my uncle's bagloads to my Charlottenburg - had sponsored out of one woman, slamming her front door aunt's and shut the cupboard door. It a desire to honour the Jewish members Jewish responses aren't always felt like a heavy, lonely legacy. of his lodge who had perished. He gave favourable either: some believe walking One evening last winter I switched me a tour of family addresses: on the memorials is a desecration, on the computer and 'googled' my Sigmundshof 22, where my mother was continued on page 10 AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007

STICK UP FOR ISRAEL Sir - It is time that some of your readers stopped their verbal sniping at Israel and The Editor reserves the right the Israeli army. They are a very small few fighting against vastly superior numbers to shorten correspondence to try and ensure the safety of their TO THE •) submitted for publication country's citizens and leave a safe haven for any Jewish person to visit or go to live. V EDITORI ^ Stick up for Israel and cheer them on! Frank Reichmann, North Leigh, Oxon

Sir - It was heart-warming to find so many THE WAITING ROOM' not received by some until after the of your contributors making such a Sir - I have just finished watching the programme was screened. wholehearted case in favour of Israel wonderful programme on BBC Four about Hortense Gordon, London NW2 (February), whilst expressing their the AJR. It was positively uplifting! I am uninhibited feelings about the Jewish not sure whether it was filmed at the Day OUT OF LOVE anti-Israel clique. Diaspora-based anti- Centre -1 presume it was. What was most Sir - If Victor Ross (March) has fallen out Israel Jews do not seem to remember that satisfying and enjoyable was the dignity, of love with the English (not the British?) Israeli citizens who are continually enthusiasm and great humour of those this is his own affair But we can dispute harassed by rocket attacks and suicide who were filmed. his reasoning. There is a difference bombers are more than entitled to expect Although those taking part in the between the USA and the UK in that in their government to defend them. programme were all refugees from America the majority of people are Dr Fred Rosner, Chigwell, Essex persecution, the programme was originally immigrants themselves or stem from immigrant families. remarkably positive. They serve as a great Sir - Re the popular 'poor Palestinian example of the power of overcoming Yes, there is a powerful Jewish lobby rhetoric': it is hardly surprising that fami­ adversity and being committed to in the USA which is missing here. But this lies 'enjoying' eight, nine or more children rebuilding their lives despite the horror is hardly the fault of the English. One will suffer poverty. Also, having just re­ and loss they experienced. might say that it is less necessary here or turned from a Nile cruise and a visit to Jubilee House and the Day Centre it would have emerged. Cairo, I can confirm to the bleeding hearts demonstrate so well how care for the Like Victor Ross, I have come to the that the poverty in Egypt is of third-world elderly can be a dignified and enlightened conclusion that we first-generation proportions - in spite of having amazing task. Chris Ure and family refugees will never be 'genuine natural wealth in the form of the Nile and Felmersham, Beds Englishmen'. The second generation - our the Suez Canal and tourist potential children - have no such problems. Could worthy of the premier league. To the Pal­ this be a case of sour grapes? Sir - I watched a wonderful half-hour estinian sympathisers, I recommend a visit programme on BBC4. It looked as if it was Cad F Flesch, London NW6 to Egypt for a reality check. from a day club for Jewish people. How Sir - I'm sorry Victor Ross has fallen out of M. Ladenheim, Surbiton, Surrey delightfully refreshing, witty and amusing love with the English. My love for them the Jewish refugees were. Such strength has deepened rather than diminished over BACK TO GERMANY of spirit, having been through such a the years. What he calls the 'double bluff Sir - Mrs B. Cohen (February) fails to un­ terrible upheaval in their lives, shows what of self-deprecation, the arrogance of derstand why some people visit Germany a marvellous group of people they are. learning worn lightly' I, who come from a for pleasure, but that others visit out of a Mary Young, Yeovil country where nearly everyone is a Herr sense of duty to the vanished Jewish com­ Doktor and lets you know it, find munities does not seem to have occurred Sir - I was so disappointed with the rather refreshing. As for the 'ice-cold to her. I visit my old home town of Wesel programme about our Day Centre on BBC heart behind good manners', in every year on the anniversary of 4. Due to the inexperience and lack of my experience the opposite is true. Behind Kristallnacht, when a Gedenkfeier takes interest of the young reporter, the Day a rather cool facade, there beats a warm place at the city hall with a candle-lit Centre appeared little different from heart. If antisemitism exists in this country, procession to the Mahnmal in the shadow those shown sometimes on the main as it probably does, I have never of the local cathedral. The year before last channels. Boredom was held at bay only encountered it. It has to be said, though, I was instrumental in having a granite by the 'performance' of the two male that, unlike Victor Ross, I have never memorial plaque unveiled in the military members - one by his beautiful playing mingled with the English beau monde part of the city cemetery to seven of the violin, the other by his robust views nor have I ever aspired to become an German-Jewish soldiers killed in action in on the disadvantages of marriage! English gentlewoman. I am what I am - the First World War This year, on Holo­ Incidentally, I also agree with the view that an Austrian Jew, a loyal British subject and caust Memorial Day, after I had written a the German and Austrian refugees should a citizen of the world. strong letter to the local press the previ­ not be lumped together We suffered the Edith Argy, London W9 ous year, a wreath-laying ceremony took same fate but vive la difference] place at the Mahnmal for the first time. (Mrs) Marion Smith, Harrow, Middx Sir - I am appalled by the final sentiment As the last active member of a once expressed by Victor Ross. I would have flourishing Jewish community, I feel it is Sir - 'The Waiting Room'. What for? The expected something better from someone my duty to keep their memory alive and staff and volunteers do a magnificent job associated with my late uncle Werner M. engage in dialogue with, especially the - nothing of this was mentioned or Behr in the Thank-You Britain Fund. We young, but also older citizens. Mrs Cohen shown. There was no introduction and are emphatically not defined by the labels might ponder on what she could usefully not much of an end. Seeing the premises and libels of our enemies! We introduced do in this field instead of withdrawing and people one knows on TV gave rise to the first successful monotheistic religion into a bitterness which does no good. discussion among us in NW London, but and moral code, which others imitated Ernest G. Kolman, Greenford, Middx what did this programme do for other only much later. We do not cower as viewers? Many members must have abject slaves to the prejudices of others! Sir- Most Germans living today are deeply missed it altogether as the Journal was Michael Feld, London N3 regretful of what happened. Has anyone AjR JOURNAL APRIL 2007 ever heard of a country that persecuted HMD AND THE YOUNGER Jews later making compensation GENERATION AREYOUONALOW payments? Of course, these do not atone Sir - I attended the Holocaust Memorial for the millions who were murdered, but Day event at Brent Town Hall. The INCOMEANDINNEED they enable survivors to live in their old programme made us think about the life OF HOMECARE HELP? age free from financial worry. we live today, about human nature, about Henry Schragenheim, London N15 the future. I regret that most of the 200 AJR might be able to offer you people there were of my generation - financial assistance for cleaning, 'I AM NOT A GERMAN!' pensioners who remember well the gardening and caring. Sir - Max Sulzbacher states (March) that I Second World War and all the horrors of 'was presumably born in Germany'. In those years. What have we done wrong Members who might not fact, I was born in Vienna - which, despite that younger people cannot find the time otherwise be able to afford the Anschluss, was, and still is, in Austria. to attend a Sunday afternoon meeting to homecare please contact: honour the past and learn from it? Why he presumed that my strong feeling Estelle Brookner, Secretary of Jewish identity meant that I must have Hana Nermut, Harrow been born in Germany baffles me. Surely AJR Social Services Dept the German Jews wanted to integrate STOLPERSTEINE CONTACT Tel: 020 8385 3070 with their fellow countrymen more than Sir - Some 10,000 Stolpersteine have the Jews did in any other European been laid in Germany thus far (see article country. Have I been wrong in believing on page 5 - fof.). Those who would like this all these years? Peter Phillips to find out more should contact Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd Loudwater, Herts Koordinierungsstelle 'Stolpersteine' fiir Berlin, c/o Gedenkstatte Deutscher Clara Nehab House IN MEMORY OF HERBERT SULZBACH Widerstand, Stauffenbergerstr. 13-14, Residential Care Home 10785 Beriin, or Frau Frankenstein, tel 030/ Sir - Re the article 'In memory of Herbert All single rooms with en suite Sulzbach' (February), I took over his 26 39 89 014, fax 030/26 99 50 10, email [email protected]. bath/shower. Short stays/Respite position as senior interpreter in Scotland. and 24 hour Permanent Care. Large I got to know him quite well. We were a Professor Leslie Baruch Brent London N19 attractive gardens. Ground Floor few weeks together before his transfer to Lounge and Dining Rooms. Lift England. He was very keen on re­ ILLUSTRATED BOOK OFFER access to all floors. Easy access education and encouraged me to to local shops and public transport. approach this way with the collaboration Sir - My husband Moss was born in the of Col Faulk of MI9, the political East End of London. I am getting ready Enquiries and further information please contact: intelligence department of the War Office. to write his biography - illustrated as I The Manager, Clara Nehab House 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 ODA He deserved all the honours he received. am an artist. I have recently become very Phone: 020 8455 2286 It did not stop me from investigating any conscious of the fact that Moss is not the war crimes which may have been only 'East Ender' to have experienced a committed by the thousands of PoWs fascinating childhood in London, passing through the camps. I must have Germany, or wherever the winds of fate SPRING behaved like a 'mensch' because, before happened to blow them before, during my transfer to the south, I was presented and after the war. I would be delighted if GROVE with a hand-carved chess set by the anyone reading this letter would send me, 214 Finchley Road prisoners. Little did I know then what via the AJR, a copy of their own London NWS happened to my parents and brother! experiences - no longer than 1,000 words. Henry Grunfeld (formerly of Dortmund) If chosen as suitable, these stories too will London's Most Luxurious Manchester be illustrated and published. Mf RETIREMENT HOME Laura Meyer Levy, Wembley, Middx Sir - My late father, Martin Sulzbacher, • Entertainment - Activities knew Herbert Sulzbach quite well due to ARE JEWS A RACE? • Stress Free Living the similarity of names. In 1973 we Sir - I have never agonised about being • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine bought his book on his experiences at of the Jewish race. Unlike Jack Lee • Full En-Suite Facilities the front in the First Wortd War which (March), I would never put 'White Call for more Infonnation he descrit>ed with such pa^iotic fervour. European' on any form for fear of falling or a personal tour We were also present at • lecture he gave foul of the Trade Description Act or being and at which he produced a video of the accused of impersonating a member of 020 8446 2117 'Gestapo List'. This showed the names the Aryan fraternity. What happens when or 020 7794 4455 of people who would be dealt with by they see my ponim and all is revealed? [email protected]( the Gestapo when the Germans invaded Mr Lee may be blond and blue-eyed but I England. His name was included and went AWOL when these were distributed. underneath was my own name. This was, Frank Bright, Ipswich Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. of course, a Doppelganger, whom I STATE REGISTERED arranged to meet. He was no relation but LIGHT AND HOPE CHIROPODIST a chemist who worked with Chaim Sir - Members of my family have been told Surgeries at: Weitzmann. of the ongoing care and consideration you 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 Herbert Sulzbach and his wife were gave to my cousin Angela Aranykovy over (opp. M&S) buried in the Christian Hampstead a long period. The AJR receives little cemetery. Had he or his father converted publicity and no credit for the financial Telephone: 020 7624 1576 to Christianity? Obviously he had not assistance it also provides for sun/ivors. This 2 Pangbourne Drive reconverted to Judaism on the rise of is a great pity because you bring light and Stanmore Middx HA7 4QT Nazism. Our admiration for his good work hope to the darkness of the later years of Telephone: 020 8958 8557 has diminished due to this sad fact. people such as Angela. For all this, I am Max Sulzbacher, London NWl 1 deeply grateful. Egon Philip, Haifa, Israel Visiting chiropody service available fin-de-siecle movement condemned by the Nazis as degenerate, Sanders's work is not informed by the urban experience of his REVIEWS countrymen but by Catalonian village life or the tranquillity of Hampstead. Such rural Foul deeds recorded empathy puts Sanders out of touch and out SEFER ZIKARON/ BUCH DER of time with the reactive German ERINNERUNG: JUDEN IN DRESDEN, Expressionist movement symbolised by DEPORTIERT, ERMORDET, VERSCHOLLEN, 1933-1945 Henry Sanders has been dubbed the last Kollwitz, Schiele and Kokoschka. Like Arbeitskreis Gedenkbuch der German Expressionist. Born Helmuth them, he avoided the cliche of beauty. Unlike Gesellschaft fOr Christtich-Judische Salomon in Dresden 1918, Sanders came to Schiele, he did not challenge those cliches Zusammenarbeit Dresden e. V., 2006, Britain in 1933 and studied at Hornsey or push out the boundaries between beauty 407pp., distributed by Thelem, College of Art. Interned and sent to Canada and ugliness. Universitatsverlag Dresden when war broke out, he would sit on the While some of Sanders's work is ([email protected]) camp's washroom floor, sketching furiously comparable to that of Emil Nolde and This outstanding book is a memorial to in charcoal. His tender yet dynamic animal others who were challenging the political those whose fate is described inside, all studies recall the strong, pared-down line of forces of their time, London was not a city of whom, bar a handful, perished. It is an artist faced with the urgency of the of urban decay or social disintegration and illustrated with copies of documents and with photos taken in happier times moment. many of Sanders's landscapes could be by the few who managed to leave and Some of his work lay in obscurity for 35 considered abstract. His courageous and - just as important - get beyond the years but now it is shown in an exhibition emotional use of colour is almost closer to reach of German Jew-hunters. Thus at Etz Chayim Gallery in Northwood Impressionism. Widely exhibited in London, Kindertransports to Holland ended up and Pinner Liberal Synagogue, most of but not featured in auctions for years, he in Auschwitz via Westerbork and there could surely have been a major is a case of a refugee joining the artist of his time. Foreign Legion, which handed him over. The few who survived within the Shame on the National Reich lack such mementos. Given that Portrait Gallery! The home to pictures speak louder than words, the some of Britain's most exciting book has a particular resonance - it is portraiture has lent itself not just a list of names, dates and inexplicably to a new exhibition summaries. on fashion which is one of the The archives of the Jewish coldest and most exploitative community went up in flames. In any shows I can remember. I say case, the number of those who registered before 1935 was vastly inexplicable unless, of course, the augmented by those made Jewish by NPG has an overwhelming need the race laws. Two survivors began to to jump on the celebrity band­ make a list of those they remembered wagon. Face of Fashion, until and sought to correspond with those 28 May, features Kate Moss abroad, but the Communists looking as though you'd surprised discouraged such contacts. In 1995 a working party was formed under the her in her bath, there's a leadership of Lilli Ulbrich and it took ten pantomime redhead in a ruff and years to trace the names - not only as a the portrait of a man with a cut memorial to them but also as a throat. The waifs and strays of reminder of what became of them in fashion strike bogus attitudes of those days under the eyes of their fellow sex and bondage. Dresdeners. But where is this face of They were a special group. I know Henry Sanders Ttie Basket Carrier (series-village from an exchange of emails last year Catalonia) 21'x 15.5' fashion? Most of the subjects are with Ulbrich that Dresdeners pretend undressed and of the now- to be victims and not active and zealous it selling for under £300. On that washroom unfashionable size-zero build. Five leading NS perpetrators, do not wish this floor of his intemment camp, he drew and US and European fashion photographers impression to be questioned by redrew one theme - Leda and the Swan - are claimed here to shape our ideas of revelations which show their stained in which a woman and a swan merge and beauty, sexuality and fame. Did I miss past, and regard Victor Klemperer's then part, internalising a highly sexual something? Diaries, which tell that the firestorm actually saved lives, albeit Jewish ones, theme. By refreshing contrast, an adjoining as getting in the way of their illusion. But this is not the case with his oils or room has some penetrating photographs by The effort of the working party, and of even his beautifully executed guaches. Don McCullin, featuring religious leaders the many volunteers who sieved Conscious of the raging mood of like Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks, Tony through more than 170 sources, Expressionism in Germany, a largely Jewish Bayfield and Dr Rowan Williams. including concentration-camp archives

8 AJR JOURNAL APRIL 2007 and research theses, combed Roman is teased by his sister; life for Essential reading deportation lists, questioned Dresden the adults is hard. Yet the men are CONFRONTING THE PERPETRATORS: men and women, and wrote to resourceful, turning their hand to any A HISTORY OF THE CLAIMS emigrants or their descendants, is work that will enable them to feed their CONFERENCE therefore the more wonderful. Some numerous offspring (Roman's father is by Marilyn Henry 2,000 of the over 7,100 people a timber merchant). London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2006, persecuted under the race laws are Relations with non-Jewish 272pp., cloth £49.50; paper £20.00 recorded here. neighbours are friendly and Roman's It is a story of unrelenting abuse. A wet-nurse, Mrs Lewandovska, is a I was very worried when I was asked to total of 724 men, women and children, particularly warm figure in Roman's life. review this book. It is written by Marilyn stateless or of Polish descent, were put His is an active childhood, swimming Henry, with a foreword by Sir Martin into a goods wagon in October 1938 in the local lake and trying to fish with Gilbert, and commissioned by Rabbi and dumped in Poland, where, afterthe his half-brother Iccio. There are amusing Israel Miller and Saul Kagan, the long­ German invasion, they were annihilated. accounts of their attempt to rob a time leaders of the Claims Conference. The rest, driven from their homes into 'piggy bank' in order to buy a fishing It contains lots of notes and appendixes. Judenhauser, from Judenhauser into rod and of a trip to the slaughterer with It does not make easy reading. None the local Hellerberg camp, subjected to a struggling duck. Roman has a sharp the less, I sincerely believe that every Holocaust survivor should obtain a copy. forced labour by local enterprises taking awareness of family relationships and advantage of such cheap employees, the dialogue with his companions is Of course the book is heavily biased and having to walk for miles to work, convincing. in favour of what the Claims Conference were sent to Riga, Auschwitz or The by now familiar story of the has achieved and it tends to skate over some of its failures. However, there is Theresienstadt with the outcome gradual destruction of Jewish life by the no doubt that much has been done for identical. occupying Germans is told with the German survivors and, interestingly, On the book's dust jacket is a sepia simplicity. For a start, the 12-year-old the Claims Conference's full title is The photo of Ita Guttman with her twins Roman is forced to slave for the local Conference on Jewish Claims against Renate and Rene. It was taken in SS chief. On his way home, he witnesses Germany. Furthermore, Marilyn Henry Theresienstadt by a German the clubbing to death of some of his is an American and she does write from propaganda department. Having served schoolmates by the SS. His former an American perspective rather than a their purpose, the three - the father had friend from the community of European one. Perhaps because the already been murdered - were sent to Volksdeutsche does not hesitate to Germans, particularly Konrad Adenauer, knock him down when ordered to do Auschwitz, where the mother was killed admitted their guilt quite early on after and the twins, four years old, so by the SS chief. One by one, members the Second World War, the Claims experimented on by Mengele. Renate of his family are taken away and the Conference accomplished much in its survived and her story, in her own rest have to move to cramped quarters negotiations with them. words, is on pp.134-35. After years of in the Lodz ghetto. The wanton being pushed from one orphanage to brutality of the guards is appalling. Today, more than 90,000 Jewish another, she was adopted by a family However, his dying grandfather gives victims of Nazism continue to receive monthly pensions direct from Germany, on Long Island who found her brother. him a life-enhancing message which totalling more than 450 million euros Externally she became an American, enables him to endure terrible each year. Yet, as a born Austrian, I became the best student, won all the suffering. cannot help but feel that the Claims prizes, gave the speech on prize- When the ghetto is finally cleared he Conference has failed me and my winning days, and learned how to fit survives the selection for the gas former countrymen. As Moshe Jahoda, in. But there is not a day on which she chambers at Auschwitz because of his Director of the Claims Conference at the is not aware of the void within. And she skill as a metal worker From there he is Vienna office, said: 'The bitter fate of is one of the few lucky ones. transferred to a factory in Dresden the Austrian Jews is a terrible one.' Frank Bright where he survives the firestorm afterthe Suffice it to say that the Claims massive Allied air raids. A forced march Conference agreed the paltry sum of westwards enables him and some $210 million from the Austrian fellow prisoners to escape into a A story told with art government for its General Settlement devastated and still hostile German ROMAN'S JOURNEY Fund, in full and final settlement of all countryside. By hitching lifts on the roof by Roman Halter claims, even though there were 20,000 of trains and long treks through Portobello Books, 2007, 304pp., £15.99 claimants! The conference had 'not Czechoslovakia, he reaches his home devoted enough time or effort to There is a genre of concentration-camp town, but his hopes of finding any Austria', said Rabbi Miller. A high- stories. They follow a pattern: pre-Nazi members of his family alive are dashed. ranking, current Claims Conference - idealised picture of a cohesive Jewish Brought to England, he joins the leader also admitted to me that in its family; after Nazi occupation - a story number of teenage boys who are given negotiations with Austria, 'mistakes of horrific persecution told in plain the chance to recoverfrom their ordeal. were made.' There was not enough language. Roman Halter's account is He then uses his talent for drawing to backing from America due to the more ambitious: just as in Konin Theo train as an architect whose skills are traditional view that Austria was a Nazi- Richmond gave us a memorable picture much in demand. occupied country, as well as Austria's of an entire community, so Halter gives This is a story of amazing courage importance as a Cold War buffer state. us a vivid portrait of one extended and resourcefulness told with art and Israel too was unhelpful. It saw Austria family living in Poland in the town of without bitterness which has to be read as an important transit point for Jews Chodesz. There are some less-than- to be believed. fleeing the Soviet Union and Eastern perfect aspects: wives die in childbirth; Martha Blend continued overleaf AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007

Did You Close the Door Softly? •Stolpersteine' - continued from page 5 by Ruth Lansley others that dogs might dirty them. As And what was it for me, the worst that could happen to You packed into your small cases my grandparents happened decades As you were ordered to ago. Let their stumblestones be As you left your home Your bed ignored, dirtied, dug up and replaced, Just when we thought we had enough Your chairs and table if only now and then a passer-by might The unfinished embroidery pause and reflect. enemies on the outside, up pop new ones Oh, dear mother Big Holocaust memorials arouse big from within! A respectable professor of Never to be finished emotions, and the sheer scale of the history produces a book claiming that Now by you? crime needs to be remembered. Yet it maybe the medieval blood libels were Did you close the door softly is hard to grasp. What are the next true and Jews did indeed kill Christian Glancing generations to do with inherited children and use their blood in baking Not believing feelings of guilt, shame and matza. This theory is based on the incon­ Never again helplessness? Many are latching onto To see all the photographs the stumblestone project. It resembles trovertible fact that some Jews confessed Looking at you for the last time a pebble dropped in a lake, say the under torture. Well, that proves it then... Hanging on walls organisers - the ripples grow ever wider. Anyone with the slightest knowledge Of us when we were babies Requests come in daily from ordinary of the laws of Kashrut, especially the And those on the sideboards Germans: they can't change the past, Standing side by side strict taboo on consuming animal blood but they want to make a gesture, if only Of us of any kind - even a speck in an egg - Your children to bring someone back from oblivion can only smile wryly at the idea of Jews to the street where they lived. As we grew up using human blood in matzot. If blood is All saying farewell? Tracing relatives of the deported used anywhere in a religious ritual it is after so long is difficult, finding them a Did you close the door softly in the communion service (alias Kiddush), For the last time matter of luck. A tricky question As you left debated by the co-ordinators is: what when believers delude themselves that Fearful would a descendant feel who they are drinking the blood of Christ. Tearful discovered stumblestones had been laid And now the 'flower of Anglo-Jewry" Frightened without their permission? In my - the so-called Independent Jewish Voices Lonely without us experience, great relief. Complete - seeks to detach Israel from its Gone long ago strangers have acknowledged my politicians. True, Israel's policies are not Not giving comfort grandparents' lives and worth as vsfithout blemish, but that is the case in To you dear mother human beings. What is more, their most democratic regimes. Oddly enough, And dear father? Stolpersteine have provided the key to Were you able to give comfort opening my cupboard. I have cracked the dictatorships are no better. To To each other condemn Israel because of its policies Give courage? the Sutterlin script and can at last read their letters. Between banalities and serves merely to assist those who seek coded references to the latest Nazi to harm Jews. A'/'." I //•-" U .S con I i lined from jxigc 9 actions runs an undercurrent of In the millennia-long course of its Europe and did not want to jeopardise increasing bewilderment, fear and history the Jewish people has managed this situation. In 2001 an agreement, it dogged getting on with daily life. For to survive those who sought to destroy seems, was concluded that benefits of the first time, I can hear my it. While there would doubtless be many grandparents' voices speaking directly $480 million were to be paid to Austrian more of us had it not been for the various from out of the past. survivors. How this fell to $210 million forms of persecution we have endured, is not explained! Ariel Muzicant, the 7ih/s is an amended version of an article assimilation and intermarriage have President of the Austrian Jewish which appeared in Second Generation probably made greater inroads into our community, asked for funds to rebciHd Voices, October 2006, No. 33. numbers. Having our own state is the the Hakoah Sports Stadium. This certainly does not explain the best guarantee of our survival. difference! It seems therefore that WANTED TO BUY George Steiner once claimed that the money was taken from survivors for the establishment of the State of Israel had pet projects of others. The World Jewish German and done the Jews, and especially the 'Jewish Congress even built a Yiddish theatre genius', a disservice, because whereas in Tel Aviv with some of the takings. English Books dozens of Diaspora Jews had been However, I applaud the Claims Bookdealer, AJR member, awarded Nobel Prizes in the sciences, no Conference for what it has done for welcomes invitations to view and Israeli ever had. Since then, several German Jews and, on their behalf, I purchase valuable books. Israelis have gained Nobel Prizes in those thank it. Indeed, though personally fields. disappointed by the Claims Robert Homung Conference's dealings with Austria, I 10 Mount View, Ealing Imperfection is part of the price one willingly commend its book to readers London W5 IPR pays for democracy. But in which so that they can make up their own Email: [email protected] country is perfection to be found? Tel: 020 8998 0546 minds about its successes or failures. Dorothea Shefer-Vanson Peter Phillips

10 AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007

Until the Anschluss, Vieimese medicine led (his German was flawless) and he had the world, and Faimy Stang was probably fought in the Spanish Civil War. With his its last Jewish graduate. PROFILE help, she laid her plans to re-qualify while Fanny Knesbach was bom in 1914 in Frank Beck working as a laboratory assistant for her Poland, the younger child of orthodox keep. They married hurriedly, initially not parents of the merchant class. The family even telling her parents, with whom she moved to Vienna when she was a little girl was in constant correspondence. War and from an early age she spoke Polish, Dr Fanny Stang broke out, and Maurice did war work then Yiddish and German. joined the army and served in Africa and She had a happy childhood, and did well The last Jewish Italy. in the Viermese educational system. As one graduate of Fanny's war was spent in the company of very few Jewish children in her Viennese medicine of her newly acquired family and friends. particular school, she had some problems She soon discovered that the fees for with maintaining her orthodoxy. As her studying in Edinburgh were considerably school-leaving exams approached, she was lower than those charged in London, so she given a chance opportunity to look through took the Scottish medical exams and then a microscope and see the components of a went north to do her clinical work. All this drop of human blood. She was so time she was only able to see Maurice for fascinated by its infection-fighting short periods when he was on home leave. mechanism that she decided on the spot to After the war she learned of the fate of study medicine. her parents; an attempt to escape to Her decision met with immediate Palestine via the River Danube had been parental disapproval. Whilst it was foiled by ice in Yugoslavia, and the desirable, even laudable, for a boy to study Germans had caught up with them and medicine, the same was not true for the shot them and their fellow Jewish escapees daughter of an orthodox family: medicine as a matter of policy. Fanny only slowly was not a ladylike occupation. Fanny came to the realisation that this had insisted, even going on a simulated hunger occurred after living for some years in the strike at one point, and her father finally hope that they might have been spared. All gave way. To show her appreciation, she medicine in the German Reich. this is touchingly described in her books added Hebrew to her Latin and English There followed Kristallnacht, and it was Frdulein Doktor and A New Beginning, studies. Armed with a reluctant and evident to all Austrian Jews that there was which she wrote and published later in life. strictly limited subsidy from her father, she no future for them in Vienna. Fanny's Fanny qualified as a medical entered the medical school of Vienna brother Leo, who had always been a practitioner in Britain, only to find great University in 1932. Zionist, escaped to Palestine with the aid difficulty in starting a career in general Fanny was in her final year in 1938 of the movement of which he was a practice. Doctors retuming from military when the Nazis took power in Vienna. member. Fanny obtained a domestic visa service had priority, and a newly qualified There was some talk of her not even being for England. For the journey she would female refugee had no chance. Fanny went allowed to take her final exams, but the volunteer as a guardian of children on the into public health, and inadvertently found university decreed that, as her father was Kindertransport. When it was all arranged, the basis of a very successful career. a World War One veteran, she would be and her suitcase was already packed, she Maurice returned from the army and took permitted to take her finals. Needless to received a summons from the authorities. up secondary teaching for a living, whilst say, she passed, and a doctoral diploma She was to attend on the following pursuing the study of languages and their was issued, in the traditional Latin, but morning, four days before her intended literature which were his great love. They over-stamped in bureaucratic German departure. Sensing danger, she took a train set up home together, and enjoyed a perfect with the proviso that the holder, as a Jew, that very evening, while her parents and happy relationship, which lasted until was forbidden to use it to practise arranged to move home and disappear. his unexpected death from a heart infection On arrival in London, she met a 50 years later. They travelled and enjoyed Annely Juda Fine Art volunteer helper at the station who their respective work. arranged for her to stay in a Jewish hostel. Fanny's ovm career was so successful 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) It was later that very night that she met that on her retirement she was awarded Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 another volunteer helper, Maurice Stang, honorary fellowship of the Institute of who was destined to be her husband and Public Health. She is currently in her 93rd CONTEMPORARY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE life partner. year, and lives in Hammerson House, a Maurice was an academic and linguist sheltered community in North London.

II afterwards. As their lease is now Next meeting: Thur 19 April. Otto running out, they are planning to move Deutsch, 'Vienna Coffee Houses Now to premises in Birkbeck College. and Then' Annette Saville West Midlands - a cheering Next meeting: Mon 23 April. Susannah Alexander, 'History of the Jews in England' winter event A warm welcome from Corinne and Cleve Road journey through history Paul Oppenheimer to their delightful Pinner cinema We enjoyed a fascinating journey home. Some 20 attended and enjoyed Pinner Synagogue having been trans­ through history with Susannah Alexan­ the generous hospitality. The occasion formed into the local Odeon, Alf Keiles der's overview of the history of the Jews was deemed a very cheering winter showed us Pin-up Gid, the war-time in England. Susannah highlighted the event. Philip Lesser musical starring Betty Grable, Alice Faye, fact that although time may have Joe E. Brown and other favourites. passed, many of the challenges faced Essex (Westcliff) celebrates fifth Music, spectacular tap dancing, a mini­ by today's society resemble those faced birthday in style mal storyline, nostalgia - and, of course, previously. Myrna Glass We celebrated our fifth birthday with a tea, cakes and chatting. We all had a Next meeting: Tues 17 April. Update birthday cake. Special guest Myrna lovely time. Paul Samet from Israeli Embassy Glass brought her two grandchildren. Next meeting: Thurs 12 April. Robert We reviewed the past years, remember­ Keating, 'The Rothschilds and Waddesdon Edgware: optimism needed in ing those who had died and reminiscing Manor' Mid East about speakers, guests and special A very interesting lecture by Robin meetings. All joined in singing favour­ Cardiff speaker's friendship with Hamilton-Taylor from the Israeli Embassy ite songs accompanied by Boris Chait Belsen rescuer who spoke to 25 of us about the lat­ (86) on his mandolin. Larry Lisner Mady Gerrard, originally from est events in the Middle East. One has NB: No meeting in April because of Budapest, told us how she was rescued to be optimistic, even when one of the Pesach from Belsen by a British serviceman. She parties is not willing to co-operate to described subsequent details of her life, find a peaceful solution to this prob­ Edinburgh: dilemma ofthe Diaspora including the fact that following lem. Naomi and Felix Winkler Vivien Andersen gave us a poignant publicity surrounding the liberation of Next meeting: Tues 17 April. Ronald glimpse into her ancestors' history in Belsen, she met her rescuer and they Channing, 'Current Affairs' Germany. Over two-three generations became friends. Charles Meyer her father's family exemplified how llford and New Year of Trees they were viewed as 'noble Israelites', Liverpool: 'India through Jewish Twenty-seven people attended our Tu whose dedication to the 'Vaterland' eyes' B'shevat seder. Under the guidance of was turned into ashes in the Holocaust. In an exciting account, Avril Lappin Myrna Glass, it was fascinating to learn Later, Susanne introduced to us Eileen told us there were Jews on the Indian the significance of the 15 varieties of Brady, the AJR's new part-time Social sub-continent thousands of years ago. fruit given to us to taste. A delicious Worker in the North. Joe Kish Various migrations followed, and Jews way to spend a morning. had always been accepted as fellow Meta Roseneil Stimulating meeting in Indians. Avril's lively description of the Next meeting: Wed 11 April. A Board North London wonderful reception she received from of Deputies representative on 'Past, For the most interesting meeting in a the Mumbai, Kochin and 'Villager' Jews Present and Future' long time, our thanks go to Mr and Mrs had us all in thrall. Gerry Jayson Jack de Metz, who introduced the sub­ Sheffield CF talk on Prague Next meeting: Thur 26 April. 'Refugee ject 'Fair Reporting on Israel', which Sixteen of us heard Dr Miriam Jelinek Voices' turned into a discussion on UK media speak about 'Prague Then and Now', t treatment whenever Israel is mentioned. was revealing to hear her describe the Weald of Kent briefed on Mid East Most stimulating! Herbert Haberberg experience of being a child and situation Next meeting: Thur 26 April. Details to student there in the 50s under the The Israeli Embassy's Robin Hamilton- follow Taylor gave us, with the aid of a Communist regime. We decided to powerpoint presentation, a most devote some of our future meetings to Optimistic view on Mid East at informative talk on the Middle East discussions not only on Prague Brighton and Hove Sarid situation. As usual, we are grateful that but also on other places of our origins. Aubrey Milstein spoke to us about the Jane Dickson looks after the inner man Susanne Pearson Six-Day War Describing the current situ­ - and woman! And thank you, Myrna, ation in Israel, he cheered us up with Cambridge account of Jewish life for all your hard work. Inge Ball his optimistic view. Ceska Abrahams Next meeting: Tues 24 April. in Greece Next meeting: Mon 16 April. Prof Celebrating Israel's Independence Day A well-attended meeting, including Scarlett Epstein, 'From Assimilation to several new members. Few of us had Jewish Identity' Hendon talk by Wiener Library been aware that the considerable OTHER MEETINGS Archivist Jewish presence, especially in Salonika, Wembley CF Wed 18 April. Inaugural was decimated during the war-time Howard Falksohn told us that Dr Alfred meeting. Contact Susan Harrod at Wiener founded the Library in Berlin in occupation, leaving currently less than Head Office 1933, moved it to Amsterdam in 1938, 5,000 in the community. The death Surrey Thur 19 April. Coffee Morning and relocated it to London in 1939. The camps and flight to Israel account for at the Saunders Library supplied information to the the virtual elimination of Jewish life in South West Midlands Sun 29 April. British Government during the war and Greece. Keith Lawson Details being sent out separately

12 A)R JOURNAL APRIL 2007

Continental Friends in the North Paul Balint AJR Centre It all started when a small Harrogate AJR social groups from across the Northern region join group was formed five years ago. This up for get-togethers several times during the 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 successful small gathering includes people year At these functions, those with a similar Tel: 020 7328 0208 from York, Otley, Wetherby, Poole in original background can share reminiscences Wharfedale and surrounding areas. Although and talk about issues of mutual interest - and people did not previously know each other, the sometimes meet up with others they haven't AJR LUNCHEON CLUB group now has a family feeling of friendship seen for more than 60 years! and shared past history. For information about Continental Friends Wednesday 18 April 2007 As a result of the success of this small groups in the North, please contact Susanne 11.45 am for 12.15 pm Harrogate group, the AJR has established in Green, AJR Northern Groups Co-ordinator, on the North similar small social groups called 0151 291 5734. Fiona Bruce Continental Friends - in Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Susanne Green TV Presenter Sheffield, Edinburgh and Manchester, where Please be aware that members should not we have four local Continental Friends groups automatically assume that they are on the Luncheon in the Cheshire, Didsbury, Broughton Park/ Club list. It is now necessary, on receipt of your Crumpsall and Whitefield/Prestwich areas. copy of the A//1 Journal, to phone the Centre on Most meetings of Continental Friends in the 020 7328 0208 to book your place. North are held in members' homes. We have enjoyable interactive discussions on topics of mutual interest. Meetings are held KT-AJR approximately every two months. Kindertransport special By holding these smaller gatherings, we are interest group enabling members to meet in their local areas. This is especially helpful for those who would Monday 16 April 2007 find it too far to travel to the meetings held in 11.45 am for 12.15 pm the main centres. Dr Margaret Brearley, advisor to the Erich Reich The AJR also has more formal social groups former Archbishop of Canterbury on in the North in Manchester, Newcastle, matters connected with the Holocaust, will speak about his Liverpool, Leeds (HSFA) and Glasgow. These are gained rapturous applause for her talk on experiences in Israel larger gatherings of members who meet in a 'Jewish Creativity' at a monthly Reservations required local hall, usually with a speaker. Kindertransport Luncheon at the AJR The Continental Friends and main MR Centre in West Hampstead Please telephone 020 7328 0208 Monday, Wednesday & Thursday 9.30 am - 3.30 pm AJR GROUP CONTAaS Manchester Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS Bradford Continental Friends Newcastle CLOSED ON TUESDAYS Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 April Afternoon Entertainment Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) Norfolk (Norwich) Mon Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 2 CLOSED - Pesach Bristol/Bath Tue 3 CLOSED North London Wed 4 CLOSED - Pesach Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Thur 5 CLOSED - Pesach Cambridge Oxford Mon 9 CLOSED - Easter Monday Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Tue 10 CLOSED Cardiff Pinner (HA Postal District) Wed 11 Jen Gould Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 Thur 12 Margaret Gibbs Cleve Road, AJR Centre Sheffield Mon 16 KT LUNCH Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 - Kards & Games Klub Dundee South London Tue 17 CLOSED Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Wed 18 LUNCHEON CLUB East Midlands (Nottingham) South West Midlands (Worcester area) Thur 19 Margaret Opdahl Bob Norton 01159 212 494 Ruth Jackson 01386 552264 Mon 23 Kards & Games Klub Edgware Tue 24 CLOSED Surrey Wed 25 Paul Coleman Ruth Urban 020 8931 2542 Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 Thur 26 Simon Gilbert Edinburgh Weald of Kent Mon 30 Kards & Games Klub Frangoise Robertson 0131 337 3406 Max and Jane Dickson Essex (Westcliff) 01892 541026 Larry Lisner 01702 300812 Wessex (Bournemouth) DIARY DATES Glasgow Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 22-26 April Vienna trip Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 West Midlands (Birmingham) 14 June Windsor Castle with Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437 Harrogate Royal Weddings Inge Little 01423 886254 Exhibition talk Hendon Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups 24 June Bournemouth holiday Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Co-ordinator -1 July Hertfordshire 020 8385 3070 8-15 July St Anne's holiday Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Myrna Glass, London South and 15 August Frogmore House with HGS Midlands Groups Co-ordinator Guided Tour & Savill Garden Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 020 8385 3077 For further information about any of these Hull Susanne Green, Northern Groups Bob Rosner 0148 2649156 Co-ordinator events, please call us on 020 8385 3070. llford 0151 291 5734 Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Leeds HSFA 020 8385 3070 Trude Siiman 0113 2251628 Members requiring benefit advice please telephone KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 to malte an Liverpool Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 appointment at AJR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL

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AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007

FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS THE KINDERTRANSPORT A Week's Holiday in Birth invite you to a pre-Shavuot BOURNEMOUTH Congratulations to Alex and Michael SUPPER QUIZ Newman on the birth of their daughter Sadie. 24 June - 1 July 2007 on SUNDAY 20 MAY 2007 Join us at the newly refiirbished Death at 7.00 PM Mohr Charlotte (Lotte, nee Bach), born at the newly refurbished hall in Cumberland Hotel DONNEFIELD AVENUE Price £400 (+ £20 single room supplement) Nuremberg 8 March 1922, died peacefully (by Canons Parl< Station; easy parlcing). in London on 31 January 2007. Beloved wife The quiz will be conducted by If you wish to book a superior room professional quizmasters. of the late Rudolph Mohr and dearly loved 2"^ and 3"" generations welcome. there will be a fiirther supplement. by her children Diana and Nicholas, son-in- Please send cheque for £15.00 per person Price includes law Anthony, daughter-in-law Sara, and (made payable to KT Publications) to: Dinner, Bed & Breakfast, transport Judy Benton, 4 Dudley House, grandsons Marcus, Edward, Sam and Asher. Stratton Close, Edgware, Middx HAS 6PL from and retum to 15 Cleve Road, enclosing a sae. lunch on journey to Bournemouth, Classified Please indicate meat or vegetarian. entertainment in hotel For the purpose of serious research, I am IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY BOOKED, anxious to have access to as complete a run HOLIDAY FOR DON'T LEAVE IT TOO LATE as possible of the periodical Aufbau (paper NORTHERN MEMBERS Call Lorna on 0208 385 3070 or version). Helpful suggestions/offers would Sunday 8 July 2007 - Carol on 020 8385 3085 be greatly appreciated. H. C. Poswiansky, Sunday 15 July 2007 c/o 26a Tottenham Street, London WIT 4RQ. AT THE FERNLEA HOTEL 11/17 South Promenade, St Annes LEO BAECK Female AJR member looking for live- Tel 01253 726 726 HOUSING ASSOCIATION in companion. Please call Ruth Finestone The cost, including Dinner, Bed and Breakfast, is £420 per person on 07957 665 468. The hotel charges a supplement per BUNGALOW TO LET room for sea view or deluxe room GOLDERS GREEN AREA Programme includes LARGE LOUNGE/DINING AREA, HANDING THEM DOWN GOOD COMPANY BEDROOM WITH FITTED ENTERTAINMENT • OUTINGS WARDROBES, BATHROOM WITH Let Martin Gaba, a highly experienced MEET OLD AND NEW FRIENDS journalist on disability issues and a SHOWER, FITTED KITCHEN medical doctor, sensitively help Travel to St Aimes by 24-HOUR CALL BELL SYSTEM RAIL, NATIONAL COACH or CAR you record your memoirs in writing. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Please contact Ruth Finestone on For a brochure/press cuttings, further 020 8385 3070 AND VIEWING CONTACT information or to arrange a no-cost DAVID LIGHTBURN ON 020 8455 2286 exploratory chat, please contact him at AJR TRIP TO VIENNA [email protected] Following last year's successful trip to ACACIA LODGE or tel 020 8556 7268 Berlin we are arranging a trip Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron to Vienna from 22 to 26 APRIL For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent There will be a full agenda with sightseeing. (Licensed by Borough ot Barnel) Some walking will be involved. ' Single and Double Rooms. Home Care For further information, please call • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. Goto^ Carol Rossen on 020 8385 3085 • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. Care through quality and • Nurse on duty 24 hours. professionalism • Long and short term and respite, Celebrating our 25th Anniversary including trial periOu if required. 25 years of experience in providing the Between £400 and £500 per week liighest standards of care In the comfort 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours of your own home 020 8455 1335 other times 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley London N12 STB

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1 hour to 24 hours care A grandchild is a wonderful blessing Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours Registered through Ihe National Care Standard Commission to have. If you would like to spend more time with them then you need to Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 call CORRECT COMPUTERS. Convalescent and Personal Health Care www.colvin-nursing.co.uk Imagine being able to see your family Compassionate and Affordable Service whenever YOU want. We teach Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff SWITCH ON ELECTRICS complete beginners to use a computer and will show you how to have video Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA Rewires and all household conversations with any of your family. electrical work That's as easy as making a telephone Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 call but one hundred times better, Call Studio I Utopia Village Mobile: 0795 614 8566 us now on 020 7449 0920. 7 Chalcot Road, NVVl 8LH

14 A)R JOURNAL APRIL 2007

Obituary Central Office for Holocaust Claims Trude Grant mother or the fact that she had such a Michael Newman Trude lived a life marred by upheaval, wonderful rapport with children. That ability hardship and much painful loss, yet with also saved her from an unpromising career The Netherlands art resilience and goodness and great love for in a uniform factory in Burton. Instead, she her husband of over 60 years, Henry, and found employment as a teacher's assistant restitution: a reminder her children and grandchildren. and worked with nursery school children Following a recommendation from until her retirement. Trude met Henry on a farm in 11am in the Ekkart Committee, the Dutch 1940 in a camp for refugee children who had In later years, she kept her mind active government has announced a revised come from Austria on the Kindertransport. through the University of the Third Age and deadline of 4 April 2007 for They worked hard through the poverty she and Henry went regularly to concerts at applications to the NK collection of refugees faced in those times and the painful the Wigmore Hall. She joined the B'nai B'rith artworks. knowledge of their loss in Austria. Trude Lodge in Wembley and was exfremely active Although hundreds of works of found much strength in her mother, who had in the association of Jewish Friendship Clubs. art were returned to their rightful All knew her as a very loyal friend and a managed to flee from Austria with her. owners after the war, the NK fun-loving, lively, yet very modest person. The highlight of her life were the births collection comprises 4,217 works - of her children, Marion and Peter. Trude Extracted from eulogy by Kathleen de including 1,750 paintings - many of always showed phenomenal support for Magtige-Middleton, Rabbi, Liberal which were owned by Jews prior to them. Perhaps it was the influence of her own Jewish Synagogue the Second World War but were confiscated or purchased illegally by members of the German occupying Search Notices forces. Lothar Gruenwald, born Vienna 1880, was [email protected] Further details about the collection a musician (piano). Last heard of 1941 Rio and details of how to apply are avail­ Sigma, a German-Jewish refugee born 1939- de Janeiro, new name Lotario Grunwald. 40, stayed for many months during the war able at www.herkomstgezocht.nl/eng/ Any info pis to [email protected] with Jack (later Sir Jack) and Peggy Longland Eva Gisela Haas, born Czechoslovakia 1924, in Welwyn Garden City. Pis contact me re Hardship Fund: an update lived with family (later foster parents) Mr and biography of Sir Jack - Mark Lambert at Towards the end of 2005, AJR Mrs F. Davis, 6 Gibbon Road, Nunhead, [email protected] London SEI 5. Eva learned family's business, members were alerted to the Heinrich and Siegfried Steinhardt, last hairdressing. Any info pis to Morris and Hilda possibility of making an application heard of in Worms. Any info pis to Gold (formerly Hilda Haas) at to the Hardship Fund, which was [email protected] [email protected] introduced to enable Holocaust Esme Kinder, my partner (maiden name), Tchelebonne Philip/Phil, last seen Metz, survivors who had lived in former born in Gibralter, believes her paternal France, in 1962. His parents, Bulgarian Jews, grandfather left Germany during the war, emigrated c 1925 to New York, where Phil Soviet-Bloc countries to receive possibly on a Kindertransport. Any info pis to was born. Phil was hoping to go to Israel. compensation from the German Any info pis to [email protected] [email protected] government. Gertrude Wolfgang, from Germany or Aus­ My friend Evelyn Kligler was a At the time of the announcement tria, lived with Black family in Newport, Kindertransport child. She lived with a family Monmouthshire. Her childhood friend in it was understood that the criteria in England (the lady's name was Phoebe). Newport, Heather Johnson, remembers that Any info pis to [email protected] of those eligible to claim the one­ after the war Gertie learned her father had time reparation of 2,550 euros Edith Robinsky, music teacher at Judische been shot, but her mother liberated from a Schule in Chorinerstrasse, Berlin, until c. concentration camp by the Americans. Any (approx. £1,700) had been expanded 1943. Any info pis to Prof Steven Robins at info pis to [email protected] to include survivors who had been in Western Europe during the Second World War (former Western per­ Arts and Events Diary - April secutees). In response to the From 23 April to 18 May Absence and by Diane Samuels. West Yorkshire Playhouse, announcement, we assisted some Loss A photographic Holocaust memorial Leeds. Tel 0113 2137 700 500 members, the majority of them exhibition London Jewish Cultural Centre, Wed 18 Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, 'The Austrian, to lodge applications. tel 020 8457 5000 Dignity of Difference' In association with The AJR was recently informed To 8 April Champion of the Child: Janusz Shalvata. London Jewish Cultural Centre, tel that while the applications of Korczak Exhibition Jewish Museum, 020 8457 5000 Western persecutees are being Camden Town, tel 020 7284 1997 Mon 23 Hans Seelig MA, 'A Few Musical Mon 2 No lecture (hall not available) Club Anniversaries of 2007 (including Bux- processed, no awards to them will 43 tehude and Johann Stamitz)' Club 43 be paid from the Hardship Fund at Mon 9 No lecture (Bank Holiday) Club 43 Wed 25 Orlando Figes, 'The Gulag in this time. The Fund will, however, 11-13 Refugee Archives: Theory and Memory' Wiener Library-Birkbeck College continue to make payments to Practice International conference, joint lecture series. Room B33, Birkbeck survivors who lived in former College, Malet Street, LondonWCl, 7.00 pm. University of Sussex tel 01273 678837 Communist countries. Tel 020 7626 7247 Sun 15 Yom HaShoah, An Evening of Written enquiries should be sent Commemoration: 'Remembering for the Mon 30 Ernst Flesch MA, 'A Trip through Future' Pinner Synagogue, 8-10 pm Southern Africa (with slides)' Club 43 to Central Office for Holocaust Claims Mon 16 Michael Faulkner, 'German Politics (UK), Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, by fax to under Soviet Occupation, 1945-1949' Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square Club 43 Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans Seelig on 020 8385 3075, or by email to Tues 17-Sat 21 Kindertransport Ihe play 01442 254360 mnewman(ffiajr.org.uk

15 AJRJOURNAL APRIL 2007

Newsround

Poles reunited with Jews they hid in wartime Perpectives of war Some 60 Holocaust survivors have been 'Prelude to Genocide' Tessler, but I could not resist mentioning reunited in Warsaw with the Polish Professor Richard Evans, a key witness in the exhibition of superb black-and-white families who hid them from the Nazis the Deborah Lipstadt-David Irving case, photographs, taken by Wolf Suschitzky, in the Second World War. The Poles are delivered the Lord Merlyn Rees Memorial which I saw displayed at the splendidly recipients of Yad Vashem's Righteous Lecture at the House of Lords, for the refurbished Austrian Cultural Forum in among the Nations award. It is the Holocaust Educational Trust, on 'Prelude to Kensington. Now approaching his 95th largest such reunion in Poland for (ienocide: The Nazis and the Jews, 1933- birthday, after fleeing from his native decades. 1939'. Vienna in 1935, Suschitzky captured the In the Orman election of May 1928 the atmosphere of pre-war London, as well as Jewish cemetery in Bavaria Nazi Party had gained 12 seats in the the stark reality of northem towns, in black- vandalised Reichstag, just 2.6 per cent of votes cast, said and-white photographs of great impact and More than half the graves in a Jewish Professor Evans and, as a consequence, they simplicity.* cemetery outside the town of Diespeck 'decided to downplay antisemitism in their Aged 24, he took Charing Cross Road as in Bavaria have been desecrated. The propaganda'. By the election of 1932, the his subject: a double-decker bus circling cemetery dates from the eighteenth Nazi vote had risen to 34 per cent. The Cambridge Circus, an elegant cigarette- century. Brownshirts were 'the glue' which held smoking couple in a Lyons Comer House in disparate groups together. Accusations that 1941, a smartly-trilbied Freddie Mills look- Men charged with burning copies Germany's half-million Jews had 'stabbed alike just yards from the side street where of Diary of Anne Frank the country in the back' were totally at odds Mills later committed suicide. But these im­ Seven men have gone on trial for with the facts; Jews had served loyally in ages were not published until 70 years later. burning copies of The Diary of Anne the armed forces in numbers at least equal In the age of universal digital cameras, it's Frank in the village of Pretzien near to others. In the main, being politically good to recall the film-based classic Magdeburg. The men are charged with liberal or conservative did not prevent their Rollieflexes and Leicas with which such incitement and denigration of the being called Bolsheviks or revolutionaries, photos were taken. Perhaps I'll load a black- memory of the deceased. If convicted, which they hated. and-white film in my old Rolleicord and give they could face five years in jail. In preparing for war. Hitler sought to it a try. drive the Jews out of Germany. From 1933 Holocaust 'jokes' on sugar Holocaust memoir digest completed packets onwards legislation deprived Jews of their Holocaust-education specialist Esther Packets of sugar bearing the likeness of rights, businesses were 'Aryanised', with Goldberg (Lady Gilbert) presented the third Adolf Hitler and carrying Holocaust Stormtroupers preventing customers from and final volume of the Holocaust Survivor 'jokes' have been found in cafes in entering Jewish shops, cash was expropri­ Memoirs which she has edited, published by Pozega in Croatia. The local district ated, Jews were deprived of citizenship, and Vallentine Mitchell, at a reception at attorney has opened an investigation. there was Nazi intimidation and rioting on London's Great Portland Street Synagogue. the streets. On Kristallnacht 30,000 were It is designed for teachers and students to arrested, with hundreds murdered and oth­ Elie Wiesel accosted in hotel study the Holocaust through the words of ers released only on assurance of emigration. Police have issued an arrest warrant for survivors as found in their published Professor Evans maintained that in private a New Jersey man suspected of memoirs. not all Germans were antisemitic, but fear accosting Holocaust survivor and Nobel of violence and intimidation assured their Esther Goldberg read extracts from t^ie Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel in a San public acquiescence. Except during the 1936 volume, which reminded her audience that, Francisco hotel earlier this year. Olympic Gcimes, Nazi propaganda was un­ despite the destmction of 1,000 synagogues Holocaust-denier Eric Hunt, 22, was remitting with newspapers, newsreels, and Jewish property, by 1939 more than being sought on charges of attempted school textbooks and suchlike all indoctri­ half of German and Austrian Jewry had es­ kidnapping and committing a hate nating antisemitism, reinforced by the Hitler caped. By the end of 1940, however, more crime. At the time of the incident, Youth. than 40 ghettos had been established and, Wiesel was attending the World Forum, with the invasion of the USSR in 1941, an inter-faith conference on non-violent The Lipstadt-Irving trial had 'uncovered Einsatzgruppen were slaughtering Jews conflict resolution. historical mendacity', said Professor Evans, from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Sir Martin and 'showed that Irving had falsified Gilbert reviewed half-a-century's writing on Baby boom in Israel following history'. But he believed that present laws the Holocaust: the 1940s and 1950s had con­ Lebanon war were sufficient to deal with Holocaust denial, centrated on the perpetrators, he said, but Israel's recent war in Lebanon led to a although there remained a need to educate by the 1970s acts of Jewish resistance re­ baby boom. A report on Israeli TV said our own youngsters ceived recognition. the number of pregnant women who Black-and-white conceived during the 34-day war last I have no wish to usurp the subject-matter *Wolf Suschitzky Photos is published by summer increased by 35 per cent over of my colleague, arts correspondent Gloria Synema at £25. the same period in 2005.

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website wvvw.ajr.org.uk

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