Journal Association of Jewish Refugees

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.

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