JOURNAL the Association of Jewish Refugees
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VOLUME 19 NO.11 NOVEMBER 2019 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees German Passports LEAVE THE LIGHT ON This month marks the 81st and Jewish Refugees anniversary of Kristallnacht. Many shuls are leaving a light on overnight after Shabbat on 9 November to After the war, many refugees faced a difficult question: Did they want commemorate the tragedy and you may like to do the same at home. to return to their homeland? Of course, there were terrible memories November is also Jewish Legacy of loss and persecution. Who would want to go back to countries Awareness Month and AJR is proud where their families had been killed, their homes confiscated, their to be among the partners supporting #JLGMonth #whatisthepoint. values trampled upon? Meanwhile we invite all our Second Generation readers to complete our special survey - see page 3. Marseille to Martinique ................................ 4 AJR annual party .......................................... 5 Letters to the Editor ...................................6-7 Art Notes...................................................... 8 Letter from Israel .......................................... 9 The Arolsen Archives .............................10-11 Eli’s Story ...............................................12-13 Around the AJR .....................................14-15 Reviews .................................................16-17 Looking For ................................................ 18 Obituaries .................................................. 19 For most people, the issue as to whether to apply for a German passport goes a lot Events & exhibitions ................................... 20 deeper than simply the ease of cross-border travel. A surprising number of refugees did In my own family, my maternal Please note that the views expressed go back. The playwright Bertolt Brecht grandfather and great-uncle both throughout this publication are not moved to East Germany, where he returned to Germany after the war and necessarily the views of the AJR. famously set up the Berliner Ensemble. lived there until they died. But my mother The Austrian writer Hilde Spiel moved and grandmother refused to go back. AJR Team between Britain and Austria after the Chief Executive Michael Newman war before permanently settling in This question, do you go back or not, Finance Director David Kaye Vienna in 1963. Sometimes this split was surprisingly complicated. Some could Heads of Department Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart families. not bear to give up their native language HR & Administration Karen Markham (Thomas Mann and Robert Neumann Educational Grants & Projects Alex Maws The artist Ludwig Meidner was one of compromised by moving to German- Social Work Nicole Valens many German refugees who went back speaking Switzerland). Or their beloved AJR Journal but his wife remained in Britain. The wife German landscape or food. Others Editor Jo Briggs of Alfred Kerr, the great Weimar theatre missed German central heating. There are Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy critic, returned to Germany, even though countless stories of refugees who came Contributing Editor David Herman Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira her children remained in Britain. Continued on page 2 1 AJR Journal | November 2019 German Passports is unaffordable. The first and second would be a watershed. It would place a generations of refugees were immersed decisive question mark against centuries- and Jewish Refugees in British culture and history. Think of long traditions of British decency and (cont.) Emeric Pressburger’s Colonel Blimp. tolerance. I hope Danny is right to be Historians like GR Elton and Lewis Namier optimistic. But in his article he gives no to Britain and couldn’t bear the terrible reinvented large parts of the story of grounds for his optimism. cold and primitive heating. It’s a recurring Britain. Younger people today are less complaint in refugee memoirs. sure about how British they feel or even Citizenship is about a “a profound what it means to be British. bond with your fellow citizens.” No Others couldn’t face it. Whatever one has been more loyal to Britain than they missed, they would not go back. Secondly, there is Corbyn. I am one the refugees who came in the mid-20th However much they struggled with of many British Jews who would not century. Everywhere in Britain you can see conditions in post-war Britain, the wish to live in a Britain ruled by Jeremy the impact of refugees, from the Royal rationing, the problems of assimilation, Corbyn. Not because of higher taxes or Festival Hall to the London bus-stop, they stayed. worries about what might happen to from the Penguin Pool at London Zoo to the British economy, though these are The Tiger Who Came to Tea. For the second and third generation, it real enough concerns. But because of was very different. Born and brought up Labour antisemitism flourishing under However, these refugees fled terror in in Britain, we are British. Some became Jeremy Corbyn. To live in a country Europe and came to a liberal, decent interested in refugee history and culture. which knowingly elected someone Britain. Of course, they felt loyal to the But as many immersed themselves in who has associated with antisemites, country which offered them safety and British history and culture. Who could be Holocaust deniers and terrorists seems a chance to rebuild their lives. What more English than Stephen Fry’s Jeeves or inconceivable. There has never been if things became reversed and Europe Ben Elton’s Blackadder? anything like this in post-war British offered a liberal and decent alternative politics. to a Corbyn government (or, some might Two things happened which changed say, a Johnson government)? Is this everything. First, the vote to leave the A year ago, my older daughter and I were “profound bond” permanent? Is Britain EU. Many third-generation children have interviewed by The Times. Why had we always going to be tolerant and safe? applied for passports from EU countries, applied for German passports? “It was My grandparents thought the same was especially German passports. They didn’t all about Brexit,” my daughter explained. true of Germany. One member of my hesitate. The Nazi past seems far away She wanted the option to live or work in family was murdered in Berlin, the rest and long ago. The political Right may be Europe. My reasons were different. For fled for their lives. Societies change very on the move, but no country in central me it was all about Corbyn and Labour suddenly. Not just Nazi Germany. Look or eastern Europe has tried harder to antisemitism. at the former Yugoslavia less than thirty come to terms with its demons. Go to years ago. Berlin and see the extraordinary Jewish A few days later, Danny Finkelstein Museum or visit countless German towns wrote a piece in The Times, “No, I won’t I hope, as much as you, that Britain and see the Stolpersteine, or “stumbling be asking for a foreign passport.” His becomes a more decent country, led by stones,” commemorating victims of the reasons were typically thoughtful. “I admirable politicians. But if it doesn’t? Nazis. For younger people Germany is a understand and respect … those who My suitcases are packed, said the great different country. Modern, progressive, have applied for dual citizenship,” he critic George Steiner. I know so many democratic. wrote, “but I won’t be doing so myself.” friends whose parents kept two different For two reasons. First, he’s an optimist passports in their desk drawer. Just in Many young people also feel more about Britain. “I think things will be case. European. Thanks to Ryanair and easyJet basically all right.” He has no illusions they travel regularly to European cities about Jeremy Corbyn but “not enough to David Herman for weekend breaks. This would have consider fleeing.” been almost inconceivable before 1989. Today, they look enviously at the terrific Second, he doesn’t think “obtaining funding of the arts and better maternity citizenship is just another transaction.” and paternity leave in some European Being a citizen, he wrote, “is to accept a countries. They watch European TV profound bond with your fellow citizens.” Outstanding live-in and hourly care in dramas. Ireland suddenly seems liberal He feels loyal to Britain: “[Britain] gave us your home at flexible, affordable rates. and welcoming after the social revolution a home and our liberty and peace. And of the past decade. Even if they don’t I’m never going to be part of anything want to live in Germany, a German else.” passport would allow them to live and work anywhere else in the EU. This is a moving argument. Eloquent and decent, as you would expect from And then there’s Britain, which a younger Finkelstein. Why am I not convinced? generation increasingly associates with First, I don’t share his optimism. Electing 020 7482 2188 pillarcare.co.uk austerity, division and decline. Housing a government led by Jeremy Corbyn 2 AJR Journal | November 2019 CALLING ALL SECOND GENERATION 1 1 Tell us what you would like from the AJR 2 2 Over one-third of AJR’s Here are some of the ideas we would like to ask you about. Which of them appeal to membership identifies as 3 3 you? second generation of survivors • Social activities (with other Second and refugees from Nazi- Generation) such as coffee mornings, persecution. Now we are card and games evenings, outings etc. • Cultural activities to celebrate our looking to develop specific 669 parents’ heritage such as concerts, trips to services and areas of interest to the opera and art galleries or our own art 2ND & 3RD exhibition etc. appeal to both existing Second • Trips to our parents’ places of birth GENERATION Generation (2G) members and • Information on how to arrange for a Stolperstein for family members MEMBERS also to attract new members. • Workshops and help with writing our parents’ life stories and printing in a book psychological impact, etc Please fill in our survey (whether • Advice on how to become a speaker, • Volunteer opportunities working with you are currently a member of AJR telling our parents’ stories First Generation AJR members, eg or not) to help us provide what you • Adding our parents’ names to a virtual befriending would like.