VOLUME 7 NO. 10 OCTOBER 2007 journal ^ Association of Jewish Refugees A legacy for posterity

ne of the most remarkable Berlin, followed by Vienna, then a number features of the AJR is its sheer of (German cities such as Hamburg, Munich, Olongevity. Founded in 1941, it is Frankfurt and Breslau (now Wroclaw). But still energetically preserving and promoting we have interviewees with places of birth the history and heritage of the community scattered throughout Eastem Europe - from it represents. Unlike its sister organisations, Elbing in East Pmssia to Lvov in Poland the American Federation of Jews from (now Lviv in Ukraine) and Uzhgorod in Central Europe and the Irgun Oley Merkas Carpatho-Ruthenia (Czechoslovakia, Hun­ Europa in Israel, the AJR is very much alive gary, USSR, now Ukraine), and even two and kicking: our members have the great from Italy, one of them with parents from good fortime to be able to read this joumal, Istanbul. Thanks to our efforts to interview but Aufbau, its American equivalent, ceased as representative a sample as possible, our publication in the USA some years ago. The interviewees' experiences reflect most exhibition 'Continental Britons', which ran aspects of the history of the Jews who for six months at the Jewish Museum in experienced Nazi persecution in Europe and Camden Town in 2002, generously funded came to Britain. by the AJR, demonstrated the Association's The 'Continental Britons' exhibition By far the largest group consists of pre­ commitment to memorialising the past of its duct interviews across the entire country, war refugees from (jermany, Austria and membership. avoiding the usual concentration on North- the (jerman-speaking parts of Czechoslova­ Inevitably, however, the lifespan of the West London, and to film 'ordinary' people, kia, mostly middle-class, assimilated Jews; AJR as we know it is limited. Now that even avoiding well-known refugees whose lives there is a group of camp survivors, often those refugees who came to Britain on were already largely documented. By early from Eastem Europe and more traditionally Kindertransports just before the war are in 2007, our team of interviewers had filmed observant, as well as some who survived in their seventies, the number of members who interviews with 150 refugees and survivors, hiding. But there are also interviewees who experienced life in Central Europe before from Edinburgh to Southend and from came to Britain via Palestine, or who escaped emigration is declining inexorably. And, Glasgow to Hampshire and Bristol. The to Shanghai and endured Japanese captivity, unlike immigrant groups from Jamaica, London area has a large but fair share. or who were deported from eastem Poland Bangladesh, Cyprus or Pakistan, the Jews We have a particular concentration in the to Kazakhstan by the Soviets in 1939 and who fled to Britain to escape Hitler have no Northern cities, Manchester, Leeds and made their way to join the British in the living community in their countries of Liverpool, thanks to the assistance we Middle East, or who left occupied France for origin with which to maintain contact, no received in finding interviewees from the North Africa, to be liberated by the Allies reservoir of 'Continental' Jewish culture on AJR's Northern Co-ordinator, Susanne after El Alamein. We have an interviewee which to draw and from which to replen­ Green. In Manchester, we were fortunate who was among the Jews from Denmark ish their ranks. enough to secure the invaluable co-operation famously rescued by sea to Sweden, and one But the AJR's Charitable Tmstees, with of Rosalyn Livshin, who effectively took on who was on the notorious ship St Louis, an eye to the future, have initiated a project the organisation of the bulk of the interviews which crisscrossed the Atlantic seeking a designed to preserve the history and culture in the North. Through her contacts with the country willing to accept its cargo of des­ of the refugee community for posterity. Since Orthodox community, she arranged a perate Jews. 2(X)3, the AJR has been funding a programme number of interviews with Orthodox The interviews also cover a very wide of fihned interviews with former refugees refugees and survivors, thus adding an range of wartime experiences in Britain. and Holocaust survivors now resident in important dimension to the story of the Jews Many interviewees had arrived before the Britain. 'Refugee Voices', as the AJR's testi­ from Central Europe in Britain, one that war as penniless refugees, often as domestic mony archive is called, is being directed by counterbalances any overemphasis on the servants, or had taken other forms of menial Dr Bea Lewkowicz and myself, who were more assimilated refugees. employment. Some were intemed on the Isle also responsible for the '(ujntinental Britons' As one might expect, the largest single of Man; there are vivid accounts by intemees exhibition. The AJR instmcted us to con- contingent of interviewees comes from continued ovedeaf A|R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

. 1 UiG.ACYFOR POSTERITYnmtimud fmni haw Kristallnacht service at AJR Centre and also by intemees deported to Australia expert in the field, to eliminate errors. (Some Please join us at the AJR Centre, Cleve on the notorious vessel Dunera. Others audio-typists don't know Charlottenburg Road, for a service commemorating joined the British forces; one ended up as a from Czeraowitz, or Pesach from payes.) Kristallnacht on Thursday 8 November fighter pilot flying Typhoons with the RAF But it is essential to provide scholars at 2.00 pm. over North-West Europe, and another was using the archive with a written transcript Following lunch, which will be at 12.30 pm, Rabbi Rodney Mariner of the sole survivor when his tank was blovm that they can read at their own pace, as the Belsize Square Synagogue will up during the ill-fated advance towards working from a film alone is well-nigh lead a short service, concluding with Amhem in 1944. The memories of refugees impossible. The Shoah Foundation's collec­ Kaddish. who retumed to a defeated Germany as tion of filmed interviews, though far larger The lunch and service will also be an opportunity to meet AJR members members of the victorious British forces are than 'Refugee Voices', does not have fran- from the North of England and particularly clear. scriptions of the filmed interviews; leaming Scotland who will be paying a three- Other refugees recall in detail civilian life from our experience as volunteer interview­ day visit to London. in Britain during the war, with the daily ers with the Shoah Foundation, we have To reserve a space for lunch (£5 on grind of shortages, rationing, air raids and included the transcripts as part of 'Refugee a first-come, first-served basis) and/ or the service, please ring the Centre long hours in factories and offices, though Voices', one of several features in which we on 020 7328 0208. a number were involved in civil defence, and hope to have improved on earlier collections. Michael Newman one worked in the Political Intelligence The archive consists of three parts: the Department of the Foreign Office. Of course, filmed interviews themselves, the tran­ we are confident that the archive will be some of the most powerful narratives are scripts (over 4,000 pages), and a large fittingly housed. We will keep readers those of the camp survivors, which form a database with 44 categories of information informed of developments. sombre and compelling contrast to those of about the interviewees, ranging from their In its 'Refugee Voices' archive, the AJR the refugees who escaped to Britain. The parents and places of birth to their experi­ is creating an important memorial to the interviews also contain accounts of a very ences of war and emigration, and their refugee community, one that will be avail­ wide variety of post-war experiences, with professions, families and places of residence able to scholars and researchers far into the career patterns ranging from an Oxford after 1945. In the first instance, we expect future. That community particularly needs professor to a milkman, and a large amoimt the users to be academics, researchers and such a memorial, against the day when the of information about many facets of refugee educationalists, followed by students. There generation of the refugees themselves is no life in Britain over the post-war decades. may also be commercial users, such as film longer with us. For with the best will in the The 150 interviews in the 'Refugee companies making television programmes world, the British-born children of the Voices' archive, amounting to well over 400 on the subject, who might be willing to pay refugees - the second generation - can never hours of film, will prove to be a goldmine of for the use of footage from the films. Ac­ reproduce the German- or Austrian-Jewish information for historians and other cess to the archive will be controlled, so that culture of their parents. Take my own case: researchers. The archive is designed to be it will be available only to bona fide users. though I have immersed myself in the user-friendly, so that the information it We are in the process of negotiating, on language and culture of German-speaking contains can be accessed as quickly and behalf of the Charitable Trustees, with Central Europe for many years, I can never easily as possible. All the interviews have institutions where the archive could be be a Viennese like my parents - only a pass­ been transcribed, i.e. all the words spoken deposited. We are currently negotiating with able imitation of a middle-class Englishman. have been typed out by audio-typists and a leading German university as the Studying modem languages at Harrow and put onto computer. This is a very expensive depository in Europe. Given the very Christ Church, Oxford, is no substitute for, and labour-intensive process, especially as favourable reception that 'Refugee Voices' say, the Schottengymnasium and the the transcripts produced by our audio­ has received whenever we have University of Vienna. typists have to be checked by people more demonstrated it in Britain and in Germany, Anthony Grenville

MA in Modem European Jewish History, Culture and Thought A|R Directors Gordon Greenfield Enrol now at the University of Sussex Carol Rossen This MA programme offers a thorough Introdurtion to modern European-Jewish political, cultural and intellertual history from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, from the Enlightenment to the de­ AJR Heads of Department Marcia Goodman Social Services struction of Jewish life during the Holocaust, and through to its partial renewal in recent decades. All Michael Newman Media and Public Relations courses will be held in central London at the Leo Baeck Institute/Wiener Library and taught under the Susie Kaufman Organiser, AJR Centre auspices of the University of Sussex. AJR Journal The programme can be undertaken full-time or part-time. We take a flexible approach when extending Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor offers to mature students. You are not necessarily expected to fulfil the general entrance requirements, Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor but you must be able to demonstrate the potential to handle degree-level work. Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements There are still places available for the autumn term; the closing date for applications is 12 October 2007. Please contact Dr Raphael Gross ([email protected]) or Professor Christian Wiese ([email protected]) for further information. To apply, please contact Postgraduate Admissions, Views expressed in the AJR Jourrial are not Sussex House, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BNI 9RH, tel -t-44 (0)1273 678412, email necessarily those of the Association of Jewish [email protected] Refugees and should not be regarded as such. A|R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

OF VlE\fi/ Too few Jews NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors advise on Property, Wills, Family Trusts read the other day that the last notwithstanding, the rabbi is still top and Charitable Trusts census counted 270,000 Jews in this dog - scholar, healer, arbiter in one. Icountry. Is that all? But then these Secularisation splits these functions French and German spoken are self-declared, tick-box Jews and among scientist, doctor, lawyer. All of Home visits arranged one wonders about the psychology of them rank above the billionaire self-definition. Are they the sons and businessman. A proper Jewish mother 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, daughters of Jewish mothers? What would rather her son were a dental London NW3 SNB about half-Jews and their off­ surgeon than a millionaire, although spring? What about closet Jews? No the two combine nicely. Yet Jews have Tel: 020 7435 5351 one knows the answers. Is there a better always been honoured more readily for Fax: 020 7435 8881 way of counting who should be in and lending money than for lending a hand who out? to make the world a better place. We lack a universally accepted Artists are outside the pecking order. definition. And the task is not made But they rank high. Note how many easier by progressive dilution. My grand­ Jews crowd the intersection of art and daughter admits to being a quarter commerce. Nearly-artists often end up JACKMAN- Jewish, a quarter closet Catholic, 50 per as art's entrepreneurs: publishers (a cent Brazilian, and 6 per cent Romanian. refugee speciality), producers, gallery SILVERMAN I know this adds up to more than 100 owners, impresarios, artists' agents, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS per cent but then so does my grand­ plastic surgeons - anything with a whiff daughter. Plus she travels on an of the Muses about it. Australian passport and works in New As a refugee, I have found standing York. outside the English class system quite At least we don't lose many through useful. For example, it has allowed me conversion. Heine spotted why not to talk tough with the unions. Eteing 26 Conduit Street when he said that a Jew could hardly identifiable neither as traitor to the London WIR 9TA be expected to believe in the divinity of working class nor as upper-class twit, another Jew. I was able to dispense home truths Telephone: 020 7409 0771 There is no scientific test for proving which no Englishman would have Fax: 020 7493 8017 one is a Jew. According to Shakespeare, dared utter. if you prick us, we bleed - yet a blood My father had a good definition of test won't reveal a thing. If you are Jewish class: if you were born where male, circumcised, read the Jewish your grandfather was born, you were Chronicle and manage a hedge fund, upper-class; if you were born where AUSTRIAN and GERMAN it creates a presumption, but no your father was born, you were middle- PENSIONS more. You could still be a member of class; and if you were starting in a new the BNR country, you were back at the bottom The absence of certainty gives rise of the heap. He came to this country PROPERTY to the Reverse Presumption: if someone with very little English and managed to RESTITUTION CLAIMS is special, the odds are they must be acquire a wonderful command of the EAST GERMANY - BERLIN Jewish. The landscape is strewn with language, translating his beloved victims of that endearing conceit: Goethe better than many a published On instructions our office will Hollywood affords two notorious version I have seen. He also wrote a assist to deal with your examples - Chaplin and Disney. The short biography of my Romanian applications and pursue the former became resigned to being grandmother, calling it The Rubayat of matter with the authorities labelled a closet Jew; the latter, a bog- Oma Kahane. standard antisemite, fought the slur to So how do we discover how many For further infonnation his dying day. of us there are if we can't agree on who and an appointment The task would be easier if the we are? Do we go by religion, self- piease contact: community were more structured and belief, ethnicity (ghastly word, ghastly we had a proper class system, an thought), tribal feeling? Do two half- ICS CLAIMS aristocracy, with all the ingredients of Jews count as one whole Jew, with 146-154 Kilbum High Road a layer cake. We have a meritocracy bonus points for fasting on Yom London NW6 4JD instead: Prince Albert (Einstein), the Kippur? Perhaps we are not meant to Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) Duchess of Newburgh (aka Dame Julia be counted. We are the chosen people Fax: 020 7624 5002 Neuberger), assorted lordships, knights - that's what counts. and a nosegay of Jewish princesses Victor Ross AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

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The AJR's annual Tea was a great success once again, with some 400 people attending the prestigious event at the Watford Hilton Hotel. A quartet of opera singers - The Garden Party - accompanied on the piano by Diana Franklin, a member of the AJR's Management Committee and administrator of the University of Sussex's Centre for German-Jewish Studies, performed a programme of popular operatic arias and Viennese songs.

PHOTOS: RONALD CHANNING * ^

A SUCCESS SrORYt VIENNA'S LAUOER BUSINESS SCHOOL n a recent trip to Vienna, I took School. Thus it was made possible for Israel, North and South American the opportunity to visit the the impressive buildings to be restored countries to most European countries. OLauder Business School, which and expanded to include auditoriums, Over 90 per cent of the student intake provided an inspiring picture. lecture rooms, computer labs, library is Jewish. The School is the brainchild of Ronald resources, an assembly hall, faculty It is gratifying to note the benevolent S. Lauder, Chairman and President of offices, a dining hall, dormitory facilities role the Austrian government has the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, and and student commons. played and is still playing in this success the result of a collaboration between Looking back over several years of story. Tempora mutantur et nos him and the Austrian authorities. It offers diligent spade work, the Dean of the mutamur in illis. students a chance to study the global School, Professor Silvia Kucera, feels Frederick W. Rosner economy and international business by rightly proud to have obtained at long merging the best the American business last accreditation by the Austrian and EU educational system has to offer with the authorities for running first- and finest European business tradition. second-degree courses and for WANTED TO BUY Furthermore, students at the School awarding the relevant Bachelor's and have a chance to gain a deep know­ Master's degree diplomas. German and ledge of Judaism. Behind her Viennese charm Professor English Books The fact that the college campus is Kucera reveals profound sympathy for located in the beautiful Maria-Theresia everything her School stands for. She Bookdealer, AJR member, Palace and its surrounding park strikes points out that the first-degree three- welcomes invitations to view and the visitor as poetic justice, bearing in year programme allows an entire purchase valuable books. mind that the Austrian empress, for semester for work experience, with the whom this palace was built, was known two-year Master's programme being Robert Hornung 10 Mount View, Ealing for her antisemitic prejudices. The very much practice-oriented. All courses London W5 IPR municipal government of Vienna are conducted in English. Email: [email protected] expressed their support by dedicating Students are currently recruited from Tel: 020 8998 0546 the premises to the Lauder Business more than 26 countries, ranging from AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

Enemy Aliens - 'Collar the lot!' by Fred Stem

Part one: My internment contribution of the most well-meaning we were only going to be taken away for he recent literary output on friends that Britain ever had. a short period! I was not allowed to phone internment prompts me to write my On Sunday 12 May 1940, police came my parents (I managed to bring my father Tpersonal account as an internee to to the youth hostel in Bournemouth over in time before the war started - the ensure that this chapter of British history where I was living by the grace of the rest of the family perished). We arrived in is chronicled and preserved for posterity, Jewish committee, which was not very Southampton and camped in a school rather than erased as an uncomfortable anxious to rescue Jews from Germany and gym. We were joined by many other boys, reminder of gross misjudgement. It Austria. My mother, who had the great given a rough blanket and laid on the bare records the fate of thousands of refugees foresight to find domestic work in floor, my schoolbag serving as a pillow. I who owe their lives to this country and England, pleaded with the committee for managed to secure a toothbrush and used of those who worked ceaselessly to rescue my inclusion in the Kindertransport. The one of two shirts as a nightdress! After a us from the clutches of the Nazis. This police not only interrogated the boys, but week, we were sent to Huyton, where we article is no more than a thumbnail sketch also inspected our belongings. Among my stayed in a holiday camp. I was allocated of an episode. It represents my own dear possessions was a Morse tape set I a tent, shared by four boys. We slept on experience rather than stating an opinion. had used in my scouting days in Vienna. straw mattresses, which we filled. They When Winston Churchill proclaimed This battery-operated device, connected were used by day as bridge tables. 'Collar the lot!' he was expressing the by wire, was viewed with suspicion as I After a time we were moved into houses fears of the people and panicked into an might have used it to communicate with which, after the tent accommodation, act of great folly by losing, at a stroke, invading German ships off the coast of resembled five-star hotels! Those of us who the most valuable and trustworthy people Bournemouth! It was confiscated, as was were enterprising found ways and means in this country. His action achieved no a map of Switzerland on which was to improve our living standards by purpose. On the contrary, it diminished marked in red the route travelled by coach 'organising' forays to secure extra food, the war effort and increased the war's on a holiday with the Scouts. blankets, shoes, clothes, tools and other duration not only by reducing the I hurriedly packed my schoolbag, workforce but also by stifling the forgetting my pyjamas and toothbrush: continued on page 11

^ises^aimuiimiammmsxisrjaitiacxsamuisittise. Reunion of refugees who served with the British forces in the Second World War n September (writes Colin Anson), a reunion of refugees in the British forces was hosted by the Imperial War Museum and attended by some 200 veterans and their families. The event, sponsored by the AJR, the Leo Baeck (London) Lodge and the IAssociation of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women, also served to launch a book by Dr Helen Fry entitled The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens. A generous tribute was paid to the refugees' contribution to the war effort by Field Marshal Lord Bramall, former Chairman of the Museum's Board of Trustees, followed by an historical overview by Dr Fry, accounts of their experiences by four veterans, and a screening of the film Lift Your Head, Comrade about refugees in the Pioneer Corps. A day of deep emotion for surviving 'Enemy Alien' veterans able to attend the event.

Eric Sanders (left), Susan Lustig, Willy Field Field Marshal Lord Bramall (left) and Colin Anson

Eric Sanders, born Ignaz Schwarz in work and joined the Women's Auxiliary driver, and saw frontline fighting in France, Vienna, arrived in England in October 1938. Territorial Service initially as a dental orderly Belgium and Holland. He volunteered for the army in February 1940 before transferring to a PoW camp in Colin Anson, born Claus Leopold Octavio and was assigned to the 88 Company of the Buckinghamshire with the Intelligence Corps. Ascher in Berlin, left for England with the Pioneer Corps stationed in France. In 1943 he Here in March 1944 she met her future Kindertransport. In December 1940 he joined volunteered for 'hazardous duty' and was husband, Fritz Lustig. the Pioneer Corps. As part of 87 Company of trained for Special Operations Executive to be Willy Field was born William Hirschfeld in the Pioneer Corps, he played in a band and dropped behind enemy lines. He trained as a Bonn. Following Kristallnacht he was taken to orchestra around Wales. In 1942 he radio operator and was stationed In Italy from a prison in Cologne. In November 1938 he was volunteered for 'special duties', training in a September 1944. After the war, he returned moved to Dachau concentration camp. Having German-speaking Commando unit. He took to Vienna as a translator in the British-Austrian emigrated to England, he was interned and part in the invasion of Sicily, suffering a serious Legation Unit, which was reconstructing laws he eventually boarded the troopship Dunera head injury. He later served in Italy with the for the new, democratic Austria. for Australia. In 1941 he volunteered for the Intelligence Section of No. 2 Commando Susan Lustig, born Susan Cohn in Breslau, British Forces and returned to England to serve Brigade. After the war he returned to Germany emigrated to England on a domestic permit in in the Pioneer Corps. He transferred to the as part of the British Control Commission, July 1939. In 1943 she was called up for war Royal Armoured Corps, training as a tank engaged in the denazification process. AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

The librarian in the Manx museum who dealt with this subject was extremely knowledgable, but lacked /lETTERS^ The Editor reserves the right names of internees, depending on filling the gaps by word of mouth or written to shorten correspondence i TO THE 1 enquiries. If anyone can help with names submitted for publication of relatives or fnends who were interned on the Isle of Man, please send them to V, EDITOR^ Alan Franklin, Manx Museum Library, Douglas, loM, IM1 3LY, tel (01624) 648 000, e-mail [email protected] Rudi Leavor, Bradford REMEMBERING INTERNMENT away from an anticipated mid-summer Sir - Here we go again! After 60-odd 1940 German landing on the south coast KT NATURALISATION years, we have people complaining with all the hazards affecting natives and Sir - I would like to correct Eva Light about internment. What is the matter refugees alike. Events on Jersey and (September) about naturalisation. I came with everybody? Here was a country Guernsey warned us that natives are not to England on the Kindertransport from which, out of the goodness of its heart, always friends of refugees. All measures Vienna in July 1939 and went to non- took in 10,000 children who in the taken thus regarded refugees as a Jewish foster-parents. Immediately after majority would have been exterminated threatened, not as a potentially the war I too was made a ward of court. by an evil regime. This country then en­ threatening, minority. But not by one particular person. A gaged that evil regime in a fight for its In late September 1940, the danger judiciary committee was appointed by life. Consequently, it had to consider its of invasion subsided with shorter days the relevant government department to own security. So it took certain actions, and rougher seas, while in 1941 Britain fulfil that duty. Some time in 1947 I was including interning people it considered was to be equipped to resist. Thus the informed that I could apply for British to be enemy aliens. Unfortunately, release of internees overseas was nationality as my parents had not members of the Kindertransport were necessary and in Britain opportune. survived. The usual procedures were swept up in the panic. So now, 60 years Released persons could choose to return waived and all I had to do was to later, people are complaining. I say to to work or offer to serve with an complete the appropriate form and have them: just remember your luck that a anglicised name in auxiliary troops, or it signed by a notary, for instance a country like England opened its doors even stay in camps overseas or at home. justice of the peace. So I became a British to you and that you are able to com­ I went back to my job in Manchester and citizen 3 months before my 18th plain - unlike millions of unfortunates to endless exercises fighting fires caused birthday. However, I remained a ward of who were exterminated. by anticipated bombs that never came. court until I reached the age of 21. 5. Muller, Bloxham, nr Banbury My wish to fight was thwarted by the Lisl Bohea (neeTaussig) argument that my work was more Gosport, Hants Sir - Liberated from Buchenwald and important than my death in battle. emigrating in December 1938 to My practical plea is to understand Sir - Ever since my mother, Grete Exiner- relatives in London, I accepted the that the fight of a nation for an Westman, who was employed by the following September an engineering job independent existence has a much Kindertransport project in Bloomsbury in Manchester, where in June 1940 I was wider ambit than the worries of any House until 1942, died in New York in arrested and taken to Huyton minority and that the degree of 1991, I have felt that the adults who internment camp. There on the same day empathy and practical genius govern­ made these transports possible were not a non-Jewish youth said to me: 'Come ing this nation in extreme danger researched and written up properly. Eva with us to Canada!' I agreed and found cannot but be admired. Light's letter proved this need once that 'us' were six communists who had M. L Meyer, West Dulwich again. As far as I remember, my mother left Berlin with the aid of their German told me that Lord Gorell, who was underground network. Unobserved, we Sir - Following your two recent articles involved as a trustee with the transports, got on the troopship Ettrick, which had on refugees, including internment on volunteered to be the adoptive father just unloaded 1,000 Canadian soldiers the Isle of Man, my wife Marianne and I of all the children so that they could and was now loading for the return visited Onchan with the express purpose apply for naturalisation and not be about 1,500 refugees and 1,500 German of researching this subject. We have a considered orphans at the time. PoWs. brown, pre-printed postcard written by Susanne Dyke (nee Exiner) Why refugees and prisoners together Marianne's father from 'Mereside, Eastbourne on one ship? Canada and Australia had Empress Drive, Douglas'. At this address agreed to accept prisoners but, because we found a hotel and restaurant whose LOSS OF CULTURAL LEGACY of unemployment at home, objected to owners had for two years been doing Sir - Re the loss of our culture (Fred refugees. Among the Ettrick refugees their own research and had found that Stern, August), I noticed to my conster­ was the grandson of the former Kaiser, this was the headquarters of the army nation several years ago that all the also a boy of 15 whose father was a commanders who had supervised the German books at Cleve Road had been major in the British army. The boy was buildings in Douglas and Onchan and taken out of the bookcase and that all born in Berlin and his father had not to which all post would be addressed German magazines had gone. When I 'naturalised' him - hence he was an for distribution to the different houses. questioned the then management enemy alien like all refugees. When they took over the hotel, they had about this, they told me members only By far the majority of German installed frosted glass in the windows wanted to read in English. From my refugees were interned on the Isle of of the restaurant with the letters 'HQ' experience with the elderly, I have found Man and in other British camps well surrounded by a circle of barbed wire. that they want to speak, read and eat

6 AJRJOURNAL OCTOBER 2007 the way they did as children. My gen­ waiter in a hotel in Eilat telling me he eration is to blame for the loss of felt it incumbent upon him to visit the AREYOUONALOW Continental culture because they hid Arab countries - but he couldn't wait to their origins etc from their children, return to Israel. I would like to think he INCOMEANDINNEED trying to make them English. wasn't just a good actor! OF HOMECARE HELP? (Mrs) A. Saville. London NW4 John D. Phillip, Barnet, Herts AJR might be able to offer you JEWISH GIRLS' SCHOOL ATTNANG PUCHHEIM financial assistance for cleaning, Sir - The main purpose of our visit to Sir- Kitty Schafer (September) mentions gardening and cahng. Wolfratshausen (see August issue) was Attnang Puchheim, as did Victor Ross - Members who might not to inform the local people what 'two words that gave me the giggles otherwise be able to afford happened to us in the 1930s as the time and can raise a smile even today' - in homecare please contact: between the wars had been omitted in the August issue. I have a different Estelle Brookner, Secretary local publications about Wolfratshausen. recollection of that place. Early in 1945, They called us Zeitzeugen and we were while prisoners at the Ebensee sub-camp AJR Social Services Dept especially welcome in the local schools of Mauthausen, we were taken to Tel: 020 8385 3070 and schools further afield to talk with Attnang Puchheim on at least two 14-16-year-olds. One school had done occasions to clear the railway station its own research about a local Jewish after successful bombing raids by Allied family, which is now part of the bombers. What a joy it was seeing Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd exhibition of photographs, newspaper Attnang Puchheim then! Clara Nehab House cuttings and material collected from Ron Leaton (previously Roman Licht) Residential Care Home various archives, including one from London NW8 Jerusalem. The exhibition also contains All single rooms with en suite a video of interviews with ex-pupils in BLIND EYE OR DEAF EAR bath/shower. Short stays/Respite Israel, the USA, Canada and the UK. Sir -1 read both articles on the difficulties and 24 hour Permanent Care. Large attractive gardens. Ground Floor During our stay there was an open of English (September) with the great­ Lounge and Dining Rooms. Lift evening for the general public and a est interest but cannot agree that one access to all floors. Easy access short presentation by each of us, should turn a blind eye - or even a deaf to local shops and public transport. followed by questions from the floor. ear - to the transgressions committed At the official opening, we spoke to by famous people. If it is only us (we?) Enquiries and further infonnation piease contact: The Manager, Ciara Nehab House many representatives of local govern­ who take exception to this, so be it! 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NWII ODA ment and religious communities, and Having taught English to Cambridge Pro­ Phone: 020 8455 2286 members of the Jewish community in ficiency level to foreign au pair girls, I V / Munich. For myself, I think the efforts have always felt that they were the only of the Wolfratshausen History Society ones who spoke English correctly, as re­ were well worth supporting. It was good gards the present generation. Jeremy SPRING to see so many young people. Paxman is not of our generation and GROVE Bettina Cohn, Bristol perhaps feels that his 'lapses' will en­ 214 Finchley Road dear him to his contemporaries. London NW3 OBVIOUS PARALLEL' It would be defeatist to follow the Sir - Recent correspondence in your present trend, by famous (youngish) London's Most Luxurious columns touches on a point not made people, of disregarding correct gram­ RETIREMENT HOME nearly enough of: the obvious parallel mar, whatever the experts might think • Entertainment - Activities between the annexation of a large part about it. I would love to know whether • Stress Free Living of Germany by Poland and the modern German is similarly affected, but • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine occupation of parts of the West Bank by I think not. I believe it is a purely English Israel. Throughout history aggressors idea that grammar does not matter. • Full En-Suite Facilities have paid for their defeat by the loss of (Mrs) Marion Smith Call for more information territory. The fact that the West Bank Harrow, Middx or a personal tour was part of the Kingdom of Israel seems 020 8446 2117 about as relevant as the contention that Sir - To whom it may concern: As a late or 020 7794 4455 Silesia was, centuries ago, a province newcomer to this scepter'd isle without [email protected] of an ill-defined country of Poland. any English, which was soon to bewitch, Doubtless I will be accused of being bother and bewilder me, I ask why is the Chumley. His reluctance to react to that naive when I suggest it may not be 'gh' not pronounced in 'daughter', the name can only be ascribed to his altogether inappropriate to look at the 'k' in 'knee' and 'knock', the 'p' and 'o' superior breeding and the fact that he example of Alsace-Lorraine, where in 'cupboard', and the 'w' in 'sword' and spelled it Cholmondeley. But then hewas people of German origin appear to be 'Chiswick'? Fortunately I had Frau Irma an English bull terrier. living quite happily under French rule Loewenberg from the Rhineland as a Frank Bright, Ipswich (albeit that national barriers in Europe teacher and she gave meaning to am, have, fortunately, become less relevant). was, had been, shall be, shall have been TOO FAR AWAY As, it seems, the majority of Arabs within - and I have been consulted on these Sir - I am taking this opportunity to the current borders of Israel do. I have matters by the natives, who remain thank you for the AJR Journal. Without had a number of encounters with Israeli impervious to my exhortation that 'those it I would be even more cut off from Arabs in Israel who were obviously well- ones' is a grammatical inexactitude. many activities. New Zealand is too far disposed towards Jews. I recall an Arab We had a dog by the name of away. Eva Hayman, Auckland slaves (see report next month). David Breuer-Weill is a man of many REVIEWS visions. In the Ben Uri's Project 3, a dis­ used car park in Covent Garden houses 50 A meaty, wise book massive paintings of ant-sized people trying FIVE GERMANYS I HAVE KNOWN to communicate, to excavate their truth, to by Fritz Stern reach the light. Eventually he abandons New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, gestural art for a more spiritual quest, hint­ 2006, 546 pp., pbk £7.32 n a mere nod to the 200th anniversary ing at the dissolution of earthly life, although he eminent, Breslau-born American of the abolition of the British slave the ineffable longing remains. The ideas are Thistorian Fritz Stern interweaves his trade, the National Gallery presents sometimes too big to work, but I found these and his family's history with that of the I five Germanys of the title. The first is Scratch the Surface, which features two later paintings quite moving. the pre-Nazi Germany of his parents paintings: Mrs Richard Oswald by Yohann Bomberg's linear purity exercises the and grandparents from about 1870. Zoffany and Sir Joshua Reynolds's talents of younger artists at the Ben Uri. This is the least interesting part of the All credit to artist Sarah Lightman, book. That history has been told so who curated Bomberg's Rele­ many times, and the family history that vance on the 50th anniversary of his goes with it - of acculturated, patriotic death and put herself and seven oth­ German Jews whose assimilation went to the point of baptism into Christianity ers to the test. Joe Schneider, who - is also standard. Baptism did not save admires Bomberg's Spanish land­ them from persecution in the second scapes, chose Gfietto Theatre for his Germany - that of the Nazis - from linear collage-portraits, 7 Passers By, which the family emigrated to America which, he claims, resemble a Renais­ in 1938, when the author was 12 years sance tryptych and, like Ghetto old. Again, there is little here that one has not read before. The book comes Theatre, evoke a sense of immigrant alive only after about 130 pages, in part otherness. He relates this to the fad­ because the history of Germany after ing Jewish East-End experience. 1945 is less well-known to the general Gideon Rubin's inspiration was public than the earlier periods, and in Bomberg's Mount Zion with the part because the adult Stern had more Church of the Dormition. His own first-hand experience of it than of the work. Black Boots, uses similar col­ earlier periods. ours to reflect in a boy's faceless True, the child's experiences in Nazi solitude a glimpse of Bomberg's Germany had been unpleasant enough, and they made Stern aware of politics high, perpendicular church. Polly at an age when children in more Townsend's Night Ridge lends fortunate lands are unlikely to concern deep blues and soft lemon to her themselves with such matters. In the interpretation of this painting. The United States, from his schooldays brilliant impasto of Bomberg's onwards. Stern felt the duty not to be Broiien Aqueduct, Wadi Kelt near silent, as so many Germans had been Jericho finds resonance in Michael when faced with the erosion of freedom, and he began to speak and Colonel Tarleton, who, as Liverpool MP in Ajerman's nude study, Cabron. Sarah write on politics as a liberal (against the 1790s, argued against abolition. Both Lightman in Generations (2) conveys the Nazism, of course, but also against were enriched by the slave trade, which rectilinear disposition of Bomberg's red and Communism and McCarthyism). He evolved in Britain during the Elizabethan black At the Window, in which a woman became a historian at Columbia era and powered the shipping, banking and with one leg on a chair looks away, her University and focused increasingly on art industries. The works belong to the rigidity suggesting a priest at confession. the history of Germany. His themes were not only what had brought about Gallery's national collection but, in a modem Lightman embellishes the dream: her three the German catastrophe, but also that response, 2004 Turner Prize nominee Yinka figures, fading from youth to ghostly old the Nazis had overwhelmed a Shonibare has created an installation in age, stare out at time passing. democratic Germany whose roots could the high atrium of the Barry Rooms in which Jane Millican's Daytime Audience surely be nourished. a dead pheasant is wired to the ceiling, gives vivid form to Bomberg's blue and Stern's third Germany - post-war symbolically shot by the headless effigies ochre Ghetto Theatre Study. Bomberg's West Germany - soon began to invite of Oswald and Tarleton. 'search for pure form' has symbolic meaning him to give lecture tours, and his role Excluded from the show, but part of for Adriana Swierszczek, whose as mentor - encouraging liberalism while censuring any evasiveness about Abduction of Europa is based on Racehorses, the NG's Work, Rest and Play the past - won him increasing status in exhibition, is an eighteenth-century piece a skeletal work of geometric precision, and West Germany. He is good at discussing of delicately woven fabric whose floral fleshes out the gridwork into a surreal study the debates between Germans about motif illuminates the life and death of of water, mythic creature and swimmer. their own past: those centring around

8 A)R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

Fritz Fischer in the 1960s, Ernst Nolte Fritz, himself the son of the original other Muslim students from moderate, in the 1980s, and Daniel Goldhagen and owner, committed suicide on her 38th and even rival militant Islamic, societies Martin Walser in the 1990s. A climax of birthday. Fritz perished in Auschwitz; his to rally under its banner. Stern's career was the invitation in 1987 mother and daughter survived. As a racist, homophobic, neo-fascist to address the Bundestag on the Anna Fischer, Hermann Simon, Direc­ organisation, Hizb could, of course, rely anniversary of the East Berlin uprising tor of the Centrum Judaicum, and Rabbi on the support of the extreme left such of 17 June 1953. Some West Germans Joel Berger of Stuttgart have written as the Socialist Workers' Party. The wanted to see that as a movement for moving introductions. Apart from the British National Party were more reunification; Stern insisted it was a enormous amount of research required circumspect, because, although they movement for freedom, but not for to have produced this book, it was believed in a master race, they thought reunification. clearly a labour of love and devotion. the master race was the Aryans and not Even the fourth Germany - the East Each person was given a ritual burial, the Muslims. Nonetheless, they could German state-allowed him in 1961 to mainly in Weissensee cemetery and at least unite in anti-Israel demonstra­ conduct research in the archives for his officiated by Rabbi Martin Riesenburger, tions. Husain quotes from one of Hizb's magnum opus: the book on Bleichroder, but also in the interdenominational pamphlets: 'The only meeting place Bismarck's banker. cemetery in Stahnsdorf. between a Moslem and a Jew is on the The fifth Germany is the reunited To quote from Riesenburger's battlefield.' Germany, and this awarded him the memoirs: 'Draussen tobte sich der Eventually, one of the youths at the Peace Prize for 1999. Stern had indeed Wahnsinn des Nazismus aus, hier in der author's college, a Christian of Nigerian been a staunch advocate of reconcilia­ Einsamkeit des Friedhofes aber wurde extraction, was murdered by a black tion where it was merited - between jeder Heimgegangene mit Wurde und convert to Islam. Husain had welcomed Jews and Germans, between West Andacht der Erde ubergeben. Ich will the convert when he first came to New- Germans and East Germans (he is nicht verhehlen, dal3 wir oft genug ham College and he felt unremitting critical of the patronising way in which mitgeweint haben.' (Outside raged the guilt at the murder. Slowly, under the the West Germans treated the East madness of Nazism, while here, in the influence especially of Professor Dennis Germans), and between Germans and loneliness of the cemetery, each of Judd, a British historian, and Faye, his Poles. He notes that in recent years the those who went home was laid to rest girlfriend and eventually wife, he threw Poles have acknowledged the German with dignity and devotion. I will not off the Islamist indoctrination, reverted past of Breslau, now Wroclaw; and the deny that we and the relatives did our to the moderate Islam of his parents, University of Wroclaw asked him, as a share of weeping.) and wrote this book. son of Wroclaw, a born German and an Rudi Leavor That he has written it offers hope to American citizen, to speak during its moderate Muslims everywhere. Mean­ 300th anniversary and to receive an A sign of weakness while, he complains bitterly that the honorary degree. THE ISLAMIST: WHY I JOINED British authorities accept organisations A meaty, wise book, albeit marred RADICAL ISLAM IN BRITAIN, WHAT I such as the Muslim Council of Britain by a degree of narcissism. SAW iNSIDE AND WHY I LEFT as being representative of the Muslim Ralph Blumenau by Ed Husain community. Books advocating violence Penguin, 2007, 288 pp., £8.99 are on sale at mosque bookstalls; jihad A labour of love and devotion and terror are preached, not only d Husain, a British-born Muslim, ERZWUNGENER FREITOD - SPUREN against the West, but also against became an Islamic fundamentalist UND ZEUGNISSE IN DEN FREITOD E moderate Muslims. Even the most tol­ at the age of sixteen. He moved through GETRIEBENER JUDEN DER JAHRE erant of societies needs to defend itself. the various Islamic groups, from those 1938-1945 IN BERLIN (Traces of and Bryan Reuben preaching local insurrection to those Documents Relating to Jews Driven seeking global domination and the to Suicide in Berlin.l 938-1945) restoration of the caliphate. Eventually, by Anna Fischer SCREEN he became a local leader of Hizb ut- Published by www.textpunktverlag.de A powerful tribute Tahrir, the most uncompromising group 2007, pp.192, 14.95 euros I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN YOU: of all. He came to despise the non- THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ew research on the Holocaust is Islamists-Jews, Christians, blacks, gays SIMON WIESENTHAL constantly surfacing and this book, and even 'partial' Muslims, those who N directed by Richard Trank; published under the auspices of the pursued a quietist agenda and tried to narrated by Nicole Kidman Centrum Judaicum in Berlin, chronicles get on with their lives. He learned how at selected cinemas the brief histories of 42 individuals or to organise demonstrations and couples who, sometimes with their intimidate the opposition, including hile Simon Wiesenthal has always children, chose suicide rather than other Islamic student societies. He Wcome across as a larger-than-life deportation. Moreover, the names of a records here his surprise at how easily figure, a significant feature of this staggering 1,677 people with their birth the police and the college authorities documentary about his life and work is and death dates, and maiden names crumbled before his attacks and gave the essentially human aspect it reveals where appropriate, are tabulated by in to his demands for funding and for of the man who never sought to be year of death. meeting space, ostensibly for prayer. portrayed as a hero. The camera's focus The book is copiously illustrated with Nor would they ban extremist speakers on the renowned 'Nazi hunter's' photographs of the deceased and rele­ or posters. Hizb saw the surrender of expressive face belies the stereotypical vant artefacts, for instance two wagons the authorities - perhaps correctly - as impression of a man obsessed with of 'Zieh aus, zieh ein mit Silberstein' are a sign of weakness rather than retribution. For, as the film makes clear. shown. Charlotte Silberstein, wife of tolerance, but their 'successes' drew Reviews continued on page 10 A|R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

RE\ JEW .S continued from puiic 9 justice, not revenge, was what impelled Controversy was, of course, never him to dedicate his life to the cause, absent from Wiesenthal's life and is demanding great sacrifice from Cyla, his exemplified by various episodes in devoted, long-suffering wife. Vienna, where he lived and built up his The horror of what Wiesenthal, like documentation centre after the Second numerous survivors, had to endure is World War. His popularity was at a The Jewish 'priest' depicted in footage from Mauthausen nadir when he claimed that several and in the knowledge that he and his members of Chancellor Bruno Kreisky's -m the framaork of the Israel wife had lost 89 family members. His government were former Nazis and -LttaKlatcrs' ^^saxdatirn, I beOog to one consolation was the survival of pointed a finger at Friedrich Peter, head a gmjp of translatncs living in the Cyla, who had escaped capture with of the Freedom Party, which led to his Jerusalan area. Although we have gentile papers. The film builds up the office being torched. Conversely, he ncnthly gathadr^ and lectures, nest of couple's romance, which began at high courted controversy in refusing to con­ our activity ansists of alitost cfeiLy school. After the war their daughter, demn Kurt Waldheim, distinguishing - online discussions about translating Pauline, is born. She later marries and to my mind admirably- between a Nazi ©presskns, infcniBticn abcut research moves to Israel but is a powerful past and involvement in Nazi crimes. rescLDXES, and affers of work. >feri/ of presence in the film, providing more Criticism was also evident nearer home, the individuals involved are very valuable insights into her father's for example from Mossad chief Isser tacwLa^eatie, particularly about Jaadi Harel, who challenged Wiesenthal's predicament. Here was a family man sutgects, vshile aoTEtines the cjjeries driven by a sense of duty, not only to claim to have tracked down Eichmann. are nore technical. Ihus, when cne the millions of victims who were Jewish The involvement in the film of the unfcrturate itetber suddanly lost her but also to the gypsies and homo­ Wiesenthal Center, and its founder. '^ElMBdt' srd 'tirEraurus' fijctioTS - sexuals. The film is further enriched by Rabbi Marvin Hier, admittedly contrib­ fash fcidtjailia l fia: tjarslstacs - axtha: interviews with colleagues, friends and utes an element of hagiography to this rtH±er told her (and the rest of the others, not least Ben Kingsley, who had powerful and moving tribute. Neverthe­ grap) how to o^enxne the prddLem. played Wiesenthal in the film The less, it is heart-warming to witness the Murderers Among Us, and Frederick apparent Viennese volte face with regard Eut occasknally the SLtrject rrBttar of Forsyth, who based The Odessa File on to Wiesenthal, when he becomes the the atails that pour into m/ naillrK information provided by Wiesenthal city's pet, crowned with honours from dadates fran the purely professicrBl, about the network which shipped Nazi every source. And most satisfying of all reflecting the interests of the other criminals to South America. Forsyth also is the finale - Wiesenthal's 90th birth­ iradDers of the grcup (tha#i th^ are reveals how the film of his novel led to day party, complete with kosher dinner, carefii tD st^ dear cf priliMrs). the exposure of Eduard Roschmann, the at Hitler's favourite Imperial Hotel. Ihis vias the case with an atiail 'butcher of Riga'. Emma Klein aititlsd 'Ifetik!^'. L|xn cpening it, I found a nessage telling ne to put ny ^Betes en ad visit tie wisite http:// Arts and Events Diary - October gaTealcgy.ocg. il/BergaiBel9aifetikva.np3 There I fcurd a reoardirg ns3e in Pgril Wed 17 Rabbi Rodney Mariner, 'The 1945 iy a BdtiA iBpxts: in whidi fr^ 24 Oct to 25 Nov Lotte's Jour­ Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture' Leo Jewish prisoners fran Bergei-Belsen ney. A play based on the life of Baeck (London) Lodge the German-Jewish artist Char­ ssrg Hatikva. In the prelude to the song, lotte Salomon. New End Theatre, Thur 18 Councillor Bob Blackman, the reporter relates how the 'Jewish Leader of Conservative Group on Hampstead, tel 0870 033 2733 priest' accompanying the British troops Brent Council, 'Inside Local Politics' liberating the concentration camp B'nai B'rith Jerusalem Lodge. Kenton To 25 Nov Auktion 392: Synagogue Hall, 8.15 pm. Tel Tom organised a Friday-evening service. This Reclaiming Galerie Stern, Heinemann on 07973 137 718 was the first Jewish service ever held in Dusseldorf. Ben Uri Gallery tel 020 Mon 22 Dr O. Geudtner, 'Thomas the camp, and the first in a decade on 7604 3991 Mann und Theodor Lessing. German soil without fear of persecution. Mon 1 Oct Dr Robert L. Goldman, HintergriJnde und Auswirkungen The recording was certainly touching. 'George L. Fox: An Amusing Portrait einer Feinschaft' (in German) Club 43 But even more touching was the of the 19th-century American Wed 24 Peter Spiro, 'Eugen Spiro, following response sent by one of the Burlesque Comedian and German Impressionist Painter' Leo members of the group, Danny Verbov, Pantomimist' Club 43 Baeck (London) Lodge and quoted here with his permission: Mon 8 Dr A. M. Schleich, Minister Mon 29 Prof E. Sondheimer, 'Wilhelm 'The Jewish "priest" was actually the Counsellor, Head of Culture and Hauff and his "Marchen" (Tales)' Jewish army chaplain, Reverend Leslie Education, German Embassy, 'Anglo- Club 43 Hardman MBE, who also happens to be American Cultural Relations' Club 43 my grandfather. He is now 94 years old Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square Wed 10 Philippa Bernard, 'Roderigo and has been married for 70 years to my Lopez, Jewish Physician to Queen Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans Seelig on 01442 254360 grandmother, who is 96! I think he'd Elizabeth I' Leo Baeck (London) Lodge Leo Baeck (London) Lodge Meetings prefer being called a rabbi.' Mon 15 Ernst Flesch MA, 'A Trip at 11 Fitzjohn's Avenue. London NW3, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson through Southern Africa' Club 43 8.00 pm. Tel 020 8958 2516

10 A)R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

The legacy of Anna Essinger he last few years have seen a the plaque was brought to fruition. Although remarkable revival of Anna the building was much the same, there had TEssinger's reputation as an been many changes. Yet somehow the spirit educationalist and headmistress of avant- of Bunce Court seemed to live on. The final, garde co-educational boarding schools for elegant touch was the presentation of (mainly) Jewish children in Ulm and Kent. certificates with photographs of the school As early as 1933, she transferred her school to OBCs present. in Herrlingen, near Ulm, to Bunce Court, a The Bunce Court event on 19 July manor house on the Kent North Downs. involved the retum of the school bell and When the Kindertransports arrived, she the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to it. The expanded her school, which became home bell had spent the last 27 years outside the to hundreds of refugee children, although home of OBC Emst Weinberg in Califomia! there was always a minority whose parents The main Bunce Court building had been Anna Essinger valued her progressive educational ideas. In subdivided years earlier into four dwellings 1940 she was forced to leave what had Trench Hall, now known as the and the couple occupying the middle section become a military zone and she transferred Woodlands (Special) School, provides (Julia and George Miller) had embraced the school to Trench Hall, in Shropshire. teaching and care for some 37 adolescent Emst's suggestion that the bell be retumed After the war, she retumed the school to children from Shropshire. Its head became to its original home. We were given a warm Bunce Court but was obliged to close it for aware of the Bunce Court connection and, welcome by Julia Miller; Graham Galer, financial and other reasons in 1948. stimulated by Bunce Court archivist Martin another resident, recounted the history of the In Ulm hers is a household name. Two Lubowski, embraced the idea that a plaque old building; Hans Meyer, a former teacher, schools now bear her name and plaques are be affixed to the main building to mark its described the now symbolic significance of affixed to the house of her birth and the connection with Anna Essinger's school. A the bell; and Emst Weinberg related how buildings that housed her school in plaque was duly unveiled on 24 May in the he had restored the bell it to its old home. Herrlingen. Recently the 125th anniversary presence of a dozen Old Bunce Courtians Two teachers from the Anna Essinger- of her birth was celebrated in style, in the (OBCs) and wives, teachers and governors Schulen in Ulm presented us with a same year in which Ulm celebrated Albert of the school, and present-day pupils and photographic record of her former buildings Einstein's equivalent birthday! Recently, the local people. BBC Midlands made a in and near Ulm, and tours of the virtually Oxford Dictionary of National Biography programme encapsulating the history of the unrecognisable large estate, which now published an entry about her, at least one Kindertransports and Anna Essinger's sports five town houses with magnificent doctoral thesis has been written in Germany schools. Robin Wilson, the school head, lawns and flower beds and tennis courts, about her, and there have been Bunce Court made an introductory speech; I spoke about were undertaken by the more able-bodied. reunions. This year saw events at Trench what the school had meant to its pupils; and A suitably nostalgic occasion. Hall and at Bunce Court. Martin Lubowski described how the idea of Leslie Baruch Brent

EXEMY .\l.n:.\S' colli, from ixiiic .7 boys in the hostel, I was requested to go partitioned off and occupied by German to the police station with all my PoWs. Evidently, the authorities amenities. After all, we were in a holiday documentation. There I was questioned recognised that we were a different sort camp! I rubbed shoulders with Kaiser as to why and how I had come to England. of alien. Eating at long trestle tables, we Wilhelm's grandson looking for firewood. Irrespectively, we were all assessed as a risk soon noticed the soup slopping about in The jolly atmosphere was abruptly to the security of the country as we might the plate and the horizon moving up and ended when we suffered what we called have been members of the Hitler youth and down in sympathy. This proved too much the 'black hole of Calcutta' in Liverpool. spied on our parents! We were awarded a for most of us and we scrambled up to From there we went to the Isle of Man, Category B, which presaged internment. the deck. Old soldiers were guarding us where we were to live in houses along On that occasion, I had my Austrian along the rails as if we were likely to the Douglas promenade. A barbed-wire passport, bearing a large red 'J' and 'Israel' escape! They were just as seasick as we fence limited our movement but we were added to my name, impounded by the were. One of them asked me to hold his allowed to swim, while soldiers stood in police. Even had they noticed these bayoneted rifle while he kept the seagulls the water with their rifles above their accolades in my passport, it would not happy. In the bowels of the ship we slept heads. Every day we were subjected to a have altered their preconceived decision. in hammocks. I can't recall how we kept roll call. Each house had a 'father' who was My father was classed as a C since he was clean, but we survived. I don't remember responsible for us. Two very old brothers not considered as high a risk, but he was being scared, trusting the protection in the house who were also interned in later also interned as the war progressed, afforded us. Somehow, with much daily the first war had never become naturalised. arriving in Douglas just after I left. Male sickness and in rude health, we crossed One day in July we were offered the and some female refugees in this country the Atlantic to Newfoundland after ten were interned, particularly those living in days at sea and sailed up the St Lawrence choice of being sent to Australia or certain coastal areas. The whole affair was to Quebec. Welcome to Canada! Canada. I opted for the latter because it disorganisation on a grand scale. The second and concluding part of this was not as far from England and from article will appear in the November issue. friends who lived in New York. We were We boarded the Sobieski and sailed for told we were to be interned as 'enemy Canada in a convoy, but soon lost the In Fred Stern's article 'Cultural legacy: some aliens' for the duration of the war, which power of an engine and had to slow down. reflections', which appeared in the August issue, the final sentence of the fourth we expected to be over in a year. We were left alone except for a destroyer paragraph should have read: 'Nevertheless, I It is worth recording the events that which guarded us from a U-boat. From the managed to entertain the members on a decided my fate. Along with the other start, we found that half the ship was further occasion - in German.'

II Next meeting: 9 Oct. Dr A. Crystal, We Norfolk determined few INSIDE former Mayor of Westcliff Eight of us turned up from far and wide. As though anticipating the next issue of Cambridge and green issues the Journal, we exchanged experiences on Another excellent presentation of a being baffled by the simple language theAJR topical subject was given by Shilpa Shah known as English, in which the of the Cambridge Carbon Footprint pronounced version is so different from Organisation. The talk covered the wide the written one. Frank Bright range of environmental problems facing Next meeting: 13 Nov. Usual venue News and views at Wembley us today. Keith Lawson Continental Friends Next meeting: 18 Oct. Dr Sheila Marshal, Kingston Continental Friends Our meeting, attended by over 20 'The Jews of South Africa' In addition to introductions and chat we Wembley-ites under Myrna's guidance, discussed possible outings and whether Friendly atmosphere at Brighton & took place at the pleasant Harris Court. we should continue to meet in homes or We exchanged news and views, including Hove Sarid move to a synagogue meeting room. The Fred Stern's views on the loss of our The friendly atmosphere at our social Get- possibilities of local get-togethers were cultural legacy as outlined in the Journal together contributed to reminiscences and appreciated - we asked Head Office to in August. Tom Heinemann an exchange of experiences. Trudy spoke get back to us with suggestions for what Next meeting: 17 Oct. Social Get-together of her recent visit to her birthplace in these might contain beside fellowship. Germany, while Alfred read out a letter Edith Jayne 'Boat to Nowhere': from Canada, whose sender was from his annual Liverpool lunch hometown in Poland. Ceska Abrahams Harrogate Get-together Liverpool and Manchester members Next meeting: 15 Oct. Claire Ungerson, We gathered at RosI and Marc enjoyed meeting at the annual Liverpool 'Kitchener Camp' Schatzberger's lovely house in York for a lunch, where Gisela Feldman gave a most Get-together Having welcomed two new interesting talk about her experiences on Bradford informative meeting friends - Ruth from York and Arek from the SS St Louis entitled 'Boat to Nowhere'. A well-attended and informative Harewood - animated conversation Also present were Councillor Tina Gould meeting. Ibi Ginsburg, a Holocaust followed reports of recent events. We and Phillip Parr, who are heading the survivor, talked about her life and enjoyed delicious home-baked cakes and arrangements for next year's National experiences. Susanne arranged that the home-grown strawberries. Inge Little Holocaust Memorial Day, which is to be Yorkshire Chanukah Party will be held in Next meeting: 24 Oct in Harrogate held in Liverpool. Susanne Green Bradford in December. Meetings, held in Bradford about every two months, are for Kent overview of Jewish history Happy Birthday, llford members in the Bradford, Batley, One of our members, Frank Miller, presen­ Thirty-seven of us turned up for our 4th Cleckheaton, Shipley, Bingley, Dewsbury, ted The Fall of Jerusalem, a BBC film birthday party. Alf Keiles gave us a superb Huddersfield, Elland, Hebden Bridge and showing how divisions among the Jewish morning of jazz. We enjoyed a delicious surrounding areas. people 2,000 years ago were instrumental birthday cake and sang 'Happy Birthday' Albert Waxman in their downfall. Myrna, thankyou for your to our Group. Meta Roseneil Next meeting: 15 Nov at Salts Mill hard work, and Janet Weston, thank you Next meeting: 10 Oct. Leslie Hutton, for providing refreshments. Inge Ball 'The Nuremburg Trials' MDA presentation at Cleve Road Next meeting: 23 Oct. Claire Ungerson, David Grossman, Administration Director 'Kitchener Camp' Pinner 'Garden Viewing Party' of the MDA, Israel's Medical Emergency Due to the weather, our meeting became Service, gave us an insight into his work. North London's 6th birthday an indoor 'Garden Viewing Party'. Not MDA have ambulance stations throughout We celebrated our 6th birthday in true style that this stopped us talking or drinking Israel; the first in an Israeli Arab town is with lots of nosh and musical entertain­ tea/ coffee, or eating scones, cakes and to be dedicated very shortly. ment by Robert accompanied on the piano strawberries in quantities I daren't reveal. David Lang by Anthony. We cut down on the nostal­ Thank you. Vera and Robert, for your Next meetings: 16 Oct. Susannah gia, but this was made up by the congenial hospitality. Paul Samet Alexander, 'The Jews of England'; company. Herbert Haberberg Next meetings: 2 Oct. Outing to Outing: 24 Oct. Fiddler on the Roof Next meeting: 25 Oct. Frank Miller, 'The Foundling Museum; 11 Oct. Alan (Savoy Theatre) Story of the Bagel' Cohen, 'What is Art?' Edgware food for thought Glasgow/ Edinburgh Get-together Middle East update for Hendon The subject of Michael Anvoner's talk Yet another mesmerising talk by Michael The Israeli Embassy's Robin Hamilton- concerns us all: a will and, possibly, the Tobias of jewishgen.org. Michael's main Taylor gave us an optimistic view of the power of attorney. While we all wish to message was: delve into the past using current situation in the Middle East despite leave our possessions to our children and the jewishgen.org database with the current turmoil in Gaza and the nuclear grandchildren, part of them inevitably confidence, cast the net wide and, if threat from Iran. Annette Saville goes to the state. The talk gave us much stuck, call on him for expert help. Thanks Next meeting: 1 Oct. Social in Succah food for thought. Fe//x Winkler also to our wonderful volunteers, who Next meeting: 16 Oct. Elkan Levy, 'They provided a delicious tea and jolly good Essex's 'Chacun a son gout' Got Off the Boat Too Soon' company. Jonathan Kish Hazel Beiny organised 'Chacun k son gout', an exhilarating concert perform­ Lively conversation in East Midlands Herts membership still growing ance by Naomi Hyamson, splendidly Unlike in previous years, our summer We enjoyed a lively discussion meeting at accompanied by Jenny Gould on piano. meeting was, due to the weather, held the home of Margot Boon. As we The programme included various operatic indoors at Gerry and Bob Norton's home. approach our second birthday, our pieces as well as pieces by Schubert, Elgar, As usual, we enjoyed a lively conversation membership is still growing and the Gershwin, Noel Coward and many more. over an excellent lunch. Bob Norton subject of a more localised name was Ken Ward Next meeting: 27 Nov suggested given that another group is

12 AjR JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007 being formed around Watford. Also debated was the idea of more frequent Northern Get-together proves a Paul Balint AJR Centre meetings. Monica Rosenbaum huge success 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 Over 100 of us enjoyed a summer Tel: 020 7328 0208 FURTHER MEETINGS reunion in Leeds, where we met kinsmen Surrey 11 Oct. Social Get-together and explored a variety of issues in at Portners workshops. AJR LUNCHEON CLUB Michael Newman from Head Office Wednesday 17 October 2007 Radlett 17 Oct. Inaugural paid tribute to Marcia Goodman, who meeting. Details from Head Office was attending her last Northern Get- 11.45 am for 12.15 pm Cardiff 22 Oct. Lunchtime. together prior to her retirement in Rabbi Stephen Katz Speaker: Bertha Leverton October Guest speaker Stephen Smith MBE, Hendon Reform Synagogue Bristol/Bath 30 Oct, tbc co-founder of Beth Shalom Holocaust Please be aware that members should not Centre in Nottingham, presented a automatically assume that they are on the 'Agony Aunt' Anna Raeburn to synopsis of the Centre's origins and dis­ Luncheon Club list. It Is now necessary, on receipt speak at Belsize Square cussed his role in the International Task of your copy of the AJR Journal, to phone the Synagogue dinner Force on Remembering the Holocaust Centre on 020 7328 0208 to book your place. established in 2000. We are delighted to announce that the broadcaster, journalist and 'Agony Aunt' The day was a huge success, thanks Anna Raeburn will be our guest speaker at mainly to the organisational skills of KT-AJR a dinner on Wednesday 7 November at Susanne Green, our Northern Groups Kindertransport special Belsize Square Synagogue. The evening will Co-ordinator Tania Nelson begin at 6.30 pm. interest group The dinner will be part of a visit to Monday 8 October 2007 London by AJR members from Scotland and 11.45 am for 12.15 pm the North of England and will be an opportunity for members from across the Bettine Le Beau country to enjoy an evening's entertainment and socialising. 'THE JOYS OF YIDDISH' To reserve a ticket for the dinner, at a Reservations required cost of approximately £20 per head (price to be confirmed), please contact Susan Monday, Wednesday & Thursday Harrod by telephone on 020 8385 3078 or by email at [email protected] 9.30 am - 3.30 pm Please note that places can be reserved Inge Little from Harrogate and Henry PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS only by payment in advance and are offered Grunfeld from Manchester, both CLOSED ON TUESDAYS on a strictly first-come first-served basis. originally from Dortmund, meet up for Michael Newman the first time at Northem Get-together October Afternoon Entertainment Mon Kards & Games Klub Tue CLOSED AJR GROUP CONTACTS DIARY DATES Wed Norman Hoskins Thur CLOSED - SHEMINI ATZERET Bradford Continental Friends 26 November- Mon KT LUNCH Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 3 December Eastbourne holiday Tue CLOSED Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) For further information about this event, Wed 10 Sergeant Steve Hayes Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 please call us on 020 8385 3070. - Safety Talk Bristol/Bath Thur 11 Guyathrie Peiris & Bill Patrick Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 Mon 15 Kards & Games Klub Cambridge Tue 16 CLOSED Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Liverpool Wed 17 LUNCHEON CLUB Cardiff Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Thur 18 Michael Heaton Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Manchester Mon 22 Kards & Games Klub Cleve Road, AJR Centre Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 Tue 23 CLOSED Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Newcastle Wed 24 Madeleine Whiteson Dundee Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 Thur 25 Jen Gould Mon 29 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Norfolk (Norwich) Kards & Games Klub East Midlands (Nottingham) Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Tue 30 CLOSED Wed 31 BINGO Bob Norton 01159 212 494 North London Edgware Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Ruth Urban 020 8931 2542 Oxford 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Edinburgh Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Members requiring benefit advice please telephone Frangoise Robertson 0131 337 3406 Pinner (HA Postal District) Linda Kasmlr on 020 8385 3070 to make an Essex (Westcliff) Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 appointment at MR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Urry Lisner 01702 300812 Sheffield Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Glasgow Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 South London Harrogate Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator Inge Little 01423 886254 South West Midlands (Worcester area) 020 8385 3070 Hendon Myrna Glass 020 8385 3070 Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Surrey Groups Co-ordinator Hertfordshire Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Weald of Kent Susanne Green, Northem Groups Co-ordinator HGS Max and Jane Dickson 0151 291 5734 Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 01892 541026 Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator Hull Wembley 020 8385 3070 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Laura Levy 020 8904 5527 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) llford Wessex (Bournemouth) Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 Child Survivors Association-AJR Leeds HSFA West Midlands (Birmingham) Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 Trude Silman 0113 2251628 Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437

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FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS MANCHESTER HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL BOOK The IVIanchester AJR Group are collating a register ANOTHER HOLIDAY IN Births of names of people in the North and South EASTBOURNE Congratulations to Linda Kasmir on the birth Manchester areas whose family members After last year's wonderful holiday in of a second grandson, Yoni. perished in the Holocaust. The names, together where possible with Eastbourne we are returning to the Deaths photographs and brief histories, will be included Best Western Lansdowne Hotel. in a Memonal Book which will be on permanent Monday 26 November - Monday 3 It is with much regret that I inform you of the display in Manchester. Copies of the book will be sudden death of Hanus Weisl. Mr Weisl was distributed to members and used for educational December 2007 always keen to receive news/information from purposes, ensuring that those who perished will Price £420 not be forgotten. the AJR and especially interested in the The Imperial War Museum considers the AJR If you wish to book a superior room, there Kindertransport Newsletter. He came over on Memorial Books to be 'important historical will be a further supplement. Price the last train to leave Czechoslovakia in 1939 records'. Yad Vashem and other museums have includes Dinner, Bed & Breakfast, requested copies of the Memorial Books for their before the borders were closed and he and his transport from, and returning to, the AJR archives. Centre in Cleve Road, lunch on journey If you would like your family names to be parents spent the first few months here in a to Eastbourne, entertainment in the hotel refugee hostel. He became an eminent included in the Manchester Memorial Book, please contact Ruth Lachs on 0161 773 4091, Book early to avoid disappointment orthopaedic surgeon and worked in Cardiffs Tania Nelson on 0161 795 0731, or Angella Carne Call Lorna on 020 8385 3072 or Carol on 0161 928 8722. University Hospital of Wales and Prince of on 020 8385 3085 Wales Hospital until his retirement in 1991- 92. He will be sadly missed by all privileged LEO BAECK HOUSING to know him. Lynne Davies, Secretary to the ASSOCIATION LTD SWITCH ON ELECTRICS Rewires and all household late Hanus Weisl, Cardiff. SHELTERED ACCOMMODATION electrical work Classified ONE BEDROOM FLAT TO LET PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 An AJR memt)er offers an electric scooter SITUATED NEAR SWISS COTTAGE Mobile: 0795 614 8566 to someone who would benefit from it, at no LOUNGE • BEDROOM WITH FITTED WARDROBES cost. Please telephone 0208 346 3852. • BATHROOM WITH SHOWER Paul Balint AJR Centre • FULLY FITTED KITCHEN FillarCme Pamela Bloch Clothes sale, separates etc. • RESIDENT WARDEN Qiialit\- support and care at home • CAMDEN CARE LINE Thursday 18 October, 9.30-11.45 am. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours AND VIEWING CONTACT DAVID LIGHTBURN ON 020 8455 2286 Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care LEO BAECK HOUSE Convalescent and Personal Health Care & OSMOND HOUSE Compassionate and Affordable Service Offering expert residential and nursing care LEO BAECK Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff for refugees and sun/ivors of the Holocaust. HOUSING ASSOCIATION Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA 124-hour empathetic, knowledgeable care BUNGALOW TO LET I En suite facilities ; on Froophono OSDt) HZS 4(i4.-i GOLDERS GREEN AREA ft Activities & outings Sliidio 1 L topi.i \'ill,ii;e LARGE LOUNGE AREA, Ch.iliot Ro.id, WVl 81.H ft Shabbat & festivals celebrated BEDROOM WITH FITTED WARDROBES, For more information BATHROOM WITH SHOWER, FULLY FITTED KITCHEN/DINER call Jewish Care Direct 24-HOUR CALL BELL SYSTEM ACACIA LODGE on 020 8922 2222 Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron FOR FURTHER INFORMATION For Elderly, Retired and Convaiescent In partnership witti the Otto Schlff Housing Association AND VIEWING CONTACT (Ucensed by Borough of Bamet) DAVID LIGHTBURN ' Single and Double Rooms. ON 020 8455 2286 • Ensuite facilities, CH in ali rooms. JEWISH CARE • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. • Nurse on duty 24 liours. OSHA Chartty Refistration Number 210396 • Long and sliort term and respite, Jewish Care Chartty Registration Number 802559 Annely Juda Fine Art including trial period if required. 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) Between £400 and £500 per weeit Tel: 020 7629 7578 Fax: 020 7491 2139 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 ofTice hours Qotol<^ Home Care CONTEMPORARY PAINTING 020 8455 1335 other times Care through quality and 37-39 Torrington Parit, North Finchiey AND SCULPTURE London N12 STB professionalism Celebrating our 25di Anniversary 25 years of experience in providing the Sometimes life is easier .^ highest standards of care in the comfort of your own home witii a little bit of help ANANURS]^ - ANA Nursing can provide professional carers and nurses to help with any of your needs.

24 tir sen/ice, 7 days a week, Personal care, Respite care. From 1-24 hours 1 hour to 24 hours care call US on; Registered through the National Care Standard Commission 020 8905 7701 Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 www.colvin-nurslng.co.uk

14 AjR JOUWvJAL OCTOBER 2007

Obituary Central Office for Holocaust Claims Gertie Furst from the Queen Mother. Michael Newman om in Vienna in November 1915, Gertie also taught at various colleges - Gertie went to art school there at a Homsey in North London and Birmingham Life certificates - and the students loved her charming way Btime when the influence of the Art Members are reminded that the AJR Deco movement (with its applied version in of teaching. She never married, but kept in is able to notarise life certificates the Wiener Werkstatten/Vierma workshops) close touch with her sister's family and had for all pensions from Austria and was still prominent. When she came to a circle of friends from all ethnic and social most pensions from Germany. England in August 1938, with her younger backgrounds, including her school friend Please contact us if you would like sister Elfie, her first job was as a cook but Bruno Kreisky, at one time Austrian a representative from the AJR to she could speak no English. She quickly Chancellor, and Richard Hauser, also an sign your certificate. Please note also that members can continue to learned the language and found work in Austrian refugee who later married visit the relevant embassy or fashion and design, at first viath handbags. Hephzibah Menuhin. consulate. With her obvious talent and Viennese Gertie was small and delicate in figure education, Gertie was very successful. She but strong in character and determination. Israel property list We will especially miss her great sense of eventually became director at Paris House Approximately 7,000 names of for leather accessories and was instrumental humour - and her apple stmdel, which she owners of bank accounts and other in the firm's receiving the Royal Warrant. prepared with the same skill and perfection properties in Israel that were not She presented her own collection twice a as the royal belts and buttons. She is survived claimed after the Second World War year in Paris and had many distinguished by two nephews and two great-nephews. have been listed on the website of customers. On her 80th birthday she Christine Herxheimer, friend Hashava, the Company for Location received a card with special good wishes Anthony Lister, nephew and Restitution of Holocaust Victims' Assets Ltd. Hashava was established in Israel in 2006 by the Holocaust Victims Assets Law. Search Notices The list of names was cross­ checked with the list of victims at Use Cohn - Born 1924, she came from working as a children's nurse. Any info Yad Vashem, and only their heirs Essener str., NW Berlin to London in May pis to Michael Zank, Associate Professor 1939. Attended New Herrlingen School of Religion, 147 BSR, Room 407, or other designated persons can in Faversham, Kent from October 1939. Boston University, 145 Bay State Road, apply. The committee's charge will Any info pis to Stanley Hillel, 96 Boston MA 02130, USA, tel 001 617 last 15 years, and it will assist in Bethlehem Street, Haifa 35568, Israel, 353 4434 searching for heirs and other [email protected] beneficiaries. Walter Mittler - Born In Vienna. His Any person who thinks they may Joseph Folger - I was with Joseph at English home was in Birmingham, be entitled to make a claim as an Whittinghame Farm School in 1939-41 where he was a watch repairer. Early and with many other Kinder­ 1950s he emigrated to Canada. Any Info heir of a Holocaust victim, transportees. My name was Sonja on his whereabouts pis to Len Terry (RAF regardless of whether or not the Ibermann, but I am now married as 1943-47), 23 Abingdon Avenue, assets in question are listed, should Sonja Cowan. I was his first girlfriend Doddington Park, Lincoln LN6 3LB, tel contact the organisation via its in Berlin, where we went to kinder­ 01522 691591 website. Please note that this list garten together. We met up in does not deal with persons or Glasgow after Whittinghame, but lost Herr und Frau Perlefter left Vienna in properties and accounts outside touch in 1946. Any info about him pis the late 1930s, possibly with other to Sonja (Ibermann) Cowan at families, and settled in the London area. Israel. [email protected] Hella Damisch disappeared from The list and application form to I am drawing up a Roll of Honour of Vienna in 1938, along with her register a claim for restitution are Jews who served in the Fire Service daughter, who would have been my available at www.hashava.org.il/ or as Firewatchers In WW2 or since. aunt. Any info on these three persons eng and completed forms can also Please send any names, photos and pis to [email protected] be returned by post to PO BOX 927, details to Martin Sugarman, Archivist, B'NAI BRAK, 51108, ISRAEL. Kathrina Selkowitz - As a WWII AJEX Jewish Military Museum, daytime Applications for names that do tel 0207 963 4123, evening tel 0208 veteran stationed in Swiss Cottage, I not appear on the list will be 986 4868 (after 7 pm), email met my lost love Kathrina Selkowitz, a accepted. [email protected] refugee from Vienna, who lived at 96 Goldhurst Terrace, London NW6. My Written enquiries should be sent Henriette Rosa Koch - my mother, dream would be fulfilled if I could find to Central Office for Holocaust born 28 July 1922, in Rodalben, her. Pis contact me, Morey Schartz Claims (UK), Jubilee House, Merrion Germany, came to England on a (Maurice), at 4646 Carambola Cir. N. Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, Kindertransport in December 1938 or Pompano Beach, Florida 33066, USA, January 1939. She remained in and tel 954-970-4603, cell phone 954-449- by fax to 020 8385 3075, or by around London until 1950, training and 3020 email to [email protected]

15 A|R JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007

with Ronald Channing Newsround ABOUT Largest synagogue in Germany reopens Two lives assayed Germany's largest synagogue has reopened las, among many, thejewish refugee a diminutive player in his wide world of following extensive restoration. The Rykestrasse Synagogue in Berlin was built community has recently lost two anxious authors and demanding members of in 1904 but set on fire on Kristallnacht, al­ A exceptional contributors: the the Jewish community, the community to though it was not destroyed. Today, Berlin publisher Frank Cass and the concert pianist which he was so totally committed. has the biggest Jewish community in Ger­ Natalia Karp. Each in their own field actively Cracow-bom pianist Natalia Weissman many with 12,000 registered members and contributed to the continuance of that rich Karp, who has died at the age of 96, survived eight synagogues. According to the Cen­ tral Council of Jews in Germany, some cultural heritage involuntarily carried to Plaszow concentration camp by playing 250,000 Jews now live in the country, with Britain from Germany and Austria as a Chopin, in December 1943, for the birthday around 110,000 of them registered consequence of Nazi persecution. of the camp's notorious commandant, Amon religious community members. Frank Cass is the more unlikely candidate, Goeth, thereby saving her own life and that German government holds having been born 77 years ago in north of her sister. She later survived incarceration exhibition on antisemitism London's Stamford Hill to parents of Polish in Auschwitz. She had begun playing at the A German government exhibition on con­ origin, though into a houseful of books age of four and was later tutored by the temporary antisemitism, a collaborative supplemented by two or three weekly visits brother-in-law of Chopin specialist Artur effort between Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and the Berlin-based to the local library. In the succeeding half- Rubinstein, attending the Hebrew school at Centre for Research on Antisemitism, has century, under the imprint of Vallentine 13. In 1927, with the help of Stefan Zweig's opened in the Foreign Ministry in BeHin. A Mitchell, he became British Jewry's leading cousin Maria, Natalia was taken on by Artiir principal theme of the exhibition Is: when publisher of books on Jewish subjects and Schnabel in Berlin. In 1929, aged 18, she does criticism of Israel cross the border of legitimacy? IsraeL performed to great acclaim with the Berlin In 1993, at the request of Lord (Greville) Philharmonic Orchestra. Retuming to Poland Austrian chancellor visits Israel Janner and Ben Helfgott, he launched his shortly before the death of her mother, she Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer has become married in 1933 Julius Hubler, lawyer, pianist the first Austrian head of state to visit Israel Library of Holocaust Testimonies series, in nearly a decade. 'It's true that the which now numbers over 50. Among these and music critic. relationship between Austria and Israel has volumes, many of them well-known to AJR When the Germans bombed Cracow on not always been an easy one, but I think members, are Trudi Levi's A Cat Called 1 September 1939, Natalia's father, husband we are embarking on a new initiative,' he said. Adolf, Martha Blend's A Child Ahne (on the and brother left, never to be seen again. She Kindertransport), Janina Fischler-Martinho's and her sister went into hiding, but were Far-right violence on rise in Holland Have You Seen my Little Sister?, and Leon eventually captured. Far-right violence in Holland rose by 75 per Greenman's An Englishman in Auschwitz. cent last year, according to the annual Anne With the liberation of the camps she Frank Foundation report on extremism. In Other favourites on the list are Muriel resumed her career, playing again the a joint report with Leiden University, the Emanuel and Vera Gissing's Nicholas Winton demanding Tchaikovsky B flat minor piano Foundation counted 67 incidents of far- and the Saved Generation, T. Scarlett concerto with the Cracow Philharmonic. She right violence compared with 38 reported Epstein's Swimming Upstream, and Gloria married her second husband, Joseph Karpf, the previous year. According to Willem Tessler's biography of Lady Jacobovits, Wagenaar, an expert on the extreme right and moved to London, where he worked in in the Netherlands, the year 2006 saw 35 AmeUe. the Polish embassy. There she brought up a antisemitic instances out of a total of 265 After leaving the Grocers' Company family while furthering her career, hate crimes. school in Hackney, Frank (Tass took up his encouraged by her husband, and made Charges over Austria Nazi salutes first job with the Economist Book Shop several tours of Germany. Natalia Karp, a The Austrian army has charged three con­ adjacent to the London School of Economics, woman of proven courage and affection, and scripts in connection with a YouTube video and in 1953, at the age of just 22 and with of beauty, continued to play publicly through showing young soldiers exchanging Nazi salutes. The footage is said to have been the 1950s to the 1970s, performing with very limited capital, he opened his own filmed in an army barracks in Salzburg. The bookshop in tiny premises on Southampton leading orchestras in Britain and Europe, men face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. Row. In 1957 he began publishing under his with appearances at the Proms and countless Desecrated Jewish cemetery broadcasts for the BBC. own name, with books on politics, history, cleaned up military affairs, Middle Eastem studies, and Her daughter, the writer and joumalist Local Polish officials and teenagers have biography. In 1971 he obtained control of Anne Karpf, told the story of her parents' joined members of the Jewish community Vallentine Mitchell from the Jewish lives as Holocaust survivors and of her own in cleaning up one of the biggest cemetery Chronicle. desecrations in postwar Polish history. struggle to come to terms with her Some 100 graves in the Jewish cemetery Frank always had time for everyone and inheritance in The War After, published in in the southern town of Czestochowa were I valued his warm personal greeting though 1996. covered with antisemitic graffiti.

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 www.ajr.org.uk

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