VOLume 16 NO.5 mAY 2016 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees
Arnhem 1944 n autumn 1944, Zeitspiegel, the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade. September to Monday 24 September 1944, publication of the Austrian Centre in Te latter proved to be, in a famous phrase when the British paratroopers attempted to London, gave its refugee readers a piece attributed to Lieutenant-General Frederick break out and make their escape from the Iof rousing advice: if you ever meet someone Browning, commanding 1st Airborne Corps, Arnhem area, in Hagen’s case by swimming who fought at Arnhem in September ‘a bridge too far’. across the Rhine. 1944, raise your hat to him. Such advice The weeks before Arnhem had seen Arnhem Lift gains much of its impact was unusual, coming from Zeitspiegel, a the Allied armies break out from their from its simplicity and directness; it has the Communist-infuenced paper which was not beachheads in Normandy immediacy and authenticity naturally inclined to celebrate the heroism and race across France and of a day-by-day report of the British forces, though it loyally Belgium. American and on a military action, an supported the Allies (especially the Soviets) French forces took Paris on authenticity underlined by in their war against Hitler. But the aura 25 August 1944, while the the book’s original subtitle, surrounding Arnhem, though it was a defeat British 21st Army Group Diary of a Glider Pilot. for the British, overcame even Zeitspiegel’s pushed into Belgium, taking Although Hagen had never reservations about the exploits of the capitalist Brussels on 3 September and written anything before, nations of the West. Antwerp on 4 September. he completed Arnhem Lift Te feats of arms performed by the British But the advance then stalled, with remarkable speed; it 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, most as the lines of supply to the appeared in January 1945. notably the defence of the bridge over the ports in distant Normandy His publisher described the Lower Rhine by a small force of paratroopers became over-extended. To process of its composition: under Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost, regain the initiative, Field ‘When the author of this passed almost immediately into legend. In Marshal Montgomery book arrived home on the characteristically British mythology of decided on a bold stroke, the leave after fighting right heroism in defeat, Arnhem came to rank next seizure by airborne troops of through the Arnhem action, to Dunkirk and is probably the best-known the bridges over the Rhine, everybody wanted to hear battle involving British forces in the entire which were to be held until the arrival of his story. After telling it several times, he Second World War after the Battle of Britain the relieving land forces, whose armoured began to fnd the repetition irksome. So he and the Normandy landings and alongside spearheads would then roll on into Germany. spent the rest of his leave writing it all down, the Battle of El Alamein. It may come as a Te frst two sets of bridges were taken but while the events were still vivid in his mind.’ surprise that a number of Jewish refugees at Arnhem only a small force of paratroopers Arnhem Lift is written from below, from the fought in the British forces at Arnhem; that reached the northern end of the bridge; the perspective of the fghting man at the front, was certainly a cause for pride among the rest of the force was trapped in a pocket at and records the apparently spontaneous refugee community, then still labouring Oosterbeek, west of Arnhem, from which it reactions of an ordinary soldier to the battle under their classifcation as ‘enemy aliens’. was compelled to retreat across the Rhine. with gritty, but ultimately uplifting realism: Operation Market Garden, of which Of the 10,000 men of 1st Airborne Division ‘Tis is the story of one man’s battle. It doesn’t the Battle of Arnhem formed part, was an who were sent into Arnhem, only some 2,500 purport to describe the action as a whole. It ambitious plan to use airborne troops to seize returned to Britain. gives instead a series of ultra-vivid images and the bridges over the Rivers Maas (Meuse) Probably the frst book about the battle, experiences. Like real life, it is inconsequent and Rhine, the last major obstacles between Louis Hagen’s Arnhem Lift was written by a and surprising.’ the advancing British and American armies Jewish refugee from Nazism serving with the Hagen never mentions himself by name. and the German heartland, and to encircle British forces. Hagen was born in Potsdam His anonymous frst-person narrator refers the Ruhrgebiet, the key industrial area in 1916 and fed to Britain in 1936 after to himself simply as ‘I’, or often ‘we’, to on which Germany’s military production enduring a spell in a concentration camp emphasise that he is speaking for all the men depended. Te war, it was hoped, would be while still a teenager. After service in the who went to fght at Arnhem. ‘Anyone who over by the end of the year. Te taking of Pioneer Corps he was accepted into the went to Arnhem could have told this kind the two sets of bridges nearest to the Allied 1st Airborne, changed his name to Lewis of story,’ he states. But Hagen, a Jew from advance, in the area of the Dutch cities of Haig, and was trained as a glider pilot. It Germany, was anything but a typical British Eindhoven and Nijmegen, was entrusted was in that capacity that he few to Arnhem, soldier. Yet by writing from the perspective to the American 101st Airborne and 82nd where he took part in the desperate defence of a British soldier, he was rejecting the Airborne Divisions respectively, while the of Oosterbeek by lightly armed and heavily perspective of the refugee from Nazism, taking of the bridge at Arnhem, many outnumbered British troops. His account preferring to depict the British around miles further behind the German lines, was of the action is divided into eight sections, him as if he were one of them. We learn entrusted to the paratroopers of the British each in diary form, covering one of the eight almost nothing about him and his German- 1st Airborne Division, supported by the days from the glider lift on Monday 17 continued on page 2 journal MAY 2016 Arnhem 1944 continued ADVANCE NOTICE • ADVANCE NOTICE Jewish past, while his perfect command Day Trip of English adds to the impression that he by Special Train: is British. Only a few small details betray London to Harwich his background: he can understand what 1 July 2016 enemy troops within earshot are saying and On Friday 1 July 2016 a number of Eastbourne proves useful in the interrogation of German ‘Kindertransport 77’ special trains will run Lansdowne Hotel prisoners; with difculty he convinces his from London and elsewhere in the UK to hungry comrades to eat Dutch preserves, Harwich to mark the first anniversary of Sunday 3 July to ‘Continental concoctions’ in their view, Sir Nicholas Winton’s passing and the 77th Sunday 10 July 2016 which he, as a ‘Continental’ himself, knows anniversary of the arrival in Harwich of his Come and join us for a week largest single transport of 241 children. to be eminently edible. Otherwise, Hagen Make new friends and meet up appears to be accepted without reservation A Service of Remembrance and with old friends by his fellow soldiers as one of them. Tere Thanksgiving will be held in St Nicholas £425pp for twin/double is no national, cultural or linguistic distance Church in Harwich together with other £450 for single room between him and his comrades; his narrative events in the town which welcomed many Sea View rooms an additional thousands of Kinder to safety in 1938-39 perspective could be theirs. £15 per room per night Te superiority of that British fghting and accommodated many hundreds at collective over their German counterparts Dovercourt. Carol Rossen will be among those accompanying the trip forms one of the principal themes of the The organisers wish to invite any Kinder book. Hagen’s opinion of the German troops – not only those on the Czech transports Space is limited so book early whom he encountered in the wood between – to attend with their families. For further details, the landing zone and Oosterbeek was that they For further information, please telephone Lorna Moss were ‘a badly disciplined and poor crowd’. please phone 01908 410450, on 020 8385 3070 The Germans’ low morale and reluctance email [email protected] or go to to fght are evident in the failure of an SS www.papyrus-rail.com/kt77 Panzer Division to wipe out the vastly inferior British force confronting it in Oosterbeek; instead, Hagen and his comrades repeatedly repel attacks by German armour with only a NORTHERN REGIONAL MANCHESTER hand-held anti-tank weapon at their disposal. Tuesday 19 July 2016 By contrast with the Germans, the British troops, largely civilians in uniform, maintain Please join us at our annual Northern Regional Get-together their discipline and order under extreme Our keynote speaker will be pressure, fghting with selfess solidarity as part Mike Levy, playwright, journalist and educator for the Holocaust Education Trust, of a unit that believes in its collective cause. whose subject will be ‘From Hitler to Hi-de-Hi’ Teir quiet, understated heroism, refecting their inner confdence in their superiority, This is the story of the Warner’s Camp which was used as a transit camp for the first wave of infuses the book with the spirit of optimism Kindertransportees in December 1938 and later became the location for the BBC TV series ‘Hi-de-Hi’. that turns defeat into a stage on the path to The day will include refreshments and lunch, discussion groups and musical entertainment. It’s ultimate victory. an excellent opportunity to meet and socialise with friends old and new. Among the other Jewish refugees who For full details and an application form, please contact fought at Arnhem was Rudolf Julius Falck. Wendy Bott on 07908 156 365 or at [email protected] Falck, whose father had been an architect in Cologne, came to Britain in 1937 to study law at Balliol College, Oxford. Walter Eberstadt (see July 2015 issue of this journal) Falck, like Eberstadt, was interned in 1940, 75th Anniversary knew Falck at Oxford; he acted as an usher then joined the Pioneer Corps and was at the ceremony in April 1943 when Falck commissioned in July 1942. He was killed of the AJR on the retreat from Arnhem, joining the married Pauline, whom Eberstadt describes SCOTLAND REGIONAL as ‘an absolutely gorgeous English girl’. sadly long list of Eberstadt’s Oxford friends who died in the war. Falck’s details appear in Wednesday 8 June 2016 Julie Summers’s absorbing study Stranger in AJR Chief Executive the House: Women’s Stories of Men Returning in Edinburgh Michael Newman from the Second World War (London: Simon Special guest speaker Finance Director & Schuster, 2008), which analyses the David Kaye Olivia Marks Woldman dislocation caused by the wartime absences Chief Executive, Heads of Department of men from their families as well as the Karen Markham Human Resources & Administration Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Sue Kurlander Social Services trauma endured by the families of those who Carol Hart Community & Volunteer Services never returned. Summers interviewed Falck’s Three-course lunch AJR Journal daughter, Christa Laird, who was born three Film by young film-maker Misha Cooper Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor months after her father’s death and lived My Dearest … Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements with that loss into adult life. Tus did the Transport will be provided aftermath of Arnhem reach down into the Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not necessarily those of the Association of Jewish second generation. For further details contact Refugees and should not be regarded as such. Anthony Grenville [email protected] or tel 07908 156 361
2 MAY 2016 journal Refuge for the refugees?
uring the ‘Woche der Brüderlichkeit’ bring hate and intolerance with them too, in Hannover in March 2016, both There are no then things will become more difficult. For Dthe German Rabbinic Conferences now, many of us find ourselves in a state of (Orthodox and General) met with both easy answers but a lot ambivalence. And feel thoroughly guilty the Protestant and the Catholic Bishops’ will depend on the desire of those about it ... Conferences for our annual get- Walter Rothschild together. The theme this year was, who come – or succeed in coming – not of course, refugees – in the wider only to arrive but to integrate, to adapt to Rabbi Dr Walter Rothschild was born sense and also in terms of what we, in Bradford, UK, was ordained by as religious leaders, should be saying. living in secular, libertarian, pluralist, post- Leo Baeck College, and has lived It is, truly, an interesting Christian countries. The Muslim leaders in Berlin since 1998 serving mainly conundrum. On the one hand, we all were not represented at our meeting but communities around Germany and of us represent in one way or another Austria. religious traditions that stress the unity … it is unclear what they or their of humanity – the Brotherhood (and communities could say or do Sisterhood) that stand behind the theme of the week. We all proclaim Justice and we in any case. preach about the need to help and protect the Weak and the Stranger. But – and here there is a big but – the catastrophic for decades) but cling to the elephant in the room, so to speak – is the hierarchic structures that they understand cultural tradition from which many of the – whereby women priests and bishops feel current wave of refugees in Europe come. themselves especially confronted by the We rabbis expressed our amazement at misogynistic attitudes displayed. how little the churches had done over the The individual stories are, of course, past few years for their fellow Christians heart-wrenching and many of the CONFERENCE from Syria and Iraq (and Palestine), but refugees also fled to get away from Islamic WELCOME TO BRITAIN? at the same time both groups shared a fundamentalism as such. A few days ago concern: Are many of the Muslim refugees I met a young family. He had worked for REFUGEES THEN AND NOW anti-Christian as well as anti-Jewish and seven years in Cyprus to earn the money to anti-Israeli? And, if so, what should our build a house in Syria, then they had had In Memory of relationship be – not only to them but to sell it for only $7,000 and to pay all this also to the communities we serve here in to a Schlepper for their illegal transport to Eleanor Rathbone, 1872-1946, Europe – communities which are becoming Germany. The father then locked the mother ‘The MP for Refugees’ increasingly alarmed, even afraid, due to in a room while he went out to seek work the arrival of people, a large number of and, not surprisingly, she required some 20 June 2016, 9.00 am - 5.00 pm whom seem to have a very different view weeks of treatment for depression. Now at of the world? at last both are trying to learn German and King’s College London, Strand Campus The political consequences of this alarm their kid will soon start kindergarten. The have been well demonstrated in the rise of vicar and his wife who have been trying Keynote Speaker: populist, nationalist and even racist political to help this family are also worried and Baroness Helena Kennedy QC parties in many European countries, by the depressed by the sheer scale of the work erection of fences and barriers, by heated required to integrate such people – and the £20.00 inclusive political debates. Who is running the asylum churches are overwhelmed. for the asylum seekers? Should we, as rabbis There are no easy answers but a lot To book, please contact Lesley Urbach at and bishops, not have something useful to will depend on the desire of those who [email protected] or on 020 8346 2256 contribute to the discussion on the immoral come – or succeed in coming – not only to www.rememberingeleanorrathbone. issues as well as the moral ones? For arrive but to integrate, to adapt to living in example, there are many who profit from secular, libertarian, pluralist, post-Christian wordpress.com the refugee crisis, there are many who take countries. The Muslim leaders were not specific positions, there are many who write represented at our meeting but, bearing or speak in racist terms. There are those who in mind that many mosques are financially insist people be returned to areas ruled by supported and controlled by the Turkish KT LUNCH fundamentalist rapists and murderers – government through the DITIB (Turkish- would you return in such circumstances? Islamic Union for Religious Affairs), founded Wednesday 11 May 2016 Quite remarkably, the only thing we in 1984 as a branch of the Religious Affairs at Alyth Gardens Synagogue could really agree on at the meeting was Ministry in Ankara, it is unclear what they a rather vague and weak plea for more or their communities could say or do in 12.30 pm humanity and understanding. The fact is any case. We are delighted to welcome that the Jewish communities, who already It will take at least 20 years and another Dame Esther Rantzen DBE feel themselves under threat from left-wing generation to see what the results of the and right-wing extremists, don't relish the current crisis will be. Many of the arrivals are Dame Esther is a journalist thought of towns filling with Muslims, some traumatised: they have been bankrupted, and television presenter, of whom – perhaps a tiny minority – may uprooted, often abused and raped and best known for the hit BBC possibly have been raised on a diet of ‘Israel tortured, bereaved ... they bring with them Television series That’s should not exist and all Jews are animals’. feelings of loss and fear and insecurity, Life! for 21 years from And the Christian leaders too are finding just as all refugees have done throughout 1973 to 1994. Also well themselves confronted with refugees who history. One can perhaps – as Christians and known for her work with display very little education (the standard Jews, as citizens – start working with these charitable causes, she is the founder of the of education in Syria has clearly been problems. But if some, even a tiny minority, child protection charity ChildLine and The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness. Dame Esther famously made a documentary for ITV about Sir Nicholas Winton entitled Winton's Children. For further details and booking, please contact Susan Harrod at the AJR on 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] We look forward to seeing you
3 journal MAY 2016 AJR Annual Report 2015
Highlights Jewish affairs generally. volunteers’ report below. It gave us great pleasure to organise a David was the guest speaker at our We also welcomed John Grant to our number of events last year that honoured the Kristallnacht commemoration in Manchester accounts department to administer the lives of notable émigrés and commemorated in November 2014. Last year we welcomed Austrian emergency fund. the anniversaries of events that have helped Ivan Lewis MP. Guests also heard from AJR define our organisation. member Gisela Feldman, who spoke of her memories of the night of 9 November 1938. Membership Some 300 guests attended the Holocaust We were delighted to enrol 105 members At the Kristallnacht commemorative Generations Conference in January and took last year, bringing our total membership event at Belsize Square Synagogue, guest part in an array of workshops themed to at 31 December 2015 to 2,163. This figure speaker Sir Peter Bazalgette reported span the history and lives of the refugees, includes 516 second generation members, on recent activities of the UK Holocaust including sessions on the secret listeners at of whom 42 joined last year. Memorial Foundation, to which the AJR Bletchley, Antisemitism in Post-Holocaust At the start of this year, our database continues to give strong support. Our Europe and genealogy. Participants also showed 637 members aged 90 or over and thanks also went to AJR member Professor heard from keynote speakers Baroness Julia a further 31 who have reached their century. Leslie Brent for sharing his reflections on Neuberger and Lord Dubs. On a sad note, in October we mourned his Kindertransport journey and to Rabbi As part of the conference, we were also the passing of our oldest member, Edith Jonathan Wittenberg for leading the service grateful to colleagues from the Institute of Kaufmann, at the age of 111. Education’s Centre for Holocaust Education and commenting on the current refugee for presenting their findings of research crisis. on the impact of Holocaust education on I am grateful too to my fellow Trustee Financial assistance school pupils. Sir Erich Reich for raising with the Prime The AJR continued to act as the lead agency In November we were delighted to Minister and the Government the issue of of the Umbrella Group of five agencies jointly convene a special event at the British the humanitarian tragedy of the refugees managing the welfare programmes of Academy to mark the fiftieth anniversary of fleeing Syria, in particular the children. In a the Claims Conference, which is further the Thank-You Britain Fund, endowed with series of letters he implored them to provide supplemented by Six Point Foundation. donations from AJR members. As well as sanctuary for the most vulnerable and noted Altogether, we managed £3m of grants, hearing presentations on four distinguished that given the same opportunity as the of which some £738,000 was paid to AJR refugee academics – Sir Otto Kahn Freund, Jewish refugees from the 1930s, some of the members to provide care in their homes and Sir Ernst Gombrich, Sir Ludwig Guttmann refugees we help today could make equally support other urgent needs. Both funding and Sir Ernst Chain – the AJR’s Dr Anthony invaluable contributions to British society. organisations continue to generously Grenville outlined the history of the Fund I must also express my gratitude to the provide support for our social work and and commemorated the lives of those who AJR’s close friend Glenys Groves and her volunteer activities, for which we are most perished unknown in the Holocaust. We colleagues for their stirring performance grateful. were honoured that Lord Stern, President of ‘Melodic Memories’ at the AJR’s annual Further, it gave us great pleasure to of the British Academy, whose parents concert. As ever it was a memorable and award above-inflation increases totalling were also refugees from Germany, gave an heart-warming occasion. £619,000 to members with the greatest address at the reception. As well as organising the concert, our need through the AJR’s Self-Aid programme. Continuing the theme of honouring thanks went to Carol Rossen and other AJR We aim to continue to make their lives more prominent émigrés, we were thrilled to colleagues for leading the excellent holiday comfortable in the years ahead. unveil an AJR plaque in honour of Rabbi Dr to Israel last November. I gather it was a Leo Baeck at the address in Hendon where great success. he had lived briefly in the 1950s. We were Social and welfare services especially delighted to welcome Rabbi The Social Services Department continued Baeck’s great-grandson Jim Dreyfus and Personnel and administration to identify new and existing members his wife Ellen, who were visiting London In September we said a fond farewell requiring assistance from programmes from the US, to the unveiling, which was to Andrea Goodmaker after 22 years supported by the Claims Conference, also attended by a number of rabbis who of dedicated service to the AJR. Andrea principally the Emergency and Austrian knew Rabbi Baeck and/or were inspired by performed a number of roles for the AJR funds and Homecare, but also through the his work. during her time, most notably as the AJR’s Self-Aid. Also inaugurated last year was the latest secretary to the Kindertransport Committee. As first generation members age there Kindertransport monument created by the Eva Stellman was recruited to our is a greater need to provide Homecare to acclaimed sculptor Frank Meisler. ‘The Last outreach department to replace Hazel Beiny, enable them to remain in their own homes Farewell’ in Hamburg was established with who also left us in September. and lead independent lives. Continued the support of the AJR and complements the We welcomed Michael Flannery as cover support was also provided for immediate other Meisler statues in Europe. for Karen Barnes, who went on maternity relatives and second generation members With great sadness we learned of the leave in August and who later resigned in general. passing of Sir Nicholas Winton, whose force from her position as one of the London- Although assessments and applications of will saved the lives of hundreds of children based social workers. Also in the Social now require a much greater level of detail, from the Holocaust. We were honoured to Work Department we welcomed Florina as well as the involvement of medical and welcome his daughter Barbara at our KT Harapcea, who joined us in April to replace care professionals and local authorities, Lunch in September when she spoke about Helena Reid. we continued to make life-changing her father’s life. As part of our plan to expand our social interventions and to improve members’ We were also saddened to hear of the services, we recruited Dave Moon and welfare. deaths of two distinguished historians Dean Lloyd-Graham to develop our work As well as our AJR colleagues, we worked with whom the AJR and many of our in, respectively, the North East and the with community organisations to meet members enjoyed a close friendship. Sir Essex area. members’ needs and provided support Martin Gilbert’s prodigious work, including We were also very pleased to develop to members on holidays to Eastbourne, his pioneering research chronicling the our volunteer services and to take on Hila Scotland and Israel. testimonies of Holocaust survivors, leaves Kaye to work on the My Story project and an unbridgeable gap. Naomi Kaye (no relation) as the dementia Volunteers Professor David Cesarani too enjoyed co-ordinator for the North. Also joining us The projects undertaken by the Volunteer’s a global reputation as a historian of the were Alex Pinnick to replace Lesley Woolfe Department continued to flourish and we Second World War and the Holocaust, in and Claude Vecht-Wolf, who succeeded were delighted to launch a new initiative particular war crimes, but also regarding Jonathan Rose. Their work is outlined in the with the Fed in Manchester. Through
4 MAY 2016 journal My Story, we aim to tell the life stories company. As well as visits to the Royal Yacht delicious range of meals to members in of members through the production of Britannia, a whisky distillery and Kelvingrove north-west London. booklets to be kept as treasured memories Museum, members enjoyed a guided tour of and tools for reminiscences. Pollok House, a boat trip on Loch Lomond, AJR Journal In the North of England Fran Horwich and a visit to the Burrell Collection. As before, the Journal’s Consultant Editor continued to co-ordinate the befriending Other outings included group trips to Anthony Grenville regularly contributed project and we were pleased to recruit see The Seagull at Regent’s Park Open Air articles germane to the history of the Naomi Kaye to work with members in Theatre, to the Gypsy Theatre and to see refugees, Gloria Tessler wrote a column Northern areas suffering with memory loss Taken at Midnight, followed by tea with on art exhibitions, by Jewish and non- and to match specially trained volunteers Penelope Wilton, as well as to the Emirates Jewish artists alike, and Jerusalem resident with our members. As well as supporting her Air Line and the Canal Museum. As ever, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson contributed a volunteers, Naomi will regularly visit some our Chanukah parties proved very popular. ‘Letter from Israel’, often focusing on of our most challenging clients. Forty members enjoyed a wonderful the day-to-day reality behind the Middle In the London area, Alex Pinnick joined week in Eastbourne with entertainment, East headlines. These regular contributors us to support members with memory loss trips to the theatre, and outings to local were joined on a quarterly basis by Rabbi at home and in residential care. places of interest. Dr Walter Rothschild, born in the UK In the past year we started a befriending Our Northern meetings ran smoothly but resident in Berlin, who provided a service for Birmingham-based members and steadily with some wonderful group contemporary perspective on Jewish life in using volunteers from Action Reconciliation discussions and much eating. Groups Germany. Services for Peace (ARSP), which also enjoyed trips to the Holocaust Centre, Marks In addition, articles by members arranged for Bodil Ulm, from Berlin, to be and Spencer’s archives and afternoon teas at recounting family histories, reports on our volunteer intern. parks in Sheffield and Hull, and a meal out members’ group meetings and outings, We continue to receive regular requests for York and Harrogate members. We also book, theatre and concert reviews, search from members who would like to improve organised film showings for Leeds members notices, obituaries, and the often provocative or learn basic computer skills. Claude Vecht- at Donisthorpe Hall. Letters to the Editor pages remained regular Wolf, who took over from Jonathan Rose, At the Northern Regional Get-together, features of the Journal. has been able to find suitable volunteers in Leeds, guest speaker James Smith, co- for these requests. During the autumn term founder of the Holocaust Centre, gave Kindertransport Claude and Bodil took part in a series of a brilliant account of the life, work and The Committee continued to organise the Jewish Lads- and Girls Brigade-run school achievements of Raphael Lemkin under the monthly KT Lunches. As well as Barbara volunteer fairs resulting in a number of new banner ‘Cultural Genocide: Did the World Winton, notable speakers included young volunteers joining the Computerhelp Learn from the Destruction of Germany’s composer and conductor Carl Davis, who programme. Jews?’ performed Last Train to Tomorrow for us at Ros Collin continues to attract volunteers Members in Scotland also enjoyed the Roundhouse, Herman Roth on Hitler’s to the telephone befriender project, through an array of outings and entertainment, will, and a talk by Philip Goodmaker on the which we keep in regular contact with including a special HMD reception at the Jewish community under Castro. some of our most isolated members aged Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, the Judah 90 and over; feedback shows they greatly Passow Exhibition, afternoon tea at the Child Survivors’ Association (CSA) appreciate the opportunity for a friendly House for an Art Lover, and a piano concert Alongside social events in the homes of CSA chat. at the Royal Overseas League. members, the CSA, a special interest group of We were delighted to welcome Agnes the AJR, continued to send out a bimonthly Hirschi, stepdaughter of Carl Lutz, as newsletter which kept members abreast of Sobell keynote speaker at the regional gathering events and publications of interest. Ros also keeps a watchful eye on members in Edinburgh. Agnes spoke movingly about The experiences of children living under who attended the AJR Centre at Cleve Road the Schutzpässe (letters of safe conduct) her Nazi occupation are now recognised as an and then at Belsize Square Synagogue. stepfather issued, saving the lives of some integral part of Holocaust education and Over two years have now passed since our 60,000 people. many CSA members were actively involved Centre members joined the Jewish Care Other speakers during the year included in Holocaust education, with two awarded family at the Sobell Centre on Tuesdays and Edward Green, the Queen’s former jeweller, MBEs for their services to this work. Thursdays. They continue to socialise, play Doreen Cohen of Simcha Catering, and Fiona The CSA’s book, WE REMEMBER, an cards, and join in the exercise classes and Frank, who spoke on the life of her aunt, the anthology of the experiences of 30 of our other numerous activities offered there, artist Hannah Frank. members during the Holocaust, is now in including the wonderful art and pottery its fourth reprint; together with its earlier room. The hairdressing salon and manicurist version, Zachor, it has sold over 7,000 are added bonuses. AJR at the Sobell Centre copies, with high demand in secondary In January, Jewish Care’s Sobell Centre schools. welcomed our AJR Centre members into The AJR was delighted to receive their family. Since that time, on Tuesdays Community confirmation in November from the Financial and Thursdays, the same days the Centre The AJR retained a key role in the Secretary to the Treasury, the Rt Hon David was open at Belsize Square Synagogue, organisation of the national Yom Gauke MP, that the one-time payments our members have been socialising, playing HaShoah commemoration, with last made from the Child Survivor Fund will be Rummikub, Kalooki and Bridge, eating, year’s event at Allianz Park attracting exempt from income tax, capital gains tax exercising, debating, making pottery, over 5,000 people. and inheritance tax. The AJR is also a member of the Holocaust drawing and painting – although presumably Memorial Day (HMD) Trust’s collaborative not all at the same time! Grants and Holocaust group, which looks at ways to further the At Sobell members can also book memorialisation reach and impact of HMD, and participated hairdressing and manicuring appointments and enjoy the afternoon entertainment We were delighted to commit additional in committees advising the work of the UK resources to expand our Refugee Voices Holocaust Memorial Foundation. We were with their longstanding (never old!) AJR friends as well as the rest of the Sobell testimony collection and to commission proud also to partner JW3 at an event Dr Bea Lewkowicz to record a further 50 commemorating unsung heroines. membership. Although the philosophy at Sobell interviews to bring our archive up to 200 differs from that of the AJR Centre, our witness statements. members managed the transition well To complement the pledges we have Regional groups and holidays and have embraced the change. For those made to other regional initiatives, it gave The outstanding highlight of last year who require the service, we also retain a us great pleasure to commit funds to the was our trip to Scotland in May, when 35 dedicated carer offering practical support. establishment of the Holocaust Heritage and members enjoyed five days of excursions, We are delighted that our Meals-on- Learning Centre for the North, to be based entertainment, great food and even better Wheels service continues to deliver a continued overleaf
5 journal MAY 2016 AJR ANNUAL REPORT 2015 continued from previous page Finance Report 2015 at the University of Huddersfield, and to Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and co- (unaudited) the development of the Scottish Jewish organised an event at the Wiener Library Archives, to be housed at the refurbished which explored Hungary’s approach to Holocaust memorialisation. Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) Garnet Hill Synagogue in Glasgow. Summary Income and Expenditure Accounts As in previous years, we helped Year ended 31st December 2015 defray some of the costs of Holocaust Memorial Day programmes organised Thanks Income: 2015 2014 by the Finchley Reform and Northwood As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of £ £ £ £ Synagogues and contributed to the our great organisation this year, my fellow Claims Conference, HMD annual events at the Universities Trustees and I are immensely proud of all Six Point & Other Grants 1,057,412 1,209,285 of Sussex and Glasgow. the holistic and life-changing services Subscriptions/Donations 76,328 98,885 We were also delighted to renew the it is our great pleasure to deliver, and I Investment income 673,961 502,401 support we have provided in recent years am sure you will join me in expressing Rent from Investment Property 0 131,162 to Belsize Square Synagogue for their my sincerest thanks to all our gifted, Other Income 5,114 136,291 welfare and outreach officer. committed and friendly staff, capably led 1,812,815 1,956,861 Our Chief Executive Michael Newman by Chief Executive Michael Newman, who Legacies 708,703 1,610,278 and Finance Director David Kaye truly go the extra mile. Total Income 2,521,518 3,567,140 represented the UK Government at the We are nothing without you, our Less outgoings: Living with Dignity conference organised members, so please do tell us if you know Day Centre 0 167,109 Self Aid, Homecare and by the European Shoah Legacy Institute of anyone who can benefit from our Emergency Grants 1,357,527 1,206,265 in Prague in May. Michael addressed services. Thank you also to all of you who Social Services and delegates on the AJR’s leading role in have sent in letters and cards of gratitude Other member services 997,640 866,784 supporting Holocaust refugees and throughout the year – we truly appreciate survivors in the UK as part of the knowing that our efforts are recognised. AJR Journal 116,407 148,036 conference’s aims to analyse the current We all greatly look forward to your Other organisations 41,830 687,913 status of social welfare benefits for continued involvement and active Holocaust victims and assess ways of participation in the AJR and to seeing Administration/Depreciation 985,837 992,703 improving services to them. you at our events this year. 3,499,241 3,901,701 Michael also attended plenaries Andrew Kaufman Donated by AJR Charitable Trust organised by the Hungarian Government, Chairman, Gain in disposal of investment property 0 4,412,632 which last year chaired the International The Association of Jewish Refugees Net incoming/outgoing resources for the year -977,723 4,078,071 Surplus/-Deficiency on realised and unrealised investments -794,171 215,273 Treasurer’s Report 2015 Net movement in funds -1,771,894 4,293,344 Notional Comparative The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) with AJR Charitable Trust ur financial performance this of over £600,000 in funds donated Summary Balance Sheet and AJR year reflects the commitments to other organisations, which mainly Year ended 31st December 2015 we have made to enhance the relates to educational activities O 2015 2014 level of service we provide to our and which were exceptional in the £ £ £ £ members. This is underpinned by previous year. Our willingness to the strength of our balance sheet, support Holocaust education remains Fixed Assets and Investments 21,903,844 16,841,058 which has enabled us to withstand undiminished. The charity has worked turbulent financial headwinds. Last with the UK Holocaust Memorial Current assets 6,075,228 12,808,813 year saw a sharp reversal in financial Foundation, which has developed Current liabilities -1,333,368 1,232,273 markets and our own investment plans to establish a major memorial portfolio value suffered accordingly. and learning centre in London. Net Current Assets 4,741,860 11,576,540 Our reserves, recently reinforced Additionally, significant funds are Net Assets 26,645,704 28,417,598 through major legacies and property contingently committed to other disposals, have enabled us to pursue educational institutions and will be Reserves brought forward 28,417,598 24,124,254 our service objectives without recorded when the conditions emerge Net movement in funds for year -1,771,894 4,293,344 interruption. that allow these future grants to be Increased levels of expenditure released. Reserves Carried Forward 26,645,704 28,417,598 on social services and welfare grants We are grateful to our former to our members are to be seen as a members whose legacies assisted the reflection of our successful service organisation by some £700,000 in delivery. The charity significantly 2015. While this is less than we have strengthened our social service received in recent years, we are aware activity for ourselves and other members of the team and expanded the innovative of further bequests currently going Umbrella Group of agencies we lead. Over 2015 programme that we have put in place through the process of administration some £3m of grants were administered in relation to support our members suffering that will have a positive impact in to these various programmes – of which £738,000 from dementia. We allocated further 2016. We respectfully encourage our directly assisted our members. We are currently resources to expanding the delivery members to remember that legacies working with them to deliver further service of volunteer visitors to provide do provide a critical income source to enhancements for the years ahead. additional pastoral care to members enable services to be continued and Overall with assets of £26m our organisation who have this need. The cost of enhanced in the way that we have remains on a sound financial footing and well placed providing these front-line services been able to achieve in recent years. to support our first generation members as long as increased accordingly. We were We again offer our heartfelt thanks that is needed. again in a position to pay inflation- to the Claims Conference, which As always, I offer my thanks to the finance team beating self-aid increases to our as administrators of German and for their continued dedication in relation not only most vulnerable members. Austrian Government programmes to our own administration but also in carrying out Administration costs continued for refugees and Holocaust survivors, the sometimes onerous administrative requirements to be monitored carefully and fell together with Six Point Foundation, of the programmes we manage. slightly. provide the major source of funding David Rothenberg The accounts show a decrease of the welfare and social service Treasurer, The Association of Jewish Refugees
6 MAY 2016 journal
been a safe haven for those fleeing persecution. This perception has been perpetuated by the emphasis on the rescue mission known as the Kindertransports as well as the tendency to focus on the success stories of refugees. Whatever the limitations of the Kindertransports, the fate of these children contrasts directly with the fate of just over 11,000 Jewish The Editor reserves the right children of mainly Polish parents trapped to shorten correspondence in France. In July 1942, the War Cabinet submitted for publication discussed the Vichy Government’s offer of safe passage for the children to any country willing to take them, but refused to do so. The difference in the response UK HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL to these two groups of children by the organisation which originated as the Sir – I read Anthony Grenville’s cover assign monumental form to memory, we Central British Fund for German Jewry piece for the April Journal with interest, have to some degree divested ourselves remains in the shadows of Holocaust not least because several of the people of the obligation to remember’ (The history. In response to pressure by the he listed – Popper, Perutz, Gombrich – Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials Joint Distribution Committee, the USA had links to the SPSL (Society for the and Meaning (1993)). did send a rescue mission, but by the Protection of Science and Learning), It would appear that the Holocaust time they arrived Vichy had fallen and the Cara’s predecessor. I share his hope commission, having completed their children were dispatched to the camps that the UK’s experience of the 1933-39 recommendations, feel satisfied that for extermination. period will be properly reflected in any there will now be 186 (!) memorials in The history of the Holocaust is not as memorial/learning centre and would be the vicinity of Westminster. Those who black-and-white as sometimes portrayed. happy to be associated with the AJR’s gained refuge in the UK and those who We can only hope that those responsible involvement with the UK Holocaust perished deserve better. for planning this memorial are willing to Memorial Foundation. Arthur Oppenheimer, Hove, Sussex include the evidence that genocides are Stephen Wordsworth CMG LVO, as much down to those who close their Executive Director, Cara (Council for Sir – I was surprised at the one-sided eyes and their doors as those who fan the At-Risk Academics) information Anthony Grenville’s editorial fires of hatred and prejudice. contained in relation to the British Joan Salter, London N10 Sir – I would like to thank Dr Grenville Government’s role before, during and for his timely and insightful article into after the Holocaust. YOM HASHOAH ‘RAZZMATAZZ’ the background and possible future of Without detracting from some of Sir – Over the last couple of months I have the UK Holocaust Memorial. the good work done by determined noticed your advert in the Journal and However, I believe that in his individuals in the UK to assist Jews on the internet for Yom HaShoah at the argument, placing Holocaust memories in Europe who put pressure on the Barnet Copthall Stadium. As a Holocaust clearly in the UK context, Dr Grenville Government to act, many survivors and survivor, this event makes me cringe. has allowed his politeness to obscure refugees had an extremely difficult time Worse still that we survivors are ‘paraded’ the folly of this venture. Nobody can after arriving in the UK. Some were like some prehistoric species among the doubt the need to remember the Shoah treated almost as slaves in domestic 5,000 spectators assembled there for this – unfortunately this act of remembering service and even highly qualified doctors, razzmatazz. fails to prevent other genocides. dentists and other professionals were For me, Yom HaShoah is a very personal Did the committee reflect on the prevented from practising here directly or thing when our people remember our fact that there are already 38 statues indirectly due to fears of an oversupply of people and what they went through. Not in Westminster? It would appear that practitioners competing for jobs. this sort of public spectacular. Last year it this number quickly increases to 185 As for as the children, of whom I am might have been permissible as it was after statues if the area is slightly enlarged one, who came over with the ‘Boys’ all the 70th anniversary. But not again! to include Whitehall (19), Trafalgar (there were over 70 girls, it must be I just wonder how many of our members Square and Charing Cross (28), Millbank stated), the British Government was generally, and other survivors particularly, (10), St James Park (46), and Victoria persuaded by the Jewish community agree with my thoughts. Embankment (44). to take us in, but only on a temporary Steven Frank, Chorleywood, Herts Moreover, can any member of the basis. We were not allowed to take Holocaust committee indicate, without British citizenship. The planes that came ‘FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE a map, the location of the memorials to pick us up from Prague to the UK COMMUNISTS’ to Julius Salter Elias, 1st Viscount were returning empty having dropped Sir – I am working my way through Southwood, and Edward Smith-Stanley, off Czech airmen who had been fighting Daniel Goldhagen’s book Hitler’s Willing 14th Earl of Derby, or even that of Jan with the RAF. No cost was incurred. Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Smuts, or the memorial to the 2002 Bali When we arrived in Windermere the UK Holocaust – difficult but worthwhile and bombings? Jewish community organised hostels and eye-opening in many respects despite All the above, I am sure, were erected children’s homes without government the author’s clear agenda. I had read with good intent but, I suspect, have funding – their upkeep and running costs his description of Niemöller’s behaviour been quickly forgotten. Placing the UK were paid entirely by the community. post-WW1 and leading into WW2 and was Shoah Memorial within this muddle Joanna Millan, Swiss Cottage, London pleased to read Jurgen Schwiening’s article of monuments will clearly dilute any ‘First they came for the Communists’ in impact. Sir – Anthony Grenville’s article on the your April issue – I think it is so important May I once again quote James Young, Holocaust Memorial is a timely, if gentle, that myths which have been erroneously who so eloquently states ‘Once we reminder that Britain has not always continued overleaf
7 journal MAY 2016
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AJR VOLUNTEER SERVICE FOR PC old Jewish cemeteries in London and continued from page 7 USERS elsewhere in the UK. I know that in Austria Sir – For the past year I have greatly some of the very old Jewish cemeteries in created are debunked. Good for the AJR benefited from the above service, which Burgenland have been cleaned up but I am in publishing it. I can highly recommend to all members sure it is all a question of lack of resources for Michael Hilsenrath, Deputy President, who use a personal computer but do not small-size local Jewish communities which Anglo-Jewish Association claim to be 100 per cent PC-literate. are left with the huge responsibility of the I get regular visits from a volunteer, legacy of their past glories of Jewish graves. See also review by Anthony Grenville of the who not only solves the more complicated Peter Simpson, Jerusalem Goldhagen book in AJR Information, June issues that arise but also translates into 1996, p. 4 (Ed.). plain English the constantly changing Sir – It is interesting how different icons. perspectives can be. I returned several DEFINITION OF EXILE I can receive and send e-mails, I can weeks ago from Berlin and visited Sir – Can I assure Fritz Lustig that he has send letters on my WP, and I can skype – Weissensee. Mr Spencer, in his letter, Collins Dictionary on his side, at least but after that my PC skills become rather reported that the state of the cemetery partially. Its first definition of ‘exile’ reads patchy. was deplorable. I found it to be exactly ‘a prolonged, usually enforced absence My very pleasant volunteer shows great the opposite. The staff at the desk from one’s home or country; banishment’. patience and has the ability to motivate were helpful and immediately found my It goes on to ‘banishment by official me to extend my PC skills. My thanks to grandmother’s grave, providing me with decree’. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 do her and the AJR. a map marking its site. not explicitly banish but patently have that Peter Wayne (aged 95), London W14 The Holocaust memorial was in good purpose. Thus the dictionary is silent on the condition. Those graves which were in a If you would like to find out more about element of return but explicit on the use state of disrepair were being refurbished the Computer Help Programme, please of force or authority to cause the absence. by the government and, in general, As with Fritz, Britain has become contact Claude on 020 8385 3096 or at practically all graves were in a good my home and I would consider myself [email protected] (Ed.). condition. Many gardeners were cleaning patriotic – whilst rejecting the right-wing up the cemetery, brushing up the leaves overtones of that term. But has the time ‘DEPLORABLE STATE’ OF WEISSENSEE and keeping the paths tidy. not come to recognise that the offenders CEMETERY Richard Wolfe, London NW1 have passed on, as have many of their Sir – Gordon Spencer (March) bemoans children, and that now both Germany the deplorable overgrown state of the 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF and Austria deserve praise for their Weissensee Cemetery in Berlin but doesn’t FRAENKELUFER SYNAGOGUE internationalism and their generosity say whether or not he has relatives buried Sir – The Fraenkelufer Synagogue in towards strangers, including Soviet Jews there. Kreuzberg, Berlin, was founded as a 2,000- and, currently, Syrians etc? To continue I recently visited Vienna, where both seat modern-orthodox synagogue in 1916. to damn them comprehensively surely my grandfather (died1922) and great- Like many other Jewish buildings, it was makes us guilty of the racism for which we grandfather (died 1902) are buried in the vandalised in the pogroms of 1938 and condemn their parents. Indeed, because Jewish section of the Zentralfriedhof. The the main building was destroyed by Allied of our past should we not give a lead cemetery paths are indeed well maintained bombing. Soon after the Holocaust, it was in extending the hand of friendship and but inside every area block mother nature partially rebuilt and re-consecrated and is link that with our love of country and its has overtaken matters so that whilst I today a centre of Jewish life in south-east status, most simply by voting on 23 June could just about make out my ancestor’s Berlin. for staying in the EU? grave, the ones next to it were as an As part of our plans to celebrate 100 Francis Deutsch, Saffron Walden example totally overgrown with ivy. years of Fraenkelufer's existence, and I also discovered by chance that my together with the Jewish Museum of NOT ONLY NICHOLAS WINTON great-grandfather had sisters who died as Berlin, we are putting together a small Sir – I read with interest Werner Conn’s letter small children buried in the closed (since historical exhibition. We are therefore entitled ‘Not only Nicholas Winton’. I agree 1875) Währinger cemetery. I went to the searching for objects, documents, with him that more thanks could be given to Jewish community offices in the main photographs, film and sound recordings, others who helped to save many Jews who synagogue to find out how to visit but as well anything else connected to the had to leave Germany in 1938-39. gave up when I was told that the cemetery Fraenkelufer Synagogue. Some of these Recently we managed to trace my was indeed overgrown and the area they will be added to the Museum's collection. father’s passport dated the 30s and, on were buried in was about as far from the Should you have anything that could close inspection, saw the name Insoll as a entrance as one could get – particularly be of interest for this exhibition, please signature for a visa. My father, who was in whereas the records show grave numbers, contact the Museum on +49 3025993382 Dachau, was released from concentration they didn’t have the row number. Had I or at [email protected] camp only if he left the country or went succeeded I am sure I would have been Additionally, the costs of the celebrations to Vienna. With the help of my mother he the first family visitor for over 100 years are borne by a small group of members obtained a visa to come to Britain. to have been able to recite Kaddish at the and volunteers. If you wish to support It was through the help of Insoll, graveside. the jubilee celebrations, please write to and no doubt many who worked in the I thought long and hard about all of [email protected] British embassy day and night at risk this and my own responsibilities for family Josh Weiner, to themselves, that my father’s life was graves, but never for one moment worried, Friends of Fraenkelufer e.V, Berlin saved. My husband managed to trace as Mr Spencer does, about whether the Insoll’s son and we invited him and his poor state of upkeep in areas of burial FOSTER FAMILIES wife to our house for lunch. It was only from before the Second World War ‘gives Sir – As part of my research degree, I am then that I could thank him in my father’s a very bad impression to the non-Jewish keen to hear from anyone who still keeps in name for rescuing him from certain death. world’. Whatever I could do to clear up a contact with members of the foster family I am so grateful to have been given this small area of a family grave would soon who looked after a Kindertransportee just opportunity. be overtaken by nature’s forces. before and during the war. I know there Ruth Schwiening, If Mr Spencer wants to start a clean-up are lots of examples of Kinder (or the next Market Bosworth, Warwickshire campaign he might begin with the closed continued on page 16
8 MAY 2016 journal
Te RA exhibition presents other works, by Titian, Bellini, Campagnola and Cariani. Titian is considered the heir to REVIEWS Giorgione’s talents, later superseding him. Not light reading ART Te intensity of colour, the play of light and VERKLEMPT shade, came frst from Giorgione’s artistic by Peter Sichrovsky NOTES arsenal, possibly infuenced by Leonardo. Los Angeles: DoppelHouse Press, 2016, Te strangely assymetrical composition of 176 pp. hardback, $19.95 GLORIA TESSLER Titian’s Christ and the Adulteress and the he rather unusual title of this book is lush attention to fabric detail of his Jacopo a Yiddish word, which is also used in Pesaro Being Presented by Pope Alexander TGerman, is defined as ‘choked with emotion’, and refers here to at least one of y 1510 he was dead from the Plague V1 to Saint Peter defy the awkward pose of the characters in each of the short stories at the age of 33. Nonetheless, the Pope and both may have lost intensity in the book. despite his tragic short life, Giorgio by over-restoration. Despite the florid The author, Peter BBarbarelli da Castelfranco – otherwise painterly devices of the Italian Renaissance, Sichrovsky, is also an known as Giorgione – had a mysterious some works look strangely fat and lacking unusual as well as a complex character. power over his contemporaries and those in warmth, exemplifed by Bellini’s rather W i t h a J e w i s h who followed. However, as the Royal static Virgin and Child. b a c k g r o u n d a n d Which brings us back to the masterful active in promoting young Giorgione. His Portrait of a Young the importance of Man and His Servant shows the man preserving the memory clutching an orange. Te times were full of the Holocaust, he yet joined the extreme right-wing Austrian of symbolism and the orange resting in the Freedom Party and even temporarily aristocrat’s left hand, while his right hand represented it as an MEP in the European clutches his face, is as vivid as the sigh of Parliament. When, after a short time the lovelorn – the likely metaphor of this of relative moderation, the party again painting. It is an efete, romantic face but the swung to extremism, he left it and for coarser and worried features of the servant the last two years of his term as an MEP sat as an Independent. As well as being describe the narrative. Another painting a journalist he is the author of a wide attributed to Giorgione, Portrait of a Young range of books, with topics ranging from Man, which some have taken to be his self- the pharmaceutical trade, economics, portrait, shows how this artist moved the espionage and travel to the crimes of Nazi art of portraiture into another dimension, Germany. One of his most relevant books in the subtlety of skin colour and texture, in this context covers the lives of young Jews in present-day Germany and Austria depth of expression, and the way in which (Strangers in Their Own Land: Young the subject engages with the viewer, unlike Giorgione Portrait of a Young Man Jews in Germany and Austria Today) c. 1497-99 similar contemporary portraits where the and he has also written about some of subject stares into the middle distance. the German post-war generation (Born Academy’s exhibition In the Age of But the pièce de résistance shows the Guilty: Children of Nazi Families). Giorgione Verklempt consists of 11 separate (until 5 June 2016) indicates, depth with which Giorgione handles old short stories, which the author describes few of his works survive and many belie age. La Vecchia (Te Old Woman) is full of as fiction but based on fact and are often attribution. metaphor and a contrast to the Venetian related to experiences of people he has So who was this enigmatic Giorgione? ideal of feminine beauty. Here a woman interviewed. It was originally published in He hailed from Venice, which produced tentatively leans over a parapet; the hand 1998, in German, with the subtitle Jewish some of the fnest artists of the Italian pointing to her breast contains a curling Love Stories. None of the action takes place Renaissance and was a magnet for art- letter with the words col tempo (with time); during the Holocaust but each story is hoppers everywhere. At a time when the and her wispy hair peeps out of a cap. Te concerned with the Holocaust’s direct or all-powerful Catholic Church rejected woman is in plain peasant dress but her face indirect effect on survivors or subsequent landscape painting as the work of the shows her riches – all the wisdom and fears generations. The locations of the stories devil – or at least representing man’s animal gathered into a long life. range from Austria to Tel Aviv and Berlin nature – Giorgione painted what is believed as well as undefined countries and vary from dark humour to drama and episodes to be the frst landscape in Western art of near pornography. history. He had to introduce human fgures One of the most interesting tales is that into the almost ethereal Il Tramonto (Te Annely Juda Fine Art of a survivor who is celebrating his 70th Sunset), which existed unnamed for over 23 Dering Street birthday and is desperately hoping that 400 years, and yet the playful and miniscule as a present, his daughter will announce (off New Bond Street) her engagement so he can be assured that two men and a man riding a white horse to Tel: 020 7629 7578 despite all that has happened the family the right are barely noticeable; instead, we line will continue. He even employs a lady look at the menacing bush in the left-hand Fax: 020 7491 2139 schadchan to find a suitable match for corner, the tender sapling just above the CONTEMPORARY her. His hopes are dashed when nothing happens during his birthday party. fgures, and the mountains, the sea and a PAINTING AND SCULPTURE few sketchy houses in the middle distance. continued on page 10
9 journal MAY 2016 REVIEWS cont. from p.9 Afterwards he goes to see his daughter awarded the Iron Cross – but he was sent British subject and was demobilised a and the schadchan and, after an initial to Dachau concentration camp. After six month later. shock, there is a happy ending but in an weeks he was released, having promised He joined the local Labour Party. In entirely unexpected and bizarre way! he would emigrate with his family. But 1950 a vacancy for a full-time party A very different story is that of a taxi arranging the family’s emigration proved secretary-agent occurred and Joe’s driver who tells his passenger (possibly extremely difficult: too many Jewish application was successful. His new job the author himself) that during the families were in the same position, with also involved acting as secretary to the war he was an ardent Nazi but became no country opening its doors to them. Trades Council. In 1954 there was a by- disillusioned and allowed himself to be Before long the Sterns heard that the election in Harwich and Joe was told to captured by the Russians. While a POW British government had given permission help there. The Labour candidate, an he meets a Jewish woman for the first for children to come to England on a so- Oxford graduate named Shirley Catlin time. She has lost all her family and called Kindertransport. (later known as Shirley Williams), was not expresses her hatred to the first German In July 1939 Günter said goodbye to his elected. Some 62 years later she wrote the she has seen other than as a conqueror. parents at Cologne station. Having arrived foreword of this book. As a result of her violence towards him he in London, he was met by his cousin, When after 1955 British people began loses an eye. Nonetheless, as they discover who took him to his foster family in taking holidays on the Continent, it was each other’s history, a strong but platonic Birmingham, the Frees. The couple realised suggested that, with his knowledge of relationship develops between them. Günter was bright enough to benefit German, Joe might lead a group there. Several years after the war the taxi driver from higher education and sent him to The trip was a great success. Joe started even travels to Kiev to try to find her. the local grammar school. When the up a travel agent’s business: ‘package It is difficult to summarise this book: school was evacuated to Gloucestershire holidays’ were fast developing and he although it consists of short stories, it he went there too and lived with the took full advantage of this ‘modern’ way is not light reading. The stories have a Allsops. The head of that family was a of taking holidays. He had an excellent depth which is not always apparent at first Labour Party member and trade unionist business sense and soon needed to rent reading and it is likely that this volume, like whose influence caused the young man a second shop, and later a third one, some of Peter Sichrovsky’s previous ones, to become very interested in politics. He in Great Yarmouth to cope with the will be widely acclaimed. It is not certain, passed the School Certificate exam with increasing number of customers. however, that all readers will necessarily flying colours only two years after he had In October 1958 a Norwich Council enjoy it. arrived in England, not knowing a word member resigned and Joe was put George Vulkan of English. He wanted to forward as a candidate. He stay on in the sixth form and was elected and became prepare himself for reading c h a i r m a n o f s e v e r a l Well written story of a chemistry at university. committees. Kindertransportee Günter had kept in touch A L i o n s C l u b w a s ESCAPING HITLER: A JEWISH BOY'S with his parents in Germany established in Norwich, QUEST FOR FREEDOM AND HIS by forwarding letters receiving its charter in through the Red Cross but FUTURE 1960. These clubs donate they were restricted to one funds to deserving causes by Phyllida Scrivens communication every three but members also do local Pen and Sword Books Ltd, 2016, 201pp. months. In February 1942 community work. Joe joined hardcover, ISBN 978-1-47384-346-4, he received an unusually in 1962 and became a very £25.00 brief letter from his parents active Lion, being elected his is yet another, though very saying they were going to President of Norwich Lions interesting, story of a young refugee Poland to ‘resettle’ there Club in 1966. In 1971 he was Tfrom Germany who came to this but didn’t know their new elected District Governor, country on a Kindertransport. The author address yet. It was the last letter he having to look after 42 clubs, visiting them took some four years to gather the received from them. all during his tenure of one year. In 1975 material for this book. But it is obvious In May 1944 Günter postponed the he was made Sheriff of Norwich. that she also used her imagination: direct place Birmingham University had offered The author relates developments in speech is frequently quoted and nobody him and enlisted in the army. Allocated Joe’s company (now Stirling Travel Ltd), can remember the exact words used in to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment its sale and change of name, his family conversations which took place 70 or 80 as an infantry private, he was told to (by now also involved in the running of years ago! The book is full of detailed change his name in case of capture by the business), his friends, and finally his descriptions, which probably were not the Germans. He chose to call himself retirement. Jane died in 2002 and, in the given by the people she spoke to. ‘Stirling’ and his friends replaced the same year, in his late seventies, Joe learned Günter Stern was born in 1924 in German-sounding Günter with Joe. where and when his parents had died: in Nickenich near Koblenz. His father Alfred Having injured a foot, he was transferred 1942 in Sobibor. In 2011 Stolpersteine was a cattle dealer; his mother Ida strictly to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, were placed outside their last flat and observed the Jewish religion but Alfred where he trained as an Ammunition Joe was invited to witness the ceremony. was less inclined to do so and Günter Examiner. After the war, having become Joe celebrated his 90th birthday in followed in his footsteps. He went to the friendly with Jean, an ATS woman in his 2014 in great style, with the Mayor and village school, where he was the only unit, Joe proposed marriage and she Sheriff of Norwich attending. His non- Jewish child. When the Nazis came to accepted. As he had to serve another involvement in Jewish affairs is evident power Günter was only eight and in the two years before his demobilisation and from his joining the AJR only in 2012 rural parts of the Rhineland anti-Semitism the Army Education Corps was looking – he had always thought one had to be was slow to take hold. Kristallnacht made for additional personnel, he applied for religious to become a member. him realise that his family belonged to a transfer and was accepted, involving The book contains many photographs, a persecuted minority. His father was a promotion to Sergeant followed by a comprehensive index, and a bibliography. convinced that his military service in the promotion to Warrant Officer. It is very well written and well worth First World War would ensure his safety Joe and Jean married in May 1946. In reading. – he had been wounded four times and September 1947 he became a naturalised Fritz Lustig
10 MAY 2016 journal
all UK survivors and refugees, regardless SPF Connect: Is it for you? of their financial situation, who would like o you want to send and receive to get online. emails? Browse the Internet? Make If you, or someone you know, would Dvideo calls to family and friends like to become an SPF Connect Member, anywhere in the world? Access culture and please speak to your contact in the social events without having to leave your home? services, volunteer or outreach teams at Six Point Foundation’s SPF Connect the AJR or call Six Point Foundation on scheme enables Holocaust survivors and 020 3372 8881. refugees to access the benefits of modern Vera Kovacs, who has never previously Sandra Jacobs technology. It is designed for those who used a computer or keyboard, listens to SPF at Natpoint are not online and find using computers Chopin from her ‘Composed Music’ player tricky. Those who take part sign up as an ten times this number. One AJR member SPF Connect Member and receive the has reconnected with classmates from ARTS AND EVENTS following package, free of charge: an easy- Germany via email. Another is thrilled MAY DIARY to-use touch-screen desktop computer; to be able to read German newspapers every morning. Another has been able installation and training from the very Wed 4 At Pinner Synagogue: Yom Hashoah friendly team at IT company Natpoint; to bring four generations into his living Evening. Keynote speaker Eva Mendelsson wireless internet connection for those room via video call: his daughter in the The focus of this year’s commemoration will without broadband; helpline support; and UK and his granddaughter and infant be on a Holocaust childhood, the destruction access to a range of entertainment such as great-grandchild in Israel. Another says of a family and the involvement and help music and theatre and live Jewish cultural that even though she has had to call for of OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants), a French-Jewish humanitarian organisation events streamed online. help once or twice, she is delighted with tasked with rescuing children. 8.00-10.00 pm At the time of writing, 40 SPF Connect her machine and joked ‘This old dinosaur systems have been installed in survivors’ just might manage this!’ Wed 4 ‘Yom HaShoah Concert and refugees’ homes throughout the Unlike other grants from Six Point Commemoration: Degenerate Music’ Devised by Peter Braithwaite baritone, Nigel UK and there is capacity to install over Foundation, SPF Connect is available to Foster piano, introduction by Dr Malcolm Miller. At JW3, 7.30 pm
PROPOSED TRIP TO BETH Thur 5 ‘From Hitler to Hi-De-Hi: SHALOM FROM NEWCASTLE Winter 1938’ Mike Levy tells the & SURROUNDING AREAS story of the first Jewish refugee children at a freezing cold EU REFERENDUM Sunday 10 July 2016 holiday camp near Harwich. At We are arranging a trip to Beth JW3, 3 pm. In partnership with IN? OUT? Shalom, The National Holocaust the AJR Centre, in Newark near Nottingham. Shake it all about! The AJR will arrange a return coach Wed 11 Michael Smith: ‘Frank Foley: Spy Monday 6 June 2016 and lunch at Beth Shalom, including and Rescuer of Jews’ At JW3, 2.00 pm at 12.00 pm entrance, at a cost of £13.00 per Thur 19 The House by the Lake: Thomas person. Harding in conversation with Tom Holland at North Western Reform Synagogue, At JW3, 8.00 pm Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, If you are interested To 15 June ‘Dilemmas, Choices, Responses: London NW11 7EN please contact Agnes Isaacs at Britain and the Holocaust’ Exhibition at the Guest speakers [email protected] Wiener Library, tel 020 7636 7247 or on 07908 156 361 Mike Freer MP JW3 tel 020 7433 8988 [email protected] Sir Bernard Zissman A sandwich lunch with tea and coffee will be served after the debate Link to British Academy lecture £7.00 per person payable on the door Anthony Grenville’s lecture at the British Academy on 10 November 2015 was filmed and Booking is essential can now be accessed via a link on the AJR website or by following the link Please contact Susan Harrod www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTJ17sZJveQPwoSJXxprwmaLzijhKjr9f on 020 8385 3070 or at The lecture set out the history of relations between the AJR, the British Academy and [email protected] the Jewish refugee academics in the UK, and concluded with a commemoration of the or email [email protected] Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Call for papers AJR CARD AND GAMES CLUB he Research Centre for German and Please join us at our new Card and Games Club Austrian Exile Studies is holding on Wednesday 4 May at 1.00 pm a conference on ‘Emigration T at North Western Reform Synagogue, from Nazi-Occupied Europe to British Dominions, Colonies and Overseas Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN Territories after 1933’ on 13-15 Card games including Bridge, Backgammon, Scrabble – you decide. September 2017 at Senate House, Games are dependent on numbers being sufficient. University of London. A sandwich lunch with tea, coffee and Danish pastries will be served on arrival. Anyone interested in offering a paper should contact Anthony Grenville at £7.00 per person [email protected] with an abstract (up to Booking is essential – when you book please let us know your choice of game. 300 words) and a brief c.v. Please call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or email [email protected]
11 journal MAY 2016 beginnings in Brick Lane and his debt to the virtuoso cantors on film. Alex’s his hardworking grandfather, a refugee talk demonstrated his amazing wealth from East European pogroms. of knowledge and we had a most Walter Weg entertaining and uplifting afternoon. Thomas Einstein
KT LUNCHES NORFOLK Walking through Germany INSIDE Hilary Hodsman – Her Life as an Phyllida Scrivens, author of the recently Actress the published biography of our member Hilary Hodsman told us that her Joe Stirling, told us about his walking parents, when both were aged 15, AJR through Germany and into Holland as had come over separately from a very young boy in the hope of ending Germany on the Kindertransport and up in England. Eventually he had to had met at the Jewish Refugee Club HARROGATE/YORK Laughter and return home to start on his journey to in Glasgow. They married in 1945 and Fellowship these shores via the Kindertransport. became kosher caterers. Arek began by relating his most recent Phyllida also told us about the people Born in Glasgow in 1953, Hilary visit to Auschwitz with 230+ members he met here who helped him towards had always wanted to be an actress. of the synagogue in Leeds. We then a successful life. Frank Bright Aged 16, she joined the Royal Scottish discussed how we felt about being in or Academy, went to university, then out of Europe with most of us definitely worked for M&S for 30 years. In EDINBURGH Afternoon of Delights feeling ‘European’ as well as English. 2004 she gained an advanced acting Our meeting, generously hosted by Inge got us onto how we might achieve diploma at the City Lit and in 2006 Maria and David Chamberlain – who also peace in our lifetime, and we then obtained an agent. She has worked for mesmerised us with a slides presentation planned outings for spring and summer. Secret Cinema, which combines film of their botanic themed trips to the Far Despite the grim Brussels outrages and screenings in purpose-built sets with East – was made especially enjoyable talk of Auschwitz, there was much notable productions such as The Third by a record number of us attending, laughter and fellowship among us. Man, and has appeared in plays, films including first-timers Francesca and Edith Jayne and TV productions. David Lang Ulrich, and by meeting Jim Sutherland, our new AJR Social Worker. Thank you EALING Hungarian Childhood AJR and our hosts for an afternoon of Andrew Roth spoke about his childhood HGS Memories of the Yiddish delights. Jonathan Kish in the Hungarian village of Mezocsat at Theatre the end of the war. He gave us insight Singer, choirmaster and actress Adela into the coming of the Communist Gottlieb-Lassman gave us a most AJR Card and Games Club era and the aftermath of the 1956 interesting account of her childhood We gathered at Alyth for the Hungarian Uprising, which led to memories and involvement in the inaugural meeting of the AJR Card his family moving to the UK, where, Yiddish Theatre. She interspersed her and Games Club. Following a lovely with great resolve, they re-established delightful presentation with songs and sandwich lunch, including delicious themselves. Lesley Sommer jokes. A most enjoyable couple of hours. Rinkoff Danish pastries, we sat at the Eva Stellman appropriate tables for the games of GLASGOW BOOK CLUB Everyone’s our choice: Bridge, Rummikub and Favourite Book DIDSBURY CF Family Histories Scrabble. Next time we will also have We met at Eva’s house, the topic being Members enjoyed a light sandwich Backgammon. Our thanks to the AJR everyone’s favourite book. We had a lunch whilst discussing their family staff, who made this all possible and lively discussion on a variety of novels histories. It was a pleasure to welcome joined in the games with us. from historical to comical, rounded off newcomer Ellyn to our group and I very David Lang by a delicious afternoon tea. We were much hope she will continue to attend delighted to welcome new member our meetings. Wendy Bott Carol. Our next book: the first novel by RADLETT Justice of the Peace – Not TV presenter Kirsty Wark. MARLOW CF Refugees and Migrants Jewish Princess Anthea Berg Meeting at the home of Alan Kaye, Susan Shaw JP has been a magistrate the main topic of conversation was for 25 years but the rest of us knew ILFORD A Good Laugh – Humour in the current refugee crisis. As Jews, we little about this important branch of the Literature sympathise with the Syrian families British judiciary: it was salutary to learn Nick Dobson, ably assisted by Vincent, and lone children who have fled the something about the history, role and trawled through English literature to indescribable horror of the situation making of magistrates. Susan spiced her show us the humour lurking within. He in their homeland. We feel less talk with a number of ‘case histories’, also showed us photos of the writers sympathetic, however, to the young which led to a very lively discussion. mentioned, some never seen before, men in their twenties and thirties, Fritz Starer so that was an additional bonus. A very carrying mobile phones and relatively pleasant morning for us all. well dressed, among the refugees. We IMPERIAL CAFÉ A Flying Start Meta Roseneil guess that these are mainly ‘economic’ An extremely interesting and pleasant migrants and that priority should be afternoon spent visiting the RAF PINNER From Brick Lane to afforded the families with children and Museum in Hendon. In among the Birmingham via Buckingham Palace children travelling alone. aircraft we had our very own pilot in the We were honoured to have Sir Bernard Dennis Dell shape of Kurt Taussig, the only Czech- Zissman trace quite casually the various Jewish commissioned officer to become stages of his illustrious career in voluntary MANCHESTER Entertaining and a Spitfire pilot in the RAF. Kurt arrived in and public organisations that included Uplifting Afternoon the UK as a ‘Winton child’ and it was an the office of Mayor of Birmingham. Sir We were treated by Alex Klein to the honour to be in his company on this day. Bernard remained mindful of his humble rare opportunity of seeing some of Esther Rinkoff
12 MAY 2016 journal WESSEX ‘The First Lady of British Jewry’ MAY GROUP eventS Lady Judith Montefiore (1784-1862), David Barnett told us, has been described Ealing 3 May Susan Shaw JP: ‘Justice of the Peace – Not as ‘the first lady of British Jewry’. Jewish Princess’ She was unusually well educated in Card and Games Club 4 May Lunch and Games languages, music and the domestic arts and wrote the first Jewish cookery book Ilford 4 May Elaine Wein: ‘Highlights of the City of London’ – a sort of Jewish Mrs Beeton. After her Yom Hashoah marriage to the wealthy and influential Scottish Event 4 May Speaker: Ben Helfgott Sir Moses Montefiore, she threw herself Glasgow Book Club 5 May Social into his many philanthropic enterprises Hull 8 May Fish & Chips Lunch and travelled extensively with him to Cardiff 9 May ‘Churchill's German Army’ countries including Russia and the Holy Land. Harry Grenville HGS 9 May Social Get-Together Essex (Westcliff) 10 May Moira Dare-Edwards, Christian Israel BATH/BRISTOL In Memory of Sir Representative for Essex Nicholas Didsbury CF 11 May Social Get-together Barbara Winton gave a wonderful talk KT LUNCHES 11 May Dame Esther Rantzen about her father. She was particularly Bradford 12 May Lunch at Saltaire Mills proud to show everyone the Post Office stamps recently issued in his name. Pinner 12 May Henry and Dorothy Obstfeld: ‘Jewish Ethiopia’ We had a particularly large attendance Sheffield 15 May Mike Lewis – his mother’s story as details of the meeting had been Brighton 16 May Eva Clarke: ‘Born Survivor’ – her life story circulated throughout the Bristol Edgware 17 May tba community. Kathryn Prevezer Kingston and Surrey 17 May Lunch at home of Susan Zisman Liverpool 17 May Guest speaker: HH David Harris QC ST ALBANS DELIGHTS Book Club 18 May Social Discussion How wonderful to spend an early Radlett 18 May Tim Pike, Bank of England: ‘Economy Update’ spring day in St Albans exploring its Wembley 18 May (one week earlier) Kathryn Prevezer: ‘Highlights beautiful cathedral. Our guide led us of Trips to Istanbul, the USA and Barcelona’ on a most fascinating tour and we learned about St Alban’s martyrdom, Imperial Café 19 May Lunchtime Social Get-together the history of the building and North London 19 May (one week earlier) Tony Jacobs: ‘A Scribal Journey’ renovation plans. Having enjoyed North West London 31 May Lesley Urbach: ‘Sir Isaac Shoenberg’ lunch at Café Rouge’s colourful art deco building, we visited the synagogue for a talk and to admire members’ own experiences of being its celebrated David Hillman stained immigrants. Eva Stellman COntACtS glass windows. Janet Weston NORTH WEST LONDON ‘The MP for Susan Harrod Lead Outreach & Events Refugees’ Co-ordinator BRIGHTON AND HOVE ‘SARID’ Brexit: Dr Susan Cohen spoke to us about the 020 8385 3070 [email protected] For and Against life of the humanitarian activist Eleanor We held a lively debate on ‘Brexit’. We Rathbone (1872-1946). One of only 14 Wendy Bott also had a second discussion on personal women MPs, she became known as ‘The Northern Outreach Co-ordinator experiences of ‘the most enjoyable MP for Refugees’, having set up the 07908 156 365 [email protected] decade’ and the meeting ended with Parliamentary Committee for Refugees comments on the forthcoming elections in 1938 and in 1939 travelling to Prague, Agnes Isaacs for the mayor of London. where she met Sir Nicholas Winton. From Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Ceska Abrahams 1918 onwards she argued for a system of 07908 156 361 [email protected] family allowances to be paid directly to PRESTWICH CF Purim Hamentashen mothers. Her lasting legacy came in 1945 Kathryn Prevezer and Tea when she saw the Family Allowances Act Southern Outreach Co-ordinator A most interesting discussion about the passed into law. David Lang 07966 969 951 [email protected] pros and cons of religion followed by continued overleaf Purim hamentashen and tea, to round Esther Rinkoff off a most enjoyable meeting at the Southern Outreach Co-ordinator home of Louise Elliot. Wendy Bott 07966 631 778 [email protected] New website for International BOOK CLUB A Very French Romance Tracing Service Eva Stellman This month’s book was Antoine Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Laurain’s The Red Notebook, translated The International Tracing Service (ITS), 07904 489 515 [email protected] from French, a charming and easy an archival and documentation centre read about the quest of a Parisian on Nazi persecution and Holocaust KT-AJR (Kindertransport) bookseller for a mystery woman whose survivors situated in Bad Arolsen, Susan Harrod lost handbag he finds in the street. Germany, has launched a new website 020 8385 3070 [email protected] We then moved on to talk about the considerably simplifying access to the more sombre topic of the Brussels information it contains. Child Survivors’ Association-AJR attacks and the position of immigrants The new website is Henri Obstfeld in Western societies, comparing our www.its-arolsen.org/en/ 020 8954 5298 [email protected]
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INSIDE THE AJR cont. from p.13 CLASSIFIED NORTH LONDON An Indomitable Joseph Pereira (ex-AJR Victorian Woman JOIN US FOR A DAY TRIP TO caretaker over 22 years) is now Lady Judith Montefiore was a truly available for DIY repairs and indomitable Victorian woman. Born WESTCLIFF ON SEA general maintenance. into great wealth, she acquired even Tuesday 14 June 2016 more after her marriage to Moses. She No job too small, was exceptionally well educated and Coach Leaving Finchley Road and Stanmore very reasonable rates. Station fluent in many languages. She and her Please telephone husband travelled extensively, setting First Stop up and contributing to many charitable Southchurch Hall 07966 887 485. causes. We are truly indebted to David a Grade 1 Listed Medieval Moated House Barnett for his excellent account. Guided Tour Hanne R. Freedman followed by a Delicious Fish and Chip Lunch with a sea view at WHY NOT TRY AJR’S LEEDS CF Gerald’s Choice Simply Sea Food at Leigh on Sea At Donisthorpe Hall Leeds member Fish and Chips MEALS ON WHEELS Gerald Jackson gave a presentation of Dessert SERVICE? some of his favourite music, including Second Stop The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven … and service delivered to your door once a week. a most surprising but entertaining Walk along the promenade for Ice Cream finale with Flanagan and Allen! The For a booking form and full details The meals are freshly cooked every week by afternoon continued with a sumptuous please contact Susan Harrod on Kosher to Go. They are then frozen prior to delivery. 020 8385 3070 tea courtesy of Donisthorpe Hall. The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal Wendy Bott or at [email protected] or email [email protected] (soup, main course, desert) plus a £1 delivery fee.
LEO BAECK HOUSING ASSOCIATION Our aim is to bring good food to your door CLARA NEHAB HOUSE without the worry of shopping or cooking. RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME For further details, please call Small caring residential home AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070. with large attractive gardens close to local shops and public transport 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities. In Need of a Friendly Voice? 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care Want to chat to someone who cares? Entertainment & Activities provided. SPRING GROVE Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room Call The Silver Line London’s Most Luxurious • Lift access to all floors. The national helpline for older people. RETIREMENT HOME For further information please contact: Any time, day or night The Manager, Clara Nehab House, 214 Finchley Road 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA From your landline: 0800 4 70 80 90 London NW3 Telephone: 020 8455 2286 From your mobile: 0300 4 70 80 90 Entertainment Activities Stress Free Living switch on electrics JACKMAN 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine Rewires and all household SILVERMAN Full En-Suite Facilities electrical work Call for more information or a personal tour PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS 020 8446 2117 Mobile: 0795 614 8566 or 020 7794 4455 Telephone: 020 7209 5532 [email protected] [email protected]
PillarCare www.fishburnbooks.com Quality support and care at home Books Bought Jonathan Fishburn buys and sells Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours Jewish and Hebrew books, Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care MODERN AND OLD Convalescent and Personal Health Care ephemera and items of Compassionate and Afordable Service Jewish interest. Professional, Qualifed, Kind Care Staf He is a member of the Antiquarian Registered with the CQC and UKHCA Eric Levene Booksellers Association. Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 Contact Jonathan on PILLARCARE [email protected] 020 8455 9139 THE BUSINESS CENTRE · 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE · LONDON NW1 7BB or 07813 803 889 PHONE: 020 7482 2188 · FAX: 020 7900 2308 I also purchase ephemera www.pillarcare.co.uk for more information
14 MAY 2016 journal OBITUARIES Susanne Graham, born Hamburg 18 February 1928, died Stevenage 18 January 2016 usanne (Susie) Graham (née Burghardt), recently found out that whilst demonstrations at Greenham much loved Mum to Tony and Hazel and a student she travelled around Common. She went on adored Grandma of Sophie, Emily, Oliver Europe on her own after her adventurous holidays, including andS Jack, died on Monday 18 January aged 87. planned companion dropped out a winter trip to Antarctica – Her full life and amazing accomplishments were through fear of not having enough from which she returned black celebrated on Monday 8 February. money. She spent time sleeping and blue having been tossed out Susanne came to the UK as a child with her outdoors in Greece (around the of her bunk by rough seas. She younger brother Hans on the Kindertransport Parthenon) and reported no wrote letters for Amnesty, sold from Hamburg, leaving behind her family qualms at having done this! Christmas cards for Save the home and memories of Kristallnacht. Although Social work was a job she loved Children, and volunteered at the not from a religious family, she remembered and in which typically she spent local hospice. In 2010 she made seeing the synagogue on fre on her way home a lot of time and energy trying a return trip to Hamburg at the from school. Te experiences of her childhood to help those less fortunate than invitation of the Hamburg city stayed with her and she maintained a lifelong herself. She worked with young and old, drove government and was able to show her family empathy with refugees, particularly children, miles across the county and the country if just how ‘posh’ her childhood home had been! and always opposed war, worried about the necessary, and was even attacked by a dog not In her late 60s Susanne advertised in impact on the lives of people caught up in long before she retired. She always supported the Observer’s singles column for ‘relaxed confict. the ‘underdog’ and was unfailingly generous companionship’ but had to be persuaded not She was modest about her own achievements with her time. to describe herself as ‘non-domesticated’ – what – rarely talking about how she won a scholarship Susanne owned a succession of what would she meant was that she disliked cooking. As to, and was head girl at, the girls’ grammar now be called classic cars – a Morris Minor a result, she enjoyed two relationships – not school in Grantham (her name sits alongside Traveller, a Triumph Herald and her beloved simultaneously – but she had a good number a more well-known ‘grocer’s daughter’ from MGB, which she kept until she was in her mid- of ofers! Grantham on the school’s roll call of head girls). 70s. While she was still ft and well she made Should anyone wish to make a donation in She rarely spoke about how she went back to the most of her spare time in a range of creative her memory the family has chosen the Lister Germany after the war to help people, being and campaigning activities. Over many years Hospital, Stevenage Forget Me Not Appeal online involved in the Allied air drops, nor how she she renovated and created her garden, belonged at www.justgiving.com/forget-me-not-lister. spent time in India, where she met a lifelong to a gardening club, and worked with clay and Please write ‘In memory of Susanne Graham’ friend in Monica. She also did not talk about made beautiful pots and vases in her own kiln – so that donations can be directed to the ward her time as Vice President of the Students’ she admired art and enjoyed regular trips to the where Mum’s dignity and wellbeing were keenly Union at Nottingham University, where she Royal Academy. looked after by all the staf. completed her social work diploma. We only She supported CND and briefy joined the Hazel Turvey
Sigmund Laufer, born Hagen, Germany, 10 July 1923, died Henny Newman, born London 3 November 2015 Rozan, Poland, 5 August y uncle, Sigmund Laufer, and the Second World War had 1922, died Manchester was born in Hagen, ofcially started. Te Warszawa 19 February 2016 Germany, to Deborah was unable to rescue any further andM Simcha Laufer. He had an Jewish children from Poland. elder sister, Rosi, and a younger My uncle and my mother did sister, my mother Selma. On 28 not see each other while in England October 1938 my uncle, along during the war. My uncle was with his family, were deported from declared an ‘enemy alien’ due to Germany to Poland based on the his German nationality and sent fact that my grandparents were born in Poland to the Isle of Man. From there he was sent to a enny Newman was born on 5 August and were thus not considered German citizens. detention centre in Sherbrooke, Canada. In a 1922 in Rozan, Poland. She had My aunt left for what was then Palestine. My letter he wrote from there he spoke about the four sisters: Chana, Sara, Rachel and uncle, who was then 15, and my mother, who books he had on his bookshelf, including works Gittel.H Her mother Chava and two sisters were was nine, were sent to an orphanage in Otwock, by Plato, Descartes, Spinoza and Kant and a full killed by the Nazis. Mum, her father Abraham near Warsaw, to await a boat to England set of Shakespeare. and Chana were sent to work in a slave labour via the Kindertransport. My grandparents After the war my uncle eventually moved camp. Tey were led into the forest by the moved further into Poland to stay with my back to England and worked as a translator for partisans in Belarus, hiding there from the grandfather’s sister, Pearl Hanfing, in Przemsyl. Unilever. His passions were music, art, culture Nazis. Chana did not survive after the war and Tey were able to keep in touch with their and reading. He had friends all around the so my grandfather and my mum were the only children for several years. However, at one point world who shared these passions with him. survivors of the Frajman family. Mum met my the letters stopped coming. My grandparents’ Until several weeks before his passing, he was dad Fishel in Förenwald, where they married. ultimate fate is unknown to this day. still able to attend concerts and spend time in Henny came to Manchester and my father My uncle was fortunate to board the museums. followed with my grandfather. Tere they Warszawa in July 1939. Te Warszawa was His death severs the last ties to a world that made a new life and a future for their children. a cruise ship that made four trips to Poland no longer exists, to grandparents I never had the My mum was such a special person. Sadly to rescue Jewish children and take them to opportunity to know, and to a life I can only she passed away on 19 February. My brother England. Te last trip, in August 1939, included imagine. He is survived by a nephew, nieces, and I will miss her so much. A brave lady who my mother. Several days after my mother great-nephews and great-nieces. died with dignity. landed in England the Germans invaded Poland Deborah M. Rosenberg Andrea Newman
15 journal MAY 2016
In the group of German speakers we generally decide on a topic for discussion at the next meeting and are sometimes asked Dorothea Shefer-Vanson to prepare suitable material to illustrate our contribution. When the topic was children’s books we were treated to original editions Hoppe, hoppe, Reiter of Struwwelpeter and I even found myself joining in when everyone sang Hänschen ow that we are well and truly every two weeks to talk about a variety of klein, though I have no idea where or when entrenched in the digital age it subjects, but always only in German. Te I learned it. And no, we did not play Hoppe, comes as no surprise to fnd that group meets in the ofces of the Association hoppe, Reiter with one another! At another Nthis has been adopted and adapted to of Jews from Central Europe and is led by meeting we were asked to talk about our its own ends by the community of Jews the ever-energetic Ilana Alroy-Brosh, who childhood hobbies and were treated to originally from German-speaking lands, is considerably younger than most of the impressive, themed collections of stamps, otherwise known as Yekkes. members. Tese are people (mainly women) paper serviettes, transfers, and even a couple Ever since I joined Facebook some time who were born in Israel or abroad to German- of professional-looking puppets made ago I have been bombarded by homilies speaking parents, heard and spoke German entirely by one of the participants. One about how best to conduct my life, by at home as children, but now no longer have participant is an expert chocolatière so you pictures of kittens, puppies and babies, and anyone with whom to converse in German. can imagine how we delighted in what she occasionally also by edifying information I personally do not ft into that category had brought along. about world developments, ideas, and, of because in wartime England it was not Te other Facebook group is run by course, jokes. I do my best to keep up with considered appropriate to speak in German another energetic lady, this time in America. this food of data but am starting to feel and so I grew up hearing English spoken at Te group, known as JEWS – Jews Engaging that I am increasingly being inundated with home. Luckily, both of my parents spoke Worldwide in Social Networking – is run indigestible material. English well and, although in my childhood by Vera Meyer, who hails from Boston, I Tere are, however, one or two points I was aware of their foreign accents, I had believe. Te group posts items of interest of light in the barrage, among them two no desire to speak any other language and to the Yekke community as well as potted groups intended for Jews originally from did not even take up the option of learning biographies of individuals and families. German-speaking countries. Te frst such German at school. It was only much later in As is the case with the Hoppe, hoppe, group, entitled ‘Hoppe, hoppe, Reiter’, is my life, in the last 15 years or so, that I have Reiter group, the posts are in a variety of based in Israel and tends to display family been studying German in order to be able to languages – mainly English and German photos and accounts of the lives and times read the documents and correspondence my but also Hebrew and even occasionally of the members of the group from before parents brought out of Germany with them Spanish, French or Italian. New members the war. And, of course, their descendants. in 1938 as well as other material. My German are welcomed and asked to send a small One by-product of this virtual group has isn’t as native as that of the other members of autobiography and account of their family. been the establishment of physical groups the group but I manage to understand what’s In this way people who are scattered all over that meet in various places in Israel. I belong going on and even add my little bit to the the world are given a sense of community to the one here in Jerusalem, which meets conversation from time to time. and are able to get in touch with their roots.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR cont. from p.8 generation) staying in touch with foster inevitably become a bestseller. David their treatment of women but won’t let his brothers and sisters. If this is the case, I Azoulay, Minister of Religious Affairs in wife sit next to him in synagogue! would be grateful if you could contact me. Israel, has called Reform Jews ‘a disaster for Incidentally, it’s great news that women Mike Levy, Holocaust educator and the people of Israel’. What an offensively are now allowed to pray at a certain part writer [email protected] mistaken remark! Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet of the Western Wall. Congratulations tel 01223 514148 of Mill Hill has suggested that examination to Progressive Judaism – Conservative, times be changed for Jewish students at Reform and Liberal – for achieving this. MISTAKES IN OUR JEWISH LIVES Shavuot simply because some imams had Peter Phillips, Loudwater, Herts Sir – I am dismayed at certain events suggested a change for Muslim students that have occurred recently in our Jewish at Ramadan. Trying to copy the Muslims of lives, all of which I believe to have been today is surely another mistake. Then there WHY NOT CONVERT YOUR is the Chief Rabbi of the Belz Chassidim, OLD CINE FILMS mistakes. AND PUT THEM Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Yissacher Dov Rokeach. He doesn’t want ON DVDS Home Party in Israel, has banned a book women to drive their children to school FREE OF CHARGE? from schools in Israel because the subject because driving isn’t a function a woman Contact Alf Buechler at matter is a love affair between a Jew and should perform. Need I say more? Lastly, [email protected] a Muslim. Surely this was a mistake. The there is Aaron Cohen of the United or tel 020 8554 5635 book, Borderlife by Dorit Rabinyan, has Synagogue, who criticises Muslims for
Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters LLP, 26 St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected]
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