Arnhem 1944 N Autumn 1944, Zeitspiegel, the 1St Polish Independent Parachute Brigade

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’.

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