VOLUME 4 NO. 11 NOVEMBER 2004 journal ^ Association of Jewish Refugees

Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite - et Verite?

France occupies a special place in the of the walls in the courtyard, too, is barely hears Yiddish there. However, collective Jewish psyche. It does so for inscribed with dozens of names of Sephardi-owned restaurants, butcher shops several positive, and one salient negative, Shoah victims. and the like display the notice 'Kasher, Beth reason: it was the post-revolutionary With those two notable exceptions, all Din', which is a sort of compensation. Convention (parliament) of 1790 that the exhibits illustrate the 'normal', Another, longer walk brings one across issued the Declaration ofthe Rights of Man chequered, but ultimately upward- the river to the Left Bank. Ambling along and the Decree of Jewish Emancipation. spiralhng millennial history of the Jews the periphery of the Latin Quarter, the There too Heine and Borne found asylum, in France. visitor might be intrigued by the street Meyerbeer and Offenbach gained more name Le Chat Qui Peche. I first read Yol&n fame than in their native narrow-minded Foldes's Die Strasse der fischenden Katze in Germany, Sarah Bernhard became the 1937. It is the story of Hungarian economic world's first drama queen, and Leon Blum migrants eking out a living in the was the first ever (unbaptised) Jewish eponymous street, where they live cheek prime minister in Europe. by jowl vrith refugees fi'om Lenin's Russia, However, it was in the self-same France Fascist Italy and Hitler's Germany. Foldes that during the Dreyfus trial Herzl painted a picture of a hard, yet vibrant encountered mobs baying for Jewish blood, refugee existence close to the edge of the and conceived of Zionism as the solution to despair, but hopeful against all the odds. the perennial Jewish problem. Dreyfus was La Rue des Rosiers, Paris The authoress was not in Paris when the eventually pardoned, but 40 years later Nazi tide engulfed it, or she would Nearby, the Place des Vosges, a beautiful French Nazi collaborators tumed the grisly subsequently have withdrawn it from colonnaded seventeenth-century square, imaginings of the anti-Dreyfusard gutter circulation as wildly over-optimistic. into reality. Collaboration became France's is of special interest to former German However, fiction writers have a licence to most shameful secret after Liberation, and refugees. Its centrepiece is an equestrian inject feel-good tropes into their narrative the country remained largely in denial until statue of Henry TV, the king who gave a remarkably frank admission of national France freedom of conscience. When which is not granted to historians. This was guilt by President Chirac in 1997. Germany's literary elite fled there early in my reaction to the exhibition 'France in the Second World War', which occupies three The latter also acted as patron to the 1933 Lion Feuchtwanger wrote Paris floors of that overblown shrine to Napoleon, establishment of a Jewish museum in a Gazette, a novel about an emigre anti-Nazi the Invalides. The exhibition focuses renovated 4th-arrondissement palace, in newspaper, Joseph Roth indulged his the courtyard of which stands an imposing Habsburg nostalgia in Radetzkymarsch, and heavily on French resistance to Nazi statue of Captain Dreyfus, the jagged blade Heinrich Mann discharged his debt of occupation, but rather skirts round the - of his broken sword in hand. The enlarged gratitude to his country of asylum through understandably sensitive - issue of French photographs (ca. 1930) in the foyer are of a biography of Henry IV collaboration. Display items include Jewish-owned and -staffed workshops In 1940 the severely depressed Roth proclamations ofthe Vichy government and producing clothing and leather goods. The managed to drink himself to death just photographs of Marshal Petain addressing immigrants employed there can be seen on ahead ofthe Wehrmacht's entry into Paris; large crowds - but there is no pictorial, or other photographs using their scant leisure fleeing the country, Feuchtwanger later any other, record of French policemen or time to relax or engage in left-wing political had his traumatic experiences recounted in uniformed miliciens rounding up Jews for activity. (The last-mentioned was The Devil in France; Werfel and the elderly despatch to Drancy. graphically evoked in the May Day 1937 Heinrich Mann trudged up the Pyrenees to Discomfort at these omissions does not chapter of Dya Ehrenburg's The Fall of escape into Spain - while Walter Benjamin mean one concurs in any way with Prime Paris.) With the next exhibit the mood found merciful release in suicide. Minister Sharon's maladroit appeal to abruptly darkens. An eye-catching red Nazi After such melancholy reflections the French Jews to make collective aliyah. placard of 1941 lists the names, and East visitor seeks solace in the nearby heart of Abroad Chirac may be the Palestinians' best European provenance, of two dozen Jewish Paris, the Rue des Rosiers (aka dos friend, but at home French Jewry could not executed Jewish resistance fighters. One Pletzl). Despite the nickname, alas, one have a better firiend in the Elysee Palace. AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

Home is where Herts Is World War II: Richard Grunberger French collaboration cover-up?

'London Jews head north', proclaimed the French officials and guards of French- believed to be destined for Dachau. Jewish Chronicle's front-page headline run concentration camps in South This was two days after Charles de earlier this year Although 'north' in this West France continued to deport Gaulle's victory parade down the instance meant Bushey rather than inmates of all nationalities to a near- Champs Elysees in Paris. Burnley, I consider this just another certain death in Germany even as the In February 1946 a letter from the typical instance of Jews swimming against country was being liberated, camp's director drew the 'urgent the tide, the universal direction of which according to an exclusive report in The attention' of the prefect in Toulouse to is southward. Guardian newspaper. Other internees the fact that the money seized from In Spain, people head south to the Costa continued to be held in those camps the inmates was no longer adequate del Sol. In France, they head towards the by French guards when the war was to feed and maintain them. Camp Riviera and Provence. In Germany, over until 1949 - proof, the paper accounts confirm that people were millions annually go so far south that they alleges, that France went to still being forced to pay for their leave the country altogether, to find extraordinary lengths to conceal incarceration in September 1947. themselves in Italy. In so doing they evidence of collaboration. Letters from the interior ministry were follow the example of Goethe, who undertook two Italian journeys and was A mass of registers, telegrams, dated 5 and 29 March 1949. inspired to write Kennst du das Land wo manifests and other documents were 'This is an untold story of the dark die Zitronen blUhn? (Do you know the uncovered in the Toulouse office of side of France's liberation 60 years country where the lemons bloom?). The France's national archive by 84-year- ago', said Mr Schaechter. 'French English always went everywhere except old Austrian-born Kurt Werner functionaries were involved in a north. Shelley and Byron died in the Schaechter. He found both that French national scandal that continued until south, Kipling lived in the east, and officials collaborated with their 1949: the despicable treatment of Charles Kingsley wrote Westward Ho. fleeing Nazi occupiers and that the allied and neutral civilians interned The American thrust has historically government of Charles de Gaulle during the war.' He believed that they been to the west. This was encapsulated continued to hold hundreds of were not released at the end of the 150 years ago in the mantra 'Go west, foreigners in an internment camp near war because it would have been too young man!', coined by the crusading Toulouse for up to four years after the embarrassing. 'The last thing de Gaulle journalist Horace Greely. endofWorldWarll. wanted, when he was trying to build Contrarywise, the 'mystic' east has Noe camp, some 25 miles south of up France's image as victor and hero', always exerted the strongest pull Toulouse, was one of 300 camps set he said, 'was to reveal the true extent worldwide, so strong that a distinctive up after 1939 to hold Jews, of the collaboration by freeing neutral phrase - Drang nach dem Osten - was communists and other 'anti-French' and allied internees held in French coined to encapsulate it. In Nazi mouths, militants, gypsies, criminals and camps by French guards.' that phrase had a horrific connotation, but enemy aliens. As France was Noe continued to function secretly not all Germans were natural-born progressively liberated in the summer for several years after the war. Of aggressors. of 1944, many of Noe's inmates were many elderly and infirm people who To Rilke, the pull of the east meant quickly shipped out, although Allied remained in the camp, some were going to Russia in quest of spiritual bombing of the railway lines and moved to Pithiviers or Rivesaltes enlightenment, whereas Hermann Hesse intensified fighting meant that many camps (both officially closed) in 1947, received good vibes from India. In this he people could not be moved. The last others were recorded as 'transferred', was followed by thousands of young transport left Noe-Longages station and some were marked 'Agreed with westerners, from the hero of Somerset on 30 July 1944, with most internees MrCasse-tobelost'. RDC Maugham's The Razor's Edge to the

Beatles. > '^^^zi^«&jkgs£sai%^-«».£i Their number is dwarfed by that of AJRJournal Muslims who annually go to Mecca - and Richard Grunberger Editor-in-Chief JACKMAN • even by Christians who went on Crusades Ronald Channing Executive Editor for the remission of their sins. Pious, Howard Spier Editorial and Production SILVERMAN unarmed Jews journeyed in the same AJR Journal, Jubilee House, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS direction, eager to be on hand at the Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 4RL Tel: 020 8385 3070 Fax: 020 8385 3080 Coming of the Messiah. They would rub e-mail: [email protected] 26 Conduit Street, London WlR 9TA their eyes in wonderment to learn that wvwv.ajrorg.uk Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 8017 Shenley is the new Sfad. AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

Time frames and place names NEWTONS Richard Grunberger Leading Hampstead Solicitors advise on Property, Wills, Family Trusts Jews count time from the Creation, and Slavophobes, but the name was and Charitable Trusts Christians from the birth of Jesus, and encrusted with the patina of age - whereas Muslims firom Mohammed's flight fi-om Kaliningrad has neither history nor French and German spoken Mecca to Medina. Roman chronology hinterland, and immortalises a nondescript Home visits arranged began with the foundation of their city. Soviet apparatchik. Finally, because the French There must be many elderly Germans 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, Revolutionaries claimed they were and Austrians born in historic outposts like London NW3 SNB restarting the evolution of society fi-om Konigsberg, Breslau and Pressburg who Tel: 020 7435 5351 scratch, they declared the overthrow ofthe mourn the disappearance of those place Fax: 020 7435 8881 king their year Zero, and even renamed the names from the map. If they want to months, turning February into Pluviose assuage their nostalgia, they should look (rainy), August into Thermidor (hot), and up a list of Jewish 'show biz greats'. November into Brumaire (foggy). Konigsberg appears in all movie reference Sweeping away the past has also been works as the birth name of Woody Allen, the motive behind the renaming of many while Pressburg, now Bratislava, was CONSULTANT places. Currendy, the most eye-catching of evoked by the name of the great British to long established English these changes are part of the rebranding filmmaker Emeric Pressburger. On a Solicitors (bi-lingual German) that followed decolonisation in the Third lesser order of magnitude, Breslau, now would be happy to assist clients World. Notable examples are Beijing Wroclaw, lived on in the name ofthe comic with English, German and (formerly Peking), Mumbay (formerly Bernie Bresslaw (and Grunberg - now Austrian problems. Bombay) and Zimbabwe (formerly Zielona Gora - in that ofyour editor). Contact Henry Ebner Rhodesia). From this moderately contentious issue Myers Ebner & Deaner Something analogous happened half a I move on to a literally explosive one. What 103 Shepherds Bush Road century earlier In post-revolutionary does the place name Al-Quds mean to you? London W6 7LP Russia the Bolshevik drive to erase any Very little, I assume. But to a billion Telephone 020 7602 4631 trace of the Tsarist past led to the Muslims it is the Arabic name of transformation of St Petersburg into Jerusalem, their third holiest city. ALL LEGAL WORK Leningrad, Ekaterinburg into Sverdlovsk UNDERTAKEN In the hypothetical event of a change of and Tsaritsyn into Stalingrad. The autocratic and antisemitic Romanovs have sovereignty over the city and its no claim on our pity; even so, detaching the rebranding as Al-Quds, what, I ask, would name of a city from that of its founder be the effect on the Western imagination? The title of Tarquato Tasso's Renaissance strikes me as an affront against history. AUSTRIAN and GERMAN epic Gerusalemme Liberata would become Another offence against history occurred PENSIONS when the Bolsheviks renamed Nizhny quite meaningless; the same holds good for Novgorod - a place name evocative of the Selma Lagerlof's story collection very soul of Russia - Gorky. Jerusalem, Margaret Drabble's Jerusalem PROPERTY the Golden, and Arnold Wesker's play They RESTITUTION CUIMS At around the same time as the Call This Place Jerusalem. Likewise, the Communists consolidated their grip on EAST GERMANY - BERLIN Russia, the Turks drove the Greeks out of words of William Blake's mystical hymn Jerusalem (almost Britain's substitute On instructions our office will their enclaves in Asia Minor. Following assist to deal with your their victory, they renamed the city of national anthem) would become unintelligible. applications and pursue the matter Smyrna Izmir - a change which sticks in my with the authorities. craw. Not because I am particularly pro- The reason why Blake's words have a Greek - I would never return the Elgin special place in the nation's affection is For further information Marbles - but because Smyrna is a name intimately connected with the Jews' and an appointment redolent of classical antiquity. (It was one Passover 'toast' 'Next year in Jerusalem'. please contact: ofthe seven Greek towns that disputed the The phrase is not primarily an affirmation honour of having been the birthplace of of Zionism, but expresses a yearning for a ICS CLAIMS Homer) better world. This is an example of the 146-154 Kilburn High Road Another change of place name I can't Judeo-Christian heritage at the heart of London NW6 4JD Western civilisation, for in the Book of warm to is the morphing of Konigsberg Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) Revelation the 'New Jerusalem' symbolises into Kaliningrad. Admittedly, Konigsberg Fax: 020 7624 5002 was a stamping ground of Prussian Junkers a perfect society. AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

Birmingham member's Arts Diary special honour November Ronald Channing Mon 1 Gerald Home/Hans Seelig, 'More about Furtwangler'. Club 43 Retired automobile engineer and author Paul Tues 2 Dr Klaus Weber, Jewish Welfare and Oppenheimer MBE received the honorary degree of Philanthropy in Europe, 1800-1940: A Doctor of Letters from the University of New Project Focusing on the Rothschild Wolverhampton in recognition of his programme of Family as a Case Study'. Parkes Institute, lectures and talks as an eyewitness of the University of Southampton, Room 1163 Holocaust. He holds the conviction that he has to Avenue Campus. 5.30 pm. Tel Frances Clarke make a personal contribution to alerting both on 023 8059 2261 students and adults to the dangers of racism and Tues-Sat 2-6 Diane Samuel's play the dehumanisation of minorities. 'Kindertransport'. The Burton Taylor Paul and his family fled Nazi Germany for Holland, Theatre, Gloucester Street, Oxford, 7.30 pm. but were deported in 1942. They ended up in Paul Oppenheimer, made Doctor Tel 01865 305350 Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they of Letters for his contribution to Fri 5 A concert in celebration of the life of faced appalling conditions. Within a short time, Holocaust education Albi Rosenthal. Wigmore Hall, London Wl, both of his parents succumbed to disease and 7.00 pm. All friends welcome. Contact Julia starvation, but he, his brother and sister struggled mission in his life, presenting his Rosenthal on 07957 480 920 to survive. Following their liberation by the British eyewitness account as a warning Mon 8 Jens Bruning (Berlin), 'Karawanserei army in 1945, all three went to England, where they against the recurrence of such des alten Europas: "In Tyrannos" der were taken in by an uncle. disregard for the sanctity of Selbstverstandigungstext des Club 1943' Paul qualified as an engineer and settled in human life. Paul's autobiography. (in German). Club 43 Birmingham with his wife Corrine, and they have From Belsen to Buckingham Thur 11 'Dr Zorath Warhaftig: The Man three children. In recognition of his contribution to Palace, complements his lectures, Behind the Extraordinary Rescue of Jews advances in motor engineering, he received an MBE and he has now talked to more to Japan and Shanghai during the in 1990 for services to British industry. than 500 organisations. Paul Holocaust', film screening with filmmaker and Corrine are both active It was only after Paul retired, and had attended a and historian Pamela Shatzkes. London reunion of Belsen survivors, that he began to give members of AJR's popular West Jewish Cultural Centre, 7.30 pm public talks about the Holocaust. It became a new Midlands group. Mon 15 Ernst Flesch MA, Uzbekistan: A Journeyto Central Asia'. Club 43 Mon 15 Professor Geza Komoroczy, 'Hebrew 'We Want the Light' Sources on Hungarian Jewish History". Christopher Nupen writes about the Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London, Gustave Tuck Theatre. 6.30 DVD release of his prize-winning film pm. Tel 020 7679 3520

'Make a television film about the Jews and how a film will turn out or how the world will Thur 18 'Imagining and Re-imagining German music for the Holocaust Memorial receive it. Still I felt that those 59 minutes Herzl'. An international symposium with Day slot on both British and German were not enough and so we have produced a Gideon Shimoni, Stephen Beller, Michael Television and do it in 59 minutes.' Oy! Why DVD version which gives the contributors Bedowitz, 10.00 am-5.00 pm. At the does television always have to be in a hurry, more space and we have included others Austrian Cultural Forum. Contact London no matter what the subject? whose interviews could not be squeezed Jewish Cultural Centre into a 59-minute television film. We have After a year of trying I was convinced that Mon 22 Dr David Williams. 'General Sir it could not be done - at least not on a level made it also for 2005, which will see the 60th Brian Robertson, Military Governor/High which the subject deserved. What to do? The anniversary ofthe liberation of Auschwitz. Commissioner of the British Zone in answer: spend another year working on it The DVD version will be published on the Germany, 1945-1950'. Club 43 and be rescued by the inspiring 98-year-old BBC/OpusArte/Allegro Films/The Tues 23 Professor John Grenville, 'Bitter Christopher Nupen Films label and, with the Alice Sommer Herz, who is now approaching Harvest: Jews and Christians in one additional interviews, it will have a duration her hundred and first birthday, who played German City: Hamburg 1933-1945'. more than 100 concerts in the of over five and a half hours. It is divided into Wiener Library, 7.00 pm Theresienstadt camp, and who still practises three parts, with all sequences and the piano for two andahalfhourseach day. interviews fully chaptered and instantly Mon 29 Dr E. M. Batley, The Political accessible. Problem of Goethe's Freemasonry'. With her help we produced something that Club 43 both the BBC and German television The contributors include Vladimir thought worthy of the slot and it won two Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Leon ORGANISATION CONTACTS international prizes: Best Editing at the New Botstein, Margaret Brearley, Michael Haas, Club 43 Belsize Square Synagogue. York Film and Television Festival, 2004 and Evgeny Kissin, Norman Lebrecht, Zubin Meetings 7.45 pm. Contact Hans Seelig tel The Jewish Cultural Award for Film and Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Alice Sommer Herz, 01442 254360 Television, 2004 - a prize which they gave Samuel Adler, Uri Toeplitz, Anita Lasker- London Jewish Cultural Centre King's last year to Steven Spielberg and Roman Wallfisch, Yirmiyahu Yovel and Pinchas College, Kidderpore Avenue, London NW3 Polanski and this year to Daniel Barenboim, Zukerman. tel 020 7431 0345 Maxim Vengerov and Christopher Nupen. Release date: 1 November 2004 Wiener Library 4 Devonshire Street, London Amazing - one can never know in advance Catalogue number OA CN 0909 D Wl tel 020 7636 7247 AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004 Forgotten veterans Max Sulzbacher

On a recent motoring trip through dates of birth and death, and the names of authorities of shirking their France we passed a Gennan military places of birth which, in most instances, responsibilities. The results were never cemetery near Arras. Looking at the is the same as the places where they lived published. graves, we found that interspersed with at the time of enlistment. This census aroused anger among the the large number of crosses there were What is so remarkable is the hundreds Jewish soldiers and I remember an old some tombstones. On further of places listed in the book, showing that lady telling me that at the time of the examination, we discovered that they Jews lived in so many places in 1914. It census her brother asked their mother to were inscribed with both Hebrew and even includes three locations in German send him a modern Hebrew primer; he German names as these fallen soldiers East Africa where Jewish soldiers lived said that if he survived the war, he would were obviously Jewish. and died, as well as four villages of the learn the language and go to Palestine. We made a note of one such name and same name, Reichenbach. My own family He did in fact do so and he became a later looked it up in the Gedenkbuch for had relatives and friends throughout the professor at the Hebrew University. the 12,000 German Jewish soldiers who German countryside and, unfortunately, The sacrifice of the German Jewish fell in the First World War. This book was they are all in the list. soldiers was never taken into issued by the Reichsbund Judischer Why was the Gedenkbuch compiled? consideration after the Nazis gained Frontsoldaten (RJF) in 1932 with a The short answer is antisemitism - which power. Those who siu-vived the war did foreword by President Hindenburg. Its was virulent at that time. Although Jews not receive any privileges and perished preparation involved many years of could not become officers before the war, in the Holocaust if they were unable to devoted labour by the RJF and it consists they did receive commissions during the leave Germany. These sacrifices are, of of an alphabetical list of soldiers together war. The most insulting and tragic course, but a tragic shadow when with their place of origin. This is wartime episode was the so-called compared with the greater tragedy of the followed by a list of all places of origin Judenzdhlung, a census of Jews at the Holocaust but it is still a sad reflection together with the names ofthe fallen, the firont. Jews were suspected by the even after all these years.

Jewish Military Museum opens in London Ronald Channing ton tntl The Association of Jewish Ex- secure Europe's freedom from Nazi J. . . Servicemen and Women, AJEX, has oppression and the defence of their opened a new and enlarged military adopted country of allegiance. museum in Hendon, North London. Its AJEX National Chairman Ron Sitmii premises at AJEX's head office in Shelley invited historian Professor Sir Stamford Hill were far too restricting Martin Gilbert to open the museum. 'In commemoration of the to do justice to a collection which 'This wonderful museum tells many 106 original pupils and the 224 documents, illustrates and records the stories of bravery', said Sir Martin, transferred pupils who were expelled from this school in July 1938. outstanding contribution made to the who praised the battlefield Never forget.' British military by men and women of contribution made by British Jews the Jewish faith, of all ranks. from the Boer War to Iraq. He The collection includes the uniforms, complimented the museum's curator, insignia and medals of Jewish soldiers, Henry Morris, and archivist, Martin pictures and photographs, even Sugarman, for their work in re­ weapons, and the Books of Honour establishing the museum at its new from World Wars I and II. The museum location. also records the service given by many For further information please members of the Jewish refugee contact the Jewish Military Museum, community during World War II, from Shield House, Harmony Way (off duty in the Pioneer Corps to action Victoria Road), Hendon NW4 2BZ with the Special Operations Executive Mon-Thurs 10am-4.30pm. Viewing is Stamp issued on the centenary of (SOE) behind enemy lines, many by appointment. Please telephone Theodor Herzl's death by making the supreme sacrifice to 02082022323. the Austrian Post Office AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

mosque he was taken aback and replied: 'You are right - they don't have to be afraid.' .^lE'rrEiis^ The Editor reserves the right Gisela Feldman to shorten correspondence Manchester I TO THE 1 submitted for publication ^ EDITOR I VIENNA Sir - 1 have been in touch with my secondary school up to 1938 - and received a very warm welcome. In the AUSTRIAN COMPENSATION him of his life and me of all Pauseraum (the main informal Sir - There is goodish news and documents. Since the Allianz of old assembly area in the school) there is a frustrating news about reparation insured concentration camps, the striking memorial tablet (see photo on payments by the Austrian government present managers can be deemed to page 5). My reason for writing to to Holocaust victims. The goodish know the fate of their former clients encourage others to get in touch with news is that we will all receive an extra only too well. the school is that the initiative for the £700 for loss of apartments and The present generation at the tablet came neither from the belongings. All those who have Hamburg insurance office informed corporation, nor even the school staff, already been paid $7,000 will be sent a me that my time as a slave labourer did but from a group of ten pupils and it letter asking for the name of their not entitle me to a pension because (a) would help to encourage and support bank and the money will be sent there there had not been a voluntary the liberal and humane teaching - automatically. The frustrating news is contract of employment (too true); patent from the school's annual report that all insurance claims for policies and (b) my employer had not paid - if interest were taken. Incidentally, held with Austrian companies have contributions (also true: that is what the school is now the Lise Meitner been passed on to the General slave labour was all about). Nazi Realgymnasium, Schottenbastei 7-9, Settlement Fund (GSF) of the ideology still rules OKthere. A-1010 Vienna. Nationalfond. The trouble is that the The present-day German industry Putting this in a broader setting, GSF has been frozen until there is a refused to contribute to a slave labour judging from the Wiesenthal Centre's decision on whether the class actions fund, resulting in a shortfall and quarterly Response, antisemitism is taken out in the United States against derisory compensation which did not not a problem (or at least not a Austria will be allowed by the take into account the pain, suffering notable problem) in Austria. On the American Supreme Court. If 'yes', it is and inhumane conditions. other hand, the most cursory very doubtful whether the GSF will Frank Bright examination of Statewatch or the pay out - which, in fairness, we Ipswich European Race Bulletin shows that were told by the Nationalfond from xenophobia is well and flourishing in the very start. Sir - George Vulkan's plea to visit official Austria, and the presence of Please believe that, together with Germany and to forgive the new the 'Freedom Party', now led by Michael Newman of the AJR, I am generation is hard to accept when we Haider's sister, is representative of a doing my best to ensure that we know of the horrific crimes their popular view. receive what is due to us, but it is not parents and grandparents committed. Francis Deutsch an easy task. Earlier agreements stand The great, late Lord Jacobovits always Saffron Walden in our way and we may well have to refused to set foot on German soil. He resort to law, which is not a said it was not in our province to LEGACY OR WINDFALL cheap option. forgive. Sir - Heinrich Stahl House, and the Peter Phillips George Lazarus other residential homes under the Loudwater London N3 auspices of the Otto Schiff Housing Association, were bought with funds BERLIN Sir - I agree with Mr Vulkan that which were restitution for assets Sir - The reason why I have not been the municipality has made a confiscated by the Nazis. These funds back in Berlin (letter from George great effort to remember their darkest are the legacy left by the original Vulkan, September 2004) is precisely days. However, when I attended my owners who did not survive to reclaim because of the present generation of school reunion of the Grosse their rightful property, and there were Germans. Hamburgerstrasse, I was told we were no inheritors with title. The wider It is the present generation at the quite safe as there were armed guards community of Jewish refugees from Allianz which in 1998 insisted that I on all the rooftops. A German man Nazi oppression who settled in all supply the details of a policy my father said it was because of the Middle East. parts of the UK are thus the 'heirs' to took out and the existence of which When I asked him if he had ever seen the so-called 'Erblose Besitz'. There are was admitted. Auschwitz deprived the need for armed guards outside a known, and as yet unknown, needs of AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

members of this group, many of CLAIMS CONFERENCE whom do not live in the London area. Sir - Readers may like to know about ARE YOU ON A LOW They - we - have first priority as my disappointing experience with INCOME AND IN NEED potential beneficiaries. regard to a claim for compensation for OF HOMECARE HELP? Victor Simons my parents' property in the former London A/1/1/3 East Germany. My brother and I (in our AJR might be able to offer you late 70s/early 80s) put in the 'goodwill' financial assistance for cleaning, gardening and caring. CZECHOSLOVAKIA claim in April 2002 to the Claims Conference Successor Organisation in Sir - Susanne Dyke's treatment at the Members who might not Frankfurt and provided the complex hands of the Czech authorities otherwise be able to afford legal documents in July 2002. Despite (September issue) should come as no homecare please contact: reminders, nothing was heard until surprise. When at the end of the last October 2003, when further detail Estelle Brookner, Secretary war the few Czech Jews who had was provided to a Berlin office. AJR Social Services Dept managed to survive the German Tel: 020 8385 3070 concentration camps tried to reclaim In May 2004 Frankfurt informed me their former homes, they were that the claim had been submitted for promptly expelled back into the arms decision to the New York office. A of their recent tormentors - the personal visit to the Frankfurt office in Companions Germans - allegedly because they July revealed that the German of London spoke German. As far as I am aware, government had transferred the Incorporating they never received an apology. money in November 2003. When I Hampstead Home Care Robert Miller contacted the New York official who was apparently dealing with the case I A long established company Leatherhead was told that no such claim existed in providing care in your home New York. Since then, numerous Assistance ivith personal care PC WORLD reminders obtained no replies or the General household duties Sir - You write about the removal of evasive statement that the large Respite care Medical appointment service the statue of St James, the Moor slayer, number of cases did not permit them from the Church of Santiago de to deal with individuals, until I finally 'OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' Compostela (September issue). When received an acknowledgement on 9 020 7483 0212/0213 it comes to offending the feelings of a September that New York was religious minority, there is nothing as 'working on' my case without any obscene as carvings of the Judensau indication as to when it would be ^^ SPRING depicting Jews suckling the teats of a finalised. I find this incompetence and sow. These, mostly created in the 15th arrogance by an organisation which S2)> GROVE century, are still to be seen on and in will deduct at least 20 per cent from 214 Finchley Road London NW3 many churches and buildings in the money due to me quite Germany. unacceptable and wonder whether I London's Most Luxurious To name one city - Cologne - there is am exceptionally unlucky or whether RETIREMENT HOME such a carving on a choir stool in the other AJR members have similar tales • Entertainment-Activities cathedral as well as on a tower of the of woe • Stress Free Living • 24 Hour Staffing • Excellent Cuisine town hall. With the Holocaust in mind, Eric Mark • Full En-Suite Facilities it is an abomination and a disgrace Brussels Call for more information that they have not been removed. The or a personal tour excuse that they are historical LOOK FORWARD 020 8446 2117 monuments is totally unacceptable. Sir - Would it be possible for you to or 020 7794 4455 Ernest G Kolman include more forward-looking articles [email protected] Greenford, Middx in your excellent publication? The Holocaust is, of course, of the greatest Sir - The solutions suggested in your importance to remember, but let's Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST article will, as far as Spain is read about what contribution we Surgeries at: concerned, hardly contribute to a make globally as Jews in this day and 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) more amicable relationship with their age as well. It will increasingly be Telephone 020 7624 1576 Arab brethren. One might go the second-generation Jews who will be 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) whole hog and destroy the tombs of your readers and will want to know Edgware, Middx HA87PU Ferdinand and Isabella in Granada. this. Telephone 020 8905 3264 Anthony Goldsmith Dorothy Graff Visiting chiropody service available Wembley, Middx Australia ii'fc%Siggjaiagi!«af'asig-'^^'-'>.?-;ii»'a

AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

answer is yes. And the BU's exhibition of the work of the post-Modernist painter, RG'S INTGRFACG Alfred Wolmark, featured last month, show-cased within its proscribed space Bunker cinema By macabre Wolmark's developing talent, from an symbolism the Berlin premiere of the much-trumpeted film Der Untergang Gloria Tessler obvious to a far more subtle way of being a Jewish artist. Here was certainly a (The Downfall), which allegedly Jewish artist, with an eye and a sense for humanises Hitler, coincided with neo- Nazi electoral successes in Saxony and his roots. Brandenburg. On screen the Fuhrer's But the same cannot be said for the 'humanity' is demonstrated by his general feel of this IJAYA exhibition, fondness for chocolate cakes and for his which - held in the large but uninspiring pet Alsatian dog. The critics were not Tram Studios in Camden Town - lacked impressed. any immediate sense of visual Camp drama The renowned actor Sir excitement, energy or cohesion. I was Anthony Sher has adapted Primo immediately assailed by 12 Pieces of Levi's imperishable classic about Dutch Circumcise (sic), an extremely Auschwitz If This Is a Man for the stage flat, unframed series of photographs of a of the National Theatre. He is also circumcision. Its creators, Anita Frank playing the lead. and Pauline Prior, have merely created The play Guantanamo, based on a cringe-worthy piece of Jewish interviews with relatives of Islamic prisoners held in the US 'facility', has documentary. Perhaps deliberately but been a critical success on both sides of tastelessly, the baby in the hands of the the Atlantic. Interestingly, both the mohel was like a lamb to the slaughter. play's co-author, Gillian Slovo, and its There are some interesting works, director, Nicholas Kent, are Jews. One among them Frank Lisser's arresting wonders whether this would strike the Judy Bermant Quizzical (Chaim) portrait of his maternal family. The detainees as bizarre. Watercolour (from the Judges' final selection) Elions, The Deported Family, A Tales of childhood Philip Roth, widely Posthumous Reunion. The subjects, considered the greatest living The indefinable interaction between described as an ordinary Dutch Jewish American writer and heir to Faulkner, photographer and subject helped Yaki family in the early twentieth century, revisits his childhood in his new novel Assayag win the International Jewish most of whom died in the war, stare out in The Plot Against America. The trigger for the story is the fictitious choice in Artist of the Year Award (IJAYA) for stilted, formal pose at the future they 1940 of the pro-Nazi aviator Charles two photographs of Israelis in relaxed and never shared. Based on old family Lindbergh as the Republican Party's thoughtful mood. By rejecting any portraits, it is a romantic construct into presidential candidate. Lindbergh is preconceptions about the portraits before which the artist can express a personal duly elected on a wave of isolationist starting them, Assayag claims to have fantasy reunion - a painful, Jewish dream sentiment, and proceeds to introduce a aroused the emotional response he common to many who lost family in the 'modified' form of Nazism - which has needed for this series of work. Holocaust. Jewish apologists - into the USA. In his memoir A Tale of Love and The annual competition, launched in Of course, the Holocaust has its own Darkness, Amos Oz, the best-known 2001 and co-hosted by the Ben Uri focus and its best exponents offer an Israeli author, writes about growing up Gallery, the London Jewish Museum oblique message. Jeimy Stolzenberg's in Jerusalem in the first years of the of Art and Friends of the Hebrew acclaimed ceramic shoe installation - Jewish state. The central figure of the University, this year attracted 800 Forgive and Do not Forget - loses in work is his cultured, hypersensitive entries from 15 countries. The genres this smaller version the overpowering mother, who eventually committed spanned painting and sculpture to new poignancy of its earlier BU exhibition. I suicide. Interestingly, the writer, today media. But many questions of comparison liked Aliza Freedman's set of four one ofthe country's leading peaceniks, arise. If we can even define Jewish art in acrylic Purim Portraits. These certainly had a father who espoused the Likud ideology. the twenty-first century, is one artist offer a new way of looking at the Purim more Jewishly creative than another? The cast, depicting Esther as a full-featiu^ed, Obituary Elmer Bernstein, the Ben Uri is currently deep in self- sensual Ethiopian, garlanded with green frequently Oscar-nominated composer searching as it takes upon itself the task of fronds; Ehasueras as an African warlord of music for films - The Ten broadening the contextual interpretation with braided beard; Mordechai as an Commandments, The Man with the Golden Arm, Ghostbusters - and of Jewish art, posing such questions as: Is archetypal elderly bright-eyed Jew; and musicals - Thoroughly Modem Millie - there such a thing as Jewish art? Clearly, if Haman in a three-cornered hat looking as has died in Los Angeles, aged 82. this competition is anything to go by, the evil as lago. AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

Figures of myth sheep of the house of Israel'. These and numerous other inconsistencies MOSES, MAN OF GOD REVIEWS Brichto attributes to the influence of Translated and edited by St Paul, whose teachings John has Sidney Brichto put into the mouth of his Jesus. Sinclair-Stevenson £12.99 Of particular significance is John's celebrated for the first time as a portrayal of Peter. As Brichto points APOCALYPSE commemoration of the exodus out, Matthew's Peter calls Jesus the Translated by Sidney Brichto from Egypt rather than as a Son of God and is referred to by Jesus Sinclair-Stevenson £6.99 seasonal festival. as 'the rock of my church'. In Apocalypse, in contrast, Peter has These volumes are the latest in the For Brichto, Moses and Jesus, as become the 'anti-Christ' and is even series The People's Bible, Sidney presented in the scriptures, are called 'Satan' because he refuses to Brichto's admirably accessible figures of myth, central to each believe in the divinity of Jesus. It translation of books in the Old and religion. The exodus, the myth of would appear then that the 'anti- New Testaments. Brichto is seeking national redemption, is deeply Christ' is the Jewish-Christian, like the to present the scriptures as a work of embedded in Jewish liturgy, while adherents of St Peter and St James, moral literature and to change the the story of the crucifixion and the who opposed the Pauline message perception of the Bible as a divinely resurrection is the core component and was waiting for Jesus to restore dictated text, worth reading only of the myth of universal salvation the sovereignty of Israel. out of duty. Certainly, some who through Christ. have taken the plunge find Miracles are an important feature While for many of his followers themselves confronted with of each myth. Brichto sees Pharaoh Jesus was 'the messiah', others saw propaganda they find hard to and Caiaphas as 'tools of God', in him as the special prophet of whom accept, since the God described in that Pharaoh's heart had to be Moses had spoken. Familiar as I am these texts seems at times immoral. hardened so that God could with the words at the end of This was indeed my impression as I perform the miracles leading to the Deuteronomy stating that 'no made my way through Moses, Man escape of the Israelites from slavery, prophet has ever arisen in Israel like of God, the first of two books into while Caiaphas performed a similar Moses', I had been unaware of this which Brichto has divided the text of function in the Christian narrative. prediction. It is, however, of particular interest as my late brother Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Apocalypse, Brichto's closely influenced me to aspire to find for Deuteronomy. The numerous laws annotated volume ofthe writing's of Jesus an honoured place among his recorded in these texts, randomly St John, reveals a tension between own people. Because of their introduced and often abstruse, have the art of the translator and the millennial suffering, provoked by the been conveniently assembled in the critical faculty of the commentator. dominance of the Christological, second book. The Laws of Moses. The former is intent on conveying a Pauline version of the Jesus story, The first book relates the exodus powerful narrative in language Jews have been inclined to from Egypt and the 40-year which captures the attention of the disregard him, as evidenced by the wanderings of an obdurate people reader and adheres as closely as writers of the Talmud, who referred under the direction of an apparently possible to the meaning of the to him as 'that man'. Had Jesus vengeful God. original, while the latter remains been recognised as 'the prophet' A Progressive rabbi, Brichto not ever ready to point out rather than 'the Christ' of Pauline only appraises the claims of the New inconsistencies in the text and flaws invention, how different history Testament from the perspective of in the author's line of reasoning. might have been. an interested outsider but also Brichto, like others, identifies in Emma Klein challenges the veracity of the John's gospel a welter of anti-Jewish Hebrew Scriptures. He contends that elements, which throw doubt on rather than being revealed to Moses the authenticity of his portrayal of on Mount Sinai, the Torah Jesus. For example, it is unlikely that Annely Juda Fine Art (Pentateuch) was discovered at the Jesus would have distanced himself 23 Dering Street time of the prophet Jeremiah when, from the Torah by referring to it as (off New Bond Street) as recorded in the Second Book of 'your Law'. On another level, rather Tel: 020 7629 7578 Kings, the Book of the Law was than proselytising among the Fax: 020 7491 2139 found in the Temple, leading King gentiles, as the Jesus of St John Josiah to repent and destroy all instructs his followers to do, the CONTEMPORARY PAINTING idols. It was after that discovery too, Jesus of St Matthew makes clear AND SCULPTURE Brichto says, that Passover was that his message is for 'the lost AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

Portraits of the great and business, for which he feels unsuited, he enters the publishing worid and not-so-good Letter from Israel promotes the talents of writers like Dorothea Shefer-Vanson JEW MADE IN ENGLAND Simon Raven, Tom Stoppard and Jean Genet. Married to Charlotte, a They came in their hundreds, in full Anthony Blond member of the Strachey family, he force, fighting fit and in fine fettle. The Timewell Press £20.00 suffers the loss of their son, who is Yekkes w^ere attending an Anthony Blond was born into the stillborn. The most heartfelt part of international conference devoted to themselves, held recently in Jewish haute bourgeoisie. His father, the book is the description of the Jerusalem. Its purpose was to after a distinguished army career, was scant respect with which bereaved examine the heritage of the Jews of involved in many enterprises, parents were treated in those days. Central Europe to various aspects of After the break-up of this marriage including the founding of the Royal Israeli society and culture. Jokes were Court Theatre. Not all his schemes there follows a period of 'rackety life' told about Yekkes and by Yekkes and, were successful, yet he managed to with many partners of either sex until above all, every session started on send his sons, Anthony and Peter, to he settles down once more, in late time (most unusual for Israel). middle life, with Laura Hesketh, the Eton. Anthony's maternal grandfather The conference, held under the joint had come to Manchester from Tripoli. granddaughter of an eari. Together auspices of several august bodies, One of his sons became the famous they adopt a young boy from Sri among them the Jerusalem photographer Baron. Anthony's Lanka who gives them much Foundation, various government mother, who had a lifelong antipathy amusement. ministries, the Goethe Institute and to things Jewish, moved her family There are many portraits of the the Konrad Adenauer Association, from the 'ghetto' of Cheetham Hill to great and not-always-good whom consisted of lectures and symposia on the suburb of Bowdon. Anthony Blond moves among, including such subjects as 'Was German Jewry writes: 'She brought Peter and me up Robert Maxwell, John Betjeman and a Model of Assimilation?' and 'The as if we were Gentiles, which meant I Graham Greene. In fact, the index is Unique Nature of German Zionism' was not allowed to be barmitzvahed.' totally composed of the names of as well as many other equally fascinating topics. Anthony's father returned from the these luminaries. If witty and army into the wealthy arms of Elaine perceptive portraits of well-known Alongside the conference was an exhibition of photographs depicting Marks, sister of Simon of M & S. personalities told in the style of the the absorption of German immigrants Anthony describes the break-up of gentleman's club are what you enjoy, in Israel in the pre-independence his parents' marriage with then this is your book. Of serious period with professors becoming reflection there is little, but then one equanimity: 'I spent weekends evenly chicken farmers and physicians wouldn't expect to find the solidity of between my mother's and my building labourers. Many German stepmother and father's country a suet pudding in a meringue. artists made a notable contribution to establishments, finding the contrast Martha Blend the development of art in both marked and agreeable. Thank Israel, and a special exhibition of work God ... for the pleasures of a broken by Yekke artists was on display home.' WANTED TO BUY during and after the conference. During a spell at Oxford he makes The meals at the opening dinner and friends with Jimmy Goldsmith, Milo German and those served in the restaurant during Cripps, nephew of Sir Stafford, and the conference followed a traditional Burgo Partridge, a scion of the English Books Yekke menu, and of course there was Bloomsbury Set. On a trip to Greece 'Kaffee und Kuchen' galore. Naturally, Established bookdealer with Burgo, he samples a group ofthe the contribution of the Yekkes to local sex-talent, whom he describes as (AJR member) every aspect of Israeli life - music, medicine, politics, the theatre and the 'our lot', and Burgo is duly robbed by always welcomes media - was glossed over for lack one of them. Blond's throwaway invitations to view of time. humour is in evidence in his account and purchase Some speakers confessed of Burgo's end: 'One afternoon, whilst valuable books shamefacedly that they were not 'true' talking ... on the telephone, Burgo Yekkes but considered themselves died ... Part of his aorta had flaked off For an immediate response, Yekkes by adoption, giving rise to a and choked him. I am told that when please contact: Robert Hornung heated discussion as to whether being his mother was informed, she 2 Mount View, Ealing, a Yekke was the result of heredity or telephoned Harrods and asked them London W5 IPR the environment. But the general to collect her son's body, cremate him Email: hornungbooks@aoLcom consensus, in true Yekke fashion, was and send her the bill.' Tel: 020 8998 0546 that it was both ofthe above. (Spm to 9pm is best) Following a stint in the family

10 AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

As I made my way to the north London he was elected president ofthe students' home of Professor Leslie Baruch union. His relations with his vice- Brent, I swiftly brushed up my PROFILE president, Joanne, were exemplary: in knowledge of zoology - wasn't it Howard Spier 1955 they married. She was to bear him something to do with animals? - as well three children: Simon, Susanna and as of immunology - something to do Jennifer. with flu jabs? - but was caught on the Having graduated from Birmingham, hop when I saw that my host was keen Leslie Baruch Brent Leslie came to UCL as a PhD zoology to begin our meeting with a discussion Ein Sonntagskind student under Professor Peter of politics. Stemming from a previous Medawar. Soon he" was appointed a interview he had given, he wished to lecturer. Peter Medawar, making use of make clear his abhorrence of both the some of Leslie's findings,late r won the US occupation of Iraq and of Sharon's Nobel Prize in Medicine. Leslie was policies. We were to retum to politics - now also working on the rapidly albeit of the British domestic variety - developing discipline of immune before very long. tolerance, including skin graft and Leslie Baruch Brent - he reverted to transplanting organs. In 1965 he was the Baruch in recent years - was born in appointed Professor of Zoology at the north German town of Koslin (now Southampton University and in 1969 in Poland). The family was well Chair of Immunology at St Mary's assimilated and steeped in German Hospital Medical School in London. He culture. They were also practising retired in 1990 and married Carol in the Jews, going regularly to synagogue and following year. lighting Sabbath candles, though by no At this point in the proceedings, we means observing kashrut. Leslie's resumed the political dialogue, always of father was a representative of a major importance to Leslie. In the 1970s company selling children's clothes, so he joined the Labour Party. An away from home a lot. exceptionally active member, he was to As the Hitler regime consolidated its else to go. Some ofthe teachers were to become especially concerned with the grip, Leslie encountered anti-Jewish become his friends for life. medical handicap experienced by sentiment at school among fellow In early 1942 Leslie joined the working-class children on account of pupils and teaching staff alike. During Birmingham Central Technical College their lack of adequate early schooling. the winter of 1936-37 his parents put as a lab technician in the chemistry Fighting racism too was a very him in the Pankow Jewish Orphanage department. He didn't actually know any important part of his political activity. in Berlin. After Kristallnacht, the chemistry but he learned fast. He recalls But in 1979, disillusioned with the Orphanage's director, Dr Kurt Crohn, a senior colleague being strongly party-line discipline of parliamentary nominated him for the first antisemitic - or maybe his colleague was practice, he left the Labour Party and Kindertransport. His parents and older just strongly anti-German... helped to found the SDP. He supported sister stayed behind. In a Red Cross At the end of 1943 Leslie, eager to do the subsequent merger with the message his father wrote to him: 'We're anything he could to help his parents, Liberals. Now he is a member ofthe Lib sure all will go well with you for you volunteered for the British Army. After Dems, which party he sees as being well are, after all, ein Sonntagskind five weeks of training in Glasgow, he to the left of Labour. He took part in the (Sunday's child).' His parents and sister was made a lance-corporal. He was sent well-known 2003 anti-war march and were deported in October 1942. to Italy but the war was over and he saw will never forgive Tony Blair for Iraq. Leslie was very fortunate in being no action. He returned to Germany as a Leslie has participated in a number of able to attend the German-Jewish co­ lieutenant. When the British army Kindertransport reunion events and has educational boarding school run by liberated Belsen he obtained some idea been an AJR member for a number of Aima Essinger at Bunce Court in Kent of the fate of his family. To this day he is years. In May 2001, at a reunion of 27 (on his visit to Ulm to commemorate not totally sure of their ultimate fate. survivors at the Pankow Orphanage, he the 125th anniversary of Anna Having left the army in 1947 with the was one of four individuals on whom the Essinger, see page 16). It was more rank of Acting Captain and intending to makers of a German TV documentary than a school and pupils were showered become a school teacher, Leslie focused. He is currently writing his with loving care and attention. It was obtained a grant to study zoology at memoirs. They should make also home for Leslie: he had nowhere Birmingham University. In his final year interesting reading!

11 AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

and Vienna too were much revisited by homemade honey cake and dipping INSIDE former refugees despite their bitter apples into honey for a good and memories. A few of us ventured out to sweet year. Fausta Shelton far-away countries where we were total theAJR Next meeting: Monday 15 November, strangers but never felt alone. The 10.45 am. Eli Benson of Magen David magic words 'Shabat shalom!' opened Adom, Israel's Red Cross the hearts and homes of the local Jews, who welcomed us like much-loved North London day out at HGS: Vivid memories of brothers. Julie Franks Little Venice internment Next meeting: Tuesday 9 November, We had a most enjoyable day at Little Ludwig Spiro's talk, to a packed 11am Venice in west London organised by audience at Balint House, was Leo and Helena Horn. A coach took us extremely interesting and brought back Extracts from 'Gluckel from from Whetstone to Little Venice, from vivid memories of my own internment Hameln' read to West Midlands where we took a waterbus to Camden in Huyton and Onchen. It was a pleasure Lock, where lunch had been arranged to welcome an old friend of OSHA and (Birmingham) group at Lloyds Bar. The weather was those who had not previously met Dr Henry Cohen spoke to us about glorious and we were able to sit outside Ludwig were amazed at his deliverance, 'Gliickel from Hameln: A Jewish Woman watching the boats, the ducks, the without consulting any notes and in a Gentile World', while his wife read moorhens, and cosmopolitan homo standing for an hoiu" and a half. extracts from it. It was such a treat for sapiens. A terrific day enjoyed by every me, being partially deaf, to have Jack Lee one of the 28 people lucky enough to someone speak and read in the most have been there. Ruth Jacobs Next meeting: Monday 1 November, beautiful English. We had a very nice tea 10.30 am. Rabbi Frank Dabba-Smith, as well. Henny Rednall Next meeting: Thursday 25 November, The Leitz Family', a presentation with 10.30 am. Bemd Koschland, 'From slides Next meeting: Tuesday 2 November Furth to Hendon and Places in Between' llford: Bombs and babies South London talk on history Eli Benson of Magen David Adom of JFS Pinner: 'Enemy aliens' proud to (MDA) gave us insight into the work of David Lerner gave us a very interesting be British this marvellous organisation, which is talk on the Jewish Free School. It was a particular pleasure to listen to supported by private donations only. We Following Cromwell's return, the first Daniel Snowman, the eminent writer were shown a short video which Jewish school in the world was founded and broadcaster, speak engagingly graphically demonstrated the work done in England in 1732. Other schools about his latest book The Hitler on the ground by MDA after a suicide followed - first for boys only, later also Emigres. Some 50,000 refugees from bomber has struck. Apart from these for girls. David also told us about life in the Nazis suffered as 'enemy aliens' in massive rescue operations they also the schools and the subjects taught. an insular England but went on to spark undertake more basic duties and After 1939 many refugee children came a marked enrichment of culture in apparently quite a number of babies from Germany and Zionism and Ivrit music, art, architecture, theatre, come into the world in an MDA became important subjects. We realised history, philosophy, science, book ambulance en route to hospital. A very just how important the JFS and other publishing and soap manufacturing, thought-provoking morning indeed. Jewish schools have been and continue becoming justly proud to be British. Meta Roseneil to be. Anne Poloway Walter Weg Next meeting: Wednesday 3 November, Next meeting: Thursday 18 November. Next meeting: Thursday 4 November, 10.30 am Celebration of our 10th anniversary and 2 pm. Israeli political analyst Abbi Ben a quiz Ari will speeik on 'Israel: A New Dimension' Recent holidays of Essex Happy New Year at Brighton & members MEETINGS IN NOVEMBER For one member, a lifelong dream had Hove Sarid Weald of Kent Tuesday 16. Royal come true: he had visited Poland, the We had a lively meeting to Tunbridge Wells land where he was born, and where his celebrate Rosh Hashana. Myma Glass East Midlands Tuesday 23. Lunchtime parents and grandparents had lived their gave us an extensive account of the get-together. Speaker Bob Norton lives and were buried in the Jewish festival with special reference to the Surrey Wednesday 24. Social get- cemetery. Although the Nazis had blowing of the shofar. Members shared together robbed the graves of their stones he was some of their memories and South West Midlands Sunday 28. still able to say Kaddish there. Berlin experiences, while tasting a delicious Lunchtime get-together

12 AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

Oxford get-together Paul Balint AJR Day Centre 15 Cleve Road, London, NW6 Tel: 020 7328 0208 AJR LUNCHEON CLUB Wednesday 17 NOVEMBER 2004 11.45 am for 12.15pm Tracy Chevalier Author of Girl with a Pearl Earring Oxford, famed for its university and dreaming spires, hostedforthe very first time, Early reservations please! in its splendid ecumenical synagogue, a get-together of AJR groups and members from the region. The get-together was organised by AJR's Southern Area team, led Lunch now only £5 by Myrna Glass, and members came for the day from Birmingham, South West Please telephone Sylvia or Susie Midlands, Pinner and North London to enjoy the wit and wisdom of guest speaker on 020 7328 0208 Bettine Le Beau, whose theme was 'Laugh Yourself to Health'. Ronald Channing, |X"T"_ AID Kindertransport Marcia Goodman and Michael Newman updated guests on the latest Ix I ~/AJ l\ special interest group developments and support services offered to members. Everyone enjoyed a MONTHLY MEETINGS AT CLEVE ROAD splendid lunch, with plenty of time for socialising with members from other groups, and are looking forward to joining in the area's next get-together. Monday 1 NOVEMBER 2004 11.45 am for 12.15 pm Ruth Cole 'Continental Friends' in the North of England 'Will Awareness and Inheritance Planning'

Lunch £5 Reservations required Please telephone 020 7328 0208

Monday - Thursday 9.30 am - 3.30 pm, Sunday 2 pm - 5.30 pm November Afternoon Entertainment: Mon 1 KT LUNCH Kards & Leeds Continental Friends at recent Garden Party Games Klub Tue 2 Mike Marandi It started three years ago with the formation The Bradford Continental Friends group, Wed 3 Francoise Geller of a small Harrogate AJR social group. The formed last year, brings together members Thur 4 Yakov Paul group now includes members from York, from Bradford, Shipley, Bingley, Elland, Otley, Wetherby and surrounding areas and Baildon, Batley and Huddersfield. Meetings Sun 7 CLOSED meets regularly at the home of AJR member are held in the Springhurst Road Mon 8 Kards & Games Klub Inge Little. Although members did not Synagogue Hall. Tue 9 Madeleine Whiteson previously know each other, the group now This year we have also established four Wed 10 Hounslow Community has a family feeling of friendship and shared localised Continental Friends, small social Opera past history. groups in Manchester in the Cheshire, Thur 11 Curtain Up Together with Holocaust Survivors Didsbury, Prestwich, Whitefield and Sun 14 CLOSED Friendship Association (HSFA) groups, AJR Broughton Crumpsall areas. They meet in Mon 15 Kards & Games Klub has set up small social groups in Leeds and members' homes for lively discussions. In Tue 16 Stephen Baron Bradford for former refugees and survivors of tandem with these small social get- Wed 17 LUNCHEON CLUB Nazi persecution. These groups, called togethers, Werner Lachs continues to Thur 18 Michael Heaton 'Continental Friends', provide an opportunity organise the successful main AJR meetings Sun 21 DAY CENTRE OPEN for people from the same background to meet in Manchester which are held about every Mon 22 Kards & Games Klub socially and exchange views. three months with a speaker. Tue 23 Sheila games The Leeds Continental Friends group is for Meetings of all the new Continental Wed 24 Margaret Gibbs members living mainly in the north Leeds Friends groups are held every two months Thur 25 Michelle Artiss areas of Moortown, Roundhay and Alwoodley. and, if any members would like to join in, they It was formed in spring 2003 and volunteers would be very welcome. Transport to the Sun 28 CLOSED Barbara Cammerman and Janet Friedman meetings can be arranged. Please contact Mon 29 Kards & Games Klub host the meetings in their homes. The group Susanne Green, AJR Northern Groups' Co­ Tue 30 Paul Coleman has gone from strength to strength and ordinator, on tel 0151 291 5734 for the Editorials and articles published, and recently 30 members of the Leeds Manchester, Harrogate, Hull and Sheffield opinions expressed, in AJR Journal are not Continental Friends group enjoyed a garden groups, or Pippa Landey for the Leeds and necessarily those of the Association of party in glorious sunshine at the home of Bradford groups, on tel 0113 2893144. Jewish Refugees and should not be volunteer Pippa Landey. Susanne Green regarded as such.

13 AJR JOURNAL NOVEIVIBER 2004

FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS Jewish Care Deaths 2s COMPANY & the Otto Schiff Housing Sigler. Rolf Sigler, after a long illness, Companionship Association died peacefully in his 90th year on 15 meet the personal and nursing care September. Beloved husband to Hilla, 2s Company specialises in needs of the Jewish Refugee Community. Companionship any time, Balint House, Leo Baeck House & Osmond much missed by his children Helen and House are situated in The Bishops Avenue, Michael, son-in-law Peter, daughter-in- any place, and we will be where residents live in spacious and comfortable tliere to accompany you on surroundings, looked after in a warm and caring law Carmen, and four grandchildren. environment. Residents can enjoy a variety of any shopping trips, activities and outings, as well as take part in Tischler, Salomon (Bubi), born traditional synagogue services and the journeys, holidays, walks celebration of Jewish festivals. Vienna 29.01.18, died 28.07.04. Sadly or even a cuppa. missed by his many friends. Short term respite care also available. Why not call for an For more information call Jewish Care Direct on 020 8922 2222 or email us at Classified informal chat on [email protected] Manicure & Pedicure in the 020 7372 3344 or OSHA Charity Registration Number 210396 Jewish Care Charity Registration Number 802559 comfort of your own home. Telephone 0778 8808907 02083430976. DayCentre DRIVERS WANTED (^^^^c't^o/ Home Care Pamela Bloch at the Paul Balint If you are able to take one of AJR Day Centre. Clothes sale, Care through quality and professionalism our members shopping on a separates, etc. Wednesday 3 Celebrating our 25th Anniversary fortnightly basis with all November 9.30-11.45 am. 25 years of experience in providing the highest expenses paid standards of care in the comfort of your own home please contact:

'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Carol Hart Volunteers Co-ordinator Members requiring benefit advice Tel 020 8385 3070 please telephone Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 1 liour to 24 tiours care Registered tiirough the National Care Standard Commission to make an appointment at AJR, ACACIA LODGE Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, .^4 lioui telepliuiie 020 7794 9323 www.colvin-nursing.co.uk Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. MATRON Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent {Ucensed by Borougti of Bamet) • Single and Double Rooms. Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. Clara Nehab House • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. Colette M. Fitzgerald MSSCh. MBChA. Residential Care Home • Nurse on duty 24 hours. QUALIFIED SURGICAL CHIROPODIST • Long and short term and respite, All single rooms with en suite bath/shower including trial period if required. Registered Member of Short stays/Respite and 24 hour Permanent Care Large attractive gardens, Ground Floor Lounge and Between £400 and £500 per weel< The British Chiropody and Podiatry 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours Association Dining rooms, Lift access to all floors 020 8455 1335 other times Easy access to local shops and public transport Visiting Practice - North London 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley, Enquiries and further Information please contact: London N12 9TB 0-15 Northwood Hall, Homsey Lane, The Manager, Clara Nehab House Highgate, London N6 5PF 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NWII ODA Phone. 020 8455 2286 Teh 020 8341 2611 FillaxCare North London's Premier Care Agency. ALTERATIONS We specialise in professional ADVERTISEMENT RATES OF ANY KIND TO LADIES' FASHIONS Home-Care. FAMILY EVENTS I also design and make children's clothes If you or a loved one need a reliable, First 15 words free of charge, West Hampstead area compassionate and affordable sen/ice, call £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. 020 7328 6571 us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 or e-mail us at [email protected] CLASSIFIED, SEARCH NOTICES Live-In and hourly rates. £2.00 per 5 words. RELY ON ROD FOR BOX NUMBERS - £3.00 extra decorating, household maintenance, flat pack assembly, shelving, tiling DISPLAY ADVERTS SWITCH ON ELECTRICS & office installations per single column inch 65mm £12.00 Rewires and all household FREE ESTIMATES Reasonable Rates electrical work COPY DATE - 5 weeks prior to 020 8931 6936 or 07774 839 743 publication NO JOB TOO SMALL PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518

14 AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

Obituary Search Notices Central Office for Holocaust Claims Klaus Hinrichsen Mary Triester, born approx. 1909 in Michael Newman Klaus Hinrichsen, an art historian and Troppau, Czechoslovakia. Daughter of businessman, has died aged 92. He was Mac/Max Treister and Susanna Dubs. Additional Austrian payments a champion of emigre artists who like Last known address (in 1938) Following an agreement reached at the him had fled to the UK to escape Nazi Lerchenfeld Gasse 19, Reichenberg beginning of September, recipients of persecution. (Liberec), Czech Republic. Any the $7,000 award from the National Fund in respect of confiscated rental He was born in Lubeck. His father, a information please to British Red Cross, apartments, household belongings and lawyer whose forbears were Sephardi 9 Grosvenor Crescent, London SWIX personal possessions will receive an Jews, had converted to Christianity and 7EJ, tel 020 7235 5454, Ref additional compensation of $1,200 brought his children up as Lutheran 9517/AlbinoOkello. (approx. £660). The awards are made Protestants. In 1931 he went to Katherine Kramer, born 24.2.1904, from the residual monies already Munich University to read art history, maiden name Kate Mann. 1950-56 theatre history and archaeology. In allocated to the National Fund. lived at The Homestead, Cadole, 1936, having completed his PhD (on The National Fund will write to Mold, Flintshire. 1956 to approx. the baroque sculptor Tonnies Evers), he everyone on their database in the next 1962 lived at The Lodge, Ravenscroft found it difficult to get work owing to few weeks requesting confirmation of Hall, Middlewich, Cheshire. Any his being half-Jewish. up-to-date bank details. It is envisaged information please to Social Attache, that payments will be made in January On Kristallnacht he was arrested but, Austrian Embassy, London SWl next year. Heirs of survivors who being 'half-Aryan', was released. He telephone 020 7235 3731. received the original award but have was to use this 'privilege' to aid other since passed away will be entitled to Jews to emigrate, by negotiating on I am a historian looking for the families claim instead. their behalf with German emigration of Jewish doctors who emigrated from Hamburg in the 1930s-40s. Any and tax officials. In May 1939 he Austrian pension charges information, please to Anna v. Villiez at obtained permission from the German Recipients of an Austrian pension who authorities to go abroad for three [email protected]. are still incurring commission charges months, but he was never to live in I am working on an exhibition about from Austrian banks are advised to close Germany again. the hostel established in 1939 by the their Austrian bank account in order to During an eleven-month internment Gloucester Association for Aiding avoid account-running charges. at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man Refugees. Ten Kindertransport boys To transfer their pension from Austria he found himself in the company of aged from 12 to nearly 15 were housed to the UK, pensioners had to open an some of Germany's leading modernist there in the care of a couple from account at an Austrian bank, usually artists, men such as Schwitters and Prague called Arnstein. I would like to Creditanstalt-Bankverein or Bank Erich Kahn, who had fled the Continent find out what happened to any of the Austria. Today, however, in order to at the outbreak of war. boys after the war. Any information, avoid charges, it is possible to have the Following his release from please contact James Turtle, annuities transferred direct by the 'Hutchinson University', he joined the Education and Outreach Manager, pension authority in Vienna to a UK Home Guard and, after the war, began Gloucestershire Record Office, account via the Deutsche Post Stuttgart. a successful career in pharmaceuticals. Alvin Street, GL1 3DW tel 01452 Application forms for the direct He established an office in the City of 425088 email james.turtle® transfer of a pension are available from London, becoming a freeman in 1962. gloucestershire.gov.uk. this office. He was for eight years chairman of the Quoting your account number, Dr Georg Wilde was the last rabbi to Highgate and Archway Liberal Party Creditanstalt-Bank Austria - which serve in Magdeburg, Germany. He and he supported the Medical merged in 2003 - can be contacted at arrived in England in 1939 and is Foundation for the Care of Victims of Internationale Privatkunden, thought to have died in the UK in about Torture. Schottengasse 6, A-1010 Vienna, 1949. The Centrum Judaicum in Berlin He also became the chronicler of art Austria. is researching into rabbis who served as in internment, writing the chapter 'Visual Arts Behind the Wire' for the German army officers during World Further help book The Internment of Aliens in 20th- War I and we would be very grateful to Written enquiries should be sent to century Britain (edited by David hear from anyone who has any Central Office for Holocaust Claims (UK), Cesarani and Tony Kushner, 1993). He knowledge or information about this Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, spoke on numerous radio and rabbi. Any information please to Chana Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, by fax to 020 television programmes and assisted Schuetz, Stiftung 'Neue Synagoge 8385 3075, or by email to with exhibitions of internee art. In July Berlin - Centrum Judaicum', [email protected]. Assistance can be 2004 he was honoured for his work at Oranienburger Strasse 28/30, D-10117 provided strictly by appointment at the the 'Kurt Schwitters in England' Berlin, tel 030-880 28 300, email Holocaust Survivors Centre in Hendon, conference held at Tate Britain. [email protected]. north London. For an appointment, please ring 020 8385 3074.

15 AJR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2004

A remarkable tribute: Ulm celebrates Anna Essinger's 125th anniversary Newsround Leslie Baruch Brent Berlin exhibition protests The opening in Berlin of a spectacular exhibition of contemporary art was picketed by Jewish protesters. The exhibition's benefactor. Christian Flick, is the grandson of the wartime German industrialist Friedrich Flick, who worked slave labourers to death in his explosives factories and took over confiscated Jewish firms, but refused to compensate any of his surviving workers. Though he served four years in jail, when he died in Bunce Court, the school run by Anna Essinger in Kent 1972 he was one of the world's Bunce Court, on the North Downs of UK, Israel and Germany) and several ex- wealthiest men. Kent, became the home of Anna Bunce Court and ex-Herrlingen pupils Churchilliana Essinger's avant-garde co-educational had been invited, was remarkable. It The grandson of Sir Winston Churchill Landschulheim when she moved it began with early-morning speeches sold Sir Winston's papers after from Herrlingen, near Ulm, in 1933. Her and music and sophisticated 25 years of trying. Revealed in a farsighted and courageous decision gymnastics in the square outside the previously embargoed file, the Major was taken immediately after she had munster (the gymnastics were inspired government agreed to pay £12.5 been forced to fly the swastika flag on by Anna's philosophy that children million from the national lottery funds. Many hold the view that Sir Winston's the school building. She took with her should have physical exercise before archives belonged to the nation. some 60 pupils and a number of breakfast), watched by 1,200 children teachers. and their teachers and some parents, Prayer returns to Sarajevo synagogue This year Ulm is commemorating its many carrying large banners and Nine years after the civil war in 1,150th anniversary and, together with pennants bearing her photograph. All Bosnia, Sarajevo's sixteenth century Anna Essinger, the city also chose to walked to the house in which she was synagogue, now partially restored, born and only then was breakfast honour Albert Einstein, who was born was consecrated as a house of in the city 125 years ago. taken. Other events in the week worship on Erev Rosh Hashanah Anna Essinger's achievements and included an assembly of the schools in (Jewish New Year). Sarajevo's 700- contribution to the development of the large amphitheatre outside the member Sephardi Jewish community share the same street with a mosque Reformpadagogik (hers was the first school building, addresses by the lord and Catholic and Orthodox churches. such school in the state of mayor of Ulm and by the head teacher of the gymnasium, the singing of Wiirtemberg) became known to the Hitler on the big screen city of Ulm in 1989, when someone 'Happy Birthda/, a musical offering, A major new film about Hitler, Der bought a house she had used in the and an extraordinary rap performance Untergang (The Downfall), has been 1920s-early 1930s and became by a young Turkish boy who had released in Germany. It explores his last 12 days in a bunker beneath intrigued by people knocking on her composed the words himself. Talks the bombed-out chancellery in Berlin. door to enquire about the fate of the about Anna Essinger's educational philosophy and achievements, a Germany retains its ban on the school .Ini 990 the two schools housed Nazi Party, the wearing of swastikas, question-and-answer session between under the same roof - the Gymnasium publication of Hitler's Mein Kampf and the school children and former pupils of and the Realschule - decided to adopt other relics of National Socialism. the name Anna-Essinger-Schulen. her schools, and a light-hearted 'Trading with the Enemy?' Plaques sprang up outside the house in evening commemorating her US Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather Hafengasse in which she was born, as achievements followed. of President George Bush, represented well as outside the four houses that For those of us who were pupils in German companies which were had comprised the Landschulheim and Herrlingen and Bunce Court, and for financial backers of Hitler. Evidence associated children's homes. Gradually Anna Essinger's relatives, it all seemed was found in the US National Archives Anna Essinger became a household like a wonderful dream. How that the company for which he worked represented Germany's largest coal name as the schools as well as the city appropriate that Anna Essinger should and steel company, Thiesen, who expressed their pride in this association be further honoured this year by her helped fund Hitler in the 1930s. The and claimed her as their own. inclusion in the new edition of the business relationship lasted until its The week of festivities, to which Oxford Dictionary of National assets were seized in 1942 under the members of Anna's family (from the Biography. Trading with the Enemy Act.

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 Jubilee House is situated adjacent to Stanmore Underground Station.

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