VOLume 14 NO.12 DECEMBER 2014 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

Memorable memoirs am currently writing a book, generously Stürmisch bis heiter: Memoiren einer secondary education in Germany was supported by the AJR, on the depiction Außenseiterin (Stormy to Fair: Memoirs punctuated by expulsions from select of Britain and the British in texts by of an Outsider), a bestseller following boarding schools for young ladies, on Irefugees from Hitler. While there are its publication in 1964, is now familiar one occasion because she lent a fellow numerous studies of British attitudes mainly to experts on exile literature; pupil Elinor Glyn’s supposedly scandalous towards the Jews who fled to Britain Deborah Vietor-Engländer, a British- novel Three Weeks. Her family returned to after 1933, as yet no one has sought to born scholar now resident in Berlin before 1914 so it was in analyse systematically the reactions of the Germany, has championed Germany that Castonier began newcomers to their country of refuge and Castonier alongside other her literary career. By the end the images they created of it. Instead, the major literary exiles such as of the First World War, she had newcomers mostly feature merely as the Alfred Kerr and Hermann broken with both her parents, passive recipients of British generosity or Sinsheimer. whose marriage had collapsed as the passive victims of British indifference Castonier’s work is when her mother moved to and, on occasion, outright hostility. To characterised by its humour Munich to join her lover. As her redress this balance, to give the refugees and lightness of touch, as mother would not house or keep their voice and to reinvest them with well as by a joyously positive her, Castonier took up residence active agency in determining their lives, and life-affirming attitude to in a series of inexpensive lodgings I have been researching autobiographies, the experiences she recounts in Schwabing, the centre of memoirs, diaries and collections of letters and a deep human sympathy Munich’s bohemian and artistic Elisabeth Castonier by refugees, many of which make for towards those she describes, (1894-1975) world. She came to know many compelling reading. even (or indeed especially) of the major figures in German Elisabeth Castonier (1894-1975) when they belong to the animal world. cultural life, including Franz Blei, Oskar sought refuge in Britain in 1938, one of Castonier was born in Dresden on Bie, Alfred Kerr and Theodor Wolff. a number of gifted female refugee writers 6 March 1894, the daughter of Felix In 1923 she married Paul Castonier, a from Germany and Austria that included Borchardt, the half-Jewish son of a German Danish opera singer whose career remained Gabriele Tergit, Hilde Spiel, Ruth Feiner banker who had bequeathed his son a stuck at the level of short-term provincial and Anna Gmeyner. The stories she wrote fortune, and his wife Elizabeth, the flighty engagements; they separated amicably after set in Mill Farm, near Alton in Hampshire, and self-obsessed daughter of a Russian several years. Chronically short of money, began to appear in 1959 and, much loved aristocrat and an English mother. Felix Castonier earned her living by her pen, in though they were, are now sadly little Borchardt had the means to finance his a wide variety of literary and journalistic known in Britain. My text, Mill Farm: career as an artist, which he chose to pursue endeavours. Menschen und Tiere unter einem Dach in Paris, where Elisabeth, his only daughter, She made her breakthrough with the (Mill Farm: People and Animals under grew up in almost unimaginable luxury. dramatised version of one of her novels One Roof) (1984), is an edition based on She enjoyed a thoroughly cosmopolitan early in 1933, but the Nazi regime put three collections of stories written between childhood in artistic circles, during which an end to her literary career. She moved 1959 and 1964. One of these collections she met the sculptor Rodin and visited to Vienna, but was driven out by the was originally entitled Die Herzogin the Impressionist painter Monet at his Anschluss; she settled in Positano, but was Nana (Duchess Nana) after its main home at Giverny, where, as she notes in forced to leave Italy as Mussolini’s regime character, a Persian Blue cat of delicate, her memoirs, Renoir and his wife were increased its pressure on the refugees ladylike sensibilities almost human in her also present. from Germany. As she had invested what fastidiousness. Castonier’s autobiography But Castonier was a born rebel. Her continued on page 2  Sir Nicholas Winton receives highest Czech state award ir Nicholas Winton, who saved Prague Castle’s Vladislav Sir Nicholas responded: 669 children, most of them Hall. ‘I don't think we’ve ever SJewish, from the Nazis, has been Sir Nicholas paid tribute learnt from the mistakes awarded the Czech Republic’s highest both to the British people of the past ... The world state honour. who gave the children today is now in a more On 28 October 2014, the anniversary homes and to the many dangerous situation than it of the founding of an independent Czechs for their ‘enormous has ever been and, so long Czechoslovakia in 1918, Sir Nicholas, help’ in that difficult as you’ve got weapons of 105 years old, was given the Order period. mass destruction which of the White Lion by Czech President Asked by the BBC what can finish off any conflict, Milos Zeman at a special ceremonyv in he made of today’s world, nothing is safe any more.’ journal DECember 2014  Memorable memoirs continued Claims Conference remained of her inheritance in a London the grey mares Ma Belle and Fairy Queen, Late Applicants Fund bank, she came, reluctantly, to Britain the sheepdog Bimbo, the cock Rigoletto he deadline for applications to the and the gander Rosenkavalier, as well as in autumn 1938, at the height of the Claims Conference Late Applicants Munich crisis. Life in Britain was initially Herzogin Nana and the – aptly named – Fund is 31 December 2014. The hard for her. She struggled to earn her wild heron Luzifer, whose antics during T €50m Fund accepts applications from living, though she was befriended by the visit of an elderly aunt of Jane Napier Audrey Mildmay, the opera singer wife of caused me to laugh out loud in the hushed heirs of former owners of Jewish John Christie, founder of Glyndebourne, precincts of a British Library reading room. property/assets located in the former and had articles published in the News The humans, though plainly taking second East Germany for which the Claims Chronicle and New Statesman; she also had place to the animals, are also delineated Conference received proceeds. a series of books about animals published. with affectionate humour, for instance the Following the demise of Communism Characteristically, when she was finally aged local doctor, Dr Pain, who disapproves in 1989 and the formal re-uniting of East offered secure, well-paid employment as of modern, scientific medicine and the and West Germany in 1990, the unified an interpreter in a government department, new-fangled, centralised National Health German government introduced the she turned it down, opting instead for the Service, but who insists on being buried national German restitution law allowing job as a farmhand that a British farmer, with his battered bag of instruments, just in owners, or their heirs, of properties in the Jane Napier, had offered her, for a far case some angelic denizen of the hereafter former East Germany to submit claims smaller wage and in an occupation utterly might be in need of the traditional modes of for the return of their properties. unfamiliar to her. assistance that he had so selflessly dispensed With the expiry of the timeframe Castonier was to spend some ten years to his human patients. to file claims in accordance with the working and living on Mill Farm, in the Mill Farm, whose farmhouse is depicted national restitution law in 1992, the small village of Froyle in Hampshire, almost as an organic extension to the Claims Conference filed a blanket claim where, by now in her fifties, she fell under landscape around it, came to stand for the for properties that were once owned by the spell of the English countryside, qualities that Castonier loved in England Jewish victims of the Holocaust who lived whose misty skies and gently undulating and the English: their humane, unshakable in that part of Germany that came under landscapes she saw as the counterpart to conservatism, their self-deprecating the Communist sphere of influence at the a way of life and a set of values that she humour, their determination to defend end of the Second World War. came to admire and love. The work on their freedoms, and the tolerance and In 1996 the Claims Conference Mill Farm was heavy and unrelenting, respect for the individual that she saw as the created the Goodwill Fund, through borne as it was by two women no longer hallmarks of English life. From Waterloo which properties were returned to young. Such permanent helpers as they had Bridge, Castonier had watched the armada their rightful owners with 20 per cent were the trusty Old Hand and the elderly of ‘little ships’ setting sail for the beaches of of the value being kept by the Claims female factotum nicknamed Gremlin, Dunkirk in May 1940; Britain’s stubborn Conference for allocation to worldwide whose friendly and helpful spirit suffused defiance of Hitler’s armies convinced her social and welfare programmes, the household and whose death, bereft of that the country’s centuries-long freedom including the Emergency Fund disbursed family but surrounded by the instinctive from invasion had allowed it to develop its by the AJR. support and compassion of animals, is own traditions and values by a process of For full details of the Late Applicants at once among the saddest and the most gradual, organic evolution that set it apart Fund, including a list of former uplifting passages in Mill Farm. Gremlin from its Continental neighbours. owners, properties and assets, visit is portrayed as a kind of genius loci, as if Mill Farm opens with a memorable www.claimscon.org/?url=LAF where she had sprung from the same countryside image of an almost mythical island nation: you will also find a link to download as the farm and the ancient, increasingly Ein durchsichtiger, opalfarbener the application form. decrepit farmhouse. Dom aus Nebel und Dunst wölbt All communications regarding the The ten years that Castonier spent sich schützend über der Insel Late Applicants Fund should be submitted working on the farm had, as she puts it in Großbritannien und isoliert sie to: Claims Conference Successor her autobiography, made her a new person, von den anderen Weltteilen. Denn Organization, Sophienstrasse 26, enabling her to return to her writing with England ist ein Weltteil für sich, auch D-60487 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, fresh energy and creativity and a fresh wenn behauptet wird, dies wie ein fax 0049-69-97-07-08-11, email perspective on the world. Much of this was zerfetztes Segel geformtes Stück Erde [email protected] due to the animals around her: among the inmitten des Meeres sei in Urzeiten cast of characters that populate Mill Farm von Europa losgerissen worden. are the parrot Pollykeye, the tomcat Rum, (A transparent, opal-coloured dome of fog and mist rises like a AJR ANNUAL ELECTION AJR Chief Executive protective arch over the island of Great MEETING POSTPONED Michael Newman Britain, isolating it from other parts ue to unforeseen circumstances, Director of the world. For England is a part David Kaye of the world unto itself, even though we had to postpone the Annual Election Meeting of the AJR which Heads of Department it is claimed that this piece of land, D Karen Markham Human Resources & Administration set amidst the ocean in the shape of was due to take place in November. Sue Kurlander Social Services Carol Hart Community & Volunteer Services a tattered sail, was torn loose from The meeting will now take place at Europe in prehistoric times.) AJR Journal 10:30 am on Tuesday 16 December at Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor The book closes with Castonier’s Belsize Square Synagogue, 51 Belsize Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements reflections on the vibrant and colourful Square, London NW3 4HX. odyssey of her life, now reaching its If you would like to attend, Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not twilight among the pastel shades of the please notify AJR Head Office on necessarily those of the Association of Jewish English countryside. 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] Refugees and should not be regarded as such. Anthony Grenville

2 DECember 2014 journal

PHOTOS: BLAKE EZRA PHOTOGRAPHY

Prince Charles meets Kinder at memorable London premiere of The Last Train to Tomorrow

is Royal Highness The Prince lighting ceremony. The special concert also featured of Wales was guest of honour During the interval, His Royal Highness Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro Hat the London premiere of took the opportunity to chat with Kinder. Overture and Mendelssohn’s Violin The Last Train to Tomorrow by the Commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra, Concerto. Fourteen-year-old soloist internationally acclaimed composer The Last Train to Tomorrow tells the Louisa Staples, from the Yehudi and conductor Carl Davis CBE. Menuhin School, made a great The special concert, organised by the The January 2015 issue of the Journal will impression on the audience. AJR and attended by over 1,200 people, feature a selection of reactions to the special Among those present were Sir was held on Sunday 9 November, on concert. Andrew Burns KCMG, UK Envoy for both Remembrance Sunday and the Given the popularity of the souvenir Post Holocaust Issues; Lord Alf Dubs anniversary of Kristallnacht. brochure, the AJR is to issue a re-print. If you (himself a Kind) and Lady Dubs; would like a copy please send a cheque for The event was held at London’s Malcolm Singer, Director of Music at £5 to the AJR, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Roundhouse, historically a turning Middx HA7 4RL. the Yehudi Menuhin School; Vivian point for trains and located close to If you wish to purchase a CD please visit Wineman, President of the Board Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road, www.carldaviscollection.com or http:// of Deputies; and representatives of where many of the Jewish refugees www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Train-Tomorrow- the Austrian, Czech and German who fled Nazi oppression settled. Davis-Collection/dp/B00N83U8I0 Ambassadors to the UK. Unfortunately, Natasha Kaplinsky, the newsreader Sir Nicholas Winton, now 105 years and television presenter and a member story of the Kindertransport through old, who rescued almost 700 Kinder of Prime Minister David Cameron’s a sequence of songs written by the from Czechoslovakia, was unable to Holocaust Commission, introduced celebrated children’s author Hiawyn be present. the event. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, Oram. The song cycle was performed The concert, an outstanding whose grandfather, Georg Salzberger, with great passion and power by Finchley success, concluded the series of was the Rabbi of Frankfurt’s Westend Children’s Music Group and the City events the AJR had organised to Synagogue, which was destroyed on of London Sinfonia conducted by the commemorate the 75th anniversary Kristallnacht, oversaw the candle- composer. of the Kindertransport.

3 journal DECember 2014 Invitation to Flossenbürg ow could I refuse? Such a nice he managed to survive four months in country. Soon I was the last passenger invitation from Annette, archivist Dachau after a death march? There are left on board. How beautiful the scenery Hat Flossenbürg: ‘I would be so no answers. is. A huge impressive entrance building, happy to welcome you here!’ and ‘I Annette asked if she could compile an presumably once the guards’ and SS can organise an English tour for you.’ exhibition about my father’s life before quarters, and now the offices of the Surely Jews don’t usually receive such and after Flossenbürg for visitors to Camp – sorry, I mean Memorial. invitations from concentration camps. the Camp – sorry, I mean Memorial. No Annette welcomed me and made me Or ‘Memorials’ (Gedenkstätten), as they one had ever asked before for details of a cup of coffee. (I bet my father didn’t are called today. my father’s experiences. While he was have such a reception when he arrived, But where is Flossenbürg? I know alive, he had never spoken about it. I thought). A cup of coffee to pay for where Auschwitz and Dachau are. And no one had bothered to ask. Even months of slave labour? But I must stop And Sachsenhausen and Terezin. thinking like this. It’s a different time And Bergen-Belsen is somewhere now. Annette is genuinely so friendly in northern Germany, I think. But and helpful – she wasn’t even born Flossenbürg? Who knows? Is it in during those events. Nor were her Germany at all? Where is my atlas? parents. Stop those thoughts – now! Here it is …. There, it’s a tiny village, She talked about her work at the right on the border with the Czech Memorial. Republic. Far from any large town Annette took me on a personal or city. Maybe that’s why they built tour. The barracks, the laundry, the it there. execution sites, the roll-call areas, On a momentary whim, I had the sick bay, the isolation blocks. Just written to Dachau Camp – sorry, I like the other sites I’d visited but on a mean Dachau Memorial – and asked smaller scale and in a different order. if they had any record of my father’s And all so beautifully landscaped time in the camp. And very quickly now. But where are the visitors? Just they’d replied that he had arrived Stephen (Istvan) and Eva Wirth with daughter Linda, a couple there, a small group here. London 1973 from Flossenbürg (what/where is No coach loads of tourists, no survivor Flossenbürg, I had thought) in December when my mother had responded to families, no Israelis and no loud school 1944 and he had been liberated by the Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation’s groups. Almost nobody. Presumably Americans in Dachau in April 1945. invitation for survivors to have their people do the ‘Auschwitz experience’ So I wrote to Flossenbürg Camp – testimonies recorded for posterity, his instead. The silence and stillness are sorry, I mean Memorial – and Annette organisation had replied no thanks good. But how can they build those had responded with the following – even though she had been a slave new houses that overlook the site? Who information: Germany had invaded labourer in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Their chooses to live there? Maybe those Hungary in March 1944 and immediately publicity says they were founded to houses are cheaper. Or do they attract begun the deportation of the Jews. ‘gather video testimonies from survivors buyers who wish to remember. But how The provincial areas, including Miskolc, and witnesses of the Holocaust’ and can you bring up children in those houses where my mother and her parents today they are still continuing to gather with those views? lived, were cleared quickly and nearly more. This saddened her. She never did Annette shows my father’s name in all their Jews were sent to Auschwitz. understand why they turned her down. a vast book on display containing a list In Budapest, where my father and his So her story remained untold. of all prisoners. And then the exhibition family lived, the Jews were herded into I gave Annette the information she of my father’s life. Respectfully put the newly created ghetto, most to be had asked for. She asked for photographs together. So my father’s story is told after taken to Auschwitz. But not my father. – but there were so few to choose from. all. I thank Annette for all she’s done, for How did he end up in Flossenbürg? I told her that my father had met my the kind invitation and for the tour. She However helpful she was, Annette could mother after the war in Budapest and explains that they are now working to not definitively explain this. that they had married and fled Hungary establish a memorial for the Hersbruck Maybe they needed some fit slave during the 1956 Revolution. I described sub-camp and that I should return when workers for the mines in the area. how hard life was for them as homeless this is finished. Annette said the SS had transferred him and poor refugees in London, but they I am again the only passenger in within a few days of arrival to the nearby built up their lives and had three children. the bus. From the train I quickly take Hersbruck sub-camp, where prisoners I told her that their younger son Leslie – a picture of a station called Hersbruck. were forced to dig a system of tunnels my brother – died in an accident aged No indication or sign of the sub-camp. in the mountainside. In these tunnels, three, and that their daughter Linda – my Maybe next time. she explained, the BMW Company had sister – took her life as a young adult. I I have some hours in Nuremberg planned to produce engines for the felt visitors should know that survivors’ before my flight home. Unlike Berlin armaments industry, shielded from Allied tragedies didn’t end when the Holocaust and Munich, the town centre displays air raids. However, the facility never was over. Annette thanked me. And absolutely no indication of its major went into operation and around half of later, when she had finished work on Nazi past. Nuremberg had always been the 8,000 inmates died as result of the the exhibition, she invited me to visit way ahead of the game. Already in July appalling conditions. As the Americans Flossenbürg and the exhibition. Fly to 1933 SA stormtroopers had broken approached, the camp was evacuated Nuremberg, she suggested, then take into hundreds of Jewish homes and and its prisoners sent on a death march the train to Weiden (where is Weiden, beaten up Jews. The Great Synagogue to Dachau. No wonder that when the I thought) and then take a local bus to had been destroyed months before war was over my father spent two years Flossenbürg. Kristallnacht – no time lost there, then being treated for tuberculosis in German It was unnerving to see Flossenbürg as – so on the infamous night itself they hospitals before being allowed back to the destination on the front of the bus. could only destroy the smaller Adath Hungary in 1947. But how on earth had The final stop. A long bus ride into the continued on page 5 

4 DECember 2014 journal Manfred One and Manfred Two ’m eight years old, staring at a white joke? Has he disappeared ‘His mum said they sheet pinned to our living room wall. forever? Silence, except came at dawn. There II’m sitting in darkness, watching for the whirring of the was a knock on the grainy black and white film. My dad is spools. door and they took the projectionist. I glance back to the him away. We never A single shaft of light projects screen. My dad and his heard again.’ the flickering images of my parents’ best man are now dancing I shift slightly in wedding. The only sound is the whirring together – a Russian my seat and pull my of spools turning on the 8mm movie dance, going down on socks up. projector. The characters on the sheet their haunches, kicking ‘Did they come at are laughing, hands holding wine their legs and falling over dawn for you?’ glasses, arms raised, toasting and – by each other helpless with ‘I had already left. the way their lips are moving – often laughter. We left straight after singing. 'How did he disappear?’ the wedding.’ There are only a few shots of my Silence except for the I turn back to the teenage mother, the bride with flowers whirr of the projector. Carry Gorney, aged screen. My parents in her hair. She waves shyly with one ‘Is he your best friend, around 8 are running along a hand, the other holding her long Manfred Marks?’ station platform each carrying a large, shiny dress, nervous she’ll trip on her ‘Yes, he was. We were at school stiff leather suitcase. Manfred Marks stiletto heels. There are many shots of together, we were always in trouble is leading a gaggle of waving, leaping my dad, Jack the Lad, aged 24, dark with the teacher, he called us Manfred young people throwing confetti. The eyes flashing, kissing his bride, kissing One and Manfred Two.’ images wobble as the camera is passed his mother, pushing and shoving his ‘Which were you?’ around. The next shots are from the younger brother, and lunging forward ‘Manfred Two, I was the younger.’ train; my father is filming his friends. to grab the camera. ‘If he is your best friend why doesn’t There is a long close-up of Manfred I’m noticing another figure always he write to you?” Marks’s face and his eyes seem to meet somewhere in shot. He also looks about I understand about writing letters. mine in our darkened 1950s living 24. He is laughing, he plays camera tag Every month I listen to the letters read room. Then the screen goes black. The with my dad. One films a few seconds, out by my gran and great aunts. So why whirring has stopped. then the other one. They film each didn’t he write? We sit in silence for what seems other. He pulls faces at the camera, he Just the whirring of the spools. forever. I suck the ends of my pigtails. makes my dad pull faces, he kisses the I watch Manfred One on the film ‘Daddy, who are all those people bride, then the bridesmaid, once, twice. blow kisses at the camera. Two stare throwing confetti?’ ‘Who’s he?’ I ask. frozen at the screen. I really wanted ‘Friends.’ ‘My best man, Manfred Marks.’ to know what happened but I daren’t ‘Where are they now?’ ‘He’s funny.’ ask any more. A fog of silence has ‘They just disappeared.’ ‘He was.’ descended. Where did they go, I wonder, where ‘Has he visited us?’ A long pause, everyone kissing did they go? ‘No.’ everyone else on the screen. Eventually, Carry Gorney ‘Why not?’ I try again. This article is an extract from Send No answer. ‘Daddy ….’ Me a Parcel with a Hundred Lovely ‘Why not, daddy?’ ‘Yes?’ Things, a memoir by Carry Gorney. The No answer. ‘How can you just disappear?’ book was published in November 2014 ‘Where is he?’ He turns to me in the dark. I scrutinise at £11.99 plus £3.00 pp. Pause. his face, lit up by the projector beam. ‘He just disappeared.’ For a moment I feel scared, I think he’s To order a copy, please visit http://www. What did that mean? How can angry with me, I know what happens carry-gorney.co.uk/sendmeaparcel/ you just disappear? I think of the pot if I go too far. I move carefully away Alternatively, please send a cheque labelled vanishing cream on my mum’s from him, silently out of reach of his to Carry Gorney at Ragged Clown dressing table. Did he apply it and hand just in case. He holds my gaze Publishers, c/o 1 Ferdinand Place, then pouf, he disappeared? Was it a for a long time. London NW1 8EE.

 Invitation to Flossenbürg continued Israel Synagogue. The racial laws will, of Another tram takes me to the court for one visit. course, forever be linked with this city. building which hosted the war trials. Back home, I email Annette and ask And Hitler had chosen it for his Nazi There are no trials in Room 600 today how the survivors’ reunion went. She rallies. So maybe it was apt that the war so they allow me inside with some replies it went very well, although there trials were held here. Japanese tourists. But the room looks were fewer survivors this time. She says I take the tram out and see that the so small for such a major trial. Could she no longer works at Flossenbürg. vast rally grounds are now empty and the 21 defendants, judges, lawyers, She’s taken a job in Prague. Good, I think. silent in the summer heat. Diners sit interpreters and world’s media really She’s probably had enough Holocaust at outside tables by the lake alongside fit in there? There’s a new exhibition of for one lifetime. Too much is not good. I the grounds, seemingly oblivious to the the trials in the rooms upstairs. It looks wish her well. But the Holocaust doesn’t past, and chat over their beers. Joggers impressive but I buy the guide book stop for me …. pass by. instead and leave. Enough Holocaust David Wirth

5 journal DECember 2014

allocated ‘'my’ room! However, this was overtaken by events and in due course we were able to move into our own house. Many years later her books were read by my own children. Peter Roland, Bognor Regis

Sir – I read with interest your article about Judith Kerr and her fictional Anna in The Other Way Round. The Editor reserves the right My story is not fiction and totally to shorten correspondence opposite to that experience. My sister, submitted for publication at the time three-and-a-half, and I, nine- and-a-half, were taken in by a family in Ashton-under-Lyne. They lived in a terrace house containing two bedrooms, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES! a ‘front’ room, a kitchen with a bath, and Sir – Your October issue brings memories Kerr’s Bovril experience. Shortly after the an outside toilet. They had a daughter, of my own experiences bubbling up. war we were with friends on a cycling Mary, who was sent to live with her My twin brother Ralph and I came to tour which took us from London to Wales. grandmother as they didn’t want us to England at the age of ten in April 1939 At the time, navigation was made more be separated. We couldn’t have wished as refugees from Berlin. Unlike cousins difficult because signposts had been for kinder people. who came on the Kindertransport, we removed in case of a German invasion. We came from Prague from a very were fortunate to come as a family with At one point, we were completely lost modern apartment but the change our parents. The article about Judith Kerr when we found ourselves in a small of lifestyle didn’t faze us at all and and that by Carry Gorney remind me of town with a railway station. Luckily, my memories of ‘Mammy and Daddy our own experiences – for instance my it seemed to have retained its Welsh- Radcliffe’ and all their friends are very mother asking for a Flasch of orange language nameplate: GWR (Great happy ones. ‘Daddy’ Radcliffe was a juice at the local Co-op in Kilburn, where Western Railway). We searched our councillor and the secretary of the we settled, and our father, coming from ordnance survey maps for GWR but, to local Labour Party. Consequently we a large centrally heated apartment, our distress, we couldn’t find it …. were taken to all the evening ‘socials’, trying to light a fire in our small, damp Thanks for the memories! which were very family affairs, very basement rooms. Frank Land (b. Landsberger), soon learned to dance the Veleta and Another memory: our parents stocked Ivybridge, Devon the Military Two Step etc, and enjoyed up with the kind of clothing they thought the hospitality for which Lancashire is the British wore. For my brother and me, famed. this meant wearing knickerbockers – to Sir – I am probably the only one of your Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, the delight of the local kids in Kilburn, readers who has had occasion to be cross Preston, Lancs who ran after us jeering ‘German Jews!’ with Judith Kerr – but I hasten to add she In September 1939 our lives were was innocent of all blame! ‘B….. FOREIGNERS’ transformed when our school was My mother, paternal grandmother Sir – Fear not, dear Edith Argy (October): evacuated to the village of Bedmond and I, aged about 11, found ourselves in Frank Beck and I are two more ‘bloody in Hertfordshire. With our very basic the same Putney boarding house as the foreigners’ for whom - or is it who? – the mastery of English and wearing labels Kerrs after the war. We had spent the bell tolls. identifying us as ‘German’, it was hard to previous years in India leading a relatively Mary (Putzi) Brainin Huttrer, London N3 find foster parents to take us. Eventually privileged life, which came to a sudden we came to the last house in the village, end with the early death of my father and Sir – It may be of some comfort to Edith ending up with Mr and Mrs Gentle and the approach of Indian independence. Argy to know that there is another their son Jack – who had committed My mother had also recently discovered finicky foreigner among the honourable themselves to take two girls. But Mrs that all her immediate Czech family members of this learned Association who Gentle took pity on us and let us stay had been murdered by the Nazis. After takes English grammar seriously and who until her husband came home from a few wanderings we ended up in the disapproves of the natives’ scant regard work. In the event, we stayed for much multinational microcosm in Putney. for their own language. of the war. They became our second Many fellow guests were what Russians Arriving on this blessed plot in June parents and we are still in regular touch called after 1917 ‘former people’, the Kerrs 1946 from less happier lands, I had not with Jack. being prime examples. Others included a the slightest knowledge of the King’s Other memories are bleaker – in retired British ambassador and his wife, English. At first, I fell prey to the many particular the early struggles of our who was paid to coach me in Latin. I words, e.g. Holborn, sword, knock, knee, parents. Our father Louis was interned must, however, have been one of the few knitting, cupboard, Greenwich, etc, on the Isle of Man and our mother schoolboys in Britain to have previously whose pronunciation cannot be divined Socha had to find a way of making a heard of Alfred Kerr because my German- from their spelling. As for grammar, living in London and facing the Blitz. born father had several of his books. I still and particularly the correct use of am, But they survived and the family was remember where they stood on his shelves. was, were, shall be, shall have been, reunited. Neither ever lost their love of Although I have quite vivid memories who and whom, I am indebted to Mrs England. Socha, born in 1900, lived until of several fellow guests, I regret to say I Irma Löwenberg, a refugee from Essen, nearly 100. An artist, at the age of 92 only dimly recall the lively young Judith a superb linguist who had been a she proudly showed off her still active Kerr. Why was I cross with her? Because housewife in Germany and became here, Camden Institute student card. on returning from my boarding school of necessity, a teacher of languages. As One other story triggered by Judith on one occasion, I found she had been for spelling, I have been consulted by

6 DECember 2014 journal locals. As for my German, all I have kept above the pensions that we all receive. We caring foster parents, and benefited from is the accent. wish to correct this statement. Many Child a high-class education. Frank Bright, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk Survivors do not receive a pension from At 20 she started working at the Germany or from their country of origin. beginning of the computer age. But it was Sir – I can assure Edith Argy that she is not We do not know where this understanding a man’s world and she would never reach the only one. I feel exactly the same way originated and many of us were turned her full potential, so she started off using about the who and whom issue. What gets down by the Claims Conference and do her dinner table for designing software. on my nerves even more is the fact that not know why we do not qualify for a She acquired blue chip and other high- practically no one knows for sure when to pension. powered clients; employed only female say I, me or myself. I actually don’t mind The Article 2 Fund is means-tested and staff who worked from their own homes the rather uneducated way of saying me assists those in greatest need. A pension on a freelance basis; and founded a limited instead of I. I do it as well sometimes for should be paid to all survivors as a right company which became highly profitable. fear of sounding snobby. But what I hate just as in the UK. Our families lost their On retirement at 60, she used her is phrases like for my husband and I or ability to claim their pensions due to wealth for charitable purposes. She with my sister and I, used by what I would their early deaths in the camps. We are has a City livery company and various term semi-literate people who consider their heirs. educational institutions, particularly for themselves educated. Joanna Millan, London NW8 handicapped children like her only son. By the way, at the risk of sounding She has advised the government in various pedantic, re that little rhyme about RECOLLECTIONS OF KITCHENER ways and was rewarded by being created 'Bescheidenheit', we used to say CAMP a Dame. ’Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, doch Sir – Two photographs are shown in It was a pleasure to be addressed by weiter kommt man ohne ihr’ (i.e. ‘man’ Professor Michael Streat’s letter such a dynamic personality. rather than ‘du’ and the fact that it is (November). I am fairly sure that in the Mr and Mrs K. M. Treitel, London NW11 grammatically incorrect to have ‘ohne’ first photograph at the bottom of page six, followed by the dative) is of course what is the man in the direct centre of the group, MEMORABLE AFTERNOON called poetic licence, rendering the saying sitting on the far side of the table and Sir – Yesterday (at the time of writing) Lee even more amusing. To me, it sounds as wearing his shirt buttoned to the neck but Rodkin and I enjoyed a wonderful AJR- if it’s by Wilhelm Busch but I can’t recall with no tie, is Hans (subsequently John) sponsored concert at the London Jewish that it is. Segall, a Berliner. His brother and sister-in- Cultural Centre, preceded by a delicious Margarete Stern, London NW3 law, Fritz and Dora Segall, were apparently lunch, all free of charge. well-known Berlin socialists and I believe The London International Orchestra, ÉMIGRÉ AUNTIES Dora was well known in AJR circles. numbering over 20 players, gave us a Sir – I enjoyed Carry Gorney’s delightful I have no details as to how Hans Segall nostalgic selection of music by Strauss article in last month’s Journal about aunts reached Kitchener Camp but he told me it and Lehar, as well as some Italian songs who knitted. (Note that their way of was purely transitory and he had agreed by a superb Welsh tenor. Not least, a working differed from the way the English to re-emigrate to South Africa. Eventually, cellist playing The Swan and a violinist’s knitted, and they were very conscious of however, he joined the Pioneer Corps beautiful rendering of Schindler’s List. A that!) and so was allowed to remain here. On balalaika player was a wow and stole the Had they lived in Hampstead, they demob, he worked for a refugee firm, show. would have gone to the Swiss Cottage OP Chocolate, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. It was also another opportunity to chat Wool Stores on Northways Parade for their Subsequently he became the London sales with other refugees, which I consider a wool. There my mother ran a wool shop agent for a German raincoat manufacturer, great boon. It is always a distinct pleasure from the time she became a naturalised Niehues & Dütting of Nordhorn. getting to know other AJR members as Englishwoman and was able to leave Does anybody know what happened to well as greeting old friends. domestic service until she retired. Her him eventually? Thank you AJR for giving Lee and me neighbours were a refugee tailor, a refugee (Mrs) A. Rosney, London W5 such a memorable afternoon. optician and, of course, the Cosmo (Mrs) Meta Roseneil, Buckhurst Hill, Essex restaurant. Her clients included numerous Sir – Reading the letter by Fritz Lustig in refugees who went there as much for a your October issue, I was happily surprised UNHELPFUL MUSEUM gossip as for their knitting wool. by his knowledge of the musicians in the Sir – I refer to Edith Argy’s September Maybe some of your readers remember. Kitchener Camp / Pioneer Corps Orchestra. article ’A day in Vienna’, in which she Frank Beck, London NW3 I am working on an ‘Austrian Biographical described the contact she made with the Dictionary of Musicians Persecuted Under Landstrasse Museum. CHILD SURVIVOR PENSIONS Nazism’ and would be delighted to I too was in Vienna six or seven Sir – We Child Survivors heard with great receive further information about refugee years ago and tried to contact the same satisfaction that the German Government musicians in the UK, especially from museum. At that time, it wasn’t open very together with the Claims Conference have Kitchener Camp or the Pioneer Corps. Mr often and provided a telephone number announced their intention to grant a one- Lustig seems convinced there is no interest for enquiries. Although I expressed interest off special payment to Child Survivors in in his recollections but, as my letter shows, in the area in which I had grown up and recognition of their emotional loss. Many I’m very glad he wrote to the editor! would have liked more information about of the Child Survivors, including myself, Dr Primavera Driessen Gruber, Vienna some of the families and my school friends, lost all their families. Not only did we I had no response from the curator. I found lose our families but also our identities. DYNAMIC PERSONALITY this surprising given that my father had The main reason for setting up the Child Sir – We were fascinated by the life history been established for several years as a GP Survivors’ Association was that this of your speaker, Dame Stephanie Shirley, in the Radetzkystrasse, where he had had fact was not recognised by the German at the recent lunch meeting in north- Jewish and non-Jewish patients alike. I Government and indeed by many older west London. She spoke sincerely and we hope the museum has since made more survivors. enjoyed reading her autobiography. It tells progress. We note, however, that included in the the success of a Kindertransport child who Eva Frean, London N3 announcement was that this was over and came here in 1939, was looked after by continued on page 16 

7 journal DECember 2014

of Rembrandt that everything can be said within a human face. Rembrandt lived and worked in REVIEWS Amsterdam, an area highly populated by Jews from the ghetto. Betsy Wieseman, Uplifting story ART who sensitively created this excellent A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS NOTES exhibition, pointed out that Rembrandt by Yisroel Abelesz would have known members of the Jewish Yisroel Abelesz, 2012, 300 pp. GLORIA TESSLER community and was intrigued by Judaism paperback, originally published in as he was by all religions. She alluded to the Hebrew, glossary of Hebrew and Jewish artist’s fascination with the Old Testament terms, ISBN 978-965-92014-0-2 hat makes a great master? and certainly Rembrandt mined it for ews were enthusiastic Hungarians For me, it’s sensitivity and narratives to prove his fascination with already during the revolution of luminosity – and who better biblical history. Clearly he managed to J1848; they suffered many casualties toW demonstrate these qualities than capture the emotion and spirit of the for their patriotism. Full emancipation Rembrandt? The National Gallery has Old Testament in order to understand came in 1867, leading to their becoming chosen the artist’s most mature phase as humanity. There is no better example prominent in art and commerce. In the First World War, they fought on the side of the exemplar of his greatest genius. In an of this than his painting The Jewish exhibition which includes 40 paintings, the Habsburg monarchy, the losing side. Bride, on loan from the Rijksmuseum The defeat led to the loss of two-thirds of 20 drawings and 30 prints, Rembrandt: in Amsterdam. It is understood to be a Hungary's territory and much bitterness. The Late Works explores this final reference to the marriage of Isaac and The short-lived revolution of 1919, led burst of energy, including several self- Rebecca and such is the tenderness of the mainly by Jews, and Rákosi in the 1940s, portraits which show the artist’s deepest bridegroom as his hand gently meets that added to the covert anti-Semitism. introspection as he delves into the secrets of his bride at her breast, that its subtle This is the background to the story of Binyamin and Yisroel Abelesz. They within a face growing from maturity to sensuality reaches us down the ages – truly elderliness. His familiar stubby features grew up in Kapuvár, a small but ancient a biblical love affair. town in north-west Hungary, where there and serious expression beneath the artist’s Other versions may be more cynical. was a community of 500 Jews, mostly cap do not essentially change but a there is Bathsheba, wife of Uriah, is shown successful and involved in commerce. The a perceptible dwindling of his remarkable Holding King David’s Letter. She must Abelesz family belonged to the orthodox vitality and a sense of his own fragility. choose her husband or her king and there section of the community. From the book These are the years from the 1650s to is a deep female knowledge in the play of it appears that they experienced no anti- Semitism. Typical of the government of his death in 1669 at the age of 63, showing her features as she considers her options. the artist at his best, reflecting back to us the time was a saying attributed to the Another biblical subject is Abraham then prime minister: ‘The anti-Semite his creative growth developed through Entertaining the Angels, a drypoint etching, is a person who hates Jews more than tragedy and personal setbacks. The self- and Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph, in necessary.’ portraits, some in oils, some etchings, which the youngest son, Benjamin, is the Binyamin, the older of the two brothers, include one in which he features as the first to receive the blessing. was called up into the army three times. Apostle Paul; in another, Self-Portrait with But it is Rembrandt’s celebrated use of However, he had no intention of joining and, with the help of a rabbi, managed to Two Circles, he appears with his brushes light, of which he stands the undisputed and palette suggesting a creative other- avoid doing so. On the third occasion, he master, where we see him exploring New pretended to be insane. However, in the worldly significance. It is certainly true Testament subjects. A spiritual effulgence end he did join up, as this was judged to emanates from the canvas. There are be preferable to entering the ghetto. He darker paintings such as The Anatomy experienced many hair-raising episodes. Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp – who can One of the most bizarre of these was that forget that ghostly green pallor of the his love of football enabled him to play with the German commander, who in turn corpse? – or his pen-and-brush drawings provided him with assistance. He escaped of a hanged woman on a gibbet. Some and, with good fortune and the help of a of his drypoint etchings, particularly the number of non-Jews, he was liberated by delightful Young Woman Sleeping, have an the Soviet army. almost Modernist poignancy. He returned to Kapuvár, to find the family house now occupied. Of the 500 former members of the Jewish community, only 100 returned. Annely Juda Fine Art Binyamin and his family moved to Budapest but found life under Stalin and 23 Dering Street Rákosi unacceptable: Israel became the (off New Bond Street) goal. The opportunity came in 1956 and, with difficulty, they got to Vienna. Yisroel, Tel: 020 7629 7578 who by this time was living in England, Fax: 020 7491 2139 sought to convince them to join him there, but to no avail – they made their CONTEMPORARY way to Israel. Binyamin’s story ends with Rembrandt van Rijn: The Jewish Bride PAINTING AND SCULPTURE his joining the army. (1654) Yisroel’s story is no less exciting than

8 DECember 2014 journal that of his brother. His problems began again, visiting 32 towns and sites along has led her to limit her Yiddish literature with the German occupation of Kapuvár. the way – and finding a Jewish connection class to ‘more mature’ third-year students. Before being deported to Auschwitz in all of them. But these trends, she points out, are offset he had the opportunity to experience The Jewish connections that the two by the pro-Israel stance adopted by many the efficiency of the Germans and found were not the obvious ones of of the fundamentalist Christians who live the extreme cruelty of the Hungarian synagogues or cemeteries, but rather more in the area. gendarmerie. In Auschwitz, as a ‘gift’ obscure links to Jewish individuals who In Spokane, Washington, Harrison of Mengele, he was sent to the right had left a mark of one kind or another meets English as a Second Language column. His sole aim was to survive and along the way, whether through their teacher Pamela Pollack Fremd and is given tell people of his experiences. Despite career, interests, public service, or the extensive information by her brother the indescribable horror, he did survive impression they left on others. Thus, for about the town’s efforts to promote and is still telling people about what he example, in Temecula, California, there is inter-group harmony in response to went through. a museum commemorating Erle Stanley white racist activists in nearby Idaho. Each Yisroel returned to Kapuvár to Gardner, who lived there. Gardner wrote year the local Conservative synagogue, rebuild his life. Surprisingly, the family’s detective mysteries, prominent among Temple Beth Shalom, hosts The Kosher possessions were returned by those them being the Perry Mason stories, which Dinner with over 2,000 attendants, his family had trusted before their were later adapted for television. Gardner’s many of them Christians as well as Jews deportation. In my experience, this was fascination with real-life murders and who have not previously been in contact anything but the norm. mysteries led him to write for The New with the community. The event has been In 1949 the Communists took over in York Times a book review of Compulsion, a community mainstay since 1940 and Hungary. To them, the Abelesz family, with a fictionalised account of the murder the menu includes herring and challah, their wholesale business, were capitalists. committed by Nathan Leopold and Richard tzimmes and knishes; the entertainment Yisroel decided to leave Hungary. With Loeb, Jewish law students who sought to is provided by a klezmer band. the help of Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld, he commit the ‘perfect crime’ in 1924 but Some of the Jewish connections arrived in England. Two of his brothers were tried and sentenced to life in prison. are rather tangential, as in the case joined him here. As with the refugees of In Riverside, California, Harrison of Lakehead, California, whose caves 1956, the Anglo-Jewish community did visits the renowned Mission Inn, which trigger Harrison to expatiate on the not welcome the 1949 arrivals. Yisroel was has had well-known Jews as its guests, Cave of the Patriarchs and the caves at not to marry until he had found a bride among them actress Sarah Bernhardt, Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls who also came from Hungary. were discovered. The biblical association Yisroel started up in property with publisher Joseph Pulitzer, actor Paul a small loan. His wife too managed to Newman, and physicist Albert Einstein. and other legends associated with the obtain a loan with the help of a non- The proprietor tells interesting anecdotes Cave of the Patriarchs are discussed at Jewish bank manager who did not about each and every one, including length, as is the significance of the Dead demand security and she started up a Newman’s preference for a suite close Sea Scrolls, but Lakehead cannot claim to leather business. to the nearby race course and Einstein’s have much in the way of a Jewish story. Yisroel felt the strong pull of Hungary annoyance at breakfast on the terrace Likewise, in Browning, Montana, and began visiting the country regularly. when a parrot belonging to the hotel where there is a Native American (Indian) To the present day he is active in arranging stole his muffin! Reservation, Harrison buys a children’s the restoration of neglected Jewish In Las Vegas, Nevada, Harrison visits book recounting a legend about a talking cemeteries there. Indeed, all proceeds the Mob Museum, which commemorates mouse and uses the occasion to recount from the sale of this book will go to criminals belonging mainly to the Cosa the biblical story of Balaam’s ass. He the renovation of Jewish cemeteries in Nostra and the Kosher Nostra. There makes the valid point that no one in Hungary. he learns that Jewish crime figure synagogue laughs at this tale of a talking One cannot help but find the story Meyer Lansky aided Italian crime boss animal and, similarly, no one should of these two brothers uplifting. The Lucky Luciano to ‘organize the most scoff at native legends about humans courage and determination they powerful underworld organizations into communicating with members of the displayed in their observance of religious a confederation called the Commission. animal kingdom. practices even at the risk to their lives is Like a board of directors, it recognized The only Jewish connection of Carmel, admirable. Irrespective of their terrible different families’ spheres of influence in California, is its name, which is taken from experiences, they became upright and cities nationwide .…’ There are references the Carmel Mountains in northern Israel. successful men. to, among other Jewish mobsters, In Solvang, California, a town founded Janos Fisher Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel, Louis ‘Lepke’ by Danish immigrants, Harrison finds a Buchalter, Micky Cohen and Mendy Weiss. museum dedicated to the work of Hans In Lethbridge, Alberta, just over Christian Andersen. In this instance, the the border that divides America from Jewish connection is with the Jewish A side of America that’s less Canada, the travellers encounter Goldie families of Copenhagen, who took an well known Morgentaler, who teaches English and interest in Andersen’s work and invited SCHLEPPING THROUGH THE Yiddish literature at the University of him to their homes for dinner. AMERICAN WEST: THERE IS A JEWISH Lethbridge. Professor Morgentaler’s There’s plenty more, as we discover a STORY EVERYWHERE mother, Chava Rosenfarb, was a Yiddish- side of America that is less well known by Donald H. Harrison language writer and her father, Dr Henry and Harrison reveals an amazing capacity Harrison Enterprises, 2014, 229 pp. Morgentaler, was the defendant in for finding a story of Jewish interest paperback litigation against abortions. In her search wherever he goes. The book is written in ince both grandfather and grandson for employment, Morgentaler accepted a lucid and entertaining way as the author are residents of California’s a post at the university as a specialist schlepps the reader along with him, using Ssouthernmost town, San Diego, in Victorian literature in a town whose his insatiable curiosity, enquiring mind, and also to mark the latter’s bar mitzva, Jewish population has shrunk to almost and engaging personality to winkle out San Diego Jewish World editor Donald zero. She admits that there is some information from the individuals he Harrison took his grandson on a road trip anti-Semitism on campus, expressed in encounters along the way. up the west coast of America and down anti-Israel demonstrations, and that that Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

9 journal DECember 2014 In Berlin, history is all around – and within riting so soon after attending all sessions was ‘What goes on in the special interest is the intergenerational a conference of the World room stays in the room.’ We did find transmission of trauma, a subject he WFederation of Jewish Child positives ... has researched in Germany. His book Survivors of the Holocaust and ‘Dialogue Between the Generations’ Love After Auschwitz: The Second Descendants (WFJCS&D) in Berlin, I am – for all generations, my special interest Generation in Germany was published still ‘processing’ an experience the scope – was facilitated by Dr Elisheva van der in 2006. of which gave me a sense of wonder Dr Grünberg said that research shows and gratitude. members of the Second Generation are My family history differed from that often driven to speak out against things of most other attendees, my father ‘The goal of they feel are wrong, both in their private being 14 when he left Leipzig on the this workshop is to share, and professional lives. This linked Kindertransport in 1939. WFJCS&D listen and hear one another.’ nicely with the work of Karen Zauder survivor members were all aged 16 Brass, whose I Am a Standupster: or under in 1945 so most Second The large group mostly succeeded. I A Second Generation Holocaust Generation participants reflected now accept that some of our elders are Survivor's Account, published in this family history. fixed in their view that ‘the Second 2012, contains her reflections Approximately 350 people went as a Holocaust and anti-bullying to Berlin – many for the first time and Generation are not interested’, educator. some for the only time – to share this however much we insist we Daisy Miller, who was born in historic event. They came from many are! Yugoslavia and survived in hiding in countries around the world. Most came Italy, chaired the final plenary: ‘Where from the USA. One man came from Do We Go From Here? Our Obligations Mexico to be with his mother. and Responsibility for the Future, a The venue was the Berlin Hilton, Hal, a Dutch Hidden Child Survivor and Discussion between First, Second and situated in the heart of the city. The psychotherapist and Clinical Director Third Generations’. Daisy, a co-founder programme was filled with inviting of AMCHA, the national Israeli centre of WFCHS&D, worked as an interviewer workshop sessions. On Sunday, following for psycho-social support for Holocaust at the USC Foundation Institute for the welcoming speeches and candle- survivors ‘and their offspring’. Her Visual History and Education and has lighting ceremony, I joined members of introduction was: ‘Holocaust survivors participated in the planning of most of the Second and Third Generation to ‘Get have a story and it is important to the Child Survivor conferences since the acquainted’. As there were 70 Second share it. Second and Third Generation first one in 1987. The panel speakers and 19 Third Generation attendees, we members have also been impacted by were American and Israeli. The main split into two groups. What a range the Holocaust and need to be able to message was ‘We will not forget!’ All of experiences! Melissa Hacker, KTA talk about their feelings and experiences are working to care for survivors and (US Kindertransport Association chair), as well. It is important to be considerate to educate the wider population in facilitated this session. Sadness – and of each other and to allow each other order to promote inter-community laughter – were clearly to be joint to share and tell as each experience can understanding. components in discussions. With so be deeply affecting and have life-long Much learning also came from informal much to say, it was ‘late to bed’ for ramifications. The goal of this workshop discussion with conference participants most of us. is to share, listen and hear one another.’ over meal times or coffee at outside Among the Second Generation The large group mostly succeeded. I venues. The networking opportunities workshops I attended was one on the now accept that some of our elders were innumerable. I was greatly impressed theme ‘What Are Our Thoughts and are fixed in their view that ‘the Second by a 22-year-old from America who had Feelings about Being in Germany?’ Generation are not interested’, however come alone as her siblings did not yet This was facilitated by Dr Charles much we insist we are! directly engage in these discussions. She Silow, a psychologist and Director of Morning and afternoon sessions hoped to be able to talk with them when the Program for Holocaust Survivors began with plenaries. Drs Jacques she returned home. and Families in Detroit, Michigan. My Barth and Kurt Grünberg addressed I found this conference moving and thoughts on this subject are mixed as I the theme ‘Trauma and Resilience valuable and recommend it to AJR am from a marriage between a Jewish Across the Generations’. Dr Barth, members. The next conference is in refugee and a German Catholic. I born in Holland of Dutch and Polish Houston, Texas, in October 2015. agreed with another person of the same survivor parents, is a US Professor of Britain was not well represented in parentage to request a group for those Medicine who taught at the Simon Berlin. Rabbi Walter Rothschild, from like us in future .... Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles; he is Bradford and now living in Berlin, took Charles also facilitated the workshop also a member of a Second Generation part and I believe most others from ‘Finding Happiness Despite Our Sadness group in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Britain came from London. Did the and Responsibilities’. This attracted Dr Grünberg, a German-born son of location – Germany – put off potential fewer numbers, permitting a deeper survivors and a psychoanalyst at the participants? It is expensive but funding sharing of experiences. One issue Sigmund Freud Institute in Frankfurt, was found to assist some to attend. was whether or not we had children. has been Research Director at the More than ever I found Germany, Some of those present, like myself, did Jewish Psychotherapeutic Counselling particularly Berlin, engaging with not. Charles’s introduction was: ‘Our Centre. He is a founder member of its history, in thoughtful, respectful families’ suffering causes us pain. How the Meeting Point for the Survivors ways. I stayed near the centre, in two can we deal with these feelings? Is there of the Shoah and a psychoanalyst in locations, one near Potsdamer Platz. a way to channel these emotions into psychotherapeutic encounter groups something positive?’ A ground rule for for Child Survivors in Germany. His continued on page 11 

10 DECember 2014 journal A momentous week in Berlin HOLOCAUST GENERATIONS ach year since 2008, Lisa Berlin; Bronia Veitch; Frank Meisler (the CONFERENCE Bechner, the representative of sculptor of the memorial); and myself. Sunday 18 January 2015 Ethe Kindertransport in Berlin, has The Mayor sent a large bouquet of The inaugural Holocaust Generations Conference organised an event on 31 August or white roses for the memorial sculpture will be held in central London on Sunday 18 1 September to commemorate the and a large number of police cadets in January 2015. final Kindertransport train out of that blue uniform surrounded the gathering, The Conference aims to bring together First, city in 1939. Each year, providing this moving Second and Third Generations of Holocaust the event has been and inspiring event with survivors and refugees. There will also be an sponsored by one of an air of sobriety. announcement of the findings of an Institute of the embassies in Berlin The following day, Education survey of pupils’ attitudes towards and this year it was Bronia and I were Holocaust education in schools. the turn of the Belgian welcomed at the The Conference will aim to promote community, embassy. Moses Mendelssohn networking and learning. Among major themes Appropriate to the Secondary School, will be history, psychology, culture and legacy. Belgian embassy’s where we spoke to three For further information, please visit www. hosting of the event, groups of students. The holocaustgenerationsconference.org or email the main speaker at day after that we were [email protected] their gathering was invited to the police a former hidden academy by their child, born in Berlin trainer, Marc Salbrecht, and surviving the war to meet the cadets ARTS AND EVENTS hidden in Belgium: who had so helpfully DECEMBER DIARY Bronia Veitch. Bronia provided our guard Thur 4 Swaran Singh ‘Crooked Timber of told a harrowing story, Bronia Veitch at the service. After which she has written a delicious, typically Mankind: Reflections on the 1984 Anti- in her book A Beautiful Resistance (ISBN German lunch with them, Marc drove us Sikh Pogroms’ Swaran Singh experienced 978-1-291-50854-3) as homage to her back to our hotel via the Schaubühne on first-hand the killings which followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi. At Wiener rescuers. As a Kind also born in Berlin, the Kurfürstendamm, where my mother Library, 6.30-9.30 pm, tel 020 7636 7247 I was invited too. Bronia and I, having had run a cinema advertising business met only that morning, discovered that until the Nazis confiscated it in 1933. Mon 15 Prof John Röhl ‘Kaiser Wilhelm we were both born in Berlin in the same Our last talk took place the next II (1859-1941): A German Trauma’ At month, January 1935. day in the Public Affairs Offices with Sternberg Centre, London N3, 7.45 pm, tel Following refreshments at the employees who controlled traffic and 020 8349 5700. Free admission (Centre for embassy, we were all taken by coach provided back-up support for the police. German-Jewish Studies) to the Kindertransport memorial (Züge They were an amazing group of people ins Leben – Züge in den Tod: 1938-1939 who were very keen to hear from us but (Trains to Life, Trains to Death, 1938- needed us to speak in German. This was www.fishburnbooks.com 1939)) at the back of Friedrichsstrasse most worthwhile as their interest and Station, where many more people were appreciation were overwhelming and Jonathan Fishburn already seated and a crowd of the they showered us with gifts afterwards. buys and sells general public had gathered. The two- Our final day in Berlin was more Jewish and Hebrew books, hour service of remembrance, organised relaxing, with a sight-seeing bus tour ephemera and items of by Lisa Bechner, included pieces by the of the city organised by Lisa, including Jewish interest. Youth Symphony Orchestra of the a visit to the Sinti and Roma Porrajmos He is a member of the Antiquarian Berlin Händelschule and speeches by (Holocaust) Memorial and a boat trip on Booksellers Association. the ambassadors of Belgium, Britain, the Spree. Many thanks to Lisa Bechner Contact Jonathan on Israel and the USA; the Vice-President of for organising this momentous week 020 8455 9139 the Berlin police; representatives of the in Berlin! or 07813 803 889 Protestant Church and of the Mayor of Ruth Barnett for more information

 In Berlin, history is all around – and within continued This was round the corner from the In Potsdamer Platz, ten minutes’ of GDR residents streaming through Deutschlandhaus, a building being walk brings you to the Memorial to gates opened on November 9 1989 plus restored as a ‘Foundation of Flight, the Murdered Jews of Europe, the an actual exhibition of the building of Expulsion and Reconciliation’. During 2,711 concrete stelae erected in 2004 the wall – bricks and shovels – make its refurbishment, a poster display had with a linked underground ‘Place of that momentous time inescapable too. been placed outside, almost directly Information’, including a link to the November 9 is also the anniversary of opposite my hotel, so I was only a Yad Vashem database. Nearby are Kristallnacht. few steps away from images and the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. There is much else to see, peaceful descriptions of events discussed at the Germany is currently remembering the parks and lakes to visit, international conference. Five minutes further along 25th anniversary of the Wende, the end of cuisine and entertainment to enjoy. I the main street is the ‘Topography of the Berlin Wall, which formerly stood here. look forward to my next visit. But for Terror’, a permanent outdoor exhibition In the smart Potsdamer Platz shopping me in Berlin, history is all around. And of posters about the Nazi era, together mall Arkaden, large posters and a massive within. with a booth showing historical films. TV screen showing contemporary footage Barbara Dresner

11 journal DECember 2014 that brings out this reaction? While HARROGATE/ YORK Israel and Public there were mixed views it was felt that Relations we, as individuals in our group, did We met at Inge Little’s house, where we not in any way attract this unwanted heard a moving tribute to her made by reaction. The lively debate was followed one of her daughters at her recent 90th by a lavish tea provided by Vivien birthday celebration. Guest speaker Neil INSIDE Andersen. As usual, a superb afternoon. Solden spoke about public relations in Agnes Isaacs the context of the general bias, especially the that of the British media, against Israel. HGS A Lovely Morning Marc Schatzberger AJR We were joined in the new room at Hammerson House by visitors from OXFORD Amusing Stories Nightingale Clapham. Alan Bilgora Meeting at Richmond Road Synagogue, GLASGOW ‘The Challenge of a we enjoyed coffee and cake and then Sculpture’ played us a number of old recordings by Jewish opera singers. A lovely morning. listened to Chris Moncrieff, former Hazel Beiny Political Editor of the Press Association, who regaled us with amusing stories RADLETT Much to See, Good Food, from his interesting career. Good Conversation Kathryn Prevezer We visited Shenley Park, once the site DUNDEE Important to Keep in Touch of a psychiatric hospital near St Albans and Great to Catch Up! but now an attractive recreational area The small group of friends were comprising 45 acres of meadows and delighted to have the opportunity to woodland, together with an unusual meet up again in Dundee. We had such walled garden and an amphitheatre. a lovely afternoon and lots to talk about. There was much to see, good food and There was much to discuss concerning Lyn Wolfson (left) and Agnes Isaacs good conversation. Once again, our Israel and how best to support it, as well thanks to Esther for organising the visit. Some 30 members attended a most as Scottish independence and the latest Fritz Starer interesting talk and slide show given AJR news. It’s so important to keep in by the sculptress Lyn Wolfson about touch and great to catch up! BRIGHTON-SARID Sukkot, Festival of her training and career. Lyn brought Agnes Isaacs Joy and Cheer along some fascinating sculptures for Rabbi Pesach Efune gave a talk about KENT Operation Exodus the audience to examine. There followed Sukkot. He explained the meaning of the A most interesting talk by John Fleetcroft a delicious afternoon tea and a chat lulav and etrog and stressed the value on Operation Exodus – making aliyah – during which a few first-time attendees of joy and happiness when facing the prompted a very lively discussion. John got to meet some of the regulars. challenges of winter. had family links with one of our late Anthea Berg Ceska Abrahams members and his slides illustrated helping BIRMINGHAM Jewish Immigration people in straightened circumstances in to England EDGWARE Pictorial Trip to India the former Soviet Union. We turned out in force to hear Dr Stewart Morris treated us to a pictorial Janet Weston Anthony Joseph share with us his trip to India. To those of us who had BOOK CLUB Well Written but … lifelong interest in genealogy and Jewish visited India it brought back happy Ishmael’s Oranges, by Claire Hajaj, was immigration to England from Russia memories; to the rest of us Stewart the book reviewed. The consensus was and Poland in the 18th-19th centuries. explained most interestingly the photos that it was a well written, excellent A vote of thanks by our lovely Esther on his computer. A very enjoyable book but difficult to get into. The next Rinkoff concluded a very interesting afternoon meeting. books chosen to be read are Natasha meeting. Mindu Hornick Felix Winckler Solomon’s The Gallery of Vanished DIDSBURY Good Conversation and Husbands and Lawrence Osborne’s Afternoon Tea The Vital Role The Forgiven. We were joined by two The usual mix of good conversation and, of Latimer House curators from the Jewish Museum, of course, the customary afternoon tea hat a surprise to discover the who spoke to us about the Museum’s interspersed with even more chattering! vital role of Latimer Place forthcoming exhibition on ‘Jewish Wendy Bott W– nestling in the beautiful Weddings’. PINNER Number One Hits Chiltern Hills but a key espionage Hazel Beiny We were delighted to welcome back centre during the war! Historian EAST MIDLANDS (NOTTINGHAM) our member Alf Keiles, who played us a Helen Fry told us how high-ranking Catching Up on News charming selection of Number One hits German generals were held captive This was a very well attended social from the early part of the 20th century. and bugged by ‘secret listeners’ – meeting with old friends catching up on Almost all the tunes were familiar Jewish refugees working for the news over a simple but excellent lunch and, although tea was ready, Alf was British. The refugees’ invaluable prepared by our hostess with delicious persuaded to play a couple of extra linguistic skills helped crack secrets of desserts brought by members. The tracks before he was allowed to stop. the Nazi war machine. The property meeting was kept in order by Esther: Robert Gellman was visited by Churchill and, in earlier we so much appreciate her coming. This EDINBURGH Causes of Anti- centuries, by Charles I and Charles II. time, she was ably assisted by Kathryn, Semitism Our day included a very welcome and our local AJR representative, whom we Anti-Semitism features in our present scrumptious afternoon tea. were delighted to welcome. and our past – are we doing something Janet Weston Bob Norton

12 DECember 2014 journal BRADFORD CF Bradford Ladies 3 – Leeds 0 Retiring – Our Leeds speaker took hasbara as his topic but his opening assertions met with An Enormous Decision such a robust rebuttal from the audience am leaving the AJR after being with to be the child of a Holocaust victim. that time ran out before he could develop the organisation for 16 years. I have had the pleasure of working his theme. Result: Bradford Ladies 3 – I I still remember that first week with amazing colleagues, who have Leeds 0. Splendid stuff! sitting there at my desk in Hampstead greatly helped to support the work I Stephen Tendlow thinking to myself have done and who what have I done! have helped me to WEMBLEY Jews and Jazz How am I going to learn such a lot. A very interesting meeting, with Alf cope with working I will greatly Keiles explaining to us the origins of with Holocaust miss the work and jazz and the Jewish contribution to it. victims? It was a the wonderful The cheerful melodies he played us were subject which – to people involved in followed by a nice afternoon tea. my shame – I knew it but I have taken Avram Schaufeld little about. the enormous However, over decision to retire GLASGOW BOOK CLUB Looking the years of working at this time for Forward to Reading The Land Agent with the AJR, I several reasons. I The Book Club attended the launch of have met some want to be able to J. David Simon’s latest novel The Land amazing people. spend more time Agent. We’ve already read and enjoyed First the members, with my children all his books and are looking forward to who have shared and grandchildren: reading this one. Earlier in the day we had with me their I have twin the opportunity to listen to survivor Judith difficult Holocaust grandchildren Rosenberg speak about her life and work experiences, their lives and loves, expected at the end of January 2015 with the Targu Mures Holocaust Group. and their ups and downs. They have so I expect to be quite busy in the Agnes Isaacs imparted wonderful wisdom and first half of the year. My husband and advice, much of which will stay with I would like to do more travelling, CAMBRIDGE Economy Update me for the rest of my life. especially around the UK. We want to A most stimulating talk by Tim Pike I have met great professionals: spend more time playing bridge. I am from the Bank of England on ‘Economic physiatrists, psychologists, CN looking forward to getting involved Reality in a Diverse Society’ led to a very nurses, consultant doctors, physios with the University of the Third Age intense and interesting group discussion and OTs, social workers from other and generally having more time to organisations. I have made relationships myself to read, relax and be ‘a lady equally enjoyed by members. with great carers and cleaners. I have that lunches’. Keith Lawson worked closely with family members I would like to wish all my clients continued on page 14  of my clients, especially children and and colleagues good health, good luck grandchildren, and have learnt a great and contentment. deal over the years of what it is like Helena Reid CONTACTS Hazel Beiny DECEMBER GROUP eventS Southern Groups Co-ordinator 07966 887 434 [email protected] Ealing 2 Dec Chanukah Quiz Book Club 3 Dec Discussion Wendy Bott Northern Groups Co-ordinator Ilford 3 Dec Chapel End Savoy Players 07908 156 365 [email protected] Pinner 4 Dec Chanukah Party Wessex 4 Dec Rabbi Jesner from BHC Susan Harrod Groups’ Administrator Leeds HSFA 7 Dec Chanukah Event 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Cheshire 9 Dec Social Essex (Westcliff) 9 Dec Chanukah Party Agnes Isaacs Edgware 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party Scotland and Newcastle Groups Co- ordinator HGS 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party 07908 156 361 [email protected] North London 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party North West London 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party Kathryn Prevezer Southern Groups Co-ordinator Radlett 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party 07966 969 951 [email protected] St John’s Wood 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party Welwyn GC 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party Esther Rinkoff Wembley 11 Dec Groups Chanukah Party Southern Groups Co-ordinator 07966 631 778 [email protected] Manchester 14 Dec Chanukah Party Brighton-Sarid 15 Dec Chanukah Party KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Liverpool 15 Dec Chanukah Party Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Kent 16 Dec Chanukah Party Leeds 16 Dec Chanukah Party Child Survivors Association–AJR Glasgow CF 17 Dec Chanukah Party Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 [email protected] Cambridge 18 Dec Simon Layton: ‘Piracy’s Stateless Subjects’

13 journal DECember 2014

Inside the AJR WHY NOT TRY AJR’S continued from page 13 MEALS ON WHEELS AJR Goes to the Movies SERVICE? AJR members were invited to their The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels own private viewing at the Everyman service delivered to your door once a week. Cinema in Belsize Park of The Hundred- The meals are freshly cooked every week by Are you, or is someone you Foot Journey - an invitation not to Kosher to Go. They are then frozen prior to delivery. know, a Jewish Holocaust be refused! The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal survivor in financial difficulty? The action of the film takes place (soup, main course, desert) plus a £1 Six Point Foundation gives grants to help with mainly in a quaint village in the South delivery fee. all kinds of one-off expenses such as home of France and involves competition Our aim is to bring good food to your door adaptations, medical bills, travel costs and between two restaurants – an Indian without the worry of shopping or cooking. temporary care. one and a Michelin-starred classical For further details, please call French one run by a haughty proprietor AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070. We help UK-resident Jewish Holocaust (played by Helen Mirren). The two survivors/refugees with less than £10k p.a. cultures collide but eventually learn to in income (excluding pensions/social security) combine their skills and customs. The and less than £32k in assets (excluding primary film abounds with wonderful images ‘FORCED WALKS’ residence/car). of fine produce, food preparation and For information please contact The Association mouth-watering dishes. 15 April 2015 of Jewish Refugees on 020 8385 3070. Our thanks to Hazel Beiny and [email protected] Esther Rinkoff for setting up such a www.sixpointfoundation.org.uk successful outing. Mary Vulkan BRISTOL All Very Beautiful KINDERTRANSPORT LUNCH Jane Hewison, daughter of member Wednesday 10 December 2014 Hilla Hewison, showed us many slides of her work as an embroiderer, giving at 12.30 pm examples of traditional religious items. Please join us for our next lunch at ‘Forced Walks’ is a participatory walking art North West Reform Synagogue, Alyth Gardens, Her work is all very beautiful. project led by artists Lorna Brunstein and Finchley Road, London NW11 7EN Kathryn Prevezer Richard White. On 15 April 2015, the 70th anniversary of NORTH LONDON Food for Thought the liberation of Belsen, Lorna and Richard Mignonette Aarons Our guest speaker was Jenny Rossiter, will make a walk based on the testimony of will entertain us with her subject ‘Octavia Hill – Social Reformer a survivor of the Nazi Death Marches. Using Chanukah songs and Founder of the National Trust’. The the original route as a guide, the walk will take lady in question lived in the 19th century, place in the UK through a familiar landscape in an area close to their home. To book your place which leaves the interesting thought please phone Andrea Goodmaker that in those years her efforts must Lorna and Richard are inviting others to join on 020 8385 3070 them on foot or online or to make their own have raised considerable opposition. It walk in their area. certainly gave food for thought. Documentation of the project and creative Herbert Haberberg responses to the experience will form the basis of an exhibition later in the year. CLASSIFIED Joseph Pereira (ex-AJR caretaker For further information, please see over 22 years) is now available for switch on electrics http://forcedwalks.wordpress.com/ DIY repairs and general maintenance. Rewires and all household If interested, please contact Lorna and No job too small, electrical work Richard on [email protected] very reasonable rates. PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Please telephone 07966 887 485. Mobile: 0795 614 8566 Books Bought Modern and Old LEO BAECK HOUSING ASSOCIATION BEN URI MEMORIES Eric Levene CLARA NEHAB HOUSE 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 Next year is our RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME [email protected] Small caring residential home I also purchase ephemera 100th birthday with large attractive gardens Please share with us all your memories of close to local shops and public transport Ben Uri and tell us about any photographs, 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities. catalogues or historical items from 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care JACKMAN . Entertainment & Activities provided. 1915-1970 you may have. Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room SILVERMAN Please contact Laura Jones at Ben Uri, • Lift access to all floors. COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS 108a Boundary Rd, St John’s Wood, For further information please contact: London NW8 0RH, The Manager, Clara Nehab House, tel 020 7604 3991 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA Telephone: 020 7209 5532 Telephone: 020 8455 2286 [email protected] email [email protected]

14 DECember 2014 journal ObituarIES Helga Ehlert (née Dresner), born Leipzig 9 February 1924, died Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein 27 September 2014 elga Ehlert was born in Leipzig in Rolf and Helga settled temporarily with Chicago relatives. She realised she wanted to 1924. Her parents, Elias and Gretl, distant relatives in Scotland. Life with the marry Herman Ehlert. This meant moving had moved there from Cracow, Scottish Dresners presented challenges: with him to East Germany, leaving Rolf in HElias’s birthplace. The family were furriers, the Leipzig Dresners were not particularly England. They stayed in touch by letter. She with shops in the Brühl and Reichstrasse. observant. Missing her parents reunited with Oma Cohn, Elias’s brothers Ignatz and Wladislaus and the dreadfully, Helga relished who returned to Leipzig. two widowed grandmothers, Oma Dresner the freedom to enjoy teenage Helga visited Rolf once with and Oma Cohn, all lived nearby. Helga’s activities forbidden under the her son Thomas, born in brother Rolf was born in 1924. Nazis. Then came another 1951. The Cold War put an Helga’s chapter in Juden aus der DDR move – to Millisle Farm near end to further visits. Helga und die deutsche Wiedervereinigung: Elf Belfast, where the local Jewish taught English and became an Gespräche (Jews from the GDR and German community had arranged interpreter. Reunification: Eleven Conversations) Hachshara (Zionist) training for When widowed, Helga (Robin Onslow, Berlin 1996) was entitled young refugees. Helga worked remained in her flat near ‘Ich fühle mich nicht als Deutsche’ (I don’t with the chickens, Rolf with the Alexanderplatz, Berlin, feel German). She never felt at home after cows. gradually rebuilding her Jewish returning to East Germany postwar, often They did not go to Palestine. Helga, identity. She visited her first cousin Werner saying she should have stayed in the UK. described by other Millisle residents as ‘the in Israel several times and came to the UK She and Rolf arrived in the UK in June beauty’, did war work in Manchester. There periodically, meeting up with old friends, 1939 with the Kindertransport. She would she met and fell in love with Herman Ehlert, including former school friend Thea Hurst proudly sing the Polish national anthem as a member of the Freie Deutsche Jugend. After in Manchester. She spoke on GDR television the Polish consul in Leipzig had sheltered the war she visited the American relatives, who about her family history and contributed to Jewish families in his compound during the had hoped the entire Dresner family would other books and activities in memory of her Polenaktion and Kristallnacht. emigrate there, but the US visas arrived only murdered relatives. Helga described her family as close and in 1946. Helga was extremely fond of her affectionate and knew it was hard for her Helga’s parents, uncles and Oma Dresner grandchild Tim. He, Thomas, Thomas’s parents to send their children to safety in the did not survive. Oma Cohn miraculously wife Petra, her UK nieces and nephews and UK. They returned to Poland, aiming to settle survived Theresienstadt. A letter from Ignatz’s US cousins will miss her greatly. Helga was their elderly mothers and hoping their US widow containing the heart-breaking news of an entertaining, shrewd and sometimes very visas would arrive so they could reunite with their other relatives’ fate is also in the Wiener funny person whose tenacity enabled her to the children in America. The 40 remaining Library. reach the age of 91 despite a life often full of letters from their parents, preserved in the Helga didn’t settle in America despite challenges and loss. Wiener Library, reveal a warm family life. affectionate care from the New York and Thomas Bonin and Barbara Dresner

Geoffrey Perry PillarCare was saddened to hear of the death Quality support and care at home of Geoffrey Perry (obituary in AJR GROUPS ANNUAL  November issue). For a while in Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours CHANUKAH PARTY  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care theI late sixties we worked together at  Convalescent and Personal Health Care Thursday 11 December 2014 the Thomson Organisation, owners of  Compassionate and Affordable Service at North West Reform Synagogue, The Times and The Sunday Times. Lord  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, Roy Thomson bought out Geoffrey’s  Registered with the CQC and UKHCA London NW11 7EN publishing firm because he wanted Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 Cost £8.00 per person payable on the door to get his hands on Family Circle, one (places must be booked in advance) PILLARCARE of Geoffrey’s publications. He then THE BUSINESS CENTRE · 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE · LONDON NW1 7BB Starts at 11.30 am launched Living as a sister magazine. PHONE: 020 7482 2188 · FAX: 020 7900 2308 www.pillarcare.co.uk Ends at 2.30 pm This was when I came across ‘The Palace of Knightsbridge’ Geoffrey. I was Creative Director of Morning talk by Richard Furnival Jones, who Thomson Group Marketing, who did worked for Harrods for over 40 years and all the marketing and advertising for spring grove retired as manager of the Food Halls. He will London’s Most Luxurious tell us about the history of this famous store. the Thomson Organisation. Geoffrey RETIREMENT HOME was very unhappy with my interference 214 Finchley Road This will be followed by a delicious lunch. London NW3 but I had the might of the Organisation After lunch we will have further behind me and so he had to put up with  Entertainment  Activities entertainment by Bronwen Stephens, a my ideas, like them or not! We didn’t  Stress Free Living professional opera singer, who will perform become friends but I greatly respected  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine a selection of well-known songs from opera his determination to have his views  Full En-Suite Facilities and theatre. Call for more information or a personal tour heard and discussed. He couldn’t win It is essential that we know exact numbers 020 8446 2117 for catering. Please contact Susan Harrod on me over but he never stopped trying. or 020 7794 4455 Peter Phillips [email protected] 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected]

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and football games, yoga and karate classes and video games, cookies and coffee at the community’s club. Therapy of the more Dorothea Shefer-Vanson conventional kind is also provided and this even extends to relationship counselling for members who feel ready to embark on Unique community closer ties with a boyfriend or girlfriend within the community. ounded in 1997 by a social worker, members of the community. Kishorit is very The demand for places at Kishorit far Shuki Levinger, and Yael Shilo, a proud of its dogs, which have won numerous exceeds supply and many families have textile artist trying to find a way to international prizes. to be turned away, to the regret of the Fhelp her special-needs stepson, Kishorit is Almost all the members work in one organisers. There are, however, plans to today a thriving community situated in the branch of activity or another as working establish a small sister community nearby pastoral hills of Galilee. It provides a safe and contributing usefully to the wider for Arabs with special needs. The intention haven as well as a warm and loving home community is regarded as having a beneficial is to maintain close co-operation and and a source of employment for its almost effect, enabling individuals with disabilities interaction between the two communities 150 members. All of these have been to fulfil their potential and live independent while adhering to the language and culture diagnosed with autism, Down’s Syndrome, lives. There is an organic goat dairy, a of each one. Some funds are forthcoming schizophrenia or allied conditions. workshop producing wooden toys and a from Israel’s government and charitable The village is adjacent to Kibbutz TV production studio. Recently, a vineyard contributions, while those parents who Kishor and its way of life is based on that was planted and a winery established, with are able to pay also contribute to the of the kibbutz – ‘from each according members producing their own wine. The upkeep of the community. to his abilities, to each according to his products of the winery and the other areas The concept of a village inhabited needs’ – with the community serving as of activity are on sale in the community’s by people with special needs provides a the focal point of daily life. shop. Some members are assigned to duties positive and radical solution to a variety The village is staffed by professionals in in the community’s kitchen, laundry or of problems. One of these is enabling a number of fields and is also on its way farm and each individual is given pocket parents who are concerned about what to becoming a self-supporting entity, with money in return for their services. A staff lies ahead as they grow older to sleep various branches of agriculture, crafts and of some 175 professionals and volunteers, more peacefully at night. Kishorit has animal husbandry. For instance, in addition some of them permanent, others part-time, created an environment that enables to growing fruit and vegetables, there is a help the members of the community to special-needs individuals to live in a safe special section where miniature Schnauzer function as independently as possible. and harmonious environment. The ability dogs are bred. These are then shown at dog Social and sporting activities are also an to provide peace of mind for the parents shows all over the world, accompanied by integral part of life at Kishorit, with basketball of these individuals is priceless.

 letters to the editor cont. from p.7 ‘HOLLOW DOG’ word and help me get this important where we live. This makes it a virtual Sir – In recent months, I’ve been putting project off the ground. non-starter for us, for example. Another together a documentary project which You can see the ‘Hollow Dog’ trailer problem is the high prices at the new may be of interest to your readers. on KickStarter, a global ‘crowdfunding’ venue. Ivy House had a nice atmosphere 'Hollow Dog’ is a documentary about platform based in the United States. and parking was never a problem. I would the sculptor Maurice Blik. His work is Clive Martin, East Grinstead dearly love to know what are the reasons significant for a number of reasons – aside for the move. from just being plain brilliant! WHY THE MOVE? Janos Fisher, Bushey Heath, Herts As a child, Maurice, born in Amsterdam, Sir – I am sure many of your readers are was a prisoner in Bergen-Belsen. Having upset about the proposed amalgamation CLIMATE OF OPINION been liberated, he came to Britain with of JW3 and the London Jewish Cultural Sir – For my birthday I was given an Clara, his elder sister, and mother. He Centre (LJCC). Amazon Kindle. So I’m entering the would later become the President of the The demography of the Jewish modern age. All very fine – so far. The Royal British Society of Sculptors. His population in the London area has system is very helpful in listing books many noteworthy commissions include changed in the past years. Finchley under designated categories. The ‘History’ ‘The Memorial for Evacuee Children’ and Road, Swiss Cottage and St John’s Wood category has sub-divisions, one of which ‘Renaissance’ in London’s East India Dock. have few Jews left: the newly-weds, for is ‘Historical Study’. If one browses this Today, his work celebrates life. example, cannot afford, nor indeed would category beyond just the first few titles, ‘Hollow Dog’ is at proposal stage. want, to live there. The Jewish population one finds that a disproportionate number The film has the endorsement of of South Hertfordshire, Bushey, Radlett of the books relate to Holocaust denial. Maurice himself, as well as other leading and Elstree has increased dramatically. This is just one more example of a climate luminaries in the US and UK, including the JW3 has no parking facilities. We have of opinion in which anti-Semitism is entrepreneur Sir Peter Michael. So we’re no freedom pass for the Underground becoming increasingly acceptable. off to the perfect start. Please spread the and often no Underground station near Michael Levin, London SE23

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