VOLUME 7 NO.8 AUGUST 2007

Internment: the sequel

he wartime internment of many sections of British opinion was expressed thousands of Jewish refugees by the by such champions of the refugees in TBritish govemment (see last month's parliament as Victor Cazalet, who called it issue of the AfRfoumat) proljably arouses 'this bespattered page of our history', Josiah more heated and divergent reactions than Wedgwood, and, above all, the tireless any other single event in the history of the Eleanor Rathbone. refugees in Britam. Since the 1980s, the facts This view of intenunent as ending in a about intemment have been made widely triumph of British liberalism is epitomised known by historical studies, such as those by Judith Kerr's semi-autobiographical of Peter and Leni Gillman and Ronald Stent, account of the intemment of her brother, the and are no longer the subject of much future Sir Michael Kerr, in her book The dispute. Instead, it is the conflicting views Other Way Around, the sequel to When of intemment that have taken centre stage Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. The parents in the in more recent years. book, desperate to secure the release of their Even in the immediate aftermath of son, write to the editor of a newspaper that intemment, the judgments passed on it had published an article sympathetic to anti- Eleanor Rathbone MP, parliamentary varied greatly. Many of the younger champion of the refugees Nazi emigres. They are astonished to receive intemees - single men - soon came to recall a reply from the editor personally, inform­ the months spent on the Isle of Man almost 1960, the experience of intemment on the ing them that he had been so moved by their as a kind of enforced holiday to which they Isle of Man paled into insignificance when letter that he had passed it on to the Home became reconciled once they had compared to the Nazi camps: 'It was a great Secretary, who had promised to look into accustomed themselves to it. Older refugees, shock at the time. Now that we have lived their son's case immediately - and this as concemed about their families, found the through the perils of total war and have had newspaper headlines were ominously pro­ anxieties and fmstration of detention harder to bear the unspeakable horror of Hitler's claiming 'Invasion Barges Massing in to bear, some experienced serious mental Final Solution, this affair of our intemment Channel Ports'. With his son's release now crises. They found it far harder to put the seems trivial enough. Was it not rather assured, the father exclaims admiringly: experience of intemment behind them. ridiculous to take it as seriously as we did?' 'The English really are extraordinary. Here But in the post-war years the great More common among refugees was the they are, threatened with invasion at any majority of the refugees developed a view that intemment was a misconceived, moment, and yet the Home Secretary can find remarkably forgiving attitude to intemment, unjust and stupid measure taken in panic time to right an injustice to an unknown boy which went hand in hand with a strong and implemented inefficiently, but that who wasn't even bom here.' The injustice of sense of loyalty to Britain and of pride in events had soon caused the British inteming an innocent Cambridge student in their association with their adopted govenmient to reverse its policy and that the first place is forgivingly glossed over. homeland in its wartime defiance of Hitler. relatively little serious damage had been Other refugees retained a sense of severe Some refugees went so far as to defend done - even when the nation was fighting and lasting bittemess. Walter Eberstadt, intemment as an understandable measure for survival, British liberalism had who later served with distinction as an not incommensurate with the national reasserted itself. Many refugees had been officer in Normandy, was a student at emergency facing Britain in 1940; it was astounded to learn that the House of Oxford when he was intemed. Though he impossible for the British authorities to be Commons had debated intemment for nearly was impressed by the way in which the certain that there were no German spies six hours on 10 July 1940, with the Nazi govemment had been brought to abandon among the refugees, they argued, so the onslaught on Britain imminent, and debated an unjust policy, intenmient permanently unprecedented national emergency justified it again on 22 August 1940, as German coloured his view of Britain and contributed the intemment of them all. For Leo Kahn, bombs fell on London. The outraged to his post-war decision to emigrate to writing in AfR Information of September opposition to internment among liberal continued on page 2 AjRJOURhJAL AUGUST 2007

L\TKK.\.\IK.\T: the seciuel continued from page 1

America: 'Still, since intemment I have felt the view of Cesarani and Kushner, articles aimed at Jews from Eastern Europe, the different about the English. No doubt it was like Kahn's and Wiener's demonsfrated the intemment of 'enemy aliens' in the First and my fault that I had foolishly fancied that a refugees' reluctance to criticise British Second World Wars, the detention of Arab few years at public school and a year at policy, for fear of reawakening the suspects during the first Gulf War, and the Oxford had made me part of them.' slumbering forces of British antisemitism anti-terrorist measures adopted since 2001. The judgments passed on intemment by and xenophobia. Behind the complacent fiction of Britain as modern historians, often left-wing This arguably falls into the error of a generous haven for the persecuted, they academics strongly critical of British imposing the historical model of Anglo- perceive a series of illiberal and govemment policy, differ sharply from those Jewry onto the refugees from Central discriminatory measures taken against of the majority of the refugees, including Europe, a model dominated up to 1945 by 'alien' immigrants and minorities. most of the intemees themselves. When Anglo-Jewry's overriding fear of arousing Refugee commentators, by contrast, F. I. Wiener retumed in 1957 to Hutchinson antisemitism. Hailing mostly from Tsarist mostly saw intemment as a passing and Square, his place of intemment 17 years Russia, Anglo-Jewry had had little experi­ exceptional episode that was rapidly previously, he described his time there in ence of successful assimilation in its lands overtumed once public opinion had reverted an article in AfR Information with humour of origin, whereas the Jews in the German- to its traditional values; an underlying sense and affection, concluding: 'What has been speaking countries had known over a century of fair play and tolerance had, they believed, the final judgment on that time? Few were of gradually advancing integration; some of reasserted itself, overcoming the illiberal really hurt and deeply offended, most them maintained even after 1933 that prejudices that had led to the initial injustice. accepted intemment as a necessary evil, a Hitler's rise to power was an unaccountable Their view of Britain was conditioned by govemment screening operation. From this lapse into barbarism on the part of an other­ confidence in its democratic institutions point of view intemment on the Isle of Man wise highly civilised society. Consequently and trust in the basic decency and was just an inconvenience.' For this, he and they did not believe that gentile societies humanity of its people. Given the gulf Leo Kahn were accused by David Cesarani were irredeemably infected by vicious anti­ between these two views, it is hardly and Tony Kushner, editors of the volume of semitism - Britain less than most - and they surprising that the refugee historian Ralph essays The Intemment of Aliens in Twentieth were not prey to a consuming fear of it. Blumenau adopted a tone of mild Century Britain (1993), of 'sanitizing In reality, the underlying issue here was bafflement when reviewing Cesarani and intemment into a jolly jape'. not the rights and wrongs of intemment, hut Kushner's volume for AfR Information: The implication here was that the two contending views of Britain as a And yet it seems to this reviewer that there refugees had refused to face up to the tmth homeland to immigrant groups. Historians is something awry when the book makes about intemment, fearing to confront the like C«sarani and Kushner do not believe illiberalism and injustice so much more central than the idea, conveyed by so many Jewish ex- reality of their treatment by the British that intemment was a temporary aberration internees, that in the end they were more government. Carefully avoiding any serious from the mainstream of British liberalism. impressed by the liberalism and fairness which For them, it stood in an established tradition analysis of why the process had been ended their ordeal. This reviewer is inclined to instituted by the British state, the refugees of repressive hostility to small and align himself with the quotation in the book had deliberately refrained from any criticism defenceless minorities at times of war and from Lord Beloff: 'The reaction of the refugees of Britain and the British govemment. In crisis, exemplified by the Ahens Act of 1905 themselves proved considerably more understanding than that of the historians who ^msfjrt9s:s^'iiam&ws were not even bom at that time, or were infants then.' Seventy years of history Anthony Grenville In 1937-38 I was a pupil at the Jewish „ Wir lebten in einer Oase Girls' School in Wolfratshausen, near •^. ^ ^^^ des Friedens... Munich. This April I was invited back AJR Directors for an 'Oasis of Peace' exhibition Gordon Greenfield organised there. Seventy years of Carol Rossen history. My friend Rolf Weinberg and my AJR Heads of Department daughters Eva and Susan accompanied Marcia Goodman Social Services me on this nostalgic visit. Michael Newman Media and Public Relations Susie Kaufman Organiser, AJR Centre The Ladies of the History Association AJR Journal in Wolfratshausen had organised the Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor event very well. There were three of us curriculum was preparation for Palestine. Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor 'old girls' of the school, all of us living We knew emigration had to come in the Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements in England now. near future. After Kristallnacht, the The exhibition is named 'An Oasis school was closed down and the few of Peace', but it was more a life of iso­ girls and teachers left were forced to Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not lation and reality. Part of the school's leave within two hours. necessarily those of the Association of Jewish Refugees and should not be regarded as such. Ruth Young AJRJOURNAL AUGUST 2007 o^'Zl We are not refugees! NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors advise on Property, Wills, Family Trusts hose of us Jews who came to asylum-seekers? Are they economic and Charitable Trusts Great Britain in the 30s were a migrants who believe they will make a French and German spoken T proud folk. Yes, we had to flee better living in the UK than in the the Nazis, but not to the squalor of country of their origin? We fled the Home visits arranged the East End! That part of London was Nazis because they wanted to kill us. for those who had fled the Cossacks A total of 70,000 of us came here 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Most before the outbreak of the Second London NW3 SNB of them were uneducated, unskilled, World War, including 10,000 on the Tel: 020 7435 5351 and mainly working in the shmatte Kindertransport. (Admittedly, many did Fax: 020 7435 8881 business. We came from middle-class move on to America or Palestine/Israel families that had been to university. We at the end of the war.) The AJR now were doctors and lawyers! has some 3,500 members, several hun­ Most of us settled in Hampstead, dred of whom are camp survivors. Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage. We There are less than 10,000 Holocaust walked around Primrose Hill feeling victims still living in the UK. I am told JACKMAN • vastly superior to those Jews from that their average age is about 82, with SILVERMAN Stepney and Whitechapel. OK- so they 70 per cent older than 76, and 20 per £ COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS didn't speak English with a foreign cent older than 86. accent, but even that gave us a cachet. In general, the UK took in refugees The Cosmo, the Dorice - they were our from Nazi Germany as economic continental coffee houses. We'd sit migrants, but allowed in only those there for hours over one cup of coffee who could be of benefit to this country. (we couldn't afford more), playing gin Compared with other countries, the 26 Conduit Street rummy or dominoes like we did in figure of 70,000 refugees was not an London WIR 9TA Berlin and Vienna. Not for us the East ungenerous quota. But - I say it again End sweat shops. And yet - weren't - this was around 70 years ago and Telephone! 020 7409 0771 we doing exactly what the early- we are no longer, in any way, refugees. Fax: 020 7493 8017 twentieth century Jewish immigrants The AJR has done a brilliant job. It must had done? Weren't we creating our survive. But it cannot survive with its own shtetl, our own ghetto - in NW3 current name. as opposed to El? The AJR Journal is a must read for But we felt we were Super-Jews! all of us! The social side is prospering. I I AUSTRIAN and GERMAN When the war ended, we were The AJR has done a great job in PENSIONS confident we would take our rightful helping us make our claims to the places in the English middle class - or respective countries of our birth so PROPERTY perhaps go even higher So why, after that we are given at least a small RESTITUTION CLAIMS being in this country for nearly 70 portion of what was taken from us EAST GERMANY - BERLIN years, are we still willing to be known by the Nazis. But how can the AJR as 'refugees'? What happened to our survive with the age of its members On instructions our office will pride, belief - even, you might say, as it is, and with the claims now nearly assist to deal with your arrogance? Well, / have decided the all settled? We must bring in our applications and pursue the time has come for us to drop the word families! They should be made to feel matter with the authorities 'refugee'. 'The Association of Jewish that the Association belongs to them Refugees' is a complete misnomer. as much as it does to us. We must For further information and an appointment The name should be changed to, never forget why the AJR was set up please contact: for example, 'The Association for the in the first place, but now is the time Families of Holocaust Survivors'. This for change. ICS CLAIMS would show the inclusion of not only Goodness! I am 72 but I was told 146-154 Kilburn High Road Holocaust survivors like myself, but by the Austrian Embassy that I am the London NW6 4JD also my children and grandchildren. In second youngest Holocaust survivor on any case, the word 'refugee' now has their record books. That's sad - really Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) all the wrong connotations. Are refu­ sad. Bring on the youth! Fax: 020 7624 5002 gees illegal immigrants? Are they Peter Phillips AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2007

week m Toclaw •reslau

t was about time to visit the home the past. The achievements of German town of my parents and grand­ scholars up to the early twentieth Iparents. I had lectured in Birmingham century are celebrated, including ten and at the annual Limmud study week Nobel Prize-winners, most of whom on the history of Breslau Jewry, but were Jewish, as are the Polish without ever having set foot in the city. professoriate who fled from universities The reasons for the omission lay in in eastern Poland incorporated into family history. Although 14 relatives Russia, but the period of late Weimar perished in the Holocaust, my immedi­ and the Nazis is passed over Similarly, ate family escaped, paradoxically, in the national museum, the fine because my parents were early victims collection of Silesian art from the of persecution. My father, Ernst J. Cohn Middle Ages to the eighteenth century (d. 1976), became the youngest law is matched by numerous Polish professor in Germany, but almost paintings of later centuries imported as immediately was prevented from lectur­ surplus to Warsaw's requirements, but ing by demonstrating Nazi thugs, the meagre pickings of European art of suspended from his post, and then recent centuries suggest that the dismissed along with other civil servants collection was once larger, though in 1933. He left via Switzerland for where it might be now is problematic. England in 1934 and retrained as a Jewish Breslau, once the third largest The Stork Synagogue barrister. In 1935 he married my community in Germany, is a shadow of mother, Marianne, nee Rosenbaum. been, or are being, restored to their its former self. A commemorative Naturalised in 1938, he then stood former glory, or indeed in some cases plaque marks the site of the 1872 New guarantor for the immigration of many when badly mutilated by previous Synagogue (Reform), the second largest family members, though at the cost of restorations, recreated to the original in pre-war Germany, where my family severe insomnia. My mother, today design. We avoided the southern had worshipped - some more regularly aged 92, was only 19 in 1933 when, residential suburbs, destroyed in the than others - but destroyed on driving a friend's car, she was pushed Soviet siege of 1945 and replaced by Kristallnacht. It is some consolation that off the road by a large vehicle filled Stalinist blocks. In the Ring we admired the land is not occupied by a high-rise with six drunken SS men, who later great-grandfather Nathan Berger's block of flats but is the playground of threatened her with violence if she men's store (now selling canned music), a school. reported the incident. This persuaded a little further away the apartment The courtyard of the surviving her father to agree at last to finance block he let out, and, round the corner, Orthodox synagogue, the Stork Syna­ her emigration to England, for she too grandfather Rosenbaum's pharmacy, gogue, has a plaque indicating that this wanted to escape. now dealing in foreign exchange. Polish was where the many thousands of After the war my father refused to law prevents us from laying claim to remaining Jews were rounded up return to Breslau as long as it remained these buildings, which were forcibly between 1940 and 1942 for deportation under Polish rule. Respecting his wishes, auctioned at knock-down prices by Nazi to their fate. At least services are now I suppressed my curiosity until, some decree. held in a small prayer room overlook­ years after 1989, the Polish authorities Nearly as large as the famous ing the site. slowly changed their attitude towards medieval square in Cracow, the Ring Post-war history explains the the city's German past. Fifty years of and adjacent squares and streets are a incomplete restoration of the fine stringent polonisation gave way to magnet for people to patronise the synagogue dating from 1829. The recognition that Wroclaw had always many restaurants and cafes and their community grew to 2,500 souls who been a multicultural centre for extensions onto the pavements, but came from the camps and the rest of numerous migrations. The German and without as many tourists as overwhelm Poland, but by 1968 the authorities Jewish pasts were something to other Central European cities. The had become so antisemitic that most celebrate - and an attraction for tourists Wroclaw botanical gardens and Jews fled to Scandinavia, Israel and from Germany. Japanese garden have regained their Western countries. The Communist city My wife Loretta and I took one of role as havens of beauty and government then allowed the building, the many cheap flights used by young tranquillity, as have the islands in the which had survived Kristallnacht and Poles returning home. As tourists, we River Oder, especially the one (long ago the war unscathed, to decay. focused on the sites of my family's past. attached to the mainland) on which sit After 1,989 a third community began We stayed in a small central hotel in the cathedral and other religious to trickle into the city and now numbers old houses charmingly restored by the foundations. 250 persons. On the urging of the Polish Association of Architects. While The eighteenth-century aula oi the Catholic archbishop, the city supported there are some new buildings of the university where my father studied and, some initial restoration, but the shell 1920s and more recent times, many all too briefly, taught has regained its of the large synagogue is used only on beautiful old houses and public former state. The university museum, high holy days and for well-attended buildings in the large central square, the albeit extensive and interesting, reflects monthly concerts of Jewish music. The Ring (now Rynek), and nearby have an incomplete coming-to-terms with continued on page 11 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2007

What we did in the holidays

e did what every Jewish recognition dawn on the owner's bawdy of the patter songs, you could middle-class family in Vienna face: 'Sigmund Freud', he said. 'Of claim to belong. This well of folk W did every summer: pack course, the well-known psychopath.' music, centuries deep, drew on the trunks with three months' worth of So much for the natural order. Came rhythm of the loggers as they swung clothes and household gear and move the holiday season, everybody changed the axe and echoed to the swish of the into a rented house that had to meet places: the invading psychoanalysts scythe as the women made hay in the three conditions - to be by a lake, in donned dirndls and lederhosen, fields. None of it had ever been written the mountains, and within easy reach becoming peasants overnight; the down until Konrad Mautner, another of the Salzburg Music Festival. Total locals moved in with the bohemia, Jew in lederhosen, made it his life's bliss was taken for granted; a lid for the posing for the painters by day and work to record words and melodies. No wooden seat over the cesspit was a sharing their beds at night, while the wonder we regarded them as 'ours' and desirable extra. actors dabbled in psychoanalysis in the prided ourselves on understanding the For me, bliss started even before we vacuum left by the pros. strange patois. reached our destination, at a railway I dabbled in drawing, smuggling There were terrors too: ear-splitting, junction called Attnang Puchheim, two myself into an impromptu life class, tree-splitting thunderstorms, the lake in words that gave me the giggles and can showing more zest than talent for white-capped uproar. Even at peace, the raise a smile even today. How Austrian lake threatened: I knew my father ex­ they sound: funny and useless. On The company we kept was pected me to swim across, because my arrival, my mother and assorted helpers sister had done so. And I dreaded the started to equip the near-empty house finely layered. At the bottom tiring mountain walks. What I liked best - typically the solid winter quarters of were the locals, the solid base, was to get on my bike very early in the a local peasant family who would move morning, before the mist had cleared next door into their ramshackle living their hard lives among and anybody was about, and fish for 'summer house', often no better than their beasts. Up one step small trout in the forbidden streams a hayloft above the stables. I couldn't that fed the lake. As the sun rose, I felt wait to get into my lederhosen, stiff and came the bohemians, some of the warmth of pure happiness. smelly with age. At night they stood them permanent residents, As suddenly as it had started, the empty by my bed, ready to be stepped some like summer's swallows, merry-go-round stopped. My mother into in the morning. Once a week I had folded away her dirndls, the trunks a proper wash - a hot tub in the public mainly actors 'resting' were packed and taken to the station baths. Otherwise, swimming in the between engagements and in horse-drawn coaches, the psycho­ lake took the strain. analysts put on hats, coats and The company we kept was finely Communists resting between thoughtful expressions, the actors rang layered. At the bottom were the locals, bouts of tribal warfare. their agents. The locals reverted to the the solid base, living their hard lives laboured High German they reserved for among their beasts. Up one step came rendering pubic hair with bold strokes day trippers; my hayloft playmates the bohemians, some of them of charcoal. My teacher's scant claim looked sheepish as I begged a last permanent residents, some like to fame was as a portraitist of Viennese kiss. Attnang Puchheim beckoned, and summer's swallows, mainly actors bankers, working from photographs. He then it was over for another year. 'resting' between engagements and never lost out: when he failed to make And then it was over for ten years. In Communists resting between bouts of the sale, he added a beard, changed the 1946 we discovered that Eichmann had tribal warfare. Nude bathing provided nose, and palmed off the result on some made our paradise his temporary hiding the bond between them. Our kind came Zionist organisation as a likeness of place at the end of the war. My father next - broad-minded professionals, Herzl. Ummalen auf Herzl occupied never set foot there again. I did, year with half-tamed children and untidy much of his time. after year, with my own sons and mixed marital arrangements. The real The magnet that drew us (and the feelings, but drawing the line at bourgeois, whom we despised, were more famous such as Felix 'Bambi' lederhosen. The lake and mountains stolid Viennese, who had their local Salten, Jakob Wassermann, Carl Zuck­ were the same, but paradise was lost. garb made to measure in Salzburg, mayer, Freud and his mainly American Victor Ross drank the waters, and went for healthy camp followers) to this paradise was the hikes. scenery, brooding and forbidding Top of the heap were the local though it could be at times. Its beauty r aristocrats. Those who could, fled to awed the bold and liberated the timid. Annely Juda Fine Art their stately homes in Germany, letting Its heart beat in the songs of the people. 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) their antler-studded villas to the more At night, at home, or in the many inns, Tel: 020 7629 7578 prosperous among the seasonal there was always singing and dancing, Fax: 020 7491 2139 invaders. I remember my mother accompanied by the syncopated clap­ CONTEMPORARY PAINTING looking for suitable accommodation for ping known as poschen: once you had AND SCULPTURE the Freud family and watching mastered it, and learned to savour the A|R JOURNAL AUGUST 2007

'NICHT MEHR HIER' Sir - On reading the May issue (Letters), I find I made a mistake about Theodore Bikel's performance with my mother The The Editor reserves the right play was Sholem Aleichem's Shver tsu zayn to shorten correspondence a yid ('Hard To Be a Jew') and it was I TO THE 1 submitted for publication performed in Vienna, not London. Theodore Bikel was 13 years old. ^ EDITOR i My son David and I went to Vienna to attend the World Congress of Jewish a Theatre on 19-23 March this year Theodore Bikel gave an extraordinary concert of songs REMEMBERING INTERNMENT Also, 'Bomber' Harris said he would have in various languages. When he came off­ Sir - Anthony Grenville's article (July) been delighted to take part in a raid - say stage, I introduced myself to him as 'Ruti brought back mixed memories of two years' on extermination facilities at Auschwitz - Meisels', which was how he knew me as a internment in Huyton, the Isle of Man and which were known to be on the edge of child. It reminded both of us of the good Canada. Let me supplement his informative the camp, but Eden stopped any such old days in Vienna. article by clarifying the situation in which efforts. The conference was called Tikkun Olam nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees in Leeds found Yes, some German Jews did find refuge (Healing the WoHd) and David and I were themselves. in England. Big deal! But please do not performing a programme called Nicht Mehr The Leeds Tribunal, contrary to most forget the ships Patria and Struma, which Hier (No Longer Here). My father had others in the country at the beginning of were prevented by the Royal Navy from written an article under that name after the war, routinely classified most, if not all, approaching Palestine and were told to go going in 1955 to the International Pen Club, Jewish refugees as 'B' (enemy aliens). This back where they came from (i.e.Romania). held in Vienna, when the Russians had only caused strong protests, including questions Then the people on board the boats blew recently left. My father wanted to find out in the House of Commons, and, as a result, themselves up and sank in the what had happened to the people and a Review Tribunal was installed, which Mediterranean. Stick to the truth and places he had known before the Anschluss. started re-hearing cases at the end of March nothing but the truth. Whenever he enquired, the answer was or eady April 1940 and re-classified virtually Roman Licht, London NWS always 'Nicht mehr hier'. all as 'C (friendly aliens). They heard cases David and I put on a performance based in alphabetical order and had reached the LET'S BE FAIR TO THE AUSTRIANS? on the article and my memories followed letter 'G' by 16 May 1940, when all category Sir - Peter Phillips's article 'Let's Be Fair to by a discussion. Part of the reason we were 'B' aliens were interned. As a result, those the Austrians' (June) is puzzling. Like him, I there was to help the new Austrian-Jewish refugees living in Leeds whose names lost many members of my family - 44-47 theatre (under the charismatic director started with the letters G-Z were rounded to be precise. In around 2002 I met Hannah Warren Rosenzweig) in their campaign to up on 16 May. The others were, of course, Lessing and had no idea she was Jewish. reclaim the Nestroyhof, home of the Yiddish later interned under the 'collar the lot' Nevertheless, she was General Secretary of theatre in Vienna before the war, where my decision. With hindsight - or Heinz-sight - the National Fund and still is. When Peter father and mother had both appeared (we perhaps I should have changed my name Phillips says 'It is not her fault' for not knew it as the Reklam). to Aaron. Heinz Skyte, Leeds receiving the Settlement, whose fault is it? It was particularly affecting to see Why was she unable to combat the OCA Yiddish returning to Vienna, often with Sir - My late husband, Josef Goldschmidt and why can the Fund distribute only $210 non-Jewish performers (the actress who (Goldsmith), was born in Munich and million instead of the early sum of $480? performed with us in Yiddish sings for a arrived in England on 15 March 1939 with Maybe some persons have received a klezmer band called Goyim!) and to see that the Kindertransport. He was sent to payment. However, I am beginning to think Jewish/Yiddish theatre does have a future Kempton Park, Huyton and then on to the that the Austrian government has now in Vienna. Ruth Schneider, London N8 Isle of Man. From there he went to Canada decided: These people are getting a pension. on the Sobieski and was interned in Ripples So far as we are concerned, that is enough!' BLATANT RACISM Camp, Trois-Rivi^res, where he remained Peter Chapman, Isle of Man Sir - Having just returned from a River until 1941. I am deeply touched that this Danube cruise and alighting from the pier episode in my husband's life is not 'THE PITY OF IT ALL' in Budapest, we were confronted with forgotten. (Mrs) Sarah Goldsmith Sir - I would like to congratulate you on such slogans as 'Jewish [sic] go home!' Newcastle-on-Tyne your well-considered leading article, Even more disturbing was a large swastika 'Cultural Legacy' (June). daubed on a beautiful memorial com­ THANK-YOU BRITAIN? May I add that by no means all German memorating the Roma's deportation. We Sir - Further to your interesting article Jews belonged to either of the two camps brought our concern to the attention of the (May), I would like to add a footnote that - emancipated Jews steeped in German management of our ship and they prom­ Werner Behr received a CBE in recognition culture and Jews who clung to their ised to speak to the customs authority due of his work on this worthwhile cause. He religion. Thus, my own parents contrived to visit shortly. Nothing, however, was done was a close family friend of my parents, to have a foot in both camps, for they were during the two days we were in port. Ernst and Lotti Cohn, who were great practising Jews living mainly in the local I intend to bring the matter up with my supporters of the Fund. It always struck me Jewish community but they nonetheless felt MER Hungary is now a member of the EU as a shame that some other refugee friends at ease with Goethe and Beethoven and and should comply to eliminate such so resented the fact that they were interned German culture in general. I suspect there blatant racism. Budapest may be a beautiful that they did not lend their support. were many like them - having the best of city, but these sentiments quite spoiled our Ronny Cohn, London NWS both woHds. We celebrated Chanukah in visit. the traditional way but we also had a U. Rosenfeld, Manchester Sir - 'Thank Britain'? Nothing of the kind! Christmas tree. No wonder my parents In my conversations with Leonard Cheshire thought the evil that had befallen Germany STOLPERSTEINE: 'A FAIRLY OBVIOUS about 60 years ago, it was clear that Britain in 1933 would soon blow over 'The pity of QUESTION' knew exactly what was going on, but it air indeed! Sir - I would like to ask a fairly obvious Anthony Eden and the Foreign Office would Leslie Baruch Brent, Emeritus Professor question: Why not place the stones on (or not allow the RAF to do anything about it! London N19 in) the walls of the adjacent buildings? This AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2007 would meet the objections about walking with the hundreds and thousands who die on the stones being a form of desecration, every day in Dafur and Iraq. She may then ARE YOU ON A LOW or the risk of dogs fouling them, and the acquire a modicum of objectivity regarding inscriptions would probably be read by Israel. INCOMEANDINNEED more passersby -1 don't imagine very many Ernest G. Kolman, Greenford, Middx people bend down to read the inscriptions OF HOMECARE HELP? on the plaques in the pavement. Sir - Ms Salinger quotes in the May issue of AJR might be able to offer you Alan Hercberg, Petach Tikva, Israel the Journal a letter apparently written by a financial assistance for cleaning, group of IDF officers saying that Israel has gardening and caring. Sir -1 wonder whose inane brainchild is the a policy of 'expelling and starving an entire word Stolperstein. The thought behind it people'. Does such a letter exist? If so, when Members who might not is noble, recalling a tragic part of our and where was it published and to what otherwise be able to afford history, but the word is ill-chosen. precise circumstances does it refer? homecare please contact: Stolpersteine translated literally means Ms Salinger quotes an obscure passage 'stumbling stones' according to Collins from Ben-Gurion. Why does she also not Estelle Brookner, Secretary German Concise Dictionary. Gedenksteine quote what Arab leaders have been saying AJR Social Services Dept (memorial stones) would be a much more since the establishment of the State of Israel Tel: 020 8385 3070 appropriate word and these could be to the present day? Their aims have been erected or fitted to walls, similar to what clearly and openly expressed - they do not one finds on the walls of London houses. want the Jewish state to exist. Anthony Goldsmith, Wembley, Middx It seems that Ms Salinger is little more Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd than an Arab propagandist. To her, Jews AJR DIVERSITY can do no right, and Arabs no wrong. She Clara Nehab House Sir - I read with great interest the letter of complains about where the separation wall Residential Care Home Professor Pavel Novak (May) and responses has been built, but I detect no hint of by Bob Norton and Bronia Zelenka Snow condemnation of the suicide bombings All single rooms with en suite (June) and have often thought on similar which caused the wall to be built in the bath/shower. Short stays/Respite lines. I was born in and grew up in Prague. first place. and 24 hour Permanent Care. Large However, I must agree with Mrs Zelenka M. Storz, London N16 attractive gardens. Ground Floor Snow that the fault may lie within ourselves. Lounge and Dining Rooms. Lift Why indeed don't we write? Are we so Sir - With regard to those soul-searching access to all floors. Easy access modest? letters about the way the IDF counters to local shops and public transport. The above contributions made me think terrorism, perhaps a residential stint in Enquiries and further infonnation please contact: a little further afield. Since the borders of Kiryat Shmona or Sderot would modify The IManager, Clara Nehab House East European countries have been open some of those views. We don't have to 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NWII ODA and since these countries joined the EU, we justify every response of the IDF, but Phone: 020 845S 2286 have been witnessing an influx of perhaps we could see it as did Henry V immigrants into the UK. Perhaps most of before Harfleur: battles are about winning. them are here to make money for their As a teacher of mine once said: 'We Jews families at home. In several of these have the same right as everyone else to SPRING countries antisemitism is not unknown. behave badly' International law did not Aren't there among these immigrants some protect the Armenians or the Marsh Arabs GROVE Jewish people who might have fled for other or the Kurds or the Jews. 214 Finchley Road reasons, private or political? Could they be Robert Waller London NW3 refugees like we were a long time ago? Astcote near Towcester London's Most Luxurious Hana Nermut, Harrow, Middx CONFESSIONS OF A SCHNORRER RETIREMENT HOME ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK Sir - How words change their meaning! I • Enteilainment - Activities Sir - Caroline Salinger states (July) that I recently gave a talk to sixth-formers in Bury • Stress Free Living 'want to talk about historical expulsions'. St Edmunds and introduced myself as an • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine Yes, I do. In this case, it was those that alien. \ assured them I was not from outer happened in Eastern Europe at the end of space, but they seemed unconvinced and • Full En-Suite Facilities the Second World War Apparently Ms that strange accent and my un-English Call for more Information Salinger does not. All we get from her is a ponim made them revise their idea of an or a personal tour kosher red herring from the 1936 diary of alien being. Ben-Gurion. 020 8446 2117 A month earlier, the much-travelled or 020 7794 4455 The lady is not so naive as not to realise Myrna Glass told me about a wedding in [email protected] that if you threaten your neighbour with California she had just been to. To me, a murder and throwing them into the sea and chassene was a joyous event attended by you lose the ensuing conflict, you can hardly the parents and a few friends and defined Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. expect to return to the status quo ante. by the restriction that you could sit on one No doubt Ms Salinger has a British with only one toches. This American version STATE REGISTERED passport. If she uses her imagination, she was of a different dimension altogether and CHIROPODIST will find it is stained with the blood of needs a new word. Having been a schnorrer Surgeries at: native North Americans (Indians), Australian most of my life, the cost of the flowers 67 Kilbum High Road, NW6 and Tasmanian Aboriginals, Maoris from alone would have provided me with a (opp. M&S) New Zealand, Zulus from South Africa, and standard of living I would have liked to have Telephone: 020 7624 1576 others. Besides doing these people out of become accustomed to. I suggest that all- their lands, to this day we still hold on to day extravaganzas of this type attended by 2 Pangbourne Drive Gibraltar, part of mainland Spain. hundreds be called a super-chassene - with Stanmore Middx HA7 4QT May I suggest to Ms Salinger that she no restrictions as to the number of toches's Telephone: 020 8958 8557 reads some books on the British Empire and present. Visiting chiropody service available the Palestine Mandate and concerns herself Frank Bright, Ipswich group or captures a furtive embrace, figures become virtual abstractions, lending REVIEWS humanity to formal perspectives. In one self-portrait, he sports an arty shirt and Unthinking habits waistcoat and peers out cynically from LEONARD WOOLF: A LIFE under a brimmed hat. Other charcoal self- by Victoria Glendinning portraits reflect Bomberg's gift for Simon and Schuster, 2006, 530pp. hardcover reductionism, in which hands, legs, plinths n the 50th anniversary of the are all linear objects playing for attention. hile the Bloomsbury set has death of David Bomberg, the I really liked his pen and inkwash, The attracted more biographers Boundary Gallery is showing than any other artistic circle, O Actress, in which the subject retains a solid, W 32 paintings and works on paper from their the one member of the group who has planted stance, staring insouciantly into the own and private collections. Recognised not received much publicity is Leonard, distance. today as one of the greatest Jewish the husband of Virginia, the famous h is always a joy to visit the National novelist. Victoria Glendinning has Expressionists, Bomberg, bom in 1890 to an Portrait Gallery, in which four portraits sought to remedy this situation. immigrant family, gained little recognition will be chosen in the BP Portrait Award Particularly interesting to Jewish readers in his own lifetime, although his students 2007. The Gallery still celebrates its love is the light her book sheds on the small at the Borough Polytechnic continue to group of middle-class Jews who were affair with photo-realism, as can be seen in cherish his legacy. established in this country before the most of the winning entries. influx of penniless immigrants from Tamara, by Johan Andersson, Eastern Europe. is a soft-focus study of a shy Not as grand as the Rothschilds, yet blonde who had to be persuaded well-to-do, Leonard's family owed their to pose nude for no perceptible affluence to the father, a successful reason. Paul Ensley's portrait barrister. He brought up his nine chil­ dren with the help of two nurses, a of fellow artist Michael Simpson governess, a cook and scullery maid, a is a super-realistic portrait in parlour-maid and two or three house­ which the gridwork of facial lines maids. This happy state came to an end down to the papery pink eyelids with his untimely death, obliging the is so picture-perfect that you can't family to move from Kensington to the see the brushstrokes. Super- less salubrious Putney. Nonetheless, Realism, which briefly emerged Leonard was sent to St. Paul's School, where he was bullied. Compton in California in the 1960s, of Mackenzie describes how he stuck which Stephen Hopkin, Oscar Z. down the lids of the desks of Jewish boys Acosta and Nicola Wood were the with gelatine so that they would come chief exponents, often featured up sharply and 'strike a Semitic chin'. the perfect rendition of Leonard was emerging as a clever meaningless objects such as cars, but insecure young man who defended in which the chrome finish and himself against hostility by a 'carapace' Michael Simpson by Paul Emsley. Oil on canvas colour shone more brightly than of indifference. On the strength of a minor award he went up to Trinity A graduate of the Slade School of Art, the original. Many of those artists later College, Cambridge. There he met the Bomberg became a Cubist but his Palestine retreated into Surrealism, having decided young men who were to become well- paintings, in the early 1920s, reveal an that optical realism, in which the subject known in many fields such as Lytton incipient Expressionism and show the was seen through a lens rather than Strachey, Clive Bell, G. E. Moore and contrast between the Palestine of his time through the human eye, rendered the work Maynard Keynes, and was elected to the and that of today. His views of Jerusalem style-less and chilling, lacking the life and prestigious Apostles group. In 1903 he and Siloam, or the Church of the Holy vigour of, for example, an Expressionist met Vanessa and Virginia Stephen briefly when they came up for the May portrait. Sepulchre, are of places of calm geometry: balls. Thoby Stephen told his sister he, like most painters, fails to capture the Thomas Leverett's portrait of ^. C. Virginia that Leonard 'hated the whole elusive light of Jerusalem, but this Grayling, the philosopher, is more surreal, human race'. geometric formalism offers a view of placing the subject in a spotted coat which After Cambridge the family finances solidity and neatness, of things in their disperses into a great swath of loud spots made it necessary for Leonard to get a rightful place. in a gaudy nod to pointillism. Swirling hills job straight away. However, he was Bomberg, who was a pupil of Sickert, are formed of words and a keyboard appears offered a post in the British adminis­ tration of Ceylon, an unlikely venture remains close to his Cubist origins. Mothers at his feet. for a Jewish young man who had never and children share this solid connectedness News just in that the BPNat Portrait Gallery previously travelled further than France. - linear, static, slanted shapes into which Starting as a lowly cadet, he became winner is Paul Elmsley. He wins £25,000 and he injects character, tenderness and an efficient administrator, one of whose there was a record entry this year. movement. Whether he paints a family duties was to assist at hangings. He had AjR JOURNAL AUGUST 2007 described himself on arrival as a 'very Corps, rising to the rank of regimental wit and sophistication to innocent unconscious imperialist', but surgeon first class, possibly the first Jew Hammerstein's trite, if warmer, more he became increasingly uneasy at the to attain the rank. Since it was impossi­ optimistic lyrics. Hart was born in 1895 role he was supposed to perform and ble for a practising Jew to be into an affluent German-Jewish relieved when, after seven years' serv­ commissioned into an Austrian regi­ immigrant family in New York, and no ice, he was granted home leave. ment, his achievement is remarkable. doubt his Jewish irony and his talent Meanwhile, Virginia, who had He became a 'Jewish Austrian military derived in part from this background. turned down several offers of marriage, gentleman - quite a new species'. From the Hart is delivered with verve was 'available'. Lytton encouraged George's father Ernst, a banker with and style by a team of excellent singer- Leonard to propose to her - 'You must the 'Imperially and Royally Privileged' dancers, who give us the old favourites marry Virginia. She's the only woman Austrian Landesbank, was born in the - Blue Moon, Manhattan, My Funny with sufficient brains' - while Vanessa same year as Adolf Hitler. The bank's Valentine, Mountain Greenery, advised Virginia not to make too much governor didn't draw anything as Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - of the fact that he was Jewish. After common as a salary but was paid an that have entered the lexicon of many false starts, his proposal was annual fee in gold coins. The bank's Hollywood vocabulary. My father used accepted and they were married in a employees were humble and had to to sing them in the car or hpm them at registry office. His mother, to her obtain the bank's consent before home; they survived well into the post­ chagrin, was not invited to the marrying. Reasons for refusal were war era. They are a light-hearted, if ceremony. Leonard had already never given. But employees travelling serious, gutsy and nostalgic glance at resigned from his post in Ceylon. on business were allowed money for life between two world wars, and as Theirs was not a conventional 'wine, women and song' as long as the such demonstrate the pinnacle of marriage, but Leonard was to become amount was not too great. Hollywood's toe-tapping era. Virginia's loving friend and nursemaid When Georg Klaar became George Hart is said to have had an during the many bouts of mental illness Peter Clare in 1943, courtesy of the unrequited passion forthe heterosexual she suffered between periods of British army, he felt more assimilated, Rodgers, but such hints, like his sexual creativity. Together they started the although sad to lose his family name ambivalence, if they exist in the script, Hogarth printing press. Following and its associations. The family's world are so subtle you'd miss them if you Virginia's suicide Leonard lived on for had disappeared for ever. coughed. The plot fizzes and dances many more productive years. One of the This new edition includes a post-war away like the show itself, and somehow paradoxes of his loving relationship letter from Dr Paul Klaar, written in 1946 you want to know more. There are with Virginia is the continued to a friend who had escaped to spirited performances by an immensely antisemitism she expressed in letters to Scotland. It contains news of survivors, gifted team: Louisa Maxwell, Lucy friends. Glendinning writes that 'she those who were arrested, deported, Kerans-Hunt, Matthew Barrow and shared the unthinking habits of most murdered or left to die in concentration Peter Straker with Neil McArthur on gentiles, expressing freely her distaste camps, and those who had been piano and Dave Berry on bass. Nigel for Jews, including her in-laws, their orphaned or lost their partners or Hook's set is a medley of manuscripts, accents, their voices and their food'. Has children. The book has been described notes and paraphernalia suggesting anything changed, one wonders. as a classic of Holocaust literature. If Hart's haphazard creativity. Martha Blend you read it first time round, read it again John Guerrasio portrays the or recommend it to those who haven't. diminutive Hart with self-deprecating Laraine Feldman humour. He has the air of watching from the wings and failing to be Classic of Holocaust literature surprised at anything. His successor, LAST WALTZ IN VIENNA Hammerstein, may have looked on the by George Clare brighter side, but for many it is THEATRE Rodgers's collaboration with Hart that Pan Books, 2007, 322 pp. paper generated the greatest songs - give or first read this book in 1981 and had Wit and sophistication take a touch of Hollywood blandness. forgotten how beautifully written it FROM THE HART: THE LIFE Gloria Tessler Iis. It combines history with the lives AND LYRICS OF LORENZ HART of the Klaar family from the 1800s to devised and compiled by David 1946, when George's Uncle Paul Kernan; directed by Caroline Clegg describes the 'incredible luck at being New End Theatre, North London able to return to Austria, their home' CINEMA (to 2 September) and re-establishing contact with his two sons, both by then living abroad. Like orenz Hart was an unsual lyricist Overcoming adversity many Austrian Jews, the Klaars were for Hollywood's Golden Age: the LA VIE EN ROSE always aware of antisemitism but saw Llove story was often playful, even directed by Olivier Dahan themselves as Austrians first. Uncle Paul biting, as his sense of irony considered starring Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf survived Theresienstadt although the ups and downs ofthe relationships at selected cinemas feelings of guilt never left him. He died game. His collaboration with Richard in 1948. Rodgers produced 28 musicals and 550 y late mother-in-law, a Great-grandfather Ludwig left the songs in 1919-43, when Hart, depressed survivor of Auschwitz origi­ east, with its kaftans and beards, for and alcoholic, died, preceded by Mnally from Slovakia, was Vienna, where he qualified as a doctor Rodgers's new collaboration with Oscar often heard singing Edith Piaf songs. in 1842. He joined the Army Medical Hammerstein. Hart's admirers prefer his I Reviews continued on page JO^ A)R JOURNAL AUGUST 2007

REVIEWS continued from page 9

It was the determination to overcome adversity that united the two women, CAFE born within a year or two of each The real taste of other but from such different worlds. Viennese coffee Indeed it is suffering that dominates CAFE VIVE ITERUM A society in which no this impressionistic portrayal of the la Hamilton Road, Dollis Hill, London NWIO singer's life, released in the English- individual is above the law speaking world under the title of one y love-hate relationship with the Vienna Kaffeehaus goes back to Whatever the eventual outcome of the of Piaf's best-loved songs but my boyhood days in Vienna. On plea bargain arrangement reached by the originally entitled La Mome - brat or MI: Saturday afternoons I reluctantly accom­ lawyers acting for former President kid - the depiction given to the future panied the rest of my family to the Katzav and Israel's Attorney-General, the star singing in the streets until Kaffeehaus and was told that if I behaved Israeli public has proved that it cares. 'discovered' by impresario Louis myself, there would be special treats for It cares about justice. It cares about Leplee. me on the Sunday. It was only when the the principle that everyone is equal before Herr Ober brought the hot chocolate and This 'kid' captivates our heart. Taken the law. It cares about not letting persons cream that I felt good. The rest of the to her paternal grandmother, a family were able to select their beverages suspected of criminal acts get away with brothel-keeper, as her circus contor­ from the many varieties of coffee on the them, no matter how elevated their tionist father goes off to war, she menu. With each drink came the station. encounters tenderness from Titine, a traditional glass of water, replenished The news of the plea bargain broke prostitute from whom Edith is loath immediately it was empty. Some people on Thursday morning. On Saturday to be parted when her father returns would sit there well into the evening with night over 20,000 people - men and to reclaim her. just one cup of coffee. There were also women of all ages and political persua­ All this is viewed in seemingly newspapers available. I often wondered sions - participated in a demonstration how the Kaffeehaus proprietors kept random flashback as the film is against the decision to let the ex-president going. dictated from the perspective of the off lightly. This spontaneous display of There are not many traditional Kaffee­ dying Piaf, a virtual octogenarian in the outrage was exceptional for Israel. It sent hauser left in Vienna. A few Viennese-style body of a 40-something-year-old, the message that the public would not coffee houses opened in London just af­ tolerate the attempt to allow the actions ravaged by a cocktail of narcotics and ter the war. They gradually disappeared, despair. The kernel of the film is the not being financially viable. So when it of a person suspected of having commit­ central love of Piaf's life, her affair with came to my notice that a coffee house ted serious crimes to be swept under the a married boxing champion whose was to be opened in the North-West carpet. This was not a political demon­ death in a plane crash inspires that London cosmopolitan district of Dollis Hill, stration with busloads of supporters of a most evocative of her songs, Hymne a I wanted to see what it was all about. particular party being brought from vari­ I'amour. Clearly, neither the name - Cafe Vive ous parts of the country. Youth Iterum - nor some items on the menu The technique of impressionistic movements were not mobilised to aug­ were Viennese. Nor was the background recall delivers a powerful, moving ment the crowd. This was a genuinely music. However, all was not lost, for the grass-roots demonstration of support for film. There are a number of decor and furniture were what one the principle of equal justice for all. memorable set-pieces, not least the would expect from such an establishment. scene where Edith is instructed by her I don't know if the Sachertorte was as One of the arguments made in favour father to 'do something' to entertain the original or whether the Apfelstrudel of accepting the plea bargain was that the onlookers on the street his act has couldn't have been improved on. But one sending a former president to jail (after failed to engage. When the terrified thing is for sure: the coffee was abso­ all, one of the initial crimes of which lutely Viennese! The trade name, Meindl, Katzav was accused was rape) would child burst into a rendition of the is respected throughout the world. bring Israel into disrepute. Quite the Marseillaise, I couldn't stop my tears. Then there was the friendly way in contrary. Letting him off lightly would The downside is an inevitable sense which Anita Reitschammer, the enterpris­ have brought Israel into disrepute. This of confusion. The mosaic of memory- ing owner of the cafe, receives her guests: seems to have escaped the understanding flashes includes a husband and a dying my companion and I were made welcome of the Attorney-General and his child but there is little sense of context. as soon as we sat down. Everything was advisers. And then there is the third Louis with spotlessly clean. The pity is there is only Other countries have pimished senior her till the end - Louis Barrier, I later limited accommodation: it was cold and officials, and even presidents, who have discovered. But who is he - manager, wet so the outside terrace couldn't be used. Maybe these days people will not been found guilty of serious offences, lover, both? want to sit all day with just one cup of whether these were financial or involved These are only a few of the coffee. Perhaps the cafe will become brutality against sections of the questions the film fails to answer. But popular with local folk as well as those of population. Sexual offences warrant despite this, and the omission of Piaf's us who remember the old days. arraignment, no matter who commits sometimes ambiguous role in the Whatever the case, I will certainly them. The Israeli public has made it clear French Resistance during the war, the come again, if only for the real taste of that it is not prepared to accept a society film, enhanced by an Oscar-worthy coffee. Oh yes, and not forgetting the in which certain individuals are above the comfy armchairs as well as the works of performance by Marion Cotillard, is law. a local artist which are displayed on the unmissable. Dorothea Shefer-Vanson Emma Klein wall. Otto Deutsch

10 AJR JOURNAL AUGUST 2007

Cultural legacy: some reflections

he two articles by Anthony Grenville introductions and interspersing them by in the June issue of the fournal We can leave this reciting German poetry. The artists included Tprompt me to add my own changed, new world in Joseph Schmidt, Hans Albers and Marlene contribution to these subjects. As the years Dietrich and I even played German beer- go by, I feel increasingly the lasting effect the sure knowledge that cellar songs. The poems were Goethe's of the values I inherited from my origins. we at least were fortunate Erlkonig, Fritz Griinbaum's Mein Begrabnis Thankfully, while short-term memories and Schiller's Die Burgschaft. The two ladies leave much to be desired, my distant past to have inherited the then in charge of the Cleve Road Centre remains vividly in my present. cultural legacy of disapproved of my choices on the grounds We can justifiably be proud of our our forefathers. that they were all in German and that they heritage, which we brought to the countries could not understand them! Nevetheless, I that gave us refuge. Most of us repaid this managed to entertain the members on a generosity with the knowledge with which have lost that which we have held most dear further education - in German. we were endowed, by adding value to - our cultural background. While we were Eighteen months ago I was in Vienna for Britain - in many cases far above the norm. proud to follow in our parents' footsteps, the inauguration of the Stones of However, this contribution will end in the the new generations mostly discarded this Remembrance project. I suggested that we next few years, with our successors quality. Though some try hard to assimi­ see Nathan der Weise at the Burgtheater inheriting the mantles which clad us. late themselves, most of us view with some and was joined by a number of others. Alas, the cultural legacy which we have disdain that which has superseded our Having seen the play at the same venue as stored within ourselves will inevitably die cultural legacy. a young boy, I abhorred the 'modern' with us. The new generations, not having I am reminded of a personal contribution production and we all walked out at the had the education and experience with to the AJR Aftemoon Entertainment some interval! The management told us that most which we were endowed, aligning them­ 20 years ago. I opted to play taped records productions were now of the same type. Not selves with tfiis country's youth in what is of a number of songs by bygone German only must the Jewish directors of that termed the 'multicultural environment', m\\ and Austrian artists, providing short eminent theatre be rotating furiously in their graves when contemplating what became of their lives' work. WHEK IX "^'ROCXJ.^^' continucJ paqc 4 I recently went to see La Traviata at the recent award of the 2012 European soldiers to clear the cemetery, and Volksoper in Vienna only to witness a football championship to Poland and recently 50 young Americans touring lifeless, misconceived 'modem' production - Ukraine induced Wroclaw as a chosen Poland were persuaded to devote a day Violetta dying on the bed, which was the sole venue to promise further regeneration, to this work. The municipality looks ever-present piece of scenery, with Alfredo including the final restoration of the after the better-known Old Cemetery; synagogue. among its 12,000 gravestones we bewailing her death behind a lace curtain on The Jewish community was also found famous persons like Ferdinand another part of the stage. What romance! Oh favoured when in 1993, after many Lassalle, the socialist politician, and for the past glory of the theatre and opera! attempts, it received the school, Heinrich Graetz, the historian of the We can leave this changed, new world in hospital, offices and other property of Jews, as well as the monumental family the sure knowledge that we at least were the pre-war community, now too vaults of many secularised Jews who fortunate to have inherited the cultural extensive for its needs. From the prospered in the heyday of Breslau legacy of our forefathers. It will be buried proceeds of lettings, community Jewry. with us. facilities of every kind are maintained, I regret the passing of that era, when Fred Stem including free kosher lunches for all - undoubted assimilation was also including us tourists! The new young, matched by Jewish cultural activity of friendly Orthodox American rabbi every kind, but the time has come to WANTED TO BUY regrets that few families of the pre-war accept that Wroclaw now has a new Jewish residents have yet visited. He Jewish community, just as Germany German and encourages all Poles who genuinely itself has acquired a large one of want to become members of the 200,000 and more souls, mostly from English Books community, even if they are not fully Russia. We have always been a Bookdealer, AJR member, halachically Jewish. migratory people and those who welcomes invitations to view and One young university student with a escaped Germany have enriched other purchase valuable books. Jewish grandparent helped us to look countries and other Jewries. Am Yisrael for my uncle Jakob Cohn's grave, which chai - the people of Israel shall live! Robert Hornung is listed in the remarkably preserved Henry J. Cohn 10 Mount View, Ealing records of the 20,000 graves in the New London W5 IPR Cemetery, though in vain, because that Henry J. Cohn is Emeritus Reader in History Email: [email protected] section is still overgrown. He recruits at the University of Warwick and Vice- Tel: 020 8998 0546 Chairman ofthe Leo Baeck College, London weekly 10 Catholic priests and 10 Polish

II military adoption of techniques for Harrogate: discussion about concealment, distortion and deception present preferred dates from the late nineteenth century, The August Get-together in London when long-range weapons (rifles) came aroused strong comments. Some won­ into general use and, later, aircraft. dered if one session might have been Various artistic methods were used, for devoted to discussions about the instance Cubism. Paul Samet present and the future instead of remi­ Next meeting: Thurs 2 Aug. Annual niscences. RosI shared with us extracts Sheffield: 'Memories of Garden Party from an educational correspondence she had with an Austrian schoolgirl Mitteleuropa' Essex and Edgware lunch together and entertained us with amusing The theme 'Memories of Mitteleuropa' Edgware members were warmly snippets. Inge Little gave us an opportunity to relate our welcomed at the Westcliff Synagogue Next meetings: Wed 22 Aug at home personal humiliations and sufferings. It by Essex Group Chairman Otto Deutsch. also helped us to get to know each of RosI and Mark in York; Wed 31 Oct Following a buffet lunch. Otto gave us at usual venue in Harrogate other's past, thus forming a more an interesting history of Westcliff and cohesive group. Chaired by Susanne Southend before taking us on a tour of Brighton 8i Hove Sarid: eighth Green, our ever-appreciated co­ both places, including stop-offs at the birthday ordinator, we went home feeling we famous pier and the statue of Queen We celebrated our eighth birthday with had spent a worthwhile social- Victoria. Edgar Ring a Get-together, enlivened by educational afternoon. contributions from members and even Steve Mendelsson Wembley Continental Friends a sing-along. As the original founder of Next meeting: Sun 21 Oct second meeting Sarid, I felt privileged to see many of Over 20 people attended our second the people who have been with us since Hendon fabulously entertained meeting. We were given the its inception. Fausta Shelton We were fabulously entertained at our opportunity to introduce ourselves and Next meeting: Mon 20 Aug. Social Get- first anniversary meeting by pianist to get to know each other a little better. together Annette Saville, who played a Fred Stern provided a list of useful magnificent programme of nostalgic Cleve Road: thinking happy telephone numbers of, among others, melodies from the pre-war years up to Bettine Le Beau told us that to be happy recommended decorators, plumbers the present time. We also celebrated we must like ourselves. We are all born and electricians which will be sent to Irene White's 90th birthday with the basic instincts of self- all members. Myrna Glass Hazel Beiny preservation and procreation, but we Next meeting: Wed 8 Aug. Pis contact Next meeting: Mon 6 Aug. 'Israel Update' office for further details have to programme our brains to think happy. Every cloud has a silver lining Wessex: legal reminiscences Norfolk: nothing can stop us now but to get rid of depression, we must Following a short talk by Marcia Nothing can stop us meeting at use all the five senses, especially touch. Williams, Head of AJR Social Services, Norwich - even if the Board of Depu­ David Lang and an excellent lunch, catered by ties gets in the way. Erika had just Next meeting: Tues 21 Aug. Eli Benson Katrina Webb, Myrna Glass introduced celebrated her 90th, Myrna had been of Magen David Adom our speaker, the solicitor Peter to a super-chassene on Sunset Boulevard Summerfield, who had arrived in (see Letters), another member had been Edgware: the Wiener Library England from Berlin just before the war. from Prague to Berlin along rivers and Howard Falksohn told us that the Peter reminisced about several of his canals. What excitement, not to men­ Wiener Library contains records of many cases, which had involved acting in tion the nosh! Frank Bright elements of Jewish life during the Nazi major marine and aircraft accident Next meeting: Thur 23 Aug. Summer period, as well as the postwar cases as well as in cases in France. lunch/ discussion Nuremberg trials and the trial of Adolf G. M. Ettinger Scottish and Newcastle Annual Get-together llford: the story of the bagel Frank Miller gave us the story of the 1; ^^^ bagel - a fascinating tale of the siege of Vienna in 1683 when a great Muslim army suffered a great defeat. The Austrian victory inspired a local baker to produce a bread roll in the shape of a stirrup - BQgel in German. This epic piece of history was followed by a delicious lunch of bagels with various fillings. A most enjoyable morning. Meta Roseneil Next meeting: Wed 1 Aug. Celebration 1 of fourth birthday Some 40 Scottish and Newcastle group members met in the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation's Synagogue Hall to view Testimony, the Scottish Holocaust Memorial Exhibition developed by Heartstone to incorporate testimonies from former refugees and Pinner: camouflage in war Holocaust survivors who came to, or are now living in, Scotland. Paul Tyack indicated that James Taylor, from the Imperial War the Anne Frank Trust was now looking at the development of small exhibits for distribution Museum, gave us a well-illustrated talk to schools. Members also took part in discussion groups on 'Legacy' and 'Education'. The day ended with excellent musical entertainment by Gica Loening. Philip Mason on the history of camouflage. The

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Eichman. Most records have now been Weald of Kent: Three-State Solution' microfilmed or computer-stored; copies Meeting in Tunbridge Wells, we were Paul Balint AJR Centre have also been passed to Yad Vashem. very interested in what Myrna told us 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 Edgar Ring about the functions of the Board of Tel: 020 7328 0208 Next meeting: Tues 21 Aug. Michael Deputies. We also talked about a 'three- Anvoner, 'Aspects of the Law' state solution' in the Middle East. The KT-AJR all-important refreshments were ably Cambridge: current affairs Kindertransport special taken care of by Richard and Ella Levi. discussion interest group Inge Ball A lively discussion of current affairs, led Monday 6 August 2007 Next meeting: Tues 28 Aug by Myrna Glass, was much enjoyed. The 11.45 am for 12.15 pm wide range of subjects covered many North London: Churchill's life Hermann Hirschberger matters, including global warming, James Taylor concentrated on Winston's 'My Trip to Karlsruhe & Kempton' information technology, and the quips and humorous asides, showing a Reservations required welfare system. facet of the great man's character not Please telephone 020 7328 0208 Keith Lawson generally known. A well-researched, Next meeting: Thur 16 Aug. Shilpa interesting talk. Herbert Haberberg Monday, Wednesday & Thursday Shap, 'Global Warming' Next meeting: Thur 30 Aug. Celebration 9.30 am - 3.30 pm of sixth birthday Leeds HSFA: a man wrongly PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE IS CLOSED ON TUESDAYS imprisoned Essex outing to Wiener Library Amjad Hussain told us about the arrest Wiener Library Archivist Howard August Afternoon Entertainment and imprisonment of his brother, Falksohn related the history of the Wed 1 Guyathrie Peiris & Bill Patrick mistakenly accused of the murder of a Library, following which Katharina Thur 2 Nicola Smedley taxi driver in Pakistan and sentenced to Hubschmann gave us a tour of the Mon 6 KT LUNCH - Kards & death. He said his brother was not Library and of its thousands of Games Klub embittered by his experience and had testimonies, newspaper cuttings and Tue 7 CLOSED been sustained throughout his documents from all over the world. We Wed 8 Paul Coleman 9 Jack & Rita Davis imprisonment by his faith, the Thur must make sure that future generations Mon 13 Kards & Games Klub possibility of appeal, and his knowledge never forget the atrocities that befell Tue 14 CLOSED of the efforts made on his behalf by his our families. We owe a debt of gratitude Wed 15 Evelyn True family and British public figures. to the Library's staff and volunteers. Thur 16 HOMESHARE - TALK Martin Kapel Miriam Stein Mon 20 Kards & Games Klub Tue 21 CLOSED OTHER AUGUST MEETINGS Wed 22 Michael Heaton AJR GROUP CONTACTS Thur 23 Douglas Poster East Midlands (Nottingham) Wed 22 Mon 27 CLOSED - BANK HOLIDAY Bradford Continental Friends Aug. Lunchtime Get-together Lilly and Albert Waxman 01274 581189 Tue 28 CLOSED Brighton & Hove (Sussex Region) Cardiff Wed 29 Aug. Lunchtime Get- Wed 29 Jen Gould Fausta Shelton 01273 734 648 together, with Susannah Alexander Thur 30 BINGO Bristol/Bath on 'A History of the Jews in England' Kitty Balint-Kurti 0117 973 1150 Cambridge Anne Bender 01223 276 999 Liverpool DIARY DATES Cardiff Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 7 August Northern Get-together, Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Manchester Leeds Cleve Road, AJR Centre Werner Lachs 0161 773 4091 9 Sept AJR Tea at Wafford Hilton Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 Newcastle Dundee Walter Knoblauch 0191 2855339 For further information about any of Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Norfolk (Norwich) these events, please call us on 020 8385 East Midlands (Nottingham) Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 3070. Bob Norton 01159 212 494 North London Edgware Jenny Zundel 020 8882 4033 Rutfi Urban 020 8931 2542 Oxford 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE Edinburgh Susie Bates 01235 526 702 Members requiring benefit advice please telephone Frangoise Robertson 0131 337 3406 Pinner (HA Postal District) tinda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 to make an Essex (Westcliff) Vera Gellman 020 8866 4833 appointment at AIR, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Larry Lisner 01702 300812 Sheffield Stanmore, MIddx HA7 4Rt Glasgow Steve Mendelsson 0114 2630666 Claire Singerman 0141 649 4620 South London Harrogate Lore Robinson 020 8670 7926 Hazel Beiny, Southern Groups Co-ordinator Inge Little 01423 886254 South West Midlands (Worcester area) 020 8385 3070 Hendon Ruth Jackson 01386 552264 Myrna Glass, London South and Midlands Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Surrey Groups Co-ordinator Hertfordshire Edmee Barta 01372 727 412 • 020 8385 3077 Hazel Beiny 020 8385 3070 Weald of Kent Susanne Green, Northem Groups Co-ordinator HGS Max and Jane Dickson 0151 291 5734 Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 01892 541026 Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator Hull Wembley 020 8385 3070 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Laura Levy 020 8904 5527 KT-AJR (Kindertransport) llford Wessex (Bournemouth) Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Meta Rosenell 020 8505 0063 Mark Goldfinger 01202 552 434 Child Survivors Association-AJR Leeds HSFA West Midlands (Birmingham) Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 Trude Silman 0113 2251628 Ernest Aris 0121 353 1437

13 AjR JOURNAL AUGUST 2007

FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS Births Congratulations to Andrea and Philip TEA Goodmaker on the birth of their HOME grandson, Joel Oliver. Congratulations to Helena and Stephen SUNDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2007 HOMESHARE - TALK Reid on the birth of their twin at 2.30 pm, HILTON HOTEL, THURSDAY 16 AUGUST 2007 grandchildren, Jasmine and Zachary. ELTON WAY, WATFORD at the Thanks A ticket application form is inserted Many thanks for your good wishes on Paul Balint AJR Centre into this issue of the JournaL my 100th birthday and for putting my Kindly complete the form and little 'output' into your journal. I never Please call Susie return it to us as soon as possible. thought I would make it, but it turned on 020 7328 0208 out a memorable day for everyone who We look forward to seeing you for reservations shared it. Debra Kadisch. at the AJR Tea. Death It is with great sorrow that the family Should you require further details, of Inge Elting announce her sudden please phone 020 8385 3070. Building death on 30 May 2007. A truly selfless Blocks lady who is deeply missed by her family and all her friends. Appeal

Classified Ouildmo 3 fiaspital for tne cMtfren of Jervsalem Live-in caregiver wanted to look after elderly disabled lady. All accommoda­ BJ.NjS 0 Please help us build Jerusalem's first tion and food provided. West Finchley. Wi dedicated Children's Hospital. A donation of just £20 will buy one ofthe Tel 0208 446 6343. 30 August 2007 I vital building blocks of our children's future. Part-time driver required for private Call the number below or go to our website Why not join us at the car, London N6 district. Would suit 1 for more Information on how you can help. retired person. Clean licence and at least I Paul Balint AJR Centre 020 8201 8933 five years' driving experience essential. when we will be playing I www.shaarezedekuk.com/ Box No. 1268. BII^GO * buildingblocks Mu Shaar*Z«McUK,7«6Flnchl«yRoMl,NW117TH Paul Balint AJR Centre after lunch | Chiropodist Trevor Goldman at the AJR Centre Wednesday 8 August 2007, 10- I 11.30 am. Please contact Susie ACACIA LODGE Ion 030 7328 0308 Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron for reservations I For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent (Ucensed by Borough ot Barnet) Qjjou^ Home Care ' Single and Double Rooms. Care through quality and • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. professionalism • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. L •• I • Nurse on duty 24 hours. Celebrating our 25th Anniversary • Long and short term and respite, 25 years of experience in providing the including trial period if required. highest standards of care in the comfort Between £400 and £500 per week of your own home 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours 020 8455 1335 other times 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley London N12 9TB PillarCare I hour to 24 hours care Quality support and care at home A grandchild Is a wonderful blessing Registered through the National Care Stantjard Commission Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours to have. If you would like to spend Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 more time with them then you need to Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care www.colvin-nursing.co.uk call CORRECT COMPUTERS. Convalescent and Personal Health Care Imagine being able to see your family Compassionate and Affordable Service whenever YOU want. We teach SWITCH ON ELECTRICS complete beginners to use a computer Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff and will show you how to have video Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA Rewires and all household conversations with any of your family. electrical work That's as easy as making a telephone Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 call but one hundred times better, Call Studio 1 Utopia Village Mobile: 0795 614 8566 us now on 020 7449 0920. 7Cliala.t Road, WVi 8LH

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Obituary Central Office for Holocaust Claims Bob Rosner, 1930-2007 Bob graduated as an architect from Michael Newman ob Rosner's early life was not Durham University, served in the army, and radically different from that of other went on to build a prestigious international Nuremberg art archives Jewish children growing up in the practice, specialising in marine development, In an initiative to identify former owners - B and rightful heirs - of artworks looted from thirties in a comfortable middle-class life in town planning and landscape design. Jewish families in the Holocaust era, the city the 1st district of Vienna, where his father But it was in 1988, with his visit to the of Nuremberg has issued an appeal to was a skin and venereal disease specialist. 'Anschluss' exhibition and, even more, to the people to make available to the City Archives 'personal records or photos of flats in Then, on 11 March 1938, the whole of this first Kindertransport Reunion, that a semi­ Nuremberg and of stolen cultural assets 'normal' life vanished, replaced by a Nazi life­ nal change in his life and preoccupations from their family property'. style, which was constructed in just a few occurred. Having lost contact with each other By unveiling the 'Lost Art' project, the Nuremberg City Archives are attempting to weeks (and sometimes days). In this brief for many years, we came together that year facilitate the return of cultural objects, period, expulsion from school, from one's flat and remained closely in touch. He was partic­ including paintings, graphical works, and from one's profession became the new ularly concemed that young people should furniture and craftworks which were norm of Jewish life, with all the attendant subsequently acquired over the local art learn the history of early years and draw trade by the city of Nuremberg. cruelties - sometimes practised by yester­ appropriate conclusions. Subsequently, he Although it is acknowledged that it is not day's 'friends' - that became the hallmark became a passionate supporter of, and lecturer always possible to determine the details of of the Austrian experience. former owners, the project will draw on the at, the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre. Indeed, documentation already available in the Following Kristallnacht, Bob arrived on he died a few hours after his last lecture. Nuremberg City Archives as well as the a Kindertransport in Hull in June 1939 and A week before Bob died, I told him of a Germanic National Museum and the Bavarian State Archives. was adopted by Leo Schultz, a remarkable sentence I had recently come across which The Commission for Looted Art in man, later to become Lord Mayor, who was he might find useful. The sentence ran: 'If Europe, which has helped recover thou­ to have a huge influence on Bob's later years, 27 January is to be Holocaust Memorial Day, sands of artworks lost, stolen or confiscated in the Holocaust, is offering especially in the field of human rights. then the other 364 days of the year should advice and assistance to potential claim­ In 1946 Bob had the extraordinary be Holocaust Prevention Days.' His comment ants. The Commission can be contacted on experience of discovering that his parents was: 'That is what we ought to be about, and 020 7487 3401 or via their website: www.lootedartcommission.com had survived, having been hidden in the I would like to use it.' I have no idea if he countryside for two years by a professional did, but it was certainly what he was about! Claims Conference colleague of his father. (Out of 45,(XX) Jews Bob is survived by his wife, Olive. May negotiations alive in Austria on 1 September 1939, barely his memory be for a blessing. At its annual meeting with representatives 2,000 survived the war.) Fred Barschak of the German government, the Claims Conference was able to secure improvements to several programmes which provide financial assistance to Holocaust survivors. Search Notices As well as reaching an agreement that will enable more Holocaust survivors to Kurt Friedlaender, possibly associated boarding school which existed from 1894 receive the monthly payments from the with thejewish Refugee Confimittee, and to 1958 mostly in Hove with a period in Article II and the Central and East European wife Berth! lived at 35 Shoot Up Hill, NW North Wales in the 1940s. In its last 30 Funds, the Claims Conference is hopeful that London in 1940s-50s. Kurt helped people years it was run by two of my mother's negotiations will result in further with restitution claims. I believe the sisters, Dr Nancy Hart and Mrs Enid improvements to the homecare programme. Friedlaenders are related to my Alfandary. I am writing a book on this. Written enquiries should be sent to Salmonsohn ancestors. Any info pis to Pis share your memories with me, Jane Central Office for Holocaust Claims (UK), Rose Marie Whailey at [email protected] Manaster, at [email protected] Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL, by fax to 020 8385 3075, Olga Hiawatsch, who lived at Obers- My aunt Edith Robinsky taught music at or by email to [email protected] dorferstrasse 7, Wolkersdorf, Austria, was the Judische Volksschule in Berlin until early murdered by the Nazis. Her son, Dr Kurt 1942. If you knew her pis contact Prof Hiawatsch, born 1909, has been in Lon­ Steven Robins at [email protected] New website reunites families don since 1949. Any info, pis contact separated by the Holocaust david.langi [email protected] The two Schonthal families of Godollo, A new website reunites families separated Hungary boasted 16 children between by the Shoah: www.ShoahConnect.org. There were three DP children's centres them - 8 boys and 8 girls. There are ShoahConnect provides a tool to associate at Kloster Indersdorf, near Dachau, in known descendants in the USA, Canada email addresses with the more than 2 million 1945-48. The first was led by UNRRA and Hungary seeking family members in Pages of Testimony on Yad Vashem's Team 182 (Principal Welfare Officer Greta Switzerland. Due to name changes there website (www.yadvashem.org), matches Fischer). The second, the 'Jewish may also be family members under the people associated with the same Pages, and Children's Kloster Indersdorf Centre', was names of, e.g., Szepvolgyi or Komlos. Any facilitates contact between them. A discussion of ShoahConnect, led by UNRRA Team 1066 and contained info pis contact Catherine (Schontal) including an interview with its creator, kibbutz organisations from Poland and Adam at [email protected] genealogist Logan Joseph Kleinwaks, can be Hungary. The IRO and Kibbutz Dror were read at http;//shorashim.blogli.co.i|/archlves/ WWII evacuation of refugees in the UK in charge of the third. If you have 235 (English) or http://shorashJm.blogli. memories of this time, pis contact Anna I am working on a research programme co.il/archives/236 (Hebrew). Andlauer at [email protected] for Reading University. If you have any For more information, visit www. info, pis contact Dr Eva Roman on 0208 ShoahConnect.org or contact logan@ Mansfield College was a Jewish girls' 462 5030 (evenings). ShoahConnect.org

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Newsround

Anne Frank Park opens in French capital; new documents pertaining to Courageous service in Britain's armed forces diarist released Remembering Peter Leighton-Langer An Anne Frank Park has opened in Paris. Among those who attended the opening en and women of German reduced to the status of a dustman after the of the park, which is located close to the nationality who volunteered for Anschluss. Peter's baptismal certificate Jewish Museum in central Paris, were the historic district's Mayor, Pierre Aidenbaum, military service in the armed offered him no protection, so in September M Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, and the forces of Britain and her allies during the 1938 his parents put him with other bap­ Director of the Anne Frank House in Second World War faced an additional tised Jewish children on a Kindertransport Amsterdam, Hans Mestra. hazard. Legally classified as 'enemy aliens', organised by the Society of Friends for 'non- In a separate development, Anne Frank's their new affiliation was tantamount to com­ Aryan Christians'. He became a farmer's boy cousin has released thousands of letters, photographs and documents which, mitting high treason against their country and in 1941 volunteered for the Pioneer archivists say, will reveal details about the of origin. Yet, as the late soldier and author Corps. When after 1943 Pioneers were diarist's background. Bernhard 'Buddy' Peter Leighton-Langer pointed out, even in allowed to join fighting units, he changed Elias, 82, had kept the documentation in the not unlikely event that the British would his name to Leighton and was commissioned his attic before permanently lending it to the Anne Frank House Museum. lose the war, 'Every one of us knew this and into the Royal Artillery and sent to India in was proud of it. Everyone accepted the atten­ 1945. His father was murdered in Auschwitz, Auschwitz renamed The official title of the Auschwitz death dant risk for him or herself, voluntarily.' but his mother survived and eventually camp has been changed to include the German nationals put on military came to London. Back in Civvy Street, name 'German' in response to diplomatic uniforms on the side opposing their legal Leighton-Langer became a manager in pressures from Poland. A Unesco govemment before any others, and German Marks & Spencer, subsequently becoming spokesman said that in future the camp would be referred to as the 'Auschwitz- and Austrian soldiers served in the British finance director for Bata shoes in Germany Birkenau German Nazi Concentration army virtually from the word go. Most of and settling in Diisseldorf. Camp 1940-1945'. them were Jews and individuals whom the On retirement, he dedicated himself to Medal for Salvadoran official Nazi laws had tumed into Jews, but a fair documenting and recording as much as The government of San Salvador is to seek number were also gentiles, some of whom possible about his fellow refugees who had a posthumous medal for diplomat Jose had left Germany for political reasons while served in the British forces in the Second Arturo Castellanos who gave citizenship others who were not politically minded at World War, because, as he said, 'everybody certificates to as many as 40,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Mr Castellanos was all opposed the Nazis and vranted to fight is always so surprised that the story of the the Salvadoran consul-general in Geneva for freedom. German and Austrian refugees who bore in the early 1940s. A not inconsiderable number of 10,000 arms in the forces of the British crown is Germany's Jews in warning to Israel Germans, Austrians, Czechs and others hardly known at all'. Joining an army The leaders of Germany's Jewish volunteered to join the British forces. From opposed to Germany was, in his view, the community have warned Israeli PM Ehud 1939 to 1943 most served in the 18 Alien only sensible way in which any German Olmert they will request the German government's help in preventing Israel Companies of the Pioneer Corps, but after opposed to Hitler could proceed with some from encouraging Jews settled in Germany 1943 almost all branches of the services were hope of succeeding. He believed that the to emigrate to Israel. The warning was sent opened to them. An additional 5,000 served Germans should be proud of the refugees' following Israel's decision to extend the in the forces of the British Empire and successful opposition to the Nazis, and that jurisdiction of Nativ, the government body in charge of promoting immigration from Commonwealth, a further 14,500 in the for the Jews these co-religionists did not the former Soviet Union to Israel. forces of the United States, and certainly no allow themselves to be led to the slaughter, fewer than 10,000 in France and Palestine. but carried arms and used them to good Polish-Jewish museum progresses Supporters of a new museum on Polish This makes a total of at least 40,000 - the effect. Jewry are hoping to draw in the final funds great majority of them Jews - who risked Leighton-Langer's main contribution, to finish what aims to be Europe's largest their lives with conviction and distinction and now his epitaph, is his book, Jewish cultural attraction under one roof. in the armies of the Westem Allies. intriguingly entitled The King's Oum Loyal Calculating that 50-75 per cent of the world's Jews trace their ancestry to Poland, Peter Wilhelm Langer, who died recently, Enemy Aliens: German and Austrian museum officials estimate, according to a was an Austrian who was commissioned Refugees in Britain's Armed Forces: 1939- Jewish Telegraphic Agency (New York) into the British Army. He was born in 45, which is published in the UK by report, that some 500,000 visitors will visit Vierma in 1923 and had three Jewish grand­ Vallentine Mitchell (tel 020 8952 9526) and the museum annually. The museum still needs 10-15 million dollars to support its parents. His father held the second highest was launched by Peter at the Austrian permanent galleries, said its deputy rank in the Austrian civil service, but was Embassy in London last November. director, Ewa Wierzynska.

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees In Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website www.ajr.org.uk

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