AJ R Information

Volume XLVII No. 2 February 1992

£3 (to non-members)

Don't miss . . . Vergangenheitsbewaltigung - a categorical imperative

German pensions announcement p9 Everything that Overcoming the past rises must converge pi5 Street theatre or all that Europe tantalises impoverished would-be immigrants from the Third World much of its soil is, reprised pi6 thanks to Hitler and Stalin, manured with human remains. This obscenity is yet further compounded by F the rationalisations of some Europeans - not only Serbs and Croats -who attempt to justify one set of Planning atrocities by reference to another. The newly sovereign Baltic states show a deplorable The categorical imperative of Vergangenheits­ megadeath tendency to gloss over the war crimes of their own bewdltigung confronts all the countries and institu­ with nationals by arguing that these occurred in the heat of tions of Europe whose immune system collapsed paperclips battle against Russia, destroyer of Baltic indepen­ before the contagion of Nazi antisemitism. In recent dence. (The allies, of course, used a similar rationale months President Kravchuk of the resurrected he Wann­ in the Cold War when they assisted Gestapo torturer Ukraine admitted his fellow countrymen's culpability see meet­ Klaus Barbie to escape to South America.) in the Babi Yar massacre, and the Austrian Chancellor Ting in Jan­ Even the dread butcher of Lyons was, however, Vranitzky made a similar avowal of national guilt. uary 1942 at small fry beside the Croat Fiihrer Ante Pavelic who (Alas, in the country which, unlike the Ukraine, has which SS high-ups escaped along the 'rat line' with the active help of the been a democracy since the war, Vranitzky's state­ conferred with Vatican. The saving of Ustashe murderers from the ment came 40 years too late.) bureaucrats about hangman's noose is such a perversion of the concept Even in Western Europe Vergangenheits­ the murder of 11 of Christian mercy that it leaves the already dubious bewdltigung leaves much to be desired. In France million Jews has reputation of Pope Pius XII in absolute tatters. former Vichy police chief Bousquet lives in luxurious no counterpart in retirement, and in Belgium ex-Nazi collaborators the annals of have formed the Vlaams Block which is threatening human infamy. No the cohesion of the country. KGB document Here we face a situation in which positive and comparable to the negative aspects are precariously balanced. The Wannsee Protocol United Kingdom is unique in Western Europe in is likely ever to 'lacking' a party of the extreme Right. This healthy emerge: Stalin state of affairs was reflected in the reluctance of murdered individuals on the wilder fringes of Toryism to be seen haphazardly (as publicly in Le Pen's company. On the other hand, did the little though political antisemitism may be absent from the Stalins like Pol British scene, its social variant is not. The Maxwell Pot). Wannsee debacle has revived stereotypical images of Jewish reinforces the greed and crookedness current at the time of the point we have Guinness Trial. (Politically, too, we have cause to always made. Nazi worry when an — admittedly junior — member of HM genocide against Government like Alan Clark flaunts his friendship the Jews was with that egregious muckraker of the past, David absolutely sui Irving.) generis. It excludes More importantly though, the past will not relin­ comparison with quish its baleful grip on a Europe aspiring to the status any other atrocity of a new secular Holy Roman Empire until Rome in history. itself admits how often the fallibly human links in the Comparisons, once chain sanctified by the term Apostolic Succession have deemed odious, fallen far short of saintliness. Europe, whether secular now lead only to or Christian, can have no future unless it exorcises its trivialisation! D Crusaders on the rampage ancestral demons. AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

A treat in store Profile BBC will be showing a televised version of Christopher Hampton's Tales from Holly- tvood later this year. The play, staged at the lor to five Lord Mayors of Manchester, the National Theatre in 1983, deals with Odon Mancunian mentor High Sheriff of the Manchester Judiciary, von Horvath's imaginary stay in the U.S.A. Christie Cancer Hospital, Morris Feinman and his encounter with an illustrious band Homes for the aged and the Manchester and of emigres: Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Southport Jewish Blind Societies. In addi­ tion to these special appointments Felix Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger etc. The Carlebach has continued teaching and lec­ TV cast will include Jeremy Irons, Sir Alec turing. His extraneous activities have Guinness and Sinead Cusack. D included a term as President of the B'nai B'rith Dr Moses Gaster Lodge. He is Vice- Inge Morath honoured President of the Council of Christians and Jews and President of the New Literary The Austrian Staatspreis fUr Fotografie has Society. been awarded to Inge Morath who was Recently, the city of Liibeck honoured its born in Vienna and lives in the U.S.A. Her erstwhile son and made Rabbi Carlebach a husband is the playwright Arthur Miller. D Freeman of the City by decree of Senate. 'The people of Liibeck treated me like a Second thoughts in Bonn long-lost king', he said of his visit. This is no small honour. Past recipients of the Free­ The German government has revised an dom of Liibeck have included von Hinden­ earlier decision to reduce the pensions burg, Thomas Mann and Willy Brandt. previously paid to victims of Fascism in the Felix Carlebach feels very much at home in DDR. All Jews living in East Germany had ^B this illustrious company and his pride in been in receipt of such pensions. D Rabbi Carlehach. Photo: Newman. being given such an award is apparent in his eagerness to display the beautifully bound Better late than never abbi Felix Carlebach was born in Ehrenbiirger certificate with which he was Ltibeck, Germany, 81 years ago. He presented. After a debate lasting 19 years the Univer­ looks much younger. His manner is The city of Manchester, too, has taken sity of Oldenburg has been renamed Carl- R best described as avuncular; a fine, wide Felix Carlebach to its heart, the Halle von-Ossietzky-Universitat in honour of the smile and cheery white beard give one the Orchestra performs an annual Rabbi Felix Nobel Peace Prize winner done to death in a impression of a sort of Jewish Santa Claus. Carlebach concert in his honour. This concentration camp. Ossietzky is the first A glance at the Carlebach curriculum special tribute is an indication of the many- anti-Nazi martyr to be commemorated in vitae, however, provides the reader with faceted nature of the man. The Halle pay this manner. D ample evidence of hard work and ambition their tribute not only in recognition of his fulfilled. work as one of Manchester's best known From 1933, when he was only 21 years religious leaders, but also to an accom­ old, to 1938 Felix Carlebach was the plished musician whose talent they acknow­ Deputy Headmaster of Jewish Secondary ledge. His extra-curricular activities have East-Germany Schools, Leipzig. included earning a degree in music and he is Rabbi Carlebach left Germany in 1939, a well-known conductor who has per­ one of 200 rabbis and teachers who received formed in front of large audiences all over and Berlin special travel permits, arranged by rabbis Europe. (He was personally asked by the Hertz and Schonfeldt, and were granted Mayor of Liibeck to conduct the city's We give immediate attention. immigration visas by the British Consul in orchestra.) We process and buy properties/claims. Berlin. He arrived in England, with his wife, The Rabbi describes his life's high-points Babette, pennyless and unable to speak the with the aid of large scrap-books. While >Vepaycash. language. going through these he refers to himself in Within a very short time the North the third person: 'Here is Carlebach con­ We have proven track records and furnish London United Synagogue had a new 'war­ ducting', 'Here is Carlebach making a documentation. time' minister. Replacing the regular minis­ speech at the Town Hall' etc. ter, who had been drafted into the armed Rabbi Felix Carlebach is much admired Write to: forces, Rabbi Carlebach spent six years in in the 'Capital of the North', his congre­ Nagel & Partner London, in Palmers Green and Southgate. gants are almost as proud of his achieve­ Kurfurstendamm 182- 1000 Berlin 15 In 1946 he was offered the position of ments as he is. In answer to the question: Phone:030-882 56 31 Senior Minister at the South Manchester 'Do you think of yourself as lucky when you Fax:030-881 39 16 Synagogue, where he remained until his look back at your life?' the Rabbi answered: retirement in 1987. He takes the credit for 'No, I was never lucky, just humble and raising the unit from a 'war-torn and grateful'. The Mancunian congregants with tattered community' to one of the U.K.'s whom I spoke expressed themselves proud premier congregations. In addition to his of, and grateful for, Felix Carlebach's regular congregation the rabbi has been works on their behalf. Honorary Chaplain and religious counsel­ D M.N. r ',piA'm '.i:.W.»,'''.i.«:^g«»W!tilWB'i5IJIt»M

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Reviews

previous work. The novel is 'written back- 1938/9; that particular Frau Wagner was Exploitation or wards', with everything in it happening in dead by then. exorcism? reverse. It is not just the unreeling of a story The plot unfolds in the 1960s, in Argen­ from the end to the beginning; no, taxis take tina. Czinner and wife Nell have a daughter, Martin Amis, TIME'S ARROW, Jonathan Cape, people from their destination to their points Becky, and she and Franz Schmidt, the son 1991, £13.99 of departure; meals are served from dessert of Rudi, now a respected engineer, are Allan Massie, THE SINS OF THE FATHER, to soup; natural functions happen the other lovers. Czinner, whom the Nazis had sent to Hutchinson. 1991, £13.99 way round; love-making begins with a camp despite his devotion to their econ­ orgasm. It beggars the imagination, and omic interests and who is now blind, wo contemporary writers have quite often it beggars the ability of Amis (or objects. But the families consent to meet. attempted the virtually impossible anybody else) to sustain this. Czinner recognises Kestner by his voice. He Ttask of mirroring the Holocaust in What has all this to do with the Holo­ informs the Israelis and Kestner is abducted fiction. caust? The clue is the story of Tod Friendly to Israel Eichmann-style. The horrors of the Final Solution would in what he calls okay America. The reader The continued love story of Franz and defeat Tolstoy's power to present them in soon realises that his dead-friendly man is Becky has been compared to Shakespeare's the guise of a novel. However, the subject not what he seems to be. Friendly travels all Romeo and Juliet; Dante's Paolo and Fran­ appears challenging to writers and the critic the way back to when he was Odilo cesca offer a better comparison, for the can but judge their performance. Both Amis Unverdorben, the SS doctor working under latter-day lovers live to be a burden to each and Massie have been attacked for their Uncle Pepi, alias Joseph Mengele. (Unver­ other, and there is always the whiff of the presumption, but I think that is a mistaken dorben - uncorrupted - is, presumably, the Inferno. attitude. Neither effort is scurrilous, so author's allegorical term for the human Kestner's trial in Jerusalem is the high Jewish readers should not condemn non- being which the later killer medic once point of the story. His son is allowed to see Jews for trying to tackle something that was.) him, and the monster explains how he looms large in their nightmares, too. turned into one. He is hanged, and Franz Amis has adopted a completely exper­ Holocaust in reverse and Becky defy the world and marry. Had imental, 'post-modernist' style. He, who is The Holocaust happens in reverse, too. The the novel ended there, people would tear­ on record as having said that he cannot killers start with the rescue and restoration fully rejoice that love makes the world operate except in context of irony, has in of the victiins . . . yes, even revivification whole. But it was not to be. From then on this instance gone further than in all his takes place. With difficulty Amis saves Massie's story becomes 'ordinary'; the hell- himself from absurdity. In the end we arrive fire is damped down and mundane at SS recruit Unverdorben and stop short of concerns, such as bisexuality and marital the mass murder which has been dealt with ennui, take over. by its reverse side on T. Friendly's way back. The novel's most offensive item is the The epitome — and simultaneous negation - reference to Israel as a 'National Socialist' of this book is Treblinka station, a prop for state, though the remark is made by the the deception of the victims, with the clock monstrous Kestner, who has become philo­ forever at 13.27 and a huge arrow beneath semitic and wishes the state well. He just it, with the legend 'Change Here For can't change his spots entirely. Massie also Eastern Trains.' intimates that we are all guilty and that the 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 If readers can overcome their instinctive Jews themselves committed grim deeds in resistance to seeing the Shoah subjected to history. Our Scripture certainly bears him TUESDAY AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES literary sleight-of-hand, they will find the out - but look at the difference in scale and TUESDAY CIRCLE novel surprisingly easy to read. It will make time. Entertainment in the form of a variety of them think and take issue. n John Rossall interesting and topical talks given by Allan Massie deals with time and his guest speakers on the first Tuesday of characters in a straightforward manner. But Michael Frenzl of each month at 2.30pm followed by neither the times nor the characters he refreshments describes are straightforward. He, too, MICHAEL ANDRE FURS LTD treats of the aftermath of the Holocaust, SEW & SO wishes to inform his customers of A social group of people meeting on the and he, too, is much concerned with one of the re-location of his premises to: second Tuesday of each month at the chief perpetrators: Rudi Schmidt, alias 134 High Street, Edgware HAS 7EL 1.30pm to participate in making knitted, Standartenfiihrer Rudolph Kestner, is crocheted and embroidered items for modelled on Eichmann. Tel: 081-951 5949 (Business) 081-958 4483 (Private) synagogue and charitable functions Another chief character is Eli Czinner. He Strictly by appointment BRIDGE CLUB is so patriotic a Jewish German that he, an All bridge players are w/elcome to join the absolutely outstanding economist, works Specialists in fur-lined raincoats, Bridge Club which meets on the third for the Nazis under the aegis of Schacht fur and leather. Tuesday of each month at 1.30pm. until 1939. Well, it's fiction, and in fiction Why not convert your existing fur coat the unlikely is possible. But his English wife into a raincoat lining? Space donated by Pafra Limited could NOT have met Cosima Wagner in Bi -•:'P'nr-^:-^:n^

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and the rabbi gratefully returns to his in Poznan — at that time Posen was a part of Singer's swansong religious texts and tasks. Prussia. In 1920, Freeden's father, proudly With Tsirele on ice, Max hunts for female German, opted not to stay on in Poland and Isaac Bashevis Singer, SCUM, translated from the Yiddish by Rosaline Dukalsky Schwartz, flesh elsewhere. He is successful in every moved the family to Kassel. Young Freeden Jonathan Cape, 1991, £14.99 sense of the word, with Reyzl, the not-so- attended the Gymnasium, took Abitur and young 'moir of Shmuel Smetena, a fixer and studied law at Munich at a time when crook past his prime. The white slaver sees Dachau was 'a placename still untainted'. his book 'celebrates' a solemn Max as a better prospect. She doesn't want occasion — being the last novel of the a husband, she wants a partner in her Kulturbund Tlast of the great Yiddish writers, and business of exporting poor Jewish girls into Berlin beckoned. Life for a young and is, indeed, suitably solemn, not to say South American prostitution. Mad Max struggling journalist was far from easy. He depressing. manages to seduce one of these girls, and in earned little and his first serious love affair Most of the characters are what the his spare time he makes a bid for a ended in tragedy. But the Berlin of the last author calls them in his title: scum. That clairvoyant medium who 'puts him in Weimar years was stimulating in its sophis­ may be a harsh word to apply to human touch' with his dead son who, lo and ticated intellectual and artistic ambience. In beings when much of contemporary litera­ behold, addresses him in Polish (of which he January 1933, one chapter closed and ture is taken up with excusing the inexcus­ never knew a word). Though Max realises another opened. Freeden's Zionism found able, but Bashevis Singer disagrees. He the fraud, the medium, at least partly expression in his writing in involvement in describes miserable lives and an almost genuine despite appearances, will do for his the activities of the Kulturbund. That he accidental murder, putting all this before other purposes. now, with hindsight, brands this organisa­ the readers who must look in vain for It all ends tragically, but on the way tion as a vehicle for the voluntary cultural mitigating circumstances. The main 'actors' Bashevis Singer's masterly touch is ghettoisation of German Jewry, and a trial are all Jews; turn-of-century Warsaw is no undeniable. run for later events at Theresienstadt and more than an interesting background. The D John Rossall elsewhere, may not be universally accep­ scene of action is in the semi-Ghetto of that table - but Freeden is not one to pull his era. Had this book been written by a Gentile punches. or a Jewish apostate, it would have After November 1938, he emigrated to prompted accusations of antisemitism. Memoirs of a German Britain. Here his experiences resembled Max Barabander has made money in those of many others: Kitchener Camp, a Argentina. The tragic death of his teenage Jew London bedsit, internment on the Isle of son has finished his marriage. But even this, Man, release into the Pioneer Corps, war­ a love match, is tainted. At the onset of the Herbert Freeden LEBEN ZUR FALSCHEN ZEIT time marriage, return to civilian life and, 1991 Transit Verlag Berlin story husband and wife are estranged, once again, work for the Jewish community tragedy having made her frigid and him and the Zionist cause. The stay in Britain impotent. His decision to travel and look he author of this autobiography is no was for him an interlude, leading in 1950 to for pastures new takes him back to the stranger to quite a number of our his third, and final, emigration: aliyah. He scenes of his origins. His parents are buried Treaders, for it was he who proposed has since lived in Jerusalem working as a somewhere in a Shtetl, and he pretends to and named AJR Information back in 1941, writer and a contributor to German-lan­ himself that he will see to their graves. He and was its joint editor until 1950. Freeden guage papers, and travelling extensively to never does so, but it always remains a was uniquely qualified for this task having Germany and elsewhere to speak about, floating thought in his seething mind. What cut his journalistic teeth in pre-war Ger­ and for, the Jewish State. he really looks for are women to prove to many as a regular contributor, first to the himself that he is still the man he once was. left-wing press, then to such prestigious The wrong century Jewish weeklies as the Zionist Jtidische Some sadness suffuses the chapters dealing Starry-eyed Rundschau. with the last 40 years up to the intifada and He seeks his prey among the Luftmenschen That he is still a highly talented pro­ the Gulf War. Clearly frustrated at the of this sleazy milieu. However, his first fessional, with an enviable command of elusiveness of peace for our people in its intended victim is virginal Tsirele, the language and a fluent and convincing style, homeland Freeden lets his mood ve^ re­ daughter of an assistant rabbi. Full of is amply demonstrated by this fascinating wards somewhat uncharacteristic pessi­ anarcho-socialist ideals she believes that memoir. Given the nature of the times, the mism. He reaches the conclusion that both Jewry can find salvation in the coming story would in any case be an absorbing he and the Jewish State were born into 'the revolution. Her father is saintly in the sense one, but Freeden transcends mere report­ wrong century'. He contends that he him­ that he is completely unworldly, learned but age. His pen creates vivid images of this self should have lived a hundred years ago, purblind. The rebbetzin is a dominating 'journey to the past' which almost makes and that Israel should have been established shrew. Since Max cannot seduce Tsirele he one forget that this is not a fast-moving and soon after the Balfour Declaration, before asks for her hand in marriage. (Bigamy exciting novel, but a serious collection of the Holocaust and before Arab nationalism shmigamy, so to speak.) The rabbi is only memories and well-considered arguments. had time to crystallise. I disagree with both concerned that Max doesn't look like a Jew. Above all, the book bears witness to its propositions - with the latter because it is His condition: the godless Argentinian, who author's passionate commitment to largely academic, and with the former is clever at presenting surface ethnicity, Judaism and the Jewish people. because it would have have left us without must grow a beard. Tsirele is starry-eyed Three emigrations designate the major this fascinating life story of a remarkable and ready to drop her politics for bridal stages of his life. His childhood years, contemporary. dreams. The rebbetzin remains sceptical before and during World War I, were spent n David Maier AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

How Jewish, then, is Freud's Jewish Psyciioanalysis and history? Yerushalmi concludes that, unlike A chilling distance Judaism other secular Jews, Freud remains in har­ mony with traditional exegesis in as much helley called poets the 'unacknow­ YosefHayim Yerushalmi FREUD'S MOSES: as he agrees that Jews did not choose their ledged legislators of mankind' but he Judaism Terminable and Interminable. Yale religion, that on the contrary, it 'chose' Swas wrong. Writers share all the weak­ University Press, 1991. £16.95 them through the agency of Moses. But we nesses of common humanity; not even are told that Freud departs from orthodoxy Nobel Prize winners of Literature are he specific subject of this study was by claiming for his psychoanalysis a status exempt. Freud's last major work, 'Moses and virtually akin to holy scripture. This heresy In 1935 when some American play­ TMonotheism', begun in Vienna in is not examined until the final chapter. wrights urged Pirandello to protest against 1934 and completed in London after Meanwhile the author moves from looking Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia he res­ Freud's emigration to this country. Its basic at the 'Jewishness' of psychoanalysis to ponded with the cynical question 'What are thesis is that monotheism is of Egyptian Freud's complex view of Judaism and you doing about the Red Indians?' origin, that Moses himself was not a Christianity and of Jews as people and a Elias Canetti is another Nobel laureate Hebrew, but an upper-class Egyptian who people. And he agrees with others that this whom I — on cursory acquaintance — found believed fervently in this new religion, and view was critically influenced by Freud's less than sympatico. who freed the Hebrew slaves in order to well-known Oedipus complex. Now we Jews can boast one more Nobel perpetuate his faith. Unable to become Prize winner for Literature in the person of accustomed to the rigours of 'belief in one Nadine Gordimer. She has received near- invisible God and in the supremacy of Strong disapproval universal acclaim both as a writer and as an morality over cult and ritual', the Hebrews By way of a final tour de force we are invited unflinching opponent of apartheid. It is a revolted and killed Moses. They then to listen in on Yerushalmi's imaginary chorus of praise in which I cannot join attempted to expunge all memory of this 'monologue with Freud', in which he takes wholeheartedly. murder and reminder of its cause but, after issue with him on such fundamental asser­ a lapse of several centuries, the Mosaic tions (in 'Moses and Monotheism') as the Demonstrating detachment heritage was rediscovered and again alleged murder and its subsequent suppres­ The reason? Nadine Gordimer's public adopted by the Jewish people. sion in biblical and post-biblical writing. He statements demonstrate an almost chilling throws doubt also on the supposition that detachment from Jewish concerns. (She is Assessing Freud Moses was not Hebrew but Egyptian. But the wholly Jewish daughter of a Lithuanian This is the raw material of Professor Yerus- he reserves his strongest disapproval for immigrant father and a better educated halmi's investigation and he sets about his Freud's belief in what might be called the English-born mother.) task using his own methodology. He begins 'withering away' of religion. In a recent interview she stated 'Since no by assessing Freud's place in the history of This final chapter constitutes a powerful, member of my family fell victim to the German-Jewish Enlightenment, with parti­ eloquent denunciation of antisemitic Holocaust, Israel was an abstraction for me. cular reference to his professed atheism attacks on psychoanalysis as a 'Jewish I had no emotional links with the people to which made him a godless, or secular, or, as science'. But the author also ventures to whom it offered asylum and a home.' the author prefers, a psychological Jew, cast ascribe to Freud's 'Moses' monograph the Asked why she nonetheless visited the in the mould of Spinoza and Marx. And hidden meaning that the movement which Jewish State in the 1980s she listed her thus the question is raised as to whether it he had conceived was a 'metamorphosed concern about South African-Israeli co­ Was Freud's apparent ambivalence towards extension of Judaism'. And he may well be operation in the manufacture of high-tech Judaism and all its implications which right. weaponry. When the interviewer justified caused him to undertake a study of its It is arguable whether a series of lectures this collaboration on the grounds that Israel founder, in whose image he perhaps con­ can, without some measure of editing, be was in no position to pick and choose allies ceived himself as the founder of his own readily transformed into a book. But there she rejected his argument 'on principle'. Yet quasi-religious movement. can be no doubt that, with its lively text within minutes, when the conversation enhanced by appendices, notes and an moved on to Nelson Mandela's appellation extensive bibliography, this volume is a of Colonel Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat as fascinating record of research and a sub­ 'comrades-in-arms' she said expressis verbis JACKMAN• stantial contribution to the literature on 'Given the position in which the ANC finds Freud's theories of the origins of religion. itself Nelson Mandela is forced to have 3; SILVERMAN Readers not immediately familiar with strange bedfellows.' COMMERc;i.AL PROPKRTY C'ONSULT.ANTS this subject may, now that their interest has So much for the logic of Shelley's 'unack­ been aroused, well ask if they would find in nowledged legislators of mankind'! 'Moses and Monotheism' a work of fiction, D R.G. a latter-day talmudic tractate, an Old-New Testament or a medical treatise. Since Professor Yerushalmi himself leaves this GOLDMAN question unanswered, thus teasing the inquiring mind, he might be persuaded that Curtains made to measure. Select material in your own home. 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA a sequel to the present book would be a Rail, blinds supplied and fitted. Telerhone: 071 409 0771 Fax: 071 493 8017 worthwhile undertaking. Telephone: 081-205 9232 ..,,, ,,.,^. • David Maier masM mMi AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

did not, however, prevent him from paint­ ing the words Fehr, Jude on the pavement outside our house on Kristallnacht. Fortunately, the Nazi years are beyond T^^te^Js^^ the comprehension of my three British-born sons. When I told them that we had been WALDHEiMER'S DISEASE concerned. A single leading power has blackmailed by a stormtrooper they said: Sir-This article (November 91) combines emerged in the Middle East, which finds it in 'Could you not have gone to the police?' in one person the well known sociologist its interest to cultivate the Arab nations. In Warwick Road Ingeborg Samson and Government member Henri de Man 1938, it was the United Kingdom, in 1991 Bishops Stanford (1885-1953) and the less known literary the United States. critic Paul de Man (1919-1983). Chaiin Weitzmann's words after the PANKOW ORPHANS The remarks held to special obloquy refer 1938 Evian Conference seem apt today: 'The world is divided into countries where Sir - As a result of the Kindertransport to Paul de Man's French essay written in Reunion, I have met three others who were 1941 under German occupation supported Jews cannot live and countries where Jews cannot go.' In 1991 the countries where associated with the Jewish orphanage in by a vociferous antisemitic Belgian minor­ Pankow, Berlin, before the war. We have ity. It begins: 'Vulgar antisemitism takes they cannot live are the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the countries they had our own reunion on several occasions pleasure in considering cultural develop­ and have become good friends through our ments since 1918 as degenerate and deca­ cannot go to include Israel, which is unable to absorb them in large enough numbers. shared experience. dent because of Jewish influence . . . This Could I appeal for others who were in this concept entails consequences dangerous My hope is that in 1992 world Jewry, and, in particular, survivors of the Hitler orphanage to come forward? We believe enough . . .' and ends by advocating a that several are, or were, in this country, for negotiated Zionist-style Jewish settlement period will do all they can to help Israel absorb the growing number of refugees. example Heinz Bloch, Erich Goldstein, outside Europe (as envisaged by Herzl and Lothar Friedlander and Heinz Zupnik. We discussed at an international conference North Mymms Henry Toch Hatfield, Herts would love to hear from them or from 1938). anyone else. Detailed circumstances suggest it was a IDOL WORDS 30 Hugo Road Leslie Brent, formerly deliberate dissenting attack clad in ironi­ London N19 5EU Lothar Baruch cally subservient language as now known Sir — Maybe we shall never know whether from similar Czech and Polish writings, a Hitler or Stalin was the greater villain, but covert appeal to place Belgian Jews outside in his book White Nights Menachem Begin TAKE A STAND the reach of persecution before abolition of had this to say: Sir - We consider it high time for so rep­ nominal Belgian independence. The German extermination camps and resentative an organisation of former refu­ The official Belgian investigating com­ the Russian labour camps were, the one gees and asylum seekers in this country, to mission in 1945 completely exonerated Paul as much as the other, works of the devil. take a stand in public on the Government's de Man in full knowledge of his wartime But even the devil's works are various. proposed asylum laws. writings and activities but condemned The difference between the German and Public organisations, the churches, the Henri de Man for his illusory attempts, Soviet camps lies in one small word, and a Jewish Board of Deputies, the Chief Rabbi, shared by King Leopold III, to save Belgian whole world of difference lies in it: hope. Amnesty International and many others independence (and hence its Jews) by deal­ The German exterminators gave their have expressed their dismay at the introduc­ ings with Hitler Germany. Henri de Man victims no prospect of living; the pris­ tion of laws which have the purpose to deter fled to Switzerland and died there. oners in the Soviet labour camps had such as many fugitives as possible from choosing American Jews supported Paul de Man in a chance. Britain as a refuge and remove a large full knowledge, after consideration at a proportion of those who do come in to the Mr Begin's view seems to have been borne conference, of all his activities and writings country. out by the refuseniks who survived the including the mentioned essay. His dissent­ How can we allow ourselves not to be labour camps and are now in Israel. It seems ing technique was judged by conference to among those who raise the voice of con­ to me that the scales are heavily weighted be similar to that used by Jews under science and humanity? Have we forgotten against Hitler. Babylonian and Roman oppression. under what circumstances we came to these Wembley Park Ruth Willers Accusations of personal immorality, shores? Middx whether against Henri or Paul de Man, Wood Lane M. & £. Goldenberg whether provable or not, may have evoked HANS ALBERS London N6 painful memories of similar attacks suffered Sir - During the pre-war Hitler years, when by some older members of the AJR or by OUTING A LA JUIVE their relatives or friends. Hans Albers and Hansi Burg were no longer Alleyn Road M. L Meyer allowed to come together, they frequently Sir - Your correspondent in the October London SE21 met secretly in our home. issue takes your article too seriously. I am My father. Professor Dr Oscar Fehr, sure John and Mary Behrend, my great- opthalmic surgeon, was his friend. Our uncle and aunt, never served gefillte fish. CURATE'S EGG YEAR former chauffeur became an embezzling It was for the profound, if idiosyncratic, Sir -1 wish I could share your sanguine stormtrooper who blackmailed us, threat­ Christianity of the artists named that John view about 1991 which in my view was very ening to tell the Gestapo our secret. He took and Mary (nee Sandham) chose them, similar to 1938 as far as world Jewry is the money and, fortunately, kept quiet. This collecting Spencer's religious paintings and AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

commissioning his chapel to commemorate driving one of today's luxury cars does not Mary's brother. John was a convert and compare with the sheer joy I experienced Uber das frohliche more interested in the Marrano ancestors of riding with him by horse and cart to visit Alter his mother, Rachel Mendes da Costa. local farms. Now if my uncle had 'come out' and Some of the Jewish families made their Wer achtzig wird, ist selber Schuld! commissioned Chagall . . . names, first in Berlin, 200 miles away, and Man braucht dazu sehr viel Geduld Moor Park T. J Halford later worldwide. Perhaps the odd survivor Und guten - oder bosen - Willen, Northwood Middx may share my recollections as I plan a Sowie unziihlig viele Pillen sentimental journey to Schlochau, now Und auch Vertrauen himmelwarts, STOATLEY ROUGH SCHOOL Czluchow, by road some time next spring. Und schliesslich auch ein gutes Herz. Sir - If you were at the above School Perhaps readers with similar roots may be Was sich so mit den Alter paart, between 1945 and its closure and are able to offer me the benefit of their own experience in visiting this, now wholly Sind Mangel sehr verschiedener Art, interested in attending a reunion in May Polish, territory. Die uns die Laune oft verderben. 1992 will you please write to: An denen wir jedoch nicht sterben. 606 Kenton Road Henry Ebner la Clarence Road Werner E. Abraham Kenton, Middlesex Four Oaks Der Grundsatz, besser sein als scheinen, Sutton Coldfield Ist gar kein Trost bei steifen Beinen. LEAVES FROM A BERLIN DIARY 674 4AE Der Riicken schmerzt, das Knie ist steif, Sir - Not many Jews can claim having come So wird man weiter abbruchreif. face to face with Reichsprdsident von Hin­ AN UNDULY VARIED LIFE Und dann - zum Telle oder ganz - denburg after Hitler's Machtiibernahme in Sir -1 had the pleasure during my recent Schrumpft auch noch die Gehirnsubstanz, 1933. One of the very few chosen for this stay as a guest of the city of Berlin to be Was man zunachst dadurch empfindet, distinction was Ernst Silberstein, cellist of present when A. J. Fischer spoke about his Dass haufig das Gedtichtnis schwindet; the Klingler Quartet. On the occasion of a book In der Ndhe der Ereignisse in the Weshalb man Alles fein notiert reception at the Reichsprasidenten Palais in Collegianer Verein of the Franzosische Auf Zetteln, die man prompt verliert. the Wilhelm Strasse in summer 1933 the Gymnasium. Let us hope that among the Quartet gave a Command Performance in Man wird halt diimmer, krummer, new generation of journalists there will be the presence of Hitler and his cabinet. When stummer; plenty of Fischers to prevent another Holo­ Professor Carl Klingler introduced Ernst Was ist dagegen schon zu tun? caust and help the creation of a better Silberstein to Hindenburg afterwards, the Nur leider wird man gegen Kummer world. aged President uttered the historical words: Niemals immun. Cremorne Estate H. J. Glaserfield Na ja, das Cello ist ja auch ein sehr schones London SWIO Man muss sich tiiglich neu bewjihren. Instrument. Wo soil man sich denn noch beschweren? Holland Park Avenue J. Rotter Man resigniert und iibt Geduld . . . London Wl I THE BROWN DANUBE Wer achtzig wird, ist selber schuld! Sir - It should be noted that many of the D Hans-Leo Hirtz SCHLOCHAU Austrian Jews who contributed to Austrian Sir — The very word brings back some of my culture, science and commerce were in fact happiest memories of childhood school converts to Christianity, some no doubt, for holidays in and around this delightful small career reasons. Stddtchen in West Prussia, 10 miles from The Wittgensteins, for example, were the then Polish border. I remeinber most devout Catholics and always sought to Worried about computers vividly the close-knit Jewish community diminish or conceal their Jewish origins, and some of their names: Leibholz, Kirsch, even forbidding their offspring to marry or are Dobrin and Neumann. I remember with Jews. After the Anschluss they gave their computers worrying you? affection fishing for pike, for gefillte fish, in considerable foreign holdings for Fiihrer the Schlochauer See and my excitement and Fatherland and were in return declared helping to shop for live poultry for shabbes. to be Aryan. My grandfather was a livestock dealer, and Linktag Associates are independent To give him credit, Ludwig Wittgenstein, computer consultants who specialize in the Cambridge philosopher and a member helping businesses, from a small company of that family was thoroughly ashamed of to a large corporation. Let us help you these dealings. today to solve tomorrow's problems. Deutsche Bucher, Bilder, Other Austrian Jews became violent anti­ Autographen und Asiatica semites, even providing Hitler with some of the pseudo-academic basis for his ideology. CALL US ON 081-883-2690 sucht There was an insidious dimension to Austrian intolerance which generated this A. W. MYTZE pathetic and humiliating self hatred. 1 The Riding, London NWll. However, none of the murderers seem to SALES, INSTALLATIONS, have been Jewish. TRAINING, PROGRAMMING & Tel: 071-586 7546 Machynlleth Manfred Landau SOFTWARE MODELLING. Powys WRSitT.^.myviitfgft'ajfeWBiitv.yiM.t.tfWjim!

AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE 7^ ^atCUatJk 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Tel. 071 328 0208 Rekindling the lights Morning Activities - Bridge, kalookie, scrabble, chess, etc., keep fit, discussion group, choir (Mondays), art class (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Afternoon entertainment - FEBRUARY

GALA WEEK Monday 3 Hans Freund: An Afternoon of Music in February Tuesday 4 Dorei Duo with Piano Accompaniment Wednesday 5 WIZO Ladies Choir Thursday 6 The Melody Lingers On with Jack Harris &C Happy Branston

Monday 10 The James Chance Trio Tuesday 11 Solo Piano Recital including Chopin Sc Liszt - Pauline Palmer Wednesday 12 Songs from Many Lands Chanukah at the Paul Balint AJR Day Centre (Left) and Balint House. Photos: Newman. - Lola Rand with Piano eligious celebrations within the refu­ or just the familiar strains of a popular tune Accompaniment Thursday 13 'Royte Klezmores' - gee community always have a special that made the entire audience hum and Dena Attar (Violin) Rpoignancy. The participants have sway in time with the music. Julia Bard (Accordion) borne a heavy burden. They have had to At Balint House, The Bishop's Avenue, CarIa Bloom (Clarinet) transplant their culture and maintain it, the following day Cantor Marshall Stone lit Monday 17 Songs from Us to You - Geoffrey .Strum (Tenor) even through the hardest times. The the candles and led the singing at the first & Johnny Walton (Piano) Chanukah celebrations at the Paul Balint Chanukah party to be held in the new Tuesday 18 Those You Have Loved - AJR Day Centre proved no exception. Home. Mr C. T. Marx, Chairman of the Musical Miscellany Even the most secular observer would AJR, who also chairs the House Committee presented by Yacov Paul have been moved by the unselfconsciously of Balint House, made a brief speech Wednesday 19 A Touch of the Lighter Side of Music - Richard enthusiastic rendition of Maos Tsur on welcoming guests and wishing the residents Moody (Baritone) December 3. The candles were lit by Mr well. There was no music to follow so the accompanied by Robert Rolf Weinberg, who read an excerpt from residents, their visitors and staff expressed Douglas (Piano) the Revolt of the Maccabees out of a prayer- good feelings and pleasure in each other's Thursday 20 Laughter He Tears - Judith book that was a family heirloom having Black &: Miranda Roger company through that other, most tra­ (Soprano) accompanied by been passed down to him from his ditional, Jewish medium: lots of good food Mark Williams (Piano) great-grandfather. - prepared with the old recipe, love and Monday 24 Musical Pot Pourri - Following the short ceremony Lucy kishkes, in mind. D M.N. Thea Fry &c Anne White and Juliet Davey (on violin and piano Holmes (Piano) respectively) provided the afternoon's musi­ Tuesday 25 Solo Piano Recital of cal entertainment. The first piece was The Light Classical Music - Skater's Waltz by Waldteufel. It is hard to AJR CLUB Thomas Kaurisch 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL say whether it was the sense of belonging Wednesday 26 Musical Memories from Telephone: 071-624 3079 the Past - Ariane engendered by sharing the simple ceremony Prussner (Mezzo) accompanied by Elizabeth SUNDAY 23rd February at 3 p.m. Upchurch (Piano) SYLVIA DORFF Thurdsay 27 Duo Kinnor Play for your Tuesday 3 The World of the Will entertain us with Old and New Songs Entertainment - Musical Stage - Valerie Admission incl tea, members 50p, guests £1 Madeleine Whitelaw Hewitt (Soprano) ace. by (Piano) & David Anne Berryman We welcome you and your friends on Richmond (Violin) TUESDAYS - THURSDAYS - SUNDAYS Wednesday 4 Hans Freund: Spring in 2 p.m.-6 p.m. MARCH the Air You will enjoy the friendly atmosphere Monday 2 The Ides of March - Thursday .S Nights Relations - you can talk - play cards - play games. Geoffrey Strum (Tenor) Barbara O'Neil (Mezzo) One Sunday a month live Entertainment. accompanied by Johnny with Piano Walton (Piano) Accompaniment Our annual membership fee is only £5. AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992 nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnDDnnnnnn nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn D in order to obtain a pension or on the ^ D German Old Age Pensions for extent of any resulting pension. ^ D Every effort is being made to obtain ^ D Victims of Nazi Persecution further information and any that comes ^ D to hand will be published in our March ^ n n amendment to the German day on 1 January 1992 must submit appli­ issue. It will be realised that with a ^ D Social Insurance Law and a cations by 31 March 1992, addressed to: monthly journal, like AJR Information, ^ D A decision by the European High Bundesversicherungsanstalt fiir news items can only be published in the ^ D Court appear to make it possible for Angestellte next available issue. In these circum- ^ D Nazi victims resident in the United Postfach stances and in order to assist members, ^ D|--, Kingdom to obtain a German old age 1000 Berlin 88 who believe they may qualify for a ^ |--| pension, subject to making voluntary Germany pension under the arrangements des- '-' r--| contributions towards its grant. Pre- We suggest the following wording (or its cribed above, we invite them to send to '-' r-| viously this was only open to persons equivalent in German): the AJR office a stamped addressed ^ |-| who had been employed and made social 'I hereby apply to be allowed to make envelope with a request for notice of any ^ r-i security contributions in Germany prior voluntary contributions to the Social new information available to be sent to 1^ r-| to their emigration, but this restriction Insurance Scheme for the year 1991 and them during the first ten days of March. ^ They would thus be in receipt of all that '-' r-, seems no longer to apply. onwards towards an old age pension. My is known on the subject and still have '-' r-| The effect of the amendment and the full name is , born as a ample time to submit their applications ^ r-, high court decision is still not entirely German national [or, if appropriate, with to Germany, n 1^ PI certain. However, the German Federal a German cultural background) on .... 19.... at As a Jew(ess) I was We ivish gratefully to acknowledge the r-. PI Nazi refugees or their widows or subject to Nazi persecution and emi­ assistance given by Dr F. E. Falk in the r-. PI widowers, who are not already in receipt grated in 19.... having at that time resided preparation of this notice.—Ed. r-. PI of a German old age pension, should at ' nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn PI make applications to be allowed to make Persons who were already 65 years or PI payment of voluntary contributions in over on 1 January 1992 should have PI order to obtain a German old age submitted their application by 31 December PI pension. 1991. In view of the fact that information Applicants must (1) originally have on this matter was only received late in been German nationals or have had a December efforts are being made by AJR to Making a will? German cultural background, and (2) obtain an extension of this limit. The Remember the AjR have left their residence within the outcome of these efforts is not known at the Pi boundaries of Germany as at 31 time of writing. Something that none of us should Pl December 1937 or in Nazi-annexed However, even those who have passed avoid is making a will and keeping it Pl territory after 30 January 1933. Persons their 65th birthday on 1 January 1992 can up to date. Pl who have not reached their 65th birth- submit applications until 31 March 1992, We know we cannot take our DnnDDnnnnnnnnnn but for voluntary contributions only in worldly possessions with us but we respect of the year 1991. can - at least - see that whatever is We wish to stress that the above infor­ left behind goes: mation is not as detailed as we would (a) where it will be appreciated, like, but it is all that we have on this subject WHO IS WHO (b) where it will do some good, at the present time. We also have no (c) where it is needed. IN THE AJR OFFICE information on the level of the voluntary Administrator contributions that may have to be made Many of our former refugees have Lydia Lassman found their association with the AJR Editor, AJR Information nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn a rewarding one. This is an Richard Grunberger opportunity to support the AJR Publications and PR Manager Maurice Newman Charitable Trust. Your solicitor will Assistant to Administrator If you would like to enquire about be able to help you; alternatively Carol Rossen volunteer community tvork please con­ you can consult with Sheltered Accommodation tact Laura Howe, Volunteers our welfare rights advisor, Aggie Katia Gould Coordinator, Hannah Karminski Alexander, on 071-483 2536 (Tues, Head of Homes Department Ruth Finestone House, 9 Adamson Road, Swiss Weds, Thurs) or the social workers Head of Social Services Cottage, London NW3. at the Day Centre 071-328 0208. Agnes Alexander If you have already made a will, it is Day Centre Organiser quite easy to add a codicil. Sylvia Matus Volunteers Co-ordinator You can contact the AJR by Whatever amount you are able to Laura Howe leave to the AJR, it will be well Membership/Reception Phone 071-483 2536 received, carefully applied and Sarah Hannen/ Joanne Botsman Fax 071-722 4652 remembered with gratitude. «^w..«.^«... '^^•^^•""'-^^'^•"" '^^^'"•-^-'"'-^^

AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

FAMILY EVENTS has died in Toronto. Deeply her daughter and son in law, Renate ADVERTISEMENT Birthday greeting mourned by his wife Marnie in and Heinz, granddaughter and hus­ Kingsley Andrew Kingsley will Toronto, sister Marianne, niece and band, Jenny and Andrew, nieces and RATES celebrate his 80th birthday on great-nephew in Dublin and niece friends. FAMILY EVENTS February 19. Wishing him many Elizabeth, apartment 7R, 298 Mul­ Miscellaneous First 15 words free of charge, £2.00 per 5 words thereafter. congratulations, with love from his berry Street, New York, New York Chelsea flat available end of wife and wide circle of friends. 10012. Shalom. February. Off Kings Road SWIO. CLASSIFIED £2.00 per five words. Deaths Hurst Werner Hurst, beloved hus­ Shops and bus 100 yards. 2 rooms Elgin Lotte Elgin (Born Kassel, band, father and grandfather, bath/WC etc. In consideration that BOX NUMBERS 1903) after a long life. Dear mother passed away peacefully on 29 rent is only £40 weekly, certain £3.00 extra. of Renate and grandmother of December 1991. We will miss him conditions would be required by DISPLAY, INCLUDING SEARCH Richard, Jonathan, David and very much. elderly single houseowner. Would NOTICES Caroline. Kremmer Berta Kremmer, our suit 2 mature students. Apply Mr per single column inch M. Monina. Telephone: 071-835 16 ems (3 columns per page) £8.00 Fiegel Ursula Eva Fiegel (nee Rei- dear sister, died on 24 December 12 ems (4 columns per page) £7.00 chenbach), born Dresden, July 24, 1991 after a long illness. Mourned 1155 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. 1912, died, after a long illness, on by her sisters Klara Seiler and Mar­ Electrician City and Guilds quali­ SHELTERED FLAT January 11, 1992 in Ainring Bad git Goodwyn and her niece and fied. All domestic work undertaken Reichenhall. Sadly missed by the nephew Johanna and Max Ehrlich Y. Steinreich. Tel: 081-455 5262. to let at Eleanor Rathbone families. from California. Medical body massage, reflex­ House, Highgate, comprising ology, aroma-therapy and pedicure. bed-Sitting room, kitchenette, Field Use Field, nee Friedmann, Raven Ann Mary Raven, devoted Qualified practitioner. Phone: 071- bathroom and entrance hall. died December 5, 1991, aged 78. wife of Paul Raven, mother of 328 1176. Resident warden. She will be sadly missed by her Kathleen Raven, died peacefully on Enquiries to:- 24 December 1991, shortly after her daughter Margaret, son-in-law Wanted person with knowledge of AJR 88th birthday. Victor and grandsons Simon and banking/stock exchange in Vienna HANNAH KARMINSKI Jonathan. Zolschein Marianne Zolschein 1920s-30s. Please contact Walde- HOUSE Hilton Vernon E. Hilton (Werner (Mrs Shiner) went peacefully to her man, 11 Dalegarth, Hurst Park, 9 ADAMSON ROAD, Joachim Eduard Heilfron), born final sleep in her 93rd year on 13 Cambridge CB4 2AG. Telephone: LONDON NW3 3HX Rankestrasse 27, Berlin, June 5, December I99L Sadly missed by 0223 62631. 071-483 2536/7/8/9 1916, late of Parsifal Road NW6, FREEDMAN NEIFELD DAWSON HOUSE HOTEL The AJR does not accept responsibility for the > Free Street Parking in front of the Hotel SOLICITORS > Full Central Heating • Free Laundry standard of service > Free Dutch-Style Continental Breakfast rendered by advertisers. 19/20 GROSVENOR STREET, LONDON W1X 9FD 72 CANFIELD GARDENS

Wills/Probate/Conveyancing/Commercial/Litigation Near Underground Sta. Finchley Rd, ALTERATIONS undertaken promptly and efficiently OF ANY KIND TO LONDON, N.W.6 Tel: 071-624 0079 LADIES' FASHIONS Telephone 071-499 1185 I also design and make children's clothes SATELLITE INSTALLATION West Hampstead area ANTHONY J. NEWTON SALES & REPAIRS 071-328 6571 Television - Videos - Aerials - Radios - Stereos - Electrical Appliances & CO NEW & SECONDHAND TVs/VIDEOS FOR SALE FOR FAST EFFICIENT FRIDGE SOLICITORS Tel: 081-909 3169 Answerphone & FREEZER REPAIRS 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, Hannpstead, NW3 5NB AVI'S TV SERVICE 7-day service A. EISENBERG All parts guaranteed With offices in: Europe/Jersey/USA J. B. Services ALL LEGAL WORK UNDERTAKEN Tel. 081-202 4248 RELIABLE & CAPABLE until 9 pm Telephone: 071 435 5351/071 794 9696 PLUMBER

offers a complete 24-hour MAPESBURY LODGE TORRINGTON HOMES plumbing service. Small (Licensed by the Borough of Brent) AUDLEY jobs welcome. Please ring MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N., for the elderly, convalescent and partly REST HOME incapacitated. MATRON Lift to all floors. For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent (Hendon) JOHN ROSENFELD Luxurious double and single (Licensed by Borough ot Barnel) for Elderly Retired Gentlefolk on 071-837 4569 rooms. Colour TV, h/c, central heating, ' Single and Double Rooms. private telephones, etc., in all rooms. Single and Double Rooms with wash ' H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. Excellent kosher cuisine. Colour TV basins and central heating. TV lounge lounge. Open visiting. Cultivated * Gardens. TV and reading rooms. and dining-room overlooking lovely C. H. WILSON Gardens. ' Nurse on duty 24 hours, garden. Carpenter Full 24.hour nursing care • Long and short term, including trial period if required. 24-hour care—long and short term. Painter and Decorator Please telephone From £250 per week French Polisher Licensed by the Borough of Barnet slster-ln-charge, 081-450 4972 081-445 1244 Office hours Antique Furniture Repaired Enquiries 081-202 2773/8967 17 Mapesbury Road, N.W.2 081-455 1335 other times Tel: 081-452 8324 39 Torrington Park, N.12 Car: 0831 103707 AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

Alice Schwab Uri on 18 February at 6.30 p.m. David Maccoby's From portraiture to SB's Column action art is at the Sternberg Centre (until 20 February). Maccoby was born in Sun­ 'nge/berg Humperdinck old and derland in 1925 and exhibited widely until new. The name, familiar to the (younger generation from that of a failing eyesight stopped him from continu­ E; pop singer whose Last Waltz topped the JH mold Daghani was born in Buko- ing his career. The exhibition comprises charts some years ago, resurfaced during MW vina when it still belonged to Aus- paintings and works on paper 1948-1975. the last few months when the opera Hansel ^^^k tria-Hungary. A largely self-taught Always seeking something new, the Vic­ and Gretel had much-acclaimed revivals at artist, he spent time in Munich and Paris. toria and Albert Museum has mounted an Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Vienna and in The Nazis put him into a slave labour camp exhibition Green Images: Posters and Berlin. The composer's less-known Konigs- (an experience recounted in The Grass in Printed Ephemera (until 25 May). The kinder, first performed in Berlin in 1907, is having a completely new production at the the Cherry Orchard, Adam Nos 291- exhibition comprises posters, leaflets and London Coliseum (with performances 3,1961). He escaped from the camp and other material with a 'green' message throughout February). eventually made his way to Israel. Unable to collected by the Museum since the Second Benatzky's popular operetta. The settle down, he moved to France where he World War. Included is the Don't let them Stadttheater in Baden, Austria, staged a new met Chagall, and, finally, in 1975 to Eng­ Schhh(weppes) on Britain poster issued by production of Bezauberndes Frdulein. land. In 1984, a year before his death, his the Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace's Many will remember this charming musical first major exhibition was held at the Don't Buy Your Fish from a Butcher. Also comedy performed in Vienna in the Thirties Brighton Polytechnic. Three major exhibi­ at the Victoria and Albert is Creativity and with Max Hansen and Lizzy Waldmiiller in tions and the launch of a new book mark Industry: 2.S Years of the Queensherry the lead. Hansen died young and Lizzy the Arnold Daghani Festival in March. A Hunt Design Group (until 1 May). The Waldmiiller perished in an air raid on retrospective will be held at the Barbican 10 partnership was set up twenty-five years ago Vienna in 1945. January—12 February, an exhibition will and has specialised in designs for ceramics The Feuchtwangers. Marta, nee Loffler, take place at the Ben Uri Art Gallery (17 and tableware, but has also designed such met the young writer Lion Feuchtwanger in February-1 March) and, finally, there will things as bathrooms and telephones. On 1909. They married and had a long, and at be a sale exhibidon at John Bonha/Murray display will be the 'Trend' design which was times turbulent, association until the auth­ Feely Gallery, 46 Porchester Road, W2 (4 produced for the German manufacturers, or's death in 1958. Marta's A life with Lion, March-18 March). Monica Bohm- Thomas, and which has been the best- co-written with Reinhart Hoffmeister, has Duchen's book on Daghani (published in selling contemporary tableware in Europe now been published by the German Lamuv 1987) will be on sale at the Barbican and the over the last ten years. Verlag. The book is an amusing, partly Ben Uri, as will the new The Seven Days of Finally, a word about a magnificent pub­ tragicomic, account of their emigration and Schlemiel, written and illustrated by Dag­ lisher's catalogue which reached me eventual settling in the United States. Marta hani, with a preface by my daughter Julia recently. Under the direction of Richard Feuchtwanger died in 1987, nearly 100 Neuberger and an introduction by Monica Schlagman, its recent purchaser, the Phai- years old. Bohm-Duchen. A lecture 'Schlemiel and don Press is poised to reach even greater Birthdays. Heinz Riihmann, 90, is one of Other Legends' will be given by Hyam heights on the firm foundations laid by Dr the most enduring comedians of German Maccoby and Chaim Bermant at the Ben Bela Harovitz. D stage and screen. He appeared in numerous popular UFA films, beginning with Drei von der Tankstelle, where he co-starred with GERMAN BOOKS Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey and Oskar Annely Juda Fine Art BOUGHT Karlweis. His stage successes included Has moved to Metropolis Antiquarian Bool

Surgery hours: RELIABLE AND CONSCIENTIOUS 8.30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday HANDY MAN 8.30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday CAR HIRE Decorating, garden clearance, general Comfortable, air conditioned car with Visiting chiropody service available repairs. helpful driver. 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp. M&S) Reliable and friendly service. Airports, stations, coast, etc. Fully insured. Phone Andy Wilson on 081-346 3186 Telephone 071-624 1576 Tony Burstein 081-204 0567. Car 0831 461066.

II miiva^-:'-:. :'..»!.''i>^v».:^^s^';a6^^y^;.^:^atat'an:'^^'^^'^:

AjR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

profound appreciation of German culture. trious (and married) fan which ended in an Frail swallows of the Rolland spent the Great War in Switzerland abortion and her return to Ivan. The latter, European Spring the better to propagate the Pacifist cause. in turn, combined a steady output of love Other opponents of the war from the poems and letters to her with frequent belligerent countries joined him there. infidelities. Since the artistic circle in which he old Europe that disappeared in These included a young Jewess from Ger­ they moved included more outstanding 1918 had a strange entity called many and a young Jew from France who men — Picasso, Chagall, Audiberti — than TAustria-Hungary at its geographical eventually became man and wife. women she may however have netted more centre. The new Europe coming to birth in prestigious lovers than her husband. 1992 has at its political centre a hybrid that Amorous entanglements were no bar to Polyglot pacifists might be called France-Germany (or the literary creation. Claire wrote novels and other way round). Nuremberg-born Claire had left her first acted as Paris correspondent for German Franco-German partnership is seen as a husband and five-year old daughter in 1916 newspapers (till 1933). Ivan edited maga­ good thing by everyone — except some and moved to Geneva, a stamping ground zines, composed poetry and wrote fiction — Europhobe flat-earthers - because it puts of the polyglot pacifists. Alsace-born Isaac both in French and German. an end to centuries of mutual hatred and Lang, a law graduate with literary leanings In 1939 they emigrated via Cuba to the war and creates a nucleus around which the had avoided French military service by United States. In New York Ivan worked on remainder of Europe might cohere. At the settling in Switzerland where his acquain­ radio broadcasts to occupied France and practical level this devoutly to-be-wished- tances included Rolland, James Joyce and contributed articles to Klaus Mann's maga­ for consummation was prepared for by Stefan Zweig. An anti-war poem of his, zine Decisions. politicians - Monnet, Adenauer, de published under the pseudonym Ivan Goll, After the war the couple returned to Paris Gaulle - but in a more intangible sense the so impressed Claire that it ignited a love where Ivan soon died of leukemia. Claire initiators of Franco-German rapproche­ affair. After the war they moved to Paris survived him by 30 years during which she ment were the representatives of both and eventually married. produced German-language belles-lettres cultures who refused to join the chauvinist Neither conformed to bourgeois conven­ poetry and an autobiography. The last- chorus on their side of the Rhine. tions. When Claire's first volume of poetry named bears the intriguing title Ich verzeihe One such was Romain Rolland whose elicited a letter of appreciation from Rilke keinem. pre-1914 Jean Christophe novels showed she plunged into a liaison with her illus­ U R.G.

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12 AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

That kind of loss is quantifiable; what Tucholsky — and had trained itself to view A less-than-splendid cannot be computed is the scarring of a their fellow citizens through the distorting record child's psyche by having a new identity lens of German culture. Schiller and foisted upon it. Goethe, Beethoven and Brahms, had The consensus of opinion now is that become more palpable to German Jews he Kindertransports as a topic has while hostel children endured a degree of than the neighbours alongside whom they aroused steadily growing interest institutionalisation and lacked opportuni­ lived (and subsequently died, unlamented). Tsince the 50th anniversary in 1989. ties for learning correct English and other German culture as an entity distinct from, Two books — / came alone and . . . And the means of acculturation, they derived com­ and unaffected by the conduct of, real-live policeman smiled - which testify to this fort from their 'surrogate family' and were Germans continued to haunt and seduce the interest are being supplemented by several spared the stressful adjustments many foster minds of many intellectually inclined refu­ ongoing research projects. children had to make. gees. The Viennese-born German television Paula Hill is researching the way the director and scriptwriter Georg Stefan Refugee Committees organised the place­ Marchioness of Reading TroUer exemplifies the syndrome. Troller's ment of the Kinder once they had arrived in Paula Hill argues that a lot of psychic film trilogy Wohin und zuriick - screened the U.K. In a talk given at the London traumas could have been avoided if Blooms­ on Channel 4 in 1990 - made a number of Museum of Jewish Life, Sternberg Centre, bury House and its local subsidiaries had characteristic points. The middle sequence in December, and based on her provisional shown themselves more sensitive to the shows the young refugee protagonist findings, she mingled appreciation of the needs of the Kinder. She alleges that the stranded in an America so philistine that it committee's work with a great deal of Marchioness of Reading, who stood at the compels an elderly emigre writer to eke out criticism. apex of the network of committees, was too a living in a poky delicatessen store. The Bloomsbury House operated under a much of an Establishment figure to empath­ protagonist, who carries volumes of Rilke government remit to disperse its charges ise with her charges; at a less exalted level and Nietzsche in his threadbare suitcase, countrywide so as to avoid creating highly many local committee members had gone resolves never to become American and visible Jewish enclaves in urban centres like into voluntary work for the same impure joins the army in order to get back to London and Leeds. Since potential Anglo- motives that bring social workers into Europe. Jewish foster parents lived precisely in disrepute nowadays. In opening this partic­ Prior to demobilisation he settles among places 'to be avoided' - and since, according ular can of worms she has ignited a debate theatre folk in Vienna, hoping to be reinte­ to received wisdom, foster homes provided that promises to rumble on for some time grated into Austrian society. The rejection a better environment for younger children yet. n he meets with is an even greater shock than than hostels - about a third of the 7,500 the brutality he witnessed during Crystal wholly Jewish Kinder were placed in non- Night. Jewish homes. When wartime evacuation At this point Troller's autobiographically further compounded this mismatch it inspired film ended. What about the real- resulted, according to the speaker's calcula­ live author? He could neither remain in an tions, in 3,500 Kinder being lost to Judaism. You can't go home Austria that did not requite his love, nor go back for good to an America sadly bereft of again culture. He therefore settled in Paris, most European of cities, and embarked on a everal months after the Nazi seizure of career of producing cultural documentaries Israel's power Goebbels sent an emissary to for German TV (for which his early addic­ Very finest Wines Sthe U.S.A. to persuade the non-Jewish tion to Rilke and Nietzsche proved a useful emigre writer Erich Maria Remarque, of All preparation). After decades filled with fruit­ SHIPPED BY Quiet on the Western Front fame, to return ful activity Troller has just turned 70. The to Germany. When Remarque proved deaf occasion was noted prominently in the to all entreaties the emissary produced what Frankfurter Allgemeine, and German TV HOUSE OF he considered his clinching argument. He (ZDF) published a laudatio in booklet form warned the writer that if he decided to stay with contributions by the writer Peter HALLGARTEN in exile he'd be homesick for the rest of his Handke and the film director Axel Corti. life. 'Homesick' sneered Remarque 'do you In the 1930s the American Thomas Wolfe take me for a Jew?' entitled one of his novels You Can't Go YARDEN and GAMLA The Heimweh he diagnosed as a malady Home Again. The phrase has a special specific to German-Jewish refugees was no relevance to us - even to those intellectuals AVAILABLE NOW figment of the literary imagination. It who could or would not be weaned of their existed in reality, but differed from other formative love affair with German culture. Please write or phone for variants of nostalgia by deriving not so Peter Weiss lived in Sweden. Erich Fried full information much from a sense of loss of a cherished lived in England. Paul Celan lived - and physical environment than of a cherished killed himself - in France. Georg Stefan DALLOW ROAD mental construct - namely German culture. Troller, bearer of a name which echoes that LUTON BEDS German Jewry had lived for generations of Stefan George, high-priest of German LUI 1UR among a host community that did not bear lyrical poetry, thankfully still lives in 0582 22538 looking at too closely - hence the anguish of France. sensitive individuals from Heine to D R.G.

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VERSE AND WORSE Yugoslavia's prewar Jewish population had Yugoslav Jewry perished. Of the 14,000 left 8,000 emi­ DR CAREY grated to Israel soon after the creation of the His kowtow to the men of Qom, he creation of Yugoslavia in 1918, new state. The remnant organised a Fed­ He hopes, in Bradford may yet presage which brought together Orthodox eration of Jewish communities centred on Muslim acceptance of the message TChristians, Muslims and Catholics, the three towns of Belgrade, Zagreb and About the Kingdom soon to come was paralleled in the country's Jewish Sarajevo. Numbers remained fairly con­ population. Here Ashkenazim of Austro- stant due to the propensity of offspring of While Rushdie ponders in his prison Hungarian background coalesced with mixed marriages to opt for Jewish identity. With blunted pen, once hubris-bold, Sephardim whose roots stretched back to Religious observance, however, is minimal If he'll be stopped from growing old the time when Serbia belonged to Turkey. - not least because Tito pursued an anti- Before the Saviour is risen Prewar the former had fared better than the religious policy. latter; in Serbia Jews had only achieved civic Concerning Israel he 'somersaulted' from DAVID IRVING equality by 1899. permitting unfettered emigration around The dead Jews are not really dead During the interwar years this pattern 1950 to backing the Arab cause thereafter. The few that are were really Red reversed itself, thanks mainly to the spread (Tito, of course, belonged with Nasser and The live ones lie, inventing gas of the pro-Nazi Ustashe movement Nehru, to a troika claiming to speak for the To damn A. H. from whom, alas. throughout Croatia. In 1941, when Hitler Third World at the UN and other inter­ The faithful Heinrich kept all news conquered Yugoslavia, its 70,000-strong national forums.) Proving the power of the Jews Jewish population, swollen by refugees, Tito's death started a process of coun­ faced almost immediate massacre. The trywide disintegration which finally PETER TATCHELL country was parcelled out into German-, exploded into civil war between Serbia and Lollipop ladies stare while Tatchell Croat-, Hungarian- and Italian-occupied Croatia, Since the most vocal secessionist Puts a leaflet in each satchel zones — the first three of which witnessed Croats look back with nostalgia to their Telling kids from the Remove unspeakable barbarities in 1942. Such Jews Ustashe-led Free State of the war years, Of two optional kinds of love as were still alive after that date mainly local Jews have acute cause for concern. The So that any prone to doubting owed their survival to the Italians. When Croat leader Franjo Tudjman makes reas­ Can arrange their own school outing Italy collapsed in mid-1943 a number of suring noises but his - hitherto untranslated young Jews managed to join the partisans. - autobiography carries unmistakably anti­ iilWnMIIIHPIIIIIIII[llllll»llll

14 asam mm AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

"W

sian-German reconciliation, by Simone globe through the wrong end of a telescope Everything that rises Veil's founding presidency of the European dominated U.S. policy during the interwar must converge parliament, and by Leon Brittan's pro-EEC years, and gave Hitler a virtually free run. It stance in divergence from his 'sponsor' Mrs was, one hoped, permanently laid to rest in Thatcher. the Second World War. The post-1945 Maastricht In a Jewish perspective For all the foot-dragging by those who U.S.A. - the sabre-rattling global bully boy think like her Maastricht has brought of Left caricature — was, in fact, the best European integration appreciably closer. America on offer this century. Now, it t the start of Karl Kraus's Last Days Indeed Maastricht may yet become a seems isolationism has climbed out of its of Mankind a Ringstrasse news symbol as Rome and Moscow once were. A grave and is haunting New Hampshire in Avendor shouts 'Archduke assassi­ fact little remarked on at the time of the the ghoulish shape of Patrick Buchanan. nated at Sarajevo', whereupon a Jewish summit was that the town takes its name American superpatriot, ex-McCarthyite passer-by says to his wife 'Thank God, not from a river evoked in the Deutschland and Israel basher, Buchanan charges Presi­ one of ours'. Lied; Von der Maas his an die Memel. It is dent Bush with sacrificing his own country's Kraus, a Jew with antisemitic inclina­ to overcome the baleful heritage of interests to those of the wider world. In a tions, presumably wrote this scene to casti­ Deutschland, Deutschland iiber Alles that truly civilised society such an accusation gate the absorption of Jews in their own postwar Germany was locked into a Euro­ would sound like praise; the question is narrow concerns. There can, however, be a pean system. Its foundations were laid when whether the voters of New Hampshire are totally different interpretation of the France and Germany transformed century- mature enough to consign Pat Buchanan to 'Thank God' remark: Jews feel so insecure old enmity into close alliance. the dustbin of history to which U.S. iso­ that their first reaction to news of any crime Other spectres from the past still - or lationism belongs. is to pray for the culprit to be a non-Jew. again - haunting countries of the continent But to return to its transatlantic cousin, From this perennial insecurity stems the can also best be exorcised by means of Little Englandism and the Maastricht blue­ conditioned reflex which makes many re­ European integration. Austria could surely print. If anyone doubts my thesis about the spond to any new development with the not gain EEC membership with Haider in built-in Jewish propensity of supranation- anxious inquiry 'Is it good for the Jews?' government. And, with France a pace-setter alism (which is even more strongly devel­ Since the latest major - no pun intended — of supranational Europe, can anyone really oped among refugees) let them consider development in world affairs is the Maas­ envisage le Pen at the Elysee Palace? these facts: Robert Maxwell's abiding con­ tricht agreement on closer European inte­ For all these, and other, reasons little tribution to the U.K. media scene is The gration, it behoves us to ask 'Is Europe good Englanders need to be told that (to para­ European, and Lord Weidenfeld has now for the Jews?' phrase John Donne) no country is an island turned his back on publishing to establish a Jews have always looked more than a in today's world. network of colleges that will inculcate little ridiculous when they tried to identify The American counterpart of Little Eng- European consciousness in its students. with xenophobic nationalism. Examples landism is Isolationism. This view of our n R.G. abound - from Naumann's Verband Nationaldeutscher Juden, and Mussolini's Jewish squadristi, to the apartheid-support­ ZAHNARZT/DENTAL SURGEON ing Harold Soref and the Le Pen sympath­ Dr H. Alan Shields, MB ChB. BDS, LDS RCS(Eng) CAMPS 46 Brampton Grove, HENDON, London NW4 4AQ INTERNMENT-P.O.W.- iser Alfred Sherman in 1980s Britain. FORCED LABOUR-KZ The truth of the matter is that while Jews ALL TYPES OF DENTAL WORK I wish to buy cards, envelopes and folded post­ can support — and may even invent - Home visits for the disabled marked letters from all camps of both world wars. rightwing economic doctrines, they cannot, Dentures and cosmetic dentistry Please send, registered mail, stating price, to: Emergencies as descendants of immigrants, be rightwing 14 Rosslyn Hill, London NWS PETER C. RICKENBACK on such issues as immigration and racial TOP QUALITY DENTAL TREATMENT discrimination. AT PRICES YOU CAN AFFORD Conversely, Jews tend to have cross- Phone: 081 -203-0405 for appointment border family ties, and the wider vision, not Deutsch wird auch gesprochen to mention language skills, that go with CARING AND PERSONAL SERVICE fnem. It was not lack of roots, but their BRAHAM LASSMAN oeing unencumbered with the blinkers of leutomaniac contemporaries, that turned We buy, sell, collect, deliver and •"Jeine and Borne into vaterlandslose HILARY'S AGENCY restore second hand and Gesellen. Specialists In Long and Short-Term Live-in Care A. J. P. Taylor dubbed the Jewish subjects period furniture. RESPITE AND EMERGENCY CARE ^f Emperor Franz Josef the only 'true CARE FOR THE ELDERLY 5 Hatton Place, Hatton Garden, ^ustrians'. ('True Austrians' in this context HOUSEKEEPERS RECUPERATION CARE London EC1N 8RU connotes believers in the supra-national MATERNITY NURSES Habsburg state - not what Jorg Haider NANNIES AND MOTHER'S HELPS EMERGENCY MOTHERS currently says it means!) 071-405 5674 - Daytime Caring and Experienced Staff Available 081-907 1252 - Eves and Weekends This Jewish propensity to think supra- We will be happy to discuss your tiationally has been demonstrated in all requirements ^orts of ways recently: by the dissident PLEASE PHONE 081-559-1110 'soviet writer Lev Kopelev's work for Rus­

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AJR INFORMATION FEBRUARY 1992

Even among the Masons he found Jewish The protest was certainly not antisemiti­ Mozart's Jewish friends, one of whom wrote the text for the cally motivated, since two of its initiators, friends Maurer-Kantate. In fact, one could say that Harold Pinter and Alexei Sayle, are Jews. Mozart, as a true child of the Enlighten­ What inspired it — apart from concern for ment, carried out his own Emancipation of Vanunu - was hostility to Israel as a nuclear uring Mozart's Salzburg years he the Jews decades before it passed into law. 'power'. Such hostility may masquerade knew no Jews since the Prince- One could also say that the Jews have under the benignly pacifist CND camou­ DBishop banned them from the town. reciprocated in full. In the aristocratic flage, but poses a threat to the sine qua non The infant prodigy's first Jewish acquain­ 1780s Lorenzo da Ponte smoothed of the country's military survival. tance was probably the Dutch-born cellist Mozart's path to acceptance by Emperor The Jewish state is ringed by Arab and Emanual Siprutini encountered during the Josef II; in the democratic 1980s Peter Islamic countries of vast population size, England tour of 1764. Leopold Mozart, Schaffer and Milos Foreman, the begetters, some of whose leaders are certifiable made ill by the polluted air of London, had respectively, of the play and the film Ama­ psychopaths. Pakistan is hell-bent to de­ moved the family to salubrious Chelsea deus, have gained him acceptance in the velop an Islamic A-bomb, Teheran com­ where Siprutini was a near neighbour. What world at large. bines the release of Western hostages with astonished Leopold about the Jews in Eng­ D R.G. expressions of undying hatred of Israel, land was that they had discarded beards and Algeria threatens to turn into 'the Iran of the their distinctive dress; he thought this made West', and Saddam still lurks in Iraq. In them more receptive to attempts at conver­ addition to those four horsemen of the sion, but failed to make any headway with Street theatre reprised Islamic Apocalypse Israel faces enemies Siprutini. laughably described as moderates, such as The composer finally settled in Vienna, he connection between theatre and Assad of Syria and Arafat of the PLO. which then had a Jewish population of politics is of venerable antiquity: in Given all that, and given the country's about 500, in 1781. He lived for almost a T1601, simultaneous with Essex's admirable restraint during the Gulf War, year in a house rented by the Jewish court rebellion against Elizabeth I, the conspira­ only an out-and-out enemy of Israel could factor Isaac Arnsteiner (whose daughter-in- tors staged Shakespeare's Richard II depict­ want to deprive her of the weapon of last law Fanny Arnstein achieved fame as a ing the overthrow of an earlier English resort. grande salonniere). Arnsteiner's name monarch. Let us, therefore, look more closely at the appeared on the list of subscribers to Even so, it was not until our century that protagonists in the Vanunu street theatre. Mozart's Subskriptionskonzerte alongside many theatre folk turned political. In the Harold Pinter gave proof of his political those of several baptised Jews, such as Josef interwar years Gabriele d'Annunzio co- sagacity when he dubbed the American von Sonnenfels, advisor to Emperor Josef II, invented Fascism, and Werner Kraus and response to Iraqi aggression against Kuwait Karl Abraham von Wetzlar, a banker, and Heinrich George hammed it up for the 'bullying'. Alexei Sayle has an equally the latter's son Raymund. Fuhrer. The British theatre remained apoli­ Pinteresque persona. He once told an inter­ Mozart stayed under the Wetzlars' roof tical till the late 1950s, when John Osborne viewer from a quality newspaper that his for three months. It was at their house, too, sat down in Trafalgar Square against the A- marriage was childless because his wife's that he met Lorenzo da Ponte (another bomb and Vanessa Redgrave stood up in experience of teaching had left her with an baptised Jew) who was to write the libretti Grosvenor Square for the Vietcong. By the abiding hatred of children. for three of his four most successful operas. early Eighties, though, the protest move­ These two 'judges' of Israel were joined The composer felt sufficiently indebted to ment was running out of steam in phase by a non-theatrical personage: Bruce Kent. Raymund von Wetzlar to name his first son with the ever-more-apparent collapse of The ex-cleric is a superannuated CND after him. In a letter to Leopold in Salzburg, Communism. spokesman who, in Cold War days, waxed dated June 1783, he wrote diplomatically: Consequently London has been treated to eloquent about the criminal folly of the 'As soon as my wife was happily delivered, I little street theatre (except the Poll Tax West's nuclear weapons programme, while sent news to Baron Wetzlar, my true good riots) in recent years. A minor production saying remarkably little about how the friend. He immediately arrived in person did, however, receive a performance in late Soviets poisoned both people and the and offered to stand godfather to the boy. I 1991: the protest against Israel's imprison­ environment with theirs. Not, on the face of could not refuse - and thought inwardly I ment of Mordechai Vanunu who is serving it, a very impressive tribunal. can still call him Leopold; so I had him a life term for publishing details about the baptised Raymund Leopold.' country's secret nuclear programme. D Richard Grunberger

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