AJ R In Jo rma tio n Volume LIV No. 12 December 1999 £3 (to non-members)

King-sized burgher Looking back on 1999

ayors of s end-of-decade years go the current one rent German legislation). capital compares in importance with 1989, which The Anglo-American complement to Holocaust M cities often ,saw the collapse of the Berlin wall and the denial is isolationist revisionism. This school of send out messages A end of the Cold War. 1999 in its turn witnessed the 'thought' contends that since Hitler had no hostile that resonate expiry of the convention according to which a designs on Britain or America, Churchill and beyond municipal government's ill-treatment of its own subjects was Roosevelt alike were warmongers who dragged boundaries. The viewed as legitimate exercise of national sovereignty. their respective countries into a ruinous conflict in antisemitic Kosovo and East Timor (in their different ways) which no vital national interest was at stake. Burgomaster exemplify the cost of enforcing the startlingly new In the UK isolationist revisionists like AN Wilson Lueger, darling of notion that universal human rights override national and Prof. J Charmley disseminate their toxin from the Viennese, governments' scope for villainy within the territory the citadels of Canary Wharf and the groves of aca­ undermined under their jurisdiction. Decisive UN action in Timor deme. Their US counterpart, Pat Buchanan, is Emperor Franz has already had a salutary knock-on effect on Indo­ considerably more upfront: he has taken to the hus­ Josefs humane nesia itself. By contrast NATO's earlier and tings with his America-first message yet again. A notion of a precedent-setting Kosovo campaign has yet to trig­ past contender for the Republican nomination, who Habsburg state that ger a corresponding eruption within Serbia proper. accuses Jews in public life of owing greater loyalty was home to all his Volatile South-East Europe and SE Asia are thus to Jerusalem than to Washington, Buchanan is subjects. appreciably more becalmed - and civilised - areas currently manoeuvring to become presidential Conversely, than they were a year ago. The same, by and large, candidate of the Reform Party. Jerusalem's Teddy applies to the Middle East, where Ehud Barak's All in all, as we say goodbye to this last relatively Kollek inspired relaunch of his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin's policy benign decade of a uniquely horrible century we hope while Likud has elicited positive Jordanian and Palestinian re­ have much to be thankful for - but we must keep formed the national sponses in the shape of a clampdown on Hamas. the unsleeping, ever-lurking monster of xenophobia government. Nor is Although only self-deluding optimists would dis­ always in our sights D an anti-Blairite count the possibility of future Mayor of London setbacks to the Oslo process, beyond the bounds the Middle East, too, appears of the possible. To significantly less combustible Londoners than last December. pondering their It is in Europe that newly choice we offer this emerging faultlines have re­ obiter dictum from vealed hitherto unsuspected Ken Livingstone: fragilities. In the enviably "What England did prosperous heart of the conti­ to the Irish only nent the Austrian and the appears less brutal Swiss electorate have each than what the propelled a dangerous right- Nazis did to the wing demagogue to a position Jews because it of power. While Haider oper­ ^as drawn out ating inside an EU-member over eight state maintains a shrewdly centuries' D calculating silence on Jewish matters, Christoph Belcher in r.The AJR wishes EU-shunning Switzerland has '^'l its members openly endorsed Holocaust a Happy AJR Chairman, Andrew Kaufman, meets Osmond House residents denial (which constitutes a (^nanucan enjoying their tea at the Home's official opening. (See page 7) criminal offence under cur­ AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

cerned: together with several other emi­ Profile grated communal activists he founded the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain. Founding father's After the war Eva returned to the fash­ ion trade and in 1948 she married a dutiful daughter Viennese fellow refugee employed in the owadays the term community travel industry. Alas, their married lif^ service denotes a soft alternative was dogged by tragedy from early on. N to prison, but in focusing on Eva Their first two children fell victim to the Trent, nee Breslauer, we need to resurrect Tay-Sachs syndrome (a condition con­ its original meaning. The ideal of com­ fined to Jews, just as Sickle Cell Anaemia munal service has been a Breslauer is to Afro-Caribbeans). Subsequently they family tradition for three generations. adopted a daughter, tragically fated to die Eva's grandfather and father alike were of cancer in early middle age. lawyers actively involved in Jewish In 1965, feeling that her full-time pres­ matters. ence was no longer required at home, In 1933, when the Nazi takeover spelt work. This consisted of helping to pre­ Eva became a volunteer befriender' with the end of Dr Walter Breslauer's legal pare meals for 450 staff and patients at Camden Council. Four years later AJR practice, he became secretary of the Ber­ University College Hospital in Gower opened Eleanor Rathbone Hou.se and .she lin Jewish community. He also moved Street. Henry Moore's Tube Shelterers still joined the House Committee that liaised 13-year-old Eva from her previous school reminds her of the scenes she witnessed with the wardens, organised events and to a Jewish one to shield her from gov­ on her journeys to and from work in visited residents (Eva has kept up hei ernment-decreed classroom antisemitism. those days. weekly visits - with short intervals - for In 1936 the family emigrated to London, Dr Breslauer had meanwhile written a thirty years!) where Eva enrolled at Hornsey School of book on International Law of Private Nowadays, approaching eighty, she also Art. Inheritance and found part-time employ­ acts as a telephone befriender' for Jewish At Hornsey she didn't quite blossom ment as a bookkeeper with the Jewish Care. Together with her husband she is into an artist, but became a competent Board of Guardians. In addition he did still active in Amnesty International. De­ fashion designer. She found employment something of really great moment as far spite all the tragedies in their lives the in the rag trade', later switching to war as the refugee community was con­ couple have retained their joie de vivre U

basic care costs, any addition to maintain British POWs seek Residential home's OSHA's necessarily high standards having to be met from the Association's own lim­ compensation change of plan ited resources. OSHA also has to respond British POWs who worked as Nazi slave- labourers are bringing legal proceedings c-inrich Stahl House, a residential to the expectation that standards of ac­ against the German government for un­ and nursing home in north commodation and care offered by their paid wages. Lav^ers working for sonie London built for and especially residential and nursing homes will re­ H main among the very best and stay ahead 3,000 surviving soldiers claim that a share dedicated to the care of victims of Nazi of the £2.2bn compensation already of­ persecution in their later years, is not to of rising national standards. fered to German, American and Soviet be replaced with a new development. In reaching their decision, OSHA had POWs should be awarded to the British This decision by the Otto Schiff Housing also to take into account the inevitable in lieu of payment and personal injuries Association revises their previous plan, decline in the numbers of those belong­ suffered. The current deal of £200 p^^ announced earlier this year, to build new ing to the refugee generation, as well as worker is described by some British accommodation in another location in government legislation favouring the pro­ POWs as insulting. preference to undertaking the renovation vision of support services for the of the present building and the long-term care of the elderly in their own modernisation of its facilities. homes. The sale of Heinrich Stahl House, OSHA's current refurbishment and J- JACKMAN• which stands on a valuable site on one maintenance programme for other homes of north London's most prestigious roads, in the group is due to be completed next **• SILVERMAN year. Residents of Heinrich Stahl House is, however, to go ahead. OSHA's Coun­ COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS cil of Management has chosen to and their families have been reassured by consolidate the Association's operations the chairman, Ashley Mitchell, that no- and redirect funds realised from the sale one will be asked to move to an to complete the development of other alternative home without full considera­ homes in the group, repay loans and se­ tion of the suitability of all the options. cure the future of the Association. (Further enquiries may be directed to 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA In the current situation, local authority Tony Shepherd, OSHA Chief Executive, Telephone: 0171 409 0771 Fax: 0171 493 801? funding for residents fails to cover even on 0181 731 7374). D Ronald Channing AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

account of Maidanek death camp written Profane and sacred by an emotionally disturbed Swiss non- Jew. And now we have the temporary NEWTONS emembrance Sunday confirmed the closure of the Crimes of the Wehrmacht Leading Hampstead Solicitors impression that year on year the exhibition by its organisers because a R number of people wearing pop- small percentage of the photographs dis­ 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, P'es in their buttonholes diminishes. This played have been found to depict London NW3 SNB 's perhaps inevitable since most Britons Russian and not German atrocities. 3live today had not been born in 1945. With an ill wind rising in Austria and ^ All English legal work The fact that the past is another coun­ Switzerland to fill the sails of Holocaust undertaken and German, try' also needs to be taken into account deniers, the institution of a (hopefully Swiss & Austrian claims ^hen debating the merits or demerits of Europe-wide) Remembrance Day would 'k German spoken 'he proposed official Holocaust Remem­ serve as a still sorely needed deterrent to brance Day (.see Letters to the Editor, p6). the peddlers of racist poison. ^ Home visits arranged Naturally the debate also takes place in The proposed Remembrance Day Tel: 0171 435 5351 'he columns of the Jewish Chronicle would remind the world that the Nazi Fax: 0171 435 8881 ^here the well-known columnist Norman Holocaust was not merely six million-fold Lebrecht fired off a broadside headed murder but a crucial first step on the road -lack Straw can include me out of Holo­ towards abolishing what makes human caust Day'. The writer started off by beings human. Hitler once notoriously 'ambasting the Home Secretary for inflat- called conscience, like circumcision, a PARTNER "^8 police recruitment figures and Jewish invention. in long established English Solicitors 'ordering brutal policing of the Chinese Holocaust Remembrance Day would (bi-llngual German) would be happy resident's state visit. Later on in his not only constitute an act of piety to assist clients with English, German Piece Lebrecht predicted an aura of self- towards millions of innocent victims of and Austrian problems. Contact congratulation enveloping a British race mania; it might also make posterity holocaust Day and a Murdoch-style aware that a world 'cleansed' of Jews Henry Ebner '••'vialisation of the event. He ended by would have been one bereft of con­ Myers Ebner & Deaner slating Tony Blair for his Labour Party science, natural justice and all finer Conference speech demonising the feelings. 103 Shepherds Bush Road London W6 7LP forces of Conservatism.' DRG ^hat Lebrecht has done is reprehensi- Telephone 0171 602 4631 'e on two counts. For one he (mis)used ALL LEGAL WORK 'he Holocaust Day debate to attack the UNDERTAKEN *^t)our politicians who mooted the idea. GERMAIN and Not to mix words, he has dragged a E]\GLISH BOOK!§» /iper-sensitive near-sacred matter down 'nto the grubby arena of party politics. In BOUGHT he process he lets fly at such bogus Antiquarian, secondhand and AUSTRIAN and GERMAN "^'"gets as political correctness and multi- modern books of quality ^^Iturahsm. PENSIONS always wanted. Can he not conceive that even fallible Politicians may be sincere in expressing We're long-standing advertisers PROPERTY RESTITUTION ^^ir abhorrence of such monstrous here and leading buyers of books atrocities as the Shoah? I am sure that from A}R members. CLAIMS 's feeling of abhorrence fed into Tony EAST GERMANY- BERLIN Immediate response to your letter lair's (and incidentally Vaclav Havel's) or phone call. '^flinching stand over Kosovo - as well On instructions our office will ^^ into Jack Straw's disclosure of a Ger- We pay good prices and assist to deal with your ^n Jewish refugee grandmother. come to collect. applications and pursue the ^o much for Lebrecht's unconscionable matter with the authorities. Please contact: Politicising of the Holocaust issue. On Robert Hornung MA(Oxon) For further information and ^ issue itself we must take cognisance 2 Mount View, Ealing, 'he fact that a number of recent occur- appointment please London W? IPR ices have played into the hands of contact: Telephone 0181-998 0546 Olocaust deniers. First there was Anne ICS CLAIMS (Spin to 9pin is best) 3nk's father's admission that he had 146-154 Kilburn High Road ^tnpered with his daughter's diary London NW6 4JD '""ies (touching on relations with her Tel: 0171-328 7251 (Ext. 107) other and her own sexual awakening). AJR Fax:0171-624 5002 ^^ri came the revelation that Binjamin Tel:0ni-43l 6/6/ "koinirski's Fragments was the fictitious AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

Reviews

do with his feelings about Jews. attitude let the Jews help themselves' to Papal fallibility Pacelli's energies as nuncio in Germany prevail. Pacelli did not want to force John Cornwell, HITLER'S POPE THE SECRET were concentrated on negotiating con­ German catholics to make an agonizing HISTORY OF PIUS Xll.Viking. 1999, £20. cordats at Lander and Reich level. choice between their national and their he battle over Pius XII and his Concordats were means by which the pa­ religious allegiance and this was one or failure to speak out over the pacy reinforced its control over the his prime motives in all his dealings with TFlolocaust has recently been re- Church. Pacelli was firmly committed to Hider and the Third Reich. 'When Pius XI ignited by the proposal to beatify him. the centralizing authoritarian view of the finally issued the encyclical Mit breri- Cornwell started out with the intention of papacy as it developed after the first Vati­ nender Sorge in March 1937 it was late in correcting the negative picture left by can Council of 1870, which proclaimed the day. Even its carefully guarded lan­ Hochhuth's play We Deputy, but having the doctrine of papal infallibility. To him guage, which owed a lot to Pacelli s been given access to Vatican archives in bolshevism was the original evil and he drafting, enraged Hitler and brought good faith, he was left, as a Catholic, in tended to lump SPD and KPD together as strong counter measures by the Gestapo- 'a state of moral shock'. Pius XII was Marxists, as did most Germans of right- The central issue in the controversy born Eugenio Pacelli, from a family that wing views. In the crucial period after about Pius XII is his silence about the had served popes from Pius IX onwards the Nazi electoral breakthrough of Sep­ Holocaust. The Vatican had plenty of evi­ as officials and lawyers. He himself tember 1930 he became increasingly dence about the murder of European became a canon lawyer and Vatican convinced that coalitions between the Jewry, but the Pope clung with great de­ official, reaching prominence as nuncio Centre party and the Nazis might have to termination to neutrality between the in Munich and Berlin from 1917, cardinal be formed. If the Centre party had tamed belligerents. He still feared Soviet com­ secretary from 1929 to 1939 and pope the SPD then it could tame the NSDAP. munism more than Nazism and gave some until his death in 1958. This was also the view of Ludwig Kaas, support to the Ustasha regime in Croatia Cornwell sees a link between Pacelli's the first priest to become chairman of the and Franco in Spain, because they were appeasement of Hitler and the Third Centre party and also a noted canon law­ Catholic. His condemnation of the Reich and his antisemitism or at least anti­ yer, between whom and Pacelli there was uniquely monstrous Nazi crimes against pathy to Jews. Pacelli certainly rubbed up a close relationship. Pacelli and Kaas be­ the Jews, which reached his doorstep against entrenched Catholic views about lieved in authoritarian government and with the deportation of the Jews of Rome Jewish obstinacy and blindness towards held political democracy in low regard. in 1944, was always carefully hedged the true revelation. His grandfather ad­ Once Hitler was chancellor Pacelli was about and not explicit. There were con­ vised Pius IX on the notorious case of eager to seize the chance of negotiating siderations beyond those of politics and Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish child kid­ the long-desired Reich concordat, when diplomacy in motivating Pius XII and napped from his family, on the say-so of the new chancellor, with total cynicism, Cornwell makes an important contribu­ a maid, who claimed that he had been offered it. Pacelli and Kaas pressed the tion in elucidating them. The pope had a secretly baptized. In spite of worldwide Centre party to vote for the Enabling Act mystical view of the Church as the body pleas to return the child to his parents and later to dissolve itself. Rome encour­ of Christ and an immensely elevated view Pius IX refused and the boy later became aged the German Catholic bishops to of his office as the Vicar of Christ on a Catholic priest. From his time as nuncio scale down their previous stance on the earth. An ecumenical sense of solidarity in Munich, Cornwell prints, for the first incompatibility of Christianity and Na­ with the followers of other faiths and de­ time, a letter describing an interview be­ tional Socialism. Pacelli did not have a nominations, whether they were Jews of tween Pacelli's assistant Schioppa and high regard for the social Catholicism that Orthodox Serbs, let alone with humanity Max Levien, the leader of the first Munich was well entrenched in the Centre party as a whole ranked below his responsibil­ Soviet, in April 1919. It is full of the usual and was prepared to sacrifice the party ity to his own flock. The horrors and anti-Jewish diatribes, when Levien him­ for the sake of the concordat. Thus the sufferings which surrounded him, ^^ self was not a Jew, though some other Vatican became the first foreign power to which he was not insensible, may wel' leading figures in the Munich soviet re­ conclude a treaty with the Nazi regime. have accentuated this state of mind, with publics were. Pacelli probably shared the Much of this might well have happened its implication of a Manichean gulf be­ widespread view that Jews figured more without Pacelli and the chances of the tween darkness and light. It was * than averagely in the revolutionary activi­ Centre party or the Catholic Church seri­ mentality which enabled his conscience to ties of the period; he may have thought ously inhibiting the establishment of the accept and even to make a virtue of th^ the same of American capitalist demo­ Hitler dictatorship were already low in diplomatic circumlocutions and prevarica­ cracy, whose materialism he disliked. But March 1933- The courageous, but always tions which he practised. At the end ot such prejudices, which unfortunately limited, protests of Faulhaber and Galen his book, Cornwell decides that Pius Xlt were only too common, did not prevent notwithstanding, there was never a possi­ was not a saintly exemplar for future Pacelli from perceiving clearly that Na­ bility of mounting a comprehensive generations, but a deeply flawed human zism and Christianity were incompatible Catholic resistance to Nazi anti-Jewish being. This is perhaps slightly overstating and that racial antisemitism was the main measures. In the early years of the Third it. Pacelli was personally a saintly man reason. Fighting National Socialism and Reich these measures were sufficiently with great charisma, but as pope he was antisemitism was, however, well down gradual and Catholic anti-Jewish preju­ the wrong man for a time of extrem^ his list of priorities and this had little to dices widespread enough to allow the moral challenge. D Edgar Feuchtwang^'^ AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

Reviews (continued)

perience in the context of the writer's counterparts and their attempts to justify Young poet behind present situation, as an elderly man the British government's actions as un­ barbed wire looking back on a formative, if at times derstandable in time of extreme national hugely frustrating, phase of his life. So emergency. f'rederick G Cohn.A LUCID INTERVAL Premier we observe the course of the young In the case of those like the Rosen ^ois Publications, London, 1999, £5.99. Martin Rosen's life in internment, from brothers, who had reached Britain after a he number of memoirs recounting Kempton Park racecourse via the notori­ perilous flight from the invading Ger­ the experiences of refugees from ous Wharf Mill temporary camp and the mans across Poland, a residual sense of THider in British internment camps Isle of Man to distant Quebec, while also obligation to the land of perceived safety •^^s grown considerably over the years following his emotional development and preserved their respect for British justice ^•nce the Government's panic measures his first hesitant steps as a writer. and fair play, which they saw demon­ ^f summer 1940. Some, like Eugen The debates among the internees about strated by the parliamentary debates held Spier's The Protecting Power and Alfred the injustice of their treatment have often on internment even as German bombs Lomnitz's Never Mind. Mr Lom, have been rehearsed, not least in the letters rained down on London. Interestingly, "^come minor classics of the genre. column of the AJR Information. On the Rosen's fear that the French Canadians This book, the fictionalised memoirs of one hand, the sense of outrage at the would have been only too happy to hand ^ young refugee who was interned with internment of Jewish refugees from Na­ their Jewish prisoners over to the Nazis, •lis elder brother in Britain and Canada, zism as 'enemy aliens' and despair at an aspect of internment rarely men­ |ollows to some extent in the mould of their confinement behind barbed wire by tioned, is supported by recent research '^s forebears. But at the same time it the country which had allegedly given showing that conservative-Catholic circles Provides new insights into conditions in them sanctuary. On the other, their in Quebec gave refuge post-war to Nazi ^he Canadian camps and adds a reflective awareness that a British camp was im­ collaborators from occupied France. dimension, by setting the internment ex­ measurably preferable to its Continental n Anthony Grenville

for the permanent care and security of Lost Jewish community's heritage to be preserved the Jewish cemetery where, it is hoped, by Polish MP and US agency that a memorial inscribed with the names of the town's Jewish citizens who per­ ndrej Folwarczny, a member of ished in the Shoah will also be erected. Poland's Parliament and chairman After the war people of many cultures of the Polish-Israeli Parliamentary settled and lived together in Gliwice. It is A therefore appropriate that the project sets §''oup, has given his support to an '^isginative project aimed at preserving out to increase the interest of all the ^•^tl making new use of the former Beth townspeople in their heritage and to edu­ 'fhara and prayer hall at the Jewish cate their children in a common history. ^^metery in Gliwice (formeriy Gleiwitz ) This includes that of the former Jewish '^ Upper Silesia, by converting it into a community and the key role played by "^ricen hall and conference centre. many of its members in the development Today Gliwice has only a very small of Gliwice as a leading industrial and •Jewish community, a branch of that in trading centre. ''Katowice (Kattowitz), none of whom As part of an exhibition to be estab­ ^•"e members of the pre-war Gleiwitz lished, Mr Forwarczny is anxious to Polish MP Andrzey Folwarczny who is leading ^•Timunity. Among the several hundred obtain photographs, records and other efforts to restore the Gliwice prayer hall for use as a documents of the Jewish community and ^rnbers of the original Jewish commu- cultural centre. 'v, who were murdered in Auschwitz in of their families who lived there. Please ^^2 and 1943, were the parents-in-law and conversion project is being under­ write to Max Kochmann, c/o the AJR, if /•(J uncle of former AJR chairman, Max taken by the Forum Among Nations you can offer any such documentation or "^chmarm who is lending his support to Foundation, established by Mr Folwarczny wish to have fuller details of the project. the project together with former Gliwice in Gliwice in 1998 to promote a climate D Ronald Channing •"esid,ent s and their children now living in of tolerance and friendly relations bet­ the UK. ween peoples in Poland, with the ^e handsome prayer hall, built in the co-sponsorship of the US Commission for Annely Juda Fine Art §othi, the Preservation of America's Heritage 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) tect. ^as consecrated in 1903 and is one Abroad, founded by Congress in 1985 to Tel: 0171 -629 7578 Fax: 0171 -491 2139 the few remaining Jewish historical preserve cultural sites in Eastern and Cen­ CONTEMPORARY PAINTING "dings in Poland to have survived the tral Europe of significance to US citizens. AND SCULPTURE iger *i occupation intact. The renovation The project will also make provision AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

Sir - It is very important to commemorate the Holocaust. We have Trafalgar Day, Armistice Day etc. - so why not a day to remember and honour the innocent citizens who were brutally murdered. Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehova's Witnesses etc. also need to be remembered. But it NOT AS BLACK AS HE WAS One speaker, whose name I failed to has to be made clear that the Jews were SHIRTED catch revealed that German stonemasons the main sufferers. had given freely of their time to repair re­ Sir - You describe (November issue) Even though atrocities are still perpe­ cent damage at a Jewish cemetery and Oswald Mosley as putative Gauleiter of trated all over the world the Holocaust that Bundeswehr soldiers had acted as German-occupied Britain'. Not initially, was unique in the cold blooded industr­ unpaid labourers and guards. according to Himmler's plans. This role ialised extermination of the victims. This surely merits the widest publicity would have been given to Prof. Franz Six. London SWl6 Ruth Leggett among our members. His was a case of voluntary self-demo­ Shrewsbury, Shropshire M Landau tion through ideological zeal, for Prof. Sir - I believe Holocaust Remembrance Franz Six abandoned the Economics Fac­ day should be 9th May. On that day my ulty of Berlin University, of which he was IGNAZ BUBIS father was liberated from Terezin and Eu­ dean, to become advisor to the SD Sir - Your editorial comments printed rope was at peace for the first time in six (Sicherheitsdienst) on scientific matters below my letter (November issue) were years. (It is also Freedom Day in the and chief of an Einsatzgruppen com­ unreasonable and as far as I am Czech Republic). If we want a United Eu­ mando. Six was sent on a mission to concerned, unacceptable. I reiterate my rope let's have a spring day so the collect archives from the Kremlin, but, objection to the phrases 'the child of survivors, the elderly, children and the failing to reach his destination, spent 25 Ostjuden', strong lad', 'astonishingly disabled can attend any special com­ days in Smolensk, tracing captured politi­ chose to settle in Frankfurt', which you memoration. cal commis.sars from among the Russian saw fit to use in your obituary. Westcliff-on-Sea Larry Lisner POWs, for execution. Postwar his plea My point that Bubis' burial in Israel fit­ that he remained always a scholar and ted into a religious Jewish tradition was never a policeman' did not save Prof. Six borne out by the recent interment there MIGHT-HAVE-BEENS OF from a twenty-year sentence, which, in of the late Chief Rabbi Jakobovits. HISTORY the changed political climate of the London NWS Peter Galliner Sir - The assassination of Archduke Franz period, was commuted in 1951 to one of in 1914, was nothing more than releasing ten years. This meant freedom a year Sir - I fully agree with Mr Galliner's letter the safety catch. The German language, later. in the November issue and am at a loss in a rare exception, has managed to London NWl I Gerald Fleming to understand your remarks about outperform the versatility of English, by Churchill in the footnote. To my mind, differentiating between Anlass and SLAVEDRIVERS IN SUITS neither you nor I would now be alive Ursache. Thus Gavrilo Princip's action without Churchill's magnificent leader­ was the former and emerging nationalism Sir - I am most grateful to Rudy Kennedy ship during World War II. in the Balkans the latter. and BBC2 for having brought to the Poole Kurt, Dorset J Land Friedrich Ill's throat cancer was an if attention of a wide viewing public the relevancy of history. involvement of a totally unrepentant I wrote that Pat Buchanan's denunciation of London NW8 Erwin Brechet German industry in slave labour crimes. Roosevelt as a warmonger was paralleled in Britain by Alan Clark's attacks on Churchill.What My variety of xenophobia (September Within the pseudo-constitutional framework of is puzzling - or objectionable - about that? Ed. editorial) is that the slave drivers in .suits Bismarck's devising, the Kaiser enjoyed cot^' (October editorial) are still very much siderable power The peacefully inclined Frederick III would not have indulged in his son s around and will, with their economic HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY naval race with England - one of the roo^ clout, shape the EU. Sir - In the foreseeable future, none of us causes of the GreatWar. Ed. Ipswich, Suffolk Frank Bright survivors will be left alive - so there will be no individual remembrance of the murdered six million. NOT QUITE FORMULA ONE KRISTALLNACHT It will become just a minor event in Sir - Reviewing Ronald Harwood * COMMEMORATION history, taught in schools and universi­ Quartet (October issue) you charge th^ Sir - When the Germans celebrated the ties, but eventually almost forgotten. playwright with plagiarism and recourse tenth anniversary of the Fall of the Wall, A recognised Memorial Day would to filthy language. As fas as I know th^ they had the tact to hold at least one make the world acknowledge the un­ sin of plagiarism was committed by som^ meeting to commemorate the November speakable horrors we now remember on of the greatest writers and composers- Pogrom which falls on the same day. Yom Hashoah and would be a constant After all they must find ideas somewhef^ I chanced on a broadcast of this meet­ reminder of a time hopefully never for­ and can't always be original. - As to ing on "Sky". Practically everyone - gotten or repeated. filthy language, this seems to be alnioS Bush, Gorbachev, Joschka Fischer, etc. - Cheadle Hulme Eva E Gillatt obligatory in modern drama, I personally was there. Cheshire (nee Oppenheimer) don't like it, but in this play it suits th^ AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

character Donald Sinden is portraying. I suppose it comes down to resources. Osmond House reopens I enjoyed Quartet immensely for its Surely a plan can be devised and the cost clever dialogue, superb acting, never- estimated. It is too much to hope that this with highest standards of ending surprises in the development of letter will evoke a response from poten­ the characters and beautiful stage set. tial sponsors? dementia care Theatregoers seem to agree with me, be­ London NWl Ludwig Berlin smond House, a residential cause it is well patronised. I know only home in north London, which of one case of someone walking out: an WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS Ooffers specialised care for mem­ older person, who was not prepared to bers of the Jewish refugee community ^atch scenes set in an old people's home Sir - The Riesenrad was first shown in London in 1895. I have always under­ suffering from dementia, has been re­ ~ probably too near the knuckle. opened following the completion of a ^orthwood M Herz stood that Vienna's Riesenrad was made in England and then transported to radical refurbishment and re-equipment Vienna. programme. As part of the Otto Schiff IWASATEENAGE Sutton, Surrey Paul Bass Housing Association, the redevelopment project was made possible by the granting XENOPHOBE of an interest free loan from the AJR. ^ir - Sometime during the mid-1930s a NO RESTING PLACE Standing on The Bishop's Avenue in ^ew, obviously foreign, boy arrived at Sir - Who does Jennifer Langer suppose Hampstead, close by Kenwood's park our gymnasium, in Vienna's First District. should have been instrumental in and gardens, the home's individual rooms Our whole class, Jews and non-Jews preserving the remains of a Jewish with en-suite facilities for 49 residents, ^like, kept him at arm's length. He spoke cemetery near Breslau? The Poles who comfortable lounges and small dining ar­ 'ncorrect, heavily accented German and were forcibly resettled there as a result of eas, together with a high level of staffing, had an unpronounceable surname that the Yalta agreement? The Germans who help to achieve a very high standard of lacked vowels. Instead of Lederhosen, were equally thrown out? Or the pitiful care for all the residents. The home also the universal school uniform of that time, remnants of the Jews? As you may know, has a new landscaped garden specially he Wore some long woolly garment. He it is only through the heroic efforts of designed for wheelchair access. "^'d not know the names of the members of the Austrian Wunderteam, the best one Pole, M Lagiewski, that the Lohe- Opened originally in 1962 to provide 'Ootballers of Europe. Even worse, he strasse cemetery in Breslau has been residential care for the increasing number ^ould not ski! On sports afternoons he preserved. When I wrote to AJR Infor­ of elderly members of the Jewish refugee ^as not invited to participate. We neither mation in early 1991 suggesting that we, community in Britain, some thirty years knew nor cared where he lived and what the survivors of Breslau Jewry, should on it became evident that Osmond House his parents were doing. He only stayed a contribute to its upkeep there was required extensive renovation to bring it '^^ terms and after he left, I started to deafening silence all around. into line with today's much-improved ••ealise his identity. A Polish Jew, he had Arundel, West Sussex F Goldberg standards. It is now recognised that 'eft Germany for '"safe" Vienna. people with dementia are far more com­ fortable living in smaller, more homely '^»ed, Surrey AW Freud WHAT'S IN A NAME? environments rather than in the large insti­ Sir - The claim that children carry the tutions which were popular in the 1960s. Holocaust traumas of their parents has THANKYOU BRITAIN FUND Osmond House has been converted never been substantiated. The Second "• - Anne Pisker (Letters June issue) is into a modern home which regards each Generation Trust's insistence on perpetu­ he erstwhile Anne Marie Pick, one of the resident as a valued member of the com­ ating the victim status of the children of ^tars of the swimming club Hakoah, munity and emphasises their abilities refugees is worrying. Giving people ^'enna. I am glad that age has not staled rather than their disabilities. Particular treatment in these circumstances is er to the extent of allowing senti- consideration is given to the emotional dangerous, especially if offered by un­ l^entality to cloud her judgement: if it needs of those who experienced the qualified people touting for patients. ^ad not been for the war we would all trauma of Nazi persecution. The tradi­ London NW3 Herta Reik ^till be housemaids, tions of the Jewish faith, Shabbat and the '•ondon £/7 Mrs Edith Poulsen High Holydays, are observed, while Jew­ BON MOTS ish continental cuisine is prepared in the home's own kosher kitchen. SORELY NEEDED INDEX Sir - In answer to "How odd of God to choose the Jews", "Because it's the In a ceremony hosted by the Chairman , "^ ~ Janet Langmaid's obituary^ states 'she Goyim - who annoy 'im." of OSHA, Ashley Mitchell, Rabbi Rodney ad begun working on the - very much Kenton, Middx Michael Scott Mariner affixed the mezuzah to the en­ eeded - comprehensive index of this Bushey Heath, Herts Barry Hyman trance doorpost and local MP, Dr Rudi 'ournal'. Sadly, her work has come to an Vis, declared the home open in the pres­ ^^ at an early stage. ence of the Mayor of Barnet, Cllr Jeremy Are there any plans to continue with BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE Davies, Chairman of the AJR, Andrew ^ project? You are on your fifty-fourth 51 Belsize Square, London N.W.3 Kaufman and many other benefactors, as '^nual volume. There must be many in- Our communal hall is available for well as the home's staff who conducted lOSt 'tutions around the world who would cultural and social functions. visitors on tours to explore the facilities kally e'come an index of AJR Information as Tel: 0171-794 3949 and meet the residents. the ^ 'niportant research facility. D Ronald Channing AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

AJR Reports

HERMIONE There she spent the rest of her CELEBRATES HER working life in the accounts de­ partment before retiring. 100*^ BIRTHDAY Though Erwin had returned to ienna-born Hermione Weiss Vienna to pursue a musical celebrated her hundredth career after the war, he visited Vbirthday in fine style with his sisters regularly and they her sister Irma, her brother retained their very close relation­ Erwin and her many friends at ship, often enjoying concerts in the Paul Balint AJR Day Centre. the Albert Hall and the Festival While Erwin played the piano - Hall and continually adding to a he is a former Director of the large collection of classical re­ Vienna Conservatoire - everyone cordings. Hermione and Irma joined in singing 'Happy still live independendy together Birthday' to Hermione who blew Hermione Weiss (right) at her lOO^ birthdaypany at the Paul Balint AJR Day Centre. in the flat near Russell Square out the candles on her cake with into which they moved in 19^3 only a little help. tained a position in John Lewis, the de­ and from where they travel regularly to The family left Vienna in 1938 and 1939, partment store in Oxford Street that had the AJR Day Centre once a week to enjoy meeting up in England with the help of been largely destroyed in the bombing good food and good company. the Quakers. After the war Hermione ob­ raids on London and was later rebuilt. n Ronald Channing

Movie mogul intrigues Brighton & Hove Luncheon Club mennbers irector of the Brighton Jewish Fili^ Festival, Judy Ironside, was guest ir Sidney Samuelson, the film speaker at the Sarid group. She impresario, who was knighted in D discussed the evolution of the festival Srecognition of more than half a and its importance for the local century's work as a leading figure in the community and also spoke of her role as British film industry, was the guest of the sponsorship raiser for this non­ AJR Luncheon Club. He recalled how his commercial event. grandparents, arriving as refugees from Her talk was illustrated with an extract Prussia in the 1880s, opened a from a German film, Der Jude Levi, about tobacconist's shop in Southport where his a rural community in the early 1930s and father was born. Sir Sidney's father later a moving French production, Zachor (RHolocaust victims with renting out' of film programmes Sir Sidney Saniuclson. addressing the AJR Luncheon Club English/Yiddish commentary. throughout the country but, with the A group discussion followed before arrival of the 'talkies' in 1927, his a film's star could afford to be more de­ manding and temperamental. He recalled Fausta Shelton on behalf of Sand thanked business collapsed. the speaker. D Frank Goldberg Leaving school in 1939, at the age of that when making the fabulously success­ 14, Sir Sidney's first job was as a cinema ful The Prince and The Showgirl with projectionist. Following National Service Laurence Olivier, Marilyn Monroe could Pinner in the RAF, after the war he began work well decide not to learn her lines or just ctress, Jenny Nemko, discussed hef as a cameraman, buying his own camera not to turn up! rocky path to a performing careet- and renting it to other film-makers when It was Sir Sidney's view that, "Jewish Achieving this ambition was made people had so much to do with the crea­ A he was short of work. With the start of especially difficult as her father wanted commercial television in the 1950s, Sir tion of the film industry that they created her to become a doctor She studied drama, Sidney's film camera rental business pros­ Hollywood". All the great immigrant pro­ married an actor and then retrained, to pered, particularly as the BBC recognised ducers, from Louis B Mayer down, were continue her career in broadcasting. the high maintenance standards he kept. immigrant Jews, though he couldn't help Robert Lowe, bass baritone with piafi'^ Unsurprisingly, Sir Sidney became fur­ wondering why talent from the same accompaniment, will perform a selectiof^ ther involved in film production as a roots had inexplicably failed to produce a of classical music as a highlight of th^ behind the camera' man, befriending world-class film industry in Israel, despite Chanukah meeting on 2"* December- many of the leading producers and direc­ his own company doing all it could to Latkas and doughnuts will be served- tors of the day. Once filming had started, help. D Ronald Channing Pinner Synagogue. D Walter Weg

8 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999 rff • • • Viewpoint • • • Paul Balint AJR Day Centre Wall games §ing-a-l£)Ong can remember the Beriin wall within Through no-man's land was a city de­ months of its erection in 1961, void of traffic, shop windows, or the T^d f)5nei3 I virtually overnight, to prevent the bustle of commerce - literally a horse- mass exodus of citizens of the relatively and-cart economy. Where the shells of with Shelley Weldon impoverished East German communist burned-out buildings still stood around state still under the heel of its Soviet a main square, in 1933 books by Jew­ 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 liberators. Most futile attempts to climb it ish authors had been torn from the SUNDAY 5TH DECEMBER 1999 to enter the affluent western sectors national library's shelves to be con­ 3pm to 6pm were thwarted by barbed wire, mines sumed on a Hitlerite bonfire. Nearby a and well-armed East German police with grass mound covered the bunker in 'Lighting of the 3rd Chanukah candle' vicious dogs. Spontaneous shrines to the which the Fiihrer met a much-belated Tickets £6 victims - inevitably portrayed as demise. Monuments and mass graves, Apply Sylvia, Renee or Susie freedom-lovers by the western media - to Russian soldiers who lost their lives evoked limited sympathy from me. while razing Berlin to piles of rubble, 4^ At the Brandenburg Gate, protected were the focus of attention. firmly behind the wall in the east and Many applauded the de facto division bordered with American warning signs, of the vanquished Germany into two AJR'Drop In'Advice Centre sentries returned your inquisitive gaze separate states; it diminished the threat at the by peering back through powerful bin­ of a resurgence of German militarism. Paul Balint AJR Day Centre oculars. When, in 1989, the tacit withdrawal of 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Though passage into the eastern sec­ guaranteed Soviet military intervention between I Oam and 12 noon on the tor was banned for West Germans, as a made the maintenance of the GDR and following dates: citizen of an occupying power I readily its Berlin wall unsustainable, German Wednesday 1 December .joined a tour bus passing through the in- reunification was accomplished in the Thursday 9 December congrtiously named 'Checkpoint Charlie' blink of an eye, even the Russians giv­ Tuesday M December with only millimetres to spare. Here, just ing grudging public acceptance The Wednesday 22 December a short while earlier, American and Rus­ ensuing decade has seen Germany re­ Thursday 6 January sian tanks had faced each other, establish its capital city in Berlin and and every Thursday from bringing the world closer to the brink of place itself once again at the epicentre I Oam to 12 noon at: World War III than any of the protago­ of European affairs AJR, I Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, nists were ever prepared to admit. n Ronald Channing London NW3 6AL No appointment is necessary, but please bring along all relevant documents, such as Benefit PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE Books, letters, bills, etc. 15 Cleve Road.West Hatnpstead, NW6 Mon.,Tues. & Weds. 9.30am-3.30pm.Thurs. 9.30am-6.30pm. Suns. 2pm-5.30pm Afternoon entertainment programme - DECEMBER 1999/JANUARY 2000 Thur 16 Michael Goldthorpe, tenor Wed 1 Sylvia Eaves accompanied by accompanied by Harry Lester, Margaret Eaves, piano piano Thur 2 Alia Krauchuk, soprano, Sun 19 David Rose, baritone, Jean Aird, accompanied by Simone mezzo, accompanied by Townly, piano Margaret Gibbs, piano Sun TEA DANCE - Live Music by Mon 22 KARD & GAMES KLUB AjR LUNCHEON CLUB Shelly Weldon Tue 21 Joann Creed, recital and lecture Mon KARD & GAMES KLUB Wed 22 Nikki van der Zyl, accompanied Tue CHANUKAH with Jack Davidoff by Daphne Lewis, piano on Wednesday 15th December 1999 Wed Mark Ro.sen accompanied by Thur 23 Susan Wilde, soprano, at l5CleveRoad,NW6 3RL Daphne Lewis, piano accompanied by Chris Orland, 11.45 for 12.1 Spm Thur 9 Katinka Seiner & Laszio Easton piano accompanied by Peter Gellhorn Sun 26 CLOSED BOXING DAY Guest speaker: Maurice Soffer Sun 12 DAY CENTRE OPEN - NO Mon 27 CLOSED 'Six Profiles of a Retiree' ENTERTAINMENT Tue 28 CLOSED Mon 13 KARD & GAMES KLUB Wed CLOSED Reservations £7.50 for everyone! Tue 14 OPERA POPS - accompanied by 29 from Sylvia, Renee and Susie Margaret Gibbs, piano Thur 30 CLOSED Tel: 0171 328 0208 Wed 15 LUNCHEON CLUB - Guest Sun 2 CLOSED Speaker, Maurice Soffer Mon 3 CLOSED AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

FAMILY SWITCH ON ELECTRICS TORRINGTON HOMES FORTHCOMING EVENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS Rewires and all household Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. DECEMBER 1999 MATRON Birthdays electrical work. For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Thu 2 Lunchtime Recital: May. The AJR would like to PHONE PAUL: 0181-200 3518 (Licensed by Borough ol Barnel) Beethoven and Schubert • Single and Double Rooms. extend their best wishes to on violin at the • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. Sternberg Centre, Harry May on the occasion of • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. ALTERATIONS 1.15pm i.2 his 75"' birthday. • Nurse on duty 24 hours. Sun 5 Richard Grunberger: OF ANY KIND TO • Long and short term, including Renfield. On the occasion of a The iiilegratioit of LADIES' FASHIONS trial period if required. Continental Jeu's into special birthday the friends of I also design and make From £300 per week Anglo-Jewish Societv, Ruth Renfield send her best children's clothes 0181-445 1171 Office hours Meretz UK, 8pm. £-4/ wishes and thanks for unstin­ 0181-455 1335 other times £2.50 West Hampstead area NORTH FINCHLEY ting and kind care of the 0171-328 6571 Mon 6 Richard Grunberger: residents of the Heinrich Stahl Art and Politics, Club House. '43, Spm. BELSIZE SQUARE Mon 6 ZangwUl and Woman's Widely Published Suffrage: Meri-Jane Classified APARTMENTS Rochelson, University of Retired Bachelor living central Author 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NWS Southampton, Highfield London interested in home life, (EngUsh - German) Tel: 0171-794 4307 or Campus, 6pm. Tel: arts, theatre and travelling 0171-435 2557 01703-592261 Mon 6 So Sing Already! , abroad seeks the companion­ Requires part-time MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY Musical performance at secretarial assistance. ship of a lady in similar ROOMS. RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER New End Theatre, 8pm, circumstances and interests to Shorthand and v^ord processing. MODERATETERMS .£8/10. Al.so Dec 12 & 13 share in all these activities on a NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION Tue 7 Credit Where Credit is Regents Park area 50/50 basis. Please reply to Box Due: The Discoveries oJ Please reply to box number 1254 August Kekide, No. 1253. Archibald Scott Caliper or Fax 0207 587 8187 v^^ith CV Residential Home Collector wants pre-war and Josef Loschmidt: and quoting hourly rate Clara Nehab House Alfred Bader, University German military toys (Lineol) (Leo Baeck Housing Associaton Ltd.) of Sussex, 5.15pm. etc. 0181 440 1738. 13-19 LMSlde Crescent NWl 1 Sun 12 Family History All rooms with Show/erW.C.and Workshop: The Jewish Miscellaneous Services H/C Basins en-suite Mu.seum, Finchley, Optician Spacious Garden - Lounge & 4-6pm £2/3 Manicure & Pedicure in the Dining Room - Lift Dr Howard Solomons BSc FBCO E. Flesch: In the Wilds Near Shops and Public Transport Mon 13 comfort of your own home. of Southern China, Club 24 Hour Care - Physiotherapy Telephone 0181 343 0976. Dental Surgeon 43, Spm. Long & short Term - Respite Care - The New Millennium - Dr H Alan Shields Trial Periods Thur 16 Day Centre Members' & Enquiries: Josephine Woolf Expectations, plus Shirley Lever at the Paul Otto Schiff Housing Association Chiropodist The Bishops Avenue N2 OBG entertainment, chaired Balint AIR Day Centre. New Phone: 0181-209 0022 by Ruth Leggett at the Clothes for Sale, dresses, Trevor Goldman SRC Kit Briscoe Suite, underwear, cardigans etc. by appointment at 11.30-3pm. Mon 20 Hans Seelig: Goetlje Wednesday 1 and Thursday 16 The Paul Balint AJR Day Centre OSMOND HOUSE December 9.45-11.45am. Music. Seasonal IS Cleve Road.West Hampstead, NW6 Volunteers are needed to man the refreshments follow. Please make appointments with reception desk in our newly refurbished Club 43, Spm. Societies Sylvia Matus, Tel: 0171 328 0208 Home in The Bishop's Avenue. Current Association of Jewish Ex- If you have a morning or afternoon free Until The Jewish Dickens: Berliners and Ex Breslauers. to work in lovely surroundings please March Israel ZangwUl, The Please contact Peter Sinclair contactjudy Marks on 0181 731 7360 2000 Jewish Museum, ADVERTISEMENT RATES Camden (3 Nov-14 Mar) 0181 882 1638 for information who will be pleased to give you more FAMILY EVENTS information and have an informal chat £3. First 15 words free of charge, £2.00 per 5 words thereafter ORGANISATION CONTACTS Club '43, Belsize Square AJR CLASSIFIED, SEARCH AJR GROUP CONTACTS Synagogue, Hans Seelig. Tel: MEALS ON WHEELS NOTICES - £2.00 per five words. Leeds HSFA: Heinz Skyte 01442 254 360 BOX NUMBERS - £3.00 extra. 0113 268 5739 Jewish Museum, Camden Town. Variety of high quality l

10 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

Holocaust, but they can never possess the brutish, haunting integrity of those who were there. D GloriaTessler

SB's Column he National Gallery takes one decade in Renaissance Florence, urt Weill's Music will be lieard Tthe l470's, to demonstrate how the at London's Barbican Centre Medicis' dominance over the city boosted K during the weekend 14-16 the arts, exemplified by Botticelli, the January 2000 which will feature the Pollaiuolo brothers, Verrocchio and composer's works under the slogan Leonardo da Vinci. An obsession with Berlin to Broadway. The BBC Sym­ Collectable artefacts of the ancient world phony Orchestra under Sir Andrew (engraved cameos, Roman coins) and Davis and the BBC Concert Orchestra, Old Testament events influenced much will perform the Berlin Requiem, the ^rnblematic design, such as PoUaiuolo's Lindbergh Flight and Der neue Orpheus. paintings of nude males in combat, or the The programme will also include tondo (circular painting) often depicting Dreigroschenmusik (which created the Epiphany. Art workships carried out Weill's popularity) with Ute Lemper •Monumental commissions and encouraged recalling the typical Berlin cabaret songs. experiment in colour and perspective, Holocaust Memories, charcoal drawing 1998, Schnitzler in London. The Diorama Michele Franklin. swift drawing to convey expression, light Studio Theatre will present Anatol from ^nd shade falling on artificially textured own show, Luz Eterna. In her super-re­ 7 to 19 December at 34 Osnaburgh drapery. alistic installation, the saint is a Street, London NWl. This will be one of Concern with their image as a small but black-hooded victim of organised vio­ the few opportunities to see the Aus­ ••^doubtable city state led to a passion for lence, surrounded by Mafia types and trian author's work apart from rare the Israelite heroine, Judith, who tempted shocked women. Its power derives from revivals at London's National Theatre. ^nd then murdered the Assyrian general, her translation of a typical renaissance Yiddish Theatre in Vienna. Austrian- '"lolofernes, with his own sword, theine into a contemporary idioin reflect­ born Kurt Rosenkranz who left Vienna ootticelli luridly shows the Assyrians ing the artist's own roots. The heavy and as a boy in 1938 and returned in 1947, spooning over their dead leader, lying stunted figures with their hugely expres­ is founder of a Jewish School for adults' languid and sensual but for his headless sive almond eyes, are distinctly Mayan; which runs Yiddish classes, lectures and ^tate and Antonio de Pollaiuolo's ac- the stylistic pose, redolent of native In­ exhibitions at its Praterstern site. Having <^laimed bronze statuette of Judith dian art. Pocheco also borrows biblical brought the Yiddish Theatre of Montreal '-"aptures the touching rectitude and reso- themes. She is fascinated by Solomon to Vienna last year, he has now arranged 'tition of the Israelite widow. and the Queen of Sheba and their haunt­ for the Romanian Teatrul a Evreisec of The greatness of Venus' Conquest of ing faces reflect the horrors of the Bucharest to present two plays by "^'^rs, lies in her serenity and quietitude triptych beneath. Shalom Alechem at the Rabenhof. ^s she watches over Mars' sleeping form, The authenticity of artistic experience is Obituary, German-born Use Wolf, '^s happened to many great artistic icons bravely faced by Michele Franklin in her who died aged 78, was a soprano of ^he commercialisation of the face of the exhibition of prints and drawings, Where great power who - to quote The Times °otticelli Venus diminishes the integrity was the whole World? at the Sternberg - enriched the cultural life of her ^» the whole work, whose essence is the Centre until January 6 and opened by adopted country. She reached Britain in Spiritual rhythm bet\seen the gods them­ AJR's joint chief executive, Ronald the late Thirties and became a lieder selves. It is assumed that Venus was the Channing. and oratorio singer of renown. She was ^'fe of Lorenzo's brother, Giuliano. Brought up in Vermont and then a member of the Chelsea Opera Group '^own as La Bella Simonena, she died of Golders Green by a Jewish father and a under Colin Davis, later specialised as a Consumption in her early 20's and was native Indian mother, Franklin uses the lieder singer and, more recently, taught Considered so beautiful that she was grid-like metaphor of the Auschwitz at Trinity and Morley colleges. placed in an open coffin with her golden railtrack to convey the horrors of a time Berlin Opera. While such opera ^•"Is cascading around her face. not her own in dark enigmatic pieces, houses as the New York Met, La Scala "Otticelli's famous profile portrait of the some narrative, some semi-abstract. and Covent Garden continue with pro­ foubled Giuliano, with black page-boy Inevitably Franklin's work invokes grammes mainly consisting of Verdi, airstyle and robed in carmine, suggests comparison with the first-hand experi­ Puccini, Wagner and Richard Strauss, repressed sadness - possibly the loss of ence of Holocaust artists like Bedrich Berlin's Deutsche Oper and Deutsche •s wife, or the premonition of his own Fritta or Karel Fleischmann. Unlike the Staatsoper opened this season with less ssassination while still young, which shocking imagery provided by victim-art­ frequently performed works: Carmina Lorenzo escaped. ists, Franklin's prints and drawings are Burana, Moses and Aron, Wozzeck, The National Brazilian associate artist, introspective, more fluid and inevitably Lulu and Mahagonny. Critics wonder T^a Maria Pocheco, explores her fascina- more self-conscious. This does not invali­ whether this will become a significant 'c>n with PoUaiuolo's St Augustine in her date them as artistic commentary on the trend for the future? D

II AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

HOUSE DOCTOR HOMECARE SERVICE The AJR is pleased to offer members the benefit of a How to avoid failing vision Homecare Service scheme s people get older their vision formed. Patients above the age of 65 The service is intended to help members often changes so that they need years should probably have their ocular remain In their own homes Astronger glasses. However, for pressures measured regularly in order to some people the problem is more determine that they are not suffering Financial assistance is available serious and they may even lose their from glaucoma. The condition when where needed. sight. found, can be treated with either drops, For further information please apply to the There are five main causes for visual oral medication or sometimes with sur­ Social Services team on gery. If untreated the high pressure in loss: damage to the nerves of the eye 0171 431 6161 or write to the eye ball constricts the blood supply due to strokes, damage to the eye from AJR Social Services, I Hampstead Gate, to the optic nerve and this results in glaucoma, damage to the retina due to I a Frognal, London NW3 6AL diabetes, sudden damage to the retina damage to the nerve and reduced vision. such as detachment or haemorrhage Diabetics whose blood sugars rise and and changes to the nerves at the back fall erratically are much more prone to of the eye known as macular degenera­ develop damage to the retina due to the ^ tion. In many cases people may not be diabetes. Regular eye checks by appro­ Companions entirely unable to see even if they are priately trained staff should detect this registered blind or carry a white stick. diabetic change at an early stage. Laser of London In macular degeneration the nerves of treatment often helps but the most incorporating the eye that are concentrated at the area important preventative measure is strict Hampstead Home Care ^ :^ of the retina where most fine vision is control of the underlying diabetic condi­ A long established company perceived, become damaged and die. tion. providing care in your home The patient is left unable to clearly see Sudden damage to the retina such as fine work but able to perceive shapes, tears, detachment or haemorrhage do * Assistance with personal care outlines and light and darkness. Their occur and these are more common as * General household duties peripheral vision may be much better patients become older. Any sudden loss -k Respite care than their central vision. Sadly for this of vision in one eye or part of one eye •k Medical appointment service type of visual loss there are no really ef­ requires assessment within 24 hours. If fective treatments though low visual such a tear or detachment has occurred OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' aids may improve what sight exists. it may often be limited or even reversed 0171 483 0212/0213 Many of the other types of visual loss by laser therapy at an appropriate cen­ can however either be prevented or tre. Laser treatment is used to close off treated. The incidents of strokes may be burst blood vessels or to weld the de­ reduced by lowering high blood pres­ tached retina back on to the base of the SPRING sure, stopping smoking and reducing eye. If left untreated such damage can raised levels of cholesterol. result in permanent visual loss. GROVE Glaucoma is a condition where the Though in some cases deteriorating 214 Finchley Road pressure in the eye becomes raised vision may be unbearable, for many London NW3 above normal. Its incidence tends to in­ people their loss of vision can be lim­ London's Most Luxurious crease with age but is easily detected by ited or reversed with appropriate action RETIREMENT HOME opticians when sight tests are per- or prevention! D Dr Max Bayer * Entertainment-Activities Regretfully, personal correspondence cannot be entered into * Stress Free Living * 24 Hour Staffing * Excellent Cuisine * Full En-Suite Facilities Call for more information Fraenkel prize winners announced or a personal tour his year's Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary European History. Central 0181-446 2117 Contemporary History from the European and Jewish history in the or 0171-794 4455 TWiener Library in London as been Twentieth Century, the Second World awarded to Professor Robert Moeller of War, fascism and political violence are subjects of specific interest to the Wiener the USA, for his work, War Stories: The Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Library. Prizes will be given for outstand­ STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST Republic of German, and to Dr des Till ing, unpublished work with an award of Surgeries at: van Rahden of Germany, for his $5000, which is open to all applicants, 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) manuscript, Juden und andere Breslauer: and one of $3000, which is granted to Telephone 0171-624 1576 die Beziehungen zwischen Juden, those who have not yet had a major 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) Protestanten und Katholiken in einer work published. Further details may be Edgware, Middx HAS 7PU deutschen Grosstadt von 1860 bis 1925. obtained from the Administrative Secre­ Telephone 0181-905 3264 Next year's Fraenkel Prize is open to tary of the Wiener Library. Tel: 0171 636 Visiting chiropody service available applicants submitting work in the field of 7247 0

12 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

A calendar based on the solar year it­ tive. The Jewish holy days as well as the Science Notebook self was able to be employed by the Christian Easter (but not Christmas) are Egyptians as early as 6000 years ago be­ still determined by lunar-solar calcula­ cause they made use of the regular tions while the religious life of Hindus Pre-millennium musings annual flooding of the Nile as a natural and Moslems continues to follow the lu­ he year 2000 of the Common Era dating tool. With the growth of astro­ nar cycle. The Moslem fast of Ramadan, is almost upon us, to be greeted nomical knowledge the solar year for example, comes 11 days earlier every Tby hundreds of millions of people became accepted in most societies but year. We must also remember that the with jubilation tinged with apprehension. the awkward number of days in it posed starting dates of most calendars have reli­ But why is so much fuss being made a problem. A calendar year of 360 days gious origins. The Jewish calendar counts about it? The underlying reason for the was often chosen (and is the reason why from the biblical day of creation, the excitement is that we count in tens we still divide a circle into 360 degrees). Moslem one from 622 CE when Moham­ because we have ten fingers. Thus the Different interpretations were placed on med fled from Mecca to Medina and the centuries (muhiples of 10 x 10) and the 5 extra days: the Egyptians assigned Julian Gregorian calendars from the birth especially the less frequent millennia them to the birthdays of the gods while of Jesus. But since astronomical evidence (^multiples of 10 x 10 x 10) appear to the Babylonians and the Mayans re­ suggests that Jesus was born in 4 BCE, assume a special significance. In contrast, garded them as unlucky or evil. The his 2000"' anniversary may have already the Mayans of Central America, who lived Egyptians even allowed for the extra '4 taken place several years ago. in a tropical climate, counted with their day by introducing a leap year of 366 n Prof Michael Spiro fingers and their toes so their number days every fourth year. During Julius Cae­ system was based on 20. The ancient sar's dalliance with Queen Cleopatra he Sumerians and Babylonians preferred was struck by the Egyptians' advanced SEARCH NOTICES i^nits of 60 so they would have chosen to method of timekeeping and on his return Bernard Steiger and Karl Frei both aged celebrate the year 1800 instead of 2000. to Rome he arranged for a drastic reform approximately 75, who came on the The way we reckon time is a fascinat­ of the confused Roman calendar. The re­ Kindertransport from Dresden, Germany, in ing story. It has evolved from a sulting Julian calendar came into being in December 1938 are sought by David Vogel. In­ combination of astronomical phenomena, 45 BCE in the Roman empire and eventu­ formation to: 3210-59 Ca Minito, East Bluff, La Jolla, Ca. 92037. •"eligious anniversaries and arbitrary deci­ ally throughout the western world. sions in human history. In particular, all "V'et the Julian calendar was not perfect Major J. F. Hayward and other former Brit­ civilizations had to adapt to three facts of either. Its year of 365 days and 6 hours ish Occupation Army members are sought nature whose origins they usually did not was some 11 minutes longer than the by historian researching Nazi looted Jewish li­ braries in Austria and the partial return of Understand until much later. These are true (tropical) solar year. Over the next books after 1945. Contact Dr Evelyn Adunka, clay and night (due to the spinning of the 16 centuries this built up into a sizeable Deinhardsteingasse 18/9, 1160 Vienna, Austria. earth on its axis), the lunar month (the 10-day anomaly. A physician named Tel/Fax 43 I 485 83 86 t'nie for the sun-illuminated moon to Aloysius Lilius then calculated that the News of Jan Lokwiecki is sought by the circle the earth, and the seasons. These annual drift could be avoided if 3 days brother of Janina Talkowska who both worked 'iepend on the distance from the sun were removed from the calendar every as forced labourers in then called Heiligenbeil ^hich varies during the solar year as the four centuries. He therefore proposed in Ostpreussen (East Prussia) in a hotel from tilted earth pursues its elliptical path that all centennial years (which were pre­ February 1941 until early 1942. Both were around the sun. viously counted as leap years because sheltered by Rev. Father Westfal and his housekeeper, Frau Pingel. Contact LTalkowski, they were divisible by 4) should be leap The earliest civilizations, including the 83 Church Rd, Peasedown, St. John, Bath, BA2 Jewish, Babylonian, Chinese and Greek, years no longer unless, like the year 8AB.Tel:OI76l 432 260 ^ased their calendar on the cycles of the 2000, they could be divided by 400. This "^oon which are easy to observe. Their rule was incorporated into a revised cal­ Alfred Johnny Steevens (formally Alfred Schnitzer) born 5/ 4/ 1902, Berlin-Schoneberg, endar promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII basic year of 12 lunar months (each 29 is sought by Peter and Helen Berger Alfred *^ays, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 sec­ in 1582 CE. More spectacularly, it in­ moved to Britain in August 1939 from onds) was therefore slightly more than cluded a jump of 10 days in October Brandenburgische Strasse 40, Berlin and lived ^^4 days. Unfortunately this did not syn­ 1582 to rectify the backlog. This greatly in the Kitchener Camp, Richborough. He chronize with the solar year (currently worried people who felt they had lost ten worked as a Clerk before joining the 74'*" J65 days, 5 hours 48 minutes and 45 sec­ days of their lives (especially if it in­ Company P.C. - army number: 13053438. In 1948, Alfred was living in Kensington Park onds) which determined the seasons cluded their birthdays) and some riots Road Wl I. Any information, please contact, "'hich were crucial to agriculture. How to took place. Nevertheless, the Gregorian 12a Portman Gate, 41 Broadley Terrace, Lon­ cieal with this annual shift of almost 22 calendar was soon accepted by the don NWl 6LQ.Tel: 0171 723 5434. E-mail: Clays was solved for the Jewish calendar catholic countries of Europe. Many Pro­ [email protected] testant countries, however, regarded it as °y Hillel II over 1,500 years ago. In this Ruth Schwiening (nee Auerbach) born ^"•called Metonic cycle, 12 normal lunar a Popish plot and Britain held out until 15/5/1935, Breslau, seeks Kindertransportees. years of 12 lunar months are intercalated 1752 when a jump of 11 days became Ruth arrived at Harwich on 3/2/1939 and was y 7 lunar leap years of 13 lunar months necessary. China only came into line in registered no.43548 by the Jewish Refugee ^ end up with almost exactly 19 solar 1949 by an edict of Mao's. Committee before being fostered by Mr and years (to within IVi hours). A similar dis- While the secular world now happily Mrs Hart of Forest Hill, London. If you re­ member Ruth please contact her on 01455 ^^very had been made even earlier by accepts the Gregorian calendar, religious 292035 D th, Babylonians and the Chinese. establishments have been more conserva­

13 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

dren of Israel shall go on dry land very much alike, the same sort of back­ Stent's remembrance through the middle of the sea. We were ground and education. All rather dull- just in the middle of that very sea. So out Then I looked at yours. Different sort of of times past came my scissors. It had been drummed background. Born in Berlin, studied at India, 1944-1946 into everyone aboard never to disclose in Bonn University. I thought 'that chap their letters where we were and where might liven up the Mess a bit'". Reading t was the autumn of 1944. I was we were bound for. German law at Bonn had at last borne sunbathing aboard a converted Within a week or two of being disem­ some fruit for me. I troopship, steaming slowly along the barked in Bombay I was posted to the It did not take long for me to get ac­ jetties of Port Said; Arab boys in small back of beyond, an Army Engineers customed to living the life of a member boats were hurrying alongside, offering Stores depot in the Punjab, which em­ of the ruling class, even if creature com­ to sell us their oriental goodies or just ployed Indian civilian storekeepers who forts were sometimes lacking. Crouching begging for baksheesh. What on earth was were running a profitable sideline. When­ in a small tin tub in my bungalow in the I doing there in the war? ever asked to get a shipment ready of, officers' compound, waiting for my I had been gazetted Second Lieutenant say, nails or screws, they sorted them out bearer to pour piping hot water over mc in the Corps of Royal Engineers in August into two heaps: one meant for the King and rubbing my back, ready for the pre- 1944, just a few weeks after D-Day. Hav­ and one for themselves. My major contri­ prandial chota-peg (small drink) and ing previously received some special bution to the war effort was to check that watching fascinatedly the small lizards training in the "decommissioning" of Ger­ they were not cheating. I became quite creeping along the walls, I could not help man Tellermines, I expected and wanted desperate and volunteered for whatever musing over the strange transformation to be sent across the Channel quite was going, including gliders, parachutes this Captain Sahib had undergone. Ma­ pronto. After all, the main object of joining and even the mysterious Force 36 under ligned underdog in Nazi Germany, the Forces in 1940 had been the hope that Orde Wingate behind the Japanese lines refugee in England, one of HM's most one day I could ride on a white charger in Burma. loyal internees, ace potato peeler in the through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Suddenly I was called to the Depot's lowest of army units, the Pioneer Corps shouting, "We are the Masters now!" CO., a pre-war regimental Sergeant Ma­ and now privileged member of the British I hung around for a few weeks waiting jor - now a commissioned Major - with a Raj establishment as well as member or for my posting orders, whiling the time healthy disdain for us lily-livered civilian the exclusive Gymkhana Club (restricted away with such war-essential tasks as officers. He accused me of having pulled to officers and gentlemen and their snooty helping the Home Guard to throw a Bai­ strings on high. I had no idea what he memsahibs). My poor wife and child m ley Bridge across Wimbledon Common. was talking about, whereupon he handed London were sleeping under a steel table Shortly after accomplishing this feat - me a message from GHQ in New Delhi. I and eating spam, when available, whilst thanks to an RE sergeant who knew how had been promoted Staff Captain and the Vis rained down, whereas I was liv­ to do it - I received an order to procure a was to report as soon as possible to the ing like Reilly. It just wasn't fair. Had i complete outfit of tropical clothing for my­ C-in-C of the Engineers in Delhi. This really become and deserved to become, a self. This could hardly be needed for was about one of the cushiest, most de­ pukka Englishman or was I just pretend­ northern Europe. I was deeply disappoin­ sirable, jobs in the establishment of army ing, an impostor? These maudlin moment.'' ted but the War Office would not budge. India. Before anyone could change their never lasted long, nonetheless stayed with It was only once I had boarded a troop­ mind, I got my Pathan "bearer" (servant) me during those two years in India. ship at Glasgow that I learned we were to sew two more pips on to my tunic and I could never take to many aspects ot bound for Bombay. Ours was the first rode the train post-haste to Delhi. Mother India; the dirt, the abysmal pov­ converted P&O liner not to have to round The Major-General there instructed me erty, the false servility of many of my the Cape of Good Hope, but to sail to report to the Colonel-in-Charge of the babus (clerks), obsequious to me, rude through the Mediterranean. Whilst passing Timber Section. Later I found out that he towards their fellows. I abhorred the iniq­ through the Suez Canal the ship got stuck had asked for me by name. I was even uitous caste system. One day I drove a on a sandbank. It took three tugs and 24 more puzzled. He turned out to be a jeep through a typical village, together hours to prise us loose. In 1966 I remem­ charming, erudite, former manager of a with an Indian fellow officer, when I no­ bered the incident when, after Nasser's .sawmill in Burma. At this stage I did not ticed a gaggle of small children crouching nationalisation of the Canal, everyone said really know the difference between hard­ in the .sand outside an open window, si­ that Egyptian pilots could never cope. We wood and softwood and had never sawn lent and listening. My colleague had had a British pilot at the time. a log nor swung an axe. Ju.st the man to explained that they were harijan^' On board ship I was one of the censors be put in charge of all sawmilling hard­ untouchables. No decent Indian child charged with scrutinising the mail which ware; no piece of such equipment could would sit together with them in the same the troops sent to their loved ones at be supplied for civilian or military equip­ room; if the excluded child wanted to home. One of the letters, from a corporal ment throughout India without our pick up bits of learning, it had to do so to his wife, aroused my suspicion. He re­ Section's say-so. Once I had got to know outside the classroom through the win­ minded her of their daily reading of the Colonel Waters better, I asked him over a dow. This was not a society at peace bible and recommended in particular a drink in the mess why he had plucked with itself. Jealousy, envy, discord were passage in Exodus 14 Verse 15. The An­ me by name for his vacancy. This was his rampant inside GHQ. I could never see glican padre on board was delighted to answer: "The General showed me a bunch how this vast country could ever govern lend me his authorised Version of the of CVs of recently arrived subalterns to se­ itself. I was, of course, totally wrong. Bible. The passage read: And the chil­ lect one for my vacancy. They all looked n To be continued

14 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

Obituary

Lord Jakobovits

s chief Rabbi of the British gious zeal was matched by inten.se love strongly denounced divorce, abortion, Commonwealth of Nations from of Zion, though the views he expressed loose living and homosexuality among A 1967-1991, and thereafter (until often brought him into conflict with fel­ other ills in society as he saw them and his recent death at 78) as Emeritus Chief low Zionists. As a former refugee he had as his religion taught him. •^abbi, Dr Immanuel Jakobovits greatly much sympathy with displaced Palestin­ Lord Jakobovits specialised in medical enhanced the status not only of Anglo- ians, once describing their plight and ethics and wrote extensively on the sub­ Jewry, but Jews throughout the world, Israel's behaviour towards them as "a ject. Not the least of his contributions to 'he AJR, in particular, mourns his loss, stain on humanity". Anglo-Jewry was his stress on the impor­ 'Or Dr Jakobo\its, like many of us, owed His advocacy of the importance of the tance of Jewish education. He sired the his sur\'i\al to the prudence of his parents individual in society as opposed to state foundation of Jewish primary and sec­ in seeking sanctuary in 1930s Britain. intervention was warmly welcomed by ondary schools and was proud to be l^orn in Koenigsberg, East Prussia, and large sections of the wider community, associated in particular with an inde­ receiving much of his Jewish education at including the Conservative leadership of pendent secondary school in North t^eriin academies. Jakobovits was brought the day under Margaret Thatcher. She London named Immanuel College in his "P in a strictly orthodox milieu which wholeheartedly supported his elevation honour. In all his pious and conscien­ *-'haracterised his outlook throughout life, to the peerage in 1988, the first such tious endeavours he was wonderfully before his elevation as Chief Rabbi he honour to be bestowed on a rabbi. In the assisted by his wife Amelie, who survives had held the posts of Chief Rabbi of Ire- House of Lords Jakobovits emphasized him with six children and over 30 grand­ 'and and rabbi of the prestigious Fifth the views he cherished as a staunch be­ children. 'Avenue Synagogue in New York. His reli­ liever in family life and .sexual fidelity. He D Lionel Simmonds

^nme Minister's support for UK Holocaust Remembrance Day

he Goxernment has proposed the horrendous crimes against humanity, tives from the Board of Deputies and the introduction of an annual Holo­ committed during the Holocaust, are Holocaust Educational Trust, assisted in Tcaust Remembrance Day in the never forgotten and its relevance for each the drafting of the proposals though, United Kingdom, a day of reflection, new generation is understood", adding perhaps surprisingly, without the partici­ ^olenin ceremony and commemoration that the principle was widely supported pation of the AJR, which remains the ^^r the six million Jews and other civilian in Europe and beyond. largest organisation in Europe represen­ •^'norities who perished at the hands of The date recommended as the most ting the interests of Jewish refugees from ^he Nazis. suitable for the commemoration - to Nazi persecution. While the AJR is The Home Office circulated the pro­ commence in the year 2001 - is 27th Jan­ strongly supportive of this move to posals to representative bodies in a uary, the day of the liberation of introduce a permanent Holocaust Re­ ^onsultation paper to which both Prime Auschwitz in 1945. This would suit membrance Day in the UK, consultations Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary schools and colleges and harmonise with on the detailed proposals were curtailed J^^'k Straw added supporting contribu- commemoration days elsewhere in Eu­ to meet last month's Home Office dead­ ons. The Prime Minister referred to the rope. Other dates for consideration line. D Ronald Channing ^^ that, though the tragedy of the Holo- include Yom Ha Shoah (Holocaust Memo­ aust was focused primarily on the rial Day) - marked in Israel and observed ^ish people, as other groups were also by Jewish communities worldwide, the persecuted, the commemoration had im- liberation of Bergen-Belsen on 15"' April, 30 YEARS AGO J- 'nations for everyone. "The period of Anne Frank Day on 12"' June and the ^•^2ism and the Second World War re- anniversary of Kristallnacht on 9"' Nov­ 30^" ANNIVERSARY ember 1938. •^'ns of fundamental importance to both This month sees the 30* anniversary of the ^ national values and our shared aspi- The Government intends inviting cul­ opening of Eleanor Rathbone House, Highgate. 'ons with our European partners" he tural and community groups, including The opening was attended by members of the ated. "A Holocaust Remembrance Day the business community, to consider Rathbone family. Baroness Stocks (the P^'ovides a national focus for education which activities would best raise Holo­ biographer of Eleanor Rathbone), Hugh Rossi and promotes a democratic and tolerant caust awareness. The consultation paper MP and the Mayor of Haringey. After a speech soc 'ety free of the e%ils of prejudice and also stresses the importance of education, of welcome by Sir Henry d'Avigdor-Goldsmid racism". both within the national curriculum and MP, Chairman of the Jewish Trust Corporation, for the public at large. AJR Chairman. A.S. Dresel described the 'Reflecting on the purpose of a desig­ amenities offered by the House, which ned day of remembrance. Jack Straw A special working group chaired by the contained fifty-four self-contained flatlets. "^Phasised that it was "to ensure that the Home Office, which included representa­

15 AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1999

NEWSROUND RE-BRANDING AJR'S A CASE AGAINST CHANGE... Photographs cause outrage he monthly journal of the A feud amongst academics over an JOURNAL -TIME Association of Jewish Refugees in exhibition in Osnabriick of World War II T Great Britain has been published photographs, has caused a three-month FOR A CHANGE? under the name AJR Information since closure. The organisers claim that the 1941 and in a format not dissimilar to exhibition proves that ordinary German A CASE FOR CHANGE... that still currently in use, since 1946. As soldiers committed Holocaust crimes, hen AJR's journal began publi­ such it has become a familiar and eagerly whilst some historians believe that a cation in the mid-1940s, it anticipated monthly friend and guide to handful of photographs have been faked focused exclusively on the members of the Jewish refugee or depict Soviet crimes against W presentation of information. With the community, both in this country and Ukrainians. Independent historians are wherever there are AJR members in other investigating the claims. passage of time and the renewed availability of paper for printing after the parts of the world. Papon requests pardon war, an enlarged format made it possible Any possible consideration of a change French collaborator, Maurice Papon, to diversify and enhance its contents. As to the journal's extremely well-known responsible for the deportation of 1,500 a consequence, for the past half-century, name (now perhaps to be regarded as an Jews to Nazi death camps in World War a journal that has conveyed editorial established 'brand') should have to take II, is to request a pardon from President opinion, conducted debates (eg on into account the goodwill which has ac­ Jacques Chirac. Papon escaped to Europe), featured scholarly contributions, crued to it and through it over the past Switzerland shortly before sentencing but half century and more. was extradited to France. Because of his carried book and arts reviews, has escape, Papon was refused leave to continued to be called AJR Information. The distinguished Editor of AJR Infor­ appeal against a 10-year prison sentence. Without question, such a title is a mis­ mation will no doubt continue to seek nomer and has the additional drawback out and encourage the publication of arti­ Survivors face charges against Nazis of sounding lacklustre. While this may be cles, reviews and opinion from members Two Holocaust survivors who confessed of limited concern to our core reader­ of both older and younger generations- on German television to trying to poison ship, if the AJR wishes to reach out to The children of the victims of Nazi Nazi soldiers 53 years ago may face persecution already form a significant attempted murder charges under the and encourage the active participation of proportion of the members and the lead­ same law meant for the prosecution of a second and subsequent generations, we Nazis crimes against Jews. Members of need now to update our presentation and ership of the AJR and will inevitably the Jewish organisation Nakam (Revenge) add representatives from a younger gen­ become the bulk of the membership in used arsenic to poison the camp's bread eration to our contributors. the years ahead. In my opinion, a change supply for 12,000 German and SS POWs. I recommend the re-branding of AJR's in the name of the journal will neither, 01 much-valued journal under the title of 'AJR itself, encourage or discourage contribu­ Medal for British Schindler Mosaic' because it connotes our common tions from younger journalists or increase Israel paid tribute to Frank Foley as one its circulation. of the Righteous Among Nations' at a identity as descendants of Moses. AJR Mo­ ceremony at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. saic (or possibly AJR World, Journal, Although our entry next month into an­ Captain Foley, who died in 1958, used Chronicle, Review or some such) would other epoch has become widely accepted his position as Chief Passport Officer at be sub-headed Journal of the Association as a time of change regardless of the de­ the British Embassy in Berlin prior to of Jewish Refugees' - making both its ori­ gree of necessity, the coming of the third WWII to issue passports to German Jews gins and its publishers quite clear. In my millennium should be of no relevance to - placing himself in great danger as he opinion the name change would also en­ our Jewish readers. Neither should it be had no diplomatic immunity. courage contributions from younger used to provide the occasion for a change Stolen art to be sold journalists and open up the prospect of a from the name AJR Information which 1 Two paintings stcjlen from the head of the wider circulation of the journal (with an anticipate will continue to maintain its Jewish community in Florence, while he increased advertising revenue) and fur­ high standards of journalism and provide was in hiding during the Second World ther extend the awareness and influence a channel for the continuation 01 War, are to be auctioned in Florence. of the AJR as we enter into the third German-Jewish culture in the UK and Currently in the Dunedin art gallery, millennium. D Richard Grunberger, Editor elsewhere. D Traditionalist New Zealand, half the proceeds will go to his two grandsons. The views and opinions of all our readers are invited on the options of retaining the eX- isting name of the journal, favouring a change of name to AJR Mosaic, or proposing o" Re-writing the past alternative name for consideration. Please write to the Editor. American archaeologists believe that after the discovery of Semitic stone inscriptions in Egypt, merchants and mercenaries cre­ Winter is on its way. ated the oldest alphabet several hundred Perhaps it's time to years eariier than had been thought. The Consider Homeshare script dates from around 1850BC whereas the Canaanite inscriptions from the Sinai- Homeshare, a registered charity, finds and vets younger people of a caring nature who will:- peninsula are dated I6OOBC, indicating • Sleep in your home and • Do 10 hours per week of household tasks that the simplification of writing from • In return you offer them accommodation hieroglyphics took place earlier than Companionship - Security - Mutual benefit previously recognised. NP D Phone Homeshare on 0171 378 6645 Registered charity No. 1071502

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, I Hampstead Gate. IA Frognal. London NW3 6AL Tel: 0171-431 6161 Fax:0171-431 8454 Printed in Great Britain by Freedman Brothers (Printers) Ltd. London NW II 7QB. Tel: 0181 -458 3220 Fax: 0181 -455 6860