VOLume 14 NO.11 NOVEMBER 2014 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees

Marriages of convenience SPECIAL EVENT as a survival strategy The Last Train The following article is an adapted version Until now, this strategy of escape and to Tomorrow of a paper given in March 2014 at the of resistance to the Nazis has not been Sunday 9 November 2014, 3 pm annual conference of the Gesellschaft für the subject of any academic research, at The Roundhouse, London NW1 Exilforschung (Society for Exile Studies) in a gap that Irene Messinger, a political Vienna. scientist working in Vienna, is seeking to We are delighted to announce that or those exposed to persecution in fill. It is her intention to raise the profile a VIP will be the guest of honour Nazi Germany, marriage to a foreign of marriages of convenience in research at the AJR’s London premiere of national presented a means of into the Holocaust and emigration and The Last Train to Tomorrow at The Femigrating to another country, where they to anchor them firmly in the mainstream Roundhouse on Sunday 9 November were protected by their new citizenship of historical research. Messinger’s research 2014 and that Natasha Kaplinsky, the from being deported back to Germany aims to present the women persecuted newsreader and television presenter, or from being rendered stateless if they by the Nazi regime as active agents, and member of Prime Minister David were stripped of their German citizenship capable of exploiting their networks of Cameron’s Holocaust Commission, will by the Nazi authorities. The advantages contacts in order to enter into marriages of be introducing the event. offered by marriages of convenience were convenience, and also to investigate their primarily of benefit to women; this was marital partners, whose motives would Commissioned by the Halle Orchestra due to the patriarchal cast of legislation have ranged from friendship and kindness and composed and conducted by relating to citizenship at the time, under and social and political commitment to the internationally acclaimed artist which a woman, as a mere ‘appendage’ of straightforward financial gain. Carl Davis CBE, The Last Train to her husband, automatically assumed his In the course of her research, Messinger Tomorrow tells the extraordinary story nationality on marriage. These marriages, has to date unearthed more than 60 of the Kindertransport through a series which often existed only on paper, have marriages of convenience, in works of of songs written by the children’s author in retrospect come to be seen as a form scholarship, autobiographies and eye- Hiawyn Oram. of assistance rendered to those under witness accounts (interviews). There are The music will be performed by the threat in Nazi Germany and are now many more such marriages than might Finchley Children’s Music Group and the judged positively. A number of people appear at first glance. It will never be concert programme will also feature The also married in order to secure a visa more possible to discover exactly how many Marriage of Figaro Overture by Mozart easily, as was, for example, the case with women attempted to save themselves by entry visas for Palestine, then administered contracting marriages of convenience as and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto by Britain under a League of Nations this is a deeply private subject and, in many performed by the City of London Sinfonia mandate. cases, a matter of shame, which only very together with an outstanding young violin few have spoken about publicly. Many soloist from the Yehudi Menuhin School. women concealed the fact of their fictitious This special and historic one-off occasion marriages on returning to Austria after will begin with a commemoration of 1945, fearing possible legal consequences the anniversary of Kristallnacht and, or the loss of pension rights and the like. as the event takes place on a Sunday Who were the people who entered afternoon, we particularly encourage into marriages of convenience? To judge members to bring along their children by those cases that are already known, and grandchildren. The symbolism that they were Jewish women who came from the Roundhouse was formerly a turning the middle classes or sometimes from point for trains and is located near Swiss the social élites and/or were members of political organisations with international Cottage, where many of the escaping connections. Among other factors, this refugees settled, should help make the is due to the high proportion of artists, concert memorable and historic. academics and other professional women Further information is on the flyer among those who emigrated to Britain. enclosed with this month’s Journal. The individuals discussed in this article are known to us from biographies, Tickets can be purchased strictly autobiographies and other records that through The Roundhouse Box Office have been preserved. However, Messinger – visit www.roundhouse.org.uk or Erika Mann, 1905-69, Thomas Mann’s elder telephone 0300 6789 222. daughter continued on page 2  journal November 2014  Marriages of convenience as a survival strategy continued ANNUAL ELECTION is especially interested in cases of marriages in 1975. MEETING OF THE of convenience among the ‘ordinary’ The radical left-wing Internationale ASSOCIATION OF émigrés, which have hitherto remained Sozialistische Kampfbund (International JEWISH REFUGEES (AJR) unresearched. Little is known, too, about Socialist Combat League, ISK), which had those individuals, for example members been banned by the Nazis in 1933, also he Annual Election Meeting of Jewish youth organisations in Nazi brought a number of its female members of The Association of Jewish Germany, who contracted marriages of to safety in Britain through marriages of TRefugees (AJR) will take place at convenience in order to improve their convenience. One of them was Susanne 11.00 am on Tuesday 18 November chances of securing a visa for Palestine by Strasser, born in 1915 and brought up 2014 at Belsize Square Synagogue, applying jointly as a married couple. in Vienna, who was later to become a 51 Belsize Square, London NW3 4HX. The most prominent examples of historian and a leading authority on the Agenda: Annual Report, Financial marriages of convenience among the German Social Democratic Party. As Report, Discussion, Election of Trustees emigrants to Britain occurred within the a student, she had travelled frequently The following have been nominated circle of friends around Klaus and Erika to London and, after the annexation of for re-election as Trustees: Eleanor Mann, the children of Thomas Mann, Austria by Germany in 1938, she remained Angel, Gaby Glassman, Frank Harding. where such marriages proliferated. Erika in London, where she rapidly came to play Mann, writer, cabaret artist and founder of an active role among the women refugees. All questions for the chair should be the anti-fascist political cabaret ensemble In order to remain permanently in Britain, submitted by Monday 10 November Die Pfeffermühle (The Peppermill), she entered into a marriage of convenience 2014 to the Chief Executive at Jubilee was stripped of her German citizenship with a British citizen, Horace Miller. House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, in 1935. Klaus Mann and his circle of Viennese-born Hilde Meisel had Middx HA7 4RL. homosexual friends assisted her in her joined the ISK at 15. From 1932 she efforts to find a British husband. In June had been a student in London, where, 1935 she married the gay British poet under the pseudonym Hilda Monte, suspicious. Ebner was thus able to emigrate W. H. Auden, whom she had never met, she published a number of articles in on a French passport, arriving in 1939 thereby immediately acquiring British magazines and books and made radio in Britain, where she was active in the citizenship. broadcasts calling for resistance to the organisation Austrian Self Aid. The art Erika Mann’s close friend, the actress Nazi regime. Through a marriage of collector Jenny Steiner, one of Vienna’s Therese Giehse, who had also been active convenience to John Olday, a gay artist, wealthiest women, exploited her private in the Pfeffermühle ensemble, found cartoonist and anarchist, she acquired networks to organise marriages for her refuge in Switzerland in 1933 but was British citizenship in 1938. She was twin daughters Anna and Clara, so that not secure there. Marriage to the novelist killed in April 1945 attempting to cross they were able to leave Austria without any John Hampson-Simpson secured a British the border to Austria from Switzerland, difficulty in 1938, one with a British and passport for Giehse, who, however, where she had been sent on a secret one with a French husband. Anna married remained in Switzerland. She later became mission. Similar cases are those of the Charles Weinberg, a British subject, famous for her performances in the plays mathematician and philosopher Grete and escaped a few days later as a British of Bertolt Brecht; cinema fans will recall Hermann, who married Edward Henry, national – but without her husband – via her last role, in Louis Malle’s Lacombe, and of Maria Saran, the future women’s Paris to Brazil, where she was reunited Lucien (1974). Sybille von Schoenebeck secretary of the Socialist International. with her mother. was another friend of Klaus and Erika ISK member Liesel Mayer entered These examples of women whose lives Mann. After the German authorities into a fictitious marriage with Charles were saved by marriages of convenience had frozen her bank accounts, and with Bruckner but this developed into a love underline the importance of pre-existing her German passport about to expire, relationship, from which four children networks, whether of family members emigration became an urgent necessity were born. After 1933 the ISK continued or politically like-minded people, in the for her. In 1935 she entered into a its activities in Britain, publishing critical acquisition of British citizenship, with marriage of convenience with Walter texts and news articles; this would all its attendant advantages. But marriage Bedford, an English homosexual, and not have been possible had its female was not a quick and simple solution in retained his surname out of gratitude. As members not been able to employ the every case. There were also husbands who Sybil Bedford, she became famous as a option of a marriage of convenience. sought to exploit their new status; for novelist; her first novel, A Legacy (1956), Networks consisting of friends or women dependent on their husbands, the was dramatised for television by the BBC politically like-minded people were consequences could be violence or rape or not the only ones to play an important blackmail extending over years. A further AJR Chief Executive part here. Families and extended circles danger was that of betrayal by a third party, Michael Newman of relatives also exploited every means of being forced to live a double life, as well Directors to bring endangered women to safety, as the general insecurity inherent in such Carol Rossen including marriages of convenience. Rosl marriages. David Kaye Ebner, a student of medicine in Vienna, Irene Messinger is continuing to Heads of Department research this topic in Vienna and would be Sue Kurlander Social Services was able to contract a fictitious marriage Carol Hart Community and Volunteer Services in 1938 through her brothers, who were pleased to receive any information about AJR Journal living in Paris. Her brothers were members further cases of fictitious marriage. Such Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor of the Communist Party and used its information will be treated confidentially, Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor if required, and should be sent to Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements networks to arrange a husband for their sister. The husband, who was paid, was [email protected] Views expressed in the AJR Journal are not a French hatter of Polish descent. Her Irene Messinger necessarily those of the Association of Jewish sister provided a bouquet of white lilies (adapted and translated from the Refugees and should not be regarded as such. for the wedding so that it did not appear German by Anthony Grenville)

2 November 2014 journal

‘Schmoozing, Noshing and Humming Along’: The AJR Celebration Lunch 2014 ome 200 members and their entertainment – or, as I like to As on previous occasions, guests families packed into this call it, schmoozing, noshing and were regaled with an array of Syear’s Lunch and Concert, at humming along’. Andrew reviewed ‘Songs with Strings’ by Glenys the Hilton Hotel, Watford. the organisation’s past 12 months, Groves and Alexander Naoumenko, They were welcomed by AJR paying tribute to members and staff with Cormac Brown on violin and Chairman Andrew Kaufman and singling out Director and Head of Diana Franklin on piano. to ‘a wonderful afternoon of Personnel Carol Rossen (see below), A vote of thanks was given by socialising, good food and who was leaving the organisation AJR Vice-Chairman and Treasurer this year’s offering of operatic after 33 years’ service. David Rothenberg.

PHOTOS: JONATHAN GOLDBERG WWW.JONGOLDBERG.CO.UK

Reflections name and address on it. Each month I know I wasn’t the only one to be on Retirement paper was put into the banging machine saddened by its closure in 2011. and the handle pulled down onto a One thing that has never changed is Carol Rossen piece of paper. The paper was then the staff’s dedication to our members. hirty-three years ago I was wrapped around the AJR Information, Whilst I am looking forward to my introduced to the AJR by my a stamp stuck on it, and mailed. retirement, I know I will miss the AJR. Tfriend Sylvia Matus, who asked if Another change is that on arriving So many of the members have become I could help out with secretarial duties at the AJR I was one of very few friends and I know this will continue. for a few days. Eventually I was asked staff members not from a refugee I will continue to arrange and if I could make this permanent. I was background. Some of you may remember take the AJR holidays, which have interviewed by Ludwig Spiro, who Trudi Ettinger, Margot Williams and always been very popular, as well as became so very supportive to me for Werner Rosenstock, who really did arranging and attending the annual many years. teach me so much about the refugee AJR Lunch. When I joined the AJR, things were community. I have been very fortunate with the very different. In the 1980s the AJR concentrated on staff with whom I have worked and First we didn’t have the lovely members in north-west London. Today, would like to thank them as well as the offices, or the technology, we have we cater for members nationwide. Trustees, past and present, who have today. I remember sitting at someone’s There are not many departments in always been so supportive. kitchen table with a wooden chair I the AJR I haven’t worked in. At first, I Thank you, AJR, for making my had to raise with telephone books so worked with a lady called Ruth Neushal working life so pleasant and teaching I could reach my tiny typewriter! on the Self Aid Concert at the Queen me so much over the years. I will miss We also had a wonderful system Elizabeth Hall. This has now become the it all but will enjoy being able to spend for our membership: the green card AJR Annual Lunch at the Hilton Hotel in more time with my husband, Adrian, system. Each member had a card and Watford. who has made life easy for me so I can each month these cards were taken out, One of the most popular facilities the concentrate on my work at the AJR. It written on and a reminder sent out. AJR has provided is the Day Centre in will also be lovely to have time to spend One of the other wonderful systems Cleve Road. This became a home from with my daughter, son-in-law, son, was the banging machine. Every home for so many members. It also daughter-in-law, grandchildren and my member had a metal plate with their became the jewel in the AJR’s crown. mother, plus other family and friends.

3 journal November 2014 An assortment of émigré aunties the soles of their shoes, sewn into the to and fro of linings of their coats and of course the needles. they always had some knitting to Granny’ s ‘The earth is enriched keep their hands busy as they knitting was with the dust of the millions waited for safer times. tight, even and of knitters who have held wool They were granted an entry confident. She visa if they had a guarantor used bright and needles since the beginning of already living here. The only colours and sheep. One likes to believe that there work permit they received was plain patterns is memory in the fingers, memory as a home help. They felt they with multi- had no right to ever speak coloured Carry Gorney undeveloped but still alive.’ about what had happened trimming. to them, because in their eyes When she had finished her sweaters, Elizabeth Zimmermann’s nothing had happened to them, she would look at the collar and say Knitter's Almanac compared to the millions lost. ‘Let's draw a thread through with They were the lucky ones, saved by pompoms on the end.’ a twist of fate. My mum sculpted a garment, Their story of exile was like a piece adapting the shape, combining and of wobbly knitting with giant holes of recombining sleeves, collar and darts, afé klatsches with knitting were dropped stitches, impossible to mend. checking the decreasing or increasing at the heart of my childhood. They knitted two together but could lines of the pattern. CThe assortment of émigré aunties never hide the gaps. The warp and weft Aunty Frieda’s hands were red from from the old days in Berlin met regularly of their lives was irrevocably damaged. plunging into warm washing-up water. around our Formica kitchen table. I listened as they described shimmying She knitted mittens that were attached Aunties travelled across Leeds down the ‘Kurfestendam’, pretending to a tape through the sleeves of my on the rattling maroon tram. They they could buy the glittering jewellery coat. She also knitted socks, scarves walked up the hill, puffing and panting and soft-clinging dresses that were in and sleeveless striped pullovers to send in voluminous winter coats, hats, the brightly lit shop windows. They to her sister’s grandchildren in Israel. gloves, scarves, string shopping bags would tell tales of their early days in She caught the tram down to Marks containing their knitting and handbags England, often working as domestic and Spencer to buy pants and vests to hold their cigarettes, lighters and servants for English Jewish people. and little white short-sleeved shirts for powder compacts. My mum filled the They laughed at their own terrible those children. She begged a box from blue plastic electric coffee percolator English and the mistakes they made. the grocer to wrap into a big parcel, with huge amounts of freshly ground The conversation invariably turned to then tied it up using bits of string she coffee; the smell filled the house, emigration. It’s always the transition had squirreled away. She fastened the welcoming the aunties as they came points where our lives change that knot with sealing wax. Every Chanukah through the door. A home-baked cake remain etched in our memory. a small parcel arrived from Lucy in Israel was just out of the oven, still warm and They remembered the discussions with three pieces of crochet such as a crumbly when sliced. about where they could go, who they handkerchief, a tray cloth or a small These women were in their fifties could write to, which country would lacy doily for her siblings. and sixties, had lived their lives in let them in. I sat watching them at Aunty Beattie knitted shawls, in Germany, working in shops, as book- the table in front of our coal fire, I nobbles and bobbles. She wore one keepers, as Montessori teachers. Some was picking cake crumbs off the table fastened with a long narrow marcasite had never married, being the youngest, with my finger. Names of loved ones brooch, inset with pearls which had looking after an ageing parent, or they left behind lingered on their lips, half- belonged to her mother, she told me. had loved and lost fiancés, husbands whispered in the air. Sometimes I would It was the only thing she could bring and even their adult children before ask where they were now, or in which with her. their emigration. Their property was country they ended up. The answer Zerta Blumenkopf – Mrs Flowers seized and belongings confiscated would be the same. ‘I don’t know – on her Head She bent down and kissed by the Nazis. They could leave with verschollen, she just disappeared.’ me. I would inhale with half-closed little more than the clothes on their There would be a short silence, only the eyes, breathing in the clean Imperial backs. My aunties had smuggled their sound of the knitting needles, then a Leather smell of her arms. Sometimes jewellery in their underwear, nailed into new conversation would start up again I’d follow her upstairs and watch in German, her adjust the substantial upholstery noisy, bright of her elasticated flesh-coloured laughter, jokes, undergarments, loosening them to casting on new be more comfortable. She would stitches, always collapse on the sofa, squishing the new stitches. plush velvety cushion next to her, and The women I would wriggle up like a puppy. She in my refugee came from Vienna, had taken English family were lessons in preparation for emigration calmed by the and was the only one able to construct repetition of recognisable English sentences. the knitting, Zerta always knitted fancy lacy the monotony patterns, mainly in creamy caramel of the pattern, coffee colours, often threaded through Knitters’ group Knitter solo in hat the comforting with a metallic gold thread. If her

4 November 2014 journal her as she came through cabbage and freezing winters with and waited to hear her thick yellow smog, grime from the coal comments on how I had burning in the grate. grown, measuring me Tongues chattering, needles against her waist, elbow clattering, these émigré women warriors and, as time passed, her knitted and stitched a sequinned path shoulder. into my heart. Their foreign accents still Martha sewed whilst travel with me. the others knitted. I Carry Gorney wanted my doll to wear Drawings by Carry Gorney. a white bride’s dress with a long veil. ‘Easy,’ said This article is an extract from Send Me a Aunty Martha. ‘I’m staying Parcel – with a Hundred Lovely Things, for a week. We’ll do it a memoir by Carry Gorney. The book is published in November 2014 at £11.99 Granny knitting Knitter standing together.’ We walked to the local haberdasher with plus £3.00 pp. garment was reaching completion me explaining how I wanted the To order a copy, please visit she would open her large carpet headdress fixed with flowers on either http://www.carry-gorney.co.uk/ bag and pull out packets of sequins side with pearls. She didn’t know the sendmeaparcel/ Alternatively, please or gold stars or rickrack wavy braid words in English for pearls, bits of send a cheque to Carry Gorney at Ragged in iridescent bronze, scarlet, gold or white lace, tiny flowers, so I translated. Clown Publishers, c/o 1 Ferdinand Place, turquoise. Her pins were held carefully She turned my doll into a princess, London NW1 8EE. between her lips whilst she attached carefully pinning the dress together and the embellishments as edging round showing me how to stitch it. I sewed, the neckline, round the sleeves and listening to the women all chattering sometimes on the welt. She'd sew together, their laughter, their jokes, PillarCare random sequins or stars across the clothes, nail varnish, the springtime Quality support and care at home bosom of the sweater. pink blossom on the hawthorn tree Zerta couldn't join in the conversation outside the window.  Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours whilst she had pins in her mouth but My aunties’ yearnings for the  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care nodded or shook her head vigorously familiarity of the homeland which  Convalescent and Personal Health Care so that the others would know she was had betrayed them faded as the  Compassionate and Affordable Service listening. Sometimes silent tears would years unravelled, new homes and  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff roll down her cheeks and she‘d dab her relationships replacing those left  Registered with the CQC and UKHCA eyes with her knitting until the yarn behind. Their faces changed but was sodden. Whenever she appeared shadows and wrinkles never dimmed Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 their bright smiles; their glittering PILLARCARE wearing one of her beautiful jumpers THE BUSINESS CENTRE · 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE · LONDON NW1 7BB I would think they were made of salt eyes were helped along with a dab of PHONE: 020 7482 2188 · FAX: 020 7900 2308 and sequins. powder and a slick of bright red lipstick. www.pillarcare.co.uk Leni Streuselhoffer was short They refused to submit to clothes in and stumpy with wisps of grey hair subdued colours, the smell of boiled escaping from a bun at the nape of her neck, a woollen headscarf knotted . under one of her chins. She wore a ARTS AND EVENTS JACKMAN tweed skirt and jacket with padded NOVEMBER DIARY shoulders, her solid legs in thick wool SILVERMAN stockings where the darning stitches Mon 3 Professor Michael Wildt (Humboldt COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS were clearly visible. She wore sensible University, Berlin): ‘The Normality of Terror: the Heinrich and Margarete Himmler oxblood brogues; her feet turned out Correspondence’ Pears Annual Lecture. At at 90 degrees when she walked. Wiener Library, 6.30 – 9 pm. Admission free Telephone: 020 7209 5532 ‘Verdamte fussen, damn feet,’ she but please book in advance would complain, easing them out of Tue 4 ‘My Story: (Kindertransportee) [email protected] Elfriede Starer’ At Wiener Library, 11.30 – her shoes before taking her knitting 12.30 pm. Admission free but please book needles out of the bag. Sometimes in advance her feet were puffy and swollen; she’d Thur 6 Dr Emil Brix, Austrian Ambassador LEO BAECK HOUSING ASSOCIATION remove her stockings. Frieda brought to the UK: ‘Austria in Europe – the Jewish Contribution’. First Evi Wohlgemuth an enamel bowl filled with hot water Memorial Lecture. At Austrian Residence CLARA NEHAB HOUSE infused with ginger. Leni would slowly in London, 6.30 for 7.00 pm. Centre for RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME lower her feet into the bowl with a German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex. By invitation only – please contact Small caring residential home sigh of relief. [email protected] with large attractive gardens My father’s Aunty Martha arrived Tues 18 Survivor Speaks: Henry Wermuth: close to local shops and public transport late. She lived in London and worked ‘The Man Who Tried To Kill Hitler’ At 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities. in the refugee office that processed London Jewish Cultural Centre, Ivy House, 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care claims for restitution money. My father 94-96 North End Road, London NW11 7SX, 8.00 pm. £10 (pre-booked), £12.50 on the Entertainment & Activities provided. collected her from the station. She day Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room wore a straight, cotton dress in summer Wed 26 Louise Steinman: ‘The Crooked and a woollen one in winter with peep Mirror: A Memoir of Polish-Jewish • Lift access to all floors. Reconciliation’ At Wiener Library, 6.30- For further information please contact: toe shoes or black over-galoshes from 9.30 pm. Admission free but please book in Berlin and a handbag to match. I could The Manager, Clara Nehab House, advance 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA hear them laughing long before the Wiener Library, 29 Russell Square, London Telephone: 020 8455 2286 knock on the door. I flew to open it, hug WC1B 5DP, tel 020 7636 7247

5 journal November 2014 were a percentage of the real losses and these were scaled down again in the light of the approximately 20,700 applicants. So there was a double scaling down, ending up with these banal percentages. The original fund of 210,000 million US dollars was far too low for the number of claimants and the amount of claims. The Fund was notoriously slow in paying out and no interest was added to the overall amount The Editor reserves the right available to claimants, thereby effectively reducing the value of payments. Extracting to shorten correspondence a waiver for the full value of the losses but submitted for publication paying only a tiny fraction means that the Fund obtained a bargain. Recipients are left with amounts that can be appreciated but which remain symbolic of the actual losses. KITCHENER CAMP REMEMBERED The model for scaled-down compensation against a waiver from the recipient was the Sir – I am prompted to German settlement for thalidomide victims, write to you after reading whose compensation has been notoriously Fritz Lustig’s letter in your inadequate. October issue. He refers to the The lack of transparency as to how these photograph that appeared in amounts were arrived at is disturbing. In the article about the Kitchener my family’s case, the decision was made Camp in the previous issue only in late February 2009, with just a of the journal. Two actual few weeks for an appeal. In one case (the photographs taken at the value of a hotel business owned by my Kitchener Camp and with grandfather), the appeal was sustained members of the Pioneer Corps but the committee declined to change in Ilfracombe may also be of interest to the value of the compensation. I suspect I myself lived in Ilfracombe for a short that would have upset a lot of calculations members of the AJR. period during the early war years with already made! The photograph below was taken my mother so that we were close to I would return to my original points: at the Kitchener Camp (circa 1939) and my father, Georg Strietzel (later George are there highly scaled-down awards not is one of several photographs I shared Streat), who served in the Pioneer fully paid out and should not the Austrian with Clare Ungerson when she visited Corps with my Uncle Max. I was born National Fund have been more pro-active in me during her extensive research for in Germany in 1937 and have little its delivery of compensation? her recent book Four Thousand Lives: recollection of those times and only these Paul Weindling, Oxford The Rescue of German Jewish Men in and other family photographs remind me Britain, 1939. It shows my Uncle Max of my childhood years growing up as a JEWS IN THE AUSTRIAN ARMY Strietzel (later Max Streat) serenading refugee in England. Sir – Francis Steiner rightly states (September, the refugees on the violin. Professor Michael Streat Letters) that commissions in the Habsburg I believe it was my Uncle Max who Edgware, Middx army were frequently available to suitably brought together many talented educated Jewish candidates. During the musicians at the Kitchener Camp in order First World War, many army doctors were, to form an orchestra for relaxation and JEWISH FILMMAKERS IN GERMANY of course, Jews. pleasure. This orchestra later became the Sir – I was absolutely enthralled reading My father joined up on medical in your August issue Joel Finler’s article on nucleus of the Pioneer Corps Orchestra graduation and was, without further Jewish filmmakers in Germany in the 30s. that entertained the troops and the experience, appointed Regimentsarzt. He Among the films discussed were Der blaue population of Ilfracombe and appeared spent almost the entire war on the front Engel (The Blue Angel), Das Testament des line, sustained two gunshot injuries, and in theatres and on the radio during the Dr. Mabuse and Fritz Lang’s M. Could we Second World War. attained the rank of major. In 1918, after not see one of the films at our annual film demobilisation, he was placed in the small Above is a photograph taken with show at the Everyman? army of the republic as Reserveoffizier and, members of the Pioneer Corps Orchestra Eric Newmann, Elstree, Herts after the Anschluss, most bizarrely, in the (Uncle Max holding the tenor saxophone) Esther Rinkoff, AJR Southern Region Co- same rank in the Wehrmacht! at a public show in Ilfracombe. It also ordinator: This is a marvellous idea. We This last appointment caused shows Coco the Clown in the front row already had in place a screening on 27 great difficulty before our family’s with, I believe, Phineas May, the camp’s October at the Everyman but will endeavour Ausreisebewilligung in 1939. He had to Welfare Officer, sitting next to him. to make Eric’s suggestion happen in 2015. appear before a panel of senior officers It may be possible that your readers before finally being discharged with can name some of the refugees seen in BANAL PERCENTAGES the boorish observation ‘Gehn’s schon, the photograph. Sir – Robert Ehrenstein (September, gehn’s schon, mir wern’s schone ohne Sie Letters) raises the question of what the dermachten!’ (Off you go, off you go – we’ll compensation rate of the Austrian National manage without you!). He lived to enjoy the Fund actually was. The Fund’s award to outcome! One of these officers was Adolf my family in 2009 was the banal amount Eichmann, then in charge of emigration of 10.56515 per cent in what it calls the from Vienna. ‘claims-based procedure’ and 17.161 per Some years after the war, on a visit to cent of what it calls the ‘equity-based Vienna, I tried to find father’s full service process’– as for all claimants. If I understand record in the meticulously precise State the arcane procedures, amounts awarded Archives. To my disgust, I discovered that

6 November 2014 journal the Nazis had completely expunged him and Sir – I want to say how much I enjoyed the of the Earth. My preference is to be feared his service from all relevant records. Did any concert, the food and the company. It really and disliked. others experience this fate? was lovely. In fact, all of us thought it was Janos Fisher, Bushey Heath, Herts Dr H. L. Eirew, Manchester the best event – musicians and singers – for many years. NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE THE PHENOMENON OF POSTMEMORY Margit Laser, London N3 Sir - In your August issue Robert Acker- Sir – I am a London University of Arts Holt asked whether anyone had had a third-year student on a Documentary THE THREAT OF ISLAM similar experience regarding an Honorary Photography course. I am interested in Sir – Were it not for the ongoing centuries- Membership Certificate issued by the the history of the Jewish people and the old interreligious wars of the Islamic nations, Israelitische Kultusgemeinde. I too received Holocaust as I have Jewish origins as well. Israel would have a hard struggle to survive this but didn’t use it. However, I have a I have decided to write my dissertation and Europe would need to unite to fight different story about the Kultusgemeinde. on the phenomenom of postmemory against forces superior in numbers and on A number of years ago I was approached introduced by Columbia University Professor many fronts. The writing is not just on the by an organisation in Austria asking me Marianne Hirsch in her work The Generation wall: the expressed aim of militant Islam is to take part in a project to educate young of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture world domination. Israel is at present the people about the Holocaust. This involved After the Holocaust. She states that the only bastion in the way of achieving that writing to a group of 14-year-olds describing second generation of Holocaust survivors aim. what happened to me and the horrendous has inherited the memories of their parents The USA recognises the threat and has suffering it caused. The project was called so deeply that they feel these memories are brought a number of countries together ‘A Letter to the Stars’ and I was more their own. One trace of this transmission of into a credible force to prevent Islamic than happy to participate. The organisers trauma is photography. I am interested in State (IS) from encroaching further into wanted to connect with as many survivors the connection between photography and war-torn countries. It is expected that as possible who would tell their stories to psychology and even neurology. more countries will join this alliance. schools around the country. If any readers can help me with any The opposing forces will recognise that I then received an invitation from the advice or information, I would be most they are not only dealing with Islamic ‘Letter to the Stars’ organisers inviting my grateful. countries riven by internal wars but also husband and me to spend a week in Vienna Ekaterina Anchevskaya, London SW5 an opposition to be reckoned with. courtesy of the Austrian government. The It is evident that Israel’s foes are the same invitation was extended to about 200 ‘CONFESSIONS OF A GRAMMAR same as those opposing IS. In all its wars other survivors. The main purpose of the FREAK’ Israel has beaten its foes and shown itself visit was to speak at a number of schools. I Sir – There’s nothing wrong with being a more than capable of staving them off, felt this was a wonderful platform to meet grammar freak! I must admit that I hadn’t with their opponents recognising Israel’s the young people personally and tell them given this topic much thought until I read superiority. These facts must be expressed of our horrific experiences. Edith Argy’s amusing article in your October in no uncertain terms and whenever The organising body of this project was issue. I was delighted to find an ally in the appropriate. As any form of anti-Semitism not connected to the Jewish community – it controversy between who and whom as I would weaken that alliance, it is essential was seen as an educational project and was cringe whenever I read or hear someone that reporting by all the media relating to brilliantly organised. omitting this small letter 'm' when it should Israel be absolutely even-handed. Responses All participants were taken to ‘their’ be there. to complaints to the media regarding the schools and spoke to ‘their’ students. For It was also good that Edith quoted recent confrontation continue to express me, it was so satisfying that the youngsters ‘Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, doch weiter double standards. took everything in. I read them a letter kommst du ohne ihr’ (Modesty is a virtue To put our case to the media and my father had written to me on my 14th but you’ll get further without it). This the country at large, the leading Jewish birthday, the same age as these students. reminds me of my dear father, who had his organisations in this country must be Many of them were in tears. own witty ways of communicating with his strengthened to take a positive stance The next day I was asked to speak at wife, son and daughter until Hitler put a at all times. They must show that anti- a large gathering in the Volksgarten of stop to it. Please note: he was a journalist Semitism is not only a crime but provides students, teachers and other officials. who loved language and used it correctly a tool for our opponents to drive a wedge This was extremely moving as I had never at all times! between us. Our own strength and spoken about my life in public before. As I One more thing: in German and other determination will be appreciated by all stood on the stage and looked down at all European languages there are four cases fair-minded people and anti-Semitism will the faces I felt this was one of my greatest and in Latin there are six. We all had to learn be eradicated in our time. achievements. English when we first arrived on these shores Fred Stern, Wembley ‘A Letter to the Stars’ did a wonderful – do we appreciate how simple that was in job of looking after all the elderly people comparison to the foregoing? ‘WHAT DO YOU SAY TO OUR JEWS!’ and arranged everything, including a full Susanne Medas, London W10 Sir – Peter Phillips (October) demonstrates programme of entertainment. Unfortunately his good judgment in his article about the all this was marred by one regrettable AJR LUNCH AND CONCERT Israel taboo by quoting me approvingly, but incident. Sir – Thank you so much for arranging then falls into a trap of his own making. He The group was invited to a function at such a lovely day. My husband Philip and I wants us to work on being loved again, as Maccabi, where various dignitaries and really enjoyed both the delicious lunch and we were in the good old 1960s. And what others were present in a packed hall. Dr the very tuneful concert with the nostalgic produced that love? Overwhelming victory Ariel Muzicant, President of the Israelitische melodies. in the Six-Day War. Kultusgemeinde, opened the proceedings One of the ladies on our table was very As my Berlin taxi driver put it admiringly: by acknowledging various people in the hall touched as it reminded her so much of her ‘What do you say to our Jews!’ and then went on to make a speech. Neither childhood before the Holocaust. Victor Ross, London NW8 he nor the following speaker made any My father, Hans Meyer, particularly reference to the presence of the Viennese enjoyed having the chance to catch up over Sir – With regard to Peter Phillips’s article, refugees. We were snubbed. the meal with friends he met in Eastbourne. what is better – to exist and be disliked or My husband, my son and I could He thought it a wonderful holiday and was to be liked and not exist? Israel will only not understand why we had been so full of praise for AJR staff for organising it. be popular when – as so many of the Arab Janet Weston, Westerham, Kent countries would like – it is wiped off the face continued on page 16 

7 journal November 2014 palette at the centre. Closer to his German roots is his interest in the symbolism of Norse myths. He poses eternal questions about life and our purpose on earth. In REVIEWS recurring themes such as Father, Son, Holy An inspiring story ART Ghost, Kiefer represents the Holy Trinity by THE GREATEST ESCAPE: HOW three chairs within heavenly flames. ONE FRENCH COMMUNITY SAVED NOTES The existential longing to explore the THOUSANDS OF LIVES FROM THE eternal cycle of time led him to more NAZIS GLORIA TESSLER elemental themes, such as an exploration of by Peter Grose physical elements. Lead pipes, TV circuitry, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2014, he range of Anselm Kiefer’s sunflower seeds and even diamonds 352 pp., £16.99 hardcover, imagination is universal. In the symbolise the elemental return to earth and ISBN 978-1-85788-626-9 Royal Academy’s first major decay in works using a blend of acryclic, his book describes events during the Tretrospective of his work (until 14 emulsion and oil shellac. He believes lead Second World War on a small plateau December 2014), nothing escapes the is the only material strong enough to carry Tlying between Haute Loire and Ardèche in the middle of France. The main density and reach of this leading artist. the weight of human history. And so he village, situated 40 km south of St Etienne, becomes an alchemist, linking the earthly With references to painters like Van Gogh, is called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. It is the Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol, and poets and the celestial in some universal oven centre for a group of hamlets. In former like Nazi labour-camp survivor Paul Celan, in which spirit and matter continuously times its very remoteness made it a haven he delves into myth, philosophy, alchemy dissolve and recreate themselves. for Huguenots escaping persecution. That and cosmology to explore with every The bricks and rubble of bomb- gave the later inhabitants some sympathy brushstroke the nature of the universe. damaged buildings where he played as a for people being pursued, first by the collaborationist French and then by the Given that he was born in Germany child led to an interest in Mesopotamian Nazis. civilisation, particularly The area had been popular among cuneiform writing on clay Protestant families during their vacations; tablets reflecting a link there were quite a few guest houses between clay and writing. and small hotels. There was a number Themes of death and rebirth of remarkable people in those villages, are also reflected in his including two dedicated clerics and interest in Van Gogh’s the mayor. They were soon to be supplemented by skilled self-taught Sunflower paintings. He document forgers, redoubtable carriers draws a different inspiration and smugglers. Help was available from that of the Dutch from several established organisations Impressionist. In The Orders including the YMCA, the Society of Friends of the Night Kiefer lies and even the Boy Scouts. beneath monochromatic Quite soon, the mayor gave over to sunflowers tall as trees, their his deputy and established himself and Anselm Kiefer, Ages of the World, 2014. Private collection. his family in Geneva, 140 km to the east, Photo courtesy Royal Academy of Arts. Photography: faces pointing down towards Howard Sooley / © Anselm Kiefer where as a YMCA official he was able to him – another emblem of get help from what was subsequently to at the end of the Second World War, it the life-death cycle. become the World Council of Churches. is natural that Kiefer would question Kiefer’s work is powerful, organic His Geneva contacts started to collect the nature of that war and perhaps and devastating. Huge, densely painted and furnish funds and the Le Chambon launch his childhood desire to become barren and frozen landscapes symbolise couriers, at great risk, smuggled suitcases of cash back to the plateau. an artist. History and the very nature of the Holocaust, often referencing Paul The people to be rescued selected Celan’s poetry. They epitomise the deathly time generated ambitious themes whose themselves by turning up. It became meaning may be sensed beyond what silence of Nazi Europe and seem more common knowledge among Jews seeking appears on his canvas. moving than his cosmic themes such as refuge that if you made your way to the Allusions to the Third Reich appear in the RA-commissioned installation Ages of plateau you would not be turned away: a self-portrait wearing his father’s German the World, a totemic funeral pyre in which a home and food would be supplied, uniform, giving the Nazi salute. Emblems all Kiefer’s concepts on time, art and the as well as a false identity supported by perfectly forged documents. Your identity of Nazism have been banned in Germany cosmos coalesce. was chosen to explain your defective since 1945 and Kiefer has been wrongly French or your foreign accent. There were identified as a Nazi sympathiser rather than four residences for children and schools a critic. He was, in fact, outraged by claims Annely Juda Fine Art for them too. The local police didn’t of Hitler as a great artist and the Nazi ban look too carefully and the gendarmerie on leading German Expressionists. 23 Dering Street from outside didn’t bother them much, In To the Unknown Painter, a neo- (off New Bond Street) though there are tales of people escaping Tel: 020 7629 7578 inspection by hiding in the woods after classical courtyard symbolises Hitler’s Fax: 020 7491 2139 receiving pre-arranged warnings. command to architects to design buildings There was another class of people in stone so they will make beautiful ruins. CONTEMPORARY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE who joined the Jews in the village. The Here the artist is represented as a solitary authorities were rounding up young

8 November 2014 journal people for deportation as slave workers places. It helps to have a Michelin map at Caroline Moorehead’s Village of in the East. Later in the war there were hand while reading it! Secrets tells the remarkable story of how also Russian deserters who had joined There is a lot of repetition of the parishioners unquestioningly risked their the German forces as an alternative to political history of the period and of lives and there were no informers, no being shot and who now needed to hide. activities as far away as Africa, Russia and denunciations and no one broke rank. The villagers accepted it as their duty to Japan. Most readers undoubtedly already They were helped by Le Chambon’s protect anyone who needed help. have a general idea of this. It is, however, pacificist pastor André Trocmé and other It all worked very well until the such a fascinating and inspiring story that priests, teachers and resistance workers, pétainiste puppet regime collapsed at it repays the work of filleting out the facts. and not least by the silence of the the end of 1942 and the Nazi occupiers Frank Beck locals. They worked against the terrifying took control of the whole of France. At backdrop of the deportation of trainloads that point, the searches became more Tour de force of Jews and other persecuted people from efficient and the support machinery VILLAGE OF SECRETS: DEFYING THE France. had to change gear to provide escape NAZIS IN VICHY FRANCE Usually there were tip-offs and advance routes to Switzerland for some of those by Caroline Moorehead warnings before searches, with police in hiding. It must be said that in spite of Chatto & Windus 2014, 374 pp., £20, turning a blind eye. These were strange a generally unsympathetic attitude to ISBN 978-0-701-18641-8 and dangerous times when nothing was Jewish refugees, there were enough good quite what it seemed and ‘safe houses’ people in Switzerland to allow many of uring the Nazi occupation of France, were anything but safe. those escapees to survive among them the brave residents of Le Chambon- Trocmé himself was arrested in until the danger was over. Dsur-Lignon and other remote villages February 1943 together with the assistant After D-Day the maquisards (armed of the Vivarais-Lignon plateau saved pastor Edouard Theis and school teacher resistance fighters) are added to the thousands of Jewish children from death. Roger Darcissac. They were interned, people in the villages and the policy of Many were orphans whose parents had but miraculously released the following passive resistance is abandoned. Even perished in concentration camps or month. Why they were released has never one of the priests becomes involved. whose whereabouts were unknown or been discovered. A wonderful American heroine with were themselves rescued from internment Courageous resisters facilitated escapes a wooden leg wanders in and out of camps. over the border to safety in Switzerland the story, ensuring parachute drops of The children arrived at the hilltop and forgers worked night and day weapons and ammunition from England. village near Lyons by train and were producing false papers. Inevitably there The liberation and the return to given new identities, mixed in with were tragedies. A dozen young men were normality are covered at the end of the local children, and lived with farmers, lost following a Gestapo raid on the school book, as well as the subsequent destinies residents and religious sects. They went La Maison des Roches run by Trocmé’s of many of the main protagonists. There to school with the local villagers and were cousin Daniel, who was deported and is an estimate of the number of lives sometimes taught by escaping academics. died in Poland. saved – difficult to guess but the writer They originated from France, Germany, The village GP Roger Le Forestier finally settles on 3,500. It should be Poland and elsewhere. Desperate adult worked tirelessly for the cause, only to be noted that some 78,000 Jews were sent refugees too were hidden in the area. killed by Klaus Barbie’s men on 20 August to the East from France and most of People often went hungry and relied on 1944. He left a 23-year-old widow and them perished. local produce for food. They hid in farm two small children. The book is a documented historical barns and lofts, in cupboards and in the After the war Le Chambon became study, well written in a pleasant style and forest when police came searching. The one of only two places in the world to be easy to read. It contains a lot of detail area’s remoteness provided protection, as honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous which the layman may find superfluous, did long winter snows, when the region Among the Nations. like the names of dozens of people and was inaccessible. Caroline Moorehead, leaving no stone unturned, travelled from country Award for AJR volunteer Memorial plaque to to country interviewing survivors and searching largely unseen archives. The inventor Paul Eisler book is gripping and meticulous as she unveiled unravels the complicated French political situation, examining the heroic but often A memorial ambiguous nature of those involved. plaque to Paul It is sometimes difficult to absorb all Eisler (1907- 92), the ‘father the details of the different threads on of the Printed first reading, particularly towards the end Circuit’, has of the book. There is such a wealth of been unveiled material and the author cannot resist the at his former challenge to examine it all. She describes residence in colourful characters, including secret Wohl Jewish Volunteering Network award- London. agent Virginia Hall with her wooden winner Sarah Rose with Martyn Lewis CBE, Paul Eisler came to the UK in 1936 renowned broadcaster and journalist and as a Jewish refugee from Vienna and leg, and follows entire families through, Chairman of the National Council for Voluntary was interned on the Isle of Man as touching on the sometimes difficult Organisations (right), and Andy Rich, Charity an ‘enemy alien’ at the outbreak of reunions of children and parents. Partner at HW Fisher & Company. the war. Among applications of the It is, of course, very hard to discover Sarah, pictured holding her HW Fisher Young Printed Circuit were miniaturised the truth after so long, although the Adult Volunteering Award, has been a volunteer walkie-talkies, telephone exchanges, benefits of perspective and hindsight are with the AJR for three years and is currently radios, TVs and computers. befriending an elderly person with dementia. The ceremony was attended by on the author’s side. Moorehead is also Sarah also volunteers for Camp Simcha, where representatives of UK industry, to be congratulated on tying up so many she is part of the Big Sister scheme, visiting a officials of the Science Museum, loose ends and discovering what became child with cancer, providing support for the the Austrian Cultural Forum and the of everyone after the war. This book is a family and taking the child on outings. The award Anglo-Austrian Society, and several real tour de force. ceremony took place at JW3 in September. of his distinguished colleagues. Janet Weston

9 journal November 2014 Return of the Kinder KEEPING THE MEMORY ALIVE n Thursday 4 September 2014, the took part in the visit to Harwich JR member Frank Bright told a Mayor of Harwich, accompanied organised by Peter Hedderly on the gathering of pupils from schools in the Essex and Suffolk area of by numerous civic dignitaries 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport. A O I his efforts to keep alive the memory of as well as the Town Crier, welcomed a I have already expressed my gratitude his classmates, most of whom perished small group of former Kindertransport to Peter for organising the event. in the Holocaust. refugees at Harwich Parkeston Quay, Everything went extremely smoothly. It He was speaking at the launch commemorating the 75th anniversary was heartwarming how we were received of a prize, offered each year by the of the conclusion of the Kindertransport. on arrival on the Harwich station platform University of Essex, in memory of Dora The vast majority of the 10,000 or so by the Town Crier, the Mayor, various Love, a concentration camp survivor Kindertransport children passed through local guides, an odd councillor or two, who received an honorary degree Harwich and many were accommodated and not forgetting the smartly dressed for her work educating the younger locally at Dovercourt and other holiday schoolchildren who presented each of us generation. The launch was ahead of camps. with a lovely white flower and enquired January’s Holocaust Memorial Week. Peter Hedderly has been involved eagerly about how we had felt coming as The children took part in workshops with organising train journeys for much children on the Kindertransport. looking at the forgotten victims of of his working life. His first involvement The tour that followed was very the Holocaust, those who suffer in the Kindertransport story was when congenial. The local guides were highly discrimination today, and the best ways he helped plan and operate the ‘Winton communicative. I was accompanied by to engage audiences on the issues. Train’ from Prague to London in 2009. In someone who took me to see the plaque Frank, who knew Dora Love well, planning the current journey, his aim was on the promenade wall commemorating told the schoolchildren that ‘The to honour both the unsung heroes of the the arrival of Kindertransport children in number of 6 million really tells us 1930s and to help children threatened Harwich and who then invited me to have nothing. It is the fate of individuals with specific names that brings home by war today. lunch with him. He told me he was a great the enormity and devastation of what The operation of the 4 September admirer of Israel and visited the country train was approved only in August. The we call the Holocaust.’ regularly. Pity there aren’t more of his kind. The day’s proceedings were lack of adequate notice resulted in the Michael Brown organised by Professor Rainer Schulze number of those participating being e experienced this very special of the University of Essex. Among much smaller than such a splendid others who spoke were Nadine Rossol venture deserved. This special train, anniversary arranged by Peter Hedderley at very short notice. (‘After Stutthof Concentration Camp: known as the ‘Chadwick Train’ from W Exploring the Holocaust through the London to Harwich and the ‘Warriner We left Liverpool Street Station having first visited Frank Meisler’s commemorative Poetry of Dora Love’), Kate Beckwith Train’ from Harwich to London in honour (‘A Creative Approach to Exploring the statue to the Kindertransport on the of Trevor Chadwick and Doreen Warriner, Holocaust’) and Jim Davies (‘Modern who worked closely with Sir Nicholas forecourt. There were only 20 of us, due Day Discrimination against Gypsies, Winton, left platform 10 at London’s in part to the short notice. Only four of Roma and Travellers’). Liverpool Street Station at 10.37 am and us had been on the original transports arrived punctually at Harwich Parkeston to England. Quay at 11.51 am. On arrival in Harwich, we were As we stepped off the train the Town greeted by a reception committee Relief tinged with trauma: Crier read a special welcome to those comprising the Mayor, the Town Crier, The story of returning to Harwich after 75 years. the headmaster of All Saints’ School, Two boys and two girls from the local Richard Hopkins, and one of his masters, Kitchener Camp All Saints’ Church of England Primary Richard Spencer MBE, together with ollowing the publication of her School presented flowers to us. A very four pupils from the school. Each of book Four Thousand Lives: The warm welcome! the four of us who had travelled on the FRescue of German Jewish Men to An old red London double-decker bus original trains in 1939 was presented Britain, 1939 (reviewed by Anthony took the entire party to St Nicholas Church with a beautiful gerbera. Grenville in the AJR Journal, September 2014), Clare Ungerson explored the near the sea front for a moving service of We then travelled on a beautifully daily life of the approximately 4,000 thanksgiving and remembrance. restored red London bus with the names men aged between 17 and 45 – The group then moved on to the of locations in Central Europe from which the Kindertransport children had fled refugees from Nazi-occupied Central Harwich Electric Palace Cinema, built Europe – who lived at Kitchener Camp in the early 20th century and today a clearly written round the upper deck. The tour took us round Harwich. Heritage from its opening in February 1939 to Grade II* listed building. It has the ideal its closure in May 1940. Guides pointed out places of interest, in atmosphere in which to watch the short Clare Ungerson, Emeritus Professor BBC film on Nicholas Winton: Our World: particular where Dovercourt had once of Social Policy at the University of Saving a Generation. stood and where so many Kinder had Southampton, was speaking at a At 4.20 pm the special train departed lived. Now it is a housing estate. seminar held by the AJR and the from Harwich Parkeston Quay, arriving Later we attended a special London Jewish Cultural Society at the at London’s Liverpool Street at 5.44 pm. thanksgiving and remembrance service at LJCC’s north London premises. Peter Hedderly put an incredible St Nicholas Church led by Rev. Peter Mann. Kitchener Camp, at Richborough, amount of work, of a totally voluntary We went to the Electric Palace Cinema, near Sandwich in Kent, was a transit nature, into organising this remarkable where we saw the BBC documentary Our camp: inmates were under obligation train journey. He was clearly well World: Saving a Generation. to leave within a year and were not supported by the train company Abellio We thanked all the kind people who permitted employment. The working Greater Anglia and by onezulusevenzero had made the visit so memorable for day was hard – putting huts to rights, Ltd. Those few of us who were there us. We would particularly like to thank building drainage and the like. At thank him and his colleagues for a Peter Hedderley for arranging such a the same time, there was no lack of splendid event. memorable day. recreational facilities, including a jazz Ernest Simon Lia and Philip Lesser continued on page 14

10 November 2014 journal Memories, Memories … t’s June 1940. The German armies are the kitchen in the basement. We are barbed-wire enclosure of the camp only storming through the Low Countries, told that each house will cater for itself: on the few occasions when we were Iare occupying France, and are now from the 20-25 ‘residents’, volunteers permitted to bathe in the sea and were on the Channel coast, threatening to have to be found to do the cooking. At taken to the neighbouring beach. Even invade England. A very frightening first, I join a group of three non-Jewish then a soldier with fixed bayonet was time, not least for us refugees from the ex-trade unionists as an ‘assistant’, guarding us – were the authorities afraid Nazis, the so-called ‘friendly we would try to swim across enemy aliens’. We are no to Ireland? longer allowed to stay close Douglas has a large to the eastern coast of Britain museum, which we visited. and the men living there are My son had a long and very interned. I am not affected as interesting discussion with my former host, a professor a senior archivist, who had in Cambridge, has arranged assembled a lot of material with an acquaintance, the about the internment camps headmaster of a public for us to view. We learned that school in Derbyshire, that I ‘enemy aliens’ were interned should work at his school on the island in the First World as a gardener’s assistant in War as well, but that many the mornings and give cello documents relating to the lessons to any interested boys Second World War had been in the afternoons. Fritz Lustig in Peel, in front of the houses where he was interned destroyed. However, quite a I am expecting that few have been recovered from internment of all male ‘enemy aliens’, providing general help in the kitchen and various sources and he showed us copies whether ‘friendly’ or not, is bound to serving at meal times and, after my cello of instructions from the Home Office come before very long – there is a lot arrives (surprisingly undamaged!) from laying down exactly what food, and in of pressure for it. After all, who can the school in Derbyshire, I join a group what quantities, had to be given to the guarantee that no German agents have of other musicians, some amateur, some internees. Other instructions, issued by infiltrated the 60,000 refugees in this professional, to provide entertainment for the Isle of Man authorities, specified country? So I have packed my suitcase the other inmates of the camp. which streets had to be closed, where and have written a brief letter to my sister, After about two months and severe the barbed wire fences had to be erected, who is still working as housekeeper at the pressure in Parliament, the Home Office etc. The sudden establishment of several Cambridge professor’s house, informing relaxes its rules for the continued detention internment camps meant that the owners her that I have been interned, leaving only of ‘friendly enemy aliens’, one of the of the requisitioned houses had to leave the date open – to be posted when the categories for release from internment their homes with only a week’s notice, day arrives …. applying to me - to join the Pioneer Corps leaving much of their furniture and all I don’t have to wait for long. While of the British Army as a volunteer. their kitchen utensils behind. Naturally doing my gardening job during the All this is still very clear in my mind this caused a lot of resentment. morning of 4 July, I am called to the even though 74 years have passed. And Peveril Camp was used later in the headmaster’s office, where two gentlemen suddenly my journalist son asks me war for the detention of British fascists, in civilian clothes are waiting for me. They whether I would like to revisit the Isle of IRA suspects, and other ‘undesirables’. It are police officers who have come to Man and Peel to refresh my memories. is probably for that reason that historical collect me for internment, in accordance He is engaged on a project ‘to retrace documents about the camp have not with Churchill’s order to ‘Collar the lot!’ the steps of his forebears’ and this trip been released yet – much less is known I ask whether I can post the letter to my will form part of it. Of course I agree. He about it than about the other camps on sister. No, certainly not – any letters I write organises all of it and, after a short flight the island and the archivist we met was from now on will have to go through the from City Airport, we are on the Isle of quite frustrated about that. The island official censorship, like all letters from Man, where a half-hour taxi ride takes authorities are obviously very keen to abroad. And when I want to go to the us from the airport to Peel. It’s a blustery collect as much material as possible about toilet before we leave the school, one of day and, when we find the sea, the tide the internment camps, which form a very the detectives comes with me. This makes is in and high waves are breaking against important part of the history of the Isle me smile inwardly - do they think I will try the sea walls and rocks, causing a lot of of Man. to abscond? spray to fall onto the road. We reach the Fritz Lustig After a brief stay in a transit camp we northern end of Peel Bay, where Peveril find ourselves at York Racecourse, where Camp was situated, and there is the row we are housed in the stables. Just over of eight tall houses in which we lived! www.fishburnbooks.com three weeks there and on we go to the Standing in front of them, I know we are Jonathan Fishburn Isle of Man – by train to Liverpool, on a at the right place. Yes, I remember the buys and sells steamer across the Irish Sea to Douglas, view south, where one can clearly see the Jewish and Hebrew books, and another train journey across the ruins of Peel Castle (which I find out later ephemera and items of island to Peel on the west coast (the was first built in the 11th century), but I’m Jewish interest. railway no longer exists: it was closed not sure which was ‘my house’ – I only down in the 1960s). remember its approximate position. It’s a He is a member of the Antiquarian Once in Peel, we enter the newly very odd feeling, revisiting this place after Booksellers Association. established Peveril Camp, where the so many years – I find myself wondering Contact Jonathan on British authorities have requisitioned a whether it’s a dream …. 020 8455 9139 row of eight houses along the sea front Peel is quite an attractive small town. or 07813 803 889 and surrounded them with barbed wire. Of course we never saw it as internees for more information They are tall houses - four storeys, with since we were allowed to leave the

11 journal November 2014 discussion, at the home of Peter and with particular reference to the Gaza Heather Kurer, was followed by a lovely conflict – all nicely finished off with one afternoon tea. Peter Kurer of host Barbara Cammerman’s legendary afternoon teas. Wendy Bott Glasgow Book Club Enjoyable Book, Superb Tea Essex (Westcliff) Reflections on a We enjoyed Khaled Hosseini’s And the Childhood in Hungary INSIDE Mountains Echoed as well as the superb A larger than usual audience heard the tea hosted by Eva Szirmai. We meet Westcliff AJR member Andrew Roth give every two months and new members an enthralling talk about his childhood AJR are always welcome. Agnes Isaacs in Hungary. His pride in his enterprising father shone through: his father had Pinner A Refugee Named Rudolf clearly made sure the family were Schwab Edinburgh CF First AJR Meeting provided for. Despite many shortages, Dr Shirli Gilbert told us about a German I really enjoyed my first AJR meeting. Andrew said that overall those were refugee named Rudolf (Ralph) Schwab, Hearing members’ stories brought many happy days. Susie Barnett who found refuge in South Africa. of our own stories back. And they must, Having read through the remarkable of course, be repeated lest we forget Glasgow Yom Tov Nosh collection of some 2,500 letters he had what happened in those terrible years Life begins at 80! What more can one written and received from the late 1930s of the war and its aftermath. The rest say! It’s wonderful to see everyone who onwards, Dr Gilbert was able to tell us of the meeting too was very enjoyable, has originated from different countries a great deal about him. This will be the discussing the imminent referendum together and to hear the stories of their subject of her next book. over a sumptuous tea hosted by Eva childhood and adult life. Had not Agnes Robert Gellman Baer. Once again, thank you for allowing Isaacs opened her home to us, this wouldn’t have taken place. Many thanks me to attend your meeting and making Sheffield CF Tracing Missing Loved to her for cooking us a wonderful lunch me so welcome. I have been hearing Ones and her hospitality. Hazel Beiny from my son Karl how much he enjoys We enjoyed a most interesting talk meeting you and I can now see why. by WWI and WWII researcher Karen St John’s Wood A Rabbi’s Wife in Pamela Ogg-Rauchwerger Holloway, who told us all about her work India Brighton-Sarid (Sussex) London’s and how to trace missing loved ones. Jackie, the late Hugo Gryn’s wife, gave Jews in 1814 Following the meeting, she has already us an enlightening talk on their lives in David Barnett gave a researched talk provided a great deal of information India. It was Hugo’s first posting as a about London Jewry in 1814. Their for one member regarding an uncle rabbi and an extraordinary experience business acumen brought prosperity who perished in WWI, and several other for a newly wed and a newly born. An to the capital. The Jewish Board of members are now beginning their own absolute delight and a terrific turnout. Guardians helped the poor to set up research. Wendy Bott Hazel Beiny small businesses in the markets of the HGS Wills, Inheritance Tax and All Wessex Legend of a Jewish Boxing East End, and Piccadilly was known as That Jazz Champion Rothschild Row. Ceska Abrahams We heard an extremely interesting, A delicious deli lunch was followed by well-presented talk by Michael Anvoner Ealing A Fully Participatory an entertaining talk by David Barnett on about wills and inheritance. There was a Afternoon the Jewish boxer Daniel Mendoza. We big flow of questions afterwards, which Led by Hazel, we had a most interesting were amazed to hear the fascinating Hazel had to stop as we were running discussion on a range of issues details of this man, who in the 18th out of time. Kitty Balint-Kurti from refugee weddings during and century rose to become the Champion immediately after the war to current Hull CF A Hearty Discussion and a of all England and whose legend lives Jewish thinking on such diverse matters Lovely Afternoon Tea on in today’s boxing world. as orthodoxy, assimilation, circumcision There was a full house at Olive Rosner’s Kathryn Prevezer and funerals. An enjoyable and fully as members enjoyed a hearty discussion participatory afternoon. and a lovely afternoon tea sampling Prestwich CF Down Food Memory Leslie Sommer baking from the new kosher bakery Lane Ilford A Fascinating Slice of History in Leeds. We wished Olive a steady On our walk down Food Memory Lane, David Barnett gave us a fascinating slice recovery following her recent illness. members recalled their family’s favourite of history: the story of Daniel Mendoza, Wendy Bott food and recipes such as Austrian fresh- the famous Jewish boxer who became made lochshen, spetzels, shturchels, Champion of all England. Mendoza won Bromley CF Lots of Food Plus fresh-baked challas, matza torte and many fights and became rich but lost his Excellent Banter potato blintzes. One member recalled wealth through gambling. A lively gathering once again at the his father selecting fish straight from Meta Roseneil home of Liane Segal: lots of food and the tank, while a Second Generation excellent banter. And thanks again to member recalled her father’s favourite Cheshire First Impressions Liane for hosting these get-togethers. appetiser – herring and apple with fried Wendy Bott, who had recently taken Hazel Beiny onions and potatoes, a recipe from his over from Susanne Green as AJR Groups childhood in a Polish shtetl he passed Co-ordinator, invited all 22 people Leeds CF The Middle East Conflict on to her. Tania Nelson present to say who they were and and a Legendary Afternoon Tea from where they had originated. She We listened to, and participated in, a Cardiff Inside Story of Parliamentary then suggested we have a discussion most interesting talk given by expert Grandees on ’First Impressions?’ Our interesting Neil Solden on Israel and the Middle East We had a delightful, humorous and

12 November 2014 journal

CONTACTS NOVEMBER GROUP eventS

Hazel Beiny Manchester 2 Nov Musical Presentation Southern Groups Co-ordinator 07966 887 434 [email protected] Marlow 3 Nov Social Get-together Wendy Bott Ealing 4 Nov Alf Keiles: ‘Jewish Jazz’ Northern Groups Co-ordinator Kingston upon Thames 4 Nov Social Get-together (venue to be decided) 07908 156 365 [email protected] Liverpool 4 Nov Michael Sverdlow: Susan Harrod ‘The Rescue of Liverpool Commemorative Groups’ Administrator Plaques and Stones’ 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Ilford 5 Nov King Solomon Computer Visit Agnes Isaacs Scotland and Newcastle Co-ordinator Norfolk 6 Nov Social Get-together 07908 156 361 [email protected] Pinner 6 Nov Brad Ashton: ‘A Life in the Media’ Kathryn Prevezer London South and Midlands Glasgow CF 8 Nov Opening Night of Jewish Film Festival: Groups Co-ordinator ‘Magic Men’ 07966 969 951 [email protected] Sheffield 9 Nov tba Esther Rinkoff All Northern Groups 10 Nov Kristallnacht Event at IWM Southern Region Co-ordinator 07966 631 778 [email protected] HGS 10 Nov Jane Greenfield: ‘Growing Up on a Farm’ KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Brighton-Sarid (Sussex) 17 Nov Esther Rinkoff: ‘My Long-Lost Family in Israel’ Andrea Goodmaker Prestwich 17 Nov Social 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Edgware 18 Nov Alf Keiles: ‘Jewish Jazz’ Child Survivors Association–AJR Henri Obstfeld Essex 18 Nov Esther Rinkoff: ‘My Trip to Israel to Find 020 8954 5298 [email protected] (Westcliff) (a week later than normal) Long-Lost Family’ Radlett 19 Nov Pat Clark: ‘Leather Lane and Hatton Garden’ St John’s Wood 19 Nov Judith Hassan (Jewish Care) informative talk by Chris Moncrieff, Glasgow 23 Nov Chanukah Lunch and Dance former political editor of the Press Association, who had known and North West London 24 Nov Ruth Berman: ‘Extend Exercises – observed many of the grandees passing Get Fit Sitting Down’ (at Hendon) through Parliament including Margaret Bromley 25 Nov Social Thatcher, John Major, Harold Wilson and Leeds 25 Nov Film Showing at Donisthorpe Hall many other prime ministers, ministers and MPs. Michael Millodot Welwyn GC 25 Nov Michael Anvoner: ’Wills, Inheritance Tax and All That Jazz’ Café Imperial A Sad Meeting Edinburgh 26 Nov Social A sad meeting, in which we recalled Wembley 26 Nov David Lawson: ‘The ABC of Ostrava’ Geoffrey Perry, who had recently passed away. He had been the commander of Glasgow Book Club 27 Nov Social one of the crew present as well as one North London 27 Nov Paul Lang (British Aviation Tours): ‘Women in of the original band of merry men from Aviation’ Café Imperial. We also talked of the Hull 30 Nov Social average wage back in 1948, when two and sixpence was a lot of money! Newcastle 30 Nov Chanukah Lunch Hazel Beiny

North West London ‘Awayday’ has for meetings and outings and wish Lunch Social her well in her new position. As our usual synagogue meeting place Wendy Cohen Books Bought was unavailable, Esther arranged an Modern and Old ‘Awayday’ Lunch Social for us at the Café Radlett Reflections of a Political Eric Levene Toulous in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Cartoonist 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 This had been built on an old putting Martha Richler is a journalist and artist [email protected] green which had two loos – hence the who has spent several years working as I also purchase ephemera name of the café. A good time was had a political cartoonist. This has enabled by one and all. David Lang her to have close contact with all parties in the British establishment. The Liverpool First Impressions views she expressed about the system This was our first social gathering with were pungent, witty and by no means switch on electrics new Groups Co-ordinator Wendy Bott. favourable. Unfortunately Martha didn’t Rewires and all household The topic for discussion was aptly entitled bring any of her cartoons and we tried electrical work ‘First Impressions’. A lively debate was to persuade her to return with some of PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 held by the 16 people present. We look her drawings on a future occasion. Mobile: 0795 614 8566 forward to the interesting ideas Wendy Fritz Starer

13 journal November 2014  Kitchener camp family cont. from p.10  anouncements band, a theatre and a library. Marion Collins In loving memory of my While the overall balance sheet of sweetheart Marion and our 56 years of Kitchener Camp was positive, Professor never dull memories. I thank her for two Ungerson stressed that many of the wonderful, loving children and five even inmates were suffering from trauma, more wonderful grandchildren. Yours Are you, or is someone you having since Kristallnacht been always and evermore, Peter. know, a Jewish Holocaust incarcerated in concentration camps and survivor in financial difficulty? lost touch with their families. Marion Collins It is with great sadness our darling Mummy passed away on 8 Six Point Foundation gives grants to help with Historian Dr Helen Fry discussed all kinds of one-off expenses such as home the subsequent enlistment of many of September. She was a wonderful, kind, adaptations, medical bills, travel costs and the Kitchener Camp residents in the caring mother and grandmother. Always Pioneer Corps, an unarmed unit of the glamorous, vivacious and full of life. temporary care. British Army, and showed a fascinating Remembered with love always by her We help UK-resident Jewish Holocaust promotional film of the Pioneer Corps children Lauren and Adam, grandchildren survivors/refugees with less than £10k p.a. volunteers made by the Ministry of Jacob, Jonathan, Morgan, Rebecca and in income (excluding pensions/social security) Information in 1941. AJR member Stella Scarlett, and daughter-in-law Melanie. and less than £32k in assets (excluding primary Curzon added a first-hand account of life residence/car). at Kitchener Camp, recalling visiting her father there. For information please contact The Association WHY NOT TRY AJR’S of Jewish Refugees on 020 8385 3070. MEALS ON WHEELS [email protected] SERVICE? www.sixpointfoundation.org.uk ‘Singing Together’ The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels Do you remember ‘Singing Together’? service delivered to your door once a week. It was a BBC radio programme which The meals are freshly cooked every week by KINDERTRANSPORT LUNCH taught children to sing during the war. Kosher to Go. They are then frozen prior to delivery. 12 November I am making a radio documentary about it The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal and would like to speak to any former Kinder at 12.30 pm (soup, main course, desert) plus a £1 Please join us for our next lunch at who remember singing along with the delivery fee. wireless at school. It went out at 11.00 am North West Reform Synagogue, Alyth Gardens, Finchley Road, London NW11 7EN on Mondays and a Scottish presenter called Our aim is to bring good food to your door Herbert Wiseman taught songs like ‘Michael without the worry of shopping or cooking. Finnegan’ and ‘The Skye Boat Song’. Laurence Brass For further details, please call ‘255 Years and Going Strong: If you remember it, please get in touch AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070. with Ruth Evans on 0161 335 6450 The Role of the Board of Deputies or at [email protected] in Modern Britain’ To book your place please phone Andrea Goodmaker on 020 8385 3070 B’Nai Brith Leo Baeck (London) Lodge cordially invites you to CLASSIFIED their annual AJR GROUPS ANNUAL CHANUKAH PARTY Joseph Pereira (ex-AJR caretaker Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture over 22 years) is now available for given by Thursday 11 December 2014 DIY repairs and general maintenance. Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE at North West Reform Synagogue, No job too small, on the subject of Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, very reasonable rates. ‘The Nature of Forgiveness, London NW11 7EN Please telephone 07966 887 485. Saying Sorry and Coming to Terms’ Cost £8.00 per person payable on the door Wednesday 12 November 2014, 8.00 pm (places must be booked in advance) The Leo Baeck Hall Starts at 11.30 am 11 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, London NW3 5JY Ends at 2.30 pm BEN URI MEMORIES Admittance free Refreshments ‘The Palace of Knightsbridge’ Morning talk by Richard Furnival Jones, who Next year is our worked for Harrods for over 40 years and retired as manager of the Food Halls. He will 100th birthday Research Centre for German tell us about the history of this famous store. and Austrian Exile Studies This will be followed by a delicious lunch. Please share with us all your memories of Ben Uri and tell us about any photographs, University of London Senate House, After lunch we will have further entertainment by Bronwen Stephens, a catalogues or historical items from Malet Street, WC1 professional opera singer, who will perform 1915-1970 you may have. 19 November 2014, 6.00 pm a selection of well-known songs from opera Please contact Laura Jones at Ben Uri, and theatre. 108a Boundary Rd, St John’s Wood, Klaus Seidl will speak on ‘“A Liberal with It is essential that we know exact numbers London NW8 0RH, International ‘Sympathies”: Veit Valentin, for catering. Please contact Susan Harrod on tel 020 7604 3991 Britain, and the Blessing of Exile’ 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] email [email protected]

14 November 2014 journal ObituarIES Eric Bourne (formerly Ulrich Borchard, ‘Ulli’), born Berlin 8 July 1924, died London 3 June 2014 iven that Ulli’s mother was Jewish Wilton Park, where his knowledge of German numeracy skills for apprentices and access and his father (Robert Breuer) was put to good use through his acting as an courses for those desiring to go on to higher was active in Social Democractic interpreter for the courses in democracy run education. His work was greatly valued by politicsG and journalism, his life in Berlin for German POWs. the teachers, to whom he gave was in double jeopardy. This is why his Following his release in encouragement and practical parents sent him to England as early as 1947 from the Army, by then a support in developing these new 1933. There he entered New Herrlingen commissioned officer, he worked approaches, and they had annual School, which had been transferred in the for some time as a switchboard reunions until his death. same year from Ulm in southern Germany operator at Zwemmers, the art Eric’s first wife was Margaret to Bunce Court on the North Downs of bookshop, and, after taking a Reid, whom he had met as Kent by the farsighted headmistress Anna crash course in Latin, he qualified a student, and they had two Essinger. Ulli’s mother later succeeded in for Queen Mary College, where daughters, Susan and Deborah. reaching the UK but his father, having he read history and immersed He later married Lois Graessle, first fled to Czechoslovakia and then to himself in socialist student an American who had settled in Paris, died in an internment camp in politics. (He remained a loyal London, and, after his retirement Martinique in 1943. member of the Labour Party for the rest of his in 1985, they lived in a cottage in rural Ulli settled down happily in the co- life, albeit in recent years with great sadness at Derbyshire, where he became a keen educational boarding school, making the direction of its leadership.) gardener and chairman of the local parish many friends both among the staff and his After youth work in Essex and a spell council. fellow pupils, and did well academically. as warden of the newly founded Pestalozzi Like many other Old Bunce Courtians, It was there that he and I became friends Children’s Village in Sussex, Eric became the Eric kept in touch with some of the former when I arrived via the Kindertransport in senior county youth officer in Derbyshire, teachers, especially Hans Meyer, whom he 1938. When the school was evacuated to where he later settled. His most significant helped to organise the last of the Bunce Shropshire in 1940, Ulli worked on a nearby contribution to the education sector was Court reunions and to publish a delightful farm, milking cows among his other duties. earlier as inspector of further education for booklet of reminiscences by former pupils. In 1943, when he joined the Army, he was the London Education Authority, where he He also published his own memoirs: A required to adopt an English name and thus developed programmes for disadvantaged European Life. In recent years he was an he became Eric Bourne. In 1946, after he young people and others often ignored in occasional contributor to the AJR Journal. had served in Burma, the Army sent him to education – including communication and Leslie Baruch Brent

‘The man who shot Lord Haw-Haw’ Geoffrey Perry, born Berlin 11 April 1922, died London, 14 September 2014 orn Horst Pinschewer in Berlin him in woods outside Flensburg on the in April 1922, Geoffrey was sent, Danish border. Geoffrey shot and arrested together with his elder brother Peter, Britain’s most notorious wartime traitor. As toB Buxton College in Derbyshire in 1936 to he would later reflect: ‘How ironic it was escape Nazi persecution. that Joyce was arrested by a man who was He took up work as a reporter for the essentially a German Jew, albeit in British Mirror newspaper but that changed with army uniform.’ Geoffrey thereafter became the outbreak of war, when he became known as ‘the man who shot Lord Haw- an ‘enemy alien’ and lost his job. He was Haw’ and brought him back for trial. interned in the summer of 1940 and spent In civilian life, Geoffrey finally received several months behind barbed wire before British nationality and became a successful enlisting in the only unit open to him, the publisher as the first to introduce magazines Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps. He served Geoffrey Perry broadcasts in May 1945 from into supermarkets, famed for his household in 248 Company and changed his name to the radio station in Hamburg in which the publication Family Circle. In 2002 he traitor James Joyce had been making his Geoffrey Perry, before being commissioned propaganda broadcasts, using a microphone published his memoirs, When Life Becomes into 93 Company. used by Joyce two days previously History, on the encouragement of his wife He landed in Normandy with his Helen, who predeceased him. He is survived Pioneer Company in July 1944. In 1945 TV documentary Churchill’s German Army. by his sons, Nick and Stephen, and four he was posted to the Psychological Warfare Geoffrey was then assigned to ‘T Force’ grandchildren: Joe, Hannah, Emma and Division (Press Section) and crossed into in Hamburg and it was here that his war Alice. Germany for the first time in nearly a took an extraordinary turn. Having captured Geoffrey championed the cause of the decade, something he described as giving Radio Hamburg with his unit, he gave the refugees from Nazism who fought for Britain him ‘a feeling of goose bumps’. With fellow first Allied broadcast to the German people in the Second World War. He was intensely soldiers, he entered Bergen-Belsen just from the very microphone on which two loyal to the country which had saved him days after its liberation. He never forgot days earlier William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and a regular attender of the AJR’s monthly the horrors he saw there. During his few had delivered his final address to Germany. veteran coffee mornings at the Café Imperial hours of relief work at Belsen, he extended a Joyce was now on the run but events would in London’s Golders Green, a gathering to helping hand to camp survivors, something take an even more bizarre turn when, on which he always referred as the ‘boy scouts’. he movingly described decades later in the 28 May 1945, Geoffrey stumbled across Helen Fry

15 journal November 2014

the hilly countryside to the Etzion Bloc, to the office of the District Coordinator Liaison. This is the administrative centre Dorothea Shefer-Vanson where youngsters wishing to start working come to get their initial permit. In order to work in one of the settlements, the requirements for obtaining a permit are The women of Machsom Watch less rigid and this is where many youngsters he organisation known as Machsom walking towards Jerusalem. find employment. This is also where special Watch has been in existence for over If you are a Palestinian man and want a permits are issued to Palestinians who need ten years. Since its first tentative permit to work in Israel you must be married to enter Israel in order to attend hospital. stepsT as a small group of humanitarian and have at least one child. If you are the The building where the men wait feminists who wanted to protect the human close relative of someone who has been is equipped with seating and even air- and civil rights of Palestinians, it has grown arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity, conditioning. Specific days are allocated in number and is less radically feminist nationalist sympathies or stone-throwing to specific villages and, while the system but is still confined to women. Curious to your work permit can be taken away from seems to be working, it is laborious and see what they did, I joined a group of five you, in which case you are ‘blacklisted’. I was time-consuming. women early one morning. They were all told of an instance in which three brothers However, when I look back to my early of a certain age and belonged to a specific who had been working in Israel for several days in Israel, I recall what seemed to me (middle-class, Ashkenazi, secular) segment years were blacklisted after their teenage at the time to be complex and mistrustful of the population. Since that is the category brother was arrested for throwing stones. bureaucratic procedures that often left me into which I too fall, I felt quite at home This is an area in which the women of frustrated and tearful. If you are a foreigner with them. Machsom Watch have become proficient it’s not easy to get a work permit in any Our first stop that chilly morning was as there is a process of appeal against being European country or the USA. All over Checkpoint 300, also known as Rachel’s blacklisted. The various procedures, including the world bureaucracy is rampant but Checkpoint due to its proximity to the site filling in forms and even appearing before in Israel it is augmented by the need to of Rachel’s Tomb. We stood and watched as a special administrative court at which the maintain security and protect the civilian hundreds of Palestinian men filed through military authority is required to justify the population. electronic barriers where their documents blacklisting, are difficult if not impossible for were checked. Soldiers, some of them still the average Palestinian manual labourer to in their teens, checked the papers and made master. Some of the women I met can speak WHY NOT sure that everything went without a hitch. some Arabic and it was very touching to see CONVERT YOUR Every Palestinian worker must have a the burly labourers come over to one of the OLD CINE FILMS green ID card, issued by the Palestinian women to ask for her help in solving some AND PUT THEM Authority, as well as an electronic card and administrative problem or other. In many ON DVDS a work permit, issued at the behest of his cases, they know the women by name and FREE OF CHARGE? employer. I did not sense any tension or speak to them as friends. Some 70 per cent of antagonism in the process and everything those blacklisted get their work permits back Contact Alf Buechler at appeared to be going smoothly. Once following Machsom Watch’s intervention. [email protected] through the barrier, the men boarded After spending an hour at Checkpoint or tel 020 8554 5635 buses provided by the employers or began 300, we drove through the Etzion tunnel and

 letters to the editor cont. from p.7 comprehensively ignored. I was hurt. message across to today’s young people. spring grove At the end of the session I spoke to After the trip I wrote to Dr Muzicant London’s Most Luxurious people involved in the ‘Letter to the Stars’ telling him how upset we all were. But he RETIREMENT HOME project. Apparently, Dr Muzicant and the didn’t give me the courtesy of a personal 214 Finchley Road Kultusgemeinde did not agree with the response. His office replied that they had London NW3 ‘Letter to the Stars’ plan to bring survivors felt it would be too much for us to travel to over to Vienna as they felt we were too frail Vienna and take part in the proceedings.  Entertainment to deal with the emotion. Surely had we felt we weren’t capable of it  Activities I fail to understand how an organisation we wouldn’t have done so!  Stress Free Living representing the entire Austrian-Jewish Due to this negative experience, I had  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine community could behave in this way. Why no wish to be an honorary member of an  Full En-Suite Facilities did they not support the ground-breaking organisation that refused to acknowledge work being carried out by ‘A Letter to the the presence of such a brave and determined Call for more information or a personal tour Stars’? They more than anyone knew the group of elderly people and therefore 020 8446 2117 horror we refugees had endured – surely returned the Honorary Membership or 020 7794 4455 they should have supported any effort by Certificate. [email protected] any organisation, Jewish or not, to get this Sonja Arnold, Bushey Heath, Herts

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters LLP, 26 St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected]

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