VOLUME 18 NO.7 AUGUST 2018 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees

Philip Roth THANK YOU! In this issue we especially thank some of the hundreds of volunteers who and the Jews physically help AJR members with various tasks and skills. Philip Roth, who passed away in May, had two great subjects: America and Jews. America dominated his late great novels in the We should also thank all the AJR members who write articles and 1990s and early 2000s, what many critics called his “American letters for the AJR Journal. Your input Turn”: I Married a Communist, American Pastoral, The Human is always very much appreciated and helps to provide a great read. Stain and The Plot Against America. These novels took on the great subjects of post-war American history from the 1930s and If there is anything you would particularly like to see covered in the McCarthyism to Vietnam, Clinton, race and political correctness. AJR Journal please let us know. According to the many tributes that followed his death these novels

established him as America’s greatest writer of the late 20th century. Wonderful volunteers...... 3 Something missing in Brno...... 4 A family reunion...... 5 Letters to the Editor...... 6 & 7 Review...... 8 Art Notes...... 9 Letter from Israel...... 10 At your service: ARSP...... 11 Invitation to Germany...... 12 Looking for...... 13 Around the AJR...... 14 A different Channel...... 15 Obituaries...... 16 & 17 Plaque for Tante Anna...... 18 Adverts...... 19 News...... 20

President Barack Obama presents the National Humanities Medal to Philip Roth in a 2011 AJR Team ceremony at the White House Chief Executive Michael Newman Finance Director David Kaye

But early on Roth was best known for affluence of Jewish immigrants who Heads of Department his writings about American Jews. It was had moved from the Lower East Side HR & Administration Karen Markham the controversies around some of these to the suburbs. This experience set him Social Services Sue Kurlander writings that made his reputation in the aside from older writers like Bellow and Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart 1960s. Malamud. AJR Journal Editor Jo Briggs Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey, in Roth’s first book was Goodbye, Editorial Assistant Lilian Levy 1933 and was formed by the New Deal, Columbus (1959) but his breakthrough Contributing Editor David Herman Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira the Second World War and the growing Continued on page 2

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Philip Roth and the Jews wants to set up an orphanage in the There is, however, something interesting heart of assimilated American suburbia. in these stories about Kafka, Anne Frank (cont.) He meets huge resistance but what is and in Eli, The Fanatic. Roth isn’t just novel was the outrageous Portnoy’s so extraordinary about the story is that playing games. He is trying to find a Complaint (1969). These books caught the title character, Eli Peck, a respectable way of talking about the Holocaust and the mood of a new Jewish voice in and very American lawyer, who starts Jewish displacement. Yes, he was a great American writing, what one critic by representing the community, finds writer about America and about Jews called the “new Jewish visibility”. himself identifying with this more in America, from Newark to the Upper In the late 1950s and ‘60s a new traditional kind of Judaism and becomes West Side. But he was also writing about generation of American comedians like the “fanatic” of the title. the great subject of Jewish European Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce, new history and trying to compare what young writers such as Roth and a new This is what many of the recent tributes had happened to Jews in Europe in his wave of films like The Graduate and to Roth have missed. He didn’t just childhood with Jews in FDR’s America. Mel Brooks’ The Producers were funny, write about women and sex, America irreverent and more open about their from Lindbergh to Monica Lewinsky, Roth is now famous as the American Jewishness. or play clever literary tricks. He wrote laureate, the writer who told a dark some fascinating works about fictional story about American 20th century A leading American critic called European Jewish survivors who come to history. But as the literary critic Bryan Goodbye, Columbus (later made into America after the war: Mr. Tzuref in Eli Cheyette wrote in his perceptive review a film) “the first, really telling report the Fanatic, but also, famously, Kafka of The Plot Against America, “There from the 3rd generation.” He meant and Anne Frank. was a time when Philip Roth believed that Roth’s stories were about young that history happened elsewhere” in Jews growing up in the 1950s and In 1973 Roth published a story, “I east Europe, first during the Holocaust, ‘60s, not immigrants from the old Always Wanted You to Admire My then under Soviet Communism. This is country or even their children. The Fasting; or, Looking at Kafka”, in which what he called in The Anatomy Lesson biographer James Atlas wrote, “Roth he asks what if Kafka had not died of TB (1983), the “world of massive historical represented a later stage in the drama but had come to America and lived as a pain”. of Jewish assimilation. Where Bellow’s middle-aged Hebrew school teacher? resolutely American-born characters There is much more to Philip Roth than still bore traces of their immigrant In The Ghost Writer (1979), the sex and misogyny or novels about parentage – they spoke Yiddish, were first part of Roth’s four-part series, America. Perhaps even more than his city bred, struggled to decipher a Zuckerman Bound, a young writer, great contemporary, Saul Bellow, and new world – Roth’s grew up in the Nathan Zuckerman, goes to stay with a certainly more than Heller or Mailer, he suburbs.” “Green lawns, white Jews,” famous writer, E.I. Lonoff, modelled on was aware of the dark history of 20th one of Roth’s characters remarks about Malamud, and meets a young woman, century Europe and he reflected long Goodbye, Columbus some thirty years Amy Bellette, who turns out to be Anne and hard on what this meant for an later, in Operation Shylock. “The Frank, who has survived Belsen and American who had grown up safe and Jewish success story in its heyday, all like Kafka has come to America. She secure in the suburbs. That’s why he new and thrilling and funny and fun”. reappears in one of Roth’s last works, was so interested in his contemporaries Exit Ghost (2007), now an old woman who had been children or young men Roth’s young heroes, characters like Neil ravaged by illness. in 1930s and ‘40s Europe: Primo Levi, Klugman and Alexander Portnoy, were Aharon Appelfeld, Ivan Klima and funny, in search of sex, and had plenty Both these stories have an obvious others. The Plot Against America asks of attitude. ”Why are you so nasty?” shock value. They are also clever in a exactly this question: What would it Brenda asks Klugman. It’s a question way many critics found uncomfortable have been like if what happened in many readers, especially older Jewish about Roth’s writing in the 1970s and Europe in the war had happened in New readers, also asked. ‘80s. Roth wasn’t always acclaimed Jersey? as the great American writer of his In a later work, a letter addressed to generation. Martin Amis wrote about Jews were one of Roth’s two great “The Enemy of the Jews” is sent to this period of Roth’s career, “There is subjects. But for over half a century he the book’s publisher; the mail room not enough laughter or lyricism, there kept turning this over and over in his knows where to forward it. The same is not enough weather, there is not mind, doing lots of different things with would have been true of Roth for some enough happening on the page. The Jews. Some of his Jewish characters years. For more than a decade he was Zuckerman novels look like life looks were writers like Nathan Zuckerman the enfant terrible of Jewish-American before art has properly finished with it.” and E.I. Lonoff, some were maniacs writing. In Roth’s obituary in The Guardian Eric like Alvin Pepler. Others were refugees Homberger wrote, “During the 1970s and Holocaust survivors and some were But there was another side to the stories Roth published his weakest books. Sales ordinary American Jews from Newark in Goodbye, Columbus. Eli, The Fanatic were ‘soft’, and he looked as though fleeing for their lives from an American was one of the first great American he was losing his place… It was not right-wing coup. stories to address the Holocaust and tells clear that he had anything to say to his the story of how a Holocaust survivor readers.” David Herman

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OF ROMANIAN ORIGIN? Wonderful volunteers The Claims Conference recently We were delighted to celebrate some of our London AJR volunteers at the announced the availability of funds from elegant German House in Belgrave Square on 2 July, at the invitation of the Caritatea Foundation in Romania to be distributed to Jewish victims of the Deputy Head of the German Embassy, Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen. Nazism who lived under the Romanian regime anytime between 1937 and 1944, and who are currently living outside Romania or Israel.

Other stringent criteria apply and the deadline for applications is 30 November 2018. Please contact Rosemary Peters on 020 8385 3070 or [email protected] if you think you might be eligible and have not yet been sent a claim form. Please note heirs are Some of our wonderful volunteers, together with the Deputy Head of the German not eligible for the programme. Embassy (above centre) and the AJR’s Ros Collin (above centre right) and the ARSP’s UK co-ordinator Sabrina Groeschel (bottom left).

WHY NOT CONVERT YOUR OLD CINE FILMS AND PUT THEM ON DVDS FREE OF CHARGE?

Contact Alf Buechler at [email protected] or tel 020 8252 0375 or 07488 774 414 This year we shared our Annual caused by the National Socialists, they all Celebration of Volunteering with Action welcomed and embraced me without the Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) to slightest hesitation and have even shared Write Your Life Story mark their 60th anniversary (see separate their stories and experiences with me. For Record a Family History article on page 11). AJR’s current intern some it is the first time they shared their Whether you have begun writing, from ARSP, Julie Manseck, along with experiences with a German. For some it is researched your ancestors, or two of her colleagues, spoke movingly the first time they shared their experiences never put pen to paper, we offer at all. And for some it is the first time of a personalised service to help about what her year of volunteering has you preserve your precious meant to her: “I am 19 and from Germany getting in touch with Germany again. memories for future generations. and during the last 10 months I have Either way, it is not only a huge privilege www.wordsbydesign.co.uk been visiting Holocaust survivors as part for me to be able to get to know these [email protected] of my voluntary service with the AJR. I wonderful people and to share in a small 01869 327548 was looking for a way to personally take part of their lives, but I’m convinced it also responsibility for what has happened in means a lot to my clients”. Germany’s past, and in my opinion there is LISTEN OUT no better way to do so than by helping the AJR Chairman, Andrew Kaufman MBE, The AJR was delighted to learn that AJR provide social and financial support then thanked all the wonderful volunteers BBC Radio 4 has just released its first to those who have been harmed by the who provide such a valuable and Jewish comedy series. Jack and Millie terrors of the Second World War. appreciated service to our members, is a six part series about Jack and Millie giving a special mention to two, Hortense Lemman, an older couple who are “One of the things I have learned Gordon and Peter Wayne, who continue fully engaged with contemporary life through befriending AJR members is how to give selflessly despite being over 95 while grappling with the absurdities of important it is to bring people together as years old themselves. the modern world. Starring Jeremy & individuals and to start reconciliation on a Rebecca Front, Tracey Ann Oberman and one to one basis. I must admit I was a bit As well as a delightful reception buffet, Nigel Lindsay, the series is being aired on worried about what my clients’ reactions guests could enjoy a guided tour of Wednesday mornings and also available would be when I met them for the first ‘Finchleystraße – German artists in exile in on the BBC iPlayer. Do have a listen and time, being German and not Jewish. But, Great Britain and beyond 1933-4’. let us know what you think of it. despite my background and the horrors they have been through which were Debra Barnes

3 AJR Journal | August 2018 Something Missing in Brno…

“We’re off to Brno”, my wife said, looking up from her computer. “I’ve been invited to present at a conference there”. “Where?” I asked. “Brno. I’ll write it down: B-R-N-O”. “Haven’t you missed something out? Like vowels?”

“Don’t think so.” The Holocaust Memorial in a local park

I learned that Brno is the second biggest I asked the ladies in the Tourist Office I enter the huge grounds. The size of the city in the Czech Republic, with 400,000 about Jewish sites. They stared at me, lost community is clear. I hear only the inhabitants. Why then had I never heard but googled and eventually found three rustling wind and the distant traffic. The of it? Jews first lived there in the 11th sites: Synagogue, Holocaust Memorial and graveyard and tombstones are well- Century, eventually thriving, their numbers Cemetery. None mentioned in any leaflets. maintained. I read inscriptions, mostly growing. But 82,000 Jews from the local I thanked them and left for the Memorial. in German. Many don’t just recall those provinces were deported to Theresienstadt buried here, they also memorialise those and beyond, 71,000 never returning. We I stumbled upon it by chance. Just a small who died far away and who have no booked to go. local park with a children’s playground. known resting-place. Here is a stone And a huge black cube-structure, some inscribed with 17 names, the Hauser My wife attended her conference, while 10 feet tall. Nothing obvious to explain. family: 8 died in Auschwitz, 7 in other I joined a walking tour. “See the Real I asked Professor Google: its width camps, 2 simply vanished. Here is another Brno” was the claim. But the guide only was exactly ‘pi’ i.e. 3.14157…. meters, with 14 names, the Redlich family: 10 addressed Brno’s improbable legends, its apparently indicating the enormity/ died in Auschwitz, Riga or Theresienstadt, ‘naughty’ statues and its bars. No mention endlessness of what had been lost. Could one survived Theresienstadt, and three of WW2 or its Jewish inhabitants at all. I any visitor have realised this? And the committed suicide in 1942 in Vienna, the left the tour, determined to use a guide- waters running down all four black sides husband and wife on the same day. And book in future. represented tears of weeping and waters so many more. of forgiveness. Really? I could see no water anywhere, just dust. I sit on a bench and ponder. What was the point of that Holocaust memorial, when Off to the synagogue. It’s a run-down part no-one knows what or where it is, and of town, under the main railway track. I what happened during those years? Did walk up and down the street but see no the people of Brno collude? Or did they synagogue. I stand facing a dilapidated resist? Were there ‘Righteous Gentiles’ workshop and a workman emerges. I ask here? him, and he says this is it. There is no sign, no mezuzah, no security. Approaching, This Jewish Cemetery is Brno’s real I see a very small bar-code on the door Holocaust memorial, not that neglected, with the words ‘Synagoga info’. But I inexplicable pretentious cube structure cannot scan this. Not much to show for a in the park. The wholesale destruction of thousand years of Jewish worship in Brno. entire families is apparent here, names I leave. are respectfully, lovingly preserved. The grounds allow for quiet contemplation. The walk to the cemetery is long, the The sun is setting and I leave before I am heat wearying. Just an endless highway. locked in. At last a well-maintained building bearing Hebrew script. I enter an office, but it’s The conference over, we leave Brno. I deserted. I look into the visitors’ book – won’t be back in a hurry. It is not just the no-one has visited for days. A sign states vowels that are missing from this city. “If you find yourself locked in, please Brno cemetary phone the Police on this number ……” David Wirth

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The Kleeman family reunion. A family reunion Natasha is wearing a blue and white spotted dress, third row from the back, behind the woman with the flowery jacket.

Like most Jews living in Europe form of a reunion. While inevitably not all All in all, it was an extraordinarily full and those she contacted were able to attend the memorable weekend. It was fascinating my family’s history is one marked event (our family in Israel, for example, was to meet relatives from all walks of life, by displacement and loss. After not represented), the general response was connected by deep-rooted familial ties but one of enthusiasm and warmth. Many who living such culturally disparate lives. During witnessing the first four years of Ann reached out to were willing not only to the course of the weekend, I spoke to a the Nazi regime in Germany, my fly halfway across the world to attend the neuroscientist from Chile, a photographer event, but to contribute generous donations from Paris, a surgeon living in Manhattan maternal grandfather was forced which helped to make the weekend such a and so many more fascinating and diverse characters. I got to spend quality time with to flee his country in 1937 and resounding success. family I hadn’t seen for many years, and start a new life in the UK. The main event was a lunch party, which forge new relationships with cousins I had took place on Sunday 6 May in a beautiful never met before. Other branches of the family fled elsewhere, function room in Camden’s Holiday planting new roots in the United States, South Inn, overlooking the canal. The day was Inevitably, the occasion was tinged with America and other European countries, and an emotional one, featuring speeches, sadness, and an acute sense of all that we splintering our family across the globe. Sadly, presentations, video footage from those have lost. More importantly, however, it this trajectory is a familiar one. who couldn’t attend and, in true Jewish was a joyous celebration of resilience and style, generous helpings of food and drink. survival. Speaking at the Sunday lunch, On the first weekend of May, however, We laughed, cried, and shared stories of our Ann stressed the positive significance of the our family marked an occasion that was family histories and our diverse lives. occasion: “I think I know what our ancestors anything but ordinary: a family reunion, would say about us being here. They would bringing together over 50 family members In addition, Ann organised a whole be happy and proud that this reunion is from Holland, Chile, the US, France and the weekend of activities, beginning with a very taking place. They would be thrilled that UK, many of whom had not only never met moving Friday night service at the Liberal we have flourished, thrilled that those who but, until recently, were not even aware of Jewish Synagogue during which family found refuge have been succeeded by five, each others’ existence. member and Holocaust survivor Robert even six generations.” Hompes gave a poignant speech paying The event was the culmination of a year tribute to the memories of those lost in Indeed, the reunion was a profound tribute and a half of research, planning and the Shoah. This was followed by dinner at to the power of familial ties, and to the will perseverance by my aunt, Ann Antrich. After Harry Morgan’s. There was also a group of the Jewish people to survive, in spite of researching our family tree and making some trip to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, persecution and adversity. Am Yisrael Chai: exciting discoveries about our living relations a visit to the Picasso exhibition at the Tate Truly the Jewish People is a people that across the world, she set about contacting Modern and a guided walk of the Jewish survives. them, and embarked upon the mammoth East End with award-winning guide Rachel task of bringing everyone together in the Kolsky. Natasha Kleeman

5 AJR Journal | August 2018 Letters to the Editor The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence submitted for publication.

TO THE CYCLISTS historians would say about the politicians topic is from the Wiener Library archives Watching the bicycle riders come in at of today. and shows Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Liverpool Street station on Friday 22 June persecution. 2018, all the way from Berlin in six days at This seems to imply that the refugee crisis 100 miles per day, retracing our path, was of today is similar to that of the 1930s. I I have for a number of years represented a momentous event. Thank you, riders, find that equating these two crises demeans AJR on the HMD Partnership Group (most for your tremendous effort on behalf of us the Holocaust. of the organisations attending represent refugees 80 years since arriving in England Holocaust based organisations) and you can to escape from Nazism in Europe. Firstly, it is not clear to what extent the be assured that the main focus of discussion Fred Stern, Wembley, Middx present day “refugees” are genuine at the meetings is around remembrance refugees, or economic migrants. As for the and education of the Shoah as well as Arab and other Muslim refugees, they have subsequent genocides. I was in fact asked PLAUDITS many of their own countries to go to, but to give a presentation at our last meeting I anticipated the arrival of this month’s AJR they obviously prefer not to. But for Jews on my reflections on what the theme Journal with some trepidation. However, I almost all doors were closed, except for the means to AJR members. have to thank you for a number of things few who were allowed in; and they were denied entry to Palestine, where many What is so clever about the 2019 theme is 1. For correcting my letter by noting that would have wanted to go. its continued relevance. Torn from home Mirry Reich is the daughter of a Kind. is how so many refugees or survivors 2. For publishing my letter. And what about responsibility? Instead from the Holocaust feel. It also reflects 3. For reinstating the column by Dorothea of future historians asking about the the feelings of those people affected by Shefer-Vanson. This month’s article politicians of the West, they should ask subsequent genocides. is a fine example of the way she who caused the crises which made many Carol Hart, Head of Volunteer and intelligently conveys what is happening Arabs and other Muslims flee. Who caused Community Services, AJR in Israel from the perspective of the warfare in Syria, in Yemen, in Libya a compassionate (ex British!) and and Afghanistan etc.? The question which knowledgeable Israeli. should be asked of Arab and other Muslim Frank Bright’s letter discussing the use of Arthur Oppenheimer, Hove, Sussex leaders and politicians is why they did not the word “Holocaust” rightly condemns its try to stop these conflicts and bring about a indiscriminate use. We Jews, the primary better life for their people, and not put the target of “Holocaust” atrocities, are being IMPECUNIOUS SETTLERS responsibility on the West to sort out this written out by others who have made an In your July issue you published an article situation. industry of this word although they have no entitled Yekkes in Israel. This should really Mendel Storz, London N 16 right to it. read Yekkes in Palestine. This fifth Aliyah, which ceased with the outbreak of war in Note from Editor: Readers interested in They have built a multitude of organisations September ’39, contributed positively to the learning more about the Evian Conference that now command Government development of the country, establishing may enjoy the book Die Mission, by Hans recognition, with politics the name of the new settlements based on chicken farming Habe, published in 1965 by Verlag Kurt game. Jews are also guilty of building their such as Ramoth Hashavim, Sde Warburg, Desch GmbH. According to a reader in egos at the expense of six million who Kfar Shmaryahu, Ramath Hadar, Beth Scotland who kindly wrote in: “…the book cannot answer back. Yizchack. is written in the form of a novel and captures Ernest Kolman, Greenford, Middx the atmosphere around this shameful After investing all their capital in houses and conference very well. It has an excellent farms, the saying went, “Jetzt sitzen wir am factual appendix. An English translation, The THE VALUE OF HOLOCAUST Mittelmeer und haben keine Mittel mehr”! Mission, has also appeared.” EDUCATION Ben Lachmann, London NW11 I arrived in the UK on the last Winton train with my three year old sister. I give talks on Note from Editor: Can anyone translate HMD THEMES behalf of the HET and many WI, U3a, and this untranslatable pun? I would like to respond to the comments other groups – 70 talks since Jan 2017... made by Frank Bright (July) who alleged Every school I have visited from Glasgow to that the HMD theme for 2019, Torn from the Isle of Wight now teaches the history of EVIAN CONFERENCE Home, is “exclusively about survivors of the Holocaust and most have taken groups The article about Evian in the July issue is the Rwanda genocide”. This could not be of year 10 students to Auschwitz. most interesting, but a false note is struck at further from the truth. If you look at the the end when Mr Herman asks what future HMD website, the picture highlighting the I talk to Year 6 (10 & 11 year olds) and

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have received many touching letters from “Freedom for humanity “mural. sisters received hand-knitted clothing and these children as well as the older Year 9 letters written in Braille from them, and they (13 – 15). I give talks when in Prague and To finger UKIP as the party of prejudice in had a Braille typewriter for their own use. other Czech towns and two years ago in the light of all this puts the tin hat on it. To Berlin. conflate the desire to control immigration My grandfather visited a former lawyer with prejudice, as Mr Grünewald seems to who was now blind. This was caused by Not long ago I visited Japan where I met have done, is an emotional reaction rather the Gestapo who had pulled him feet first Fumiko Ishioka, the director of the Tokyo than one based on facts. down the staircase from his flat. In England Holocaust Education Resource Centre, Anthony Portner and Janet Clarke, his girlfriend, Katya, supported them both and spoke at a school which has a rose Chertsey Surrey by working as a nude model in evening art garden dedicated to Anne Frank and a classes. large number of translated European books about the Holocaust. Fumiko annually Heinz Grünewald wrote in your July At Easter each Jewish student received a brings groups of students to Europe to visit issue that Jeremy Corbyn is one of the box of matzos and the other pupils received Holocaust sites. few honest politicians, and that Corbyn a chocolate Easter egg. When the bombing will be the one to quench racism (which got less we were all sent home by train. Before travelling to Japan I was aware of presumably includes antisemitism). He Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who added that he despaired of those who fail Does anyone else (who would now be aged saved thousands of Jewish families, at first to recognise this. Mr. Grünewald regards 80 or so) remember the Lady Margaret disgraced and dismissed from diplomatic the antisemitism shown by Corbyn and School? service, now revered and honoured. I am the left wing of the Labour Party as not Renate Treitel, London NW11 in touch with his granddaughter, Madoka “serious” and says that there has been Sugihara. only “occasional” evidence of prejudice against Jews. I refer Heinz Grünewald to DIMBLEBY AND THE BBC I cannot possibly compare my talks to the Deborah Lipstadt, who won the landmark In the July issue of AJR Journal the Letter experience of survivors although we lost legal battle against Holocaust denier, David from Israel mentions that the film footage our grandparents and many other members Irving. Lipstadt says that “Jeremy Corbyn accompanying Richard Dimbleby’s reported of our family. The dying words of an uncle has made “softcore” Holocaust denial visit to Bergen Belsen in 1945 was at first in Terezin were ‘do not hate’. acceptable and his leadership has led to refused a showing by the BBC authorities antisemitism becoming embedded in the until it was authenticated. My father’s brother served with the Labour party”. Who would you prefer Czech air force during the war and, to believe, Heinz Grünewald or Deborah However in a recent broadcast Richard having returned, was imprisoned by the Lipstadt? Dimbleby’s son David explained that the communist regime as were many soldiers Peter Phillips, Loudwater Herts. BBC refused the showing because they and airmen who fought for freedom. So thought the material was too harrowing to I base my talks on three of the phrases/ view. His father courageously threatened themes of Holocaust Memorial Day: Do DIE BLINDEN never to broadcast for the BBC again if the not stand by, How can life go on? and The I wore my new school uniform, including film was not shown. Thereupon the BBC Power of Words. a red beret, with the three letters “LMS” recanted and broadcast the film. stitched on it (the same as the LMS Michael Brown, London W5 This is the closing sentence of a letter from Railway). Waiting for my train during the an 11 year old… “I cherish my parents lots Blitz my father said “You look like one of now because I have parents to cherish…” the railway porters. Someone will pay you ANTI-NAZI MOVIES Milena Grenfell-Baines MBE a shilling to carry their suitcase”. I was only The article on anti-Nazi movies in the July nine and terrified that this might really issue was an interesting addition to a topic happen. The school I was evacuated to, broached previously. However, there was ANTISEMITISM NO DEFENCE now transformed into a boarding school, one great defect: it dealt entirely with That Heinz Grünewald defends the was in the countryside. A lot of the girls Hollywood. Labour Party against strong allegations were German Jewish (like myself). of antisemitism is breathtaking. There Although at the time I was decidedly under- is clearly a large streak of antisemitism Reading last month’s article concerning age for serious cinema, I did occasionally in Labour which cannot be swept under the rescue of the Jewish Blind in Austria I slip into seeing some British films. Three I the carpet, hence all the investigations. remembered two fellow continental pupils, remember to the present day: The Spy in Jeremy Corbyn must be insensitive sisters, both fully-sighted. Their parents, both Black starred the great Conrad Veidt and, or antisemitic to have ignored the of whom were blind, lived in London. The Continued on page 8

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psychopathy in a talk on “The Mentally REVIEW Abnormal Child”. At the same time the Nazis – with their extreme emphasis on athletic, ASPERGER’S CHILDREN: THE ORIGINS racial and genetic fitness – rolled into Vienna OF AUTISM IN NAZI VIENNA which became the Third Reich’s second city. By Edith Sheffer After Austria was annexed terrible events W.W.Norton & Company occurred on Kristallnacht including despoiling ISBN 978-0-393-60964-6 and burning 95 synagogues and arresting 6,547 Jews with 3,700 sent to Dachau. The physician who had the world- recognised developmental disorder A dedicated Catholic, Asperger never joined Asperger’s syndrome named after him the Nazi party even following the Anschluss. had a disturbing past, a new book reveals. It saved him after the war but by his own Author Edith Sheffer – herself the mother admission “one went along with things” and of an autistic son – sets the scene in her his career prospered. In this painstakingly opening: “Hans Asperger believed he researched book Sheffer traces how he had unique insight into the minds of embraced Nazi ideals, his judgments on children, as well as a calling to shape handicapped children became harsher and he for Curative Education and urged their characters.” But she goes on to appeared to accept sterilisation policy. colleagues to send “difficult cases” to uncover a darker side which led to fatal Spiegelgrund. He was not himself on the consequences for many young patients at Following on from adult euthanasia, the Nazis list of practitioners prominent in the killing his Curative Education Clinic at Vienna’s rolled out a children’s programme. It involved system but associated with leaders. It is University’s Children’s Hospital. medical experiments and killing some with suggested he had a hand in transferring mental and physical disabilities or behavioural dozens of children to their deaths at Asperger was of a new generation of problems facilitated by interning problem Spiegelgrund. doctors who gained pre-eminence in youngsters. Vienna’s notorious children’s clinic Vienna after Jewish clinicians fled the at Spiegelgrund was set up for youth welfare Post-war Asperger distanced himself cradle of psychoanalysis and enlightened in 1940. Children were killed in Pavilion from his Nazi-era work. But his 1944 psychiatry. Reportedly socially awkward, 15 and those under observation whose thesis “The ‘Autistic Psychopaths’ in cool and distant but very ambitious fate hung in the balance were in Pavilion Childhood” defined the syndrome later Asperger left small town life for what was 17. At least 789 children died, barbiturates named after him. He described children once the centre of the Hapsburg Empire, were used with the official cause of death with severe difficulties socially, whose cultural capital of Europe and birthplace of mostly being pneumonia. Case histories are problems were sometimes compensated modernism. given and it makes for the most harrowing by a high level of original thought and and horrifying reading in the grimmest of expertise. After interest from distinguished By the age of 28 he was promoted over chapters. Correspondence with parents is British psychiatrist Lorna Wing it led to a senior Jewish colleague, becoming heart-rending. establishing Asperger’s syndrome in its head of the clinic. Child experts debated own category. autism and in 1938 he described autistic Asperger co-founded the Vienna Society Janet Weston

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR that the Nazis thought Churchill was a project is so well respected and which will Continued from page7 passenger on the same plane! hold special memories for me. despite a slightly messy plot, was masterly E. M. Feld, London N3 Maureen Berlinski, London NW9 suspenseful. Second was Cottage to Let in which Alistair Sim swamped the rest of the cast as the (apparently) bumbling counter- STOLPERSTEINE PERSECUTION IN HUNGARY espionage officer. As a second generation survivor and In the July issue you reported on a talk 81 years after my parents fled Berlin, I given by Marcus Ferrar about the (mis)- An all-time favourite must remain arranged to personally be present at the fortunes of a family in Hungary. To set Pimpernel Smith in which Leslie Howard installation of Stolpersteine at their last the record straight, and contrary to the (a Hungarian Jew who portrayed known addresses, as they married in implication in the report, Hungarian the essence of the traditional English February 1937 and fled in March 1937 for Jews were already persecuted from gentleman) rescued some early South Africa. 1942 onwards (and certainly did not live concentration camp victims. He lost his peaceably “until 1944”). The antisemitism life when a plane from Lisbon was shot It was indeed such a privilege to honour may not yet have been as virulent as in down and everybody ”knew” that the them outside their homes which was neighbouring countries but my own father incident was “on orders from above” supported by Stolpersteine.de. The event was taken into forced labour in 1942, as for the merciless way the film had guyed was also attended by neighbours and the were many others. Goering. Later, of course, it came out amazing artist Gunther Demnig, whose Mary Dillinger, London NW9

8 AJR Journal | August 2018 ART NOTES: by Gloria Tessler

The Fallen Man by Wilhelm Lehmbruck Die Eltern by Käthe Kollwitz

Outside the RA’s Summer Exhibition I noticed two wartime plaques: one honouring the artists killed in the two world wars from the Rifles Regiment, the other, the RA’s fallen art students. Who might these artists have become, had they lived?

Tate Britain’s Aftermath: Art in the Wake 1923 sketch: Prostitute and Disabled War Kelsey, an elegant woman with short hair of World War One examines the effect Veteran. Two Victims of Capitalism and a simple shift dress, has a serene, of the Great War on British, German contemplative expression; only her red and French art, much of it created by One hundred years have blurred the pointed shoes suggest a touch of coquetry. soldiers. Nothing here reflects military distinctions between friend and foe. Picasso’s Seated Woman by contrast, triumphalism: but on all sides in 1916, Heinrich Hoerle’s Cripple Portfolio: The is robustly sculptural; the fullness of the people wanted heroes. This did not Man with the Wooden Leg Dreams, slightly deshabillé figure in a chemise has work for Wilhelm Lehmbruck, whose or Conrad Felix Müller’s Soldier in the an earthy quality of eternal womankind, anguished, kneeling sculpture The Fallen Madhouse prove only too well the futility beyond the whims of fashion. Dorothy Man, designed for the war memorial in and mutuality of their suffering. Some Brett’s War Widows 1916 conveys its his home town of Duisburg in 1916, was artists chose remembrance, such as bleak message in a group portrait with sharply criticised by the German media. Stanley Spencer’s typically overpopulated a pregnant woman surrounded by a It remains a tragic epitaph for the artist Unveiling Cookham War Memorial, sombre sisterhood holding a white sheet, who could not reconcile his wartime almost obliterating the white, flag-draped one of them reading a letter. On all their experiences and committed suicide in cenotaph itself. faces you see a calm, sad luminosity. 1919. Jacob Epstein’s Torso in Metal That tragedy is nowhere more acute from his famous Rock Drill conveys the The exhibition also reflects on the than in Käthe Kollwitz’s woodcuts of mechanical impetus of man’s will to socio-political aftermath, such as Die grieving mothers – she lost her son in war, and yet within its technology you Internationale by Ingrid Griebel- the Great War. Die Eltern (The parents) sense, like Lehmbruck, human despair. Zietlow, who faithfully copied her father is a heart-stopping image of two bowed Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson’s Otto Griebel’s original (too fragile to down forms: they could be the stump of sardonically titled Paths of Glory sees the travel), showing workers demanding a broken tree, so palpable is their pain. fallen on the battlefield, and his painting social change. Edward Burra’s 1930 I would defy anyone to view her seven Ypres After the First Bombardment depicts Expressionist The Snack Bar, featuring images of war and remain unmoved. houses whose windows seem like terrified a barman carving slices of salami and a eyes. woman customer stuffing her face, seems Annely Juda Fine Art a hopeful reaction to wartime austerity. There are countless ways the tragedy of William Roberts’ The Dance Club 23 Dering Street war is evoked here: A flying, suspended presents an inter-war cabaret feeling with (off New Bond Street) angel, a simple array of helmets and a touch of menace. Tel: 020 7629 7578 the graphic pictures of disfigured faces Fax: 020 7491 2139 restored through plastic surgery. Otto After the war a shift in female political CONTEMPORARY Dix reveals the connection between attitudes occurred and Meredith PAINTING AND SCULPTURE prostitution and the war-scarred in his Frampton’s 1928 painting Marguerite

9 AJR Journal | August 2018

LETTER FROM ISRAEL BY DOROTHEA SHEFER-VANSON

WOMEN IN THE (female genital mutilation) which is still a young age, she just laughed and widely practiced in Egypt (and many said “For that you’ll have to read my MIDDLE EAST other countries of the Middle East and autobiography.” Africa). As a physician, she also condemns circumcision, the male version of the Saadawi has written books describing Catching an practice, contending that in both cases it her childhood and struggle for freedom interview on is a cruel and unnatural way of interfering and the rights of women, and her BBC television with the human body. battle against the brutal male tyranny with Nawal prevalent throughout Muslim society. al-Saadawi, the She avers that FGM is part of the She went into exile after her name Egyptian writer ideology that seeks to maintain the was put on a fundamentalist death list and activist at dominance of men over women, and was also imprisoned by previous the forefront of the battle for women’s promoting monogamy for women and regimes for her activities. Her books rights in that country, I realised that polygamy for men. “We live in a harsh, were banned in Egypt but she is there may yet be hope for women in patriarchal religious system,” she said, proud of the fact that they were read the Muslim world. claiming that the support shown by nonetheless, even gaining distribution some women for the continuation of in Saudi-Arabia. A few years ago, I shared the lift in the practice of FGM is evidence of their Oxford Street’s Marks and Spencer’s ‘slave mentality.’ That made me wonder However, there are some flickers of store with two ladies swathed in the whether that is the reason why Jewish light in the Muslim world. Saudi-Arabia blackest of veils with only their eyes women feel they need to cover their hair. now allows women to drive, has visible to the world. It occurred to me Rabbinical authorities in Israel maintain a reinstated cinemas in the country and then that if the Muslim attitude to tight hold on the customs and practices even allows women to attend football women is so deeply embedded that that stem from the age-old belief system matches. Women in Lebanon show this attire is maintained even in one that continues to prevail here, defying their hair and live pretty much as any of the most enlightened cities in the the trends of modern dress and the modern woman anywhere else. Yet Western world, there can be little hope exigencies of the climate. But that applies long-held attitudes of prejudice and for these poor souls. to ultra-orthodox men, too, so at least intolerance towards women are still there is some sort of equality there. the norm, and even among the Arabs Here in Israel such attire is not a living in Israel it is not uncommon to common sight, although the fanciful Nawal al-Saadawi claims that the encounter the so-called ‘honour killing’ headscarves of various shapes and present Egyptian ruler, Abdel Fattah of women by family members, for one hues worn by Muslim women are al-Sisi, is infinitely better than previous trumped-up reason or another. widespread. While there is very little leaders, even though, unlike the Muslim to distinguish Muslim men on the Brotherhood, he was not democratically In Israel, Jewish women are still subject bus or in the mall from the average elected. In her opinion the Muslim to outdated laws when it comes to Israeli male, when it comes to their Brotherhood would have imposed all marriage and divorce, and if a husband womenfolk old habits die hard, it manner of religious laws, on the grounds dies his brother is technically entitled to seems. There is a slight but delicate that everything comes from Allah. “To assert his right to the widow. In most distinction between the head-scarves play with religion is to play with fire,” cases, fortunately, the civil courts are worn by Muslim and orthodox Jewish she added, at the same time insisting that able to right the injustices that result, women, with the former extending the most Egyptians do not support the idea and a woman whose husband refuses covering to their neck and ears. of a religious state. to grant her a divorce (‘Get’) may have recourse to the rabbinical court. But it However, the eighty-seven year-old She has also campaigned against the can be a long and agonising process. lady I saw on my TV screen proudly practice of marrying young girls to older flaunted her shock of white hair and men. She herself was destined to marry Just as in the Muslim world, here too spoke freely about her struggle for such a man when she was only ten, but there is still a long way to go before women’s rights in her country, and resisted her parents’ plan. When asked women enjoy equality in the Jewish especially her campaign against FGM how she managed to do that at such religion.

Please note the AJR will take place on Save the Date! Annual Lunch SUNDAY Contact Susan Harrod and concert 21 OCTOBER 2018 for more details

10 AJR Journal | August 2018

AT YOUR SERVICE: Action Reconciliation Service for Peace

Established to help confront the legacy of Nazism and work towards a more just and peaceful world, the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) is a German organisation which is this year celebrating 60 years of working in countries with which Germany was once at war.

Its founder, Dr. Lothar Kreyssig, was a The AJR has for many years benefited from gave orders to finance war, extermination minister of the Evangelical Church in the services of an ARSP volunteer, and and concentration camps. Today the rooms East Germany who, in 1958, read the members may have come into contact with of the Reichs Bank are put to different use. following appeal to the annual Synod: some of these dedicated young Germans. They are the offices of the Foreign Ministry “We Germans started the Second World Last year’s volunteer at AJR was Merrit in Berlin and its doors are wide open and War and for this reason alone, more than Jagusch, who writes: receptive to politics of a new kind”. others, we became guilty of causing immeasurable suffering to humankind. “For 60 years ARSP has been working to At the closing ceremony, attended by many Germans have, in sinful revolt against rebuild that which the Nazis destroyed dignitaries, including the Israeli ambassador the will of God, exterminated millions in WW2: working against antisemitism to Germany, German president Frank- of Jews. Those of us who survived and and right-wing extremism. Each year 180 Walter Steinmeier spoke powerfully of the did not want this to happen did not do volunteers are sent to 13 different countries need to take Lothar Kreyssig’s words to enough to prevent it.....We plead that in order to work in social projects that heart – that Germany has no alternative but other nations, who suffered because of further the cause of understanding between to look at its history and to learn from it. us, will allow us with our hands and with peoples. Thus it was that after school I went He said that, due to ARSP, Germany is once our means to do something good in their abroad for a year with ARSP and was able again a respected country in Europe, fully countries as a sign of reconciliation and to do my voluntary service in London. This is committed to Israel’s inalienable rights and peace.” where I got to know Lilian Levy who told me to world peace. that ARSP eased her path to reconciliation The first tentative overtures were in the after decades of avoiding all contact The meeting was also addressed by three form of reciprocal projects to help in the with Germans. Despite her grim wartime young former volunteers, who spoke rebuilding of the cities of Dresden and experiences she was able to revise her view articulately and movingly about the impact Coventry, both bombed to destruction on Germany through her contact with the of their experiences on them, personally in WW2. Over the past 60 years this ARSP volunteers”. and politically. It was interesting to note that work has evolved to become more and many of the young volunteers were going more international, including placing In May the 60th anniversary of the on to a counter-demonstration against German volunteers within partner ARSP was marked in Berlin with a four- the right-wing AfD party that very same organisations in countries where the day programme of meetings, talks and afternoon. ARSP carries out projects, including, of workshops. Merrit says: “We gathered in the course, in Israel. very building where once the Reichs Bank For many years several AJR members will have had an ambivalent feeling towards Germany – unable to forgive past atrocities whilst also realising that young people today cannot be held responsible for the sins of their grandparents or great-grandparents. It is the fervent hope of the ARSP volunteers that they can normalise the relationship between those who were thus affected and those who are young, decent Germans today.

Celebrating the volunteers By Lilian Levy and Merrit Jagusch

11 AJR Journal | August 2018 Invitation to Germany

My invitation to Hamburg in early May 2018 was for the 73rd annual commemoration of 84 satellite slave labour camps, near Hamburg-Bremen. Over 42,800 slave labourers perished, through hard labour, starvation and ill treatment. The second commemoration ceremony was for the victims of the bombing of the ship Cap Arcona, only hours Mindu Hornick and Barbara Lober at the Cap Arcona memorial. It was the first time they had seen each before liberation. other for 73 years!

I was a slave labourer at an ammunition moving wreath laying ceremony, led by learned many things I did not know factory in Lieberstat Bilohe, near government and local authority officials. before – we were, of course, never Hamburg, having been transported from Members of the Jewish community of given any information at the time. I also Auschwitz along with 500 other women, Lübeck recited Kaddish. reconnected with Barbara Lober, now of together with my sister when we were Israel, who was in the camps with me aged about 12 and 14. We produced The commemoration for the end and my sister. It is amazing to consider bombs and grenades, right up until 19 of the war and the liberation of the Barbara was a good friend of Rosalind’s April 1945. On that date we were all concentration camps was attended mother in Czechoslovakia, before the taken from the ammunition factory and by many survivors and their families war. I was in the camp with Rosalind’s driven towards the Cap Arcona, because from Belarus, France, Great Britain, mother. I had not seen Barbara since Himmler had decreed there was to be Netherlands, Israel, Poland, Sweden, the 1945 but she quickly recognised me! no evidence left of either the camp or Czech Republic, Ukraine and Germany. Barbara was accompanied by her twin the slave labourers; we were all to be The speeches generously named many of grandsons and my own grandchildren murdered. The ship was scuttled or the visitors and tribute was paid to those have formed a lasting friendship with torpedoed, and with 6800 slave labourers who had attended in the past but were them. They will visit Israel in the very on board, it was the largest single loss no longer alive to do so. near future. of life at sea during WW2. Those that survived the sinking and tried to swim to There was another emotional ceremony, Mindu Hornick the shore were shot by German soldiers with the laying of more wreaths in front at the shoreline. Our train was actually of the torture chambers at Neuengamme, Note from Editor: In June Mindu Hornick bombed by the British on the journey, Hamburg. This was the administrative was awarded an Honorary Doctorate which killed half of the women with me, centre for the 84 satellite camps and is from the University of Worcester, in but it meant I did not reach the ship. now a museum and visitor centre, with recognition of her tireless work in Those of us who survived that bombing trained guides. The welcoming speeches, connection with Holocaust education. were then made to walk to the Port of the thanks given to the survivors The AJR congratulates her on this well- Lübeck, from where I was subsequently for returning and the songs were all deserved honour. liberated by the British. exceptionally moving. My daughter, Nicola, and my grandchildren, Alex and The site of the Bilohe labour camp Bebe, and I were invited to a seminar www.fishburnbooks.com and factory is now a preserved area of before an audience of 200 students, Jonathan Fishburn woodland. A bunker formerly existed reporters and historians. I was very buys and sells Jewish and Hebrew books, there to where we would pull lorries on proud of my family’s contribution to the ephemera and items of ropes, in order to store the ammunition evening. On the last day, I also made a Jewish interest. we had made. recording for the archives. He is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association. The Commemoration of the Cap Arcona I have to thank my cousin Rosalind Contact Jonathan on 020 8455 9139 catastrophe was at the impressive Eldar from Australia, for persuading me or 07813 803 889 memorial at Neustadt, on the shores to undertake this sad but informative for more information of the North Sea and included a journey, looking back to our past. I

12 AJR Journal | August 2018 LOOKING Bergerac deportees memorial FOR?

The AJR regularly receives who were in a private boarding school in Bognor Regis between messages from our members 1938-39 before being evacuated to and others looking for people or London. 020 8558 2827 for help in particular subjects. Here are some of the most KINDER FOR SAFE PASSAGE Ujjwal Krishna is an MA student recent requests – please get in at the University of Sussex who is touch directly with the person working on a special Kindertransport research project on behalf of the concerned if you can help. advocacy group Safe Passage. He would like to hear asap from any DECIPHERING LETTERS FROM 1939 Kinder willing to share their stories The Wiener Library will be hosting an about how they ended up in the UK online exhibition of letters in German and their experiences upon getting between a refugee child and his here. REMEMBER mother in 1939. Nik Pollinger would [email protected] like to hear from anyone who could BERGERAC help decipher the script, in order to DEAF, MUTE OR BLIND provide more information to those Amy Williams is seeking At the end of April this year Hebden Bridge visiting the exhibition. information specifically about the Rotary organised a trip to Bergerac in France. [email protected] Kindertransports which brought deaf and mute children to the UK as well Walking through the small park in front of BOGNOR BOARDERS as children who were helped by the our hotel I came across some monuments: AJR member Marion is looking for Jewish Blind Society. a large one dedicated to the First World details of any Czech Jewish teenagers [email protected] War and two less distinctive and cared for monuments relating to WW2, one for the Internees and the other to the memory of 17,828 Deportees, who were all Police Event exterminated. In 2015 a plaque was added detailing AJR members enjoyed hearing the dangers of the internet and the names of concentration camps, many Assistant Commissioner DC Martin radicalisation – to name but a few of which I had never heard of, where the Hewitt speak in depth about his career topics. Members had many questions deportees ended up. with the Metropolitan Police. which DC Hewitt answered in detail. DC Hewitt outlined the work of A most interesting and informative I discovered that Bergerac had been a key Police Liaison Officers following the event and we are very grateful to DC centre for the resistance movement during Grenfell tragedy and discussed policing Hewitt for taking time out of his busy 1939 – 1945, when resistance workers met in the modern age of gang culture, schedule. secretly to send radio messages to London.

I was born a ‘hidden child’ in the Netherlands in 1943 and regularly give my testimony at Beth Shalom, mainly to secondary and university students.

Wherever I travel in the world I somehow always find reminders of this dreadful fearful period in our history. The Holocaust should never be forgotten!

Assistant Commissioner DC Martin Hewitt with the AJR’s Susan Harrod Hanneke Dye

13 AJR Journal | August 2018

Around SCOTLAND ANNUAL GATHERING the AJR

Most of these reports are summaries of much longer reviews which, due to lack of space, we are unable to include in their entirety. If you would like further information on the actual event please contact either the author or the AJR We were delighted to welcome Ruth Davidson, Leader of the Scottish regional co-ordinator. members from Arran, Edinburgh, Conservatives, as our guest speaker. Glasgow, Newcastle and St. Andrews In a world where antisemitism and ealing to Edinburgh’s Salisbury Road nationalism are on the rise again, Lynne Bradley entertained us with singing, Synagogue. she urged survivors to speak of their poetry and amazing anecdotes from experiences so that young people can famous screen and stage musicals. She Our annual Scottish gathering is a hear and learn at first-hand of the gave a particularly fascinating insight into wonderful opportunity for members to terrible events of the Holocaust. A film the making of the films of The Wizard meet, socialise and discuss interesting crew, working on a Kindertransport of Oz, West Side Story and Singing in topics. The bond uniting all survivors documentary, was present at the event. the Rain. now includes our 2nd Gen members Leslie Sommer and we were delighted to see a large To attend AJR meetings in Edinburgh, number of them at this meeting. Glasgow, Dundee, Newcastle or a 2nd PINNER Gen meeting contact Agnes Isaacs Brad Ashton spoke on “Scams and how We were most privileged to have [email protected] to avoid them”. (Not the sort of scams that you – and we – were thinking of but those of the hilarious variety perpetrated by entertainers). Lots of good laughs and some giggles too! AUGUST GROUP EVENTS Henri Obstfeld All AJR members are welcome at any of these events; you do not have to be affiliated to that particular group. As the exact timings of these events are often subject to last minute changes we do not include them in the AJR Journal and suggest you contact CONTACTS the relevant regional contact for full details.

Ilford 1 August Andrew Leigh – Time to move: when and where? Susan Harrod Events and Outreach Manager Pinner 2 August Annual Garden Party 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Dundee 2 August High tea at the botanic gardens Wendy Bott Kensington 6 August Social get-together Northern Outreach Co-ordinator 07908 156 365 [email protected] Ealing 7 August Film afternoon: “Everything is a Present – the life of Agnes Isaacs Alice Hertz Sommer” – still playing piano at 106 years old Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Nottingham 9 August Social get-together and lunch 07908 156 361 [email protected] Prestwich 13 August Social get-together Ros Hart Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Edinburgh 15 August Theatre outing to see Daniel Cainer at the festival 07966 969 951 [email protected] Edgware 15 August Andrew Leigh – Time to move: when and where? Eva Stellman Glasgow 2nd Gen 16 August Outing to Nardinis in Largs Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Kingston / Surrey 20 August Social get-together 07904 489 515 [email protected] Karen Diamond Birmingham 21 August Strawberries and Cream Tea – a summer get-together Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Hull 21 August Lunch at East Park Gardens 07966 631 778 Leeds CF 22 August Summer Party, with piano-playing vicar Roger Quick [email protected] KT-AJR (Kindertransport) North West London 28 August Jo Briggs – Editor of AJR Journal Susan Harrod Glasgow Book Club 30 August Book group meeting 020 8385 3070 [email protected] Muswell Hill 30 August Joint with North London – Annual Lunch with Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Lynne Bradley entertaining Henri Obstfeld 020 8954 5298 [email protected] North London 30 August Annual get-together – Lynne Bradley entertaining.

14 AJR Journal | August 2018 A different channel

The Channel Islands have been featured regularly in the AJR Journal over the years, as the only part of Great Britain to be occupied by the Germans during the war. Here AJR member Dr Elena Rowland, who originates from Slovakia, tells us about her recent visit to the beautiful island of Jersey.

The picturesque island of Jersey

As the child of Holocaust survivors I was and big houses. The supply of food was cut Germans wanted to be friendly with the aware of atrocities against the Jewish off; there was no electricity, only candles. locals, buying sweets for the children; population in Europe but knew little about St. Helier was at the point of starvation they encouraged the locals to inform on occupation in Jersey. Actually, growing when, eventually, the Red Cross supplied their neighbours, and girls to find soldiers up in Europe, I did not even know where the parcels which saved many lives. as boyfriends – but not everyone bowed Jersey was. under the pressure of occupation. The The Germans regarded Jersey as a strategic walls of the tunnels commemorate local If you visit Jersey use your time effectively point. In December 1940 there were 1,750 people who were heroes; they sheltered and go to see the War Tunnels which Germans in Jersey, within a year there escaped Russian slaves or helped Jews. were actually the German underground were 11,500. The entire population had to Some Islanders were rewarded for hospital and wards used for recovering be registered: 21 October 1940 was the their bravery in March 1966 because soldiers. On the walls of the tunnel is registration date for all Jews, and at the end they showed compassion towards the evidence of occupation, with photographs of May 1941 all Jewish businesses were Russian slaves, some hid Jews. Among and videos of forced military control of banned from trading. Orders from Berlin in them were Dorothea Webber and Albert the Island. The Germans used the slaves 1942 decreed that the islanders must give Bedane who received the Israeli honour from Eastern Europe, Spain and Portugal up wireless sets: to possess a radio was an of “Righteous Amongst the Nations”. to work in inhumane conditions in order offence. However, Mrs Louisa Gould was to expand the tunnels, but they were betrayed by the locals and was deported never completed. to a concentration camp and thence to a gas chamber. Jersey was taken by force on 1 July 1940 and occupation ended in May 1945. The On 9 May 1945 Jersey was liberated by majority of the population decided to stay the Royal Navy and British Army after in Jersey, but children and people who five years of occupation; there were had family in the UK were evacuated to scenes of great jubilation and from the the mainland. Islanders suffered greatly balcony of the Pomme d’Or Hotel the under occupation: they were cut off from Union flag was unfurled. On the 50th information, the local paper was under anniversary of war’s end a sculpture by censorship of the Germans, trees were cut Philip Jackson was unveiled by the Prince down, and the Germans took over hotels One of the displays in the Jersey Wall Tunnels of Wales in Liberation Square.

15 AJR Journal | August 2018

OBITUARIES

Gena Turgel Born Krakow 1 February 1923 Died London 7 June 2018

Hundreds of tributes have been paid to the 95-year-old ‘shining light’ who tended to a dying Anne Frank, survived the camps, married her British rescuer, and shared her story with millions of people around the world. This is a short summary of her life.

Gena Goldfinger was the youngest of the nine children of Samuel and Esta Goldfinger, who ran a small Krakow textile business. Samuel had fought for the Austrian Army during WW1 but died the year before Hitler came to power.

Gena was 16, with dreams of Turgel, then a sergeant working for was told in the BBC2 series ‘What did becoming a doctor, when the Nazis British military intelligence, was one of you do in the war, Auntie?’ and in Gena’s bombed Krakow in September 1939. the first Allied soldiers on the scene. He best-selling book, I Light a Candle. In 1941 she and her mother and four fell in love with the hollow eyed, starving of her siblings moved to the ghetto. girl while rounding up the SS guards for The journey took her to thousands of interrogation. Stunned, she accepted schools and educational establishments One brother was shot by the Nazis, his proposal and three days later, they across the country, sharing a testimony another fled and was never seen celebrated their engagement. They that no one who heard her speak will again. Her married sister with her married in October 1945 and Gena’s ever forget. husband were both shot after trying wedding dress, made from a British army to smuggle food into the Plaszow parachute, is now in London’s Imperial Everyone who was lucky enough to know labour camp. Then in the winter of War Museum. Gena personally will remember her as 1944 Gena and her mother and sister beautiful, elegant and poised. Emeritus were forced to spend four weeks on The Turgels settled and spent their lives Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks described her as a death march to Buchenwald, before in Stanmore, where Gena maintained a “a blessing and inspiration”. being taken by cattle train to Bergen- perfect home. Her mother survived until Belsen. the age of 99 and attended grandson Gena Turgel is survived by her three Jonny’s barmitzvah, grateful that the children, grandchildren and great There Gena worked in the hospital family line had not been ended by the grandchildren. Norman predeceased where she nursed Anne Frank as Nazis. her. she died of typhus. After the camp was liberated in May 1945 Norman The story of Gena and Norman Turgel Jo Briggs

16 AJR Journal | August 2018

WHY NOT TRY AJR’S MEALS ON WHEELS SERVICE?

The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels service delivered to your door once a week. The meals are freshly cooked every week by Kosher to Go. They are then frozen prior to delivery. The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal (soup, main course, desert) plus a £1 delivery fee. Our aim is to bring good food to your door without the worry of shopping or cooking. For further details, please call AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070.

LEO BAECK HOUSING ASSOCIATION CLARA NEHAB HOUSE RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME Small caring residential home Friedel Barton with large attractive gardens Born 8 August 1918 close to local shops and public transport Died 25 May 2018 25 single rooms with full en suite facilities. 24 hour Permanent and Respite Care Friedel was born Frieda Fanger in Berlin to parents who had fled from Entertainment & Activities provided. Latvia and Lithuania. Her father was a master tailor and her mother Ground Floor Lounge and Dining Room • Lift access to all floors. helped customers choose styles and fabrics. For further information please contact: The Manager, Clara Nehab House, Friedel loved to read and did well at school. moved to a job in Quakerhaus in 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NW11 0DA Unfortunately her reward for coming top of Vienna and they spent several happy Telephone: 020 8455 2286 the class was a copy of “Mein Kampf”! years there. The Quakers provided a discreet venue for meetings between Friedel hoped to become a nursery teacher Soviet and Western diplomats, enabling but, thanks to the Nuremberg laws, the the powers to come to an agreement only training she could undertake was on mutual withdrawal from a neutral beauty therapy. As life was getting hard Austria in 1956. BOOK SALE for even secular Jews she wrote to King George VI for permission to come to The family then returned to Britain Britain. She begged her parents to also flee and settled in Hendon. Friedel took Germany and, thanks to a guarantor, they a secretarial course and landed a job settled in Leeds. Of their extended family at University of London assisting Dr only one aunt and uncle survived, who are Basil Bernstein in his research in Child now memorialised in Dresden. Psychology. She also developed an interest in Spiritual Healing, gaining In Britain Friedel worked for the a diploma to practice as a healer. She International Volunteer Service for Peace continued to work at the University where she met William Barton, a Quaker until the age of 70. Jacques Lipchitz and conscientious objector. They married in 1942 in Cambridge, near Bill’s family home, After Bill’s death in 1988 Friedel moved Master Drawings and became wardens in a Quaker hostel for to the South coast. Her final home was 60 pages, extensively referenced Jewish refugees. in Suffolk near her daughter and son- and illustrated, softback in-law and grandsons Simon and Oliver. RRP £20 – SALE PRICE £10 – Free P&P After the war they moved to the Midlands. She will be sorely missed. + Special Offer – FREE COPY 80 pages In 1946 their son Paul was born and in Highlights from the Ben Uri Collection 1949 their daughter Claire. William then Claire Duncan [email protected] | www.benuri.org

17 2778_BU_AJR_booksales.indd 3 14/02/2018 15:12 AJR Journal | August 2018 Tante Anna remembered at Bunce Court

The AJR unveiled a commemorative plaque in honour of Anna Essinger at Bunce Court on 25 June 2018. Anna Essinger was the Founder and Headmistress of Bunce Court School, which closed in 1948, and this 70th anniversary ceremony was attended by a number of old ‘Bunce Courtians’ and family- The Old Bunce Courtians left to right Gabriele Foti, Michael Jackson, Heidi Goldsmith, Ruth Danson, members of Ms Essinger. Leslie Brent, Karl Grossfield, Susi Davids, Heinz Redwood, Martin Lubowski

Anna Essinger was a German Jew born everything! The most important thing I to their adopted homeland. We have in 1879. In 1933, due to the impending learnt from her was that we were all equal unveiled plaques to Sir Rudolf Bing at the Nazi threat in her homeland, she moved and we all counted, whatever our academic Edinburgh Festival and at Glyndebourne. her school with its 66 mostly Jewish pupils ability, as long as we did our best.” Other plaques have commemorated the to safety in England, re-establishing the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist, Sir Hans institution in Otterden, Kent. Ex-pupil Martin Lubowski, 87, said, “Tante Krebs, and Sir Ludwig Guttmann who Anna was wonderful but fierce! We all founded the Paralympics. We have also The school was called New Herrlingen had to do manual work in the house and installed a plaque on the site of the Cosmo School (after the school left behind in gardens as well as our academic work. restaurant in Swiss Cottage, in London, a Germany) but came to be known as Bunce Tante Anna gave me a book on flowers famous meeting place for the refugees. Court. Essinger also established a reception for my birthday. I thought it was for girls camp for children who came to Britain so I asked if she would change it for a Debra Barnes on the Kindertransports, some of whom dictionary, which she did. I can’t believe I continued at the school. The last pupils to had the guts to ask her!” Michael Newman, CEO of the AJR, writes: join the school were child camp survivors of “Having been fortunate to attend, I have the Holocaust, by which time Essinger had Ex-pupil Heidi Goldsmith, 85, said, “I was to add that this was one of the best events taught and cared for over 900 children. here when I was seven years old. I loved it we have done. It was a great tribute to a here. I learnt so many skills which I still use. great lady whose character and pioneering The Bunce Court School alumni were Thanks to Tante Anna I can do everything work had an inspiring and profound impact devoted to the school and organised around the house: tiling, laying floors, on many of our members”. reunions for 55 years after it closed. ‘Tante decorating – everything.” Anna’ remained in contact with many of them for the rest of her life, which she AJR Trustee Frank Harding, said: “It is with spent at Bunce Court. great pleasure that we commemorate the life of Anna Essinger by recognising the The plaque is the brainchild of the illustrious devotion and care she gave to pupils at zoologist and immunologist Professor Bunce Court, many of whom had been Leslie Baruch Brent, a former pupil at separated from their families. We would Bunce Court. It states that Anna Essinger like to thank Julia Miller, current owner of is “remembered with affection by so Bunce Court, for generously allowing us to many for her great foresight, progressive install this plaque on her property. educational endeavour, wisdom and compassion.” 88 year-old ex-pupil Susi “Through the AJR plaque scheme we are Davids said, “Tante Anna was fantastic. honouring prominent Jewish émigrés from She was virtually blind but she noticed Nazism who made a significant contribution Frank Harding unveils the plaque

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AJR CARD AND GAMES CLUB Monday 13 August 2018 at 1.00pm AJR FILM CLUB at North Western Reform Synagogue, Alyth Gardens, Temple Fortune, London NW11 7EN Bridge, card games, backgammon, scrabble. You decide. PAPERCLIPS £7.00 per person, inc lunch Booking is essential – when you book please let us know your choice of game. Please either call Ros Hart on 07966 969951 or email [email protected]

JOSEPH PEREIRA Kindertransport A special interest group of (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) The Association of Jewish Refugees is now available for DIY repairs and general maintenance. LUNCH No job too small, Wednesday 8 August 2018 very reasonable rates. At Alyth Gardens Synagogue on MONDAY 13 September 2018 Please telephone 07966 887 485. 12.30pm at 12.30pm We are delighted that we will be joined by James Bulgin from Lunch of smoked salmon bagels, Danish The Imperial War Museum, London pastries and tea or coffee will be served first: PillarCare Paperclips is a 2004 documentary film Quality support and care at home written and produced by Joe Fab, and directed by Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab, about the Paper Clips Project, in which a middle  Hourly Care from 4 hours – 24 hours school class tries to collect 6 million paper  Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care clips to represent the 6 million Jews killed  Convalescent and Personal Health Care by the Nazis.  Compassionate and Affordable Service James is Head of Content for the new Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War £8.00 per person inc lunch  Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Museum. He holds an MA in the subject of BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL  Registered with the CQC and UKHCA the Holocaust, and is in the latter stages of a PhD at Royal Holloway College, University Please either call Ros Hart Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 of London, under the Crosslands scholarship on 07966 969951 or email [email protected] PILLARCARE THE BUSINESS CENTRE Call Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 36 GLOUCESTER AVENUE or email [email protected] LONDON NW1 7BB PHONE: 020 7482 2188 £7.00 per person. Booking is essential. FAX: 020 7900 2308 JACKMAN . www.pillarcare.co.uk SILVERMAN COME TO THE SEASIDE COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS switch on electrics Rewires and all household electrical work PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 Mobile: 0795 614 8566

Telephone: 020 7209 5532 CATERINA ANDREAE [email protected] TRANSLATOR Tuesday 14 August 2018 English to German / Join us for a delicious Fish & Chip lunch German to English and stroll along Southend sea front Books Bought No job too small or too big Coach Leaving Finchley Road and Competitive rates Modern and Old Edgware. and references provided Eric Levene 00 34 971 886 566 Contact Susan Harrod on 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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KINDERTRANSPORT @ 80 Official Commemoration Event

On the afternoon of Thursday 15 this country’s proud history of providing November 2018 there will be an sanctuary to those fleeing conflict official commemoration event for and persecution and those British those 10,000 children who arrived citizens who offered help and homes to on the Kindertransport on the eve of vulnerable children. WW2. The event will be open to everyone The event will mark 80 years to connected to the Kindertransport: Attendance is by invitation only and the day when Jewish, Quaker and the Kinder especially, but also their capacity is limited, so please email community leaders met with Prime descendants, the foster families who [email protected] Minister Neville Chamberlain to ask took in Kinder and/or their descendants, (or ask AJR to email on your behalf) if Britain to help Jewish refugees fleeing those who assisted in organisations, you would like to come or nominate Nazi persecution. The commemoration faith groups or as individuals and those someone else. will recognise the great contributions representing faith groups and refugee to Britain of the Kinder, and celebrate organisations active then and now. Lord Alf Dubs, Barbara Winton Special Memorial Concert

The Wiener Library has announced on 22 November 2018 in central Tickets priced £30 have just been details of a special memorial concert London. It will start at 18.30 with a released. Book now at to mark the 80th Anniversary of VIP reception at which Dame Esther www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/Whats-On Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport Rantzen DBE will be the special guest. or call 020 7636 7247.

FANCY A CRUISE? In search of a producer

A German author, Ursula among colleagues who had never Krechel, won the Frankfurt Book left their posts after the war and Prize in 2012 with her novel were continuing to interpret Nazi Full details are now available of the ‘AJR Cruise’ this “Landgericht” (County Court). laws in their own interest. Autumn. It is a fictionalised account of Richard Kornitzer’s return to “Landgericht” became so popular We will be cruising on P&O Ventura, leaving Germany in 1949 to reclaim his that a German TV company Southampton on Monday 11 November, returning home and help, as a former judge commissioned a two part film that on Friday 23 November (11 nights). Ports of call are in prewar Berlin, to restore justice. was broadcast in Jan. 2017 and Lisbon, Valencia, Cartagena, Gibraltar, and Cadiz. He met further humiliation: again in Feb. 2018. Kornitzer’s discounted as a stateless displaced daughter, Ruth Barnet, who had AJR staff will be on hand throughout and will also person and denied a job as ‘not already written her own book accompany any excursions. Those of you who have German’ as well as flagrant about her father’s story, decided cruised before will be aware that the ship provides antisemitism and accusations of to write it as a stage play, and is a full itinerary of events throughout the day with a disloyalty by swanning off on now looking for a producer who wide range of activities to suit all tastes. an exotic holiday (8 years exile can raise funds to produce the in Shanghai!). When his fight to play professionally, preferably in For more details contact Susan Harrod on reclaim his profession as a judge London. Please contact Ruth on [email protected] or 020 8385 3070. succeeded, he found himself [email protected].

Published by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a company limited by guarantee. Registered office: Winston House, 2 Dollis Park, Finchley, London N3 1HF Registered in England and Wales with charity number: 1149882 and company number: 8220991 Telephone 020 8385 3070 e-mail [email protected] AssociationofJewishRefugees @TheAJR_ For the latest AJR news, including details of forthcoming events and information about our services, visit www.ajr.org.uk Printed by FBprinters, Unit 5, St Albans House, St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QB Tel: 020 8458 3220 Email: [email protected] The AJR Journal is printed on 100% recycled material and posted out in fully recyclable plastic mailing envelopes.

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