VOLUME 8 NO. I JANUARY 2008 journal Association of Jeu/ish Refugees 'Peace for our time' rides again ichael Gonnarty, MP, Chairman they would not support military action of the House of Commons against Germany, even though the German MEuropean Scmtiny Committee, forces in the Rhineland were too weak to distinguished himself recently by saying offer effective resistance. When Hitler that Foreign Secretary David Miliband's marched into Austria in March 1938, the attitude to the new European Treaty British government reacted with supine reminded him of Neville Chamberlain's passivity. And when Hitler began to put declaration that the Munich Agreement of pressure on Czechoslovakia later that year. September 1938 had brought 'peace for our Chamberlain flew to Germany for time'. Prime Minister Chamberlain's ill-fated negotiations, which ended with the betrayal words have become synonymous with his of the Czechs at Munich and the surrender policy of appeasement, which was intended of the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia to preserve peace for Britain by buying to (iermany. Hitler off with concessions, in particular Why, after all, should Britain become territorial ones, at the expense of other, embroiled in European matters? Why, smaller nations. asked Chamberlain, should we risk war for 'a quarrel in a far away country between Accusing a politician of part-Jewish Churchill with Lord Halifax in Downing origin of modelling his strategy on the street, 1940 (akg-images/ulUtein bild) people of whom we know nothing'? appeasement of the Nazis showed a crass Chamberlain here prefigured the Euro- degree of insensitivity. Connarty's remarks for inaction and a hands-off attitude to sceptic rhetoric that decries any alignment also demonstrated a sadly defective grasp events in Europe. of British policy with those of European of history. For the lesson of the appeasement When Chamberlain became prime min­ nations whose languages one cannot period, which reached its height in 1938 and ister in 1937, Britain faced superior German understand, whose capitals one cannot spell, ended definitively only when Britain military power in Europe, as well as having and whose history and culture one knows refused to surrender in May/June 1940 as to commit considerable forces to the defence nothing about. France fell, is not the simplistic Eurosceptic of her imperial possessions overseas. Cham­ Chamberlain's refusal to engage lesson that Connarty seems to draw from it berlain decided that the only strategy positively with other European democracies, - that negotiating with Europeans is always possible in this situation was to make con­ like France and Czechoslovakia, ended in likely to end by making concessions and cessions to Hitler, in the hope of buying time world war. His successor, Churchill, took a thus betraying the national interest. for rearmament - the strategy of appease­ very different line. Churchill was a In reality, the policy of appeasement ment. It was, of course, a fundamental error convinced Francophile; in June 1940 his itself was largely rooted in a distinctly to treat Hitler as if he were an old-fashioned govemment made the remarkable proposal Eurosceptic policy towards events in nationalist who could be bought off with of an indissoluble union between the British Europe, a sad tale of drift and neglect of our limited territorial gains. But underlying and French states, in the hope of keeping European alliances that led Britain to the that failure of judgment was another seri­ France in the war. Any prime minister who catastrophic situation confronting her in ous error: the failure to promote alliances did anything remotely similar today would 1940. Faced with the threat from Germany with European countries that might have be branded a traitor by the Eurosceptic before 1914, British politicians had reacted formed a common front against Hitler while press. with statesmanship, winding up their Germany was still weak. The historic debates in the War Cabinet colonial quarrels with France and Russia so Instead of standing foursquare with in late May 1940, resulting in the decision as to build an alliance with those countries France, the British govemment repeatedly to fight on against Hitler, have been solid enough to withstand German failed to back its principal potential ally analysed in John Lukacs's gripping study aggression. But after 1933, faced with a against Hitler when the latter began his Five Days in May and in Ian Kershaw's renewed threat from the same quarter, the campaign of expansion. When he sent forces Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That National Government, under Ramsay into the demilitarised Rhineland in 1936, Changed the World 1940-1941. Using MacDonald and then Stanley Baldwin, opted the British made it clear to the French that continued page 5, col. 3 AJR JOURNAL JANUARY 2008 n 8 November 2007, Siegbert Shakespeare to express his own concerns, Prawer, Taylor Professor Emeritus A fond farewell the most striking was perhaps Freud's use Oof German at Oxford, delivered of figures like Hamlet to reveal his own what he called his valedictory lecture: ambivalent attitudes towards his father, 'Sigmund Freud's Shakespearean Auto­ notably Heine, and formidably erudite and, in his scientific works, of children in biography'. His farewell lecture was an studies like Karl Marx and World general towards their parents. enthralling experience, though tinged Literature, not forgetting The Penguin The panorama included Hamlet, both with sadness for the many colleagues and Book of Lieder and a lecture on the in his loyalty to Old Hamlet, his father, students who gathered to hear it. Yiddish poet A. N. StencI. In recent years, and in his revulsion towards Claudius, the Professor Prawer was born in Cologne he has written, as he puts it, 'three books usurper-father who claims his mother, a in 1925, the son of Jewish parents who on Thackeray and four and a half on film'. revulsion intensified by the consequent emigrated to Britain in 1939. He is the His penultimate lecture, given in 2006 at foregrounding of his mother's sexuality; brother of the distinguished author and London University, was on 'Freud between Lear and the tragedy of his relationship screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who Goethe and Darwin', encompassing no with the modest, loyal Cordelia; Brutus wrote the screenplays for the delightful less than three giants of the world of and Caesar; and, among Freud's real-life Shakespeare Wallah, for the film of her ideas. patients, the troubled feelings of the Rat own Booker Prize-winning novel Heat and Readers of this journal will know Man towards his father Shakespeare's Dust, and for the much admired E. M. Siegbert Prawer from his contributions to adage that the wish is father to the Forster adaptations A Room with a View our letters' page, which have in recent thought was, said Prawer, Freud's and Howard's End, In which last Siegbert years ranged effortlessly from Interpretation of Dreams in a nutshell. Prawer plays a cameo role. Shakespeare to Wilfred Owen. But he was The lecture was a tour de force based Professor Prawer began his career as a also familiar to an earlier generation of on a profound knowledge of the works lecturer in the high-powered department readers: over 40 years ago, AJR of both its subjects and on a range of of German at Birmingham, where Roy Information carried an admiring report on insights that illuminated the way that Pascal had assembled a team that a lecture he had given on the Jewish Freud's thinking reflected, and was included Richard Hinton Thomas, who contribution to German lyric poetry, on shaped by, his reading of Shakespeare. went on to found the department of 17 January 1963 at the Leo Baeck The Jewish dimension was also present, German at Warwick, and W. B. Lockwood, Institute, London. in the form of the uneasy relationship the internationally known expert on In his farewell lecture. Professor Prawer between the emancipated, secularised Germanic languages. Evidently, Prawer reminded us that Freud was given a copy Jews of the Western, German-speaking flourished amidst this group of Marxist- of the Schlegel-Tieck translation of cities, like Freud, and the Eastern inclined left-wingers, for in 1952 he Shakespeare at the age of eight, in 1864, European, Orthodox shtetl world of their published his German Lyric Poetry, a on the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's forefathers: among all the references to collection of beautifully crafted analyses birth. He then delivered an analysis of the The Merchant of Venice in Freud's of poems ranging from Klopstock to Rilke. role played by Shakespeare in Freud's writings, Professor Prawer found no His output of publications has been writings that was erudite, stimulating and mention of that classic ghetto figure, prodigious and wide-ranging: he has stylish. Ofthe many fascinating instances Shylock. written a number of books on poets. he cited where Freud employed Anthony Grenville RONALD CHANNING joined the AJR in wishing to work any longer 1994 as editorial assistant to its Saying goodbye on Sundays due to family distinguished magazine editor Richard Three AJR members of commitments, she began Grunberger He came with experience of staff have retired working two days a week at industry, voluntary organisations, journal­ reception. Dee says she has ism, photography spent many happy years ^^^^ Ernie Goldmann, the AJR's part-time and knowledge of working for an 'amazing' ^ Accountant, was born in Upper Silesia. the Jewish com­ organisation and that the AJR 'is truly a Because his father was registered with the munity, as well as dedicated charity that gives its members Jewish Blind Society in requisite literary, all the support and care they need. I will Germany, the family was editing, layout miss all our lovely members with their able to liaise with the and design skills.