VOLUME 17 NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2017 JOURNAL The Association of Jewish Refugees

“Where they SHANA TOVAH The AJR trustees, staff and volunteers would like to wish all our members and readers a burn books...” very Happy New Year to be filled with good health and happiness.

5778 promises to be an action packed year for the AJR. Our teams will be visiting hundreds of our members and organising dozens of regional meetings, events and outings throughout the year, including a five-day trip to Norfolk next Spring.

We are looking ahead to November 2018 which marks the 80th anniversary of the creation of the Kindertransport following the catastrophe of the Kristallnacht. Work has already begun to plan a special series of events to mark this significant milestone.

Our role as the leading benefactor of Holocaust educational and remembrance projects and programmes will also continue alongside our core mission to deliver our critical social and welfare services.

With best wishes for a sweet, peaceful and healthy Shana Tova. The famous lines ‘Das war ein Vorspiel nur; dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen’ (‘That was merely Royal visit to Stutthof...... 3 a prelude; where they burn books, they end up by burning people’) What History teaches us...... 4 Letter from Israel...... 5 come from Almansor, a little-known drama by the great German- Letters to the Editor...... 6 & 7 Jewish poet and satirist Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). The lines have Art Notes...... 8 At your service: AJR Volunteers...... 9 frequently been seen as foretelling how the burning of books under Reviews...... 10 & 11 the National Socialist regime led to the incineration of human bodies Robert Capa photojournalist...... 12 International Tracing Service...... 13 in the Holocaust. The words are inscribed on a memorial plaque on Around the AJR...... 14 & 15 How Samson Wright helped doctors...... 16 the Bebelplatz (formerly Opernplatz) in Berlin, to commemorate Looking for...... 17 the first burning of 20,000 books on 10 May 1933. Some 93 book Obituaries...... 18 News...... 20 burnings followed between May and October 1933, in 70 towns and cities across the Reich. AJR Team Chief Executive Michael Newman Heine’s drama – performed only once in a former servant of the family of the Finance Director David Kaye Brunswick in 1823 - takes place around title figure Almansor. Almansor, recently Heads of Department 1500 in southern Spain, against the returned to Granada from exile, expresses HR & Administration Karen Markham background of brutal persecution of his horror (‘Mir starrt die Zunge im Munde‘ Social Services Sue Kurlander Community & Volunteer Services Carol Hart Muslims by the Spanish Inquisition, which – ’I am rendered speechless…’) at the sought to eradicate Islam (and Judaism) burning of the Koran, the most sacred of AJR Journal from the newly united Christian Kingdom Islamic texts, on the orders of Ximenes de Consultant Editor Dr Anthony Grenville Editor Jo Briggs of Spain. The original quotation is spoken Cisneros, a Cardinal in the Catholic Church Secretarial/Advertisements Karin Pereira in the play by a Muslim named Hassan, Continued on page 2

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“Where They Burn Books...” continued and later Grand Inquisitor for Castile and León.

Hassan’s response to Almansor’s outrage was the famously prophetic lines quoted above. However the context to his remark is deeply ambiguous, since Hassan is himself an intolerant fanatic, far removed from the image of the wise, tolerant Muslim exemplified by the figure of Saladin in G E Lessing’s great drama of religious tolerance, Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise) (1779). Hassan, by contrast, glories in his memories of raiding parties that attacked Christian settlements and slaughtered their inhabitants. His faith never wavered, he boasts; the cries of his Berlin book burning memorial enemies in their death agonies and the church bells that rang out in mourning and of the restrictions imposed on him as politics, but the latter, when it arrived, sounded in his ears ‘süß wie Wollust’ a Jew, albeit converted. In his essay Zur would usher in an era of unprecedented (‘sweet as voluptuousness’). Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie savagery: in Deutschland (On the History of Religion Heine is best known as one of Germany’s and Philosophy in Germany) (1834), he ‘The thought precedes the action, as very greatest poets. His lyric poetry, like warned of the dangers of a resurgence lightning precedes thunder. The German ‘Die Lore-Ley’ (1824), with its celebrated of that ‘furor teutonicus’, so feared by thunder is, admittedly, German and not opening lines ‘Ich weiß nicht was soll es the ancient Romans, whose violence very agile, and it comes rolling up rather bedeuten, / Daß ich so traurig bin; / Ein would eclipse anything that had come slowly; but come it will, and when you Märchen aus [ur]alten Zeiten,/ Das kommt before. The essay predicts that the most hear it crash, as it has never crashed before mir nicht aus dem Sinn’ is almost unique in dangerous consequences will develop in the history of the world, then you will that it can stand comparison with Goethe. from the tradition of thought known know: the German thunder has at last [‘I know not if there is a reason/ Why I am as Naturphilosophie, a current in the reached its goal. At that sound, the eagles so sad at heart./ A legend of bygone ages/ philosophical tradition of German idealism will fall dead from the skies, and the lions Haunts me and will not depart’, translation that came to the fore at the time of in the furthest deserts of Africa will put by A.Z. Forman.] Heine, a left-wing radical, German Romanticism. their tails between their legs and creep was also a brilliant satirist, as demonstrated away into their regal dens. A drama will be in his verse epics Atta Troll (1843) - the Heine foresaw the threat latent in the played out in Germany in comparison with title figure is a dancing bear in chains - Romantics’ desire to cast off the restraints which the French Revolution will appear and Deutschland ein Wintermärchen of reason in favour of such elemental merely a harmless idyll.’ (Germany. A Winter’s Tale) (1844). For forces as nationalism and kinship of blood. the wit and sharpness of his satire, see the That would, he feared, conjure up the One of the opening scenes in that drama accompanying illustration of his poetic ancient demons of Germanic pantheism was the burning of the books. This tribute to the German censors, translated – with its accompanying delight in violence formed part of the campaign to eliminate as if it needed it – into English: and bloodshed, that ancestral bloodlust from German public life the freedoms that Christianity, for all its faults, had associated with democracy, the liberal The German Censors —— —— —— —— largely held in check. But the prospect culture of the Weimar Republic, any —— —— —— —— —— —— —— —— of the weakening of Christian values led independent political parties or public —— —— —— —— —— —— —— —— Heine to a prophetic vision of a world in bodies and any ideologies or systems of —— —— —— —— —— Idiots —— —— which the revolution that had taken place beliefs and values not closely aligned with —— —— —— —— —— —— —— —— in German philosophy would be followed National Socialism (‘Gleichschaltung’). —— —— —— —— —— by a radical revolution in German politics. The ‘cleansing’ of German literature Heine’s words are worth quoting, if only in and culture was spearheaded by the Heine was also possessed of the gift of my translation: ‘Then the old stone gods Deutsche Studentenschaft, the German sharply prophetic foresight, especially will rise from the long-deserted rubble and Student Union, increasingly infected by when it came to predicting the deadly shake the dust of a thousand years from the nationalistic and anti-Semitic ideology fruits of German nationalism. He did so their eyes, and Thor with his giant hammer of the extreme right. On 13 April 1933 it from France, where he had sought exile will at last leap up and shatter the Gothic issued a twelve-point proclamation entitled in 1831, impatient of the dead hand of cathedrals.’ In Germany, the revolution ‘Wider den undeutschen Geist!’ (‘Against reactionary governments in Germany in ideas had preceded the revolution in the un-German Spirit!’).

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Couched in the characteristically archaic and inflated language employed by the Nazis, the placard demanded the EMOTIONAL RETURN FOR ZIGI purification of German language and literature. Claiming that ‘Sprache und Schrifttum wurzeln im Volke’ (‘Language and literature are rooted in the people’), it adopted a racially based approach to the protection of ‘deutsches Volkstum’, the ethnic essence of the German Volk, against alien influences, the most dangerous of which was ‘the Jew, and those in thrall to him’. German literature must be purged of the ‘Jewish intellectualism’ that had allegedly dominated the literary landscape of pre- 1933 Germany, along with the ‘liberal symptoms of decay associated with it’. Accordingly, when on 10 March 1933 the torchlight procession of marching students and university professors consigned the ‘un-German’ works to the flames, the nine categories into which those works fell were dominated by Jewish authors: Sigmund Freud, for the emphasis he placed on instinctual life, Theodor Wolff and Georg Bernhard for the ‘racially alien’ [‘volksfremd’] elements in their journalism, or Alfred Kerr, the noted theatre critic, for his ‘arrogant Zigi and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Stutthof corruption’ [‘dünkelhafte Verhunzung’] of the German language. AJR member Zigi Shipper has been “The Duke and Duchess were both so inundated with calls from media all over ‘normal’ and easy to talk to,” said Zigi. Jews also featured prominently among the the world since he accompanied the Duke “They treated Manfred and me like ideological enemies of the Nazis, though and Duchess of Cambridge on their recent friends they had known for ages.” they were sometimes paired with non- visit to Stutthof. Jews: Karl Marx’s works were burned, Writing in the camp’s visitor book the along with those of Karl Kautsky, for Zigi, who was born in 1930 in Łód , Royal couple wrote: “This shattering espousing the doctrine of class conflict, Poland, has met lots of VIPs during his visit has reminded us of the horrendous divisive of the alleged racial unity of the 25 years’ involvement with the Holocaust murder of six million Jews, drawn from German ‘Volksgemeinschaft’, while the Educational Trust. He says that the across the whole of Europe, who died the work of satirical writer Kurt Tucholsky publicity provoked by the Royal visit was in the abominable Holocaust… All of was burned alongside Carl von Ossietzky unprecedented. us have an overwhelming responsibility for his attacks on German nationalism. to make sure that we learn the lessons One group of writers represented the “I was asked six weeks beforehand if I and that the horror of what happened is ‘decadent’, liberal elements that had would go to Stutthof for a VIP visit, but never forgotten and never repeated.” supposedly undermined the spirit of wasn’t told who I was going to meet,” he German national unity during the Weimar told the AJR Journal. “Then we were given This was the first visit back to Stutthof Republic: Heinrich Mann, Erich Kästner detailed briefings on protocol before the for Zigi, who spent months there in and Ernst Glaeser. But here the Nazis Cambridges arrived.” 1944 after two years in the Łód ghetto. showed themselves less than systematic: With the Soviets advancing, Zigi and whereas Heinrich Mann, like his brother Protocol didn’t seem to matter much to the rest of his group were sent on a Thomas, maintained a resolute opposition the Royal couple themselves however. death march via the German naval to Hitler in exile, Kästner (who actually Visibly moved to tears by their visit, they town of Neustadt, from where they witnessed the burning of the books profusely thanked Zigi and his fellow were liberated on 3 May 1945. Zigi in Berlin) remained in Germany, while survivor Manfred Goldberg for returning spent three months in hospital due to Glaeser, a minor figure, made his peace to the camp to share their memories with malnutrition, before being sent to a with National Socialism after returning to them. They even beckoned over family Displaced Persons’ camp. He finally Germany from Switzerland in 1939. None members of Zigi and Manfred who had arrived in the UK in 1947, where he of these, of course, was Jewish. been told by event organisers to stay married and had a family, and now lives behind the barrier. in Hertfordshire. Anthony Grenville

3 AJR Journal | September 2017 What History teaches us

History brings to life a world we he wrote “Terror over Europe. But that would have inhabited had we will come to an end eventually. The only question is – who will survive? I been born in earlier times. The myself have lived my life, but the young adage ‘learning from history’ has children should still have a happy life in much to commend it. front of them.”

Sometimes the past comes to life more On 17 November 1941 his final diary vividly, not so much through history entry appeared. Four days later Cohn, books or newsreel films but through with his wife and two daughters, as letters which can reveal much about the well as thousands of other Breslau Jews, writers’ feelings. Regretfully, nowadays were forcibly taken to an assembly camp letter-writing has been virtually replaced from which they were transported by by email correspondence or texting – a railway to Kowno in Lithuania and killed loss to the historian as well as to the rest by machine guns fired by SS men and of us. Lithuanian Nazi supporters.

I was fortunate to inherit approximately Willy Cohn foresaw what would happen 90 letters sent by my parents in to him and found a way to rescue his Germany to my mother’s brother in diary. At least he fulfilled his final wish, Oxford, England. The letters reveal Willy Cohn’s book of reporting the Jews’ sufferings to the much about my own and my sister’s outside world. early upbringing from mid-1934 to 1939 and provide a picture of life produced three daughters, the eldest The second Breslauer, Paul Peikert, was for an ordinary Jewish family living also emigrating to Palestine. a priest born in 1884, who kept a diary in Germany during the earlier half of describing the 14 weeks’ encirclement Nazi rule. My mother’s anxieties grow Cohn kept a diary throughout his adult of Breslau by the Russian army, from and her health deteriorates with each life and the war time entries were January to May, 1945. The fanatical letter and my father’s efforts to find a published under the title “Kein Recht, Nazi Gauleiter, Karl Hanke, refused to country of refuge for his family become nirgends. Tagebuch vom Untergang surrender even when the situation was more desperate from November 1938 des Breslauer Judentums 1933-41” hopeless. Two thirds of the Breslau onwards. (No justice anywhere. Diary of the population - women, children and old destruction of Breslau Jewry 1933-41). people - was ruthlessly driven out of These letters are the only chronicle It gives a first-hand account of how the the city by the Nazis. They trudged I possess of my happy early life in persecution of German Jews by the Nazis through the deep snow, the majority Germany up to August 1939 when I gradually intensified and became ever collapsing from the bitter cold and emigrated, leaving behind my beloved more oppressive. exhaustion. On 17 February Breslau parents who perished at the hands of the was completely surrounded by the Nazis a few years later. Although Willy Cohn had been Russians and the three month-long awarded the Iron Cross in WW1, he siege became known as Festung Breslau Alongside letters, the other main form could not escape the repressive racist - Fortress Breslau. of graphic record of the past are diaries. laws. His diary describes the burning Examples include the posthumously- of the beautiful Breslau synagogue Peikert describes the continuous published diaries of two prominent on Kristallnacht: “The dome of the bombardment from the ground and residents of the German city of Breslau, new Synagogue has crumbled and the air attacks from the sky. The city lay in Silesia (now no longer German but Polish inside is completely gutted. New legal ruins when it finally capitulated to the and named Wroclaw). Both authors measures against the Jews are expected. Russians on 6 May, only two days before were born in the 1880s and kept diaries The wish is for a relaxation of the the end of the war. in the 1930s and the first half of the emigration possibilities. Opportunities 1940s. for Jews to live in Germany I believe are In his final entry Peikert writes “May non-existent and there is no use wishing this diary and its reports show future One diarist, Willy Cohn, was a Jewish for them.” generations what human beings living in historian and secondary school teacher. our times had to endure and may God’s He married twice and his two sons Cohn attempted tirelessly to emigrate merciful goodness keep them safe from from his first marriage both emigrated with his family to Palestine but failed similar disasters.” during the 1930s, one to France, the to obtain the required authorisation. other to Palestine. The second marriage After war broke out in September 1939, Michael Brown

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LETTER FROM ISRAEL BY DOROTHEA SHEFER-VANSON

DEAD SEA (DST). This left lateral-moving transform are being used in the production of fault lies along the tectonic plate industrial materials for the manufacture DELIGHTS boundary between the African Plate and of motor cars. In addition, evaporation the Arabian Plate.” For me it constitutes and other climatic factors are constantly a picturesque sheet of shining blue water reducing its extent, endangering the When my knees wedged between the rocky hillsides on future of the region as the waters started giving me the Israeli side and the purple mountains retreat and sink-holes appear in the trouble on the in the distance on the Jordanian side. surrounding land. Plans have been stairs at home I From our hotel room I managed to paint mooted in the past to create a channel told my husband a few pictures of the magical scenery, from either the Mediterranean or the we should take which has the additional quality of Red Sea to augment the water in the a break from engendering a sense of tranquillity. Its Dead Sea, but to date nothing has our active retirement and spend a few situation far below sea-level means that actually been done. days at the Dead Sea. Being a strong the atmospheric pressure in the region is believer in the efficacy of natural cures very high, and its position also serves to We can only hope that in the not-too- and the restorative powers of the screen out the potentially harmful ultra- distant future someone in a position super-salty water of the Dead Sea, violet rays of the sun. This, together with of power will act responsibly and do I was convinced that a few days of the luxurious atmosphere created by the something about implementing at least soaking in the healing waters would do hotel, certainly helps to induce a sense one of the plans to save the Dead Sea. the trick. of well-being.

We had to wait a couple of weeks In addition, however, the Dead Sea itself until the room with a view at our is undergoing a process whereby the hotel of preference was available, so water, salt and the minerals it contains by the time we got there my knee

had recovered. Still, I thought, like LUNCH MARCH 2017 Editor: Rev.Wednesday Bernd Koschland 13 Chairman:September Sir Erich 2017Reich chicken-soup for a corpse, a few days [email protected]

in the calming atmosphere of the CONFERENCE Contact at AtAJR: AlythSusan Harrod Gardens Previous Synagogue issues at: [email protected] or www.ajr.org.uk/kindertransport 44 (0) 20 8385 3078 12.30pm lowest place on earth wouldn’t do any harm, so we went anyway. Emigration from Nazi-Occupied We are delighted to be joined by Europe to British Overseas Territories From the Editor’sRabbi Desk Geoff Shisler after 1933 Dear Kinder and Friends The weekend happened to coincide This edition has again a wide variety of contribution including one held over Triennial International Conference of fromRabbi Chanukah. Shisler There is retired a welcome in arti 2014cle from Michael Newman as well as a asvariety Rabbi of letters of including the Newtwo from West California. The previous edition with one of those times when a the Research Centre for German & receives a couple of pats on the back.

חג שמח . Hamsin, a period of extreme heat, Austrian Exile Studies ChagEnd sameach Synagogue to all Kinder, friends in London, and your families descends on the whole of Israel and 13-15 September 2017, Senate UK, where he occupied House, University of London, Malet the pulpit from 2000. Prior very few people venture outside. My dear fellow Kinder St., London WC1E 7HU to that he was Rabbi to At the Dead Sea it is almost always Thank God winter is slowly receding and we can begin to look forward to a littlethe warmer Bournemouth sunshine. In most parks Hebrew the crocuses are blooming in their various colours. Furthermore we are nearing what I would call the festival of very hot, but the air-conditioning This conference, supported by the AJR, is freedom,Congregation, Pesach. I am sure on most the of us south will be with coast our families of England as the youngest starts the five Kushiot. throughout the hotel kept us cool the first ever held to cover the emigration of I usefor this seven opportunity years, to wish youand all abefore wonderful andthat happy he Chag. served Sameach

provided we stayed indoors. Some refugees from Nazi Europe to the full range the Kenton Synagogue as Chazan/Minister

people still ventured outside to of territories then under British control. for twenty years. swim in the hotel’s fresh-water pool, That includes Australia, Canada, India, Rabbi Shisler commenced his career as but luckily for me the salt-water New Zealand and South Africa, as well as Cantor of the famous New Synagogue, treatment pool is indoors, so I could Palestine, Shanghai and other lesser-known Egerton Road, Stamford Hill London N.16 attend to my knees with impunity. destinations, from Singapore to Kenya where among his predecessors were the Some brave souls even trekked to and Mauritius to Northern Rhodesia. The illustrious Jacob Goldstein and Ephrayim Rosenberg. swim in the actual sea, but I was not conference features 25 speakers from among them. countries across the world. The conference Geoffrey Shisler is an Associate member of organisers are Anthony Grenville and Jana The Inner Magic Circle with Silver Star. The The valley of the Dead Sea is a unique Buresova (London) and Swen Steinberg only Rabbi in the society. geological phenomenon. As well (Dresden). Booking is essential for catering purposes. as being the lowest place on earth, £7.00 per person according to Wikipedia it is “an For the full programme and for endorheic lake located in the Jordan registration, by 25 August, go to For details please call Susan Harrod on Rift Valley, a geographic feature www.sas.ac.uk/events/event/6784, or 020 8385 3070 formed by the Dead Sea Transform contact Jane Lewin on 020 7862 8833 or email [email protected]

5 AJR Journal | September 2017 Letters to the Editor The Editor reserves the right to shorten correspondence submitted for publication.

FRAMPTON CONTINUED automation and computerisation. context that we should understand the The letter from Kitty Freund in your quote contained in your article: “Carl May issue made fascinating reading. Paul Eisler died in 1992, and, according Laemmle has a very large faemmle”. Reverend Samuel Frampton started to the AJR Journal of November 2014, Ernie Hunter life with the surname of Friedeberg. a memorial plaque was put up on his The name change resulted from former residence somewhere in London. understandable anti-German sentiment I am keen to learn where exactly the MIXED FEELINGS ON AUSTRIA in WW1. He married Miriam, one of plaque is, and who sponsored it? Dr Grenville’s recent article on Austria the daughters of the Reverend George Jeremy Antrich was a readable and interesting review Joseph Emanuel, Chief Minister at NOTE FROM EDITOR: We have until one reached the last four chapters. Singers Hill Synagogue, Birmingham consulted all the relevant archives and These detracted from the meaning of from 1867 to 1911. the plaque for Paul Eisler was put up the article by facts and figures that by the Anglo-Austrian Society and is in did nothing to add value. As a result Another of Rev Emanuel’s daughters, Exeter Road, Cricklewood. of reading those last four paragraphs Lily, also married into the Jewish clergy should I change my perception that I and a son, Arthur Emanuel, holds the live in a GREAT Britain that accepted my genealogical record for my family, even parents and me in our hour of need? capping Kitty Freund (so far!) by dying Should I campaign against Brexit? in 1978 aged almost 106. Another son, Should I pack up and leave? Prof. Joseph Emanuel, became the first Mike Saunders, head of Cardiological Medicine in the ‘Babe in Arms’ refugee, SE London University of Birmingham and his son, the late Richard Emanuel, became a leading heart specialist at the Middlesex I always enjoy Anthony Grenville’s Hospital in London. articles, which are so well written. I too hail from Vienna, coming to England On a much sadder theme, Rev and Mrs. with my mother on 20 December 1939. Frampton’s granddaughter, her husband I have been back many times to show and their son were all tragically my children and grandchildren where murdered in Sheffield in 1983 after a LIGHTS ... CAMERA ... ACTION!!! I was born and to show off the lovely family wedding. One of the moguls mentioned in city of Vienna. But to this day I have (Dr) Anthony Joseph, Smethwick your July article “How Hitler Helped very mixed feelings about the people Hollywood” was Carl Laemmle, a of Vienna and suspect there is still an cousin of mine. Very early in the 1930s undertone of antisemitism. PLAQUE FOR EISLER Carl recognised the threat that Hitler Freddy Berdach Firstly, may I say how much I appreciate posed. In a quiet, unassuming way, reading your excellent Journal – so Carl performed many humanitarian informative, cultured, civilised and deeds, personally granting perhaps Dr Grenville appears to believe the UK thought-provoking. 300 $1m affidavits to help fellow Jews should remain in the EU to preserve to gain the necessary emigration and peace in Europe. He may be correct My wife inherited a book The immigration clearances. One of these about the role the EU has played Technology of Printed Circuits by Paul affidavits was given to my aunt. In but this does not mean that Britain’s Eisler, published in 1959 and dedicated the 1930s such a sum was beyond withdrawal would weaken the EU to my wife’s uncle. Eisler was an telephone numbers! But Carl also position as we want to co-operate fully inventor and pioneer in several areas successfully persuaded other Jewish in both military and security spheres. of technology and electronics. Born in media moguls to assist with his rescue NATO too will continue to be crucial. Austria in 1907, he came to England efforts. in 1936. He was able to help several Lost in the current arguments about members of his family escape Austria Many of those whom Carl helped to the single market, immigration and but was subject to internment by the escape Nazi Germany were not his the customs union is the fact that the British as an enemy alien after the onset relatives but were often declared as EU grand plan is for a united states of of World War II. In his 1959 book he such in order to expedite the necessary Europe. Most of us do not have the accurately foresaw a future of printed clearances. It was said that in stomach for this. Nor are we content circuit boards in widespread use, Hollywood two languages were spoken: to pay the price of membership, both along with increasing miniaturisation, German and English! It is in that in terms of monetary contributions

6 AJR Journal | September 2017 and the social changes and pressures distress when, on the point of their realised that I wasn’t as nasty as my of uncontrolled immigration. Britain’s departure for London, she was told by image and, indeed, we got on very well. current position as a partially detached the ladies of the Refugee Committee EU member cannot last and if we do in charge of our hostel, that she could To new Editor, Jo Briggs, I should like not leave now it is very likely that in not take Bronia with her to England, as to say “Good luck. You have a very future we will become a fully-fledged they would both be sent back by the difficult act to follow.” member. And just as voters were never Immigration authorities. Peter Phillips, Loudwater, Herts. asked in 1972 whether we wanted to join the EU, the next step will be taken Arriving in London with the 10 by stealth. Marks she was allowed to take out of As the former proof reader of the Germany and knowing no English, she Journal and its predecessors for nearly Outside the EU Britain can thrive in the immediately contacted the Home Office 27 years, until the change of editorship long term. To continue to be linked to a to try to get permission to bring us to in late 2016, I still take a keen interest bloated and dysfunctional bloc is not in England, but was informed we were not in it. May I thus add my voice to those our interests. a priority, as we were safe in Belgium. who have commented on a legibility Janet Clarke & Anthony Portner, Surrey problem in the redesigned magazine. My mother survived the war on her A particular example of this occurred own in London, not knowing the fate in the August issue on page 11 with FOR LETTING US GO of her husband and three children. She its mottled blue background. Overall Anita Grosz’ moving article about the never remarried and did not enjoy good I preferred the journal in its previous, new memorial in Prague has moved health. Having spent the last two years more sedate version! Nevertheless, long me to write about my own mother, of her life on my sister’s Kibbutz, she may it continue. Beila Gittel Schütz, who was born in died in Israel in her 81st year and is 1902 in Korzcina (Poland). Her own buried in the Kibbutz cemetery. On her I would also like to pay tribute to mother having died during the 1916 grave, facing the Golan hills, we have Howard Spier. It was a pleasure to work flu epidemic, she was left at a very placed a memorial stone in memory of with him all those years during my young age to look after her father and my father who has no known grave. monthly stints. We had our occasional two-year old twin sister and brother. differences of opinion but these were The family left Poland for Berlin soon It was her supreme courage in letting us always amicably resolved, usually in his after WW1 and in 1924 she married my go that saved our lives, an act of self- favour! father, Josef Schütz, also from Poland. sacrifice I shall never forget. Gerta Regensburger They had three daughters: Ruth, Betty Betty Bloom (Schütz) and Bronia.

On 28 October 1938 my beloved father THANKS HOWARD BEREAVEMENTS was one of 19,000 Jews arrested by the It was with sadness that I read of the Gestapo and deported to the Polish border resignation of AJR Editor, Howard Edith Argy, born Vienna 1919, town of Zbaszyn. He perished in Bergen- Spier. A gracious man, I wish him well died London 2017. A citizen of the Belsen in January 1945. in his retirement. AJR Chief Executive world, much loved and mourned by Michael Newman wrote that Howard’s Marianne and Serge and by her close My mother, together with my older specialism was the Letter Pages. I hope friends. sister Ruth who was 13 at the time, I helped him keep the letters rolling made several attempts to get us onto a in, and to fill those pages with plenty Leonore SamueI nee Buchsbaum, Kindertransport. Unable to obtain the of discussion points. The first letter I passed away on 21 July 2017, aged necessary permits for Ruth and myself, contributed was about 15 years ago, 93. Wonderful, remarkable and then 9 years old, and at my sister’s when Howard took over as Editor. I courageous, she is loved and missed prompting, she put us on a train with cannot remember what it was about by all who knew her. a Kindertransport leaving for Belgium, but it was provocative. Howard loved without the necessary documents, or a the letter. It caused him to receive many foster family to receive us. Thanks to letters on the subject, most disagreeing the benevolence of a Belgian border vehemently with me. Howard thought SEPTEMBER guard we were allowed into Belgium we had hit a winning formula. I without entry permits. provoke, he gets lots of mail attacking SERENADE me. Luckily I am fairly thick-skinned In August 1939, just weeks before and we continued in this way until This year’s AJR Annual Lunch is taking the outbreak of WWII, my mother Howard’s departure. place on Sunday 10 September at managed to obtain an English work the Holiday Inn in Elstree. Three very permit as a domestic servant. On her Once, when I sat next to Gaby talented singers will be accompanied way to England, together with my Glassman at an AJR function, she by a pianist, entertaining the guests little four-year old sister Bronia, she admitted that, seeing my name next during what promises to be a spent two days with us in our children’s to hers, she nearly asked to be moved! wonderful networking event. home near Brussels. Imagine her utter Fortunately, by the end of the tea she

7 AJR Journal | September 2017 ART NOTES: by Gloria Tessler

Rarely seen portrait drawings by old masters are on show, some for the first time in decades at the National Portrait Gallery in The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt. These chalk sketches often seem produced in a hurry to achieve immediate rapport between artist and subject. Many are so light sensitive that they are rarely displayed, and are described as

“hidden treasures of Britain’s Man Wearing a Black Cap by Hans Holbein the Woman Wearing a White Headdress by Hans Holbein finest collections.” All reflect a Younger c.1535 Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty the Younger c.1532-43 Royal Collection Trust © Her Queen Elizabeth II 2017 Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017 moment captured by an artist of a friend, a pupil or a stranger in the Man Wearing a Black Cap portrays the great artists setting up stall and touting sitter with a full black beard and a rather for business. Leonhard Beck’s Young street - like Carlo Dolci’s portrait elaborate coat offsetting a quiet, benign Man Wearing a Black Cap, conveys of his shoemaker, a cynical old expression. Holbein’s portrait of John a character looking down with poetic man with Semitic features. Fifteen More is posed reflectively in a similar flat intensity, while Young girl looking to cap and the same ornate, heavy jacket, her right, attributed to Leendert van drawings have been loaned from but he is looking down with a withdrawn der Cooghen has surprisingly womanly the Queen’s Collection, including expression, reading a book. Another features as she sits back trying to make Holbein portrait of a Woman Wearing a sense of the world unfolding before her. eight by the 16th Century artist White Headdress has a ghostly subtlety, Hans Holbein the Younger. with the features emerging strongly from Leonardo da Vinci’s Study of a Male the understated dress. Young Woman Nude, painted in 1504, and Rembrandt’s in a French Hood is suggestive of Anne Studies of Male Heads and Three The back story is the artist’s sketchbook, Boleyn. Sketches of a Woman with a Child are kept in studios where apprentice artists looser examples, perhaps less interesting learned to draw by copying from the Some 100 years later, something than the drawings which fully reveal the Master. Studies of faces, male and tougher emerges. The faint drawing sitter. female, animals and motifs were re-used of Old Woman Wearing a Ruff and in larger compositions. For instance, the Cap attributed to Jacob Jordaens, The exhibition continues until workshop of Hans Holbein the Elder has a worldly disdain on her features, 22 October. contained a model book of head studies, contrasted by the Puckish charm of and an inscription suggests that his sons Daniel Dummestier’s Young Man with a Hans and Ambrosius may have had to Beard. A Middle Aged Man with Curly Annely Juda Fine Art copy them. Hair, attributed to Lagneau is more fully 23 Dering Street described, and his pugnacious features, (off New Bond Street) One of the loveliest and purest images formed into a redoubtable glare suggests Tel: 020 7629 7578 in this show is the younger Holbein’s someone you wouldn’t care to meet in a Woman Wearing a White Headdress. dark 17th-century night alley. Fax: 020 7491 2139 The lady’s perfect oval features are CONTEMPORARY accentuated by a cylindrical hat, and a So there is beauty and burliness here – all PAINTING AND SCULPTURE very different portrait by the same artist, the fun of the fair if you imagine these

8 AJR Journal | September 2017

AT YOUR SERVICE: AJR Volunteers Each year over 350 people kindly give up some of their from our free time to help AJR members. co-ordinator Drawn from all backgrounds and I began working as the Northern age groups, the AJR volunteers Dementia Befriending Co-ordinator are a wonderful bunch of people in May 2015. Since then I have been that we couldn’t do without. on a journey both literally – travelling over the Pennines regularly – and Want help with your computer? Need emotionally, meeting wonderful someone to chat to? Or have you a characters and helping to ease the pain relative suffering from dementia who Naomi Kaye with AJR member Ralph Black, who is that dementia brings to our clients and could do with extra support? Whatever visited weekly by volunteer Angela Szczepaniuk their families. the request there is probably an AJR volunteer who can help. receives requests from individual members My clients are not just located in the as well as children and grandchildren of predictable Jewish suburbs of Leeds The team is headed up by Carol Hart, AJR members seeking more support for and Manchester. One particular client who joined the AJR 15 years ago. their loved ones. was well off the beaten track but we Naomi Kaye and Jennifer Eisenberg found a Malaysian student who was look after the volunteers supporting The crucial thing is matching clients with willing to catch a train, bus, then walk clients with dementia in the north and the right volunteer. As Carol Hart explains, the rest of the way to spend quality south of England respectively, Claude “We can’t just pick the next name off time with him every week. Vecht-Wolf has specific responsibility the list. We think very carefully about the for computer support, Debra Barnes personalities involved and the exact type Another client, this time in co-ordinates the My Voice project in of support the AJR member needs. It’s a Manchester, struggles with both London with Hila Kaye co-ordinating in bit like Match.com except we don’t rely motor and cognitive functions and Manchester and Leeds, Fran Horwich on computers, it’s about real people.” conversation is non-existent. But he is the Northern volunteer co-ordinator, had been very musical, and by the end and Ros Collin runs the Telephone For this reason, the volunteers are very of our first visit he was singing to the Friends service. In Scotland there is carefully recruited and closely supported in music brought along by our volunteer. Agnes Isaacs who, alongside her work their roles. The client has since moved into a care for the AJR’s Outreach team, now home and our volunteer still visits him spends two days a week co-ordinating “Our rigorous application and induction there even though it’s a fair walk. volunteers in Scotland. Administration process gives us a good feel for every for the team is provided by an intern volunteer’s particular qualities and skills,” A Sheffield client is visited by a lady from the ARSP. explains Carol. “Someone from the team who shows a great deal of empathy to accompanies every volunteer on their first the turmoil that dementia can bring. Collectively, they oversee an extended visit to a client, and conducts a telephone On some visits the client is animated team of 350+ volunteers providing on debrief after the second visit. Thereafter and eager to walk around her house the ground assistance for AJR members we touch base at least every six weeks and showing off her works of art. On days across Britain. Assistance comes in also run an annual evaluation study.” when she feels more introvert the different ways – some AJR members volunteer will sit and read her poems, just want someone to play cards or Carol is proud that in the 2016 volunteers’ taking some of the strain off the board games with, others like to go for survey, conducted by the Jewish husband as primary carer. a walk or be taken to the supermarket, Volunteering Network on the AJR’s behalf, or need helping sorting out old photos 100% of respondents felt their efforts Each client experiences their past in a or keeping filing up to date. were welcomed and appreciated while different way and each client reacts nine out of ten agreed the volunteers’ differently to dementia. They are all Sadly, an increasing number of AJR programme was well organised. Similar individuals with individual needs just members now suffer from some form positive feedback is received from clients. as every volunteer offers something of dementia. AJR started its ‘Dementia unique. When the right match is Befriending’ service in 2013 and it is As for the volunteers’ own motivations, made the volunteer’s kindness and now an important part of the volunteer one comment in the JVN survey said it commitment serves to enlighten and team’s work. all: “It gives me great pleasure in helping relieve our client of their anxiety, even all the AJR members who have suffered for just a moment. The majority of client referrals come via so much and are so giving. My life is Naomi Kaye AJR’s social workers but the team also enriched by meeting the families I visit.”

9 AJR Journal | September 2017

because of their service in the German dedication to recording every aspect of REVIEWS army in WWI or special social or this ‘experiment in evil.’ intellectual status. Dorothea Shefer-Vanson THERESIENSTADT 1941-1945; The Face of a Coerced Community Adler describes the horrors experienced by H.G.Adler during the initial transport, arrival and FROZEN MUD AND RED RIBBONS (Cambridge University Press, 2017) processing at the camp, likening the By Avital Baruch, Edition Noëma, experience to birth - a passage from ISBN: 978-3-8382-0998-2 This monumental monograph, to one state of being to another, generally which no book review can hope to accompanied by crying. He describes The subtitle of this book is ‘A Romanian do justice, comprises 850+ pages and the mental anguish and process of Jewish Girl’s Survival through the constitutes a scientific analysis of the debilitation experienced by new arrivals, Holocaust in Transnistria and its rippling concentration camp that was located and by elderly persons in particular, effect on the second generation’. So I in what was known by the Germans as many of whom rapidly descended into already had a pretty good idea of what the Protectorate and today is the Czech dementia and/or hysteria, or a form of the book was about when I met the Republic. First published in German in apathy that soon led to death. author at the AJR Edgware Group event 1955, with a revised edition in 1960, in July. the long-awaited English version just Accommodation and sanitary conditions been made available. in the camp were substandard in the Avital Baruch was born in 1957 in extreme, disease and vermin of all kinds Haifa to two Romanian refugees. The author was a poet, novelist, were rife, and privacy and hygiene were Her mother - Sophica – was one of and scholar who was incarcerated in simply out of the question. According 150,000 Jews deported from Northern Theresienstadt from 1942 to 1944. His to Adler, certain Jews who were Romania to eastern Ukraine during book is generally devoid of personal appointed ‘room elders’ or ‘camp elders WWII. After surviving extreme cold, reminiscences, instead undertaking exploited their positions for personal typhus, starvation and other incredible an exhaustive and objective study of gain and comfort. Welfare and medical hardships, but watching her father the making and maintenance of the departments were set up, supposedly to and sister perish, she arrived in Israel camp, focusing systematically on its care for the prisoners, but the paucity with her mother in 1950. She was history, sociology, and psychology. of equipment and medicines meant given a new Hebrew name, Shulamit, Within these categories there are little could be done. Work of one kind and assigned to a kibbutz in Northern subdivisions into deportations to and or another was required of all prisoners, Galilee. She met and fell in love with a from Theresienstadt, administration, and the threat of being transported to an distant cousin Hermann, now known population, housing, nutrition, labour, unknown destination in the east (usually as Tzvi, and the couple set up home economy, legal and health conditions, Auschwitz) was ever-present. in a tiny village outside Haifa where to name but a few. Each section, Avital and her younger brother Uri chapter, and category is accompanied In one of the last chapters Adler were born. by extensive statistical data, original describes the vibrant cultural and artistic source-material, personal accounts, life that prevailed in the camp, perceiving Sophica/Shulamit was a very and documentary evidence. it as escape from grim reality. Most of responsible mother, always keeping the camp’s leading artists, musicians, her children well fed and beautifully The cover illustration shows a prisoner actors, and writers were deported to presented, but she was emotionally wearing a cook’s uniform giving out Auschwitz and murdered as the end reserved and never talked openly food in the ghetto courtyard to a of the war approached. This was also about her experiences during the newly-arrived transport of Dutch the fate of many of the ‘camp elders’ Holocaust. When Avital was in her Jews. This seems strange at first, who had previously benefitted from fifties she came across a family secret considering the general insufficiency preferential treatment by the SS. The which prompted her to start asking of food in the camp, but it fits into the overall impression is of depravity and questions. Six years of painstaking façade of normality that the Germans misery, an inevitable adjunct of the research later, this book was published. created, to mask the violence, general situation in the camp. intimidation, and warped regulations The book combines the chronological that governed the inmates’ lives. In addition to an index, the book also story of Avital’s mother’s family, includes a chronological summary of the interspersed with Avital’s own personal Adler traces the history of the camp salient events on a day-by-day basis, anecdotes. There are lots of names and from its initial inception by Himmler as well 200 pages detailing sources and countless details, which I personally and Heydrich as ‘a city peopled by literature. Special credit should go to found quite complicated to follow, Jews’ to a place of imprisonment Belinda Cooper, whose translation from especially as the book is very tightly for thousands of individuals brought the original German reads fluently and set. But the family tree and maps are primarily from the Protectorate and well. As an account of an abominable very useful, as is a chapter at the end the Reich. Many of those sent there episode in human history, this book setting out the historical background were considered to be privileged constitutes a milestone of objective to the stories.

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During her presentation to AJR’s When his mother, Annemarie, died in But for grandmother Lony, it was her Edgware group, the author spoke of 1971 and he cleared her home, he came new-born grandson who provided a her desire to make the book historically across a pile of letters and postcards from focus amidst the perils of war-torn accurate as well as a compelling personal the grandmother in Amsterdam he knew life. As in so many cases, Peter had to tale. She has certainly achieved this. I about but had never met. Although sent do his own research to find out more asked her how her mother – who had to her daughter, they directly addressed about his grandmother. His mother been so resistant to talk – had reacted to him, a baby born nine days after the had never spoken about the painful the book. Apparently Sophica/Shulamit outbreak of the Second World War. past. has proudly shown the book to several people, making Avital confident that she They were letters from a situation The idea of transmuting these is pleased that her story is out, even if of growing menace and then crisis letters, apparently banal but full she doesn’t overtly say so. as Germany invaded Holland in May of love and longing, into musical 1940, then uncertainty in ever- form came from his longstanding Until recently, Romania outwardly deteriorating circumstances. Finally, friendship with composer and denied involvement in the Holocaust. in winter 1943-44, came news of a conductor Ronald Corp, music But this summer the Claims Conference move to Westerbork, the holding camp director of Highgate Choral Society. accounced they have at last secured for Dutch Jews, and informing of yet The choir numbers Peter’s wife, compensation for people deported from another move to Theresienstadt, which Naomi, among its singers. Northern Romania. Reading Avital’s was not presented as a concentration account of some of these people’s camp. The tone is one of keeping a Translated and abridged, they experiences leaves one with no question brave face, giving any good news, were sung by mezzo soprano Sarah about the validity of such claims. with as few complaints as possible, bar Pring to a highly appreciative Jo Briggs dental visits, and requests for shoes audience, with a nice balance and a nice dress. between the conversational aspect and underlying worry. Since the LETTERS FROM LONY Lony (Leonie) Rabi-Fraenkel, a widow text was written in the programme since 1925, left her native Berlin some and lighting was uniform in the Letters from Lony was an unusual and 10 or 12 years later, in her late 50s, to church venue, there was no poignant item in the largely classical settle in Amsterdam. She had already problem following the words. programme of the 25th Proms at St run a cafe in Berlin and now set one up Drama was added by the repeated Jude’s Music and Literary Festival, in Amsterdam to attract fellow-refugees. use of a lullaby, particularly after held at the end of June in the heart of She hoped to move on to Brazil, where Lony’s last letter giving her future Hampstead Garden Suburb. she had applied for a visa. Theresienstadt address.

The “Suburb”, as it is known locally, was Her younger daughter Annemarie As Sarah Pring repeated this home to a number of German refugees reached England with her husband, haunting lullaby, the musicians who worked hard to re-establish the Hans Lobbenberg, whom she married stopped, and she walked through comfortable homes of their youth. in 1934. With the blitz on London, the audience in the dark and out They were particularly clustered in the the Lobbenbergs moved their corsetry of the hall. It was a spine-chilling “newer” part, to the north east, built factory to Shrewsbury. Silhouette, moment. The well-deserved in the 1930s. Among this post-war originally a German firm, became one applause somehow felt wrong. generation of home owners is Peter of the most successful British corsetry Silence would have been more Lobbenberg, a successful chartered companies in the second half of the 20th appropriate. accountant. century. Ruth Rothenberg

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11 AJR Journal | September 2017

The Best Photojournalist of our Time

Steinbeck, and he also covered the War of Independence in Israel.

In 1948, together with Henri Cartier- Bresson, David Seymour (another Jewish refugee) and George Roger, he founded the photographers’ cooperative, Magnum, which is still very influential.

He led a playboy lifestyle. The inscription inside his helmet read, “Property of Robert Capa, war correspondent and lover.” Among his many conquests was Ingrid Bergman, who famously asked him to marry her. Capa gently refused, saying he found it impossible to settle down.

Organising a party for Ernest Robert Capa D-Day (Time’s 100 most influential photos of all time) Hemingway and Hemingway’s mistress, the English beauty Pinky, he proceeded Robert Capa (real name: Capa, and he became very successful. to buy a fish bowl, a box of champagne, (Capa, pronounced ‘tsapa’, means shark in some brandy and peaches. On the way Endre Friedmann) was born in Hungarian. It was his nickname in school.) home Hemingway crashed his car. Budapest in 1913. At age 18 An important part of his career was his In 1954 Capa was asked to cover he was arrested as a result of his assignment to the Spanish Civil War and the French-Indochina war. He was resistance to the fascist Horthy it was there that he took his most famous accompanying the French troops, photograph: a Loyalist soldier, hit by a travelling in one of their jeeps. Not regime and fled Hungary to bullet, falling backwards, his outstretched heeding their warnings, he jumped Berlin. There he started writing arm still clutching his rifle. off to take photos, stepped on a mine and died. articles and, with the use of his He taught Gerda (now calling herself new 35 mm camera, developed Gerda Taro) to take pictures and years later His photographs are not sensationalist; she was recognised in her own right. The they are sympathetic to their subjects, his unique photographic style. greatest tragedy of Capa’s life was the always portraying the human cost accidental death of Gerda during the war. of war. As he said, he was a war From Berlin he moved to Paris where he She was just 26. He never recovered from photographer who hated wars. He met the love of his life, Gerda Pohrylles, this and could never form another long- appears usually with a cheeky grin and who became his agent. As selling photos term relationship. It left a dark shadow over a cigarette dangling from the corner of under Friedmann’s real name was his hedonistic, life-loving image. his mouth. difficult they reinvented him as a famous American photographer, called Robert Now living in London he became a The definitive biography of Capa is by sought-after photographer, working for Richard Whelan and the best-known Collier and Life magazines, from whom he book written by Capa, is Slightly out received an urgent call to join the American of Focus. Also worth reading is Alex troops on D-Day. Braving machine gun Kershaw’s Blood and Champagne. fire, he waded ashore on Omaha beach. An iconic photograph shows a soldier half The Mexican Suitcase submerged, with the photo rather hazy, A few years ago, hundreds of Capa’s because of a mishap in the laboratory in negatives were found in a loft in Mexico. London. The soldier was tracked down Taken in the Spanish Civil War, there is after the war. He said a sergeant and a some dispute as to how many were taken photographer saved his life. by him and how many by Taro.

A notable assignment after the war was Janos Fisher Robert Capa on assignment in Spain, by Gerda Taro a book on Russia, with text by John Bushey Heath

12 AJR Journal | September 2017 Beyond the personal

How the International Tracing Service is helping one particular person to trace his routes and find the Jewish Community of Jászberény.

The ITS collection is accessible in Bad Arolsen and the US, Israel, Poland, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, but the Wiener Library is the only point of access in the UK.

Kertész discovered that at the end of the war there were about 100 Jews left in Jászberény, but the community gradually dwindled. His aim is to publish a website in Swedish, Hungarian and English, hosted by Stockholm University, with a map of Jászberény where virtual visitors can enter Jewish houses and shops, the synagogue and the cemetery with a memorial to those who perished.

Wiener Library staff have special expertise in helping researchers like Kertész navigate the ITS digital archive, which is vast and complex. Many of Kertész’s findings Magda, Marika and Ági – aged 4, 9 and 12 – were all gassed in Auschwitz in July 1944 were reached by tracing individual names of former Jászberény residents. “Tomas’s project is a reflection of years In 1957, at the age of three, Tomas Auschwitz-Birkenau. Many others on both of commitment not only to recovering his Kertész left Hungary with his his mother’s and father’s side of the family own family’s history, but also that of the also did not survive. community in which they lived” notes Dr parents for Sweden. The Kertész Christine Schmidt, Deputy Director and family came from Jászberény, He has now interviewed nearly 100 people Head of Research. ‘His work shows how around the world with connections to his ambitious family research can have a much a small market town east of family’s hometown. He has collected 1,000 greater impact beyond the personal.’ Budapest, which had a population photographs, 40 objects and numerous of about 500 Jews. In 1942, a newspaper articles documenting Jewish If you have relatives or any connections life in pre-war Jászberény. Yet one of the to Jászberény or would like to know more camp was established in the town most crucial archives for his research has about his project, please contact Tomas from where young Jewish men been the International Tracing Service (ITS) Kertész at [email protected]. were deported for forced labour in digital archive, held in copy at the Wiener To conduct research in the ITS digital Library in London. archive at the Wiener Library, please the Ukraine and other destinations. visit wienerlibrary.co.uk/ITS or contact After the German occupation, the The ITS archive, still located in its original Christine Schmidt paper form in Bad Arolsen, Germany, ([email protected].) Jews of Jászberény were confined contains 30 million documents on the to a ghetto, from where they were fates of over 17 million people. It was sent to Monor and then deported gathered in the immediate post-war period to facilitate the search for missing to Auschwitz-Birkenau in July. people. The collection steadily increased in size as the Allies opened camps and In 1997 Tomas Kertész – now a librarian other sites of persecution, gathering at Stockholm University – began documentary evidence of persecution systematically collecting information of the Jews and others. The documents about the fates of the Jews of Jászberény were then re-purposed and used for – starting with his own relatives. Three tracing to help victims find their lost of his half-sisters were murdered in loved ones. Tomas Kertész

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KINDERTRANSPORT Book Club: JOSEPH’S BOOKSHOP LUNCH We were treated to iced coffee or tea and Around cake, a gift from the owner in memory of his mother. The next book for discussion will be Judas by Amos Oz. Do join us, even if you have not read it. the AJR Margarete Weiss

NORTHERN REGIONAL Book Club – Glasgow: “ONE NIGHT ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS” We discussed this book by Veronica Henry. By coincidence one of our number had just been on the Orient Express so we had oral and visual aids to help with the discussion. Halina Moss

AJR Chairman Andrew Kaufman with Mark Regev Bromley: WISDOM Over 40 Kindertransport members We enjoyed watching “Churchill’s enjoyed a delicious lunch followed German Army”, which features the After a warm welcome by Michael by a talk by His Excellency Mark fascinating stories of several handsome Newman, AJR Chief Executive, members Regev, Israeli Ambassador to the UK. young refugees who joined the British from Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, York Introduced by AJR Chairman Andrew army and are now very wise, older men. and Bradford heard from Carol Hart, Kaufman, the Ambassador spoke of the Lore Robinson Head of the Volunteers Department and strong empathy he feels for the Kinder Sue Kurlander, Head of Social Services. and his own recent visit to Germany to Ealing: A LITERARY CRUISE UP THE trace his father’s roots. THAMES The meeting then split into three Nick Dobson and Vincent Daniels treated discussion groups and after lunch we There was much talk about how to us to pictures and songs associated with were delighted to be joined by Gillian find a solution to peace in Israel and the Thames. These included works by Merron, Chief Executive of the Board of whether it is indeed possible. Questions Kipling, Oscar Wilde, TS Eliot, Kenneth Deputies of British Jews since 2014. She from the audience ranged from Donald Graham and others. spoke interestingly about her career path Trump’s input in the peace negotiations Leslie Sommer in politics and the work of the Board of to the education and brainwashing of Deputies in fighting antisemitism and Palestinian children against Israel. Whitechapel Gallery and lunch representing the Jewish community in at Rinkoff’s Bakery: WHITECHAPEL the UK. We are very grateful to His Excellency GALLERY for taking time out of his busy schedule, This former library, erected in 1901, We thank Wendy Bott, Northern between a meeting with the Jordanian has been modernised and now houses Outreach co-ordinator, and all the staff Ambassador and the Indian Jewish many interesting works of well-known who worked so hard for this event. Association, to speak to the Kinder. contemporary artists. Less than a mile away is the Rinkoff Bakery, established in Peter Kurer Susan Harrod 1911 and still owned by the same family in its fourth generation (we met the grandson). What a choice of breads were FRINGE BENEFITS on offer! Meta Roseneil One of the highlights of last month’s Fuelled by the positive things he saw, he Edinburgh Fringe was the International founded the Friends of Israel in Scotland Glasgow: BARBECUE Shalom Festival. Its founder Nigel and then the International Shalom There was a large turnout of first and Goodridge enthralled the AJR Edinburgh Festival. It featured an exhibition, talks, second generation for a lovely BBQ lunch, group by telling us how it came about. films, a gala night and eight performances prepared in Anthea’s beautiful garden. of the Incubator Theatre play which had The weather and the conversation were In 2014 anti-Israel protestors prevented been shut down in 2014. both excellent. Israeli theatre group performing during Ruth Ramsay the Fringe. Nigel was so incensed that Nigel - a retired teacher and an active he visited Israel to find out for himself Christian - took early retirement to Ilford: FRANK SINATRA whether any of the demonstrators’ claims immerse himself in and promote Israeli Nigel Colman gave us a run-through of were justified and what attempts at co- culture and coexistence within Israel. Sinatra’s life story – his ups and downs, existence between cultures and religions passions, feuds – accompanied by many were being made. Vivien Andersen of his iconic songs. Meta Roseneil

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Kensington: GARDEN PARTY Doyle’s imagination. However, he did not Dickens’ classic. Despite the lovely Interesting conversation covered wide- write the famous saying “Elementary, my atmosphere and setting, the play was ranging topics when we enjoyed the dear Watson” in this form not to everybody’s taste, as scenes from hospitality of Judith and David De Haas David Lang London and the French Revolution in their out-of-this-world garden. The in Paris were woven into more company, weather and venue could not Pinner: PORTUGUESE DIPLOMAT contemporary refugee issues. There have been improved upon. ARISTIDE de SOUSA MENDES were some clever vignettes in the first Walter Goddard Based in France in 1939/40, Mendes half and the actors gave an upbeat issued up to 10,000 exit visas to performance throughout. North London: The “NAPOLEON help Jews escape to Portugal. Diane Janet Weston OF CRIME” Barnett told how he was sacked by his David Barnett gave us an erudite and government and only recognised after his Wessex: NEW FOREST OUTING enlightening biography of Adam Worth, death. He is honoured in Yad Vashem. Our outing to Rhinefield House who carried out daring and profitable Robert Gellman included the breath-taking ‘Alhambra’ raids internationally. He went from rags room, based on Granada’s Alhambra to riches – and back to rags, ending in a Theatre Outing – Regents Park: palace. It has a circle of jewel-like pauper’s grave in Highgate cemetery. A TALE OF TWO CITIES Magen Davids on its lofty ceiling. Rabbi Harry Jacobi It was good to return to Regent’s Despite bad weather it was a most Park Open Air Theatre for Matthew enjoyable outing. N W LONDON: SHERLOCK HOLMES – Dunster’s new adaptation of Charles Suzy Ellis A TALK BY NICK DOBSON Nick Dobson spoke on The Extraordinary Story of Sherlock Holmes illustrated with projected pictures. We learned many cheerful facts about Holmes, although SEPTEMBER GROUP EVENTS he was only a figment of Arthur Conan 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 the relevant regional contact for full details. CONTACTS Prestwich 4 September Social get-together CONTACTS Ealing 5 September Dr Pam Fox – History of the Jews of Golders Green Ilford 6 September David Harris – History of JFS Susan Harrod Lead Outreach & Events Co-ordinator Pinner 7 September Rob Nothman has worked for over 30 years for the BBC as a broadcaster and producer. In “Making the 020 8385 3070 [email protected] News” he will explain how a BBC news bulletin is put together. Wendy Bott Wessex 7 September The Sturgeon Queen Northern Outreach Co-ordinator 07908 156 365 [email protected] Birmingham 10 September Annual Garden Party Cardiff 11 September Harvey Bratt of UJIA Agnes Isaacs Northern Outreach Co-ordinator Essex (Westcliff) 12 September Michael Newman – Update on the AJR 07908 156 361 [email protected] Glasgow 6 September Yom Tov nosh get-together Kingston & Surrey 13 September Dr Pam Fox talking about her book – the Jews of Kathryn Prevezer Golders Green Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Brighton 18 September Charlotte Balazs and Tony Balazs - Dining at The 07966 969 951 [email protected] Cosmo and The Dorice. Esther Rinkoff Edgware 19 September David Harris – A short history of JFS Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Bradford 19 September Social 07966 631 778 [email protected] Radlett 20 September Dr Pam Fox – History of the Jews of Golders Green Eva Stellman NW London 25 September Paul Lang-The Life of a Professional Photographer Southern Outreach Co-ordinator Book Club 27 September Social get-together 07904 489 515 [email protected] Glasgow Book Club 28 September Social and discussion KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Muswell Hill 28 September David Barnett – Adam Worth: Victorian Jewish Susan Harrod Master Criminal 020 8385 3070 [email protected] North London 28 September Margaret Passmore from FCO Cardiff 11 September Harvey Bratt from UJIA Child Survivors’ Association-AJR Henri Obstfeld Edinburgh 7 September Afternoon with Artist Miriam Vickers 020 8954 5298 [email protected] Newcastle 10 September Social get-together

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WHERE THERE WAS WRONG THERE WAS WRIGHT

1947 was naturalised as a British citizen, becoming a reader of physiology at University College. Sadly, he died in 1952 after a mountaineering accident in the French Alps.

Despite Wright’s best efforts, Calma and Schweitzer were still classed as ‘outsiders’ who had to work beyond mainstream medicine and devote themselves to research. But their research was of inestimable value to the United Kingdom and to medicine in general. E. Bülbring, W. Feldberg, L. Guttmann, B. Katz, H. Krebs and H. Lehman were six other refugee doctors from Germany who with Samson Wright’s help devoted themselves to research. Three of them obtained the Nobel Prize and five became members of When the Nazis came to profession and the regulatory bodies, being the Royal Society. power, Jews studying medicine opposed by the British Medical Association, the were not allowed to complete Royal Colleges and the Medical Practitioners’ Samson Wright was an excellent teacher, their training. Qualified Jewish Union. and a fine research worker. He not only doctors were suspended from directly helped numerous Jewish refugees, their jobs in state hospitals Samson Wright helped several Jewish refugee he persuaded other departments to doctors by finding them employment and employ them. He was vice-president of and could only treat Jewish assisting with their studies. One example the Board of Deputies and an enthusiastic patients. Samson Wright, the was Italo Calma, who had qualified as a Zionist, becoming president of the Jewish son of Jewish refugees from doctor in Milan and came to England in National Fund. Unfortunately, at the Pinsk, helped several doctors 1939. Samson Wright employed him to peak of his powers, the death of his wife continue their careers here. work with his research team, initially unpaid and his own ill health precluded him from and subsequently as a lecturer. When Italy developing and expanding this work and Born in 1899, Samson Wright was brought entered the war in 1940, Calma was interned obtaining honour and recognition outside up in the East End of London. He obtained on the Isle of Man but later released to act the medical profession. a scholarship to the Middlesex Hospital as an interpreter in the BBC Italian Service. Medical School and, at just 31, became After the war, Calma moved to Liverpool Shortly after he passed away in 1956, Professor of Physiology. His seminal where he worked for many years as a the British Medical Journal published an textbook Applied Physiology is now in its medical physiologist and lecturer at Liverpool obituary. In this one of his mentees wrote 13th edition. Postgraduates came from all University. He was still an active member of “He was always approachable and not over the world to study under him. the AJR when he passed away in 2012. only gave words of reassurance but on many occasions practical and material Samson Wright was very proud of his Alfred J Schweitzer graduated in medicine in assistance. I wish to express in the name Jewish roots and was keen to assist Jewish Cologne in 1932 and initially worked in Bad of the former refugee doctors our feeling academics fleeing from the Nazis. While Nauheim. Forbidden from practising medicine of unforgettable indebtedness to Professor there was no established and legislated in Germany, he came to England in 1935. Samson Wright.” antisemitism in the UK, it was still very Wright offered him a job in his laboratory, difficult for Jews to gain entry to medical secured his funding and with the help of John Silver school. Once qualified, obtaining a house CARA1 encouraged him to obtain British ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful to job – the vital stepping-stone for a senior medical qualifications. But in 1939 his work Professor Otto Hutter and the late Samson career in medicine – was nearly impossible. permit was revoked and in August 1940, he Wright’s daughters, Sandra Wright and Barbara As a consequence most Jewish consultants was interned as an Alien. Lewis for helping me with my research. took posts outside London and in the

minor specialities, such as radiology and Samson Wright intervened on his behalf, 1 Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (now dermatology. writing to the Home Office Aliens known as Council for At-Risk Academics) was Department and threatening to write to the established in 1933 in response to the persecution of academics across Europe by Fascist regimes. Jewish refugee doctors coming from Chancellor of London University. Schweitzer Amongst the 1,500 academics assisted in the Europe also faced hostility from the medical was released within three months and in early years, 18 went on to win Nobel Prizes.

16 AJR Journal | September 2017

ENDING THE LOOKING SILENCE OVER RAPE

AJR member Ruth Barnett FOR? recently represented Holocaust refugees at a symposium in Berlin entitled ‘Rape is a The AJR regularly receives GERDA WHO? Anne John is trying to discover what Weapon of War: Ending the messages from our members became of a teenage girl named Silence, Empowering the and others looking for people or Gerda who came from Danzig and was Survivors’. The high profile befriended by her parents late 1938 event, which included a speech for help in particular subjects. or early 1939 in the south of France. of support by Angela Merkel, Anne – whose father, Edward Clinton Here are some of the most addressed the inhuman practice Smith, was then Managing Director recent requests – please get in of Perrier Natural Mineral Water - has of rape as a weapon of war, fond memories of Gerda teaching sadly as virulent today as it was touch directly with the person her German and supervising her in World War II. concerned if you can help. piano practice. She travelled with the family on holiday on the Isle of Wight The United Nations War Crimes and remained in England when they Commission (UNWCC) included Rape as MARIANNE WOLF returned to France. (they themselves a War Crime in the prosecution of WWII Rev. Rod Sanders, the son of Elisabeth immigrated here a year later). perpetrators but the Commission was Sanders, née Quick, has photographs [email protected] closed down in 1949. Since then it seems of his mother with a Jewish refugee there has been widespread regression to child who her family took in for a CARA FELLOWS accepting rape as ‘unavoidable in war’ – while sometime in the mid-1930s, in Martin Thornton from the Council for ‘boys will be boys’ after all. their village in Suffolk. His mother At-Risk Academics (CARA) is planning remembers her name as being Marianne a series of events for people whose The conference claimed that sexual Wolf (or possibly Wolff) and would love grandparent or parent was helped violence can be eradicated if there is the to trace her. by the Academic Assistance Council will to do so. Keynote speaker Bianca [email protected] (AAC), the Society for the Protection Jagger gave a vivid account of the Mass of Science and Learning (SPSL) or Rape of Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs, EX-SERVICEMEN the Council for Assisting Refugee involving over 600,000 women. Some Harry Stevens, ex Navy (RNVR), is Academics. These are all previous were raped 100 or more times, as a interested in re-introducing regular names of Cara and, If you fall into strategy of terror and ethnic cleansing. get-togethers for AJR members who this category, he would love to invite served during World War II (apparently you to one of the planned events. Everyone left profoundly moved and a group used to meet regularly for You may also be able to trace your committed to further raising awareness lunch in Golders Green, but this sadly family history through the Cara archive and initiating action towards the fizzled out). He suggests meeting over collections at the Bodleian Library. prevention of rape as well as healing and afternoon coffee or early evening drinks [email protected] empowering its survivors. Rape during anywhere in the North West or West conflict should be recognised as an London areas, when different members BUNCE COURT PUPILS International War Crime just as it was in could share stories of their war-time Barbara Meter is a filmmaker who is 1945-49. careers. currently researching a documentary [email protected] on the children’s home Bunce Court in Kent founded by Anna Essinger in 1933 HILDEGARD WALDMANN and closed in 1948. Barbara is looking Professor Steven Robins at the for former pupils and/or their children University of Stellenbosch would be who would be willing to be interviewed most grateful to any AJR members who for the film. She has personal ties with might be able to assist with a query Bunce Court, and visited it with her about his relative, Hildegard Waldmann, mother just before it closed. née Urbanski, who lived in Manchester [email protected] Ruth Barnett (centre) taking part in one of the in the 1940s and 1950s, after escaping panel discussions, along with Bosnian Muslim Nusreta Sivac, Yazidi and ISIS survivors Salwa from Berlin. The family is very keen to If you would like to place a search notice in a Rasho, Chairwoman of the Women’s Group of know if any of her descendants are still future issue of the AJR Journal, please email the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group Karin Maag living in Manchester. [email protected] including the words MP, Author Freya Klier [email protected] SEARCH REQUEST in the title of your email.

17 AJR Journal | September 2017

OBITUARIES Rezika Fruhman Born Budapest 4 June 1922, died Manchester 21 April 2017

Rezika Fruhman was one of the “1945 she met and married Samuel Ryba, best-known Jewish caterers in the giving birth to my dad two years later, before tragedy struck and Sam was murdered by a UK. She came here from Poland train bomb in 1949 near Barcelona having and went on to head The Holme been visiting on business. She carried on Caterers in Prestwich, for over 40 their newly formed business singlehandedly “I have recently started working alongside until she remarried my grandpa Mark in the AJR. One of the team who is working years. We print below an extract 1954 and together they built an incredible on the My Voice project, which catalogues from her grandson’s eulogy. business, home and family. In recent years the life of survivors and refugees, has it was not uncommon that four generations shown me two independent extracts, both “When Grandma was born in Budapest in would be freely interacting around her, which saying the same thing and something I 1922, soon afterwards moving to Krakow, she loved. was not aware of. Both people approached it was impossible to imagine how much Grandma in her office in the Holmes, about the world would change by the time of her “In 2002 I visited her childhood city of to make a wedding for their respective passing and, even more so, the rollercoaster Krakow. Grandma said to call her from my daughters, and reported: ‘Mrs. Fruhman of Jewish history in her formative years. At hotel in the Kazimierez district so she could said we could pay back when we were able the time of her birth, Jewish life in Central direct me by foot to her childhood home. For to, and we did, every penny. This way, we and Eastern Europe was the largest in the 15 minutes her memories of the streets came could make the wedding for our daughter’. world and relatively stable. back to life as she explained the shuls and the schools and the shops that had existed “These incidents show me how other “She lost her father at the age of 11 and on each street corner. I could feel a sense of people, unprompted, in a book about their was then moved from a comfortable life in joy from grandma that the she was sharing own lives, related to my Grandma and her Krakow to Manchester in 1939. She lived the memories with me. I felt she was passing natural instinct to understand a situation: through the war knowing that something on what had been lost, her incredibly strong attributes which we hope will live long in all grave was happening to her friends and Jewish identity and that at least through of us when we remember her”. family left behind, without the ability to do my experiences it would continue to be anything about it. remembered. Matti Fruhman

Margaret Bergmann Lambert Born Laupheim 12 April 1914, Died New York 25 July 2017

Margaret Bergmann Lambert with reprisals if she did not return. She was a world-class high jumper complied and returned to Germany, to best known for her non- prepare for the 1936 Olympic Games. On 30 June 1936, one month prior participation in the 1936 Berlin to the opening ceremony, she tied Olympics. the German record by jumping 1.60 metres. Two weeks’ later she was told In 1942, she received United States Bergmann was born in Laupheim, the by German sports authorities that she citizenship. She married Bruno Lambert, daughter of Edwin and Paula Stern was being removed from the national a physician, and they had two sons. Both Bergmann. In 1930 she joined Ulmer team for under-performance. She was Margaret and Bruno reached the ripe old FV 1894, winning her first title in not replaced; instead, Germany fielded age of 103. high jumping in 1931.After the Nazis’ only two high jumpers: one of whom was accession to power she was expelled later revealed to be a man raised as a girl. Late in life, Lambert received some of from the club and her parents sent her Bergmann’s accomplishment was stricken the recognition denied to her in 1936. In here to England where in 1934 she won from the record books some weeks later. 1996, she agreed to attend the Summer the British Championships high jump. Olympics in Atlanta as a guest of the In 1937, Bergmann emigrated to the German Olympic committee. “I decided The German government wanted her US, settling in New York where she won that I could not blame this generation for to return to Germany to help portray the US women’s high jump and shot put what their fathers and grandfathers did,” the nation as a liberal-minded, tolerant championships, and in 1938 she again she told The New York Times. country. Members of her family, who won the high jump. Her sports career had stayed behind, were threatened ended after the outbreak of WWII. Jo Briggs

18 AJR Journal | September 2017

JEWISH MUSEUM Books Bought VISIT AND TALK ON JFS Modern and Old AJR FILM CLUB OUTING Eric Levene Our next film showing will be at THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 2017 020 8364 3554 / 07855387574 Sha’arei Tsedek North London Reform [email protected] Synagogue, 120 Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone N20 9EZ on Monday 9 October 2017 at 12.30pm WHY NOT TRY AJR’S Please join us for a visit to the Lunch of smoked salmon bagels, MEALS ON WHEELS Danish pastries and tea or coffee will Jewish Museum, based in Camden SERVICE? be served first. As well as the opportunity to visit the various The AJR offers a kosher Meals on Wheels DENIAL Galleries and Exhibitions at the Museum, we service delivered to your door once a week. will then have a talk by David Harris, former When university professor Deborah E. Deputy Head teacher of JFS, about the history The meals are freshly cooked every week Lipstadt includes World War II historian of JFS, together with various artefacts from by Kosher to Go. They are then frozen prior David Irving in a book about Holocaust the school. This may be of particular interest to delivery. to those of you who have had children, deniers, Irving accuses her of libel and grandchildren or even great-grandchildren The cost is £7.00 for a three-course meal sparks a legal battle for historical truth. who were pupils. (soup, main course, desert) With the burden of proof placed on the plus a £1 delivery fee. accused, Lipstadt and her legal team After the talk we will have lunch at the fight to prove the essential truth that the Museum. Our aim is to bring good food to your door Holocaust occurred. Based on the book without the worry of shopping or cooking. “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a For details please speak to Holocaust Denier.” Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 or For further details, please call email [email protected] AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070. £8.00 per person BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL

Please call Susan Harrod on JOSEPH PEREIRA switch on electrics 020 8385 3070 (ex-AJR caretaker over 22 years) is now or email [email protected] available for DIY repairs and general Rewires and all household maintenance. electrical work No job too small, PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 very reasonable rates. Mobile: 0795 614 8566 JO SOVIN Please telephone 07966 887 485. CHAOS CONQUEROR Do you need help with de-cluttering, preparing for downsizing and moving, or finding www.fishburnbooks.com spring grove organising Jonathan Fishburn London’s Most Luxurious and storage solutions? buys and sells Jewish and Hebrew books, RETIREMENT HOME I can help ephemera and items of 214 Finchley Road Jewish interest. London NW3 Jo Sovin – Chaos Conqueror [email protected] He is a member of the Antiquarian  Entertainment www.josovin.com Booksellers Association.  Activities Contact Jonathan on  Stress Free Living 020 7263 8229 / 07905 581 794 020 8455 9139  24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine Impeccable references provided or 07813 803 889  Full En-Suite Facilities for more information Call for more information or a personal tour 020 8446 2117 or 020 7794 4455 CATERINA ANDREAE [email protected] TRANSLATOR WHY NOT CONVERT 10-DAY VISIT TO ISRAEL English to German / NOVEMBER 2017 German to English YOUR OLD CINE The AJR is considering organising a FILMS No job too small or too big 10-day trip to Israel in early November this year. AND PUT THEM The cost of the visit is not yet decided. Competitive rates ON DVDS Carol Rossen will be accompanying the trip. and references provided FREE OF CHARGE? If you would like to join the trip, 00 34 971 886 566 please contact Lorna Moss [email protected] Contact Alf Buechler at on 020 8385 3070 or at [email protected] or tel 020 8554 5635 [email protected] as soon as possible.

19 AJR Journal | September 2017

TOUR DE FORCE MEMORIES

World Jewish Relief has organised a OF BERLIN one-off walking tour of North West London on Sunday 3 September. It is On the evening of 26 October JW3 designed to provide a unique glimpse will host a very special concert in aid into the lives and contributions of of the National Holocaust Centre and Jewish refugees in the 1930s towards Museum in Nottinghamshire. shaping the landscape of North West London and indeed the whole of The internationally-acclaimed singer British society. Max Raabe will take the audience back to the Berlin of the 1920s and early ‘30s. A city on the edge, an exhilarating place of unbridled artistic experimentation. A city that only a few years later would be changed forever with the rise of Nazism. and counterbalanced by poignant expressions of love and longing. Accompanied by pianist Christoph Israel, Max will perform songs by Tickets for this event are Jewish composers, evoking the available from satire and bite of Berlin’s cabaret memoriesofberlin.eventbrite.co.uk

BREATHE DEEPLY MY SON Breathe Deeply my Son is a new documentary produced by Ilana Metzger about the life of her Father, Henry Wermuth, during WW2. Henry is a Holocaust survivor who tried to assassinate Hitler after breaking out of a Nazi camp, and the film AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman re-traces part of his harrowing journey. will be speaking on 12 September at the Wiener Library at the launch The film will be premiered at JW3 on Wednesday of The Boy in the Statue, the 8 November and will be followed by a Q&A with autobiography of Sir Erich Reich. Ilana, Henry and the directors.

COPING WELL UP NORTH

AJR Chief Executive, Michael Newman, I joined group 3 and we spoke about President of the Board of Deputies of together with our Head of Volunteers education for 2nd and 3rd generation as well British Jews, spoke after lunch on Our Carol Hart and Head of Social Services Sue as for schools. We also discussed the current Community Under Pressure – Can Kurlander, all attended a recent gathering of and future work of the AJR in Scotland. My We Cope? His tales of meetings with AJR members in Scotland and Newcastle. wife was in group 1 where the discussion politicians and religious leaders were was very lively with strong diverse feelings. extremely interesting, covering Israel, The meeting included three discussion groups In group 2 participants said they personally antisemitism, the recent terrorism whose topics were: feel safer but agreed that education for outbreaks in England and how to 1) What is the best for us - Brexit or non-Jews on Jewish life and customs was educate the nation in general about independence or both? important. British Jews and their way of life. 2) Has Antisemitism become fashionable? 3) The way forward. Our keynote speaker, Jonathan Arkush, Joe Cent

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] 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]

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