VOLUME 6 NO. 12 DECEMBER 2006 RaiH journal ^^^^1 ^^^^1 ^ Association of Jewish Refugees Suez 1956 - a lesson from history

In autumn 1956, just as the Hungarian over Hitler, the limits of British power in the uprising erupted (see November issue), the post-war world were exposed, as Britain was crisis that had been triggered when Egypt's whipped into line by the USA. President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal None of the participants in the brief (26 July 1956) was nearing its climax. Anglo- campaign emerged with lasting gains. Nasser, French military intervention against Egypt whose forces had been defeated by the proved to be a monumental error; it cost Prime Israelis, nevertheless won a huge political Minister Anthony Eden his job and Britain victory through his stand against the its remaining position in the Middle East, as Western 'imperialists'. But this was a well as demonstrating with bmtal clarity the success built on sand. The union of Egypt hoUowness of Britain's claim to be a 'world and Syria as the United Arab Republic soon power' any longer. Ill-fated meeting: Sir Anthony Eden and foundered, and Egypt's crushing defeat by President Nasser Those whose priority is still to ensure Israel in the war of 1967 meant that Nasser Britain's 'seat at the top table', by 'punching Eden dragged Britain into a squalid and sjjent his last years as leader of a profoundly above our weight' in purely military and misconceived adventure. In a secret under­ humiliated nation. diplomatic terms, ignore the lessons of Suez standing with France and Israel, he agreed Israel emerged from its campaign in the at their (and our) peril. For decades after that Israel should attack Egypt and that Sinai Peninsula victorious militarily, but with World War II, their strategy succeeded only Britain and France should then send in troops, precious little political advantage. Nasser, its in relegating Britain to a position behind allegedly to separate the warring parties. foe, had emerged from the campaign with his Germany and Japan, the defeated powers of Israeli forces invaded the Sinai Peninsula on prestige in the Arab world much increased, 1945, in terms of real economic strength, and 29 October 1956 and, when Nasser rejected whereas Israel had damaged its standing by in frittering away the real advantages that the Anglo-French proposal to occupy the associating itself with a war of aggression might have been secured by tailoring British Canal Zone temporarily, supposedly in order initiated by the former imperial powers. policy to the country's new position as a to establish a buffer zone between Israelis and Israeli policy was becoming marked by a regional, European power. Egyptians, the forces of the two powers pronounced reliance on its military strength Nasser was the leading figure in the pan- invaded Egypt and rapidly established - understandable in a small, embattled nation Arab movement, bent on removing the control over the Canal. surrounded by numerically superior enemies, remnants of colonial mle from the Arab However, this was a short-lived success, but unsuited to the political process necessary world (and bitterly hostile to Israel). His for the rest of the world saw that military in­ for the solution of the central dispute with nationalisation of the Suez C^al, owned by tervention 'to separate the combatants' was the Palestinians. France, for its part, failed to companies representing Britain and France, a transparently dishonest pretext for retain­ halt Egyptian support for Arab Algeria's was legitimate - Egypt was willing to ing Anglo-French control over the Canal. fight for independence. compensate the former owners, just as Attlee's President Eisenhower and his Secretary of The failure of the Suez campaign Labour Govemment had compensated the State, John Foster Dulles, refused to support revealed that Britain, having lost an empire, coal-owners when it nationalised the coalmines. their European allies in this version of twen­ had yet to devise a foreign-policy strategy Nevertheless, Eden became obsessed with tieth-century gunboat diplomacy - greatly to appropriate to its new, post-imperial Nasser, whom he compared to Hitler; a soft their CTedit, as they risked alienating the Jew­ situation. Too weak to be a major player on line on the Canal crisis became in his mind ish lobby on the eve of the American the world stage by itself, but reluctant to comparable to Chamberlain's failed policy of presidential elections of November 1956. throw in its lot with its European appeasement in the 1930s. In reality, Britain's Not for the last time, Britain's economic neighbours, Britain fell back on its 'special evacuation of its troops from the Suez C^anal weakness proved to be its Achilles heel: as relationship' with America. Fifty years on, Zone, begun in 1954, showed that the logic of Sterling weakened under the impact of the a British prime minister is again colluding its position pointed in the opposite direction, crisis and the country's currency reserves in the invasion of an Arab country, again to the abandonment of Britain's role 'East of drained away, American pressure forced on questionable grounds, and this time not Suez'; with Indian independence in 1947, the Eden to back down. A ceasefire came into restrained by the wisdom of a Republican Canal had lost its significance as the arterial effect on 6 November 1956 and British forces president in the White House. connection to Britain's imperial possessions. were withdrawn: only 11 years after victory Anthony Grenville AjR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2006

Visiting Terezin

On an overcast day last August, I walked to the hospital where he died and, to Prague's main coach station to board finally, to the river Ohre, into which the a bus for Terezin, where my maternal ashes of cremated prisoners were grandparents had been deported in thrown. Perhaps some of the burdens 1942 from Vienna. I never knew my transmitted to us via our parents are too grandparents, Heinrich and Alice heavy to shoulder all at once. Strassberg, and I knew little of Terezin, Anthony Grenville or Theresienstadt as I called it, beyond * Mgr Fedorovic, who is very willing to answer the sparse details provided in lieu of questions from survivors and their relatives, death certificates for my grandparents can be contacted at Pamatnik Terezin, Principova alej 304, CZ-411 55 Terezin, Czech by the Czech authorities after the war. Republic, or at [email protected]. My mother showed me these documents Heinrich Strassberg (far right) playing when I was 19, and so I learned that my chamber music with Albert Einstein, grandfather had died at Terezin in Vienna, 13 October 1931 New AJR social February 1943, but that my workers for North suffering that still attaches to such grandmother had survived until May Eileen Brady, who 1944, when she was deported to places, even though the Nazi guards and will be based in Auschwitz. After that, the certificates their victims have long since left them Newcastle, will rested deep in a drawer, out of sight and, to silence and memory. work part-time for so we thought, out of mind. When I walked on to the town itself, the AJR, covering the North of Eng­ The map listing the stops on the I had a shock. The buildings that comprised the ghetto are still standing, land and Scotland. coach's route gave no indication that She will also be town life having resumed after Terezin was a special destination, in any continuing her way different from the other villages liberation in 1945. Terezin was not a work for the Northumbria University through which we passed. The itinerary concentration camp, but a ghetto Disaster and Development Centre as simply stated that there were two stops created from an existing settlement to well as completing her PhD on the role at Terezin. I got out at the first, and was house Czech Jews and (mostly) elderly of social workers in disasters. Eileen previously worked with international confronted with two signposts, one or distinguished Jews from Germany and Austria. Consequently, the buildings NGOs and the EU in Eastern Europe. directing me to the Ghetto, one to the Recently she was a consultant for Small Fortress. I opted for the latter, are still peopled with life, unlike Bergen- Belsen or Auschwitz. UNHCR in Darfur and Pakistan relating partly because the sign also indicated a to psycho-social programmes for memorial there, partly because a family At the ghetto museum, to my refugees affected by trauma. friend had asked me to look for traces surprise, a helpful historian produced a death certificate for my grandfather Anthony Fagan, of her father, who, she believed, had who will be based issued at the time of his death. This told died there. in Manchester, has the historian, Mgr. Tomas Fedorovic,* The Small Fortress, the 'Kleine an honours deg­ that my grandfather had been Festung' of evil memory, was a prison ree in social work accommodated in a makeshift hospital attached to the larger fortress town of from Lancaster in the former Engineering Barracks. With Terezin itself, which had been built by University and an the help of a map of the former ghetto, MA in social/com­ the Empress Maria Theresia. The Nazis I located this building, an imposing, munity work from used the prison as a place of somewhat daunting block now used for Bradford University. His principal work punishment, for members of the Czech experience involves hospital/community communal purposes. As my resistance as well as Jews and others. It teams providing social-work support for grandmother's details also appeared, I now stands largely empty, with only a adults with physical and mental health located the house where she had lived, sprinkling of visitors like myself to view difficulties, assisting with their practi­ too, a smaller building with a shop on the slogan 'Arbeit macht frei' over the cal, emotional and financial needs, and the ground floor; doubtless there was entrance, the crude rooms into which a liaising with the relevant statutory family accommodation on the upper agencies. hundred prisoners were packed and the floor where my grandmother's room punishment cells. Over it hangs the Eileen and Anthony will work along­ had been. almost tangible atmosphere of evil and side Manchester-based Barbara Dorrity The sudden and unexpected feeling of proximity to my mother's parents, hitherto shadowy figures from a A|R Directors JACKMAN - vanished past, unsettled me. I did not Gordon Greenfield Finance go into the house from where my Carol Rossen Adnninistration and Personnel ^ SILVERMAN grandmother had set out, alone, on her AJR Heads of Department COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS final journey. Only when I studied a Marcia Goodman Social Services leaflet about the ghetto, on the coach Michael Newman Media and Public Relations back to Prague, did I realise that I could Susie Kaufman Organiser, AJR Centre have followed in my grandfather's AJR Joumal footsteps - from the railway siding Dr Anthony Grenville Consultant Editor 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA where he arrived, through the ilojska Dr Howard Spier Executive Editor Telephone: 020 7409 0771 Fax: 020 7493 8017 (the sluice, or checkpoint, where Andrea Goodmaker Secretarial/Advertisements inmates were 'processed' on admission), A|RJOURh4AL DECEMBER 2006

My Australian misadventure NEWTONS Leading Hampstead Solicitors When I embarked in Genoa at the end summer finally arrived, temperatures advise on of April 1949 I was no longer the soared to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and Property, Wills, Family Trusts innocent teenager who had left Vienna above. and Charitable Trusts in 1938. I was twenty-nine and a half The weather, however, was the least years old, and by the time I arrived in of my problems with Sydney. The French and German spoken Sydney I was five weeks older - well contrast between its crudeness and Home visits arranged on the way to becoming an old maid. the sophistication of Paris was simply Dressed to kill in my New Look too much of a shock for me to absorb. 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, Balenciaga suit and hat to match, I There was no purpose-built theatre London NWS SNB caused something of a stir on landing. or concert hall or art gallery, hardly a Tel: 020 7435 5351 There were loud mutterings of 'Look decent restaurant. When Stella and I Fax: 020 7435 8881 at the Frenchie!'. The New Look had lunch at the cafe next to our obviously hadn't yet reached the office, where the choice was between Antipodes. lamb's fry and lamb's fry, I The date was 3 June - so my British nostalgically remembered my lunches Travel Document tells me. (I was still a in Paris at a small restaurant where CONSULTANT stateless person.) It rained heavily and two elderly sisters cooked and served to long-established English there was a general strike on. What on a variety of delicious dishes. And Solicitors (bilingual German) earth was I doing here? I had had an whereas the French enjoyed their would be happy to assist clients excellent job with the 'Joint', the aperitif or glass of wine leisurely, here with English, German and men lined up their drinks between American Jewish Joint Distribution Austrian problems. Committee, in Paris, close to my family. five, when they finished work, and six, Well, it was all Stella's fault. I had when the pubs closed, and then threw Contact Henry Ebner met her when we were both working up in the street. Myers Ebner & Deaner for the US army in Germany, and we I was homesick - not for any 103 Shepherds Bush Road had never lost touch. She had particular country because I no longer London W6 7LP emigrated to Sydney from London a could call any country my own -• but Telephone 020 7602 4631 year earlier and, in her letters, urged for the Old World. I dreamt of the view me to join her. One needed only of Paris from the top of Notre Dame; ALL LEGAL WORK summer clothes there, she said, and the of the tranquil Thames Valley; of the UNDERTAKEN future was bright. lake in Austria where, aged eight, I had On the day after my arrival, Stella's learned to swim. I ached for Europe. boss, a Hungarian Jew, took us to lunch. We - I had been married for a year 'There are only two varieties of soup', by then - finally left Sydney in July AUSTRIAN and GERMAN he said, 'sick or sin'. I opted for sin. His 1951. Without really trying, I had ac­ PENSIONS partner needed a secretary, and I was quired a husband and, with him, British to work for Mr Webster, an Austrian Jew, nationality. Not a mean achievement! short of stature and irascible by nature, Before you start composing PROPERTY for the next year or so. indignant letters in defence of RESTITUTION CLAIMS Stella had found us rooms in a Australia, let me tell you that I revisited EAST GERMANY - BERLIN pleasant suburb, I had a job I didn't it for the first time in 1993, and what I dislike and I made new friends, but I found was a vibrant, multi-cultural, On instructions our office will . wasn't happy in Sydney. For one thing, confident country. Sydney, of course, assist to deal with your | it was winter and I was always cold. has its stunning opera house, applications and pursue the matter No one at that time thought of heating Melbourne a splendid arts centre, and with the authorities homes or offices. The myth was that I have spent great holidays in For further information the city was blessed with eternal Queensland, Victoria and New South and an appointment sunshine. In fact, it rained almost every Wales in hotels that are comparable to please contact: day during those winter months, and I any in Europe. took to wearing woollen socks. When Edith Argy ICS CLAIMS 146-154 Kilburn High Road London NW6 4JD

The Chairman, Management Committee and Staff Tel: 020 7328 7251 (Ext. 107) wish all AJR members a Happy Chanukah Fax: 020 7624 5002 AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2006 The North goes South

Around 30 Northern and Scottish AJR were able to contrast the propaganda members, including members of the disseminated by the Nazis with the Second Generation, came down to contemporary witness accounts of London in November on a three-day Kristallnacht collected by the Library visit. On our arrival at the conveniently immediately after the event. located hotel, we were warmly greeted At the Library, Katherine Klinger, by Susanne Green, our Northern Region Education & Outreach, gave members Co-ordinator At 1 pm we boarded the an insight into this hugely important coach for our first outing, a visit to the resource. As it is a comprehensive Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill archive of Holocaust material there is Museum. Three generations at the Imperial War obviously considerable co-operation Hazel Beiny, the Southern Groups Co­ Museum: Miriam Stein, daughter Rosalind with the AJR. Now we are more aware Raphael, and grandson Howard Raphael ordinator, who ably assisted Susanne of the tremendous work being carried throughout the visit as well as acting out, and its vital relevance to us in as our London tour guide, accompanied itself, where we met up with some 70 particular, this interaction can only be us on the coach. We were met on arrival members from the Southern and enhanced. We went on to the AJR by James Taylor, who has a long Midlands groups. Michael Newman Centre in West Hampstead, where we association with the AJR, having worked provided a general update. He also met some of its regular visitors. Those on the Holocaust Exhibition at the introduced other AJR staff members, of us who had not been before were Imperial War Museum. He gave a very before handing over to Suzanne impressed by the homely atmosphere interesting talk about the concept and Bardgett, Project Director of the as well as the caring attitude of creation of the Churchill Museum. We Holocaust Exhibition. Having given us volunteers and staff. were all impressed by the Museum and a brief history of the Museum, she told After an excellent lunch Rev Fine its use of interactive media. of the many challenges faced in the conducted a moving ceremony in Back at the hotel, we had a little time conception and establishment of the commemoration of Kristallnacht. to unwind before going on to the White Holocaust Exhibition. We spent almost Several people were asked to light House restaurant in Hendon for the pre­ two hours touring the Exhibition, which candles, including some from our arranged meal. On arrival there, Gordon was powerful and moving. group, representing three different Greenfield and Michael Newman from Following a superb lunch laid on by strands of Holocaust experiences. We AJR headquarters greeted us. Two the Museum, and a further opportunity recited Kaddish. There was time for an visitors from the Claims Conference, to network with Southern members, we exchange of personal histories with who are based in Berlin, were also trouped down to the Museum's cinema other members there and we all found present. Unfortunately Susanne had to be addressed by Daniel Finklestein, this an uplifting experience. other AJR business to attend to, but had Associate Editor of The Times. He not Thus ended a wonderful three days, given strict instructions for us to 'mix only has strong ties with the AJR but, including a super West End show. A together'. This proved a little difficult as the grandson of the Wiener Library's great deal of knowledge was gained, on account of the seating arrangements founder Alfred Wiener, his presence was and many new friends and contacts but everyone soon got to know their of special significance to us. His subject, made. Our thanks go to Susanne Green neighbour and conversation flowed 'How Politicians Influence People', was for the organisation, care, planning and readily. a master class in political marketing. The sheer hard work that went into such a The following morning was relevance was reinforced the next day fantastic event. scheduled for the Imperial War Museum when we visited the Wiener Library and Walter Knoblauch

Guardian of the Memory '1 would like someone to remember that will be asked to light a candle in the the Holocaust to numerous secondary there once lived a person named David named person's memory on Yom schools in the London area, and hoping Berger' This was the desperate plea of Hashoah and to make a small donation to expand to schools around the country the Polish teenager in a final letter to his to advance the cause of Holocaust We are also planning to run seminars for friend Elsa as he faced death in Vilnius education and awareness in the UK. The teachers, seeking to incorporate in 1941. Guardian's name will be entered in a Holocaust education within the core David's wish lies at the heart of Yad permanent record symbolising that the curriculum. Vashem's UK campaign, which aims to victim will be remembered. He or she We hope that the Guardian of the ensure that each of the three million will also receive a lapel emblem, to Memory campaign will help to ensure people on Yad Vashem's Central Database wear with pride in recognition of that that the tragedy of the Holocaust is of Shoah Victims' names is remembered victim. never forgotten or denied. For further by at least one living person. Yad Vashem UK also hopes to share information, please contact us at 6 Hoping to enlist the help of every the educational resources available in Bloomsbury Square, London WCIA member of Anglo-Jewry as well as of Jerusalem for individuals and 2LP, tel 020 7543 5402, email non-Jews in this country, Yad Vashem organisations in the United Kingdom. As [email protected], website UK is issuing an invitation to become a well as the Guardian of the Memory www.yadvashem.org. Guardian of the Memory. Each Guardian campaign, we are taking a play about Linda Paterson AJR JOURNAL DECEt^BER 2006 Bonding in Berlin

It all began simply enough. My youngest place and therefore could be repeated - as daughter, who is doing an MA in art indeed they have been. therapy, was required to produce a The day after, Marianne wanted to visit dissertation. Neither my wife, Marianne, nor the villa in Dahlem where the Kaliski Schule I had paid much attention to her endeavours of which she had been a pupil had been until she told us she had been awarded a housed. She found the U-Bahn journey from distinction. We asked the nature of the Fehrbelliner Platz to Podbelski Allee subject and were surprised to learn that it nostalgic as she remembered the name of was 'Second Generation Survivors'. every station - it had been her daily journey Marianne asked if she would be to school. The train's final destination was interested in making a trip to Berlin. She Krumme Lanke, which brought back the was enthusiastic, whereupon we asked the words 'Vor zwei Jahren im August'. Im Dohl two other daughters, who were equally keen. 1, at the comer of Podbelski Allee, still looks Surprisingly, two of our sons-in-law also the same but now it is a historical archive. wished to join in. For myself, I had visited We visited the Bruecke Museum, a gem Berlin twice previously, but I was threatened tucked away at Bussardsteig 9. The Bruecke that if I didn't come along the trip was off. movement, founded in 1905, includes such We stayed at the Hotel Askanischer Hof artists as Emil Nolde and Otto Mueller. (a booklet pointed out that there was no The pupil returns: Marianne Hasseck outside Opened in 1967, the museum is devoted to the former Kaliski Schule in Dahlem, Berlin connection between the hotel and the works of the Bruecke artists, who Ashkenazim!). Time has stood still at the demonstrated the birth of modernism in a hotel, where the atmosphere of Weimar unique way. Not one of the delightful 400 Berlin lives on. The quirky decor made us to find their way in and out of the complex. paintings we saw could have been shown feel we were staying with an eccentric great- One of our sons-in-law, whose grandfather in the Nazi era. aunt in her first-floor flat. Kafka had written had been killed in the Nazi era, was On our last day, outside Wittenberg Platz a book in room 12 and Arthur Miller had disturbed by the memorial, but for me it was U-Bahn station, Marianne caught sight of stayed there. I rested while the others went too abstract. what at first looked like an advertising to see where Marianne had lived nearby and I was more disturbed by the rooms in poster but tumed out to be a list of the names to admire what was left of the gracious old the Information Centre below the memorial. of the extermination camps with the heading Berlin ajwrtment blocks. All were occupied by visitors, but what 'We Must Never Forget'. She found this most The following day, we visited the impressed me most was the utter silence. touching due to its simplicity. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, There was an opportunity for visitors to It had been four days of family bonding located near the Brandenburg Gate. It was express their views of the memorial. Quite - nostalgia for some, finding roots for others, built here, in the heart of Berlin, to express a number had written that what had taken and understanding for our sons-in-law, one its public character. The grid pattern place must never be repeated. 1 was more of whom comes from South Africa and the consists of 2,711 steBae, which can be walked impressed by a notice quoting Primo Levi other from Northem Ireland. through from all sides, leaving it to visitors to the effect that terrible crimes had taken Martin Hasseck

Book on Pioneer Corps veterans wins prestigious award Dr Helen Fry's book /ews in North Devon Helen also devoted two extensive during the Second World War (reviewed in chapters to the Zionist Youth groups at the AfR fournal's April issue) has been Bydown House near Swimbridge and the awarded the prestigious Devon Book of the community at 62 South Sfreet in Braunton, Year Award. Containing over 300 together consisting of around 100 refugee- wartime photographs, the book narrates the youth from Germany, Austria and story of more than 3,000 German, Austrian Czechoslovakia whose aim was to train for and Czech refugees who enlisted in the a kibbutz-style life and settle in Palestine. Pioneer Corps in Westward Ho! and This is the first award ever to be made on a llfracombe. It includes a chapter on those Jewish subject by the longstanding Devon who joined the Pioneer Corps on their retum 249 Company of the 'alien' Pioneer Corps, History Society. from intemment in Australia. December 1940, llfracombe. North Devon HS A|R JOURNAL DECEMBER 2006

who were researching the fate of Jews who had lived in the building where they now lived. A memorial tablet was lElTERS^ The Editor reserves the right unveiled outside the building in memory of the Jews who had lived in it to shorten correspondence in 1938. The group have a website submitted for publication entitled 'Servitengasse 1938 Schicksale der Verschwundenen/ The Fate of Those Who Disappeared: A Memorial Project by the Citizens of Vienna's 9th District'. This information may be of interest to A STOLPERSTEIN FOR IRMA ZANCKER before their deportation to Kaunas, all refugees, in particular those from Sir - I read with great emotion the where, together with 998 other Munich Vienna. article by Dieter Sienknecht in the Jews, they were shot soon after arrival. Joe Winroope October issue. Stolpersteine are going The event had been researched, Radlett, Herts to be laid in memory of my parents, financed and organised, initially Siegfried and Trude Wurzburger, and without my knowledge, by two local OPEN LETTER TO ANTHONY my brother, Hans Wurzburger, outside grammar school girls and their HOWARD our home in Frankfurt, on the 65th classmates. As the mayor of Munich, Sir - Whilst I admire Anthony Grenville's anniversary of their deportation to Lodz Christian Ude, as well as the brilliantly written and researched article on 19 October 1941. All is arranged and representatives of Munich Jews were (October issue), I can't help feeling that paid for by 'Paten' (sponsors), self- known to be inimical to Stotpersteine, he has chosen the wrong forum and the appointed godfathers in a German the impending event had not been wrong time for its publication. This Christian organisation, no doubt very publicised. Nevertheless, a small group letter should have been sent to the similar to the organisation used of well-wishers and a few journalists Times in July, immediately after Any by Dieter Sienknecht to commemorate and photographers attended the Questions was broadcast, when Israel's the memory of his former Jewish ceremony. Six weeks later, during the attacks on Lebanon made headline neighbour. hours of darkness and following a news. Also, Anthony Howard is unlikely As I only left Germany with the last council meeting, the Stotpersteine were to read the AJR Journal, dear though it Kindertransport from Frankfurt on 24 removed by council workmen. This act is to our hearts, and we ex-refugees August 1939, I can fully understand of vandalism was preceded by a council know that the systematic genocide of how embarrassed ten-year-old meeting in which, with the exception millions of innocent Jews has no Dieter must have felt in 1942 when he of the Greens, all parties, including the parallel in history. was suddenly meeting his parents' Jewish representative, had voted for the Nevertheless, I who, like most of us, former Jewish friend Irma Zancker wear­ removal of the Stolpersteine. lost close relatives then, including my ing the Star of David. How relieved he Councillors of the socialist majority had stepmother, who raised me from the must have felt when she terminated been forced to vote for the removal by time I was a small child, believe that it the conversation quickly and, many a whipping motion by the mayor. The demeans her suffering, and that of all years later, when he heard that she had removal evoked strong protests, who perished in the camps, to wheel perished in the Holocaust, how guilty including a half-page advertisement out the Holocaust every time Israel he must have felt! signed by many prominent people, in needs an excuse for inappropriate Dieter Sienknecht decided to the Suddeutsche Zeitung, but to no behaviour. sponsor a Stolperstein in Irma Zancker's avail. Edith Argy memory in Hamburg, and I only hope As for the representatives of the London W9 that her son Klaus is still alive and that Munich Jews, having received somebody can trace him so that he, or considerable financial support from Sir - It is time you were made aware any other surviving member of his Munich for various projects, they do that a large proportion of your readers family, will find out about this very kind not, it seems, wish to rock the boat. In does not share your uncritical support deed by his former German neighbour. the meantime, Gunter Demnig has of Israel. I prefer to associate myself I am very pleased that hundreds of made many more Stotpersteine for with them rather than with those who Christians all over Germany are trying Munich. For the time being, they cannot approve what you are pleased to refer to trace the families of Jews who be placed on Munich pavements: they to as the 'unplanned and unintended' perished in the Holocaust and place are on public display, temporarily in the killings and use of cluster bombs by the these memorial stones in front of the Musikhochschule. A final irony: the IDF in the Lebanon, the theft of Arab homes from which they were Musikhochschule occupies the lands, the building of the illegal deported. FiJhrerbau, Hitler's former Munich separation wall, and the persecution of Kenneth Ward headquarters. the Arab population of Gaza and the Wickford, Essex Peter Jordan West Bank Manchester It is no excuse to point at war crimes Sir - The article 'A Stolperstein for Irma committed by other nations: ail Zancker' is in stark contrast with a very VIENNA MEMORIAL PROJECT atrocities - yes, even those by Britain in different experience I had in Munich. Sir - In 2005 my wife and I visited the course of its desperate struggle to In May 2004 the Cologne artist Gunter Vienna as guests of the city. While there save us from the Nazis - are an assault Demnig placed Stolpersteine for my we were invited to various functions. on our human values. However much parents, Paula and Fritz Jordan, outside The most memorable of these was with it may infuriate you, the activities of the the block of flats where they had lived a group of young, non-Jewish people IDF invite comparison with those of the AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2006

Nazis - especially to those of us who German border Although no further for have lost their dearest relatives in the bombers than Dresden, none of these AREYOUONALOW Holocaust. It is these activities - not the factories was ever bombed. Why?! comparison - which dishonour the Kad A. Bettelheim INCOMEANDINNEED memory of Nazi victims. Southgate, London OF HOMECARE HELP? Heinz Grunewald AJR might be able to offer you Pinner, Middx 'CHILDREN OF THE financial assistance for cleaning, KINDERTRANSPORT' gardening and caring. DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN ANTI- Sir - Thank you so much for the ZIONISM AND ANTISEMITISM postcard showing the new sculpture at Members who might not Sir - There is now a very fine - and Liverpool Street Station. I was also one otherwise be able to afford shrinking - dividing line between anti- of the boys who arrived with a suitcase homecare please contact: Zionism and antisemitism and, when I and a violin, so you can understand that Estelle Brookner, Secretary think of our ilk, only the Neturei Carta I feel especially touched. I am very AJR Social Services Dept and, of course, Gerald Kaufman, Harold happy that my brother, H. Edward Levy, Tel: 020 8385 3070 Pinter ef al, can be considered to fall is a trustee of your organisation. into the first category. The main culprit Henry F Levy is the biased BBC, and particularly Wollerau, Switzerland Channel 4, which is completely lacking if. ^ in any kind of impartiality, with support NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM Companions from the Manchester Guardian and Sir - I find Mr Leavor's letter regarding of London many other left-wing papers. So now the supply of a GiJterwagen to the incorporating we have the antics of Baroness Jenny Railway Museum in York rather Hampstead Home Care V J Tonge, whose outbursts do justice to confusing. The main consideration is, A long established company Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Sheikh of course, that the wagon be of the providing care in your home Hilali in Australia. required age and type as that used for Anthony Goldsmith the deportation of Jews, preferably with Assistance with personal care Wembley, Middx a breakhouse used by the armed guards General fiousehold duties and the words 'Deutsche Reichsbahn' Respire care BOMBING OF DRESDEN and 'Standorf' with the wagon number Medical appointment service Sir - I have followed with interest the on its side. Some had the number of article and letters on the bombing of people forced into them painted in 'OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' Dresden, and feel moved to comment crude white letters i.e. '73 Personen' 020 7483 0212/0213 on one aspect, which seems to have added. Put 73 dummies into a slipped past the arguments. Dresden GiJterwagen of the period and it will was described before the war as a jewel give visitors to the museum some idea SPRING of a city. One just has to see the of the suffering of human beings Canaletto paintings to realise this. As incarcerated in them for days without GROVE such, it was a cultural heritage food or water. A leading manufacturer 214 Finchley Road belonging to humanity as a whole, not of electric toy trains has recently London NW3 just the German people, and especially produced in HO gauge a truck of this London's Most Luxurious not the Nazis. The bombing by the type including sliding doors. It is an German forces of Coventry and exact copy without, of course, the RETIREMENT HOME Rotterdam - to give just two examples legend '73 Personen' on it. • Entertainment - Activities of similar destruction of cultural Ernest G. Kolman • Stress Free Living heritage - does not excuse the bombing Greenford, Middx • 24 House Staffing Excellent Cuisine of Dresden. • Full En-Suite Facilities In this world, where beauty and •ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH Call for more Information monuments of great human CONTINENTALS' or a personal tour achievement continue to be destroyed Sir - Unlike your correspondent Adele 020 8446 2117 - like the famous bridge in Mostar Gotthelf (October), I am glad to belong or 020 7794 4455 (Bosnia), the giant Buddha statues in to an Association of Jewish Refugees - [email protected] Afghanistan - or deliberately damaged a reminder to me, my children and in battle - like the great temple complex grandchildren that we found help and in Angkor (Cambodia) - we, as cultured, shelter when the need was greatest in Simon R Rhodes M.Ch.S. civilised human beings should stand up a country with a proud tradition of STATE REGISTERED against all destruction of monuments, aiding the persecuted. At Passover we CHIROPODIST which belong to all of us. There should are bidden to remember a time of Surgeries at: be no excuse. Furthermore, according rescue 'as if we ourselves had been 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 to the memoirs of Albert Speer, saved at that time'. Let our descendents (opp. M&S) Germany never had more than three not forget that they owe their existence Telephone: 020 7624 1576 months' fuel to run its war machine to those who found 'refuge' in Britain 2 Pangboume Drive after the battle of Stalingrad. It relied and therefore bore the title of 'refugees' Stanmore Middx HA7 4QT almost totally on the conversion of gladly to the end of their lives. Telephone: 020 8958 8557 brown coal to fuel performed in 17 S. S. Prawer factories along what is now the Czech- Queens College, Oxford Visiting chiropody service available glimpsed. What's this - a metaphor for his filial self? REVIEWS In the '60s Hockney hobnobbed with NOTES the arty glitterati and his famous double- A life without bitterness Gloria Tessler take of Ossie Clark and his wife, Celia Birtwistle, with Percy the cat, is a pure or hatred ALICE HERZ-SOMMER: 'EIN GARTEN conversation piece. Celia, in a long black EDEN INMITTEN DER HOLLE'. DAS dress, faces the viewer while Mr Clark, JAHRHUNDERTLEBEN David Hockney has so many faces you seated, faces the cat. It is a typical pose; by Melissa Muller and can barely recognise them all. From his often it is a pause in communication. But Reinhold Piechocki double portraits to the playful way he it is also neo-classical, evoking the Droemer. 2006, 430 pp., 19.90 euros paints water as blue or pink swirls of brooding symbolism of the Italian High Music could always transport Alice glinting sunlight, to his sketches, Renaissance. Sommer into an autonomous photography and experimental works, A long period of introspection led to paradisical world. This helped her the quiet Yorkshireman is perfectly on- a series of self-portraits in 1983. He writes when the real world turned hellish message. You can find traces of Picasso, of himself: 'Obviously I had some facility, under the Nazis. The central part of this book is about those years. more than other people, She was born in 1903 into a Jewish, but sometimes facility acculturated and German-speaking comes because one is family in Prague. She started playing more interested in the piano at a very young age and at looking at things - the 21 made her debut as soloist with the visual world - than other Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1931 people are.' she married Leopold Sommer; their son Stephan (later to be called Hockney, for all his Raphael) was born in 1937. fame, remains close to his With the Nazi occupation of Bradford roots. Among Czechoslovakia, their lives changed his many portraits of his swiftly, with humiliating restrictions mother, one stands out. imposed on Jews day after day. And She is folded into a chair, then the deportations began. First, in Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, 1970-1 © Tate. Presented by the tiny, cuddly with piercing July 1942 her 72-year-old mother was Friends of the Tate Gallery, 1971. © David Hockney deported to Theresienstadt (and from blue eyes and arthritic there to Treblinka). In July 1943 it was Dali, Vermeer and the Impressionists - hands. You can feel him reaching out to the turn of Alice, Leopold and Stephan even a touch of Francis Bacon - and yet her. to be sent to Theresienstadt. each work, painted with detail, There's shock and awe at the Royal The physical conditions there were assuredness and a pure innocence, is Academy's USA Today exhibition, in grim but a few months before the entirely Hockney. The likeness is swift, which 40 young American Saatchi- Sommers arrived the SS had decided abrasive to the point of caricature. He selected artists strut their stuff. It could to turn it into a 'show camp' for observers from the International Red gives you sharp contrasts, light and be the daughter of the 1997 Saatchi/RA Cross - and so the deportees were shadow, brilliant colour and looming collaborative exhibition which produced provided with musical instruments darkness, either in the pose or the Sensation, where maggots, dead cows, (confiscated from Jews) and allowed background. Myra Hindley, flayed skin and genitalia to arrange their own entertainment. Until 21 January David Hockney brought in a record number of visitors. Alice gave many recitals and the Portraits at the National Portrait Behind this latest show, 9/11 lurks like descriptions of these are very moving. Stephan, who was musically even Gallery spans 150 works over five the Angel of Death with all the more precocious than his mother had technology of violence - industrial decades in a variety of media, all proving been at that age, was quickly roped he is still on top form. At the preview, he imagery, falling buildings, convulsive in to rehearse and perform in struck a tall, imposing figure in a beige abstracts. The materials reflect this too. Brundibar, an opera composed forthe suit and red tie, and with his fine, jutting Huma Bhabha's sculpture posed in children in the camp. profile he looked more magnate than Islamic prayer is made from wire and As defeat for Germany drew nearer maestro. His double portraits are black plastic bags. Adam Svijanovic's in the autumn of 1944, the SS, possibly imposing, rigid, often symbolic: in one, huge installation in which houses and fearing an uprising of the able-bodied his mother sits primly on her chair while debris fall out of a clear blue sky is men in Theriesenstadt, decided to disturbing, while Erick Swenson's send them to the extermination his father is bent over a newspaper. camps. Alice's husband was among Beside a vase of flowers is a mirror in dead deer with antlers peering out of the them: she never saw him again. She which his father's profile can be snow is moving. learned later that he had survived the

8 AJR JOURNAL DECEMBER 2006 death march from Auschwitz to Balliol College, Oxford. Whether he Of particular interest are chapters Dachau - only to die there of typhus. was to become a medical doctor or an devoted to remarkable individuals, But Himmler still wanted to academic, the thoroughness of including Jacob Griffel, who rescued preserve Theresienstadt as a 'model' research preceding the compilation of thousands of Jews from Nazi-occupied camp and to produce it in his defence this book would certainly demand Europe, Viola Sachs, a professor of at the end of the war Alice had to both academic rigour and quasi- American literature at the University work an eight-hour day in barracks scientific enquiry. of Paris, Tad Taube, an American where slates were broken up to make For genealogists or researchers, this philanthropist, and Lucia Ohrenstein, insulating materials, work which was work is a treasure-trove, with who became an Italian countess. particularly hard on her hands. But in innumerable tables, extensive notes For the general reader there is a the evening she would often perform and details of genealogical enquiry. basic problem with this book, which in the concerts that continued to be Although I am neither genealogist nor has been compiled, in part, from staged. researcher, I should declare a slight numerous articles the author has In May 1945 Theriesenstadt was interest, having joined the Jewish published in reputable genealogical liberated and in mid-June Alice and Genealogical Society of Great Britain journals. While Gelles's written style Stephan were able to return to Prague when seeking candidates for interview is usually admirably clear and and to continue their musical lives for my book Lost Jews. I have also accessible, the welter of detail and there. become aware of several generations invariable repetition of facts and But after the communist takeover of my own Sephardi/Oriental names lead all too often to a sense of of Czechoslovakia in 1948, it again antecedents, partly thanks to extensive confusion as well as surfeit. Given the became dangerous to speak freely. In research by a member of our interesting subject matter, it might March 1949 Alice decided to move community, who produced a volume have been preferable to summarise with her son to Israel, where she was filled with fascinating family trees. and condense, thereby highlighting to live for the next 37 years. There her So a complete stranger to the significance of this extraordinary career as a performer and teacher of genealogy I am not. Which explains, family inheritance. Moreover, while music continued, while in due course in part, why I have found portions of there is a glossary, lists of family and Raphael became a cellist of world this work so riveting. Indeed, Edward place names and an extensive stature. After his marriage in 1966 he Gelles claims descent from a most bibliography, the absence of a page- and his wife were based in London, remarkable lineage. On both his related index is frustrating. and there Alice joined him in 1986. maternal and paternal side, the Emma Klein The book ends with the saddest number of distinguished rabbis, as thing that can afflict a loving mother: well as eminent entrepreneurs and in 2001 Raphael Sommer died of a financiers, to whom he would appear THEATRE heart attack while on a concert tour to be connected, either directly or Times they are a-changin' in Israel. Alice was then 98 and coped remotely, is mind-boggling. Among CAROLINE, OR CHANGE with this grief as she had coped with the most renowned are the book and lyrics by Tony Kushner so many other crises in her life, incomparable medieval commentator music by Jeanine Tesori drawing some comfort from music - Rashi of Troyes, the sixteenth-century directed by George C. Wolfe she still plays the piano three hours a Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Judah Loew, day in her north London home. She and an early sage of the Lyttleton Theatre, London has never given way to bitterness; she Enlightenment, Rabbi Moses Issedes of There is a moment before the climax has always remained life-affirming; her Cracow. His ancestry spans much of of Caroline, Or Change when the philosophy eschews hatred, whether the continent of Europe, including young son of the Louisiana Jewish for Germans or Arabs. Her 100th medieval Spain and Portugal, family, Noah Gellner, becomes enraged birthday drew tributes from people Provence, Italy, Germany, Prague and, that Caroline, their black maid, insists from many lands. This moving book is later, Poland, Galicia and Vienna. on keeping his Chanucah money, one of them. Various family names stand out: carelessly left in his trouser pockets. Ralph Blumenau Wahl, Katzenellenbogen, Chayes (from 'That will feed my three kids!', she the original Chayot), Safier, Griffel - crows. He tells her that President Tour de force Gelles's mother's maiden name - Johnson will drop a bomb on all Taube and Loew, as well as Gelles. negroes. Icily she responds that hell is AN ANCIENT LINEAGE: EUROPEAN Place names too, which dominated the a place far hotter even than her ROOTS OF A JEWISH FAMILY more recent family history, include basement kitchen with all its by Edward Gelles Brody, Nadworna and Tarnobrzeg. machinery going and that hell has London: Valentine Mitchell, 2006, Indeed, as Gelles claims, he has traced been reserved for the Jews. Uproar in 392 pp., cloth £45.00 facets of the history of European Jewry the audience as the vociferous, mainly Edward Gelles's book is undoubtedly through researching the genealogy of black, party to my right broke into a tour de force. It can also be seen as his family. Now, as he notes at the end spontaneous whoops of joy and the consummation of a life's work. of the book, the family's sojourn in applause. Apart from referring to him as 'Dr Europe has virtually come to an end. You could argue that the applause Gelles', the blurb on the book's jacket Many perished in the Holocaust, while was no more than a tit-for-tat makes no mention of his career after surviving branches made their home response but, where I - probably the his graduation in natural sciences from in America and Israel. continued on page 10 A|R JOURNAL DECEMBER 2006

REVIEWS continued from page 9 only Jew in the vicinity - was sitting, it musical score, although I felt the felt extremely threatening. Caroline drama suffered from lack of clarity in later redeems herself by seeking the first act. absolution from her church for saying Nothing, of course, is resolved, but such things to that little boy, who is an uneasy truce blisters through the My friend, colleague and neighbour, coping with the recent loss of his Gellman home between Noah and Miriam Ron, died last week. Years ago, mother But what the Jewish author Caroline, who grudgingly accepts her of this musical was trying to expose in role. An excellent cast revs up the when I was involved in establishing the that pivotal moment are the painful action both musically and dramatically. Israel Translators Association, Miriam changes that came with the mid- Gloria Tessler contacted me and offered to help. Like 1960s, affecting both privileged and me, she was a translator, though she poor black society. translated from English and German Caroline, played with great aplomb ] Annely Juda Fine Art 1 into Hebrew. Together we spent many by Tonya Pinkins, is a kind of evenings compiling lists and stuffing i 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) forbearing black Mother Courage, Tel: 020 7629 7578 envelopes, and so our friendship grew. balancing her endless washing, drying Fax: 020 7491 2139 Bom in Berlin in 1928, Miriam was and ironing with raising a family of CONTEMPORARY PAINTING brought to Israel in 1934 by her divorced three in the wake of the turbulence AND SCULPTURE parents. Both remarried but her father following the death of President Kennedy and the burgeoning civil committed suicide when she was 17, rights movement. marking for ever a life disrupted by Despite all this, the extended WANTED TO BUY world disaster and private tragedy. Gellman family - clarinet-playing Miriam atttended various residential father Stuart (Richard Henders) and German and educational institutions, then studied grieving son, played by an alternating maths and physics at university. team of three young actors - manage English Books Married and divorced twice, she to put on a Chanukah party vibrant Bookdealer, AJR member, remained on excellent terms with both with singing and dancing, using welcomes invitations to view and ex-husbands, but death always attracted familiar-sounding Jewish rhythms. It's purchase valuable books. her more than life. not that the family mistreat Caroline, but her basement drudgery is a Robert Hornung Miriam never abandoned the 10 Mount View, Ealing socialism that was inculcated in Israel's metaphor for the seething unrest London WS IPR lurking beneath the unthinking, Email: [email protected] youth in the 1940s and 1950s. She privileged Southern states. The show Tel: 020 8998 0546 accumulated no possessions (except a has great panache, with an original few books and records) and left a promising career in Israel's civil service to study philosophy. She lived alone and Arts and Events Diary - December translated numerous books on psychology, philosophy and history, managing to understand the most To 11 Jan 2007 Absence and Loss and Present (with illustrations)' esoteric of subjects. A photographic Holocaust Club 43 memorial exhibition Manchester With the years Miriam went out less Tues 5 Dec to 8 April 2007 Jewish Museum tel 0161 834 9879 and less and saw very few people. Her Champion of the Child: Janusz kindness invariably got the better other, Sun 3 One of the Hollywood Ten. Korczak. Major new exhibition at however, and beggars would knock on film about Jewish director Herbert Jewish Museum, Camden Town. Tel Biberman starring Jeff Goldblum, 020 7284 1997 her door knowing that she would never Greta Scacchi and Angela Molina. Wed 6 Linda Melvern, 'The 1994 turn them away empty-handed, even if Plus High Tea and Raffle. Ben- Genocide in Rwanda: The Motive, it meant that she went hungry. Material Gurion University and Sussex Tikvah. Means and Opportunity', Wiener concems were never Miriam's forte. At Ajex Hall, Hove 3.00 pm. Library, 7.00 pm. Tel 020 7636 Miriam donated her body to science, Donation £10. Tel 01273 508 323/ 7247 01273 770 094 and so there was no funeral. Some Mon 11 Prof Michael Alpert, friends gathered at her house later that Sun 3 Book launch: Bernard Kops's 'Nineteenth-Century London: A week. It was a painful meeting for all Haven for Refugees' Club 43 East End. In celebration of the concerned. Miriam's life could have been author's 80th birthday. London Mon 18 An informal Chanumas happier, more productive, less lonely if Jewish Cultural Centre, Ivy House, evening Club 43 only the world had known how to North End Road, London NWII, 4.00 pm. Tel 020 8457 5000 Club 43 Meetings at Belsize Square alleviate the sadness that overshadowed Synagogue, 7.45 pm. Tel Hans her brilliant mind. May she rest in peace. Mon 4 Peter Retzer, 'Nurnberg Past Seelig on 01442 254360 Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

10 AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2006

Charlotte Abraham aka Lottie Levy was private-medicine organisation BUPA. an only child in a typically middle-class While she found BUPA 'very money- Jewish family in Bremen, a city with a PROFILE based', it was 'good-quality medicine' and small Jewish population. Her father. Max, Howard Spier work there was certainly far more had taken over the family men's-clothing relaxing and 'less hassle'. business - modest, shy, perhaps un­ Harry died in 1989 and her son Peter worldly, he seemed hardly cut out for such died tragically in a plane crash in 1994. a career. Max embraced his parents' Lottie Levy However, her daughter Susan lives German-Jewish orthodoxy and, as the 'I have never objected nearby in Surrey and Lottie enjoys a family business faltered, he seems to have to hard work' happy family life. felt more at home carrying out book­ Following her retirement from BUPA, keeping duties for the local Jewish 1 L:^.' Lottie took up volunteer work with the community. In sharp contrast, Lottie's AJR as a befriender. Currentiy she sits on mother, Else, 17 years younger, was an advisory committee deciding highly businesslike, politically astute, and emergency grants to members and carries possessing an infectious sense of humour. out translations of difficult technical As the family's financial position deteri­ doounents from Cjerman. orated, Else assumed the reins of power, Of enormous interest to Lottie is converting their house into a successful psychology, on which subject she has bed-and-breakfast establishment with a attended a number of summer school capacity of nine lodgers. Lottie always courses. This interest is not surprising felt closer to her mother, telling her given that her uncle, the psychoanalyst biographer: 'For me, she was the strong Karl Abraham, belonged to the 'inner one. She was my example. She still is to circle' around Sigmund Freud, whose this day.'* works Lottie has read from cover to In 1937, following a conversation fortunate enough to live with a Jewish cover. between her parents and the couple who treated her like a member of One of Lottie's abiding loves is music sympathetically disposed headmistress of the family. But then she was obliged to - she goes whenever possible to classical her grammar school, Lottie decided to take move to another family, who were'less music concerts. A long-lasting fascination up an apprenticeship dealing with clocks kind to her, using her as more of a servant with skiing came to an abmpt end with a and watches. But Kristallnacht intervened. than a domestic. hip-replacement operation some years Lotte remembers SS-men banging on the Following in her mother's footsteps, back. On a number of occasions, Lottie has door that night, ordering them to get Lottie trained as a nurse. Having qualified returned to Germany and spoken in dressed right away. Her father was taken at the end of the war, she took a job in schools. with other Jewish men and boys to Ascot Orthopaedic Hospital. A year earlier As we spoke in the north-west London Sachsenhausen. Six weeks later he she had married Harry (Hans) Levy, a home where she has lived since the 1960s, returned, a badly beaten, broken man. refugee from Hamburg and, on becoming I sensed that Lottie's feelings with regard The Abrahams applied without delay pregnant, she went to live with relatives to her early life remained close to the for a visa to join relatives in America. of his in London. surface, raw despite the passing of the They obtained the prerequisite affidavit, On demobilisation, Harry trained as a years. For Lottie, I discovered, it is but not the visa - the competition was too garage mechanic, took a course in important to help people out whenever she fierce. Desperately, they turned their engineering, and eventually found work can. She is highly energetic, displaying a sights on Manchester, where Lottie had a with a firm which manufactured, consistently positive attitude towards life, cousin, seeing England as a stopover until processed and sold advertising gifts. bright, humorous and perceptive. 'I have the family acquired the much sought-after Lottie loved nursing. Only in the late never objected to hard work', Lottie told US visa. But it was never obtained. In May 1940s did she interrupt her professional her biographer, in what would seem an 1939 Lotte found herself on a life - for two years after her children Peter overpowering understatement. Kindertransport. She remained in contact and Susan were bom. She worked many *Bettina Decke's biography 'Du musst with her parents imtil November 1941, years at Edgware Hospital, from where raus hier!' Lottie Abraham-Levy: Eine when they were deported to the Minsk she retired in the mid-1980s. Following fugend in Bremen (Bremen: Donat, 1998) ghetto along with 440 Bremen Jews. her enforced NHS retirement, Lottie covers principally the period up to Lottie's In Manchester, Lottie was, at first, worked a number of years for the departure for England.

II Cambridge visit to see Genizah whom she had shared a local refugee manuscripts hostel over 60 years ago. Suzanne Repton After our usual pleasant lunch organised told us more about her recent trip to Paris, by Danka and John Biggs, ten of us went where she attended the presentation of to the Cambridge University Library an award to the daughter of the family Exhibition Centre to see the priceless who saved her life. Suzanne's story is part collection of manuscripts recovered from of the BBC2 programme Hidden Children the Cairo Genizah, the gift of Dr Solomon to be shown next spring. Inge Little Schechter, then reader in Talmudic Next meeting: Wed 7 Feb Literature at Cambridge, and Dr Charles Cleve Road inaugural meeting Taylor, Master of St Johns College. The Edgware talk on genealogy Over 20 people attended the first meeting Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit Janette Rosenberg gave us advice on how of the Cleve Road AJR Outreach Group. It was set up in 1974 to sort 68,000 to make the necessary enquiries. Many was agreed that wherever possible the fragments of documents and make them details can be found on the internet or, group would meet on the third Tuesday available for research. Following a lecture in some instances, local authorities hold of every month at 10.30 am and that in from an enthusiastic member of the records of births, marriages and deaths. due course the programme of speakers research team we saw a selection of the It may encourage a few of us to search and other activities would be arranged by manuscripts, mainly on vellum, including into the past. Felix Winkler a planning group. letters and sacred texts. Ruth Cooper Next meeting: Tues 19 Dec. Chanukah Myrna Glass Next meeting: Thur 14 Dec. 'Holidays Social with Herts Next meeting: Tues 16 Jan in India' Surrey meet llford puts world in order Sheffield teacher of excellence Once again, we enjoyed Edmee and Tom Hazel Beiny gave us a potted history of Susanne Pearson, a founder member of Barta's hospitality. We discussed the her life and how she came to work for our group, told us how, as a. frequency of our meetings to give more the AJR. She then posed various current Kindertransportee from Czechoslovakia members an opportunity to join in: more affairs questions and an interesting with no formal education, she had frequent meetings, but on rotating debate ensued as we endeavoured to put 'drifted' into teaching. She developed a weekdays, are now being considered. We the wodd in order reputation for excellence in south left happier and, we suspect, heavier! Meta Roseneil Yorkshire and was awarded an MBE in Vernon Saunders Next meeting: Wed 6 Dec 1986. More recently she was awarded an honorary degree in education by Sheffield North London crime prevention talk Manchester talk on Genizah Hallam University. Though retired. Sue is PC Tony Powell, Community Crime Prof Avihail Shivtiel gave us a fascinating still a favourite for training teachers about Prevention Officer in the Borough of lecture on the Cairo Genizah. The lecture, the Holocaust and talking to schools Barnet, gave a talk perfectly geared to the erudite but not without humour, was about her experiences as a victim of Nazi age of members present. His main theme extremely well received by an appreciative persecution. Steve Mendelsson was that many people do not use existing audience. Werner Lachs facilities, particularly in dealing with Next meeting: Sun 17 Dec. Chanukah Milk and honey in Kent callers pretending to represent public Social Walter Woyda told us about the only services. Herbert Haberberg musical so far written about Israel: Milk Next meeting: Thur 21 Dec. Chanukah Pinner Mozart commemoration and Honey. We were given the reason why Party Our speaker, Brian Moser, celebrated this musical was never performed in the Mozart's 250th anniversary by UK and only once in Israel - a great shame, Herts first anniversary celebration delighting a large audience with re­ we felt! Edith Bowm Champagne and cake were the order of the day. At a gathering organised by corded music of that prolific composer, Next meeting: Tues 19 Dec. Chanukah Monica Rosenbaum in her home, as well as works by his contemporaries, Party with quiz such as the revolutionary Beethoven and members reflected on a year of new the innovative Haydn, so that we could Harrogate Continental Friends reunion friends and enjoyable meetings. We appreciate the prodigiously productive Kitty Fantozzi, an ex-Harrogatonian AJR recalled that Gunter Tuch (of blessed musical flavour of the era. Walter Weg member, had travelled from Gateshead to memory) had been instrumental in Next meeting: Thur 14 Dec be with us and meet again a member with establishing the group, which is going Essex speaker finds new meaning Roy Barnes had been a rebellious schoolboy, resenting religion and any form of discipline. But one day he found a new meaning to his wodd, thanks to his excellent teachers, including the late Rabbi Shebson, who had helped him become an enthusiastic member of the Jewish community. Julie Franks Next meeting: Tues 12 Dec. Chanukah Party

Brighton & Hove Sarid: 'Ask the Rabbi' Rabbi Pesach Efune answered questions about relations between religions, the position of women in Judaism, and changes in Judaism in Britain. He said that our relationship with the outside world Helga Brown (nee Stelnhardt and a 'Cedar Girl') writes: 'Re visits by AIR groups to Waddesdon should always be one of sympathetic Manor, I wonder whether they are aware of the plaque at the rear of the building by the understanding and polite firmness. "Lion Steps". This was donated by a group of Kindertransport refugees in gratitude to Rudi Simmonds their rescuers, James and Dorothy de Rothschild, In 1993. They originally lived in a children's Next meeting: Mon 18 Dec. Chanukah home in Frankfurt a/M. There is also a seat in the grounds In memory of Lt-Col Julian Party Layton, who assisted in the group's emigration by dealing with the German authorities.'

12 AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2006 from Strength to strength. Marcia Hendon talk on Leitz family Goodman, Head of AJR's Social Services, Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith showed us slides Paul Balint AJR Centre gave a resume of all AJR can offer. of the Leitz family, who manufactured 15 Cleve Road, London NWS Myrna Glass first-class cameras and treated their Next meeting: Thur 7 Dec. Otto employees well - when the Nazis came to Tel: 020 7328 0208 Deutsch, 'Vienna Coffee Houses - Then power, they helped 50 Jewish couples to and Now'; and Tues 19 Dec. Chanukah escape to the Americas. The firm was taken Social with Edgware over in the 1980s, but Leica cameras are KT-AJR still manufactured. Annette Saville Kindertransport special Newcastle talk on Ella Schliesser Next meeting: Mon 18 Dec. Chanukah interest group Kathleen McCreery spoke to us about Social Berlin-born actress and activist Ella Monday 18 December 2006 Schliesser Through Kathleen's research HGS visit to Wiener Library 11.45 am for 12.15 pm after seeing a photograph of her in a book Katherine Klinger told us about Dr Alfred on agit-prop theatre, we were introduced Wiener, who came to London just before Chanukah to others who knew Ella. Most moving the outbreak of war, at a time when his Party was the sight of a tablecloth made by Ella knowledge of the Nazi regime was of great and her friends in Auschwitz-Birkenau and service to the British authorities. The story Reservations required now in the hands of Kathleen herself. struck a deep personal chord with me. My Please telephone 020 7328 0208 The AJR Memorial Book for Holocaust grandfather could not be persuaded to Memorial Day was also mentioned. There leave Ostrava, convinced the Czechs would Monday, Wednesday Si Thursday had been a great deal of interest and it not allow the Germans to come in. Later I 9.30 am -3.30 pm had prompted further research by the learned that it was Chambedain who, by survivors' families. Well over 40 replies consenting to the Munich Agreement, was PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTRE had been received from AJR members in breach of treaty obligations and guar­ IS CLOSED ON TUESDAYS living in, or with connections to, antees. My grandfather could not have Newcastle, recording over 300 names of reckoned with that. George Tyrrell their family members who perished in the December Afternoon entertainment Holocaust. 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Calahonda 29647 Hertfordshire Co-ordinator Mijas Costa Malaga Espaiia Myrna Glass 020 8385 3077 020 8385 3070 Tel. -H34 952 9.S 46 31 Fax. +34 952 93 54 76 Mov. 655 96 83 55 HGS Myrna Glass, London South and Gerda Torrence 020 8883 9425 Midlands Groups Co-ordinator [email protected] Hull 020 8385 3077 Bob Rosner 0148 2649156 Susanne Green, Northern Groups t 'DROP IN' ADVICE SERVICE llford Co-ordinator Meta Roseneil 020 8505 0063 0151 291 5734 Members requiring benefit advice please Leeds HSFA Susan Harrod, Groups' Administrator telephone Linda Kasmir on 020 8385 3070 Trude Silman 0113 2251628 020 8385 3070 to make an appointment at AJR, KT-AJR (Kindertransport) Liverpool Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Andrea Goodmaker 020 8385 3070 Susanne Green 0151 291 5734 Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL

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FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS BBC TV Leo Baeck Housing Association Ltd Birthday Second Generation Project Congratulations to Walter Tischler, who will I have been commissioned by the BBC Clara Nehab House be 100 on 6 December 2006. From family and to make a series of films on the subject Residential Care Home friends. of Jews in Britain today. As a second- generation Jew myself, I am very All single rooms with en suite Marriage interested in making a film about the bath/shower. Short stays/Respite The Trustees, Management and Staff of the second generation, looking at the kinds and 24 hour Pemnanent Care. Large AJR congratulate Susan Lewis on her marriage of psychological issues that they have attractive gardens. Ground Floor to David Harrod. had to deal with. Lounge and Dining Rooms. Lift I am looking for second-generation access to all floors. Easy access AJR Centre to local shops and public transport. Jews who would be willing to talk to Chiropodist. Trevor Goldman at the Paul me about their lives and experiences. Enquiries and further information please contact: Balint AJR Centre Wednesday 13 At this point, I am looking to have The Manager, Clara Nehab House December and 10 January 2007, 10- 13-19 Leeside Crescent, London NWII ODA research conversations, which would Phone: 020 8455 2286 11.30 am. not be filmed or recorded. These conver­ Classified sations would inform the shape that a A scooter suitable for indoor use only is documentary could take. In early 2007, available to anyone who needs assistance in I hope to include some or all of the peo­ ViWdixCare Quality support and care at home their home. Please contact Ruth Finestone at ple I have interviewed in the film itself. AJR Head Office, tel 020 8385 3070. My films evolve throughout the process of making them. This makes it • Hourly Care from 1 hour - 24 hours hard for me to predict exactly what this • Live-In/Night Duty/Sleepover Care film will be like - it will reflect the • Convalescent and Personal Health Care Home Care people who agree to take part in it. The GoU^ • Compassionate and Affordable Service Care through quality and issue of the second generation's legacy professionalism is a deeply interesting subject, which • Professional, Qualified, Kind Care Staff Celebrating our 25th Anniversary resonates for many people in different • Registered with the CSCI and UKHCA situations. 25 years of experience in providing the highest standards of care in the comfort If you would be willing to have Call us on Freephone 0800 028 4645 of your own home an initial conversation on the Studio 1 Utopia Village telephone, please call me at the 7 Chalcot Road, NWl 8LH BBC on 020 7765 2692. If I'm not there, you can phone my colleague Zara Akester on 0207 765 2693. BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE Alternatively, you can contact SI, Belsize Square, NW3 4HX me at [email protected]. We offer a traditional st}'le of religious service. Details can be obtained from the 1 hour to 24 hours care I look forward to hearing from you, Synagogue Administrator and will be happy to answer any Telephone 020 8959 7086 or Registered through the National Care Standard Commission email: [email protected] questions you may have about the Nfinister: Rabbi Rodney J Mariner project. Vanessa Engle Cantor: Norman Falah Cohen Call our 24 hour tel 020 7794 9323 Regular Services www,colvin-nursing, co.uk Friday evenings at 6.45pm Saturday mornings at lO.OOam Religion School: Sundays 9.45am-12..^0pm Nursery School: 9.15am - 12.15pm Belsize Under 3s: 9.30am - n.30am ACACIA LODGE Space donated by Pafra Umited Mrs Pringsheim, S.R.N. Matron Meeting Rooms and our refurbished For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent communal hall are available for cultural (Licertsed by Borough ot Bamet) and social functions Tel: 020 7794 3949 ' Single and Double Rooms. • Ensuite facilities, CH in all rooms. • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. ADVERTISEMENT RATES • Nurse on duty 24 hours. • Long and short term and respite, FAMILY EVENTS including trial period if required. First 15 words free of charge, Between £400 and £500 per weelt A grandchild Is a wonderful blessing £2.00 per 5 words thereafter 020 8445 1244/020 8446 2820 office hours to have. If you would like to spend 020 8455 1335 other times CLASSIFIED, SEARCH NOTICES 37-39 Torrington Park, North Finchley more time with them then you need London N12 9TB to call CORRECT COMPUTERS. £2.00 per 5 words Imagine being able to see your BOX NUMBERS family whenever YOU want. We £3.00 extra teach complete beginners to use a SWITCH ON ELECTRICS computer and will show you how to DISPLAY ADVERTS have video conversations with any Per single column inch 65mm Rewires and all household of your family. That's as easy as electrical work £12.00 making a telephone call but one COPY DATE PHONE PAUL: 020 8200 3518 hundred times t>etter, Call us now on Mobile: 0795 614 8566 020 7449 0920. 5 weeks prior to publication

14 AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2006

Obituaries Central Office for Holocaust Claims Michael Newman Helena Kennedy for British officers. She learned that one of (nee Ilona Hochf elder) her brothers had survived and together they Austrian restitution website Helena was bom in Budapest in 1912 into a made their way back to Hungary, where they Austria has created an online database close-knit Jewish family. In the mid-1930s she were reunited with another brother. The containing information about objects of began a college course in fashion, in 1934 siblings found lodgings together and word art and other cultural items likely to have spending several months in Paris working of Helena's return spread to her former been expropriated following the 1938 for Chanel. Having completed her course, she clientele. Anschluss. and a sister-in-law started up in business In 1947 Helena remarried and she and her http://www.kunstrestitution.at together. Helena particularly enjoyed husband, Lazlo, had a son, George. In 1956 includes works of art that are now in ct: designing formal gowns and was wearing they approached the British embassy for a museums and collections owned by the federal government or the city of Vienna. one of her ovm creations when she met her visa. The official who dealt with their In launching the online database, Austria first husband, Istvan Reich. application told her there was a great need hopes to identify the original owners of Following the Nazi invasion of Hungary, for haute couture in Britain. the artworks or their heirs. Helena was sent to Auschwitz, where, with In 1957 the family settled in Leeds. Helena The database was put together by the others, she made clothes for members of the built up a new business, soon opening a Austrian National Fund in co-operation Auschwitz orchestra. In mid-winter the group workshop and taking on four employees. She with museums and special commissions were marched in freezing conditions over developed a prestigious clientele. Edna that have been tasked with tracing the mountainous terrain to Bergen-Belsen. Here Healey was a client and Helena and her origins of artwork obtained during the Helena had to sew for the wives and husband visited Downing Street on a number Nazi era. The origins of some of the items girlfriends of Nazi officers. of occasions. In February 2006 Lady Healey are still in question and it remains to be After the liberation of Belsen-Bergen, sent Helena a copy of her autobiography determined if they were looted. inscribed 'With much love to Helen Kennedy Helena and five other women were quartered Hungarian compensation-a reminder - who made the suit I am wearing on the back at a castle formerly used as a residence for The deadline to apply for the recently German officers. They sewed pillow cases cover - many many years ago'. extended Hungarian compensation and doctors' coats for the hospital as well as Amanda Bergen programme is 31 December 2006. The scheme, sponsored by the Hungarian Dr Leo Young (ne Jung) where he worked on microwave filter design. government, makes lump-sum awards of Dr Leo Young, an expert on microwave He taught at Stanford University and became $1,800 (HUP 400,000) to the living technology, held 20 patents and was the a consultant for industry. He also taught at spouse, child or parent of a Holocaust author of 14 books, including Microwave the technology institute Technician in Israel victim who died due to the 'political Filters, Impedance-Matching Networks, and during a sabbatical in 1970-71 and joined the despotism of the Hungarian authority or Coupling Structures (1964), considered 'the Office of the Secretary of Defence as research an official person, or if the injured person Bible' by many in the field. director in 1981. He retired in 1994 but died during deportation or forced Bom in Austria in 1926 to a prominent continued his consultancy work, served on labour'. Jewish family - his father was a medical the board of Filtronics, a maker of microwave In cases where there are no such living doctor - Leo, his parents and his sister components, and wrote his memoirs. relatives, a living sibling is entitled to half Jeanette fled to England in 1938. Leo Young received numerous awards, of the compensation amount. Application forms are available from Having won a scholarship to Cambridge among them the Woodrow Wilson Award for this office and should be returned, once at the age of 16, Leo obtained a degree in Distinguished Government Service from completed, to: The Central Compensation physics and maths and a master's degree in Johns Hopkins, and received a letter of appreciation from the US Defence Secretary Office, 1116 Budapest, Hauszmann Alajos physics. In 1957 he obtained a doctorate in utca 1. The telephone number is 0036 1 electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins of the time, Caspar Weinberger. He was a former president of the Electrical and 371 8900, fax 0036 1 371 89 12, email University in Baltimore and became a US [email protected] Electronics Engineering Institute. citizen. A Westinghouse engineer in 1953-60, Written enquiries should be sent to he worked on military radar research and Leo is survived by his third wife Jo-Ellen, Central Office for Holocaust Claims (UK), development. three children from his first marriage, Philip, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, In 1960-73 he was a fellow at Stanford Sarah and Joe, six step-children and 18 Middx HA7 4RL, by fax to 020 8385 3075, Research Institute in Menlo Park, California, grandchildren. Jeanette Frazer or by email to [email protected]

Susan Emily Sinclair and Susan helped nurse him back to health the elderly, working for the Citizen's Advice Susan Sinclair was bom in Nuremberg in over a seven-month period. They married in Bureaux for over 25 years and, more recendy, 1922. The middle daughter of Sigmund and 1949. being involved in the creation of a U3A Paula Oppenheimer, she grew up in a loving Over the next 57 years Susan and Peter branch in Harrow. family and comfortable surroundings. This enjoyed a happy and successful marriage, In recent months, Susan experienced came to an end with the advent of the Nazi with two children and four grandchildren. As complications arising from heart-valve era and she and her family escaped to well as supporting her husband and children, replacement surgery in 1995. She died at the England soon after Kristallnacht. Susan maintained a lifetime active interest Wellington Hospital on 24 September 2006, During the war, Susan attended in the arts - both performing and visual - following surgery to attempt to correct these horticultural college, was a 'Land Girl' and with a passion for opera and painting. In problems. She is survived by her husband worked on a poultry farm. recent years, she acquired a following of Peter, sisters Eva and Lisa, children Monica In June 1947 she met her future husband, admirers of her watercolours. and Jonathan, and grandchildren Amy, Hugh Peter Sinclair, at the Linguist Club. Susan always contributed to the Helen, James and Olivia. Shortly afterwards, Peter contracted polio community: bringing 'Meals on Wheels' to The Sinclair Family

IS AJRJOURNAL DECEMBER 2006

Newsround

Spielberg project launched at London school Learning the lessons of the Holocaust Memories of over 50,000 Holocaust survivors are being made available to British Holocaust survivors who spoke about their 'Faced with growing antisemitism, it is schoolchildren through a video project experiences at schools and universities were essential not to allow the Holocaust to be devised by Steven Spielberg. The first joined by leading representatives of the main trivialised.' The Holocaust was now widely schools-specific use of the ten-year-old project has been launched at Pimlico Holocaust education organisations and taught as a subject on the school curriculum School in south London. professional teachers at a symposium to and she doubted that teachers would evaluate the future of Holocaust education recognise Holocaust fatigue. Film of Nazi camp found in Devon church in the UK. This special event was sponsored Turning to the development of Holocaust A ten-minute home-made film showing and organised by the increasingly influential education over the next ten years. Profes­ Nazi officers running a Second World War Pears Foundation and hosted by the London sor Cesarani asked if thejewish community labour camp in southern Russia has been Jewish Cultural Centre. was in danger of talking exclusively to itself. found in a church near Tiverton in Devon. The footage shows prisoners working at Professor David Cesarani, who chaired Stephen Smith preferred to look ahead at gunpoint and officers relaxing and eating a plenary discussion on the future develop­ least a half-century. The history of the Holo­ cake. It is not clear how the film came to ment of Holocaust education, asked caust was exceptionally well documented, be in the church. panelists to consider the danger of engen­ a process that needed to be continued over Archives on pro-Nazi bishop dering 'Holocaust fatigue' and whether they the next ten years. New questions were to opened up would favour combining study of the Holo­ be asked which explored the meaning of the A Catholic seminary in Rome has opened caust with that of other genocides. evidence and what we should choose to do its archives to shed light on an Austrian bishop who supported the Nazis. Alois Dr Stephen Smith, Director of Beth with our history. While it was 'an abhor­ Hudal, who died in 1963, was the director Shalom and Chairman of the Holocaust rence to compare human suffering', the of the Pan-Germanic College of Santa Maria Memorial Day Trust, said it was too early causes and consequences should be applied deir Anima in 1923-52. Historians from the to talk of fatigue in Holocaust education. to contemporary events. There was nothing Institute for Austrian History in Rome found a copy of a telegram he sent to Hitler Indeed, following 50 years of amnesia it had trivial in remembering what happened in the supporting the Anschluss. The archive also been a 'struggle' to bring knowledge of the death camps and we should be relating this confirms that Hudal helped many Nazi Holocaust to British society. However, to loss of life in today's world. criminals to escape to South America. Holocaust Memorial Day now provided an The fact that countries today were Steep rise in far-right crime appropriate annual platform for discussion threatening the existence of world Jewry, in Germany of the subject. Ben Helfgott emphasised, could not be According to Berlin's Tagesspiegel paper, Ben Helfgott, Chairman of the 45 Aid ignored. Despite this being by far the most quoting German Interior ministry figures, neo-Nazi crime in Germany has risen Society, recalled that during the immediate important issue, in his opinion we were steeply. Almost 8,000 crimes by the far post-war period, which was overshadowed failing to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. right were reported during the first eight by potential nuclear conflict and the Cold It was even more incumbent on us to make months of this year, compared with 6,606 War, survivors were engrossed in trying to people aware of the attempted annihilation for the same period in 2005. About 40,000 people are reported to belong to far-right rebuild their lives. The collapse of of the Jews. groups in the country, over 10,000 of them Communism had brought change, but The Holocaust Educational Trust was skinheads. unfortunately this had included an increase certainly not talking to itself, said Karen Large donation to Yad Vashem in antisemitism. It was of the utmost Pollock, but offering support to schools and Hotel and casino magnate Sheldon importance to combat those forces which teachers well beyond thejewish community. Adelson, bom to a poor immigrant family were attempting to trivialise the Holocaust. Its assessment of Holocaust education in the in Boston, has donated $25 million to the Fortunately, younger survivors were 'still UK was that it was making a profound Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial institute. around' to relate their experiences. impact on young people. Jewish residents 'expelled' from Karen Pollock, Director of the Holocaust Hermann Hirschberger, Chairman of former Rome ghetto Educational Trust, said diat while the media AJR's Kindertransport committee, According to Italian Jewish leaders, Jewish residents are being 'expelled' from the often referred to the Holocaust, commented that the most potent tools in second oldest Jewish ghetto in Europe by inappropriate comparisons were regularly Holocaust education were those survivors wealthy VIPs buying up property. The made. It was possible to discuss other who recounted their stories. He posed the former Jewish ghetto on the banks of the genocides and racism in the context of the question as to whether this inheritance, in Tiber dates from 1555. Although it was abolished after the unification of Italy in Holocaust, but it remained vital not to the fullness of time, could be taken over by 1870, many Italian Jews chose to remain diminish the magnitude of the Holocaust: 'understudies'. in the area.

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, Jubilee House, Merrion Avenue, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4RL Telephone 020 8385 3070 Fax 020 8385 3080 e-mail [email protected] Website www.ajr.org.uk

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