AJ R Info r mation Volume LIII No. 5 May 1998 £3 (to non-members)

Don't iniss... Confession marred Reflections on the Jewish state's heroic past and clouded present by casuistry Richard Grunberger p3 Kindertotenlied Alison Macleod p4 Israel at fifty Annual report p8 he birth of Israel fifty years ago was not only the lineaments of Hitler in the visage of Nasser or the culmination of Jewish history - it repli­ any other Mid-Eastern dictator. Net values Tcated many features of our contradiction- Immigrants from Arab countries bring with them he Simon haunted past. Diaspora Jewry had been both a an unfamiliarity with democratic practices, while Wiesenthal target for perennial aggression and incredibly strong (the comparatively more recent) Russian arrivals ex­ Centre in Los - as proved by its survival through centuries of perience culture shock when confronted by Western T persecution. It had been vilified as less than human freedoms and laissez faire. Such groups are readier Angeles estimates that there are 850 by many of its neighbours, while often being to follow a policy offering 'us-against-them' certain­ websites on the culturally superior to them. It had appeared ties in preference to a doveish gamble on the Internet (the homogeneous to the outside world at the same time goodwill of former enemies like Arafat. international as it was deeply riven by internal dissent, and so Thus the peace process so hopefully inaugurated computer network) forth. at Oslo is currently in the doldrums, and it would propagating racial 1948 represents a multiple landmark. For one, the be extremely rash to hazard a guess about its future. hatred and even new-born Jewish state was heir to the greatest trag­ In consequence one is tempted to raise only two disseminating edy in history - a tragedy exceeding in scale the cheers on this golden anniversary. If, however, one information on Irish potato famine, the Armenian massacres and looks back at the fragility of the Jewish .state at birth home bomb-making. even the African slave trade. For another, it faced in­ and compares it to its current regional power status (See page 7). stant assault by the neighbouring Arab states intent and prosperity such reservations fall away. Besides, Rather than the upon smothering the infant at birth. Despite fearful Israel can no more be identified with Netanyahu medium - which odds Israel won the War of Independence and than the Britain of today can be with the thrice already has 40 thereby began the process of dismantling the age- elected Mrs Thatcher U million subscribers old perception of Jews as a race of lily-livered - it is the providers Fagins. of these insidious In the intervening fifty years Israel has enabled ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING messages who every diaspora Jew to hold his head up high, even of the should be while it intermittently made our hearts ache over the challenged and ASSOCIATION recurrence of war and terror. In that half century Is­ prosecuted, rael has grown seven-fold in population - a feat of OF JEWISH REFUGEES prevented from immigrant absorption without precedent in history. will be held at claiming the And the crowning glory of it all: despite wars and 15 Cleve Road, NW6 protection of liberal at 3pm on democracies. Their emergencies compounded by the tensions of a cul­ activities violate tural melting pot inside a political pressure cooker, SUNDAY 2 Ist JUNE 1998 basic human rights the country has remained a democracy. AGENDA: and historic truths, But democracy requires a disposition towards Annual Report for 1997 abuse the privileges give-and-take and an awareness that national cohe­ Hon.Treasurer's Report of free speech and sion outweighs party politics - virtues increasingly Discussion scholarship, and absent from the mindset of Israeli policy makers. Election of Committee of Management threaten to repeat This is not all that surprising in a country where Guest Speaker: the violence of an impassioned minority believe laws drawn up f^y Her Honour, Judge Dawn Freedman Buenos Aires a merely human legislature possess less validity than 'A View from the Bench' and Oklahoma rabbinical injunctions. bomloings and Nor must the historical experience of different All questions for the Chair should be Tokyo subway gas components of Israeli society be left out of account. submitted by Stb June to the Direaor of / Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, London NW3 6AL attacks D Those traumatised by their European past discern AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

disbarred foreigners). Profile She nursed first in Salisbury, and then became a theatre sister in Southampton. After the war she met her husband, who From Rostock to taught English at public schools. They rusticity had a daughter (who now teaches Eng­ lish at an American university) and a son. arianne Elsley hails from Rostock Since public schools are largely resi­ (Mecklenburg) where her parents dential, teachers are often housemasters - Mheld down prestigious jobs - the and so it came about that Marianne, the father as a county court judge, the one-time nurse and sister, ended her mother as a children's doctor. Born into working life as a matron (though of a the professional middleclass, she enjoyed school, and not a hospital). a comfortable childhood and spent long To this quintessentially English occu­ summer holidays at the Baltic resort of pation she has since added others. Living Marianne Elsley Warnemiinde. in retirement in Oxfordshire, she has After 1933 her cosy world began to fall A Quaker lady welcomed Marianne at written a gardening column for a commu­ apart. The first intimation of this was the Waterloo, took her home and enrolled nity paper, participated in a craft group as refusal of all her classmates to occupy the her in a school at which her own daugh­ well as a writers' circle and has presided desk adjacent to hers. Her father was dis­ ter was a teacher. Within half a year the over the local Women's Institute. missed from his post and in 1936 the school evacuated to Street, Somerset, She is also a busy public speaker on family moved to Berlin. Here Marianne where the Quaker shoe manufacturer the topic of her own experiences, attended a Jewish school and in Novem­ Clark offered them hospitality. It was in a hopeful of notching up a hundred ber 1938 watched the Fasanenstrasse wing of the Clarks' spacious house that appearances on the county lecture circuit synagogue burn. Marianne both lived and attended lessons by next year. Last but not least, Marianne Two months later, aged fifteen, she said for the next two and a half years. is an author of (hitherto unpublished) goodbye to her parents forever and trav­ In 1941, having acquired an EngUsh short stories, though she has managed to elled to England on a Kindertransport. accent and with a school certificate under publish two books of reminiscences. The However, she had a cousin studying over her belt, Marianne went into nursing. latter don't exactly walk off the shelves at here, and - what mattered more in the (After the initial training she would like Blackwell's in Oxford, but sell briskly short term - the Quakers took an interest to have ascended the career ladder, but wherever she speaks. in her. found that the London teaching hospitals URO

TTje Refugee Problem, published in 1987, creased supplies of artillery ammunition ZIon's Pandora's box which examined in detail causes of the made a considerable difference to the rofessor Bernard Wasserstein of the Palestinian Arab exodus in 1948 during outcome of battles in the later stages of Oxford Centre for Hebrew Studies Israel's War of Independence. Morris, pre­ the war. Ppresented a sympathetic review of viously with the Jerusalem Post and then Sadat's visit to Israel in 1977 and the Israel's 'revisionist historians' in a lecture professor at Ben-Gurion University, used Intifada of 1987, were precursors of the entitled 'Opening Israel's Black Box - journalistic techniques of perseverence Oslo Accords of 1993 which were a fun­ towards an uncensored history of and painstaking research and opened lo­ damental break with the past, sometimes Zionism', for the '45 Aid Society in cal archives. While presenting a picture called 'post Zionism'. Israeli scholars London. of "chaos and confusion", Morris con­ were now read and discussed by Pales­ He prefaced his analysis by speaking of cluded that psychological warfare, tinian Arab scholars. Wasserstein foresaw today's Israel being "widely regarded as a atrocities committed by both sides, local a "gradual convergence of two national country on the brink of disaster" in which initiatives in defiance of government or­ historical analyses" in which historians the elan of early statehood had been re­ ders, and the destruction of Arab villages sought to find common ground. The old placed by malaise and despair. A (which posed a threat to lines of commu­ truth that self-understanding was the first founding generation of historians, who nication) had all contributed to the and indisputable step to mutual under­ maintained the traditionally heroic view exodus. Accusations that the new histori­ standing had to be discovered anew, of Israel's struggles to hold on to its ans' were undermining the legitimacy of according to Wasserstein. territory and statehood, were being the state, allied to "wilful collective am­ Several former fighters in the War of superseded by a generation of historians nesia", according to Wasserstein, led to Independence attending the lecture took born after 1948 who had gained signifi­ Morris' excommunication by the Israel es­ issue with these views. Arie Handler, who cant access to British, then Israeli, tablishment. witnessed Ben-Gurion's declaration of th^ archival evidence for the first time. These Wasserstein looked at a military study state being swiftly followed by the provided evidence with which to chal­ of the comparative strengths of forces in Egyptian bombing of Tel Aviv, empha­ lenge the traditional narrative and even the 1948 war, Dr Amitsur Han's The Ori­ sised that it was "not a time for kio made it "untenable". gins of the Arab-Israeli Arms Race. While gloves". Wasserstein quoted from Benny Morris's Israel had not one tank in its armoury, in­ n Ronald ChanninS AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

A confession marred continued, the Vatican-based Bishop Hudal spirited Nazi mass murderers away AUSTRIAN and GERMAN by casuistry to S America, and the war criminal Touvier received sanctuary in French monasteries. PENSIONS hough it is the offspring of The first Pope who took steps to Judaism, Christianity set up in reverse the church's 2000-year old anti- PROPERTY RESTITUTION lethal opposition to the older faith Jewish tradition was John XXIII. He T CLAIMS from the very start. The gospel writers convened "Vatican II which absolved Jews literally demonised the Jews, calling them of the guilt of deicide, but his pontificate, EAST GERMANY- BERLIN god-killers - deicides - and children of alas, lasted only five years. On instructions our office will the devil Qohn 8: 43-45). Now John Paul II has issued an impor­ assist to deal with your After an initial period of persecution tant statement on the Holocaust. This is a Christianity became the official religion of further step in the right direction - applications and pursue the the Roman Empire, but the assumption of which, however, falls lamentably short of matter with the authorities. power in no way diminished its Judeo­ what is required. The declaration distin­ For further information and phobia. Theologians of the eminence of guishes Nazi racial antisemitism from appointment please St Augustine categorised the Jews as religious anti-Judaism 'of which Christians contact: 'deadly to Christians', while the Bible have been guilty'. translator St Jerome - revered subject of The distinction is a mealymouthed eva­ ICS CLAIMS hundreds of religious paintings - dubbed sion of the issue. During the Shoah the 146-154 Kilburn High Road them Judaic serpents'. genocidal Slovak state was headed by a London NW6 4JD Church Fathers, both Western - St priest, and the even more bloodstained Tel: 0171-328 7251 (Ext. 107) Ambrose of Milan - and Eastern - St John Ustasha regime enjoyed the full backing Fax:0171-624 5002 Chrysostom of Constantinople - echoed of the Croat hierarchy. such sentiments. The Vatican declaration also continues Despite this accumulation of Church- to present Pius XII as beyond reproach, ordained hatred the first Christian yet in the 1940s a single word from him millennium proved less lethal to the Jews could have saved a hundred Jewish lives. than the second. The Crusades, which Of course, a church wedded to the PARTNER Pope Urban II initiated around 1100 AD, concept of the Apo.stolic Succession has in long established English Solicitors engendered massacres all along the Rhine difficulty in stripping a Pope of the aura (bi-lingual German) would be happy and in the Holy Land. Thereafter the of infallibility - but the issue of Pius the to assist clients with English, German Church enforced the separation of the Twelfth's culpable silence will not be laid and Austrian problems. Contact Jews from the host population by restric­ to rest till the Vatican comes clean. Henry Ebner tions on occupation, a distinctive dress In the meantime we must console our­ ^"ode and the establishment of ghettoes. selves with the old adage about half a Myers Ebner & Deaner Clerical bigots fabricated allegations of loaf being better than none. I would have 103 Shepherds Bush Road tJnconscionable Jewish crimes such as written 'quarter loaf, but for the news re­ London W6 7LP ritual child murder and the 'desecration port that Rome has decided to abandon Telephone 0171 602 4631 of the host' (the stabbing of consecrated plans for the canonisation of the afore­ ALLLEGALWORK Wafers, i.e. the body of Christ). The cop- mentioned Queen Isabella the Catholic. UNDERTAKEN 'ng stone of this whole psychopathic D Richard Grunberger construct was the Spanish Inquisition ^hose principal targets were crypto-Jews, or Marranos. The driving force behind 50 YEARS AGO the Inquisition was Queen Isabella. Her 'abours in making Spain judenrein - ad- GERMAN LEO BAECK 75 "littedly through expulsion and not mass RESTITUTION CLAIMS 'iiurder - earned her the soubriquet Dr Baeck's position is unique. Like every outstand­ ing personality, he is deeply rooted in the Have your claims to recover properties Isabella the Catholic'. Community whose destiny shaped his way of in East Germany got stuck in legal At this point lack of space forces me to thought and in whose destiny he was to play such a and bureaucratic delays? curtail the church's catalogue of sins and decisive part. We, with our German Associates, shall fast-forward to die 1940s. Perhaps it was only from German Jewry that a man be glad to give you a first assessment No one who calls himself a human like Leo Baeck could arise; being a non-Zionist and being could possibly shrug off the culpa­ taking a positive attitude to the Palestine idea, he of what can be done free of charge. was respected by Zionists and non-Zionists alike. Please contact Izabela Stankowski bility of many Catholics - from Pope Pius He shared the fate of his fellow Jews in ^I downwards - in the Holocaust. Theresienstadt, and it is perhaps the finest compen­ Edmonds Bowen & Co., Solicitors '^or did the revelation of its horrors sation for his self-sacrifice in those dark days that 4 Old Park Lane, London WIY 3LJ produce a Church-wide change of heart. he may now enjoy a full life in health, surrounded by Tel: 0171 629 8000 be Bishop of Kielce refrained from stop- his family and devoted to new tasks D Fax: 0171 221 9334 P'ng the 1946 pogrom, the Tyrolean cult A}R Informatior], May 1948 No ^ens/on claim enquiries please ^" the 'ritually murdered' Anderl von Rinn AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

Reviews

the camp, though checkpoints and barri­ were given entirely new backgrounds Kindertotenlied ers, to see his dying mother. The mother complete with family origins, schools and Binjamin Wilkomirski, FRAGMENTS, Picador, did not speak, nor did the child. But she other proof of Britishness; even their dog 1997, £5.99. gave him her one treasure - a hoarded tags were stamped Church of England. piece of bread. Training completed, they were amongst ermany may drop its plan to build If it had not been for this encounter, the first troops to go ashore in the Allied a Holocaust memorial in Berlin the child would have had no recollection assault on Normandy. From there they G because of disputes over the form of his mother. He was so very small at went on to fight in the Low Countries, it should take. the time of his father's murder that he re­ and ultimately Germany. The proposal so far favoured is an membered nothing about family life. Postwar Peter Masters emigrated to the assemblage of featureless slabs. This has When the older children talked about USA and had a career in TV production a sort of gruesome aptness. While Nazi their mothers, he did not even know and graphic design. Recently he sold the fanatics and louts were murdering little what a mother was. film rights to this book for nearly $1 mil­ Binjamin's father before his eyes, quiet, He came out of the camps distrusting lion. conscientious men were working out adults, hardly daring to open his mouth, D John M Lewis how many trains a day could run to stealing and hiding food even when there Maidanek. How could they have done was plenty, screaming in terror at the that, unless they thought of living people sight of a central heating furnace and im­ as featureless slabs? agining a ski-lift was a device for mass "According to the logic of the plan, and murder. Not the full Stoppard the orderly rules they devised to carry it But, because of the German woman's Tom Stoppard,THE INVENTION OF LOVE,The out, we should have been dead," "Wilko- good action, he did know that mothers Royal National Theatre mirski writes. "But we're alive. We're the loved their children and gave them living contradiction to logic and order". bread. ne doesn't necessarily expect All our memories of early childhood n A//son Macleod Jewish-born playwrights to tackle come back to us in fragments; hence the OJewish themes. Molnar did not, title of this book. But Wilkomirski's frag­ while Schnitzler did. Among our ments are "shards of memory with hard contemporaries many - Wesker, Mamet, knife-sharp edges, which still cut flesh if Arthur Miller - articulate Jewish concerns, touched today". Any image from this One man's war whereas Pinter does not (though he book would make a better Holocaust me­ makes up for it by vitriolic anti-Zionism). Peter Masters, STRIKING BACK,A Jewish morial than the slabs. Another playwright whose work betrays Commando's war against the Nazis, Presidio There's the image of the child's first en­ nary a glimmer of ancestral awareness is Press, California. (UK Distributors: Greenhill try into IMaidanek, when a guard lashed Tom Stoppard. Not that Britain's greatest Books) £16.99. him across the face with a whip. There's theatrical wit since Wilde and Coward the image of the protective older boy, eter Masters is the adopted name of plays down his mid-European roots: he sharing out the treasures he had stolen - Vienna-born Peter Arany, who owes has adapted Schnitzler, Molnar and even potato peelings and a cabliage leaf. P his life to his Aunt Ida. A milliner, Nestroy. There's the image of the pile of dead, she obtained a job in London's Oxford He has also written most movingly naked women, strangely stirring, strange­ Street, and arranged for Peter and other about persecuted Soviet dissidents ly alive, because of the rats eating them. relatives to come to the UK. (Professional Foul, Every Good Boy De­ The child, watching, thinks they are giv­ As soon as he had turned 18 Peter ap­ serves Favour). That the playwright caO ing birth to rats. plied to join the Pioneer Corps, the only tug at heartstrings was furthermore deni' Years later this image came back to part of the British Army aliens were al­ onstrated in Arcadia, where a strong haunt him, when his wife was giving lowed to join. emotional charge builds up under '•>• birth to their first son. But for all its hor­ Immediately on arriving at a Pioneer veneer of bantering wit. ror, that page brings the reader a moment company Peter began his efforts to trans­ Would that the .same could be said o' of consolation. Not only did this child fer to a fighting unit. This took him until The Invention of Love. Here the wit oftei' survive the camps, and survive the Swiss 1943 when the Commandos came look­ appears laboured - 'I abhor homosexiu^'' foster-parents who told him the camps ing for native German speakers to the word is half Greek, half Latin', 'The hadn't happened; he grew up to become perform hazardous duties. The Jewish future perfect is an oxymoron' - whil*^ a husband and a father. refugees of 3 Troop, 10 Commando, all the emotional charge barely lights a 40- For this, perhaps, we have to thank a spoke fluent German and they were to watt bulb. I was not made to care about woman who.se image would look strange provide valuable service, both as front the unrequited love A E Housman felt (of on a memorial to the Holocaust. Among line interrogators and intelligence opera­ a fellow undergraduate in 1880s Oxford- so many Germans obeying orders, there tives, and as clandestine raiders behind Housman sublimated his frustration hy was a woman guard who disobeyed or­ Nazi lines. Because of the high risks in­ composing poetry; more importantly h^ ders, if only once in her life. She took the volved they all assumed new identities. devoted decades of his life to the purging child for a long, dangerous walk across They took on English surnames, and of classical texts of errors and iTi'^' AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

Reviews (continued) NEV/TONS readings perpetrated by medieval scribes. crux of playwright George Rattner's fast- Leading Hampstead Solicitors It was in the nature of Greek civilisation moving real-life drama. 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, that those texts - by the likes of Homer The excellent George Layton as Green­ London NW3 SNB and Plato - contained beguiling evoca­ wald is burdened with Jewry's need for '^r All English legal work tions of same-sex love (as, for instance, survival in a harsh secular world, yet be­ undertaken and German, between Achilles and Patroclus). set even more by the anti-Zionist tirades Swiss & Austrian claims The fact that Housman's Shropshire Lad of a Satmar sect neighbour played with ^ German spoken appeared around the same time as 'the conviction by Lawrence Werber. Mario * Home visits arranged love that dare not speak its name' - to Kalli's frighteningly brutal gang boss is ^ Associated offices in Hamburg, quote Lord Alfred Douglas - became a held in check by Anthony Donovan's la­ Los Angeles.Tel Aviv, Sydney, universal talking point, affords Stoppard conic cop while Owen Oakeshott as Jesse Zurich the opportunity of letting the play culmi­ foolishly falls for tart-with-a-heart Michelle Tel: 0171 435 5351 nate in a monologue by Oscar Wilde. Gomez. Director Gordon Greenberg Fax: 0171 435 8881 Interspersed in Wilde's Niagara of projects a microcosm of life from the Words is his hubristic claim to have been Head's pocket handkerchief stage. a mouldbreaking pioneer of modernity in Sad to relate, the King's Head Theatre the theatre, in aesthetic sensibility, in is under threat of closure for lack of taste and fashion, even in journalism. funding. Snug in the back room of a pub J- JACKMAN- As the final curtain descended amid ef­ for a quarter of a century, the brainchild fusive applause I asked myself two of American Dan Crawford, it has done **- SILVERMAN questions: a) Where are the Emperor's well for Jewish plays and authors. Per­ COMMERCIAL PROPERTY CONSULTANTS clothes?, and b) Has Stoppard decided to haps it's time for the Jewish community clamber aboard the Oscar Wilde band­ to repay this debt. wagon, which is up and running long D Ronald Channing before the Jubilee Line extension? 'Lebensraum', a new play by Israel Horovitz, runs n RG from 21 April till 24 May at the King's Head 26 Conduit Street, London WIR 9TA Theatre. Telephone: 0171 409 0771 Fax: 0171 493 8017 Culture clash George Rattner, OF BLESSED MEMORY, 'It is no dream' ^ng's Head Theatre, Islington. o mark the fiftieth anniversary of aron Greenwald is a New York the foundation of the modern State Hasidic Jew attired in the sect's Tof Israel, the Jewish Museum at A customary uniform of black garb Raymond Burton House, Albert Street, and wide-brimmed black hat. He engages Camden Town, is mounting an exhibition in prayer and study of the Torah and which explores Britain's role in the Talmud at the feet of his Rebbe at every creation of the State, the British Mandate, Israel's Finest Wines opportunity. the Balfour Declaration and Israel's on­ from the To make a living Aaron runs his old- going special relationship with British ^tyle paint supply business from a dingy Jewry. Golan Heights ''hop in Brooklyn's Williamsburg district The exhibition's narrative, lucidly and Yarden, Golan & Gamla ^ith his assistant Jesse who hails from comprehensively recounted by Prof. the Puerto Rican immigrant community, David Cesarani, Director of the Wiener Write, phone or fax ^n honest hardworking boy, with this job Library, chronicles the rise of the Zionist for full Information Jesse has distanced him.self from the dis­ movement in Britain and its impact on House of Hallgarten trict's endemic drug trade, a major source Anglo-Jewry, highlights women's org­ Dallow Road, Luton LU1 1UR Or income for his contemporaries. anisations such as WIZO and youth Tel: 01582 22538 Into this small enclo.sed world arrives movements such as Habonim, and shows Fax: 01582 23240 the newest protection racketeer on the early British pioneers and members of "lock, Jesse's former boss, complete with fighting forces such as the Zion Mule ^exy long-legged gangster's moll, who Corps, the Jewish Brigade and Machal. threatens Aaron with eviction if he Using the words of Herzl, the exhibi­ BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE cannot act as a drug import front. Tlie di- tion entitled "If you will it, it is no 51 Belsize Square, London N.W.3 emma in which this places Aaron, on the dream", Britain, Zionism & British Jeivs Our communal hall is available for one hand imbued with the high moral was opened by the Israeli Ambassador, cultural and social functions. principles of Judaism, while on the other Dror Zeigerman. Tel: 0171-794 3949 having to protect his livelihood, is the DRDC AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

or may be pushed into discovering - that they owe a duty to those by whose misfortune they profited. "Z^^te^j^^ There is one, however, and a friendly government at that, that has consistently refused to acknowledge the wrongdoing of its soldiers involved in this episode. I ANSCHLUSS poem ends with the famous exhortation from Shelley to the oppressed 'Rise like am referring to the Canadian government. Sir - May I applaud your editorial on I was one of the two thousand plus in­ Austria (March issue). Lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number...' I cannot help adding that some ternees sent to Canada on the 'Ettrick' Your piece entitled 'Naustalgia' remin­ who ended up in Camp 'L' in Quebec. ded me of the time, at 7a.m. on 13th of your contributors - amazingly erudite as many of them are - might benefit from On arrival all internees had their posses­ March when my father and I left Vienna sions i.e. watches, fountain pens, etc. - and were driven to the Czech frontier. a read or re-read of this great poem. Perhaps we owe some of Britain's confiscated, so-called receipts were is­ The frightening drive was accentuated by sued, mostly unsigned. To the best of my thousands of Austrians waving their swas­ democracy to the fallen of the Peterloo massacre and their tattered banners. knowledge none of the owners ever saw tika flags in the expectation that Hitler the confiscated articles again. A reader would arrive on that day. After the war I made endeavours I still like Vienna and am very worried HATE BEGETS HATE through the Canadian High Commission by the real thoughts behind the fagade, to recover the value of the items lost. I which is the voting strength of Mr Haider. Sir - I should like to point out that there believe that the few who had signed re­ Limpsfield Common Peter Frankel are many passages in the Old Testament ceipts were eventually compensated but Surrey - Exodus 23, 4; Proverbs 24, 17 and the Canadian Government has consist- 25,21; and the great passage in Isaiah endy refused to acknowledge their debt NAUSTALGIA 19,24 and 25 - which teach us to be kind to the remainder. to our enemies. Sir - In your case it equals Austrodium. I think the time is ripe for Ottawa to re­ The Talmud says that the angels in 'Tis a pity you have not shed it in the consider its attitude. If other AJR heaven wept at the sight of the Egyptian sixty years you mention. members are affected, and feel as I do army drowning in pursuit of Israel, and Shrublands Herbert Anderson they could perhaps make themselves Jews on Seder night spill a drop of wine Norwich known. at the mention of each of the ten plagues /15 Golden Vale ,, , ,; Herbert Layton as a reminder that we should not indulge Churchdown IGNORANCE THAT CRIES TO in schadenfreude at the discomfiture of Glos GO 2IX HIGH HEAVEN our enemies. Sir - While attending a course of lectures Jesus liked to exaggerate in order to on Shakespeare plays - including The press home a point but the sentiment was BETH SHALOM Merchant of Venice - I mentioned that well noted in Judaism. Sir - What a brilliant idea of Mr & Mrs Edward I had expelled the Jews in 1290 Sneath Avenue Eric Conrad Dutch to nominate Stephen Smith for the and that they were not admitted back London NWl I next Royal Honours list. until 1656 (a fact referred to in all the I visited Beth Shalom last November history books in the local library). TAKEN TO TASK with the AJR group, and was deeply inr I was amazed to find that not a single Sir - As a Holocaust victim and sole pressed by the admirable work of the student at this course knew anything at survivor of my family, I have often been Smith family. It's not only a memorial and all about it. Even more astonishingly the struck by the fact that we Jews are so an exhibition, but a living conception oi lecturer, who had a doctorate in litera­ firmly anchored to our tragic history, we Good against Evil. ture, didn't know, or even believe me! forget about the bright promise of our Harrow Hana Nermut On a visit to Bonn in the early '90s I future. I think your magazine must plead Middx found time and again that the postwar guilty in this respect. generation of Germans insists that their The Bible assures us of the reality of CRI DU COEUR parents (namely my own generation - I this future - a time when all Israel will be Sir - Whether Inge Trott is halachically was born 1910) knew nothing whatever in the land and when persecution will be Jewish or a convert is of no interest to us about what was happening around us in no more. and I wonder why she thinks it is. What the thirties... I would direct readers to the following does puzzle me is why she celebrates No comment is needed. passages :- Jeremiah 31, v.27 onwards; Christmas and has a tree. I wonder ho* Macclesfield Marianne Walter Isaiah 60; Ezekiel 20, v.33 onwards. many Christians or Muslims celebrate Cheshire Beckenham Ed'tth Jochim Pesach. Kent Come, Mrs Trott, if as you claim yo'^ HEINE IN ENGLAND feel Jewish, be Jewish and de-tree. Or •* Sir - The line I met murder on the way/ RESTITUTION that a tree-mendous problem in leafy He had a mask like Castlereagh' is not - Sir - Restitution seems to have become Cheam? as you suggest - 'a quip' - but a the flavour of the month. A number of Bushey Head) Barry Hyrr^c" description of the ruling classes. The governments have suddenly discovered - Herts . ., ., . AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

source of membership. Ernest David Ernest energetically pushed pension Election of Committee claims and set up a service, in con­ of Management t is with regret that we say goodbye to junction with Jewish Care and World Ernest David, our Director for the last Jewish Relief, for a German lawyer to The following members will be I four years. Ernest took up his post at a help with compensation claims. He found proposed for elecdon or re-election to time when the sudden departure of his a volunteer in this country to help, the Committee at the AGM predecessor had lowered morale and he thereby saving the AJR a considerable on Sunday 21 June 1998 set about the task of revitalising the outlay. Mr A.C. Kaufman, Chairman organisation with a will. He negotiated the mechanism whereby Mr W.D. Rothenberg, Vice-Chairman He enhanced and enlarged the role of AJR became a member of the Claims & Treasurer Social Services to provide practical and Conference, whom he briefed on changes Mrs E.S.Angel, Secretary emotional support to members in need, required to Article 2 Fund and from Mr P. Dannenberg,Trustee and encouraged the formation of regional whom he obtained grants which greatly *Mr C.W. Dunston,Trustee AJR groups in South London, Pinner, reduced AJR's own expenditure on Day *Mr M. Durst,Trustee *MrsJ. Field Birmingham and Manchester. He ad­ Centre projects. Mrs D. Franklin vanced good working relationships with Ernest reduced the organisation's Mrs G.R. Glassman such bodies as World Jewish Relief, running costs by changing wasteful Mrs J. Kessler Jewish Care, Belsize Square Synagogue, resourcing practices and introduced Mrs S. Landau the Board of Deputies, 45 Aid Society, budgets and transparent management ac­ *Mr H.E. Levy Association of Jewish Ex-Berliners, counts. He made a positive input at *Committee members retiring by rotation Wiener Library and the Otto Schiff editorial meetings of AJR Information. He and being proposed for re-election. Housing Association. Equally significant arranged extra-mural events including has been his close collaboration with the concerts, film shows, lectures and visits to Anyone wishing to propose any other Reunion of Kindertransport (RoK), from Beth Shalom and introduced Bridge eve­ member for election as Hon. (Dfficer, ^hose ranks our next intake of (first nings at the Day Centre. Trustee, or Committee member must generation) members must come. He also Ernest has been a hands-on Director submit to the Director,AJR, such a proposal signed by ten members qualified liaised closely with the Second Genera­ who has made a contribution in every to vote at the meeting and with the signed tion movement so as to tap into a future sphere of AJR activity D agreement of the person being proposed no later than Thursday 14 May 1998

amendment's freedom of speech clause. Hatred on the Internet In France earlier this year, the Charlemagne Hammerskin Skinheads were found to have he Internet, the fast-expanding in drawn up a hit list of prominent French ternational computerised infor­ Jews. Tmation exchange which already The Simon Wiesenthal Centre's re­ serves 40 million subcribers, is being sponse, begun two years ago, was to Used by neo-Nazis. launch their own Internet 'website' con­ BELSIZE SQUARE US citizen Larry Lauck has been distri­ taining a comprehensive on-line data SYNAGOGUE buting hate-mail in Germany and base and resources for teachers, students, elsewhere in Europe for the last 20 years, researchers and historians seeking reli­ 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 ^nly as a result of an incautious visit to able and easy-to-access information on L>enmark was he extradited to Germany, the Holocaust. We offer a traditional style of prosecuted and imprisoned. Ahmed At present some 850 sites propagating religious service with Cantor, "^hmi - a Moroccan whose CV includes hatred have been identified. By the end Choir and organ trying to assassinate King Hassan - used of the century - just two years away - 3 state grant in Sweden to publish hate there could be anything up to a billion Further details can be obtained 'terature in Arabic before being stopped. Internet users! Given that a website can from our synagogue secretary '^ 'Radio Islam' on the Internet provides be published for a very limited financial outlay, and given that this unregulated 3 nascent umbrella organisation under Telephone 0171-794 3949 "'hich like-minded groups can shelter and uncensored forum for information and enrol recaiits. and ideas provides racists with the oppor­ Minister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner Incredibly, in 1991 racist extremist Larry tunity to market their ideas within the Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine "arris obtained bubonic plague spores by main culture, the threat is unlikely to di- Regular services: Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, "^ail order, but was arrested only this "^'"'^•'- • Ronald Channing Saturday mornings at 10 am year for trying to obtain the even more Religion school: Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm deadly anthrax! George Birdy, a Canadian, This is a summary of a leaure given by Rabbi Space donated by Pafra Limited ^ets with similar impunity as US-based Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal •gots do under the protection of the first Centre, Los Angeles. AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

Annual Report 1997

Membership Volunteers now, in certain circumstances be re-opened. lthough 269 members died or let their JR's Volunteers" Co-Ordinator, Debbie As yet there have been no positive results, membership lapse, 196 new members Picker, organised regular befrienders' but some success is anticipated. Ajoined, leaving a total of 3401 Asupport group meetings and training The Swiss government and banks estab­ members on December 31, 1997. New days, covering subjects such as Bereavement lished a humanitarian fund for needy victims members are those who have just learned of and Loss, Care in the Community, Welfare of Nazi persecution. AJR with Jewish Care, AJR's existence, those who have been Benefits and emotional issues affecting WJR and the 45 Aid Society developed an referred to Social Services, and those who refugees. The first Induction Training Day application procedure. The British and want help with pension or other claims on for new volunteers was well attended. American governments meeting at the con­ Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Talks were given to the Jews Free School ference on "Nazi Gold" announced the and other organisations and an AJR stall was establishment of a fund for needy victims of set up at the Israel Expo at Wembley Confer­ Nazi persecution. By the end of 1997 there ence Centre and Limmud 1997. were still no details of the distribution for The Paul Balint AJR Day Centre Social events for volunteers included thea­ ex-Austrian Jews of the funds realised by the number of innovations were intro­ tre outings and the presentation of certificates Mauerbach auction. duced during the year in order of appreciation during National Volunteers to provide services and facilities at A Week by Camden Councillor, Barry Peskin. Sheltered Accommodation Cleve Road to a broader range of AJR Irene White arranged a successful tea members. mprovements to the AJR's eight sheltered parry for blind or partially sighted AJR mem­ flats at 15 Cleve Road, which were first The Luncheon Club, which meets on the bers, catered by the Day Centre team. third Wednesday of the month, features a I occupied ten years ago, included new 36 new volunteers were recruited and 24 carpets (financed through a charitable buffet lunch, followed by a stimulating existing volunteers were matched with other speaker and a discussion. This programme donation) and secondary glazing (partly members. Over 170 volunteers continue to financed by the Claims Conference). has become so popular that there is a wait­ enable the AJR to provide a wide range of ing list for every meeting. Most of the tenants made good use of the services to assist our community. We thank in-house Day Centre facilities and meals. This was the case, too, for the bridge eve­ them for their devotion and help. nings named in memory of the late Katia Gould continued to handle tenancy Madeleine Brook, which took place in May applications for sheltered accommodation and November. Social Services both for the AJR and the Otto Schiff Housing In addition to chiropody and optometric n early 1997, Agi Alexander relinq­ Association. Studio flats at Eleanor Rathbone services, dentistry and physiotherapy have uished her role as Head of Social House in Highgate, were regularly available been introduced. Clothes sales take place Services to enable her to work part-time while there was a growing waiting list for I one-bedroom flats at Otto Schiff House in regularly. and to concentrate on Welfare Rights. Her the preferred NW3 area. A further innovation was the hire of a place was taken by Marcia Goodman. mini-bus once a week to transport up to 15 Between May and December, the team members to and from Cleve Road. dealt with l63 new referrals and help is now Welfare Benefits The regular events of 2nd Seder night. offered to 384 clients, 11% of AJR's member­ s Welfare Rights adviser, Agi Alexander Open Day in July, and two Bournemouth ship, throughout the UK. claimed Attendance Allowance for all holiday weeks were fully booked, but other All new referrals receive an initial assess­ Aeligible clients, some of whose appli­ outings attracted less support. ment to determine their needs wiiich may be cations had previously been rejected, A sub-committee was formed to develop a for emotional or financial support, pensions thereby requiring appeals. All 17 cases un­ strategy for the future of the Day Centre, in advice, help in finding carers, cleaners or dertaken were successful. the light of rising costs and falling atten­ shoppers, meals-on-wheels. Day Centre at­ Agi also continued with the 'open advice' dances. tendance, hospital visiting, advice and help sessions at the Day Centre. These sessions The Day Centre had 240 members who, on wills, powers of attorney or other legal take place on a different day each week iis with guests at special activities, generated problems, for which we have the services of advertised in AJR Information. The sessions 11300 attendances, 5% down on 1996. This a volunteer lawyer. are attended, not only by members who are nevertheless created a heavy workload for Because of their life experience, our mem­ at the Day Centre on the particular day, but manager Sylvia Matus and her full and part bers have more acute emotional needs than also by other members who find it conven­ time staff of 11 plus 60 volunteers. the general population and there is much ient to go there for advice. loneliness and isolation due to the fragmen­ Many local Authority Housing and Council tation of families. Tax Benefit departments misunderstood the Social workers receive regular support Catering rules regarding payments to people if from their manager on a one to one basis, receipt of German and Austrian pensions early 23,000 meals were prepared by and at team meetings and training sessions. and support from charities. A request was Head Chef Jeff Heywood and his Close links have been established with made to the social security minister to clarify staff of three, under the management N OSHA, Jewish Care and Belsize Square Syna­ the regulations for local Authorities. He di" of Susie Kaufman. gogue, and with Local Authority Social this and AJR members now benefit from the In addition to the meals provided to mem­ Workers. proper interpretation of the rules. bers at the Day Centre and those delivered to their homes as meals-on-wheels, and take-away meals, the team also catered for Pensions and Compensation SelfAid the special events mentioned above and the orking in conjunction with a Ger­ he number of Self Aid clients has AGM, Tea Dance and a number of events for man lawyer, AJR volunteer Hilde been growing with self referrals, and volunteers. WAmbrose interviewed a number of Treferrals from other organisations and A new ventilation system was installed in claimants who had applied for ill heakh agencies. By the end of the year we were the kitchen to make working conditions pensions from Germany in the 1950/60's and assisting 97 people both with regula' more tolerable. This was partially funded by whose application had been refused or only monthly grants and one off payments io^ the Claims Conference. a small pension awarded. Such claims can special purposes. AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

For the first time, all out of town clients OSHA residents at the Day Centre, the close have been visited in their homes, bringing working relationship of the social services Finance Report comfort to many members who had previ­ departments and the fact that two of the ously felt isolated and remote from the Trustees of the AJR Charitable Trust are AJR Charitable Trust Association. It is planned to visit all Self Aid members of the Council of OSHA. 1997 has been an eventful year. Our receipts clients at least once a year. from legacies have fallen dramatically. As a Agreement was reached to take on an ad­ result of changes in the law relating to ditional 80 Self Aid clients from the Jewish Events charity accounting, we have restated the Refugees Committee (WJR). visit to Beth Shalom was organised in figures for 1996 so that the figures for the We acknowledge gratefully the support of June which attracted over 100 rwo years are comparable. The amendment the B'nai Brith Leo Baeck (London) Trust people.The demand was such that a A has reduced the original figures for 1996 by Fund, which however ceased in October. waiting list was started for a repeat visit in £2,909. Our welfare expenditure through The Annual Concert in the Queen Eliza­ 1998. Self-Aid has increased substantially, and is beth Hall featuring Melvyn Tan and the On a lighter tone, a visit to the House of expected to increase further as we have New Mozart Ensemble, raised £8,175 for Lords proved both instmctive and popular. taken responsibility for about 75 individuals Self Aid. who were previously helped by World Jewish Relief. Although WJR continue to Staff and Volunteers AJR Information give some help towards these costs, the t was announced that Ernest David, Direc­ burden on our funds will be noticeable. We ur correspondence columns have tor since 1994, would be replaced in 1998 continued to provide a sounding are also finding an increasing number of I by a younger person. new cases who are not receiving the help Oboard for readers, with letters to the At Head Office, Marcia Goodman, joined Editor sometimes taking up as many as two they need from social services provided by from Jewish Care to become Head of Social the state and local authorities. Our thanks pages of an issue. Services and a new receptionist was re­ AJR Information has managed to cover a are due to the tireless efforts of our own cruited. At the Day Centre two part-time social workers in this field. wide range of topics - from the problems of drivers joined the staff. At year end, AJR em­ the Middle East to the benign apartheid be­ ployed 24 staff full time and part time and We have committed ourselves to making a tween Anglo-Jews and refugees; from we are lucky to have had the services of 170 substantial contribution of £850,000 to OSHA alleged scandals in the Vienna volunteers performing a wide range of es­ to help them rebuild Osmond House to fit it Kultusgemeinde to misunderstanding be­ sential duties. for modern conditions. tween the 'First' and 'Second' Generation, The Hon. Officers, Management Commit­ and from the European Union debate to the tee and members join in acknowledging the Paul Balint Day Centre nationwide mourning of Princess Diana. good work of both staff and volunteers in Our costs are .slightly increased here, whilst Amidst all this we have not neglected our improving the already high quality of service sadly the numbers attending continue to fall. mid-European roots, vide the articles on to our community. There is ari increase in the numbers taking Anna Seghers and Heine in England. Several advantage of our meals-on-wheels, which readers have suggested that we focus more are supplied out of the excellent catering On developments in contemporary Germany The Management Committee facilities of the Day Centre. and its Jewish communities - a topic to he committee with its two new mem­ which we hope to give more coverage in fu­ bers, Diana Franklin and Gaby Association of Jewish Refugees ture. Glassman, met five times, providing The financial position of the AJR itself is Richard Grunberger's editorship and his T support and guidance to the Director. satisfactory, although we have what may be own articles constantly receive accolades a costly rent review in progress at from many readers. The Editorial Committee, Hampstead Gate. whose contributions are greatly appreciated, The Year in Retrospect now includes two members of the second Income and Expenditure Account he year has seen a consolidation Year ended 31st December 1997 generation. of activities related to our ground­ Twork in the last few years, establishing Income: 1997 1996 AJR Outside NW London the concept of the AJR as the extended fam­ Membership/Donations oth Manchester and South London ily of members, many of whom have no and Legacies 193,634 173,563 groups continued to organise a regular other family, or none in the UK. Grant from Self Aid 5,000 5,000 Bprogramme of meetings, while South This has resulted in a greater and more in- 198,634 178,563 depth emphasis on all aspects of social and London also set up a Schmooze Group for Less: niembers to meet informally every two welfare work; an attempt to provide services months, to chat and do whatever they wish and attention to out of London memliers; the Overhead Expenses 26,354 28,823 'o do. A new group was established in representation of the needs of members on Salary Costs 77,500 72,728 Pinner to cater for people who wished to national and international bodies; and the AJR Information 26,023 25,184 meet locally. introduction of events of interest to people Administration/ A volunteer has been asked to try to get from a common background. Depreciation 12,509 12,691 AJR groups established, through local volun- The challenge has been, and will be, to 142,386 139,426 ''^ers, in Putney, Bournemouth and other compensate for the loss of older members - areas where there are sizeable concen­ those who fled to the UK as adults - by the Surplus: 56,248 39,137 trations of refugees and survivors. accretion of younger members of our com­ munity - those who came as children - as Summary of Balance Sheet at well as the second generation who grew up 31st December 1997 1997 1996 OSHA in the shadow of their parents' experiences. Fixed Assets he AIR and The Otto Schiff Housing The success of the AJR's role in future (less depreciation) 14,472 17,217 Association continued to work very depends on its skill and imagination in Current Assets 191,251 n8,.391 Tclosely together in the interests of the adapting to service a broader range of needs Less: Cun-ent Liabilities (25,359) (12,944) and interests. •^any members of the AJR in the OSHA resi- 180,364 122,664 "^•intial homes. This co-operation was Ernest David Andrew Kaufman ••eflected in particular in the attendance by Director Chairman (Con^nued overleaf) AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

Financial Report continued Represented by: General Fund 111,000 71,863 'atCUotk Net surplus for year 56,248 39,137 Staff Retirement Fund 13.116 11,664 having large families, but brought with it 180,364 122,664 SOUTH LONDON AJR Whither Anglo-Jewry? a significant degree of isolation. In David Rothenberg, Hon.Treasurer 9 April 1998 contrast. Rabbi Rayner supported the at­ outh London AJR's guest speaker, tractions of diversity and pluralism. AJR CHARITABLE TRUST Berlin-born Rabbi Dr John Rayner, a Jewish education, especially post- PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE SKindertransportee, studied at Barmitzvah education, was largely Cambridge, was guided by Lily Montagu Summary figures for the year ended non-existent. The yeshivah might be good 31st December 1997 and later appointed Senior Rabbi at St. for Talmud scholars, but did little for an John's Wood Liberal Synagogue. A Income: appreciation of Jewish history. Likewise, 1997 1996 lecturer at Leo Baeck College and author, Takings - Day Centre Bible education was poor. whose latest book is entitled An and meals-on-wheels 81,094 81,006 While external pressures on ghetto Understanding of Judaism, he remains an Donations received 3,455 9,244 Jewry were enough to keep Jews within 84,549 90,250 influential figure within the ULPS. the fold, in contemporary society it was Less outgoings: Rabbi Rayner tackled his chosen subject easy not to be a Jew. Most British Jews Premises head on: 'Is there a future for Anglo- supported modernity with which, he expenditure (net) 31,728 31,375 Jewry?' In the last 50 years the UK's claimed, progressive Judaism had come Salaries 91,500 86,031 Jewish population had shrunk to 300,000 to terms. To survive the Jewish people Catering costs 167,867 161,268 and European Jewish communities had had to be strong. One could be a good Sundry expenses 20,649 19,600 similarly declined. Among the causes dis­ Jew in the diaspora and, if we believed, 311,744 298,274 cussed by Rabbi Rayner were Zionism we should endure. Deficit Funded from and emigration to Israel; marriage out of n Ruth Leggef Charitable Trust 227,195 208,024 the faith; assimilation and lack of syna­ gogue affiliation; late marriage and a low South London AJR's next meeting on Thursday AJR CHARITABLE TRUST - birthrate; and the exclusivity practised by 21st May, at Prentis Road Synagogue, Summary Income and Expenditure some of the orthodox. Orthodox life pre­ Streatham, at 2pm, considers 'The European Account served custom and practice, including Year ended 31st December 1997 Union -Asset or Uabilit/?' 1997 1996 Income: Covenants/donations 53,527 33,751 AJR MIDLANDS GROUP and a heakhy diet, even learning to Investment income breathe more deeply. (including portfolio Staying young Jaqualine also touched on the efficacy gains) 389,664 371,315 aqualine Herron, the daughter of a of massage, aroma therapy and reflexol­ Sheltered housing 21,473 21,131 member, gave a fascinating and infor­ ogy, and recommended Yoga which 464,664 426,197 mative talk on the advantages to be could be taken up at any age. She an­ Legacies 202,332 644,742 Jgained from achieving a feeling of swered the many questions put by a most enthusiastic audience and could have 666,996 wellbeing as we grow older, to a well- 1,070,939 continued well beyond the time allotted. Less ou^oings: attended meeting of the Midlands group. During tea, Ann Shearer recounted her Day Centre 227,195 210,368 Her account of the history and modern Self Aid 80,000 35,000 practice of the holistic approach to good experiences in seeking to obtain the help Otto Schiff Housing health held everyone enthralled. Conven­ of a carer and discussed the availability of Association - 50,000 tional medicine, she said, treated financial assistance from Birmingham's Other organisations 23,588 16,034 symptoms and effected cures. However, Social Services. ^ ^^^.^ 5^.^^,^^ Administration/ people could take some responsibility for Depreciation 276,407 242,934 their own wellbeing by following a few AJR Midlands Group's next meeting - Sunday £607,190 £554,336 simple rules, such as a correct posture 7th June, guest speaker Herbert Layton.

AJR Annual Visit to Volunteer Drivers in Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Centre Central & Soutli London Laxton, Nottinghamshire Elderly people who would like to Sunday 14th June 1998 attend afternoon meetings of Speaker: Stephen Smith, Founder & Director Beth Shalom South London AJR require lifts to Streatham £15 per person including coach fare and vegetarian buffet lunch Please phone Lotte May 0181 850 2081 Coach leaves Finchley Road, behind Waitrose, at 8.30am and Stanmore at 8.45am or Ken Ambrose 0181 852 0262 (£7 for those making their own way) if you could help Please send cheque, booking requirements and SAE to AJR, I Hampstead Gate, Frognal, London NWS SAL

10 AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

AJR centenarian AJR member Dr Hedi Kay celebrated her • • • VIeM'POint • • • 100th birthday in fine style at her Prim­ rose Hill residential home with cards and An ideal home flowers, a birthday cake and a telegram from the Queen - while being enter­ top Bavaria's Obersalzberg sits history. American bombers did their best tained with songs from bygone years. Hitler's Eagles' Nest retreat, an to level the place, but enough of it sur­ Viennese-born Dr Kay, whose looks be­ A ethereal mountain chalet set at vived its former occupant's decease for lie her years, arrived in England just three 6,000 feet high above a sea of clouds, them to use it as a recreation centre for weeks before the outbreak of war. With a the epicentre of an evil empire which American servicemen in Europe. At the doctorate in chemistry from Vienna, Dr subjugated most of Europe. It was the end of the Cold War there was little jus­ Kay worked in research at St Bart­ visible tip of an iceberg complex of tification for an upkeep bill running into holomew's and the Royal London fortifications and underground bunkers, millions of dollars, so in 1995 the Ameri­ Hospital and is delighted to hear from an SS barracks and a hotel for Nazi offi­ cans handed it back to the Bavarian former colleagues when they send her cers, constructed at enormous expense authorities as reluctant recipients. postcards from the conferences they at­ in the 1930s after evicting the locals. If ever there was a hot potato this was Hitler spent half his time loafing there tend. AJR volunteer Rita Kahn always one. To give them their due, the Bavar­ with his favourites, Speer, Borman and enjoys her visits to see Dr Kay. ians tried hard to have it both ways: to Goering, each having their own chalet as, create a documentation centre illustrat­ URDC of course, did his mistress Eva Braun. ing the mountain's (infamous) history on It was here that Hitler informed Chan­ the one hand, and to cater for the tourist cellor Schuschnigg of the extinction of trade on the other. Austria and - a year later - President Not surprisingly this outraged both Hacha of the demise of (rump) Czecho­ Jewish organisations and, equally impor­ slovakia. The hapless Hacha had been tantly, local groups. The latter, much to Enjoy kept waiting while the Fuehrer watched their credit, favour the Obersalzberg be­ * Excellent food Lives of a Bengal Lancer. That film ing made into a Holocaust memorial. '¥ Sdmulating talk showing how a relatively small force Presently, there the matter stands. * Enlivening discussion maintained British control over the In­ Some 300,000 people visited the place '*f- Meeting new friends dian sub-continent, gave Hitler the annually in its rundown state; quite a fateful idea that Germany could hold few must have been neo-Nazis who AjR LUNCHEON CLUB down the whole of Europe. would have liked to preserve the site as onWednesday 20 May 1998 There could be few other sites imbued a location for communing with the at l5CleveRoad,NW6 3RL with more significance for European Fuehrer's shade. D Ronald Cbanning 11.45 for 12.15pm Guest speaker: Leon Pilpel a Times' editor PAUL BALINT AJR DAY CENTRE •The Dreyfus Affair' 15 Cleve Road,West Hampstead, NW6 Reservations (£7) Mon. & Weds. 9.30am-3.30pm.Tues. 9,30am-S.30pm.Thurs. 9.30am-6.30pm. Suns. 2pm-6.30pm from Sylvia, Renee and Susie * Delicious 3-course kosher lunches * art classes * keep fit * bridge * games * optician * Tel: 0171 328 0208 * dentist * chiropodist ^ library * discussion group * shop * clothes sales * * advice on pensions & social security * outings & holidays * * daily musical entertainment programme • Call Sylvia Matus - 0171 328 0208

AJR 'Drop in' Advice Centre Afternoon entertainment programme - MAY/JUNE 1998 at the Tue 19 Suzanna Marks, .soprano & Janet Sun 3 The Hounslow Community Beale, piano & accordion Paul Balint AJR Day Centre Opera Wed 20 Day Centre Open - Luncheon 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 3RL Mon 4 CLOSED - BANK HOLIDAY Club between I Gam and 12 noon on the Wed 5 Nikki van der Zyl & Daphne Thur 21 Lawrence Estrey, piano following dates: Lewi.s, piano Sun 24 Day Centre Open - No Wed 6 Deborah Fink, soprano with entertainment Thursday 7 May piano Mon 25 CLOSED - BANK HOLIDAY Monday II May Thur 7 Katja Hipp, soprano & Geoffrey Tue 26 The Sunshine Singers Tuesday 19 May Whitworth, piano Wed 27 Marek Dabrowski, piano & Wednesday 27 May Sun 10 Day Centre Open - No Carmen La.sok, .soprano Thursday 4 June entertainment Thur 28 Geoffrey Strum <& Helen Blake Mon 11 Amanda Palmer, opera Sun CLOSED - SHAVUOT and every Thursday from 31 Tue 12 Anita Elias sings Mon 1 CLOSED - SHAVUOT 1 Dam to 12noo n at: \fed 13 Lucy White, violin & Juliet Tue 2 Gina Fergione, soprano and AJR, 1 Hampstead Gate, la Frognal, Davey, piano Angus Cunningham, piano London NW3 6AL Thur 14 Trinity College of Music Wed 3 Dorothy Sayers, accordion &• No appointment is necessary, but please bring Sun 17 Day Centre Open - No piano along all relevant documents, such as Benefit entertainment Thur 4 Katinka Seiner & Laszio Easton, Books, letters, bills, etc. Mon 18 Helen Blake entertains violin & piano

— II AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS ATTRACTIVE SHELTERED FLATS SHELTERED FLAT Deaths TO LET dresses, underwear, TO LET FOR SINGLE Cooper. Alfred Cooper (ne Attractive warden-controlled Cohen. Hamburg) passed away cardigans etc. OCCUPANCY flats are available 93-98. He came to England in Lift, entrance hall, 2 rooms, Shirley Lever at the from time to time 1939 on Kindertransport, then kitchenette, bathroom. Paul Balint AJR Day Centre at joined the British army, after Monday 11 May Resident Warden Eleanor Rathbone House internment in Australia. Dear Tuesday 2 June Leo Baeck Housing Assoc Ltd Highgate N6 9.45- 11.45am Alfred will be sadly missed by 11 Fitzjohn's Ave, NW3 his wife Ruth, son Peter, Enquiries A Flynn Details from: daughter Yvonne and family. 0181-958-5678 Mrs. K.Gould, AJR, on Pagel. Betty Pagel, born EVEROL 0171-431 6161 31.1.1906, died 4.2.1998 Interior & Exterior Painting Tuesday and Thursday peacefully in her sleep after & Decorating DIN DELIS HOUSE mornings. long suffering. Mourned by also Kitchen & Residential Care Home Viewing by appointment only Lotta Hester, Kurt and Leslie Bathroom Tiling for Senior Citizens Pagel. Teh 0181-427-0035 Religion highly honoured Stein. Susan Stein, born 1913 Pleasant relaxed atmosphere died 25 March 1998. Susan All single rooms with TV BELSIZE SQUARE was born in Vienna and came BOOKS & telephone APARTMENTS to the UK in 1938. She married For information contact: 24 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 Stephen Stein from PURCHASED Mrs HR Fearon Pennant Tel: 0171-794 4307 or Czechoslovakia, had two sons Pre-1950 Children's* Phone 0181 903 7592 0171-435 2557 and spent most of her life in Illustrated Books Fax 0181 903 4195 Published in Germany, Russia, MODERN SELF-CATERING HOLIDAY Golders Green. ROOMS, RESIDENT HOUSEKEEPER Poland, Czechoslovakia, MODERATE TERMS 'Wolff. Mrs E A Wolff passed Hungary ALTERATIONS NEAR SWISS COTTAGE STATION away after a short illness on 23 Brian Mills: Books OF ANY KIND TO February 1998, aged 98. 18 North Road, Glossop, LADIES' FASHIONS I also design and make Derbys.SKI3 9AS TORRINGTON HOMES CLASSIFIED Tel/Fax 01457-85 6878 children's clothes MRS. PRINGSHEIM, S.R.N. West Hampstead area MATRON Miscellaneous 0171-328 6571 For Elderly, Retired and Convalescent Services (Licensed by Borough ol Barnel) • Single and Double Rooms. Manicure & Pedicure in the Dr H Alan Shields • H/C Basins and CH in all rooms. comfort of your own home. MB ChB BDS LDS RCS C.H.WILSON • Gardens, TV and reading rooms. Carpenter Telephone 0181 343 0976. • Nurse on duty 24 hours. DENTAL SURGEON Painter and Decorator • Long and short term, including French Polisher Household rubbish removed. trial period if required. Items moved from A to B. Full Dental Service Antique Furniture Repaired Tei: 0181-452 8324 From £275 per week Cash for quality items. Details Home visits. Emergencies Car: 0831 103707 0181-445 1171 Office hours contact 0181 361 4583. 0181-455 1335 other times 46 BRAMPTON GROVE NORTH FINCHLEY Personal HENDON, NW4 SWITCH ON Tel: 0181 203 0405 Attractive lady, late 50s, ELECTRICS educated, would like to meet Residential Home gentleman, 50-68 with lively Rewires and all household Clara Nehab House electrical work. (Leo Baack Housing Aaaoclaton Ltd.) disposition and a love of Optician 13-19 Leaslda CreacanI NWII music. Box number 1245. PHONE PAUL: 0181-200 3518 Dr Howard So/omons All rooms with Shower W.C. and Societies BSc FBCO H/C Basins en-suite ADVERTISEMENT RATES Association of Jewish Ex- Dental Surgeon Spacious Garden - Lounge & FAMILY EVENTS Dining Room - Lift Berliners. Please contact Dr H Alan Shields First 15 words free of cfiarge, Near Shops and Public Transport £2.00 per 5 wordsttiereafter. Peter Sinclair 0181 882 1638 & 24 Hour Care - Physiotherapy CLASSIFIED Long & short Term - Respite Care for information. Chiropodist £2.00 per five words. -Trial Periods Trevor Goldman SRC BOX NUMBERS £3.00 extra. AJR GROUP CONTACTS by appointment ot Enquiries: Josephine Woolf DISPLAY, SEARCH NOTICES Otto Schlff Housing Association S. London; Ken Ambrose The Paul Balint per single column irich The Bishops Avenue N2 OBG 0181 852 0262 AJR Day Centre 65 mm (3 column page) £12.00 Phone: 0181-209 0022 48mm (4 column page) £10.00 Midlands: Edgar Glazer 15 Cleve Road, COPYDATE 5 weeks prior to publication 0121 777 6537 West Hampstead, NW6 North: Werner Lachs Please make appointments with The AJR does not accept 0161 773 4091 responsibility for the standard of Leeds HSFA: Heinz Skyte Sylvia Matus AJR service rendered by advertisers 0113 268 5739 Teh on I 328 0208 TehOn 1-431 6/6/

12 AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

Uri Art Society at 126 Albert Street, Cam­ BriJnhilde and Sieglinde (the latter within den Town, until May 8, comprises works a week) in the Forties. She also made of art by Jewish and Arab artists created regular guest appearances at Covent Gar­ on first day cover envelopes commemo­ den, where she last sang in 1968. rating the peace treaty between Israel Obituary. Soprano Leonie Rysanek has and Jordan. died, aged 71. After a brilliant career he first major exhibition of sculp­ Throughout May the National Gallery is spanning more than 45 years she made ture by Anish Kapoor is on view celebrating the centenary of the birth of her farewell appearance in 1996. Rysanek Tat the Hayward Gallery until June Henry Moore by installing an intimate received high praise for widening public 14. Since his early sculptures of the 1980s exhibition of the Gallery's paintings that interest in Wagner and Richard Strauss U using intensely coloured pigment, Kapoor Moore particularly admired, as well as a has created distinctive works in stone, group of his small bronze maquettes. marble, stainless steel and plastic. His Berlin - The City in its Time, an ex­ Anneiy Juda Fine Art most recent sculptures in stone, weighing hibition until May 2 at the Goethe-Institut 23 Dering Street (off New Bond Street) up to eight tons each, are on show, along of some 80 photographs by Gerhard Tel: 0171 -629 7578 Fax: 0171 -491 2139 with translucent alabaster pieces and Ullman of Berlin from the years 1968- CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Works in stainless steel. An extraordinary 1997, focuses on the connections between AND SCULPTURE body of work by a dedicated artist. past and present. Finally, Lily Freeman The flourishing art scene in London's exhibits her "Happy Paintings" at Burgh East End is reflected in the Whitechapel House, Hampstead, until May 10. Open, an exhibition of some 100 paint­ D Barry Fealdman GERMAN and ings, photographs, film, video and installation, shown both at the White­ E]\GLISH BOOKS chapel Art Gallery and at other local SB's Column BOUGHT Venues. In addition, 1000 artists have Antiquarian, secondhand and opened their studios to the public. De­ lma Mahler's Diaries, published modern books of quality tails: 0171-522 7878. Until May 31. for the first time by S Fischer always wanted. AVerlag, deal with the years of her We're long-standing advertisers youth around 1900. Much has been here and leading buyers of books written about that very extrovert lady from AJR members. who married Gustav Mahler, Walter Immediate response to your letter Gropius and Franz Werfel. With Werfel or phone call. she escaped from Nazi-occupied France We pay good prices and to the USA, where he predeceased her by come to collect. many years. Berlin. The former, and future, German Please contact: capital still maintains three Opera Houses Robert Hornung IVIA(Oxon) 2 Mount View, Ealing, which perform throughout the year (ex­ London W; IPR cept in mid-suiTimer). The Deutsche Oper Telephone 0181-998 0546 has a very varied programme; this March (5pin to 9pm is best) it devoted one entire evening to a '50 Years Israel' celebration. Fritz Spielmann, a cabaret entertainer popular in 30s Vienna, escaped to New We of St Nicholas, 1570s, A'/(.v.v/«;; State Library, York, where he continued his career at GERMAN BOOK!$ Moscow. venues like 'Wiener Fiaker' and Hermann WHY MOT COIVTACT US The development of Russian painting Leopoldi's 'Alt Wien' cafe in Manhattan. FOR A VALUAT101\? from the 15th to the 17th century is Spielmann composed well over 900 songs, "lustrated in a beautifully displayed exhi­ many for MGM musicals, starring, among We are always seeking pre-1 950 German bition The Art of Holy Russia at the others, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Bing books in ALL subject areas, especially "oyal Academy until June 14. Fifty rarely Crosby and Judy Gariand. He died in 1997 Exile/Internment literature and Judaica. exhibited icons, lent by some of the most and was recently commemorated on two We also buy interesting Autographs, famous museums in Moscow, form the gala evenings at the Vienna Funkhaus. Original Manuscripts, Etchings and Centre-piece of the exhibition. Many of Award. The highest award by the Drawings and Art Photographs. them are powerful, dramatic images French Academy of Music was bestowed Eric Brueck ^hich, while paying tribute to Byzantine on Charles Trenet, whose rendering of La 'orms, are uniquely Russian in spirit. The Mer and La vie en rose made him a Aiiliquarial Metropoli^i Sixteen illuminated manuscripts also on national in.stitution. Leerbachstr. 85, D-60322 Frankfurt a/M show, reveal the influence of Renaissance Birthday. 80th birthday honours for Tel: 0049 69745919 Concepts. Astrid Varnay, Swedish-born American so­ Members of the PBFA Artists - Messengers of Peace, an in- prano, specialising in Wagner parts. At REGULAR VISITS TO LONDON t^ovative exhibition mounted by the Ben the Met she took over the roles of

13 AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

Take: I? ^ Cooking with Gretel Beer 3 teaspoons (y20Z, 15g) powdered gelatine (kosher) Companions 18 fl oz (500 ml) tomato juice of London juice of V2 lemon Incorporating Hampstead Home Care salt and pepper ^ •iJ pinch of sugar A long established company pinch celery salt (if using tomato providing care in your home juice only) paprika * Assistance with personal care watercress for garnish -k General household duties * Respite care Put the gelatine in a cup and slake it * Medical appointment service with about six teaspoons warm water, then stand the cup in a bowl of hot water OUR CARE IS YOUR CARE' and stir until the gelatine has dissolved 0171 483 0212/0213 Tomato Ring completely. It should be quite clear and xcellent as a first course - or as a rather syrupy. Heat the tomato juice gen­ main dish for a summer lunch. Fill tly with all the seasonings to just below E the centre with salad - a rich boiling point. Remove from heat and stir SPRING creamy salad goes particularly well with in the dissolved gelatine. Continue stir­ the sharpness of the tomato jelly - ring until well blended. GROVE hardboiled eggs sliced into mayonnaise Rinse a ring mould in cold water and 214 Finchley Road with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts or pour in the tomato juice. Allow to cool London NW3 an avocado salad or - if you want to and then put the mould into the refrig­ London's Most Luxurious make it even more substantial, a chicken erator until the jelly has set completely. RETIREMENT HOME salad (recipe in August '97 issue). By way Turn out on to a pretty serving dish - it * Entertainment - Activities of change you can use V8 instead of looks particularly good on a large glass •* Stress Free Living tomato juice or a mixture of both. plate - and garnish with watercress D * 24 Hour Staffing * Excellent Cuisine * Full En-Suite Facilities Top chef Call for more information or a personal tour The Otto Schiff Housing Association's 0181-446 2117 Bernard Carter, right. Head Chef at Heinrich Stahl House in Hampstead, or 0171-794 4455 cooked a winning menu for Chief Executive Tony Shepherd, centre, and Eli Spokoini, Managing Director of com­ petition sponsors Select Hotel Services. Hilary's Care Agency Eight of Otto Schiff s chefs each prepared HIGH QUALITY HOMECARE a kosher three-course meal within a £10 FORTHE ELDERLY AND DISABLED budget. * CARERS * COMPANIONS URDC * HOUSEKEEPERS * DOMESTICS Flexible service tailored to your needs End of an era IN PRAISE OF CHICKEN SOUP Daily & Uve-in -1-24 hours - 7 doys a week

he Cosmo Restaurant added Vienna It's widely known as Jewish penicillin COVERING NORTH <& NORTH WEST LONDON, Tschnitzel, apple strudel and an old- And very efficacious for a cold; EAST LONDON & ESSEX fashioned central European style to While tasty and particulariy filling London's Finchley Road since before the It has the power to help both young and 0181 559 IIIO Second Worid War, satisfying expatriates' old. yearnings for continental cuisine while You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy it - It works for any faith you care to name; providing a warm social venue for Simon P. Rhodes M.Ch.S. German-speaking Jewish refugees. It's possible to make it and employ it STATE REGISTERED CHIROPODIST Alas, a dwindling clientele and the bur­ For almost any ailment just the same. Surgeries at; geoning of ethnic restaurants serving No side effects are known, so it's worth 67 Kilburn High Road, NW6 (opp M&S) dishes from more exotic parts of the trying, Telephone 0171-624 1576 world has brought the Cosmo's closure. (Ingredients are not dear - a bagatelle. 3 Queens Close (off Green Lane) Even the wistful notice on the restaurant's Make sure it is a boiling fowl you're Edgware, Middx HAS 7PU barred doors sadly proclaims 'the end of buying). Telephone 0181-905 3264 an era'. And I can guarantee you'll soon feel well. Visiting chiropody service available URDC U Mary Huttrer

14 AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

WITH APPRECIATION SEARCH NOTICES We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for the legac es received in 1997 by Henryk (Rico) Herman lived (and the AJR and the AJR Charitable Trust from the estates of the following: studied) at Dr Levy's children's home, H S Baum Louis Harber Grete Moses Dr Robert Spencer Michendorf, prior to expulsion to Walter A Cohn Hilda E Herzer Frieda Muller Emily Steinheim Zbaszyn in October 1938. Arrived in UK .Mrs H Danziger Gerd Jonas Margit Rosenberg Gertrude Walter January 1939 and lived at I I Fitzjohns Ruth Feldheim Mrs I B Josephs Werner Rosenstock Mrs M Weidenfeld Avenue, NW3, before joining the RAF. His Fredericke Gampell Siegfried Kahn Rosa Schlesinger Martha Williams son Peter Herman, 43 Fairfield Drive, Margit Goodman Margot Kogut Ruth Schneider Charles F Worrel Dorking, Surrey RH4 IJQ, is seeking infor­ Pepi Gottfried Franz Korn Klara Seller Use Zwirn mation on his late father's life and Dr Leoni Hall Grete Lissauer Grete Sobel Levy's children's home. Karl Kaufmann married Emma Hoffman FORTHCOMING EVENTS Street, WCl, 6pm in Westfalen c.l909. Daughter born 29 Tue 12 Internment Mail from June 1911; son 4 August 1915. Leading -MAY 1998 Refugees in WWU: William member of Wattenscheid synagogue; pos­ Kaczynsky. Sussex sessed a 1689 document about the town's Ongoing: Surviving the Holocaust University, 5.15pm Jews. Others with the surnames: Feilmann, with the Russian Jewish Sun 17 The Dilemmas of Return: Mollerich, Goldscheider, emigrated from Partisans: Story of Jack Film & Symposium. Alicia Germany between 1936 and 1940. Fami­ Kagan, Jewish Museum, Douer. Middlesex lies being sought by relatives Enrique Finchley (until September) University, The Burroughs, Kahn & Daniela Feilmann.Vidal 2257 7°'A', Sun-Thurs, ±2 NW4, Spm. Spiro Institute (1428), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mon IS AGM Club 43, Spm Britain, Zionism & British Peter Strauss, born in Niirnberg c. 1926, Tue 19 Body & Death in German Jews: Jewish Museum, later a pupil at Stoatly Rough School in Camden Town (until 21 Romanticism: Nick Saul. Haslemere, Surrey, assumed still to be liv­ June) Sun-Thurs, 10am- Sussex University, 5.15pm ing in England, is being sought by Dr 4pm, £3 Thur 21 Lunchtime Recital: Hannelore Noack who has discovered his Lebensraum, a new play Horatia Raphael, piano. letters to his late mother Finni (Frieda) of by Israel Horovitz: Kings Sternberg Centre, £2, Head Theatre till 24 May. 1.15pm Pirckheimer Strasse 61, Niirnberg, who Booking 0171 226 1916 Thur 25 Richard Balfe MEP: perished in the Holocaust. Please write to Tue 5 British Pacifist's Rescue European Llnion, Asset or her at Stemberg 36, 33106 Paderborn- of a German Jew: Nick Liability? South London AJR, Wewer, Germany. Tucker. Sussex University, Prentis Road Synagogue, Helen Bolderson, nee Karger, originally 5.15pm 2pm from Berlin, then Norrice Lea, London. Tue 5 Jewish Emancipation in Tue 26 Territoriality & Please phone A. Smullen 0181 202 8764 Britain & its Legacy: Dr Temporality in the or K.Turner 01763 838 345, re: reunion Crusades and David Feldman. University class 1941-48 Henrietta Barnett School Contemporary Northern College, Gower Street, on May 16th. WCl, 6.30pm Ireland: Tim Jackson. Thur 7 Life & Works of Marc Sussex University, 5.15pm German/Austrian Jewish families in 1930s. Researcher into inter-family Chagall: Mitch Wax, Pinner June AJR, Pinner Synagogue, Tue 2 The Holocaust in History, disputes seeking reasons advanced for 2pm Memory & Education: leaving or, more especially, staying put. Thur 7 Lunchtime Recital: Gary Stephen Smith (Beth Please write in confidence to 'Disputes Arbuthnot, flute, ik Rebecca Shalom Holocaust Centre). about Flight', Box I244,AJR. Woolcock, piano. Sternberg Sussex Liniversity, 5.15pm Kaufman. The son of the late Anita Centre, £2, 1.15pm Kaufman is sought by a family friend, Mrs ^un 10 Memories of the Warsaw ORGANISATION CONTACTS Nina Hofman, re 1943 painting by Philipp Ghetto: Middlesex Club '43, at Belsize Square University, The Burroughs, Synagogue. Hans Seelig 01442 254 360 Kaufman. Please contact at Casa Torre 13/ NW4, 4pm, ±5. Spiro Jewish Museum, Camden Town, F, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland. Tel & Fax: +41 Institute 129/131 Albert Street, NWl 7NB. Tel: (0)91 970 21 80. Mon 11 Herr Arno Reinfrank liest 0171 2S4 1997, and at Sternberg Centre aus neuen Buchern und Sternberg Centre for Judaism/ Manuskripten. Club 43, Spm Jewish Museum, Finchley, 80 East LEO BAECK HOUSE '^on 11 Prof Ernest Frerichs: End Road, N3 2SY. Tel: 0181 346 2288 The Bishop's Avenue, London N2 Interdependence of Jewish University of Sussex Centre for ANNUAL OPEN DAY & Christian Interpretation of German-Jewish Studies. Diana & BAZAAR the Hebrew Bible. Franklin 0181 381 4721 or 01273 678 Sunday 21 June 3-5pm University College, Gower 771 Entry £3 incl. tea & cakes (children free)

15 AJR INFORMATION MAY 1998

nal' Anschluss implemented by Hitler's NEWSROUND The Anschluss viewed bullying of Schuschnigg, there was also an 'internal' Anschluss which emerged Priebke sentenced sixty years on from the national discourse within Aus­ Former SS captain Erich Priebke and tria. Many Austrians saw themselves as fellow Nazi Karl Hass were sentenced to he Anschluss was a highly "the better Germans". Hence Schusch­ life imprisonment at an appeal hearing in dramatic, but not unexpected, nigg's justification for his surrender to Rome for participating in the 1944 Tevent. Its antecedents go back to Hitler was that he wanted no shedding of Ardeatine caves massacre of 335 men and the rise of nationalism around 1848, German blood. Confronted with the boys, most of whom were Jews. Priebke when the concept that political frontiers disease of Nazism the Austrians had an was extradited from Argentina in 1994. should coincide with ethnic boundaries acute immune deficiency problem. was born. This very simple and These days, however, despite the Wald­ Schonberg's return to Vienna straightforward principle had worked in heim affair and the persistence of The Arnold Schonberg Centre was Western and Northern Europe, but in antisemitism in Austria the 'internal' opened in Vienna, on the 60th Eastern and Southern Europe it was more Anschluss is dying, while the 'external' anniversary of the Anschluss, in the complicated to define people's national Anschluss is dead already. The Anschluss presence of his three children. Austrian identities. Language of daily use was set Question is closed D President Viktor Klima apologised for the up as a criterion, but the Czech and country's persecution of its Jewish Slovak censuses held in 1910 and in Marion Hamm's report on Professor Pulzer's citizens in the 1930s. 1921, for example, show considerable lecture at the ImperialWar Museum. Poland's living history discrepancies. People gave the answers The vibrant 1,000 year history of Polish they thought it was safe to give. Jewry will be documented in a museum When the North German Confederation to be established in Warsaw. Europe's was set up, it didn't fit the concept of a Restitution or distribution largest Jewish community, 3-5 million in linguistically homogenous nation at all: ad Vashem Committee Chairman 1939, was almost totally destroyed by the there were Poles in Prussia, Danes in Ben Helfgott proved a fount of German invaders during World War IL Schleswig-Holstein, and many others. In Yknowledge for a packed audience at AJR's Northern Group in Manchester. Polish citizenship on offer the Habsburg Empire, this was even more the case. Should Germany include all He recalled that the Claims Conference, Thirty years after a campaign of intimi­ areas in which German was being spo­ set up in 1951 by the German dation by Poland's Communist regime in ken? Or should countries where German Government, resulted from the efforts of March 1968, President Aleksander Kwas­ was not the only language, be excluded? Dr Nahum Goldman, President of the niewski has offered 20,000 Jewish The 1866 war which brought about the World Jewish Congress, against a degree emigres the return of their citizenship. predominance of the North German Con­ of Israeli opposition to accepting 'tainted Off the record federation over the Habsburg Empire money'. A recorded version of extracts from gave birth to the Anschluss question. The work is continued by the World Hitler's Mein Kampf on compact disc, After Worid War I, many small nations Jewish Restitution Organisation, estab­ though intended as a satire, has been split off from the Habsburg Empire. What lished by the Claims Conference. Its main withdrawn from sale in Germany. Mein was left over became Austria. Cut off objective is to use newly available funds Kampf is not available in Germany's from economic resources, this small to help destitute and needy Holocaust bookshops. country with its huge, once imperial capi­ survivors who, in the main, are found in tal to maintain, negotiated how to deal Eastern Europe and the former Soviet re­ Sternberg honoured with the new situation. For many the an­ publics. Hungarian-born Sir Sigmund Sternberg swer was to unite with Germany. Commenting on Swiss gold, looted has received the Templeton Prize in When Hitler came to power, the property and funds 'peppered away' by recognition of his services to inter-faith An-schluss question became critical, polar­ the Nazis in neutral countries, Ben dialogue. He has chaired the Inter­ ising the political landscape of Austria. Helfgott believed their value, and expec­ national Council of Christians and Jews, The left considered it still po.ssible, but tations of restitution from them, to be championed London's memorial to Swed­ not with the Nazis. The right favoured it much exaggerated. There were tremen­ ish diplomat and saviour of the Jews, more than ever. If one was in favour, one dous problems in identifying and Raoul Wallenberg, and, more recently, had to be a Nazi. If one wasn't, one confirming the holders of the listed founded the Three Faiths Forum. could be either a social democrat or a accounts which had already been pub­ Return of Holocaust assets monarchist. lished, and whatever was available would Margaret Beckett, President of the Board The partial overiap between Nazi ideas amount to relatively small sums when di­ of Trade, announced the return of an and Austrian non-Nazi ideas made Hitler vided among the many deserving cases. initial &2 million to Holocaust victims seem preferable. Anti-parliamentarism, He referred to Switzerland's Humanitarian whose British bank accounts were anti-Communism and antisemitism were Fund, set up with contributions from their treated as enemy property and con­ widespread within civil society. The cli­ banks. At the recent London Conference, fiscated by the Government. An max of this overlap was in 1938, when the young in particular wished to get to independent arbiter is to oversee the Schuschnigg called for a referendum, ask­ the truth and by-pass bureaucracy and disbursement of the funds. ing whether Austrians were in favour of a procrastination. DRDC German Au.stria. In addition to the 'exter­ D Werner Lachs

Published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain. I Hampstead Gate, i A Frognal, London NW3 6AL Tel: 0171 -431 6161 Fax; 0171 -431 8454 Printed in Great Britain by Freedman Rrnrhi.rWPrinter.\ I tri I r,nH->n MWM 7r,B T„I. nioi ..co i->-.n <:....r,i„. .rr -o,->