Issue No.39 2017 contents THE MIRACLE OF ISRAEL REMEMBERING JACK KAGAN CHAIM FERSTER YOM HA’ AZTMAUT Michael Kagan Page 60-62 Arron Ferster Page 123-124 Aubrey Rose Page 3-5 THE FACE TO OSWIECIM. 70 YEARS SINCE THE BOYS ARRIVE IN WINDEMERE JEWISH HUMOUR Michael Kagan Page 63-64 Page 123-128 Aubrey Rose Page 6-8 MINIA JAY '45 Aid Society GHETTO MENTALITY Denise Kienwald Page 64 The Boys, Triumph over Adversity Michael Etkind Page 9-11 Esther Gilbert Page 130-131 I WAS THERE NEVER AGAIN, L’CHAIM I SURVIVED SAMUEL AND BENJAMIN Robert Sherman Page 12-13 6 MILLION DIDN'T NURTMAN Page 132-138 THE HOLOCAUST THE CLEARING IN THE FOREST Sam Gontarz Page 65-78 BUNCE COURT SCHOOL Sam Dresner 2017 Page 13 Barbara Barnett Page 139-141 MY RETURN TO LODZ (LITZMANSTADT AS IT WAS JUDITH SHERMAN STORY THEN CALLED) FOR THE COMMEMORATIONOF THE Second/Third Generation Speaker Programme Page 14-15 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIQUIDATION OF LODZ Sue Bermange Page 142-143 GHETTO JANUSZ MAKUCH, CREATOR OF THE JEWISH Sam Gontarz Page 79-80 MEMORY QUILT GOES ON DISPLAY AT CULTURAL FESTIVAL IN KRAKOW LONDON JEWISH MUSEUM Page 16 HOLOCAUST EDUCATION - TRAINING SESSIONS Page 144 THIS IS THE STORY OF ITA JAKUBOWWICZ FOR SECOND/THIRD GENERATION SPEAKERS Page 16-18 Geraldine Jackson Page 81-82 'HOW CAN WE TURN AWAY REFUGEES?' ASKS HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR UPDATED BIO ON ETTA GROSS ZIMMERMAN SECOND GENERATION, LEARNING TO PRESENT Page 145 Page 19 OUR PARENTS STORIES Gaynor Harris Page 84 THE BOYS VISIT THE MEMORY QUILT EXHIBITED AT IN EVERY GENERATION THE UK HOLOCAUST CENTRE. Etta Gross Zimmerman Page 20-21 WORLD JEWISH RELIEF (WJR) MAY HAVE ORIGINAL Page 146-147 ARCHIVES ON YOU OR YOUR RELATIVE! CHAYE SARAH How many birthdates was enough? BBC ANTIQUES ROADSHOW 15 Michael Helfgott Page 22-23 Kim Stern Page 85 JANUARY 2017 Page 149 ADDRESS TO THE PIOTKOWER SOCIETY David Kutner Dp.134 NEW YEARS HONOURS FOR NEW YORK 1992 Suzanne Kutner Page 86 SURVIVORS Page 150 By Ben Helfgott Page 24-27 ANTIQUES ROADSHOW – BROADCAST ON BBC TV – HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2017 ANGELA COHEN’S, MAIDEN SPEECH AS BBC1 - 15 JANUARY 2017 Page 150-153 CHAIRMAN OF THE ’45 AID SOCIETY Sue Bermange Page 87-92 Page 28 CARING FOR THE MEMORY QUILTS MICK ZWIREK LEO GEDDY Page 93-94 Page 154 By David Zwirek Page 29-34 MY GRANDMOTHER, RACHEL RÓZSA LONDON MAYOR SADIQ KHAN READS THE BECHER FAMILY SQUARE IN THE Marilyn Herman, daughter of Abraham Herman FROM THE BOOK THE BOYS Page 155 MEMORY QUILT Page 95-97 Page 35-38 PLAQUE UNVEILED TO THE BOYS ABRAHAM HERMAN: HOW DID HE SURVIVE? Page 155-158 A STORY PUBLISHED Marilyn Herman Page 98-105 Rosalind Gelbart & Julia Burton Page 39-40 CELEBRATING BEN HELFGOTT– THE MEMORY QUILTS COME TO MANCHESTER ONE OF THE BOYS Page 159-160 RECENT REFLECTIONS AND MENORAH Monica Gast-Stauber, Daughter of Paul & Edith Gast Vicki Garson Page 106 70TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION Page 41-43 Page 161 MEMORY QUILT TO ‘THE BOYS’ THE BOYS MEMORY QUILT HARRY AND PAULINE SPIRO – 60TH WEDDING Diane Paul Page 107-108 Page 161 ANNIVERSARY Page 44 TIM FARRON MP Page 109 ARCHIVE RECORDS ON THE BOYS VISIT TO THE REUNION OF THE BOYS AVAILABLE FROM WJR Page 162 Robin Frydman Page 45-49 THE LAST TRANSPORT FROM PRAGUE TO ENGLAND. THE BOYS - ARCHIVE PHOTOS. JEFF FRYDMAN’S STORY Majer Stern Page 110 WHO DO YOU RECOGNISE? Page 50-54 Page 164-167 LEO STERN HENRY ROSE Page 55 By Elise Stern Gropper CARDROSS, GLASGOW BOY Page 111-114 Page 167 STORM BEFORE THE SILENCE – IN MEMORY OF JACK KAGAN HARRY BALSAM Michael Kagan Page 56-60 Natalie Meltzer Page 115-122 2 Aubrey Rose CBE Apart from his career as a lawyer, Aubrey has played an active role in sever- al fields. He was an original member of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and a member of Commonwealth Organisation. He was for five years a Commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equality. He played an active part in British Jewry including six years as Senior President of the Board of Deputies. He lectures widely and has written a number of books, including Judaism Ecology his biography. THE MIRACLE OF ISRAEL By Aubrey Rose YOM HA’ AZTMAUT 1st May 2017 accusations, the unspeakable crime of the Holocaust, and then the establishment of the The word ‘Israel’ denotes the whole Jewish State in 1948, and the struggle ever since. people, spread over the continents in past and present ages. It is a tiny people, few in This remarkable people of ours has faced number, a minuscule part of 1% of the endless struggles, yet has survived. What world’s population. Today there are more other people has renewed its sovereignty in people in just one city, like Sao Paulo or its original homeland after a gap of two Mexico City, then there are Jews in the thousand years, and renewed also its whole wide world, Israel and America ancient language? included. Our indeed, is a rare and miraculous story. And yet, how strange, and wonderful, that One has to look at the wider sources that on each Sunday morning In New Zealand produced the State. and Brazil, South Africa and Barbados, Spain and Canada, it is the literature of this tiny I was in Manchester Square in London in people that is read aloud to vast numbers of May 1948 when the birth of the State was people. This is unique. There is nothing like celebrated, and the Shehecheyanu blessing it. Israel’s story of old is thus heard in many, uttered to a large and excited crowd. I have many languages. This is a wider Israel than been to many Yom Ha’ Atzmaut events the State, even though the State emerged since. A few years ago I was in the Tel-Aviv from that world-wide efforts of the people, building in which The Declaration of Israel. Independence was read in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion School The word ‘Israel’ has another connotation. It children were there being taught by their denotes struggle, Jacob’s struggle, a teachers of this historic event. struggle that has persisted throughout history, the freedom march out of Egypt, I was then in Israel to complete my settlement in the land, exile to Babylon, The biography of Arieh Handler who, in 2009, Maccabees, Romans, persecution over was the only person still alive and who had centuries by churches, pogroms, false been present in 1948 in that hall at the 3 personal invitation of Ben-Gurion. the Jewish contribution to civilisation. Indeed, Bernard Shaw once wrote that Arieh described to me the scene. Indeed, his “The jew was born civilised”, whilst Jan own life of 95 very full years typifies so much Smuts referred to: “Israel, the nation of of the character of both the people Israel and nations.” Maxim Gorky said: “That Jewish the State of Israel. wisdom is more all-human and universal than any other.” And yet, this record of Today Israel is the name of a legal, political, signal achievement has been one of our sovereign state, like 190 or more sovereign problems. states. Yet the word signifies something more. We say, “Shema Yisrael”, “Kol Yisrael These are all aspects of the wider Chaverim”, and so on. This refers to some- significance of the word “Israel”. It is thing wider than a State, more a state of because of these qualities that the State mind and heart. emerged. Behind its creation lay the great faith of the religion, moral teachings of the My 19-year old grandson, studying science highest order found anywhere, of devotion at university, told me to his complete to study and learning, of family cohesion, of surprise of the vast number of Jewish Nobel a perennial optimism as to the future, as a Prize winners in science and medicine. Israel hope for the eventual repair of this tortured in Science. world, of Tikkun Olam. Hope is our national song. My late friend, Paul Yogi Mayer, wrote a book on the amazing number of Jewish Olympic The State emerged too, from the rabbi’s of Medal winners. Israel in Sport. old, from Chassidim and Haskalah, from Achad Ha’am and Choveve Zion, from Herzl Music has seen a great outpouring of and Weizmann, from Congresses, from creativity, from Mendelssohn to Bernstein, J.N.F., O.R.T., W.I.Z.O., from so much alongside the unique galaxy of Jewish devotion, from Chalutzim and Kibbutzim, musicians. above all, from sheer courage and idealism. The same applies to theatre, films, literature, I recall in 1949, wandering through humour, craftsmanship. All is Israel in human Beer-Sheva, a dusty place of less than creativity. 10,000 people. I recall, also, meeting Jews who had fled Iraq, living in tents on the hills And so, one can find outstanding achieve- surrounding Jerusalem, saved from the ment in many areas of positive civilised racism that afflicted the Arab world. Thank activity emanating from this tiny people. No heavens for the State as a refuge. wonder H.G. Wells wrote that: “With the Jews, a new kind of man came into I wandered also at that time in Jerusalem existence.” with my father, who found a landtsman he knew half century earlier when he lived in No wonder there have been words of Plotzk in Poland, that same town that admiration from figures as diverse as produced David Green who later took the Tolstoy, Churchill, Mark Twain, and many surname of a first century freedom fighter, others.