VOLUMEAJR JOURNAL 11 NO.9 SEPTEMBERSEPTEMBER 2011 A history of the Kindertransports he appearance of a history of the But the inclusion of the post-1945 plainly insufficient for a study of the Kindertransports is an event of transports makes possible a broadening settlement of the Kindertransportees T considerable interest to the many of focus and a comparative dimension over a period of some 65 post-war years, AJR members who were themselves that Turner’s study lacks. The post-war and it leaves much of their later lives in Kindertransportees and to the wider transports may only have numbered Britain and their interaction with the wider community of Jewish refugees in general. hundreds, but they should not be wholly community of the refugees from Hitler in Surprisingly, no proper academic history overshadowed by their now famous pre- Britain uncovered. Indeed, Fast hardly of the Kindertransports in English war predecessors. seems aware of the existence of the large, exists. The last comprehensive book However, by adding the later active and vibrant community of refugees on the subject, Barry Turner’s … transports, Fast is forced to reduce from Germany and Austria that developed And the Policeman Smiled: 10,000 the amount of space devoted to the in the post-war decades in areas like north- Children Escape from Nazi Europe, was Kindertransports of 1938/39, which must west London. published by Bloomsbury in 1990. As As if to prove that point, the AJR does its sometimes breathlessly urgent style not appear in the book’s index, rating a and its sentimental title indi cate, it was mention only in the list of abbreviations written by a journalist, not a historian. (!) and in a couple of footnotes. While Though it remains a serviceable study, Bertha Leverton features prominently, it is now showing its age. Nor does the the Kindertransport organisation that more recent study in German by Rebekka she founded, now affiliated to the AJR Göpfert fill the gap. as AJR-KT, does not. The now adult Children’s Exodus: A History of Kindertransportees appear, in Fast’s the Kindertransport by Vera K. Fast, account, as atomised individuals left to published in London and New York cope largely on their own in a foreign by I. B. Tauris in 2011, promises to be land – ‘separated from their heritage a welcome addition to the field. Fast, and history’, as the blurb on the book’s a retired archivist and historian from A party of refugee girls at an English recep- inside cover puts it. This is hard to square tion camp PHOTO: WIENER LIBRARY Canada, conducted much of her research with the avowed intention of the AJR, a at the University of Southampton, thanks form the main focus of any study of this body that numbered thousands of former to a visiting fellowship for study at the subject. Whereas Turner devoted all 281 refugees as its members, to preserve the Hartley Library. Her discovery of the pages of his book, packed with detail precious cultural heritage of German papers of Rabbi Dr Solomon Schonfeld, from the files of the Refugee Children’s Jewry. deposited at the library, led to one of the Movement, the main body responsible Fast says nothing about any refugee or- most striking features of her book, the for supporting the children in Britain, to ganisations, social networks, publications inclusion of the transports of children those who came in 1938/39, Fast devotes or activities in which the former Kinder- brought over after the war as a final only 168 of her 198 pages to them. The transportees might have participated – the chapter in the Kindertransport story. For result is, inevitably, a sketchier picture; Hyphen, for example, founded in 1948 though Rabbi Dr Schonfeld had already Fast’s tendency to concentrate on such precisely to cater for that in-between gen- distinguished himself by his efforts on admittedly interesting minorities as eration of refugees who had not reached behalf of the pre-war Kindertransports, Orthodox Jewish children and the adulthood in Germany, but who were too his post-war exploits, in the absence Christian children designated as Jews old on arrival in Britain to integrate seam- of the government backing that had under the Nuremberg Laws (‘non-Aryan lessly into British society. Fast’s lack underpinned the earlier rescue scheme, Christians’) further reduces the amount of familiarity with the post-war refugee were arguably his finest hour. of space devoted to the children of community also leads her to reach some Historical purists may contend that assimilated German- and Austrian-Jewish very questionable conclusions, such the later transports composed of children families, who were the large majority. as that it was ‘very unusual’ for former who survived the camps or in hiding were Given the amount of published Kindertransportees to marry non-Jews; not properly part of the Kindertransport research on the Jewish refugees from I would estimate that at least one in five initiative that sprang into being after the Hitler in Britain that has been carried did so. This book is a useful addition to Home Secretary’s decision in November out since Turner’s study appeared in its field, but a truly authoritative study of 1938 to allow 10,000 endangered children 1990, it is disappointing that Fast gives the subject remains to be written. from Germany into Britain without the the post-war period only some 20 pages, Anthony Grenville usual formalities of visas and passports. in her chapter ‘In Later Years’. This is continued overleaf 1 AJR JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2011 Cultural intermediaries AJR’s 70th Anniversary Celebrations: Reception at On Sunday, 24 July 2011, a recital Austrian Ambassador’s Residence was held at the reception at the Austrian numerous areas of life, including art, Royal Academy Ambassador’s Residence in politics, science and medicine as well as of Music in Lon- A London’s Belgrave Square in law, cinematography, architecture and don in memory of July provided literature. They a wonderful had also brought Hannah Horovitz opportunity to their ‘distinctive (1936-2010), well reflect on the 70 cultural identity’, known in musi- years’ existence perhaps best cal circles as a Hannah Horovitz of the AJR and represented by remarkably en- the remarkable the Vienna-born ergetic and innovative music promoter contribution the Rudolf Bing, who who introduced a large number of young refugees have could take credit and previously unknown foreign artists to made to Britain. for establishing British audiences. One of these was the Dr Emil Brix, the both the Glynde- famous Hungarian pianist András Schiff, Austrian Ambas- bourne Festival who generously offered to give the recital sador, said that Opera and the Ed- (From left) HE Dr Emil Brix, Austrian Ambassador; as a tribute to Hannah Horovitz, as she the AJR had ‘great inburgh Festival. achievements’ to unknown person; Martin Reichard, Counsellor (Press While ‘our shared had organised his first concerts in Britain & Information), Austrian Embassy; AJR Chairman its credit since its history is seared in the 1970s. Andrew Kaufman PHOTO: AUSTRIAN EMBASSY founding days, into our con- The musical scene in Britain was having helped tens of thousands of sciousness’, Andrew said, in all the transformed by the arrival of the Jewish refugees from Austria newly arrived events the AJR had organised to mark its refugees fleeing from Germany and Aus- in Britain. Yet it was important, he 70th anniversary, it had emphasised that tria after 1933. One need only mention stressed, for Austria to face its past and these were opportunities ‘to celebrate such names as the singer Richard Tauber, it was doing that. Jewish life, he said, the seminal achievements and remark- the composers Berthold Goldschmidt was thriving again in Austria, Jewish able contributions’ the Jewish refugees and Franz Reizenstein, the violinist Max cemeteries were being restored, and had made to this country. Rostal, the three refugee members of the many Holocaust survivors were ‘going Edward Timms, Research Professor in Amadeus Quartet, and the musicologist into Austria’s schools to tell tomorrow’s History at the University of Sussex Centre and broadcaster Hans Keller; and both generation of that dark chapter in Aus- for German-Jewish Studies, gave a brief the opera at Glyndebourne and the first trian history.’ He congratulated the AJR introduction to his book Taking Up the Torch: English Institutions, German Dia- Edinburgh International Festival of 1947, on ‘70 years of impressive, unflinching and tireless work’. lectics and Multi-Cultural Commitments, then largely a musical event, were heavily AJR Chairman Andrew Kaufman whose publication coincided with the dependent for their foundation on refugee noted that the refugees excelled in AJR’s anniversary. expertise, in particular that of Rudolf Bing. The outstanding quality of the musical tradition that the refugees from Germany tions of children have enjoyed Horovitz’s Britain of Refugees from Nazism (London: and Austria brought with them to Britain humorous cantata Captain Noah and His Chatto & Windus, 2002). Movingly, was underlined by the programme chosen Floating Zoo, as TV viewers have enjoyed Snowman played extracts from an by Schiff for his recital: Bach, Mozart, his musical accompaniments to series like interview with Hannah Horovitz, in which Beethoven and Schubert, with a piece by Rumpole of the Bailey. she spoke of herself as a bridge between the Hungarian-Jewish composer György The most famous of the refugee two cultures, a cultural intermediary Kurtág, written in memory of the pianist’s dynasties is the Freud family, as the who interpreted the nuances of Central own mother. recent death of the artist Lucian Freud European culture to the British and, in The entire event was imbued with has reminded us; the achievements of her role as Deputy Director of the British the spirit of the cultural riches that the the Horovitz family show that the Freuds Council’s Visiting Arts Unit, forged links refugees from Hitler brought to Britain.