VOLUME 7 NO. II NOVEMBER 2007 QllEI journal ^^^^^KJI^^^^I ^ Association of Jewish Refugees Museum pieces? o one, to my knowledge, has yet pieces from a vanished German past that commented at any length on the have survived as isolated specimens in an Npeculiar reluctance of German J alien and unfriendly British environment. I scholars and academics to conduct research was forcibly reminded of this when I hap­ into the community of Jews of German pened on an otherwise excellent study by origin that settled in Britain after 1945. the distinguished historian Gotz Aly and the Usually, German Wissenschaftkr are to be well-known joumalist Michael Sontheimer, found crawling with ant-like industry over with the eye-catching title Fromms. (For any academic subject area available, with readers of a retiring disposition, Fromms is the entire field of the Holocaust, the Nazi the German brand equivalent of Durex, as persecution of the Jews, and the fate of indicated by the book's subtitle, Wie der Germany's Jews attracting a quite judische KondomfabrikantJulius F. unter die extraordinary amount of scholarly interest. deutschen Rauberfiel (How the Jewish Con­ But very few German historians actually dom Manufacturer Julius F. Fell among the bother to cross the Channel and investigate German Robbers); the book was published the situation, history and experience of the by S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt, in 2007. I German-speaking Jews once they ceased to considered reviewing the book, under the be refugees and took British citizenship. In caption 'Something for the Weekend, Sir?', the jx)st-war years, these numbered some Julius Fromm, shortly before his death in England but thought better of it.) 50,000, developing into a vibrant, flourishing Fromms is to be highly recommended as community that settled by and large refugees from afar, so that they come across a historical narrative. Every aspect of Julius smoothly into life in Britain, mostly not as a living subject, but as distant ob­ Fromm's life and career has been carefully integrating reasonably well into British jects from the historical past. researched, from his family origins in Konin, society. One would have thought that they My theory is that German scholars can then in Russian Poland, to the process of were well worth German scholars' time, but cope easily enough with Jewish refugees manufacturing the condoms that made his the reality is that a handful of postgraduate settling in Israel and America, where they fortune and the procedures by which he was students come over, do the research for their are part of a recognised Jewish community. robbed of that fortune by the Nazis. Every theses and are then seen no more. But they struggle to accept that a Westem aspect, that is, until Fromm's flight in 1938 I do not count studies by German European country like Britain admitted to London, where he died in 1945. The academics on individual refugees or families considerable numbers of Jews before the war authors make no attempt to research the resident here, nor those on specialised sub­ and subsequently let them evolve into a communal life of the Jewish refugees in jects like music in exile, which simply could settled and thriving community mostly at Britain, as those like the Fromms would not be written without research in this coun­ ease with its surroundings. Germans, it have experienced it. Although no fewer than try. What I have in mind is studies that deal seems to me, prefer to see European five of the eight Fromra siblings escaped to in depth with the overall post-war history countries as having behaved badly towards Britain and Julius's son Edgar lived here for and experience of the Jews from Germany the Jews during the war, seizing the decades, the impression left by this book is and Austria who made new lives for them­ opportunity of Nazi occupation to allow their not that Britain was a major country of selves in Britain. Marion Berghahn's antisemitic hatreds free rein; the exceptions, refuge for Jews from the Reich, but that the German-Jewish Refugees in Britain, re­ small countries like Denmark or Bulgaria, Fromms were fragments of flotsam who printed as Continental Britons, is a notable can be dismissed as marginal. German happened to land up on British shores and exception, but that was published in Brit­ scholars appear reluctant to take on board languished thereafter as lonely curiosities ain, in English. Otherwise, one has to fall the living reality of the Jewish refugee in a kind of social vacuum. Any picture of back on isolated studies like Steffen Pross's community in Britain; none of them has the sizable community to which Edgar 'In London treffen wir uns wieder': Vier shown more than a passing interest in Fromm and thousands of others belonged Spaziergange durch ein vergessenes Kapitel researching the AJR and its journal, for is simply blanked out. deutscher Kulturgeschichte nach 1933 or the instance. Typically, the presentation of Britain as section on Britain in the Handbuch der Consequently, when German scholars a country of refuge suffers from the authors' deutschsprachigen Emigration 1933-1945. deal with former refugees in Britain, they preconceived notion of its intrinsic hostility German historians mostly study the former all too often depict them as rarities, museum continued overleaf AjR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2007 MtSHi.MPILCLS?, MORE THAN JUST A JOB' to the Jewish refugees. On a very thin Two of the AJR's most senior social workers retire selection of evidence, the authors claim to work led to the AJR identifying ever more have discovered 'deeply rooted antisemitic members around the country. When she re­ resentment' permeating all strata of British quired additional social work cover in the society, a claim that most refugees would North of England and Scotland, the Trustees reject on the basis of their own experience. agreed to the appointment of three Northem The authors cite the warnings given to social workers. newly arrived refugees about their In her retirement, Marcia intends to spend behaviour in public as further evidence of a lot of time with her family in Israel. 'Being with the AJR has been more than just a job', official hostility, when in fact these wamings . _ , ,, , . , .„,„., she says. It has been an opportunity to meet - the best-known being the booklet Helpful Marcia Goodman, Head ot the AJR s bocial J f i i u u u J Information and Guidance for Every Refugee „ . r , , 1 r SO many wonderful people who have had - were distributed by Anglo-Jewish Services team for the last ten years, was before • ,• j^ u ui ^ u ^ <.u .,,•'.,' , , amazmg lives and to be able to help them in organisations; they therefore tell us little thatasocial worker with Jewish Care. At the T v, n • w about British attitudes, but plenty about .,„,., •' , . many ways. I shall miss you all. Anglo-Jewry's ambivalent feelings towards AJR she found a warm and caring the refugees from Nazism. organisation, but felt that much needed to be Again typically, the one event in the done to offer the best possible service to all its members. history of the refugees that is discussed at The social work process was made more length is intemment and the deportation of detailed and professional. Concerned that several thousand refugees, including Edgar only members in London were visited, Marcia Fromm, overseas, but in the absence of the was delighted when the Trustees agreed that balancing context of 60 years of post-war members anywhere in the country could be Norah Gittins joined the AJR in 1983. settlement. The impression that Britain was visited. Marcia also set up social groups for At first, she worked as secretary to the ad­ not that far from Germany in its treatment members around the country and persuaded ministrator, then moved into the Membership of the Jews emerges clearly from the section the New York-based Claims Conference to Department and eventually was asked to join establish an annual budget, supplemented by the Social Work team. on the experiences of Fromm's niece Ruth the AJR. This developed into the AJR's out­ 'This is the most satisfying and fulfilling in Britain; she had come here on a domestic- standing outreach service across the country. work I have ever done', Norah says. Visiting service permit, as far as one can tell from a Marcia further persuaded the Tmstees to members in their homes, she invariably met very cursory reference. At the time of amend the AJR constitution in order to with hospitality and friendship. At the same intemment, Ruth Fromm was detained at provide assistance to all victims of Nazi per­ time, listening to accounts of the early what the book calls the 'notorious' Holloway secution, from whichever country they came. continued on opposite page Prison. Now, Holloway was no holiday camp, Marcia says she has been blessed with an outstanding team of social workers, for whom but it was not significantly worse than the camps, and the allocation of a young woman savouring the preferred tipple of his adopted nothing is too much trouble. The outreach general mn of prisons in democratic states; to Category B for purposes of intemment is land " would Sontheimer ever speak of the loaded term 'beriichtigt' is used to make patently ridiculous. The book itself later interviewing a German 'bei gutem Schnaps'? it sound like the prisons in Nazi Germany, demonstrates the falseness of the compari­ - and the garmlous New Yorker with her sites of terror where Jews were at the mercy son when it informs us that Salomon Fromm trilling laugh. Museum pieces, once again.