AJR Information Volume XLVII No. 12 December 1992 £3 (to non-members) Don't miss . When to - and when not to - genuflect Questions of Justice p3 Name calling p7 Reconciliation: a stony path 1992 Concert report p8 mong the various protests over the Queen's the prosaic level of statistics the .^.S,000 firestorm visit to Dresden one stood out h)r sheer victims pale into insignificance beside the hecatombs Senile Astomach-turning impudence: the demand that of Warsaw's Shoah dead! rogues 7 she copy Willie Brandt's Warsaw ghetto gesture and Dresden had, of course, not been the only C?erman drop to her knees to ask the Dresdeners' forgiveness. town in the R.A.F's bomb sights. Hamburg and eff Rooker, MP, The protesters, with their vaunted disregard h)r the Cologne, which shared a similar fate, would have is continuing to truth, ignored the debt all Germans owe Britain h)r given Her Majesty a differrent reception. The Dres­ urge the her solitary courage in 1940 which alone made the arraignment of deners acted the way they did because h)r 45 years Jex-SS general overthrow of Nazi tyranny possible. D.D.R. Cold Warriors incited them to brood on the Mohnke for East Germans, in fact, owe Britain a twofold debt, memory of the raid by the potent device of leaving a murdering 90 because without Churchill's refusal to condone Soviet central part of their bomb-damaged city a heap of British PoWs after aggrandisement, vide his Iron Curtain speech of 1946, rubble. Dunkirk. The and subsequent U.K. actions the Berlin Wall might To this deliberate re-infection of old woimds is now Hamburg well still be standing to this day. added the incision of new wounds on old scar tissue, prosecutor has let In pursuing the justified end of victory over Hitler to wit the burning down of the Jewish barracks at the case go by Bomber Harris may have employed less-than-justifi- Sachsenhausen. At the time when Sachsenhausen and default, arguing able means, but even to mention this in the same Dachau were 'operational' Bruno Heilig wrote a Mohnke was 'over age'. breath as Nazi genocide — the trigger for Brandt's personal account of incarceration in that hell entitled genuflection at Warsaw - is a inindnumbing effront­ Men Crucified. Heilig's choice of title was both right Simultaneously Honecker and ery characteristic of the German ultra Right. In total and subtly wrong. It was wrong because the metaphor other Communist contrast to the Dresden raid the Nazi killing of Jews of Jews nailed to the cross used an image from the contemporaries of was not a means to an end, but an end in itself; even at founding myth of Christianity, the-Jewish-instigated Mohnke face trial — crucifixion of Jesus, and stood it on its head as it in Berlin. The fact WE WISH ALL OUR READERS were. that judicial Recent research (by Haim Landau, A. N. Wilson proceedings are and others) has torn gaping holes in the Ciospel sometimes held up writers' account of the historical Jesus, and the by the defendants' Catholic C;hurcb has officially repented of its previous ill-health has been demonisation of the Jews. Ihoiigh scholarship and eagerly seized on by opponents of 'political correctness' can effect shifts in public the British War consciousness — as seen by the debunking of Colum­ Crimes Bill. bus during the Quincentenary — when it comes to Age is a flexible cleansing Christianity of its antisemitic accretions one concept, however; step forward is usually followed by one step back. 'dotards' like A case in point is the Pope's visit to Arez/.o to re­ Deng, Mitterand consecrate the newly restored church with the famous and Nelson frescoes by Piero della Francesca. The painter illus­ Mandela currently trated episodes from the medieval Golden Legend guide the destinies purporting to tell of the vicissitudes of the 'true cross' of millions of used in the Oucifixion. One fresco in the cycle is people. Whether someone is fit to called The Torture of the Jew; it shows St Helena, stand trial surely mother of Emperor Constantine, half-drowning a depends on their Jerusalemite Jew to make him reveal the hiding place 'physiological' of the true cross. rather than Was it too much to expect the Pope to combine A HAPPY CHANUKAH numerical age. D continued on paf^e 2 coltiinn ! AJR INFORMATION DECEMBER 1992 New Vienna Synagogue Profile In October the Austrian Head of State opened a new Sephardi synagogue in the Tempelgasse, Leopoldstadt. Bundespriisi- Valuable asset only known queue-jumper is Prince dent Klestil said the house of prayer would Charles. He had only to wait one year.) serve that sizable part of the 5,000 Soviet Where Andrew Kaufman breaks with Jewish immigrants to Vienna who originate convention is in the depth of his feelings from Asiatic Russia. D about the refugee community, especially those who have faced difficulties, psycho­ logical and financial, in their lives. He feels Ambiguous Dietrich that innovations such as the Paul Balint AJR commemoration Day Centre, the meals-on-wheels service Berlin is currently compensating for the and the very existence of the AJR are rather shabby funeral it accorded its most extremely important. He also believes that famous daughter. It is staging a commemor­ the question of identity is paramount; ative exhibition, and a nostalgic 'Ufa Revue' 'Our children and our children's children entitled Bonihcnstinimung. The latter, a should know where they have come from'- slickly produced and hugely popular show, Mrs Kaufman, Susie, is well known to alas, smacks of a glorification of Nazi AJR members. She does great work at the culture. D Paul Balint AJR Day Centre where she is one of the two regular social workers and is Quote of the year .•\iidreii' Kattfiiiait. I'hoto: Newman. also responsible for overseeing the centre s catering facilities. nusually for the profile section of The recipient of this year's prestigious As a person Mr Kaufman is energetic and AJR Information, this month's sub­ Biichner Prize is Georg Tabori, the Hungar­ affable. His cheerful exterior does not hide, ject was born after the war and is ian-born, former U.S.-domiciled British U nor should it, the depth of his personality- not himself a refugee. Andrew Kaufman, passport holder currently enjoying a vogue Without his easygoing charm he would be a however, is from a refugee background and as playwright and director in Germany and formidable figure - with it he is very human. does a great deal of work on behalf of the Austria. Wolf Biermann ended his laudatio Andrew and his wife Susan live, with refugee community both as a Trustee of the at the award ceremony in Darmstadt by their two children, in Stanmore, Middlesex. AJR Charitable Trust and a member of the crediting Tabori with authorship of the He is a keen sportsman and a staunch Executive Committee of the AJR. In his slogan 'When I hear the word revolver I supporter of Watford EC. Again the facts, professional life he is a lawyer specialising reach for niv culture'. D on paper, paint a conventional picture. It isi in Anglo-German issues, including pension however, in meeting the man that one and restitution claims. comes to realise his true worth. Also unusual is the fact that Mr Kauf­ D M.N. man's father, who sought refuge in Britain in 193.3, was also born here. The family first came to the U.K. in 1907, the year Andrew's continued from front page father was born. During the first World War his father was interned h)r three years on the reflection with genuflection before a piece or Isle of Man. Upon being released in 1918 he religious art that perpetuates the age-old BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE took his family back to Germany. When the stereotyping of Jews as inveterate enemies Nazis came to power he was eligible for a of Christianity? Could he not have followed 51 BELSIZE SQUARE, NW3 British passport which enabled him to the example of the Church of England who return to his birthplace. In 1942 he married through the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln We offer a traditional style of and in 1946 Andrew was born. Cathedral disavowed the ritual murder religious service with Cantor, On paper Mr Kaufman's achievements accusations brought against the local Jewish Choir and organ look fairly conventional. He graduated community in the case of little Hugh oi from Oxford in 1968 and took articles with Lincoln 800 years ago? D the legal firm of Pritchard Englefield Leader Further details can be obtained from Henderson. Twenty-one years later he is a our synagogue secretary managing partner with Pannone and HILARY'S AGENCY Partners, a firm of solicitors familiar to AJR Specialists in Long and Short-Term Live-in Care Telephone 071-794-3949 Informaticm readers as Pritchard Englefield RESPITE AND EiVlERGENCY CARE and Tobin. He is also a member of the CARE FOR THE ELDERLY British-German Jurists' Association, Vice- HOUSEKEEPERS Minister: Rabbi Rodney J. Mariner RECUPERATION CARE Cantor: Rev Lawrence H. Fine President of the Association of German MATERNITY NURSES Speaking Lawyers, a Special Member of the NANNIES AND MOTHER'S HELPS EMERGENCY MOTHERS Regular services: Friday evenings at 6.30 pm, Dcutscher Anivaltsverein (German Law­ Saturday mornings at 10 am Caring and Experienced Staff Available yers' Association) and a member of the We will be happy to discuss your Religion school: Sundays at 10 am to 1 pm Garrick Club. (It takes seven years on requirements PLEASE PHONE Space donated by Pafra Limited average from being named as a potential member to becoming fully accepted.