Filter News
06/03/2019
My visit to Poland by Ros Hart
Ros Hart, Southern Regional Coordinator for AJR has written this moving piece about her recent visit to Poland (an abridged version was published in the AJR Journal) It was my privilege to recently visit Poland with JRoots. It was a trip that I knew I had to do but I went with trepidation and fear of what I would experience. We were fortunate enough to have the survivor, Mala Tribich accompany us, and we not only heard her incredible story, we walked the streets of her youth whilst she explained what happened to her and her family. Her story was haunting, from the ghetto of Piotrkow to the Ravensbruck concentration camp and Bergen Belsen where she contracted typhus. Most of her family perished, but she and her brother Ben (Helfgott) somehow survived, came to England and built good lives for themselves. Mala was so dignified in the way she spoke....
23/01/2019
AJR Holocaust Memorial Day 2019
We held our memorial service for Holocaust Memorial Day on 22 January 2019 at Belsize Square Synagogue in London. The speakers who addressed this year’s theme, Torn from Home, included Lord Eric Pickles as keynote speaker. Pickles, who is Co-Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation, spoke about plans and progress of the new memorial to be built in Victoria Tower Gardens. Freddy Kosten was interviewed as part of the ceremony by Dr Bea Lewkowicz, director of AJR’s Refugee Voices testimony archive. Freddy arrived in England on the Kindertransport in March 1939 and was taken in by Benn Levy – a successful playwright and screenwriter who became a Labour MP in 1945, and Benn’s wife American-born actress Constance Cummings. Freddy was apparently picked up from Liverpool Street Station in a Rolls Royce, and got to meet people such as Laurence Olivier. His fascinating story is available to view on the Refugee...
14/01/2019
17/12/2018
New compensation for Kinder
The Association of Jewish Refugees welcomes the announcement by the Claims Conference that the German government will pay a one-time compensation award to the child refugees who came to Britain on the Kindertransport. Eligible Kinder will receive a one-time payment of Euros 2,500, approximately £2,250. Receipt of previous compensation awards will have no bearing on eligibility for this payment and there is no income limit for eligible applicants, who can contact the AJR for assistance with completing the forms. Kindertransport-AJR Chairman, Sir Erich Reich, said: "I am sure my fellow Kinder will join me in expressing our appreciation for this gesture payment from the German government. "While no amount of money can ever compensate for our emotional or material losses, this award recognises our experience of being separated as children from our parents and having to live in an alien country with a foreign language and culture, and the unique...
13/12/2018
My Story Celebrated in London
We celebrated the publication of our first My Story books from within the London community at an event held at The Jewish Museum in December 2018. Through the My Story project AJR have been producing life story books of Holocaust survivors and refugees over the past year. This project has been undertaken by volunteers who interview clients on an audio device, transcribe and edit to produce a professional book illustrated with the client’s own photographs. The ‘My Story’ books are written in the client’s own words and tell their story from childhood in Europe, through their escape from Nazi persecution, arrival in the UK and up to the present day. This project is a celebration of their lives, highlighting their achievements and contributions. AJR hopes that the books will contribute to future generations’ understanding of prejudice and persecution. Nine Holocaust refugees and survivors who have participated in the My Story...