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28/11/2018
The Kindertransport debate from 1938
Eighty years to the date of the Parliamentary debate which led to the creation of the Kindertransport project, on Wednesday 21 November, Members of Parliament narrated excerpts from that debate at an event held by The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) at Speaker’s House. Parliamentarians who took part included the Rt Hon John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons; the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, Secretary of State; Ms Luciana Berger MP; The Lord Ian Livingstone of Parkhead, and Mr John Mann MP. Another of the readers was Cllr Jo Roundell Greene, granddaughter of Clements Attlee who took in a Jewish child refugee in 1938. That child refugee, Paul Willer, now aged 90 years old, attended the event and had an emotional private meeting with Cllr Roundell Greene and her cousin Earl Attlee beforehand, when they all met for the first time. This meeting was arranged by The Association...
28/11/2018
Kinder are invited to the Palace
HRH Prince Charles hosted a reception for 80 members of The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) who came to the UK on the Kindertransport. The reception, held at St James’s Palace on Tuesday 20 November 2018 marked the 80th anniversary of the creation of the Kindertransport, the nine-month operation during which 10,000 mainly Jewish children under the age of 17 from Nazi Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were rescued and given refuge in Britain prior to the start of the Second World War. Guests included Tom Gutwin, 83, who at four years old was the youngest child on a transport from Czechoslovakia arranged by Nicholas Winton, and Ruth Schwiening, also 83, who came from Berlin on a Kindertransport in 1939. Ruth said, “This has been a great occasion. This is the first time I have been amongst company with a similar background to mine. It has been amazing to see so...
13/11/2018
Kristallnacht Service at Westminster Abbey
AJR were honoured to support the Service of Solemn Remembrance and Hope on the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, on 8th November 2018 at Westminster Abbey. Three AJR members were invited to give their testimony and share their memories of that fateful night in 1938. They were Bea Green, Freddie Knoller and Leslie Brent. Other of our members were invited to light candles during the ceremony including Rolf Penzias, Lilian Levy along with her daughter, and Michael Newman our Chief Executive. Photos by Andrew Dunsmore for Westminster Abbey.
05/11/2018
80 Years after the Kindertransport
This November not only marks the centenary of the end of the First World War, but it also marks another other significant anniversary– it will be 80 years since Kristallnacht on 9th November 1938. This night was a turning point for Jews and other minorities. It verified the oppression of National Socialism and the fear that Hitler’s attack on the Jewish people would become more systematic and brutal. Click here to continue reading this new blog post from IHRA, co-written by our Chief Executive Michael Newman with Barbara Winton.
29/10/2018
Pittsburgh
As a Jewish community organisation, we acutely feel the pain of the families of those who were murdered at the weekend in Pittsburgh. That a Holocaust survivor was spared a similar fate because he arrived at the synagogue as the attack was happening inside only extends our empathy. As well as targeting Jews because they were Jews, the gunman also attacked the Tree of Life community because they campaigned and sought to help refugees, something that profoundly resonates with us. As Jews, we know from our history the sense of displacement and persecution; the community in Squirrel Hill, like many other faith and non-faith groups around the world, were trying to help the downtrodden today, to restore a modicum of dignity. In contrast to the hatred of the attacker, the initiative of two US Muslim groups to launch an online fundraising appeal to support the Jewish community in Pittsburgh is...