I mentioned the other day that thanks to a Kitchener family we have now obtained access through Google Earth Pro historic maps to an aerial shot of the camp as it was in 1940.
I went to the Wiener Library yesterday to take another look at the long blue plan of the camp drawn up by architect Walter Marmorek. I believe this was given to Kitchener author Clare Ungerson by Marmorek, when she was carrying out the research for her book, Four Thousand Lives; and she donated it to the Wiener Library.
The aerial map, as you will have noticed, is slightly ‘off’ – it looks to be more than one shot put together – so amalgamating the information from the two documents is taking some time. I thought I had a good solution worked out, and then realised we were missing some structures. This is because where the two aerial photographs have been joined (by Google, I assume), there is a line of structures that don’t really show up.
Anyway, as a very rough guide to what I’m currently undertaking, I have uploaded an image of my ‘workings out’, below.
Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to have time to upload a more ‘finished’ version!
In the meantime, if you know which hut your father or grandfather was in, this will give you a decent idea of where they were located in relation to other huts and other parts of the camp: the numbered squares are the numbers of the huts. Each hut was divided into two halves, labelled I and II (left to right), as you can see on some of the addressedenvelopes that families are sending in.
I promise I’ll get a tidy version uploaded soon, but I thought it might interest some people to see this bit of a ‘work in progress’…
And a quick question: does anyone know anything about Cast Stone Ltd? It looks as though a company of this name was operating within the camp grounds, but I don’t (yet!) know anything about it.
Do you?
Kitchener Camp – overlaying Marmorek’s plan onto an aerial map photographed in 1940
I recently received the images at the end of this post from a Kitchener family, along with the following information and questions in emails.
Could you please get in touch if you have the same edition in your family, or if you know anything about the edition shown in the pictures and outlined in the messages below.
"I have an item that I’d be interested in your opinion on.
It’s a Haggadah. As you can probably see from the attached scans, it is VERY stained and VERY fragile. My parents and I used it for many years, but it long ago came apart and is unusable. I have kept it all these years because of the memories it evokes.
It never occurred to me to wonder about its origin. But having just read ‘The People of the Book’, a fictional history of the Sarajevo Haggadah, I begin to wonder if it might have been used at Kitchener camp. My father ‘might’ have attended a Seder there, if one had been organised (he arrived in April 1939, so maybe he was just in time for a Pesach Seder) and the haggadahs ‘might’ have been donated to KC. But if so, would he have taken it with him when he left KC?
I have no idea – it’s just conjecture. Any thoughts?
If you can get some indication of the history of the Haggadah, that would be great. Obviously, it was printed in Vienna, although in English, but I believe that was not uncommon.
Anything you can dig up would be of interest."
One of the things that never ceases to amaze is the enthusiasm with which some Kitchener descendants take on a task and find a solution.
I’m incredibly grateful where this is the case – and wanted to share a recent instance of this. A family had taken on the problem of ‘what’ was ‘where’ in Kitchener in 1939 – because of course nothing is left of the camp today. Pfizer bought the land in the post-war period and built over it.
Descendants who have been fortunate to have seen Walter Marmorek’s long blue architectural map of Kitchener at the Wiener Library (some extracts of which are reproduced here: https://kitchenercamp.co.uk/research/kitchener-camp-2/) will have some idea of the scale of the place and how the huts were laid out, but as we know from our summer visit to Sandwich in 2018, it can be rather frustrating not to be able to get a better sense of the layout of the camp.
So, one of the Kitchener families has found a neat trick on Google Earth Pro, which enables you to search for historical photographs of particular areas.
And you can see the result in the images below.
This is best viewed on a desktop rather than a phone screen – and if you click on the image it will enlarge considerably.
Kitchener camp, January 1940, Google Earth map
Source: Google Earth Pro; Image NASA; 2018 Kent County Council
Kitchener camp, Google earth image, January 1940
Isn’t it amazing! An aerial view – presumably a shot taken from an RAF plane during the war. It gives a clear perspective on where Kitchener was in relation to the town of Sandwich, but also in relation to the coastal cycle rides and visits to the beach that are mentioned in Kitchener histories, letters home, and photographs.
Kitchener camp, January 1940, Google Earth map, annotated
As we enter November 2018 and prepare to attend commemorations for events in Germany that took place 80 years ago this month, a particular poignancy is layered on the horrific massacre of Jews going about the routine of everyday lives and attending synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Perhaps especially given the events of November 1938, which began the Kitchener chain of events, this is something that has touched many Kitchener families – religious and non-religious.
It seems appropriate then, to highlight a campaign that families might like to get involved with. Kitchener families are a fairly unique group in many ways, not least in following various forms of Judaism, other religions, and none. And in large part that spread of outcomes comes from our roots as the children and grandchildren of a community that was deliberately separated out, ostracised, de-humanised, and gradually rounded up into a few cramped spaces of towns and cities for deportation and slaughter.
I can’t be alone in having wondered many times over the years how people could stand aside and watch this happen to neighbours, colleagues, and friends. And, of course, not all did stand aside, and some paid for their solidarity with their livelihoods and their lives.
I have also wondered from time to time what I would have done. What would have made a difference – and how – in the face of such onslaught? Some acts are both cultural and political: both defiant and a show of solidarity. Some acts have meaning in the simple demonstration of fellow feeling and a sense of a shared humanity – whatever branch of Judaism or other faith – or none – that we follow.
The Show Up For Shabbat campaign speaks to a wish to stand up and be present rather than allowing our impulse towards comfort and convenience be all that we end up responding with. Will we stand by and watch it happen? Will we let someone else comfort and stand next to those who may now live in increased fear, or in deep mourning.
Once again, in Pittsburgh, elderly Jews especially were killed, as was so often the case in my own father’s country of origin in Germany. Many German Jewish families got out at least one youngster, and many got out father, mother, and children. The upshot was that it was elderly people who were often left behind – such as my grandmother, sent to Auschwitz aged 60; or my great-grandmother, aged 88, who was blind and bedridden following a series of strokes – who was presumably dragged from her bed to be put on a train ‘to the East’. Or shot. Or thrown out of a window to save the bullet, had she been unable to walk to the train on the day of deportation.
All Kitchener families have histories like this – histories of the horror and of the missing, where our extended families should be.
The majority of the 650 Jews who were left in my grandparents’ city of residence once war had broken out were elderly people. They never had their chance to live out their old age and to die in peace, surrounded by their families – to be buried with love and with respect.
The current campaign doesn’t feel like I’d be ‘doing’ very much in some respects, but in another way, the call to Show Up For Shabbat is an act of respect for all our families – our grandmothers and our grandfathers, our great-grandparents, and our children who did not survive the Shoah – at the same time as it is a way to stand with the families who so recently lost parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents in the Squirrel Hill community of Pittsburgh.
And we can make this connection, and with the deepest respect, because the loss of life last Friday is part of a dreadful pattern that echoes down the centuries in Jewish homes and hearts, and in Jewish places of worship.
To paraphrase a recent leader’s words – which already feel like they were spoken a lifetime ago – sometime, somewhere, we each have to make the decision: to stand with – or to stand by. And 80 years on from November 1938, things have reached a point where I know what my decision must be.
This Friday evening – regardless of our religion, or the branch of our religion, or our lapsed religion, or our inconvenient religion for a Friday night, or our lack of religion – we can commemorate, we can stand together, and we can choose to stand with.
Wherever you may chose to do so, Show Up For Shabbat.
I thought you might like to see a small number of the calls in support of this global campaign
CNN: A new campaign is encouraging Americans of all faiths to visit synagogues for Shabbat services Friday and Saturday as a show of strength and love against hate https://cnn.it/2Q4VbV6
Reform Judaism is supporting #ShowUpForShabbat and we are encouraging people to attend synagogue this coming Shabbat, standing up to hatred and honouring the memory of those murdered in Pittsburgh.
This weekend, if you're not Jewish, consider joining the #ShowUpForShabbat event as a gesture of solidarity with your Jewish neighbors. If you have kids, this is a great opportunity to talk about living in a multicultural society and teach about being a good guest.
Miami Herald: The AJCGlobal is urging the Miami and Broward Jewish communities, as well as people of all faiths, to help fill synagogues in a demonstration of solidarity and unity. #ShowUpForShabbat
New York Times: With the hashtag #ShowUpForShabbat, Jewish leaders are encouraging Jews and non-Jews alike to attend services on Friday night or Saturday in a show of solidarity
Harlow Jewish Community will be supporting the #ShowUpForShabbat initiative in response to the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The synagogue will be open from 10.30am on Saturday. Everyone is welcome.
Orthodox Union: Wherever you are this weekend, whichever shul you attend, get ready to #ShowUpForShabbat
Our answer to anti-Semitic murders in Pittsburgh synagogue? We ask people of good will worldwide, Jews & Gentiles, to go to a synagogue service on Fri. evening, Nov. 2 &/or Sat. morning, Nov. 3. Fear? No. Intimidation? No. Division? No. Let’s be strong & united. #ShowUpForShabbat
I have been asked by a friend who is working on a ground-breaking research project on the files of the Central British Fund (now World Jewish Relief) if we would post her request for help, which follows.
Emily Smith, PhD Student, Royal Holloway, University of London
Request for personal histories
I am currently a PhD research student at Royal Holloway, University of London. My research project focuses on the work of the Central British Fund for German Jewry. Many refugees faced occupational re-adjustment and vocational training, either to prepare them for re-emigration elsewhere, or to fill a gap in the British employment market. One of the ways training was facilitated by the CBF and its partnership committees was through agricultural training farms and employment centres. Some of the known locations of these schemes were Whittingehame Estate (East Lothian, Scotland), Millisle Farm (Belfast), Gwrych Castle (North Wales), Great Engeham Farm (Kent) and Thornham Fold Farm (Manchester). If you or a family member has any connection to these locations or had experience of this kind of vocational training, I would be very grateful to hear from you.
I would be interested to hear and know about any types of vocational training experienced by refugees, or if you have stories relating to occupational re-adjustment, such as domestic service, factory work, or perhaps instances where refugees were able to continue with or set up their own businesses in Britain.
Please do get in touch if the above information resonates with you.
My sincere apologies that I haven’t been getting through things as quickly as I’d generally like to: this is because of ongoing serious family illness.
Please bear with me – I will get through all Kitchener messages as soon as I can, although I may not have time to chat as much as I generally like to!
Events and points of interest
Today at 3pm, BBC Radio 4 are broadcasting on the ‘Windermere Boys’: three hundred child Holocaust survivors who were offered rehabilitation and a new life in the Lake District.
This postwar rescue was carried out by people we are becoming more used to hearing about – Leonard Montefiore and the Committee for the Care of Children.
Montefiore, of course, was one of the founders of the CBF.
On Twitter I encountered Holocaust survivor Agnes Grunwald-Spier, who has written a book on Women’s Experiences in the Holocaust: In their own words – a subject I know a number of Kitchener families are interested in, so I thought I’d pass it along: http://www.agnesgrunwaldspier.com/womens-experiences-in-the-holocaust/
Last night the Wiener Library held the launch for Anthony Grenville’s new book ‘Encounters with Albion: Britain and the British in Texts by Jewish Refugees from Nazism’, which may be of interest. For many years Grenville was pretty much the only writer I managed to find who wrote anything significant about Kitchener camp – hence my own interest in this.
For many years, of course, Grenville worked with the Association of Jewish Refugees which has been so incredibly supportive of the Kitchener project in its various forms.
As the first chill of autumn starts to make itself felt in the south east of England, I have been uploading some letters from a Kitchener family that remind me how much more brutal the winter chill must have felt before the days of central heating and double glazing.
The winter of 1939-1940 was one the coldest in Britain in nearly 50 years. Our fathers and grandfathers were living in wooden huts and, if in the Pioneer Corps at this point, in tents in fields, during weather marked by freezing temperatures, frosts, fog, and heavy snow.
By January 1940 a temperature of minus 23 had been recorded in Wales, and in Canterbury, which is only about 16 miles from Sandwich, the temperature had dropped to minus 20. Even London’s vast Thames river froze for an 8-mile stretch. Around Folkestone and Southampton – also near to where hundreds of Kitchener men were living, and where some Pioneer companies were stationed at this time – the sea harbours were covered with ice.
Towards the end of January a snowstorm hit the country: northern England had between 30-60cm of snow, and snow was deep enough to form drifts in the centre of London. Eastbourne recorded 25cm at ground level, Malvern 60cm, and Exmoor had drifts of up to 2.5m.
Although bad weather reports were largely banned as part of the ‘Careless Talk’ campaign, local Kent newspapers report fishermen having to be chopped out of their boats after water came up over the sides and froze them into place (Thanet Advertiser, Friday 12 January 1940, p.8); football pitches are described in terms of being slippery and treacherous (Kent & Sussex Courier, Friday 12 January 1940, p.9); and occasional reports appear of the problems caused by the bitter conditions for those assisting the armed forces: “the fisherman … now gallantly serving in the Dover Patrol, unceasingly performing the strenuous and dangerous task of keeping the channels clear of mines for our ships in this bitter weather”.
Meanwhile, in Kitchener camp, the hundreds of men waiting for onward migration, or other outcomes, were also suffering from this atrocious weather, as we can read in a letter home (below), for example, from Werner Gembicki to his wife, who has already made it out of Germany to the safety of the USA.
Kitchener camp, Werner Gembicki, Letter, Mail taking 10 days to arrive from USA, Very cold – shaving brush and tooth brush are frozen every morning although kept in box in hut, “Much snow has fallen, even into the huts, if the roof was not durable”, “Every morning, when I wake up, I find myself lying in bed with my head deeply hidden in the blankets, but, none the less, this chilliness is better than the wet cold which causes so many influenzas”, News about Consulate, 20 January 1940, page 1
Letter from the Werner and Vera Gamby Family Collection, AR 25617, Box 1 Folder 10
With the kind permission of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York
I have been getting materials ready to upload from the archives of the American ‘Joint’ – an organisation that we believe contributed around twenty per cent of the funding for the Kitchener camp rescue. I’ve now got all the documents in chronological order – I just need to tidy up the scans a bit further.
Kitchener camp, Werner Weissenberg, Letter, American Joint Distribution Committee, Postwar mail into zones of occupation in Germany
See here for information about the JDC, as it is known today. I will be adding the historical materials, which we have been given permission to add to the project, over the next couple of days. You might also like to know that there is a ‘Names Index’ search box for individual records on the JDC website – which I only recently found out about myself: http://archives.jdc.org
While getting this material ready, I received a general mail shot from David Schizer, current CEO of the JDC. They probably don’t get many replies to these kinds of emails (!), but I wrote back to say I would put this information into my next post – partly because some families may want to know about the present-day work of the JDC, and partly because I know some Kitchener families wish to support the work of those who supported our fathers and grandfathers.
"I am writing to share with you the remarks I made yesterday in Tel Aviv at the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly, one of the Jewish world’s largest gatherings. It was the first time in almost a decade that a JDC CEO has been asked to deliver such an address.
I shared with them my vision for JDC’s mission and how we work together to save Jewish lives and build Jewish life everyday around the world.
I was very fortunate to join an outstanding group of JDC Board Members, global staff, and clients representing us at this premiere gathering and making clear our critical impact in the Jewish world and Israel.
I hope you will share these remarks with your networks to help us spread the word about our work and urge others to join us in our abiding commitment to support Jews and Jewish communities in need.
Sincerely,
David Schizer
JDC CEO
GA 2018
“Thank you for helping Shlomo, Hanan, and so many others.
I know how challenging it is to run a federation. Remember that your hard work touches thousands of lives.
The theme of the GA is that “we need to talk.” We all know the Jewish community is divided about many things.
But the video you just saw reminds us that we still are united about something fundamental: our commitment to lift the lives of poor people.
This shared commitment is the bedrock of your federation’s partnership with JDC. This partnership is more important than ever.
As Israel’s economy races ahead, too many have been left behind. The groups JDC serves in Israel – children at risk, the unemployed, elderly, and Israelis with disabilities – need your help. They need effective social services.
I know we are not unanimous in supporting every policy of the Israeli government. We don’t need to be.
But as a community, we can all agree that Israel’s most vulnerable citizens deserve to live with hope and dignity.
So JDC partners with the Israeli government to dream up new ways – better ways – to help Israel’s most vulnerable citizens. We test these new ideas in pilot programs.
These pilots offer you unparalleled leverage and impact. Each dollar your federation invests is matched, on average, by two dollars from the Israeli government.
Then, if the pilot succeeds, the government takes over the program, scales it up to run throughout the country, and covers the full cost.
As our approach in Israel shows, at JDC we are guided by our heads, as well as our hearts. We are rigorous and strategic with your money.
JDC uses zero-based budgeting. Just because we ran a program before does not mean we automatically will run it again.
To make a fresh decision every year, we ask three questions about everything we do.
First, are we targeting the right problem?
Second, is our response effective? If not, it’s not the right way to use your money.
Our third question is not asked often enough: Are we the right organization to do the job? If others can do it just as well, we leave it to them.
We go where conditions are bleak. We go where others can’t or won’t go.
So JDC is in Venezuela, where the inflation rate this year is one million percent. The average citizen has lost 24 pounds from hunger.
Although thousands of Jews have left, there are still 5,500 Jews in Venezuela. Through JDC, you ensure that their basic needs are met.
Jewish poverty is also acute in the former Soviet Union. Elderly Jews there are the poorest Jewsin the world. They struggle to get by on pensions as low as two dollars per day.
Through JDC, you help almost 100,000 elderly Jews, giving them food, medicine, and home care.
An elderly client in Ukraine recently called JDC “the sunshine in her window.” Along with the Claims Conference, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, World Jewish Relief, and our other partners, you are bringing light into their lives.
Together, we don’t just save Jewish lives; we also build Jewish life.
Jewish communities once thrived in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. But the Holocaust and decades of communist rule nearly extinguished the spark of Jewish life there. Together, we are lighting the torch again.
For example, with your support, we run a summer camp in Hungary, the Lauder-JDC International Youth Camp at Szarvas. Over the past three decades, Szarvas has inspired over 30,000 children to reconnect with Judaism.
In that part of the world, virtually every Jewish communal leader under 40 went to Szarvas. The Duke of Wellington said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. In the same way, the future of Judaism in Eastern Europe is being shaped in the dining hall at Szarvas.
From Bobruisk to Beer Sheva, there is much more for your federation and JDC to do together.
Wherever Jews yearn for comfort, we are there. Wherever Jews long for community, we are there.
Our sacred mission will never change. But tomorrow’s challenges will be different, so we must prepare for whatever lies ahead.
Failure is not an option. But as long as we keep our boots on the ground, and set our sights on the horizon, nothing is impossible.”
With our sincere thanks to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Dr Helen Fry gave a fascinating and very engaging talk on the Royal Pioneer Corps last night at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust.
The event was sold out and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing about this part of our Kitchener history. I will let you know when the Wiener tells us that the talk has been uploaded to their YouTube channel, so that Kitchener families further afield can also hear what Helen had to say.
Helen Fry has published widely in this area, and although she mentioned last night that a key book on this topic is now out of print (Update 2023: This link is now out of date – http://www.helen-fry.com/anglo-jewish-history/jews-in-north-devon-in-world-war-ii/), it can still be found secondhand online for anyone wanting to purchase a copy. For information on Helen’s other publications, she hosts a website with information about her books and other work here: http://www.helen-fry.com. This includes a book on the secret listeners – The M Room – and of course there was a secret listening post at Haig camp, which was just opposite Kitchener.
My own priority is to get a copy of London Cage. Those of you with families in military intelligence may well want to look this one out too.
If I hear about Helen giving other talks over the coming months, I will let you know, and if you’ve not heard Helen speak yet, I’d really encourage you to go along.
A quick reminder about an event being held as both commemoration and fundraiser for the Wiener Library. Given the library’s very generous support of the Kitchener group over the last year, it would be lovely if some of us could go along.
One of the Wiener’s posters advertising the November 1938 ‘Kristallnacht’ exhibition was defaced this week: a show of support for their tireless work to keep the memory alive and their important archives available would seem like a good response.
Memorial Concert, 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport, 22 November 2018, 7pm – 9pm, Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London NW8
(Update 2023 – most of the external event links on this page are no longer valid)
Just to let you know that we’ve been sent another issue of the Kitchener Camp Review. We will add it to the website as soon as we can – and hopefully by end of day tomorrow.
Kitchener Camp Review, no. 7, September 1939, page 1
The tickets for the Helen Fry event, Digging for Victory, are all sold out. There is a waitlist on Eventbrite, so do put your name down if you’d like to attend but haven’t yet been able to get a ticket. Sales end on October 15th.
All being well, Dr Fry’s talk on the Pioneer Corps will be filmed. When they’ve had time to edit it and so on, it will go up on the Wiener Library’s Youtube Chanel. I’ll let you know when it’s up.
We’re so pleased that Dr Fry has generously agreed to this, and fingers crossed that the filming will go well. We know that Kitchener folk living too far away in the UK and overseas do miss out, so hopefully this will enable us to bring everyone together at least digitally.
A number of overseas families especially are asking about a date for the Kitchener commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the rescue in 2019.
So far, we have been unable to source a suitable venue at a cost that makes this possible. As most of you know, we have no funding for the Kitchener project – one of the downsides of it not (yet!) being a ‘recognised’ part of the history. Venues approached so far have all asked well in excess of anything we can consider taking on.
If you may be able to offer a suitable central venue – bearing in mind our international travellers – for a day of workshops/talks and an exhibition space, we would very much like to hear from you via the usual contact page.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of one of our sister rescues – the Kindertransport, which was funded and organised by the same groups that organised and funded the Kitchener camp rescue and Domestic Service visas.
“Didn’t it ever occur to you that I might have wanted to die with you. Because I did. I never wanted to live without you.”
“In this 80th anniversary year, this timely revival tackles the story of thousands of Jewish child refugees who were separated from their parents and uprooted from Europe to England during World War II.”
For the performance on 16th October, there is also a talk by Amy Williams, a Kindertransport scholar from Nottingham Trent University (NTU), and Professor Bill Niven, an expert on memory of the Holocaust.
“The Kindertransports were a series of transnational rescue operations which saved the lives of thousands of Jewish refugee children who had fled from Nazi persecution. Between 1938 and 1940, Britain alone rescued 10,000 of these children.
After the Second World War memory of the Kindertransports faded from public discourse, but over time, it has gradually moved to the centre of Britain’s memory of Nazism and the Holocaust.
Amy and Bill will discuss the reasons for this, but also why they think Britain’s national narrative needs to more transnational, complex and comprehensive.”
The Wiener Library is currently hosting ‘Shattered’ – an exhibition about the events of November 1938, which were the trigger for the Kitchener rescue.
https://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/SHATTERED
I was chatting to the Deputy Director of the library at the opening of the exhibition the other day, and she mentioned they have recently found that some families had photographs taken of the men when they left the camps, specifically to assist with trying to get them out of the country.
I was reminded of a photograph of my own dad, in fact, looking rather gaunt and with very short hair. I have no idea whether this is an example of what she described – they had to have so many photographs taken for exit purposes – but you might want to look again at some of the images you have of your grandfathers and fathers, bearing this in mind.
Shattered – exhibition on November 1938 at the Wiener Library, October 2018
Finally, for now, a reminder that “A Service of Solemn Remembrance and Hope on the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht will be held at Westminster Abbey at 6.30pm on Thursday 8th November 2018.”
Those of you who are members of the Association of Jewish Refugees will already have heard about this. Perhaps we can look forward to what may be the first such formal commemoration that might include a Kitchener contingent!
The Kitchener project continues to generate quite a lot of interest globally, and recently we received a request for someone to speak about this remarkable rescue.
While many of us, I’m sure, would jump at the chance to reach more people in whatever way we can, in this instance the project organisers are simply in the wrong location.
“Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael is a Conservative Egalitarian synagogue in Springfield, NJ, affiliated with The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.”
Rabbi Mallach of Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael has asked whether someone could offer a discussion about these events as part of their enrichment program. I know a number of Kitchener families aren’t a million miles away from the location of the temple (or even the 3,500 miles away that many of us are) – and if you would be willing to offer something on Kitchener, I’m sure it would be very welcome.
If you feel able to go along a chat about the Kitchener rescue, please get in touch with me by email (if we’ve been in touch previously) or using the Contact page. It’s a great opportunity to help get out the word about what we are trying to achieve.
Many thanks!
The new ‘Shattered’ exhibition at the Wiener library is now open: https://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/SHATTERED
This is an important set of events in the Kitchener narrative and I would encourage anyone who can to go along and find out more about the events of November 1938 that were the trigger for the Kitchener camp rescue.
Shattered at the Wiener Library – an exhibition on November 1938
There are a number events this autumn to commemorate 80 years since the start of one of our sister rescues organised by the CBF – the Kindertransport. Members of the Association of Jewish Refugees will have received invitations to some of these events, for example, and I look forward to going to at least one of the Kinder commemorations. Please say hello if you see me in the crowd!
Anyone who is a descendant of a Jewish refugee from Nazi oppression may join the AJR – which of course includes all Kitchener families.
"Membership of The Association of Jewish Refugees is extended to all Jewish victims of Nazi oppression, their descendants and dependents.
Annual membership of the AJR is £25 (£35 overseas) and in addition to the services (for UK based members) outlined on this website, members receive an annual subscription to AJR Journal."
https://ajr.org.uk/about/
*Last couple of tickets available for our talk on the Pioneer Corps*
Dr Helen Fry, ‘Digging for Victory’ at the Wiener Library on 17th October from 6pm
A while ago I started a Kitchener Twitter account and linked it to this website.
Thus, whatever I link to on Twitter appears here: on the home page on a desktop – look at the right-hand side of the page and you’ll see it there.
If you have a Twitter account, you can follow Kitchener tweets directly, at
@DrCWeissenberg (Updated – 2023)
Most days I try to link to items that have some relevance to issues that relate to our shared Kitchener camp history.
These have included events at Jewish museums and libraries, for example, or posts by the Leo Baeck Institute, tweets on their work by World Jewish Relief and the Association of Jewish Refugees, and information by writers, journalists, and academics on the Shoah and related issues.
For those who wished to attend, Jewish holidays and festivals were observed in Kitchener camp. In its archives, USHMM has a photograph of a huge tent used as a synagogue:
The 1939 Rosh Hashanah service was held under blackout conditions because of the war, which had been declared ten days earlier.
Kitchener camp, Erich Neumann, To Life – L’Chayim, Diary extract, Rosh Hashanah
In the journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees, Anthony Grenville writes about Herbert Freedan’s recollections of that service, led by Rabbi Werner van der Zyl, who “struggled to bring dignity to the improvised setting of a huge tent dimly lit in the blackout. Almost 3,00 people attended the service; Freedan imagined their prayers rising and travelling across the sea and the closed borders to meet with the thoughts and hopes of their dear ones trapped in Germany” (May 2009).
According to Astrid Zajdband, separate services were held “for the orthodox and liberal camp population … Each was attended by three to four hundred … with a large number of additional services taking place in the huts in order to accommodate all who wanted to attend” (German Rabbis in British Exile, 2016).
Whatever the difficulties and privations may have been in Kitchener – perhaps especially once war was underway – it seems timely to remember that for families still stuck in Germany and Austria such large congregations would have been difficult to find, with over 260 synagogues completely destroyed and around 1200 damaged and desecrated during the events of November 1938 – which triggered the movement of our fathers and grandfathers to Britain from Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
With so many currently preparing to observe festivals and holidays across the Jewish diaspora, it seems fitting to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that today the simple greeting “Shanah Tovah” can be shared openly among us.
Taking this as an opportunity to look back on the past year – what follows is a sketch of some of the many ways in which Kitchener descendants and friends have been helping this project along on its way. If you can think of somewhere you could offer something similar, please do get in touch!
A special thanks here for the first and most recent of these examples – to B’Nai B’rith International – for not only giving us some space, but for giving us space on the same page as the President’s editorial!
Kitchener camp, B’Nai B’rith Magazine advertisement, Fall 2018
Avotaynu article, Spring 2018, written and edited by Ann Rolett and Lynne Parsons – Kitchener descendants
Kitchener camp, Belsize Square Synagogue, January / February 2018
Larchmont Temple, New York, Kitchener camp ‘get the word out’Kitchener camp, EHRI Advert, October 2017Kitchener camp notice of event, Association of Jewish Refugees, October 2017Kitchener camp, Helen Fry talk, Digging for Victory, Association of Jewish Refugees advertisement, September 2018Kitchener camp, Belsize Square Synagogue, January / February 2018Jeanette Rosenberg, OBE, Conference paper to IAJGS Warsaw, 2018Jewish News, Kitchener camp, Letters page
There are still a few tickets left for Helen Fry’s talk, Digging for Victory: Refugees in the Pioneer Corps in WW2 – which is being held as part of a series of events led by the Kitchener Descendants Group.
Tickets must be booked in advance and are available at:
It’s taking me a while to find my feet in terms of what span of documents are useful to this context, and in working out what stretches the focus of the project too thinly. It’s an ongoing learning process!
From time to time, something that another Kitchener descendant says or writes, however, highlights that I’m not the only one still trying to work out what’s useful and what adds to the project.
A week or two ago someone said – ‘Oh, yes, I’ve got my father’s German passport – but you already have some of those on the site – you won’t need any more.’
But on the German passports you have all kinds of useful information about individuals – not least they give the date on which that man applied to leave Germany, the date of consular stamps, when he arrived in the UK (a key piece of information being collected), and the length of time it took to process him through the UK.
Wolfgang Priester, Reisepass, Deutsches Reich, Document, German passport, Leave to land in Dover, Arrival 9 May 1939, Immigration stamp
So – all German passports are useful – and if a relative doesn’t want an image of it on their pages, for whatever reason, we would still be glad to receive these kinds of pieces of information from them.
It’s also worth knowing that when I get a date of arrival, these are being added into Phineas May’s diaries, which is fascinating to see in context, for all kinds of reasons.
There are some leaflets and documents that will have been common property among many of the men, and one of our Kitchener families has recently provided a large number of these, including the following advice from the War Savings Committee, which is a lovely little piece of historical ephemera, from the language, to the colour, to the print font.
To the young and not so young, Pamphlet, HM Forces War Savings Committee, page 1
Wolfgang Priester, To the young and not so young, Pamphlet, HM Forces War Savings Committee, page 2
Wolfgang Priester also kept his pamphlet on Guidance to Refugees, which those who have read Clare Ungerson’s book on Kitchener camp might recall her mentioning.
I have now uploaded Wolfgang’s copy to the site under the research pages. You will see that the text is in English and German, and observes, for example, “The British Government is very sympathetic to the tragedy of Refugees from Greater Germany and other countries. But you must please realise that the maintenance of the Refugees while they remain in Britain must be borne by the Jewish Community and not by the British taxpayer.”
It advises, “Try to observe and follow the manners and customs and habits of this country, in social and business relations”.
"In the interest of the whole Jewish community, please obey these rules in the spirit as well as in the letter."
And finally, in terms of how fascinating and useful the smallest items on our paperwork can be, Wolfgang Priester has written on his copy of Guidance to Refugees the following information –
Kitchener camp, Wolfgang Priester, German Jewish Aid Committee, Bloomsbury House, Jewish Board of Deputies, Woburn House, Guidance to all Refugees, page 1, Registration number 24317
There are two numbers here – Wolfgang’s Registration Number with Bloomsbury House (24,317), and another number – 1249.
Taken on its own, this latter number seems meaningless … until you take a look at some of the correspondence addressed to Wolfgang at Kitchener camp –
Wolfgang Priester, Kitchener camp, Richborough, Hut 1/I, Number 1249, Postmark Remagen, 4 August 1939, address
And at the bottom of the address, here and on other post he receives, is again this number – 1249.
This is Wolfgang’s refugee number!
Putting together some of these pieces of information, we now know that on 9th May (from his passport), Refugee number 1,249 arrived.
Which means that four months in, around a third of our assumed number of refugees had arrived in the camp. These arrival numbers are invaluable!
That’s not a trivial thing to have been able to find out / confirm…
In light of this, if anyone has ‘bits’ of information that you have assumed would be irrelevant / unimportant /meaningless – or that you think will be unimportant because we have ‘other copies’, please do reconsider and check your documents and letters again. I’d much rather be sent something ‘irrelevant’ than miss out on something potentially historically significant.
We’re accumulating an amazing array of information – and the more we can bring together, the better – including apparently random and ‘uninteresting’ numbers and dates!
(For information about future events you might find interesting in this context, please see the bottom of this post)
The Pioneer Corps was not the only outcome for Kitchener men when war broke out: some were too young to enlist, some were too old; some had poor health (and were rejected by the Army), especially following their time in German concentrationcamps, which resulted from their arrest during the events of November 1938; and some did not wish to fight for religious or ethical reasons, or because they had visas for onward travel and still hoped to be able to use these to rescue their families.
However, enlistment in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps was a significant outcome for a large number of Kitchener men.
As we move into the autumn and Helen Fry’s talk, we will also be placing significant focus on the various other outcomes, including internment in the UK; internment overseas in Canada and Australia; other importantwarwork carried out by Kitchener refugees.
To give some idea about how significant this part of our shared history is to the project, I have linked below to a few of the relevant items sent in by families over the last few months. My apologies that it is by no means a definitive list, but it will provide an indication of the interest in this part of our shared history – when Kitchener became a Pioneer Corps training ground in winter 1939.
Please note – many people have indicated an interest in attending this event
Because of its popularity, tickets are only available (maximum of 4 per purchase) through the Eventbrite.co.uk website
Thank you for your support and understanding
Dr Helen Fry – Digging for Victory: Refugees in the Pioneer Corps in WW2
On sale from Monday, 20 August at 9am
Dr Helen Fry has researched and published widely on the 10,000 Jewish refugees who fought for Britain during the war. These included 6,000 who started out in the ‘alien’ Pioneer Corps, many having enlisted from internment. Many went on to see active service in wartime and made an extraordinary contribution to the defeat of National Socialism. Their legacy remains largely unrecognised by the nation, including their vital work in denazification at the end of the war.
DATE AND TIME
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
18:00 – 20:30
LOCATION
Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
29 Russell Square
London
WC1B 5DP
REFUND POLICY
Refunds up to 7 days before event
Many of you know Helen Fry’s books on Jewish contributions to the war effort – and many Kitchener men, as well as other refugees, served in the Pioneer Corps.
We are honoured to announce that Dr Fry has kindly offered to give a talk on the Pioneer Corps in connection with the Kitchener Descendant Group and for others with an interest in these events.
The talk will take place at the Wiener library in London on October 17th, from 6pm to 8.30pm.
Tickets will be available on Eventbrite from 9am on Monday, 20th August. There is a maximum of 60 tickets available.
Many have already indicated an interest in buying a ticket. Because of the popularity of this event, tickets are only available (maximum of 4 per purchase) through the Eventbrite.co.uk website.
