It’s fascinating to be able to bring together all kinds of pieces of information, because it is being collected in this one place.
One item begins to illuminate another…
For instance, take the Kitchener Camp Review magazines that have been gradually uploaded. The articles and sketches are mostly anonymised, but the first and last letters of names are often given, as are initials. If we compare these clues to the names and occupations in the 1939 Register, it is possible to start to make an intelligent guess at who the writers and artists were, in many cases.
Some examples follow.
Were any of these people related to you? Or were they friends of the family, perhaps? If so, please let us know!
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Add type of item + initials ‘GH’ +39 Register = very likely Gunter Heymann, Teacher Lithograph Drawing And Painting (1939 Register entry).
Born in Berlin in 1908, we can see from British National Archives documents that Heymann was interned in the UK 1940. It looks like he should have sailed on the SS Duchess of York, but was finally deported to Canada on board SS Sobricki on 4th July 1940. He was then interned in Camp I on arrival in Canada.
Looking at the 1939 Register, the article above would seem to have been written by Paul Loewy – the only name that fits these initials. Born in May 1913, Paul is listed in the 1939 Register as a musician (pianist).
British National Archives records add the information that Paul was born in Vienna, and that his usual occupation was ‘Lawyer’. He was later interned, and then released in October 1940
The only doctor in the 1939 Register with these initials was Dr Ahron Koch, physician, born April 1912.
The 1939 Register gives us Rabbi Karl Rautenberg, born 1911, with these initials, writing on a religious subject …
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I will be going through the various issues of the Review, working out as many of these names as I can, and adding them into the associated pages. It isn’t always possible to reach a satisfactory conclusion with every one of these, but quite a few should be possible.