Germany

German jazz band Weintraub Syncopators played way to safety

Jenni Frazer — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:30:17 +0100

“In memory,” read the dedication, “of the German jazz band, The Weintraub Syncopators, Berlin 1924-Sydney 1942: Stefan Weintraub, Heinz Barger, Addy Fisher, Emanuel Fisher, Horst Graff, John Kaiser, Cyril Schulvater, Leo Weiss”.

Since the dedication was in a concert programme for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, there was a natural curiosity: who were the Weintraub Syncopators?

In fact, as Michael Fisher, son and nephew of two of the players, recounts, the Weintraubs were one of Germany’s most popular and successful jazz bands, founded in 1924 and so in demand that they played on Marlene Dietrich’s landmark 1930 film, The Blue Angel.

Louis Armstrong rated the young band highly, naming one of its members, Eddie Rozner, as his European equivalent. “They were an act,” says Mr Fisher. “They did things like shining a spotlight on the trumpet player and the audience would only hear a violin.”

They were a well-honed cabaret act with a disarming repertoire of hot jazz and novelty comedy songs. This was made possible by the high level of their musicianship — among them, the seven young men played more than 30 instruments.

In 1934, the Weintraubs played all over Europe, and Heinz Barger, the group’s manager, secured a six-month tour of Russia. Michael’s father, Emanuel, whose surname was then Frischer, played trumpet and violin and replaced Eddie Rozner for the Russian tour. They spent more than 18 months in the Soviet Union.

Eventually, the Russian stint came to an end and the Weintraubs went to play first in Manchuria, then Shanghai, and then Japan, where in 1936 they secured a recording contract and made a number of records.

It was clear to the Weintraubs that they could not go back to Berlin, says Michael Fisher. By 1938, they were playing in Sydney, Australia, resident at the city’s leading nightclub, Prince’s. One of the most frequent visitors was MP Robert Menzies, later Australia’s prime minister, who helped get exit visas for Emanuel Fisher’s family in Berlin. The visas arrived in Berlin on the day after Kristallnacht, November 1938.

Once war was declared in September 1939, Australia, in common with its Commonwealth allies, interned many German Jews in the mistaken belief that they were enemy aliens. The members of the Weintraub Syncopators were initially interned, but Emanuel Fisher and two others in the band were released because they had never been German citizens.

At this stage, Emanuel’s brother, Addy, who had been playing double bass in another German jazz band which ended up touring in Beirut, arrived in Sydney and became the last new member of the Weintraub Syncopators.

By 1942, the band had effectively broken up. The rest of the band who had been interned were released, and those who could joined the Australian armed forces. There was, however, one last hairy moment when the authorities looked back at the Weintraubs’ wild success in Japan and investigated those records made in 1936. Were the records a secret code to help the Japanese war effort? Emphatically not, declared the musicians.

By the end of the war, some members of the Syncopators, by now all resident in Australia, were playing as individuals, but the band itself was no more. Emanuel Fisher went into business but returned briefly to music in the late 1950s, composing and arranging.

As for Addy Fisher, he bequeathed his double bass to the Israel Philharmonic. It was handed over by the family to the IPO in Sydney in 2008 but was in deplorable condition. Michael Fisher funded its restoration and, last month, the double bass was played on stage in Tel Aviv.

It is said that at the end of one of their last appearances in Berlin, the Weintraub Syncopators arranged for the stage to feature seven empty chairs, a reminder of what Germany was losing. Who would have thought it? The best jazz band in the country, all young Jews — and for once, they all survived.

Rachel Weisz’s father makes his movie debut

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:55:31 +0100

Move over Rachel — there is a new member of the Weisz family finding success in the film business.

The actress’s 84-year-old father George has made his debut as a producer with a documentary telling the little-known story — set in Nazi Germany — of the first ever female rabbi.

Regina Jonas was a revered figure for her pastoral work in 1930s Berlin before she was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 and then, in 1944, to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.

George Weisz, a Hungarian-born engineer who escaped to Britain before the Second World War, has arranged for his documentary, called simply Regina, to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival in the autumn. It has already been screened to a positive reception in Budapest.

Regina is Mr Weisz’s first foray into producing. He says he wanted to make the film — which is directed by highly rated young Hungarian film-maker, Diana Groo — to promote awareness of Rabbi Jonas’s work. She is regarded as an icon by Liberal Jews but is less well known among the wider Jewish community. “She was not accepted by Orthodox congregations and she was not allowed to preach from the pulpit,” Mr Weisz says. “So she went on to work in hospitals and old-age homes and to teach. She ministered to the poor, to the sick, to the elderly.” And, he stresses, “this is not a Shoah film — this is about a woman with a calling.”

The documentary follows her struggle to be ordained as a rabbi, and also her romance with Hamburg rabbi, Josef Norden.

Mr Weisz also holds the rights to make a feature film of Rabbi Jonas’s life story. His daughter Rachel would, he suggests, be right for the role. “But she’s extremely busy,” he adds. “It would be her choice to take the part. I have an email from her saying this is a wonderful film.”

Mr Weisz is now hoping to work with Ms Groo on another project of Jewish interest — a documentary about the Tiszaeszlár Affair, a notorious blood libel case in 1882 in Hungary.

For now, despite studiously avoiding the red carpet in the past — “I think I’d be in Rachel’s way” — George Weisz is concentrating on raising awareness of Regina. “It’s an inspiring story,” he says, “a story that should be told.”

Germany giving £530m in fresh aid to survivors

Toby Axelrod — Thu, 30 May 2013 21:00:55 +0100

Holocaust survivors confined to their homes are about to receive £530 million worth of extra aid from Germany, according to an agreement reached with the Claims Conference.

In all, Germany will provide approximately £660 million over the next four years for survivors who require home nursing care. The annual amount provided will increase every year through to 2017.

The funds help ensure that survivors “are able to live out their lives with dignity”, Claims Conference Chairman Julius Berman said in a statement. “The well-being of survivors is of the utmost importance.”

The move is especially remarkable, said Claims Conference special negotiator Stuart Eizenstat, “since it comes at a time of budget austerity in Germany”.

The Claims Conference reported that the need for homecare will continue to rise for several years.

Currently, in addition to the 56,000 survivors who receive such assistance, there are 90,000 others who receive food, medicine, transportation and social care.

The homecare fund increase is one of several positive results from annual negotiations between the Claims Conference and the German government, held this year in Israel.

For example, it will now be easier for survivors to qualify for Article 2 pension funds, since the income limit for applicants has been raised from £10,600 to £16,600 — reportedly the first time income limits have been changed since 1995. Also, the definition of “ghetto” has been broadened, expanding the eligibility criteria for both the Article 2 Fund and the Central and Eastern European Fund.

As of January 1, 2014, residents of ghettos that were not closed — surrounded by a wall, for example — will be eligible for pensions from those funds. The Claims Conference noted that many survivors “lived under conditions similar to closed ghettos, under curfew, deprived of their jobs, subject to persecution measures, wore the yellow star, and lived in constant fear of deportation.”

Angela Merkel honoured for opposing antisemitism

Zoe Winograd — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:27:36 +0100

German chancellor Angela Merkel has been awarded the Lord Jakobovits Prize for European Jewry by the Conference of European Rabbis.

At a ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday Ms Merkel was honoured for her support of the German Jewish community and her outspoken denunciation of anti s emitism throughout Europe.

CER president, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said: "Chancellor Merkel is a worthy recipient in recognition of her continuing efforts of inter-communal harmony across Europe, her friendship towards the Jewish community and outstanding contributions to the promotion of tolerance and understanding."

Receiving the award , Ms Merkel said: “We must learn to talk to one another and not to about one another... Freedom needs to be defended anew every day. I am deeply moved to have received this prize and I see it as an encouragement as there is much work still to be done across Europe.”

She also stressed the importance of Holocaust education. "The fight against anti-semitism is a paramount duty of a free democratic state."

Ms Merkel has been recognised for her efforts to protect the religious practice of circumcision which has been under threat in Germany.

Holocaust-themed Tannhauser cancelled

Sandy Rashty — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:15:28 +0100

A Holocaust-themed production of Wagner opera was cancelled last week after its traumatic scenes caused a number of guests to seek medical help.

The Dusseldorf opera’s version of Tannhauser included scenes of rape, suicide and a family having their heads shaved before they were shot. Some guests were so distressed that they were treated for shock.

A spokesperson for the opera house confirmed that “some scenes, especially the firing-squad sequence, proved such a intolerable burden for numerous members of the audience that they were subsequently obliged to undergo medical treatment.”

The spokesperson added that the opera house had asked stage director Burkhard C Kosminski to tone down the performance but, “citing the freedom of art, he has refused.

“Deutsche Oper am Rhein cannot and will not accept responsibility [if there are] possibly grave effects on its guests. The freedom of art is valid only as long as the personal safety of individuals is not in danger.”

Michael Szentei-Heise, head of the Jewish community in Dusseldorf, told Associated Press that the production was “tasteless and not legitimate. This opera has nothing to do with the Holocaust.”

Wagner, widely regarded as an antisemite, was one of Adolf Hitler’s favourite composers.

The production will now only be performed as a concert and current ticket holders have been offered a refund.

After $57m trial, claims body is still under fire

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:30:44 +0100

As if the convictions in the $57.3 million (£37.6m) fraud case that was wound up in a Manhattan federal court last week were not enough, it was alleged on Tuesday that top officials at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany were warned about the criminal activity nearly a decade before they called in external investigators.

The fraud was perpetrated over two decades and, of the 31 people convicted, 10 were former Claims Conference employees. Semen Domnitser — one of only three to plead not guilty who were on trial last week — was himself the director of the defrauded programmes between 1999 and 2010. It emerged in the trial that Domnitser had helped people falsely apply for funds from two major programmes.

The Forward has now claimed that a whistleblowing letter was seen by senior leaders of the Conference in 2001. The accusations it contained were corroborated by a preliminary internal investigation but further action was deterred by Domnitser until the federal investigation in 2009.

Clearly, the Claims Conference, one of the most important Jewish institutions in the post-Holocaust world, which has disbursed around $70 billion since its foundation in 1951, must now answer some serious questions about its governance and oversight.

The organisation released a statement in the wake of the trial saying that “Deloitte was hired by the German government to review the processing systems for both individual compensation programmes and homecare allocations, identify any potential weaknesses and recommend improvements.”

A “packet of recommendations”, it said, had already been adopted or were in the process of being adopted.

The questions of how the fraud went on undetected for 15 years — and how the warning went unheeded — remain unanswered. As of going to press, Greg Schneider, current executive director and former chief operating officer; Gideon Taylor, then the executive director; and Julius Berman, the chairman of the conference, had not provided any answers.

The Claims Conference has no doubt required a large bureaucracy to achieve its two aims — to secure funds from governments responsible for post-Holocaust compensation and to distribute that money to victims and survivors.

However, the organisation appears to have fallen down in its management of that bureaucracy.

The scale of its achievements is vast. The Conference secured collaboration between a large number of representatives of the institutions of world Jewry, raised money from German governments before and after unification and established myriad programmes to recognise the ways victims suffered.

But it has come under fire in recent years. A former chairman of the board of the WJC, Isi Leibler, has been a voluble critic of the Conference’s lack of independent oversight and recently suggested that the $57.3m fraud might be the tip of an iceberg.

It remains to be seen how the Conference responds to his accusations and how effectively it will be able to clean its own house.

Cancelling Holocaust opera is 'censorship’, claims German director

Sandy Rashty — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:20:35 +0100

A German director has described the decision to cancel his Holocaust-themed opera production as "censorship".

Director Burkhard C Kosminski's modern production of Richard Wagner’s Tannhauser, which held its opening night at the Rheinoper in Düsseldorf, was cancelled last week after its traumatic scenes caused a number of guests to seek medical help.

Despite initial protests from the opera house, director Mr Kosminski reportedly insisted on a realistic portrayal of atrocities at a concentration camp "for artistic reasons", an opera house spokesperson told the BBC.

Graphic scenes included rape, suicide and a family having their heads shaved before they were shot.

Some guests were subsequently treated for shock.

"There was heckling during the performance," Mr Kosminski told Der Spiegel news. "When I bowed during the applause, there was a chorus of boos mixed with many bravos. At the premier party I was insulted heavily."

A spokesperson for the opera house added that “some scenes were depicted very realistically [and caused] psychological and physical stress."

Michael Szentei-Heise, head of the Jewish community in Dusseldorf, told the Associated Press that the production was "tasteless and not legitimate.

"This opera has nothing to do with the Holocaust. However, I think the audience has made this very clear to the opera and the producer."

But the theater director insisted that: "the Jewish Community did not demand that the performance be withdrawn. My staging doesn't ridicule victims, but rather mourns them.

"What happened in Düsseldorf is the censorship of art. That is the actual scandal."

Wagner, who is widely regarded as an antisemite, was one of Adolf Hitler’s favourite musicians. Israelis still refrain from playing his music.

The production will now only be performed in concert.

Next week, the Wagner 200 festival will launch in London to commemorate the bicenturary of the man who wrote the antisemitic essay 'Judaism in Music' - likening the Jewish influence on culture to a "swarming colony of maggots" .

Wagner, who was said to inspire Hitler's concept of the "master race", once declared that "all Jews should burn to death".

The festival will launch next week and run until November.

Dresden gets rabbi back, 70 years after the Shoah

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:43 +0100

Last week was a historical one in Dresden. The Jüdische Gemeinde zu Dresden, the Jewish congregation in the city, finally got its rabbi back — more than 70 years after Rabbi Albert Wolf had to flee Dresden and Germany.

And as if to underscore that this is a moment of renewal, the new rabbi, Alexander Nachama, is just 29 years old.

How does Rabbi Nachama feel about it? “Good. But I don’t actually feel so young in this position,” he said. He was ordained by the non-denominational Aleph Rabbinic Programme in the US and graduated from the Abraham-Geiger-Kolleg Rabbinic Seminar at Potsdam University. “As a child in Berlin, I held pretend worship services and started to lead prayers in the synagogue when I was 14.”

Rabbi Nachama’s installation took place in the Dresden synagogue. The young rabbi is now part of a significant family tradition. His grandfather, Estrongo, who was widely known for his expressive singing, survived Auschwitz and became chief cantor for the Jewish congregation in Berlin after the war. Alexander’s father, Andreas, who was present at his induction, is a rabbi in the German capital.

Young Rabbi Nachama stresses that he stands on his own two feet as a congregation leader in Dresden. Before the Second World War, there were more than 5,000 Jewish inhabitants in the city. By 1945, only a few were left. Rabbi Nachama now aims to engage the younger generation of Jews so that the congregation, which today has 720 members, can keep growing.

The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr Dieter Graumann, sees Rabbi Nachama’s installation as part of a positive trend: “The growing numbers of both female and male rabbis show how the Jewish congregations in Germany once more blossom. Seventy years after the Shoah, this is close to a wonder, and we welcome it from the bottom of our hearts.”

‘Auschwitz cook’ arrested on war crimes charges

Zoe Winograd — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:25:41 +0100

A 93-year-old alleged SS member was arrested in Germany last night.

Hans Lipshis, who was taken into custody from his care home near Stuttgart, was accused of taking part in murder and genocide at Auschwitz.

The accused has admitted to working at the camp from 1941-1945 but has denied any knowledge of the killings that took place. He told reporters that he was a “cook for the entire time.”

Mr Lipshis was allegedly a member of the SS-Totenkopf Sturbann, which guarded the camp. He fled to the US in 1956 but was deported to Germany in 1983 after being accused of being a Nazi war criminal. The Lithuanian-born man was added to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's list of wanted Nazis a few weeks ago.

Director of the Simone Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem Efraim Zuroff said: “We welcome the arrest. I hope this will only be the first of many arrests, trials and convictions of death camp guards.”

Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, commented: “More than anything, the arrest of Hans Lipschis sends out a clear message that old age and the passage of time are no barrier to the prosecution of alleged Nazi war criminals – that is exactly as it must be.”

Poland and Germany row over Shoah guilt

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:00:22 +0100

A German television series and a Polish magazine have sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries amid arguments over antisemitism and war guilt.

Polish news weekly Uwazam Rze caused outrage after it depicted German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a concentration camp prisoner in a front page image.

The magazine showed Mrs Merkel behind barbed wire wearing a striped inmate’s uniform alongside the headline “Falsification of history — how the Germans made themselves the victims of World War Two”.

The image came in response to controversy over a German television series broadcast last month called Our Mothers, Our Fathers. It focused on the story of five German families during the war and portrayed Polish resistance fighters as antisemitic. Characters included two brothers, a nurse, an aspiring female singer and a Jewish tailor. Jewish themes were key to the show, with the nurse shown to be coming to terms with her betrayal of a Jewish colleague, and the tailor forced to fight his own countrymen for survival.

Jerzy Marganski, Polish ambassador to Germany, complained that the series was “extremely unjust and offensive”.

In a letter to ZDF, which broadcast the series, Mr Marganski said he was “shocked” that the £12 million production had not looked at the Warsaw uprising or considered the role of Poles who had helped Jews.

But ZDF said it was based on “historically vetted material” and had aimed to create a national debate about war experiences. Producer Nico Hofmann said the portrayal was justified due to widespread antisemitism in Poland during the war.