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Retracing steps of survival and hope.
Mandy Seal shares her father Herbert’s journey, from fleeing Berlin in August 1939 to finding refuge at Kitchener Camp in Sandwich, Kent. Treading the same cobbled streets he once walked brings his story full circle.
The AJR is deeply saddened by the death of Dame Esther Rantzen.
Dame Esther holds a special place in the hearts of many AJR members. Through That’s Life!, she brought Sir Nicholas Winton together with the children he rescued from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and, in doing so, helped bring their extraordinary story to the attention of the world.
The AJR was honoured to bring together members who had journeyed to safety on Winton’s transports - Lord Alf Dubs, Hana Eardley, Alexandra Greensted, Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, Vera Schaufeld, Renate Collins, Emanuela Norton and Lia Lesser, alongside Rev. John Fieldsend - to thank Dame Esther for taking their story “to a global audience”.
Their final words to her feel especially poignant today: “Having stood up to thank him, we are now standing up to honour you.”
Today, the AJR stands with them in honouring Dame Esther and the remarkable role she played in ensuring their story would never be forgotten. May her memory be a blessing.
From a seat swap to finding family!
When Gaby and Rachel both attended an AJR event, they had no idea a simple request for war-time family photos would uncover a deep connection.
From a slight spelling difference (Vegh vs. Wegh) to tracing their roots back to the exact same town in Nyzhnya Apsha, they discovered they are actually second cousins!
Babi Yar Massacre, 1941
Between 29 and 30 September 1941, Nazi forces murdered approximately 33,771 Jewish civilians at the Babi Yar ravine near Kyiv. Following the German capture of the city, Nazi forces falsely blamed the Jewish population for Soviet sabotage attacks and ordered them to gather under the pretext of resettlement.
When victims arrived, they were forced to hand over their belongings, strip, and were marched in groups to the edge of the ravine, where they were shot. At the time, this massacre constituted the largest single mass shooting of Jews during the Holocaust.
In the two years that followed, Babi Yar was used as a systematic killing site for Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, psychiatric patients, and political dissidents. Historians estimate that around 100,000 people were killed at the site between 1941 and 1943.
We honour and remember all the victims murdered at Babi Yar.
Myth busting: Kindertransport
‘The Chaperons had to return.’
“My grandmother is a completely different person to the one who came from Vienna.”
9-year-old Gerta Neumark arrived in the UK via the Kindertransport in 1939. She then had to build a new life - first in Keighley, then Exeter, with an English family who took her in. But behind that new life lay a childhood marked by loss: of family, of her earliest memories, and even of the ability to speak German... her mother tongue. Gerta’s grandson, Oliver Marsh, attempts to understand the trauma that she quietly carried for the rest of her life.
Bernd was born in Fürth in 1931. From a happy childhood in Germany, Bernd remembers Kristallnacht when his father was sent to Dachau. His parents made the agonising decision to send their two children to England on the Kindertransport, and tragically he never saw them again. Bernd has lived a full and active life, training for the Rabbinate and becoming a teacher, a profession he enjoyed for many years. Bernd has served on many committees and boards for both professional and charitable organisations, as well as volunteering and speaking about his life to school-children.
Read Bernd’s fully story in the My Story section on the AJR website.
“Life is not plain sailing... but you know you can bounce back.”
We are so grateful to Ivan Shaw for inviting us into his kitchen and sharing his family legacy and story with us.
Holocaust survivor Ivan Shaw joins chef Ben Rebuck to recreate a traditional Chicken Paprikash with nokedli. For Ivan, cooked alongside stories of resilience, the meal was far more than just ingredients. It was a moving connection to his past and parents.
