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Julian David Layton was born Loewenstein in 1904 to parents who had come to England from Frankfurt in 1893 with the family firm of Loewenstein, Hoskins. According to a Alan Leopold Berton, nephew of Julian Layton, and executor to his will, and one of the depositors to this collection, Leopold Loewenstein, Layton's father, changed his name to Layton in 1917 . According to Julian Layton's cv he changed his name by deed poll on 30 August 1921, his brother, Ralph, having already changed his in September 1914. Julian's mother was the granddaughter of Samson Raphael Hirsch.

Layton became a stockbroker and a member of the London Stock Exchange from 1930, a partner in the firm R Layton and Co from 1933. He spent several years working in banks and stock broking firms in Germany and France.

The relationship between the Rothschilds and the Loewensteins began in Frankfurt and continued in London. It proved to be important with regard to the rescue of Jews in Europe as evidenced in the saga of the 'Cedar Boys'- the project in which Layton helped rescue 28 German Jewish boys and girls, who resided at the Rothschild's estate.

Otto Schiff of the German Jewish Aid Committee, who had known Layton already for a long time, had requested that Layton go to Canberra to persuade the Australian government to accept many German Jewish refugees. Much later, after the outbreak of war, Layton, on account of his experience dealing with refugees and his management of the Kitchener Camp for Refugees at Richborough, Kent, was sent by the British Government as a Home Office Liaison officer to facilitate the repatriation of the internees. He also assisted in obtaining compensation for those who suffered a loss during the 'Dunera' scandal, in which 3 British soldiers were court-martialed for the brutal treatment and robbery of refugees.

Kathe Cahn-Hepner and Mrs Jacobs-Hepner, the depositors of this collection, are the daughters of Fritz and Leonie Cahn, German Jews who spent the war years in Switzerland. The depositors provided brief notes about most of the correspondents, many of whom perished in the Holocaust.

The Warburg family is a German-Jewish family of bankers. The Warburgs moved from Bologna to Warburg in Germany in the 16th century before moving to Altona, near Hamburg in the 17th century. Their first known ancestor was Simon von Cassel, who died c 1566. They took their surname from the city of Warburg. The brothers Moses Marcus Warburg and Gerson Warburg founded the M M Warburg and Co banking company in 1798 that is still in existence. Moses Warburg's great-great grandson, Siegmund George Warburg, founded investment bank S G Warburg & Co in London in 1946. Siegmund's second cousin, Eric Warburg, founded Warburg Pincus in New York in 1938. Eric Warburg's son Max Warburg is currently one of the three partners of M M Warburg & Co.

The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials (more formally, the Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT)) were a series of twelve US military tribunals for war crimes against surviving members of the military, political, and economical leadership of Nazi Germany, held in Nuremberg after World War Two, 1946-1949 following the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials proceedings were instigated as a result of the promulgation of the Allied Control Council's 'Law No. 10', 20 Dec 1945. This law empowered the commanding officers of the four zones of occupation to conduct criminal trials on charges of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and membership of an organisation carrying out such crimes. There were 12 trials, held between Dec 1946 and Apr 1949. 177 people were tried, including representatives of the leadership of the Reich ministries, the Wehrmacht, industrial concerns, and the legal and medical establishments. The cases were as follows: 1) Medical Case; 2) Milch Case; 3) Justice Case; 4) Pohl Case 5) Flick Case; 6) IG Farben Case; 7) Hostage Case; 8) RuSHA Case; 9) Einsatzgruppen Case; 10) Krupp Case; 11) Ministries Case; 12) High Command Case.

Herta Ningo, a German Jew born in Berlin in 1911, arrived in Great Britain shortly after 11 July 1939 (the date she left Hamburg according to her passport). She was the daughter of Max Ningo a businessman who died in 1930, and Meta née Rewald, who, according to the memorial book for Berlin Jews who died during the Holocaust, committed suicide, 15 Jan 1942. The only correspondence between mother and daughter is a Red Cross telegram in which Meta responds on 12 Jan 1941.

Arthur Rewald was the brother of Meta Ningo, Herta's mother. Arthur Rewald married Elsa Salzmann in 1933.

Joachim Prinz was born in Burchartsdorf, Germany, in 1902, and ordained by the Breslau Jewish Theological Seminary in 1925. In 1926 he became rabbi of the Berlin Jewish community. His adherence to the Zionist movement brought him into conflict with the leaders of the Berlin Jewish community. Prinz continually attacked Nazism from his pulpit, even after Hitler came to power, and was arrested several times by the Gestapo. In 1937 he held his last meeting with his congregation before emigrating to the US. The meeting was spied on by Adolf Eichmann, who reported to the Gestapo that Prinz's plan to emigrate proved that an international Jewish conspiracy had New York as a headquarters. Prinz was subsequently arrested by the Gestapo and expelled from Germany. In 1939 he was appointed rabbi at Temple B'nai Abraham, Newark, New Jersey.

The National Socialists made use of Nuremberg's heritage as the 'Treasure Chest of the German Empire' and in 1927, started holding their party rallies here. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Adolf Hitler made Nuremberg the 'City of the Party Rallies'. Monumental structures, based on plans by Albert Speer, were erected in the Volkspark Dutzendteich, in the south eastern city districts. Until today these bear testimony to the Third Reich's megalomaniacal pretensions. Here, Julius Streicher, the 'Frankenführer' (Franconian Führer), spread his anti-Semitic hate slogans. It was also in this city that the Nazis proclaimed their inhumane 'Nuremberg Racial Laws' in 1935. In Nuremberg more people than anywhere else were killed during the pogrom night of November 9/10, 1938. Nuremberg's Lord Mayor, National Socialist Willy Liebel, proclaimed 'with pride' that 26 Jews had not survived the 'Reichskristallnacht'.

The organisation Neues Leben was a club devoted to nudism, founded February 1930. The movement had been non-political but by the end of March 1933, following difficulties, avowed publicly their support for Hitler. A meeting adopted a change of name to Bund fuer aufartende Lebensfuehrung und Nordische Sittenklarheit (League for racially pure lifestyle and nordic moral clarity), 19 July 1933.

Camp Westerbork was a World War Two concentration camp in Hooghalen, ten kilometers north of Westerbork, in the northeastern Netherlands. Its function during the Second World War was to assemble Dutch Jews for transport to other Nazi concentration camps.

This report was apparently produced by a member of a resistance group asssociated with the camp by the name of Bettleheim. Nothing further is known about him.

Rabbi Dr F Steckelmacher came from Dürkheim, Württemberg, Germany. Having experienced the Nazis' rise to power and later the infamous nationwide pogrom of 9 November 1938, he was to spend time in various concentration camps and slave labour camps in France.

Josef Weisz was born near Köln in 1893, emigrated to the Netherlands in 1933; was arrested and sent to Westerbork in January 1942; sent to Bergen Belsen in January 1944; liberated on 10 April 1945.

The Jewish Relief Unit was the operational arm of the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad which was formed in 1943 by the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association and under the auspices and financial responsibility of the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. Its main function was to provide support to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Displaced Persons camps mostly throughout Germany.

Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich in southern Germany.

Opened on 22 March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of National Socialist (Nazi) NSDAP party and the Catholic Zentrum party (dissolved at 6 July 1933). Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as police president of Munich, officially described the camp as 'the first concentration camp for political prisoners.'

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Its basic organisation, camp layout as well as the plan for the buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the command centre, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for establishing the others according to his model.

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of which nearly one-third were Jews. 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide.

Helga Lewin (née Krebs) was born in 1916 in Berlin of Jewish parents. From the age of 6 she took private piano lessons and it became apparent early on that she was very talented. She went on to study the piano more intensively, later becoming a piano teacher from 1937 to 1939. She fled Nazi Germany in April 1939 to England where she worked as a servant until she was interned as a German citizen in Jun 1940. After her release she worked as waitress in a café in Manchester. In 1946 she began work as an accordion player but had to give this up on account of the pain it was causing her back.

During the course of the next few decades she was awarded compensation for loss of potential earnings from the Entschädigungsamt (1229/16-17), succeeding in her attempts to claim compensation for physical disability and mental illness.

Nothing is known about the provenance of these copy letters from a Jewish girl and her aunt to relatives in Great Britain. They are mirror image typescript mimeographed transcriptions, the majority of which are copy letters from Leni, the 12 year old girl. It is apparent from the content that Leni's mother and father died within a short space of time of each other in 1938, both at the relatively early age of 53. Her brother also died at Buchenwald at the age of 18.

During the period of the correspondence Leni stayed with an aunt, Martha and her young cousin, Hansi. Martha was imprisoned for 3 months for maligning the regime and it appears that Leni remained in the house during her absence. Two of the subsequent letters are from Martha in prison. In her last letter Leni mentions that her departure from Austria to the USA is immanent. Martha also expected to leave within the year. Nothing is known of their fate and without even a surname it would be impossible to find out.

The Jewish Relief Unit was the operational arm of the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, which was formed in 1943 by the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association and under the auspices and financial responsibility of the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation.

This log book documents the activities of a group of Austrian and German Jewish refugees whilst internees at Hay Internment Camp NSW, Australia. They formed themselves into a group called the Rover Scout Crew whilst on passage to Australia on the infamous 'Dunera Voyage', Jul-Aug 1940.

Edith Herzer was born in Berlin in 1912 and emigrated to Great Britain in October 1938. Edith worked at a succession of house keeping jobs in London, then as a nursery nurse and finally as an office worker at Pearl Life Assurance, Holborn, from 1953.

The family owned property in Potsdam-Babelsberg (which was eventually appropriated by the East German government, having been used for delegates to the Potsdam Conference in June 1945); and at Neue Jakobstr. 14, Berlin. Property compensation claims had to be made through the Foreign Compensation Commission, the authority established by the DDR regime to handle claims made by those who suffered under the Nazis [see 1234/73 for correspondence and forms].

Wilhelm Merzbach was director of the family business, Bankhaus S Merzbach.

Grete Salus, nee Gronner, was born in 1910 in Böhmisch-Trübau, today Ceská Trebová, Czech Republic. After schooling she studied at a dance school in Dresden. She moved to Prague with her husband, Dr Fritz Salus, with whom she married in 1934, and taught dance. They were both deported first to Theresienstadt, 1942, then to Auschwitz, 1944. Fritz was murdered shortly after arrival in Auschwitz as Grete discovered after her liberation. She was taken along with 500 other women to Oederan in Saxony, a sub-camp of Flossenbürg, where the women were forced into slave labour in the armaments and and building industries. She was evacuated in April 1945 and returned by train to Theresienstadt, where along with 17,000 other survivors she was liberated by the Red Army.

She returned to Prague for a few years after the war. In 1949, having given birth to her daughter, Nomi, she emigrated to Israel where she ended up working as a choreographer and gymnastics teacher at a home for orphans from the Holocaust. She died in 1995.

The Information Service of The International Bureau for the Right of Asylum and Aid to Political Refugees was created by the Conférence Internationale pour le Droit d'Asile, held in Paris on June 20-21, 1936. It served as an umbrella organization for all German émigré associations. A major aim of the organisation was to lobby the League of Nations for a more secure refugee status. The organisation's secretary general was Paul Perrin, a left wing deputy, who was also president of the Centre de Liaison des Comités pour le Statut des Immigrés, and one of eight members of a consultative commission, nominated by the French minister of the interior, with the object of screening applicants for refugee status.

The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief was founded in the early months of 1933 by a group of Anglo-Jewish community leaders, in response to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on a political platform of anti-Semitism. Among the founders were Anthony de Rothschild, Leonard G. Montefiore and Otto Schiff.

The fund has been through many name changes in its lifetime. It started out as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, then became part of the new Council for German Jewry in 1936 along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American United Palestine Appeal. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939 the fund changed its name to the Central Council for Jewish Refugees, and in 1944 changed again to the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. After many years as the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, the organisation is now known as World Jewish Relief.

The Committee for the Care of Children from Camps was a sub-committee of the Jewish Refugees Committee and its expenditure was covered by grants made by the Central British Fund.

At the Second International Conference, which took place in Frankfurt in 1932, 60 Jewish delegates decided to organise a parallel Jewish conference for 1936. The president of the Jewish Conference was Dr M J Karpf, Director of the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work, New York. The central committee for the conference comprised leading figures in the social work field from all over the world. The secretariat was situated in Paris at the offices of the American Joint Distribution Committee. The Third International Conference on Social Work took place in London in July 1936 and was held in conjunction with the International Conference for Jewish Social Work.

The International Refugee Organisation (IRO) was a non-permanent specialised agency of the United Nations. It came into being on 20 Aug 1948. Its functions were previously carried out by a Preparatory Commission (PCIRO), which assumed on 1 Jul 1947 functions formerly exercised by its predecessor organisations: The League of Nations; the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees; the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the allied armies.

The IRO was concerned principally with the repatriation and resettlement of refugees. It also provided for the care and maintenance of refugees in Displaced Persons camps. The objective was to offer sufficient maintenance and care to prevent serious physical and psychological deterioration. In addition it gave legal and political protection, a function normally performed by consulates on behalf of their governments.

Nothing is known about the author of the manuscript except that he was 82 at the time of writing.

Sachsenhausen concentration camp was established in 1936. It was located at the edge of Berlin, which gave it a prime position among the German concentration camps: the administrative centre of all concentration camps was located in Oranienburg, and Sachsenhausen became a training centre for SS officers (who would often be sent to oversee other camps afterwards). Executions took place at Sachsenhausen, especially those of Soviet POWs. While some Jews were executed at Sachsenhausen and many died there, the Jewish inmates of the camp were relocated to Auschwitz in 1942. Sachsenhausen was not designed as a death camp; instead, the systematic mass murder of Jews was conducted primarily in camps to the east.

Kurt Ferber was a resident of Berlin-Mariendorf; he is likely to have been employed by an iron manufacturing business, based in Berlin, although in what capacity it is not known. He refers to his many years service with the 'Spionagepolizei' (1252/1/8), it is not clear what that was, or when and where his service took place. He also refers to his time as a member of the border police in Silesia (1252/13). With regard to his family, the only information which emerges is that he had a cousin, who had been living in inner China for 10 years as a missionary (1252/1/11).

Olga Bruewitsch-Heuss, the other correspondent, was resident at the home of Major Runde, Berlin-Wilmersdorf Konstanzerstrasse 10 up until she moved to Bregenzerstrasse 15 flat 3 (1252/1/14, dated 22.10.1932) after a period of illness. The only information known about her family is that she had an uncle, General Giessler. Both correspondents were probably members of the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur, since this organisation is referred to in the correspondence and there is further material relating to it in the collection.

Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur was founded by Alfred Rosenberg on 19 December 1928 in Munich. The purpose of the league was to promote the beliefs of Hitler on the nature of German culture and to combat Jewish influence in German cultural life. In May 1933 it was recognized as the official cultural organisation of the NSDAP.

Nothing is known about the author. It is assumed that she must have been a pupil at a technical school in Celle, Lower Saxony because the folder in which the project was originally housed is entitled 'Berufschule Celle'. It was created as part of her coursework, as evidenced by the mark 'I/II' awarded by her teacher at the end, and the occasional comments within.

The offices of the Jewish Community in Vienna were re-opened having been closed down in the immediate afermath of the German takeover of Austria (1938). The newly restored community organisation devoted a large part of its resources towards planning emigration and social welfare. It also became involved in vocational training. The Jewish Community in Vienna was disbanded on 1 November 1942 and replaced by a council of elders for the Jews of Vienna. The remaining assets of 6.5 million marks were transferred to Prague to be used to finance the Theresienstadt Ghetto. The central office for Jewish emigration was closed down and responsibility for deportations was transferred to a branch of the SS.

Gertrud Wilmersdörfe born 1915 Oberpfalz, Bavaria, an anti-Nazi and Jewess was convicted in 1934 of anti-Nazi activities in Frankfurt am Main along with 3 other co-defendants at a trial in Kassel and sentenced to 4 months imprisonment.

This correspondence regarding the history of the Jewish community in Tarnobrzeg, Poland stems from a dispute in which Michael Honey, a descendant of a family from the said community took exception to an article written by Tadeusz Zych, chairman of the Tarnobrzeg Historical Society, which the former regards as anti-Semitic.

The panopticon prison at Breda, North Brabant, housed the only German war criminals ever to be imprisoned in the Netherlands for their war crimes during the Second World War. They were known as the 'Breda Four (and later three)'. They were Willy Paul Franz Lages who was released in 1966 due to serious illness, Joseph Johann Kotälla who died in prison in 1979, Ferdinand Hugo aus der Fünten and Franz Fischer who both were released in 1989.

Nelly (Elenore) Wolffheim, born 29 March 1879, the second and youngest child from a relatively well to do Jewish family in Berlin; mainly taught privately on account of serious childhood illness; at the end of the 19th century she graduated from 'Pestalozzi-Fröbelhaus', a kindergarten teacher-training school and went on to work in a number of other training schools. Renewed illness meant that she had to spend the following several years in various sanatoriums. In 1914 she opened a private kindergarten in Hallensee, Berlin, which was run according to the philosophy of the Fröbel school, the central idea of which was to treat the school like a large family. In 1921 Nelly Wolffheim suffered another serious set back regarding her health; thereafter she commenced psychoanalysis and after several years of training, she began running the first kindergarten in Germany on the lines of depth psychology; developed an interest in the study of infant sexuality, and was disappointed by the lack of interest shown by anyone else in the field on the subject. She had to stop running the kindergarten again in 1930 on account of her health, but also because she felt too old to work with small children; gives up her publishing activities and discontinues her lecture tours after the Nazi seizure of power, 1933; ran the only remaining Jewish Kindergärtnerinnenseminar, 1934-1939, of which the document in this collection is an account. Emigrated to England, 1939, and lived in Oxford and London; published works again in Germany after the war, in particular her book Kinder aus Konzentrationslagern was well received; died in London, 2 April 1965.

The Wiener Library began collecting eyewitness accounts of people who survived the Holocaust in 1957 as part of a project funded by the Claims Conference. The collection included contemporary documentation from the period. This set comprises accounts that were never included into the main series because they were incomplete.

Unknown.

In Germany in 1933, the Protestant faith was divided into 28 churches with 45 million members. On 4 April 1933, Hitler appointed Ludwig Müller as National Bishop to lead all protestants in an all embracing German Christian Church. As a result of the creation of the new German Christian Church, 200 pastors led a breakaway church, the Confessional Church. 7,000 of the 17,000 pastors in Germany joined the church and its leaders included Pastor Martin Niemöller, who felt that the church should be independent of the state.

Wilhelm Hollitscher arrived in England on March 31 1939 at the age of 66 from Vienna. Apparently a life-long diarist, he recommenced writing his diaries on 13 June 1939. After his arrival in England Hollitscher stayed at Salford, soon after moving to Petts Wood, Kent, where he lived throughout the duration of the diaries, except for a period of 10 weeks internment [25 June- 1 September 1940].

The Anglo-Jewish Association was a British organisation originally founded for the protection of Jewish rights in developing countries by diplomatic means. Its objectives and activities were patterned after those of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. It was established in 1871 when its first president was Jacob Waley; five Jewish MPs were vice presidents. By 1900 it had 36 branches, 14 in British colonies. In 1871 it was instrumental in securing the creation of the Rumanian Committee and in 1882 collaborated in establishing the Russo-Jewish Committee. From 1881 it cooperated with the Board of Deputies of British Jews in the Conjoint Foreign Committee.

The AJA undertook educational work among 'under-developed' Jewish communities, maintaining schools in Baghdad, Aden, Mogador, Jerusalem, and other places. In 1893 it became associated with the direction of the Jewish Colonization Association. As its president, Claude Montefiore condemned the Balfour Declaration. After the Board of Deputies became overwhelmingly Zionist in 1940, the AJA, under Leonard J Stein became a rallying point of non-Zionist sentiment; as a result, ostensibly because it was not a democratically elected body, its representation on the Joint Foreign Committee was reduced and then abolished. After the establishment of the state of Israel it modified its attitude to Zionism. It published the Jewish Monthly (1947-1952), and the AJA Review (1944-1955), which was superseded by the AJA Quarterly.

The Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain (AJR) was founded in the summer of 1941. Up until that point the care of Jewish refugees had mainly been in the hands of the German Jewish Aid Committee, which had hardly any German Jewish representatives. It was this committeee which had organised the rescue operation of those Jews who wanted to enter Britain and which had financially supported those who were unable to earn their own living. The foundation of the AJR marked the wish of the refugees to take the settlement of their problems into their own hands.

Doris Winter was forced to discontinue her education at the school where she produced this work as she was Jewish; attended a boarding school in Sweden, 1934-1935; returned to Cologne and realised that she was unable to receive any training or qualifications; went to England and spent the summer in a holiday home for Jewish children from Leeds, April 1936; began nursing training, 1936; after the fall of France in 1940 she was asked to leave the hospital within 24 hours because of her official status as a 'friendly enemy alien'. Fortunately she had already passed her exams.

After a brief period of unemployment she worked at the Lingfield Epileptic Colony, Surrey and also at the Anna Freud nurseries in Hampstead under the American Foster Plan. She became matron of the 54 Camden Road Wartime Day Nursery, which was run by the Ministry of Health and the Board of Education, with the object of releasing women for essential work.

The Internationale Auschwitz Komitee (IAK) was founded in 1952 by former inmates of the death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, with the following aims: to bear witness to the crimes of the Nazis in the camp; to fight for compensation for former inmates and their families; to work with the Auschwitz Museum to preserve the site of the camp as a permanent memorial. The IAK became involved in the gathering of statements and testimony against former camp guards and other Nazi personnel. Many of the witnesses who provided testimony later took part in the 'Frankfurt Trial' of perpetrators at Auschwitz.

Hermann Langbein (1912-1995), secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee was an Austrian who fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigades for the Spanish Republicans against the Nationalists under Francisco Franco. He was interned in France after the end of the Spanish Civil War, and then sent to German concentration camps after the fall of France in 1940. Over the next few years he was imprisoned in several different camps (Dachau, Auschwitz and others). He was among the leadership of the International Resistance groups in the camps he was held in. After 1945 he was General Secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee, and later Secretary of the 'Comite' Internationale des Camps'. Hermann Langbein was among those awarded the Righteous Among the Nations status by Yad Vashem.

Henry G Plitt [1918-1993] was born in New York City, and graduated from Staunton Military Academy, Virginia; Syracuse University and obtained a law degree from Saint Lawrence University. He practised law for a brief period before volunteering for military service.

He was in the first group of 101st Airborne Division soldiers to jump into Normandy on the night before the invasion to set flares marking landing strips for British glider pilots, and is officially credited with being the first American soldier to touch French ground.

After the war he organized a small group of volunteers, pressed several former Waffen SS officers into service and went around southern Germany and Austria looking for high ranking Nazis. According to him he brought in dozens of men but only Streicher and Ley were noteworthy.

Plitt went to work for Paramount Motion Picture Theater Chain, and in the 1960s and 1970s purchased part of Paramount and other theatre chains to become, for a time, chief executive of the largest theatre chain in the US, Plitt Theaters Inc.. He was also very active in charity work, raising large amounts of money for United Cerebral Palsy, Bar-Ilan University and The Friends of Israeli Defence Forces. Having re-joined the US Army reserves in 1962, he died with the rank of Brigadier General.

The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. Although the brigade was formed in 1944, some of its experienced personnel had been employed against the Axis powers in Greece, the Middle East and East Africa. More than 30,000 Palestinian Jews volunteered to serve in the British Armed Forces, 734 of whom died during the war.

The brigade and its predecessors, the Palestine Regiment and the three infantry companies that had formed it, were composed primarily of Middle Eastern Jews. The brigade was nevertheless inclusive to all Jewish and non-Jewish soldiers so that by 1944 over 50 nationalities were represented. Many were refugees displaced from countries that had been occupied or controlled by the Axis powers in Europe and Ethiopia. Volunteers from the United Kingdom, its empire, the Commonwealth, and other 'western democracies' also provided contingents.

The papers in this collection were used for the making of a BBC TV documentary series German History, 1919-1945. They are a set of copies deposited by Rudi Bamber, an interviewee for the programme, in which he describes his experiences of Kristallnacht and, in particular, the murder of his father.

The German steamship, the St Louis, left Hamburg with 930 Jewish refugees on board on 13 May 1939. Its passengers had valid immigration visas to Cuba stamped in their passports. When the ship arrived at Havana, the refugees were refused entry. The ship was turned back to Europe, where its passengers, after much negotiation were permitted to land in English and Western European ports. Those caught up by the Nazi invasion ultimately met their deaths a year later in the Holocaust.

The Leo Baeck Mens' Lodge was established in 1943. It was in this year that a group of 200 refugees from Nazi persecution met up in the First Lodge of England, and established 'Section 1943'. In 1945, this group split off from the First Lodge of England and became a Lodge in its own right. It was named after Rabbi Leo Baeck, a brave leader of German Jews during the Nazi period.

Leo Baeck arrived in London in July 1945 from Theresiënstadt. He was welcomed with open arms by his Brothers and agreed to become Honorary Life President of the new Lodge. Leo Baeck was not only an academic, but also a businessman and that is why he chaired the B'nai B'rith Rehabilitation Fund, which was supported by other German-speaking Lodges in New York, Israel, Switzerland, South Africa and Australia.

On 5th May 1946, the President of Leo Baeck Men's Lodge, Brother Schwab, inaugurated the Leo Baeck (London) Women's Lodge, which had more than 200 members.

The two Lodges always worked well together, particularly when it came to helping the needy. Various committees were set up, in particular the 'Charitable Trust', as well as social funds, donations, legacies and large scale investments. The 'Home Help Scheme', a social fund for needy people and the elderly, provides support for sick people and grants for university students.

In May 2006, the two Lodges merged and the Leo Baeck (London) Lodge became a mixed Lodge.

Gurs was a major internment camp in France, near Oloron-Sainte-Marie, 80 kilometers from the Spanish border. Established in 1939 to absorb Republican refugees from Spain, Gurs later served as a concentration camp for Jews from France and refugees from other countries. While under the administration of Vichy France (1940-1942) most non-Jewish prisoners were released and approximately 2000 Jews were permitted to emigrate. In 1941 Gurs held some 15,000 prisoners. The camp was controlled by the Germans from 1942 to 1944, during which time several thousand inmates were deported to extermination camps in Poland. An unknown number succeeded in escaping and reaching Spain or hiding in Southern France. Gurs was liberated in the summer of 1944.

The Jewish ghetto in Kraków (Cracow) was one of the five main ghettos created by the Nazis in the General Government, during their occupation of Poland during World War Two. It was a staging point to begin dividing 'able workers' from those who would later be deemed worthy of death. Before the war, Kraków was an influential cultural centre for the 60,000-80,000 Jews that resided there. Janina Fischler-Martinho was a survivor of the Jewish ghetto at Cracow.

Richard Meyer, a Jewish former resident of Sinzig was responsible for the erection of a memorial commemmorating the fate of Sinzig's Jewish population under the Nazis.

Richard H Levy is an historian who wrote 'The Bombing of Auschwitz Revisited: A Critical Analysis' in Holocaust Genocide Studies, Vol 10, No 3, 1996. He also gave a lecture on the subject in 1997 at the Wiener Library.

The Holocaust Memorial to the Jews of Vienna, the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial 2000 (also known as Nameless Library) is by Rachel Whiteread (b 1963), located in the centre of the Judenplatz in Vienna. It is a work in cast concrete, with the walls made up of rows of books, with the pages, rather than the spines, turned outward; this can be regarded as a comment on Jews as a 'people of the book' and the Nazi book burnings. On one of the walls is the negative cast of double-doors.