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Number 50 New Year 5778, September 2017.

Remember! 75 Years ago ................................................................... 1 Ostrava and its Jews........................................................................... 2 Stolpersteine ....................................................................................... 2 News of Ostravaks Mihal Efrat................................................................................. 3 Pavel Vransky ........................................................................... 3 Michal and Josef Salomonovič ................................................. 4 Tom Kolisch .............................................................................. 4 Růžena Schönfeldová and Irena Wasserbergová..................... 4 Hella Guth and Ernst Kaiser ..................................................... 5 Antique Maps of Bohemia and Moravia .............................................. 6 100th Anniversary of Czechoslovakia .................................................. 7 Chanukah in Nisko .............................................................................. 7 New Year Greeting ............................................................................. 8 Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3

REMEMBER!

75 YEARS AGO

In September 1942, the first group of Jews was ordered to gather at the Habrmann School in Přívoz for deportation to Theresienstadt.

The first transport from Ostrava arrived in Theresienstadt on Tuesday,

22 September 1942. It was the day after Yom Kippur.

By the end of the festival of Tabernacles, 12 days later, most of the Jewish deportees from Ostrava had already been shipped to

Auschwitz and the gas chambers.

33/35 Uxbridge Road Kingston upon Thames Surrey, KT1 2LL 020 8546 9 370 www. Kingston-synagogue.org.uk

Londýnský kroužek Ostraváků

Der Londoner-Ostrauerkreis Our Ostrava Group https://kingstonostravacircle.org/

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The Book: Ostrava and its Jews: ‘Now no-one sings you Lullabies’

Yes, we now have an agreed title for The Book: Ostrava and its Jews –‘Now no-one sings you Lullabies’. We continue to collect the photographs and the necessary permissions for reproduction in the book and that has taken up an enormous amount of time – much more than we ever expected – but the result will justify all the effort. As soon as we have a firm date for publication and prices for the book, we will circulate you.

Stolpersteine Gunter Demnig laid 5 Stolpersteine on 21st September, Rosh Hashannah, and plaques were fixed in the Ohel in memory of other families. Photographs are attached in the Appendix. We are very grateful to Dr Zdeněk Sladovník, the Head of Foreign Relations in the Ostrava Lord Mayor’s office for arranging all the legal formalities and organising the City engineers to deal with the practical matters; and to the Salomonovič family for checking all the names, dates, spellings and addresses. Without their help, none of this would have happened. There was a report of the Stolpersteine in the Local newspaper and a report on the local television: http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10122978233-udalosti-v-regionech-ostrava/417231100030921-udalosti-v-regionech/obsah/569891-stolpersteiny-v-ostrave

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News of Ostravaks

Mihal Efrat Mihal Efrat, née Evelina Shlachet, of Kibbutz Givat Chaim, passed away peacefully in her sleep on 21st August. She was 91.

Pavel Vransky Pavel Vransky wrote to us:

Dear David,

Being at 96 still alive I wish to thank you for your efforts to geather and

issue all the interesting informations about Ostravaks. Since WW2 I am

living in Prague and very sporadically visit Ostrava, conseqently I am happy

to read your Newsletters containing information, which I would otherwise

never know. It is nice to read about people and events I used to know or

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remember from my younger days . With thanks and best greatings to you

and everybody you love. Pavel Vranský

Michal and Josef Salomonovič Stefan Hanke has published the stories of 121 survivors from the Flossenbürg concentration camp, including Miša and Pepek:

KZ Überlebt. Porträts von Stefan Hanke Hatje Cantz Verlag Ostfildern Germany

Tom Kolisch Tom (far right) visited Ostrava at the end of July with his wife, Franzi, and his cousin Irena Brichta and her husband. Naturally, Libuše and Miša Salomonovič (on left) acted as tour guides!

Růžena Schönfeldová and Irena Wasserbergová Our indefatigable Libuše has found two Ostravak photographs in the Theresienstadt files:

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Růžena Schönfeldová Irena Wasserbergová

Hella Guth and Ernst Kaiser Ann Altman wrote to us about two ‘new’ Ostravaks, Hella Guth and Ernst Kaiser. If you know anything about either of them, please let Monica or David know.

John Eisner, has been in touch with the niece of an Ostravak artist, Hella Guth.

She was, apparently, close to John's father and also to mine. She mentions, as

noted below, an Ostravak of whom John and I have never heard, namely Ernst

Kaiser - one "leaf" of a "four-leaf clover" of escapees that consisted of John's

father, my father, Hella and Ernst.

Hella said that she crossed the border to Poland in 'late May' and that Otto and

Stephan were already there when she arrived at the hiding place. Hella, Otto,

Stephan Koerner and Ernst Kaiser then spent about 2 months waiting for their

visas and several of the sonnets (they wrote sonnets to pass the time) are

dated: one by Otto Eisner on 29/5/39, one by Ernst Kaiser on 30/5/39 and

another on 7/6/39. Hella's passport is stamped by the immigration Office on

26/6/39.

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Hella made a drawing of my father, which is

now in the Art Museum in Kiel (go figure!).

It is attached.

Warmest regards, Ann

Later information from Ann:

It seems that Kaiser was not a close friend from

Ostrava but somebody who arrived from Vienna,

via Prague, in Katowice and was briefly but

intensely involved with Stephan, Otto and Hella.

Hella Guth was briefly married to Otto Eisner. So

we know where she fits in. And Ernst might well

have been a friend of hers.

Antique Maps of Bohemia and Moravia Sandra Renton’s late husband, George né Reichenbaum, had two antique maps of Bohemia and Moravia. They were identified by another Ostravak, Peter Barber, formerly head of Maps at the British Library:

The bigger one was first published in Amsterdam in1708 by Chatelain, while

the other was first published by Robert Wilkinson in London in 1809. Both

could be re-issues of 1719 and 1825 respectively.

Sandra has donated them to the Czech Memorial Scrolls Museum in Westminster Synagogue.

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Bohemia and Moravia by Robert Wilkinson, London probably 1809

100th Anniversary of the Establishment of Czechoslovakia The Centenary of the Foundation of Czechoslovakia will be on 28th October 2018. To mark the occasion, The Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews is planning a special commemoration in December 2018. This will include a gathering of Czech Scrolls, organised with the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust. With nearly 400 in the New York area they are hoping for a very good turnout. We hope to be sending out “save the date” information next month.

750th Anniversary of Ostrava Radan has sent a copy of one of the panels from the exhibition for the 750th Anniversary of Ostrava, featuring ‘our’ Stolpersteine, attached in Appendix 2

Chanukah in Nisko Pepek has sent us some information about an exhibition in Vienna - Appendix 3

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New Year Greetings

Haskarah (Memorial) Book, Main Synagogue, Ostrava

We wish all our readers a

Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year

David Lawson 2 Voysey Close LONDON N3 3TR UK Tel: + 44 (0)20 8371 6870 Email: david@lawsonassoc.co.uk

Monica Popper

28 Exeter Court, Maple Road,

SURBITON, Surrey.

KT6 4AX. Tel: +44 (0)207 998 8863 Email: monsonn@talktalk.net

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Appendix 1 – Stolpersteine and Plaques

Radan Salomonovič (left) and Gunter Demnig

Dr Zdeněk Sladovník (Centre) and Gunter Demnig being interviewed for local television

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Cemetery Hall, Mr Hytka (left), the caretaker who fixed the plaques, and Miša Salomonovič

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Plaques in the Ohel (Cemetery Hall)

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Appendix 2: Ostrava Exhibition Panel

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Appendix 3 Chanukah in Nisko