‘Learning my father’s Shoah testimony years later was almost cathartic’
Angela Cohen, the chair of the 45 Aid Society and daughter of one of the Boys, speaks about visiting Yad Vashem and discovering her father's testimony
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
The problem of communicating between generations was tackled in a concluding discussion at the AJR conference — with panellists Angela Cohen, Hannah Goldstone, and David Clark.
Danny Kalman, a trustee of the AJR, who chaired the session, is the son of a Kindertransport man from Frankfurt who arrived in Britain in 1939. But as he later made clear, for years he never spoke about his background or even his own Jewish identity. “I am able to be so much more open about things now”, he said.
Angela Cohen is the chair of the 45 Aid Society and daughter of one of the Boys, the young Jewish orphans who were allowed to come to Britain in 1945. But Moshe Malenicky, who lost his entire family in Nazi Europe, died in 2001 without talking much about his experiences. Three years later Angela and her family were on holiday in Israel and went on a casual visit to Yad Vashem.
To her shock, she discovered testimonials sent by her father in 1975. “It was the first time I knew his mother’s name — I’m named after her — or his father’s name. I did not know his brother’s name or the names of his four sisters”.
Learning such personal details and being able to talk about them years afterwards was “almost cathartic”, she said.
Hannah Goldstone, a member of the Yom HaShoah Manchester committee and the Northern Holocaust Education Group. Her grandfather, Martin Wertheim came to the UK on the Kindertransport. In 2009 Hannah completed a master’s degree in Holocaust Studies at the University of Manchester. She spoke about the mental health effect on both the Second and Third Generations, but also said that the background had encouraged her and her family to reach out to present-day refugees.
David Clark is an active member of Second Generation Network, whose parents were refugees from Berlin; his mother arriving on the Kindertransport. He was on the editorial committee of JewishRenaissance, Second Generation Voices and currently Exiled Ink, devoted to works by exiled and refugee writers in the UK. He co-edited, with Teresa von Sommaruga Howard, a book on Second Generation journeys to where parents or grandparents came from, to be published by Peter Lang.
READ MORE:
- Extensive new online archive of ‘The Boys’ launched
- Hundreds take part in AJR conference bridging gap of generations
- Young Germans promote Shoah reconciliation against backdrop of populism
- Elie Wiesel’s son: ‘My father sheltered me quite a bit from knowledge of the Shoah’
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
