Émigré Voices
The Émigré Voices collection consists of all my interviews with Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria conducted between 2000 and 2002. The first 17 audio interviews were carried out for a research project on Belsize Square Synagogue, which was founded by German Jews in 1939. The second group of 20 video interviews were filmed for a film installation in the Continental Britons exhibition at the Jewish Museum.
Belsize Square Synagogue
For the Belsize Square project, I interviewed 17 women and men, among them 15 former refugees, a member of the second generation, the writer and performer Robin Hirsch, who grew up in the Belsize Square synagogue and the then rabbi, Rabbi Rodney Mariner:
Interviewees: Paul Alexander, Norbert Cohn, Miriam Cohn, Heddy Friedmann, Robin Hirsch, Henry Kuttner, Ben Lachman, Steffi Lachman, Herbert Levy, Lilian Levy MBE, David Maier, Estelle Maier, Hanni, Lichtenstern, Charles Strauss, Irene White, Robin Hirsch, Rabbi Rodney Mariner
-1.png)
Continental Britons
For the Continental Britons film installation, I carried out 20 video interviews, many of them included in the final film, which you can watch below. The interviewees were chosen because they were either prominent public figures, such as Judith Kerr or Norbert Brainin or they had an interesting connection to the German/Austrian refugee history in London, such as Doris Balacs who owned the Dorice restaurant on Finchley Road, an important meeting place for many. Theo Marx and Ludwig Spiro who were closely involved with the Association of Jewish Refugees. The first twelve interviews have been published in Émigré Voices: Conversations with Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria (Brill 2021).
Interviewees: Doris Balacs, Norbert Brainin OBE, Anton Walter Freud. Richard Grunberger, Daisy Hoffner, Lucie Kaye (Schachne), Judith Kerr OBE, Elly Miller, Claus Moser KCB CBE, Andrew Sachs, Hans Seelig, Wolfgang Suschitzky, Ken Ambrose, Michael Rosenstock, Josephine Bruegel, Edith Rothschild, Theo Marx, Ludwig Spiro, Ruth Barnett, Hilde Kochmann.
