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.

 

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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:

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Paul Alexander

Norbert Cohn

Miriam Cohn

Heddy Friedmann

Robin Hirsch

Henry Kuttner

Ben Lachman

Steffi Lachman

Herbert Levy

Lilian Levy

David Maier

Estelle Maier

Hanni Lichtenstern

Charles Strauss

Irene White

Robin Hirsch

Rabbi Rodney Mariner  

 

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For the Continental Britons film installation, I carried out 20 video interviews, not all of them were shown in the final film. They 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, or 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).    

 

Doris Balacs

Norbert Brainin

Anton Walter Freud

Richard Grunberger

Daisy Hoffner

Lucie Kaye (Schachne)

Judith Kerr

Elly Miller

Claus Moser (Baron Moser)

Andrew Sachs

Hans Seelig

Wolfgang Suschitzky

Ken Ambrose

Michael Rosenstock

Josephine Bruegel

Edith Rothschild

Theo Marx

Ludwig Spiro

Ruth Barnett

Hilde Kochmann