Northern Lights

Three years ago, Jewish News collaborated with the now Princess of Wales on a profoundly moving collection of photographic portraits of Holocaust survivors which went on display at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London. Kate took two of the photos herself. The exhibition is opening at IWM North in Manchester on Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) and features four new photographs by Simon Hill, president of the Royal Photographic Society. Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors contains works from 13 contemporary photographers, all members and fellows of RPS, of which The Princess of Wales is a patron. The photos capture the special connection between the survivors and the younger members of their families.

Kate described the survivors in her portraits as “two of the most life-a rming people that I have had the privilege to meet. I look back on their experiences with sadness but also gratitude that they were some of the lucky few to make it through. Their stories will stay with me forever.”

One of her subjects was Yvonne Bernstein, who was photographed with her 11-year-old granddaughter Chloe. “I had a very good model, says Kate. “She was fantastic. It was very special, and I was very honoured.” She told Yvonne at the time: “You were very patient.”

“I came out pretty well!” laughed Yvonne. The inclusion of the four new photographs was arranged by The Fed, Manchester’s largest Jewish social care organisation. Raphi Bloom, director of fundraising, marketing and communications, says: “The larger and more prominent Holocaust events are, naturally, very London centric. The national Holocaust charities are located in London and if events take place around Parliament or with the Royal Family, naturally these will take place in the capital. However, the incredible survivors in Manchester and the north west should be recognised and since joining The Fed I have worked hard to ensure that, via the My Voice project, more of a spotlight is shone on them. .”

My Voice project, run by The Fed, publishes

Manchester, in their own voices. To date 34 books are in print, with 10 more in production. The original concept for this unique project was provided by Margit Cohen, a survivor, who came to the UK on the Kindertransport in 1938. She told Juliette Pearce, who manages the project: “I need you to tell my life story, my whole life story, before I die”.

All the newly-photographed survivors were honoured and excited to be included in the project. “This is one of the most imports jobs I’ve done, says Simon Hill. “Certainly one of those I’ve enjoyed most. To meet the survivors has been an incredible honour. I hope the exhibition moves on and takes everyone’s story with it to new venues. .”

Itzki ‘Ike’ Alterman was born in 1928 in Poland. He survived four concentration camps and a death march. After the war he came to England as one of the Windermere Children and established a thriving jewellery business in Manchester. Just before Yom Kippur in 1942 at the age of 13 Ike faced selection in the square of the ghetto in Ostrowiec. His mother, sister and brother were marched out of the square at gunpoint and taken to Treblinka where they were murdered immediately. The abiding memory he has is of his little brother, with his hands raised, a rifle pointed at him walking away. Ike and his father were sent to a forced labour camp and were then separated. To be pictured in Peel Square in Manchester, the city that became his home and where he raised a family, and built a business and rebuilt his life, with his daughters Elaine and Fiona and granddaughter Danni, is hugely symbolic.

Anne Super was born in Warsaw in 1938. In 1941 as Germans marched her family from their home, her mother pushed her through a hedge to a waiting milkwoman, who saved her life. Anne never saw her parents again. She spent the war years hidden and later emigrated to South Africa and became an optometrist. She married Maurice, had three children and moved to Manchester. Anne is pictured with one of her sons, Jon, and grandchildren Monty and Elana, among the greenery of her conservatory, resonating with the hedge towards which she was pushed by her mother to save her life.

Werner Lachs, 96, born in Germany, fled to England in 1939 with the help of British Secret Intelligence Servicer O cer Frank Foley. His wife Ruth, 86, was born in Hamburg and survived the war hidden in several locations, including a sandpit overnight in Holland. She was helped by the Underground Workers group. Ruth and Werner married in 1962. They have three children, nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. They are pictured with their hanukkiah and three of their greatgrandchildren, Amaya, Dana and Joshua. “It won’t be forgotten the terrible times we had with the Nazis and we hope it never happens again,” says Ruth. “It’s just a reminder to people that the generations have made a decent life after the war for themselves. I think about it, but thank goodness we came out of it.”

Marianne Philipps was born in Berlin. After the November pogrom of 1938, she travelled alone on the Kindertransport to England. She is photographed with her two children, Frank and Miriam, and two of her grandchildren, Samuel and Naomi. Marianne is holding the chronicle on the Hirsch family history, written by Marianne’s father Martin, who was murdered in Auschwitz along with her younger brother. Marianne has always loved needlework, like her mother. Her grandson is holding one of the tapestries that Marianne created.

• Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors opens at IWM North on Friday 27 January. Admission is free. www.iwm.org.uk

The German Girl

Can you ‘date’ a country? When Jewish theatremaker Anna Clover went through a bereavement, Brexit and a bad break up, she decided to make some changes. When she suggested getting back together with her ex, her friends were appalled, and her family felt the same way when she ‘jumped into bed’ with Germany. In Clover’s comedy show Going Deutsch at Vault festival next weekend, she playfully explores whether she should return to live in Germany by ‘dating’ the country o ering her citizenship, despite taking the lives (and passports) of so many who came before her. “I first had the idea for Going Deutsch a er Brexit when I discovered I was eligible to receive a German passport as a descendant of victims of Nazi persecution,” she says. “What I hadn’t anticipated was the range of perspectives others in my family had about taking this passport back. The way they talked about it reminded me of the language around people who return to abusive partners and the idea for Going Deutsch was born. It is a show about cultural connection, being part of a diaspora and what we inherit from those who went before.”

GoingDeutschis at Vault Festival, London SE1 on 4 and 5 February. www.vaultfestival.com

Sad Dad

The Jewish trio of Harrison Ford, Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) and Rachel Stubington appear in Shrinking on Apple Tv+, launching this Friday. The show follows grieving therapist James Laird (Segel), who copes by breaking his rules as a therapist by telling his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives, including his own. Ford plays his boss.

LA-born Rachel (right), who spent her childhood summers performing for her friends at Jewish sleepaway camp, plays Summer, a fun-loving high schooler who likes to party and have a good time with her best friend Alice, Segel’s daughter.

Rachel’s character helps Alice and her father deal with the loss of her mother/his wife.

Lockdown Lyricist

A strange thing happened to former journalist Linda Ze during the first lockdown in 2020. In the early hours of every morning, unable to sleep, she found herself composing ridiculously jolly, tongue-in-cheek songs about Covid. No seeing family, no parties, no loo paper, no kissing, no travel, no weddings, no holidays, no flour… there was certainly no end of material to call on! With the help of composer Jonathan Whiting and musical director Jamie Noar, her songs have been turned into Covid:The Cabaret,a lighthearted musical evening about the lockdowns that will premiere on 7 February in Finchley. She’s particularly excited to be collaborating with her actress daughter Laura Allen, who first appeared on the West End stage aged six and is not only one of the performers but also the show’s producer, director and choreographer. It promises to be a unique evening. Covid the Cabaret is at the Bohemia pub in Finchley on 7 February. For tickets visit www.lauraallenactor.co.uk

Music Maestro

&Violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) is being honoured with a blue plaque on the house in Belgravia where he lived, worked and entertained for the last 16 years of his life. A child prodigy, Yehudi Menuhin was probably the most famous violinist of the 20th century. He believed that music was for everyone and was dedicated to the education of young musicians, founding the Yehudi Menuhin School for Music (1963) and International Menuhin Music Academy (1977). Much of his teaching and mentoring took place in his studio on the fourth floor of his home, where he also practised yoga – including his famous headstand.