Association of Jewish Refugees

The Association of Jewish Refugees
Founded July 1941
Type Social welfare agency
Location
Area served
 United Kingdom
Members
 ca. 3000
Key people
 Chairman: Andrew Kaufman; Chief Executive: Michael Newman
Volunteers
 ca. 120
Slogan Serving Holocaust refugees and survivors nationwide
Mission Provision of social welfare services to Holocaust refugees and survivors
Website http://www.ajr.org.uk

The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) is the specialist nationwide social and welfare services charity representing and supporting Jewish victims of Nazi oppression, and their dependants and descendants, living in Great Britain.

Historical overview

The AJR was established on 20 July 1941[1][2] to support and represent the interests of the estimated 70,000 Jewish Refugees from German-speaking countries[3] who fled to Britain to escape Nazi oppression before the Second World War. This number includes approximately 10,000 children who fled Nazi-controlled Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Britain on the Kindertransport between December 1938 and August 1939.[4]

As well as the refugees who arrived prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, AJR membership today includes several groups of post-war Jewish refugees from Europe including survivors from concentration camps and ghettos, child survivors as well as those who survived in hiding.

The children and grandchildren of refugees and survivors, the Second and Third Generations, are also entitled to be AJR members.

Social and welfare services

Social Work Department

The AJR has specialist social care workers who attend to the daily needs of AJR members and arrange home visits to members throughout the country. As well as assisting with applications for social security benefits they advocate on behalf of clients. In addition to disbursing its own funds, the AJR, acting on behalf of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference), administers emergency social, welfare and care funds which are allocated to pay for a number of services and essential items and designed to enable members to continue to live with dignity in their own homes for as long as possible. The Claims Conference negotiates annual funding for these programmes.

The Homecare scheme, which contributes to a specific number of hours of care in a person's home, has been prioritised by the German government and the Claims Conference.

The allocated funds are used to pay for a number of services and essential items including dental treatment and specialist clothing as well as urgent house repairs, recuperative and respite breaks and homecare packages.

There are specific and separate funds for Austrian and Hungarian Holocaust survivors as well as a general Emergency Fund and a Homecare programme for survivors and refugees from any country who meet the eligibility criteria.

Volunteers

In 2013 the AJR launched a ground breaking project to support our members with memory loss. All volunteers receive specialised training and regular supervision.

Computer Help Project

Many AJR members would like to learn how to use a computers to keep in touch with family and friend abroad or generally learn how to use Webpages such as Google or online newspapers. Volunteers with basic computer skills (Word, Excel, Internet, etc.) are required to visit them and assist them in using their computer. The time commitment will be about one hour every week or fortnight.

Outreach programme

The AJR operates 44 regional groups throughout the country where its members can socialise and share their experience.

Through this outreach programme the AJR has reunited former friends and acquaintances from more than 60 years ago.

In addition to organising meetings, outings and coffee mornings as well as garden and tea parties, AJR outreach co-ordinators arrange national and regional get-togethers, which involve a full day’s programme, including lunch and guest speakers and group discussion.

An extension of the network of regional groups is the AJR’s Continental Friends programme, which brings together former refugees who live in the same village or part of town for local meetings.

AJR Centre and Meals-on-Wheels

Following the closure of the Paul Balint AJR Centre, AJR members can now attend the Jewish Care Sobell Centre, which offers a selection of freshly cooked meals and a range of activities.

In addition to art classes, a card club and day trips, AJR members benefit from the services of a chiropodist and an in-house shop. The monthly Luncheon Club combines lunch with guest speakers and artists performing musical programmes. Transport to and from the Centre can be arranged.

Through the AJR Centre, frozen kosher meals can be delivered twice-weekly to members in the London area. Additionally, AJR members can take home these meals from the Centre.

Restitution and compensation claims

The AJR offers advice and assistance with claims for Holocaust-era compensation and the restitution of appropriated assets. As well as information about pensions, property and insurance policies, help is available for enquiries related to dormant bank accounts and lump sum reparations paid by individual governments or commissions. Although the deadlines for many reparation schemes have expired it is still possible to apply to certain programmes.

In addition to this guidance, the AJR lobbied the British Government to ensure that certain compensation awards are exempt from income, capital gains and inheritance taxes and that lump sum reparations are disregarded when calculating entitlement to social security benefits.

Through the Claims Conference, AJR assisted former forced and slave labourers with their claims to receive compensation from the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future".

Kindertransport

The Kindertransport (KT) is a special interest group of AJR. It represents those victims who arrived in Britain as children by Kindertransports fleeing from Nazi-occupied Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia prior to the start of the Second World War. The group arranges monthly meetings including guest speakers and regular activities. Current chairman of the Kindertransport planning committee is Sir Erich Reich.

Child Survivors Association

The Child Survivors Association (CSA) is also a special interest group of the AJR. The CSA committee arranges for guest speakers and the group offers mutual support in a relaxed social atmosphere where members can come together to discuss their experiences. The CSA is an affiliated member of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust.

Holocaust education, research and AJR supported projects

The AJR supports various projects to commemorate the Holocaust and to educate future generations.

The AJR Charitable Trust has given grants to institutions to develop programmes for the formal teaching of the Holocaust in schools, colleges and universities. It has also made grants to organisations that arrange and organise commemorative events, programmes and exhibitions.

Refugee Voices

AJR has produced an audio-visual testimony archive entitled Refugee Voices, which is a collection of 150 filmed interviews.

Refugee Voices enables Holocaust researchers and scholars to watch up to 450 hours of Holocaust testimony and read fully edited and transcribed accounts. Researchers are assisted by a catalogue with 44 separate categories and time-codes that, together with a summary sheet and key words section, direct users to specific sections of the films.

Each interview is accompanied by still shots of photos of family members and friends, places of importance for the interviewee and of other items or documents of special significance in the interviewee’s life.

In addition to exploring the contribution to Britain made by the refugees, the interviews cover the wide range of experiences of refugees and survivors and features interviews with Jewish Nazi victims who have rarely spoken about their experiences.

The project was directed Dr Anthony Grenville and Dr Bea Lewkowicz directing and is a resource for academics, researchers, educationalists and others with a professional interest in the field of refugee, migration and Holocaust studies. The collection has been designed precisely with the requirements of scholars and other professionals in mind.

Continental Britons

In conjunction with the Jewish Museum in London, the AJR produced the exhibition Continental Britons - Jewish Refugees from Nazi Europe, which presents the story of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi persecution in the German-speaking countries before the Second World War and came to Britain.[5]

Continental Britons us illustrated with documents, photographs, personal memoirs, artefacts and art works, and has a concise and authoritative commentary. The exhibition follows the journey of the refugees, how they arrived, where they settled, and their experience of hostels, foster families and internment as ‘enemy aliens’. It also touches on the dilemmas and challenges faced by all refugees, past and present, such as the loss of a secure home, the difficulties of adjusting to a new culture and the reception by British society.

Memorial Books

The AJR has produced a series of Holocaust Memorial Books that honour the families of individual AJR members living in different areas of the country.

Kindertransport survey

The AJR commissioned and has now published the survey Making New Lives in Britain which has recorded the Continental background, journey to Britain, reception and subsequent experiences and lives of more than 1,300 former refugees who escaped to Britain on the Kindertransport.

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

AJR Chief Executive Michael Newman is a member of the UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) (formerly the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (Holocaust Task Force), which consists of representatives of government, as well as governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Publications

All members of AJR receive the monthly AJR Journal that presents topical news analysis with feature articles as well as books, theatre and film reviews. It also contains profiles of personalities with a connection to the refugee community and promotes forthcoming AJR events and activities. Leslie Baruch Brent is a frequent contributor.

World Jewish Relief Archive

The AJR hosts the archive of the Jewish Refugees Committee (part of the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief). This archive contains the extensive confidential records of some 70,000 refugees who arrived in Britain to escape Nazi persecution.

Notes

  1. ↑ Grenville, A. 2010. Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in Britain, 1933-1970, London: Valentine Mitchell, pp. 47-48
  2. ↑ Grenville, A. 2008. The Association of Jewish Refugees. In: Grenville, A. and Reiter, A. eds. Refugee Organizations in Britain 1933-1945. Amsterdam - New York: Rodopi, p. 91.
  3. ↑ Grenville, A. 2010. Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in Britain, 1933-1970, London: Valentine Mitchell, preface
  4. ↑ Grenville, A. 2002. Continental Britons. London: The Association of Jewish Refugees and The Jewish Museum in London, p. 30
  5. ↑ For further information see: Grenville, A. 2002. Continental Britons. London: The Association of Jewish Refugees and The Jewish Museum in London

References

External links

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