Letters - 14 May 2021
From Kindertransport to Language
Kindertransport
Having been a Jewish seeker all my life I became a Quaker in 2008. While the Quakers certainly saved many Jews in the Holocaust they were by no means the only organisation to do so. From early 1939 the Red Cross took children to England and Sweden where my three-and-a-half-year-old brother was fostered and became a Swedish citizen. British Jewish synagogues raised money and set up small hostels and schools for Jewish boys and brought in children who they fostered and helped families to enter Britain and settle, some near Leicester. Some Christian churches helped, the most important of which were the Christadelphians, a small pacifist, fundamentalist sect who believe in the importance of Jesus the Jew and his people. They were well organised and worked tirelessly, housing many Jewish children, young Jewish men and some families.
The actual Kindertransport was organised by Nicholas Winton, an affirmed agnostic, knighted in his nineties, to whom I owe my life. I arrived at Liverpool Street Station on 1 July 1939 aged seven and a half with a small suitcase, my passport, birth certificate and label around my neck but no sponsoring family to collect me. My mother, unable to find a sponsor family, in desperation had simply put me on the train into the arms of young girls. I had no idea what was happening but had learned three valuable English words: ‘Thank you’ and ‘Toilet’. Mrs Winton, who helped at Liverpool Street Station, contacted the Christadelphian refugee office in Rugby who sent an elder couple from the Coventry Ecclesia to rescue me. I grew up in their home in Kenilworth, nurtured by them and their friends, and have since had a fulfilling life. Many members of my family were not so fortunate. It is important that we keep the facts as accurate as possible. Peter Kurer (9 April) and others may be interested to look on the Wikipedia website where they will find detailed information and photographs of eminent Quakers and Jews and the statues of Nicky Winton and Kinder at Liverpool Street Station.
Nicky himself would say: ‘That’s over and done with. Get on with the next job!’ But let us keep the record straight.
Greta Parker
A debt of gratitude
It’s not often that I find myself in tears at Meeting, but it happened on Sunday at our business meeting when we received a letter from Bath Meeting to tell us that they had decided to sell their Meeting house rather than go ahead with the major renovations for which we had sent a donation.
We had friends in Bath in the 1980s and worshipped there quite regularly. It was such a beautiful building but, more than that, it marked two important life events for me. I was worshipping there in the 1980s when my father died suddenly and unexpectedly. No mobile phones then, of course, and we had driven home to Cornwall before I heard and I had to set out again. I’ve always been glad that I knew just where I was, and in worship at the moment he died.
The second event was that the newly formed Quaker lesbian group met at Bath Friends Meeting House at its second weekend meeting. This was during the miners’ strike of 1984-85. Our first meeting had been in Cardiff.
These meetings were quite daring in those days when many traditional Christians, including even some Quakers, considered homosexuality to be sinful, and some Meetings would not accept us. Many did, however, and we stayed for the whole weekend, sleeping on the Meeting house floors.
I’m in my eighties now and live in a care home, so those days are past for me, but I’m told that many modern young lesbians stay in guest houses these days! How times change! We owe a debt of gratitude to the many wonderful Friends who welcomed and still welcome lesbian groups to their Meeting houses, and to their Sunday Meetings for Worship, especially the many wardens who found things for us which we had forgotten to bring. I’m sure they still do! I do wish Bath Friends joy and peace in their new surroundings.
Judith Weeks
Cultural bias
Thank you Joanna Dales for the timely account of Quaker cultural bias as revealed in John William Graham’s unconscious prejudices (23 April). I have always admired Graham as the first (sympathetic) historian of conscientious objection in the first world war, but I was not fully aware of his views on India and British imperialism – views shared by many Friends in his time, which we would now see as racism.
His belief in Britain’s ‘manifest destiny’ and duty to banish ‘hopeless darkness from all the waste places of the earth’ and his hostility to Mohandas Gandhi’s nonviolence is particularly shocking, given his prominence in the ‘Quaker Renaissance’.
I am reminded of the story where Gandhi was asked what he thought of western civilisation, to which he replied ‘I think it would be a very good thing’.
David Boulton
Renaming room and more
Eric Walker (30 April) considers the renaming of the William Penn Room [in Friends House] as being deplorable, in part because in the seventeenth century ‘Owning slaves was then the norm. Only a few people protested against it’.
However, even in the seventeenth century those enslaved, transported, bought, sold and whipped into working were not so accepting of their situation. They protested, resisted and rebelled and were right to do so. Black lives matter then just as much as they matter now.
I think as Friends we should eschew moral relativism.
Tim Amor
When I read that the name of the William Penn Room was to be changed, I was initially surprised but decided more reflection was needed on my part. I am still surprised at the way the decision was taken and the fact that it was taken by trustees. Did the trustees imagine that this decision could be taken in isolation? Was it part of a hasty response to accusations of racism in Friends House? Does this decision say anything about how Friends should now respond to the twenty or so quotes from William Penn in Quaker faith and practice?
I am in full sympathy with the moves to address white privilege and racism in our Society. However, this decision needs the discernment of the wider group of Friends because of its implications.
John Babb
I share the concern of Eric Walker regarding the role of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees and the sidelining of Meeting for Sufferings.
Eric was addressing the issue of the naming of rooms but another potentially more important issue is emerging. It has recently become known that plans are well developed for the restructuring of the work of Quaker Peace & Social Witness. This has already resulted in job losses among highly committed and experienced staff. The explicit proposals have not come before Meeting for Sufferings. Friends who pay their quota to BYM have had little part in the discernment as to what pieces of work (if any) should be laid down.
At the same time that further job losses are on the table, recruitment is taking place for local development workers. While I mainly support this initiative, can it be right to be making new appointments while other staff are fearing redundancy? This is especially the case in the context of a pandemic.
It is not clear to me where these decisions are being made but it doesn’t feel like ‘right ordering’.
Katey Earle
Language
The Quaker values of honesty and simplicity suggest that Britain Yearly Meeting and Quakers generally must cease using such words as ‘religious’, ‘ministry’, ‘faith’, ‘worship’, ‘elder’, ‘church’, ‘Spirit’ and ‘God’. These words are associated with Jesus and Christian spirituality or history. This will not do for our enlightened age and the needs of contemporary seekers.
The use of the term ‘Friend’ is still appropriate as the Johannine origins and meaning do not register with people.
This type of language is surely why Quakers are in decline.
Daniel Hughes
Comments
I confess to being a little confused by the sense of urgency and even perhaps even more in your letter . Why exactly ” must “we cease using these words ?. You suggest for the reasons of “Quaker testimonies to honestly and simplicity “. Are these ideas then complicated ? or deceitful ? I do not think you are implying that . Cannot they be, in fact ,honestly and plainly held ?. Many Quakers indeed do so. I am one such . If not ,why not ? and exactly why will they ” not do for our enlightened age” .Why not ? They might not do much work for you , and you do not have to use them but am I not allowed , as one of those “Quakers generally” to use them if they do for me .? What’s wrong with them ? -Perhaps there is some confusion here between our language, which grapples with the large questions of the meaning of life ,spirituality, and searching and our present struggle with inequality racism and sexism . These words are not ,are they , in such categories .So why ” must we cease using such words “? Must is a very , very strong word used sparingly by the Religious Society of Friends . Might it not be construed as a non -inclusive sentiment ( just as racism and sexism ,in fact are ). Do please explain . I hope we all learn from what is written as a caption above the letters page , perhaps as a reminder to us all. ” In essentials unity , in non-essentials liberty , in all things charity .”
By Neil M on 13th May 2021 - 12:40
Esther Rantzen makes very good, evocative and memorable programmes. The one about Nicholas Winton was one such. It has embedded the public belief that “The actual Kindertransport was organised by Nicholas Winton …”. This is simply not true.
What Winton did, and did very effectively, was to find homes willing to sponsor and foster some 699 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia out of the 10,000 who were rescued by the Kinderstansports from across those parts of Europe where they were under threat – Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, the Free City of Danzig and some trapped in a bureaucratic no-mans land between Germany and Poland.
The inspiration for the Kindertransports came from the Central British Fund for German Jewry, at the prompting of The Board of Deputies of British Jews. They approached the then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, but their request was rejected. That is where the Quakers came in. Together they approached the then Home Secretary – Sir Samuel Hoare – who was from a Quaker background – and persuaded him to support the scheme. With consent agreed at the British end, the next problem was getting consent at the German end. A party of American and British Quakers travelled to the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin and achieved just that. Whilst the Gestapo high command debated their request, the Quakers held an impromptu Meeting for Worship right there in Gestapo Headquarters. Clearly something happened, as every detail of what they asked for was agreed to. The scheme was extended to cover Czechoslovakia after its annexation in March 1939.
Doreen Warriner was in charge of British efforts to assist those fleeing from the German occupation in Prague. She delegated the UK end of the Czech Kindertransports to Nicholas Winton, and delegated the dangerous and difficult end in Prague, first to Trevor Chadwick, and then when Chadwick had to flee, to Bill Barazetti, and finally to the Canadian Quaker, Beatrice Wellington. They are the unsung heroes who actually got the Children to the UK.
By D.Lockyer on 16th May 2021 - 15:57
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