This evening – Monday 22nd April – will be the beginning of Passover, when Jewish families all over the world will be sitting down to the Passover Seder.
Every year, the Passover story is told. How we, the Jewish people, were once slaves in Egypt and are now free.
Jesus, who of course was Jewish – as were his disciples – was celebrating the Passover meal (Seder) at The Last Supper.
Passover often coincides with Easter – hence the first line of this poem. It also often coincides with my birthday – though not this year I am glad to say. Growing up this meant that I rarely enjoyed traditional birthday cake or a birthday tea. Having said that, Passover biscuits such as cinnamon balls are so yummy that I often wonder why we don’t have them all year round!
PASSOVER DITTY
When you’re celebrating *Easter,
it’s Passover for me,
no bread or cake or biscuits,
just matzos for our tea!
We have to eat unleavened bread
that’s matzo don’t you know,
they’re rather tasty crackers
but for eight days it’s a blow.
We cannot bake with flour
so use substitutes instead,
coconut and ground almonds
because there isn’t any bread.
It’s the festival of freedom
when we fled Egypt long ago
but just as relevant today
with what’s going on you know!
NB – I wrote this poem last year when Passover was, as it so often is, at Easter.
If you would like my recipe for cinnamon balls, please let me know.
I wrote the post below in July, 2021 and feel it is vital to share it again – particularly as today – the 27th January 2024 – is Holocaust Memorial Day.
It is even more important now after the shocking atrocities that took place in Israel on October 7th 2023 when Hamas terrorists and their supporters not only brutally murdered innocent men, women, children and babies in their homes but also raped, dismembered, brutalised, murdered and burnt alive young peace-loving people and their families, many of whom were friends and supporters of the people living in Gaza.And the fate of the 132 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza is unknown.
What’s more, the subsequent “pro-Palestinian” marches which we have been seeing every weekend on our streets in central London have left many British Jews feeling isolated and fearful – many of whom now feel they have to hide their Jewish identity. This, in Britain, in 2024.
After the Holocaust we said, “Never Again”. What can we say now?
A survey conducted in 2021, and reported in The Guardian newspaper, said that over half of the people living in Britain did not know that 6 million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust. 67 % of UK respondents wrongly believed that the British government allowed all or some immigration, when in fact it shut the door to Jewish immigration at the outbreak of the Second World War.
76% had not heard of the Kindertransport, an initiative that was set up between 1938 and 1939 to rescue nearly 10,000 refugee Jewish children and bring them to Britain. Sadly, this initiative did not include their parents, most of whom were murdered in the concentration camps (see map below).
In addition, nearly two thirds of young adults in the United States were also unaware that 6 million Jewish men, women and children were murdered in the Holocaust. Indeed, the Washington Post reported similar statistics in 2018 – that two thirds of millennials didn’t know what the Holocaust was!
It seems that Holocaust Education is sadly lacking in this country. I believe it is meant to be part of our School Curriculum, but clearly it is not being taught as well as it might. That could go in some way to explain the huge surge in hatred of Jews and the appalling wave of antisemitism that happens in this country every time there is any kind of conflict in Israel.
In the summer of 2022 OH (my other half) and I were on vacation in Windermere, in the Lake District.
We saw a sign which aroused our curiosity. It read, “From Auschwitz to Ambleside”. We discovered that an exhibition was being held at Windermere library which concerned the Windermere Boys, a group of Jewish children who were brought to Windermere in 1945. Unfortunately for us, the exhibition was not open for more tours until the following week.
Those of you who saw the TV documentary, The Windermere Boys and the follow up documentary where the survivors, now adults, were interviewed, will know that 300 Jewish children who had miraculously survived concentration camps, were brought to Windermere in 1945.
Having seen the documentary on TV, we were very keen to see this exhibition but we were leaving Windermere the next day. I sent an email to the museum asking if there was any possibility of our seeing it. We did not require a tour, I wrote, but could wander around on our own. To my surprise I received a reply shortly afterwards saying that the museum could be opened up for us at 11am the following day.
The following morning, an unassuming man met us on the doorstep of the museum and let us in. He spoke knowledgeably about the exhibition and then left us to wander round on our own.
There were photographs of “the boys” – although some of them were girls! News clippings from the time told how the children had been housed on what had been the site of aircraft workers’ homes – the Calgarth Estate. They were looked after by a Rabbi, a doctor, nurses, teachers and child welfare officers. The plan was to eventually find them permanent homes as none of their parents could be traced and were presumed dead.
It was only later on our way home, when reading a pamphlet we had bought at the exhibition, that we realised that the unassuming man who had kindly opened up the library for us was none other than Trevor Avery, the man who had been the impetus behind the exhibition and both TV documentaries.
It all began in 2005 when he was at an exhibition concerning the factory where the Short Sunderland “Flying Boat”, the largest aircraft of its time, had been built. There was a photo of the Calgarth Estate, where the workers had been housed, on display. Trevor Avery happened to hear a chance remark, “Of course, you know, this is where the children from Auschwitz came ….”
Other than the locals, no one had known about this as it had been kept out of the press at the time. Avery made contact with the Jewish children who had been brought to the Lake District and talked to members of the local community who remembered them. He then set about documenting these stories and was instrumental in founding the Lake District Holocaust Project. The survivors still return to the Lake District for reunions and several of them have shared their experiences of the Holocaust with local schoolchildren.
In 2016 Avery was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for Services to Heritage in the Lake District. Without his painstaking research and inspirational work in reuniting the Windermere children, none of us would ever have known their remarkable story. We were privileged to meet him.
The next day, moved by what I had seen and learnt, I wrote this poem:
The Children of Windermere
Do you know the story of Windermere?
If you would listen, come and hear
How love and kindness can conquer fear.
300 children in 45
All of them lucky to be alive
They’d witnessed terror, murder and hate
And were given refuge on the Calgarth Estate
A beautiful place, tranquil and calm
Was the setting for those
Who had suffered such harm.
Windermere, Windermere
If you would listen, come and hear
How love and kindness can conquer fear.
Some of them were as young as three
How they survived just baffles me
What they only suffered, what they’d only seen
Can’t be imagined, it’s far too obscene.
The Windermere children were all united
Hoping one day to be reunited
With siblings, parents and all they loved dear
And meanwhile they lived in Windermere.
Windermere, Windermere
If you would listen, come and hear
How love and kindness can conquer fear.
Here they were safe to run free and play
Escaping the hell they’d left far away.
They were nurtured, comforted, schooled and fed
And began to heal from the lives they’d led.
The nightmares they had, began to recede
They were children again
From that life they’d been freed.
Windermere, Windermere
If you would listen, come and hear
How love and kindness can conquer fear.
By the side of the Lakes
They flourished and grew
Began to plan for a future too
They learned to live
And live without fear
The 300 children of Windermere.
Those children grew up
And moved away
Had children of their own one day
Yet they still tell their story today.
Yes, the children grew up
And made lives of their own
But they never forgot their Windermere home.
Windermere, Windermere
If you would listen, come and hear
How love and kindness can conquer fear.
Written after a visit to the “From Auschwitz to Ambleside”
Exhibition at the Windermere Museum
24/7/2021
READ THIS ARTICE ABOUT WHEN PRINCE CHARLES (NOW KING CHARLES) MET SOME HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS AND ALSO WATCH THE VIDEO.
If you have read this far, I also strongly recommend you see the recently released film, “One Life” about the late Sir Nicholas Winton who, with what came to be known as The Kindertransport, rescued 669 mostly Jewish children, many of whose parents were subsequently murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns, better known as Rabbie Burns, who died on 21 July 1796 at the age of 37.
He is celebrated all over the world and especially today, January 25th, on his birthday. We have Burns Night when people come together to recite his poetry and sing his songs.
He’s probably best known for having written Auld Lang Syne, the song we often sing in the UK on New Year’s Eve – Hogmanay in Scotland.
Auld Lang Syne means “for the sake of old times”. The song asks the question, “Is it right that old times be forgotten?” Here Burns is talking about friendship but one could equally well relate this to the times of the pandemic we are living through now.
Most of us only know the first eight lines and the chorus of Auld Lang Syne but here it is in full followed by a translation in English (courtesy of Wikipedia) for all of us who are unable to follow the Scottish dialect!
Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot And days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet For days of auld lang syne
We twa hae run about the braes And pu’d the gowans fine But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit Sin days of auld lang syne
We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn Frae morning sun till dine But seas between us braid hae roar’d Sin days of auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet For days of auld lang syne
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp And surely I’ll be mine And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet For auld lang syne
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere And gie’s a hand o’ thine And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught For auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet For auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet For auld lang syne
What is Burns saying? What does it mean?
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. And surely you’ll buy your pint cup! and surely I’ll buy mine! And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne. We two have run about the hills, and picked the daisies fine; But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne. We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine; But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.
My love is like a red, red rose
Here is the Robert Burns romantic poem “My love is like a red, red rose”. Its beautiful melody and lyrics have been sung by many including my beloved uncle Ben (Benvenuto Finelli) whom I wrote about in my blog of 6 November, 2020, “Trump, Biden, Neidle. What’s in a name?” He sang it so sweetly and movingly that it is forever etched in my memory. When I read the poem I can still picture my uncle Ben singing the song as if it were yesterday.
My love is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June My love is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in love am I And I will love thee still, my dear, Till all the seas gang dry.
Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt with the sun And I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee well, my only love, And fare thee well a while! And I will come again, my love, Thou’ t’were ten thousand mile.
The last poem I have chosen is another favourite of mine, “John Anderson my jo, John”.
This is another poem about friendship, time and ageing. He writes that when they first knew one another, John’s hair was black and now it is white, how they adventured together and the fun they had. And that even though they are now old they will remain friends unto and beyond death.
It’s a very moving poem about ageing, friendship and love. Again, to my mind, very appropriate for the times we are in now.
John Anderson my jo, John
John Anderson my jo, John
When we were first acquent,
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bonie brow was brent;
But now your brow is beld, John,
Your locks are like the snaw,
but blessings on your frosty pow,
John Anderson, my jo!
John Anderson my jo, John,
We clamb the hill thegither,
And monie a cantie day, John,
We’ve had wi’ ane anither;
Now we maun totter down, John,
And hand in hand we’ll go,
And sleep thegither at the foot,
John Anderson, my jo!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot? In these challenging times, love and friendship are the bonds that give us strength.The things that keep us human. And sane.
“We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.”
My Life in Poems 