Obituaries of Refugees and Survivors of the Holocaust from the AJR Journal 1955–2025 — Jewish Renaissance

Jewish refugees did not just advance the health of the nation. They brought culture, commerce and innovation to just about every professional field. The brilliant high flyers are impressive, but others missed out on formal education due to political turmoil and disrupted family life. Some picked it up later, became autodidacts or were enterprising, finding their niche, like Robert Bergman, who became an accountant at a textile firm and later set up on the markets, specialising in butcher’s aprons and crushed velvet. I hope some of his clientele wore both. Details like these conjure lives well lived, people in both the highest intellectual sphere and not, finding time to work for their own community and for the wider world.

Dipping into these biographies is a delight. Take Ludwig Koch MBE, who as a boy made the first-ever recording of a bird’s call. He kept a menagerie of creatures in his Berlin family apartment, including two baby alligators in the bath tub. He became resident birdwatcher at BBC Radio, broadcasting to millions of listeners. He was the David Attenborough of his time. His life is explored further in the film Alarm Notes, by his granddaughter Anthea Kennedy.