Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter Issue No 3 July 1999 page 4
Missing Persons List
This is our current list of "missing persons". If you are on this list—or know someone listed below—please contact us, so that we can add to the mailing list. If you are not on our mailing list and are not listed here, please also let us know.
Hazel Bernard Miss H Barnett P Burnett Rita Benjamin Natie Baum Richard Baker David Baker Jane Brechner Matthew Bookey & family N J Castle Michael Cohen Gwen & Judy Collins Harry, Betty & Marlene Ellman S Garbutt Essie Gleitman Ms (Kaufman) Grossman C Goulding Harold Halson S Hillman S Horwich Susan Isserlin J Jones A Joseph Mrs H Kaufman Gerald Kay Susan Klyman Brenda Lapp Mrs H A Lay Diane & David Lazarus Estelle Levy S Lipman Brian & Linda Lipman Meli Mahler Eve (Halson) Oppenheim B Ruschin Jane & Fay Rurka F Russell Sheila (Richman) & Simeon Rydz Sylvia Schalk Yvie & Wendy Schoemann Barbara & Joyce Segal Helen Shorvon David & Elaine Sive Susan Smollan Alan Solomons S A Summerfield Gertie & Dina Turtledove P Van der Velde Mrs C West 20 "Hostel Girls" Letters
The front page story about John Abels was close to my heart. When I lived in Middlesbrough I worked for a company near Redcar called Thomas Mouget. It was owned by a German/French Jewish family, headed by Sigmund Wolf. They specialised in the recovery of reusable scrap steel, normally thrown away by the steel making companies during the process of making steel. John Abels was a close friend of Henry Schoemann, my boss and joint managing director, and he acted as the company doctor. Both families had a great love of opera and Henry Schoemann’s wife Alicia had been an opera singer for Mexican State Radio during the war.
The other joint managing director was Julius Englander, who had joined Mouget immediately after the war, when, as an alien, he had been interned in the UK. He died suddenly and I was appointed to the Board as a Director shortly afterwards.
The company tried to help the M’bro Jewish community through employment and particularly helped members down on their luck. Apart from myself, there was Erich Fleischmann, Vic Couriel, Mr Schalk, Sam Solomons and Julius Englander’s brother in law Oscar Dymschytz.
My 3 sons were born in M’bro. Charles, who now lives in Bet Horon near Jerusalem, David who lives in Maidenhead, and Richard who lives in Muswell Hill. Stuart Kohn Houghton le Spring, England
An anecdote I have was told to me by Rev Kersh, who, as you know, always wore a dog collar. I don't think I’m betraying any secrets to say he was partial to the odd drink or two. He told me how on one occasion the car he was driving was stopped by a police patrol vehicle. However, on seeing the dog collar, the policeman, a devout Catholic (one of the many Catholics descended from the Irish navvies who built the town in the nineteenth century) was mortified at what he had done and begged the "father" to bless him. Thinking as quickly as he could under the circumstances Rev Kersh translated an appropriate Hebrew prayer, waived to the policeman in a fashion that approximated to a well known Catholic gesture, and drove off! Michael Niman London, England
I am Chaim Rockman. I wish to locate anyone who might have known my father, Peter (Adolph) Rochman, who came to M’bro in March 1939 aged 29 from Leipzig and lived with his cousins, the Schmulewitsch family, in the Grey House until 1942. I am in touch with my cousin, Freddy Fishburn, but any further information would be useful. P O B 40017 Mevasseret, Israel Tel 00972 534 4452/533 6294 Email: [email protected]
I am the last surviving member of the Margolin family who lived in Middlesbrough. I left in 1926 when I was 12 years old, but my brother Con stayed on after the family left. We lived in Newport Road, not too far from the Brentnall Street Shul.
I wish you success in your undertaking. Phyllis Sacks Syracuse, NY, USA
Obituary
Julian Simon, born in M’bro in 1920, died in Brighton in May 1999. The family lived in Southfield Road. He is survived by his wife, twin daughters and his twin sisters, Bea and Rita.
Answers to Quiz in Issue no 2
1. Habonim and Scouts – Girl Guides. 2. Rabbi Drucker of Newcastle 3. World War One: David Smollan World War Two: Capt Sammy Segerman 4. Rev Shalom and Hanna Cohen. 5. Opposite the Assembly Rooms, Linthorpe Road.
6. (i) Ms Gibson (ii) Mr Starling (iii) Mr W W Fletcher