Discover the stories of Jewish refugees and survivors who found sanctuary in Britain in this new book
In this meticulously researched volume, Andrew Kaufman and Dr Bea Lewkowicz have produced a fascinating testament to the contributions made to British life by 440 remarkable Jewish individuals. The obituaries were chosen from some 1,400 published by the AJR (Association of Jewish Refugees) between 1955 and 2025, five of which are of Nobel Prize winners, including biochemist Sir Ernst Boris Chain, who together with Sir Alexander Fleming and Lord Florey discovered penicillin and its curative effect in 1945.
Uprooted Lives is a social history, reflecting the attitudes of society, as well as those of the original writers and of the refugee community. Most of the people listed were born in Germany and about two thirds are men. Only 10 women were memorialised in the first 24 years of the AJR publication and earlier entries describe women mostly involved in community, education and youth work; even the psychoanalysts Melanie Klein and Anna Freud focused on other people’s children.
Later obituaries demonstrate the gradual expansion of women into professional life. The final tribute in this book is to philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley, who came to the UK on the Kindertransport aged five. In the early 1960s, she set up a software company, employing and empowering almost 300 women, who benefited from her flexible business practice and co-ownership structure; over 70 of her staff became millionaires. Yet she had to use the name Steve to be taken seriously in a man’s world.
In September 1938, the Daily Mail ran an infamous piece about the "infiltration" of "stateless Jews from Germany" who were – shock horror – "practising as dentists". Wolfgang ‘Wolf’ Nelki became a dentist in south London, simply because studying law – his first passion – had been forbidden to Jews in Germany. In Britain, antisemitism was never far away and Jews were not always welcomed into medical institutions. It is amazing, then, that so many not only became medics, but also excelled at their profession. We benefit from their dedication; your flu vaccination was pioneered by German virologist Dr Freddy Himmelweit.
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.
The influence of these refugees cannot be overstated. I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of the extraordinary people commemorated here and I wish I’d known them all. We owe them so much, for their achievements, endurance and as an example to future generations. Uprooted Lives will help us to remember them.
By Irene Wise
Uprooted Lives: Obituaries of Refugees and Survivors of the Holocaust from the AJR Journal 1955–2025 is available to pre-order. AJR, 2026, £30. ajr.org.uk
There will be a book launch for Uprooted Lives on Thursday 12 November at JW3, London, NW3 6ET.