Trails
Description:
When the Nazis first occupied Alderney with a small force, it could not have been anticipated at the time that the island would effectively become one giant concentration camp with many thousands of captives culled from countries across three continents, nor that the island would be host to the western-most SS concentration camp in Europe, Camp Sylt. The French Jews who experienced it called it, 'Devil's Island', the 'Buchenwald of the West', or 'Little Auschwitz', such was the suffering and similarity to the conditions in the most notorious of the Nazi camps. Furthermore, the island witnessed great human suffering and death, on a large scale, with monthly death rates of between 4-15%, in many cases, based on the Germans' own statistics and the evidence shows that the majority of prisoners sent to Alderney died or were killed, with the island also becoming a staging post of the Holocaust.
Evidence and analysis for this project demonstrates that rather than hundreds, several thousands Jews - perhaps 9,000 Jewish captives were on the island, over the period of Nazi occupation, working and suffering in some of the most abject conditions of all. Some died on the island and others were then sent on to other camps in France, or for extermination in camps in Germany and fresh shipments of prisoners would be brought in regularly to replace those who could no longer work. The project has also shown that the number of prisoners probably exceeded 30,000 over the period of occupation and could even have been higher and that there were significantly more camps on the island than previously recognised and the death rate is likely to have significantly exceeded 50 per cent and been up to 85 - 90 percent.
There is a new theory, awaiting full-publication of the evidence, from Weigold and Kemp, that the island was used for secret and sinister VI Rocket projects, with VI rockets, weaponised with Sarin gas, targeting Weymouth to disrupt any Allied invasion, which in their view may have been the prime reason for the occupation of the Island and the cause of suffering on a large scale particularly in the construction of tunnels on the island. There are no known survivors from the tunnelling activities.
JTrails research had shown evidence for the presence of planning for VI activities and other possible secret activities, on the Island, as the tunnels were of the same type as the VI tunnels in NW France, prisoner testimony attested to the presence of VI Engineers at the tunnelling project at St Anne's, and the fact that most of the work of the SS Baubrigade on Alderney, when it returned to France, was on VI sites. However, there is no evidence that VI Rockets were ever delivered to Alderney and the chemical weapons theory awaits further validation and the tunnels were used for munitions and stores instead.
It is also very likely that another intended purpose of the island would have been to imprison and provide 'special treatment' for the British establishment and key political enemies, should Hitler have successfully invaded England. This is based on the history and presence of special prisoners at Sylt.
We believe that Longis Common, the Anti-Tank Wall and the bay should be preserved as a 'Site of Memory' for the slave-workers and that there should be a new memorial to the slave-workers at Longis Common and the cemetery should be appropriately marked, especially as there is eye-witness testimony from 1961, collected by JTrails, stating that some of their remains are still at the cemetery site, but the graves are now unmarked and the remains are not awarded proper respect or recognition. There are also reports that remains of prisoners under the Anti-Tank Wall have been seen after storms have washed away sand.
We have been working with islanders and with the Office of the Chief Rabbi and the CPJCE, to help protect several identified and potential burial sites from damage from the FAB Link cable project, which threatens both human remains and to severely damage the World War II historical landscape across the eastern end of the island and urge that the cable is taken on another route. Damage has already been caused by prospecting activity on the common, which has turned up bone (of undetermined origins) near to the Anti-Tank Wall. The proposed line of the cable will pass within 20 meters of the Jewish burial area which we now believe was also the site of a cremation pit and a mass-grave. We also argue that the site has European Heritage Significance for understanding the Nazi slave labour programme, and should receive a European Heritage Label as it has some of the best preserved remains of the slave labour camps system and work sites and should be designated as such. We have also contributed original research to the Alderney Land-Use Plan to facilitate the protection of key heritage features, as the plan recognises the need to preserve key sites and to integrate them into existing visitor activity on the island.
Description: Southend on Sea, is another less well-known Jewish community by the sea. A few Jews lived in the area during the 18th Century mostly making alcohol and providing other ancillary services. The next group of Jewish residents started to arrive in the late 1800s, when the railway was built to enable Londoners to take day trips and holidays by the sea. Many of those Londoners were Jewish and required Kosher boarding houses, which started to open in the area now known as the Conservation Area of central Southend on Sea. Over time as the London's East End became less desirable more people relocated to Southend increasing the need for formal places of worship and Jewish goods and services and the town eventually attracted a very active Jewish community of around 6,000 at its height in the 1970s, after which it declined, but is still active and has also attracted new Jewish residents from the Charedi community. (Trail by Anne Marcus)
Description:
JTrails is delighted to have been invited to host this important trail which introduces an important historic community in North Wales and offers special thanks to Dr Nathan Abrams and his project team of Bangor University, who originated, authored and supported this trail and whose introduction to the trail follows.
'Welcome to this Trail of Jewish Bangor. Here, you will learn about the history of Jews in this city from medieval times to the present day.
The first evidence of Jewish presence in the region dates back to medieval times, although we are not sure that any Jews came to Bangor.
Jews were expelled from this country in 1290 and were not readmitted until 1665. However, we do not see any Jews in Bangor until the early nineteenth century. Their numbers were expanded by the mass immigrations of the last quarter of the nineteenth century but the figures of those who came to Bangor were never large.
The community declined around the 1970s but there are still individuals and families located in Bangor and scattered around in the towns and villages of Gwynedd. I am one of them.
Although very little extant traces of their presence survive, Jewish immigrants to Bangor had a significant impact on the civic, cultural, political and economic life of the city and it is this hidden history we aim to uncover in this map. We hope you enjoy it.
As project leader, I would like to thank Gareth Roberts of Menter Fachwen for his invaluable assistance on this project, Andy Goodman, Hazel Robbins and Soo Vinnicombe at Bangor University, and Rhys Jones of Locly for transforming our map into this app. This work is supported by the Bangor University ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.'
Description: Basildon was a small Jewish community established in one of the UK's, 'New Towns', created post-war to provide more housing, opportunities and to receive 'over-spill' population from London. The community was informally active by the late 1950's, with 60-80 Jewish residents, mostly young families. The Saunders family moved to Basildon and was the first to institute regular religious observance on the Sabbath, but the community did not acquire a formal synagogue until the late 1960s, but the first of several. The heyday of the community was in the 1970s, with the community declining thereafter and the synagogue closing in the 1980s, though a small close-knit Jewish community is still present in the town. (Trail by Peter Saunders)
Description: The Bedford Jewry was a small but fascinating Jewry, with an active medieval Jewish community, who took part in the turbulent history of the times, including resisting the King in the siege of Bedford castle. The modern community was founded in the 18th century, and in the 19th century; the Rabbi of Bedford Synagogue caused scandal by converting to Christianity. Later, in the century, Morris Lissack, fought a successful one-man battle for Jewish education and emancipation in Bedford. At the turn of the 20th century the remarkable Abrahams family took up residence in Bedford and produced two Jewish Olympic athletes, including Harold Abrahams, who Olympic feats were celebrated in the film 'Chariots of Fire'.
Description: The secret code-breaking activities at Bletchley Park was one of the best kept secrets of the World War II and the intelligence provided by the code-breakers was decisive in shortening the War. Even today it is not appreciated that there was a significant Jewish story at the Park, as there were many Jewish personnel at Bletchley, both civilian and military and their number included many women. Key Jewish personnel at the Park were key figures in breaking the enemy codes and played a decisive part in the creation of the first modern computers that have defined our and created own era. Professor Maxwell Newman (1897-1984), was the architect of the Colossus computer, the world's first computer. The Bletchley Park Trust now preserve the site as a museum and this trail traces the Jewish stories at key huts and buildings.
Description: Brackley is a very small market town, in rural Northamptonshire, on the main road between Northampton and Oxford. Until after the War, the town was little larger than a large village, with a market place and 2 - 3,000 residents. However, the town has an unexpected and little known Jewish heritage, largely dating from just after World War I, to the end of World War II. It illustrates the unexpected links that Jewish people could often have in deeply rural areas and it is also a particularly good example of the ranges of Jewish war-time experiences as refugees and evacuees in the countryside.
Description: We are proud to announce the completion of our Brighton and Hove Trail, with the help of the Brighton and Hove community. This trail illustrates the fascinating and extensive Jewish Heritage of Brighton and Hove and demonstrates that it is among the most important Jewish heritage locations in the country. The trail falls into two linked trails - the Brighton Trail and the West Brighton and Hove Trail.
Description: A centre of Jewish learning, the community came a cropper when it meddled in medieval politics and was subsequently subjected to a blood libel and brutal massacre in which 57 of its members were killed.
Description: In World War II a group of 2252 Jewish men, living in Belgium (some were born in Belgium but many from all across Europe) were stripped of their civil rights by the Germans, then thrown out of work and labelled as 'anti-social elements', and because they were un-employed forcibly separated from this families and deported to work as slave labour on Hitler's Atlantic Wall, in the vicinity of Boulogne and Calais, in July to August 1942. They were sent to some 15 permanent and temporary forced labour camps, mostly along the coast and they were later joined by 650 French Jews who had been deported from camps on the Island of Alderney in the Channel Islands. The Jew from Belgium worked on the Atlantic Wall for three months making bunkers and defences, as well as repairing bomb damage, for Organisation Todt (OT), Hitler's 'super' civil contractor. The camp at Dannes continued to operate throughout the War as the central slave labour camp in the area and administered a network of camps along the line of the coast. The original Jewish cohort was joined and partly replaced by, 'Red' Spaniard and Russian men and boys. At the end of the War it became a German POW camp.
Description: Many people assume that the Jewish population of England is located in the main towns and cities and that remote parts of the coastline would have little appeal to the community. However, there is a history of Jews from London settling in precisely these places. There were Jewish visitors and settlers in Canvey from the 19th Century, who perhaps enjoyed the pollution free air of Canvey and then saw a place where someone with imagination and a little entrepreneurial flair could make their mark and could be an individual. Morris Hartfield was precisely one such figure, who played his part in shaping modern-day Canvey Island and performed an important local philanthropic role. This trend continues until the present day along the Thames Estuary. (Trail by Anne Marcus)
Description: Many people assume that the Jewish population of England is located in the main towns and cities and that remote parts of the coastline would have little appeal to the community. However, there is a history of Jews from London settling in precisely these places. There were Jewish visitors and settlers in Canvey from the 19th Century, who perhaps enjoyed the pollution free air of Canvey and then saw a place where someone with imagination and a little entrepreneurial flair could make their mark and could be an individual. Morris Hartfield was precisely one such figure, who played his part in shaping modern-day Canvey Island and performed an important local philanthropic role. This trend continues until the present day along the Thames Estuary.
Description:
Chatham and Rochester are worth a journey to explore the Jewish heritage of both adjoined towns. The main interest is the Chatham Memorial synagogue and its adjoining cemetery. The synagogue is an exceptionally attractive and important building with a number of very interesting relics of its past on display. The cemetery is uniquely joined to the shule and has fascinating, some very poignant, memorials.
The museum in Rochester contains some additional items of Jewish interest and the Cathedral has medieval sculptures with Jewish subjects. Other than this sites of Jewish residence and commerce of the 19th century can be traced along Chatham High Street with the background of the Georgian Dockyards, the economic dynamo of the 19th century Jewish community.
Apart from this Rochester is an exceptionally pretty cathedral town, with its strong Dickensian associations, and an imposing Norman castle close by on the Medway and a very large number of historic and beautiful town houses. Chatham conspires to be less visually compelling but more commercially important.
An hour to two hours at the synagogue and cemetery would be well spent, the remainder of a longer afternoon in Rochester would be pleasant though the enthusiastic could also fit in a trip to the Dockyards in a longer day.
Description: The origins of the Dover Jewish community are surrounded in some mystery. The community may have begun in the medieval period, though the evidence is incomplete.
Description: Are the ghostly goings-on in the cellar of a shop on the High Street, the spirits of members of the medieval Jewish community coming to pray in the ruins of Guildford's 12th century sunken synagogue?
Description: This trail traces the 150 year history of the Hastings and St Leonards Jewish communities. This Jewish community, like others on the coast, made its living through the opportunities afforded by the growing sea-side resort and the arrival of the railway in the 1850s. Hastings and St Leonards drew Jewish visitors and residents, due to its renown and opportunities as a fashionable health resort. Notable Jews came both to visit, or reside for the longer term for their health. Other Jews opened boarding houses and hotels to serve both a Jewish and general clientele. It was also a location for a notable Jewish sea-side academy. There have been several places of Jewish worship and there is a Jewish cemetery. Today there is still a Jewish community in Sussex who now worship at Bexhill. A number of the former places of Jewish residence, business and worship can still be found in Hastings and St Leonards.
Description: The history of Hull as a Jewish centre and transmigration port for Jews is a very important and intersting one. This tour of Jewish Hull has been researched and written by the Hull Jewish Archive Committee over the last two years and was launched as an attractive guide and map. We are very pleased that the Committee has kindly agreed to additionally place their trail on the JTrails web-site for personal enjoyment and research. The trail is copy-right June 2008 to the HJAC and further inquiries can be made to Hull Jewish Archive Committee, 30 Pryme Street, Anlaby HU10 6SH. We hope that many are able to visit the trail while Hull is the official City of Culture 2017.
Description: The Tower of London, the most popular tourist destination in England and an iconic World Heritage Site, is the best example of 'hidden' Jewish history in the UK. The Tower is one of the most important of all Jewish heritage and history sites in the UK, even though you would not realise it when visiting the Tower. Jewish Blood Money paid for much of the 13th Century fabric of the castle that the tourists come to see today. The Jewish story of England probably started at the Tower, the Jews of England were administered from the Tower, it was place of protection, business and employment. Jews even worshipped at the Tower. It also, a site of great suffering and mass martyrdom for many hundreds of Jews. In 1278 alone, 600 Jews were imprisoned in the Tower and 269 Jews were hanged in a period of 6 months - two and half times as many non Jews as were executed at the Tower in the subsequent 4 centuries! This trail restores this narrative to a national heritage icon.
Description: When we think of the Lake District and its fells we would hardly imagine that it has its own rich Jewish heritage and history. There have been Jews present in the area from the Middle Age. The most outstanding and one of the most remarkable Jewish figures in Anglo-Jewish history, was a medieval Jews, Joachim Gaunse, who came to Keswick from Prague and Augsburg, and became a founding genius of the mining and smelting industry, in the Lakes, South Wales and Cornwall and helped save England from the Armada and then went on and became the first America Jew, when he went on Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to America, in 1585, and settled temporarily at Roanoake Island. The trail also traces the story of 18th Century Jewish graphite smugglers and Jewish pencil makers, the Jewish pedlars and hawkers who wandered the remote valleys and the World War II Jewish refugees and evacuees who all found sanctuary in the Lake District. This is one of our most remarkable and distinctive trails in a out-standing setting.
Description: The eminent historian of Leeds Jewish history, Murray Freedman has written a history and trail of Jewish Leeds, and details its history from small beginnings in the early 19th century, to its height as one of the leading Anglo-Jewish communities. While Leeds has declined from its pre-War importance, it is still a leading Jewish center in England out-side of London and Manchester.
Description: Lincoln was, in the Middle Ages, one of the most important of the English Jewish communities.
Description:
Lincoln Cathedral is famed for its great Christian heritage but its unique Jewish heritage and links to the famous medieval Jewish community in Lincoln, is still largely unknown.
This Jewish community of Lincoln was one of the most important in England in its time and the names of some of its leading personalities are still celebrated, including the famous scholar Rabbi Berechiah of Lincoln, and Aaron of Lincoln, who helped make the fortune of the Cistercian monasteries in the north and even loaned the money needed to build the Bishop's Palace.
This community made a vivid impression on the very fabric of Lincoln Cathedral, which is rich in Jewish associations and influences, shown in its art, architecture, artefacts and hidden symbolism of the Cathedral. Parts of the decorative design of the Cathedral may have direct Jewish influences, while the remains of the Shrine of Little Hugh are still one of the most controversial relics of medieval anti-Semitism in England.
This Trail was Featured in Simon Schama's, 'The Story of the Jews' documentary'
Description: This Trail introduces the Top 10 Jewish visits and activities in London - some very well-known and others less well-known, but all can be the inspiration for a Jewish heritage visit or stay in London! This trail of activities and visits was created by one of London's top Jewish heritage guides, Rachel Kolsky of Go-London and author of 'Jewish London'.
Description: This Trail was made possible by the accidental birth of Gershon Coren in Merthyr, while his parents were on holiday, 100 years ago. There is a rich and important local Jewish history and heritage in Merthyr, once the foremost Jewish community in Wales and its former Gothic synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue building in Wales and one of the most visually outstanding in the UK. The Merthyr Jewish story is especially linked to the industrial story of Merthyr, the iron and steel industries, the production of iron rails sent across the world, and local coal mining. Local Jews had shops and businesses which serviced the needs of the industrial community and there was also an important contingent of Russian Jewish labourers working in the Rail Bank at Dowlais, who experienced a pogrom (before Tredegar) a generally over-looked event. This new heritage trail traces the history and some of the key heritage in Merthyr, as part of a developing new Jewish Heritage Route across the Valleys of South Wales and is well worth a visit.
Description:
This innovative heritage trail explores Nazi slavery in the Pas de Calais in World War II and the 'Holocaust in Sight of England'. It creates a new European 'Trail of Memory' along the 'front-line' of Nazi slavery in Western Europe in memory of the victims of Nazi slavery. The trail included the 19+ Jewish slave labour camps along the coast created for Jews from across Europe as part of a system of 2300 slave labour camps specifically for Jews and some of the surviving sites of labour and memory associated with their feats of 'super-human labour'. The enslavement of many other groups and nations in the area is part of the trail of memory as well, as many Russians (including children as young as 12) were brought to the area, though at least 27 nations were enslaved in the Pas de Calais and in the Channel Islands, often employed in constructing the giant V-Weapon block houses further inland.
The former Jewish camp at Sangatte reminds us that the current 'camp' at Sangatte is not the first and that there is a long history of conflict in the region and that the great international forces of each era pushing marginalized and dispossessed peoples to the fringe of Europe. This trail has a message relevant to the present and future as slavery is still common across the world and takes many forms.
Description: One of the leading medieval communities in England, Northampton's Jews were given the boot in 1290. However, seven centuries later they would return to give the boot to Northampton.
Description: Home to some of the most celebrated scholars and academics of all time, since the days of the Domesday Book, Jews have made a vital contribution to both Oxford the university and Oxford the town.
Description: The Jewish community at Portsea, Portsmouth was founded at one of England's principal Naval bases and ports in the 1730s and 1740s and is generally accepted to be one of the earliest Jewish communities established outside of London, if not the earliest. The origins of the community, may well have originated in the commercial activities of pioneer peddlers and hawkers in the town in the 1730s, who traded through the countryside, or aboard ship during the week, only returning to Portsmouth to celebrate the Sabbath together and to settle accounts. The activities of the port and then the Napoleonic War gave great impetus to the community and many were employed as slop sellers and Navy Agents, or supplying watches and jewelry. The community also had special links with the Jamaican Jewish community and a small group of Sephardim were of some significance in the early community. While the community were very Orthodox, there were numerous squabbles, disgraceful scenes and schisms, with breakaway synagogues! For some time the community was the most important Jewish community outside of London and a famous Jewish school was set-up too, Aria College. The community suffered from anti-Semitism and a serious decline in numbers after the Napoleonic Wars, due to the loss of business in the Port. Community numbers rallied by the 1880s as immigrants came in escaping the persecution and hardships of Eastern Europe and almost completely renewed itself and tailoring became very important. The community is noted for several famous figures, including, Lady Magnus (community activist and writer), Marion Hartog (nee Moss), another well-known Jewish woman writer, as well as George Lewis Lyon a journalist and communal worker and community leader Emanuel Emanuel. In the modern era, the community has declined, as have many others.
Description: The story of Ramsgate Jewish community is beyond doubt dominated by the life and memory of one man - a towering figure of Anglo-Jewry. This was Moses Montefiori. While Montefiori did much to place Ramsgate on the Jewish map, and built a synagogue and a college, the Ramsgate Jewish community was already established, before Sir Moses' arrival, and included other interesting and important individuals, such as Benjamin Norden, a notable early explorer of southern Africa, and an exotic contingent of North African Jews, as well as important Jewish educators and scholars. This trail was the first ever Jewish heritage trail of Ramsgate, originally created in 2004.
Description: The Montefiori family
The story of Ramsgate Jewish community is beyond doubt dominated by the life and memory of one man - a towering figure of Anglo-Jewry. This was Moses Montefiori.
Description: The Jewish heritage and history of Sheerness and Blue Town is fascinating and virtually unknown in this still remote part of England. The Jewish community in Blue Town grew up alongside the Naval Dock Yard during the Napoleonic Wars and echos of this past can still be detected in the western part of Blue Town next to the old Dock Wall.
Description: Stroud's main claim to note has been as a woolen and worsted producing town in the west of England. The town lies quite dramatically on the steep flanks of a valley and is surprisingly remindful of one of the old woolen towns in the north of England.
Description: Bradford has a proud history. It was the wool capital of the world (a trade which originated in Yorkshire in the 14th century, based on the Cistercians and their superior woolly sheep), and part of the cradle of the Industrial revolution - a city full of 'Yorkshire grit'. These are some of the titles that apply to Bradford. However, at first glance the Jewish connection to Bradford seems a strange one.
Description: The City of Bath traces its history back to Roman times, when the Romans came to take advantage of and to worship at its hot springs. While the medieval inhabitants of Bath made some use of its springs, the main medieval trade was in cloth. The city was to come into pre-eminence - a veritable renaissance - when the continental spa craze swept the country, and the waters of the town became foremost in Britain in the 18th century.
Description:
London has always been the center of Jewish life in this country and is the oldest place of Jewish settlement in England.
The Jews of England arrived first of all in London in the wake of William of Normandy's conquest of England. It is thought they arrived shortly afterwards, though the first documented reference to a Jewish quarter in London, only comes in c.1127, when they had arguably been there for some 50 years or more. Initially they were probably only a small group, only reinforced in numbers with Jews fleeing from the Rouen pogrom in 1096.
Description:
Dr G. W. Leitner had an extraordinary life, which was played out across three continents. He was an explorer, linguist, philologist, archaeologist, art-collector, museologist, with many books and publications to his name. He was a profound student of religions, an inter-faith figure, before the inter-faith movement, a pioneering and campaigning editor of numerous publications and journals for both learning, and social and educational reform, the founder of many schools in India, promoter of education for girls, a College administrator, the founder of Lahore University, a library, and not least, the founder of the 'Oriental College' in Woking, and the first purpose built Mosque and Muslim cemetery in the UK. He may be forgotten today, but he is a person for our times.
'The trail was developed in collaboration with the Jewish Country Houses project, with support from the KE-Seed Fund at the University of Oxford'
Description: This trail focuses on the experiences of David Shentow, one of the only survivors of the Belgian Jewish slave labourers, and his story of forced labour in constructing a 4km concrete road the 'Chemin des Juifs' (the 'Jews Road') close to Hardelot and Condette and his experiences at one of the main Jewish concentration camps, Lager Tibor, at Dannes. This is one of several trails exploring the little known story of the Holocaust and slave labour along the coast in Nord Pas de Calais not far from Boulogne and shows that the reach of Hitler's slave archipelago reached within sight of England. The start of the trail is 8.5 km south of Boulogne and can be found by proceeding to the village of Condette, taking the signs to Château d'Hardelot (geo-location = 50.647020, 1.612536) and then walking down the Rue de la Source, to the start point of the Jews Road, off the road to the right. (geo-location = 50.646147, 1.608720)
Description:
A visit to Canterbury is always well worth the effort and worth a special visit. The city is of exceptional interest, with its rich history, and buildings of national importance - its Cathedral and the ruins of St Augustine's Priory, the Castle and city walls, and a large number of surviving medieval and post medieval buildings in the city centre.
Added to this there is a rich Jewish history to be discovered in Canterbury both from the medieval and modern period. The sites of the medieval Jews are readily traceable and there are strong historical associations with more modern buildings such as the County Hotel
Description: Gloucester has an unexpected and fascinating Jewish history linked to the military and port history of the city. There have been two distinctive organised Jewish communities in Gloucester - one established in the 12th century and ended by the time of the general Expulsion of the Jews in 1290, and a second community, established perhaps even as early as 1685. This, if correct, makes it one of the first provincial Jewish settlements out-side of London, after the resettlement of the Jews in England in 1655. There is also a modern Jewish population in modern-day Gloucester, but no organised community life, or synagogue, as most Jews, with a religious affiliation, are members of the nearby Cheltenham Synagogue.
