Document d'archives : Lt R. Goldwater, B/393/120 L.A.A. Regt (Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment), B.L.A. (British Liberation Army), 14 Sep. 44 :...
Titre :
Lt R. Goldwater, B/393/120 L.A.A. Regt (Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment), B.L.A. (British Liberation Army), 14 Sep. 44 : lettre de Raymond Goldwater à son frère Stan
Contenu :
Cette lettre du 14 septembre 1944 a été transcrite par David Rosenberg. Voici cette transciption :
Dear Stan,
I have just received your letter of the 4th and your parcel of books for which many thanks.
A massive arrears of correspondence has piled up during the last ten days for the simple reason that I was having too good a time to bother about writing to anybody.
As I have said before, our reception was overwhelming. We all had invitations out to lunch and dinner frequently and simply dare not refuse.
A few doors from us lived some Hungarian people who have been in France for some years and speak English as well as French.
We were in there every evening principally to enjoy the company of their two attractive daughters.
But there was no hanky-panky as morals in middle class families are surprisingly strict in France.
The other evening they held a small party for some friends of theirs to which we were invited and I was forcibly reminded of our old U.L.J.O. parties as almost everybody there was either a medical or a law student and conversation changed very rapidly from the sublime to the ridiculous in much the same way as in England.
You are quite wrong about the French attitude to "les collaborateurs."
Collaborationists are hated almost as much as the Germans. Generally speaking all that we have been told about the French resistance is true.
Everybody listened to the B.B.C. The F.F.I. (les Forces Francaises de l'Interieur) was well organized and efficient and I don't think I exaggerate when I say that hundreds of RAF men have been hidden in French homes.
In no real sense have the mass of French people ever given in to the Germans and I have a great respect for them.
It is only during the last ten days that I have been able to practice my French to any extent but for that period I have been speaking French most of the day.
They tell me that my accent is very good. (Thanks to "Scoffy" of U.C.S.) and by the time I'm finished, I should be pretty proficient at it.
Incidentally, I found one other Jew in that town who had escaped deportation by the fact of being married to a Catholic - a strange reason for the Nazis. With the help of the C of E chaplain I recovered the synagogue there which was being used a furniture store and I laid on services for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. I don't know whether I shall manage to get up there myself in which case I don't know who will be able to do the service.
I've just had a letter from Vivian who is apparently at a training camp now and working very hard.
That is all for now,
Ray
R. Goldwater
Cote :
134J2
Inventaire d'archives :
Archives de Raymond Goldwater, lieutenant de l'Armée britanique (134J2)
Informations sur le producteur :
Raymond Goldwater (1918-2016), lieutenant de l'Armée britanique
Raymond Goldwater est né en 1918 à Hove, petite ville balnéaire sur la côte sud de l'Angleterre, à l'ouest de Brighton. Il est diplômé en droit de l'University of London. Tout au long de sa vie, M. Goldwater s'est impliqué dans les relations anglo-juives, exerçant les fonctions de président de l'Inter-University Jewish Federation of Great Britain en 1939-1940. A la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, alors qu'il était lieutenant dans l'armée britannique, Raymond Goldwater participa à la libération d'Amiens. Il fut officier honoraire de l'United Synagogue of London, la plus grande communauté de Grande-Bretagne, dont il présida le comité d'aide sociale et le comité des publications. Il présida également le University Chaplaincy Board pour les étudiants juifs et le comité consultatif de l'Association for Jewish Youth. Outre deux ouvrages, Raymond Goldwater écrivit des articles dans Le ela, un périodique publié par la London School of Jewish Studies, et édita Jewish Philosophy and Philosophers. Un livre fut publié sous ce titre par la Hillel Foundation à Londres en 1962 et un second livre, Pioneers of Religious Zionism: Rabbis Alkalai, Kalischer, Mohliver, Reines, Kook and Maimon, consacré à la contribution des leaders religieux juifs du XIXe siècle au mouvement pour un foyer national juif, fut publié en 2005. Entre 2013 et 2016, Raymond Goldwater partage son temps entre New York et Israël. Il est décédé le 11 mars 2016 à New York et a été inhumé en Israël sur le mont des Oliviers.
Description physique :
Lettre manuscrite
Information matérielles :
Noir et blanc
Dimensions :
Organisme responsable de l'accès intellectuel :
Ms Sara Goldwater Pittack