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BBC News, West Midlands – The diary of Eli Getreu, a Jewish teenager from Austria, has been unearthed, shedding light on a man in Wolverhampton assisting Jews amid persecution. Eli Getreu’s widow, Barbro Gentele, discovered the diary, which contained entries from 1939 while he visited his refugee parents in the city after fleeing Nazi Vienna. Dr. Daniel Lee, a reader in European History at Queen Mary University of London, highlighted the diary’s importance in offering insights into life in Wolverhampton on the brink of war and indicated that a man named Isaac Brown in Wolverhampton was aiding Jews in settling in the UK, calling for information on him.
Eli Getreu moved to Denmark but revisited his parents in Wolverhampton in May 1939, capturing the joy and freedom he witnessed before the war began in his handwritten diary. Currently being translated by Mr. Getreu’s grandson Öyvind Vågen, the diary includes letters to a girl named Vera, with whom Eli was in love. An entry dated 27 May 1939 detailed a fair in Wolverhampton bustling with activity, contrasting Eli’s inner turmoil with the carefree spirit of the event. The diary also recounted the anti-semitic violence of the November Pogrom in Austria.
After hearing a BBC radio program on the Holocaust, Eli Getreu’s family contacted Dr. Lee, who found the diary to be a poignant reminder of the carelessness of youth juxtaposed with the harsh realities that ensued. Mrs. Gentele, who described her husband as a love-struck young man, met him in 1973 when he was working as a psychotherapist. The family now aims to unearth more about Eli’s parents’ life in Wolverhampton and their wider Jewish community connections post-fleeing Europe, urging for the diary’s publication for educational purposes.
Dr. Lee’s research into the diary has uncovered details about Isaac Brown aiding Jewish refugees in Wolverhampton, and he hopes to connect with individuals familiar with Isaac Brown’s contributions during that time. The diary’s significance lies in revealing the unconventional routes Jewish refugees took during WWII, and Dr. Lee stressed the importance of acknowledging lesser-known instances of asylum, such as Wolverhampton, in Holocaust history. He emphasized the need to delve deeper into the experiences of Jewish refugees rather than focusing solely on Nazi perpetrators to ensure their voices are heard
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