John Altmann

Refugee who brought hidden Nazi weapons to Israel’s War of Independence

AKINDERTRANSPORT ARRIVAL to England, John (born Hans) Altmann, who has died aged 87, later travelled to Israel on the ill-fated Altalena to fight in the War of Independence.

Born in Stettin, Northern Germany (now Szczecin, Poland), he heard the windows being smashed on the ground floor of his home on Kristallnacht. His father failed to get a family exit permit and sent Hans and his older brother Wolfgang, soon to be renamed John and Wilfred, on the Kindertransport to England in March, 1939. Wilfred recalled their parents driving along the route as far as they could go, waving goodbye to the boys. Their mother was seven months pregnant but they never saw their baby brother Raphael or their parents again.

The family, with the rest of the community, were deported to the Lublin Ghetto on February 12, 1940. All had died by the following winter.

With 25 other boys, John and Wilfred were sent to a house in Putney, rented specifically by the Sainsbury family, who had installed a cook and matron, and came regularly to check on their progress in English and give them pocket money.

After the war, John entered catering college. Though professing no political interest, he joined Betar, the youth wing of the revisionist movement, and set off for secret army training in a Stuttgart DP camp. Discovered by the Americans, they left for a hachsharah farm near Munich. One night, a haycart took them to a nearby forest where they were told to start digging. A German soldier had sold the location of hidden Nazi weapons. The guns were taken to the farm for degreasing, then wrapped in old clothing and labelled “Used Clothes for Palestine”.

Travelling to Marseille docks, they saw their ship, renamed the Altalena, loaded with crates of French army-surplus guns. The ship docked at Kfar Vitkin, on June 20, 1948, where Menachem Begin came aboard. Many passengers left, and 20 per cent of the small arms were unloaded by arrangement with Ben Gurion. The next day at Tel Aviv, the Altalena was denied landing permission by Ben Gurion unless the remaining arms were put under his control, which Begin refused.

The ship came under fire from the Palmach. The soldiers then moved to the site of today’s Hilton Hotel and fired a 25-pounder field gun. The ship was set ablaze and 11 were killed on board, including four Cubans whom John had befriended on the crossing. John, a non-swimmer, nevertheless made it ashore and, after recovering with a family in Bnei Brak, he volunteered at the nearest army camp.

He was sent to Latrun, at the foot of the Jerusalem road, where the Arab Legion blocked access to the city. After two days of heavy losses, Ben Gurion arranged a ceasefire. A bypass “Burma Road” was built to gain access.

In subsequent operations, John used his language skills to translate instruction manuals for the hastily assembled weaponry, and his trigonometry skills for plotting trajectories. Hospitalised with malaria, he was eventually released from front-line duties.

With the surrender of the Egyptian forces, John was assigned to escort prisoners-of-war to Atlit Prison. He guarded some 30-40 officers, playing cards with them in the evenings. There was a warm reunion with one of the officers some decades later when the Egyptian came shopping for kitchen equipment in London’s Edgware Road.

Released from the IDF at the end of 1949, John enrolled at Jerusalem’s Hadassah School of Hotel Management, training with the famous chef Nicholai. After Yitzhak Ben Zvi became Israel’s second president, his wife Rahel asked John to prepare his special matzah ball soup for visiting dignitaries. It proved so popular that he continued making this recipe until his 87th year.

In 1953, his brother Wilfred asked him to return to London to place a reparations claim with Germany — an emotive issue, causing riots in Israel.

John settled in Belsize Park, NW London with his father’s cousin Julius Rosenbaum and wife Adele Reifenberg, both Berlin artists. John met his future wife, Auschwitz survivor Marlene Goldschmidt, while commuting from Belsize Park Station. Their first date took them to the legendary Cosmo Restaurant. John worked days as a Victoria hotel chef and evenings at another local refugee haunt, the Dorice.

John bought into a kitchen equipment shop run by a retiring Viennese refugee couple and eventually expanded the business. He was an active member of Belsize Square Liberal Synagogue and long-running Chair of Governors at Barclay House School, subsequently Mathilda MarksKennedy Jewish Primary School.

Up to their late 70s, John and Marlene cooked meals twice weekly at Leo Baeck Lodge. He received a commendation award from the Fire Brigade Service for fighting his way into his neighbour’s house to rescue the occupants from a fire that destroyed the building.

Marlene predeceased him by nearly five months. He is survived by his daughter Alisa, son Daniel, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

DANIEL ALTMANN WITH

RUTH ROTHENBERG

John Altmann: born March 14, 1930. Died January 3, 2018.