I look at Father, and in spite of having prepared myself for a lot, I have to bite my teeth together not to show my shock. He is hardly recognisable. Completely starved and wrecked.
Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more.
The Breezer - the joyride for a curious mind: A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me discovering historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. Add to that updates relating to the podcast, a touch of humour and a dash of "lots more".4th May 2025.
Happy Sunday! A bit of light reading this week found me thumbing through a list of alumni from Manchester University, my alma mater. I was at the University in the late 1980s when Margaret Thatcher’s policies on supporting the deployment of US cruise missiles was a catalyst for high-tension student demonstrations. I remember sitting by the window in the Student Union bar one afternoon in November (well, it started in the afternoon but I was still there into the evening). We were overlooking the Union main entrance. It turned out that Secretary of State for Defence Michael Heseltine was speaking at the Students’ Union that evening. Unwittingly, I had prime seating for the events that played out on his arrival. Despite the presence of a posse of riot police, Heseltine was decorated in red paint and a few eggs for good measure as he rushed through the front entrance. I think the police copped most of the eggs, though.
Anyway, back to that list, quite illuminating. The headline performers were in the field of physics. J.J. Thomson, who attended between 1870 (at the age of 14) and 1876, would discover the electron in 1897. James Chadwick was a student between 1908 and 1911 and would discover the neutron in 1932. But the headliner on my list was Chadwick’s professor at Manchester University. Ernest Rutherford initiated the first artificial nuclear reaction in 1917 while at the University. Thomson, Chadwick and Rutherford would all receive Nobel Prizes in Physics.
Ernest Rutherford, 1905.
Slightly embarrassed that I’d navigated an entire engineering degree in Manchester while remaining oblivious to this triumvirate of physics legends, I continued scanning the list until another name snagged my attention. No Nobel Prizes for this chap, but - it turns out - a character of monumental resilience and courage.
Manfred Gans was born in April 1922 in Borken, Germany. He was brought up in an Orthodox Jewish family that had served their country proudly for 300 years. Towards the end of the 1930s, as his parents became wary of Nazi intentions for Jewish families, Manfred left for England to continue his studies in a safer environment. (Manfred was only 16 at the time; his participation at Manchester University would come after the war, when he returned to England.) We often hear about children and young adults sent away in times of war. My own mother was sent to Wales in 1940 to avoid the Blitz on London. It always sounds so sterile, so straightforward. But for most, including Moritz and Else Gans, the decision was heart-wrenching. They were a close-knit family; separation was a last resort. Their youngest son, Theo, followed Manfred to England in November 1938. Both decisions proved to be crucial. Despite escaping to the Netherlands in August 1939, Manfred’s parents were betrayed in hiding in 1943 and sent to Theresienstadt (today ‘Terezin’), a notorious concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, 40 miles north of Prague. The brothers lost contact with their parents and were unaware of their fate. As a German refugee in the UK, Gans was classified as an ‘enemy alien’ and interned on the Isle of Man. He was not considered a risk but detained, nonetheless, for a few months. When the British released Manfred, he was free to join the British Army. As a German speaker with exceptional fitness, he was ideal for a secret commando unit later identified as 'X Troop'. X Troop was a group of mainly Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria, specialists in gathering intelligence, interrogation and ‘encouraging’ German soldiers to surrender. The troop was also skilled in parachuting, rock climbing, handling live ammunition and demolition work. It participated in the D-Day landings, infiltrating enemy lines and gathering intelligence, such as the whereabouts of German minefields inland.
Germans surrendering during D-Day Landings, 1944.
Members of X Troop spent much of the war behind enemy lines. Their most notable and outrageously dangerous operation in 1942 was an attempt to steal an Enigma Machine from German naval headquarters at Dieppe. Although the raid ended in failure, it is remembered as an act of outstanding bravery and a hallmark of X Troop. Yet it was Gans' extraordinary mission as the outcome of the war drew closer that distinguished him from his fellow commandos. Manfred received a tip that his parents may still be alive, held at the liberated Theresienstadt concentration camp. On 7 May 1945, Gans was given permission to search for them. He commandeered a jeep with dodgy brakes, a driver, a few days of supplies and headed for Theresienstadt. The 400-mile journey was fraught with danger. The pair set out from Gladbeck near Essen, travelling across war-torn Germany and into Czechoslovakia. They navigated cratered roads strewn with burnt-out vehicles and barely living refugees, dodged land mines and side-stepped the last remnants of resistance from German quarters. In one moment, they were surrounded by retreating German troops; in the next, they were crossing Soviet-occupied territory. Towns and cities were unrecognisable, often reduced to ruins. Each new stretch of the journey brought new danger and uncertainty. Despite that challenge, Gans arrived at Theresienstadt in three days. The Soviets had liberated the camp two days earlier. The survival rate at Thereseinstadt was 15%. Of the 150,000 people who entered the concentration camp between 1941 and 1945, approximately 22,500 survived.
Manfred presented himself to Soviet guards, who were quite taken aback to see a British soldier in uniform at their door. He was directed to the central registry, where he asked about Moritz and Else Gans. The young Jewish woman replied… “I think you are lucky.” Manfred was escorted through the camp. It was a scene from hell. The dead and dying filled every space. The smell of decay was overwhelming. Sanitation had failed, with toilets overflowing; many inmates were too weak to reach them anyway. Emaciated survivors queued for food and medical assistance. Fifteen hundred more ‘survivors’ would perish from starvation and disease in the weeks that followed. One of the Soviet liberators recalled later… “The smell hit us before we even entered the gates. It was the smell of death itself, and it stayed with me for the rest of my life.” Manfred feared the worst. He was led into a basic, overcrowded dormitory. Eighty years ago this Friday, 9 May 1945, Manfred Gans was reunited with his parents. They were gaunt, frail and undernourished. But they were alive.
The next minutes are indescribable. I suddenly find myself in their arms. They are both crying wildly. It sounds like the crying of despair. I look at Father, and in spite of having prepared myself for a lot, I have to bite my teeth together not to show my shock. He is hardly recognisable. Completely starved and wrecked. MANFRED GANS
They hugged. They talked… for hours. Thoughts of malnutrition, deprivation and misery faded in those moments. The following morning, Manfred had to return to his unit. He left all his available rations. Moritz and Else had to remain due to quarantine restrictions, but Manfred had guaranteed their repatriation. He obtained a signed letter from a former judge in the concentration camp. It was addressed to Princess Juliana of the Netherlands. Manfred would deliver it in person.
Victory in Europe Day
The day after Manfred left Gladbeck to search for his parents, Generaloberst Alfred Jodl signed an unconditional surrender for all German forces, in Reims, France. The war in Europe was over. It was VE Day, 80 years ago on Thursday, 8 May 1945.
Manfred Gans’ rescue mission is one of countless heroic acts the Jewish community carried out during World War II. Many of these stories would never be told. Thankfully, this one was. Moritz and Else eventually settled in Israel in the 1950s with Theo and their oldest son, Karl. Else's death is not recorded, but Moritz passed away in 1980 at the age of 94. Manfred was ordained a Rabbi in Brooklyn by the age of 25 and passed away peacefully in 2010, aged 88.
Dates with History
Wednesday… Joseph Rosenthal was born in Washington, D.C. in 1911 to Russian-Jewish parents. He became a news photographer in 1932. Rejection from the US Army and Navy on the grounds of poor eyesight spurred him to become a war photographer. During World War II, Rosenthal documented various theatres of war across the Pacific. However, it was his work on the island of Iwo Jima, 760 miles southeast of Tokyo, that earned him an international reputation.
Joe Rosenthal, 1990.
0Iwo Jima is part of a group of tropical volcanic islands that make up the Ogasawara Archipelago. Strategically, it would provide American bombers with a staging post between the Mariana Islands, captured by US forces in August 1944, and Japan. The island hosted some of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific during the war between US and Japanese forces. But, this savage conflict might have remained a footnote in the annals of World War II if it hadn’t been for Joseph Rosenthal. When the US Marines raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi on 23 February, Rosenthal captured the moment. It was actually the second of two flag-raising exercises. The first rather diminutive flag had to be replaced by the more appropriately sized one later the same day. The flags were being raised while the battle was still raging. It would be a further month, 26 March, when the Americans secured Iwo Jima.
Out of Curiosity… On the basis that the soldiers who raised that second flag on 23 February have become national icons for time immemorial, I feel a little sorry for the soldiers who raised the original flag on Mount Suribachi earlier that morning. So, to redress the balance just a little bit, here are their names: 1st Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier; Platoon Sergeant Ernest I. Thomas, Jr. (also referred to as “Boots” Thomas); Sergeant Henry O. Hansen (also referred to as “Hank” Hansen); Corporal Charles W. Lindberg; Pharmacist Mate 2nd Class John H. Bradley (a Navy Corpsman); Private Philip L. Ward. “Boots” Thomas and “Hank” Hansen were both killed at Iwo Jima within a few days of raising the flag.
Eighty years ago this Wednesday, 7 May 1945, while Manfred Gans was setting off in search of his parents, Joe Rosenthal was receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for his photo, “Raising the flag on Iwo Jima”. In 1996, Rosenthal was named as an honorary Marine by General Charles C. Krulak. The photo is “arguably the most famous news photo of all time”. It has featured on a 3-cent postage stamp and was transformed into a sculpture for the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington, Virginia in 1954. Joe Rosenthal died in August 2006 at the age of 94. If none of the above rings a bell, then take a look at the photo below, which probably will.
US Marines raise flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945. Photograph by Joe Rosenthal.
Thursday… My first ever geography lesson at school involved a study of Tollund Man. This poor chap was hanged as a ritual sacrifice dating back to the Iron Age, some time between 406 and 380 BCE. He was 30-40 years old, 5’ 3” and had been almost perfectly preserved in a peat bog in Denmark for 2,400 years. That is, until he was dug up 75 years ago this Thursday, 8 May 1950. Tollund Man has remained a primary educational source in history and geography lessons ever since.
Friday… The Italian poet and author Durante Alighieri was born 760 years ago this Friday, 9 May 1265*. Dante is best remembered for his epic work The Divine Comedy, which traces his fictional journey through the afterlife; Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Heaven). Dante’s Inferno is the first and best remembered section of the poem. Dante travels through the nine circles of Hell; Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. As he starts his journey through the nine circles, Dante first reaches the Gates of Hell, above which is the inscription:
Abandon all hope, you who enter here.
Dante’s Inferno, Canto 28. Dante and Virgil enter the eighth circle of hell, ‘Fraud’. Illustrated by Gustav Doré.
*Specific day disputed.
On this Day
10 May 1940 Eighty-five years ago this Saturday Winston Churchill became UK Prime Minister for the first of two terms. He was appointed the head of a wartime coalition government following Neville Chamberlain’s resignation. Churchill’s inaugural speech three days later is remembered for its passion and rally cry……
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Winston Churchill acknowledges the crowd at Whitehall, London, on VE Day, 8 May 1945.
On the same day that Churchill delivered his rousing speech, the first German bombs fell on British soil. The Kent villages of Petham and Chilham took the brunt of the first wave of bombing from the Luftwaffe. The attack followed the German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands earlier that day. This marked the end of the Phoney War, the eight months following the declaration of war with very little military activity. Petham and Chilham lie close to the City of Canterbury, a prime target for German bombers returning from unsuccessful missions to London and seeking alternative targets.
Question of the Week
In October 1859, a well-known abolitionist from Torrington, Connecticut, led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County (now in West Virginia). His objective was to drain the arsenal of its rifles, distribute them to local slaves and attract more slaves en route to create a stronghold somewhere in the Adirondack Mountains. Although the attempt failed, the abolitionist’s actions were credited as one of the main catalysts triggering the American Civil War in 1861. Who was the abolitionist?
And Finally…
aptronym /ˈaptrənɪm/ noun noun: aptronym; plural noun: aptronyms; A person’s name that is regarded as amusingly appropriate to their occupation.
You know I am a sucker for a good old aptronym. I’ve previously talked about my former plumber, Ken Flood, the West Country policeman, Rob Banks, and the inventor of the lavatory U-bend, Thomas Crapper. Today I bring you Sir John Grant McKenzie Laws, born two days after VE Day, 80 years ago next Saturday, 10 May 1945. Despite both parents being doctors, Sir John would become - yes, you guessed it - a High Court Judge. In fact, Sir John Laws would become the longest-serving Lord Justice of Appeal in UK history when he retired in 2016. He passed away in April 2020 following complications related to COVID-19.
Spread the word...
If you've enjoyed this newsletter, please help me spread the word by forwarding it to a friend. If you have received this newsletter from a friend and would like to receive your own weekly copy of The Breezer, then feel free to sign up here.
Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!
Steve
HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER
P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.
The abolitionist responsible for the raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859 was John Brown, born 225 years ago this Friday, 9 May 1800. He would be hanged in December 1859 for his part in the Harpers Ferry raid.
John Brown’s trial, 1859 by David Lithgow (1923). The painting hangs in Essex County Courthouse, Elizabethtown, New York.
’John Brown’s Body’ would become a popular rally cry for Union Army soldiers during the American Civil War. John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, But his soul goes marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, His soul goes marching on.
ATTRIBUTIONS
US Marines raise flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945. Photograph by Joe Rosenthal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Dante’s Inferno, Canto 28. Dante and Virgil enter the eighth circle of hell, ‘Fraud’. Illustrated by Gustav Doré.
Winston Churchill acknowledges crowd at Whitehall, London on VE Day, 8 May 1945. War Office official photographer, Major W. G. Horton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
John Brown’s trial, 1859 by David Lithgow (1923). The painting hangs in Essex County Courthouse, Elizabethtown, New York: David C. Lithgow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ – ‘Work sets you free’: Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Ernest Rutherford, 1905: Unknown, published in 1939 in Rutherford : being the life and letters of the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, O. M, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Germans surrendering during D-Day Landings, 1944: Supreme Allied Command, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Breezer newsletter is published on the Batting the Breeze website with a two-week delay. Check out previous editions here.
115 Burley Road, Christchurch, Dorset, UK BH23 8AY
You are receiving this email because you wisely subscribed via one of our sign-up forms. You can unsubscribe from this list at any time, although I'd rather you didn't! You can also update your preferences.