Jack Aizenburg

This is a brief account about a man I met during my career in Local Government.   I retired early in 1995.   So it was at some point before this that I met the man I came to know as Mr Jack.   This was what his workers at Constellation Luggage called him.   He had asked that someone call on him at Fernhurst Mill in Chadderton to advise him how he could reduce his Business Rates.   I am pleased to say that I could help him.   My advice was to move his production up one floor and leave the ground floor empty as this could be considered an separate assessment free from Business Rates.

I visited his place of work on a couple of occasions.   We went up in the lift and I spotted a swastika drawn on the wall of the lift.   Knowing he was Jewish I exclaimed " Don't they realise who is paying their wage?"   "They don't understand" was his simple reply.   It was a year or so later that I watched a new item where Holocaust survivors spoke to the sixth form at Clitheroe Grammar School about their experience.   There was Mr Jack with tears in his eyes as he spoke.   I realised how proud I was to have net him.   I had met a man who had survived the Holocaust.   I felt connected.

Tonight I watched a special Antiques Roadshow where survivors and their families brought
 items connected to those dreadful days.   It was an inspirational programme.   One part was about a patchwork created to remember the first young people to be brought to the UK and settled initially in Windermere in the Lake District.   I knew Jack was one of them because, being short in stature he lied about hi age and was successful in getting a flight here.   This was information I gleaned from a programme called "Strictly Kosher" on TV.   Below is Jack's square on the patchwork.

This is Mr Jack, my hero

It is important that the world never forgets what happened to all those Jews rounded up by the Nazis.   Most were murdered in an effort to create a purified race.   The truth was that it was simply racial hatred that brought about those awful deeds.   These people were all part of God's magnificent creation.   How the Lord must have cried over such barbaric treatment of human beings.   Here was another time when Jesus was crucified.   Mr Jack declared himself not religious but he was overjoyed when, in his eighties he was able to celebrate his Bar mitzvah.   God bless Mr Jack!