Some of Them

Jan Van Rij

Description

Leaving behind an impoverished and threatened existence in 19th century anti-semitic tsarist Russia, a Jewish family make a new life and a fortune in Japan and China, in a region dominated by the struggle between the great powers, as chandlers and trusted partners of the Imperial Russian Navy prior to and during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904. Upon their return to Russia they become honoured citizens of Saint Petersburg until Bolshevism drives them out again to new uncertainties in the West.

Sujets

• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: L'Harmattan
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• EAN13: 9782296479067
• Langue: Français

Extrait

SOME OF THEM
Previous works :


« Madame Butterfly – Japonisme, Puccini & the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San" – Berkeley, California – Stone Bridge Press – 2001.


© L’Harmattan, 2011
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ISBN : 978-2-296-55946-2
EAN : 9782296559462

Fabrication numérique : Actissia Services, 2012
JAN VAN RIJ


SOME OF THEM

The Story of a Russian, Jewish Family
and its Worldwide Peregrinations
in Times of War and Revolution
for Kees, Antoinette
and Gabriella
PREFACE
This is the story of a Jewish family from one of the poorest regions of Tsarist Russia, of how a strong and enterprising member of the family arrived penniless in the Far East and helped to shape the history of his time, and how it brought him fame, fortune and honour and finally the eclipse of all he had built. The title "Some of Them ", which I explain below, aims to portray him and his relatives as unusual people not only driven by a powerful ambition but also conscious of a mission and instrumental in a destiny larger than themselves.

This book would never have been written had I not met Martin Blakeway in Tokyo in the autumn of 1983. Between other activities Martin was teaching Japanese students at Sophia and Waseda Universities and in the process trying to convince them to become useful citizens of the world. Among the foreigners in Tokyo he enjoyed the reputation of having been the real life model of the pilot Foster J. Mac Williams who flew the Yemenite Jews from Aden to Israel in Leon Uris’s 1958 novel " Exodus ". The true story turned out to be different but no less remarkable.

Martin and I saw each other often in the 1980’s in Tokyo. During one of our many convivial evenings he gave me my first insight into the fascinating story of his family and I began to grasp what an extraordinary saga lay behind the fragments he told me. I was working on another project but already the idea of writing a book on this colourful family living in distant places and stirring times started to take shape.

Eventually the true story of the part Martin played in the exodus of the Yemenite Jews also came up. In 1950, a barely nineteen years old student, he became by chance involved in the dramatic journey of these people and their ancient Torah scrolls from their biblical environment into the modern world of Israel. At length Martin returned to Jersey in the Channel Islands, where his parents then lived. As he came home and bent to greet his mother on the doorstep, she put her finger to her lips and whispered : "Sshh, I’m one of them".

Surprised, Martin had to wait until the next day when his English father was out of the house to learn from his mother that both the maternal Russian grandfather he had never known and the Austrian grandmother he believed to be a French Protestant were Jewish. At the same time he discovered that his father did not know it either. His grandmother had warned her own children never to betray their Jewish origins to anybody. But they still were "Some of Them ".

The family survived and prospered, some in spite of the antisemitism of the age, others at least outwardly disavowing their Jewish origins or, like Martin, not even aware of them. Martin’s own philosophy and his lifelong ties with people of all races and persuasions have in no way been affected by this revelation, as his own story, to be told one day by himself, I hope, will abundantly prove.

The story I tell here unfolds from obscure beginnings in the Polish-Ukranian region of Volhynia, rapidly acquiring colour and becoming a vivid portrayal of people tossed about by history, as well as a mirror of events in the world where it developed. In the process I was at pains to forgo unverifiable hearsay and gossip and labored to unearth many compelling facts that had long been forgotten or hidden under the family carpet. A major difficulty was the scarcity of original documents : much potentially useful material has undoubtedly been lost due to war, revolution, fire and human fallibility. However, thanks to a few dedicated and enterprising accomplices and the cooperation of archivists in various countries, documents were found that supported the story throughout and gave it the detail, human measure and authenticity I believe it deserved.

Among the many to whom I am indebted a special place should be given to Shinagawa Mitsue for her assistance in finding and exploiting Japanese historical sources concerning Russo-Japanese relations, the Japanese coal trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the lives of the foreigners living in Nagasaki. Without her enthusiastic help, her creative suggestions, her inventive initiatives and her meticulous analyses it would not have been possible to obtain a meaningful insight into the success of the Mess family in the Far East.

My former colleague in the European Commission, Klaus Schneider, opened several doors leading to a better understanding of Russian history. Dr Mikhael Beizer of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem enlightened me about the Jewish community of Saint Petersburg of the early 1900’s. The late Mrs Lesley Blanch, whose books I have always admired, gave me invaluable insights into the spirit of the Russian establishment in the same period.

Access to archives in Moscow and Saint Petersburg was greatly facilitated by several generous Russian friends, who also helped me to follow the track of Morris Ginsburg to France after the October Revolution. Mrs H.Weiss of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien surprised me with a genealogical overview of the Austrian Orner family. Staff members of archives in Paris, Nice, Grasse and London went out of their way to unearth details of persons involved in the story. Particular mention should be made of the Archives of the Département des Alpes Maritimes in Nice and of the Bibliothèque Universitaire des Langues Orientales in Paris.

Patrick Garancher-Boiscommun, the great-nephew of Marcus Mess supplied me with much information about members of Regina Mess-Orner’s family. Miss Dinah Sheridan, the granddaughter of Morris Ginsburg, contributed many personal memories of the Ginsburg family before and after they left Saint Petersburg to her cousin Martin who shared them with me. Martin’s elder brother, Brian Blakeway, sent me his own thoughtful impressions about the life of the Mess family after Marcus’s death. The reminiscences of Cecilia Mess were redorded by her grandson Martin Plant not long before her death. Chatelaines of the Chateau du Sablen in Auray, and of the Chateau de Boissière in Boissières, were most gracious in enriching my knowledge about the life of Louis Audemard and his final years in their historic homes.

I am very grateful to all the persons mentioned above for their generous assitance without which I would not have been able to write a coherent account of the Mess and Ginsburg families. Some of these contacts were a challenge, especially those with indispensable Russian ressources. My telephone conversation with Dr Pilipenko, author of an article in a Russian periodical about Morris Ginsburg and master of fully half a dozen words in English (a linguistic treasury about twice as extensive as mine in Russian) must have been as hilarious to him as it was for me but miraculously we managed to understand each other.

Much of the colour of the story comes from explorations on the spot by Martin Blakeway and his wife Fujiko in Japan and Russia and visits together with my wife Keiko and myself to places in Nagasaki, Paris and Southern France. They were useful, amusing and sometimes moving occasions as well, such as the time we found the school in Grasse attended by Marcus Mess’s daughters, the villa in Nice where the family spent one or two happy years at the time Saint Petersburg was being ravished by the 1905 revolution or the room in a tower in the castle at Boissières near Vergèze where Louis Audemard died a lonely man surrounded by his oriental treasures.

Martin and Fujiko also wrestled themselves through the early manuscript, corrected errors and made suggestions for improvements. So did my friend Tom Lacy who read the entire script in its final version. As Marcel Proust says : there are no certainties, not even in grammar. I am, nevertheless, grateful to them for their help in shaping this into what I hope is a readable book.

I owe a word of explanation to those descendants of the Mess brothers who gave me their view on past events of the family. As their opinions sometimes diverged, I had to decide in a number of cases which version seemed to be the most authentic. I apologize to each of them for any choice he or she might disagree with.

A final remark on spelling : Russian names have been rendered much along the lines followed by such authoritative authors as Hugh Seton-Watson with a few exceptions where all or nearly all English language sources use other forms which in those few cases I followed. As to Russian dates before 1918 (which were then different from the rest of Europe), there are so few of them that matter to the story that I have not systematically tried to follow one particular calendar. For Japanese names I followed the traditional style, placing the family name first followed by the given name.
1. OUT OF RUSSIA

(1851 – 1875)
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