Irene Auerbach

Irene Auerbach was born in March 1939 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as the second daughter to parents Walter Auerbach and Kaethe Auerbach. Her father came from a large orthodox Jewish family in Hamburg, who wanted him to become a rabbi. When he came of age, he broke with the family to pursue a secular education and studied journalism. He only stayed in touch with his brother Philipp. Her mother came from a non-Jewish family in Görlitz and she trained as a lawyer and also got a PhD from Breslau and Cologne university. In Cologne she joined the Socialist Students Union and met Irene’s father in 1926. Her family temporarily cut ties with her for marrying a Jewish man. 

Walter Auerbach started working for the trade union in Berlin. He had to flee with his pregnant wife in May 1933 to the Netherlands where he found work with the International Transport Workers’ Federation. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands in 1940 and the family had to flee again. This time they came to England which was arranged through the ITF. Irene started primary school in 1944. However, Irene’s parents’ vision throughout the war was to return to Germany and “build a better Germany”.

In October 1946 they returned to Lemgo, location of the headquarters for the Ministry of Labour for the British Zone. It was also a CCG headquarters, the Control Commission for Germany. Her father started working as vice president of the Central Labour Agency. Irene talks at length about her mainly negative experiences in the German school system that lacked teachers, buildings, resources but was also very old-fashioned and authoritarian in its approach. Her father became State Secretary for the Lower Saxony Labour Ministry and Social Affairs in 1948 until 1971 (with only a short interruption).

Her uncle, Philipp Auerbach, a camp survivor, became State commissioner for people fleeing racial, religious, and political persecution in Munich, post-war. In 1952 he was accused of embezzlement and committed suicide in pre-trial custody. In 1954 he was posthumously cleared of all charges.

Irene trained and worked as a music teacher in Germany for a couple of years before she moved to England in 1965. She started teaching German and music in Stevenage at the Nobel School. In 1975 after her father passed away, her mother bought a flat in Stevenage and lived there until she died. Irene’s sister Leonore lives in Germany to this day.

Although Irene was passionate about teaching music, she resigned after the introduction of the National Curriculum and retrained as a secretary. She worked for Foyles bookshop and for many years was the administrator of the music department of King’s College.

Keywords: Walter (Sigmund Selig) Auerbach. Hamburg. Käthe Paulsen. Görlitz. University Breslau and Cologne. Socialists Students Union. PhD Jürg Jenatsch (Swiss freedom fighter). Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes [German National Academic Foundation]. Amsterdam. Netherlands. ITF [International Transport Workers’ Federation]. Kempston, England. Henrietta Barnett. Philipp Auerbach. Lemgo. headquarters for the Ministry of Labour for the British Zone. Control Commission for Germany. Father: State Secretary for Lower Saxony Labour Ministry and Social Affairs. Hannover. Alfred Kübel. Walter Arend. Nell-Breuning. Dannenberg. Marienau. Choir Music. Stevenage. Nobel School. Music Department King’s College.