Fascist-fighters meet Mosley’s grandson - The Jewish Chronicle

The three last survivors of a legendary fascist-fighting group came face to face last week with the grandson of the pro-Hitler fanatic whom they battled on the streets of London.

43 Group members Sam Needleman, 94, Harry Kaufman, 90, and Jules Konopinski, 91, met Ivo Mosley, direct descendant of British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, at a gathering held alongside the screening of footage from a documentary about the post-war anti-fascist collective, which featured in the recent BBC adaptation of Jo Bloom’s novel Ridley Road. Despite potential for disagreement about the value of the battles fought by the 43 Group, there were none.

Mr Mosley told the JC that his grandfather was “a truly horrible man, who loved being unpleasant, with a very sadistic sense of humour. He was extremely vain, and power mad.”

Among the remarkable stories that surfaced at the screening were tales of how some young Jewish women slept with fascists in order to get intelligence about their next demonstrations and how the 43 Group’s Goldberg brothers were “feared even by the [notorious East End gangsters] Kray Twins”, one survivor said. The survivors’ age has not dimmed their fighting spirit, and Mr Needleman, once in charge of the group’s north-west London sector, said he believed the threat of antisemitism was as strong as ever and must still be combatted.

The event was convened by 20-year-old Jewish film student Jamie Goldberg, who made the documentary about the anti-fascist collective.

Mr Goldberg discovered the story of the 43 Group — founded in 1946 and named after the number of young Jews who were at the first meeting — through his father, Arthur, who is a volunteer with the Jewish security group CST.

Arthur Goldberg’s colleague at CST is Isaac Segalov, whose grandfather, Meyrick, was one of the early 43 Group members. “I heard the stories of what these people did”, Jamie said, “and I thought, I went to a Jewish school (Kerem) and I was never taught anything about this”. So he decided to research the activities of the group.

Months later he has more than seven hours of footage which he is seeking to edit down into a 90-minute film. Among his star interviews — apart from Mr Mosley and the nonagerian survivors — is Robert Lambert, son of Gerry Flamberg, holder of the Military Medal and a driving force behind the 43 Group attacks on Oswald Mosley and his fascists.

The eyes of the old men sparkle in Jamie Goldberg’s film as they recall victories on the London streets, disrupting Mosley’s rallies wherever they could.

Mr Kaufman remembered his arrest for throwing a stone at a fascist van, though fortunately for him the windows were protected with wire inside, so that his missile did not hit the occupants. He was fined £20 but escaped a prison sentence because he was about to begin his National Service.

An early recruit to the 43 Group was Vidal Sassoon, later to become the famous hairdresser to the stars.

And in an extraordinary section of the film, Mr Mosley says over footage of Oswald Mosley standing next to Italian wartime dictator Benito Mussolini that “the family story was that Oswald was so excited by the parade that he was sexually aroused”.

Jamie Goldberg, meanwhile, has developed a fierce pride in the actions of the 43 Group — to the point where he has had a 43 Group symbol, the black figures inside a star of David, tattooed on his chest — just above his heart. “These people were real heroes and we should be so proud of them,” he said.

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