A fitting farewell for Franz Joseph Nebel - Rabbi Reuven Lanning and British Ort charity praise police after death of refugee who fled Nazis

Published: 14 January 2011
by JOSH LOEB and CAIT MORRISON

LEADERS of a Regent’s Park-based charity have praised police for enabling a reclusive refugee from Nazism to be given a religious burial.

Franz Joseph Nebel, who was 87, was found in dead in his flat in Randolph Avenue, Maida Vale, in October. 

It is believed he died from heart failure up to a month before.

While trying to trace Mr Nebel’s next of kin, officers from the missing persons’ department at Marylebone police station discovered a newspaper clipping about a trip to Berlin for German Jewish refugees. 

Mr Nebel had participated in the visit, which was organised by British Ort, the UK arm of a Jewish educational charity that was founded in Tsarist Russia and whose name derives from a Russian word that describes an act of charity.

Police contacted the organisation, which last month arranged for Mr Nebel to be buried in a Jewish cemetery in Waltham Abbey.

Muriel Stempel, British Ort events manager, said: “When the police got in touch we decided to try to arrange a Jewish burial for Mr Nebel. The alternative would have been a cremation funded by the council, and cremation is against Jewish law. 

“I can’t say how helpful the United Synagogue were in assisting us. 

“There was a connection to Ort, as he had been rescued from Germany by the organisation, and we wanted to give him some dignity at the end of his life.”

Born in Germany in 1923, Mr Nebel attended an Ort school in Berlin, which provided schooling for Jewish children excluded from mainstream education by the Nazi regime. 

He was rescued from Germany three days before the war began, when Colonel Joseph Levey, head of British Ort, brought a group of boys from the school to England. 

They were held at the Kitchener Camp for six months, before being sent to a new school in Leeds.

Ms Stempel said: “The old boys had all remained in touch, so we contacted them for more information. 

“We found one man, Bert Goldsmith, who had shared lodgings with Mr Nebel after the war. 

“He told us that Mr Nebel joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1943 and made it to the position of sergeant. After the war he took a job with the Post Office, but that is where the trail ends. We know he was widowed and his brother died some years ago. His mother was killed by the Nazis during the war.”

Rabbi Reuven Lanning, who gave the eulogy at Mr Nebel’s funeral, said: “He has passed away with almost no one caring but the police found he was a Jew and, with due credit to them, passed him to us. 

“We are a people, a nation who look after each other and as such Franz is getting a Jewish burial. It is sad that he did not reach out to his people during his lifetime.”

Police said Mr Nebel’s death was not suspicious and they are now helping British Ort to recover documents from his flat.

Ms Stempel said: “No next of kin has been found, he left no will, so any money will go to the government. However, any documents about Ort would be very useful for our archives.”