Scoutmaster trip to Eurpoe 2007

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

This morning we held an historic “sunrise” ceremony to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Scouting. On this day in 1907, Baden Powell took 20 boys from London to camp for a week on Brownsea Island. Significantly, the boys came from all social classes; there were boys of privilege and boys from poor families. Baden Powell organized the boys into four patrols, and taught them the rudiments of camping. We mark the inception of Scouting from this event, and the ceremonies this morning celebrated the growth of Baden Powell’s idea. Today, there are more than 28 million scouts around the world we were told. Two scouts from each country at the Jamboree were part of a special program at Brownsea Island, and we saw them on the monitors in the Jamboree arena. Peter Duncan, the chief of British scouting, opened the ceremonies the same way Baden Powell opened the camp at Brownsea. He blew the Kudu horn three times from a platform at Brownsea. Then all 40,000 scouts in the arena stood up and along with the scouts at Brownsea repeated the Scout Oath in their native language. It was inspiring!

Flag pageantry followed, and scouts of several religions including Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Latter-day Saints, Moslem and others made moving presentations for tolerance and world peace. White doves were released to fly over the audience in the arena. It was a moving presentation. Finally, to everyone’s delight and somewhat of a surprise, the grandson of Baden Powell came onto the stage. He was introduced by an official from the World Scouting organization. Baden Powell’s grandson is quite an old man, and he is also named Baden Powell. In scout uniform and with thinning white hair, Baden Powell’s grandson spoke to us. He read his grandfather’s farewell message to the scouts of the world; it was in a letter that the original Baden Powell asked to be opened after he died. The words were electric, and in the setting of the 100th Anniversary, the words evoked great emotion. I could not help thinking of my old Scoutmaster, Lee Erde, and I’ll admit having a tear in my eye.

A few nights ago, I helped Michael Feigenbaum stuff postcards he created into 50 numbered envelopes. The postcards have various designs with images of scouting stamps. Michael is giving some away as gifts, and trading others. In the tent next to Michael’s is another scouting collector, Chris Jensen, who has a business in South Carolina selling scouting memorabilia. On of the great things about talking to Michael is that he is able to tell me about scouting in the Bronx after I left. The conversation this evening was about some of the people in the Order of the Arrow, and the 50th anniversary of Ranachqua Lodge. As I understand it, there was a great celebration and Michael prepared a display of badges. Michael had become friends with Chief Stump, the Bronx Council Chief Executive for more than 40 years. Chief Stump let Michael borrow a very rare and valuable Ranachqua Lodge bouillon-embroidered badge for the display. Michael said it was one of the only four in existence.

At the time there was a fellow named John Tegtmeyer active in the lodge along with his parents. John was an only child and his parents pushed him hard. At the close of the 50th anniversary celebration, the Tegtmeyer’s volunteered to help Michael pack up the badge display, and when Michael got home he discovered to his horror that Chief Stump’s bouillon was missing. Michael had to confront Chief Stump, and Michael later found out that some people thought that he had stolen the badge.

Years later, John Tegtmeyer’s parents passed away, and John decided to sell their scouting collection. The bouillon was in the collection for sale, and Michael bought it for $450.00. By this time Chief Stump had passed away too. Michael held onto the badge for several years, and finally sold it to a collector in North Carolina for quite a profit; I think Michael said $2,500.00. Then the badge was sold to another collector In Las Vegas, Nevada. Incredulously, it sold for $9 million, Chris said! I nearly fell off my chair. I asked about the person who bought the badge and where he got the money. Chris told me that the purchaser was a psychiatrist who runs a large hospital in Las Vegas; he tests drugs and writes the trail data reports for drug companies. Having a large hospital allows him to conduct the tests effectively, and, of course, profitably. The psychiatrist’s name is Len Horne.

The story does not end here because this morning as I was sitting near an aisle waiting for the sunrise show to start, a photographer wearing an American scout uniform came near me to take pictures of the pre show events. He was part of the volunteer staff responsible for photographing the World Jamboree. I asked him if he worked as a professional photographer back home. He said he was a doctor from Las Vegas. I asked what kind of doctor…you guessed it, a psychiatrist. Moreover, he explained that he runs an International Scouting museum in Las Vegas! Yes, his name is Len Horne. I told him that I have plans to be in Las Vegas next May for my son’s wedding, and that I would certainly visit the museum, but I didn’t say that I would like to see Chief Stump’s $9 million patch.

Thursday, August 3, 2007

My work schedule at the radio shack had me working yesterday from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m.; I have today off; however, tomorrow, I will be working overnight. We maintain a small crew in the radio shack every night to safeguard the valuable radio equipment. I have started using a neat communications system called “echolink.” It’s software that allows users to connect to radio relay stations via the Internet. On the computer, echolink allows me to scroll radio call signs in a geographical region anywhere on earth. Every continent is divided into radio transmitting areas, and whoever is transmitting is listed. By clicking on the active sites, the computer links the person’s radio transmission to the Internet. With a microphone and speakers or a headset connected to the computer we’re able to communicate. I like echolink more than turning the dial on a transceiver to talk to people.

Since I had the day off, I decided to head back into London to see more. I wanted to visit the Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms, and I also wanted to visit an out-of-the-way Jewish museum in the North London. I have to tell you that they were both fascinating places. The Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms is in the basement of a building near Big Ben and Westminster, close to the seat of government. It’s an underground bunker of sorts that has both living and working quarters. During the Second World War, while London was being bombed, Churchill and his cabinet met here as did the Chief of Staff of the British Army. The facility was protected with a six-foot thick slab of concrete that probably could not have really withstood direct hits by German 500 lb. bombs. The building above would have crushed the place. Nonetheless, this is where Churchill and his key staff worked, and it was from here that he broadcast messages to the British people. There was a “hot line” telephone in a secret room within the complex that Churchill could use to talk to Roosevelt and later Truman.
One of the neat things about going to museums these days is the technology available to bring the story to life. For example, the audio tour that visitors get in this museum has some recordings of actual phone conversations that were taped, and it also has some interviews with people who worked in the underground facility. Back then, a large group of typists worked around the clock, and formed a key part of the operations. There were no PC’s and printers. I especially enjoyed listening to one of the typists describe her job and living conditions in the facility (people did not go home after a day’s work). The typists who worked for Churchill were incredible. Churchill would simply come into the room and dictate whatever he wanted typed. The document had to be typed without any errors the first time, in triplicate. The way she explained it, Churchill would sort of walk around the room as he dictated. Sometimes he would be in front of the typist, sometimes behind her. Churchill had a speech impediment and it was often difficult to understand him. Of course, this put the typist in a bind. If she asked Churchill to repeat what he said, he could get extremely angry at her. If she guessed what he said, and got it wrong, she would get the same treatment when he read the paper. Also, beside the speech impediment, Churchill usually had a big cigar in his mouth, even while he dictated. The woman also said that sometimes she would get so interested in what Churchill was saying that she stopped typing just to listen to the man!

Churchill had some very unusual work habits. He normally got up late and had his breakfast brought to him in bed. Then he would read newspapers, and reports. As he got going, staff would be called in to get orders, review issues, etc. Typists would also be called into take dictation as I described above, but it would be from Churchill in his night gown (special silk garments) from his bed. Finally, Churchill would get out of bed, get dressed and hold meetings in a more normal office setting. In the afternoon, he took a nap, and then he would work into the late hours of the night. His work days were 18 hours long, and he demanded the same kind of effort from everyone who worked for him, although few if any could work as long and as hard.

The museum is full of his speeches, and there’s one display that has things he said or wrote in categories, including humor. Almost every speech had a memorable line, and Churchill wrote his own speeches. One line in response to the French General who, after Germany overran France said that England would have her “neck broken by the Germans like a chicken, if she continued to fight.” Churchill’s one liner to parliament after the British Army did some heavy damage to the Germans was that England was “some chicken” then after the laughter died down “…some neck.”

Churchill exuded self-confidence. He said “we’re all worms, but that he was a glow worm.” In describing his tastes, one aid said, “Mr. Churchill’s tastes are simple. He likes the best of everything!”

I spent about four hours in the Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms, and could easily have spent four more hours there. But I wanted to visit the Jewish Museum before going back to the World Jamboree. The Jewish Museum is almost at the end of the Northern Line of the London Underground, quite some distance from Westminster and the center of London. There are two Jewish Museums in London, and I visited the one on Camden Street in 2002. The Camden Street Jewish museum has displays about holidays, and ritual objects (torahs, menorahs, etc.). In contrast, the Finchley Street Jewish museum has displays dealing with Jewish history in Britain and relating to the Holocaust. As I understand it, the English kicked the Jews out of their country in the 1200’s. I am not sure exactly where these people went, but they were not allowed to return to England for several hundred years. Once the Jews returned to England, however, they were integrated into English society, and some Jews became quite famous (Disraeli). I was hoping the Finchley Street Jewish museum would have displays that described these events. It did not. However, it did have displays that described two major Jewish immigrations into England: the immigration of the mid 1800’s from the Pale of Settlement, and the immigration after the Holocaust of people from displaced persons camps of 1945 onward.

The Jews who came to England in the mid 1800’s were poor people.They had no real job skills, and they had almost no English language skills. I am not clear about why England let these people in. The Pale of Settlement is a term used to describe a large area of Poland, Russia and the Ukraine, where there were many small Jewish communities called shtetles (like the community in Fiddler on the Roof). The displays in the museum showed what Jews did to earn a living in England. They became bakers, tailors, and shoemakers. The other thing they did was to eventually organize labor unions.

The most interesting display to me was a set of posters about the Kindertransport. A delegation from the Council for German Jewry pleaded with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to let Jewish children come to England, and the British government gave permission so long as Jewish organizations would raise the money and insure that the children were dispersed throughout Britain. Christian and Quaker groups participated, and about a thousand children arrived each month starting at the end of 1938. About 10,000 children made it to England before England declared war in September 1939. Not all of the children were Jewish; about 2,500 were Christian or other faiths.

Initially the British were wary of these “Germans” in their midst, and when the war started the older children were put into internment camps. Sounds familiar. We did the same thing to Japanese Americans. However, soon the British realized these children were not Nazi sympathizers or spies, and they were released. About a thousand older children served in the British Army, and some died fighting for Britain. Others got jobs to help the war effort. Many individual British citizens showed amazing courage by traveling to Germany to organize the transport. The posters describe Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schonfeld, whose personal efforts saved more than 3,000 children. It’s hard to imagine the bravery of this man who traveled to Nazi Germany many times in the days just prior to the war. Hitler’s Germany was no place for a Rabbi to be at that time. After the war, most of the children learned they would never see their parents again. Some of the children were allowed to remain in England and become citizens, but this is not a happy ending. One poster describes a person who arrived as a baby, only three and a half year’s old. He was raised by fostering parents in the Midlands and went to Christian schools. He says, “I was no longer considered German, and I was not considered English. I certainly wasn’t Jewish. I am neither German nor English, neither Gentile nor Jew. I would like to know what is my identity.”

In 1989, fifty years after the transports ended, about a thousand former “Kinder” held a reunion. It was organized by Bertha Leverton who arrived in England when she was 15 years old. People came from all over the world. The poster said “buried feelings came to the surface and tears flowed freely.” What a story this is!

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster, Troop 1131