By Jerry Klinger
MANCHESTER, England — A new cemetery headstone was placed in the Manchester, U.K. Jewish Cemetery, September 2, 2021.
Unveilings at gravesites of new memorial stones are not unusual. This stone was different. There was no formal unveiling. The memorial stone was placed in the cemetery by strangers who had nothing to do with the deceased nor had ever known him. They were separated by great distances and many years from the events of his life and death. But… then again, they were not.
The text of the highly polished black stone is crested with an overly large Star of David in a white circle.
Beneath the Star his name in Hebrew and:
Remembering
Kurt Theodor Goldschlager
Served in No. 3 Jewish Troop 10 Commando during WW2
As Corporal Kenneth Edward Clarke, MiD
1912-1977
Buried RC section I-1503
Hebrew acronym (roughly rest in peace)
Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, U.K. Branch
The inscription is an enigma. It will certainly be to cemetery visitors in the years to come.
Kurt Theodor Goldschlager was not buried there all. His earthly remains are buried in a nearby Roman Catholic Cemetery under a Christianized name, Kenneth Edward Clarke. How did he end up buried in a Roman Catholic cemetery without even a tiny marker saying he ever existed?
Goldschlager was a Viennese Jewish refugee who escaped to Britain as the death vice of Nazism took hold in his native land. His safety in Britain was tenuous. His parents were not so lucky. They vanished in the cauldron of the Holocaust.
Not unreasonably, the British viewed all refugees, especially the German speaking ones, with deep suspicion.
Were they a fifth column they had opened their borders to?
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a simple sweeping solution. Round all of them up. Lock them up. Deport them if possible. Special attention, special urgency was focused on men of military age.
Overnight, the refugees became enemy aliens. They were sent to internment camps while others were deported to Australia and Canada.
The British did not make a distinction between German speaking Nazi sympathizers and German speaking Jews. Bloody fights broke out in the camps between Nazi sympathizers and the Jews.
October 1940, Britain had survived and won the Battle of Britain air war. She was desperate for men. In the internment camps were a huge reserve of men. Not sure if they could be trusted, Britain opened Work Labor Companies, under strict controls, to internment volunteers. The men were not permitted to join the Army. They were named the Pioneer Corps. Euphemistically, they were known as the Kings Most Loyal Enemy Aliens.
The refugee Jews, by the thousands, eagerly enlisted at the opportunity to do something to help Britain get at the hated Nazis.
British military planning began focusing on Commando operations, taking the fight to the Germans. It would still be years before a full invasion of the European continent could be undertaken. They needed a special type of man to be a Commando, with very special reasons to undertake the extraordinary, sometimes suicidal missions needed to get at the Nazis.
Lord Mountbatten knew within the ranks of the Pioneer Corps was the perfect resource of German speaking men, men who could even think like Germans to get the job done, Jews.
350 Jews volunteered, 86 were selected, an elite of the elite. There were not just “bad assed”, they were the “baddest of the bad asses,” the toughest of the toughest. The 86 were sent to Aberdyfi, Wales for extensive training. Secrecy demanded they shed their pasts, names, identities, even their religion had to be changed. They became British Commandos and to the outside world, British Christians.
Kurt Theodor Goldschlager became Kenneth Edward Clarke.
Churchill was skeptical of the fighting ability of the unit. Officially they were known as Inter-Allied #3 Troop 10(a). Churchill preferred to call them X-Troop. To him, they were an unknown quantity.
Churchill was wrong. X-Troop, frequently divided like spear heads to various fighting units, became the aggressive daggers aimed at the Nazi hearts. They repeatedly proved themselves across many theaters of fighting.
After the war, X-Troopers, using their unique skill sets, ferreted out Nazis hiding in society. They were very good at it.
Clarke, naturalized in 1947 as a British subject, began his civilian life in the U.K. He tried and failed at various businesses. He never married. Eventually, he became involved with elements of the British criminal underworld. 1977, his skull was crushed in an apparent murder.
Clarke was indigent. No one claimed his remains. Manchester, not knowing who he was, buried him in the local Roman Catholic Cemetery in an unmarked gravesite.
1999, a memorial, a large slate vertical rough-cut stone, was placed in Penhelyg Park, Aberdyfi, overlooking the sea for 3 Troop (10a). An honorary text was engraved on the stone in all capital letters.
“FOR THE MEMBERS OF
3 TROOP 10 (1A) COMMANDO
WHO WERE WARMLY WELCOMED
IN ABERDYFI
WHILE TRAINING FOR SPECIAL DUTIES
IN BATTLE 1942-1943
TWENTY WERE KILLED IN ACTION”
(twenty-two were wounded – a nearly 50% casualty rate.)
Two interpretive markers were added near the seawall, one in Welsh and one in English.
“This British Army Commando Troop initially consisted of eighty-six German-speaking refugees from Nazi oppression who were given fictitious names and identities as British nationals for their own protection and effectiveness. Commanded by Major Hilton-Jones MC, their special duties were reconnaissance, interrogation, and intelligence. Deployed singly or in small groups, they rendered distinguished service in the defeat of Hitler’s Germany.”
One key distinguishing word recognizing the uniqueness of X-Troop was glaringly left out – Jewish.
Official war records never identified #3 Troop 10(a) as Jews.
Veteran X-Troopers were split if the word Jew should be included. Most had never changed their names back to their prewar identities. They preferred to be Brits and not identified as Jews.
I had experienced a similar situation with American Jewish veterans of WWII. For example, Thorpe-Abbots Airfield in Britain was home to the American 8th Air Force. A small museum recognizes a few of the famous aviators of the 8th. Some of the most highly decorated fliers were Jews.
The museum needed updating. An offer to fund the update was turned down because of a requirement to identify the famous fliers as American-Jews.
Ten years ago, Martin Sugarman, the archivist for the (British) Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women, approached Aberdyfi to correct the historical record at the #3 Troop 10(a) memorial. He wished to place a small plaque nearby identifying the unit as Jewish.
He has been turned down… repeatedly.
Sugarman is also the British director of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation’s U.K. branch. When he uncovered the Goldschlager/Clarke story, he approached JASHP for funding of a “Remembering” stone for him. It was agreed to, as well as a small stone at his actual resting place.
Ironically, Goldschlager’s “Remembering” stone, over an empty gravesite in the Jewish Cemetery of Manchester, is the only memorial in the U.K. for X-Troop, the Jewish Troop, one of the most unique secret weapons of the British army in WWII.
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Jerry Klinger is the president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.