Dr Fridolin Moritz Max Friedmann

Friedmann was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1987. After receiving his doctorate in 1925, he taught at various schools, becoming headmaster of a Jewish school at Caputh, near Potsdam. In 1937-1939 he taught in Berlin.

Friedmann accompanied a number of Kindertransports and remained in the UK in 1939. In the UK, he taught at a Zionist farm camp whose pupils were training to go to Palestine.

In October 1945, he took charge of the second group of the Boys at the Wintershill Hall reception centre. In 1946, he moved to Millisle hostel where he took care of some of the third group of the Boys that had been brought to the UK.

Later that year he moved to Bunce Court school to become its headmaster. The relationship with Essinger, who had been the sole headmistress of the school since its inception in Germany in 1926, was difficult and Friedmann left.

He then taught at Carmel College. He believed in the role of art, music and culture in education. He retired in 1961.

Friedmann died in 1976.

“There was a great personality there. His name was Dr. (Ginger) Friedmann, who was our protector, mentor and dear friend, whose memory I will cherish for the rest of my life. " - Alec Ward, one of the Boys at Wintershill Hall

“Dr Friedman is an eager, thickset, red-headed man with humourous eyes and the vitality of the successful youth leader.” - Mollie Panter-Downes (New Yorker Magazine)

“He seemed to me a Menschenkenner (someone who understands people) of remarkable perspicacity, who accepted people as he saw them”- Kurt Klappholz, one of the Boys.

This profile was written by Ruby Kwartz.

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