Gabrielle Jacobi

My father was liberal, and he was not only liberal, he was one of the leading liberal lights. He founded the international liberal association of Judaism. He did a lot of outside work, giving lectures, writing. He was co-editor, then, of the Jewish monthly or bi-monthly Der Morgen. He was a very active man, well supported by his wife, who in her own right was probably more intelligent than he was. He, I think, relied on her greatly, but she was always in the background.

I went three times back to Offenbach. The mayor wanted to honour my father a little bit more than they had already done. To honour him, they named a street after him. And the mayor and all the dignitaries, we walked along the newly named Max-Dienemann-Weg, of which I have the picture.

My husband was an exceptional person in many ways. He was absolutely bilingual. No accent. Spoke English probably better than most English people. Spoke German. He gave a radio commentary… simultaneous translation during the Prague crisis, when Hitler gave one or two speeches. It was transmitted as simultaneous translation by the BBC. Then the BBC said to him, “When war breaks out, which no doubt it will, please come and work for us.” And more or less the first week when war broke out he joined the BBC