© Firemen Remembered

JEWS IN THE FIRE SERVICE

Abraham Lewis was born in Leeds in 1907, the fourth child of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. His father, married to Betsey Nagwidgiff, was a journeyman baker. Like his father, Abraham also became a baker. By 1938, the family had moved to London and Abraham was married with two children, living in the Whitechapel area at the heart of the Jewish community. In August 1938 Abraham joined the Auxiliary Fire Service. At that time with the declaration of war still one year ahead, he was one of the first to join.

The search for Abraham Lewis’s family was both very long and very poignant, revealing a dimension to the story of the wartime Fire Service never previously recognised. The Jewish community comprised the largest and most significant immigrant population in Britain at that time. When recruitment for the Auxiliary Fire Service began many Jewish men and women were among the first recruits and by the outbreak of war numbered several thousand in London alone. Many more served in towns and cities across Britain, such as Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester where there were also established communities. Firemen Remembered with military historian Martin Sugarman, archivist for the Association of Jewish Ex –Servicemen and Women, has undertaken a comprehensive study of the experience of Jews in the Fire Service in World War II and is currently working to create a Record of Service listing all Jewish men and women who served in the AFS. Many Jewish names are to be found among lists of those who died and Harry Errington (Ehrengott), the only wartime Fire Service winner of the George Cross in London, was Jewish. The contribution of the Jewish Community to the defence of London in the Fire Service and in Civil Defence as a whole was enormous.

For further information please contact info@firemenremembered.co.uk