Peter J. Fraenkel (7 December 1926 – 12 December 2024) was a German-born British journalist and author who was controller of European services for the
British Broadcasting Corporation
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...
. He was born in Breslau but following Nazi oppression of the Jews, he escaped for Northern Rhodesia with his parents in 1939. He worked there in broadcasting before leaving for London in 1957 when he began his career in Reuters and then the BBC. He described with irony his transition from "sub-human Jew in Nazi Germany ... to White master race in British colonial Africa".
[Writings.]
Peter Fraenkel. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
Early life
Peter Fraenkel was born in
Breslau (then in Germany, now Poland) on 7 December 1926. His father was a German civil servant who received the
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...
for his heroism under fire during the First World War. As German oppression of Jews grew in the 1930s, Fraenkel's mother pleaded with her husband to leave the country but he only agreed after ''
Kristallnacht
( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...
'' in 1938. The family had visas for
Swaziland
Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where ...
and
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in Southern Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North ...
but chose the later as it was thought to be wealthier and in 1939 they departed for Northern Rhodesia by sea via South Africa. They settled in
Lusaka
Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...
and Fraenkel's father opened a dry cleaning company with a friend. Peter Fraenkel was educated at Lusaka Boys' school.
[Memoir of a subversive broadcaster (book review).]
Leslie Baruch Brent, The Association of Jewish Refugees, August 2005. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
Fraenkel studied English and history at the
University of Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in ...
, Johannesburg, and became involved with the
anti-apartheid movement
The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-white population who were oppressed by the policies ...
. He was selected for a tour of English universities and ironically selected to debate in favour of
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
. He lost but was offered a job by a South African public relations officer which he declined.
[
In his autobiography ''No fixed abode'', he described with irony his transition from "sub-human Jew in Nazi Germany ... to White master race in British colonial Africa".][
]
Early career
Fraenkel's first job was as an accounts clerk for the registrar of co-operative societies. He then left that to work as an assistant broadcasting officer for Central African Broadcasting Services in Lusaka (1952–57) where he created a fictional mining compound to get development messages across using local actors. The venture was described in ''Wayaleshi'' (1958).
London
In 1957, Fraenkel left Africa for London, working first for Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
and then the BBC where he first wrote scripts, he then became Greek Programme organiser and later the Head of the East European Services[ from 1979-86.
]
Death
Fraenkel died on 12 December 2024, at the age of 98.
Selected publications
* ''Wayaleshi: On British Central Africa''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991.
History
George Weidenfeld ...
, London, 1959.
* ''No fixed abode: A Jewish odyssey to freedom in Africa''. I.B. Tauris
I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
It specialises in non- ...
, 2005.
Self published
*
Susanne and the Nazis: A tale of intrigue and heroism
'.
Short stories
References
External links
* http://ludwighaber.blogspot.co.uk/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraenkel, Peter
1926 births
2024 deaths
BBC people
South African male journalists
Journalists from Wrocław
20th-century Polish Jews
University of the Witwatersrand alumni
Reuters people
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany