When visiting bayeux cemetery we stopped opposite to mark the respects of those not found. For us this was important as our wonderful Imogen Lenel would have the opportunity to show her respects to her great grandfather....
please read on to hear the touching story of Immy's great grandfather (Mr Lenel's grandfather)
"Imogen’s great grandfather (my grandfather) Klaus was the 3rd oldest of 9 siblings (5 sisters + 4 brothers) of the Lenel family, headed by Richard Lenel and Emilia Maas. They lived in a town in south-west Germany called Mannheim where Richard ran the family business making rubber, celluloid and plastic products. He was also very involved in local politics and was chairman of the local chamber of commerce and chairman of the local Germany People’s Party (probably most akin to the Lib Dems). But, being a Jewish family, things started going to pot when the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (aka the Nazis) rose to power in the early 1930s. Gradually he was forced to give up his positions, sell his house and his business, and flee the country. Other members of the Lenel family came to England, some to the USA, and some to Switzerland.
It was mostly the better-educated and better-off Jews in Germany that escaped; they were better able to see the writing on the wall, and were more likely to have the resources to actually enable their escape. Less fortunate members of the Jewish population were offered train rides out of Germany… straight to the concentration camps where they were more likely to be killed rather than interred.
The youngest of the family – Ernst Richard Lenel – as well as his older brother Victor came to England alongside many other displaced Jews from Germany, Austria, Hungary Poland, Czechoslovakia and other European countries. Ernst was born in 1918 so would have been about 20 years old when he travelled to freedom. Like the others, he had no money (the Nazis blocked all the Jewish bank accounts). However as generally better-educated individuals they were often able to get decent jobs.
When the German Army invaded France, the Netherlands and Belgium, most of these Jewish immigrants in Britain – called by Churchill the ‘Friendly Enemy Aliens’ – were treated with suspicion, rounded up and interred at fairly makeshift prison-of-war camps. From there many were subsequently shipped to other parts of the Commonwealth, in particular Canada and Australia. Others that remained in the UK joined the Pioneer Corps of the British Army, basically manual labourers to help with the war effort building bridges, roads, etc.
By and by opportunities arose to join more active units of the British Army. This was accepted very enthusiastically, as it was a chance for these guys to get their own back on the country and party that had treated them so badly back at home. Eventually in around 1942 a number of them were transferred to secret training camps in North Wales and Scotland where they joined No 10 Commando unit – a group of specially trained soldiers commissioned by Winston Churchill to carry out raids into enemy territory. They learnt parachuting, mountain climbing, arctic warfare, extreme fitness, explosives, reconnaissance, booby traps, night patrols and weapons training. They also learnt a lot about the Germany Army; its weapons, vehicles, organisation, tactics, language, commands, etc. The Jewish refugees were particularly sought after under the assumption that their German language skills would come in handy. By the end of the war one in seven Jewish refugees from Germany had joined the British forces.
All these soldiers were required to adopt an English-sounding name and have all their mail redirected through a British postal address in order to keep their foreign identities – and the existence of this special Commando unit – a secret should they be captured whilst behind enemy lines. Ernst therefore from this point on took the name Earnest Lawrence.
The unit eventually started getting involved in raids along the French coast, and was fully involved in the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944. From that point they conducted ongoing raids further and further into France to re-establish territory and push back the Germany Army.
Two weeks later this troop had reached Breville, just east of the Pegasus Bridge. On the night of 22nd June Ernest Lawrence went out on a mission to identify which German unit the commandos were facing at the time. He made his way with one other Commando and snuck into the enemy trenches. He came across a German soldier there but snapped at him (in fluent German, of course) “Keep quiet! Do exactly as I tell you and nothing will happen to you. But one word out of you and you are dead”. The German panicked and screamed. Ernest shot him. Then, not wanting to return empty-handed, and with typical Commando confidence and optimism, he thought he had enough time to get the man’s paybook out of his breast pocket in order to obtain the necessary information. However, other Germans were closer than he had calculated, and they rushed and overpowered him. He was uninjured, but was last seen being led away by the Germany soldiers.
Ernest Lawrence was never heard from again. No notification. No name on any casualty list. No grave. Just the name on the Bayeux Memorial.
