Jewish East End Celebration Society
4A Cornwall Mews South, London, SW7 4RX
[email protected]

 

Fl. Sgt. Jack Nissenthall, an unsung hero of the Dieppe Raid of 1942, has been commemorated with a memorial plaque at Bethnal Green in the Jewish East End.

The plaque is in Chance Street, home of the Cambridge and Bethnal Green Jewish Youth Club, which Nissenthall attended. It was unveiled by Martin Sugarman, Archivist of AJEX UK and Jack Nissenthall's informal biographer, and was financed by Jerry Klinger of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, UK Branch.

Born in Bow, Nissenthall became a radar expert with a skillset so refined he was one of only a handful with the technical ability required for a top-secret, potential suicide  mission to discover the secrets of German radar as part of Operation Jubilee, a key part of the raid on Dieppe in occupied France, on August 19, 1942.

At the heart of his story is the written order that he accepted, as the anonymous “RDF (Range and Direction Finding, an early term for radar) expert” that he was to be “adequately protected” by bodyguards from Canada’s South Saskatchewan Regiment because “under no circumstances” was he to be allowed to fall into enemy hands. Effectively, this meant that 10 Canadian soldiers specifically tasked to assist him, were also, in Jack’s own words, “a sort of negative safeguard”, “my execution squad”.

Nissenthall was a Jewish Cockney born in Bow in the East End on October 9 1919. He was a pupil at Malmesbury Road Primary school with his sister Marie and later at Mansford Technical School. His father Aaron was a Polish Jewish immigrant tailor from Pelots/Annapol near Warsaw, and his mother Annie Harris-Schmidt was born in Bow itself. Nissenthall lived at 24 Cottage Grove (now Rhondda Grove), Mile End, and then at 15 Blythe Street, Bethnal Green. As a boy, when the family moved to Blythe Street, Jack attended the Cambridge and Bethnal Green Jewish youth club.

His story is told by Martin Sugarman in his book, 'Fighting Back' (Valentine Mitchell 2017), and was also the subject of an article by Martin Sugarman on the BBC History People’s War website. Jack Nissenthall’s daughter, Linda Nissen Samuels, has also written a biography of her hero father, and his life was the subject of an exhibition last year by Hillingdon council.

You can read Martin Sugarman’s BBC article here

There is more about Linda Samuel’s book and the Hillingdon exhibition on the JEECS website here.

Martin Sugarman has also been responsible for plaques to Louis Jacobs, war hero, at Stepney Green flats, the Adler Street plaque marking the location of the original site of Jewish organisations in East End, to Marcus Bloom SOE, who was born in Brick Lane (the plaque is in Finchley because the owner  refused to allow it at Marcus Bloom’s birth home), Barnet Lewis GM plaque in Brook Road , Hackney, Arnold Wesker plaque on Northwold  Road school wall in Hackney, and the 'Mincemeat' plaque to Ewan Montagu and others at Hackney Mortuary, Hackney.

Latest news

  • Cinema book author needs your help

      Do you or your family have connections with the cinema in the East End? If so, Isabelle Seddon would love to hear from you. Read More
  • Three great films at JW3

    Three great films, including the Jewish East End classic East Endings, are being screened together at JW3, the Jewish cultural centre, in showings from Sunday April 6 through to April 10. Read More
  • Hackney History Festival returns for second year

    Not just the Jewish East End but the broader history and culture of an area that had a thriving Jewish life. Yes, the Hackney History Festival is back for its second year, even bigger and better. Running over two weekends, 10–11 May and 17–18 May, with satellite events throughout May, this year’s festival is a celebration of Hackney’s incredible past, with a jam-packed programme of Read More
  • Brady Clubs exhibition commemorates two great East End institutions

    Those great East End institutions The Brady Clubs are commemorated in what is set to be a superb exhibition at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives from March 14 to June 21. Read More
  • Do you know the Gramophone Man?

    JEECS has been asked if anyone knows the name of the Gramophone Man, pictured here, his back story, when he retired, and the sort of music he played. Read More
  • More emerges about H Lotery and Co

    A while back, we had a reader asking if anyone had any information about a company his mother had worked for in the East End and which she remembered as being called Lottries. The inquiry sparked some fascinating replies, which identified the company as H Lotery and Co, and we've just had a response from the grandson of the company's Read More
  • Project seeks material and memories from the legendary Yiddish poet A.N. Stencl

    Did you know or do you have material from the Polish-born Yiddish poet Avrom-Nokhem Stencl (also known as A. N. Stencl) who was once famous in east London for selling his celebrated Yiddish magazine Loshn un lebn (Language & Life), for running his Friends of Yiddish Saturday afternoon literary society and for his many acclaimed publications of Yiddish poetry? Stencl Read More
  • Two great East End events

    Two great East End related events take place next month. First, Tower Hamlets Local History Library in Bancroft Road, Mile End, has what should be a fascinating free talk on Thursday, 5 September (18.30 - 20.00hrs) entitled “The Petticoat Lane Foxtrot”. The next day, September 6, sees the opening of a great exhibition at the Brady Arts and Community Centre, 192-196 Hanbury Read More
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

For the old Jeecs site, visit www.jeecs.org.uk/archive