George Clare (writer)

George Clare (né Georg Klaar) was a British Jewish author and Holocaust survivor who wrote Last Waltz in Vienna and Berlin Days. Both are autobiographies in which he recounts first in Last Waltz in Vienna his boyhood and life as a Jew in Vienna, and then subsequently goes on to describe Hitler's rise to power and the catastrophe that followed taking you right up to the gates of Auschwitz where his parents were murdered and telling of his escape to Ireland, where he married Lisl, his childhood sweetheart, the day after Kristalnacht, and subsequent enlistment in the British army, first in the Pioneer Corps, and then in the Royal Artillery, after war was declared.

In Berlin Days he recounts his work at the denazification bureaucracy, where he became highly skilled in identifying lies and omissions in application forms. He also shows his amazing humanity in not entirely blaming Germany for the actions of the Nazis despite being there immediately subsequent to the Holocaust, and World War II.

He died on 26 March 2009 aged 88.

Post military life

After leaving the denazification bureaucracy Clare found his way to Fleet Street, where he worked as an editor for many years.

Political convictions

Clare was strongly Zionist believing, even prior to the holocaust that the only viable solution to the 'Jewish problem' was a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. He writes extensively about this in Last Waltz in Vienna, in which he also explains his childhood friendships with a number of young zionists in Vienna; he also points out that Theodor Herzl along with many other leading Zionist figures were born in Vienna.

Primary sources

• Last Waltz in Vienna
• Berlin Days

External links

• Obituary in the Daily Telegraph
• The Times obituary