No Fixed Abode : A Jewish Odyssey to Africa

'Clear the streets for the brown battalions out with the Jews'. These words of Nazi stormtroopers are indelibly etched on the author's memory, and signalled the collapse of the comfortable life of the assimilated Jewish bourgeoisie into which he had been born in Breslau, now Wroclaw. In 1939, his travels with 'no fixed abode' began. His father lawyer, civil servant, former guardsman in one of the Kaiser's elite regiments, was forced to emigrate to Northern Rhodesia, later Zambia, and eke out a living far from his former professional status as a dry cleaner. The book describes the author's transition from persecuted Jew and 'enemy alien' to assimilation into colonial society following an education in privileged whites-only schools and Witwatersrand University. A distinguished career in journalism followed as Assistant Broadcasting Officer in the Central African Broadcasting Service, where he helped to pioneer broadcasting almost entirely in African languages, and also devised novel forms of mass education. But dislike of racist politics in this bastion of white privilege forced his move to Britain where he joined Reuters and later the BBC World Service. Here is a moving Diaspora story transition from Nazi persecution and flight from the Holocaust to white privilege and to professional success in post-war Britain an odyssey shaped by Africa.Peter Fraenkel left his broadcasting career in Africa and came to the UK. He pursued a successful career in the BBC World Service, where he became the Controller of European Services.