Auschwitz entrance
Articles

‘THE YELLOW STAR’ BY S B UNSDORFER

The Yellow Star is the account by S B Unsdorfer of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, originally published in 1961. Richard Kemp wrote this foreword to the recently re-published book at the request of the author’s son, Zalmi Unsdorfer.
The Yellow Star is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yellow-Star-S-B-Unsdorfer/dp/1592643752/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451211379&sr=8-1&keywords=the+yellow+star

The Yellow Star is available from Amazon

 

I am writing these words in a dark and malignant wooden hut at Auschwitz-Birkenau, seated on what the author of this book describes as “a hollow brick ledge running down the centre of the block from one end to the other”. A ledge like the one upon which Doctor Josef Mengele stood unmoved amidst scenes of heartless brutality, blood, screaming and despair as he made his ruthless selection on the day Simche Unsdorfer and his family were brought into this place.

Simche Unsdorfer, pale, skinny and with glasses that seemed bigger than his face, was 19 years old when he was transported by cattle car to this vast death camp. He has been an inspiration to me for forty years and during many military campaigns since the day I first opened his heart-rending account of extraordinary courage in the face of unexampled savagery. Continue reading →

Articles

This will make Britain weaker: COLONEL RICHARD KEMP says women on the front lines would be a ‘crazy’ move

Article published in The Daily Mail, 21 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

The direction to the Ministry of Defence to allow women to serve in close combat roles has no value for military effectiveness.

In fact, the opposite is true. It will undermine the fighting ethos of the British infantry.
Sadly, the Prime Minister’s decision is the latest crazy move in society’s obsession with politically correct gestures.

In saying this, I do not mean to insult women. They play a valuable role in almost every part of the Armed Forces. Many have been decorated for bravery in battle.

Indeed, I have commanded women on operations – in tough situations – and have as much admiration for their dedication, professionalism and heroism as I have for their male counterparts.

But infantry close combat is different to any other human activity. Naturally, it requires courage.

But it also demands incomparable levels of physical endurance – with infantry soldiers having to advance on foot, often for days or weeks at a time, deprived of sleep and rations.

This has to be done over vast areas of inhospitable terrain, in extremes of climate, carrying heavy combat loads and then having to fight a determined enemy at close quarters.

Continue reading →

Articles

Should women serve on the front line? The arguments for and against

David Cameron has announced plans to ditch the ban on female soldiers being sent to the front line

Article published in The  Sunday Mirror, 20 December 2015.

Female soldiers could be serving on the front line in a matter of months.

David Cameron has announced plans to ditch the ban on female soldiers being sent to the front line.

It is expected that women will be allowed to take close combat roles with the Army by the autumn.

The Prime Minister said: “We’ve already lifted a number of barriers in our armed forces with the introduction of female submariners and women reaching the highest ranks in all services.”

He added: “We should finish the job next year – and open up ground combat roles to women.”

Labour backed the decision and argued it is important the Army becomes more diverse.

YES – Maria Eagle, Shadow Defence Secretary

One of the Forces’ biggest hurdles in the years to come is to make sure they better reflect the society they serve.

Only then can the Army, Royal Navy and the RAF make sure they look like modern Britain.

Allowing women to serve in close combat roles would mark a huge step towards achieving this vital goal.

It would bring us into line with many of the UK’s strongest allies, including the US, Canada, France and Australia.

We have to ask ourselves why only 10% of our regular service personnel are women.

Allowing women to serve in close combat roles is not only the right thing to do.

But it will also mean that our Forces will be able to make the most of the rich talents that the UK’s brave service women have to offer.

NO – Col Richard Kemp, Ex-Army Commander

The Prime Minister’s decree is merely testament to this Government’s obsession with political correctness, at the expense of our nation’s defences.

Today, women serve in the Armed Forces with expertise, valour and distinction in a multitude of roles.

I am in no doubt as to the value of women in our Armed Forces.

This does not mean they should be permitted to join the infantry.

Fighting as an infantryman is the toughest job in the Army. Very few men are suited, and even less women.

Those that did make the cut would find themselves outnumbered and cliques would form.

This would undermine the cohesiveness that characterises any great fighting force, making our Army less effective in the field.

Let us hope we do not live to rue such a decision.

Articles

We put our reputations on the line. This is why

Article published in The Jewish Chronicle, 16 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

The High Level Military Group’s (HLMG) findings on the 2014 Gaza conflict were the diametric opposite of those of the UN Human Rights Council, human rights groups and the majority of Western media, all of whom believe Israel used disproportionate force and committed war crimes. Why?

Because, unlike the HLMG, these organisations lack any credible military expertise. This is a problem when you are assessing a military conflict. They also mostly hit this issue from a pre-determined position that they want to be right: Israel is the neighbourhood bully and Hamas are the hapless representatives of a bullied, down-trodden population. And they analyse the situation based on human rights law, not the laws of armed conflict. Human rights law is fine if you are dealing with a police arrest on the streets of London, but not when you’re looking at large-scale violent armed exchanges between warring factions – that is what the Geneva conventions are intended to regulate.

The upshot of this ignorant, distorted, malign and misjudged perspective is the widespread demonisation of the state of Israel. That, of course, is what Israel’s enemies, who have manipulated the UN, human rights groups and much of the media as well as many world governments, always intended.

If you are taken in by it, and you yourself condemn the Jewish state on the basis of what these organisations tell you, which to be fair is pretty much all you ever hear, then you too are an instrument of Israel’s enemies. If you are Jewish and you condemn Israel on the basis of this disinformation, then you are a doubly valuable enemy Continue reading →

Articles

Royals must be allowed to pay respects in Israel

Letter published in The Sunday Telegraph, 13 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

SIR – Your article “The Royals and a long line of snubs to Israel” raises a troubling problem, and one that must be urgently resolved for reasons that go beyond the political.
The ban on royal visits to Israel dates back to the end of the British mandate and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, which humiliated the Foreign Office, frustrating its carefully crafted plans over three decades to deny the Jewish homeland that had been promised by the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, in 1917.

The reason was a desire to appease and inveigle the Arab countries, all of which opposed the creation of the Jewish state, in order to gain influence over them and their oil. Also tied up in this in the late Thirties was the legitimate intent to prevent an Arab alliance with the Nazis, which failed.

The Foreign Office continues to harbour a deep-seated resentment towards Israel, refusing to allow a royal visit until the Jewish state changes its policies.

In two years we will see the centenary of the liberation by British forces under General Allenby of the Holy City of Jerusalem. A total of 16,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers died in the Palestine Campaign – the second largest theatre of operations of the First World War.

Will the Foreign Office prevent royal attendance at the centenary commemoration of the war in Palestine? Will it allow its grudge against Israel to deny British soldiers who fell fighting for the Crown there an equal honour to that bestowed on their comrades in arms at Gallipoli this year, when both the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry were present?

Colonel Richard Kemp
Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan
London SW1

Allenby enters Jerusalem, 1917
Articles

The need for the closest friendship between Britain and Israel

We must recognize that Israel’s values are Britain’s values, Israel’s fight is Britain’s fight and Israel’s peril is Britain’s peril.

By Richard Kemp and Jasper Reid. Article published in The Jerusalem Post, 10 December 2015. 

Ninety-eight years ago tomorrow (December 11) General Sir Edmund Allenby entered the Holy City after defeating the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Jerusalem. This was one of Britain’s great victories in the First World War and a much-needed uplift for our national spirit, reeling from the 300,000 casualties sustained in the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium that ended the previous month.

This anniversary reminds us of the shared history and values of Britain and the State of Israel; and, with the perils we face in the world today, of the need for the closest friendship between our two countries.

According to Lieutenant General Sir George Macdonogh, director of British military intelligence during the Great War, Allenby’s conquest of Palestine in 1917 and 1918 was made possible by the Jewish intelligence network, Nili. Led by the distinguished botanist Aaron Aaronsohn and his sister Sarah, Nili took tremendous risks to pass vital information on the Turks to Allenby’s forces. Some, including Sarah, sacrificed their lives to help the British. Continue reading →

Articles

The ban on visiting Israel is an absurdity

Royals must honour the fallen of our forgotten Middle East war

Article published in The Times, 9 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

No fewer than 16,000 British and Commonwealth troops died during the Palestine campaign in the First World War and are buried in the land where they fell. Yet a long-standing Foreign Office ban on royal visits to Israel looks likely to deny these men the honour that has been afforded to British soldiers killed in Europe, Gallipoli and other theatres of war during the centenary years. This policy must be overturned now to ensure their sacrifice is properly recognised.

Ninety-eight years ago today, on December 9, 1917, the Ottoman governor of Jerusalem surrendered the Holy City to General Sir Edmund Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force at the end of a bloody battle against the Turks that began on November 17.

The Palestine campaign has received little attention during the First World War commemorations, but was the second largest British theatre of operations in terms of strength of forces, with troops from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India. It achieved the first defeat of a central power in the war. Continue reading →

Articles

ISIS negotiation is fool’s option but we’ll need troops on ground for victory

Article published in The Express, 3 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

THE RAF should bomb Syria without delay. We are at war with the Islamic State, a war they declared.

They have killed British citizens and intend to kill more. We must fight them relentlessly and with maximum effort.

Airstrikes alone cannot defeat an enemy that holds ground. There will have to be a major land campaign with American, British and Middle East boots in the sand.

But with effective targeting intelligence our Tornadoes can kill IS fighters and commanders with devastating precision. These will be replaced, but the intensive US drone campaign in Pakistan that decimated Al Qaeda shows what can be achieved.

Airstrikes can also destroy IS munitions and savage their economic infrastructure. Only last month in eastern Syria American tankbuster planes and ground attack gunships destroyed 116 petrol trucks that IS were using to smuggle the crude oil they depend on for funds. Continue reading →

Articles

Western kindness is killing democracy

The West can no longer afford to play the compassionate democrat when it faces an enemy which respects no ethical rulebook whatsoever

by Ari Harow and Richard Kemp

Article published in The Jerusalem Post, 23 November 2015

The horrific attacks in Paris ignited a potent demonstration of solidarity throughout the Western world. Global landmarks have been bathed in illuminated Tricolor flags, social media has been awash with tributes and moments of silence have been observed in major capitals. This determined sense of unity in the face of terrorism is entirely admirable, yet useless if it remains the sum total of the West’s response. The time has come to truly comprehend that Western democracy faces nothing less than a bitter and bloody fight to shape the future of the world. The battle against jihadist Islamism cannot be fought with demonstrations of goodwill.

Kindness and compromise is simply no match for suicide bombers. The West can no longer afford to play the compassionate democrat when it faces an enemy which respects no ethical rulebook whatsoever.

The latest Paris atrocities have conclusively demonstrated the utter folly of any attempt to appease, accommodate or “understand” the demands of Islamism. The murder of Charlie Hebdo staff in January was foolishly portrayed by some as a response to religious defamation.

In fact, the Western requirement for logical cause and effect has long insisted that terrorist attacks are a cry for justice at perceived wrongdoing. Continue reading →