1960s London: Photos by Dorothy Bohm

~ beetleypete

She was born Dorothea Israelit in 1924, into an affluent German Jewish family. ‘My grandfather lived very near a main road, and there was a procession of Hitler Youth, but at nine I didn’t know what it was,’ she recalls, ‘and that stayed in my mind, seeing them march with the swastika.’ She was called a ‘Judische Kröte’ – a Jewish toad – and kicked in the street. Bohm’s father, fearing the worst, sent her to England in 1939. ‘My father was one of those who believed in anything new and so in the 1930s he was using a Leica. And when I was shipped off to England because Hitler had come, and life had become impossible, saying goodbye to me he took off his Leica and gave it to me. It was strange. He said, “It might be useful to you.”’

The Chelsea Flower Show. The lady in the foreground appears to want to be photographed.

Members of Parliament entering The Houses of Parliament.

Children playing on old gravestones in Kensington.

A busker trying his luck in Trafalgar Square.

Outside St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden.

A view over Westminster Bridge from the south side.

Narrow boats on the canal at Little Venice, Maida Vale.

37 thoughts on “1960s London: Photos by Dorothy Bohm”

  5. (1) At the Chelsea Flower Show, she’s the bee’s knees.
    (2) We don’t have a House of Parliament, but we do have a Panamint Range in the western part of Death Valley National Park.
    (3) Those children playing on old gravestones reminds me that my father died today. I was informed this morning.
    (4) We don’t have Buskers in Trafalgar Square, but we have Cornhuskers in Nebraska.
    (5) “St. Paul, I’m fresh out of Jamaica bananas. Please send something different to eat. Bananas are no longer a-peeling.”
    (6) The man on Westminster Bridge is thinking, “It’s 1:50 in the afternoon. If she doesn’t show up by 2:00, I’m going to say ‘Goodbye world!” and jump off this bridge!”
    (7) Those narrow boats would never be able to navigate The Narrows in Zion National Park.

    I wonder if anyone has written a biography of the Bohm-Israelit family?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  13. Pingback: 1960s London: Photos by Dorothy Bohm | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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