Peter Fraenkel

Peter Fraenkel was born in 1926 into a Jewish family and grew up amidst the economic and political turmoil of the Weimar Republic that eventually led to the rise of Hitler to power in 1933. Nazi oppression grew year by year until Peter and his mother and father escaped just before war began in 1939 and before the mass murders started.

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Peter J. Fraenkel (born 7 December 1926) is a German-born British journalist and author who later became Greek Programme Organizer, and then Controller of European Services, for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He was born in Breslau left for Northern Rhodesia with his parents in 1939. He worked there in broadcasting before leaving for London in 1957 when he began his career at Reuters and then the BBC. In his autobiography No Fixed Abode (see reference below) he described with irony his transition from “sub-human Jew in Nazi Germany … to white master race in British colonial Africa”.

Early life

Peter Fraenkel was born in Breslau (then in Germany, now Poland) on 7 December 1926. His father was a German civil servant. As Nazi oppression of Jews grew in the 1930s, Fraenkel’s mother pleaded with her husband to leave the country but he would not agree until he himself had witnessed the burning of synagogues during Kristallnacht in 1938. The family had visas for Swaziland and Northern Rhodesia but chose the latter as it was thought to offer greater economic opportunities and in 1939 they departed for Northern Rhodesia by sea via South Africa. They settled in Lusaka and Fraenkel’s father opened a dry-cleaning company with a friend. Peter Fraenkel was educated at Lusaka Boys’ school.

Fraenkel studied English and history at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He was selected to travel on a debating tour of English universities.

Career

Fraenkel’s first job was as an accounts clerk for the Registrar of Co-operative Societies. He subsequently worked as an Assistant Broadcasting Officer for the Central African Broadcasting Services in Lusaka (1952–57) where he created a fictional mining compound to get development messages across using local actors. The venture is described in Wayaleshi (1958) and an attached photo shows Peter rehearsing with a female choir in Zambia.

Published Publications and Books

Peter has published a series of 172 wonderful short stories – many of them referring to his life in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia).  See  https://www.peterfraenkel.co.uk/tales-imp/

Many of his short stories on the website relate to his early years in Lusaka (often under the seemingly fictional name Akasul (Lusaka backwards).

He also published a book called “Of No Fixed Abode” which can be purchased on Amazon.

Another book is available online called Susanne and the Nazis.

Wayaleshi by Peter Fraenkel