WEBVTT - S2 E8: Madam Nerva Sees Death 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:25.956 Pushkin. Benjamin Marshall is working alone in the wreckage of 0:00:26.076 --> 0:00:31.436 Vauxhall Baptist Chapel. This area of South London was badly 0:00:31.516 --> 0:00:35.756 bombed earlier in the Blitz, and the church is now unusable. 0:00:36.996 --> 0:00:40.596 A strange fire had then caused further damage, and now 0:00:40.716 --> 0:00:44.396 Marshall is part of the demolition squad tasked with clearing 0:00:44.436 --> 0:00:50.236 the charred debris. The July heat is already building, but 0:00:50.356 --> 0:00:54.436 the fifty year old continues shoveling dirt and rubble in 0:00:54.516 --> 0:00:59.156 this airless basement. Spotting a stone slab leaning up against 0:00:59.196 --> 0:01:01.876 a wall, Marshall decides to move it. 0:01:02.876 --> 0:01:04.956 I was mismeorized. 0:01:05.876 --> 0:01:10.596 Beneath the slab is the body of a women, naked, 0:01:11.236 --> 0:01:17.796 dismembered incomplete. Marshall carefully lifts these pitiful human remains with 0:01:17.916 --> 0:01:24.196 a shovel and calls out to his former It's been 0:01:24.276 --> 0:01:28.596 decades since the last burial here, and this corpse doesn't 0:01:28.636 --> 0:01:32.756 appear to have come from a disturbed grave. Could it 0:01:32.836 --> 0:01:35.316 then be the body of a victim of the Blitz, 0:01:35.676 --> 0:01:38.676 killed in the air raid that blasted the chapel and 0:01:38.796 --> 0:01:43.996 lain undiscovered ever since. That's the conclusion. The woman's killer 0:01:44.116 --> 0:01:47.516 seems to have hoped people would draw. In the chaos 0:01:47.556 --> 0:01:51.756 and carnage of war. Some men assume their crimes will 0:01:51.796 --> 0:01:57.636 go undetected and unpunished. But looking at the mutilated form 0:01:57.676 --> 0:02:01.276 of this woman, it's clear that this is not the 0:02:01.316 --> 0:02:04.596 work of a bomb. The efforts made to disfigure her 0:02:04.796 --> 0:02:16.276 and disguise her identity tell police immediately that this was murder. 0:02:23.076 --> 0:02:25.996 This is the seldom told story of women in World 0:02:25.996 --> 0:02:29.196 War Two who were killed not by the enemy, but 0:02:29.236 --> 0:02:33.596 my husbands, lovers, and strangers, wearing the uniform of their 0:02:33.716 --> 0:02:37.956 own side. It's also the tale of a particular string 0:02:37.996 --> 0:02:41.276 of murder victims that history has swept from view. 0:02:42.356 --> 0:02:46.756 I'm Halle Rubinholt and I'm Alice Fines, and you're listening 0:02:46.796 --> 0:03:23.236 to bad Women the Blackout River. Polly Dubinski is not 0:03:23.396 --> 0:03:25.836 the first to come to this little brick house in 0:03:25.876 --> 0:03:30.276 London's gritty East End in search of answers. Madame Nerva 0:03:30.436 --> 0:03:31.356 is expecting her. 0:03:31.756 --> 0:03:33.116 Did you bring what I need? 0:03:33.556 --> 0:03:35.676 Polly holds out a scarf and sweater. 0:03:35.796 --> 0:03:36.316 Here you are. 0:03:36.356 --> 0:03:39.596 They belong to her sister, Rachel Dobkin, who's been missing 0:03:39.716 --> 0:03:44.036 for three days. The clairvoyant ushers Polly inside and then 0:03:44.156 --> 0:03:46.836 takes hold of these items of clothing. They will be 0:03:46.916 --> 0:03:51.356 key to her work, for she practices psychometry. She claims 0:03:51.356 --> 0:03:54.916 that she can read these objects and thereby untangle the 0:03:54.996 --> 0:03:59.396 mystery of Rachel's disappearance. Polly had come to seventeen Underwood 0:03:59.436 --> 0:04:03.396 Road the day before frantically seeking help, but Hilda Nerva 0:04:03.556 --> 0:04:06.396 had been too busy cooking Sunday dinner to go into 0:04:06.396 --> 0:04:11.476 a psychic trance. Today, however, she is ready. Perhaps her 0:04:11.476 --> 0:04:15.116 breathing now grows deep and labored, for she is communing 0:04:15.316 --> 0:04:16.236 with another world. 0:04:18.436 --> 0:04:20.996 I see you fall in the countryside. 0:04:22.996 --> 0:04:28.116 I see missus Dobkin, and she looks, said. 0:04:29.116 --> 0:04:31.756 Then Madame Nerva feels a blow. 0:04:31.596 --> 0:04:35.316 To her head and a choking sensation, as though something 0:04:35.436 --> 0:04:41.876 is tightening about her throat, squeezing, crushing. Oh, she gasps 0:04:41.916 --> 0:04:42.276 for air. 0:04:42.436 --> 0:04:43.996 Oh. 0:04:44.116 --> 0:04:47.636 The vision is clearly not a hopeful one. But Madame 0:04:47.716 --> 0:04:52.636 Nerva isn't working totally blind. She knows the missing woman well. 0:04:53.276 --> 0:04:56.716 Rachel Dobkin is convinced of the psychic's powers, and she 0:04:56.796 --> 0:05:01.036 calls her home regularly. In fact, Rachel came here just 0:05:01.236 --> 0:05:04.436 days ago, asking Madame Nerva to read a piece of 0:05:04.476 --> 0:05:07.396 her jewelry. She was meeting the man who gave it 0:05:07.436 --> 0:05:12.436 to her, and she wanted advice. Sensing great sorrow in 0:05:12.516 --> 0:05:16.876 the gold band, the clairvoyant warned Rachel of grave danger. 0:05:17.436 --> 0:05:20.476 Will you promise me you won't go. 0:05:21.556 --> 0:05:25.436 Rachel pledged that she would not see the man. This 0:05:25.716 --> 0:05:28.396 isn't a story about the Blackout Ripper, to which we'll 0:05:28.436 --> 0:05:32.116 return next episode. Rachel Dobkin wasn't in the habit of 0:05:32.156 --> 0:05:36.556 frequenting Western nightclubs, but she faced a danger no less. 0:05:36.636 --> 0:05:40.836 Chilling in Madame Nerva's hand was her wedding ring, and 0:05:40.956 --> 0:05:44.636 the man she'd promised to avoid was her own husband. 0:05:50.756 --> 0:05:54.516 In the spring of eighteen eighty one, Russia's Czar Alexander 0:05:54.596 --> 0:05:57.876 the Second was returning from a military parade to the 0:05:57.916 --> 0:06:02.636 Winter Palace, taking his customary route, when revolutionaries at the 0:06:02.716 --> 0:06:08.836 roadside threw a bomb under his carriage. The Russian monarch's 0:06:08.836 --> 0:06:15.116 step down from seeming unhurt, only for a second explosion 0:06:15.196 --> 0:06:18.876 to tear through the Royal party and its bodyguards. The 0:06:18.916 --> 0:06:24.236 assassinations sparked a series of vicious anti Jewish riots pogroms. 0:06:25.636 --> 0:06:28.636 The Christians attacked the houses and shops of the Jews 0:06:28.716 --> 0:06:31.876 indiscriminately by smashing doors and breaking windows. 0:06:32.516 --> 0:06:36.436 Only one of the ten convicted plotters was actually Jewish, 0:06:36.796 --> 0:06:40.156 but the Jewish people as a whole were blamed. They 0:06:40.156 --> 0:06:43.516 were made to pay with their businesses and homes and 0:06:43.636 --> 0:06:44.196 in blood. 0:06:44.876 --> 0:06:48.596 One hundred houses were pinached, a quantity of furniture being 0:06:48.636 --> 0:06:52.076 thrown out into the street. Two hundred people were injured 0:06:52.156 --> 0:06:53.036 during the riots. 0:06:55.636 --> 0:07:00.036 Rachel Dobkins's parents, Barnet and Sarah Dubinski, were in the 0:07:00.196 --> 0:07:04.516 eye of the storm. Their province in what is now Ukraine, 0:07:04.956 --> 0:07:09.116 saw brutal violence, and in the decade that followed the situation, 0:07:09.116 --> 0:07:15.036 situation only grew worse. Imperial Russia imposed both petty restrictions 0:07:15.076 --> 0:07:20.396 and serious hardships on the Jewish population. For example, businesses 0:07:20.476 --> 0:07:24.356 could refuse to employ Jews, so many eked out of poultry, 0:07:24.396 --> 0:07:28.276 living in the poorest paying trades. Given the violence and 0:07:28.356 --> 0:07:32.556 economic hardships, its little wonder that by eighteen ninety two, 0:07:33.076 --> 0:07:37.036 Barnet and Sarah had joined the millions of Jews seeking 0:07:37.076 --> 0:07:38.316 a new life abroad. 0:07:43.596 --> 0:07:48.956 The refugees traveled overland, at first, mostly boarding and disembarking 0:07:49.036 --> 0:07:53.716 steam locomotives that puffed and shrieked their way west. At 0:07:53.756 --> 0:07:58.556 the German frontier. Some travelers were packed onto special sealed trains. 0:07:58.596 --> 0:08:02.556 Fearing the polluting influence of the migrant Jewish duch Underer, 0:08:02.956 --> 0:08:06.156 the Prussian authorities sought to limit their contact with the 0:08:06.196 --> 0:08:10.596 German population and assuade them from settling. Conditions on the 0:08:10.676 --> 0:08:14.916 journey could be abominable. Travelers were treated like prisoners and 0:08:14.956 --> 0:08:17.556 deprived of access to adequate food and water. 0:08:17.756 --> 0:08:21.596 It was very hot and close and altogether. 0:08:21.196 --> 0:08:23.076 Uncomfortable, said one voyager. 0:08:23.396 --> 0:08:26.076 I cannot see even now how the officers could allow 0:08:26.156 --> 0:08:26.596 such a thing. 0:08:26.716 --> 0:08:28.396 It was really dangerous. 0:08:29.156 --> 0:08:32.436 But eventually the travelers would have reached Germany's coast, where 0:08:32.436 --> 0:08:35.676 the train doors would have opened. Sarah and Barnet would 0:08:35.716 --> 0:08:38.596 then have bordered a steamship to cross the North Sea 0:08:38.796 --> 0:08:39.356 to Britain. 0:08:45.036 --> 0:08:48.436 When Barnet and Sarah arrived in London, they settled in 0:08:48.476 --> 0:08:53.156 the already bustling Jewish community of Whitechapel. According to social 0:08:53.156 --> 0:08:57.476 researcher Charles Booth, some ninety percent of London's Jewish population 0:08:57.836 --> 0:09:01.716 resided in the city's grim East End, and Yiddish was 0:09:01.756 --> 0:09:05.836 spoken on the streets. The quarter was also a reputed 0:09:05.996 --> 0:09:12.756 sink of misery and degeneracy. Filthy, overcrowded, and stinking of 0:09:12.876 --> 0:09:17.956 rot and refuse. Whitechapel was also notorious for the recent 0:09:18.036 --> 0:09:21.396 string of savage murders that had been perpetrated on its 0:09:21.516 --> 0:09:28.956 dingy narrow streets. In the time since Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, 0:09:29.156 --> 0:09:32.196 Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddos and Mary jen Kelly had been 0:09:32.316 --> 0:09:35.676 killed here, some of the most depressing slums had been 0:09:35.756 --> 0:09:41.036 cleared and change was under way, but the East End 0:09:41.396 --> 0:09:46.316 remained of grave concern to politicians and reformers. Studying the 0:09:46.396 --> 0:09:52.076 Jewish community in particular, Charles Booth noted that these immigrants formed. 0:09:51.796 --> 0:09:54.956 A permanent layer of poverty, verging on destitution. 0:09:55.876 --> 0:09:59.076 East End Jews worked in trades such as tailoring and 0:09:59.156 --> 0:10:02.916 boot making, but regular employment was hard to come by, 0:10:03.396 --> 0:10:05.956 and many of those who laboured in the garment industry, 0:10:06.436 --> 0:10:10.876 like catmaker Barnet, carried out peace work at home, were 0:10:10.956 --> 0:10:15.836 toiled and cramped workshops under terrible conditions and for little pay. 0:10:16.876 --> 0:10:20.276 The medical journal The Lancet investigated. 0:10:19.556 --> 0:10:23.836 The condition of Jewish tailors in the East End of London. 0:10:24.756 --> 0:10:30.556 Its findings carried anti Semitic overtones, attitudes not uncommon at 0:10:30.556 --> 0:10:30.956 the time. 0:10:31.676 --> 0:10:37.116 Our commissioners found them working in unwholesome, over crowded houses. 0:10:37.956 --> 0:10:42.356 Such people were wanting in even the more elementary habits 0:10:42.356 --> 0:10:45.876 of cleanliness, which are possessed by the poorest of English people. 0:10:46.676 --> 0:10:50.196 The Dubinskis themselves lived in a house were home life 0:10:50.236 --> 0:10:54.996 and work life melded. The building was divided into tailoring workshops. 0:10:55.396 --> 0:10:59.436 It was here, in August eighteen ninety two, amid rolls 0:10:59.476 --> 0:11:03.516 of cloth and spindles of thread, that Sarah gave birth 0:11:03.596 --> 0:11:07.916 to a baby girl. For Jewish women newly arrived in 0:11:07.956 --> 0:11:11.676 a foreign land and separated from the support of their families, 0:11:12.236 --> 0:11:17.796 childbirth could be a lonely and frightening experience. Sarah might 0:11:17.836 --> 0:11:21.156 have been attended by a bobba or a handywoman, a 0:11:21.196 --> 0:11:24.756 local not formally trained in midwifery, but who would have 0:11:24.756 --> 0:11:29.876 been trusted by the community. Nonetheless, the couple named their 0:11:29.916 --> 0:11:34.716 new arrival Rachel. More Dubinski children followed, and by the 0:11:34.756 --> 0:11:40.596 time she was nine, Rachel had four younger siblings. Although 0:11:40.636 --> 0:11:45.116 some decried the standards of sanitation and Jewish homes, others 0:11:45.196 --> 0:11:48.596 remarked that the children of Jewish immigrants were generally in 0:11:48.796 --> 0:11:53.236 better health than their gentile counterparts. One school board president 0:11:53.276 --> 0:11:53.956 thought that. 0:11:54.316 --> 0:11:58.476 The improved morality of Jewish parents and the care which 0:11:58.516 --> 0:12:02.076 their religion demanded as to food, was largely the cause 0:12:02.156 --> 0:12:05.036 of their superiority over English children. 0:12:06.436 --> 0:12:10.036 The disease rickets, which left many working class children with 0:12:10.156 --> 0:12:14.516 weak and deformed bones, was less common in Jewish homes. 0:12:15.236 --> 0:12:19.596 Medical experts suggested that this was because of diet. Jewish 0:12:19.636 --> 0:12:22.916 women often banded together to bulk by fish at the 0:12:22.996 --> 0:12:27.236 local market, herring in particular, a source of protein and 0:12:27.316 --> 0:12:33.636 bone strengthening vitamin D. Other observers noted the self sacrificing 0:12:33.756 --> 0:12:37.316 care and devotion that Jewish parents showed to their children, 0:12:38.196 --> 0:12:43.236 but illness could still devastate family life, and April nineteen 0:12:43.236 --> 0:12:48.996 o one, baby Hannah Dubinski contracted whooping cough. The sound 0:12:49.076 --> 0:12:52.796 of her gasping breath would have rung through their cramped dwelling. 0:12:53.636 --> 0:12:57.556 Starved of oxygen, her tiny body would have at first 0:12:57.596 --> 0:13:02.676 convulsed and then fallen still as her rattling breaths ceased. 0:13:02.876 --> 0:13:20.836 All together, Immigrant fortunes could rise and fall. A worker 0:13:20.956 --> 0:13:24.156 might switch back and forth between the roles of employee 0:13:24.476 --> 0:13:29.116 and employer over a lifetime, flush one year, bankrupt the next, 0:13:29.796 --> 0:13:34.196 but despite the hardships and tragedies they suffered. The Dubinski 0:13:34.196 --> 0:13:38.596 family moved on the whole upwards. They were among the 0:13:38.676 --> 0:13:42.396 deserving poor, granted a home in the Leylan Buildings, a 0:13:42.436 --> 0:13:44.956 new housing development that had risen on the ruins of 0:13:44.996 --> 0:13:50.236 an infamous slum. The red brick tenement complex radiated out 0:13:50.316 --> 0:13:55.356 from a central park and was intended to accommodate policemen, nurses, teachers, 0:13:55.396 --> 0:13:59.756 and other workers of good moral character. There were even shops, schools, 0:13:59.756 --> 0:14:02.956 and laundries on site. The Dubinskis and their lodger, A 0:14:03.076 --> 0:14:07.036 bram Vogel, took up residents in three rooms. Their quarters 0:14:07.076 --> 0:14:10.076 would have been compact for seven people, to say the least, 0:14:10.636 --> 0:14:13.276 but they would all the same have felt pleased with 0:14:13.356 --> 0:14:18.476 their new home. Rachel grew into a petite young woman 0:14:18.596 --> 0:14:23.156 with dark hair and a thoughtful, arresting gaze. She was 0:14:23.276 --> 0:14:27.756 quiet and anxious on occasion. By eighteen, she was working 0:14:27.756 --> 0:14:32.076 in the cat making trade, most likely alongside her father. Then, 0:14:32.196 --> 0:14:35.316 when she was twenty eight years old, she was introduced 0:14:35.356 --> 0:14:39.076 to Harry Dobkin. This match was arranged through a Jewish 0:14:39.076 --> 0:14:42.756 marriage broker. As summer turned to autumn in nineteen twenty, 0:14:43.156 --> 0:14:46.556 Rachel and Harry wed at bethnal Green Great Synagogue. 0:14:47.636 --> 0:14:50.716 The place is perfectly good. I don't see what's wrong 0:14:50.716 --> 0:14:50.916 with it. 0:14:51.276 --> 0:14:53.676 I can't do anything more exactly. 0:14:54.956 --> 0:14:55.316 Hurry. 0:14:55.756 --> 0:15:00.236 Their union, however, was not a happy one. According to Harry, 0:15:00.796 --> 0:15:03.196 the couple argued bitterly from the start. 0:15:03.476 --> 0:15:06.076 I quarreled with my wife over at the inconvenience of 0:15:06.116 --> 0:15:08.556 the lodgings we were in and told her I had 0:15:08.636 --> 0:15:12.076 rooms were week ago. She refused to go there on 0:15:12.156 --> 0:15:15.596 a left. The marriage has been a failure from the outset. 0:15:16.356 --> 0:15:21.516 This separation came just three days after their nuptials. Historian 0:15:21.636 --> 0:15:26.116 doctor Ginger Frost doubts that disagreements about accommodation alone would 0:15:26.116 --> 0:15:27.356 have caused such a split. 0:15:28.436 --> 0:15:31.196 That's really fast. There's something they're not saying about what 0:15:31.316 --> 0:15:33.156 happened there is what I thought. I don't know what 0:15:33.236 --> 0:15:36.396 it was, but something that bad within a few days 0:15:36.716 --> 0:15:39.596 could have been sexual incompatibility. Maybe there was just instant 0:15:39.956 --> 0:15:41.556 dislike that's possible. 0:15:42.356 --> 0:15:45.916 Perhaps Harry Dobkin was violent in those first few days. 0:15:46.436 --> 0:15:50.716 Perhaps two sex was an unpleasant, even traumatic experience for 0:15:50.836 --> 0:15:55.036 rachel Girls and young women generally received little by way 0:15:55.036 --> 0:15:58.116 of sex education, to the point that a pregnant woman 0:15:58.276 --> 0:16:01.396 might have no idea how the baby growing inside her 0:16:01.476 --> 0:16:09.556 would actually leave her body. Harry was gone, but the 0:16:09.596 --> 0:16:12.676 couple had been together long enough for Rachel to conceive 0:16:12.756 --> 0:16:16.636 a child nine months after they wed and then separated. 0:16:17.276 --> 0:16:20.116 Baby Stanley was born at the City of London Maternity 0:16:20.156 --> 0:16:25.036 Hospital under the eye of medical professionals. Such care was 0:16:25.076 --> 0:16:28.436 a luxury beyond the means of many women, so when 0:16:28.516 --> 0:16:31.996 Rachel was admitted, it was probably through a charitable scheme. 0:16:32.876 --> 0:16:36.356 Single women who are sufficiently recommended. 0:16:35.916 --> 0:16:37.796 Said the hospital rules, and are. 0:16:37.636 --> 0:16:40.156 Found to be deserving of the benefits of the hospital's 0:16:40.236 --> 0:16:44.436 charity will be eligible for admission for their first confinement. 0:16:45.596 --> 0:16:49.156 On Stanley's birth certificate, Rachel wrote that both she and 0:16:49.196 --> 0:16:52.876 Harry were residing at the same address, but her husband 0:16:53.036 --> 0:16:56.556 was who knows where, for he'd gone to see as 0:16:56.596 --> 0:17:00.636 a third class steward on an ocean liner. The couple 0:17:00.676 --> 0:17:04.556 may have separated, but their lives remain knotted together. Their 0:17:04.596 --> 0:17:08.996 meetings would become ever more acrimonious, and in the coming years, 0:17:09.436 --> 0:17:12.956 Harry Dobkin would wage an awful campaign of threats and 0:17:13.036 --> 0:17:22.636 violence against his ever more fragile wife. Bad Women, the 0:17:22.676 --> 0:17:25.836 Blackout ripper will be back after this short break. 0:17:33.596 --> 0:17:35.356 State your full name for the record. 0:17:36.316 --> 0:17:40.236 Harry Dobkin had clearly not been providing for his family 0:17:40.676 --> 0:17:43.916 and was summoned to the imposing Old Street Police Court, 0:17:44.276 --> 0:17:47.076 where he was ordered to pay the sum of one 0:17:47.156 --> 0:17:50.956 pound per week to his wife and child, a considerable 0:17:50.996 --> 0:17:55.996 portion of his earnings. Divorce was expensive, difficult to obtain, 0:17:56.396 --> 0:18:00.436 and carry the stigma, so the pair chose to remain married. 0:18:01.196 --> 0:18:06.636 According to Ginger Frost, such messy separations often crippled both parties. 0:18:07.116 --> 0:18:11.196 Usually separations come, it's usually years of marriage. The woman 0:18:11.236 --> 0:18:13.716 will do a lot to avoid it because the separation 0:18:13.836 --> 0:18:16.796 payments you get are not the same as having a breadwinner. 0:18:16.916 --> 0:18:19.356 They're not enough really to keep you in any children. 0:18:19.476 --> 0:18:20.996 So she has to work. That means somebody has to 0:18:21.036 --> 0:18:22.996 take care of the kids. It just doesn't work. 0:18:23.516 --> 0:18:27.156 Harry paid the sum for a few weeks perhaps, but 0:18:27.276 --> 0:18:30.996 then fell into arrears. He was again holed up at 0:18:31.036 --> 0:18:35.676 court and sentenced to six weeks in prison. This measure 0:18:35.796 --> 0:18:40.436 was ultimately intended to discourage nonpayment, but of course while 0:18:40.476 --> 0:18:43.236 Harry was in prison, his income was halted. 0:18:43.596 --> 0:18:46.476 I'm going to jow that happens all the time. Men 0:18:46.516 --> 0:18:49.036 can never make these payments because you can't keep two 0:18:49.036 --> 0:18:51.316 households on that. She can't keep her household on that, 0:18:51.356 --> 0:18:52.676 and he can't keep his on that. You got to 0:18:52.716 --> 0:18:55.476 live with somebody else. He didn't appear to want another relationship, 0:18:55.516 --> 0:18:57.476 but if he ever wanted to have another one, he 0:18:57.476 --> 0:18:59.476 couldn't afford it because he was paying so much of 0:18:59.476 --> 0:19:03.996 his pay to her. So conflict on that really common. 0:19:04.636 --> 0:19:07.556 When Harry left prison, he took a job aboard the 0:19:07.676 --> 0:19:10.956 s S. Pittsburgh of the White Star Line, sailed away 0:19:11.996 --> 0:19:19.516 and did not return for ten years. 0:19:21.636 --> 0:19:25.916 How Rachel made ends meet in Harry's absence is unclear. 0:19:26.596 --> 0:19:31.636 It's doubtful he sent money back. When Harry Dobkin finally 0:19:31.716 --> 0:19:35.316 returned from c he says relatives tried to engineer a 0:19:35.436 --> 0:19:38.396 rapprochemund to bring the husband and wife back together again. 0:19:38.996 --> 0:19:41.716 He even claimed he was offered money to reunite with 0:19:41.796 --> 0:19:49.436 Rachel eight pounds, So the unhappy pair lived together briefly 0:19:50.716 --> 0:19:53.956 for According to Harry, the arguments erupted again. 0:19:56.076 --> 0:19:58.996 And then discovered that all my seamen's discharge papers were 0:19:58.996 --> 0:20:02.036 missing and accused my wife of taking them. She accused 0:20:02.076 --> 0:20:03.796 me of taking a broach belonging to her. 0:20:04.796 --> 0:20:06.916 Go on, tell me where you put it. I've got 0:20:06.996 --> 0:20:07.796 right to the police. 0:20:07.876 --> 0:20:11.396 I was arrested and charged stealing. The following day, I 0:20:11.396 --> 0:20:14.516 appeared at Old Street police call, but a case was dismissed. 0:20:15.436 --> 0:20:18.836 The apartment was rented in Harry's name, but he said 0:20:18.876 --> 0:20:21.036 that he left and moved back in with his parents. 0:20:21.756 --> 0:20:26.356 He bemoaned that thereafter Rachel continually reported him for non 0:20:26.436 --> 0:20:29.956 payment of their maintenance agreement, and he spent several short 0:20:29.996 --> 0:20:37.116 spells behind bars. By Harry's account, Rachel was an exasperating nuisance. 0:20:37.516 --> 0:20:39.916 His sister Annie described how she would turn up at 0:20:39.916 --> 0:20:41.396 her home causing trouble. 0:20:41.556 --> 0:20:43.836 She called at all hours and kicked up a row. 0:20:44.636 --> 0:20:48.716 There is, however, another side to this story. In January 0:20:48.756 --> 0:20:52.076 nineteen thirty five, someone tried to set a fire on 0:20:52.156 --> 0:20:55.996 Rachel's doorstep at five am. An employee of the housing 0:20:56.036 --> 0:20:59.036 block was sent to survey the considerable. 0:20:58.356 --> 0:21:03.396 Damage from the lockdownwards. The door had been burned almost through. 0:21:04.076 --> 0:21:06.556 It looked as though someone had put some oily rag 0:21:06.596 --> 0:21:08.996 and paper against the door and had set light to him. 0:21:09.436 --> 0:21:13.236 Terrified, Rachel was convinced that Harry was behind the arsen attack. 0:21:14.396 --> 0:21:17.756 Perhaps it was an attempt to merely intimidate her, or 0:21:18.156 --> 0:21:21.396 perhaps it was a bid to end the union permanently. 0:21:22.596 --> 0:21:25.876 Rachel didn't pursue her husband through the courts, and no 0:21:26.116 --> 0:21:30.436 charges were laid against him. 0:21:30.956 --> 0:21:35.796 The residents of Whitechapel erected barricades and readied themselves to 0:21:35.876 --> 0:21:41.316 repel the invaders. In almost medieval scenes, cobbles and paving 0:21:41.396 --> 0:21:45.916 stones were lifted in preparation to pelt the approaching enemy, 0:21:46.436 --> 0:21:50.436 and those in upstairs windows boiled water to rain down 0:21:50.476 --> 0:21:55.036 on their foes. Mounted police charged the locals of this 0:21:55.156 --> 0:21:59.036 Jewish neighborhood, hoping the blows from their truncheons would clear 0:21:59.076 --> 0:22:03.076 a path through. The thousands assembled, a path that would 0:22:03.076 --> 0:22:07.316 allow Sir Oswald Moseley and his black shirted British fascists 0:22:07.556 --> 0:22:11.956 to stage a provocative months the police could make a 0:22:12.036 --> 0:22:17.036 little headway, the barriers were too numerous, the crowds too enraged, 0:22:17.356 --> 0:22:21.796 the hail of stones too thick. The fascist procession would 0:22:21.836 --> 0:22:26.436 have to take another wart. We are through street, complained 0:22:26.436 --> 0:22:29.436 the Blackshirts when they were denied the chance to struck 0:22:29.476 --> 0:22:34.196 past synagogues, Jewish homes and Jewish businesses, raising their stiff 0:22:34.316 --> 0:22:38.956 armed Nazi salutes. The black Shirt leader topped openly of 0:22:38.996 --> 0:22:43.916 expelling Jews from the country, and amongst his rabble rousing accusations, 0:22:44.156 --> 0:22:47.636 he blamed the Jewish garment workshops of Whitechapel for the 0:22:47.676 --> 0:22:57.716 woes of an industry hit by the Great Depression. Bloodied 0:22:57.756 --> 0:23:02.916 and bested, the Blackshirts at last retreated and marched away 0:23:03.036 --> 0:23:07.876 from the East End. Moseley had humiliatingly lost the Battle 0:23:07.916 --> 0:23:11.236 of Cable Street and went to Berlin to lick his wounds, 0:23:11.716 --> 0:23:15.756 where he also found time to marry his fiancee. Under 0:23:15.796 --> 0:23:19.076 the gaze of Hitler himself. 0:23:23.996 --> 0:23:28.356 The doctor examined the bruising on Rachel Dobkins's arms and face. 0:23:29.796 --> 0:23:34.956 What caused this, he asked his patient, my husband, she replied, 0:23:35.596 --> 0:23:39.196 When Rachel returned with a black eye, Doctor Murphy made 0:23:39.196 --> 0:23:40.356 a record of the assault. 0:23:41.316 --> 0:23:43.716 My sister's husband has been very cruel to her. 0:23:44.076 --> 0:23:47.356 Polly Dubinsky was eleven years younger than Rachel, but she 0:23:47.436 --> 0:23:49.476 kept a protective eye on her older sister. 0:23:49.676 --> 0:23:52.596 She has received severe blows from him at different times. 0:23:53.276 --> 0:23:57.796 Friend Sadie Zimbler also saw Rachel's black eyes and purple bruises. 0:23:58.316 --> 0:24:01.516 She told me that he was a violent man. And 0:24:01.636 --> 0:24:03.716 I advised her to keep away from him. 0:24:04.436 --> 0:24:08.836 Although they lived apart, Rachel's meetings with Harry could still 0:24:09.156 --> 0:24:12.756 flare into disagreement, and Harry would try to win these 0:24:12.796 --> 0:24:18.036 disputes with his fists. The abuse inflicted such trauma that 0:24:18.196 --> 0:24:22.676 Rachel became unable to work. It seems that Harry's attempts 0:24:22.716 --> 0:24:26.716 to silence his wife only made her even more reliant 0:24:26.876 --> 0:24:28.356 on his maintenance payments. 0:24:29.996 --> 0:24:30.316 Harry. 0:24:30.876 --> 0:24:35.316 In nineteen thirty seven, Rachel in the street so hard 0:24:35.516 --> 0:24:39.596 that she suffered a so called mental lapse. Unbeknownst to 0:24:39.676 --> 0:24:42.796 her family, she was sent to an observation board in 0:24:42.876 --> 0:24:50.516 nearby Saint Clement's Hospital. The treatment of mental illness was changing. 0:24:50.996 --> 0:24:55.156 Lunatics were now patience and no longer insane, but of 0:24:55.276 --> 0:24:59.516 unsound mind. Mental ill health was an ailment, and hopefully 0:24:59.556 --> 0:25:04.316 a temporary one, rather than an identity. Previously, doctors waited 0:25:04.396 --> 0:25:06.996 until people were so ill that they could be certified 0:25:06.996 --> 0:25:10.756 insane and sent to an asylum. But now observation wards 0:25:10.796 --> 0:25:14.116 welcomed patients like Rachel and then decided whether they needed 0:25:14.116 --> 0:25:18.076 more intensive treatment a period of convalescence, or had recovered 0:25:18.076 --> 0:25:25.316 sufficiently to be discharged. When Rachel's siblings, Polly, Mary and Nathan, 0:25:25.596 --> 0:25:27.956 marched through the doors of the hospital two days later 0:25:28.076 --> 0:25:31.076 to retrieve her. They were adamant that their sister was 0:25:31.156 --> 0:25:34.756 quite well enough to leave. Rachel was said to be frightened. 0:25:35.476 --> 0:25:37.996 I'm not sure I'm quite well, and. 0:25:37.916 --> 0:25:42.476 She described fiery feelings on the crown of her head giddiness. 0:25:43.796 --> 0:25:47.236 Though her time in hospital was short, the suggestion that 0:25:47.356 --> 0:25:50.436 Rachel was of unsound mind would haunt her in the 0:25:50.436 --> 0:25:55.436 coming years, prompting some to discount her growing concerns about 0:25:55.436 --> 0:25:56.836 her abusive husband. 0:25:59.956 --> 0:26:03.236 So that's one Russian tea will be wanting something to 0:26:03.316 --> 0:26:03.996 eat as well. 0:26:04.956 --> 0:26:08.476 Maud Air didn't know the agitated man ordering food at 0:26:08.476 --> 0:26:12.236 her son's case on an August day in nineteen thirty nine. 0:26:12.996 --> 0:26:18.716 The customer, Harry Dobkin, talked to waiting staff, then approached Maud. 0:26:19.556 --> 0:26:22.836 My wife is pregnant. She's threatened to have an illegal operation. 0:26:23.916 --> 0:26:25.796 Will you come and have a talk with her and 0:26:25.996 --> 0:26:26.796 persuade her not. 0:26:26.796 --> 0:26:27.236 To do it. 0:26:27.556 --> 0:26:31.876 Maud followed Harry Dobkin back to his nearby rented room. 0:26:32.276 --> 0:26:35.556 He was earning a living making and selling aprons, and 0:26:35.636 --> 0:26:41.276 the space was both home and workshop. Inside, she found Rachel. 0:26:42.436 --> 0:26:46.356 She then said, I'm pregnant. I have a boy of 0:26:46.436 --> 0:26:49.316 eighteen and I don't want to go through with another one. 0:26:49.996 --> 0:26:52.236 I've paid the money and I'm going to have an 0:26:52.236 --> 0:26:53.916 illegal operation tomorrow. 0:26:54.596 --> 0:26:59.716 Maud explained to the englishwoman that the procedure would be dangerous. 0:27:00.276 --> 0:27:02.836 I told her not to be silly and go through 0:27:02.876 --> 0:27:03.796 and have the child. 0:27:04.596 --> 0:27:07.476 Rachel, who admitted that she had already tried to end 0:27:07.476 --> 0:27:12.116 the pregnancy by swallowing anti malarial drug, seemed to listen 0:27:12.196 --> 0:27:12.996 to this advice. 0:27:13.636 --> 0:27:15.836 I will not have it done. Will you speak to 0:27:15.836 --> 0:27:16.436 my husband. 0:27:17.236 --> 0:27:21.876 Rachel's husband, however, had already left. He'd gone to report 0:27:21.876 --> 0:27:27.396 her to the police. Interviewed by officers, Rachel described how 0:27:27.436 --> 0:27:30.956 Harry's abuse had escalated during one of her visits to 0:27:31.036 --> 0:27:33.556 seek her overdue alimony. 0:27:33.636 --> 0:27:35.196 About a fortnight ago. 0:27:35.516 --> 0:27:39.716 My husband forced himself for me and had intercourse, although 0:27:40.036 --> 0:27:40.996 I did not wish it. 0:27:41.796 --> 0:27:46.236 This accusation of rape, denied by Harry, seems not to 0:27:46.316 --> 0:27:50.556 have interested the police. A wife couldn't deny her husband's sex, 0:27:50.796 --> 0:27:54.836 said the law, but seeking an abortion was an offense. 0:27:54.956 --> 0:28:01.916 They'd happily investigate. Husband and wife disagreed about who'd insisted 0:28:01.916 --> 0:28:05.916 on the termination, but Rachel was not, in fact pregnant. 0:28:06.836 --> 0:28:09.436 A doctor who examined her at the behesse of the 0:28:09.476 --> 0:28:13.196 police concluded that she was going through the menopause and 0:28:13.276 --> 0:28:19.316