For more than half a century, Martha Price, who has died aged 101, lived a very active life as a valued member of the community in Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey. But her journey there from her native Germany was dramatic.
Martha married a Jewish lawyer, Albert Kraemer, in 1933. On the day they returned from their honeymoon it was announced that Adolf Hitler had become chancellor. They resolved to emigrate to Palestine. In the autumn of that year, Hitler was going to speak at a Nazi rally in Karlsruhe, from a platform in front of the town hall, and the young couple had a flat with a good view of the square. And so they found themselves, as Martha used to tell it, within 50 yards of a raving maniac. Emigration became an even more urgent priority.
Life in Palestine was hard. There was no work for a lawyer trained only in German law. The marriage deteriorated, and ended in 1947 in divorce. Meanwhile, Martha devoted much of her time to a Jewish club that entertained British soldiers (with Martha singing in some of their concerts). A guest one day was Roy Price, with whom she was soon deeply in love. But when the war came to an end, Roy was drafted back to the UK.
Martha was forbidden to take her daughter out of Palestine without her ex-husband's permission, so she planned a secret departure. Visas had to be acquired, tickets purchased, and all from Arab officials, since Jewish ones would have been likely to recognise her. At the final crossing of the Palestinian border, the official was Christian. He was so taken with Martha that he suggested they should marry on her return, saying she would have a comfortable life as he was the owner of a pig farm – not, as Martha liked to say, the most irresistible marriage proposal to a good Jewish girl. Once on a British boat leaving Alexandria, they were safe. Roy was waiting at the port. They married in 1948, and Roy became a distinguished lawyer working in the civil service.
The daughter of Ludwig and Julia Dannhauser, Martha was born in the small town of Buchau. Her father's textile factory prospered and, when Martha was 15, he moved it to the city of Ulm, on the Danube. This was the place that Martha came to regard as home and in 1988, the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the mayor invited all the Jewish refugees that he could trace to visit. Martha, very doubtful before accepting, found herself deeply moved by this gesture of reconciliation and by several of her father's employees seeking her out to tell her of their affection for him.
It was almost impossible to be closely involved in Richmond's activities, particularly in the arts, the environment and social issues, without knowing or knowing of Martha. For many women she was an inspiration, for her non-judgmental wisdom on many important women's issues and for remaining her quick-witted and forceful self into extreme old age. My wife, Christina, and I first met her in the heady days of the 1980s when the SDP seemed the future. We did a round collecting members' newspapers to be sold for recycling, and Roy and Martha were particularly friendly each time we arrived.
Roy died in 2005. Martha is survived by her three children, Margot, Julia and Dolmen.