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Centre News 2022

The magazine of the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne, Australia

1984 −2022 Centre News through the ages

ISSN 0816-8946 Registered by Australia Post Publication No. VBH 7236

JHC Board Co-Presidents Vice-President Treasurer Secretary Board Directors

Pauline Rockman OAM Sue Hampel OAM Michael Debinski OAM Richard Michaels Mary Slade Abram Goldberg OAM Helen Mahemoff OAM Elly Brooks Professor George Braitberg AM Melanie Raleigh Paul Kegen Phil Lewis Simon Szwarc

We consider the finest memorial to all victims of racist policies to be an education program that aims to combat antisemitism, racism and prejudice in the community, and fosters understanding between people.

IN THIS ISSUE From the Presidents

Helen Mahemoff OAM Allen Brostek Jeffrey Mahemoff AO Joey Borensztajn AM Nina Bassat AM Phil Lewis

Editor’s note

A milestone moment

Education update

Jayne Josem Jessica Murakumo

Reflections on the Wannsee Conference

The Nazi swastika: a logo for hate

JHC Foundation Chairperson Trustees

The Jewish Holocaust Centre is dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945.

Office of the CEO Museum Director & CEO Executive Assistant Organisational Support Chief Operating Officer Finance Manager People & Culture Specialist Special Projects Officer Administrative Support Officers Volunteer Welfare Officer

Laura Etyngold Roy John Anna Berhang Daniel Feldman Georgina Alexander Karen Miksad Rae Silverstein

Centre News through the ages

Gandel Holocaust knowledge in Australia survey findings

A homage to our parents

Honouring their memory

Australian Holocaust Museum Alliance (AHMA)

16 18

Dr Anna Hirsh

Professor Philippe Sands oration ‘Human beings reach a crossroad’

Julia Reichstein

New acquisitions

Community news

Learning from the past

Education Head of Education Pedagogy Specialist Education Programs Officer Education Officers

Dr Simon Holloway Lisa Phillips Tracey Collie Fanny Hoffman Melanie Attar Soo Isaacs

Collections & Research Manager of Collections & Research Librarian & Information Manager

Engagement and Experience Head of Engagement Jennifer Levitt Maxwell & Experience Marketing & Tahney Fosdike Communications Specialist Digital Media Producer Robbie Simons Fundraising Fundraising Manager Grants & Partnerships Manager

Aviva Weinberg Lorelle Lake

Museum Senior Curator Curatorial Assistant

Sandy Saxon Fiona Kelmann

Redevelopment Consultants Multimedia Consultant Project Consultants

Arek Dybel Jon Moss Tina Schmid

Centre News Editor Yiddish Editor

Lina Leibovich Alex Dafner

On the cover: Collection of past front covers showing the Centre News News. 2 evolution JHCofCentre

PO Box 1018, Elsternwick VIC 3185 t: (03) 9528 1985 w: www.jhc.org.au

NOTE: During the redevelopment the JHC will not be operating as a museum for the public but will continue to host events. These will be advertised via the ‘In the Loop’ e-newsletter. Please visit our website to subscribe.

This publication has been designed and produced by Grin Creative / grincreative.com.au Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in Centre News are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the magazine editor or editorial committee. While Centre News welcomes ideas, articles, photos, poetry and letters, it reserves the right to accept or reject material. There is no automatic acceptance of submissions.

From the Presidents Pauline Rockman & Sue Hampel

ur focus in 2022 is to prepare for the move back into our newly redeveloped world class Holocaust centre. Our team are working ardently behind the scenes in preparation for the move later this year as well as focusing on welcoming back schools, developing teacher training programs and enhancing our virtual offerings. Mazal tov to our cherished survivor Szaja Chaskiel OAM and to our Vice President Michael Debinski OAM, for receiving well-deserved honours in the Australia Day Awards. Once again, the events over this summer illustrate that Holocaust distortion is on the rise. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, welcomed the adoption in January by the General Assembly of a historic resolution which rejects and condemns without any reservation, any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event. At the JHC, we understand the urgency to build pathways and provide resources to counter distortion and hatred and limit its influence and impact on the next generation. On 27 January, the newly formed AHMA (Australian Holocaust Museum Alliance) held the annual commemoration to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD). AHMA comprises of Holocaust museums throughout Australia, both established and newly created. Thousands of Australians watched speakers including Holocaust survivors Yvonne Engelman OAM and Nina Bassat AM. One of the highlights of IHRD was the presentation of the results of the Gandel Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Australia survey, the first national, large-scale survey of Australian

From the Editor Lina Leibovich

olocaust Education is important, now more than ever. The Gandel Holocaust Awareness Survey’s recent findings highlight the significance of Holocaust education and the need to increase awareness and improve the reliance on social media as an exclusive form of news generation, which tends to amplify historical ignorance as many do not read below the headlines. 77 years since the end of the Holocaust, yet education about facts in an historic context can help prevent the tragic and terrifying rise of antisemitism. Education is crucial to ensure we are helping shine a light

knowledge of the Holocaust, their attitudes to Holocaust education and commemoration and their feelings towards Jews. The findings validate and support the work we are doing. The Centre News has been an integral part of the JHC since its formation. Ruth Mushin became the third editor in 2008, following Cyla Sokolowicz and Stan Marks OAM. In the ensuing period, Ruth lifted this wonderful mouthpiece to great heights. Ruth created just the right balance of brilliant articles covering both the local and international Holocaust scene. We would like to thank Ruth for her outstanding efforts over the past 13 years. We are very excited to introduce and welcome Lina Leibovich to our team. Lina joins us with a background in Marketing and Law. Her key strengths are in writing, content creation and publication. In this ever-changing landscape, thank you all for your ongoing support. We look forward to seeing you in person sometime soon. Take care and be safe, Pauline and Sue

on the truth as to help prevent another Holocaust is to never forget. Centre News has been in the hands of passionate and dedicated editors, Cyla Sokolowicz, Stan Marks OAM, and Ruth Mushin, who produced captivating content while addressing critical issues since the very first issue was published in 1984. I am honoured to be stepping into the role of editor of Centre News, knowing I have great shoes to fill. I take on this role with honour and humility and value the importance the JHC plays in our community and beyond. I hope to help ensure that the next generation never forget and that these stories and lessons are carried forward to future generations. There are many much anticipated changes to be celebrated this year, from our new branding to the unveiling of the new JHC building. We are excited to share more in the upcoming months and to welcome everyone back soon. May we always remember the past so we can inspire a better tomorrow.

JHC Centre News

A milestone moment

e are fast approaching a massive milestone in our JHC redevelopment project, where McCorkell Construction will hand over the keys. We are so delighted with how the building looks; it stands as a solid testament to the endurance of Holocaust survivors who settled in Melbourne and contributed to this place. Its spacious and warm wooden interiors are designed to reflect the warmth we wish to create for those who come into our new home. Reflective surfaces throughout encourage visitors to contemplate their own place in the world, and how the knowledge they are encountering in the building can impact them personally. Our museum spaces will impart difficult histories to those who enter so we have a number of places in which to contemplate and remember. Most notable will be our memorial space and our Garden of the Pillars of Witness. The project experienced some delays due to COVID-19 impacts on the building industry as well as supply chain issues, however we feel fortunate that this has not been significant. Kerstin Thompson Architects have worked tirelessly throughout to ensure every detail looks incredible and have managed the countless issues that have arisen as the building unfolded before our eyes. ”When can I visit?“ is the question on everyone’s lips. We are aiming for a public launch towards the end of the year, once the museum is finished, there is still much work to be done to fit out the internal spaces, each room with its own intricacies. We may however inhabit the building earlier, and even begin educating students in the Learning Hub before the museum is ready to open. The permanent museum project has been intensive as the curatorial team have scoured our collection and beyond to identify key artefacts to display. We are blessed to have (and continue to receive) incredible artefacts and documents from our community. It really is astounding to see the material that survivors brought with them to

JHC Centre News

Australia, documents that have been hidden away for decades in boxes out of reach, suddenly seeing the light of day. Titled ‘Everybody Had a Name’ the exhibition starts with an immersion into pre-war Jewish life in Europe, featuring home movies, photos, artwork and Jewish ritual objects. This world is shattered by the rise of Nazism in Germany, the anti-Jewish laws and finally the events of the November 1938 pogrom. As the war starts and Jews are labelled and controlled in ghettos and camps, the utter dehumanisation is revealed alongside the incredible spirit of those that resisted through maintaining culture and continuing to practice their religion, in defiance of Nazi orders. The culmination of the Holocaust focusses on mass murder in death camps and in killing fields, with the Treblinka model created by Chaim Sztajer remaining the focal point. A powerful section on Children reminds us of the need to especially honour and acknowledge the innocents among the innocents. For the survivors this has always the most important aspect to feature. A birch forest feature divides the section highlighting mass atrocities to the next focus on resistance and survival in hiding. Explorations of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Righteous Among the Nations – those who saved Jews – are featured before reaching Liberation. The final part of the museum looks at life after the war: Displaced Persons’ Camps, rebuilding life, immigration to Australia. A large showcase highlights some of the survivors who made a mark on Melbourne before we end with one of our survivors looking back and reflecting on how ‘everybody had a name, nobody had a grave’. The exhibition invites visitors to stop and think: knowing what you now know, how will you act in the world today? We are excited to invite all of you into the new centre later in the year and express our profound gratitude to all our donors and supporters.

Education Update Dr Simon Holloway

his year has started with a much-anticipated return to on-site teaching. The pandemic created many obstacles for learning, however we have worked through them and learned to be more flexible and adaptable in our approach. We have started with having the educators on-site, with the plan to gradually have more volunteer facilitators and survivors join the onsite program. Our focus is to have the students leave their school environment and experience something transformative, learning the importance of Holocaust education. The feedback we are receiving is positive, that the excursion to our Centre is truly appreciated and valued.

Educator Melanie Attar with a replica of a toiletry bag from our collection.

The virtual program that our education team developed continues to attract bookings. It remains an appropriate alternative for many schools who are still hesitant about on-site excursions, or regional schools who lack the ability to travel the distance. It has in fact created an opportunity for those who are too far geographically to experience our program, something that would not have been possible prior to the pandemic. The museum’s virtual museum application, and our ability to broadcast a survivor to schools via Zoom, have meant that students are given an opportunity to engage with our program by having it brought directly to them.

“ The main aim is to have the

students leave their school environment and experience something transformative

“

The education team is to be commended for how readily they have managed to adapt through all of the COVID-19 related restrictions. Their commitment to teaching this subject with passion and sensitivity is all the more evident now that we have students on site, and the feedback from teachers and from students has been effusive. This is particularly the case with our In Touch with Memory program which enables participants to engage with high-quality replicas of objects in our collection. The history is really brought to life for them, and it is an inspiration to watch. When unable to bring survivors on site some of our volunteers have tirelessly assisted them in connecting to the Zoom sessions so that

Students from Brunswick Secondary College explore artefacts in our In Touch with Memory program.

students can ask them questions. The nature of those questions has really indicated just how deeply and empathetically those students are engaging with the testimony, which is a credit also to the teachers. Those teachers would not be as capable as they are of preparing their students if it were not for the work of our Pedagogy Specialist, Lisa Phillips. Together with Jennifer Levitt Maxwell and her Engagement team, Lisa has built a world class professional learning program for teachers, which is getting a great deal of traction and is being heavily promoted by the Department of Education. This program provides historical knowledge and pedagogical assistance that is both in-depth and personalised to the participants. We eagerly anticipate the opening of our new museum! We will be commencing a project shortly, in which we will be filming those survivors we have not yet filmed, and we look forward to using the testimony that we capture in new programs that we will be rolling out in that space.

Dr Simon Holloway is Head of Education at the JHC.

JHC Centre News

Reflections on the Wannsee Conference Dr Simon Holloway

he Holocaust, for all of its sprawling chaos, clearly operated in accordance with a series of plans. We know the identities of many of the individuals responsible for those plans, and we know of the existence of innumerable others. It stands to reason that in every one of its particulars, those plans owed their genesis to specific points in time. A moment, beyond recollection, at which fateful decisions were made. For a short while, historians believed that they had uncovered one such moment: the precise date on which the decision to murder the Jews of Europe received administrative approval. Known popularly as the Wannsee Conference, this was a meeting that took place on the shores of Lake Wannsee, in Berlin. There, on January 20, 1942, fifteen senior representatives of the SS and Nazi Party met at a magnificently appointed villa. With occasional breaks for refreshments, they discussed in some detail the evacuation of Jews from their homes across the continent, and their deportation ‘to the east’. According to the minutes, one of the issues to have most vexed the participants concerned whether to include in those deportations Jews in mixed marriages, or those labelled mischlinge: people with one or two Jewish grandparents, and thus a certain quantity of ‘Jewish blood’. As to the precise fate of those who were deported, the minutes seem to indicate that nobody was in the dark.

The villa overlooking Lake Wannsee, at which the delegates met in January, 1942.

JHC Centre News

The minutes state, for example, that the evacuated Jews will immediately be put to work at building roads. Since most will perish ‘by natural causes’, the surviving remnant must be considered the most resistant, and the most capable of forming the nucleus of a new Jewish civilisation. The experience of history, they go on to relate, is sufficient to demonstrate that such hardened individuals ‘will have to be dealt with appropriately’. There is much within these minutes – brief though they may be – to arouse a sense of horror. On one page, countries are listed together with their estimated Jewish populations. Separated into those already under German control and those yet to be occupied by Germany, they provide the overall figure of 11 million. Only Estonia is already marked as Judenfrei (free of Jews), but it is evident that this was the plan for the others as well. What kind of monster is capable of deliberating on such issues? Who are the men who could so calmly discuss the commission of genocide? Of the fifteen men present, there were seven representatives of the SS and security apparatus and eight senior bureaucrats: five who represented ministries with especial interest in the Jewish Question, and three who represented the civilian administration in the occupied East. Over half of the men present held doctorates – mostly in law.

Photo: A. Savin, WikiCommons

At a time when only a very small percentage of the German population was receiving higher education, the qualifications of these particular men are striking. But while striking, it is by no means unusual. While these men were going over the particulars, as outlined in the minutes, hundreds of thousands of people (the overwhelming majority of them Jewish) were being shot by armed squads at the order of SS Einsatzgruppen and German police battalions. The men in charge of those operations almost all had doctorates. One of them (known, by German convention, as Dr Otto Rasch) held two.

to the west of Warsaw, and as Chelmno was the first location of its kind, the information provided by Szlama provided an important warning as regards upcoming deportations, which would commence from Warsaw in July of that same year. Hersh survived the Holocaust. Remarkably, he was one of only three members of the secret archive to have survived, and the only one who knew where it was buried. That we have access to the tens of thousands of documents within it is truly nothing short of a miracle, but it is a miracle that highlights the enormity of what did not remain.

And yet, while historians for a time considered this conference the occasion on which the murder of Europe’s Jews received approval, we now know that not to be case. On the contrary, the Final Solution had been proceeding apace for some six months by the time these fifteen men met on a cold January morning to argue about its particulars. In fact, although they could not have known it, at the very time that they were engaged in their macabre discussion, a Jewish man named Szlama Winer was crossing the countryside of western Poland and into the General Government. Along the way, he stopped at villages to warn Jews of what he had witnessed, but was met with shock and disbelief. Arriving eventually at the ghetto in Warsaw, he met Hersh Wasser: a man who was prepared to take his testimony.

While Hersh survived, Emanuel Ringelblum did not, and neither did most of the other occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto. Szlama Winer, who fled Warsaw, where he was hunted by the Gestapo, made his way to Zamosc, from where he was subsequently deported to Belzec and murdered. He perished, but his testimony – recorded in the secret archive of the Warsaw Ghetto – remains.

A page from the minutes, in which the estimated Jewish populations of Europe are tabulated. The chart is divided between territories under German control, and territories yet to be under German control. Estonia (Estland) is already marked judenfrei: free of Jews.

Szlama had escaped, although he lacked the vocabulary to describe precisely what he had escaped from. It was not a camp – this he knew – but a mere manor house, to which Jews from the region were being sent by truck and at which they were being murdered through the use of carbon monoxide. The manor was located in a remote village called Chelmno, which had been chosen by the district governor Arthur Greiser as a convenient place to annihilate all of the Jews of his district. Szlama’s experiences, working as a “grave-digger” (as he described it) had indicated to him that the murderous persecution of his people was reaching unprecedented and unimaginable heights. In fact – although Szlama had no way of knowing this – the number of Jews murdered by this stage was already staggeringly large. But while Szlama could not have known this, the man who recorded his testimony did.

Hersh Wasser was a close friend and colleague of Emanuel Ringelblum: a Polish historian who lived and worked in the city of Warsaw. As has been justly celebrated, Ringelblum was at this time presiding over the accumulation of a secret archive that went by the code name, Oyneg Shabbes (The Joy of the Sabbath). While this archive featured a number of contributions from other ghetto residents, one of the things that made it so significant is that it also featured interviews with refugees to Warsaw: people like Szlama Winer, who could share their experiences. As a result of such interviews, Hersh Wasser was already well acquainted with the violence that was proceeding to the east and

One of the tragedies that we encounter when we study the Holocaust is that the naming of individual perpetrators is so much easier than is the naming of individual victims. Fifteen men sat around the table in Wannsee, and for every one of those men we know their names, their opinions, their various accomplishments. Of their millions of victims, most are – as individuals – forgotten.

Based on the principle that everybody has a name, the Jewish Holocaust Centre seeks to redress that imbalance. January 20th, this year, marked the 80th anniversary of the meeting in Wannsee, but it is important that we think about more than just the events that transpired on that one particular day. It is important that we seek to preserve the memory of the victims, and that we honour the legacy of our survivors. A core part of that legacy is that we share a common humanity. It is important to appreciate that the individuals responsible for these terrible crimes were themselves human beings. They were not monsters, and nor were they in any ontological sense ‘evil’. The evil lies within the nature of their deeds, while what is monstrous is that such deeds can be committed by ordinary people. As all who engage in this history know, the possibility of such unbounded persecution was only provided by the careful eradication of the victims’ humanity. By dehumanising Jews and by normalising that dehumanisation, people who should have baulked at the possibility of violence were brought to its commission. Our task is to countenance that by emphasising our shared humanity, and by contributing to a greater empathy for all. We anticipate the opening of our new museum in late 2022, and look forward to honouring our survivors, their families and their communities. Most importantly, we look forward to continuing to transmit our survivors’ stories of liberation and survival: a sombre message of what humans are capable of doing to one another, and a celebration of the spirit of resistance.

JHC Centre News

In Nuremberg in 1935. Source: National Digital Archives of Poland. Nazi Party propaganda postcard from 1937. Source: Bundesarchiv.

The Nazi swastika: a logo for hate Jayne Josem

olish Holocaust survivor Bono Wiener said “when I see a swastika I see Auschwitz”. As one of the founders of our museum, he echoed the sentiments of other survivors and their descendants and neatly encapsulated the immensity of the offence this powerful symbol embodies.

Sadly today, not only is the resurgence of this symbol in our midst problematic, but also the propensity of similar logos appearing as emblems of white supremacy groups across the globe. The AntiDefamation League (ADL) has identified 178 images – mostly of far-right, neo-Nazi, white nationalist and separatist groups.

But this view is not simply one held by survivors or their descendants. US author and art director Steven Heller published a book exploring the Nazi symbol titled The Swastika and Symbols of Hate (2019). He writes, “The Nazi swastika is a visual obscenity. Once the mark of good fortune, during the twentieth century it was hijacked and perverted, twisted into the graphic embodiment of intolerance. If you want to know what the logo for hate looks like, go no further.”

The Nazis were master propagandists who understood the power of theatre and design. They stage-managed every aspect of their image and at its heart was the strong Hakenkruez (hooked cross) logo on their ubiquitous banners and stylised uniforms. In Mein Kampf, written in 1925, Hitler articulated the need for a unifying powerful slogan, writing ‘an effective emblem can give the first impetus for the interest in a movement.’

JHC Centre News

The Victorian government has committed to making the public display of Nazi symbols illegal as part of its comprehensive response to recommendations of the Parliamentary Legal and Social Issues Committee’s Inquiry into Anti-Vilification Protections.

One issue needing consideration is removing the onus to prove that those displaying the Nazi symbol intend to cause harm. Another issue is the notion of public display, which could include display on private property, within public view.

The Nazi symbol represents hate and mass murder - hatred of Jews, hatred of homosexuals, hatred of people with disabilities, hatred of Sinti-Roma, hatred of those who are different to the Nazi Aryan ideal.

There will be challenges around tattoos of the symbol, as it is difficult to insist those who already have such tattoos must always conceal them or have them removed. Legislating against new tattoos could be considered but it would be challenging for police to determine when exactly a tattoo has been obtained. And what about those trading in Holocaust memorabilia – what limits will there be on the display of material in shop windows or online?

In fact, it goes beyond hate to advocating for the elimination of such people. In World War Two this resulted in the most monstrous invention: killing factories where people were murdered at an industrial scale. Over 3 million individuals were murdered in death camps, mostly Jews, and mostly during an intensive 18-month period from 1942-43. The other 3 million Jewish victims were either murdered with bullets, or starved or tortured to death as they were hunted down in every country the Nazis occupied. Late last year the JHC joined the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) and other Jewish organisations to be part of a consultative process, led by the Department of Justice and Community Safety, to discuss this complex area of law reform. The issue became heightened due to the increasing visibility of the Nazi symbol in Victoria, including targeted graffiti at Jewish sporting clubs, as well as displayed on cars and individuals out and about in the community, and most disturbingly, a flag flown at a home in country Victoria. Last year in the Gariwerd (Grampians) National Park a group of neo-Nazis gathered, chanting ‘Heil Hitler’ and ‘White Pride’, prompting immediate concern and political condemnation. Their own symbol was stickered over the park ‘National Socialist Network: Australia for the White Man.’ This more open display mirrors similar trends across the globe. ‘Symbolism plays a huge role in propagating unsavory ideas,’ notes Steven Heller, citing the use of tiki torches used by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, turning a bearer of light into a symbol of hate. When asked about these far-right displays, Premier Daniel Andrews said there was evidence that “evil and wicked” antisemitism was on the rise in Victoria. “There’s no place for that kind of antisemitism in our state, no place for that sort of bigotry and hatred.” It surprised Holocaust survivors in Melbourne, as well as the wider community, that there was no law to stop these hateful and disturbing displays. Caulfield MP David Southwick announced at the JHC in February 2020 that the Liberal-National Party were committed to banning the swastika. A groundswell of opinion lead to bipartisan support for an inquiry into Anti-Vilification protections, ultimately recommending making the public display of Nazi symbols a criminal offence. Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said, “All forms of hate are unacceptable and have no place in Victoria – expanding our anti-vilification laws to protect more Victorians sends a clear message that this vile behaviour will not be tolerated.” An extensive consultation process is underway with the community and impacted groups ahead of the introduction of the new legislation. Minister for Multicultural Affairs Ros Spence stated, “Nazi symbols glorify one of the most hateful ideologies in human history. We must confront hate, prevent it, and give it no space to grow.”

A further challenge is the consideration of other Nazi symbols beyond the Hakenkruez – including similar style symbols used by modern extremist groups that represent the same set of values: intolerance, prejudice, hatred of others. But could extending the law limit freedom of expression and cause issues around trying to enforce it?

“

Despite being outlawed in Germany today, the swastika endures in some form in every country where racial (and particularly anti-Semitic) hatred exists. In the United States, it is still angrily scrawled in public spaces – from subways to synagogues – a trenchant reminder that people are fluent in the visual language of hate. - Steven Heller, 2019

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Most importantly, any legislation must explicitly exclude the traditional, peaceful religious and cultural swastika, whose use should not in any way be confused with the Nazi symbol. The swastika continues to be the most widely used symbol of Hindus, Jainas, and Buddhists. We respect the ongoing use of this auspicious religious symbol, representing prosperity and good fortune, that was stolen and inverted. Banning the Nazi symbol will be an important gesture demonstrating that our government finds it abhorrent in 2022 in Australia to display such vile symbols. It will not stop racism and antisemitism, but it will curb its visibility and the message of hatred and intolerance it promotes. Education is part of the answer to the problem today because hatred of others, whether Jews, Muslims, the LGBTQIA+ community or other groups being targeted, is mostly a result of ignorance. We need to educate to overcome the ignorance and the fear of the other, we need to educate to make the public understand just what it is about the Nazi symbol that is so abhorrent in our multi-cultural and diverse Australian society in 2022.

Jayne Josem is JHC Museum Director and CEO.

JHC Centre News

“Six million were wiped off the face of the earth. There is a danger that they will be annihilated from our memories. Are they doomed to a two-fold annihilation?” – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. This quote was regularly used in the early issues of Centre News.

Centre News through the ages Lina Leibovich

ith the very first issue of Centre News published in December 1984, its first editor Cyla Sokolowicz (neé Cyla Sokolowicz. Goldman) said, “As a survivor, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to pass on my knowledge of what happened.” The purpose behind what was originally called Holocaust Centre News in the early days was mostly for survivors reaching out to other survivors, calling to collect artefacts, and functioning largely as an internal newsletter for survivors.

Cyla Sokolowicz was born into a Chassidic family in Lodz. Her father was a great scholar and Rabbi who imbued in her a love of learning, which endured her whole life. When the war broke out, Cyla spent four and a half years in the Lodz ghetto, right up to its liquidation in August 1944. After a short time in Auschwitz, she was sent to an aeroplane factory near Dresden. In 1945 she was shunted around in open wagons and finally taken to Mathausen. She was liberated by the Americans on May 5. Cyla’s parents and seven siblings were murdered in the Holocaust. “Experience has taught us that survivors’ personal accounts leave by far the strongest impression on the minds of the young. The JHC is giving to all those who survived the infamous years under the Nazi rule, a unique opportunity to use their horrendous experiences in the service of a great cause – peace for the world.” – Cyla Sokolowicz, editorial Holocaust Centre News, Vol 3, No. 2. June 1986 She supported her husband Aron Sokolowicz in his efforts to establish the Jewish Holocaust Centre and became the founding editor of the Centre News. Her editorials were always labours of love and very thought provoking. They felt raw and filled with emotion and depth. Cyla was the editor of the Holocaust Centre News from its inception in December 1984 until 1992, as well as volunteering as a guide at the Centre.

JHC Centre News

“What makes it a unique institution though, is that survivors provide living history as they communicate to visitors of the centre, not through hate, but through a sense of duty, that by love and tolerance greater harmony can be achieved in the world.” – Cyla Sokolowicz, Holocaust Centre News, Vol 4, No. 2: June 1987 Stan Marks OAM took over the Centre News editorship in 1993 following a few editions with various editorial contributors. Stan is a well known Stan Marks OAM. and respected reporter, journalist and author of 14 books. His lifetime career in journalism and public relations saw him recognised through many awards, such as OAM. Stan came to the JHC through his wife, child survivor Eva Marks, who worked there tirelessly as a curatorial assistant. Many of Stan’s editorials focused on the importance the JHC plays in educating our community. “It is welcomed as an educational resource and a catalyst in bringing diverse groups of people together to fight the evils that have led to so much past, and, indeed, present suffering and misunderstanding.” – Stan Marks, Centre News, Vol 27, No. 3, December 2005

to the JHC as editor and his assiduous efforts to honour survivor stories will forever be remembered and carried on. One of Stan’s aims was to seek contributions from abroad, to broaden the contributors to include overseas experts as well as local content. Stan continued to edit Centre News for 16 years, succeeded by Ruth Mushin taking over the role in September 2008. Stan Marks on left with wife Eva and family.

Stan’s aim as editor was to “bring our estimated more than 15,000 readers, including many hundreds overseas, not only detailed information about the activities at the Centre, but also a diversity of articles relevant to the Holocaust, Nazi era and, in line with our Mission Statement, of combating racism, hatred and prejudice in all its forms and fostering understanding, especially among all sections and religions of the Australian community.” His contributions

Reflecting on her time, Ruth says that “While an important part of my work as editor has been to source articles from overseas and local experts on the Holocaust and provide a forum for the issues they raise, my main goal has been to make Holocaust survivors the stars of the magazine. I believe it is not only important to tell their individual stories, but to bring readers their insights about the dangers of racism and prejudice, and the importance of education and tolerance.” Over the last 14 years, Ruth has contributed an array of interesting and important articles and formed important relationships throughout the Centre and the wider community. Ruth’s passion is reflected in her diligent and tireless efforts to produce well-crafted issues, with excellent contributions from around the globe complimenting local stories. Ruth was also instrumental in shaping the look of the magazine, working closely with Izi and Eti Marmur from Izigraphics to streamline its design. The dedication of Izigraphics – Izi’s eye for design and Eti’s attention to the words – was a key ingredient in this partnership. More recently Ruth made further enhancements working with our design partners at Grin. The JHC is committed to carrying on the legacy of its founders, even though it will never fill the void of the six million innocent murdered lives lost. We are excited for what the future holds for Centre News as the JHC evolves and continues to progress. Communicating effectively with our dedicated supporters is crucial. We are committed to the founding promise to keep their stories alive and never forget our mission, which is now more important than ever. “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. Whenever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the centre of the universe.” – Elie Weisel

Passing on the baton Ruth Mushin

hen I agreed to become the editor of Centre News in 2008, the prospect of following in the footsteps of my two esteemed predecessors, Cyla Sokolowicz and Stan Marks, was daunting. Little did I know then that it would mark the beginning of a wonderful 14-year journey. Although I had edited Holocaust memoirs, newsletters and conference proceedings, this was my first time at editing a magazine. At first I was challenged by the crises that arose regularly, such as contributors ignoring deadlines and delays with finalising the mailing list, but it became easier as I learnt on the job. For me these glitches were far outweighed by working with, and learning from, inspiring and talented people and the satisfaction of seeing a completed magazine twice a year. It has been so rewarding to source articles from overseas and local experts about a wide range of issues relating to the Holocaust, and to publicise the Centre’s amazing educational programs, exhibitions and events. I have always felt though that by far my most important role as editor has been to tell the stories of Holocaust survivors. In doing so, they have taught me about resilience, tolerance, friendship and so much more. I have got to know so many wonderful people at the Centre over the last 14 years – survivors, Board members, staff and other volunteers – and I thank you for your support, and for giving me the scope to shape the contents of the magazine. I plan to continue volunteering at the Centre and I am sure that the new editor, Lina Leibovich, will find the role as rewarding as I have.

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Gandel Holocaust Knowledge in Australia Survey Findings Tahney Fosdike

e welcome the findings of the first comprehensive survey of Holocaust awareness in Australia, a study of 3500 Australians of all ages commissioned by the Gandel Foundation and conducted by Deakin University with data collected by the Social Research Centre, Melbourne. Two academics with a long history of involvement at JHC led the survey: cultural heritage specialist Dr Steven Cooke and genocide scholar Dr Donna-Lee Frieze. JHC co-president Sue Hampel OAM and child Holocaust survivor Nina Bassat AM were members of the esteemed advisory panel, providing expertise and knowledge which guided the questions and focus of the survey, as well as its dissemination. Other key members of the panel included Richelle Bud Caplan from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Rebecca Kummerfeld from the Sydney Jewish Museum and teacher Lauren Holveroud, an alumni of the Gandel Holocaust Program. “Australia welcomes the upcoming Gandel Foundation and Deakin University Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Australia survey, the first and largest of its kind, which will assist research and future policy directions,” said The Hon Scott Morrison Prime Minister of Australia in a statement at the 2021 Malmo Declaration of the International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism. Released 27 January 2022 on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the insights from this landmark research shone a light on the ongoing need for local Holocaust museums and education. “People who have a higher awareness of the Holocaust tend to have warm feelings towards minorities in general, whether to Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, First Nations people and asylum seekers, so I think that’s part of the reason that public Holocaust education is important,” says Museum Director & CEO Jayne Josem.

While findings revealed almost 70% of Australians know the Holocaust refers to the genocide and mass murder of Jewish people, the specific details of Holocaust knowledge ranked lower. For instance, only 49% are aware that Hitler came to power through a democratic election. Significantly, the survey revealed that over 70% of Australians know little to nothing about Australia’s connections to the Holocaust, with only 7% knowing that Australia has arguably the highest per capita number of Holocaust survivors outside Israel.

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While this survey shows that Australians on average know a fair bit about the Holocaust, there are still critical gaps in that knowledge and awareness, including among the younger generation.

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“Much work still remains to be done,” said Gandel Foundation CEO Vedran Drakulic OAM. “While this survey shows that Australians on average know a fair bit about the Holocaust, there are still critical gaps in that knowledge and awareness, including among the younger generation.” The survey also revealed that two thirds of Australians support compulsory Holocaust education in schools. The findings show that specific education about the Holocaust through dedicated lessons at schools or visits to a museum or memorial, result in the strongest knowledge about the Holocaust.

Key findings include:

of Australians have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust, with this number rising to 30% amongst millennials.

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of Australians believe that the Holocaust museums and memorials are valuable.

of those who visited a Holocaust museum or centre rated their visit as ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ helpful in learning about the Holocaust.

Holocaust survivor Nina Bassat, with a photograph of herself as a baby in 1939.

Despite gaps in knowledge, the survey indicated low levels of Holocaust denial and strong support for Holocaust awareness and education. The results have prompted nationwide discussion on the current state of Australia’s curriculum. The Age argued the need for detailed Holocaust education, “That, in turn, will foster empathy and genuine awareness of the profound hurt caused by racism and anti-Semitism.” Based on the findings, the survey made 8 key recommendations to grow engagement with Australian Holocaust history, most particularly to support museums and education programs designed to bridge gaps in Holocaust awareness and combat antisemitism: 1. Include the Holocaust on the curricula of Australian states and territories, and support teachers with ongoing accredited professional development; 2. Develop strategies to drive engagement with Holocaust museums, memorials and educational institutions; 3. Research, create, and distribute specific resources to address gaps in Holocaust knowledge, especially the period 1933-1939, and as it relates to Australia; 4. Develop a research agenda to understand the long-term impact of Holocaust education in schools and museums; 5. Challenge antisemitic myths and stereotypes in education through support for education programs; 6. Improve communication over the need for annual commemorative activities; 7. Provide opportunities for students to engage with Australian Holocaust survivor testimony; 8. Repeated cross-sectional research on Holocaust knowledge and awareness.

Researchers concluded that, “whilst the number of people who explicitly support antisemitic tropes is very low, of more concern is the large proportion of those that chose not to answer (that is, answered ‘neither agree nor disagree’), suggesting a persistent latent antisemitism within the Australian society.” Furthermore, researchers also concluded that “improving Holocaust knowledge and awareness can only have a positive impact on societal attitudes towards Jewish people.” Pauline Rockman OAM, JHC co-President, reflects, “We always stated that the Holocaust holds an enduring relevance for the world today – this survey confirms that view and shows that the Australian public agrees with that as well. We are committed to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and to helping future generations learn about the need to protect and uphold human rights, so they can become a force for good in this world. Along with our strategic partner, Gandel Foundation, we will continue working with our not-for-profit partners and colleagues who are involved in Holocaust education to advocate with policy makers and governments for more and better Holocaust education – especially in schools.” This timely survey reminds us of how important it is for Holocaust museums across Australia to reach far and wide with their vital lessons. The Centre’s Holocaust education programs engage tens of thousands of Victorian students with Holocaust survivor testimony and knowledge every year.

Tahney Fosdike is the Communications and Marketing Specialist at the JHC.

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A homage to our parents Silvana Layton (Silberzweig) & family

Our father found no family after the war. His mother, Rozalia (Lippel), had died of natural causes in February 1940. His father, Judah Leib, and sisters, Felicia and Bronislawa, were rounded up by the Nazis on 10 March 1941 and never seen again. Our mother, Lusia chose to stay with her mother in Krakow. They found themselves first in Krakow Ghetto in August 1940, then moved to Plaszow labour camp in March 1943 and finally to Auschwitz in 1944. Our mother was later transferred to an Auschwitz sub-camp 111 Lichtenwerden in Germany. She miraculously survived her incarceration. Her brother, Lonek, left Poland in 1936 and emigrated to Palestine, after being refused admission to the University in Krakow with the introduction of the special clause Numerus Clausus, which severely restricted Jews entering any tertiary institute.

Photo of Lusia & Josef in Zakopane Poland, 1938.

After the war our parents, via telegrams and letters with the assistance of the Red Cross and our mother’s brother, were reunited in Prague in December 1945. They chose to live in Bari, Italy. A year later, in December 1946, our mother gave birth to us, twin daughters Rosetta and Silvana. Our father was honourably discharged from the army in January 1947 and joined the Jewish Distribution Committee (the Joint) in Bari.

t’s fitting to start with our maternal grandmother, Sara Zehngut, who perished on arrival at Auschwitz in May 1944. In 1904, she had emigrated to New York, following other siblings, but returned to Krakow in 1908 homesick and thus changing our destiny. Back in Krakow, she married Wilhem Stiller and had two children, Leonora (Lusia) born in 1912 and Lonek in 1914. She was widowed in 1918 when Wilhem contracted typhoid and died during active service with the Austrian Army. Sara was left to raise their children under extreme hardship. Our parents Josef and Lusia courted for a couple of years and subsequently married in November 1939. Following some advice, on 2 April 1940, Josef fled Krakow. With his beloved city under occupation by the Germans and Jewish persecution rampant, he embarked on an epic journey which took him skiing and hiking through Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia with imprisonment in Ljubljana. Finally, in August 1941, he ended up at Ferramonti di Tarsia Internment camp in Italy as a foreign Jew. After the overthrow of Mussolini in 1943, internees were freed. Our father made his way to Bari to join the 2nd Polish Corp of the General Anders Army attached to 8th British Division in Bari, 616 CMF Italy. We are proud that our father was a Jewish Soldier.

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Three generations of descendants of Josef & Lusia Silberzweig, Silvana seated on left and Rosetta on right, surrounded by their families, Green, Grossman & Wise.

In 1949, we boarded the SS Cyrenia and arrived in Melbourne in September 1949, along with many other refugees. Our family settled in Melbourne, purchased a home, and worked hard to create a new and better life. Our parents never returned to Poland. Mum and Dad passed away too early at the age of 59 in 1972, only a matter of weeks apart. They rarely spoke of their lives in Krakow or of their very different and harrowing Holocaust experiences.

Honouring their memory Dani & Arnold Mahemoff

Photo of Lusia with armband (and unknown relative), 1939.

In 1997, I made my way to JHC as a volunteer needing to hear Holocaust survivors confront and share their stories. I observed students’ emotions after hearing a survivor story or touching a tattooed arm. I heard their stories and established a better grasp of our parents’ plight. Sometime after, Saba Feniger, former JHC curator, made the connection. “We came to Melbourne on the same ship,” she said. “Your father was a photographer! Bring in your photos and documents as the museum is doing an exhibition called Regeneration, which is part of a series of Melbourne exhibitions on the Australian family.” The process began of piecing together our parents’ journey, with me bringing in a shoe box of photos, telegrams, postcards and letters, written mostly in Polish. All were translated with great respect and diligence by survivor guides and volunteers. The JHC, with their Holocaust survivor guides and volunteers, helped piece together our parents’ story, filling in the voids and helping us further our research and knowledge for which we are eternally grateful. It has been a privilege and honour to work as a volunteer at the JHC for many years. I am committed to support the JHC and believe my choice of the Memorial Room is an appropriate place to acknowledge and remember the many family members who perished in the Holocaust. We support the JHC education programs which grow more relevant by the day in a world of rampant racism, prejudice and war. We can forgive but never forget.

Lotte & Paul Porges

ani’s parent’s, Lotte and Paul Porges arrived in Melbourne in 1949, both having suffered horrors, cruelty and deprivation at the hands of the Nazis. They were sent first to Theresienstadt, then Auschwitz-Birkenau, Neuengamme Hamburg and finally to Bergen Belsen from where they were liberated. Dani’s mother was born in Frankfurt but lived in Prague and her father was born and lived in Prague. Dani’s father lost all his family in the Holocaust, but her mother managed to save her mother, brother and stepfather as well as a number of other prisoners. Dani was 18 months old when they came to Australia and her sister was born 4 years later. The plan was to emigrate to Canada where Paul could continue his family business as a fur merchant. Unfortunately, the wait for a ship to Canada was too long and, as they wanted, understandably, to get out of Europe as quickly as possible, they took the next ship available which was bound for Australia. Arnold does not share the same background, as his family came to Australia in the 1920s from Russia. However, he has had a very deep interest in the Holocaust and strong feelings and empathy for what the Jewish people suffered at the hands of Hitler’s maniacal actions. Dani and Arnold say: “We feel very strongly that we wanted to dedicate a space at the JHC in memory of Dani’s parents who suffered outrageous horrors and survived the Holocaust, giving my sister and me a happy and privileged life in this country. We also feel very strongly that we must educate, particularly the young, that hatred and bigotry can lead to more genocides in the future as lessons have not been learnt over millennia. We believe that we have a responsibility, not only as Jews who have suffered these atrocities, but also to stop atrocities to other minority groups from happening in the future. We often wonder why, as Jews, we have always suffered discrimination but we hope that, one day, places like JHC might help to dispel all the prejudices.”

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Australian Holocaust Museum Alliance (AHMA) Tahney Fosdike

olocaust museums and education centres across Australia have united to create the Australian Holocaust Museum Alliance (AHMA). AHMA’s founders – the Jewish Holocaust Centre (Melbourne), Sydney Jewish Museum, Adelaide Holocaust Museum, Holocaust Institute of Western Australia, Queensland Holocaust Museum and Education Centre and Canberra Holocaust Museum – aim to consolidate nationwide efforts for Holocaust education and memorialisation.

“AHMA will give us reach in the delivery of national initiatives on Holocaust remembrance and education,” said Rockman. “This includes collaboration on activities such as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as well as virtual learning platforms, travelling exhibitions and societal impact measurement.” AHMA members came together on 27 January 2022 to commemorate International Holocaust Day. The online event reminded thousands of Australian viewers to keep the light of remembrance alive and continue to pass on the memories and lessons from the Holocaust. Highlighting lessons from the past, AHMA hosted the event to cast light on discrimination, intolerance, injustice and racial vilification, ensuring they cease to exist.

The Hon. Scott Morrison MP speaking at the 2022 IHRD commemoration.

“Australian Holocaust museums are making significant contributions to preserving the memories and stories of Holocaust survivors, as well as teaching the lessons of one of the darkest chapters of human history,” said Treasurer of Australia, The Hon Josh Frydenberg, “This alliance will work collaboratively to ensure future generations are educated about the atrocities of the Holocaust.”

Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre Co-President Pauline Rockman OAM commented that the AHMA’s establishment provides unprecedented opportunity for Australian Holocaust museums to work together to ensure best practice and efficiency.

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Attendees listened to moving speeches by Holocaust survivors Yvonne Engelman OAM and Nina Bassat AM, other notable speakers at the event including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison, and 2017 Australian of the Year (VIC) Dr Lois Peeler AM. Holocaust survivors from each state and territory in Australia participated in a moving candle lighting ceremony, while viewers also heard about the key findings and recommendations from a landmark piece of research, the Gandel Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Australia Survey, conducted by Deakin University and Gandel Foundation. “Australia’s Holocaust museums have recently formed an alliance so that they can work to enhance Holocaust education and commemorative activities,” explains Australian Holocaust Museum Alliance chair and JHC Museum Director & CEO Jayne Josem. “International Holocaust Remembrance Day encapsulates AHMA’s dedication to collaborate and impact Australian audiences across different cities and generations.” Gandel Foundation, one of Australia’s largest independent family philanthropic funds, provided generous financial and in-kind support to enable the special commemoration to come to fruition. The Gandel family has been a long-standing ambassador and advocate for Holocaust education in Australia, including through the world-class Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian Educators. AHMA has confirmed its inaugural patrons as John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC.

Survivor Joe Szwarcberg with his family at IHRD 2022.

In a statement, AHMA commended the progress made in Australia to ensure that citizens in all territories throughout Australia will, in the future, have the opportunity to visit a Holocaust museum or education centre in their area. In line with this exciting prospect, AHMA also welcomed the recent announcement of funding for a Holocaust museum in Darwin, and celebrated that, with this announcement, the existence of plans to develop centres for Holocaust education in every state and territory.

JHC Museum Director & CEO Jayne Josem at IHRD 2022.

Sydney Jewish Museum CEO Norman Seligman acknowledges that there are many other important organisations and individuals in the community that also dedicate themselves to Holocaust remembrance and education. He looks forward to seeing AHMA work collaboratively with these stakeholders. In this vein, the alliance also intends to become an affiliate of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the roof body of the Australian Jewish community. ECAJ president, Jillian Segal AO, welcomes the establishment of a united museum group, saying, “The ability for our Holocaust museums to unite is a wonderful way to share expertise, maintain the highest quality of education and commemoration across Australia, for the benefit of everyone.”

JHC Co-President Sue Hampel at IHRD 2022.

Tahney Fosdike is the Communications and Marketing Specialist at the JHC.

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Professor Philippe Sands gave the keynote address at the Betty and Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration held in November 2021

Human beings reach a crossroad This is an edited version of his address.

his year is the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg Judgement, a point of recollection and reflection to ask ourselves what has been achieved and what are the challenges. I had no idea when I accepted an invitation to go to the city of Lviv in Ukraine, in the autumn of 2010, what would follow. As many of you know from reading my book East West Street, the invitation was to give a lecture on my work on crimes against humanity and genocide. I had been involved in many cases before international courts and tribunals involving many horrors across the world, but there was also the personal aspect of my mother’s place in the Holocaust and the story of my grandparents. I did not accept that invitation because I had a burning desire to give a lecture, but because I wanted to find my grandfather’s house, the place where he was born in 1904, in a city called Lemberg, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

I found the house and learned more about my grandfather and his story and his identity, and by learning about his identity, I learned a lot more about my identity. It accidentally unleashed a whole tale when I had not been looking for any discoveries. I uncovered the fact that the man who invented the concept of crimes against humanity, which is intended to protect individuals, and the man who invented the concept of genocide, the protection of groups, both came from the city of Lemberg (now Lviv, but Lwow when it was under Polish rule). Hersch Lauterpacht would go on to be professor of international law at Cambridge University, a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trial and a judge at the International Court of Justice. Raphael Lemkin had started off life as a criminal prosecutor and he, too, helped in the prosecution at Nuremberg.

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The Buchholz family, circa 1913.

In the course of that trial, they learned that Hans Frank, the man they were prosecuting who had been Adolf Hitler’s personal lawyer and who, in 1939 became Governor General of Nazi occupied Poland, was actually responsible for the murder of their entire families. That is a huge thing. I do cases before international courts and tribunals, and I cannot imagine what it is like to learn that the man who sits just a few feet in front of you, Hans Frank in this case, was responsible for the killing of your entire family. Lauterpacht in Cambridge Garden, 1945.

One of the things I discovered in writing East West Street, beyond the significant role played by the three main men in the book— Hersch Lauterpacht, Raphael Lemkin and Hans Frank, but also the story of my grandfather—was the vital difference that individuals can make. When human beings reach a crossroad, they can do the right thing, they can do the wrong thing, or they can do nothing. There are those who reach such a crossroad and do the right thing, even if it comes at a very great price, and even if the sacrifice they might make is liable to be the ultimate sacrifice. One such person is the remarkable Elsie Tilney. In 2010, when I was looking for the address of my grandfather’s house, Elsie Tilney appeared in his papers. A tiny scrap of paper just said ‘Miss E.M. Tilney, Menuca, Bluebell Road, Norwich, Angleterre’. I learned that Elsie Tilney was an evangelical Christian missionary who came from Norwich. In early 1939, she happened to be in Paris where she happened to meet my grandfather who told her that he had a daughter less than a year old living in Vienna who needed to be brought to safety. And Ms Tilney travelled by train to Vienna and carried back a one-year-old infant to Paris and safety. If Elsie Tilney had not done what she had done, I would not be here today. Who knows how I would react to Elsie Tilney if I met her in the street? She never told a single person all the extraordinary things she did during that terrible conflict, but I owe my existence to her, and I am intensely grateful for that, and it has caused me to reflect on those individuals who do absolutely remarkable things.

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In writing East West Street I have come to know the son of Hans Frank, Niklas Frank, a distinguished journalist who has become a good friend. It is remarkable to imagine that the son of a man hanged at Nuremberg 75 years ago for the greatest crimes imaginable should become the friend of the grandson of one of his father’s victims, but that is what has happened.

1942, when Heinrich Himmler travelled to Lemberg to ask Wachter whether he wanted to remain in District Galicia or return to a desk job in Vienna, Wachter chose to stay and see this through. There is evidence to show how efficiently he did his work and how pleased Heinrich Himmler was with it. After the war, Otto Wachter was indicted for mass murder but, unlike Niklas Frank, he disappeared.

One day Niklas asked me if I would like to meet Horst Wachter. Horst’s father, Otto Wachter, had been the governor of Lemberg in 1942 when the Final Solution was implemented in District Galicia, of which Lemberg was the capital.

Horst had a vast family archive of 10,000 pages of letters, dairies, images, scrapbooks and photographs that I convinced him to donate to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. When he offered me a digitised copy, I was unable to resist and, together with a team of researchers, I spent four years deciphering their remarkable contents. With these documents, I was able to uncover that Otto Wachter had hidden in the Austrian mountains after the war, not so far from Salzburg, where his wife Charlotte lived. For three years, Charlotte helped him to survive by supplying him with clothing, newspapers, food and skis every two or three weeks. During this time, Otto Wachter was not alone, but was in hiding with a young Waffen-SS soldier called Burkhardt Rathmann. When I questioned Horst in 2017, I found that Burkhardt Rathmann was still alive and I had the opportunity to visit him. Burkhardt Rathmann imposed a condition that I must ask no question about anything that happened before 9 May 1945, as he had been in a Waffen-SS division which had committed the most terrible of atrocities and was worried about what would happen to him. At this remarkable meeting I learned that Otto Wachter had wanted to make his way out of Europe, along ‘The Ratline’ to South America, to Argentina, like Mengele, Eichmann, Priebke, Klaus Barbie and so many others. And hence I stumbled into a book that became The Ratline. In a way, The Ratline is a counterpoint to East West Street. Although there is quite a lot of overlap, I wrote it because it raises the question: Why do decent, honourable, educated, religious, intelligent, cultured human beings get involved in the most terrible things? And that is an issue for our day with the rise of nationalism, xenophobia, and populism.

Leon school card, 1915.

In 2012, Niklas and I travelled to Hagenberg, Austria, a tiny village, where we met this remarkable man in his extraordinary home, a dilapidated 15th century castle. Horst lives in real poverty. Only two or three of his hundred rooms were habitable or heated, and it was bitterly cold that first time that I met him. Niklas bears the burden of having a father who murdered four million people and was convicted and hanged, and he despises his father. Horst is different and looks for the good in his father. And so began an adventure, an exercise, an uncovering of another family and The Ratline is what emerged. Contrary to Horst’s belief, Otto Wachter was not a decent man. In 1938, he was charged with removing all Jews from public office and in 1939 he was appointed as governor of Krakow. He built the Krakow Ghetto and, in 1942, he was posted to District Galicia where he oversaw the implementation of the Final Solution. In August

Ultimately, when good things and terrible things happen it is individuals who are at the heart of it, and we need to understand those individuals. I am, of course, deeply concerned about victims, but ultimately if we want to stop these horrors from happening we need to understand the perpetrators, and The Ratline explores how ordinary folk get involved in mass murder. At the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Nuremberg trial in 2020, I met the president of Germany, Walter Steinmeier, and we talked about the disappearing voices of those who are able to speak firsthand about what happened. That remarkable and important generation will very soon no longer be with us and one motivation for my work is to keep the flame alive, to recapture the stories and to pass them on to future generations. With the disappearance of those voices, it becomes all the more important to record them.

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be accompanied by a whole raft of other actions—diplomatic, political, cultural— and it needs, of course, political will, but what the law can do is affect a change in consciousness. I became very aware of that when I met Thomas Buergenthal a few days before a case in The Hague in which I was acting for The Gambia against Myanmar in relation to the mistreatment of the Rohingya.

Doctors’ trial, Nuremberg, 1946-1947.

There are four international crimes that have been on our statute books since 1945, war crimes, which were invented in the 19th century—crimes committed during the conduct of war or armed conflict—and three invented in the Nuremberg context: the crime of aggression—waging illegal war—crimes against humanity— killing or harming large numbers of individuals—and the crime of genocide, which concerns the destruction of groups. These four crimes focus, very understandably, on the protection of individuals, of human beings, and of groups of human beings. They do not, however, cover the protection of our natural environment, which is why recently I have been working with an international working group to come up with a definition of a fifth crime— ecocide—the destruction of our natural environment. As we were doing our work, I thought back to Lauterpacht and Lemkin. In 1944 and 1945, as the war was going on, these two remarkable human beings, instead of curling up and weeping, decided to take the power of ideas and create two new international crimes: crimes against humanity and genocide. Many people laughed at them. Many people said to Raphael Lemkin that his new idea of a crime of genocide was hopeless, but he persisted, and it was included in the indictment of the Nuremberg trial. When the judgement failed to mention the word genocide, again, he picked himself up and spent the next three years drafting and lobbying for the adoption of the world’s first multilateral human rights treaty, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, signed in Paris in December 1948, a day before the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which was an idea of Hersch Lauterpacht’s. Again, individuals make a difference. Why did I get involved in this? Apart from teaching international environmental law, I have children who are extremely concerned about climate change. Like Lauterpacht and Lemkin, I do not believe that the law itself can ever solve a particular problem. It needs to

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A former American judge at the International Court of Justice and a child survivor of Auschwitz, he noted that it was remarkable that my case was to be based on Lemkin’s ‘Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide’. And that is the huge change that has taken place since the Second World War. Our world may not be perfect, but there are now international standards which say that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable and that you have to protect the dignity of human beings and the rights of individuals and of groups.

Out of the terrible events of 1933 to 1945, there can be positive developments. As the singer and poet Leonard Cohen put it, ‘There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. In these difficult times of COVID-19, climate change, rising populism, nationalism, and fascism, it is possible to imagine a different path. Each of us can make a difference and put our energies into a tiny but positive thing to make a real difference. The world is not perfect, but it is a better world than it was 75 years ago. We have principles and standards and rights that did not exist before. They have not ended the horrors, but they have allowed us to say, at least with some degree of objectivity: no, you cannot treat people that way, you cannot treat individuals that way, you cannot treat groups that way. Nuremberg, for me, is about a fundamental principle. We are all in this together. No person is above the law. Let us protect the values we care about, protect our institutions and fight for the idea of the rule of law, because it is the only language that each of us has and shares.

Professor Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Law at University College London and a practising barrister at Matrix Chambers. He is also an award-winning author of The Ratline (2020), East West Street (2016), Torture Team (2008) and Lawless World (2005), and contributor to the New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, the Financial Times and The Guardian.

David and Tauba Opat

Judy Sher & Dr Anna Hirsh

Wedding celebration for Duwid Opoczynski and Tobka Wojnsztajn, Pabianice, Poland, 1939.

collection that came into the JHC a few months ago contains photographs and documents belonging to Holocaust survivors, Tauba (known as Tobka or Toni) and David Opat. Judy Sher donated her parents’ historical items that had been carefully kept for decades after the war ended, and these items tell us a heartbreaking narrative. This may demonstrate the vagaries of fate, but more troubling is the consideration that events were caused by heavily restricted visas – including by Australia – that fatally prevented Jews from migrating to safety. In January 1939, Tobka Wojnsztajn married Duwid Opoczynski, in Pabianice, Poland. Pabianice, located 15km from Lodz, was an industrial town with paper mills, textile production and chemical factories. There were around 13,000 Jews in the town’s population of 68,000. Soon after the wedding celebration, Duwid, his mother Shprynza, his father Laizer Mayer, younger brother Ben and brotherin-law Jakow Warszawski left for Melbourne, where other family members had migrated some years earlier. The intention was to set up home and work, and then bring out the rest of the family. When war erupted a few months later in September, leaving Poland became nearly impossible. Tobka, who was around 20 years old, and many members of the Opoczynski and Wojnsztajn family were trapped. In February 1940, Tobka was forced into the Pabianice ghetto. She was relocated to the Lodz ghetto on 15 May 1942; in May 1944 she was deported briefly to Auschwitz, and then transported to the notoriously harsh conditions of Stutthof concentration camp, in the north of Poland near the Baltic Sea. After two and a half months in Stutthof, Tobka was sent to a concentration camp in Dresden, part of the Flossenburg sub-camp system, where she was set to work as a forced labourer in a munitions factory. She arrived in a second Flossenburg camp, Zwodau (or Svatava) in Czechoslovakia near the German border on 13 February 1945, the day that Dresden was carpet bombed. From here, Tobka was moved onto Theresienstadt concentration camp. Then, as the

Soviets advanced, Tobka, with a group of other female prisoners, were sent on a death march. Tobka was likely with her cousin Idit Schinicka. Tobka’s daughter Judy Sher wrote: “my research suggests that on 20 January 1945, my mother and other mostly female prisoners were incorporated into a Death March that originated in Upper Silesia and ended on 5 May 1945 in Volary, Southern Bohemia ... of the approximately 1350 women who marched, only 118 survived.” After liberation, Tobka worked on a farm and regained some strength. From there she and Idit went to Modena in Italy, and stayed for 18 months. Duwid, now called David, finally discovered his wife was alive. From Italy, the cousins went to Cairo, Egypt on their journey to Australia, assisted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. A marconigram dated 13 September 1946 reads “Cable received will be waiting for you. David.” The couple reunited soon after. Tobka and David created their family with two beloved daughters, Fran, born in 1949, and Judy, in 1952. Often, the end of this narrative is framed as: survivors came to Melbourne to start their new lives, joyful to be in a democratic country far from the troubles of Europe. Unfortunately, the death toll from the Holocaust does not include those whose health was severely and irreparably damaged from years of deprivations, starvation and torture. Cousin Idit married in 1947 but died from breast cancer only six months later in February 1948. Tragically, Tobka didn’t enjoy her freedom and family for long. She became very sick, and passed away in 1958 at the young age of 38 years old.

Judy Sher is the younger daughter of Tobka and David Opat. She and her sister Fran live in Melbourne. They have 5 children between them and numerous grandchildren. Dr Anna Hirsh is Manager of Collections & Research at the JHC. If you have material to donate to the JHC Collection phone (03) 9528 1985 or email collections@jhc.org.au

JHC Centre News

Many thanks Jewish Holocaust Centre and Jewish Holocaust Centre Foundation supporters Our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all our donors and funders – your support continues to allow us to preserve Holocaust memory and teach the important lessons of the Holocaust. Below are donors of $500 and above from January to December 2021. Dion & Sandy Abrahams Norman Abrams Roseanne Amarant Jeffrey Appel OAM & Sue Appel David Bardas AO Andrew & Natalie Bassat Paul & Sharon Bassat Robert Bassat & Nina Bassat AM Tony & Kate Beaconsfield Judy Becher Shilo Ben Zeev & Tamar Paluch Ben Zeev Simon Benjamin Garry & Sigalit Berkovic Sam Berkovic AC & Helen Berkovic Miriam Berman Besen Family Foundation Greg Blashki OAM & Julie Blashki Barry & Lorraine Bloom Norman & Pauline Bloom Joey Borensztajn AM & Julie Borensztajn Philip Brass & Vivien Brass OAM Evelyn Bresner Allen & Marika Brostek Rodney & Vanessa Brott Trevor Brott Hymie & Eva Bugalski Isaac & Marilyn Bugalski Tania Burstin Barry & Suzi Carp Bernard & Helen Carp Michael & Emma Carp George & Freda Castan Richard & Sue Castan Paul Chalmers Jack & Anna Chrapot Trevor Cohen AM & Heather Cohen Emanuel Datt Sid & Elaine Davidoff Ian & Yvonne Davis Jamie & Robyn Davis Peter & Kim de Winter

JHC Centre News

Shirley de Winter Simon & Lisa de Winter Wolf & Asya Deane Michael Debinski OAM Ron & Judy Dodge Gavin & Samantha Dunhill Tim Edmunds Jack Ekstein The Les & Eva Erdi Foundation Shaun & Michelle Factor David & Vanessa Fajnkind Sue Fajnkind Bill Fayman & Susan Glass Ian & Yvonne Fayman Marvin & Barbara Fayman Raffi & Rosalie Feldman The Leo & Mina Fink Fund Alan Finkel AC & Elizabeth Finkel AM Ron Finkel AM & Dalia Finkel Joe & Glenda Flinkier Ronit Fraid Joel & Agnes Freeman Alex Freiberg Charles Friedlaender Jack & Evelyn Gance Mark & Judy Gandur Ian & Rita Gelbart Harry & Helen Gelber Jono & Kelly Gelfand Zita Gersh Jacob & Gita Ginger Fred & Robyn Ginsburg Leigh & Yvonne Goldbloom Leon Goldman z”l Graham Goldsmith AO & Deborah Goldsmith Alan Goldstone OAM & Pam Goldstone Hannah Goldstone Colin Golvan AM & Debbie Golvan Tom & Jenny Gorog Jack Gringlas OAM & Dianne Gringlas Robert & Pauline Grodski

Allan Grosman & Vicki Davis Phillip & Pauline Grosman Louis & Marilyn Gross Simon & Bella Gurevich S & D Hain Foundation Bernie & Melma Hamersfeld Alex Hampel & Sue Hampel OAM Robert & Betty Hanner Lawrence & Gene Harris Gary & Sue Hearst Michael & Kylie Heine Josef Hellen z”l Henry & Cecilia Foundation Anna Hirsh Charles Holckner OAM Sam & Jacky Hupert Judy Ifergan Paul Ivany & Susie Ivany OAM Barbara Jacob Tom Jacob OAM & Issy Jacob Jennifer Jedwab Vernon & Sandra Jedwab Michael & Danielle Jelinek Jetmaster (VIC) Jayne Josem Benjamin & Sharona Jotkowitz Charles Justin AM & Leah Justin Rodney & Suzanne Kagan Danielle, Joel & Ben Kaufman Ashley Kausman & Lisa Mann Andrew Kaye AM & Judy Kaye Irvin Kaye Joe Kay AM & Yvonne Kay Robert & Ruth Kaye Jared Keen Paul & Emi Keen Leonard & Yael Kipen Michael & Esther Kister Arthur & Marianne Klepfisz Ken & Carol Klooger David & Bindy Koadlow Steven Kolt & Frances Prince Bernard & Margaret Korman Larry Kornhauser OAM Alan & Roxanne Kozica Wendy Kozica Joe Krampel AM & Marcia Krampel Ben & Cassie Krasnostein Dan & Lara Krasnostein Dinah Krongold Tom & Lorelle Krulis Barry & Barbara Landau Sally Landman Julie Landvogt Minette Lang Henry Lanzer AM & Janette Lanzer Eva Lawrence Silvana Layton Jonathan & Terri Lazarus Leibovich Foundation Michael Levick Mark & Anna Levin Barry & Estelle Levy Graeme & Mina Levy

Rosie Lew AM Bori & Helen Liberman Helen Light Justin Lipson Michael Ludski Howard Machlin Karin MacNab Arnold & Dani Mahemoff Jeffrey Mahemoff AO & Helen Mahemoff OAM Joel & Neda Mahemoff Phillip Maisel OAM Bernie & Joyce Marks & Danielle Davis Sandra Masel Annica Matsson Joe & Gisella Mel Jamie & Elana Melzak Margot Melzak OAM Alan and Rochelle Mendel Debora Mendelson Adam Micmacher Henry Miller & Natalie Miller AO Amelia Mitchell Simon Mochkin Henry & Roslyn Monkus Mark & Den Montag Samantha Mordech Mark Moshinsky & Sidra Kranz Moshinsky Dennis & Fairlie Nassau The Albert & Lena Newmann Memorial Trust Leonie Nossbaum Robert & Debbie Nossbaum Barry Novy OAM & Sue Selwyn Luba Olenski Michael & Debra Olenski Raymond & MaryLou Orloff Avi Paluch Sam Parasol OAM & Ruth Parasol Gerald & Lil Pearce Anton Peleg Pincus Family Foundation Norman Pollack JP Jeanne Pratt AC PSN Family Charitable Trust Ian & Sandy Raizon Andrew Rajcher Michael & Judy Raleigh Vaughan & Melanie Raleigh Judy Rassaby Deborah Reed Alan Reid & Elly Brooks Allan & Janet Reid Ralph & Ruth Renard Pauline Rockman OAM John Rogers AM & Margot Rogers Myron & Jennie Rogers Richard Rogers & Roslyn Rogers OAM Annie Rose & Andrew Lazar Foundation Marcus & Eva Rose

Tom & Judy Rose Jack & Annette Rosen Harry & Viv Rosenberg Julian & Vivien Rosenfeld Greg & Ann Rosshandler Mourice & Ruth Rostkier Michael & Hannah Roth Warren Rozen Henry & Janette Rubin Ron & Cynthia Salter Ronald & Kay Schweitzer Sam & Judy Seigel Leon Serry AM & Viv Serry Greg Shalit & Miriam Faine Lorraine Shapiro James & Leanne Shaw Arnold Shmerling OAM & Lane Shmerling OAM Jack & Lesley Silberscher Barry Singer & Simone Szalmuk-Singer Stephen & Sharron Singer David & Tammie Slade Graham Slade AM & Mary Slade Laurence & Lana Slomoi Michael & Sue Small David Smorgon OAM & Kathie Smorgon The Jack and Robert Smorgon Families Foundation Rodney & Ann Smorgon The Victor Smorgon Charitable Fund Ross & Karen Snow Helen Sokolski David Southwick MP & Hayley Southwick Graeme Southwick OAM & Suzanne Southwick Spotlight Foundation Bernie Stone Halina Strnad John & Irene Sutton Theo & Shirley Sweet Geoff Szalmuk Stephen & Debbie Szental Joe Tigel & Sharon Goldfeld Frank Tisher OAM & Miriam Tisher Dan Wald Max Wald OAM & Pebby Wald Victor Wayne & Karen Wayne OAM Sam Webb Bradley & Tami Wein Vivien Wertkin & Harry Hakman David & Alison Wiesenfeld Dennis & Tauba Wilson Colin & Roe Wise Jeffrey Wolinski Anne Wollach-Szalmuk Abe & Marlene Zelwer Braham & Andrea Zilberman Leon & Miriam Zimmet Halina Zylberman

Grants Helen Macpherson Smith Trust: Department of Education & Training: Gandel Foundation:

Monitoring & Evaluation Framework Teacher Professional Learning Program Teacher Professional Learning Program Hide and Seek Education Program Dept of Families, Fairness & Housing: Subsidised workshops for disadvantaged schools National Library of Australia: Digitisation of survivor testimonies The Orah Fund: Collections Internship Dept of Families, Fairness & Housing (Multicultural Affairs): International Holocaust Remembrance Day event 2022

Simcha donations Gita Ginger Kathy Janovic Issy Prince Eva Rose Giselle Trower

70th Birthday 70th Birthday 70th Birthday 70th Birthday Birthday

Dean & Gideon Banky Raph Casper Hugo Krasnostein Oliver Rose

We apologise if your name has been omitted. Please contact the Jewish Holocaust Centre on (03) 9598 1825 or admin@jhc.org.au with your details for inclusion in the next listing.

Become a Partner in Remembrance The Jewish Holocaust Centre Foundation ensures the continued existence of the Centre and supports its important work. Funds raised through the Foundation are invested, with the earnings providing an ongoing source of income for the Centre to support its operations and programs into the future. For more information on how you can help support the Foundation and how your support will be recognised, contact us on: on 0417 323 595 or jhcfoundation@bigpond.com

Phillip Maisel Testimonies Project The Jewish Holocaust Centre has over 1,300 video testimonies as well as over 200 audio testimonies in its collection. These provide eyewitness accounts of the horrors of the Holocaust, as well as glimpses into the vibrancy of pre-war Jewish life in Europe. The collection is widely used by researchers and students of oral history, the Holocaust and a variety of other disciplines. If you would like to give your testimony or know of someone who is interested in giving a testimony, contact testimonies@jhc.org.au

JHC Centre News

The following Bnei Mitzvah decided to request donations to the JHC in lieu of gifts. The JHC thanks all our simcha donors and recognises their contribution to keeping the voices of Holocaust survivors alive for generations to come.

Dean and Gideon Banky

Oliver Rose

Double the Mitzvah D

ean and Gideon Banky, identical twins born in Melbourne, recently celebrated their Bar Mitzvah with family and friends. The Bar Mitzvah celebrations started with a call up at Elwood Shule. Thankfully COVID-19 restrictions had eased but unfortunately some family members could not attend. Being twins, they split reading from the Torah and one read the Maftir and Haftorah. The party for family and close friends was held at the Port Melbourne Yacht Club. It was an amazing night with dinner, entertainment for kids and a band that had everyone dancing. They chose to support the JHC in lieu of gifts for their Bar Mitzvah because they understand the importance of continuing to educate their generation and future generations about the Holocaust, so that it is never forgotten. Having the JHC preserve the memories and stories of our people and families that perished, helps to bring awareness to both Jews and the general community so that it never happens again. They grew up hearing stories of survival, as well as what it was like for their grandparents being children of Holocaust survivors growing up in a new country. They will have the opportunity to learn more this year when they complete their Roots project.

Remembering the Past O

liver Rose had his Bar Mitzvah last year and, being in Year 7 at the time, had only learnt bits and pieces about the Holocaust at school. His knowledge and connection to the Holocaust has come from being fortunate to have grown up (until recently) with 3 great grandparents who were all Holocaust survivors. After each of his great grandparents sadly passed away, he learnt more about their stories of survival and how lucky he is to be here. The Bar Mitzvah was held during the only weekend between lockdown 5 and 6. Oliver felt blessed, as if his great-grandfather Zaida Dolek was watching over him. He was a Holocaust survivor, and a religious and traditional man who instilled the importance of tradition in their family. He would have wanted his first greatgrandson to have been called to the Torah at the bimah on the day of his Bar Mitzvah – instead of reading to tiny boxes from home on Zoom. During his participation in interschool sports, Oliver felt a sense of antisemitism on the rise. With the loss of the great grandparents’ generation as the primary source of evidence, it is more important than ever to educate other communities on the atrocities of the Holocaust so that it doesn’t happen again.

If you have a simcha coming up and would like to donate to the JHC in lieu of gifts, please contact fundraising@jhc.org.au

JHC Centre News

Estate gifts We acknowledge the Jewish Holocaust Centre and Foundation bequestors for their generosity and vision. May their memory be a blessing. Abraham Benedykt Abram Malewiak Albert & Lena Newmann Anna Mass Anonymous Arnold Hacker Basia Kane Bencjan Rozencwajg Berta Strom Bertha Fekete Bessie Heiman Betty & Rose Rosalky Betty Janover Cecilia Freshman Chaim & Malka Brown Foundation Chaim Feldman Charlotte Lesser Chaskiel Gliksman Chaya Ziskind Claire Weis

Don & Sonia Marejn Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE Edith Peer Elizabeth Peer Elza Bernst Emanuel Wajnblum Erika Bence Esther Poelman Eugene Hacker Fania Gitein Geoffrey Tozer Georgette Steinic Gerda Rogers Gitla Borenstein Hadasa Rosenbaum Hana Uberbayn Helen Sharp Henrietta (Kitia) Altman Irene & Ignacy Rozental Ivor Leiser Izabella Krol

Jack & Ethel Goldin Foundation Jakob Frenkiel Janina Marcus Jenny Chaenkel John Fox Josef Tyler Joseph Schauf-Dauber Julek & Ada Lipski Kalman & Elka Bajla Parasol Kathe Weisselberg Kurt Lewinski Leslie Klemke Leslie Sandy Lilian Renard Lola Kiven Ludvik Weisz Ludwik & Rita Winfield Magda Horvat Majer (Kopl) Ceprow Marianne Singer Marianne Schwarz Mary Starr Mendel Herszfeld Nona Lee Oskar & Lisa Sokolski Otto Shelton Paul Gere Pearl & Maurice Lubansky

Peter Boss Pinek Krystal Pinkus Wiener Raymond Harry Schiller Regina Aldelfang Richard Charlupski Rita Greiner Rivka Knox Romana Frey Ruth Leiser Sabine Jakubowicz Sam Granek Samuel Gnieslaw Samuel Wolf Stopnik Sara Frucht Sara Liebman Sara Smuzyk Shmuel Rosenkranz Sofia Zitron Sonia Mrocki Sonia Sochodolski Susan Blatman Szmul Rostkier Thea Kimla Victor Muntz Walter Geismar Wilhelm Lermer

Mazal tov Birthdays To John Chaskiel OAM on his 92nd birthday To Henri Korn on his 92nd birthday To Abe Goldberg OAM on his 97th birthday To Henry Buch on his 80th birthday To Joe De Haan on his 99th birthday To Lusia Haberfeld on her 90th birthday To Paul Grinwald on his 89th birthday To Guta Goldstein on her 92nd birthday To Kathy Janovic on her 70th birthday To Gita Ginger on her 70th birthday

Births To Joe Szwarcberg on the birth of his grandson Kaden Avrahami To Kathy Janovic on the birth of her grandson Ollie Alexander Janovic To John Lamovie & Sue Snyder on the birth of their great-grandchild, Perla Basia Jedwab

Marriages

Bar/Bat Mitzvah To Mary & Peter Stawski on their grandson Sean’s Bar Mitzvah To Jeanine & Abe Rockawin on their grandson Benjamin Levy’s Bar Mitzvah To Helen & Jeffrey Mahemoff on their grandson Asher’s Bar Mitzvah To Phil & Sue Lewis on their grandson Marley’s Bar Mitzvah To Tova Rubinstein on her grandson Eitan’s Bar Mitzvah To Natalie & Simon Szwarc on their son Ariel’s Bar Mitzvah

Condolences To Joe Szwarcberg and family on the passing of his wife Judy To Rena Urbach on the passing of her mother Eva To Anita Frayman on the passing of her mother-in-law Gizella Frayman To Katy Meltzer on the passing of her mother Vera Dorevitch To Ruth Mushin on the passing of her husband Sam To the family of Ivan Jarny on his passing To the family of Sue Wright on her passing To the family of David Prince on his passing

To Susan Glass on the marriage of her son Asher to Katya To Julie Cohen on her granddaughter’s engagement To Guta Goldstein on the marriage of her granddaughter Yardena Prawer to Samuel Belmonte To Sue and Alex Hampel on the marriage of their son Dean to Gabriel

JHC Centre News

IN MEMORY OF

Ivan Jarny (1924 — 2021) Peter Jarny

ur museum community is saddened by the recent passing of Holocaust survivor Ivan Jarny. He devoted many years to educating school students and adults in our museum. Ivan was born in the small town of Spišská Nová Ves in Czechoslovakia in 1924. By 1938, the Germans annexed Czechoslovakia and their imposing of 250 anti-Jewish laws changed his life. Although the Nazis forced Ivan to leave school, his friend helped him gain employment in a leather goods company making saddles for the Germans, which protected him from deportation. As conditions worsened for the Jews, Ivan decided it was no longer safe for his family to live in the town. He and his friend sought shelter for themselves and their families in the nearby snowy mountains and eventually found a cave for his family, where they hid in damp conditions with little food and no heat. One day, Ivan came across two Russians hiding in the forest, planning an uprising against the Germans. Ivan joined them, and together with several Ivan Jarny as a child, and above, as an adult. Courtesy of Ivan Jarny.

Ivan, then 95 years old, with Glen Eira City councillors after clearly and powerfully recounting his incredible story of survival in 2019.

other Slovak Jews, formed a partisan group that participated in skirmishes and attacks on German outposts. Ivan was fluent in several languages, including French and Russian. For most of the last few months of the war, he relayed messages between a small company of French soldiers who were encamped on one hilltop, and the Russian army, encamped on a nearby hilltop, with the Germans nestled between the two. During this time, German soldiers captured his mother and sister, Erica, when they attempted to hide in a nearby village after believing it was safe for them to leave the cave. They were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Ivan remained with the Russian army until after the war and was reunited with his sister but tragically discovered his mother was murdered in Ravensbrück. Ivan came to Australia in 1949 with his new wife, Julie. He began volunteering with the JHC in 2017, and will be fondly remembered for his ability to leave audiences captivated by his eloquent stories of survival and bravery in the midst of tyranny. His story-telling and voice will continue to have an impact on many, and will not be forgotten.

At the time of his passing in December 2021, Ivan was survived by his daughter Vivienne, his son Peter, 4 grandchildren and 6 greatgrandchildren. His wife of 67 years Julie, passed away in 2016. His sister Erika, who survived Ravensbrück concentration camp passed away in 2013. If you wish to learn more about Ivan’s survival during the war, look him up on YouTube, where he appears in several interviews.

JHC Centre News

IN MEMORY OF

Susanne Wright (1930 — 2022) Eileen Wright

usanne Maria Friedländer was born in Vienna in 1930 to Gertrude (Trude) and Peter Friedländer. Trude was Catholic and Peter was from an ‘assimilated’ Jewish family. Susanne was brought up Catholic and the Jewishness of her father had no impact on the family until the Anschluss in 1938 after which all family possessions that Trude could not prove were hers, were confiscated by the Nazi authorities. Susanne was classed as a Mischling First Degree – having two Jewish grandparents. She was unable to attend high school and experienced ostracism, hurtful taunts and rejection from neighbours and former friends. Her memories of this time were of fear and confusion. Trude tried to protect her, advising her to never cause trouble, always be polite and not react in difficult situations. She also took Susanne out walking in the Vienna woods to provide relief from the traumas of the Nazi period. This had a profound impact on Susanne in developing a love of nature and the freedom of mountains. In 1942 Susanne’s father Peter was transported to Izbica Ghetto in Poland. Trude went to the Gestapo to enquire about him and told bluntly to go away ‘or we will arrest you too’. That same terrible year, Peter’s twin brother Paul was sent to Auschwitz and younger brother Alexander to Minsk, where he was killed in a mass shooting. In 1943 Susanne’s maternal grandfather, Rudolf Kroneg, a Catholic, was transported to Auschwitz for assisting Jewish people fleeing Austria. After the war ended, Susanne attended a movie where she saw a newsreel showing bulldozers pushing bodies into a pit. She believed it was at this point that she shut down and repressed her feelings – the thought that it could have been her father, uncles or grandfather in that pile of bodies was too much for her. Susanne completed school and entered university, obtaining a degree and a doctorate in Agricultural Science. Throughout her university education, Susanne made many friends, some of whom were former soldiers and SS officers. No one spoke about the war and Susanne did not speak of her family’s experiences.

Susanne 2003.

Susanne travelled to the USA for post-doctoral research and there she met Harry Wright. In 1958, they married in California, at the home of her father’s sister, Betty, the sole surviving Friedländer sibling. Sue and Harry moved to Scotland, England and New Zealand before settling in Melbourne in 1968. Susanne taught high school biology for many years, then moved into teacher education and curriculum development, finally lecturing in Health Education at the University of Melbourne. Susanne first visited the Jewish Holocaust Centre in 1999. The survivor guides Sarah, Zosia and Fryda were warm and welcoming, however Susanne only managed 10 minutes before she was in tears and had to leave. She eventually joined the Child Survivors group and, despite struggling with feelings of not belonging, she persevered, and the members made her understand that they didn’t look at difference, but at what they shared – a fractured childhood. Susanne put her skills to use, developing programmes for the education department and went on to write a book about her childhood experiences; A Ballad by Johannes Brahms. This was a deeply cathartic experience for her. The Jewish Holocaust Centre was very important to my mother. It was a place where she felt accepted, understood and useful. My deepest respect goes to the founders of the JHC, who knew that a place like this needed to exist. Thank you to all those who accepted and befriended Susanne and who helped with her healing.

Susanne and her father Peter c1937.

Susanne c1951 in the Austrian countryside.

Eileen Wright is Susanne’s daughter. She worked at JHC on numerous special projects, including initiating and producing the Eyewitness film series.

JHC Centre News

Learning from the past Elizabeth Crozier

Elizabeth (Libby) Crozier, a former hospital social worker, became interested in the Holocaust after meeting many survivors who were patients. This experience led her to study history at Monash University and, in 2021, she commenced a Masters in History at the University of Paris focusing her thesis on the Holocaust and survivors who came to Australia. We invited her to share her connection with the JHC, and passion for Holocaust knowledge and awareness.

first met Holocaust survivors as a young hospital social worker in an area with a large Jewish community, and later, as a case manager when I supported more survivors at home. It was a privilege to hear their testimonies as many of these survivors, some in their mid-90s at the time, would no longer be with us. I returned to university to study history at Monash, where I was inspired by the teaching of Sue Hampel and the guest lectures of acclaimed Holocaust Historian Professor Christopher Browning. I first visited the Jewish Holocaust Centre in early 2019. Holocaust survivor Lusia Haberfeld was talking to school children. I was moved by her story of survival. Lusia survived the Warsaw Ghetto, Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen Belsen. She never forgot her father telling her about doing exactly the opposite of what the Germans told her to do, which saved her on multiple occasions. Lusia spoke of the brave Jewish people who led uprisings. She showed her tattoo given on her arrival at Auschwitz. She mentioned she spoke weekly out of love for her little brother, father and extended family who were all murdered, driven by a need to educate younger generations not to hate.

Lusia Haberfeld Front cover of Lauferin The Runner of Birkenau.

“If you meet a Holocaust denier, look back on this day and tell them you met someone who was there.” – Lusia Haberfeld I spoke with Lusia, who signed a copy of her book Lauferin The Runner of Birkenau. I mentioned my grandfather was in the British Army and gave me a hug saying how she remembers the British soldiers liberating Bergen-Belsen. After this experience, I visited the JHC library often. Julia Reichstein was always very helpful finding material for my research. These experiences inspired me to commence a Masters in History at the University of Paris in France. My research focuses on Polish Jewish survivors with a connection to Australia. Most academic staff had not met an Australian student before and discussing the Jewish survivor community in Melbourne and the resources available fascinated them.

Statue of Alfred Dreyfus at The Museum of Jewish Art and History, Paris.

JHC Centre News

My French friends have said they studied the world wars in depth at school. The Holocaust was not part of my school curriculum. I know that both my high schools now visit the JHC – I am happy about this change. Education about the Holocaust, particularly for younger people, are steps in ensuring this never happens again.

School visits and virtual workshops 2021

JHC continued to reach schools throughout the pandemic. Some came to us and did our In Touch with Memory program, some were outreach programs, where we went to them, and some schools did online virtual workshops. Aitken College Alamanda K-9 College Alexandra Secondary College Alice Miller School Alkira Secondary College Alphington Grammar Altona College Ashwood High School Auburn High School Ballarat High School Balwyn High School Beaconhills College (Berwick) Beaumaris Secondary College Benalla P-12 College Berwick College Bialik College Billanook College Boort District School Braybrook College Bright P-12 College Brunswick Secondary College Camberwell Girls Grammar School Camberwell High School Camperdown College Carey Baptist Grammar Cathedral College, Wangaratta Catherine McAuley College Catholic College Sale Catholic Regional College Melton Catholic Regional College Sydenham Catholic Regional College, North Keilor Caulfield Grammar Wheelers Hill Chairo Christian School (Pakenham) Cheltenham East Primary School Covenant College Cranbourne Secondary College Derrinallum College

Diamond Valley College Dimboola Memorial Secondary College Donvale Christian College Dromana Secondary College Drouin West Primary School Elisabeth Murdoch College Emerald Secondary College EQDemic FCJ College, Benalla Fountain Gate Secondary College Frankston High School Gardenvale Primary School Gilson College Gladstone Park Secondary College Haileybury College Hampton Park Secondary College Hazel Glen College Heathdale Christian College Heatherton Christian College Heritage College Officer Hillcrest Christian College Hopetoun P-12 College Hoppers Crossing Secondary College Hume Central Secondary College (English Language Centre) Ivanhoe Grammar Kurnai College Lauriston Girls’ School Lavalla Catholic College Lilydale High School Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar Loyola College Mac Robertson Girls’ School MacKillop College Macleod College Marian College, Myrtleford Marist College, Bendigo

Masada College Mazanod College McKinnon Primary School Melbourne Girls College Melbourne Girls’ Grammar Melbourne Montessori School Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School Melton Christian College Mirboo North Secondary College Moama Anglican Grammar Montello Primary School Montmorency Secondary College Mornington Secondary College Mount Erin Secondary College Mount Gravatt High School Mount Ridley College Mountain District Christian School Mt Hira College Keysborough Narre Warren South P-12 College Ne Tracks Ilim Northside Christian College Norwood Secondary College Nossal High School Notre Dame College NT School of Distance Education Our Lady of Mercy College Our Lady of Sion College Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Oxley Christian College Pascoe Vale Girls College Peninsula Grammar Penleigh and Essendon Grammar Princess Hill Secondary College Reservoir High School Rochester Secondary College Rosehill Secondary College Rowville Secondary College Ruyton Girls School Sacre Coeur Sacred Heart College Yarrawonga Scotch College

Seymour College Shepparton ACE College Skillinvest Dandenong St Catherine’s School, Toorak St Francis Xavier College St Francis Xavier College, Beaconsfield St Helena Secondary College St Joseph’s College, Echuca St Joseph’s College, Ferntree Gully St Joseph’s College, Geelong St Leonards College St Margaret’s School and Berwick Grammar St Michael’s Grammar School St Peter’s College Clyde North St Phillip’s Christian College Strathcona Baptist Girls Sunbury College Sunbury Downs Secondary College Sunshine College Tarneit Secondary College The Grange P-12 College The Knox School Tintern Grammar Toorak College Trafalgar Secondary College Trinity Grammar Upper Yarra Secondary College Victorian College of the Arts Wangaratta High School Warragul Regional College Waverley Christian College Williamstown High School Woodleigh School Woori Yallock Primary School Yarra Valley Grammar School Yarram Secondary College Yeshivah College

JHC Centre News

Australia Day Honours List Tahney Fosdike

e are so proud of the depth and diversity of experience and passion our board, survivors, staff and volunteers bring to our mission of Holocaust education, research and remembrance. Congratulations, firstly, to our long term Holocaust survivor volunteer John (Szaja) Chaskiel on being awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). At barely 11 years old, Szaja was sent to Poznan slave labour camp. After 15 months, he escaped, hiding with a priest until he travelled to the Lodz Ghetto. In late summer 1944, Szaja was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and sent on a death march before reaching Buchenwald concentration camp. It was here, at 3:15 pm on 11 April 1945, he was liberated by the United States Armed Forces. John reunited with 65 of the ‘Buchenwald Boys’ liberated that day when they emigrated to Australia in 1950, assisted by the Australian Jewish Welfare Society. He soon found employment and started a family in Melbourne, now three generations strong. The resilience and memory of his peers remain central to his life, as he reconnects with the Buchenwald Boys at their 7-decade ongoing annual Buchenwald Ball.

Michael Debinski OAM with JHC Co-President Pauline Rockman OAM and Board Director Elly Brooks.

We also congratulate the achievement of Michael Debinski OAM on being awarded an Order of Australia Medal and recognised, on a national level, for his contributions to a range of communities. He has accomplished pivotal work in the health and disability sector, including establishing the NDIS in Victoria and serving as President of Jewish Care. Michael Debinski OAM has brought invaluable skill and passion to our museum and the memory of Holocaust survival in Melbourne by serving as our Vice President since 2021 after joining as a board member in 2020. “I am very honoured to be awarded an OAM,” Michael said. “My parents were Holocaust survivors. When they came to Australia, they worked hard to build a new life with a commitment to family, community, and social justice. These commitments have also guided me.”

Holocaust survivor John (Szaja) Chaskiel OAM at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2017.

Over the years, Szaja has been a vocal pillar and advocate for Holocaust education and remembrance. He began volunteering with the JHC in 2001, and two decades later, he continues to share his story of survival. In 2017, he helped create a virtual reality (VR) experience called Walk With Me. The film virtually guides students in connecting history with place as they witness Szaja visiting markers of his story in Poland, Auschwitz, and Melbourne. We nominated Szaja for his dedicated service to our museum community and to celebrate his exceptional spirit following his Holocaust survival.

JHC Centre News

On his involvement with the JHC, he said, “This organisation plays a vital role in telling the stories of survivors who built new lives in Melbourne and teaching new generations about the Holocaust. We do this so the tragedy of the Holocaust is never repeated.” The Order of Australia recognises Australians who have demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievement, with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) awarded for service worthy of particular recognition.

Tahney Fosdike is the Communications and Marketing Specialist at the JHC.

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Contact our Fundraising Team to find out how we can provide you with a personalised fundraising program.

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Image: Melbourne-based Holocaust survivors Sarah and Lewi Saaroni on their wedding day in Israel, 1948. Sarah continues to share her story of the Holocaust with students and the public at the Jewish Holocaust Centre. Image from the JHC Collection.

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Advertise in Centre News ertise If you are looking to adv contact ase ple n, tio sec this in 28 1985 Aviva Weinberg on 95 or avivaw@jhc.org.au

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Support For Holocaust Survivors Jewish Care provides services * A range of services are available including: • Domestic and personal care • Financial assistance • Restitution support *Services funded by the Claims Conference are subject to eligibility criteria. We will help you determine your eligibility for any funded supports.

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JHC Centre News

APRIL 2022

The magazine of the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne, Australia

Yom Hashoah Annual Appeal Now more than ever, we need to remember and share the truth. Help every Victorian child learn the lessons of the Holocaust – lessons still frighteningly relevant today. Donate now to the JHC. Together we can educate against hate.

www.educateagainsthate.org.au A teacher and student light a candle during the In Touch With Memory program, to honour the memory of those murdered in the Holocaust.

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