VOLUME 12 NO 5
OCTOBER 2023
Dear Child Survivors of the Holocaust, We trust that the New Year will bring good health and happiness to you and yours. In some ways the New Year didn’t exactly get off to a good start. The reports of antisemitism despite the best b t efforts ff t off our own community organizations, is once again in the headlines of newspapers and the nightly news. I cannot fully imagine what the sight of neo-Nazis marching in Spring Street must have meant to our Holocaust survivors. We felt it was time CSH as a group had something to say on the subject. We believe that the CSH lived experience is relevant today; child survivors know only too well the potential antisemitism has if left unchecked. Please mark your calendar with: Date: Sunday 26 November Time: 2.30 – 4.30 pm Mirror on the past - Reflections on our future. Antisemitism, 2023. Child survivors and their family and friends are invited to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum to hear Dr Paul Valent, Founding President of the Child Survivors Melbourne Group, Psychiatrist, Traumatologist, Author; will share his thoughts on antisemitism. He will be joined
by panelists: Gary Fabian OAM, Child Survivor, Holocaust educator Germany; Lisa Lewis, Volunteer Relationships Manager, Courage to Care, educates against prejudice, racism and discrimination; and Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann Ark Centre, Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, mission Board Member, advocate against antisemitism. You will all receive an official invitation. With the subject of antisemitism on our minds, Roza Riaikkenen has shared her thoughts on this issue including childhood memories in Lithuania. Gary Fabian has informed us of his thoughts on the current state of antisemitism in Germany after his recent visit. This article provides a valuable insight into the situation from one of our own Child survivors, information we need to be aware of. We have included a heartwarming story about Irena Sendler who saved 2,500 Jewish children and an inspiring story about a hidden child – Tswi Josef Herschel. We trust you enjoy this edition of Connections and we look forward to seeing you at our event, 26 November. Warm regards, Viv Parry and Lena Fiszman Co-Presidents
From Lena’s Desk ‘Hidden child’ Holocaust survivor lives how his father dreamed Hidden child survivor Tswi Josef Herschel was given to a Christian family when he was four months old to escape the Holocaust. Approximately 1.5 million children were murdered in the Holocaust; thousands Tswi Herschel in who survived disappeared into hiding, 1943. (credit: Tswi Herschel) convents, monasteries and Christian and Catholic foster homes. Approximately 1.5 million children were murdered in the Holocaust; thousands who survived disappeared into
convents, monasteries and Christian and Catholic foster homes. “Hidden children” were given up out of love by desperate Jewish parents who wanted their children to survive what they foresaw to be unsurvivable. The children had to change their names, their histories and their religion to blend in, leaving them feeling lost and confused, struggling to make sense out of the fragmented pieces of their lives for years to come. Hidden child survivor Tswi Josef Herschel was given to a Christian family when he was four months old. With International Holocaust Remembrance Day falling today, January 27, he tells the Magazine, “Although I was