April 2012 Jewish Holocaust Centre Record-breaking number of visitors Winner of Museums and Galleries National Award The magazine of the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne, Australia Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. VBH 7236 JHC Board: The Jewish Holocaust Centre is dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews President: Pauline Rockman OAM murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Vice President: Adam Kreuzer Immediate Past President: We consider the finest memorial to all victims of racist policies to be an educational Shmuel Rosenkranz program which aims to combat antisemitism, racism and prejudice in the Secretary: Elly Brooks community and fosters understanding between people. Treasurer: David Cohen Public Officer: Helen Mahemoff Members: Allen Brostek, Alex Dafner, Abram Goldberg, Sue Hampel, Paul Kegen, Henri Korn, Willy Lermer, Ruth Mushin, Goldie Birch CONTENTS JHC Foundation: Chairperson: Helen Mahemoff From the President 3 Trustees: Editor’s letter 3 Nina Bassat AM Joey Borensztajn Director’s cut 4 Allen Brostek Education 5 Silvana Layton Jeffrey Mahemoff AO Jewish Holocaust Centre celebrates prestigious MAGNA award and record number of visitors 6 Patrons: Professor Yehuda Bauer From access to integration: digital technologies Mrs Eva Besen AO and the study of Jewish history 7 Mr Marc Besen AO Chasidei Umot HaOlam 9 Sir William Deane AC CBE Sir Gustav Nossal AC CBE Elliot Perlman: writing about history, memory and human rights 10 Mrs Diane Shteinman AM Good Living Street 12 Steven Spielberg Remembering the Shoah is not enough 13 JHC Staff: Warren Fineberg, Executive Director Surviving the Cap Arcona disaster 14 Zvi Civins, Director of Education The healing process 15 Jayne Josem, Curator, Head of Collections Faith 16 Michael Cohen, Community Relations Coordinator A time to remember 18 Reuben Zylberszpic, Development Manager Introducing Reuben Zylberszpic and Dominik Armellini 19 Phillip Maisel OAM, Head of Testimonies Sabina Josem & Rose Freilich, Valuing laughter: the role(s) of humour in Holocaust films 20 Librarians Kristallnacht commemoration and special tribute Daniel Feldman, Project Administrator to Shmuel and Betty Rosenkranz 21 Lena Fiszman, Office and IT Manager Tosca Birnbaum, Reception Light in the darkness: the Jewish and Hellenic experience of rescue 21 Claude Fromm, Assistant Archivist Celebrating 65 years since the arrival of the SS Johan de Witt 22 Rae Silverstein, Volunteer Coordinator Mazal tov to Phillip Maisel, Willy Lermer and Fred Steiner 23 Centre News Editorial Commitee: Editor: Ruth Mushin Book reviews 24 Pauline Rockman OAM JHC Social Club 26 Michael Cohen Friends of the Jewish Holocaust Centre 27 Lena Fiszman Jayne Josem Seen around the Centre 28 Fay Helfenbaum Stories from the Collection 30 Reuben Zylberszpic Moshe Ajzenbud (Yiddish) New acquisitions 31 Twins celebrate their bar mitzvah by giving to the Jewish Holocaust Centre 32 Celebrating Kitia Altman and Sabina Josem 33 Obituaries 34 Community news 36 On the cover: 13–15 Selwyn Street OPENING HOURS Survivor guide David Prince with Elsternwick Vic 3185 Mon–Thu: 10am–4pm students from Vermont Secondary Australia Fri: 10am–2pm College in the Jewish Holocaust t: (03) 9528 1985 Sun & Public Hols: 12pm–4pm Centre museum f: (03) 9528 3758 Photo by Izi Marmur Closed on Saturdays, e: [email protected] Jewish Holy Days and w: www.jhc.org.au some Public Holidays This publication has been designed and produced by Izigraphics Pty Ltd www.izigraphics.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. 2 JHC Centre NewsNews FROM THE PRESIDENT with that UN resolution. This year our Holocaust survivors. At the JHC Pauline keynote speaker was The Hon Josh we have recorded much testimony, Frydenberg MP. which we have incorporated into Rockman OAM our museum. Many programs are Holocaust Memorial Day, a being developed to utilise these worldwide commemoration of the testimonies. They, albeit sadly, are Shoah, provides the opportunity to learn from the Holocaust, from Nazi the future. persecution and from the subsequent On meeting my special friend and genocides such as those which mentor Kitia Altman recently, my six- have occurred in Cambodia, Bosnia, year-old grandson Julian remarked: he year 2012 was ushered Rwanda and Darfur. It also looks to ‘You know Kitia?’ in at the Jewish Holocaust the future, to educate subsequent Centre (JHC) with much generations about the Holocaust ‘Yes,’ I said. Tfanfare. We are basking and the continued relevance of in the afterglow of the fantastic the lessons learnt from it. The ‘She fought in the Holocaust.’ acclaim generated by our museum recognition by many countries of ‘I know,’ I replied. receiving a 2011 Museums and this day inspires me and gives me a Galleries National Award (MAGNA). measure of hope in today’s world, a Kitia, a Holocaust survivor and long- It is a well-deserved honour for world fraught with difficulties and a time guide at the Centre, recently the recently refurbished museum. great degree of pessimism. celebrated a very special birthday. Congratulations to our dedicated The JHC was delighted to host a team ably led by Jayne Josem, The focus of Holocaust Memorial morning tea for her and another Curator and Head of Collections. Day 2012 was ‘Speak Up, Speak Out’. Its message was to think about the dedicated volunteer, Sabina Josem, Last year over 20,000 students visited responsibility we all have to speak who also celebrated a special the museum. There was also a up when we see or hear something birthday. We are so grateful for their marked increase in general visitors. which we believe to be wrong, to wonderful contribution to the Centre Our numbers are ever-increasing, speak out against the injustice, over many years and look forward a tribute to our Executive Director discrimination and hatred which to their continuing involvement. Warren Fineberg, Education Director happen around us. Their wisdom is invaluable to us, the Zvi Civins, and our dedicated second and third generation. survivors, staff and volunteers. How will the Holocaust be considered by future generations? How do we Chag Pesach sameach! The 27 January is the date designated maintain the precious legacy passed by the United Nations as Holocaust on to us by the survivors? These Memorial Day, following the questions confront and challenge us. recommendation of the International Task Force for Holocaust Education. It Indeed, my grandchildren will be was first observed in 2006. The JHC part of the last generation who will observes the day annually in line actually have the privilege of meeting EDITOR’S LETTER Dachau was liberated; another Their stories are also stored in the survivor, of seeing black soldiers at testimonies collection and they are Ruth Mushin Buchenwald the day after liberation; here in Centre News. In this edition and yet a third, of collapsing at we feature three very different the gate of a satellite camp of stories by Holocaust survivors: Kitia Mauthausen on the day the camp Altman writes about the Righteous was liberated and being carried on a Among the Nations – those non- stretcher to the camp hospital by ‘two Jews who risked their lives to save black giants’. Their accounts were Jews during the Holocaust; Sarah not only moving, but provided direct Saaroni writes about how sculpture evidence through their eyewitness helped her to heal the wounds of peaking recently at the accounts, reinforcing the importance her wartime experiences; and Jack Jewish Holocaust Centre, of survivor testimony. Fogel writes about surviving the author Elliot Perlman Cap Arcona disaster – the accidental These personal stories are central mentioned the controversy bombing of Nazi prison ships by the S to the Jewish Holocaust Centre. that has raged for decades over British Air Force at the end of the Survivor guides share their whether African-American troops Second World War. were part of the armed forces that experiences with school students liberated Dachau concentration camp and other visitors in the museum These stories are both informative in April 1945. During question time, every day, but their stories can also and inspirational. A visit to the one survivor told of his experience be found on the museum display Centre’s award-winning museum will of seeing black soldiers on the day panels, video screens and Storypods. expose you to many more. JHC Centre News 3 DIRECTOR’S CUT also created ‘Rhythms of Life’, and Associates, will allow for the largest contemporary land research, translation, cataloguing Warren art undertaking in the world, and providing access through Fineberg forming a chain of 48 massive special web facilities to materials stone sculptures (or geoglyphs) we hold about the Lodz Ghetto. I around the globe. At the function, am particularly excited about both Holocaust survivor and celebrated projects, as each aims to place sculptor, Sarah Saaroni, whose otherwise inaccessible material into works feature prominently the hands of researchers and the throughout the Centre’s museum, public. t was a great pleasure to attend discussed the nature and The Annual Pearl Recht Teachers’ the Museums Australia national symbolism of her work and how conference in Perth at the end sculpting gave her a voice to Seminar, held in February, is an of last year, and especially express the unspeakable. important program coordinated I by the JHC Education Department. to receive the national MAGNA At the beginning of this year We are grateful to the respected award for our museum installation. we bade farewell to Sebastian teachers and academics who give Congratulations to Jayne Josem Hausleitner. Sebastian chose to do of their time to deliver lectures our curator and the many survivors, ‘service abroad’ as an intern at the and workshops.