April 2015

The magazine of the Jewish Holocaust Centre, , Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. VBH 7236 JHC Board: The Jewish Holocaust Centre is dedicated to the memory of the six million President: Pauline Rockman OAM murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Immediate Past President: We consider the finest memorial to all victims of racist policies to be an Shmuel Rosenkranz educational program which aims to combat , racism and prejudice in Secretary: Elly Brooks the community and fosters understanding between people. Treasurer: David Cohen Members: Goldie Birch, Allen Brostek, Alex Dafner, Abram Goldberg OAM, Sue Hampel OAM, Paul Kegen, Helen Mahemoff, Viv Parry, Mary Slade, Willy Lermer JHC Foundation: CONTENTS Chairperson: Helen Mahemoff Trustees: From the President 3 Nina Bassat AM Joey Borensztajn Editor’s letter 3 Allen Brostek David Cohen Director’s cut 4 Jeffrey Mahemoff AO Education 5 Patrons: Professor Yehuda Bauer Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz: keeping the memory alive 6 Mrs Eva Besen AO Mr Marc Besen AO My lifelong belief in humanity: saved by the kindness of others 8 Sir William Deane AC CBE Esther’s story 9 Sir Gustav Nossal AC CBE Mrs Diane Shteinman AM Effects of on Jewish child survivors: Steven Spielberg a review of their traumas and after-effects 10 JHC Staff: Escape from the Thessaloniki Ghetto 12 Warren Fineberg, Executive Director Lisa Phillips, Director of Education Memories of Ordinary People: Revisiting Kitia Altman’s Jayne Josem, Curator, Head of Collections memoir and the issues it raises 13 Michael Cohen, Director of Community Relations Genocide in Rwanda: historical overview and personal reflections 14 Reuben Zylberszpic, Development Manager Facing the past 16 Phillip Maisel OAM, Head of Testimonies Project The consequences of the Nazi policy of confiscating Robbie Simons, Testimonies Assistant Jewish-owned artworks: a Melbourne connection 18 Coordinator / Audio-visual Producer Tammy Reznik, Education Officer Remembering Kristallnacht: a personal reflection 20 Anatie Livnat, Education Officer Rae Silverstein, Volunteer Coordinator As far away as possible: Melbourne Holocaust survivors tell their stories 21 Claude Fromm, Assistant Archivist Book review: Gazing at the Stars 23 Daniel Feldman, Project Administrator Julia Reichstein, Exploitation of the Holocaust 24 Librarian / Information Manager Lena Fiszman, Office and IT Manager JHC Film Club 25 Tosca Birnbaum, Reception JHC Social Club 26 Centre News Editorial Commitee: Editor: Ruth Mushin Friends of the Jewish Holocaust Centre 27 Michael Cohen Lena Fiszman Seen around the Centre 28 Jayne Josem Stories from the Collection 30 Pauline Rockman OAM Reuben Zylberszpic New acquisitions 31 Moshe Ajzenbud (Yiddish) Community news 32

On the cover: 13–15 Selwyn Street OPENING HOURS Tiah Gordon and Sarah Reed, Elsternwick Vic 3185 Mon–Thu: 10am–4pm Holocaust Australia Memorial Day, January 2015. Fri: 10am–2pm t: (03) 9528 1985 Sun & Public Hols: 12pm–4pm Photo: Zina Sofer f: (03) 9528 3758 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

the comprehensive Holocaust delivered the keynote address, Pauline education program conducted at and we heard testimony from the Centre. Some are now working Mrs Eva Slonim, a child survivor Rockman OAM as guides in our museum, for which who was liberated at Auschwitz. we are most grateful. You can read part of Professor Our Centre is full of passion Mittelberg’s address and a review and dedication, committed to of Eva Slonim’s recently published remembrance, commemoration, memoir in this edition of Centre education and much more. News. Volunteering is at its core and am thrilled that the Jewish our dear Holocaust survivors Two important anniversaries take Holocaust Centre’s 30th and all our other volunteers are place this month: the centenary anniversary year has been the heart and soul of the Centre. an extremely intensive and of the Armenian genocide on 24 Volunteering can sometimes be I April, and the centenary of the rewarding one. Recent events challenging, but we must take pride include Facing the Past, the Simon Allied landing at Gallipoli the in the positive impact we make on Shiff photographic exhibition of our those many thousands of school following day. Another significant survivor guides that paid tribute children and members of the commemoration, on 16 April, to Holocaust survivors who have general public who pass through is Yom Hashoah Vehagevurah, volunteered their time to make our doors. As well as our museum marking 70 years after the end of the Centre the vibrant, award- guides, the other volunteers who winning museum and educational the Holocaust. work at the Centre contribute in institution it is. different ways – in the archives and We are working steadily towards The year included a stirring visit by testimonies departments, the office expanding the Centre. We have the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis and the library, working on Centre held a competition to produce a Boutaris. Mayor Boutaris wore a News and on the Board. vision for our new building and yellow Jewish star at his mayoral This year is shaping up to be are delighted to announce that inauguration in protest against the another full and productive year. architect Kirstin Thompson is election of a member of the neo- On 27 January we commemorated the winner. The results of the fascist Golden Dawn party to the United Nations International city council. He is a very special competition are on display in the Holocaust Memorial Day. The person with a genuine sense of the Board room. commemoration, organised place of the Jewish people in his annually by the Jewish Holocaust The process of moving from vision people’s heritage. He is dedicated Centre, is held in accord with to remembering and celebrating to reality will involve much work the November 2005 resolution the Jewish community, as well and fundraising. I am confident of the UN General Assembly as revitalising a Jewish presence that, with our fantastic Board and proclaiming 27 January, the day in his city, and stands strongly wonderful staff team led by Warren in 1945 on which Auschwitz was against the neo-fascism and Fineberg, we shall achieve our liberated, as an annual day of antisemitism rising again in Europe aims. In our ever-changing world it and indeed, elsewhere. remembrance. This year’s theme was ‘70 Years after the Liberation is imperative that we move forward Last December another group of Auschwitz: Keeping the Memory to ensure that we continue the work of committed people completed Alive’. Professor David Mittelberg our founders began.

EDITOR’S LETTER

of portraits of Holocaust survivors Centre News when we feature the Ruth Mushin that was recently held at the Centre. exhibition Besa: A Code of Honour that recently opened at the Centre. A powerful theme of the four survivor stories in this edition is I hope you will make time to see the role of non-Jews, both those these amazing photographs and formally recognised as Righteous stories of Muslim Albanians who Among the Nations and others who saved Jews during the Holocaust. helped Jews during the Holocaust. Dr Paul Valent has written a Kitia Altman, Esther Bordowicz, thoughtful analysis of the effects of Maria Curtis and Phillip Maisel he Jewish Holocaust may not have survived without the the Holocaust on child survivors, Centre’s 30th anniversary German, Polish and Greek non- a group he describes as the most year has just finished, and vulnerable and traumatised, as we complete our coverage Jews whose selfless acts of courage T put themselves and their families well as the most unrecognised. I with images from Facing the Past, in great danger. We shall continue commend this article to you, as well Simon Shiff’s compelling exhibition this theme in the next edition of as the many others in these pages.

JHC Centre News 3 DIRECTOR’S CUT

experience a new research/library The term Besa refers to ‘an act of space, a foreign language library honour’, - an act whereby one can Warren annex and a trial version of the entrust one’s life to another. Fineberg Portal facility. Where possible, the JHC develops In 2014 we welcomed a number of digital exhibitions hosted on our new part-time staff members. Dr website www.jhc.org.au. The Anna Hirsh works as Collections exhibition, titled Lodz: Strength Archivist, and Ari Leski and and Hope is a fine example of Adam Thalhammer assist with an online interactive exhibition. database operations and general Using documents and photographs administration. rescued after the Holocaust, it or a third year the Jewish presents a rich picture of ghetto life Holocaust Centre (JHC) On any week day we have between during the Nazi occupation. This has had over 20,000 school 30 and 50 volunteers and staff exhibition was funded by the late F children attending our members working at the Centre. Pincus Wiener in memory of his education programs and over The majority are volunteers who brother Bono, one of the founders 10,000 visits from the general invest essential work hours to keep of the Centre. public. With approximately 100 the Centre operating. Guiding, events throughout the year, assisting with the Testimonies Our Education Department has including a Holocaust education Project, library and the collections developed ‘Hide and Seek’, a program, two temporary and archive department, meeting new Middle School program, exhibitions and our regular Social and greeting at the front desk and following a very successful pilot Club, our resources are stretched providing administrative support program in 2014 funded by Gandel to the limit. demonstrate the range of work Philanthropy. This exciting program undertaken. In recognition of their offers age-appropriate educational To maintain an operating contribution some 20 volunteers experiences, allowing students museum, education programs were presented with an elegant to explore the many aspects of and accommodate our many glass shard in thanks for their the Holocaust safely through a public events and programs, we service. carefully structured program. raise funds through donations The senior student program has and grants. The JHC Foundation The JHC Board and Executive, also also been updated, with further generously supports the Centre, volunteers of course, meet on a development to take place over the making a significant contribution monthly basis and are responsible forthcoming years. to salaries and information for guiding the direction of the technology. Friends of the JHC Centre in the short term, and Looking forward to developments host a range of activities to raise for setting their eyes on future this year, a small team lead by funds for special projects such developments. In providing for Board member Sue Hampel is as the upgrading of the Mareijn the projected growth of the Centre examining the research section of and Smorgon auditoria sound over the next two or more decades, the Centre with a view to offering systems. The Bequest Program, for their special focus is on funding greater access to academics to those who wish to leave a lasting and asset development. At the work at the Centre and to provide legacy to the Centre, also provides Gala Event held last year, plans for public programs. Michael Cohen, significant support. I am pleased a new building were outlined and who has recently completed his to report that the Centre has begun significant funds collected by the PhD, will head this area along with 2015 in a positive financial position. Centre and the JHC Foundation in his work as Director of Community support of operations and future Relations. The JHC contact database has been expansion. developed to provide accurate The JHC Social Club coordinated by and efficient listings for our postal In recognition of our currently Barbara Sacks has an outstanding and internet communications, active survivor guides and list of speakers for 2015. I do hope an essential tool in today’s volunteers, the Centre presented a readers will take advantage of environment. Good progress strong and confronting exhibition attending the monthly events to has also been made with the entitled Facing the Past. The project hear the speakers and enjoy the development of a public ‘Portal’, team for the exhibition included social gathering. an electronic window to allow photographer Simon Shiff, Curator access to all the Centre’s museum Jayne Josem, Development and collection databases. We are Manger Reuben Zylberszpic and grateful to the Helen McPherson- others. We are currently presenting Smith Trust for supporting this Besa, an exhibition recognising the program. The Trust’s support courageous stance of Albanians – a has also enabled us to extend predominantly Muslim European our library to become a research state – during the Holocaust, when centre. We are now in our third Albanian people and organisations and final year of this project, protected Jewish Albanians and and visitors to the Centre can refugees from Nazi persecution.

4 JHC Centre News EDUCATION

of their precious holidays to attend. The course also emphasised the From our first introductions it was importance of an age-appropriate Lisa Phillips clear that all these teachers were curriculum and not traumatising exceptional in their dedication students through horrible images to their profession, their level of or moral dilemmas before they intelligence and their motivation to have the social and intellectual learn more about the Holocaust. maturity to manage these challenges. In other words, as What makes the course at Yad educators we have a responsibility Vashem so special is hard to to ensure students are ‘safely in pinpoint, as it is not one aspect and safely out’, without destroying but the combination of a myriad their belief in humanity or the s we commemorate 70 of factors. For instance, to be world around them as we study years since the Allied able to devote nearly 18 days such a dark period. These kinds troops liberated the of uninterrupted learning was of pedagogical discussions that concentration camps, a luxury. Then there is the A took place during the course are it makes one ponder the future thorough lecture program, with essential to effective Holocaust of Holocaust education as the high-calibre lecturers. Professor education and indeed key to the distance between the events and Robert Wistrich is a world expert Yad Vashem approach that makes the present becomes even greater. on antisemitism; Dr Gideon Grief the course so special. As educators we constantly spoke to us about ‘the Persecution question how we transmit to of the Jews in Nazi Germany’; Dr Being able to experience the students the dangers of hatred, Rachel Perry on ‘Nazi Aesthetics vibrancy of Jewish life in prejudice and antisemitism, and and the Campaign Against also adds a dimension to make the to teachers the importance on Modernism’; and Professor Yehuda Yad Vashem course so different. placing the Holocaust as a worthy Bauer on ‘The Unprecedentedness Further, just being at Yad Vashem topic in the crowded curriculum. of the Holocaust in an Age of with access to the facilities and Curriculum changes are being Genocide’. museum over the course, rather discussed yet again. However, than just visiting for the day, was The Yad Vashem course is for the moment, the Holocaust in itself incredible. To be able carefully structured not only to still stands as part of the Year 10 to visit and revisit the museum impart knowledge, but to ensure History course. Holocaust texts, and understand the construction that the information can then such as Night by Elie Wiesel, are of the exhibition was valuable be thoughtfully delivered in the still popular with English teachers, and rewarding. To wander in the classroom using the pedagogical but how the Holocaust is taught grounds, to take in the views, to philosophy and support materials is indeed another question, and a visit the art gallery, to explore the created by Yad Vashem. As one constant challenge. pedagogical materials and to meet participant perceptively stated, experts in their fields was indeed This challenge to create better the course not only preaches the a rare opportunity. It was also a Holocaust educators is being pedagogy but actually practises it privilege to share this experience met at the International School too. at Yad Vashem, where seminars with the other Australian are conducted for teachers from Following are the main themes participants and to hear how over 50 countries. During late of the course: the importance teachers were planning to utilise December 2014–January 2015, I of examining life before 1933 to and implement their newfound was privileged to participate in the highlight the richness of Jewish knowledge and learning as part of 18-day Gandel Holocaust Course life before Jews became victims their projects. The enthusiasm of for Australian Educators, due to of Nazi ideology; exploring how the group had an energising impact the generosity of the Alexander people lived in the world of chaos; and the level of bonding and Israel Ivany Scholarship. I was personalising the victim; and the networking between participants part of a group of 30 teachers aftermath of the Holocaust. Too was also another key element that from all Australian states and often the Holocaust is taught at made the experience unique. It also territories, including regional areas schools in a couple of lessons as made me feel proud of the work and capital cities. In my position an addendum to a study of the we do at the Jewish Holocaust as a Director of Education at a Second World War, beginning with Centre in our efforts to meet the Holocaust centre, it is obvious why the ghettos and ending with the challenges 70 years since the I was so motivated to attend the extermination camps, so the Yad liberation of the camps, to create course, but I was intrigued why Vashem approach was a major and offer excellent Holocaust these non-Jewish teachers were so change in thinking for many of the education to schools and the wider interested to give up three weeks teacher-participants. community.

JHC Centre News 5 Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz: keeping the memory alive David Mittelberg

This is an extract from the keynote address delivered by mother and survived alone in the forests. Professor David Mittelberg at the annual United Nations My late father of blessed memory was apparently one Memorial Day commemoration held on 27 January 2015 of only 200,000 concentration camp survivors all told at the Jewish Holocaust Centre. Professor Mittelberg who, according to Professor Yehudah Bauer, survived addressed three circles of memory: the personal, the the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and two years communal, and the global in an age of post-Holocaust of the death camps of Treblinka, Maidanek, Skarziska, terror. This extract focuses on personal memory. The Buchenwald and finally Matthausen. complete address is available in the Jewish Holocaust Centre library. My father’s oral testimony was in our home and in our community. At the Shabbat table and the Pesach seder With your permission, I wish to dedicate this presentation table, survivors sustained survivors. There, Yiddish in to the memory of the following survivor parents: to community life and its cultural institutions was the oxygen my parents, and the of cultural renewal and parents of my sister, personal sustenance. Rachel Caplan, who is here this evening – My father delivered his Yisrael Ya’akov (Ryszard) own formal hand-written Mittelberg from Warsaw recorded testimony to an and Melbourne, and interviewer of the Jewish Leah (Lola) Marmelstein Historical Institute Warsaw Mittelberg from Warsaw (or perhaps it was Lodz) and Melbourne; and on 12 January 1946, barely to the parents of my seven months after being wife, Shoshana, – Harav liberated at Matthausen. Ya’acov Kotlar from This Yiddish hand-written Lydda and Perth, and testimony was discovered Esther Kruglanski Kotlar by my son Yoel, who from Knishin and Perth. brought it from Warsaw only in 2010, on a memory Each of these Jews Professor David Mittelberg stick. survived the Holocaust in a different way. My What does it tell us? It tells father survived through the horrific concentration camps us of civil resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto, and a battle of Treblinka, Maidanek, Skarziska, Buchenwald and for physical survival in bunkers the Jews themselves Matthausen over two years, while my mother survived as constructed in their own houses. They struggled for a refugee from Warsaw, in a Russian kolkhoz. Shoshana’s personal meaning and morality but never contemplated father lived out the war as a young rabbi who saw the surrender. Separation from wife and son on the platform Jews burned alive in Baranowicz and then joined the at the gates of Treblinka, with 507 other Jews (they always partisans led by the Bielski Brothers, while Shoshana’s knew the number) who were transported to Maidanek mother was pushed from the deportation train by her own and, in ever-reducing numbers, they continued on – for my

6 JHC Centre News bitterly. On the other hand, I imagined that the world must have improved and that all doors would be open Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz: to us. Unfortunately none of this eventuated. The world had changed but little. How did my father already know that the world had changed but little? We, the generation of the sixties, keeping the memory alive David Mittelberg were sure that the Holocaust was over and needed to be respectfully remembered and guarded – but could it be repeated? The question to be asked, with respect to personal memory, is whether memory can be handed down to the third and fourth generations in particular. In answer to this question, I share with you a letter from my own daughter Esti who, as a 16-year old Israeli, was in Poland as part of an Israeli educational school program. Sadly, Esti never met my father who had passed away before she was born, but Esti held in her hand his manuscript and walked in his footsteps, in Warsaw and at Maidanek. Esti wrote: Grandfather, you are my hero — you who never lost hope in life, who was victorious over the Nazi oppressor and who showed the world that would never be buried in the soil of Poland. I listen to my heart and it longs to meet you, to ask you questions even without receiving answers. Now on the seventh day of my trip to Poland, everything is coming out of me; perhaps I have finally father a two-year journey of terror, anguish, sorrow, grief, understood — certainly not completely. I want to thank you for opening old wounds so that I may read and hard labour, illness and barely physical survival. learn the stories in the hope that I will not have to deal It is with the following words that my father concluded with wounds like these. Grandfather, you are the stable his testimony, root that has been plucked up from its place, stubbornly returning to give life to its flowers. To your credit our On the first of May 1945, the block elder, a Russian family is flowering in a range of colors not forgetting guard, came into our barrack with the announcement the earth from which it is nourished. that a ceasefire had been signed. Our joy was too overwhelming for us to grasp the meaning of what was Grandfather, even though I never met you, I feel longing happening. True, we had waited for this moment, yet for the man who succeeded in ascending from the it still had caught us by surprise. Soon inmates from depths of the abyss to beyond the expanse of freedom. the other Matthausen camps came to inform us of Grandfather, thank you for not losing hope and for the good news. Everything changed very quickly. The causing me to follow your footsteps. I believe that I now leadership of the camp tried immediately to please the understand the meaning of a united supportive family, inmates. While shooting was still going on, news came the basic morality of man wherever he may be, and, that the Americans were approaching and that the Red essentially, the powerful will to live — the feeling that I Cross would soon take over the camp. Our joy was will not break down before the obstacles placed before unimaginable, yet did not cause us to forget about our me and that I will guard my true self and I will not allow stomachs. We broke open the store rooms and prepared others to trample tradition and the Jewish people. whatever food there was. On the sixth and seventh of May the Americans arrived. We almost went out of our Grandfather, wait for me where you are — and one day minds. Only then did we feel secure and free. we will meet. By a stroke of luck the Americans walked into our Rest in peace, barrack, transported us and administered blood Your loving grand-daughter, Esti transfusions that revitalised us a little. I was given six Warsaw 2001 consecutive blood transfusions, immediately improving my condition. Our joy was nevertheless marred by the fact that, And if you ask me whether memory can be kept alive, I despite all human efforts, many people died after say unequivocally that it can. the liberation. The Americans showed a great deal of Professor David Mittelberg grew up in Melbourne and selflessness; they worked day and night. We were living now lives in Israel. He has been a member of Kibbutz temporarily in tents and when on one occasion a storm Yizreel since 1972. He is Professor for Sociology and broke out and threatened to blow away the tents, the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the International American soldiers literally held up the tents with their School of Oranim Academic College of Education in Israel hands. I now had time to reflect upon my situation while and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Kibbutz lying in one of those sick beds. On the one hand, the Research at Haifa University. He is also Adjunct Research awareness that my close ones were all dead affected Associate in Centre for Jewish Civilisation me deeply and I repeated Kaddish after them and wept at .

JHC Centre News 7 My lifelong belief in humanity: saved by the kindness of others Phillip Maisel OAM

hillip Maisel was born in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania members – and 16 Jews. The Jews worked very long hours in 1922 and grew up in a comfortable family with and were starving. Our rations consisted of one piece of his twin sister Bella and older brother Josef. In bread in the morning, soup for lunch, and more watery soup, P 1941, the Nazis occupied Lithuania. The Jews of with maybe a piece of potato floating in it, in the evening. Vilna were forced into an overcrowded ghetto where food I thought constantly about food and escape. However, my was scarce, disease was rife and they were in constant work was some relief from the horror of camp life as we fear of being killed by the Nazis. Phillip was involved in were not especially maltreated, we were given overalls the resistance movement. In September 1943, the ghetto which provided some warmth, and we could collect any was liquidated and Phillip was deported to Estonia to be scraps of food left by the Germans. imprisoned in a hard-labour camp. In August 1944, as the Soviet army advanced, Phillip was sent to Stutthof One day, coming back from the barracks in a blinding concentration camp in Germany, then Dautmergen and later snowstorm, I hung back from the SS guard and my Frommern, from where he was sent on a death march. He colleagues and ran away. I headed for the little village I knew was liberated by the advancing French army in April 1945. was to the left of the camp, and when I found it, I knocked on the back door of one of the houses. The woman who Phillip, Bella and Josef were the only members of their answered knew immediately where I had come from, but family to survive the war. In 1949, Phillip and Bella migrated took me in saying, ‘You must be hungry.’ I ate four loaves of to Australia to begin a new life. As one of the bread and some fish, and drank milk. I stayed few thousand Vilna Jews who survived, Phillip for two hours until the storm subsided but, believes it is his responsibility to record the as it was dark and I had nowhere else to go, I events of the Holocaust for future generations. was forced to return to the camp. He heads the Jewish Holocaust Centre’s testimonies department, named in his honour At the gate of the camp I told the Lithuanian the Phillip Maisel Testimonies Project. SS guard the truth about getting lost, being fed by a woman, and returning to the camp As a prisoner of the Germans in the ghetto when the weather improved, but I did not tell and later in labour and concentration camps, him that I would not have returned if I had there were many times when I was helped found a means of escape. That guard was on to survive by the kindness of others. My duty every week on Thursday evenings and, experience in Estonia is just one example that instead of punishing me by severe beating reinforced my lifelong belief in humanity ... which could endanger my life, he told me In the ghetto, it was life-saving to have a that I could go out again when he was on job that was important to the Germans, so duty if I promised to return. I returned to that my father decided that I should work as an woman’s house every week for several weeks automotive electrician. He had a friend at until one day, we heard the bells of a horse- HKP (Heereskraftfahrpark) and told him that drawn sled outside. The woman’s face turned I was an automotive mechanic, even though white and I immediately ran out the back my only qualifications were an interest in door. I never went back, for fear of risking her cars – of which there were few in Vilna – and Phillip and Bella Maisel life and mine. some study of electricity in school physics! Although I was given menial work, I studied car mechanics After that, I used my weekly outings to visit farmers to ask in the ghetto library and taught myself to do repairs, so for food. The death rate at the camp was enormous, and I that in six months I was able to call myself an automotive used a blanket of a prisoner who had died to trade for food. electrician. Although not one farmer bought a blanket, most gave me a piece of bread. In September 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and I was sent to a slave labour camp in Estonia, where the Germans had This went on for several months, and I have no doubt that discovered shale rock from which they were able to produce the kindness of others helped to keep me alive. The SS oil. Jews from the Vilna Ghetto were deported to Estonia guard, the woman who fed me and the farmers who gave to work in the mines. When the SS enquired if there were me bread could have easily turned me in, but they all helped any motor mechanics, I came forward and became part of me to survive, risking their own lives in doing so. They a mobile garage, travelling from camp to camp to repair and others showed the precious spark of humanity that vehicles. Our team consisted of 30 Germans – all Nazi party should be in every human being.

8 JHC Centre News Esther’s story: a story of survival, courage and the power of the internet Rosa Segal

stera (Esther) Bordowicz was born in the Polish town of Kalisz in 1917 and died in Melbourne in 2001. She survived the Second World War in EPoland and Soviet Russia, and returned to Poland after the war. She married and had two children and the family migrated first to Israel and then to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in 1959. Esther hardly ever spoke about her wartime experiences, but her remarkable story of survival has emerged through the efforts of Monika Leonczyk, a Polish school girl who lives in Słupsk. Like Esther, Monika’s grandmother, Joanna (Janka) Kocięcka, did not speak to her family about the war. One Janka Kocięcka and Rosa Segal night at the dinner table in 2013, Monika told her family that she had decided to enter a national essay competition In 1943, Janka was caught by the Germans for supplying on the subject of ‘Poles and Jews during the Second medication to the partisans and was sent to a slave labour World War’. Her grandmother’s response was, ‘Why don’t detachment in Germany. As Janka’s parents could be you write about the Jewish girl we hid?’ The family was arrested or their house searched at any time, they decided stunned, as Joanna had never mentioned this before. Janka to flee the city for Pinsk, where they had relatives. However, then told Monika what she knew about Esther’s story. before they left, Janka’s father obtained a fake baptism certificate for Esther from a sympathetic priest. He then When war broke out in 1939, Esther’s family fled from took her to the village of Struga, where a large partisan Kalisz to Stolin in Eastern Poland (now Belarus) to live unit was stationed in the forests. Eventually she made her with their wealthy cousin, as it was in territory annexed way to Tashkent where she stayed until the war ended. by Soviet Russia and was considered to be safe. At that However, from the time Janka’s father took Esther to time Janka was a teenager living in Stolin with her parents, Struga, Janka’s family had no more contact with her. Veronica and Vladislav, and her younger brother and sister. The two families lived across the road from each other. Curious to find out if Esther had survived the war, Monika searched the internet and found the name ‘Esther Although Jews were not Bordowicz’ in the Archives Department of the Central specifically targeted in Soviet- Committee for the Emigration of Jews in Poland, 1946- controlled Poland, the Soviets 1950. She then contacted the Institute of Jewish History in deported or murdered those Warsaw and found references to two Esthers. When she deemed to be wealthy or obtained photos, her grandmother immediately recognised educated, many of whom ‘their’ Esther. The Institute was then able to help Monika were Jews. In 1941, when the discover that Esther had returned to Kalisz after the war, Germans invaded the Soviet had married there and had had two daughters, Sara and Union, Stolin came under Nazi Rosa (my sister and me). They also gave Monika some control and the Jews of Stolin possible email contacts and she was then able to find our were forced into a ghetto. When email addresses through cousins in America. In fact these the Nazis liquidated the ghetto, cousins had only recently been found by our family in people were shot in the streets Esther Bordowicz Australia. and the survivors were forced into the nearby woods where they were murdered. Esther’s I was suspicious when I first received Monika’s email in brother Ignatz and his family managed to escape and join 2013, because my mother had never told us that she had the partisans, and Esther only avoided the round-up as she been hidden by a Polish family during the war. However, was not at home at the time. She never saw her parents I eventually replied to Monika and, after several emails, I again. asked her for Janka’s telephone number. From that time on, Janka and I spoke regularly and then, in August last Returning home, Esther knocked on the Kocięckas’ door year, I went with my family to Słupsk, where we stayed and asked if she could wait there, as her family was not at with Janka and her family. It has been such an emotional home. When Esther wanted to leave, they sent Janka to see time for both families. Janka was able to tell me so much if it was safe for Esther to go home. However, on learning about my mother that I had never heard before, and what had happened, Janka’s parents decided to take Janka’s family have discovered so much more about what Esther in, despite the death penalty for hiding Jews. She happened to their grandmother and her family during the shared a bed with Janka and they became friends. When war years. We are now in regular contact and plan to visit people visited, she hid in a wardrobe, and if the Germans again in 2017. came, she hid in a purpose-built hiding place under the floorboards. She only went out for short walks in the Rosa Segal is Esther Bordowicz’s daughter. She told her garden at night. story to Centre News editor Ruth Mushin.

JHC Centre News 9 and killed. Parental disappearance and death were constant threats. Separation from parents was ubiquitous and could Effects of the happen fast. A knock on the door in the middle of the night and parents were taken away forever. Or parents suddenly gave children away to strangers. Holocaust on Few children survived concentration camps, but surviving outside camps could be just as distressing. Children suffered numerous changes of unsympathetic caretakers Jewish child whose discipline was often harsh and included threats of turning them in. One in six children in hiding was sexually abused. survivors: Other stresses involved interference in developmental phases, absence of regularity, sequence and constancy, and interruption of play and schooling. In comparison, bombing a review of their was described as a comparatively much lesser stress. Even very young children could understand much of what was going on, but for children up to the ages of three to four traumas and control was tenuous. Their worlds frequently fragmented, they suffered physically, and their actions were often after-effects inappropriate. Children experienced both reality and fantasy according to their ages. With increasing age children’s mental Paul Valent numbness, sense of unreality and freezing of feelings of pain, terror, anger, guilt, grief and despair resembled those of adults. Suppression of feelings allowed children, even as young as ne and a half four, to take correct actions, such as hiding under the bed million Jewish or running to a neighbour. Suppression of feelings helped children were them to survive parental loss, murder, torture and death. Omurdered in the Yet under the lid of restraint children had an overwhelming Holocaust. The 10% who drive to live and a tenacious secret clinging to goodness, in survived are arguably the form of memories or hopes of loving parents, or tangible the remnants of the most objects that represented them, and helped their survival. massive trauma on a most Children’s adaptations were remarkable. They separated vulnerable group in history. from parents without a whimper, assumed false identities, Effects of the Holocaust hid in small spaces for inordinately long times, and were recognised in adults arranged their psyches as ordered. Parents who were in the 1960s and on the present cushioned external reality, but imparted their children of survivors in the dreads and helplessness verbally and non-verbally. 1970s. Child survivors (16 Children interpreted separations as betrayals or as years old or younger during punishments for being bad. Dr Paul Valent Nazi occupation), were the In spite of everything, children never quite lost their last group to be recognised. creativeness, hopes and fantasies. They played when they Now around 80 years old, they are still not recognised could, even in ghettoes and concentration camps. The easily as the ‘one and a half generation’ – both survivors innocence and hopes expressed in children’s games were and children of survivors. In fact, the most vulnerable and precious to adults, who dared not hope so openly. Even SS traumatised group of the Holocaust also has been the most guards could be moved. unrecognised one. Nevertheless, in spite of their remarkable capacities, even Why was that? Like abused children, children of the more than for adults, survival was predicated on luck more Holocaust did not know that they were traumatised. They than skill. demurred, saying that they were ‘only children’ in the war, and that their parents were the real survivors. They were For children, liberation was both joyous and the beginnings hampered by not having clear memories, and their survivor of understanding the enormity of what had happened. parents did not want to hear their pain. Some died of overeating and many took ill. There was often a cascade of traumas, some of which were worse Children were spared nothing in the Holocaust. Like adults, than the wartime ones – recognising that family was lost they were subjected to bombings, ghettoes, yellow stars, forever; separating from loving caretakers to be reunited humiliation, roundups, shootings, concentration camps, with biological parents who were strangers; being reunited torture, and medical experiments. As poor workers, with parents who were different from the ones hoped for children were particularly expendable, and their inability and sometimes with strange partners. There were further to execute orders was treated with special impatience and separations as some children were sent to sanatoria and brutality. For instance some infants were thrown out of orphanages for their and their parents’ recuperation. windows or in the air for target practice, while others were In the initial weeks to months camp habits persisted. swung against walls and had their heads crushed. Children appeared to be greedy for food, quarrelled and Children saw maltreatment of other children and realised lacked social skills. They clung, pushed away, could not they could be next. They saw adults mistreated, humiliated trust, slept badly, had nightmares and wet the bed. Most,

10 JHC Centre News however, became socialised and formed friendships among their memories by reading, breaking lifelong silence and themselves. asking questions of parents, and going back to the places of their own and their parents’ wartime experiences. Many children returned to hostile antisemitic environments. Such trips validated memories and helped to assemble Many immigrated to new countries and their past lives fragmented memories into a jigsaw puzzle. seemed unreal. Adoptive countrymen joined parents who seemed to be indifferent to the children’s pasts, which they However, retrieved memories evoked the original numbing, wanted them to forget. dissociation, splitting and fragmentation, and beyond them Child survivors coped psychologically with post-war the excruciating emotions, judgements and meanings of stresses through similar means to the wartime ones – children’s traumatic situations. There has been an almost by cutting off feelings, meanings and memories and ubiquitous dialectic between avoiding and recovering focusing on the future. They continued to suppress the memories, paying the cost of the pain in opening wounds past and worked hard to establish security. They married, for the benefit of feeling more whole. became devoted parents, achieved financial success and To heal from traumas one has to find alternate meanings, contributed to society. Despite others marveling at how but it was difficult to extract positive meanings from the well they had done, many suffered physical and psychiatric Holocaust. Civilized values of concern, humanism and illnesses, and some suicided. Most suffered nightmares, charity were shaken, and it was difficult to reconcile a moral disjointed memories, distressing emotional states and Jewish God with the Holocaust. The Holocaust negated the relationship problems, especially with spouses and their most basic sense of justice. The fact that the world stood by own children. and allowed wholesale murder led to a cynical view of an Child survivors were denied their memories for a long unjust and uncaring world. time. They were told not to remember; they should not And yet each child was also a carrier of good meanings, remember; they could not remember; and that what they as none would have survived without care, often at risk remembered was wrong. to the lives of the carers. Some interpreted their unlikely Behind their mask of wellness lived children who, as during survival as a special miracle of God and reconnected to the Holocaust, were not allowed to feel or complain, who religion. Many empathised with other persecuted and had to appear well to live, who arranged their minds as deprived groups, or took up healing and justice-promoting desired by others and who, truth to tell, also did not want to professions. know the devastating truth. Existential problems, such as The greatest optimism of child survivors related to their feelings of loss and incapacity to love, persisted. descendants. Child survivors’ children and grandchildren By the end of the millennium, which saw the fall of the symbolised triumph over genocide and Hitler, life Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War and outbreak of peace, triumphing over death. Unfortunately this was often the world was ready to revisit its worst tragedy and its most compromised by the fact that survivors transmitted their affected victims. traumas down the generations. Child survivors became a source of interest, and they Many child survivors can now look back on a life of started to discover themselves. They reached survivorship, achievement and family. However, retirement, when most people try to make sense of their lives. Child bereavement and disability have sometimes triggered survivors had the added tasks of grappling with recovery old feelings of helplessness and terrors of separation of memories, establishing identities, and the search for and death. For some, loosening of mental processes has meaning. resulted in eruptions of long suppressed events. Some see Films like Schindler’s List, the subsequent Shoah illness and hospitalisation as a death sentence, the way it Foundation, and many books written by child survivors was in the Holocaust. gave them a voice. They formed local groups, like the ones Over the years, individual survivors have varied greatly. in Melbourne and and, in 1991, they held their first Some have largely come to terms with their experiences, World Conference in New York. while others have died still hidden from the world and However, probably the majority of child survivors stayed themselves. For most the dialectic continues between hidden from the world and from themselves, continuing to avoiding and recovering memories, opening wounds for live in their survivor modes. the sake of coherence. To accept the identity of a child survivor of the Holocaust Many child survivors are only now discovering themselves went against previous survival needs of hiding one’s and taking the last opportunities to tell their stories. The Jewishness. It required overcoming shame for being last living witnesses of the Holocaust, some visit their identified with a persecuted people, fear of being excluded places of persecution with their children and grandchildren. from normal community life and fear of a stigma of being They feel a special mission of bearing witness, of hoping damaged or abnormal. that the Holocaust will not be repeated. However, they are chagrined that genocides are continuing, that the Holocaust On the other hand, accepting the identity of child survivor is denied, and antisemitism is resurging. of the Holocaust was healing, promoting connection with other child survivors, a sense of siblinghood and belonging. In conclusion, child survivors are the last live witnesses It allowed a view of oneself as having been an innocent of the Holocaust. They also bear witness to the most victim and being proud of one’s survivorship. One’s identity traumatised population in history. Their post-Holocaust was of an ordinary and loving human being who had struggles inform about both post-traumatic consequences survived extraordinarily cruel circumstances. Identity also and resilience. Child survivors of the Holocaust did not allowed reconnection with the broader history of one’s want to be lessons to humanity, but their unique messages people and prewar culture. should be heard and heeded. Acknowledging oneself as a child survivor meant Dr Paul Valent is a psychiatrist and child survivor of the confronting one’s memories. Many experienced a hunger Holocaust. This is an edited version of a lecture given to the for memories, as if life depended on it. Many fleshed out Holocaust Centre Education Group in October 2014.

JHC Centre News 11 Escape from the Thessaloniki Ghetto Maria Curtis

In November, the Jewish Holocaust Centre held a function titled Keeping the Flame Alive, to honour Mr Yiannis Boutaris, Mayor of Thessaloniki for standing up against the Greek fascists. The event was attended by 250 people, including the Ambassador and Consul-General of Greece, state parliamentarians and representatives of the City of Glen Eira. The Mayor of Thessaloniki wore a yellow Star of David in recognition of the liquidation of the Jews of Thessaloniki at the mayoral swearing-in ceremony when re-elected mayor in September 2014. Before the Holocaust, Thessaloniki Jenny Mikakos MP, His Excellency Mr Charalampos Dafaranos, was home to 80,000 Jews. In 1943, under Nazi occupation, Ambassador of Greece and Mrs Evanthia Tourtsinaki some 60,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka and We were then forced into a ghetto and had to leave most Auschwitz, approximately 90% of whom were murdered. A of our belongings behind. The ghetto covered quite a number of Thessaloniki Jews were involved in resistance big area, but there were many people. We went to live acts both in the Warsaw Ghetto and in Auschwitz. with my uncle, as he had a big house. The ghetto was The function featured video testimony of Holocaust surrounded by barbed wire and was guarded by Germans survivor, Maria Curtis (formerly known as Rachael Seror), with machine guns. There were also Jewish police. who escaped the ghetto and was hidden by Greeks in Everybody just wandered around until it was one’s time to Thessaloniki. This is an edited transcript of her testimony. be transported out of the ghetto. was born in Salonika on 26 March 1923 to Israel Moshe I was in the ghetto for 16 or 18 days. A Greek friend came and Emma Seror. I had an older brother, Israel Moshe, to see me and said she would find a way for me to escape. and three younger sisters, Joya, Matika and Rekita. My The Nazis were transporting people out of the ghetto. One Ifather had his own business making tins for jam and he morning I kissed my parents, grandmother, brother and also owned his own shop. We went to Greek school where sisters and they left on a transport. My father wanted me we also learnt Hebrew. We had a good life, and I always to come with the rest of the family, but my uncle said that I used to sing at home. could go with him on the next transport. I went back to my uncle’s place and a couple of days later my friend returned to tell me that everything was organised. On the day of my escape, I told my uncle that a friend was coming to give me a parcel. I could have been shot if I had been found in the street, but I managed to get to a house that the Nazis could not see. The people who saved me had lifted some of the barbed wire fence from the bottom. I was scared, but I knew that I only had two choices – to die or to escape. So, with a beating heart I escaped. I was saved by Greek-Russian sisters whose father was an Orthodox priest. They helped many Jewish people and they were very good to me. I stayed at their house, and when people asked, they said I was their cousin. One day, however, someone must have said something, after which it was too dangerous to stay at their place. When it was (l-r) Maria Curtis, Yiannis Boutaris and Lola Putt dark, they took me to a house in a village – I don’t quite know where. From the verandah I could see many Jewish We lived in the centre of Salonika, near shops, cinemas people marching and my heart went to pieces. We did not know about concentration camps at that stage. and the Jewish hospital. We were proud to be Jewish and never had a problem until the Nazis arrived. In 1939 a My sister was sent to Auschwitz and had a number friend of my father’s told him to pack up and leave as there tattooed on her arm. She waited for me to arrive there on was going to be a war. However, my father did not want to the next transport, but others who arrived told her that I leave his business, so we stayed. had escaped from the ghetto. My father’s friend, Jacko, also told my father that I had escaped. At least they were When the Germans marched into Salonika, my father happy with that news. took our family to a little village away from the city, but all was quiet until 1943, so we returned home. We were After the Nazis left Greece and the war had ended, I tried then forced to wear the yellow Star of David. The Greek to find out who was alive. Suddenly a telegram arrived and government objected and the Greek people were also I found out that one of my sisters had survived. Finding opposed to it, but they were powerless to do anything, so that out was such joy! The rest of my family, however, had we all wore the yellow star. been murdered.

12 JHC Centre News how it affects people...’ Kitia’s stories reflect both the pre- war life of her middle-class family, and the depravity and Memories of brutality of the Nazi regime. She recounts the narratives with a keen sense of perception and also humour as she describes the foibles and follies of the townspeople. Ordinary People: Her story began in the small Polish town of Bedzin in Upper Silesia where Kitia experienced a comfortable and secure childhood. She was greatly loved by her parents, who were generous not only to their own family, but Revisiting also to others in need. She led a sheltered existence, but despite this, she found the strength and resourcefulness which helped her survive. Although Kitia was an obedient Kitia Altman’s child, she showed early on that she had a strong will and clear ideas about right and wrong. She had a strong sense of her own identity, illustrated by her decision to destroy a dress which she hated, but which her mother memoir and the insisted she wear. Her generosity of spirit was evident in her decision, when she could have gone into hiding with a Polish family, to insist that her niece Maroussia go in issues it raises her stead into the care of the Polish woman, Genia Pajak. Kitia refused to compromise her moral values when she rejected to spy on Israel Diamant, a co-worker in the uniform factory, at Freda Hodge the behest of a senior Jewish official who asked Kitia to become an informer. Despite threats to her safety, she refused to do so. n her memoir, Memories of After Kitia’s family was forcibly Ordinary People, Kitia Altman removed to the ghetto, she was greatly articulates her principles and disturbed by her growing awareness Iconcerns about important issues that the Nazis were destroying not only such as the ‘Righteous Gentiles’ and the physical lives of their victims, but their important contribution to Judeo- also compromising their moral values. Christian relationships, her dismay at They were brutalised by the Germans, the corruption of normal moral values but some Jews became brutal among the besieged Jews during the themselves in their attempts to survive. Second World War, the inversion of The Judenrat created a hierarchy the roles of parents and their children, among the Jewish population, which and the loss of the humanity of those led to corruption, envy and greed. Many terrorised by Nazi brutality. young people developed a distorted The book gives the reader a fascinating value system with regard to life and insight, not only into the daily lives death. Some deemed older people to be of other people, but into Kitia herself. dispensable and the young deserving Her observations and comments of life at all cost. The moral dilemma for about the behaviour of others and her own reactions all was how to maintain their humanity. In these horrific to her experiences demonstrate Kitia’s sharp mind circumstances, Kitia refused to compromise her own and keen perceptions. Her quick intelligence enables morality. her to understand the nuances of personality and the In her chaotic world Kitia found herself in the role of the implications of people’s behaviour. She says of her book provider and supporter of her parents. This role reversal that ‘...it was not an end. It was a beginning’. It was the affected both her and her parents very deeply. Her father beginning of a long process of healing during which was especially disturbed by his loss of authority, while Kitia confronted her own demons about the evil of which her mother became more and more dependent on Kitia, human beings are capable. However, she also recognised so much so that she declared that if Kitia were to accept the humanity and innate moral decency of those like the offers of help to escape, she would be signing the the German Alfred Rossner, who was in charge of the parents’ death warrant. However, Kitia’s survival skills garment factory in the ghetto where Kitia worked. He were quickly honed as she learned how to maintain life in saved hundreds of Jewish lives, eventually paying for the ghetto, in Auschwitz and under slave labour, despite his good deeds with his own life. For Kitia, it is of the being treated as a subhuman by the German overlords. utmost importance that non-Jews like Rossner and Genia Potowiak, the Polish woman who hid Kitia’s niece, be In ‘The Survivor’s Credo’, the last chapter in her book, recognised for their courage and deep sense of humanity. Kitia declares that her raison d’être, her purpose in life Kitia’s efforts enabled both to be honoured by Yad after surviving the horrors of the Holocaust, is to honour Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. the memory of the slaughtered Jews by recounting the story of the Holocaust, and striving ‘for a more humane In a note about the author at the beginning of the book, society’. Sophie Inwald writes that Kitia’s memories ‘are a window through which we can glimpse a lifestyle, traditions Memories of Ordinary People by Kitia Altman (Makor and family relations that have disappeared forever. The Jewish Community Library 2003) is available from the accounts are also a testimony to the brutality of war and Jewish Holocaust Centre library.

JHC Centre News 13 Genocide in Rwanda: historical overview and personal reflections Sue Hampel OAM

n 6 April 1994, a series of actions began that quickly turned into one of the 20th century’s greatest mass violations of human rights. Facing Oa political vacuum caused by the assassination of Rwanda’s Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, influential hardliners within Rwanda’s ruling party and the military orchestrated a takeover and declared war against the minority Tutsi population. For the next 100 days, bands of Hutu men and even some women swept across the country, killing and raping Tutsis. The violence was frighteningly swift, comprehensive and participatory. It was a horror that we should never forget. Sue Hampel with children in a Rwandan village In 1994, Rwanda’s population of approximately seven million was divided into three ethnic groups: Twa (1%), Hutu (85%) and Tutsi (14%). Before colonisation, Rwandans supporting the Tutsi elite to helping the Hutus rise from shared the same religion, ancestral stories, language subservience towards a new aspiring middle class. (Kinyarwandan), customs and clan names. The Twa When King Mutara III Rudahigwa died in July 1950 were pygmoids who lived as hunter-gatherers, the Hutu without any heirs, he was replaced by his younger brother, were peasants who cultivated the soil, while the Tutsi King Kigeli V, who proved incapable of providing real were pastoralists and cattle-herders. Intermarriage was leadership. At this time, more than 150,000 Tutsis fled to common. The Mwami (King) was the centre of a large Tanzania, Burundi, Zaire and Uganda. The makings of a court, whose authority was unquestioned. violent society were emerging as the seeds of genocide Although Rwanda was not always peaceful before the were being sown. arrival of the Europeans, there is no record of systematic From 1960, the Belgian colonial government began to violence between Hutu and Tutsi. replace most of the Tutsi chiefs with Hutus, while also In 1890 Britain and Germany divided up East Africa and launching the idea of self-government for Rwanda. The the Germans took over Rwanda, but after the First World first municipal elections were held and the Party for the War, the League of Nations handed control to Belgium. Emancipation of the Hutus (Parmehutu) led by Gregoire The Europeans perceived Hutus and Tutsis as racially, Kayibanda won the majority of votes. Rwanda became culturally and historically distinct and strengthened the independent on 1 July 1962 and Kayibanda became the rule of Tutsis. The Belgians rigidly codified Hutu and Tutsi first president. designations and, in the divide-and-rule tradition, made In 1973, a coup brought Hutu authoritarian Juvenal Tutsis the colonial favourites. Habyarimana to power, beginning a 20-year dictatorship. The Belgians believed that Tutsis were a good and noble Although Habyarimana brought peace and stability to race descended from the Egyptian Nilotic civilisation, Rwanda and conditions for the Tutsi improved slightly, while the Hutu were regarded as the offspring of Ham, trouble brewed beneath the surface. While Habyarimana cursed by God and destined to be slaves. As was typical projected a liberal image to attract foreign aid, his regime of imperial racial theorising, the mark of civilisation was was dominated by a select group of Hutus and ethnic grafted onto physiognomic difference, with generally the hatred against the Tutsis increased. Soon they were taller, supposedly more refined Tutsis destined to rule, and purged from universities and quotas were imposed the shorter, allegedly less refined Hutus to serve. In other on their employment in government and educational words, the European colonisers racialised the differences institutions. between the Hutu and Tutsi. In 1987 Rwandan exiles in Uganda formed the Rwandan The Belgian reforms of 1926-1931 created a ‘modern’ Patriotic Front (RPF). Three years later, the RPF launched centralised, efficient, neo-traditionalist and Catholic a military invasion of Rwanda. This military conflict Rwanda. After the Second World War, Belgian policies exacerbated the economic crisis in Rwanda and led to shifted radically to favour the less educated Hutu majority, a growing climate of fear among Hutus that the Tutsi unleashing pent-up Hutu frustrations and leading to the rebels would massacre them. Between 1990 and 1993, a first proto-genocidal massacres of the Tutsis. Many Tutsis series of mini pogroms against the Tutsi took place and fled to neighbouring Zaire, Tanzania and Uganda. exterminationist propaganda became commonplace. In By 1951, there were as many black Rwandan – almost December 1990, the Hutu extremist paper, Kangura, issued exclusively Tutsi – priests as white clergy. At the same the infamous Hutu Ten Commandments. In August 1993, time, the Tutsi increasingly challenged the colonial the radio station RTML (Radio Television Libres des Milles order. Consequently, the church gradually shifted from Collines) began broadcasting.

14 JHC Centre News Propaganda and militia killings reached a peak precisely massacred that day. Charles was one of only three known when the Habyarimana regime was being pressured by survivors. He was eight years old and hiding in the church the international community to implement multi-party with his parents and siblings when the killing began. Here democracy and seek peace with the RPF. The Arusha Charles explains how his older brother saved his life: Peace Accords guaranteed free elections. The UN We had locked the door to prevent the Interahamwe Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), under the from entering the church. The Interahamwe used command of Lieutenant-General Romeo Dellaire and sledgehammers to break open holes in the walls and comprising some 2,500 foreign peacekeepers, arrived to they threw grenades into the church through these monitor the ceasefire. open holes. They took pregnant women to the church Hutu extremists responded to the Arusha Accords by altar and sliced open their bellies. The horrors didn’t importing hundreds of thousands of machetes, the stop. They smashed children’s heads against the walls. weapon that would become the symbol of the Rwanda People were begging to pay for bullets instead of being genocide. hacked to death by machete. My brother had been mortally wounded and he saw that I was uninjured. He At 8.30pm on 6 April 1994, the plane carrying President told me to pretend I was dead and he lay on top of me Habyarimana was shot down as it neared Kigali airport. and covered me with his blood. I fell into a deep sleep Just over an hour later, roadblocks were erected. The and when I woke up many hours later in a pool of blood, following day, working from carefully prepared lists, I was the only person alive in the church. I climbed over soldiers and Interahamwe (militia) began murdering the bodies and realised I needed to find a hiding place. thousands of Tutsis and oppositionist Hutus. Ten Belgian I went to the swamp where I hid for many many days peacekeepers protecting the moderate Prime Minister until I was finally rescued. This is my story. I come to Agathe Uwilingiyimana were tortured and then murdered, this church every day to remember my story and to tell along with Uwilingiyimana, prompting Belgium to people who visit this church. withdraw its remaining forces from Rwanda. Despite heated protests from UNAMIR commander Lieutenant- I was deeply affected by General Dellaire, other countries followed and Rwanda Charles’s story, which still descended into chaos. haunts me today. I cannot forget the dusty smell of By 4 July, the RPF soldiers regained control over Kigali and the Nyamata church with the genocide was over. its skulls and the bloody *** rags of those who were Seeking the trail of remembrance has taken me on many murdered, and blood journeys, but Rwanda will stay in my heart forever. As we smears where infants were know, Jews were victims of the Holocaust, but the lessons smashed against the walls. from our tragedy apply to all of humanity. I have been to I promised Charles that I Rwanda twice and have seen that the words ‘never again’ would remember his story were meaningless there as, 20 years ago, over 800,000 and honour both the victims Tutsi were killed in a genocide that raged for 100 days. And and survivors of this terrible unlike most Jewish survivors who left war-torn Europe to Charles atrocity. start a new life elsewhere, Rwandans still live alongside In rural Rwanda, I also visited a remarkable place that the perpetrators of their massacre. takes in young orphans of the genocide. It is called the In Rwanda I spoke to many genocide survivors. They Agahozo Shalom Youth Village. It is a place of hope, where wanted us to know what happened while the world sat by ‘tears are dried’ (agahozo in Kinyarwandan) and where the and watched the massacre unfold. Their stories have left aim is to live in peace (shalom in Hebrew). It was founded an indelible imprint on my heart and in my mind. by the late Anne Heyman, a South African-born lawyer and philanthropist who lived in New York. After Anne Nyamata is a village approximately 35 kilometres from learned in 2005 that the Rwandan genocide had orphaned the capital, Kigali. When the genocide began, many 1.2 million children, she saw a glimpse of salvation in residents of the region gathered to seek the protection the experience of Israel. When there was a large influx of the Catholic Church, which was regarded as a place of of orphans from the Holocaust, Israel built residential refuge the militia would not dare to attack. However, on 10 youth villages. Anne used the Yemin Orde Youth Village April 1994, the killers entered the church with their rifles, as a model for the Rwandan project. She raised money grenades and machetes and violated the ancient precept to acquire land and build a village of 32 houses for 500 of holy sanctuary. Approximately 10,000 civilians were teenagers. The ultimate goal of the Agahozo Shalom project is to equip young people who have lived through trauma to become healthy, self-sufficient and engaged in the rebuilding of their nation. *** April 2014 was the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Since then, this tiny East African nation has rebounded – the Kagame government has advanced women’s rights, the economy is surging, poverty has declined and life expectancy has increased. It is my fervent hope that the words ‘never again’ will become an enduring reality, not only in Rwanda, but for our common humanity. Sue Hampel OAM teaches Holocaust, Genocide and Post- conflict Studies at Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and is Vice President of the Jewish Aaron Densham with a youth from Agahozo Shalom Holocaust Centre.

JHC Centre News 15 Facing the past

Late last year, the Jewish Holocaust Centre’s 30th anniversary year, the Centre presented a photographic exhibition titled Facing the Past. Photographed in black and white by Simon Shiff, the exhibition captured images of the 36 survivor volunteers currently working at the Centre. The artist wanted his photographs to capture the survivors’ powerful stories and personal strengths, honouring their quiet dignity and resilience in the face of tragic memories. These are some of the portraits from the exhibition.

Freda Schweitzer

Joe de Haan

Lusia Haberfeld

Jack Fogel

Paul Grinwald

16 JHC Centre News John Chaskiel

Floris Kalman

Maria Scheinfeld

Kitia Altman

Rona Zinger

John Lamovie

JHC Centre News 17 The consequences of the Nazi policy of confiscating Jewish-owned artworks: a Melbourne connection Olaf Ossman

t my first meeting with a sold in 1937 without any ‘cash-inflow’ woman called Mrs Kaufmann to Semmel. in Johannesburg in 1991, When everything was sold, the tax she showed me two photos. A authorities ceased the procedures they One was a passport photo of Richard had been taking against him despite Semmel taken before he left Europe; having no proof of any wrongdoing the other showed him with Grete Gross, Mrs Kaufmann’s mother. The second on his part. On 25 November 1937, photo was taken in Central Park, New the authorities sent Semmel an York in 1945. Both Mrs Kaufmann and Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung Richard Semmel had escaped Nazi (clearance certificate), did not pay Germany, had known each other, but anything back to him and closed had never seen each other again. Later, the file. In 1938 Semmel also Mrs Kaufmann showed me a photo had to pay 179,800 Reichsmark of Semmel’s former villa in Berlin, Judenvermögensabgabe (Jewish which we know from its sale in recent property levy) and an additional years, was of huge dimensions. Mrs 204,975 Reichsmark Reichsfluchtsteuer Kaufmann told me that Mr Semmel had (tax on flight from the Reich), which he built this villa exclusively to house his was no longer able to pay. ‘babies’ – his art collection. Photos we In 1940, Richard Semmel and his wife found later of the interior of the villa left the Netherlands to immigrate first gave us an impression of what this Richard Semmel to Chile, the only possible place for collection had been. Mrs Kaufmann which they could obtain a visa. The also gave me some general information Semmels went to the United States in 1941, where they about Mr Semmel. lived in destitution. Mrs Semmel died in 1945; Richard Richard Semmel was born on 15 September 1875 died in 1950. Mrs Gross had cared for Richard after his in Zobten, Silesia, and lived in wife’s death. She and Richard’s Berlin, where he owned the Arthur friends paid for his hospital bills and Samulon & Co factory. According funeral. He left his estate to Grete to pre-1933 tax documents, we Gross. Her daughter, Mrs Kaufman, know that his yearly income was then inherited the estate. above 100,000 Reichsmark. As In 1991, under instructions from well as manufacturing textiles, he Mrs Kaufmann, I submitted a claim was a passionate art collector who for Mr Semmel’s factory. This kept amassed a valuable collection. Until me busy until 21 November 2001 April 1933, he lived with his wife when a German court granted in his mansion in Berlin-Dahlem. compensation. They had no children. Semmel was Jewish, a member of the German Aside from the photos, Mrs Democratic Party and, in his own Kaufmann was not able to provide words, a ‘strong supporter of me with any documentation in democracy’. regard to Semmel’s other assets, so I began with a search of the When the Nazis came to power, press to find out if Semmel had Semmel sustained huge financial been mentioned in newspapers of losses and fled to the Netherlands, his time. I only found one article in where his brother lived, to avoid which the Chamber of Commerce imprisonment. Step by step, he congratulated him on his 50th was forced to sell all his property, birthday. I subsequently found some including his valuable art collection. material about his factory, including In 1934, his Berlin villa was sold old registration files. His factory had under market value. His real estate more than 1,000 employees. and the factory came under forced Invitation from Richard and Clare Semmel ‘Aryan’ administration and were with a photo of their villa Our next step was to search German

18 JHC Centre News archives systematically. As a result, we found 92 references to Semmel. These references included tax files and compensation files from after the Second World War, files about the withdrawal of all financial accusations in 1938, some material about Semmel’s immigration to the United States and some correspondence with his lawyer in Amsterdam. However, we found no reference to his former art collection or details of its whereabouts in any of the documents. The first reference to the ‘Semmel Collection’ appeared in the 1930 edition of the art magazine Pantheon, where the collection was described for the first time. This reference From the time we saw this document, our research team then lead us to a publication that described an exhibition and the NGV began to connect the information from at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum Berlin in 1925. all available sources, including auction catalogues and documentation of exhibitions. Finally we were able to complete and correct the provenance. We found that after the auction in June 1933, the painting was lodged with the Gallery Guy Stein in Paris and was subsequently purchased by Eccles, London, in 1935. From 1939 it was in the collection of Lieutenant Colonel Victor Alexander Cazalet (1896–1943), MP for Cranbrook, Kent and London. It was exhibited at the Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art in Melbourne in 1939, on loan from Cazalet. The painting remained in Australia and was purchased using funds from the NGV’s Felton Bequest in 1940. It is now at the National Gallery of (958-4) in Melbourne. While we were investigating the painting’s provenance for the NGV, the press had made the connection between the painting and the claims of Semmel’s heirs in the Netherlands, revealing the identity of ‘Mr S from Berlin’. In December 2013 we were able to provide the NGV with an expert report with the following contents:

Richard Semmel’s factory

It became clear that Semmel’s collection consisted of two parts: Old Dutch and Italian masters, and modern art. After further research we eventually came across two auction catalogues from Frederick Muller & Cie in 1933, one from June and the other from November. Here we found almost half of the original 120 paintings that From here it took the NGV only five months to come to a belonged to the collection. With this information a team decision to acknowledge Richard Semmel as the rightful of specialists began to investigate the destiny of each owner of the painting. The painting, which had been of the paintings in these catalogues and also, where withdrawn from public view during the negotiations, is possible, the destiny of the paintings not sold at these now back on display at the NGV for another year under a auctions. This investigation is still in progress. loan agreement. One of the paintings in the June 1933 catalogue, lot 17, With the acknowledgement of Richard Semmel as the was ‘Portrait of a Man’, attributed to Vincent van Gogh. owner of ‘Portrait of a Man’, we were able to add another The 1930 Pantheon mentioned that the painting was from piece to our puzzle of what had become of the Richard the time van Gogh spent in Paris. No other information Semmel art collection. about this painting appeared until a summary report of the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam was published by Olaf Ossmann is a Swiss-based lawyer specialising in the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). It came to our international law and restitution of art works. He spoke at knowledge in 2013. Here is what it stated: the Jewish Holocaust Centre in October 2014.

JHC Centre News 19 Remembering Kristallnacht: a personal perspective Ellen Suss

In November 2014 the Jewish Many German people today do remember the Kristallnacht Holocaust Centre held the pogrom on the night of 9-10 November 1938. In several Betty and Shmuel Rosenkranz German cities where the Nazis and local citizens destroyed Oration. The Oration is held the synagogues, vandalised Jewish shops and even killed annually to honour Shmuel Jewish people there are commemorations and marches and his late wife, Betty, for their every year on 9 November. In 2008, for the 70th anniversary outstanding contribution to the of Kristallnacht, I participated in a commemoration weekend Jewish Holocaust Centre and in Munich with nearly 1,000 Germans, including community to the wider Jewish community and church officials and a delegation from Israel. generally. Speakers at this year’s oration, commemorating the 76th In 2002 in Freiburg, where I lived before moving to Israel, Ellen Suss anniversary of Kristallnacht, were some neo-Nazis demanded the right to hold a march. His Excellency Shmuel Ben Shmuel, Ambassador of Israel Because Germany is a democratic state, the mayor had to to Australia and Ellen Suss, a volunteer guide at the Jewish allow the march to go ahead. However, on the appointed Holocaust Centre. This is an edited version of Ellen’s day, thousands of citizens went to the railway station to address. meet the neo-Nazis when they arrived and prevented them from entering the city. One elderly German man said to me: have a German non-Jewish background and I work as ‘I was too young to understand and help when I saw the a guide at the Jewish Holocaust Centre museum. It is synagogue burning in 1938, but now I’m standing so that it my privilege to work with the will not happen again.’ survivors and to try to convey a As a school teacher in Freiburg I took messageI to young Australians – not to let atrocities like the Holocaust students to Israel where we had the happen again. privilege of participating in a Yom HaShoah commemoration with When I was 13, my father, who our partner school in Jerusalem. belongs to the immediate post-war We showed the Israeli students generation in Germany, took me pictures of memorial sites in Freiburg to see the concentration camp at commemorating the deportation and Dachau. There and in the following murder of the Jews of Freiburg, to let years I wished to meet Jewish people them know that the Shoah has not to tell them how sorry I felt for what been forgotten. my nation had done to them. I have personally visited Westerbork During my secondary school (l-r) Abram Goldberg OAM and Shmuel Rosenkranz in Holland, Sachsenhausen, education in the 1980s we learnt much Buchenwald, Dachau, Babi Yar and about the Shoah in the different subjects we studied. The Auschwitz. There, at Auschwitz, when stopping at the death underlying tone from our teachers was always, ‘look what wall, I realised that for some time I had had a melody in we have done – never again!’ mind, and that the song was Am Yisrael Chai (The people of Israel lives). Thank you for giving me the opportunity to emphasise that my generation of Germans is very sorry for the atrocities I, together with many of my generation, would like to ask committed against Holocaust survivors, their families and you for forgiveness for what our people did to you 70 years the Jewish people. ago. And I would like to declare Am Yisrael Chai! Recognising the contribution of Rosa Krakowski

Members of Melbourne’s Jewish community who give of their time unstintingly to the community were recently recognised in the annual JCCV Community Recognition Awards. The Jewish Holocaust Centre congratulates Rosa Krakowski who was recognised for her work as a survivor guide at the Centre. Rosa Krakowski and Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld AM OBE

20 JHC Centre News As far away as possible: Melbourne Holocaust survivors tell their stories Hannah Miska

ack in 2006, strolling in Elsternwick, I stumbled influence on détente and peace in Europe. across the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC). Until Genscher stresses the importance of this book. ‘The voices then, although I was living in Melbourne, I had not of witnesses will be silent soon, and only historians will heard of the organisation that would lead to the B be able to talk about the worst crime in human history: publication of my book eight years later. the genocide of the Jews. Therefore, it is so important On my first visit to the JHC museum I met survivor guide to listen to the living today.’ He continues: ‘Seventy Stephanie Heller. Stephanie was the first Holocaust years after the end of the Second World War, there is a survivor I had met and our conversation left such a temptation to put the horrific past aside, but we must deep impression that a few months later I found myself not give in. The past should be kept alive as a constant working as a volunteer alongside curator Jayne Josem. reminder that democracy is a precious I continued to work at the Centre until asset that has to be actively formed by I left Melbourne to return to Germany all citizens in order to maintain it. This in March 2010. During this time, I had is the message especially for the young the opportunity to speak to many of the generation. The survivors’ memories survivors, and fairly quickly formed the show how important tolerance, dialogue idea of collecting their biographies into and the courage to stand up for one’s a book. I interviewed about 30 survivors beliefs are in an increasingly diversified and wrote down their horrendous tales of society. Without knowing the past we persecution. do not understand the problems of the It was not easy to find a publisher, either present, and we will not be able to take in Australia or in Germany. Eventually, responsibility for the future.’ however, my efforts paid off and The book launch will be held in May 2015 Mitteldeutscher Verlag, a well-known at Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered and reputable German publishing house, Jews of Europe, with speeches to be showed interest and published the book delivered by Hans-Dietrich Genscher in August 2014. Its title is So weit wie and Uwe Neumärker, Director of the möglich weg von hier. Von Europa nach Hannah Miska Memorial. In the meantime, I have been Melbourne – Holocaust-Überlebende invited to do several readings, in churches, museums, erzählen. (As far away as possible. From Europe to libraries, book shops and at United Nations Holocaust Melbourne – Holocaust survivors tell their stories.) Memorial Day in Halle, northern Germany. In Halle Owing to the enormous volume of material, only 17 the State Home Secretary of Sachsen-Anhalt gave an biographies found their way into the book, grouped introductory speech and the event was attended by 140 in 12 chapters, each beginning with a brief summary people. My publisher has also invited me to read at the of a particular aspect of the Holocaust in Germany, Leipzig book fair, one of the two major book fairs in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium, Lithuania and Hungary. Germany. Interest has been very positive, even in the The survivors talk about ghettos, labour, concentration very conservative area of Bavaria in which I live, where and death camps, about their survival in hiding or under a a considerable number of people would prefer to forget false identity, about medical experiments in Auschwitz and rather than remember. about death marches, but also about Jewish resistance Again, I would like to thank and rescuers of Jews. Each of these topics became the all those survivors I met at feature of the historical summaries. the JHC who were willing to The foreword was written by Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the talk to me about their lives. I former long-standing German Minister of Foreign Affairs never took their time, effort who was very influential in building an active policy of and commitment for granted détente, and who played a major role in uniting Europe and I was always aware that and re-uniting East and West Germany. Aged 87, he is the interviews would touch on still politically active, and honoured and respected by the traumatic experiences in their vast majority of Germans. As an 18-year-old in early 1945, past. My thanks also to the JHC he was drafted into the German army to defend Berlin, for their unwavering support and was lucky enough to survive the war, because, so he and for access to the library writes, the army general decided to disobey Hitler’s orders and precious documents in the and to lead his 80,000 soldiers out of Berlin. Germany was Centre’s collection. destroyed, but the war was over and a new era lay ahead, The book is only available in the young Genscher thought. And in him grew the will to German from Amazon Germany help to build a new Germany that was to become a stable at www.amazon.de.

JHC Centre News 21 Roman Talikowski: Righteous Among the Nations

n November 2014, the Israeli atrocities. When he and so many embassy hosted a ceremony others were surrounded by hatred in Canberra to honour the late and evil, Roman showed love and IRoman Talikowski, a Polish compassion. He had the conviction Catholic cloth merchant who risked to act upon what he knew was right,’ his life to save Jews from the Warsaw he said. Ghetto. Mr Talikowski has been Jewish Holocaust Centre President recognised by Yad Vashem and the Pauline Rockman, who attended the State of Israel as a Righteous Among ceremony, stressed the importance the Nations, the highest award of acknowledging the actions of bestowed upon non-Jews for bravery those who rescued others despite the in helping Jews during the Holocaust. Photo: Embassy of Israel in Australia risk to themselves. Speaking of the Mr Talikowski’s son, Jack, accepted (l-r) Jack Talikowski and His Excellency Shmuel Righteous Among the Nations she the award on behalf of his father. Ben-Shmuel, Israeli Ambassador to Australia. said, ‘The recipients of such honours Roman Talikowski regularly risked his are ordinary people – unpretentious, life to smuggle food and money into the Warsaw Ghetto, regular folk. But what is remarkable about them – what as well as helping Jews in the ghetto to escape with false distinguishes them from countless others – is their papers to safe houses. inordinate compassion, their generosity of spirit and their ability to acknowledge the dignity of all human In her video message, Holocaust survivor Joasia beings irrespective of race, creed or colour. They risked Przygoda, who was a baby in the ghetto, told of being their lives and the lives of family members to save Jews drugged, concealed in a bag and smuggled out of the from the scourge of the Nazis. Holocaust survivor, author ghetto by her father. Mr Talikowski helped by bribing and Nobel Peace Laureate, Eli Wiesel, refers to the guards at Nazi checkpoints and then organising a hiding Righteous as “upstanders”, distinguishing them from place for Joasia outside the ghetto. the “bystanders” who stood silently while the victims of The Israeli Ambassador, His Excellency Mr Shmuel Ben- the Nazis and their henchmen embarked on a genocide Shmuel said Talikowski showed the best of humanity unprecedented in the annals of history. For them the when the worst qualities of mankind had consumed axiom of our ancient rabbis – that “whoever saves a life, his society. ‘He found courage when others were it is considered as if he saved an entire world” – it is not paralysed by fear and made a stand against violence and simply an aphorism. It is an absolute truth.’

22 JHC Centre News BOOK REVIEW

explained. However, when Germany invaded Hungary, Gazing at the the children returned, except for six-year-old Judith who was deported and died in Stars Auschwitz. In the late spring of 1944, Papa Weiss again sent his children into hiding, this time By Eva Slonim in pairs. Eva and her younger sister Marta, using false papers, went to live in an apartment in Nitra. She was twelve years old; her sister was ten. Farewelling his Reviewed by Elaine Davidoff children, their grief-stricken Papa said, ‘Remember, the same stars will shine over hen guiding school students through the you as over Mutti and me…. museum at the Jewish Holocaust Centre, just look at the stars, speak to them… I also will look at I ask the students to look at the pictures the stars, and I’ll try my best to answer.’ Wof children who were held under Nazi rule and to choose one they would like to know more about. In Nitra, Eva endured constant harassment and brutality Invariably, they choose the picture of children standing at at the hands of Gombarik, the head of the Hlinka Guard, a barbed wire fence, looking out. who was obsessed with proving that the girls were Jewish. He relentlessly pursued them, until he finally put I explain that the children have just been liberated at Eva and Marta on the train to Sered and ultimately to Auschwitz and ask what they imagine the children might Auschwitz. be feeling. They respond, ‘They’ve lost everything’; ‘they look hopeless.’ All these descriptors are possibly correct, From 3 November 1944 until the war ended, Eva and but on reading Eva (nee Weiss) Slonim’s book, Gazing at Marta endured the horror of Auschwitz-Birkenau, initially the Stars, it was revealing to finally hear the words of one in the Toddlers Barracks and then in Mengele’s Twins’ of those children in that picture: ‘Liberated by Russian Barracks. Mengele ‘mistakenly took us for twins. To be soldiers in late January 1945,’ Eva writes, ‘we stood a twin at Auschwitz meant to stay alive, but at a cost… there in the snow, suddenly free… what was left was an we suffered there, alone, without our parents, in the insatiable emptiness. A hunger, in body and soul.’ middle of a waking hell.’ Yet, she continues, ‘we were In Gazing at the Stars, Eva recounts her harrowing desperate to live. I used to look up at the stars every journey from a comfortable, loving, Jewish life on night, searching for guidance from my parents. It gave Palisady Ulica in Bratislava to Auschwitz, and then back me hope.’ to Bratislava. In late January 1945, the notorious death marches began. In March 1939, the Hlinka Guard, the Slovak counterparts Eva was too ill to march and remained in the prison of the SS, entered the Weiss family’s life. ‘During that first hospital until Russian soldiers liberated the camp. Eva week, I saw Pres Opapa beaten, Papa arrested and Mutti and Marta then began their long, frightening journey a changed woman. It was during this week that I ceased back to Bratislava. Eva’s account of the journey home is to be a child; I lost my innocence forever… nothing would astonishing – two young girls alone in an often-hostile be simple or calm or easy ever again.’ world. Finally, upon reaching home, despite the joy of reunion, further tragedy awaited them. In 1941, Eva was sent by her parents to look after her elderly widowed grandmother and paternal We live in times where we are encouraged to express our grandparents. Her father, meanwhile, had organised emotions, so it seems almost unimaginable that when hiding places for all his children in case of deportation. Eva and her family were reunited, ‘No-one spoke of the Despite terrifying incidents where it was necessary to nightmare we had all survived. Although united, we hide, the family managed to escape deportation for a few were still alone…. It was (all) unspeakable at this stage. years. Writing of many family members and friends, ‘we Unutterable. But the silence resolved nothing; it only never heard from them again’ is a constant refrain in the made things worse. Something had been broken that early chapters. would never be repaired.’ In 1943 Eva had to have her tonsils removed. In hospital, Ultimately though, Eva did speak. Sharing the memories she was confronted by the cruelty of nurses who handed that accompany her daily, she feels it is incumbent on the Jewish doctor a blunt needle saying, ‘So what? She is her and her fellow survivors to recount the tragedy that Jewish’, and then forcing her to ‘wash off that blood and unfolded in Europe. get out’. This cruelty foreshadows what lies ahead. Eva’s voice in Gazing at the Stars is unique, rendered In March 1944, Papa and Mutti Weiss sent all their with a particular clarity. Using sparse, pared back prose, children away from Bratislava, with the exception of she tells of unimaginable horror. One has to constantly Eva. ‘You are the oldest daughter and you do not look remind oneself that these are the experiences of a mere Jewish. You must help us here in Bratislava,’ they child. Eva’s account is one that demands our attention.

23 JHC Centre News Exploitation of the Holocaust

Chris Dargan

he subject of the Holocaust carries a fair amount now doing to the evangelical Christians. It’s no different. of emotional weight. Mention only has to be It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is made of comparison to the Holocaust to arouse the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and T intense emotions in the listeners. For that the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. very reason such mention can be used to manipulate Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst the listeners against whatever is being compared to bigotry directed toward any group in America today. the Holocaust. It comes as no surprise therefore that More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in various groups have tried to foster this visceral emotional history.’ reaction to gain the support of their audience. Even the use of the term the ‘Silent Holocaust’ by Right to Life groups and Youtube evangelists such as Ray respected US spiritual leader, Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, Comfort have often compared the Holocaust to abortion has attracted criticism. Rabbi Buchwald has referred to in order to manipulate their audiences emotionally. Jewish assimilation as the Silent Holocaust. This, it is For example, ‘Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust’, a argued, is a valid comparison with the Holocaust because Right to Life group, has been quoted as declaring that assimilation is the leading cause of the reduction in it is ‘engaged in a battle to end America’s genocide’, western societies of Jewish populations. Adam Keller, while Ray Comfort has gone so far as to create an editor of The Other Israel, whose parents barely escaped entire documentary – 180 – whose only argument is with their lives during the Holocaust while many of their that of moral equivalency by comparing abortion to the relatives perished, argues that there is no equivalent Holocaust. between assimilation, which is based on choice, and systematic genocide. Such a moral equivalence-based argument is invalid at best and manipulative at worst. The B’nai B’rith Anti- Why should we care about the Holocaust being exploited Defamation League (ADL) has deplored such arguments in this fashion? I would argue that when an argument of as ‘cynical and perverse’ while the national director of the moral equivalence is made between the Holocaust and ADL, Abraham H Foxman, has criticised Ray Comfort’s the cause of the moment then the Holocaust is trivialised. film, stating that ‘this film is a perverse attempt to make A former Israeli Education Minister expressed it pithily. a case against abortion in America through the cynical Such comparisons, he wrote, are ‘an insult to, and abuse of the memory of those killed in the Holocaust.’ desecration of the Holocaust victims’ memory’. Pat Robertson, a US host of the Religious Right television Chris Dargan works as a volunteer in the show 700 Club, has written that the treatment meted out Jewish Holocaust Centre library. to conservative Christians in the US is equivalent to the Holocaust. Robertson stated in an interview that ‘just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is

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 Phillip Maisel. Phone: (03) 9528 1985 or email: [email protected]

24 JHC Centre News JHC Centre News 24 Genocide in the shadows: engaging with the Darfur Australia Network Adam Brown

ver the years, the JHC (Jewish Holocaust The powerful imagery of both films, which include Centre) Film Club has been privileged to drawings of atrocities by children too young to have to learn from stories of genocides other than the know of such things (much less witness them firsthand), O Holocaust. Yet while these stories are different, and the moving accounts of survivors both on-screen and the traumatic memories of survivors of genocides other in person, made for a very special experience. Given that than the Holocaust also share important similarities to the any description I could offer would only be very poorly Jewish experience: they are memories of loss, of injustice, rendered in words, it is more fitting to transcribe a short and of hope. In November 2013, two survivors of the passage spoken by Eltayeb Ali. Born in 1977, Eltayeb Cambodian genocide – Nath In and Sophie Teng-Purvis attended university in Khartoum and obtained a Bachelor – provided a moving close to the year’s film screening of Accounting degree, before returning to his hometown events when they spoke to the Film Club’s audience of Tawila to serve as a volunteer teacher. Speaking of his about their experiences under Pol Pot and the atrocities subsequent experiences, Eltayeb said: of the Khmer Rouge. The film shown that night was a My life changed when the Janjaweed and the 2009 documentary called Enemies of the People, which Sudanese government attacked the town. During explores the motivations and behaviours of perpetrators this time, they killed many people, raped many of genocide, and highlights the ongoing and unresolved women… they burnt houses, and stole many issues that follow mass murder. More recently, in May things. And we were forced to flee our home 2014, a screening of the documentary Sand and Sorrow and live in Internally Displaced Persons camps focused on the genocide in Darfur – a genocide that has for many years. Afterwards I decided to go to overwhelmingly remained in the shadows of western Khartoum to study, but in Khartoum I faced many consciousness. problems because the government attacked the people who came from Darfur… So I was forced to leave because of this discrimination and I feared for myself. I found help from one of my relatives in Khartoum and he got me a visa to go to . I stayed there, in Indonesia, for two months, but it was very hard… because of language barriers and I was alone with no support. Eltayeb left for , where he registered as a refugee under the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) program. Yet here Eltayeb experienced further racial discrimination. Returning to Indonesia, Eltayeb boarded a boat for Australia. The boat was intercepted by the Navy, and Eltayeb was interned for some time in a detention centre in Darwin. He now lives in Melbourne. Ironically, Eltayeb, who escaped genocide to arrive in Australia by boat a few years ago, may not have been able to do so under the Australian Government’s current policy of ‘turn back the boats’, revealing that the implications (l-r) Guna Subramaniam, Eltayeb Ali, and Mohamed Khalil of local actions can be entwined with catastrophic (even genocidal) events that occur on the other side of the Subject to an attitude best summed up as ‘out of sight, globe. Yet at the film screening, Eltayeb did not dwell on out of mind’, the ever-shifting attention of a frantic 24/7 this aspect of his story, preferring to draw attention to news cycle implicitly positions the continued suffering of the continuing crisis in Darfur, where according to recent countless civilians as ‘yesterday’s news’. Sand and Sorrow United Nations estimates, more than 320,000 more people was first released in 2007, although as Guna Subramaniam have been displaced this year alone. As Eltayeb noted, – one of the speakers who visited the JHC Film Club – ‘This number is as bad as when the war was at its peak in said, the film is just as relevant now, because for so many 2003 and 2005. Sadly, most of those people are children.’ people remaining in Darfur the situation is just as tenuous Widespread violence continues to be perpetrated by as it was during the peak of the violence. Mr Subramaniam militia units that are often made up of former Janjaweed was joined on the evening of the screening by two members. People continue to suffer. The west continues to survivors of the genocide, Eltayeb Ali and Mohamed refuse to see. Khalil, who spoke to the Film Club’s audience, which For further information or to support the Darfur Australia included a number of volunteers of the Darfur Australia Network, please visit http://www.darfuraustralia.org/ Network (DAN). Part of a new documentary being made by Mr Subramaniam in collaboration with various members Please visit the Jewish Holocaust Centre website jhc. of the local Sudanese community was also screened on org.au or phone the Centre on (03) 9528 1985 for further the night. information about the JHC Film Club.

JHC Centre News 25 JHC Social Club Barbara Sacks

(l-r) Saba Feniger and Genia Janover

he monthly meeting of the Jewish Holocaust Dr Dvir Abramovich, who Centre (JHC) Social Club continues to be a spoke about ‘Old Poisons highlight for Holocaust survivors, volunteers and in New Bottles: The New Tguides, and their friends. Over the past months Antisemitism and the War we have had a variety of informative and entertaining Against Israel’, is chair speakers who always ask interesting questions and of The B’nai B’rith Anti- generate animated discussions. Defamation Commission, the Israel Kipen Lecturer Jamie Hyams is a senior policy analyst at the Australia/ in Hebrew Studies and Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, (AIJAC), the premier Director of the Program public affairs organisation for the Australian Jewish in Jewish Culture community. He is also a councillor on the Glen Eira and Society at The City Council and was Mayor in 2012 and again in 2013. University of Melbourne. Involved in his work in analysing and monitoring Dr Abramovich is well developments in the Middle East, Asia and Australia, Dr Dvir Abramovich qualified to speak about Jamie gave a stimulating address on ‘The Middle East in recent developments, Turmoil: An Analysis’. both in Australia and overseas. His address generated Another guest was so much discussion that he has promised to come back Raphael Aron, Director, again to address us. Cult Consulting Australia, Bram Presser, a lawyer, who spoke about ‘Jewish writer, musician and Drama in Real Life: community activist, Drawing Inspiration from spoke about ‘In search of Adversity’. Active in this the Talmudkommando’, field for over 30 years, the the nickname given author of five books, an to a small group advisor to government of distinguished and an expert witness Jewish scholars in to the judicial system in the Theresienstadt Australia and overseas, Concentration Camp, Raphael is an outstanding hand picked by the Nazis Raphael Aron communicator who gave to catalogue the precious us his unique insights books stolen from around into a range of socially relevant subjects. Bram Presser occupied Europe.

Genia Janover, who is the daughter of Holocaust The club is gaining in survivors, served as principal of for popularity and we are now attracting between 60 and 70 20 years. Since retiring from Bialik, Genia has been people regularly. All are welcome to join us for bagels appointed to the boards of several leading schools and coffee, and for stimulating and lively discussion. and has received numerous prestigious awards for We meet monthly on Thursday mornings at the Jewish her contribution to Jewish education. State-of-the-art Holocaust Centre. facilities, cutting-edge educational programs and an exponential growth in enrolments marked her time at For further information about the JHC Social Club, please Bialik, and Genia gave a fascinating glimpse into her contact Barbara Sacks on 0404 224 498. stellar career in her address titled ’45 Years of Jewish Education: My Personal Journey’.

26 JHC Centre News FRIENDS Student creates Friends of the artwork inspired by meeting a Jewish Holocaust survivor Holocaust Centre Goldie Birch

he Friends of the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) played an important role in ensuring the success of the Centre’s 30th anniversary gala dinner held T in May. Our members invited their friends to make up tables, the Friends Committee assisted with decorating tables and welcoming guests on the night and, at the conclusion of the official proceedings, we collected pledge forms for the appeal. We are delighted that the evening was so successful, both socially and financially. In June, Friends presented a special film screening of Grace of Monaco at the Classic Cinemas, with the funds raised going to the Jewish Holocaust Centre. On behalf of the Friends of the JHC, I I hope you had a very happy and healthy Pesach.

(l-r) Moshe Fiszman, Kyle Morrish, Irma Hanner, Willy Lermer and Joe De Haan

Become a Friend of the Kyle Morrish, a Year 10 student at Cheltenham Secondary College, visited the Jewish Holocaust Jewish Holocaust Centre. Centre in August last year. The visit inspired him to create a sculpture, which he presented to the Centre in Support the activities December. In Kyle’s words: In August 2014 I visited the Jewish Holocaust Centre of the Centre. and I was honoured to speak with a Holocaust survivor. The visit had a profound impact on me. I was so inspired that I decided to design and create a memorial, which I have called Memories. The Friends of the Jewish Holocaust Centre plays an The physical weight of Memories signifies the important role in providing financial support to the heaviness and burden felt by all the people who Centre through membership subscriptions, raffle witnessed the atrocities, all who lost their lives and book sales, sales of the Entertainment Book and all who survived. The Star of David which shines social fundraising functions. brightly reflects the spirit of the Jewish people To become a Friend of the Jewish Holocaust Centre, during the hardest of times. simply download and complete the form from The rustic and dirty appearance of the sculpture’s www.jhc.org.au/friends-of-the-jhc.html base signifies how terrible and unbearable the For further information please contact Goldie Birch Holocaust must have been. The only part of the on (03) 9528 1985 or email [email protected]. sculpture which is polished and pristine is the Star of David, surrounded by the rustic barbed wire and fencing representing the concentration camps. The Star of David is elevated above all the awfulness and hate. This was a key factor in the design of Memories, which I dedicate to the six million Jews who perished.

JHC Centre News 27 SEEN AROUND THE CENTRE

Photo: Peter Haskin

(l-r) Nechama Bendet, Sam Tatarka, Marlo Newton, the Hon David Southwick (l-r) Kevin Russell, ‘Uncle Boydie’ Sonia Wajsenberg MP, the Hon Matthew Guy MP, Alan Goldstone, Clem Newton-Brown Alfred Turner and Cr Nam Quach, Mayor of City of Maribyrnong

(l-r) Abram Goldberg OAM, Associate Professor Qanta Ahmed and Sarah Saaroni (l-r) Warren Fineberg, Professor Cho, Michael Cohen, Lisa Phillips and Leah Justin

Graduates of the JHC Holocaust Education Course 2014 together with lecturers Bernard Korbman OAM, Dr Bill Anderson and Lisa Phillips

28 JHC Centre News Dr Paul Valent with members of the JHC Book Club

Photo: Joe Lewitt

(l-r) Maria Lewit OAM and Agata (l-r) Lusia Haberfeld and (l-r) Warren Fineberg, Josef Reichhardt, Deputy Head of Mission for the Lagiewka Ursula Flicker OAM Federal Republic of Germany, Mary Slade, Pauline Rockman OAM, Adam Thalhammer and Michael Cohen

(l-r) Pauline Rockman OAM, Darren Turner, Viv Parry and Elly Brooks (l-r) Pauline Gandel, Professor Louis Waller AO and John Gandel AO

JHC Centre News 29 STORIES FROM THE COLLECTION Cataloguing the Jewish Holocaust Centre collection: a personal reflection Jayne Josem

magine walking into a room and finding 100 boxes. intriguing items relate to the wife. I would like to leave you The first one is filled with documents, photos, with her poignant story... magazines, letters and newspaper articles. The next Elisabeth lived in Vienna before the war and was forced has some textiles, the next coins and medals and the into marriage with a man she did not love. They had nextI household items. What is their significance? To whom a daughter, Eva, but when Eva was three years old, do they belong? Without accompanying information, a Elisabeth, suffering from depression and deeply unhappy photo or a cup and saucer are totally meaningless, and a in the marriage, moved back to her parents’ house. Her letter from a brother to a sister is surely only relevant to husband denied her access to Eva, exacerbating her that family. Why keep them? depression to the point that she attempted suicide. In Thankfully there is a register in this room and each item despair, her mother took her to a sanatorium for help or set of documents has a story attached, although some and she was there in 1938 when Hitler annexed Austria. are more complete than others. The stories are incredible; Elisabeth’s condition became worse, not knowing where most are sad and moving, yet fortunately some are Eva was and fearing for her safety. Elisabeth’s mother, uplifting. Trying to discover more about the ones with perhaps knowing of the Nazi euthanasia program for little information is intriguing detective work. People offer the mentally ill, realised she had to find a safer place for to help and are so captivated that they come week after Elisabeth. She contacted Giuseppe, an Italian non-Jewish week, voluntarily, asking for nothing in return. friend, now a High Court judge, who had loved Elisabeth. She asked him to come to Vienna urgently, which he This is the story of the JHC collection of documents did. Together Elisabeth’s mother and Giuseppe went to and artefacts, material donated by survivors and their the sanatorium and, each taking one arm of the heavily descendants since 1984. It is a treasure trove of evidence sedated Elisabeth, marched her across the road to a of Jewish life in Europe before, during and after the church where she and Giuseppe were married. Second World War, and of the survivors who came to Australia to begin a new life. It is a powerful repository of Giuseppe and Elisabeth left for Italy where, surrounded by evidence of atrocities committed by the Nazis and their Giuseppe’s loving family, Elisabeth began to feel better. collaborators from 1933 to 1945, as well as fragments that She was able to return to Vienna and bring her mother to illustrate the power of non-Jews who risked their lives to Italy where they remained, protected by Giuseppe’s family, help Jewish people. for the duration of the war. Elisabeth learned that her ex-husband had taken Eva to safety in Scotland. Eva had The Ursula Flicker Collection is named in recognition of been told that her mother had died. Despite being reunited Ursula’s tireless efforts to establish this collection and after the war, Elizabeth and Eva’s relationship never ensure it was properly housed and catalogued. Initially recovered from the disruption brought on by Elisabeth’s on paper, in 2005 Ursula and her assistant Claude Fromm depression and the war. began creating an electronic catalogue that, with the help of a team of volunteers, took many years to develop. At the end of the war Giuseppe agreed to a divorce on the When I began managing the collection in 2010 we received grounds that Elisabeth had been mentally incapacitated further advice from conservation specialists and in 2012 when they married. They remained good friends. Elisabeth commenced a project to rehouse the entire collection. married again, came to Australia, divorced and finally During this process we have been reviewing the catalogue married her husband with whom she lived for many years. entries and conducting further research into items with In the midst of Elizabeth’s personal anguish, the Nazis little provenance. The work is slow but, beginning with had other designs for the ‘undesirables’, be they Jews or the first box, I have studied each item, decided on the those with physical or mental handicaps. Had it not been best housing, rewritten the catalogue entry and, where for her mother’s resolve and her upstanding Italian friend, necessary, asked a member of the team to conduct further Elizabeth would surely have fallen victim to the Nazi research into its history. euthanasia program, even before ‘qualifying’ for the ‘Final While it is tedious work, it is highly rewarding. It is Solution’. comforting to know that when we have finished, I will Uncovering powerful stories like these every week have touched almost every item in the collection. And sustains the team, since we also need to undertake more many of these items have touched me and other members tedious tasks in documenting this important collection. of the team. Jayne Josem is Jewish Holocaust Centre Curator and Last week I opened box number 49 that contained items Head of Collections. donated by a friend of a Jewish couple, Holocaust survivors who had married in Australia. As they had no children together, their friend donated some precious items relevant to the Holocaust to our collection. The most

30 JHC Centre News COLLECTIONS New acquisitions Claude Fromm

The following are new additions to the Centre’s collection from July to December 2014:

1 Document translated from Hungarian into German by husband of donor describing his aunt’s concentration camp experience. Donor: Danuta Mendelewicz

2 Documentation relating to the donor’s parents and grandparents experiences during the Second World War. Donor: Mark Fajgman

3 Testimony by Jozeph Koopman titled A handful of men: Notes of an Auschwitz survivor. Donor: Ronnie Israel

4 Correspondence dated 1938, including letters, envelopes Drawing by an inmate of Theresienstadt Concentration Camp and photos, between donor’s mother in Melbourne, Australia and her pen pal in Sudetenland, Germany. 9 Documents relating to the donor and her husband’s Donor: Catherine Swan experiences during the Holocaust. Donor: Jadwiga Wiener

10 Book titled Atrocity propaganda is based on lies, say the Jews of Germany themselves written by Jakow Trachtenberg. Donor: Peter Rice

Daily Mail book 11 DVD titled Personal Holocaust Experiences Mr Nosson published in Werdiger recorded live at Yeshivah Shul on 15 July 2013. 1945 Donor: Nathan Werdiger 12 Documents relating to the donor and her family during the Holocaust in Hungary. Donor: Agotha Szigeti

13 Mounted yellow star with wording Juif worn by the Jews of France during the Holocaust. Yellow star worn Donor: Lea Teller by French Jews Israeli citation for Vera Lipshutz’s 14 Photographs taken before and after the Second World War and work against the Nazis business cards relating to Michael and Lova Frydman and their family from Miedzyrec, Poland. After the war they migrated to Australia and joined other survivors from Miedzyrec to establish 5 Letter of recommendation for donor’s mother, Star of David worn a society. The photos relate to the group’s association with the by donor’s father, and badge with paper citations issued to Vera Kadimah Cultural Centre and National Library. Lipshutz by the Minister of Defence in Israel for her work against Donor: Helen Marlow the Nazis. Donor: Thomas Lipschutz 15 Large drawing made by an inmate of Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. 6 Bound copies of the Yiddish newspaper Yiddishe Bilder Donor: Evelyn Dalpas issued before the Second World War. Donor: Meerkin and Apel, Lawyers The Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) collection is a vital repository 7 Correspondence dated from 1939 to 1940s between donor’s of Holocaust-era material. Artefacts and documents are carefully father John Breit, who was sent on the Kindertransport to the catalogued and stored in a state-of-the-art temperature-controlled United Kingdom, and his parents who remained in Vienna. facility to ensure their preservation for future generations. The JHC Donor: Sandy Breit invites members of the public who have precious items relating to the Holocaust to consider donating them to our collection for 8 Book titled Lest We Forget: the Horrors of Nazi Concentration safekeeping. Camps Revealed for All Time in the Most Terrible Photographs Ever Published, published by Daily Mail, 1945. Donor: Paul Manners

JHC Centre News 31 A generous gift to the Jewish Holocaust Centre for the middle school education program

Zac Miller, who celebrated his bar mitzvah recently, donated generously to the Jewish Holocaust Centre Foundation instead of receiving presents for his bar mitzvah. (l-r) Helen Mahemoff, Quentin, Zac and Amanda Miller Zac is not new to philanthropy. As one of his friends said, ‘Zac loves other people and is very generous. He spends History for Today’, which made a huge impact on him. quite a bit of his spare time doing Kids in Philanthropy As Zac said at his bar mitzvah celebration: ‘Last year I (KIP) stuff. He recently slept out at Fed Square and helped went to the Anne Frank exhibition at the Holocaust Centre KIP raise $30,000 for homeless kids, and he does a lot and thought it was really educational and I learnt a lot. I of other charity work in his spare time – garage sales, realised that the Centre is important for both Jewish and making Shabbat meals for poor Jewish families, packing non-Jewish students. Hearing from survivors teaches gifts for underprivileged kids. Pretty special.’ young people about the danger of hatred, which is so important today.’ With that kind of background, it is not surprising that Zac decided to request donations rather than receive Zac’s donation is earmarked for the Centre’s new middle presents for his bar mitzvah. His decision to donate to the school program, ‘Hide and Seek’. The Jewish Holocaust Jewish Holocaust Centre Foundation came about after Centre thanks Zac sincerely for his thoughtful and he visited the Centre to see the exhibition ‘Anne Frank – A generous gift.

Celebrating her bat mitzvah by giving to the Jewish Holocaust Centre

Rachel Cymbalist learnt about the Holocaust in her Jewish Studies class at Bialik College. However, she already had some knowledge of the Shoah on a more personal level as three of her grandparents are Holocaust survivors. In addition to what her grandparents have chosen to tell her, Rachel’s paternal grandmother, Susie Cymbalist, has written a memoir titled Susie’s Story: Surviving in Budapest which provides a more detailed account of her wartime experiences. Rachel’s mother, Michelle Meisels, remembers that as a ten or 11-year-old, her mother called her into the kitchen to hear for the first time her story of survival. From generation to generation, this transmission of stories across generations is important in any culture, but in the Jewish community, remembering and honouring victims of the Holocaust is of special significance. Following a discussion Rachel had with her mother Michelle, she decided to ask family and friends attending her bat mitzvah celebration to donate to the Jewish Holocaust Centre in lieu of gifts. The Jewish Holocaust Rachel Cymbalist and Warren Fineberg Centre thanks Rachel for her kindness and generosity.

32 JHC Centre News Mazal tov to Pauline Rockman OAM, recipient of the ASPJ 2014 Henryk Slawik Award

Jewish Holocaust Centre President, Pauline Rockman, was presented with the Henryk Sławik Award by the Australian Society of Polish Jews and their Descendants in October 2014. The award is presented annually in honour of the life and deeds of Henryk Sławik, who saved over thirty thousand lives, including five thousand Jews, in occupied Hungary during the Second World War. The award honours those who have worked towards enhancing mutual respect and understanding between the Polish and Jewish communities. Pauline was presented with the award by actor Magda Szubanski, whose wish to meet Polish Jewish descendants and compare their stories with those of her own Polish family had led to long conversations with Pauline. Having visited Poland many times for over a decade, Pauline is an advocate for Polish-Jewish dialogue. Guest speaker at the presentation event was writer Arnold Zable who spoke on the theme ‘Towards a Better Society’. (l-) Magda Szubanski, Bernard Korbman OAM, Pauline Rockman OAM, Dr George Luk-Kozica, Honorary Consul General of Poland, and Arnold Zable Mazal tov Pauline!

Mazal tov to Saba Feniger, Abram Goldberg OAM, Maria Lewit OAM and Freda Saba Feniger and family The Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) is delighted to welcome four new members to our 90th Birthday Club. Schweitzer We congratulate long-time volunteers Saba Feniger, Abram Goldberg, Maria Lewit and Freda Schweitzer who have worked tirelessly for the Centre over many years. We wish them all Mazal tov!

Photo: Joe Lewitt

Freda Schweitzer (r) with Irma Hanner (l) and Rosa Krakowski (c) Maria Lewit OAM Cesia and Abram Goldberg OAM

JHC Centre News 33 OBITUARY Maria Censor: a life in three chapters Cara Bodsworth

Maria Censor

We always knew there were several lives that our Baba In Australia, she was blessed with an adoring husband had lived. In fact there were many names and identities and beautiful children, but the long-yearned-for family that she went by, but there were three distinct chapters was not enough for her. She needed to be useful. She to her life. participated in a highly successful fashion career. Both Dziadzia‘s leather business and her shops gave her an The first chapter of her life sounded like heaven, outlet for her energy and drive. Being in the fashion surrounded by loving parents, a large family, a charmed business also connected her to her genes and family life of summer holidays in Paris, Biarritz and Vienna, trade in Poland before the war. That must have given her but most importantly to Baba, a life filled with love some comfort. and school. This life ended, like for so many, when the Second World War came to Poland. This was the second She then re-invented herself as a teacher. The war had chapter. Her wartime years are well documented in not permitted her an education, or many other things, her book, Letters to My Mother. There were too many so she went to teachers college and then into practice. hardships to mention, too many strokes of luck to be She then transferred these skills to be a highly regarded believed, too many identities, just so many stories. Weight Watchers lecturer, teaching the people of Toorak But the one that stayed with us the most was her great how to reduce their calorie intake. As we walked around sadness that her parents, brother and nephew had no Toorak Village we chatted with many a round person, so grave, no funeral and had perished. I am not sure she was that good at this job!

The Baba that her grandchildren knew – in her third life Her final profession was that of a historian and in Australia – was happy and loving. In fact her love was researcher. Her voluntary work at the Jewish Holocaust limitless, unconditional and truly appreciated. She was Centre on the great children’s scholar Janusz Korczak always doting on us, praising her children and feeding was a great gift to the world. She pursued his work with her beloved husband, Zygmunt, our Dziadzia. Her passion and, on reflection, with patriotism, so that a dogs were the next receivers of this over-indulgence, great Pole’s work would be recognised and the world and eventually her great-grandchildren. In my early would know of the brilliant minds that were in Poland memories she was full of life, much younger and more before the life was ripped out of her country. active than other grandmothers. She loved to work, to help and to be useful. Never idle. I took these things for Cara Bodsworth is Maria Censor’s granddaughter. This granted because I knew her only one way, but rereading is an edited version of the eulogy she gave at Maria her amazing stories, it became apparent she was the Censor’s funeral. same in all of her lives.

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, please contact Helen Mahemoff, Chair of the Foundation on 0417 323 595 or Email: [email protected].

34 JHC Centre News OBITUARY Sonia Wajcman: a woman of valour Bernard Korbman OAM

Sonia Wajcman

Sonia Wajcman was a woman of action. She never of our community, and also donated financially whenever allowed circumstances to crush her spirit and dictate her she could. actions. Whatever the situation, Sonia made choices; There was also another wonderful side to Sonia. She was she took charge. an elegant woman, a woman of taste, never pretentious Sonia was born in Warsaw in 1918. In 1939, she and her and, above all, she had a great sense of humour. In my then-boyfriend Albin fled to the Soviet Union where they early years at the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Sonia would both worked in a timber mill. Sonia and Albin married, entertain me with stories, often in Yiddish, about life and in 1940 she gave birth to their son, Jack. Later that in Poland before the war. They were more of a gentle year Albin was arrested and Sonia never saw him again. panoramic view of life rather than concentrating on the turbulent and traumatic events of the times. Like When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, a great storyteller, she captured the nuances of the Sonia was arrested by the Russians and she and Jack people around her, Jews and gentiles alike, as well as the were sent to prison in Novosibirsk, Siberia. They landscape and surroundings. were released during an amnesty for Polish prisoners announced by General Sikorski in August. Sonia was To me Sonia personified the duality that is so much then sent to work in a kolkhoz, a communal rice farm in part of why we get teary when we hear the song ‘My Kazakhstan. In 1943 Sonia ran an orphanage for Jewish Yiddishe Momme’. A Jewish mother is often sentimental and non-Jewish children in Ushtobe, in southeastern and sometimes pushy, but scratch the surface and you Kazakhstan. will discover a ferocious defender of her children, her family and her community. You will discover a woman In 1946, Sonia returned to Poland with the orphans for of amazing strength and resilience who, under the worst whom she had cared and established a children’s home possible circumstances, is a doer and a person who will for Jewish children in Ziebce, Poland. In 1949 Sonia make sacrifices for those in her care. migrated to Australia. Sonia was such a woman. Sonia cared for many. Sonia Within a short period of time, Sonia was involved in was a woman of valour. the dynamic post-war Melbourne Jewish community and eventually became one of the founding members of the Jewish Holocaust Centre. From the outset, Sonia Bernard Korbman is the former Executive Director of the contributed her time, energy and skills for the betterment Jewish Holocaust Centre.

JHC Centre News 35 Mazal Tov

Bar Mitzvah Births

To Zac Miller on his bar mitzvah To Elly Brooks and Alan Reid on the birth of their grandson Tommy Pierce Engagement To Hannah and Mark Fagenblat on the birth of their granddaughter Mia Joel

To Sara and John Berhang on the engagement To Susan and Daniel Feldman on the birth of their son Danny to Samantha Cowan of their grandchildren Scarlett and Felix MacHaines To Amelia Giligich on the birth To Cesia Goldberg and Avram Goldberg OAM of her great grandson Jordan Michaels on the engagement of their granddaughter Natassja Bornsztejn to Dean Kuran To Stephanie Heller on the birth of her great granddaughter Eleanor Heller To Tuvia Lipson on the engagement of his grandson Adam Buchbinder to Samantha Blau To Kathy and Les Janovic on the birth of their grandson Zac Stub To Suzie and Gaby Nozick on the engagement of their grandson Joseph Rogers to Kira Rickards To Susie and Stephen Kleid on the birth of their grandson Eitan Zohar To David Prince on the engagement and granddaughter Tali Small of his grandson Noam Kolt to Bat Sheva Sykes To Silvana Layton on the birth To Frances Prince and Steven Kolt of her granddaughter Abby Grossman on the engagement of their son Noam to Bat Sheva Sykes To Tuvia Lipson on the birth To Frances Ser of his great grandson Kai Raleigh on the engagement of her son Joel to Ariella Mac To David and Mareike Montgomery on the birth To Lauren Spitalnic of their daughter Maeve on her engagement to David Mayer To Rhonda and Leo Norich on the birth of their grandson Billy Norich Marriage To Susan and John Onas on the birth of their grandson Oz Onas and their granddaughter Summer Blashki To Sharon and David Brott on the marriage of their daughter Gabi to Jason McKenzie To Suzie and Gaby Nozick on the birth of their great granddaughter Sari Gorog To Rosa Freilich on the marriage of her granddaughter Ilana Freilich to Danny Rajch To Tamara Schneier on the birth of her grandson Elan Scheier To Suzie Linden on the marriage of her son Richard Laufer to Michelle Berzon Birthdays To Leah and David Shulberg on the marriage of their son Elliot to Karra Jacobson To Judy Rassaby on her 60th birthday To Sue and Ron Unger on the marriage To Jeffrey Mahemoff AO on his 70th birthday of their daughter Rachel to Jeremy Blode To Adele Pakula on her 70th birthday To Clara Weis on the marriage To Vivienne Spiegel on her 80th birthday of her grandson Justin Strauch to Kim Mosbach To Jack Fogel on his 90th birthday To Kurt Friedlander on his 90th birthday To Abram Goldberg OAM on his 90th birthday

Condolences

To our Past President Shmuel Rosenkranz on the death To Susie and Stephen Kleid on the death of his daughter Judy Goldman of their father-in-law and father Phillip Kleid To Caroline and Harry Bryce on the death To the family of Herbert Leder on his death of their father-in-law and father Zygmunt Bryce To the family of Alex Lenko on his death To the family of Maria Censor on her death To Helen and Jeffrey Mahemoff and Julie and Greg Blashki To Gerry and Alex Dafner on the death on the death of their mother and mother-in-law of their mother-in-law and mother Hendel Dafner Renia (Stefa) Rutman To Leon Goldman on the death To the family of Ettie Rosenbaum on her death of his wife Judy Goldman To the family of Sonia Wajcman on her death

36 JHC Centre News Proudly supporting the Jewish Holocaust Centre

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40 JHC Centre News JHC Centre News 41 42 JHC Centre News JHC Centre News 43 April 2015 Jewish Holocaust Centre

The Jewish Holocaust Centre in partnership with the Albanian Australian Islamic Society & B’nai B’rith Courage to Care (Vic) presents

Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust A CODE OF HONOUR A Photographic exhibition by Norman Gershman

12 March – 26 April 2015

Jewish Holocaust Centre 15 Selwyn Street Elsternwick www.jhc.org.au

“Why did my father save a stranger at the risk of his life and the entire village? My father was a devout Muslim. He believed that to save one life is to enter paradise.” Alia Sheqer

This exhibition was created by Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel. The Jewish Holocaust Centre’s presentation is made possible by the American Society for Yad Vashem.

The Besa exhibition at the Jewish Holocaust Centre is supported by the Victorian Government.

Public Program

4pm Sunday 19 April 2nd screening of ‘Besa: The Promise’ ( admission $10/$6 )

4pm – 5pm Sunday 26 April Stories of Rescue ( admission free ) On the final day of the exhibition, Sunday 26 April visit the JHC to hear uplifting stories from the Holocaust. These stories will be told from the perspectives of the rescuers and the rescued.

Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. VBH 7236