Voices Autumn 2023

Autumn 2023

The magazine of Melbourne Holocaust Museum

VoiCes

the future.

Remembering the past, inspiring

MHM BOARD

Co-Presidents Pauline Rockman OAM

Sue Hampel OAM

Vice-President Michael Debinski OAM

Treasurer Richard Michaels

Secretary Mary Slade

Board Directors Abram Goldberg OAM

Helen Mahemoff OAM

Elly Brooks

Prof. George Braitberg AM

Melanie Raleigh

Simon Szwarc

MHM FOUNDATION

Chairperson Helen Mahemoff OAM

Trustees Allen Brostek

Jeffrey Mahemoff AO

Joey Borensztajn AM Nina Bassat AM Phil Lewis

OFFICE OF THE CEO

Chief Executive Officer Jayne Josem

Executive Assistant Navrutti Gupta

EXPERIENCE

Chief Experience Officer Jennifer Levitt-Maxwell

ORGANISATION SUPPORT

Head of Operations Gary Pianko

People & Culture Specialist Anna Berhang

Finance Manager Roy John

Manager of Audio-Visual &

Digital Storytelling Robbie Simons

Operations & Facilities Coordinator Georgina Alexander

Special Projects Officer Daniel Feldman

Survivor Welfare Officer Rae Silverstein

Visitor Experience Officer Rachel Vrsecky

Administrative Support Lana Zuker

Graduate Accountant Minoli Fernando

Intern Tim Kumpf

COLLECTIONS & RESEARCH

Manager of Collections & Research Dr Anna Hirsh

Librarian & Information Manager Julia Reichstein

Collections Graduate Julia Catania

Translator Michael Rose

MUSEUM

Senior Curator Sandy Saxon

Creative Director of Multimedia

for Museum Project Arek Dybel

Curatorial Assistant for Museum Project Fiona Kelmann

ENGAGEMENT & PHILANTHROPY

Head of Engagement & Philanthropy Aviva Weinberg

Grants & Partnerships Manager Lorelle Lake

Communications & Marketing Specialist Meg Hibbert

Public Programs Specialist Alice McInnes

EDUCATION

Manager of Adult Education & Academic Engagement Dr Simon Holloway

Education Program Manager Tracey Collie

Pedagogy Specialist Lisa Phillips

Education Officer Fanny Hoffman

Education Officer Melanie Attar

Education Officer Soo Isaacs

Education Administrator Sarah Virgo Bennett

REDEVELOPMENT

Project Consultant Jon Moss

VOICES

Editor Lina Leibovich

Yiddish Editor Alex Dafner

Graphic Design Jacqui Klass

In this issue

03. From the Presidents

04. Editor’s note

05. Tribute to Stan Marks

06. Ensuring a Meaningful Experience

10. The Memorial Room

14. Remembering Their Names

16.

From the Presidents

At a time when antisemitism and denial of the Holocaust is on the rise, fuelled by a toxic mix of xenophobic nationalism, populist politicians exploiting fear and hatred, and the limitless reach of the worldwide web, we must concentrate our efforts on memory and education.

It’s been an exciting few months since we have moved back into our new building. School students have returned in large numbers, and we have hosted some special events. These include the Betty & Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration with keynote speaker Sara Bloomfield from the USHMM and the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration. You can revisit the IHRD 2023 event via the MHM website.

In other news, we are delighted that the Parliamentary Friends of IHRA was launched in Canberra, chaired by MPs Josh Burns, Allegra Spender and Julian Leeser. This non-partisan group is a forum for MPs to meet with Holocaust organisations to discuss the strengthening of Holocaust education, remembrance and combatting antisemitism. Their first task was to encourage Australian universities to adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.

In November, we attended the IHRA plenary in Gothenburg, where Sue presented the results of the Gandel Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Australia survey, the first national, large-scale survey of Australians’ knowledge of the Holocaust. You can view the full report on the Gandel Foundation website.

2023 promises to be an exciting year. We can’t wait to launch the memorial room designed by architect Stephen Jolson and our two new museum spaces including our core exhibition and our youth-focused exhibit.

Mazal tov to our cherished survivor Andy Factor for receiving a well-deserved honour in the Australia Day Awards.

We look forward to greeting you at the MHM.

Pauline & Sue

The Melbourne Holocaust Museum exists to amplify the voices of Holocaust survivors as a catalyst for greater understanding and acceptance of difference, to inspire a better future.

through the MHM memorial room to celebrate lightness that emerges from the darkness with a symbol of hope. Courtesy of Jolson Architecture.

Pauline Rockman OAM & Sue Hampel OAM MHM Co-Presidents

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus at the inaugural Raoul Wallenberg Day

Editor’s note

We are deeply saddened on the recent passing of Stan Marks, whose outstanding contribution to the literary world including the Melbourne Holocaust Museum will always be remembered. Stan was editor of Centre News for 16 years and was instrumental in bringing in a broad range of content and articles from around the world covering important issues relating to the Holocaust.

In anticipation of the MHM’s grand opening, this issue of Voices delves into more detail about the new Museum, highlighting the special Memorial Room space, the introduction of the ground-breaking ‘Hidden’ Museum (for younger visitors), as well as a feature on how we are working to prepare visitors for a most meaningful experience at the new MHM.

Thank you for your continued support of our publication and our mission. Together, we will ensure that the memories remain for future generations and are never forgotten.

Tribute to Stan Marks

25 April 1929 - 18 January 2023

Stan Marks was a remarkable man with great gifts which he used to lighten the heavy weight of life for so many. Being of an irreverent disposition, he drafted an Eleventh Commandment, “Thou shalt laugh, especially at oneself.” He saw the absurdity in life but he also felt deeply its pain, especially as he experienced it through the traumatic war-time stories of his adored wife Eva. Eva inspired Stan’s first books, as well as his engagement with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. It is therefore “beshert” – destiny – that Stan’s funeral took place so near to the 27 January, not only International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the liberation of

Auschwitz, but also Eva’s Yahrzeit

Stan was born almost 94 years ago in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, the only child of Sidney and Sarah Marks. Stan’s family migrated to Australia when he was just a toddler, and he grew up in Melbourne. He attended Brighton Grammar School and after a short stint at university became a journalist. He was a cadet at the Herald newspaper in Melbourne, then worked abroad in Liverpool, London, New York, Montreal and Toronto, before returning to Melbourne.

Stan met Eva at his father’s restaurant-cabaret, on Eva’s second day in Australia. It was love at first sight. They were married two years later in

London, when Stan was 22. Stan’s first book, God Gave You One Face, was based on Eva’s story. Stan wrote 14 books in all, including well known children’s books such as Graham Is an Aboriginal Boy and Animal Olympics

This was one side of Stan’s character. The other was his commitment to Holocaust education, through the Holocaust Centre and its journal Centre News, an esteemed publication which he edited. In my opinion it was one of the finest community publications in the Jewish world, filled with high quality reportage and interviews. In 2007 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.

Stan was a wonderful, doting father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He shared countless stories and moments of delight with his children Lee and Peter, Lee’s daughter Caitlin who was raised by Stan and Eva, Peter’s children Claire, Alistair and Nicholas, and Caitlin’s son Aubrey (just before Stan died, his second great-grandchild Noa Amira was born in New York).

The love of his family remained, right to his final breath: it was the peaceful exit of a man who, in the words of his favourite song, “did it his way.”

May his memory be a blessing and an inspiration.

Extracts from Eulogy delivered by Rabbi Fred Morgan AM

Lina Leibovich

Editor of our earlier magazine ‘Centre News’ 1993-2008

Ensuring a

Meaningful Experience

Redeveloping a Holocaust museum is a project that conjures many tangible challenges –challenges of space, conservation, and the painstaking task of condensing nearly 40 years of history – of survivors’ memories –into one building.

by Jennifer Levitt-Maxwell

But much more goes into a museum than what is visible to the naked eye. Extensive work must also be completed on the intangible elements that fuse with the physical components to affect a deeply meaningful experience at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum – one that will be a catalyst for greater understanding and acceptance of difference.

To understand our audiences and provide an opportunity for genuine connection with Holocaust history, we embarked on a 12-month process to develop an end-to-end strategy to ensure our visitors are afforded all opportunities to immerse themselves in a truly transformative experience within our building.

Spearheading this momentous project was Chief Experience Officer Jennifer Levitt-Maxwell, alongside Chief Executive Officer Jayne Josem, who partnered with expert Experience Strategists Tim Dow and Leigh Whittaker to bring

the MHM experience to life. Board Member Simon Szwarc also played a vital role in working with the team and setting them up for success.

As a starting point for the project, the team had to clearly define the vision for our visitor experience based on the mission and purpose of the MHM:

We are a beacon and expression of our responsibility and connection to our survivors, their experiences, the lessons of the Holocaust, and our shared future. The experience will be challenging and caring, inspirational and informative, inclusive and intentional.

Understanding the diversity of our audience base, Jennifer and the team understood the strategy must encompass multiple ways to connect and transform within the building space:

MHM reception area.

We acknowledge that every visitor is a unique individual, but that a visit to MHM is a shared experience. It is the coming together of a multitude of touchpoints before, during and after a visit to MHM delivered through our digital platforms, on-site spaces and a variety of individuals from staff to volunteers. It is in this coming together, in the same way musicians come together in an orchestra to play a symphony, that we deliver a transformative learning experience that will inspire personal reflection and spark change within.

Jennifer Levitt-Maxwell, Chief Experience Officer

Moments that Matter

An important element in the formation of the experience strategy was exploring “moments that matter”: the small moments with significant impact that allow visitors to reflect, gain composure or strengthen understanding while on their journey through the building.

Insights from internal stakeholders such as the board, staff, volunteers and survivors were vital to researching and understanding these moments and ensuring no opportunity for connection was lost.

Some moments outlined in the plan include:

Moments of reflection

An essential part of the museum experience will be reflection moments developed intentionally to help visitors process the museum’s content and make meaning of it. When exhibiting such complex themes, simple moments of contemplation will allow visitors to stand back, absorb the overarching themes of a display, and move on with a more comprehensive appreciation.

Most of us know what the Holocaust was, but to come to grips with the magnitude of the events that unfolded is difficult – we acknowledge this and allow our audience the time to reflect deeply.

Become a witness

In line with the strategic vision and our broader mission, every visitor needed to have a sense of meeting our survivors, hearing their words, and understanding their perspective. Survivors’ key messages underpin every touchpoint of experience at MHM, and every ‘moment’ is designed to emphasise this.

All moments outlined in the strategy, from the first warm welcome, the exhibition experience, and the post-visit communications adhere to the core principle “safely in, safely out” (originally established by Yad Vashem), and reflect elements within our education programs that have inspired participants for decades. Everything the visitor will encounter was created with intention and will provide the space for them to step back, breathe, and interact with each experience in a safe way.

The new Melbourne Holocaust Museum will be a place where visitors will feel welcomed, empowered, and inspired to become custodians of Holocaust memory and help amplify the voices of Holocaust survivors for generations to come.

Jennifer Levitt-Maxwell and Jayne Josem working on the MHM Experience Master Plan.

The Memorial Room

by Stephen Jolson

As a third-generation survivor of the Holocaust, I am proud and revere the opportunity I have been given to design the memorial room located within the new Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

Born 27 years after the end of the Second World War, I assume the role of witness of an event that I never experienced myself. I am a thirdgeneration survivor of the Holocaust. am a witness to many witnesses. The design and our time associated with the development and documentation of this memorial space is my gift to this centre, in honour of my grandparents who not only survived the atrocities of the Holocaust, but also had the strength to talk about their experiences and indelibly pass on their legacy through me. Our creative and theoretical response has been nurtured by the generational and emotional buffer I was fortunate to have been given from the actual event. Our proposal celebrates the history of our city which is inseparably linked to the people who live within it.

“Remember the PLACES … they came from or were forced to go”

We deliberately blocked the windows from the inside out. Like the Holocaust, the experience of the memorial room becomes a separate isolated event. Victimisation leads to alienation. The room itself is ostracised from its context and site. The memorial room not only admonishes our capacity to turn a blind eye to the crises that occur, but also celebrates how collective memory has strength to bind our resilience together.

The Star of David is generally recognised as a symbol of modern Jewish existence and Judaism, a representation of our religion. From 1933 onwards Jews were excluded, and the star gradually became an emblem of discrimination. From 1938, the star also became a symbol of fragmentation, as our Jewish heritage shattered, and fragmented across Europe, from the places that they were born, to the camps where they laboured or were murdered.

By lining the walls of the new memorial room with 12 facets, the Star of David becomes a fractured symbol not only of destruction, and the impossibility of reconstruction, but also the extermination of 6 million Jews.

“Remember the CAMPS ... where they laboured or were murdered”

Representing the major death camps will be six highly polished tracks branded individually with the names of the major camps. They will intersect the cities and places, like a bar-graph, depicting the shear quantum of our loss. Made from highly polished black steel, we have created seven lifesize silhouettes, that will be randomly placed around the room, and will resonate their emotional and physical body language, communicating the universal burden of their experiences without words. These seven silhouettes will be made from highly polished steel that will allow us to reflect the faces of our community, the faces of our children and their children, into the mirror-like surface. Perhaps in recognition that if not for time, it could have been us. In our memorial room we use the flame to illuminate the rituals that the Holocaust denied.

The design brief from the committee was clear; design a memorial room that would allow visitors to:

Memorial room plan drawing.

A place to write a message, reflect.

“Remember the VICTIMS … use our plaques”

A single solid bronze star will be used as a remembrance plaque to commemorate each family, or family member, dedicated by the survivors and or their families that defied their perpetrators, and were afforded life in a new country, safe from atrocity.

These golden plaques will be grafted indelibly into the memorial room randomly adorning the perimeter walls. Adjacent to these bronze plaques, we will pin thousands of grey-scaled aluminium stars. The sea of grey-scaled stars become the apparitions, figments, outlines of those who did not survive the hellfire. Their memory carried by the wind of their legacy in the generations that followed, and together with the digital flames, breathe colour and hope into memorialisation.

“Sit…CONTEMPLATE”

Across the floor threshold of left & right, we have designed a bench seat.

An inverted triangle, that pivots on the finest line between life and death. Lower in height than usual, is this symbolic enactment of remorse and sadness, or homage to those who were unable to sit the weeklong mourning period in the Jewish religion, for loved ones who perished.

“Write a message … REFLECT”

Cut into the steel-lined walls of the old bay window, is a fine vertical slot that diffuses the perspective to the outside world. It is a singular vertical opening, that enables you to peer through the frames of the old bay window. It is a place to write a message on a golden star. Its design reinforcing a simple message in Hebrew text, ZACHOR, or REMEMBER, which is only legible by looking back, like history, at the shadow cast on across the floor, that will fade with the darkest days, but resonate clearly as the sun shines hope.

“Remember … but most importantly, NEVER FORGET”

In the furthest corner of the room, we have placed a dissected quadrant of the Star of David on the floor. Each handwritten message, or star of hope, will be placed onto this slab of polished stone. They will be

Honour your loved one in the new Melbourne Holocaust Museum memorial room.

For more information please visit mhm.org.au or contact us at donate@mhm.org.au or (03) 9528 1985.

Holocaust victim Guta Ruda. From the MHM Collection.

One of the seven steel silhouettes to depict survivors who emigrated to Australia after the war, remember.

Memorial room sectional drawing, through the void.

Remembering

Their Names

Our Everybody Had a Name (EHAN) project, launched in late 2022, was established to enable the community to honour their loved ones and eternalise their names for future generations within the Melbourne Holocaust Museum memorial room.

When my dad and I were packing up the family home, we uncovered a box of forgotten photos and documents which had belonged to my mother’s cousin, Ruti, who passed away in 1992. I knew throwing the artefacts away would mean burying their family story, because Ruti had no children. I have been sifting through the box and piecing together the photos, names and documents in an effort to preserve her mother’s story of survival and the life she built in the aftermath of the war.

This important project encompasses a digital memorial, with all information received from the public documented in the MHM Victorian Registry of Holocaust Survivors. We are also giving the community the option to dedicate a physical memorial-star plaque by way of donation.

For Tamar, donating a memorial-star plaque to honour Ruti’s mother, Maria, at the MHM is her contribution to preserving Holocaust memory and her family’s heritage:

The project Everybody Had a Name has given me the opportunity to memorialise Maria, Ruth’s mother, in a meaningful way. I know that the star I have donated – and the memory of her name – will exist in perpetuity. Maria was here. She survived, and she had a story to tell.

Donating a memorial star was a decision Tamar knew affected more than just her family. She recognised the importance of providing the wider community – our future generations – a chance to sit and reflect on those murdered during the Holocaust and the survivors who made Victoria their home:

We are proud to have served the public for almost 40 years, not only as a museum but as a dedicated memorial site for Victorian families with a connection to the Holocaust. With this memorial project, their names, their stories, and their legacy will live on in our collective memory.

This memorial room is a hallowed space for our community, where we can remember the survivors who made Victoria home and the family members they lost. I hope that other people will join the campaign to honour their memories in this special way.

Tamar Paluch Ben Zeev

by Meg Hibbert

Ruth and her mother Maria.

by Jayne Josem and Meg Hibbert

In the Footsteps

Our core exhibition –Everybody Had a Name –is set to open later in 2023. It will encompass six key sections following the chronology of the Holocaust, beginning with an introduction to the diversity and vitality of Jewish life in pre-war Europe and concluding with our local survivors’ arrival in Melbourne and how they began to rebuild their lives.

To invoke a more meaningful connection to the historical facts displayed at the museum, we are creating an engaging, interactive audiovisual overlay to our core exhibition called In the Footsteps. This additional experience will allow visitors to notionally walk alongside a survivor who came to Melbourne after the war and encounter their personal stories at five interactive stations, hearing clips from their testimonies and seeing their photographs, documents and artefacts.

This comprehensive digital project, initiated by MHM CEO Jayne Josem, and created by MHM Creative Director for Multimedia Arek Dybel, in partnership with cutting-edge digital designers, Sandpit, will help bring survivor experiences to light by harnessing innovative digital solutions to present a personal and tailored user experience.

Meet the survivors

The six survivors who visitors will encounter have been, or still are, long-term volunteers at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. They represent a diversity of experiences of the Holocaust as well as a geographical spread.

Irmgard Hanner OAM was born in Dresden, Germany in 1930. In 1942, at age 12, Irma was deported to Theresienstadt ghetto/camp in Czechoslovakia. Irma was only 14 when liberated from the camp.

Kitia Altman OAM was born in Bedzin, Poland. She was 17 when the war broke out. Kitia was incarcerated in Auschwitz and Ravensbruck camps before being sent to Bensdorf where she worked in a munitions factory.

Abram Goldberg OAM was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1924 and was eventually incarcerated in Lodz Ghetto. In 1944 Abe and his mother were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Abe was sent to a series of camps before being liberated in 1945 in Wobbelin.

George Ginzburg was born in 1923 in Danzig, Germany, but his family moved to Berlin when he was two. In 1940 George was sent to Auschwitz, where he spent the next five years, including working in an armament factory. In 1945 George was sent on a death march, escaped, and was found by American soldiers.

Stephanie Heller and her twin sister Annetta were born in 1924 in Prague. In 1943 they were sent to Auschwitz, where Dr Josef Mengele chose the twins to be part of his medical experiments. However, the twins were evacuated on a death march before they could be subjected to medical experimentation.

Wilhelm Lermer OAM was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1923. After the war started, he was sent into forced labour by the Nazis. Willy was deported to numerous camps and suffered extreme brutality before arriving in Auschwitz. From there, he endured further torture, and when finally liberated, he was barely alive, 180cm tall but weighing only 38kg.

The visitor experience

Before entering the exhibition, visitors can choose one of the six survivors and receive a special postcard to take with them into the exhibition. They will then follow this survivor’s journey as part of a fully integrated tour, accessing their stories in each gallery.

As the visitor journeys through the displays, the card will trigger detailed content relating to the survivor they have chosen to walk with at each of the five stations positioned with the exhibition displays:

1. The world that was – an introduction to their lives before the war

2. Rights removed – the early forms of discrimination they experienced

3. Freedoms lost – incarceration in ghettos and camps

4. Life unworthy of life – murder of family members

5. Survival against the odds & Return to life – how they survived and rebuilt their lives

In the Footsteps gives people the opportunity to look into the face of a survivor at a life-size scale and hear them speak directly. This transformational journey will humanise the historical significance of the Holocaust and its relevance today.

By enabling our visitors to access first-person accounts and evidence, through this multi-dimensional experience, we hope they connect directly to the history in a powerful and memorable way, and thus ensure the collective responsibility of Holocaust remembrance will endure.

Left: Art Processors’ render design of The Village. A collective experience full of life and detail that evokes Jewish communities in Europe and highlights the experiences of our survivors before and at the start of WW2.

Opposite: Art Processors’ render design of museum introduction. Large-scale survivor portraits greet visitors as they enter the space. Visitors meet the Melbourne-based survivors as children and identify points of connection and common experience such as family life, hopes and identity.

TheHidden Exhibition

We look forward to welcoming you to the new permanent exhibition entitled Hidden: Seven Children Saved. Designed to engage young visitors with the lessons of the Holocaust, the exhibition explores experiences of children in hiding during the war who later migrated to Melbourne.

The youth-focused exhibition – the first of its kind in Australia – will launch later in 2023. It will complement our main permanent Holocaust exhibition by providing ageappropriate learning for younger visitors.

The exhibition has emerged through our partnership with the Gandel Foundation. In 2013, they funded the acclaimed touring exhibition which we hosted Anne Frank – A History for Today. Seeing young visitors resonate with the exhibition’s themes, we developed an award-winning education program Hide and Seek with multi-year funding from Gandel Foundation in 2014.

Hide and Seek became central to our offerings for students in levels 5 – 7 so much that it inspired us to join forces with the Gandel Foundation again to create a dedicated space for younger audiences in our new museum.

“The recent Gandel Holocaust Survey showed that one of the two most important ways in which the public learns about the Holocaust is visiting a museum (the other being specific Holocaust education in schools),” says Vedran Drakulic OAM, CEO of Gandel Foundation. “It was critically important to offer this type of experience for young people, teaching them about the Holocaust through the eyes of their peers –Jewish children who were trying to survive, and who later settled in Melbourne.”

The exhibition explores the lives of seven local child survivors – Joe de Haan, John Lamovie, Halina Zylberman, Paul Grinwald, Henri Korn, Sonia Kempler and Floris Kalman – drawing from their firstperson narratives. It emphasises the survivors’ bravery and perseverance, alongside the acts of kindness by others that helped save their lives.

The exhibition showcases primary source material from our collection, keeping a child’s perspective in mind, including testimonies, artefacts, photographs, and documents from the Holocaust. One interesting item includes Joe de Haan’s false identity card issued in 1941, identifying him as delivery boy Willem Walvis.

It was too dangerous for Joe to stay in his hometown, so he was hidden by the resistance in the north of the Netherlands. Joe spent nine years volunteering at our museum sharing his experience with students.

The exhibition also comprises cutting-edge exhibition technologies, including soundscapes, moving image, projections, illustrations, and dioramas, to create an immersive learning journey. Building on a concept developed with Thylacine Design, we are now working with Art Processors to bring the exhibition to life.

Art Processors have worked with arts and culture industry leaders, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australian War Memorial, MONA, and significant

by Jennifer Levitt Maxwell

overseas organisations, including the Getty and Portland Museum of Art.

We look forward to sharing Hidden: Seven Children Saved with younger visitors and interested families once the museum reopens later this year.

Acknowledgements

Funded by Gandel Foundation

With assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Sponsored by the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance

by Meg Hibbert

The Gedenkdienst Program

In September 2022, Melbourne Holocaust Museum CEO Jayne Josem participated in a conference and a reception in the Austrian Parliament in recognition of 30 years of the Austrian Gedenkdienst service. As an alternative to compulsory military service, this form of civilian service has seen over 1,300 young Austrians serve in Holocaust museums and memorials across the globe and has expanded to include social service and peace service.

The Gedenkdienst (literally “memory service”) concept sees the Austrian government and its young people facing and taking responsibility for a dark chapter in their country’s history. A young Austrian has volunteered at MHM for 11 of the past 12 years, completing a 10-month internship with financial support from their government.

The program was established by Andreas Maislinger, an Austrian who visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1976 and was convinced Austria needed a state-supported civilian service.

These young Gedenkdiener, as the participants are known, arrive well prepared in institutions like ours across the globe, having completed intensive Holocaust studies ahead of their service. Interns at MHM leave as ambassadors of the museum and gain work and life experience skills during their stay.

The conference was an exchange between different host institutions such as Yad Vashem in Israel, the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, the Auschwitz Jewish Centre, Jewish Museum Berlin, Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, and the Kigali Genocide

Memorial in Rwanda. Representatives of the Austrian Services Abroad, the Austrian Foreign Ministry, politicians, and diplomats all presented at the conference.

The commemoration culminated on 1 September 2022 with a reception in the Austrian Parliament hosted by President of the National Council of the Austrian Parliament Wolfgang Sobotka.

Among the special guest speakers were US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, and Chairman of Yad Vashem Dani Dayan.

CEO Jayne Josem, participated in a panel discussion at the event featuring two of the Austrian Gedenkdienst participants, Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center Tali Nates and Director of the Auschwitz Jewish

Right: President of the National Council of Austria, Wolfgang Sobotka

The event was of personal significance to Jayne, whose father and grandparents were born in Vienna but were forced to flee after the Anschluss in March 1938:

Center Tomasz Kuncewicz. Later that day, the panellists met with President Wolfgang Sobotka and Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for a conversation about Holocaust memory and antisemitism. This meeting, at Café Central, was published in the local newspaper.

Jayne recounting the important meeting said:

“It was an honour to speak about them in parliament, to ensure their names are uttered and their truth is told; that they once lived here and felt themselves to be Viennese, and that although they fled after experiencing the initial fear and terror, both my grandparents, Albert and Josephine Grossbard, died young – Josephine aged 41 and Albert aged 57, before I was born.”

In November 2022 we welcomed our current Austrian Intern Tim Kumpf, who has added value across various departments within the museum. As

part of his 10-month internship, Tim is undertaking an important project alongside the library team, researching European hometowns of Holocaust survivors to understand the impact the war had on these towns today. The Gedenkdienst program itself and the messages that echoed through the conference were all about the power of taking responsibility. From the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s experience with our Austrian Gedenkdiener, we believe that this program embodies the concept with a sound practical outcome, and we commend the Austrian government for its continued support of this form of service.

I impressed upon President Sobotka the value of the Gedenkdienst program to institutions such as ours to ensure they continue to support it. When the first memorial servant from Austria came to us in Melbourne (in 2008), we only had twelve paid employees. An extra person for a whole year makes a huge difference because, as a non-profit association, we have to keep a strict eye on our costs. And the fact that young volunteers come from Austria to get involved here is of great value not only for the few remaining Holocaust survivors but also for their descendants.

with MHM CEO Jayne Josem.

Below: Panel discussion at the Gedenkdienst conference.

Three Crucial Insights from Sara Bloomfield

It was a fantastic opportunity to host the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) director as the keynote speaker for our annual Betty & Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration in 2022. With 30 years of experience working at this leading Holocaust museum – 22 of these as the director – it was inspiring to have Sara Bloomfield work directly with MHM staff across various workshops.

From meeting with Sara, it is clear why USHMM is an icon of Holocaust education in America and the world. Sara speaks with steadfast authority, sharing her insights with years of experience and detailed research to support her positions.

Over the week, Sara fuelled thoughtful conversation on numerous topics within the Holocaust education sphere. It was evident that her insights led back to key principles Sara and her team of over 480 staff and 300 volunteers adhere to. We were pleased to find that we share many of the core values USHMM embodies, which have guided us throughout our redevelopment project over the past three years.

Listen to your audience

Sara spoke about the common mistake many museums make in assuming what their audience wants rather than asking them what they want.

After concerns that USHMM’s display on the Nuremberg Trials — representing a highly engaging and important area of Holocaust history — was not engaging visitors in the way they had anticipated, they completed extensive visitor research to understand their audience’s behaviour.

The study suggested visitors often passed the display without stopping to look at the artefacts because there was “too much” information to digest, which overwhelmed the audience. The team transformed the display and removed multiple artefacts, leaving just three in the exhibit, resulting in a much higher rate of visitor engagement.

Sara and her team live by this “less is more” approach and the power of communicating information in a way that best drives engagement among their audience.

The USHMM is guided by its extensive visitor research, which they complete annually. As we look to reopen our museum, our Experience Master Plan has been developed with comprehensive audience research to ensure our visitors are provided with a meaningful experience at MHM.

Empower the individual

Simply put, museums do not exist to tell people what to think. From USHMM’s exhaustive research, the data infers that exhibits that act to convince their audience often leave individuals feeling disempowered.

Instead, USHMM exhibitions provide their audience with evidence – based on their collection – spanning documents, artefacts, photos, films, books, and testimonies – and allow their visitors to interpret it themselves.

by Meg Hibbert

Let’s look at some of the core insights Sara shared with us over the week she visited the museum:

Sara argues this approach drives engagement and critical thinking, with visitors feeling inspired and empowered by what they learnt at the museum. As a museum that reflects similar values, we look forward to providing an exhibition space that invokes curiosity in our visitors. We want our audience to come away from our museum feeling inspired to continue their Holocaust education journey and the agency to impact their community.

Holocaust education is essential in the 21st century

During Sara’s address, she summed up the importance of Holocaust education in the 21st century in one thoughtfully simplistic yet exceptionally complex sentence:

“The Weimar Republic did not know they were standing on the edge of the abyss.”

With the USHMM tagline What you do matters, Sara posits history plays an essential role in helping us to navigate current issues.

Without the capacity to predict the future, the beauty of retrospection is its capacity for us to take lessons from the Holocaust and apply them to present-day situations. The Weimar Republic had no idea of the horrors that would befall Europe in the years following 1933.

We do not know what the next ten, twenty, or one hundred years will hold. One thing we do know: amplifying the voices of Holocaust survivors through testimony and artefacts will help us navigate current issues with an evidence-based understanding of the by-products of unchecked hate.

Sara Bloomfield at the annual Betty & Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration, 2022.

Sara Bloomfield at the MHM.

Increasing

our Impact

With its significantly larger capacity, more students than ever before can participate in our programs, and importantly, meet our survivors. More space has also provided us the opportunity to grow our corporate programs, educating organisations to assess trigger points and sensitivities within their community and address them appropriately.

Jewish Care and

Emmy Monash

visited us several times in 2022, and undertook an introductory course on the Holocaust, to help them identify sensitivities among their residents, and provide support. We also welcomed Victoria Police members, organised by the Community Security Group (CSG), to better detect and respond to antisemitism while carrying out their service.

Heritage College students are captivated listening to survivor testimony at the museum.

by Simon Holloway

School Visits and Virtual Workshops 2022

Over the last year, more than 14,140 students from schools and other education institutions visited the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. We are very excited to see this number continue to grow as we welcome more students than ever before.

Alamanda College

Alexandra Secondary College

Alphington Grammar

Altona College

Ashwood High School

Auburn High School

Bacchus Marsh Grammar

Ballarat Grammar (City Cite)

Balwyn High School

Bayside Christian College

Beaconhills College Berwick

Beaufort Secondary College

Beaumaris Secondary College

Belgrave Heights Christian School

The move to our new building in the latter half of 2022 permitted a noteworthy increase in the number of students we can accommodate within our education programs.

What we’re hoping to achieve in 2023

With the opening of our museum spaces and memorial room within reach, we are revising our In Touch with Memory program, for senior high school students, to incorporate a museum-based component as well as a memorial activity.

We are also developing a new education program for Level 5 - 8 students, which will operate in one of two of our permanent exhibitions, Hidden: Seven Children Saved, designed for youth to connect with the experiences of survivors who grew up during the Holocaust. Additionally, we are now offering our Holckner Family Bnei Mitzvah program directly to students, in addition to offering it as an extension of programs offered by our partner

organisations. Our first session was held in March, and we plan to offer more later this year.

Our Teacher Professional Learning program was a great success in 2022, reaching 120 teachers from 29 schools. We look forward to expanding the reach of this impactful program in 2023.

As always, our main goal for this year will be to affect a meaningful education experience at MHM, and inspire younger generations to be upstanders in their community.

Bellarine Secondary College

Belmont High School

Benalla Flexible Learning Centre

Bentleigh Secondary College

Berendale School

Bialik College

Billanook College

Birchip P - 12 School

Blackburn High School

Boort District School

Box Hill High School

Braybrook Secondary College

Brentwood Secondary College

Brunswick Secondary College

Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School

Camberwell Grammar School

Camperdown College

Carey Baptist Grammar

Caroline Springs

Carrum Downs Secondary College

Cathedral College Wangaratta

Catherine McAuley College

Catholic College Sale

Catholic Ladies College

Catholic Regional College Keilor North

Caulfield Grammar School

Caulfield Grammar School

Wheelers Hill

Christian College Geelong

Clonard College

Cobden Technical School

Colac Secondary College

Copperfield College

Craigieburn Secondary College

Cranbourne East Secondary College

Cranbourne Secondary College

Creekside College

Crusoe 7 - 10 College

Dimboola Memorial Secondary College

Doncaster Secondary College

Donvale Christian College

Dromana Secondary College

Drouin Secondary College

Echuca College

Elisabeth Murdoch College

Elwood Secondary College

Epping Secondary College

Essendon Keilor College

FCJ College Benalla

Fintona Girls’ School

Fitzroy High School

Fountain Gate Secondary College

Frankston High School

Gardenvale Primary School

Gilson College Taylors Hill

Gisborne Secondary College

Gladstone Park Secondary College

Glen Eira College

Goulburn Valley Grammar School

Hampton Park Secondary College

Harvester Technical College

Heathmont Secondary College

Heritage College

Highvale Secondary College

Hillcrest Christian College

Holmesglen TAFE Moorabbin

Home Education Network

Hopetoun P - 12 College

Hoppers Crossing Secondary College

Horsham College

Ivanhoe Grammar

Kew High School

Kilvington Grammar School

Kingswood College

Korumburra Secondary College

Kurnai College

Kurunjang Secondary College

Lavalla Catholic College

Loreto College Ballarat

Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak

Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar

Loyola College

Lyndale Secondary College

MacKillop Catholic Regional College

MacKillop Education Caulfield

Maffra Secondary College

Marian College Myrtleford

Marist College Bendigo

Marist Sion College

Marsden High School

Maryborough Education Centre

Marymede Catholic College

Masada College

Mazenod College

McKinnon Secondary College

Melbourne Girls’ College

Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School

Melton Christian College

Melton Secondary College

Mentone Grammar School

Mercy College Coburg

Methodist Ladies College

Mooroolbark College

Mornington Secondary College

Mount Rowan Secondary College

Mount Waverley Secondary College

Mt Hira College

Nagle College

Narre Warren South P – 12 College

Nathalia Secondary College

Nazareth College

North Geelong Secondary College

Northern College of the Arts & Technology

Norwood Secondary College

Nossal High School

Notre Dame College

Nunwading Christian College

Oakleigh Grammar

Oberon High School

Officer Secondary College

Our Lady of Mercy College

Our Lady of Sion College

Oxley Christian College

Pakenham Secondary College

Parkdale Secondary College

Pascoe Vale Girls’ College

Patterson River Secondary College

Peninsula Grammar

Penleigh and Essendon

Grammar School

Penola College

Point Cook P - 9 College

Prahran High School

Preshill, The Margaret Lyttle

Memorial School

Preston High School

Reservoir High School

Robinvale College

Roxburgh College

Rutherglen High School

Ruyton Girls School

Sacre Couer School

Sacred Heart Girls’ College

Sacred Heart Yarrawonga

Salesian College

Salesian College

Scotch College

Seymour College

Chadstone

Shelford Girls’ Grammar

Shepparton ACE Secondary College

Springside West Secondary College

St Albans Secondary College

St Augustine’s College

St Catherine’s School

St Columba’s College

St Joseph’s College Ferntree Gully

St Joseph’s College Geelong

St Leonard’s College

St Mary MacKillop College

St Matthew’s Primary School

St Michael’s Grammar School

St Peter’s College

St Philip’s Christian College

St Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre

Staughton College

Strathcona Girls’ Grammar

Sunbury Downs College

Sunshine College (North campus)

Sunshine College (West campus)

Swinburne Senior Secondary College

Sydney Rd Community School

Tarneit P - 9 College

Tarneit Senior College

TasTAFE Hobart

Templestowe College

The Grange P - 12 College

The Kilmore International School

The Mac.Robertson Girls High School

Thomas Carr College

Timboon P - 12 College

Tintern Grammar

Traralgon College

Trinity College Colac

Trinity Grammar University High School

Upper Yarra Secondary College

Upwey High School

Victorian College for The Deaf

Victory Lutheran Secondary College

Wallan Secondary College

Wangaratta High School

Warrnambool Secondary College

Waverley Christian College

Weeroona Secondary College

Wellington Secondary School

Wesley College Glen Waverley

Westall Secondary College

Williamstown HighSchool

Wodonga Senior Secondary College

Woodleigh School

Yarra Valley Grammar

Yeshiva Secondary College

For the Hidden Exhibition and General Collection

Jozef & Cecilia De Haan Collection

Collections Department

New Acquisitions

The following are new additions from 2022 to early 2023. Most of our collection has a connection with Melbourne survivors; this is what makes the Melbourne Holocaust Museum Collection unique. Thank you to our donors for your generosity, also thank you to those who are funding the work of the Collections Department. Donations of original Holocaust artefacts are always welcome. Please contact Dr Anna Hirsh, Manager of Collections and Research, for an appointment: anna.hirsh@mhm.org.au

Joe de Haan passed away in January 2023 at 100 years of age. Joe, from Amsterdam, had survived hiding in the north of the Netherlands. Items belonging to Joe and his wife Cecilia, donated by children, Michael and Judy.

Paul Grinwald Collection

Numerous photographs and documents. Paul, from Paris, hid on a farm with his sister Suzanne, until their

For the MHM Collection

Eva Berkovic Collection

A suitcase belonging to Eva Berkovic (nee Fraenkel), from Mainz, who took this with her when she escaped Nazi Germany on a kindertransport. Donated by her children, Sam and Garry.

Siegfried & Gerda Blassburg Collection

Numerous papers, as well as a yellow Star of David badge, have been donated to the collection, including documents describing failed attempts to bring relatives to Australia. Donated by daughter, Margaret Masur.

Alfred Cossen Collection

Alfred Cossen, a renowned sportsman from Hamburg, escaped Nazi Germany. His son Ron has donated many photographs, items, letters and documents.

Janina Greenwood Collection

Photographs, documents, and postwar ceramic tableware. Janina survived Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Bergen Belsen. Donated by Janina’s daughters, Helen and Michelle.

parents could not afford to continue paying for their children’s protection; the family then hid in the countryside, helped by neighbours.

John Lamovie Collection

Numerous photographs, documents and items representing pre-war life and experiences during the Holocaust. John was born in Paris into a Polish-Jewish family. His father joined the resistance, but his mother and sister were caught

Elisa Henenberg Collection

Elisa was a child when she and her family escaped Vienna in 1938. Documents and photographs donated by daughter, Caryn Granek.

Simon Holloway Collection

Siddur printed in the Fohrenwald DP camp in 1946. Donated by Simon Holloway.

Leon & Erna Holzer Collection

Additional artefacts belonging to survivors Leon and Erna Holzer, including photographs and a Star of David badge, have been donated by nephew, Ralph Renard.

Leon Jedwab Collection

Diaries from the immediate post-war era replace copies previously presented to the collection. Donated by Leon’s daughter Helene Jedwab.

Arnold Lederman Collection

Photographs, documents, and film footage of Arnold Lederman with survivors in Melbourne have been donated by son, Joe Lederman.

and deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. John hid with family members until liberation in 1944.

Halina Zylberman Collection

Halina, from Krakow, lived outside the ghetto with her mother on false papers. She would occasionally meet up with her father, and passed messages between her parents. Documents and photographs donated on behalf of Halina by her son, Mark White.

Walter & Sima Lowen Collection

Items belonging to Walter and Sima Lowen including a barber’s grooming set from Sima’s parents’ business, and Walter’s tuxedo jacket. Donated by their children Norma, Mark and Rick. Look out for these pre-war items in our Permanent Exhibition.

Charles Oliver Collection

Charles Oliver escaped from Czechoslovakia in 1939 to Paris, and joined the French Foreign Legion then the British army in 1940. Donated by his son, Michael.

Halina Strnad Collection

A collection of original documents and photographs. Halina (nee Wagowska) has survived the infamous Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk. Halina’s testimony at war crimes trials contributed to prosecution.

Sue Wright Collection

Autograph book belonging to Sue Wright. Sue, a former volunteer at the museum, was from Vienna. Her Jewish father was murdered in the Holocaust. Donated by daughter Eileen Wright.

Paul Grinwald’s paternal aunt Chana, her husband, and their children, Sara and Maurice.

Jozeph de Haan, third from left, front row, at the Boerhaeschool, Amsterdam, 1930s.

Two Sisters Reunited

by Ruth Mushin

So wrote Jadwiga Hegedus to her sister Irena on 9 April 1946. When Jadwiga and her family emerged from hiding after the Red Army liberated Poland in 1944, she immediately set about trying to find her beloved younger sister, Irena, who had migrated to Australia before the war. Irena too had been searching for Jadwiga and eventually found her through the Red Cross. Raw with emotion, Jadwiga’s reply to Irena’s letter expresses the joy of hearing from her sister and the sorrow of recounting the tragedy that had befallen their loved ones.

Jadwiga (nee Taube) and her husband Aleksandor (Sandor) lived in Lwów (then in Poland, now Lviv in Ukraine) with their only child, Andrzej (Andy), who was born in 1932. Sandor, whose parents had migrated from Hungary, worked with his father in their prestigious printing business. Jadwiga came from a traditional Jewish background; however, while Sandor and Jadwiga’s Jewish identity was important to them, they were not observant. They lived a comfortable middle-class life with close family ties, in a home Andy remembers as being filled with music.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, the family continued to live in their apartment, but were forced to move into a ghetto in 1941. Believing that Andy would be safer in the countryside, his parents sent him to a farmer who soon returned him to Lwów as he felt that sheltering a Jewish child was too dangerous. A second family, who took their jewellery as payment, also sent him back to his parents when their children figured out that Andy was Jewish.

Through his many business contacts, Sandor managed to find a woman who was willing to hide the family. Helena Pelczarska was a tailor who lived alone in a two-bedroom apartment, and the family moved into her second bedroom. For over two years, Helena risked her life hiding them, going to different places to buy food so that it was not obvious that she was feeding three extra people.

Sandor, Jadwiga and Andy rarely left their room, living very quietly so that the neighbours would not discover them. Only Sandor, who did not look Jewish, would occasionally leave the apartment.

Jadwiga tells Irena of their mother’s tragic fate: she was living nearby in Lwów with false papers but was betrayed and then murdered in 1942. She writes:

Irus, it is hard for me to write about all this but all this needs to be written. I am alive and Sandor and Andrzej, and she is not here.

Apart from Cilica Lusia and Romek, none of the family are alive. Ciocia

Papcia hanged herself, Feliks died in a concentration camp, Ciocia Hindzia was killed and Edzio and Joachim and Zosia and Dziubka ... and Dunek and Giza and little Zosia and Leon and Lola and both Frydzias, all killed, tortured by the Germans ... Of our friends and acquaintances there is hardly anyone.

Sewer, Bronek, Mietek and Fryc are not alive, nor are their parents. In one word, there is no one left. It appears to me that this letter is chaotic, but I can’t do it any other way.

Eventually Irena was able to obtain permits to bring them to Australia, and in 1951, Sandor, Jadwiga and Andy arrived in Melbourne to begin their new life with Jadwiga’s beloved family.

My dearest Irus, beloved sister, I can’t believe my luck that I have your letter before my eyes! I see your writing, I recognise it, again it’s you, my little green sister only older and perhaps no longer little and green, but of that I’ll convince myself personally.

Above: Andy Hegedus and Helena Pelczarska.

Left: Jadwiga, Andy and Sandor Hegedus.

In memory of Andy Hegedus, who passed away in November 2022.

Honouring their Legacy

Roslyn and Richard Rogers

My wife Roslyn and I were very early donors to the museum’s foundation. Our driving force was to allow us to be active in commemorating those lost and also doing something tangible to guide and educate future generations to ensure that history will not repeat itself.

Roslyn’s father, Peter, left Skierniewice, Poland to come to Australia before World War Two, leaving behind all his family who were meant to follow shortly after. This didn’t happen and most of the family were lost to the murderous Nazi regime. He was focused on ensuring that Jewish ways of life and values were paramount in his children’s lives.

Roslyn’s mother, Anna, who came from Lvov to Australia in 1948 was the only member of her family to survive, after enduring an extremely harrowing time. Her father had arranged for a friend to supply her with false papers in order to leave the country. As it turned out these never arrived and she was hidden in a room in her own house which was occupied during the day by the Polish people who worked for the Nazis. She remained hidden for 20 months. She was saved by the family’s housekeeper and a Catholic Priest who

told the housekeeper it is her duty to protect Anna. Eventually she made it to Australia where she married and had two children. Anna went about ensuring the education and safety of her children. She loved Australia and the safety and freedom it gave her –incredibly she was not bitter about the Germans and taught her children that there is good and bad in everyone.

My mother, Freda, was born in Australia. My father, Kalman, was born in Lodz, Poland. From a very young age he decided that Poland was not a safe country for Jews because of the antisemitism. He left his family in 1925 at the age of 19 and with no knowledge of English he set out for Australia. He quickly established himself and was able to work hard and bring his immediate family to Melbourne. All others in the family who remained behind in Poland were lost in the Holocaust. He had the greatest possible love for Australia and the opportunity it gave him and his family. He volunteered for many Jewish organisations over the years. We believe the MHM is a vital part of the Jewish community as well as the general community. Current and future generations of Jews must learn what

happened during the Holocaust and understand how easy it is to try and wipe out a people. We cannot simply live a free life in Australia and forget the past. We must protect our future with education and knowledge. The non-Jewish community, particularly the younger more impressionable ones, need to understand the horror, immorality, and betrayal that we experienced. There is nowhere else other than our MHM where this can be done.

The school education programs that are extensively utilised by Jewish and non-Jewish schools alike and are a major reason why the museum should be supported. The strength of the MHM is the involvement, focus and dedication of the staff to both memorialise those who were lost and also to educate future generations as it won’t be long until there are no more eyewitnesses.

For our family there is no question that the museum is an essential organisation to support.

Roslyn and Richard Rogers and grandchildren.

The Holocaust has always been an everyday part of our family. Consequently, there is a naturally deep association between our family and the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

Our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all our donors and funders – your support continues to allow us to preserve Holocaust memory and teach the important lessons of the Holocaust. Below are donors of $500 and above from January to December 2022.

Jack & Lesley Silberscher

Mark & Rhonda Silver

Ivan & Annette Simmons

Stephen & Sharron Singer

Barry Singer & Simone Szalmuk-Singer

David & Tammie Slade

Graham & Mary Slade

Kevin & Suzanne Slomoi

Laurence & Lana Slomoi

Michael & Sue Small

Daniel & Keren Smolarski

David & Kathie Smorgon

Dean & Ellie Smorgon

Rodney & Ann Smorgon

The Victor & Loti Smorgon Charitable Fund

Ross & Karen Snow

Helen Sokolski

Roy Solomon

Norman Sonenberg

Zorita Sormann

Graeme & Suzanne Southwick

Spotlight Foundation

The Estate of Mary Starr

Bernie Stone

Stephen & Barbara Stowe

Halina Strnad

Dion & Romy Stub

John & Irene Sutton

Theo & Shirley Sweet

Mr & Mrs Szabson

Geoff Szalmuk

Stephen & Debbie Szental

Damien Szwarc

Joe Szwarcberg

Michelle Szwarcberg

Robert & Felicia Szwarcberg

Ben Thynne

Joe & Sharon Tigel

Frank & Miriam Tisher

Lynn Trayer

Ron & Sue Unger

Reuben & Patricia Urban

Leon & Sandra Velik

Vicki Vidor

Victor & Karen Wayne

& Jacqueline Saunders

Ari & Debbie Schachna

Ronald & Kay Schweitzer

Anne Scott

Sam & Judy Seigel

Leon & Viv Serry

David Shafar

David & Lauren Shafer

Lorraine Shapiro

James & Leanne Shaw

Judy Sher

Lily Shwarz

Among the Nations Righteous

Yad Vashem and The Embassy of Israel in Australia honoured Mrs. Rena Skowronska-Skovell and Mr. Wilhelm Alois Spisky as RighteousAmongthe Nations at a ceremony held at St Kilda Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2021.

Sam Webb

The Etate of Piry Weiss

Vivien Wertkin

David & Alison Wiesenfeld

Dennis & Tauba Wilson

Andrew Wirth

John & Suzanne Wolf

Anne Wollach - Szalmuk

Paule Wrobel

Braham & Andrea Zilberman

Leon & Miriam Zimmet

Sandra Zwier

For all fundraising enquiries, please contact donate@mhm.org.au

We are so grateful for the righteousness of these honorable people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. We do not have enough words to thank them for all their efforts. It takes something special for seemingly ordinary people to risk their own lives and the lives of their loved ones in order to save and protect complete strangers from persecution and mass murder. We will always remember their bravery and their humanity.

Mr. John Gandel AC, Chairman of Gandel Foundation

This honour is awarded by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel to recognize individuals who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust without expectation of any reward. The ceremony, supported by the Gandel Foundation, posthumously honoured Mrs. Rena Skowronska-Skovell and Mr. Wilhelm Alois Spisky for their efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Rena Skowronska-Skovell was born and raised in Vilno, a Lithuanian city in what was then part of Poland. She protected Joseph Skovronek, and his then wife, who came from a wellknown Jewish banking family in Warsaw. When the Germans invaded Warsaw, they moved eastward and ended up in Vilno. Rena found “safe houses” for both of them which had to be frequently changed as it was dangerous to stay too long at one address. There were numerous times that the Gestapo arrested Joseph and Rena repeatedly helped in his release.

Wilhelm Alois Spisky helped release five Jews (Cogans from Poland) from prison. Spisky made contact with a friend of the Cogans, Emilian Mărculescu (also named Righteous) who bribed a Romanian police officer. Under the pretence of taking them to the border to be handed over to the Germans, instead the Romanian officer brought them to Spisky. Thereafter, Spisky took the Cogans to his own apartment and kept them hidden there for six weeks.

Rena‘s daughter, Eva Collins received the award on behalf of her late mother and Tina Fersterer, received the award on behalf of her granduncle, Wilhelm Spisky.

Rena Skowronski (c. 1946).

Holckner Bnei Mitzvah Program

Melbourne Holocaust Museum

Holckner Bnei Mitzvah Program

–

What does the program offer?

With sensitivity to the age of participants of the program, we believe that by engaging in the stories of children during the Holocaust, they can make what is already a very significant time even more powerful.

During this unique 90-minute program, students are taken through a practical session led by Holocaust education experts to gain perspective on the experiences of Jewish youth throughout the Holocaust. The practical session is further enhanced with activities using replicas from the MHM Collection.

For survivors like Irma, maintaining a Jewish identity was imperative for survival. Moreover, for many, hiding in “plain sight” with identities that concealed their Jewish backgrounds proved necessary to survive. Interestingly, these survival methods often inadvertently intensified introspection on people’s Jewish identity and what being Jewish meant to them.

In this targeted program, students will:

• Gain a greater understanding of the diversity of Jewish culture through practical activities based on MHM’s collection

• Hold open discussion and reflection on what being Jewish means to them

• Be gifted with a memoir written by a Holocaust survivor

Collection items such as this Rosh Hashanah card – donated by Holocaust survivor Irma Hanner – help fuel discussions around what being Jewish means to students. Irma crafted this card in September 1943, while she was incarcerated in Theresienstadt.

It reads “To a Good Year.” Until liberation, Irma hid this new year card under her straw mattress.

With two successful sessions run in March, we look forward to hosting this important program again later in the year.

Simcha

GIVING EXPERIENCE

Tyler celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in 2022 at home with family and friends. The back garden was set up as a shule for the Parasha reading, and festivities with dancing, video games and food ensued.

Being grateful and respecting Hashem is a huge lesson taught in my Parasha. In many ways I can connect my life to Parashat Ekev. I have been brought up to understand how grateful and lucky I am to be alive, being a great grandchild of Holocaust survivors. I know many members of my family weren’t as lucky as I am and never had the chance to celebrate their Bar or Bat Mitzvah.

Tyler often imagined what he would have done when his late zaida, Holocaust survivor Tuvia Lipson, would recount his incredible story of survival. With his great grandparents being survivors, and his great grandmother’s brother Robert murdered one month before he was to be Bar Mitzvah’d, Tyler has become committed to keeping Holocaust memory alive.

For his Bar Mitzvah in 2022, Tyler selflessly requested donations in lieu of gifts to honour Robert and his great grandparents, raising close to $9,000 for the museum.

Tyler’s reading was of Parashat Ekev Ekevis about Moshe delivering his final speech to the Israelites before he dies. During the service, Tyler was surrounded by generations of family members.

With the acknowledgement that not everyone is lucky enough to make it to their Bar Mitzvah, Tyler’s experience was uniquely meaningful, as he took the opportunity to honour people like Robert, and ensure their memory endures for future generations.

“My mum interviewed my great grandmother and asked her about Robert so I could get a better

understanding of who he was. My great grandmother described him as clever, the best at school, the best in Hebrew, very good looking and loved by everyone. When mum told me about the idea of twining my Bar Mitzvah in honour of someone who didn’t have the opportunity to have one, Robert was the right person. Even though my great grandmother is not here she knew Robert was going to be in our hearts tonight.” — Tyler.

Tyler’s generous donation will go towards ensuring the voices of Holocaust survivors live on.

Ultimately, what a person’s Bnei Mitzvah means for them will be for them to decide. We want that decision to be made with full awareness of the history behind it and with a deep appreciation for the significance of being able to make it.

developed with generous funding from the Holckner family – allows students to look at the experiences of children their age during the Holocaust to impress upon them the importance of personal choice ahead of this special life event.

Dr Simon Holloway, MHM Head of Education

Luba’s Story

Holocaust survivor Luba Wrobel Goldberg was born and raised in Ciechanowiec, Poland. She attended the Zionist Tarbut school. After her father’s sudden death, Luba was sent by her mother to nearby Bialystok to study dressmaking at ORT Trade school. Little did Luba know at the time that this trade would later save her life more than once.

The family home was bombed during the German invasion, and Luba was sent to relatives in nearby Sokoly. She never saw her family again. In Sokoly Ghetto, Luba became a food smuggler.

Luba narrowly avoided death one early morning outside the ghetto. Instead of running from an entourage of German soldiers, Luba approached and greeted the soldiers. The following day, ghetto inhabitants were forced to witness the hanging of another smuggler.

Sensing imminent liquidation, Luba and some relatives managed to escape the ghetto. To maximize chances of survival, Luba separated from the family group, wandering in the forests, starved, cold, and alone. Luba sometimes received help in exchange for sewing, but was often turned away, escaping impending death on many occasions.

Luba knew her only hope was to find the Russian

by Fiona Kelmann

A Hero Our Hero

partisans; when she did, she attributed it to heavenly help. She joined the Zhukov Otriad in the Bransk Forest. Luba slept in a bunker under a tree, carried a rifle, and participated in several missions, including detonating telephone poles and live fire exchange with Armia Krajowa personnel and Nazi officers.

In the Bransk forest, a Jewish camp, headed by the Olesnki brothers, fed, and cared for over 70 Jews while providing food, arms, and medicine to the Russian command. Luba always wanted the story of the Olenskis to be told.

From the end of 1943, Luba chaperoned Luba Frank to protect her from rape. This young Luba had bravely jumped from a train to Treblinka. She was found and rescued by Duvche Olenski. The two Lubas became ‘sisters of the forest’ and participated in a daring mission together when their group detonated a bridge

after walking all night for 30 kilometers without a stop. Little Luba survived and later married Duvche Olenski.

Luba never saw herself as a victim. In the forest, there was fighting, danger, and death. But there was also singing, laughter, romance, and life. Luba was one of only two members of her Otriad, decorated for bravery.

From the Bransk Yizkor Book: A Tchekheavster young woman is hiding in the Bransk forest with the Bransk Partisans. At the attack on their trench on 8 December 1943 she shows how brave she is. Luba stands in the trench and is visible from the waist up. She is shooting. Whilst Vanye Zhabate shoots, she prepares more weapons for him. She hands them to him and shouts bravely “Shoot Vanye,” whilst using the automatic pistol herself and directing Vanya. She survived.

After the war Luba married Chaim Goldberg, a Holocaust survivor from Sokoly, Poland. They fled Poland

due to persistent antisemitism and were placed in a Displaced Persons Camp in Waldenburg, Germany, where daughter Goldie was born, and soon, a son, Jack, in Milan, Italy. They emigrated from Italy to Melbourne, Australia, in 1949 aboard the Napoli. In Melbourne, Luba and Chaim worked 16 hours days in manual labour. They opened a shmatte shop with their savings in Brunswick. Luba’s shop became a haven where diverse women gathered to receive advice, blessings, and clothing, free of charge if in need.

In her early seventies, Luba studied VCE English and later wrote two memoirs. The first, A Spark of Hope (2002), detailed her survival during the Holocaust. The second, Australia, My New Home (2004), explored Luba’s trials and

tribulations as a new immigrant. Most of Luba’s inner circle were Holocaust survivors, but Luba loved to meet people from all walks of life, young and old. She would smile, advise, and stress the importance of optimism and faith.

After moving to aged care, new friendships were made, particularly with staff, many of whom came from refugee backgrounds. They were all given signed copies of her books until none were left.

Aged 90, Luba commenced an artistic career, painting hundreds of paintings depicting scenes from her life. She continued to paint until her eyesight failed her, only recently.

Luba Wrobel Goldberg passed away peacefully on 18 May 2022 aged 99 years old. She is survived by her two children, six grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren. This is an edited excerpt of a eulogy given at Luba’s funeral on 19 May 2022 by Fiona Kelmann and Sharon Roseman, two of Luba’s grandchildren.

A rare soul who touched so many lives

Who continues to touch us A fighter till the end

The two Luba’s, ‘sisters of the forest’, Melbourne, 2009. (L) Little Luba Frank Olenski, (R) Luba Wrobel Goldberg.

Luba Wrobel Goldberg , Poland, c.1945.

JOZEPH DE HAAN In Memory of

by Judy de Haan

Jozeph de Haan, a survivor of the Holocaust, a beloved member of his community, and our dear dad and Opa Joe, passed away peacefully on 28 January 2023, at the age of 100.

Born on 12 October 1922, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Dad had a carefree childhood and dreamed of becoming a diamond polisher. However, the outbreak of World War Two shattered his dreams and forced him into hiding to evade Nazi roundups. Dad spent approximately two years living with famers in the northern province of Friesland where he hid at night in a small attic. During the day Dad made himself useful by milking the cows and learning to make wool by hand on the farmer’s wife’s spinning machine. He became really proficient and the farmer’s wife was able to produce jumpers that were quite the envy of all the neighbourhood! Despite the many obstacles he faced, Dad persevered and built a life filled with love and community.

After the war, our dad met and married our mum, Cecilia de Wolff, who was also a Holocaust survivor, and together they immigrated to South Africa, where they started a family. They enjoyed many happy years in Cape

Town raising their two children Michael and Judy, before moving to Melbourne, Australia to be closer to Judy, son-in-law Bentley z’’l, and grandchildren Dylan and Jordan.

Dad was an active man who loved playing tennis, going to the gym, and cooking. He was known for his delicious apple cake, his famous Dutch apple mousse dessert, and his legendary orange cake. But more than anything, Dad was loved for his charismatic personality, his ability to tell a good joke, and his dedication to educating others about the Holocaust.

As a survivor, Dad felt it was his duty to share his story and to spread the word of love for his fellow man. He did this through his work at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, where he shared his experiences with children and adults alike. His stories of endurance and perseverance were an inspiration to all who heard them. Dad will be sadly missed by all who knew and loved him.

Joseph Franck

Mark Saltzman

Danny Lustig

Gideon Rathner

Joseph Kalb

Daniel Franck

Loren Datt

Richard Horvath

This Yom HaShoah, you can double the hope that shines brighter than hate. Your generous gift to the Yom HaShoah Matching Appeal will help preserve the museum and its stories for the next generation. And when you give by 8 May, or before the funds run out, your generosity will be doubled!

mhmannualappeal.org.au or 9528 1985