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.