‘It is part of our history’

The Smorgon Family left Russia in 1926 to escape Stalin’s ascension to power and antisemitic sentiment prevalent at the time. They arrived in Port Melbourne in 1927 on a converted battleship with little money and no English.

They settled in Carlton and began a family butcher shop. From those humble beginnings the family business grew to include the supply of wholesale meat, canning operations, and in the following decades meatworks, recycling paper, plastics and steel. In 1995 the Smorgon Family divested the family business and the seven core family branches ventured out into their own businesses and continued the family tradition of philanthropy which dates back to their earliest days in Australia and before. Even today you will still see the Smorgon Family name prominently displayed at various institutions around Melbourne acknowledging the generous contribution made to the community. The Jack and Robert Smorgon Families are the descendants of Anne and Eric Smorgon, and their Foundation has provided support to many community charities both within the Jewish and secular communities. Both Anne and Eric encouraged the family not only to donate, but also to give up their time to charitable activities. Younger family members are encouraged to attend as many site visits as they can to understand and appreciate the various sectors of the community which require support. The one statistic that is well reported is that Melbourne has one of the highest density of Jewish Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel and, living in Melbourne, one cannot escape the impact that the Holocaust has had on our community, not just on the survivors themselves but also on the following generations. It is important to continue telling the story and to educate the new generation on how things can go terribly wrong even if you feel secure and accepted. Whilst the Smorgon family was saved from the severe and emotional devastation of the Holocaust in Europe, the family remembered how it felt living on a “knife’s edge”, not feeling secure in their homeland.

Drone filming of Sjaza Chaskiel at the entrance to Aushwitz

The Jack & Robert Smorgon Foundation’s connection to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum ensures that the story continues to be retold. Helen Mahemoff, Chairperson of the MHM Foundation, has always included the family on the museum’s journey. Her tireless work and dedication to the cause inspires the family’s involvement with this new and exciting museum. Our Foundation provided support to a virtual reality film ‘Walk with Me’, which is a film about Szaja Chaskiel, a Holocaust Survivor and Museum guide, in which he revisits his hometown and sites where he was incarcerated during the Holocaust. The film enables visitors to immerse themselves in the past by walking with a survivor through his memories. This 360-degree interactive film traces Szaja’s steps from his hometown in Wielun, Poland, the former Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz and Buchenwald Concentration camps. The new MHM is an amazing place not only for the Jewish Community but for all Australians to learn the lessons of the past. The Jack & Robert Smorgon Families Foundation are extremely proud to be able to support MHM and play a small part to ensure the horror of the Holocaust never reoccurs. byAndrew Blode AM

Jack & Robert Smorgon Families Foundation