Sydney Jewish Museum

The Sydney Jewish Museum is situated at 148 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst

Holocaust History

Australian Jewish History

Wednesdays with Eddie

Eddie Jaku guides visitors around Sydney Jewish Museum’s Holocaust section every Wednesday but he turned up a day early this week…to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Museum CEO Norman Seligman told Eddie’s family, friends and museum co-workers: “I know Eddie sings in the shower every morning…but we sing every Wednesday knowing that he soming to join us in the important work as a survivor guiding visitors to the museum.”

Seligman and Jackie Regos presented Jaku with certificates before he blew out his birthday cake candles and told the museum staff how much he appreciated his friendship.

Jaku told J-Wire: “I was born in Leipzig, Germany and I tell visitors that I lived in the most civilised, cultured and educated society in Europe and that I had lost two uncles fighting for Germany in World War One.,,and then look what happened. But I hate no-one…not even Germans. My life was spared in the concentration camp so now I feel it is my duty to give something back to humanity. One of my biggest surprises in all the years I have been guiding has been the number of diplomats who knew so very little, if anything, about the Holocaust. There is no future without the past…and whatever is not in your eyes, is not in your heart.

Sixteen Consuls attend the Yom HaShoah Voice of the Survivors in Sydney

Sixteen Consuls, including representatives from Poland, Germany and Austria attended the Voice of the Survivors at the Jewish Museum in Sydney today.

More than 250 guests filled the auditorium including many survivors and pupils from Moriah College, Masada College, Redlands Cremorne, Kambala, Sydney Girls High, Bossley Park, Dubbo College, Campbelltown Performing School, Fairfield High School and the Armenian School.

Before the ceremony of reading out the names of more than 5000 Jews murdered by the Nazis took place, the Consuls were taken on a tour of the Holocaust section of the museum.

Guides Gael Hammer and Michael Gold explained the path of the persecution of the Jews as displayed at the museum with special focus being placed on the children’s section. It was a hushed tour with the consuls seen to be visibly moved and with very questions demonstrating the self-evident tragic story the museum tells.

Before the reading of the names began, condolences were offered to the Polish Consul Daniel Gromann following the news of the tragic death of his country’s president Lech Kazcysnki in a plane crash in Western Russia which killed 88 passengers.

This followed Kaddish recited by Israeli diplomat Eli Yerushalami and the lighting of six candles by six of the school pupils to commemorate the memory of the six million who perished during the Nazi regime.

Countries whose Consuls attended included Argentina, Austria, the United Kingdom, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Germany, India, Latvia, Poland, the People’s Republic of China, and Romania.

One survivor left early. He told J-Wire as he walked out of the museum: “I went through this….I had to leave.”

Meanwhile, at the Martyrs’ Memorial at Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s president Robert Goot spoke to a solemn audience.

J-Wire publishes the text of his speech:

THE VOICE OF THE SURVIVORS

Martyrs Memorial Commemoration 11 April 2010

I would like to dedicate these remarks to Jana Gottshall, a survivor, the Rebbetzin of my youth in New Zealand, who with her late husband Rabbi Benjamin Gottshall,  showed me from am early age dignity courage and the importance of memory and learning.   We wish Jana Refuah Shelemach

The Voice of the Survivors

“Son of Man keep not silent

Forget not the deeds of tyranny

Cry out at the disaster of a people

And recount it unto your children

And they unto theirs”

Yehuda Leib Bialar

When in 1968, I addressed the Warsaw Ghetto Commemoration, I observed that: “The history of Judaism is made conspicuous by the heroic acts of such men as Simon Bar Giorcha, Bar-Kochba, Judas Maccabee and Mordecai Anelevitch”

However, History will add to the class of heroes of the Jewish people, a complete generation – the survivors of the Shoah.

Those who came to this and other countries with nothing more than inexpressible grief at the loss of their families and communities and the triumph of having lived through the most terrible era of barbarism in all history, with courage and dignity.

The survivors – those who in a truly astonishing way, manifest the living symbol of Jewish survival and capacity for resurgence, renewal and continuity, through  the lives that they led and lead and the contributions that they have made and continue to make.

Silence was not for the survivors; forgetting was not for the survivors. They are a generation who: cry out; remember; recount; renew and rebuild.

In 1968, I was the Youth Speaker and accordingly received some latitude from  the organisers of the commemoration. In my speech I was critical of the fact that our community was lacking in the infrastructure, amenities and incentives that a Jewish community of 30,000 people must have to retain its identity and to be assured of a vibrant and continued existence as Jews.

The community I described then is in a very real sense, unrecognisable to the Jewish community we are privileged to be part of today.

That remarkable re-growth of the Sydney Jewish community is largely attributable to the capacity, energy and drive of the survivors. It is peculiar to the Australian Jewish experience particularly in Sydney and Melbourne and flows from the disproportionate number of survivors who came to Australia.

The survivors applied themselves energetically and with great success in every field of human endeavour, in a country that welcomed and encouraged them and provided them with vast opportunities, of which they were keen to take advantage, which they most certainly did.

In the foreward to   “Nothing is Impossible – The John Saunders Story”, John Howard described the survivors of the Shoah in the following terms:

“The Jewish people of Eastern Europe who fled the most appalling manifestation of human evil that the history of the world has seen, came to Australia, in almost all cases, without any capacity to speak English and, within a generation left their mark on commerce and business as well as community and charity endeavours”.

Success in commerce and business of course was one thing but its great importance was that through the philanthrophy that it spawned, that success helped in an unprecedented way to build and rebuild the community both here and in Israel and thereby to provide the institutions so vital for Jewish continuity, including: Synagogues; kehillot; learning centres; schools; University chairs and courses; University residential colleges and of course that essential vehicle for memory and learning the Sydney Jewish Museum.

But of course as we all know, bricks and mortar alone does not a caring and vibrant community make.

What is equally, if not more, important, is the wonderful sense of generosity of spirit and commitment, that we have found and continue to find in the survivors. That spirit and commitment manifests itself in so many different ways in our community.

Whether it be in the recording of oral histories so that generations to come might learn the depths to which humankind can descend when intolerance and hatred are allowed to flourish, or through the Heritage projects in our schools; or guiding in the Sydney Jewish Museum (established by a survivor John Saunders), or teaching Jewish and non-Jewish school children, members of the Police and other law enforcement agencies and citizens from all walks of life and all ages – about the Shoah and the importance of a tolerant and accepting society; or through leadership of and involvement with Jewish institutions and organizations; or in championing the rights of others less fortunate, or acting as a conscience in society generally, or in simply talking to and interacting with their own families and their friends,  survivors have made a contribution to this and other communities that is unprecedented.

And, as with most of what the survivors achieved, they set an outstanding example for others to follow, they inspired, they motivated and they lifted the bar in so many ways, creating a force and a climate for growth and progress. They were and are legendary.

Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that the generation of survivors that it has been our great privilege to know, is a generation the likes of which we are unlikely ever to know again.

“Son of Man keep not silent, Forget not the deeds of tyranny, Cry out at the disaster of a people, And recount it unto your children, And they unto theirs”

Two teachers – one suitcase

Fumiko Ishioka told her amazing story of her search for the owner of a suitcase she received from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial to a Sydney audience last night…and met a Canberra teacher who has just finished teaching the project.

Fumiko Ishioka is  a Tokyo-based educator who visited the concentration camp site in 1999 and asked the authorities if she could have artifacts to take back to Japan where she was teaching the Holocaust.

She received a battered suitcase bearing the name Hana Brady and set about tracing the identity of the case’s owner. Her search took her to Theriesenstadt where she discovered that George and Hana Brady had been taken to Auschwitz and further research showed that Hana had been murdered but George had survived and had emigrated to Toronto.

The teacher and Hana’s brother finally met when George Brady visited Ishioka’s school in Tokyo.

The story was written by Canadian radio producer Karen Levine and has been translated into 40 languages and has been made into a movie. “Hana’s Suitcase” was screened at the Sydney Jewish Museum yesterday afternoon followed by a presentation by the Japanese teacher accompanied by Hana’s brother George’s daughter, Lara Brady.

Ishioka now runs the Tokyo Holocaust Education Centre.

News of the screening brought 38-yr-old Robin Ricketts on a special mission from Canberra where she has just finished a project with her year 7 pupils on Hana’s Suitcase.

J-Wire brought the two teachers together and Ricketts presented Ishioka and George Brady’s daughter Lara with drawings made by her pupils as part of the project.

Ricketts told J-Wire: “I was absoulutely thrilled to meet Ms Ishioka. I have taught the story of Hana and her suitcase three times now…and I use it to make the point as strongly as possible to the children about the importance of tolerance and understanding.

Ricketts, who grew up in Dubbo, added: ” I was teaching at a large school in the A.C.T. and was looking for a text that would challenge the pupils as to not only what had happened in the past but also what they could do help those in need around them. One of my peer teachers had read ‘Hana’s Suitcase’ and recommended it. We taught the text to 11 to 13-yr-olds.”

Ricketts had studied the Rise of the Third Reich at university so the Holocaust was no stranger to her. She said: “The wonderful thing about teaching ‘Hana’s Suitcase’ is that Hana was the age that the children are now. Many of them have brothers and sisters and they experienced distress when they learned how Hana and George had been separated. We teach them before the project about the Holocaust and the death camps and they are well aware of what happened in Auschwitz-Birkenaua and Terezein so when they knew about Hana being sent to Auschwitz they figured that she was not going to survive. When we finished the project, I got the children to pretend that they are either George or Hana and ask them to write a letter to their sibling. This year I have asked them to write to Fumiko or to George Brady.

“The first time I read the book, I bawled my eyes out when I realised Hana had died but I was inspired when George told a child who asked if he could, would he seek revenge? He replied that revenge would get him nowhere…becoming vengeful yourself would just make you bitter. So we teach the children that if you see something that is wrong, speak up. There are probably others around you who think the same thing but don’t have the courage to do so….we teach them that that bad little things grow into bad big things and if they are not stopped…they will grow.”

J-Wire asked Ricketts how she felt about meeting the people behind the book.

“I am just aghast that I am meeting the two people who are directly involved in the text that I am teaching right now.

“There is a growing groundswell to get this text into more and more schools. The words are simple but the ideas are complex. It is relevant and significant to the lives of students.

“The story is 65 years old.  We tell parents ‘Your son or daughter is Hana’s age. They at times will suffer teasing, bullying and the feeling that life is unfair. This story helps them deal with modern-day victimisation The book will teach them to make the world a better place for themselves and for the people around them.”

Ricketts is married but has no children. She said “In many ways my classroom children are my children. In the book, George visits Prague after the war and meets an old friend who realises that George does not know that Hana is dead and she has to tell him. I find it so difficult to read that passage in front of my class without getting choked up.

Today is another schoolday in Canberra. As Lara Brady and Fumiko Ishioka tour schools in Sydney, Robin Tricketts will stand in front of her class at Kaleen High School and tell the children how Hana’s suitcase has come to life for her…a story she will tell over and over again…for the betterment of others and for the betterment of the world at large.

The film “Hana’s Suitcase” will be shown again this evening at the Emanuel Synagogue. Don’t miss it!

Mar-21 Sydney: The Story behind Hana’s Suitcase

The Director of the Tokyo Holocaust Centre will attend the screening of a movie based on one of the Centre’s exhibits.

We are delighted that Fumiko Ishioka, Director of the tokyo Holocaust Centre, together with George Brady’s daughter, lara, will be at the Museum for a discussion on the remarkable documentary Hana’s Suitcase. Sponsored by John and Debbie Schaffer.

The compelling story of Hana’s Suitcase attempts to piece together the life of Hana Brady (born in Nove Mesto, Czechoslovakia) who was murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, aged 13, having spent two years in Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Hana’s carefree childhood was cut short when Hitler was elected to power. At first, the laws restricting Jews were a nuisance but not unbearable, however as the months rolled on, Hana and her brother George found that they could no longer go to the movies, play in the park, skate on the lake or even attend school. Her friends, though faithful at first, became afraid to associate with her and she found herself isolated and lonely. When forced to wear a yellow Star of David in public, Hana, dreading the humiliation, decided to remain at home. The gaiety and joy of life disappeared, yet she and her brother maintained their spirit by remembering earlier happy times and recording their frustrations in a time- capsule which they buried.

Shortly after this, Hana’s mother was taken to Ravensbruck women’s concentration camp in Germany. They never saw their mother again. Within months, their father, Karel, was also taken from them, leaving Hana and George alone in the world. Although a non-Jewish uncle took them in, it was not long before they, too, were transported to Terezin (Theresienstadt). Hana was murdered two years later on her arrival at Auschwitz.

Halfway around the world from the devastation of Europe and 50 years later, Fumiko Ishioka, museum curator of the Tokyo Holocaust Centre, inspired by the testimonies of Holocaust survivors she met at a conference in Israel,became determined to teach Japanese children of the plight of millions of Jewish children in World War II.

From Auschwitz she acquired a few artefacts: a child’s sock, a shoe, a child’s sweater, a can of Zyclon B poisonous gas and Hana’s suitcase, the first items for her Holocaust exhibit.

In her role as curator dedicated to furthering tolerance in the world, Fumiko explored many avenues in her search for information regarding the owner of the precious suitcase, now a feature item in her museum display. A trip to Poland and Czechoslovakia revealed little until a breakthrough occurred at the museum of Theresienstadt, where Fumiko was delighted to learn that Hana’s older brother, George, was alive and living in Canada. Her letters to George resulted in his eventual trip to Japan and to the writing of this moving story – a testimony to the life of Hana and other children like her and a product of the determination of Fumiko Ishioka.

4.30pm Screening of Hana’s Suitcase, in the auditorium. Running time 93 minutes.

7pm Discussion The Story Surrounding Hana’s Suitcase, in the Benefactors’ Hall.

Mar-07 Sydney: Movie time at the museum

The Sydney Jewish Museum screens the movie “Paper Clips”

Whitwell, TN is a small, rural community of less than two thousand people nestled in the mountains of Tennessee. Its citizens are almost exclusively white and Christian. In 1998, the children of Whitwell Middle School took on an inspiring project, launched out of their principal’s desire to help her students open their eyes to the diversity of the world beyond their insulated valley. What happened would change the students, their teachers, their families and the entire town forever… and eventually open hearts and minds around the world.

PAPER CLIPS is the moving and inspiring documentary film that captures how these students responded to lessons about the Holocaust-with a promise to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual exterminated by the Nazis. Despite the fact that they had previously been unaware of and unfamiliar with the Holocaust, their dedication was absolute. Their plan was simple but profound. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips (representing 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust) which stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time. No admission charge. Running time: 87 minutes.

Time 2pm

Admission: Free

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