From Australia’s Jewish past

Max Zilberman – a Buchenwald Boy and grateful to The Joint

Max was born on 13 February 1926 in Lodz Voivodeship, Poland.  He was a Buchenwald boy, a survivor of Germany’s terrible Buchenwald of of Germany’s Buchenwald concentration camp and the only member of his Polish family to survive the war.

Max had been brought up in a happy family environment, and music played a big part in his family life. He was unable to finish school, as was the case for so many European Jews, due to the situation in Europe and the outbreak of World War II.  He began working in an electrical factory.  Interestingly, through a family friend, a song was composed, and Max’s father called the song “March into Life”.  This would be the title of the book about Max’s life.

The book is a testament to Max and a compelling story of Max’s journey from the comfort of a loving family in pre-war Lodz, Poland, through the horror of the Lodz Ghetto, into the nightmare of Auschwitz, the Death March through Poland to Germany in the freezing winter of 1945, to yet another camp Buchenwald.  He was eventually liberated from Buchenwald in April 1945, aged only nineteen years, and in poor health, as was to be expected after his time in camp.

A new life was to begin when Max travelled to Geneva, Switzerland and remained there for three years between 1945 and 1948.  Whilst in Geneva, he studied an electrical trade course.   In 1949, Max left Europe on the French ship the SS Erida for Melbourne.   He was aged twenty-two.  He recalled his arrival as “the streets in the suburbs were virtually empty.’’   The pubs closed at six o’clock, and football was a very different game from what he was used to.  It all felt lonely and silent by comparison to what he had left behind in Geneva.  He talked of the efforts made to make him feel welcome.  In an earlier AJHS J-Wire story about Mina Fink, she, with her husband Leo, met many Holocaust survivors on arrival in Melbourne.  Max, together with nine other male companions from Buchenwald, arrived at Spencer Street Station and were billeted in a hostel known as Camberwell House, a beautiful heritage home.  It was there that he settled into his new way of life.  Hostels such as Camberwell were established in Sydney and Brisbane and became the first home for many Jewish war refugees.

Max and his nine companions were known as the ‘Melbourne Buchenwald Boys’.  They established a tradition of remembrance through their annual ‘Buchenwald Ball’.  Seventy-five years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, the Ball has now become a luncheon.  It is attended by the surviving Boys and their wives, families, and friends, numbering around 200.   They have continued to retain their lifelong bonds of friendship.

The Buchenwald Boys were among the 900 Jewish youths liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp by the US Army on 11 April 1945. While their birthplaces and early childhood years were all different, the Boys experienced the evils of antisemitism, trauma, and separation from families and all that they suffered during the war years in concentration camps.  Once liberated, the Boys found themselves to be orphaned and destitute, and with no support.   There were around sixty-five Buchenwald survivors who managed to find their way to Australia in the late 1940s, all building successful lives.  Mina Fink was known as “the mother of the Buchenwalders”, guiding and supporting them in their early years in Melbourne.  These new immigrants were supported financially by the Jewish community with the help of the international relief organisation, the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) or simply the Joint, which was established in 1914 and is a non-political Jewish charity, still very much operating today.

As was mostly the case, refugees arriving in Australia knew very little about their new homeland.  Before Max came to Australia, he enjoyed collecting stamps and knew, because of the pictures of King George on the Australian stamps, that Australia was a British colony and “must be a good place.’’  When in Switzerland, Max had read an article in a Swiss Reader’s Digest describing Sydney, and that also made a positive impression.  It was, however, not much to go on.

Max studied further and gained his electrical contractors’ licence and established, over time, a very successful electrical business.  He married Dora, also from Poland, and the couple had two children. He always said, “I love the place, I’ve spent 80% of my life here, 60 years. I am very grateful because I established a family here. I did all right – I was working hard and I consider myself quite successful. I came with nothing, no family, and now I have six grandchildren.” He was able to lead a regular life in a peaceful land, thanks, at least in part, to the efforts of the Joint.

Max was always communally minded and volunteered at several Jewish organisations.  He passed away in Melbourne on 24 July 2014.  An obituary in The Age following his death concluded with the words ‘a beautiful soul in our hearts forever.’  He was always grateful for the opportunity to have come to Australia and enjoy with his family all it had to offer.

In 2000, the Buchenwald Boys commissioned a Melbourne sculptor, Andrew Rogers, to design a monument that would be a memorial to their families who were not so fortunate as to have survived the War.  This monument is situated at the Chevra Kadisha Cemetery in Springvale.

The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:

Exhibition at the Melbourne Jewish Museum  – Nationality Stateless, Destination Australia and the role of the Joint; Book titled Nationality Stateless, Destination Australia: JDC and the Australian Survivor Community – authors Suzanne Rutland and Sara Rood; March into Life – A Memoir written by Max and family members; The Age Obituary; Monash University; The Sydney Morning Herald article 2008 – Katherine Kizilos – Kindness to Strangers; Melbourne Holocaust Museum; Photo – Braham Zilberman

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