Never looking back, Holocaust survivor Maurice Linker farewelled
Holocaust survivor Maurice Linker passed away last week aged 95.
Maurice frequently spoke to students and visitors during the ten years he volunteered at the Sydney Jewish Museum, always with a gentle tone and a trademark smile on his face. Maurice was born in 1930 in Czernowitz, then part of Romania, a town of about 120,000 people, including some 55,000 Jews. It was a cultured place with music, art and its own university, and he enjoyed a good life there with a large extended family.
Maurice Linker (Sydney Jewish Museum)
When Romania allied with Nazi Germany and enacted the Nuremberg laws, everything changed. His father’s shop was confiscated, Jews were detained and placed under curfew, access to shops was restricted and he was forced to wear a yellow star. He was routinely bullied and beaten in the street, with the constant threat of being shot if he resisted.
In 1941, Maurice and his family were forced into the Czernowitz ghetto but were among the fortunate few saved by Mayor Traian Popovici, who managed to secure a limited number of stay permits for Jewish residents. Barred from school for three and a half years, starved and abused, Maurice lost his youth. He also watched the ghetto gradually empty as other Jews were transported to labour camps in cattle cars.
After the war, the political situation shifted, and Maurice’s father decided they should escape illegally across the border to Hungary and later Austria. Maurice emigrated to Australia in 1951 and built a challenging and rewarding career as an electrical engineer. He married Eva, now deceased, and they had one son, Fred.
Maurice shared his wartime experiences to ensure they would not be forgotten. He would say, “I cry every time I tell my story. My family, my relatives and friends suffered famine, were subjected to indignities and persecutions, and were nearly shot by both the Nazi and communist governments.”
He also said, “You have to look forward. What to do next. I don’t look back.”
He is survived by his son Fred, daughter-in-law Debbie, and three grandchildren, Noah, Tara and Jessica.
