Walt gets to shake Joe’s hand

July 12, 2022 by Community newsdesk
Read on for article

Walt Secord told a Courage to Care event  how strongly the impact of a ‘living witnesses’ of the Holocaust helps people understand.

Walt Secord and Joe Symon

He said that keeping their stories alive is imperative and talked about the private Bill he introduced to parliament in October 2021 to ban the use of the swastika/

The NSW government has now introduced a bill to ban the public display of Nazi symbols. Walt explained the background to his Bill, why he led the initiative and the impact of his initial actions, that have resulted in four states now being on track to have legislation in place to ban the public display of Nazi symbols with a possible fifth state discussing it.

Knowing the power of the story of Holocaust Survivors, he arranged to have a Survivor and the grandson of a Survivor give evidence to the Parliamentary Selection of Bills Committee hearing evidence in support of his Bill.  One of the two witness he called on was Joe Symon.  He acknowledged that what Joe had to say to the Committee as a living witness of the Holocaust was more powerful in impact than anything anyone else said. According to Walt, Joe’s testimony made a significant impact on the Committee members.

Walt got to meet in person Joe who was also attending the Courage to Care event.

Comments

One Response to “Walt gets to shake Joe’s hand”
  1. George Foster says:

    The Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants fully supports this initiative and as such made our own submission to the Committee. With the greatest respect to Walt Secord, it was the Association who organised the appearance of Joe Simon and Anthony Levin, the grandson of Olga Horak, before the Committee. We believe their contribution was an important step in the passage of the bill.
    Dr George Foster
    President

Speak Your Mind

Comments received without a full name will not be considered
Email addresses are NEVER published! All comments are moderated. J-Wire will publish considered comments by people who provide a real name and email address. Comments that are abusive, rude, defamatory or which contain offensive language will not be published

Got something to say about this?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.