Erica Frydenberg was born in the beautiful city of Budapest, just as the Hungarian regime was implementing Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’. Decades later, she went back in or to confront the mass murder and deliberate inhumanity, but also honour the courage of those who resisted – diplomats like Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz, and the many lesser-known individuals who risked everything to save Jewish lives.
For Erica, this history is personal. Her uncle, the enigmatic Nandor Eichel, saved her life before she had even turned one. This “Budapesti Schindler,” protected only by a fragile diplomatic status, moved through the chaos rescuing countless others, whose stories only surface decades later in Sydney, Australia.
Yet Nandor refused to speak of the past. Piecing together his hidden story, Erica uncovers deeper truths about memory: its capacity to wound, to illuminate and to nurture empathy and healing across generations.
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum is proud to partner with Melbourne Jewish Book Week in launching this remarkable book.
Please note this event may be recorded for our institutional archive, and photos may be used for marketing purposes.
Tickets must be purchased prior to May 12th.
We are honoured to launch a new book by Carol Gordon and Gregoria Boursinos, which recounts the experiences of two sisters who survived the Holocaust under differing circumstances. Maria and Lola Seror were the sole survivors of their family, and their stories – told 70 years after the war – are a testament to their courage and resistance in the face of unendurable hardship. Carol and Gregoria will join Dr Simon Holloway in conversation, as they discuss the circumstances of Maria and Lola’s survival, and the Holocaust in Thessaloniki.
Carol Gordon is a Melbourne-based writer, filmmaker, and Holocaust educator.
Training as a film editor in South Africa and working in the film and television industry there for many years, Carol moved to Australia with her family in 1995. With a Degree in Teaching and an Honours Degree in Communication (Media Studies), Carol has completed several courses through the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Devoting more than twenty five years to the research of the history of Greece’s Jewish communities and their near-destruction during the Holocaust, Carol continues on her mission to present The Shira’s Journey Project to local and international audiences of all ages, and sharing the all too unknown history of these once vibrant and dynamic communities.
Carol has written a screenplay which has been self-published as a book. The book, Shira’s Journey, is fiction but based on fact and real events.
Another element of The Shira’s Journey Project is a photographic exhibition for which Carol has written all the accompanying text. Working as a volunteer guide and Holocaust educator at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, Carol has also helped to transcribe Survivor testimonies for the museum.
Gregoria Boursinos is a Greek Australian and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Diploma in Education from La Trobe University. Boursinos majored in World War II History and has always had a strong interest in Holocaust studies. She has completed a Holocaust course at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum and at the Yad Vashem School in Jerusalem. Gregoria met Maria and Lola at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum and knew immediately that she wanted to record their stories. Gregoria spent countless hours with the sisters, interviewing them, documenting their stories and doing research. When that was all done, Gregoria approached Carol Gordon to co-author the book with her.
Please join Linda Royal for the book launch of The Star on the Grave at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
In 1940, as the Nazis sweep toward Lithuania, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara defies his government and secretly issues visas to fleeing Jewish refugees. After the war, Sugihara is dismissed and disappears into obscurity.
Three decades later, in Australia, Rachel Margol is shocked when her engagement reveals a long-held family secret: she is Jewish. As she grapples with this deception and the dysfunction it has caused, unspoken tragedies from the past begin to come to light. When an opportunity arrives to visit Chiune Sugihara, the man who risked his life to save the Margols during World War II, Rachel becomes determined to meet him. But will a journey to Japan, and the secrets it uncovers, heal the family or fracture them for good?
The Star on the Grave is a powerful and moving novel inspired by the true story of Chiune Sugihara, and the thousands of people – including the author – who owe him their lives.
The Star on the Grave is Linda’s first novel and will be available for purchase at the event.
Linda Margolin Royal was born in Sydney, forever thankful her father and grandparents received life-saving transit visas from Chiune Sugihara in 1940, which enabled them to enter Japan and escape the Holocaust; and ultimately meant they could find a permanent, safe home in Australia in 1941. The remainder of her family numbering in the hundreds were murdered in concentration camps. This work is therefore a labour of love to which she is now devoting her life.
She trained as a graphic designer and then copywriter, and spent 30 years in the advertising industry both in Australia and the US, writing TV, radio and press for major multinationals. Her first instinct was to write her family’s story as a film, which is currently in development; and the book grew organically from this screenplay.
Please join Rachelle Unreich for the book launch of A Brilliant Life at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
The powerful true story of a Holocaust survivor told by her daughter – a tale that reminds us of the resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal.
A mother and daughter.
Love. Loss. Wonder.
The story of a brilliant life.
A Brilliant Life will be available for purchase at the event.
Please note due to capacity limit we have stopped sales, therefore please register your interest for an additional event which potentially be held early next year.
