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Join us for this FutureGen exclusive behind-the-scenes access to Underground: The Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Hear from the team behind the exhibition and the Melbourne artefacts our team added to the original European exhibition design.
On display for the first time outside of Europe, Underground exhibits rare artefacts from the hidden archive of the Warsaw Ghetto. This archive was led by historian Emanuel Ringelblum who initiated an unprecedented campaign to collect material in the ghetto—the collection today known as the Ringelblum Archive. This collective of academics, writers, and activists working secretly in the first attempt to document the German-initiated mass murder of European Jews as it was happening. The exhibition brings home to the viewer the act of resistance that the underground archive of the Warsaw Ghetto constituted—a never-ending, arduous, harrowing but ultimately successful attempt to write the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of its victims.
Underground: The Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto is presented in partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute, Poland, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, and the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, Germany.
Exhibition Sponsors
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum would like to thank our exhibition sponsors
Gerry and Lillian Pearce
The Embassy for the Federal Republic of Germany
Programming Sponsors
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum would like to thank our programming sponsors
Irene Kronhill Pletka
The Jewish Quarterly
The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University
Please join us for a Lecture by Dr Michał Trębacz , acting Director of Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
The history of the Jewish Historical Institute (JHI) is closely intertwined with the history of the Jewish community in Poland. The JHI has been documenting and researching this often-difficult past for decades. Established after the Holocaust, its mission was to collect testimonies from survivors and to preserve the memory of those who perished. The Institute’s collections, developed over the years, represent its most valuable asset.
Among these collections, the most significant is the Warsaw Ghetto Archive, also known as the Ringelblum Archive. However, this remarkable collection is just one of many valuable sources kept in the storage rooms of the Institute. What other treasures does the Jewish Historical Institute hold? How has the Institute contributed to modern Jewish research methodologies? What role does the JHI play today in Warsaw and beyond?
Underground is on display at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum from 17 November 2024 to 30 March 2025.
Underground: The Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto is presented in partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute, Poland, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, and the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, Germany.
Dr Michał Trębacz is the acting Director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. From 2017, he was the head of the Research Department at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. He supervised the content of the Global Education Outreach Program, the aim of which was to build academic infrastructure for the development of Jewish studies in Poland and around the world. He also collaborated with the Memorial de la Shoah in Paris and is the author of over 40 articles.
Experience Underground: The Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto with expert Dr Michal Trebacz, Acting Director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. On display for the first time outside of Europe, Underground exhibits rare artefacts from the hidden archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, now in the collection of the Jewish Historical Institute.
This archive was led by historian Emanuel Ringelblum who initiated an unprecedented campaign to collect material in the ghetto—the collection today known as the Ringelblum Archive. This collective of academics, writers, and activists working secretly in the first attempt to document the German-initiated mass murder of European Jews as it was happening. The exhibition brings home to the viewer the act of resistance that the underground archive of the Warsaw Ghetto constituted—a never-ending, arduous, harrowing but ultimately successful attempt to write the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of its victims.
Michał Trębacz, PhD, is a member of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) and the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). From 2017, he was the head of the Research Department at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. He supervised the content of the Global Education Outreach Program, the aim of which was to build academic infrastructure for the development of Jewish studies in Poland and around the world. He lectured on the twentieth-century history of Polish Jews at universities in Germany, Israel and the USA. He also collaborated with the Memorial de la Shoah in Paris. He participated in and conducted many research projects on the history of Jews in Poland. He is the author of over 40 articles. He published, among others, in “Zagłada Żydów. Studia i materiały”, “Jewish History Quarterly” and “Polityka”.
Underground: The Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto is presented in partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute, Poland, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, and the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, Germany.
Exhibition Sponsors
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum would like to thank our exhibition sponsors
Please join us for our 2024 Betty & Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration: Zachor – The Challenges of Holocaust Remembrance Today.
This year we are pleased to announce our Oration will be presented by Dani Dayan – Chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre.
Dani has declared that “leading Yad Vashem is more than a position; it is a mission that I take on with awe and reverence. On our shoulders rests the responsibility to research and educate, to document and disseminate, to validate fact-based historical truths about the Holocaust and reject all forms of distortion, in order to ensure that the Jewish people and humanity will forever continue to remember this event.” Since assuming leadership of Yad Vashem, Dayan has spearheaded strategic initiatives to revitalise Holocaust remembrance and ensure its perpetual relevance, in Israel and globally.
Please register in advance and secure your place.
Image | courtesy of Simon Shiff
Dani Dayan is the Chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. His appointment as Chairman of Yad Vashem was confirmed by the Government of Israel on 22 August 2022.
At that time he declared that “leading Yad Vashem is more than a position; it is a mission that I take on with awe and reverence. On our shoulders rests the responsibility to research and educate, to document and disseminate, to validate fact-based historical truths about the Holocaust and reject all forms of distortion, in order to ensure that the Jewish people and humanity will forever continue to remember this event.” Since assuming leadership of Yad Vashem, Dayan has spearheaded strategic initiatives to revitalise Holocaust remembrance and ensure its perpetual relevance, in Israel and globally. His dynamic vision has come to the forefront in an unprecedented series of meetings with world leaders, including Pope Francis, US President Biden and the chiefs of state of Germany, France, Austria, Argentina, Lithuania and numerous foreign ministers, including that of the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Dayan is a frequent contributor of articles and interviewee in leading media channels of the world, including: New York Times, The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and CNN.
Mr. Dayan is also invited to speak at prestigious think-tanks in Europe and America. Prior to his position at Yad Vashem, Dayan served as Israel’s Consul General in New York. Previously, he served as Chairman of the YESHA Council and before that as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Elad Software Systems Ltd., a company he founded. In addition, Dayan volunteers as the Head of the Advisory Board of Nefesh B’Nefesh and, until his posting in New York, was a member of the Yad Vashem Council.
Dayan was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and came to live in Israel at the age of 13.
He holds a master’s degree in finance (with honors) from Tel Aviv University, and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Computer Science (cum laude) from Bar Ilan University.
Over the course of the last 40 years, as information from previously inaccessible archives has come to the attention of historians, the events of the Holocaust have become increasingly better understood. Today, there is very little about the Holocaust that historians do not understand. At the same time, however, these events have experienced a certain popularity in the realm of cinema and literature, with some of their more enduring representations belonging decidedly to the realm of fiction.
What might it mean for people to engage with the Holocaust through entirely make-believe stories? Is it problematic when those stories are predicated on impossibilities?
This panel discussion is moderated by Dr Simon Holloway, who will be joined by MHM Manager 5 – 12 Education, Curriculum and Programs Tracey Collie, Associate Professor David Slucki and award-winning novelist Suzy Zail. Together we will investigate the role of Holocaust-themed fiction in conveying the past, and will explore both the advantages and the perils of utilising such materials in the classroom.
David Slucki is the Director of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, and the Loti Smorgon Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life and Culture at Monash University. He is a historian who has written widely on Jewish life after the Holocaust, focusing particularly on survivors and their descendants, and on representations of the Holocaust. His publications include Sing This at my Funeral: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons (2019) and The International Jewish Labor Bund after 1945: Toward a Global History(2012). He is the co-editor of Laughter After: Humor and the Holocaust (2020) and In the Shadows of Memory: The Holocaust and the Third-generation (2016). He is currently working on projects focusing on antisemitism in Australia, Holocaust denial in popular culture, and Jews and sitcoms.
Tracey has over 14 years’ experience in education in teaching and leadership roles in curriculum, student management and pastoral care within the government school sector and the not-for-profit sector.
Tracey’s educational philosophy centres on the concept of global citizenship and is particularly invested in guiding students to develop their sense of responsibility and agency, and, to understand the importance of empathy, cultural awareness, and environmental stewardship within our interconnected world.
She believes that every student has the potential to become a global citizen who not only understands diverse perspectives but also actively seeks to make a positive impact on the world.
As manager of 5 – 12 education at the MHM, Tracey is focused on building the education suite, including programs for students and curriculum resources for teachers to ensure learning about the Holocaust is accessible for all.
Suzy Zail is an internationally published, award-winning novelist and the author of more than a dozen books including Alexander Altmann A10567,The Wrong Boy and Inkflower. Her books tackle the Holocaust in a sensitive and age-appropriate way and are used in schools throughout Australia. Recently, Suzy’s novel Inkflower was chosen my students across Australia as their choice for “Book of the Year: Older Readers” in The 2024 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year awards.
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for the rare opportunity to hear first-hand from Holocaust survivor Andre Dubrowin.
Andre was born in 1939 in Brussels, Belgium to Polish and Romanian parents.
When the war came to Belgium in 1940, his parents decided to flee to France. On their second attempt, the family was arrested and sent to Drancy Internment camp. Andre was unwell and with the help of a family friend and a French Police officer who had been bribed, Andre was released to the Red Cross. He spent the following war years living in a Catholic orphanage, with a business associate of his father’s, and an elderly couple back in Brussels and on a farm.
After liberation, his mother’s brother came to pick him up – a person he did not remember speaking a language he no longer spoke – he was five and half years old.
Andre moved to Australia in 1948 with his uncle and aunt who eventually adopted him.
Join us on the 22nd of September to meet Andre and learn about his experiences.
Join us for a sensory-friendly evening exploration of our exhibition Everybody Had a Name. Suitable for visitors with ASD, sensory sensitivities or anyone who would benefit from a quieter and less busy setting.
On this evening you will be able to:
View our permanent exhibition Everybody Had a Name with reduced visitor numbers.
View our permanent exhibition Everybody Had a Name adjusted volume and lighting.
Utilise an enhanced map with information on low, medium and high sensory areas of the exhibition.
Access designated quiet area for those needing to take a break.
Speak with friendly, supportive staff on your passion for history.
This event is for those ages 16+.
Check out our social story here to learn more about what to expect on your visit.
Join the Melbourne Holocaust Museum and the Lodz Committee in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto.
The Landsmanshaftn were societies of Jewish immigrants who came from the same town or region in Eastern Europe. They were named for the members’ original birthplaces. They were formed to assist their fellow ‘townspeople’ in settling into their new lives in Australia. This assistance – material, emotional, cultural, and social – helped many new arrivals to begin their acclimatisation to life in their new country.
By 1949, numerous attempts had been made to form a Lodzer Landsmanshaft. In 1953 an initiating committee was formed with the aim of calling a general meeting of Melbourne Jews from the Polish city of Lodz and organising an evening to commemorate the memory of their annihilated community.
Today’s Lodz Committee consists of second and third generation descendants. As the years pass by and we have fewer of our precious survivors with us, we realise the importance of involving the younger generations in helping us remember the Lodzers who called Melbourne their home. Today we remember and honour Jewish Lodz, and its inhabitants, the last embers of a once glorious and vibrant community.
This year’s program includes Honouring six of our Lodz Ghetto survivors with a special candle lighting ceremony. Reflections of 80 years since the Lodz Ghetto Liquidation by Lodz Ghetto Survivors, Mrs Guta Goldstein and Mr Abe Goldberg OAM. Music by Sholem Aleichem Students.
Light refreshments will be provided after the commemoration.
Please join us in partnership with The Shrine of Remembrance and Melbourne Jewish Book Week for an in conversation with author and historian Lucy Adlington and MHM Head of Exhibitions and Programming Dr Breann Fallon.
At the height of the Holocaust, 25 young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – mainly Jewish women and girls – were selected to design, cut, and sew beautiful fashions for elite Nazi women in a dedicated salon. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the gas chambers. Drawing on diverse sources including interviews with the last surviving seamstress, The Dressmakers of Auschwitz follows the fates of these brave women.
In this captivating event, author and historian Lucy Adlington will join us virtually from the United Kingdom to uncover these stories. In conversation with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s Dr Breann Fallon, Lucy will reveal the bonds of family and friendship that helped these women endure persecution.
Guests will have an opportunity to explore the Shrine’s exhibition Trenches to Runway: Military Influences on Modern Fashion before the talk commences. While the exhibition does not explore the themes in The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, it draws important parallels between the impact of military clothing design and wartime conditions on popular fashion, tracing these influences from the 1870s to the present day.
(viewings of Trenches to Runway from 5pm to 5.50pm)
Please note: The entry to this event is via the Shrine’s Education Foyer.
Image | Courtesy of shalom.edu.au
Lucy Adlington is a writer and social historian, specialising in women’s history in the 1940s. Her recent history, The Dressmakers of Auschwitz – The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into 22 languages. Her new Holocaust history Four Red Sweaters will be published in March 2025.
Lucy has an extensive collection of vintage and antique garments, spanning 250 years. She runs a series of popular costume presentations called the History Wardrobe, exploring women’s history through clothes. Her fiction titles include the award-winning Young Adult novel The Red Ribbon.
Dr Breann Fallon has been working in the cultural sector, educating on the Holocaust and other human rights issues since 2013. The granddaughter of non-Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution, Breann is focussed on ensuring we communicate the past to ensure a better present and future for all.
Breann also works to spread awareness of human rights issues across multiple platforms. She served on the 2023 Federal Senate Advisory Panel into the Banning of Nazi Symbols, is the host of the 2022 documentary Trafficked to Australia and is a presenter for ABC Radio National’s Religion and Ethics Unit.
As Head of Programming and Exhibitions, Breann leads the strategy and delivery of education, collections and curatorial in order to create meaningful, relevant and lasting experiences for the visitor.
Nearly 80 years after the Holocaust we still face many unanswered and perhaps unanswerable questions: what were the dilemmas faced by Jews who sought to leave Europe? How do we understand the role of ‘bystanders’ and notions of complicity? When atrocities are occurring in the fog of war, how can moral evaluation and imperatives to act be hampered? What questions are raised by the renewed focus on the perpetrators, through representations in film and theatre? How might these complexities be represented in Holocaust museums?
In this event, moderator Jayne Josem will facilitate a conversation exploring the complexities of such moral questions between Deakin University philosopher Associate Professor Patrick Stokes and Associate Professor of Ethics and Impact and Resident Ethicist at the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, Leslie Cannold.
Please join us for the inaugural event of a new annual series featuring conversations between experts on themes related to Holocaust history and memory. The event honours the contribution made by Jayne Josem to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum over two decades.
Patrick Stokes is associate professor of philosophy at Deakin University, and a writer, radio producer, and media commentator on philosophical matters. He is currently engaged in a three-year Australian Research Council-funded project, ‘Digital Death and Immortality.’ His most recent book is Digital Souls: A Philosophy of Online Death (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Dr Leslie Cannold is the Associate Professor of Ethics and Impact and Resident Ethicist at the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership. A medical ethicist and fiction and non-fiction author who began her career studying under and later working towards Peter Singer, Leslie is known for her ability to translate complex ideas for non-specialist audiences on social media, radio and TV, including a widely watched TEDx talk and repeated appearances on ABC TV’s Compass and Q & A.
Leslie has been twice recognised as one of Australia’s foremost public intellectuals, has won an EVA award for gender-sensitive reporting and was the 2011 Humanist of the Year.
Jayne Josem is CEO of the Cranbourne Foundation, whose purpose is to advance and strengthen the Victorian Jewish community for generations to come.
Former CEO of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, and long-time Curator and Head of Collections, Jayne was the recipient of the AMaGA Victoria Award for Excellence in 2022. Jayne spear-headed a substantial museum redevelopment project, was lead curator of the permanent exhibition Everybody Had a Name and executive producer of the powerful VR survivor testimony film Walk with Me.
Her work focussed on amplifying the voices of Holocaust survivors and sharing the MHM Collections widely through the physical and digital space, for the purpose of broader civic education. Over the years this has meant adapting and learning different modalities of presentation to attract and engage audiences. Throughout her career she has mentored students and young professionals and delivered papers at conferences and programs to share her knowledge.
Image | Courtesy of Sav Schulman.
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for the rare opportunity to hear first-hand from Holocaust survivor Abram Goldberg OAM.
Abe was born in Lodz, Poland in 1924.
Following the Nazi invasion his family was sent to a camp near Krakow; Abe’s older sister fled east.
Abe’s and his parents escaped and return to Lodz, but two of his sisters remained in the camp.
Abe and his parents were imprisoned in Lodz Ghetto and forced to work as labourers. Abe’s father was deported in 1942 and murdered at Chelmno. In 1944 Abe and his mother were sent to Auschwitz, where his mother was gassed upon arrival.
Abe was sent to a series of camps before being liberated in 1945 in Wobbelin.
Only Abe’s older sister survived.
Abe arrived in Australia in 1951.
Join us on the 11th of August to meet Abe and learn about his experiences.
Ever wanted to research your family history and the fate of relatives during the Holocaust but unsure where to begin? Our panel of experts will help you navigate Australian and international Holocaust and genealogical resources. Elise Bath, from the Weiner Library, London, will guide you through the International Tracing Service Archives, Max Wald OAM will open the portal of Jewish Geography through his work with Jewish Gen and other open access sources, and MHM’s Julia Reichstein, Information Manager and Librarian, will present numerous Australian and international resources to assist your research. Hosted by Dr Anna Hirsh, MHM Manager of Collections and Research, this evening is designed to empower and inform.
Elise Bath works at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London, where she manages the UK’s copy of the International Tracing Service (ITS) Archive, using it to carry out in-depth historical research exploring the experiences of individual victims of Nazi persecution, usually on behalf of their families.
She holds an MLitt which analyses gendered experiences in concentration camp memoirs, and an MA in Museum Studies, both from Newcastle University. She is the author of ‘Fertility in the Camps: An Exploration of Female Fertility as Reported in Concentration Camp Memoirs’, German Life and Letters 72:4 (2019), and ‘Discrimination Against Roma and Sinti Survivors of Nazi Persecution’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 71, (2023/3) and has also published on research ethics. Elise is particularly interested in developing a trauma-informed archival and research practice, collaborative working with institutions and communities, and taking a person-centred approach to historical research.
Max Wald OAM is a member of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society (Vic) and has assisted many Jewish people with their ancestral and Holocaust research. As part of the JRI in Poland, he is a Town Leader for Miedzyrzec, Biala Podlaska and Janow regions, extracting Polish records for about 40 towns. Max’s interest in the Holocaust was formalised during his experience as an interviewer of around 40 Holocaust survivors for the Shoah Foundation project in Melbourne in the 1990s. Max has volunteered at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for over 15 years in many roles, including interviewing survivors as part of the Phillip Maisel Testimony project.
Julia Reichstein is a third-generation descendant of Holocaust survivors and the Information Manager and Librarian at Melbourne Holocaust Museum
Drawn to the power and impact of both storytelling and history as tools to inform, educate, entertain and inspire,
Julia studied and worked in the fields of children’s services, performing arts and records management, before immersing herself in the world of libraries and earning a Graduate Diploma in Information Management and Systems from Monash University.
A core component of Julia’s role in the MHM Library is equipping researchers and descendants with foundational resources for undertaking Holocaust Family Tracing.
Anna is responsible for managing MHM’s Collections, spanning the Historical Archives and Art Collection, Testimonies, and our Resource Centre & Library. For the past ten years, Anna has worked to improve accessibility to, and enhance the research potential of our Collections.
Anna is an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University and is the co-President of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies.
Please join us for a lecture by Vic Alhadeff OAM.
July 2024 marks 80 years since the destruction of the Jewish communities of Rhodes and the other Dodecanese islands.
The Jews of Greece experienced the best and the worst of humanity. The majority of the community of Salonika was murdered, while the entire community of Zakynthos was saved. The community of Rhodes Island – where Vic Alhadeff’s family originated – was decimated, while a Muslim diplomat rescued some of them. Vic will discuss the Holocaust in Greece, including his father’s remarkable story.
Vic grew up in Zimbabwe.
His parents were born on Rhodes Island, from where 151 Alhadeffs, including his paternal grandparents, were deported to Auschwitz and murdered.
Vic has dedicated his career to championing human rights, is a non-executive director of SBS and the author of two books on South African history.
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 us at Melbourne Holocaust Museum for an evening lecture by Dr Margaret Taft.
The last thirty years has seen an explosion in Holocaust survivor testimony, oral history projects and Holocaust museums and memorials. This contemporary memory boom has led to a false consensus – that victims and survivors never spoke nor wrote of their horrific experiences either during or immediately after the Holocaust, and that this trend was only reversed by the Eichmann trial in 1961. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust began speaking and writing of their experiences even during the war itself and later in its immediate aftermath. This not only produced a prodigious body of testimonies but led to the development of a new genre of Holocaust memoir. In this lecture, Dr Margaret Taft will speak of the evolution of Holocaust survivor testimony and will consider the ways in which survivor testimony and survivor identity have changed over time.
Image | Courtesy of University Archives & Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Institute of Technology.
Dr Margaret Taft is an historian and a research affiliate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization, Monash University. Her interests lie in the development of Holocaust testimony, the retelling of life stories, the cultural history of Yiddish Melbourne and the reconstruction of Jewish life in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Her publications include From Victim to Survivor: The Emergence and Development of the Holocaust Witness 1941-1949; A Second Chance: The Making of Yiddish Melbourne which was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Community History Awards; Leo and Mina Fink: For the Greater Good, and The Woman in the Photographs, a personal account of her mother’s Holocaust experiences.
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for the rare opportunity to hear first-hand from Holocaust survivor Andy Factor OAM
Andy was born in Plauen, Germany in 1924. He was nine year old when the Nazis came to power in Germany.
After the antisemitic laws were introduced in Germany, Andy experienced isolation and humiliation.
Andy and his father were arrested the day after Kristallnacht. He was released after a week, but his father was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp for six weeks.
Thanks to Andy’s relatives in America, his family has received visas to France where they lived for several months during which time the war broke out.
Andy and his family arrived in Australia in 1940.
Join us on the 7th of July to meet Andy and learn about his experiences.
Image | photographed by Simon Shiff
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum invites you to a lecture by Dr Anna Hirsh, Manager of Collections and Research.
How can Jewish cultural and religious heritage and life before the Holocaust be understood now, after so much was destroyed?
The MHM’s new permanent exhibition, Everybody had a Name features an artistic reimagining of Perec Willenberg’s elaborate ceiling mural from the Old Czestochowa Synagogue.
Dr Anna Hirsh, MHM’s Manager of Collections & Research, created a reconstruction of the elaborate mural guided by a handful of photographs of the ceiling, Willenberg’s surviving artworks, and other historical and artistic references.
As part of the museum’s Czestochowa Room, this recreation is a tribute to the beauty and meaning of Europe’s destroyed synagogues, inspiring a visual understanding of pre-war Jewish religion and culture to Australian audiences. In this lecture, Anna will describe the design processes of the recreation, and explore the symbolic imagery embedded in Willenberg’s intricate artwork. Merging the historical, religious and artistic, the ceiling project encapsulates the role of art and heritage in the preservation of memory and Jewish culture.
Mark Ashkanasy, eminent art and architectural photographer and digital artist, will join Anna to describe his contributions to this ceiling project: photographing the work, and his methodologies and philosophies of the digital post production in preparation for its installation.
With an introduction on the Czestochowa Room by Dr Breann Fallon.
Anna is responsible for managing MHM’s Collections, spanning the Historical Archives and Art Collection, Testimonies, and our Resource Centre & Library. For the past ten years, Anna has worked to improve accessibility to, and enhance the research potential of our Collections.
Anna is an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University and is the co-President of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies.
Melbourne Holocaust Museum is excited to host a panel discussion: How to Talk About the Holocaust with Children.
We welcome acclaimed author Morris Gleitzman, Dr Shalya Hirschson a child psychologist and MHM Pedagogy Specialist Lisa Phillips, for an informative conversation moderated by MHM Manager of Adult Education Dr Simon Holloway.
Morris Gleitzman is a bestselling Australian children’s author. His books explore serious and sometimes confronting subjects in humourous and unexpected ways. His titles include Two Weeks With The Queen, Grace, Doubting Thomas, Bumface, Give Peas A Chance, Extra Time, Loyal Creatures, Digging Up Dad and the series Once, Then, After, Soon, Maybe, Now and Always. Morris lives in Sydney and Brisbane, and his books are published in more than twenty countries.
Dr Shalya Hirschson is a psychologist who runs her own private practice in Melbourne.She holds a Doctorate (PhD) and a master’s degree in educational psychology and provides counselling and
assessment to children, adolescents, and adults. Shalya’s special fields of interest include parenting support, social skills, childhood trauma, depression, anxiety, grief, loss, ASD, ADHD, school refusal, learning difficulties and the impact of medical conditions on psychological well-being.Shalya also works with adults experiencing relationship difficulties, life adjustments, grief, anxiety and depression,attachment difficulties and medical conditions.
Image |Jarrod Freedman
