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The Melbourne Holocaust Museum invites you to a theological lecture presented by Dr Simon Holloway (manager of adult education) exploring the question:
“Where was God in the Holocaust?”
Although this may be a question without an answer, it represents a serious theological problem.
If God is truly all-powerful, as Jewish theology claims, for what reason did the Holocaust occur? This session will make no attempt at answering this question, but it will seek provide a framework for understanding the answers that some people have given.
By considering Jewish responses to suffering throughout history, we will demonstrate the ways in which the Holocaust was unprecedented, and the reasons that traditional theological models do not fit. We will then consider the variety of ways in which Jewish people have responded to the problems of the Holocaust – both during the Holocaust itself, and over the decades since.
Book your tickets for this thought-provoking evening, below.
Painting by Samuel Bak, “Burning”. Oil on canvas, 1995. Courtesy of Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for the rare opportunity to hear first-hand from Holocaust survivor Sarah Saaroni OAM.
Sarah was born in Lublin, Poland in 1926. Soon after the German invasion her family moved into the Lublin Ghetto. When deportations began Sarah and her family went into hiding in a nearby village.
Her parents told her to pretend to be Christian and go with other Poles to work in Germany.
For the next few years Sarah lived under false identities as a Christian labourer. She escaped capture several times. At the end of the war Sarah returned to Lublin but found no family there. She eventually reunited with one brother.
Sarah met her husband in Palestine in 1946. They married in 1948, where another brother had lived since before the war. Sarah arrived in Australia in 1953.
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum on 6 August to meet Sarah and learn about her experiences.
Join MHM Co-President Sue Hampel as she applies gender as a lens for looking at the Holocaust in this stimulating lecture.
Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust will consider the ‘”female voice” to shed light on Jewish women’s experiences during the Holocaust by discussing three case studies:
The reaction and responses of Jewish women living in Nazi Germany
The coping strategies women employed in the ghettos and concentration camps
The heroism of female resistors
By examining diaries, documents and testimonies, Sue will assess the “double jeopardy” that Jewish women faced on a daily basis during the Holocaust.
Photo of Jewish women prisoners in front of the barracks. Courtesy of Yad Vashem.
Suzy will appear in conversation with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s Manager of Adult Education Dr Simon Holloway. Learn what inspired Suzy to revisit her father’s Holocaust story for a new generation of readers and find out why she continues to seek stories that break her readers’ hearts.
Among Suzy’s many books for adults and children are The Wrong Boy, shortlisted for the Childrens’ Book Council Of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards, Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, the WAYRBA, USBBY and the Young Australian Best Book Awards (Yabba) awards and ‘Alexander Altmann A10567’, a CBCA Notable book. Suzy’s books have been published in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Sweden, Italy, Romania and the Netherlands.
Suzy’s latest novel for young adults, Inkflower, is a gripping exploration of identity and the custodianship of memory from the perspective of a teenage girl who, in her father’s last months, is forced to reckon with his dark past and expose her own secrets. No one at school knows that she is Jewish or that her father is sick. But that’s all about to change, and so is she.
“An inspiring Holocaust story of love, loss and hope. ” – Jayne Josem, CEO, Melbourne Holocaust Museum
“A remarkable and compelling book that beautifully explores the human experience of survival against all odds.” – Sue Hampel OAM, co-president, Melbourne Holocaust
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for the rare opportunity to hear first-hand from a Holocaust survivor.
John Lamovie was born into a Polish Jewish family in Paris in 1936. After the German invasion of France in 1940, his father left Paris to avoid arrest and joined the resistance. John’s mother and sister tried to escape but were caught and deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
John joined his father in Lyon, which was under control of the Vichy regime. They were arrested, but John was saved by a French woman. His father eventually escaped from the Rivesaltes internment camp with the help of the French underground. As soon as he was free he returned for John.
John hid with various family members until liberation in 1944. Most of his extended family, including his grandparents and two uncles, were murdered during the Holocaust.
John will speak about his experiences in conversation with Melbourne Holocaust Museum educator Melanie Attar.
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum to hear Dr Leon Saltiel speak about the Jews of Thessaloniki.
The lecture will explore the more than 2000 years of Jewish life in the Greek city of Thessaloniki and focus on key moments such as its creation in antiquity, the impact of the Inquisition, its incorporation to the Greek state, the Holocaust, and Jewish life in the city today.
Leon Saltiel is a historian specialising in the Holocaust in Greece. His publications include The Holocaust in Thessaloniki: Reactions to the Anti-Jewish Persecution, 1942–1943, which won the 2021 Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research, and ‘Do Not Forget Me’: Three Jewish Mothers Write to their Sons from the Thessaloniki Ghetto.
Leon is a member of the Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece and of the Greek delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.. He currently serves as Director of Diplomacy, Representative at UN Geneva and UNESCO, and Coordinator on Countering Antisemitism for the World Jewish Congress.
Image | Jewish family in Thessaloniki, courtesy USHMM.
Join Dr Simon Holloway at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for a four-week course on the secret archive of the Warsaw Ghetto.
From the sealing of the Warsaw Ghetto in late 1940 until its final liquidation in early 1943, a small team of dedicated researchers hastily compiled information that might service future generations wanting to know about life at this unimaginable time. The materials that they gathered were to become the largest and most varied of all of the ghetto archives, and would have a profound impact on how people understand the nature and development of the Holocaust.
In this four week course, we will look at the means by which this secret archive was created, will consider the lives and personalities of those who contributed to it, and will gain a deeper appreciation as to its enduring significance today.
Each session will take place on a Thursday evening from 7pm to 8:30pm. Dates are as follows:
Week 1: Thursday 20 April
Week 2: Thursday 27 April
Week 3: Thursday 4 May
Week 4: Thursday 11 May
Image | Retrieving the archive after the war. Courtesy of Yad Vashem
Join us at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum to commemorate Yom HaShoah in partnership with the Museum of Inherited Memories.
We are one of the last generations to hear testimony directly from Holocaust survivors. We have been listening for as long as our survivors have been ready to share, but how do we feel about inheriting the position of witnesses?
This Yom HaShoah, we look into our role as custodians of these survivors’ memories and how we might share them with our families and beyond. Whether you work in the field of Holocaust remembrance or are an active audience member, whether you are Jewish or not, the descendant of survivors or not, we all have a role to play should we choose.
Special guests include Bram Presser (author), Emily Lubitz (musician), Ezra Faigenbaum (student, poet), Lior (musician), and Sarah Grynberg (speaker, teacher, podcast host).
Holocaust survivor Sarah (Sabcia) Saaroni OAM was born in 1926 and grew up in Lublin, Poland. Following the German invasion in 1939, she fled to Germany, and spent the next few years living as a Polish-Christian labourer. She escaped capture several times. Sarah now regularly speaks about her experiences to students.
Bram Presser is a semi-reformed punk rocker, recovering academic and lapsed lawyer. His novel, The Book of Dirt, won the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction (USA). He also writes the popular novella-focussed Substack, A Book For Ants, and is a co-founder of Melbourne Jewish Book Week.
Emily Lubitz is best known as the lead singer and songwriter for critically acclaimed indie-folk band Tinpan Orange. Her voice has been described as “brushed velvet” (The Age) and “gossamer” (triple j). She will appear alongside her nephew, student and poet Ezra Faigenbaum.
Lior is multi-award-winning artist, and one of Australia’s most treasured singer-songwriters. He burst on to the Australian music scene in 2005 with his debut album Autumn Flow and has since released a further six albums including Compassion (2014), a symphonic song cycle of original orchestrations set to ancient texts in both Hebrew and Arabic.
Sarah is a well-being expert, speaker, and host of internationally successful lifestyle podcast A Life of Greatness, where she’s interviewed guests from John Howard to Olivia Newton-John to Daniel Ricciardo. Through years of research, she has formulated a blueprint to achieving greatness which has become the touchstone of her work.
Tracey is the Education Programs Manager at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. She first visited the museum as a 15-year-old student, where she met and talked with Holocaust survivor Stephanie Heller. The values imparted during this encounter are reflected in Tracey’s work as an educator at MHM today.
Please view the recording of our 2023 International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration below. Our 2024 event will be held on 29 January, focusing on the theme ‘The Fragility of Freedom’. Learn more
The theme for the 2023 event is keeping memory alive, asking us to keep alive both the voices of Holocaust survivors, and the memories of those murdered. It is not just a call to remember the past, but to reflect on the different ways in which it can inform our actions into the future, inspiring us to combat antisemitism, racism and prejudice in all its forms.
Keeping memory alive also invites us to celebrate the histories and cultures of all communities, acknowledging and honouring our differences to foster a greater understanding and acceptance between peoples and promote human rights into the future.
This event provides a chance to hear survivor testimony and the insights of community leaders, as well as a special performance from the acclaimed Yiddish music group the Bashevis Singers.
Please view the recording of our 2023 International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration below. Our 2024 event will be held on 29 January, focusing on the theme ‘The Fragility of Freedom’. Learn more
2022 Betty & Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration
Join us for the first major event in the new Melbourne Holocaust Museum, exploring Holocaust education in the 21st century with Sara J. Bloomfield, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Sara will be speaking about the importance and relevance of Holocaust education and museums in the 21st century. Based on her experience of over 30 years with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, she will explore the challenges we face in the world today, and how we can respond to them using the power of truth.
Following her presentation Sara will appear in conversation with Jayne Josem, CEO of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
Sara J. Bloomfield has led the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for 23 years, working to build a global institution that raises Holocaust awareness, deepens understanding of the lessons of the Holocaust, confronts denial, and advances genocide prevention. She serves on the International Auschwitz Council and is a recipient of the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and five honorary doctorates. She joined the planning staff of the Museum in 1986 when it was a project in development and served in a variety of roles before becoming director in 1999. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Ms. Bloomfield holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Northwestern University, a Master’s degree in Education from John Carroll University, and has studied business administration at the graduate level.
On 21 August, in conjunction with publisher Affirm Press, MHM and the Goldberg family are presenting a book launch for “The Strength of Hope.”
Abram is a founding member of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum (former JHC) and serves on the board until this day. He also continues to speak to students, both in-person and online, spreading his message, “Not every day will be a sunny day. There will be overcast days, but the sun will shine again.”
Abram was a teenager in Poland at the time of the Nazi invasion. He was imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto before being moved to several camps, including Auschwitz. He survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Australia with his wife in the early 1950s. In 2013, he received the Order of Australian Merit (OAM) for his decades of dedication to Jewish culture and contributions to Holocaust memory.
This beautiful memoir explores Abram Goldberg’s life as a Holocaust survivor and a husband to his wife, Cesia. Abram and writer Fiona Harris describe the book as a story of love at its core.
Join us at Glen Eira Town Hall as Abram, and writer Fiona Harris celebrate this momentous achievement.
Join us on 2 August for Finding Home and Homeland: Jews in the DP Camps – a lecture by visiting scholar Prof. Avinoam Patt.
Presented by the Melbourne Holocaust Museum in partnership with the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, the talk will analyse responses to the Holocaust and explore the situation confronting Jewish survivors in its immediate aftermath. Following liberation, most Jewish survivors were unable or unwilling to return to their homes. Many migrated toward countries liberated by the Allies, where they were placed in displaced persons (DP) camps while they waited to leave Europe.
Prof. Patt will address the circumstances facing the Jewish population immediately following the war and discuss the political, cultural, and social questions that affected the growing population of survivors within the DP camps of postwar Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Prof. Patt’s visit is made possible by the generous support of the Sunraysia Foundation. The event honours the memory of Dr. Jan Randa, a Jewish scholar, survivor, and beloved educator of generations of Australian students.
The lecture will be held from 7:30 – 9 PM at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.
Avinoam J. Patt, Ph.D. is the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies and Director of the Centre for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut. Previously, he served as the Philip D. Feltman Professor of Modern Jewish History at the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, where he was also director of the Museum of Jewish Civilization.
The Freedom Circus tells the story of one family’s courage, hope, survival as well as their death-defying act escaping the Nazis and starting a new life in Australia.
After Sue Smethurst married into the Horowitz family, she heard snippets of stories about an astonishing cross-country escape through Poland and Russia during World War II, and of life in a circus. Sue realised she was in possession of an important piece of history and so, armed with a tin of old photographs and a voice recorder, she visited her husband’s grandmother, Mindla Horowitz, each week in an attempt to find out more.
Mindla was a young Jewish girl living in Warsaw when she met Kubush, a clown performing with Poland’s famous Staniewski Brothers circus. The young couple fell in love and were married, but soon after, war broke out. When Hitler began his reign of terror in Warsaw, Kubush was far from home with the circus. Mindla fled with their little boy, Gad, to be with her husband, but after arriving in the eastern city of Bialystok she found the circus had already moved on. She was captured, sent to a Russian prison and Gad was taken from her.
Join us in person at our temporary home in Malvern East or via Zoom to see award-winning author and journalist Sue Smethurst in conversation with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s Co-President Sue Hampel OAM about The Freedom Circus.
This is the first in-person event since COVID-19 closed our doors more than a year ago. We are thrilled to welcome you back! We understand that not everyone is comfortable with public gatherings, so we are also offering the option of live streaming via Zoom.
Please note that for those who will be joining us in-person, we will provide the address of our Malvern East location in an email after booking. For those who will be watching on Zoom, a link and instructions on how to join will be provided via email before the event.
The MHM Film Club will be screening the Academy Award nominated film “Divided We Fall” (2000), which is made in Czechoslovakia. The film is directed by Jan Hrebejk.
In World War II Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, a childless couple, Josef and Marie Cizek, can only watch while the Jewish family of their employers, the Wieners, are first removed from their own home to a spare room in their house by the Nazis, then deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Years later, young David Wiener, the sole surviving member of that family has managed to escape and make it to the Cizeks.
Although fully aware of the extreme danger of harbouring a Jew in the Third Reich, the Cizek’s can not permit themselves to leave David to certain death and agree to hide him. However, this decision leads to terrible danger of discovery by the Nazis and especially their friend and Nazi collaborator, Horst Prohazka, who is attracted to Marie.
With desperate cleverness and luck, the Cizeks struggle to keep the secret, even when Horst begins to suspect. In doing so, they find themselves making unorthodox choices and learning about the true nature of the people around them.
The MHM Film Club will be screening “Shores of Light” (2015), which goes for 52 mins and features Hebrew, Italian & English subtitles. The film is directed by Yael Katzir.
This is the poignant untold story of warmth and compassion after a terrible war. Thousands of Jewish survivors arrived in Southern Italy after WWII, on their way to the land of Israel. To their surprise they were welcomed by the poor local Italians.
At this time of psychological and physical healing, hundreds of children were born.
The film follows the story of three Israeli women who were born then, in Santa-Maria-di-Leuca (1946). They decide to discover the footprints left by their parents. The film weaves rare historical footage with unique current testimonials capturing a ray of light after great darkness.
We shall also be joined by guest speaker Moshe Fiszman, a survivor and inmate of DP Camp Santa-Maria-di-Leuca.
The film Blinky & Me (2011) goes for 75 mins, and is directed by Tomasz Magierski.
Yoram Gross’ powerful animated stories shaped the identities of countless Australian children who grew up watching them on film and television. Yet it is a little known fact that the many adventures of Blinky Bill, Gross’ depiction of Australian history in The Little Convict (1979), and many other influential narratives, were heavily influenced by the events of the Holocaust in Europe.
Shedding light on this intriguing facet of Australia’s cultural history, Blinky & Me tells the story of Gross’ childhood experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Travelling to present day Krakow with his grandchildren, Gross recounts how he narrowly survived persecution and reflects on the role of artistic creation throughout his life.
This event will feature our special guest speakers, who are Yoram Gross and the film’s director, Tomasz Magierski.
