The newly redeveloped Melbourne Holocaust Museum (MHM) will open its doors in mid-2023. We are proud to have served the public for almost 40 years, not only as a museum but as a dedicated memorial site for Victorian families with a connection to the Holocaust.

With this in mind, we are excited to have recently launched our Everybody Had a Name project, created to establish a digital memorial for the community to honour their loved ones by eternalising their names for future generations.

For families, the digital memorial will provide the opportunity to honour both those who survived and those who were murdered during the Holocaust.

Where will the digital memorial be displayed?

With the reconstruction of our new building, we are establishing a new memorial room, designed by Architect Stephen Jolson, to house our digital memorial as well as physical memorial stars.

The information provided by the public will also be stored in our Victorian Registry of Holocaust survivors, for research and preservation purposes. This registry will act as a database to help preserve the legacy of Victorian-based Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Honouring a loved one with a physical tribute

For those wishing to have a physical tribute to their loved one within the memorial room, memorial-star plaques are available by way of donation. Each memorial star will display one name, or one family name, to emphasise the importance of each individual life that was affected by the Holocaust. Everybody had a name, a family, a life, and their own unique experiences; we hope to honour this within our memorial room.

Principal Architect Stephen Jolson designed the memorial plaques with the significance of the name as the project’s central focus. With a clear brief from the MHM Board to “Remember the VICTIMS…use our plaques,” Jolson instinctively gravitated towards the Star of David as a culturally relevant medium:

A single solid bronze star will be used as a remembrance plaque to commemorate each family, or family member, dedicated by the survivors and or their families that defied their perpetrators and were afforded life in a new country, safe from atrocity. 

Adjacent to these bronze plaques, we will pin thousands of grey-scaled aluminium stars. The sea of grey-scaled stars become the apparitions, figments, outlines of those who did not survive the hellfire.

The significance of the name in Jewish culture

A person’s name holds great significance in Jewish culture. Some even understand the name to be prophetic, suggesting that parents can see their child’s innermost nature.

The Hebrew word for ‘name’ – ‘shem’ – has the numerical value of 340, the same as ‘sefer’ or ‘book.’ Therefore, some suggest that perhaps a name tells the story of the individual it is attributed to, capturing their spirit and carrying insights into their soul.

If a person is fatally ill, some have the custom of changing their name to alter their fate. As the Talmud says, in Tractate Berakhot, a change of name is a change of fortune. Adding the middle name “Chaim” – Hebrew for “life” – is believed to grant them the fortitude to survive and is an example of the unwavering faith in the name’s prophetic power.

We are providing the community the opportunity to honour their loved ones in our digital memorial at no cost.

 Anyone wishing to honour their loved ones with a physical memorial star by donation, please visit our memorial page for more information or enquire at donate@mhm.org.au.