While COVID-19 has drastically affected our lives over the past year, it has also been responsible for some wonderfully innovative developments. So rather than gathering at a local town hall to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January, the Melbourne Holocaust Museum was instrumental in organising the first Australia-wide virtual commemoration. We are delighted to celebrate the contribution of Holocaust survivors from every state on our cover, and to feature the insightful and moving addresses by the keynote speakers, Sydney survivor Olga Horak and Gideon Reisner, grandson of former MHM museum curator, the late Saba Feniger.
We also bring you an illuminating article by renowned curator and educator Paul Salmons titled ‘Auschwitz: artefacts as witness’, as well as three moving survivor stories: a reflection on the pandemic by child survivor Paul Valent; the heart-warming story of Zvi Sharp, who celebrated his bar mitzvah 80 years after his 13th birthday; and Guta Goldstein’s account of an act of kindness she experienced during the war.
We hope you enjoy these and the other articles in this edition.
