A NEW permanent display telling the story of the Holocaust through the experience of survivors who settled in Australia has opened in Canberra.
The opening of the exhibit at the Australian War Memorial was a particularly poignant moment for 86-year-oldMelbourne woman Irma Hanner.
Of the 250 children from her Jewish school in Dresden, Irma was one of just six who survived the Holocaust.
She was nine when the Gestapo took her mother to Ravensbruck women’s concentration camp. And as Germany’s persecution of its Jewish citizens escalated, 12-year-old Irma was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp.
It is thought more than 40,000 people died at Thereseienstadt before it was liberated by the Russians in 1945.
Clutching photos of her kindergarten class, Irma attended the opening of the display and shared her story.
She said her children and grandchildren call her “the bionic woman” because of her strength.
“For two years from the beginning I did not cry. But then it is very hard to stop,” she said.
“It is very important for me to talk about it now.”
The Holocaust: witnesses and survivors tells the story through the experiences of several survivors who later made lives in post-war Australia.
The collection includes video testimony, survivors belongings, identity cards, faded Stars of David and confronting images taken by late Australian war artist Alan Moore of the conditions in the Bergen-Belsen camp when it was liberated.
Almost a third of the artefacts were contributed by the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne. They include items from survivors Frank Golding, Rosie Bruell, Arthur and Friderika Matzner, Abram and Cesia Goldberg and Irma Hanner.
War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson described the display as a much-needed addition to the World War II galleries.
“The Holocaust and its impact is also an Australian story,” he said.
“Between 20,000 and 35,000 survivors of the genocide made new homes inAustralia. Some already had family in Australia, and some were attracted by the fact that Australia was as far from Europe as they could possibly go.
“They embraced their new lives and made substantial contributions to all aspects of Australian life and society.”
The exhibition was developed by the Australian War Memorial with the support of the Jewish Holocaust Centre.
- (02) 6243-4211, awm.gov.au