Honouring the six million in NSW
AROUND 200 people attended the Martyrs Memorial at Rookwood Cemetery on Sunday to commemorate Yom Hashoah.
Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants (AAJHSD) president Peter Wayne told those gathered: “We remember six million mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters all of whom had one thing in common – that they were Jewish … They have no grave, most have no date for Yahrzeit and no one to say kaddish for them. All they have is their legacy and our obligation to remember and not to forget the lessons we have learnt from the uprise of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
“We must remain vigilant and we must educate. With Yom Hashoah we are not going to let down the memory of the six million because to do so would only let down ourselves.”
Wayne also spoke of the difficulties many survivors faced when returning to their home towns after the Shoah and lamented the recent resurgence in anti-Semitism across Europe.
Speaking on behalf of the third generation, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Shoah Committee member Dane Stern spoke of his paternal grandfather’s liberation from Mauthausen-Gusen in May 1945. “We are the last generation to know many of the survivors and to hear their stories firsthand,” he said. “My message to other members of the third generation is if your survivor grandparents are still alive, sit down with them for a couple of hours and ask them questions about their experiences.”
Israeli Ambassador Shmuel Ben-Shmuel said the memory of the Holocaust belongs to “all freedom-loving people who covet peace”.
“This anniversary then belongs as much to Australia as it does to Israel, and belongs to all people as much as it does to Jews,” he said.
Velvel Lederman gave the Yiddish address and led the memorial prayers.
Meanwhile, a packed house was expected at the City Recital Hall last night (Wednesday) for the main communal Shoah commemoration with keynote speaker, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Frydenberg, who has family members who perished in Auschwitz, told The AJN ahead of the event: “As the years go by and the number of survivors becomes less, the responsibility upon the current generation grows greater, to preserve the memory of those who were victims of the Holocaust and to ensure that lessons of that tragic chapter in world history are never repeated.”
Frydenberg was Australia’s official representative at Auschwitz in January this year at an international event marking 70 years since its liberation.
GARETH NARUNSKY
AAJHSD president Peter Wayne at the commemoration.
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