A double celebration
Twins Phillip and Bella were separated when he was arrested in the Vilna ghetto. After the war, the pair found each other again as Phillip rode 400 kilometres on his motorbike to the Landsberg refugee camp to reach her. Next week, they'll both celebrate their 100th birthday.
PHILLIP Maisel, the pioneer of the testimonies department at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum (formerly Jewish Holocaust Centre), will be celebrating his 100th birthday on Monday.
But doubling the simcha, Phillip is sharing his milestone with his twin sister Bella Hirshorn.
Phillip spent decades recording Melbourne survivors as they gave their testimonies to the museum, and helped to develop the archiving of these priceless assets.
He was born on August 15, 1922, in Lithuania. When the Nazis came to Vilna, he spent months in the Vilna ghetto before being arrested and incarcerated in six labour camps in 1943 and 1944.
Phillip attributes his survival over this period to his indispensable position as an auto-electrician and to the small but significant acts of kindness he encountered from strangers throughout the war. He was liberated by French troops on April 27, 1945, in Oslach, Germany.
Emigrating to Australia in 1949, Phillip became a volunteer at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in 1990. From 1992 to 2021, he was director of its testimonies department. He has recorded over 1000 video testimonies of fellow Holocaust survivors and has been a central figure in preserving the voices of the Holocaust for future generations.
Phillip was recognised with an Order of Australia Medal for his extraordinary services to the community.
Asked about safeguarding the experiences of other survivors, he reflected, “This is my responsibility and my privilege: to be a custodian of their memories, to be able to pass their stories on to the next generation – for me, this will be the greatest miracle of all.”
Phillip and his sister Bella were separated when he was arrested in the ghetto. He believed he had lost her. It was not until after the war that the pair found each other again as Phillip rode 400 kilometres on his motorbike to the Landsberg refugee camp to reach her.
In his memoir, The Keeper of Miracles, Phillip recounted the moment he saw Bella again, “For some time, we just held each other in the middle of the camp and wept for joy.”
On Monday, the Melbourne Holocaust Museum will celebrate Phillip’s birthday with a special online screening of an interview conducted in 2021 by Dr Stephen Smith, former executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles, which highlights Phillip and his outstanding achievements.
The online event, From Trauma to Testimony: Honouring 100 Years of Phillip Maisel OAM, will take place on Monday, August 15, 8-9pm. For further information and to book, visit mhm.org.au/event/phillip-maisel-oam-100th-birthday
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