Federal MP visits Randwick Girls
Member for Kingsford Smith Matt Thistlethwaite recently attended the Courage to Care program at Randwick Girls High.
Federal MP Matt Thistlethwaite recently attended the Courage to Care program at Randwick Girls High, where he saw firsthand how it utilises stories of personal courage to inspire social harmony and upstander behaviour.
The message of the program is that our own choices determine if we remain bystanders or become upstanders.
Thistlethwaite listened to the stories of three Righteous Among the Nations: Irena Sendler, William Cooper and Nicholas Winton, and he met two Holocaust survivors on the day, Jack Feiler and Eddy Boas. Feiler told his moving story of survival and the people who helped him.
Feiler was born in the village of Nowa Gora just outside of Krakow, Poland, where a small group of Jewish people were hiding in the farmstead of local villagers. His mother Lola gave birth to him on June 22, 1944, leaving everyone unsure what to do. The farmers hiding them were first to utter what everyone already knew: “If a baby cries, everyone’s life is in danger.” Feiler’s father put baby Jack in a basket and, under the cover of darkness, a local priest left him on the doorstep of a childless couple. The couple greeted the baby as a miracle and they took him in, named him “Peter”, and raised him as their own. After the war, Feiler’s parents visited the couple who, with sadness, returned the little boy to his biological parents.
Thistlethwaite has been aware of the Courage to Care program for some time, but said it was “great to see the program in action at Randwick Girls High”, adding that hearing testimony from survivors who were saved by the courage of others was powerful, with the message important for students to hear.
“I will remember how one person had an impact on many people and changed their lives,” said one of the students after the program.
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