Governor to address Shoah commemoration

GOVERNOR of NSW David Hurley will give the keynote address at a ceremony commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz and the United Nations (UN) International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) later this month.

The event on January 27 – hosted by the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors & Descendants (AAJHS&D), together with the SJM – is part of a series of commemorative events which will take place around the world.

Holocaust survivors, their families, Jewish community leaders and members of the Jewish community are expected to attend the commemoration, as well as ambassadors, embassy and consular officials, and representatives from all tiers of Australian governments.

“This is an opportunity for the representatives of those countries which were immediately involved in the Second World War and the liberation of the concentration camps to come together and show of their solidarity with us,” AAJHS&D president Peter Wayne told The AJN.

“It is a commemoration not just for our community but also the broader community, and the member nations of the UN to commemorate and remember the Holocaust, especially the lessons of the Holocaust.”

Wayne said attendance at the commemoration from members of the community would serve “as a sign of acknowledgment of their concern to record the history of the Holocaust and to respect those survivors who are left, respect the martyrs who died in the Holocaust, and survivors who have since passed”.

SJM events manager Aviva Wolff told The AJN that the ceremony will also see a Holocaust survivor pass a flame as a “legacy of memory” to their grandchild, representing the third generation since the Shoah.

“It’s important for people to remember and for the third generation to carry the memory,” she said.

Annually, January 27 marks the liberation of prisoners from the Auschwitz concentration camp and also, since 2005, the UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

ELENORE LEVI

For more information about this event, phone the Sydney Jewish Museum on (02) 9360 7999.