Holocaust survivor remembered by the community

The broader NSW Jewish community – and in particular all members, staff and volunteers at the Sydney Jewish Museum – will greatly miss Holocaust survivor Maurice Linker, who passed away one week ago, aged 95.

Linker volunteered for a decade at the museum, where he spoke to thousands of students and visitors – always with a gentle tone, with a trademark smile, that endeared him to all.

Born in 1930 in the Romanian regional city of Czernowitz – half of whose population at the time was Jewish – he enjoyed a good start to his childhood.

But when Romania allied with Nazi Germany and enacted the infamous Nuremberg laws, everything changed.

His father’s shop was taken from him, Jews were forced to wear a yellow star, and he was routinely bullied and beaten in the street.