March of the Living: First Australian bi-partisan delegation
The trip “changed our lives and it gave us some perspective at a time when we need to have leadership now more than ever.”
Members of the first Australian bipartisan political delegation to participate in the March of the Living (MOTL) gathered at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum (MHM) on August 6 to share their personal reflections.
The initiative was organised by MOTL CEO Gary Samovitz in conjunction with co-convenors of the Victorian Parliamentary Friends of Israel Paul Hamer (ALP MP for Box Hill) and David Southwick (Liberal MP for Caulfield).
Along with Hamer and Southwick, politicians who participated included: Labor MPs Nina Taylor (Albert Park), Ryan Batchelor (Southern Metropolitan Region) and Michael Galea (South-Eastern Metropolitan Region); Liberal MPs James Newbury (Brighton) and Rachel Westaway (Prahan); National MPs Emma Kealy (Lowan) and Tim Bull (Gippsland East).
Moderating the panel at the MHM, Southwick said the trip “changed our lives and it gave us some perspective at a time when we need to have leadership now more than ever.”
Galea said he found the trip ‘incredibly moving” and that it was special to be accompanied by Holocaust survivor Mark Spigelman and to hear his story of survival.
Taylor expressed that the trip reinforced the importance of education on the Holocaust, “Part of never again is making sure that generations now and into the future truly understand the horror of what human beings are capable of.”
Westaway discussed how the weather symbolically turned from sunshine to torrential rain shortening the ceremony. She said, “no one complained” because being at Auschwitz “put everything into perspective.”
Similarly, Batchelor remarked they learned, “you can have sunshine and lightness taken away so fast.” He shared, “We were soaked to our skin… and had a three-hour bus ride back to Warsaw… we had to really reflect together…about the trauma and the grief.”
Newbury said he went on the march because “good people are facing an incredible threat, and what I could do as a non-Jew is share the burden of being a witness.”
Newbury along with Southwick, Westaway, Kealy and Bull travelled on to Israel after Poland to mark Israel’s Independence Day – but the ceremony was cancelled due to fires.
This year’s MOTL coincided with the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The delegation in Poland was led by co-president of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum Sue Hampel who shared, “As a teacher, I know education is the most powerful tool against prejudice, and that journey offered a vital opportunity for politicians to learn, reflect and bring those lessons back to Australia.”