Museum calls for more survivor stories
"...there was a mindset that if you were not in a camp, you were not a survivor; many people who fled Nazi rule from 1933 onwards did not consider themselves a survivor,"
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum (MHM) is calling on the public for assistance in their effort to record the last remaining survivor voices in Australia.
Since its establishment in 1984 the MHM has compiled a collection of over 1300 survivor testimonies which are crucial to its mission to preserve Holocaust memory and educate against hate to inspire a better future.
With the number of Holocaust survivors declining every year, the museum is launching a final push to reach Australian survivors who have not yet recorded their testimony at MHM.
“For many years, there was a mindset that if you were not in a camp, you were not a survivor; many people who fled Nazi rule from 1933 onwards did not consider themselves a survivor,” said CEO of the MHM Jayne Josem.
She added, “People who fled to the Soviet territories or were hidden as children may not have recorded their accounts. We feel there are people in our community who still don’t consider themselves to be survivors when in fact, they are. These individuals have important stories to impart, and we want to preserve them.”
Digital storytelling manager Robbie Simons is spearheading the project alongside volunteer project coordinator Max Wald. The pair have over 50 years of combined experience recording and preserving survivor testimony.
“Recording survivor testimony is essential to our understanding of the Holocaust. Every survivor brings unique insights on the events [of the Holocaust], and their stories remain the most potent historical source to inspire collective remembrance, so it will never happen again,” said Simons.
“This really is a community-wide call-out. We aim to engage the sons, daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends of Holocaust survivors to help spread the word about this project and reach as many survivors as possible.”
If you or someone you know lived under or fled Nazi rule from 1933, now is the time to share your story with MHM. To find out more, please visit the MHM website: mhm.org.au/histories-untold, or call (03) 9528 1985.
comments