Survivors honoured at Yom Hashoah commemoration

A deeply moving Yom Hashoah commemoration brought together the Sydney Jewish community to honour Holocaust survivors who rebuilt their lives in Australia and contributed so immensely to their new country.

This year’s theme, “Survivors in Australia: Rebuilding Lives”, celebrated the remarkable journeys of those who arrived on Australian shores after the horrors of the Holocaust and went on to help shape both the Jewish community and wider Australia.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip paid tribute to the survivors present, reflecting on the incomprehensible weight of what they had endured.

“We sit here tonight and look with pride at our Shoah survivors, who with unimaginable resilience have rebuilt their lives and communities,” Ossip said.

“Everyone would have forgiven those who survived the Shoah if they had fallen into a heap and been unable to continue. But that was never their choice. They never viewed themselves as victims, but rather as survivors who owed it to themselves and to those who never made it to make the most of the second chance at life.”