World War II

Captain John Einfeld (front) and Chaplain Rabbi Lazarus Goldman (right) leading a Jewish New Year service in Lae, New Guinea, in 1944. Photo: Australian War Memorial

September 6, 2021, 2:30 pm

Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur were observed in the most challenging of circumstances by Jewish diggers serving in World War I and World War II.

By Shane Desiatnik

Lancaster Bombers. Image: Janzerd/Dreamstime.com

April 27, 2018, 1:27 pm

The high flying Jewish Anzac

The dramatic true story of Cyril Borsht's experiences as a Lancaster bomber pilot on dangerous missions over Nazi-occupied Europe is just one of hundreds included in Mark Dapin's landmark book Jewish Anzacs.

By Shane Desiatnik

Buchenwald survivors following the camp's liberation.

April 20, 2017, 9:59 am

UN files show Allies aware of Shoah by ‘42

Newly released documents have revealed that the Allied Powers were well aware of the Holocaust at least two and a half years earlier than commonly thought.

Local girls posing with the original memorial sculpture at Tatura.

March 13, 2017, 12:01 am

Honouring those lost at sea

A FUNDRAISING campaign has been launched by the Dunera Association to build a sculpture which will honour Jewish and non-Jewish victims of several ships lost at sea after they were attacked by the German navy during World War II.

Holocaust survivor Guta Goldstein reads an excerpt from her book, There Will Be Tomorrow, the harrowing story of her survival of the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and other camps during World War II to Macleans College students.

July 26, 2016, 1:29 pm

Speaking for millions who perished

Guta Goldstein, an Auschwitz survivor from Melbourne, has been touring New Zealand to share her harrowing story with thousands of students.

Chemi Peres (second left) with the children of Padre Rex Daker, Gwen Macdougal,
Joan Robinson and John Daker. Photo: Peter Haskin

November 27, 2015, 12:00 am

The Aussie who saved Shimon Peres’ dad from the Nazis

IN the middle of World War II, Yitzhak Peres, the father of Israel’s immediate past president Shimon Peres, having enlisted with the British army, was captured by the Nazis. However, they didn’t know he was Jewish and thought he was a soldier from New Zealand.

By Joshua Levi

November 13, 2015, 12:00 am

Szubanski’s serious side

ACTRESS Magda Szubanski will tell harrowing and inspiring tales of her family’s plight during World War II when she addresses a Courage to Care function next week.

By Phoebe Roth

September 14, 2015, 12:00 am

Stamp of approval for Wallenberg

A MASS-circulation Australian postage stamp honouring Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who rescued tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in the final months of World War II, is set to be issued next month, after a long personal campaign by Judi Schiff of Melbourne.

By Peter Kohn

July 24, 2015, 4:09 pm

Paying tribute to the Agia Zoni

On the eve of World War II, 459 Jewish refugees escaped Europe for Palestine on a ship called the Agia Zoni. The history of the voyage is not well-known; however, the Australian grandsons of two of its organisers aim to change that. Gareth Narunsky reports:

Perry Goldman travelled to Sydney in June 1943.

July 7, 2015, 12:00 am

An appeal from florida

THE son of an American serviceman who spent a week in Sydney during World War II is seeking information about members of the local Jewish community that his father encountered.

By Gareth Narunsky

September 12, 2014, 12:00 am

Wallenberg stamp gets green light

AUSTRALIA’S only honorary citizen, Raoul Wallenberg, will be recognised with a postage stamp.

By adam kamien

September 5, 2014, 12:00 am

When the world stood up to Hitler

AS the world marked the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II this week, Jewish ex-servicemen recalled where they were when war broke out and what role they later played in history’s greatest ever conflagration, in which more than 60 million people died, including six million Jews in the Holocaust.

By Peter Kohn

September 5, 2014, 12:00 am

Hero’s medals go on display

THE NSW Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (NAJEX) is set to present a set of medals of a Jewish World War II hero to the Sydney Jewish Museum.

By Gareth Narunsky

August 6, 2014, 1:46 pm

Holocaust horror with Hitchcock touch

July 16, 2014, 9:39 am

Villagers unite in wartime rescue