Jacob ‘Kuba’ Enoch was born in 1926 in Krakow, Poland. During the Holocaust, he was incarcerated in the Krakow Ghetto, Plaszow concentration camp, Ostrowiec, Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Following liberation from Buchenwald, Kuba was amongst 300 young survivors taken by the Red Cross to recover in Switzerland.

In 1948 Kuba arrived in Australia to begin his new life. Here he met his wife Kitty, and she helped him find employment as a mechanic. Reflecting on the past did not dull his optimism or his humanity. With four children and eleven grandchildren, Kuba insisted only that life is well lived, in remembrance of those who were denied such a privilege.

“They tried to eradicate all the Jewish people in Europe… We stand here today as proud Jews. Hitler did not win. We will continue to flourish.”

Kuba started volunteering at the Sydney Jewish Museum as a survivor guide in 2011.

He will be very sadly missed by the Museum family and we wish his family long life.

To read more about Kuba's life, follow the link below.

The Sydney Jewish Museum collection consists of over 12,000 artefacts and over 1,000 oral histories and testimonies.

The collection began when the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors approached their members in the late 1980s for Holocaust-related memorabilia to found a museum. When the Sydney Jewish Museum opened in 1992, these objects found a permanent home.

While our curators are constantly researching and updating records, where some items may not have been updated since their entry, we have taken the decision to make our collection open to you online.

Now, more than ever, our societies need more individuals practising small acts of kindness on an everyday basis, working towards making the world a more accepting and welcoming place. In other words, we need more mensches.

Be a mensch is a reminder of the impact that kindness, humility, integrity and personal responsibility can have on the world – small acts that can make a better society, one person at a time. Be a mensch is a call for the lessons of history to inspire humanity and empathy.

A mensch, in Yiddish, is a person of integrity, morality, dignity, with a sense of what is right and responsible. But mensch is more than just an old Yiddish adage. It is relevant now, across the world, more than ever.