November 16, 2021
Adek Bulkowstein experienced a loss so great that he was never able to speak of it with anyone: His wife, Lila, and five-year-old daughter, Malka, were both murdered in Treblinka.
November 15, 2021
In November 2009, Irena Szumska-Ingram was honoured posthumously with the Righteous Among the Nations award for saving the life of Bernard Hellreich – the man who would later become her husband.
October 21, 2021
Peter Gyenes was born in 1941 in Budapest, Hungary. His story highlights the power of kindness and compassion.
October 8, 2021
Regina Zielinski: Escape from Sobibor By Roslyn Sugarman, Head Curator Every year on 14 October we remember Regina Zielinski, Australia’s only Sobibor death camp survivor. Regina (Riva) was born on …
October 1, 2021
Holocaust ‘fashion’ By Dr Jonathan Kaplan, 2021 Museum Research Fellow Despite the horrific conditions of the Nazi camps, prisoners tried to maintain control over their own bodies in whatever ways …
September 30, 2021
Alice Loeb was born in 1943 in Zurich, Switzerland. She was born stateless, as her parents escaped from Austria in 1938 after the Nazis invaded.
September 24, 2021
“An eye for an eye” By Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet, Resident Historian “Jewish Youth!… Do not be led astray. Of the 80,000 Jews in the ‘Jerusalem of Lithuania’ (Vilna) only …
September 13, 2021
Beate Beer escaped Nazi Germany to England on the Kindertransport. Separated from her parents, she had to adjust to a new life with her foster family.
September 13, 2021
Wendy Sharpe’s mural features the historic city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, but its iconic fortress holds a dark history. The massacres perpetrated by the Germans and their collaborators on the site exactly 80 years ago destroyed the thriving Jewish world of Kamianets-Podilskyi, and with it dos gesele, the little street.
September 6, 2021
The rag dolls and teddy bear on display in the Sydney Jewish Museum were made in Italy by a Jewish refugee known only as ‘Skalla’. Instead of being made as a toy for children, they were made as a substitute for lost children, a way to memorialise and remember her children who did not survive the war.
September 2, 2021
In time for Rosh Hashana and the high holidays, we share a series of letters in the Sydney Jewish Museum’s collection, written to Inge-Ruth Herrmman.
August 24, 2021
An interview with Wendy Sharpe One of Australia’s favourite artists, Wendy Sharpe recently spoke to us about the process of creating a large-scale mural of her family history in the middle of a pandemic …
July 22, 2021
A small ‘autograph book’ or ‘friendship album’ kept by a young German girl came into our possession in 2015: it had been rescued from obscurity from a second-hand bookshop in Bondi in the mid-1980s. How it came to be there one can only speculate.
July 1, 2021
These silver Judaica items tell a story of a lost religious world. They survived the Holocaust and post-war communism, and were smuggled out from Hungary to Australia, one by one, in the 1980s.
June 25, 2021
Maurice Linker was born in 1930 in Czernowitz, Romania. Maurice and his family survived the Holocaust with the help of the Mayor of Czernowitz.
June 1, 2021
Beate Stricker was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1930. Beate’s father sourced the necessary papers for the family to leave immediately after Kristallnacht. Their destination was Australia.
May 20, 2021
Kapos: collaborators, perpetrators or victims? By Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet, Resident Historian Jewish Kapos played a pivotal role in the history of the Holocaust. Imprisoned in concentration camps, Kapos were …
April 30, 2021
Anne Heilig was born in Berlin, Germany in 1935. Hitler had already come to power and the persecution of the Jews in Germany had begun. Anne and her parents were lucky enough to receive a visa to Australia.
April 21, 2021
Brothers in arms Two orphaned brothers, separated after the deaths of both their parents, were reunited after more than a decade in the trenches of the Gallipoli battlefield. The story …
April 6, 2021
Honouring the dead Author: Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet, Resident Historian Jews follow religious laws and traditional rites of burying and honouring the dead. The deceased are thoroughly washed as an …
March 12, 2021
Holocaust survivor Vera Kertesz was born in 1933 in Czechoslovakia. She was an only child and believed if her parents had had more children, the family would not have survived.
March 12, 2021
A firefighter’s charms These small metal charms in the Sydney Jewish Museum’s collection were made in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. They belonged to Pavel Thorsch, a member of the Feuerwache (FW); …
March 11, 2021
Passover and modern day slavery Every Pesach or Passover, Jews throughout the world are commanded to tell the story of their emancipation from slavery in ancient Egypt. However, while retelling …
March 11, 2021
Juden Raus! Out with the Jews! – The Anschluss of Austria By Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet, Resident Historian On 12 March 1938, Hitler’s army marched into Austria. The subsequent Anschluss …
March 5, 2021
The Women on Exhibition We took a walk through our exhibitions to highlight the strong women whose stories are central to the history we teach and the voices we preserve. …
February 25, 2021
Holocaust survivor Leon Milch was born in 1932 in Podhajce, Poland, a vibrant town of 6000 people, of which half were Jewish. He and his brother lost both of their parents in the Holocaust.
February 9, 2021
The hidden ink sketches on Chaim Uryson A collection of eight ink sketches recently piqued our curators’ attention once more. These sketches in our collection were done by Polish Jewish …
January 27, 2021
The perpetual markings of Auschwitz By Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet, Resident Historian Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and marks 76 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Only in Auschwitz …
December 17, 2020
Holocaust survivor Yvonne Engelman was born in 1927 in Dovhe, Czechoslovakia. After promising her father she’d survive, Yvonne survived Auschwitz.
December 17, 2020
International Migrants Day: Waves of Jewish migration to Australia The waves of Jewish migration to Australia before and after World War II have been turning points in the history of …
November 30, 2020
Holocaust survivor Lina Lipton was born in 1923 in Lvov, Poland. The start of the war in 1939 came as a shock, and she survived in hiding under a false name.
November 9, 2020
Remembering Kristallnacht in Australia On this day 82 years ago, the Nazis unleashed Kristallnacht – or the Night of Broken Glass – a bloody pogrom in Germany, Austria and Sudetenland. …
October 30, 2020
Holocaust survivor Lotte Weiss was born in 1923 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Lotte attributes her survival to a series of miracles. Her parents and five siblings all perished in Auschwitz.
October 7, 2020
A recent addition to our collection, this Villeroy & Boch mug that bears Nazi imagery on its base has an interesting history.
October 6, 2020
The history of the Nuremberg Race Laws By Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet, Resident Historian at Sydney Jewish Museum Throughout history, Nuremberg has attracted much attention. Built in medieval times, the …
September 29, 2020
Holocaust survivor Gerty Jellinek was born in 1925 in Vienna, Austria. She was 13 at the time of Kristallnacht. Soon afterwards, she fled to Shanghai with her family, where she survived the war.
September 29, 2020
The murder of more than 33,000 Jews in Babyn Yar marked one of the largest single ‘open-air shootings’ in the history of the Holocaust, only to be surpassed by the massacre of 50,000 Jews at Odessa and the two-day killing of almost 43,000 Jews in the Lublin district. Today we commemorate the 79th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre.
September 23, 2020
Yom Kippur from Home Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is often spent in synagogue. Of course, this year for most will be different. While we know we can still …
September 16, 2020
An Egyptian Rosh Hashana Seder The festival of Rosh Hashana is both a joyous celebration and the start of a period of ten days during which Jewish people engage in …
September 4, 2020
“Love each other. Be tolerant. Help each other.” “What legacy can I leave my children, grandchildren and great-grands? Much love. Yes… Love each other. Be tolerant. Help each other.” – …
What’s On Newsletter
Keep up to date on all Museum events and exhibitions.