On Wednesday the 13th of November, the Year 10 History Elective class went on an excursion to the Sydney Jewish Museum to gain insight on our Term 4 unit on Genocide. The day consisted of a talk with a Holocaust survivor and a guided tour around the museum.
The Sydney Jewish Museum hosts Holocaust survivors who talk about their experiences during the time and a part of a persecuted group. George Sternfeld, born in 1939, shared his experiences as a part of a Jewish family in the time of the Holocaust. He outlined the difficult decisions that his parents had to make in order to protect their family, such as moving from Warsaw to Bialystok, where George's father worked as a handbag maker. George told a touching story about his family's journey to Białystok. Along the way, George and his mother had to pass through Treblinka, a Nazi concentration camp. To keep George, who was only seven months old at the time, quiet and to prevent drawing attention, his mother gave him chocolate. This simple act allowed them to pass through safely. George explained that, to this day, he loves chocolate and always carries some in his pocket. Some of George's fondest memories were of his father, of whom he spoke very highly. He said that one of the only reasons his family reached safety was because his father was perceptive and always one step ahead. When the Sternfeld family came to Australia in the 1960s, they felt very welcomed as people were accepting and kind. Their new neighbours made them ANZAC biscuits, which turned out to be a gesture that George would remember for years to come. This act inspired George’s first book “Chocolate to ANZAC biscuits”. George then went on to tell us that he experienced the destruction of hate first hand, and that the answer to all our world's problems is love. He concluded his talk with a quote… “We are all part of ‘one race’, the ‘human race’. What we see around us is a beautiful and colourful mosaic of different faces from different places. We practise different religions and come from different cultures, we speak different languages and enjoy different cuisines. This is the wealth we should share. Acceptance will bring us together, hate will destroy us all.”
After an inspirational talk with George, our class was divided into groups for a guided walk through the museum. To say it was moving is an understatement. We could ask questions to the tour guides, many of whom had ancestors and relatives who experienced the Holocaust. They showed us photographs from the 1940s and shared information rarely covered in history books. We learned about the origins of antisemitism and how it ultimately led to the rise of Nazi ideology. The tour took us through the systematic steps the Nazis used to dehumanise and humiliate Jewish people, leading them to the concentration camps. Seeing the actual blue and white striped prisoner uniforms was confronting, yet essential to grasping the importance of telling the truth and understanding Holocaust history. The most harrowing part of the tour was walking through the memorial dedicated to the children who died during this dark time. Seeing photographs of babies and young children was profound, made even more powerful by Elie Wiesel’s quote: “Listen to the tears of children. Look and listen as they quietly walk towards dark flames so gigantic that the planet itself seemed in danger.” This moment truly emphasised the devastating impacts of war.
Overall, this experience was profoundly eye-opening and informative, helping us not only to better understand our past but, more importantly, to recognise the importance of never forgetting, and never allowing, this dark part of history to happen again.
Thank you to Ms Ilic and Ms Khawaja for organising a memorable day for us.
Written by Emilia and Zoe