Qld Holocaust museum opens in Brisbane to tell local stories

A Brisbane museum has opened to immortalise the personal stories of Queenslanders who suffered in the Holocaust.

Holocaust survivor Aaron Fresco at the opening of Queensland’s first Holocaust museum in Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The horrors of the Holocaust have been unveiled in a Brisbane museum that records the personal stories of Queenslanders who suffered under the brutal regime of Nazi Germany.

Of the 27,000 Holocaust survivors who migrated to Australia following World War II, about 200 made their way to Queensland.

These are the people whose first-hand filmed testimonies will be available for viewing in a museum and education centre which will eventually become a mobile resource, making its way around the state to educate Queenslanders.

Museum supporter and Holocaust survivor Edgar Gold, who was present at the opening, has personal memories of the infamous 1938 Kristallnacht.

That was the moment Nazi hostility to Jews exploded into an orgy of destruction, and his father Joseph who owned a chocolate making business became a target of the mob.

“I do remember hearing people outside our home yelling, ‘hang Joseph Gold, hang Joseph Gold’,’’ he recalled.

“I was a four-year-old boy – I could not understand why they would want to hurt my father.’’

Holocaust survivor Suzi Smeed has written a book about her survival. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Professor Gold, who went on to live an extraordinary life in Australia which encompassed becoming both a ship’s captain and a legal scholar, said his father lived through the Holocaust, but about 65 members of his extended family did not.

The centre’s chair, Jason Steinberg, said the memory of the Holocaust could not be forgotten.

“Our multifaceted and engaging museum tells the story of the Holocaust in a way that has never been told – through the voices, stories and artefacts from Queensland survivors,’’ he said.

Mr Steinberg said the anti-Semitism that was the driving force behind the death of millions of European Jews in World War II was still alive in the world, even in Queensland.

He said up to 60 per cent of Queensland Jews had reported some act of anti-Semitism in their lives, whether it be in the schoolyard or the workplace.

The museum, in the grounds of the Cathedral Church of St Stephen, is an inter-religion partnership with the Catholic Church.

Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge said many people had come together on the project, from religious bodies to government to the wider community.

“The partnership sends a strong signal that we are all sisters and brothers in a world which desperately needs to build bridges, not walls, to choose peace not violence,’’ he said.

Holocaust survivor Edgar Gold lost 65 family members in the Holocaust. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen