Holocaust Museum

This term, Year 11 English students have been studying The Complete Maus, a graphic novel that depicts the experiences of Vladek Speigelman and his family. To support students’ knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust, we visited the Jewish Holocaust Museum, examined a range of artefacts and spoke with Holocaust survivors, Sara Saaroni (OAM) and John Lamovie (an ex-student of UHS).  

The students found it a valuable learning and life experience. 

Erin, Year 11

I enjoyed having the opportunity to meet John and listen to his responses to the questions we had. A memorable piece of advice he gave us was to acknowledge that "you cannot change the past, but you are responsible for creating the future." As we walked around the displayed materials in the museum, I read about the heroic individuals who resisted against the Nazis by protecting the Jews (e.g. hiding them, providing shelter, etc.) 

Cooper, Year 11

The highlight of the day was hearing John speak and hearing his amazing near death experiences. I also liked how John made a few jokes, despite his bad experiences, highlighting how well he has overcome his adversity. The museum asked us to understand the importance of quality strengths including, bravery, fairness, kindness, hope, perspective and judgment. In our text Vladek displays bravery when he goes to get food and other supplies in disguise. He displays hope by always believing that there is always another way or option for him to escape trouble.

Anonymous, Year 11

The highlight of the day for me was when the survivor, John, came and spoke to us and answered our questions. He told a few stories about moving to Australia and coming to UHS. The story that stood out to me the most would either be the story about football or the one about the French teacher that told the other teachers how to correctly pronounce John’s last name. 

Some information that I learnt that relates to the story of Vladek and Maus was that element of luck.  When I was reading The Complete Maus I kept thinking about how lucky Vladek was at certain points, and the fact that he had certain traits or skills that he could use to help him in situations. For example when he became a shoe maker because he watched a family member do it a while back,  he was able to reciprocate the skills to help him survive, or he had known people that could help him.

I picked hope as a characteristic I’d like to work on, because I feel like it's an important quality to have. Hope is powerful and it requires a lot of strength to have. 

Angel, Year 11

At the start of term three the year eleven English class took an excursion to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum to help us get a better understanding on the themes behind The Complete Maus.

While we were at the museum we had the opportunity to listen to the lovely Sarah Saaroni who lived in Poland during the Holocaust as well as a tour around the museum. After an initial introduction from one of the staff he split us up into groups so we could discuss and workshop the story and connotation behind some real artefacts from the time and be guided through the exhibit which was rich with information and incredible snippets of history. Something that really stood out was a piece of documentation which originally belonged to a German person and a Jewish person had taken it and managed to remove the ink and fill it out himself. This is a perfect example of some of the methods they had to employ and the tactics they used to keep themselves hidden.

It was an amazing experience and really opened my eyes to just how deep and personal history is. Something that lots of people don’t realise is that we are the last people who will ever get to hear these stories directly from the survivors. Going to the museum and talking to Sarah truly emphasizes this. If you have the time, even if you lack the interest (as I previously had), it is well worth the experience; the things you will learn and the connection you will build just by being in the space and listening to the people is invaluable.