Holocaust Museum Excursion

On Friday 3rd May, 67 Year 10 Core Humanities students attended the Melbourne Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick as part of their study of the Holocaust. They toured the museum and heard from survivor Andy Factor OAM.  Below are accounts from a couple of students.

Holocaust Museum Experience 

I had a very positive experience at the Holocaust Museum. The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, and although I was already quite comfortable in my knowledge of WW2–I learnt many things at the Holocaust Museum. 

The artefacts we were given to analysis taught me just how intense the Nazi regime was in those times, since my knowledge of the emotional side of the Holocaust was limited, and listening to a survivor and hearing his personal experience - hearing how it was to live in those times gave me such a better perspective and understanding of the victims of WW2. I felt very immersed when I was with the tour guide, being educated on each sculpture, text, or artefact. 

The only thing I wished was different was the time, I wish I could have spent a whole day there and explored all the history. 

-Leo 

This year the year 10’s had an excursion to the Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick to learn more about World War II and the hardships faced by the Jewish people of the 1940’s. The day started with all the students taking the train to Flinders station to check in with our teachers and made our way together, to Elsternwick. We walked down to the Museum; the Museum was clean and beautiful inside with lights hanging from the ceiling and the display cases lit with special lighting. The tour guides guided us into a big area filled with chairs with a stage in front of it all. Once we all got seated, we were told about why the Museum is important and how the day was going to go. The tour guides split the classes into groups my group was led to a room on the second floor where we got to look at and tried to find the meaning behind some artifacts such as passports and awards awarded to Jewish people and people who helped the Jewish people. 

After seeing artifacts up close we went downstairs and got split into three groups to look through the artifacts open to the public, we were guided by one of the lovely tour guides that were with us that day. This was extremely interesting for we got to learn about how things were done in the ghettos and the experience of traveling to the many horrific places that the Jewish people were forced to go to. One of my favorite artifacts was an old monopoly set made for the kids in one of the ghettos, it was made to help teach them how to survive in the ghettos. But we also saw a replica of an old Jewish church made from one of the Holocaust survivors when he came to Australia and went on to learn more about the stories of the survivors before, during and after the Holocaust.

After reconvening we rejoined with the rest of the group and made our way back to the area with the chairs. We once again settled down and had a chance to meet a survivor, his Australian name is Andy Factor OAM. He was helped into the room and seated in front, once he sat down, we were able to ask questions about his journey during the Holocaust. Andy’s story was that he had a great childhood up until Hitler came to power, when his friends left him and so he was alone, but he made the best of his situation. After the night of the broken glass his father went to check on his store when he was arrested by an SS agent and an officer. Andy had a choice to go with is father or to run and find safety, but Andy stuck with his father. They were held in the station till Andy got taken to see if he was fit to go to a camp, but luckily the doctor who had to make the decision had known, his father and he declared Andy unfit, which allowed him to return home. But Andy’s father had to go to the camp, but he was only there for one week before connections in the US were able to get Andy and his family out of Germany. Some questions asked by student were such as ‘Would you forgive the Germans for what they have done… wouldn’t you want revenge?’ and ‘What made you follow your father?’. These questions were answered as much as possible by Andy, who talked about how if the situation was reversed, he wouldn’t have done to the Germans what has been done to them. We left the Museum after asking Any question and had some time for lunch, then made our way back to the train station. Once we were at Flinders station we were dismissed.

This experience helps us recognize the hardships faced by the Jewish community and how they were strong during a period of pain and suffering. It is important that we learn about what happened in the past to build a stronger future and so that future generations will know the stories of people lost to the cruelty of the Holocaust. For as Andy said “We are a multicultural society, and we should never tolerate discrimination. It tears the fabric of a nation.”

-Erica