WWII Holocaust Museum

On Tuesday 30th May, 21 students from Ms Wealands and Mrs Tracey’s Year 10 Humanities, WWII & The Holocaust classes, had the privilege of attending the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, where they met a survivor, Joe Szwarcberg. The refurbishments to the museum are now complete, so after an easy train and tram trip, we were able to go to the original museum in Elsternwick. 

Once there, we joined two other schools in the lecture room and revisited key facts about the Holocaust. Our students were incredible in answering the questions without any prompting and demonstrated the learning that has taken place this semester in class. After this discussion, we went into a smaller room with one of the other schools and in groups, the students were given artefacts from the Holocaust, including actual Stars of David, identity cards, and a poster of the Nuremburg Laws. In their groups, students worked together to discern what the items might be and how they could fit into categories, such as resistance, acts of courage and loss. The items were then placed under the appropriate headings and the students were fantastic in their participation and discussions, with the facilitator commenting that she had never had such depth of thought before.

Following the group task, we all returned to the lecture room and had the honour of meeting Joe, who told us his survival story. Joe was born on 22 December 1930 in Kozienice, Poland to Mala and Mordechai David (Motek). He was the youngest of six siblings and had a very happy childhood. Joe was only eight years old when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939 and by the age of 13 and a half, he would find himself completely alone in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Joe was nearly 12 when he was sent to work in a munitions factory at Skarzysko labor camp, one Joe can only describe as "a horrible camp". Joe told of watching his brother, Benjamin, be shot in front of him while his father was being taken away, never to be seen again. He spoke of the brave people who saved his life and left the entire group with the resounding reminders to never hate, to simply be kind and to always have hope. Joe also explained that once he was settled in Australia, he met up with other Buchenwald survivors and each year they would hold an event to celebrate their survival and worked as a group to raise money for various charities. This example of giving back to the community after experiencing such horrendous events was not lost on us. Our students were inspired by Joe’s survival and outlook on life and listened with respect and amazement. They also asked evocative questions, that demonstrated incredible empath and insight. Congratulations to the students who attended on their brilliant and respectful behaviour.

We would like to thank the museum staff and especially Joe, for sharing their time and knowledge with us. 

Ms Wealands, Mrs Tracey & students