Tracing the history of Melbourne's Jewish Holocaust Centre

A new book by Deakin University academics documents the history of Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre and shines a light on the strength and determination of Melbourne’s Jewish community in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive.

In The Interior of Our Memories: A History of Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre, authors Dr Steven Cooke and Dr Donna-Lee Frieze trace not just the 30-year history of the Centre itself, but also its roots in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Dr Frieze explained that the story of the internationally-renowned Centre, located in Elsternwick, began well before its official opening in March 1984.

“The story of the Centre really begins during the Holocaust,” Dr Frieze said.  

“You need only look at the remarkable stories of Bono Weiner and Abram Goldberg, survivors who – along with fellow Auschwitz survivor Aron Sokolowicz – became the driving force behind the establishment of the Centre after migrating to Australia in the 1950s.

“While held in the Lodz Ghetto in 1944, Weiner and Goldberg began collecting evidence of their experiences and buried these documents in two metal boxes just before they were deported to Auschwitz.

“After the Holocaust, Goldberg returned to Lodz – not knowing whether Weiner had survived – to recover the boxes, finding only one. Its contents were to become some of the first documents displayed at the Centre.

“These men survived the horrors of the Holocaust with a need to testify to what had happened.

“It is this deeply human yearning to document, collect, mourn and testify that lies at the heart of the Centre.”

That the internationally-renowned Centre should be located in Melbourne is no accident, according to Dr Cooke.

“Melbourne is home to the largest surviving population of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel so it’s hardly surprising that Melbourne is also home to one of the earliest permanent memorial museums established outside of Europe,” Dr Cooke said.

Dr Cooke explained that the focus of the Centre has shifted over its 30-year history.

“The initial focus of the Centre was on the documentation of pre-war Jewish life and of the Holocaust from survivors,” Dr Cooke said.

“From this collection of photos, documents and material objects grew a need to educate people about the horrors of the Holocaust; to promote understanding and combat anti-Semitism, racism and prejudice in the community.

“Today, the Centre is a modern, educationally-focussed organisation that hosts weekly public tours and, perhaps more importantly, over 20,000 school children each year.”

The future of the Centre is also pondered in the book.

“With most tours originally taken by Holocaust survivors, one of the key questions faced by the Centre is how to continue sharing and protecting the legacy of the survivor generation in years to come,” explained Dr Cooke.  

“The future of the Centre will depend on new ways of sharing these testimonies.”

The Interior of Our Memories: A history of Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre (Hybrid Publishers, RRP $35) by Dr Steven Cooke and Dr Donna-Lee Frieze is available from Hybrid Publishers.

About the Authors

Dr Steven Cooke is a cultural and historical geographer who has published widely on the memorial landscapes of war and genocide. He is Senior Lecturer and Course Director of the Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies Programs at Deakin University. He is the author of The Sweetland Project: Remembering Gallipoli in the Shire of Nunawading (Australian Scholarly, 2015).

Dr Donna-Lee Frieze is a genocide studies scholar who taught the Genocide and Holocaust units at Deakin University. She has published widely on 20^th century genocides, film, philosophy and testimony. She is the editor and transcriber of Raphael Lemkin’s autobiography, Totally Unofficial (Yale University Press, 2013).