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About the Melbourne Child Survivors of the Holocaust
First, a bit of history.
Our group began almost eight years ago, in early 1990. We gathered, 30-40
of us, after seeing an advertisement in the Jewish paper that said - "If
you were a child in Europe during the war...". The convenor of the Sydney
group, came to Melbourne on that occasion and talked to us about her experiences
during the war. And we started calling ourselves "Child Survivors", something
we had never heard of before. Our convenor and president had just discovered
his own identity as child survivor from a Californian psychologist, whom
he had met at a conference in San-Francisco. He later interviewed a number
of members in our group, as well as some others, and wrote up the interviews
in a book.
We started meeting once
a month and decided to give our testimonies, to talk to other child survivors
about our wartime experiences, which most of us had not ever talked about
before. And we videoed whoever spoke. This has remained our first priority.
We listen to a child survivor speak for the first half of the evening.
We have a break for coffee and a chat. That part is always too short. So
once in a while we have a meeting that we call an "extended coffee break",
where we can have talk unlimited! Then we come back and ask questions,
and add our own comments. We include all of our lives, "before and after",
and our relationships. How did the war affect our lives, our growing up?
In the nearly eight years since we began we have grown into a close, friendly
and trusting group. We are accepting of each other, and very supportive.
Telling our stories has given us the opportunity to integrate that traumatic
experience, to understand ourselves better. We have benefitted enormously
from that. We like to be as informal as possible.
We have had two conferences
in Melbourne, one in 1993 with the Californian psychologist we've mentioned
above, one in 1995 with a psychologist from New York. Both psychologists
have been instrumental in starting up local Child Survivor groups in the
United States. The first conference was particularly exciting as we had
child survivors from all over Australia and it was great publicity for
us in the community. It was a marvelous experience, which gave us added
confidence and really cemented our group. We have become like family for
each other.
But as well as testimonies
we also do a large variety of other things. All along we have had workshops.
Everyone likes workshops because it is even better to talk - and listen
- in a small group. Just last week we had one on "Playing and fantasizing
- what did we do during the war?" We have had workshops on our relationships
- with our parents, our children and our spouses. And many others.
We meet at the Melbourne
Jewish Holocaust Museum. A few of us work there as volunteers. It is an
important connection for us. We include every kind of child survivor -
hidden children, those who survived camps, escaped to England from Germany
and Austria, Russian gulags, anyone whose life was affected by the war.
We sometimes have joint meetings with the older and the second generation
groups. The latter hived off from us and is very successful.
We have a very close-knit
and dedicated committee. Our activities for this year have included some
new initiatives. We invited an Aboriginal woman who spoke about her family
history: her mother was one of the "stolen generation". This refers to
the fact that, in the sixties and seventies, the Australian government
implemented a policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families,
and placing them with white families, to assimilate them into the Australian
society. We had a second-generation historian (of Jewish history) talk
of how he took his parents (child survivors) back to Poland. He wrote a
book about their experiences. As a result of being in our group, many of
us have made pilgrimages back to our place of birth. In Australia we are
a great distance from Europe, trips for us are a major event. One of us
who went to France and Auschwitz where his father and siblings perished,
came and talked to us about this important journey. At the end of the year
we usually have a break-up party, which is a happy get-together with food
and music.
We have had a film made
about us by two young women who were dedicated to their project: ordinary
meetings, workshops, break-up parties, committee meetings, they filmed
everything, and also did some individual interviews. We are waiting to
see the finished product soon. It should be very exciting.
Meanwhile we feel that
we, the committee, and the group, have changed. We have learnt a lot from
our years of involvement. We are also older, and our lives have changed.
Recently a number of us went to join in the celebration of the Sydney group's
10th birthday. We felt a part of it, we really have a strong bond. Though
we are far away from most of you, we also feel a bond with you. We hope
to find support and inspiration through belonging to the new Federation.
We look forward to the
next stage of our mutual development. We are also keen to hear what other
groups are doing, how they have developed, what is important for you now.
Let's keep in touch.
With best wishes to all
child survivor groups.
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