Brisbane: Holocaust Museum Opens

The new Queensland Holocaust Museum, the state’s first museum to be dedicated to the Shoah will officially open today, honouring more than 200 Holocaust survivors who made Queensland their home.

The museum will be opened by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Minister for Multicultural Affairs the Honourable Leanne Linard and Councillor for Central Ward, Vicki Howard.

Visitors will hear first-hand filmed testimonies from Queensland survivors who tell their stories about life before, during and after the Holocaust. The museum also pays tribute to those who saved Jewish lives, the Righteous Among the Nations.

Jason Steinberg, Chairman of the Queensland Holocaust Museum and Education Centre (QHMEC), said the museum would not have been possible without the support of the Queensland Government, from which it received $3.5 million, as well as $500,000 from Brisbane City Council. The Federal Government has also made a commitment of $3.5 million, and the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane is providing the space for the museum.

“We all have a huge responsibility to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive so that the atrocities are never forgotten. Our multifaceted and engaging museum tells the story of the Holocaust in a way that it has never been told – through the voices, stories, and artefacts provided by Queensland survivors,” Mr Steinberg said.

“The museum will educate Queenslanders and others from interstate and internationally about the Holocaust and other genocides to bring awareness to antisemitism, racial hatred and bigotry.

“Our education programs will resonate strongly with school students and encourage tolerance and strategies to stand up against hate of any kind,” Steinberg said.

 

Stories include that of Eva Klug who survived two concentration camps, fought in the resistance, and convinced a Russian Commandant to give her a truck and driver so she could save more than 200 dying people and get them to a hospital in Prague. In 1947, Eva married fellow survivor, Bert Klug, before the couple migrated to Australia in 1948.

John and Ada Lipski, who were married in the Lodz Ghetto are also featured. The pair were separated when they were sent to death camps, finding each other by chance after the war. They arrived in Brisbane in 1950, becoming integral members of the Jewish community.

Along with the physical museum in Brisbane, the QHMEC has created a mobile museum that will go on tour across regional Queensland, as well as a digital museum that will be relevant internationally.