“It is an honour to join with the Jewish community in this inter-religious partnership that promotes remembrance and understanding,” Mark Coleridge, Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane said at the unveiling of Australia’s newest holocaust Museum. The Queensland Holocaust Museum and Education Centre is in Penola Place in the St Stephens Cathedral Precinct in central Brisbane.
The museum was established thanks to $3.5 million in funding from the Palaszczuk Government, which will be matched by the Australian Government, and a Brisbane City Council pledge of $500,000.
“The partnership sends a strong signal that we are all sisters and brothers in a world which desperately needs to build bridges not walls, to choose peace not violence,” Coleridge said.
“It is good that many have come together in this project – religious bodies, government and the wider community – to tell a story that can never be forgotten, a story that belongs to us all.”
The message of the museum is “Never again” holocaust survivor, Peter Baruch, told Brisbane’s Catholic Leader. The one-and-a-half-year-old Baruch fled Poland with his parents. His wider family stayed behind. “We survived; they all perished, every one of them,” he said.
A circuitous route took them to Japan on the Trans-Siberian Railway with the aid of diplomat Chiune Sughara, recognised as “Righteous Among the Nations” for resting 5,558 Jews. His father finally obtained visas to New Zealand. Baruch who has five children and seven grandchildren told the Leader he had found a “very good life here.”
Locally-recorded stories of Holocaust survivors and their families living in Queensland feature prominently alongside tributes to non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save Jewish people, including those awarded the “Righteous Among Nations” honour. The museum will be open to the public from July 11.
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“Today marks a significant milestone in Queensland’s cultural history as we honour the legacy of Queensland’s many Holocaust survivors and their descendants,” said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
“The Queensland Holocaust Museum and Education Centre honours the legacy of those who faced awful atrocities, as well those who risked their own lives to save those facing persecution.
“This will ensure future generations never forget – because Queensland’s survivor stories will now be heard for generations to come.”
Image: Peter Baruch and Archbishop Mark Coleridge Credit: from Catholic Leader
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