Refurbishment of the Holocaust Centre

After three years it is time to refurbish the displays in the Holocaust Centre. The present displays will be preserved, but placed in their historical context, showing how the persecution of the Jews of the Czech lands was the beginning in 1938 and that of the Jews of Hungary in 1944 the final stage of the deportation and mass murder of Jews.

There will be a new display devoted to the story of the children brought to Wellington in the 1930s  from orphanages in and around Bialystok  by the Jewish philanthropists Max and Annie Deckston. It will tell the story of the Deckstons coming to New Zealand from Russia in 1900, the children they brought to Wellington and saved from the Holocaust, and the descendants pf these children, and the story in detail of three of these children, their lives in Poland and New Zealand, and the fate of the families they left behind.

The new refurbished displays will show visitors to the Holocaust Centre the reality of the Holocaust in a relevant meaningful way.

We are at present raising funds for this project. To make a donation please send cheque to

WRHEC
80 Webb St
Wellington 6011

Or pay direct to our bank account 03 05150507281 00

All donations are tax deductible in New Zealand.

Are your origins in Austria?

Inge Woolf  is collecting material  for a Symposium in Vienna on Austrian Jewish migration to New Zealand and the work of the Holocaust Centre. If you would like to contribute your story please fill in this survey

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About the Holocaust Centre

The large number of people who came to the service commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January 2005 showed that the Holocaust impacted on the lives of many New Zealanders, not just within the Jewish community, but right through New Zealand society. The Holocaust was not just the story of Jewish survivors, it was a New Zealand story that reverberated across generations.

The commemoration was followed by radio and television programmes on the Holocaust, and the few remaining Holocaust survivors fielded many questions about their experiences. It was this interest in the Holocaust that prompted a small group within the Wellington Jewish community to set up the Holocaust Centre.

Two years later the Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre was opened on 15 April 2007, with the generous support by the Wellington City Council, the Deckston Trust, the Wellington Jewish Community Centre, and a number of businesses and individuals

holocaust room opening 4

The Governor General, Anand Santyanand looks on as Rabbi Dovrat affixes the mezzuzah to the doorpost of the Holocaust Room, 15 April 2005

The aims of the Holocaust Centre were; a) to preserve the memory of the Jewish victims of  Nazi persecution who came to New Zealand, b) to foster Holocaust research; c) to teach the Holocaust.

We are collecting accounts of the experiences of Holocaust survivors and recording interviews with those who are still alive.

We welcome visits by the general public and arrange special programmes for school groups and other interested groups.

We ran seminars for teachers on how to teach the Holocaust and developed a special educational programme on how to teach the Holocaust within the New Zealand school curriculum.

Over the last few years the Holocaust Centre reached out to many who are rediscovering their Holocaust background.

The Holocaust Research and Education Centre is a member of the Diversity Action Programme supported by the Office of the Race Relations Conciliator.

 
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Button Collection

Two years after Moriah College embarked on the project of collecting 1.5 million buttons in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust it achieved its target. 

We've done it!  We are very excited to announce that today we counted our 1.5millionth button.  Thank you so much to all the people who supported us, we could not have done it without your help.

See the short video on YouTube in which children of Moriah College talk about their project and present the memorial design they propose for Wellington City

Click here for YouTube Video