Nicholas Winton and New Zealand

I survived Auschwitz

Zeev (Tibi) Ram, a survivor of Auschwitz will be talking about his story in schools, university and the Jewish community. He is in New Zealand from April 19 to May 3, 2012. His visit is organised by the ZFNZ and the Israeli Embassy. He will be in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

For more information contact schlicha@zfnz.or.nz

JUSTICE and ACCOUNTABILITY AFTER THE HOLOCAUST

The keynote address by Peter McKenzie QC at the Parliamentary reception for the 2012 UN International Holocaust Memorial Day

In the final stages of the Second World War the allied armies sweeping through eastern Germany and Europe came across sites of such horror and carnage that they found it hard to believe that even the Nazi regime in its worst excesses could have been responsible. Near the town of Gotha they found a death camp where thousands of Jewish prisoners were starved to death and this was reported to General Eisenhower the Allied Supreme Commander. The bodies of naked emaciated men were piled in the rooms and the stench was overpowering. General Patton would not enter fearing he would be physically sick. Eisenhower however strode in and forced himself to inspect every nook and cranny. He called for photographers and ordered that Germans from the neighbouring villages be brought in and required to bury the dead. In this way they would have to confront the reality of what the Nazi regime had been doing. He stated:

Four People behind the Numbers

The German Unger Story - the fate of a family

Four People behind the Numbers

In February 2011 The Listener published an article about Diana Wichtel’s journey to the death camps her father survived. In that article a reference was made to the International Tracing Service, whom I contacted. 6 months later they provided another tiny piece of evidence of the fate of my family. At a time when the world is tuning in to the trials of the 2^nd worst European murders of all time, it is timely to remember the worst genocide, and the faces of some who did not survive.

The Violinist

The book by Sarah Gaitanos about Clare Galambos Winter, past member of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Hungarian survivor of Auschwitz, is now available from the Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre

$40 plus $4.50 postage, $44.50 (NZ)

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

Holocaust survivors

Holocaust survivors Freda Narev (hidden by a Catholic family in Poland) and Bob Narev (survivor of the Concentration Camp of Theresienstadt) are prepared, by arrangement, to speak of their experiences to secondary schools in the Greater Auckland area. They can be contacted by email fabnarev@clear.net.nz

March of the living

THE MARCH OF THE LIVING is an international, educational programme that brings Jewish teens (16 year olds) from around the world to Poland on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, to march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during World War II, and then to Israel to observe Yom Hazikaron, Israel Memorial Day, and Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.

Anne Frank

The Anne Frank travelling exhibition tells the story of Anne Frank and the Holocaust to people who are not able to visit the Anne Frank Museum in The Netherlands. The exhibition will tour throughout New Zealand for three years, visiting museums and community centres to teach people the story of Anne Frank and the Holocaust.

Click here for more information.

Holocaust research

Nicholas Winton and New Zealand

Written by Vera Egermayer

Four of the 669 children whose evacuation from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia Nicholas Winton organized in the summer of 1939 made their way to New Zealand. Bob Fantl came in 1940 and Eva Hayman (nee Diamant), Vera O’Brien (nee Harth) and Helen Toomy (nee Weiner) all came in the 1950s. In addition, Steven Kafka the son of another rescued child (Jiri Kafka) settled in New Zealand in the 1980s.

Taking into account the families which have sprung from the original four, there could now be as many as 30 people living in New Zealand today who indirectly owe their lives to Nicholas Winton. Worldwide this figure has been estimated at around 5000 people. A new film by Matej Minac “Nicky’s Family” dealing with the lives of some of these people will be premiered in Prague on 20 January in the presence of almost 102 year old Nicky Winton who will be flown to Prague on a private plane from his home in Maidenhead.

When the film the ” Power of Good “was premiered in Wellington, 14 February 2010, 13 members of the “Winton family” were present including a three months old baby. We cannot but think of Nicholas Winton when we hear the words

"Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe“

Links

Holocaust images

Button Collection

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