Generations After
Auckland Second Generation Group
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Wellington Second Generation GroupEmail: [email protected] The Wellington Second Generation Group started in May 2018. Since then it has grown to a membership of over 70 and holds meetings every second month. It was formed for the “Second Generation”, the children of Holocaust survivors, anyone of parents impacted by the Nazi regime during WWII, to get together and talk about the unique set of circumstances of their upbringing. For example, it was typical for our refugee parents never to mention the Holocaust to us and many in the group are only now researching and learning about the horrific events which brought our parents to New Zealand.
Irene Buxton Coordinator In 2023 the two areas the Wellington Second Group focused on were Third Generation studies and ”Home Displacement and Belonging”.
The Wellington Second Generation group met for an afternoon of coffee/tea and baking reminiscent of our childhoods on Sunday 25 June 2023. Members brought plates of cakes and other baking which reminded us of our parents' hospitality, sharing their memories with the group.
"So these are Bialys shortened to Bialystoker Kuchen and by all accounts world famous. When we were kids we grew up with these made not only by my mother but also by our Aunty Blanche Adler who was one of the Deckston children. She used to make them as well and nothing was better than having them arrive at the Trentham racecourse for the Jewish picnic with a batch of beautiful Kuchen which is what we always called them. We used to love visiting and staying at Aunty Blanches where she and Mum would make Kuchen and Boulkes (bread rolls) and challah. There are all different types of Kuchen but these ones with poppy seed and chopped onions that turn a lovely pink with a sweet onion taste complemented by the poppyseed have a unique taste and must be finished off with lashings of butter as soon as they come out of the oven and eaten....all of them." - Lisa Silestean 
Wellington Second Generation Group coordinator Irene Buxton
and Auckland Second Generation Group co-leader Naomi Johnson |
HCNZ Generations After - Facebook groupCreated in October 2014, HCNZ Generations After is a closed Facebook group that provides a forum for Holocaust survivors, their descendants and others impacted by the Holocaust to connect.
If you would like to be added to the group, submit your request to the group's administrator on Facebook: Join HCNZ Generations After group. |
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HCNZ Generations After News, articles, Podcasts and info
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Jewish Lives podcast with Auckland Second Generation member Claire Bruell
Claire Bruell speaks about her experience as a child of Holocaust survivors who found refuge in New Zealand. Her parents fled Czechoslovakia and arrived in Auckland on 9th October 1939. They went farming in what is now suburban West Auckland.
As well as telling her family’s story, Claire speaks about the Mixed Blessings project and her involvement in the Oral History group. ‘Mixed Blessings: New Zealand children of Holocaust survivors remember’, (as featured above left) is a compilation of stories written by the children brought up in families where one or both parents had settled in New Zealand after escaping Hitler’s Europe. These stories about survival, love, loss, family revolve around memories of family food, cooking and recipes. Claire was involved in the setting up of the Holocaust Oral History Project and in interviewing Holocaust survivors in Auckland and has built up an archive of interviews with members of the Jewish community in Auckland. Claire is an Honorary Life Member of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand. |
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Jewish Lives podcast with Wellington Second Generation member Dr. Ann Beaglehole
Ann Beaglehole is a historian and writer. She has written or contributed to over nine books and numerous articles. In this podcast, Beaglehole discusses issues of identity, New Zealand’s refugee history, what being Jewish means to her and the process of dealing with a traumatic past.
Ann Beaglehole’s family came to New Zealand in the 1950s as refugees from communist Hungary. She discusses how her parents survived the Holocaust and the circumstances which led to their flight from Hungary. Given a choice between Brazil and New Zealand, Beaglehole’s parents opted for New Zealand, which was known as an egalitarian society in which the government looked after the people. Ann tells how she, as an 8 year old, settled into her new life in New Zealand. She found that identifying as a Hungarian refugee was more straightforward than identifying as Jewish. Beaglehole has undertaken much research on the topic of refugees, publishing A Small Price to Pay: Refugees from Hitler in New Zealand, 1936 -1946 in 1988 and Refuge New Zealand: A nation’s response to refugees and asylum seekers, in 2013. She has also written about the children of refugees in her 1990 book, Facing the Past, Looking Back at Refugee Childhood in New Zealand 1940s–1960s. Ann volunteers with the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand and was a past board member. |
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27 JANUARY 2023 - United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day
John Goddard, HCNZ Board Member & Second-Generation Holocaust survivor The Holocaust centre was honoured that John shared his family's personal testimony.
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October 31st - Nov 12, 2021
'Painting from the Holocaust's Barbaric Periphery' - an exhibition by Master of Fine Arts student Michelanne Forster, based on her study of Holocaust representation in painting, and expressing her identity as a member of the Second Generation. At the Wellington Jewish Community Centre, 80 Webb St, Wellington
Her reflections are as follows.
'Painting from the Holocaust's Barbaric Periphery' - an exhibition by Master of Fine Arts student Michelanne Forster, based on her study of Holocaust representation in painting, and expressing her identity as a member of the Second Generation. At the Wellington Jewish Community Centre, 80 Webb St, Wellington
Her reflections are as follows.
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Reflections of Painting from the Barbaric Periphery
By Michelanne Forster
The Holocaust is, for me, the biggest story in my life. It sits on my shoulder wherever I go. Facts alone can’t represent this impossible blot on humanity. I have a belief, perhaps naive, that artistic expression is a positive way to grapple with the Holocaust’s legacy. In undertaking a Master of Fine Arts degree at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, I wanted to investigate how the shadow of the Holocaust still falls in this faraway corner of the Pacific.
Although I’ve had a long career as an author and playwright, I decided to use painting as my artistic medium. Over the two years of the Master’s programme, I searched for a new language- a visual language- to express my emotions and insights as a member of the second generation. At first, this project was like walking backwards in the dark. But gradually, with the help of my supervisors (both practicing artists), research about Holocaust representation, and many long hours at the easel, I found a language using charcoal, pencil, watercolour, acrylics, and oils. “The Barbaric Periphery’, a term coined by Sidra DeKovan Ezrahi, an Israeli academic who writes about the futility of trying to get to the black centre of the Holocaust, rightly points out, this is a place only survivors understand. But we, of the second and third generations can still contribute and remember from its barbaric periphery- and this is what I set out to do.
I approached the Wellington Jewish Community Centre board who kindly agreed to let me show my final exhibition on the premises. Rabbi Ariel Tal opened the exhibition, highlighting the importance of art, and Jeremy Smith, representing Temple Sinai, spoke about the on-going work of Holocaust education. My examiners, Dr. Huhanna Smith, the head of Massey’s School of Art, and Aaron Lister, a curator at Wellington City Gallery, expressed great pleasure in my chosen exhibition space. Many from the second-generation told me, in personal and moving ways, what my research and art meant to them.
I was moved that the WJCC board accepted my offer of a large painting of a menorah in honour of my father, Michael C. Forster, who died in September 2021. Dad and his Uncle Ludwig were supported by the Viennese Jewish community in 1934 during a time of great personal upheaval and uncertainty- and now I saw this exhibition as my opportunity to give back. I know that I stand on the edge of an experience I did not have, that I will always look into that abyss and mourn a family I will never know. However, I have learned that art made on that periphery brings companionship, connection, and hope.
By Michelanne Forster
The Holocaust is, for me, the biggest story in my life. It sits on my shoulder wherever I go. Facts alone can’t represent this impossible blot on humanity. I have a belief, perhaps naive, that artistic expression is a positive way to grapple with the Holocaust’s legacy. In undertaking a Master of Fine Arts degree at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, I wanted to investigate how the shadow of the Holocaust still falls in this faraway corner of the Pacific.
Although I’ve had a long career as an author and playwright, I decided to use painting as my artistic medium. Over the two years of the Master’s programme, I searched for a new language- a visual language- to express my emotions and insights as a member of the second generation. At first, this project was like walking backwards in the dark. But gradually, with the help of my supervisors (both practicing artists), research about Holocaust representation, and many long hours at the easel, I found a language using charcoal, pencil, watercolour, acrylics, and oils. “The Barbaric Periphery’, a term coined by Sidra DeKovan Ezrahi, an Israeli academic who writes about the futility of trying to get to the black centre of the Holocaust, rightly points out, this is a place only survivors understand. But we, of the second and third generations can still contribute and remember from its barbaric periphery- and this is what I set out to do.
I approached the Wellington Jewish Community Centre board who kindly agreed to let me show my final exhibition on the premises. Rabbi Ariel Tal opened the exhibition, highlighting the importance of art, and Jeremy Smith, representing Temple Sinai, spoke about the on-going work of Holocaust education. My examiners, Dr. Huhanna Smith, the head of Massey’s School of Art, and Aaron Lister, a curator at Wellington City Gallery, expressed great pleasure in my chosen exhibition space. Many from the second-generation told me, in personal and moving ways, what my research and art meant to them.
I was moved that the WJCC board accepted my offer of a large painting of a menorah in honour of my father, Michael C. Forster, who died in September 2021. Dad and his Uncle Ludwig were supported by the Viennese Jewish community in 1934 during a time of great personal upheaval and uncertainty- and now I saw this exhibition as my opportunity to give back. I know that I stand on the edge of an experience I did not have, that I will always look into that abyss and mourn a family I will never know. However, I have learned that art made on that periphery brings companionship, connection, and hope.
VIDEO: Eva Woodbury shares the story of her fathers remarkable efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.
L'Dor vaDor Public Talk 28 July 2021
L'Dor vaDor Public Talk 28 July 2021
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Wladamir Riszko, is believed to have hidden 16 people in a cellar in the Polish city of Przemysl between 1942 and 1944 - including the woman who later became his wife.
Efforts are underway to have him recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. |
