Generations After
Auckland Second Generation Group
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HANNAH BRODSKY Avrom-Osher and Beila: The Missing Link of my Soul |
CLAIRE BRUELL Frank and Alice Briess |
Wellington Second Generation Group
Email: [email protected]
About:
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
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
Wellington Second Generation Group coordinator Irene Buxton
and Auckland Second Generation Group co-leader Naomi Johnson
and Auckland Second Generation Group co-leader Naomi Johnson
HCNZ Generations After - Facebook group
Created 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.
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.
Latest from Generations After - News, podcasts, testimonies and more
BOOK LAUNCH - How To Be An Alien - by Ann Beaglehole
Fraser Books invites you to the book launch of
'How to be an Alien' by Ann Beaglehole.
Tuesday, 18 November 2025 at 6.00pm
Unity Books 57 Willis Street Wellington
The book will be launched by Associate Professor Giacomo Lichtner, VUW
Refreshments will be served
Books are $37.50: cash and full eftpos facilities
Please RSVP to [email protected] by Wednesday 12 November
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The Book:
The book is a humorous memoir, with reflections on refugee policy and being ‘not quite one of us.’ A purpose of the book is to delve into how refugees survive and thrive in a strange new country and to better understand the long-term impact of historic trauma. The book also aims to shed light on shifting perceptions of being Jewish in Aotearoa. It moves between the personal and the political; the ridiculous and the profoundly serious, and between past and present. The book is Beaglehole’s family’s story and her community’s. However, in several sections, she turns to history and to her imagination to fill in gaps in her memory of events and people of long ago. How to be an Alien begins amidst the chaos of revolution and counter-revolution. A family must make an urgent decision to leave, or not to leave, their country. On a winter night in 1956, a mother, father, and their daughter step over the barbed wire fences at the border in Hungary and make their way to Austria. No one knows what the future holds, not for the family who have escaped a tyrannous regime, not for the grief-stricken grandmother left behind. The Author: Ann Beaglehole, historian and former public servant, was born in Hungary. By the age of eight, when she settled in Aotearoa with her family, she had experience of two totalitarian regimes: Hitler’s indirectly, through her traumatised family, and Stalin’s. more directly, as a young child already subject to brainwashing at school and in her communist youth group. Over the years, she has evolved into an almost Kiwi historian and writer. Her parents left Hungary so that she (their only child) could live in safety and freedom and receive a good education. In writing this book , Beaglehole’s purpose is to say to them: ‘Look what I have become! See how I turned out! Are you pleased?’ Ann Beaglehole is the author of Refuge New Zealand: A Nation’s response to refugees and asylum seekers. Her first book was A Small Price to Pay: Refugees from Hitler in New Zealand, 1936-1946. Ann Beaglehole was short-listed for the NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Prize in 2025. |
'Searching for Identity' - Claire Bruell & Mike Regan
L'Dor V'Dor Speaker Series, 31 July 2025
L'Dor V'Dor Speaker Series, 31 July 2025
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"SEARCHING FOR IDENTITY," a public presentation as part of HCNZ's L'dor V'dor Speaker Series, with speakers Claire Bruell, author of her family four-book series 'Searching for Identity,' and Mike Regan, designer and producer.
The book series explores the Bruell and Briess family histories, delving into the trauma and triumphs of four generations. Through their stories, Claire sheds light on the universal Jewish experience of resilience, loss, and rebirth. Claire takes us through her creative process, from inception to completion, and Mike shares insights into their collaboration. Together, they discuss their work of bringing these stories to life on paper. Claire's series is a testament to the power of family history and identity. To read her books online, go to https://familyhistory.bruell.co.nz/ |
Speaker Margarita Pedchenko “Second and Third Generation writers use of comics to portray Holocaust post- memories”.
Emily Woods, Margarita Pedchenko, Irene Buxton, Annette Offenberger.
Onscreen image feature - Michel Kichka, Second Generation: The Things I Didn't Tell My Father (Dargaud, 2012) |
A recent event was a talk by Margarita Pedchenko. On 16 July 2025, Margarita, a PhD student at Victoria University, spoke to the group on her MA thesis. This was on the use of graphic materials such as comic strips to assist second and third generation survivors in post Holocaust memory retrieval. Margarita discussed post memory, in which the memories of parents and grandparents are absorbed by the second and third generations and taken on as their own. Margarita writes, “the transmission of these traumatic events can run so deep as to seem to constitute memories in their own right. This is what Marianne Hirsch – a scholar and a member of the second generation – calls “postmemory”. Noting the rise in popularity of using graphic media such as comic strips in memory recovery, Margarita writes, “This multi modal medium, which combines images and texts, allows the authors to depict their unique connection to Holocaust trauma. This talk is dedicated to exploring the artistic strategies that the authors use in their graphic narratives in order to capture the elusive and often ineffable shadow of the traumatic past”. We are developing a further discussion later this year in which Margarita Pedchenko and second-generation member John Goddard will continue to look at different methods of retrieving post Holocaust memory. On 28 May 2025, John gave a talk to our members on memories of his family in Warsaw, Poland, in which, in contrast to the use of graphic materials, he used his own narrative and photos to capture the past. |
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NZ Second Generation Survivor and Family Honoured in the Czech Republic
As a result of her decades-long research that underpinned the publication of her book, 'The Burned Letter, A New Zealander’s Holocaust Mystery’, the City Council of Volyně conferred on Helene Ritchie honorary citizenship of their town in Strakonice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. On 25 May 2025, Helene Ritchie was the guest of honour at a ceremony for the Fantl House memorial plaque, which she created. She unveiled the plaque on the discovered renaissance Fantl house, which is now Volyňka school, in Volyně, in a protected urban monument town with a 15th-century town hall one door away. Helene says, “I accepted this honorary citizenship for family past and present”. Helene’s grandfather, Robert Fantl, and his brothers and sisters were born and lived in Volyně. Helene first discovered in the 1960s that her family had lived in Czechoslovakia. She found the grave of her grandfather Robert Fantl, who died in 1923. In 2012 she given a picture of Lidi and Bobby which had been thrown out of the Fantl house by the Nazis and recovered. Helene’s grandfather and all his brothers and sisters lived as children in the Fantl house of their parents, David Fantl and Phillpine (Fürth). Helene’s uncle Robert “Bob” Fantl z”l, who passed away in 2016, was the last known survivor of the 669 children rescued by Sir Nicholas Winton's Kindertransport. Bob Fantl was 15 when he travelled from Czechoslovakia to the Netherlands and on to England. From England, he travelled to New Zealand in 1950, where he was reunited with his mother and sister, and settled in Wellington. Bob Fantl was an influential modernist architect who worked in partnership with Austrian architect Ernst Plischke before founding his own firm. |
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Jewish Lives podcast with Auckland Second Generation member Claire Bruell
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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. |
Jewish Lives podcast with Wellington Second Generation member Dr. Ann Beaglehole
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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 - UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day John Goddard, HCNZ Board Member & Second-Generation Holocaust survivor The Holocaust centre was honoured that John shared his family's 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 V'Dor Public Talk 28 July 2021
L'Dor V'Dor 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. |
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Second generation Holocaust survivor Carol Calkoen speaks about her mother Hanka Pressburg and the exhibition Auschwitz to Aotearoa,
curated by Anna Chapman & Simone Gigliotti, 2014-2015. |
