Melbourne Holocaust Museum

Name: Melbourne Holocaust Museum
Address: Elsternwick, VIC, 3185, AU
Telephone: +61395281985
Price range: Not applicable
Rating: 4.3

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Elsternwick, VIC
Melbourne Holocaust Museum

Founded by Holocaust survivors in 1984, we are Australia’s largest institution dedicated to Holocacaust.
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03/09/2026

What can an object carry?

Through everyday belongings, handmade objects and acts of ingenuity, What They Carried reveals how material things carry memory, hope, meaning, and emotional weight across time and place. From treasured keepsakes to practical tools, these objects supported physical survival, preserved identity, maintained vital relationships and carried hope in the face of persecution.

These artefacts are more than historical objects. They are witnesses to lived experiences. Through preservation, we ensure their stories continue to be shared, remembered, and learned from by future generations. Hear from Alice, our Collections Specialist, as she talks us through some of the different ways we preserve the objects in our new special exhibition.

📅 Open now until 31 January 2027. Link in bio to book tickets

This exhibition was made possible with sincere thanks to the Victorian Government.

02/09/2026

In this online book talk, Fiona Kelmann will be in conversation with Dr Simon Holloway about her new book Irmgard: The Girl from Dresden. A Memoir of Survival and Legacy.

Born in Dresden as Na**sm tightened its grip, Irmgard (Irma) Conradi witnessed the rapid dismantling of Jewish life in Germany. As discriminatory laws escalated into violence, Irma’s world collapsed during the terror of Kristallnacht. She navigated her own survival in a regime built on persecution and terror – one that punished Jewish lives and targeted non-Jewish people who dared to oppose it. Irma recounts her story with astonishing clarity: her family’s fate, surviving Terezin, and her arrival to Australia as a refugee.

Interwoven with Irma’s testimony is the voice of author Fiona Kelmann, who explores the powerful terrain of post memory, revealing how the past shapes the present and how stories are inherited across generations. The book also shines a light on the unique strength of Melbourne Holocaust survivors, a community defined by resilience, generosity, and an unwavering commitment to education and remembrance. Irma’s two decades at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum form a central part of this legacy.

A story of survival, witness, and responsibility, this book is a profound testament to the enduring power of memory – and the courage of one woman who refused to be silenced.

📅 24 September, 10am - This event is free, although registration via the link is required.

01/09/2026

On 1 September in 1941, the German government decreed that all Jews over six years old living in the German Reich had to wear a yellow star inscribed with the word ‘Jew’.

The stars enabled ready identification of Jews in public, and the policing of their behaviour by authorities and the non-Jewish populace. Punishments were extreme – on 26 July 1941 the Bialystok Judenrat (Jewish council) announced authorities had warned of severe punishment “up to and including death by shooting” for those who failed to wear the star.

Pictured is Wilhelm Korn, who was first deported from his hometown of Vienna in October 1939 and survived imprisonment in more than a dozen prisons, camps and ghettos. His story reflects the experiences of countless ordinary Jewish men, women and children who were forced to wear the yellow star as a mark of persecution during the Holocaust.

Wilhelm’s story is also featured in our new special exhibition 'What They Carried: Objects of Survival', highlighting his experiences and enduring legacy.

Image | Wilhelm Korn, Będzin, Poland, 1942. MHM 1883-36 / Wilhelm and Lilly Korn Collection

31/08/2026

Ochberg Orphans: search for descendants

Isaac Ochberg was "South Africa's Schindler". In 1921 he rescued about 200 Russian orphans from the pogroms in eastern Europe and brought them to safety in South Africa. The South African Jewish Museum is trying to trace Australian descendants of the Ochberg Orphans for an exhibition in December this year.

If you are a descendant, please email [email protected] or respond to the survey below.

30/08/2026

Today is Holocaust survivor, Charles German's birthday. Join us in wishing him a very happy birthday!

Charles German was born Kurt Chaim Shmatmik in Czernowitz, Romania (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine) in 1936. At age five, he and his family were deported to Mogilev-Podolski after the Soviet occupation. They survived by trading possessions for food, and Charles helped his mother Lisa survive typhus by bringing her apples stolen by his friend Yakov.

The family was later sent to Scazinets labour camp, where Charles’ parents endured harsh conditions building roads. A German soldier secretly shared food with Charles, helping the family survive, but was later executed for his act of kindness.

After the camp was liberated in 1944, Charles and his mother returned to Czernowitz on foot while his father was conscripted into the Soviet army. Charles’ parents later separated and in 1946, Charles and his mother escaped to Italy. Following his mother’s remarriage, Charles adopted the surname of his stepfather, Leib German.

In 1949, Charles, his mother and stepfather migrated to Melbourne. Decades later, he was reunited with Yakov, whose childhood kindness had helped save his mother’s life, demonstrating the lasting impact of compassion in the face of adversity.

Images | Charles German, photographed by Simon Shiff.

26/08/2026

How do we hold onto our humanity when everything that sustains us is under threat?

Relationships are central to Jewish life, shaping families, communities and networks of care. During the Holocaust, these bonds came under relentless attack. By isolating individuals and dismantling communities, the N***s sought to destroy the relationships that sustained Jewish existence. Yet these bonds remained essential to survival. People drew strength from loved ones.

One story featured in our special exhibition, What They Carried, comes from German-occupied Prague, where Jewish artistic performances were banned. Despite these restrictions, František, Adolf, Erka and their close circle of friends continued to create music, literature and art in secret.

Of the six friends depicted in this artwork by František, only Elly (pictured in image 3) is known to have survived the Holocaust. It is likely she who would have sung this music, a cabaret waltz dedicated to her by its composer, Adolf. Although any performance would have happened in secret, a motto at the top of the page hints that this music provided a measure of normalcy and even joy under N**i occupation.

This song celebrates friendship, romance, companionship and gossip. Its cheeky and flirtatious lyrics, with their exaggerated refrain about “decency and morality”, satirise public respectability in an environment where conventional social norms have been upended.

In a world determined to isolate them, maintaining these relationships became a quiet yet powerful act of resistance.

✨ Visit What They Carried to discover the personal objects and stories that reveal the resilience, courage and humanity of those who endured the Holocaust.

Image 1 | Sheet music for Die Grüne Lasterhütte (The Green House of Disrepute) written by Adolf Strauss, with lyrics by Erka (surname unknown), Prague, Czechoslovakia, July 1941. MHM 1469-178 / Trude Sturm Collection.
Image 2 | Artwork by František Herman, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1940. MHM 1469-216 / Trude Sturm Collection.
Image 3 | Copy of photograph of Elly Schiff, location and date unknown. MHM 1469-20 / Trude Sturm Collection.

25/08/2026

As we observe upcoming holidays and public holidays, the Museum will be closed on the following dates:

✨ Sunday 13 September – Rosh Hashanah
✨ Monday 21 September - Yom Kippur
✨ Friday 25 September – AFL Grand Final Public Holiday
✨ Sunday - 27 September – Sukkot
✨ Sunday 4 October – Simchat Torah

We wish everyone celebrating a happy and meaningful holiday period and look forward to seeing you at the Museum on our opening days.

24/08/2026

Dr Simon Holloway examines ghetto currency, one of the many ways Jewish communities were systematically stripped of dignity, security, and hope during the Holocaust.

Forced to exchange their money for notes that held value only within the ghetto walls, people lost not only their wealth, but any sense of normal life. In Terezín, the cruelty went even further: currency was issued, yet there was almost nothing to buy. Ghetto currency existed only to maintain the illusion of normal life in a place built on suffering and deception.

Visit the Melbourne Holocaust Museum to encounter these stories firsthand - where history is not only learned, but deeply felt.

21/08/2026

Our new special exhibition 'What They Carried: Objects of Survival' explores the relationship between Holocaust survivors and the objects that sustained them. Drawn from the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s collection, this exhibition features many items on public display for the first time, foregrounding personal stories from survivors who made Melbourne home.

At the heart of the exhibition is a new immersive video installation featuring the voices of 28 Holocaust survivors from the Phillip Maisel Testimony Collection, sharing reflections on the objects that shaped their experiences and the memories they continue to carry.

One of the survivors featured is Helen (Elka) Ekstein. On arrival Elka was separeted from her sister. Permitted to keep her hair, she used the attention it attracted to request a transfer to Birkenau, where the sisters were reunited.

Discover more remarkable stories of survival in our new special exhibition, open now until 31 January 2027.

Complimentary admission on Sundays, with special thanks to the Victorian Government

This exhibition was made possible with sincere thanks to the Victorian Government and Pearce Family Foundation.

Address

Elsternwick, VIC
3185

Telephone

+61395281985

Website

https://linktr.ee/melbourneholocaustmuseum, https://mhm.org.au/

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