Jewish and non-Jewish Australians who were shocked to see photos of a Nazi flag, with a swastika and other Nazi symbols fluttering over a house in the town of Beulah, north west Victoria last week, were encouraged to see a photo this week of some 60 Beulah residents demonstrating against their neighbors with flags from several countries including the Aboriginal and LGBTI flag.
Australia’s Governor General David Hurley will be among the leading representatives of 47 countries participating at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Death Camp on the 27th January 1945, whilst Israel takes strenuous measures to protect these representatives and the forum from possible attacks from hostile elements on its borders.
The Australian Jewish community will mark the International Holocaust Memorial Day on the 27th January and the Holocaust Museums in Melbourne and Sydney are holding special exhibitions to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, with the Sydney exhibition containing, amongst other items, a blanket knitted from human hair and found threads by women inmates in Auschwitz, for an SS guard and preserved by 93 year old Olga Horak, a Holocaust survivor now living in Sydney.
