Surviving Survival

Surviving Survival
A Selection of Speeches

By Marika Weinberger

In 1944, 16 year-old Marika Cierer’s youthful world in the sleepy Slovakian town of Košice was turned upside down. Months later her family was transported to Auschwitz. Only Marika and her sister Edith survived. In 1950 Marika, her husband, Alex Weinberger, and their infant daughter, Kathy, migrated to Australia.

As they set about rebuilding their lives, Marika and Alex knew that the loss of family, culture and innocence would never leave them. Any attempt to put aside the catastrophic years of the Holocaust would not only betray those who perished, but would rob an ever-forgetful humanity of two living voices of conscience.

As part of the remnant of European Jewry, Marika saw her life as a fourfold journey: to ensure the future of her children; to personally survive survival; to support fellow survivors, and to remind the world where prejudice and hatred can so easily lead.

Coupled with brief excerpts from her life, Surviving Survival is a collection of Marika’s speeches.
For her contribution to society, Marika was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, in 2001.