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Recreation of George Street, Sydney, in the 1840s

Museum Ground floor: Culture and Continuity

The ground floor of the Museum explores the richness and vibrancy of Jewish culture, set within the context of the Jewish experience in Australia. This focus on one of Australia’s oldest and most distinctive ethnic groups highlights the Australian ethos of providing opportunities for all of its citizens and the enduring need to protect the freedoms and liberties provided by its democratic tradition.

The exposition of aspects of age-old Jewish customs and culture provides context and perspective for an understanding of the Holocaust and the magnitude of its disaster.

Highlights of the exhibition include the recreation of George Street in the 1840s, with its fanciful combination of mural painting and three-dimensional display of shops and street furniture and the sophisticated computer interactives, which profile Jewish Australians who have achieved prominence in their fields. These include popular singer Deborah Conway, comedian Jack Levy (aka Elliot Goblet), and the late Syd Einfeld, MP.



Boy in Nazi uniform saluting 		Museum Mezzanine 1: Hitler’s rise to Power

Introduces the Holocaust, documenting Hitler’s rise to power and its impact on the Jews in Germany following the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws. It culminates in the story of Kristallnacht – the infamous “Night of the Broken Glass” - and subsequent efforts by Jews to leave Germany. Highlights include an original copy of the New York Times reporting Kristallnacht (11 November 1938 issue).



Jews being arrested after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising 		Museum Mezzanine 2: The Ghettos

Visitors enter this area alongside a near life-size sculptural relief entitled Walking into the Ghetto. The large-scale photographic images exhibited in a dimly lit space reinforce the enclosed nature of life in the ghettos. Highlights include a large illuminated map, showing a representation of the many ghettos in occupied Europe and excerpts from diaries kept in the ghettos of Warsaw, Vilna and Lodz.



German soldier shooting at a woman with a child in her arms 		Museum Mezzanine 3: Transportation to the Camps

Commences with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, when it became apparent that mass shootings were inefficient for the murder of millions of people. The decision to implement the Final Solution, utilising gas chambers in extermination centres, meant that Jews from all over Europe had to be transported by train to Poland. Highlights include objects exhumed from the Serniki grave in 1990 by a joint Australian-Soviet team and presented as evidence of atrocities at the War Crimes Trial in South Australia.



Women on their way to slave labour 		Museum Mezzanine 4: The Camps

This area documents the history and nature of concentration camps in Europe. Objects used in daily life by inmates, including clothing, identification tags, eating implements and the like, tell much of the story. Highlights of the area include a large interactive map showing major concentration camps, the death camps and the movements of the Einsatzgruppen or mobile killing squads.



General Dwight Eisenhower at the liberation of Ohrdruf camp 		Museum Mezzanine 5: Liberation and After

This exhibition space documents the aftermath of the war, including the liberation of the camps and the Nuremberg Trials. It tells the story of the establishment of the State of Israel and the arrival of many Holocaust survivors in Australia. The area incorporates confronting quotations and thought-provoking questions



Janusz Korczak and Raoul Wallenberg 		Museum Mezzanine 6: Reflection and Remembrance

Visitors are able to reflect upon their tour in this quiet area. Highlights include two monumental sculptures. The first is of Janusz Korczak, the physician and educator who ran an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto and shared the fate of his orphans in the gas chambers of Treblinka. The other is of Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg, who ran the gauntlet of the Nazi war machine in Budapest, saving thousands of Jews.



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