Holocaust Centre of NZ founding director Inge Woolf (QSO) recently gave the following speech at Havelock North’s annual ANZAC Day service:

Tena Kotou,Tena Kotou,Tena Kotou ,Katoa and Shalom.

Honoured guests, Ladies and gentlemen, children.

I am honoured to speak to you today as a Holocaust Survivor, a refugee and a child of war.

My earliest memories are as a three-year-old, seeing the Swastikas come out in Vienna where I was born, to welcome Hitler’s Army. As a young Jewish child I was afraid. Very afraid, so much so that as I speak of it, and every time I speak of it, my stomach tightens up and my skin goes clammy.

I was lucky my father understood what was happening and managed to bring us to England and safety from certain death. In England we were refugees and survived the bombing in London. My father joined the Czech Brigade of Montgomery’s army and fought all through Europe until victory was declared in 1945. That brave, gentle man was never the same again and passed away a few years later. So when I speak of the evils of War, it is informed by personal experience

I am grateful to my grandchildren who readily came here to stand by my side. Not one of them would even be alive if Hitler’s racist and white supremacist policies had led to my murder as it did to the murder of one and a half million other children who were systematically and cynically killed in the most industrialised state sponsored genocide the world has ever known

They are here to remind us all of the young men and women who served their country and paid the price. As we look at them we are reminded of how young they all were. Pretty much the same age as my grandchildren who range from 28 down.

Nathan my eldest grandson lives overseas. Otherwise, I know he would be here too. But Jason, Sam, Noah and Lily Jane stand here before you at the brink of their lives ­- study, careers, marriage and children all stretching out before them as it did for the young people we remember and honour today.

This is not the first such occasion they have attended with me. All through their lives they have accompanied me to lay wreaths at Anzac Day and take part in Holocaust Remembrance Ceremonies.

I am so proud of them. They and their parents are always there for me and support the work I do through the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand to remember the evils of war, racism, intolerance and now since 15th March, terrorism.

They also came to remember those family members, great grandparents, a great aunt and a great uncle who came before them and were cruelly taken by such an evil war, some from Europe and two of New Zealand origin.……

First let me introduce Jason, a science graduate and a sports promoter. He serves in the Territorial Army.

He will say the names of his Viennese great grandparents. One, an upright and entrepreneurial citizen, brutally beaten up by the Nazis causing him to have a heart attack, from which he died. The other, a good mother of five children, drowned in a rickety overcrowded boat trying to reach safety in her Promised Land, Israel.

Jason: “David and Rosalia Stiassny”

Then there is Sam, in his last year studying law. He will say the names of his Slovakian great grandparents and great aunt who were murdered in the death camp of Sobibor and the notorious concentration camp of Auschwitz.

Sam: “Adolf Ponger, his wife Carlotta …and their daughter Ruzenka”

Next comes Noah, waiting for a place in the airforce where he hopes to train as a pilot.

He remembers his New Zealand great grandfather, who was recruited into the New Zealand Army in April 1942, aged 28. He left behind a young family, a son Noel who was two and a daughter Myra who was 6. He was trained as a mechanic but was transferred to the infantry to cover for losses in that area and served in Egypt and Italy. He was killed in action 2nd August 1944 aged 30. He is buried in a military cemetery outside of Florence. His son, Noel barely remembers him.

Noah: “Alan Hall”

Lily Jane is a student, who loves to sing and act and who has yet to decide on her path in life. She remembers her great uncle who was listed as “missing in action” in July 1944.

Lily Jane: “Ron Beazer”

As you see my family has personal experience of war and the cruel and senseless loss of life of good people.

Alas, at the moment the world is not in a good place. Once again, we are facing an increase in extremism, mouthing the politics of separatism and hate, leading to anti-Semitism, islamaphobia and racism in general in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in South America, in the USA and, unbelievably, even here in Christchurch.

At the Holocaust Centre we teach young people especially, the lessons of the Holocaust and of how hate speech leads to hate action and racism leads to the greater evils of genocide and war. We ask everyone to be an upstander and fight against intolerance wherever we find it be it in the playground, on the sportsfield, in the political arena or in religious places of worship and especially on Social Media.

Let us follow the example of our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and call for kindness and respect for the human rights of others in our country of New Zealand of which we are so proud.

Finally, let us again look at my grandchildren and this time think of those young people who at roughly the same age as they are, would be the ones we rely on who would be called to fight another war. Let us vow to do all in our power to prevent this happening again ever as we stand up for a better world and an inclusive society.

Let us Remember!