Abram Goldberg’s massive century
Abram Goldberg OAM is celebrating his 100th birthday this month.
Abram Goldberg
He is an inspiration to many. He is a very special individual, a Holocaust Survivor, a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Abram was the youngest of three children, having two sisters. He was forced into Lodz Ghetto in 1940 and lost most of his family, including his father, during the deportation to the Chelmo death camp in 1942.
Abram’s mother was sent to the gas chambers on arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, after surviving two years in the Lodz Ghetto with Abram. He remembers and lives his mother’s last words to him, “Abram, you should do everything humanly possible to survive. When you will survive, wherever you will be, wherever you should find yourself, you should tell people what was happening to us, and what was done to us.” He continues to fulfill his mother’s wishes.
He has been a volunteer and leader at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, carrying the torch of remembrance at the museum since he joined at its founding in 1984, forty years ago. He has been a frequent Survivor Guide and long-time board member. He continues to educate students and adults about the Holocaust, so it will never happen again.
He speaks about resistance, the deportations, destruction of the Lodz Ghetto, starvation, hiding from the Nazis, and the murder of his family and so many others, and his experience in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Abram is a witness to history, a witness of the worst of man’s inhumanity to man. He was born in Lodz, where about one third of the population were Jewish. Lodz had a vibrant Jewish community until the Nazi regime invaded Poland and destroyed it.
But he says, “We all should remember that we all belong to the same human race… What hurts one human being, hurts also another. You should always respect other people [that] are different from yourself.”
Like his father, he is a Bundist and continues to have a strong commitment to the Bundist movement.
When Abram was liberated by the US Army in 1945, he weighed a paltry 29kg. He and a friend had buried records in the ghetto, and when freed they went back to the ghetto and dug up the records, some of which are held in the museum today.
After liberation, he met his lovely wife Cesia in Belgium, and they emigrated to Australia in the 1950s and had their children Charlie and Helen.
His motto is, “Not every day will be a sunny day. There will be overcast days, but the sun will shine again.”
If you have an opportunity to hear Abram speak about his experiences and his philosophy of life, do not miss it.
