Vasily Grossman was a Jewish Ukrainian writer who became a war correspondent for the Soviet army and encountered the Nazi death camps. His 1944 essay, The Hell of Treblinka, is a chilling account of the horrors of the Holocaust. Pointing to the industrialised evil of the Nazi regime, Grossman wrote:
“Treblinka was not an ordinary slaughterhouse, it was run on the conveyor system copied from modern large-scale industry.”
Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember the six million Jews whose lives were exterminated by the Nazis in an act so calculated and cruel it constitutes one of the most monstrous crimes in human history. The weight of history will be especially felt by survivors and their families this International Holocaust Remembrance Day with 2025 marking the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In the magnitude of anti-Semitism which is plaguing Western democracies today – including Australia – many citizens who have read about the history and horrors of the Holocaust have, for the first time, grasped how that catastrophe eventuated. They have seen, with their own eyes, a type of hate that, if left unchecked, unleashes greater evils.
The lessons of history serve as a shield of knowledge which helps to deflect anti-Semitism. And that’s why a Dutton Coalition Government will provide $19 million to Australian Holocaust museums to support their expansion and to commemorate the victims of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. This funding is inclusive of $8.5 million for the Sydney Jewish Museum, $3.5 million for Queensland Holocaust Museum, $2 million for the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia’s Education Centre, and $5 million for specific October 7 commemorations and exhibits more generally. A Coalition Government under my leadership is eager to see every schoolchild visit a Holocaust museum as one measure to eliminate the anti-Semitic rot afflicting our country.
Today, may we heed the warning words that Vasily Grossman penned more than eight decades ago:
“We must remember that racism, fascism will emerge from this war not only with bitter recollections of defeat but also with sweet memories of the ease with which it is possible to slaughter millions of defenceless people. This must be solemnly borne in mind by all who value honour, liberty and the life of all nations, of all mankind.”
27 January 2025