Unexpected Alliances

The war had not only destroyed communities and families but it had also brought about alliances that would have been unlikely , if not impossible, before the Second World War. Hitler had made one thing very clear: irrespective of whether one was secular, religious or even a Jew who had converted to Christianity, THEY WERE JEWS. All suffered the same.

We, Paul and I, are the children of a match that would never have occurred had the Holocaust not happened.

Although they were originally from the same town in Poland, Drohobycz, our parents would have had little else in common.

Our mother, Regina, came from an important religious dynasty. Her father was the Chusan of the Choral Synagogue in Drohobycz, which served as the Main Synagogue of Galicia under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Other family members going back many generations had been important Rabbis. During the war the Nazis had used the Synagogue as Horse Stables, and then the Soviets converted and used it as a warehouse. More recently our legacy has been restored. The Synagogue has been returned to the Jewish Community and has been renovated .

Our father, Oswald, was ideologically and lived his life as a Communist. As a young child he and his parents moved to Antwerp, Belgium, and then as a 15 year old young man, with Communist ideals, he ran away and enlisted, lying about his age, to fight against the Spanish Dictator, Franco. That adventure led him to be imprisoned and later released by members of the French resistance. Some time afterwards he joined and fought in a tank squadron which was ambushed and in which he was seriously injured. Consequently, he spent six months in a hospital and out of battle. The time in hospital may have saved his life.

We don't know how they both ended up in the displaced persons camp in Cremona, Italy, but we do know that they met there and after three months, married in the camp. Our mother's father would most likely never have approved of Oswald as a prospective husband, but Regina was impressed by our father's knowledge of politics and his sense of humour, and she was of age, tired, and maybe wanted to increase the size of her family which for several years had only been she and her youngest sister, Eva. The only two survivors of their large family.

We, Paul and I, grew up in Melbourne, Australia, a long way from Europe. Regina as a Zionist had always wanted to go to Palestine straight from the DP Camp but that was not to be. The first offer of acceptance to settle in a free country willing to accept stateless Jews came from Australia. The three of them, Oswald, Regina and Eva, came to Australia when they received sponsorship to Melbourne from a man who had known the Chusan from the Choral Synagogue and his children, Regina and Eva. He had brought them to safety and a new life.

Though it seems like my parents had fundamentally different starting points, the establishment of a new family

centre in a new country became a purpose they could both align with. Our mother remained a Zionist though not as staunch as she had been, nor followed all religious beliefs that she may have had earlier on. And our father also softened his ways. He became a Socialist.