Olga Horak survived five concentration camps during the Holocaust before coming to Australia as an orphan. With anti-Semitism in schools growing, she fears history is repeating.
A Holocaust survivor who lived through five concentration camps before coming to Australia with the hope of a new life has revealed her own grandson was pulled out of an elite Sydney school after anti-Semitic bullying.
Almost 18 years later, the same school, Cranbrook in Bellevue Hill, has been embroiled in scandal after a spate of anti-Semitic bullying incidents were exposed by The Daily Telegraph.
Sydney Jewish Museum board member and Holocaust survivor Olga Horak said her then teenage grandson was bullied for being Jewish — and called “Jew boy” — and nothing was done after the family notified the headmaster.
Now, the Telegraph can reveal that more families have come forward with recent cases of anti-Semitism, with one parent revealing their child was also referred to as “Jew” instead of their name.
In chilling parallels to the holocaust, the parent said their child had also been called “Rich Jew” and greeted with Nazi salutes.
“What concerns me are the anti-Semitic tropes, the Hitler glorification. I don’t understand how the school could not have been aware of this? How they couldn’t see the Nazi salutes?” the parent said.
Read the article by Angira Bharadwaj in the Gold Coast Bulletin.