TODAY 100-year-old Holocaust survivor Bert Klug was present as the Queensland government announced that a Holocaust Museum and Education Centre is to open in the grounds of Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral Precinct.
The centre will open in early 2023 with the aim of educating Queenslanders about the Holocaust and remembering its horrendous legacy.
“Those events are deeply ingrained in my memory and I have never forgotten them,” Dr Klug said of the genocide of European Jews during World War II.
He grew up in present-day Slovania and survived Nazi persecution, including two years in a concentration camp.
Dr Klug migrated to Brisbane in 1948 and studied medicine.
He was a guest of honour at parliament house in Brisbane as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the Queensland Holocaust Museum and Education Centre will to be housed for the next two years in the Cathedral Precinct’s Old Archives Building at Penola Place in Charlotte and Edward Streets.
The project is being set up through state government funding of $3.5 million, matched by an Australian Government commitment of $3.5 million and a Brisbane City Council pledge of $500,000.
Ms Palszczuk said the investment marked a significant milestone in the state’s cultural history.
“Our vision of a society where everyone, regardless of culture, language or faith, is supported to connect, contribute and belong,” she said.
Read the article by Mark Bowling in The Catholic Leader.