Former Wollongong councillor, Michael Samaras, has been honoured with a bronze Kristallnacht-themed medallion by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Sydney Jewish Museum.
Mr Samaras was presented with the award at the annual commemoration event of Kristallnacht – the anti-Jewish pogrom by the Nazis on November 9, 1938.
The medallion from the Israeli Mint was awarded to Mr Samaras for his work in ensuring the horrors of the Shoah, the Jewish Genocide, are never forgotten.
Mr Samaras is the grandson of survivors of the Greek Genocide. His paternal grandparents were from the Kars district of north-eastern Anatolia, settling in the Kozani area of western Macedonia.
The Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia has congratulated Mr Samaras on his recognition in a press release.
“As the descendants of genocide survivors, our Federation congratulates Michael Samaras on his efforts and support of justice for another community which has experienced genocide,” the press release read.
Mr Samaras spent nearly four years to April 2022 investigating the cloudy past of an instrumental benefactor to Wollongong Art Gallery, uncovering that Lithuanian-born Bronius ‘Bob’ Sredersas was a Nazi collaborator.
Read the article in The Greek Herald.