By: Nomi Kaltmann as seen in the Herald Sun

4 May 2025

Earlier this year, heavily pregnant with my fifth child in the summer heat of Melbourne, someone I know stopped me to chat. She wished me well, but before she left, she said, with a smile, “perhaps you will want one more kid, so you can have 6 kids for the 6 million who perished in the Holocaust.” I laughed, knowing she was poking fun at me in her good-natured way.

She, like me, and many Melbourne Jews, she is the direct descendant of a Holocaust survivor.

In Melbourne, the Holocaust is never far from the minds of Jewish people. With one of the world’s largest communities of Holocaust survivors who settled here after the second world war, so many people’s families have a direct connection. My grandfather, Joseph Kaltmann was the sole survivor of his family after his mother, father, brother and sister were all murdered by the Nazi’s.

In Australia, our Synagogues and our schools pay homage to our history as the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. The largest Jewish school is called Mount Scopus Memorial College, because it’s a living memorial to those who did not survive. Synagogues have murals dedicated to remembering the victims of the Holocaust. The newly refurbished Holocaust Museum in Melbourne tells the stories of so many who came here, wanting to start anew and rebuild their lives.

That Australia is one of the only places on earth that has a Holocaust Museum in every single Australian state and territory is no surprise to me.

So many of my relatives and friends are named after victims of the Holocaust. My dad, Max, is named after his grandfather, who was killed by the Nazis at 45 years of age.

When choosing names for my own children, my husband and I thought long and hard about who to name after from the family tree and some of our children bear the names of my relatives who died in the Holocaust.

Last week, as Israeli’s marked Yom Hashoah, the National Day of Mourning for Victims of the Holocaust, the mood in Melbourne was somber. The large number of survivors who settled here is dwindling, and any opportunity to hear their stories is precious.

I hope that Australians know that for Jewish people, remembering the Holocaust is not something we take lightly. The memories of those who were murdered lives on in our names, our stories, and the way we build our communities. In Melbourne, we carry this legacy , not as a burden, but as a commitment to remember, rebuild, and honour those who came before us.