Inconvenient Memories

From a letter to the Australian Jewish News (30/1/15) by Helen Leperere, Rose Bay, NSW:

"The liberation of the camps was a bitter-sweet pill for us to follow. The tragic impact of the 6-year war hit us all with its might. We were homeless orphans. No families, no homes to return to. Surely our Jewish world will embrace us and help us to come back to life, we thought.

"How very naive we were. Australian Jewry did not lift a finger to help us. We were mocked and belittled and told that it was not too easy here either, there was a shortage of herrings! A certain Jewish lady, a third generation Australian, told me how angry they were with one of their cousins, because she married out. She married a non-Jewish man? I asked. No... she married one of your mob, a man with a funny British accent. That 'funny English accent' was very much welcomed by the family after it brought the first million dollars.

"With great pride we were told how the local Jews entertained the American Jewish soldiers who were stationed here during the war. How they frequently invited them for Shabbat dinners. I do not know of any of us who were invited to Shabbat dinner by the local Jews. American Jewry extended the same cold shoulder to their newly-arrived survivors.

"The scenario that took place in Israel/Palestine then was even more painful. Friends told me that they had to hide the numbers tattooed on their arms. They were constantly told that they went like sheep to the slaughter without defending themselves. Never mind the uprisings in Warsaw, Sobibor or the partisans.

"Their opinions changed only after the trial of Eichmann. Then they understood."