1944 - present

Ruth Leiser was born in Volna, Poland, now part of Lithuania, in 1935. From 1941 to 1944, under German domination and the extermination of the Jews, Ruth and her family hid underground for three years in silence and darkness. After the Russian liberation of Poland, anti-Jewish violence continued across Europe so her parents decided overnight. "It's time to run". Somebody said to Ruth’s parents "You know Australia?" Her father said, "Australia? I have to have a look on the map." Ruth, her brother and parents arrived in Australia on 31 March 1951.

There were a total of 27,000 Holocaust survivors in Australia who arrived between 1945-1961. Australia has been the refuge for more Holocaust survivors per capita than any other country, apart from Israel. The Close Relatives Reunion Scheme after WWII allowed Holocaust survivors to enter on the basis of having family that already resided within Australia. In Ruth’s families case, they had no family but were given a contact name of someone in Australia who could get them papers.

“Bondi was the best place for me, and my parents too. They used to go down to Bondi Beach, sit on the grass - beautiful. That is something that was so beautiful that we thought it would never, ever happen during the war, that we'd never ever have such a life.”

Ruth is part of a group in Sydney called Child Survivors. “There is no-one there under 70, mostly early 80s or thereabouts but they were children in the wartime and we have a mailing list of about 100 people. We reached an older age, had we died as children, we wouldn't be here”.

As part of a Project Heritage run by Jewish Board of Education, Ruth has contributed to the book - The Words To Remember it – Memoirs of Child Holocaust Survivors, and continues to share these stories across schools in the Eastern Suburbs.

Courtesy Eat, Pray, Naches.