Location | 33 Wakefield St, Adelaide, Australia |
---|---|
Type | History museum and education centre |
Director | Kathy Baykitch |
Website | ahmsec |
The Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Andrew Steiner Education Centre (AHMSEC) is a museum housed in the historic Fennescey House at 33 Wakefield Street, in Adelaide city centre, just east of Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga.
Fennescey House belongs to the Catholic Church, and is located on the grounds of St Francis Xavier's Cathedral. [1] The education centre is named after Andrew Steiner OAM , an Adelaide Holocaust survivor and sculptor who had been providing education about the Holocaust to school students for the previous 30 years. [2] He had driven the project, which was largely funded with donations from Gandel Philanthropy. Students of architecture from the University of South Australia were involved in the design of the museum, and the project team for its creation worked closely with the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne. [3] One of Steiner's sculptures, a figure of Polish teacher hero of the Holocaust Janusz Korczak, is a centrepiece of the museum. [2]
The aim of the museum and its education program is to educate people, especially young people, about the history of the Holocaust, [2] to "critically reflect on its themes and their relevance in contemporary society", [4] and to combat antisemitism and racism. [2]
The museum was officially launched on 9 November 2020, the date significantly chosen to commemorate Kristallnacht, when in 1938 German Nazis burnt down synagogues, vandalised homes, schools and businesses belonging to Jews, and killed nearly 100 people, marking the start of the Holocaust. [1] The museum opened its doors to the public a week later, on 17 November 2020. [5]
The museum comprises four galleries: [1]
Shortly before its opening, the federal government announced A$2.5 million of funding for further development of the museum. [2]
After a group of neo-Nazis had posted photographs of themselves giving fascist salutes outside the museum premises on social media, Minister for Multicultural Affairs Zoe Bettison said that there would be a Parliamentary inquiry into "neo-Nazi symbols, the activities of extremist groups, discrimination faced by targeted groups and the prohibition on symbols in other states". [7]
The heritage-listed Fennescey House was designed by architect Harrold Herbert (Herbert) Jory (20 March 1888 – 16 May 1966) in the Gothic Revival style, and built around 1940 as an education office for the Catholic Church. The building's name derives from its patrons, Mary and John Fennescey, who donated £20,000 towards its construction. [8] The building is on the South Australian Heritage Register and is listed by the National Trust of South Australia (NTSA). [9]
The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australia with approximately 37,000 students.
A Holocaust memorial day or Holocaust remembrance day is an annual observance to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews and of millions of other Holocaust victims by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Many countries, primarily in Europe, have designated national dates of commemoration. In 2005, the United Nations instituted an international observance, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Adelaide Institute was a Holocaust denial group in Australia and is considered to be antisemitic by the Australian Human Rights Commission and others. The Adelaide Institute was formed in 1995 from the former Truth Mission that was established in 1994 by Fredrick Töben, later a convicted Holocaust denier. Töben directed the Institute until his incarceration in 2009 in South Australia for contempt of court. Peter Hartung assumed the role of director of the Adelaide Institute. On assuming the role from Töben, Hartung defied the Federal Court by publishing the revisionist material that led to Töben's three months jail time. In June 2009, the Adelaide Institute was linked with an American white supremacist, James von Brunn, charged with killing a security guard in Washington's Holocaust Museum.
Herberts Cukurs was a Latvian aviator and deputy commander of the Arajs Kommando, which was involved in the mass murder of Latvian Jews as part of the Holocaust. Although Cukurs never stood trial, multiple eyewitness accounts credibly link him to war crimes. He was assassinated by operatives of the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) in 1965. The Mossad agent "Künzle", who killed Cukurs, and the journalist Gad Shimron wrote a book, The Execution of the Hangman of Riga in which they called Cukurs the "Butcher of Riga," and the term was later picked up by several sources.
Edinburgh is an outer northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Salisbury. The suburb was created in 1997, on land straddling Penfield and Salisbury, that was compulsorily acquired by the Commonwealth Government in 1940 in order to manufacture munitions for the war effort during World War II, and later used for a number of defence-related establishments.
The term Holocaust museum may refer to:
The Jewish Museum of Australia, not to be confused with the Sydney Jewish Museum, aims to "explore and share the Jewish experience in Australia". It is located in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne.
St Francis Xavier's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Adelaide, South Australia. It is classified as being a Gothic Revival building in the Early English style. The tower stands 36 m high and is 56.5 m lengthwise and 29.5 m horizontally. The foundation stone was laid in 1856 and the building was opened in 1858. The construction of the tower began in 1887. However, it was not completed until 1996.
Penfield 3 railway station was located on the Penfield line 25.8 kilometres from Adelaide station in the northern Adelaide suburb which is now called Edinburgh. It was built to service the Salisbury Explosives Factory, built between November 1940 and November 1941.
Harry Pelling Gill, commonly referred to as H. P. Gill or Harry P. Gill, was an English-born Australian art curator, teacher and painter, who lived in Adelaide, South Australia for much of his life.
Skokie is a 1981 television film directed by Herbert Wise, based on the real life NSPA Controversy of Skokie, Illinois, which involved the National Socialist Party of America. This controversy would be fought in court and reach the level of the United States Supreme Court in National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie.
The Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, usually referred to as Tandanya, is an art museum located on Grenfell Street in Adelaide, South Australia. It specialises in promoting Indigenous Australian art, including visual art, music and storytelling. It is the oldest Aboriginal-owned and -run cultural centre in Australia.
Franz Moishe Kempf was an Australian artist who worked in Australia and Europe. He was a lecturer in printmaking at the University of Adelaide.
Walter Hervey Bagot was a South Australian architect. He was one of the last great proponents of the traditional school of South Australian architecture. He founded Woods & Bagot in 1905.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is a museum located in Skokie, Illinois, near Chicago.
Wakefield Street is a main thoroughfare intersecting the centre of the South Australian capital, Adelaide from east to west.
The Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre began as Africa's first Holocaust centre founded in 1999. The Centre works towards creating a more caring and just society in which human rights and diversity are respected and valued. Through exhibitions, events and workshops, they endeavour to commemorate the victims and survivors of the Nazi regime and the numerous genocides that happened before and since the Holocaust.
John Neylon is a South Australian arts writer and arts educator as well as being an art critic, curator, painter, and printmaker. He is an art critic for The Adelaide Review, an author for Wakefield Press, and a lecturer in art history at Adelaide Central School of Art.
Harrold Herbert Jory, known as Herbert Jory, was a South Australian architect. He was a partner in the leading firm of Woods, Bagot & Jory from 1913, which became Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne Smith from 1915 to 1930, before establishing his own practice, H. H. Jory. Between 1930 and 1940 he partnered with T.A. McAdam, in Jory and McAdam.