Mr Max Zilberman
It was a pleasant surprise when I was asked to speak about Mrs. Mina Fink; I felt it was an honour and a privilege.
In order for you to understand the connection between Mrs. Fink, and myself I have to go back in time and place to the end of World War II in Germany, where in April 1945 I was liberated in Concentration Camp Buchenwald.
It is not my intention to talk now about camps, I am sure you know a lot about it. Sufficient to say that I was one of the lucky few who have survived even though like many others, I looked like a skeleton. In the first couple of months many of us were at a loose end not knowing what to do or where to go, but one thing we were sure that we did not want to go back to our countries of origin like Poland, Hungary, and Romania where most of us came from.
Then we heard that the representatives of French Red Cross had arrived wanting to take children to France, well most of us were between the ages of 16 to 20 years old, not many younger than that survived. There were many applicants wanting to go, they couldn't take all so they promised that in approximately two weeks they'll be back to take more.
I don't think they did, but in the meantime the representative of Swiss Red Cross also arrived looking for children to take to Switzerland and I was among the lucky ones of few hundreds who got to Switzerland in June 1945. We lived there approximately three years going to schools, learning trades or working, but all along we knew that this was only a temporary stay for many of us who did not have families abroad. Many wanted to go to Israel, others like myself just wanted to leave Europe - away from all the bad memories and experiences we had there. So it was a very pleasant surprise when in 1948 we were offered the opportunity to migrate to Australia.
At that time I was living in Geneva and very little was known about Australia, However I managed to get hold of a Swiss edition of Readers Digest which had a long article about Australia, which was very positive. I and many others of my friends jumped at the chance to come here and finally in October 1948 in the port of Marseilles we boarded a French Ship 'Eridan' bound for Australia, gladly leaving the cursed continent of Europe that treated us so horribly.
After a journey of 60 days, very interesting but in terrible conditions, we arrived in Sydney where the first Jewish person we met was Mr. Abzac who represented the 'Jewish Welfare Society'. He welcomed us and told us who was staying in Sydney and who was going to Melbourne or Brisbane. I was allocated to Melbourne and we were going by train there. We arrived at Spencer Street Station on the morning of the 21st of January 1949 where a lady with a big smile on her face introduced herself to us as Mrs. Mina Fink. Other people from welfare Society were also there. We got in their cars and they took us to the Welfare Society home in Burke Road, Camberwell, where we met many of our friends who arrived few weeks earlier.
We stayed at this home for a while. Mrs. Fink was almost a daily visitor, talking to us, giving advice, always with a friendly smile, helping us to get jobs or find accommodation. We met a lot of people, even dances were organised for us where we met some local girls (I suspect that this might have been the idea behind it). On a personal level she invited some of us to visit her family in their holiday home in Frankston where we met for the first time her children Freda and Nathan. Her husband Leo we had met before, he was also actively involved in the work of Welfare Society. On another occasion they would take some of us for a drive to the country for Sunday lunch. Everything was done in such a friendly manner, we always felt at ease with her. We really liked her very much; we felt that her concern for us was genuine and that she really cared. She called us affectionately 'The Buchenwalder Boys' and our stay at the Welfare home was the start of our friendship with Mrs Fink that would last for years.
After a while as we started to move on by doing our individual things like working, studying, establishing own businesses. But as a group we still remained close friends because nothing brings people closer together than suffering and a common past. Then we slowly started to get married and naturally we always invited each other to the weddings. The other honored guests were always Mina and Leo Fink.
Any future occasions that we had they were always most welcome guests. As the years progressed our group, now called the 'EX-Buchenwald Group', became well established and we started to support many causes. The main one for us was naturally the Jewish Welfare Society as we felt that we had a moral obligation to support it. For many years we organised meetings and always the most honored guest was Mina Fink.
You should have seen her at any of those meetings! Big smile on her face, surrounded by many of us, wanting to know how we are doing, about our families, happy at good news, sad at bad. We really loved her, she was always proud of our achievements.
Later as the years passed and we all got older we stopped organising meetings, somehow we lost touch with Mina Fink. I met her a few times in the Botanical Gardens where she used to walk and always her first question was about her 'Buchenwald Boys'. We were greatly saddened when we heard that she passed away, as we felt that we lost a dearly loved friend whom we greatly admired and respected. We knew that she was an important member of our community who held a lot of high positions, but to us she was a fine human being.
Two years ago our group, now called 'The Children of Buchenwald', erected a monument at the Chedvah Kaddisha Cemetery in Browns Road, to honour members of our families who lost their lives during the Holocaust and whose final resting places are unknown. We all have individual plaques bearing the names of the members of our families. You might have seen it, it is next to the water fountain, in the shape of a chimney. We had many speakers including myself at the solemn unveiling ceremony and the only person that was mentioned and honored apart from our Families was Mina Fink. Freda and Nathan and members of your families, I hope that what I said here tonight brings a measure of comfort to you all, knowing how greatly she was loved and cherished by us. Thank you.