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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/28/auschwitz-anniversary-antisemitism-australia-great-grandparents-jews>
"My father has a photograph of Albert Ransenberg taken in the yard of the
railway station in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1942. It was secretly taken by a
local policeman.
The photograph shows Jews from Wiesbaden being deported to the “east”.
Albert Ransenberg died in Theresienstadt, a ghetto and transit camp. His wife,
Ida, was murdered at Auschwitz, on 13 October 1942, just six weeks later.
Albert and Ida were my father’s grandparents. My great-grandparents.
They were two of the 6 million Jews who were victims of the Holocaust. One
million of them, including Ida, were murdered at Auschwitz.
My other German great-grandmother, Paula Dreyfus, took poison on the night of
18 July 1942, just days after she was told of her imminent deportation.
On Monday, as attorney general of Australia, and the great-grandson of Ida,
Albert and Paula, I attended a commemoration at Auschwitz marking the 80th
anniversary of its liberation.
In the shadow of the main gate at Auschwitz, survivors remembered the horrors
of the camp and reflected on the lives they have lived since their liberation.
As Holocaust survivors grow ever fewer in number, the memory of history’s
greatest evil will dwindle without careful tending."
As I have mentioned before, my grandfather was also deported from Austria and
murdered by the Nazis. And let us always remember that it was not only Jews,
but also Romani, LGBTQI+ people and others who were persecuted and murdered. We
all have an obligation to stand firm against the othering and dehumanisation
that leads us back down that same dark path.
RIP,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
