Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (20:35): (2244) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Education, and the action that I seek from the minister is an update on how Holocaust studies are being integrated into the Victorian school curriculum. 27 January is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. That day now marks 81 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945. On that day I had the honour and privilege of attending a commemoration service at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, joined by many of my Labor colleagues from the state and federal parliaments.

It was a lovely service, a lovely ceremony. We heard from Holocaust survivor Joe Szwarcberg, who lives in Melbourne. Every week he tells his story to young Victorian school students who come to the Holocaust museum to learn about the horrors of the past. Joe was born in Poland in 1930. He was nine years old when the Germans invaded Poland. He went through a series of labour and concentration camps before being liberated in April 1945. He emigrated to Australia a few years after, and until the age of 83 he operated a shoe shop on Centre Road in Bentleigh, just up from my electorate office. He spoke on the night with his daughter and granddaughter about Holocaust remembrance that bridges the generations. It was very interesting to hear both his daughter’s and his granddaughter’s reflections on their experience in learning that their father and grandfather was a Holocaust survivor and when they knew. Joe’s daughter did not find out until quite later in her life because that was not something that was spoken about much then, but his granddaughter learned at a much younger age about the truth of what her grandfather had endured, reflecting, I think hopefully, a greater acceptance and understanding, particularly in today’s communities, about what happened during the Holocaust and a willingness for people like Joe to talk about it.

We know that the Holocaust is history’s most sickening example of where hate ends. We know that the Holocaust itself began with words. It began with a systematic dehumanisation of Jews, and we cannot allow those sorts of words to be part of the public discourse today. The reflections that we had in this chamber and in the other chamber today speak much to the best of what this Parliament can be. Holocaust remembrance and Holocaust education is something that is incredibly important. It is important that it is part of the Victorian school curriculum. We are very fortunate to have so many Holocaust survivors here in Melbourne, and the Holocaust museum is a great monument to them.