Sydney - Day 4

27 Nov 2006, Monday - Time to go home....


On our last day in Sydney, we were too tired to wake up for breakfast and overslept till 9.30am! We were supposed to check out by 10am!


Hurriedly, we packed our stuff into our suitcases and went downstairs to return the room. Fortunately, we weren't imposed any extra charges and were even allowed to keep our suit cases with the hotel until we collect them later in the day.


We had breakfast at a cafe at the Central Train Station and proceed on our way to Kings Cross.

As there was a two for 1 offer, we paid $10 for our entrances to the Sydney Jewish Museum.


















We were introduced to Jewish origins, cultures and beliefs and of course, their history - the most horendous being The Holocaust in WWII.


The exhibition on The Holocaust exposes the Nazi's plan for systematic annihilation of European Jewry, starting with Hitler's rise to power, continuing through ghettos and concentration camps and ending finally with the liberation and the ensuing pursuit of justice.


In 1990, Australia was involved in the Australian Nazi War Crime investigation and had such ordered a mass grave in Serniki to be excavated to reveal the archaeological and forensic evidence of this heinous crime.


Serniki, located in the north west corner of the Ukraine, in the heart of Polesie, had a population of 3,000 of which half of them are Orthodox Jews. Nazi Germany launched a war of destruction against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. By the summer of 1942 efforts were being made to declare Polesie Judefrei (free of Jews). In a radius of 75kms around Serniki, a wave of Judenaktionen (actions against Jews) wiped out all rural and urban communities.


The Jews of Serniki were murdered in one day in early September 1942. They were rounded up and rbought to a pit 40m long and 5m wide on the outskirts of the village. They were foreced to lie face down on the floor of the pit, while marksmen at the edge of thepit targeted the heads of the victims. Other victims were clubbed to death. A number of Jews escaped the slaughter by fleeing into the forests. Those who were later found were shot. Altogether, about 850 men, women and children were massacred.


A team from Australia's Special Investigations Unit, assistedby Ukrainian officials and soldiers, undertook the task of "Unearthing the Holocaust". Villagers pointed out the location of the killing field, which had remained undisturbed under a pine forest planted in the early 1960s.

As with any war, the children suffers the most. It was reported that a total of 1.5 million Jewish children perished in the war. The museum had a section to commemorate these innocent victims. There were also some exhibits of their belongings such as miniature teacup and saucer, letters written by children to family, toy car, leather school satchel and activity book.

But one question remains. Why are Jews targeted since the beginning of time? What have they done as a community that makes other people hate them to the core so much so that they are willing to exterminate them?

Esmond read Mien Kampf (Hitler: My Struggle) by Aldof Hitler stated that since Germany's lost in WWI, they as a nation have been forced to pay "war tax" to the Allies and were under the suppression of Austria. The Jewish communities were very successful but yet were selfish and operates vice business. The "unfair life" lead by Jewish and the common Germans made him lead his people to revolt. As time goes on, it became a personal vendetta for Hitler to exterminate the Jewish community and establish the superior European community of the Aryan race. He had the most twisted perversion that Jews are inferior and does not have the right to live and "contaminate" the world. Based on some demographics (such as the height of the nose bridge, facial features and circumcision for boys), he started to "weed" out the Jews. The rest as they say, is history....

A coin has two faces. In the same regard, every story / history has two sides. What would the Nazi musuem say about Jews then? Would it showcase Jewish "atrocities" and selfish acts? Would it justify their war against them and others? It'll be interesting to know....

Another intriguing fact is that no matter how many failures or how much torture or hardship that the Jews were put through, they were able to pull themselves together and be successful again. They are rich and successful in society. Are they truly born with superior intellect?

We didn't really have a lot of time so we hurriedly went through the exhibits and didn't have the time to watch / listen to people narrating their personal encounters during the war.


We had to give up our plans to visit Manly (another beach in Sydney) as we were running out of time (it was close to 3pm). So, we made our way back to our favourite restaurant (you guessed it... BBQ King) and had our late lunch. We even bought a whole roast duck back to Brisbane! (which was subsequently shared with friends over dinner the next evening).



Complimentary soup! .... yummy....









































After lunch, we walked back to the hotel to collect our luggage and made our way back to the airport. On our way back, we found the Hills bus. What's so special about Hills bus? Well, they are part of ComfortDelgro - good old ComfortDelgro from SG.... The link between AU and SG is "thicker" than ever... Hills bus, Optus... what next? Qantas? (better not... otherwise that'll be the end of cheapest airfare to AU from SG)




















Thinking that it'd be best to avoid the traffic on the road, we took the train to the airport. However, the train was packed like sardines! For a moment, it was like back in SG again!

We found that people in big cities loose their "courtesy" and common sense. They do not move further into the train, preferring to jam up the doors, there's no greetings or smiles and they were even stunned when you greet them with the common Brissie greeting of "Hi, how are you?". They just look at you - stunned.... like you are an alien and they don't understand your language...


After a half hour delay, our plane finally took off and made its way back to the Sunshine State. We arrived in Coolangatta and drove for an hour to reach home.

It was nice to visit Sydney again. It brought back memories of our first visit and we noted the various changes in 4 years. But we still like Brisbane....