Raoul Wallenberg becomes Australia's first honorary citizen

OBITUARY
Avram Zeleznikow:
partisan, community activist
and restaurateur
John Zeleznikow
Avram Zeleznikow, a partisan of the Vilna Ghetto,
who fought heroically with the Jewish partisans in
the forests of Rudniki and was a pioneer of Holocaust
commemoration and education in Melbourne, passed
away peacefully at the age of 89, on 8 June 2013. His
life was dedicated to fighting the twin evils of fascism
and bolshevism, commemorating those who died in
the Holocaust and providing physical and emotional
nourishment not only for the Jewish community, but more
widely.
Avram was born in Vilna (then Poland, now Lithuania) on
25 May 1924 to Yankl and Etta (née Stock) Zeleznikow.
While Yankl engaged in political activities and was
elected to the Vilna Jewish Council, Etta ran an
orphanage. Following the German invasion of Poland and
the outbreak of war, Vilna
was seized by the Soviet
Union on 19 September
1939. Yankl, a devout anticommunist,
was taken
captive, never to be seen
again.
When the Germans
launched Operation
Barbarossa against the
Soviet Union in June 1941,
Vilna fell quickly and on 6
September 1941 the Vilna
ghetto was created.
By January 1942, the
mass killing of Jews
was beyond doubt, and
representatives of the major
youth groups in the ghetto
formed an underground fighting organisation called
Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO) (United Partisan
Organisation). The FPO members acted as underground
couriers, forged documents, planned escape routes,
obtained weapons and offered weapons training. Avram
became chairman of the youth club and an FPO group
commander.
In the event of the ghetto’s destruction, the FPO had
planned to move into battle and – supported by the
ghetto population – fight its way to the forest and
take along as many Jews as possible. However, on 1
September 1943, when the FPO mobilised its forces as
German SS troops entered the ghetto to round up Jews
for deportation, the ghetto’s population did not heed its
call to arms and the resistance was put down bloodily.
Avram Zeleznikow (left) at an Australian Union of Jewish Students
retreat Mt Macedon, 1972
Soon after, the Nazis liquidated the ghetto. Most
residents hoped to take their chances surviving in a
labour camp rather than risking almost certain death
in revolt. As the ghetto was surrounded, the only way
out was through the sewers. Fortunately, the leader of
Avram’s FPO group, Shloime Kaplinski, had been the
chief of the Vilna sanitation system and led his partisans
50 kilometres through the maze of sewers to the
Rudniki forest. Etta, her daughter Basia, son-in-law and
grandchild were murdered at Ponary.
Along with other Jewish partisan units in the Vilna
region, Avram and his colleagues created a partisan
division and performed many acts of sabotage as part of
the general (Soviet) partisan movement. Avram’s group
was named ‘Death to Fascism’ and was commanded
by Abba Kovner. The
Vilna region partisans
destroyed power and water
infrastructures, freed groups
of prisoners from the Kalais
labour camp, and blew
up some German military
trains. Later, FPO members
participated in the liberation
of Vilna by the Soviet army
in July 1944.
At war’s end, Avram needed
to create a new life. He fled
the Soviet Union, escaping
across the border to Poland.
He met his wife Masha at
the University of Lodz in
1946. As Poland was still
not a safe place for Jews,
Avram and Masha decided
to migrate to Australia. Arriving in Melbourne in 1951,
Avram did not know the language, had few work skills
apart from his professional training as a Yiddish teacher,
and was separated from most of his partisan friends who
were fighting for Jewish independence in Israel.
Masha and Avram opened the ‘Scheherazade’ café
and restaurant in Acland Street St Kilda in May 1958.
The Jewish community gravitated to the café. As
well as giving his family a secure source of income,
‘Scheherazade’ allowed Avram to mingle, as many of his
colleagues in Jewish communal organisations were also
valued customers. So too were the Holocaust survivors,
many of whom resided in sub-standard boarding houses
and saw ‘Scheherazade’ as a place of refuge – to meet
friends and soul-mates, reminisce about the past and to
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JHC Centre News