GA039 | Australian & International Art

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Mirka Mora’s joyousness in the face of personal trauma
endeared her forever in the hearts of Melbournians. Her
childhood was a dichotomy of events, from early memories
of wistful summers in the south of France to living and
surviving the Holocaust.
Her family was living on Rue de Crimée in Paris in the
1930s and the depression was taking its toll on the young
Jewish family with three girls. From the age of four, Mirka
would spend weekends and holidays under the charitable
governance of their neighbour Paulette. When Paulette
had to work, her stepmother Nouzette would watch over
Mirka in her charming country home in the south of France.
Nouzette, who was a devout Christian, would secretly teach
young Mirka prayers and take her to Church on the weekend
despite her parents’ Jewish heritage. ‘At night I slept in
Nouzette’s big wooden bed, a large print of the Virgin Mary
and the one of Christ with the crown of thorns over his
forehead.’ 1 These formative years in the French countryside
made a lasting impression on Mirka; listening to Jules
Massenet arias, singing, dancing, the smell of lavender in
every room, collecting hazelnuts along the roadside, reading
books in the large library with beautiful Épinal prints in classic