Holocaust survivor’s Australian story wins major literary award

19.05.08

Jacob Rosenberg is congratulated by Frank Sartor, NSW Minister for the Arts

A book which retells in detail the personal story of the pain and joy of a holocaust survivor has won the Community Relations Commission Award at the Premier’s Literary Awards in Sydney tonight.

The annual award has gone to Mr Jacob G. Rosenberg for his work Sunrise West, which is described as being both a harrowing account of life in Nazi concentration camps and “an uplifting narrative about migration, where the difficult journey to rebuild, survive and even flourish is put into stark perspective”.

Congratulating Mr Rosenberg, the Chair of the CRC, Stepan Kerkyasharian said: “He has created a literary masterwork, yet at the same time he is telling us in simple terms a great deal about who we are. This is a wonderful reminder that Australia is one of the great homes to people who crossed the world seeking freedom and opportunity.

Jacob Rosenberg addresses the audience at the Premier’s Literary Awards Dinner at the Art Gallery of NSW

“This work reflects the joyous hope that refugees bring to Australia. The more horrible their previous life experience, the greater their hope that Australia will offer an opportunity for a life of peace and harmony.

“According to the judges, part of the work’s power is in the way it sheds light on the experience of Jewish migrants who arrived in Australia with ‘hope on their lips and doubt in their hearts … to restore the irrestorable, to repair the irreparable.

“Unfortunately we too easily forget the contribution which that great spirit of hope has made to the development of our national character.  So many of those people we like to call great Australians, people we now cherish and revere as national treasures, were once just like today’s refugees from Iraq or Sudan, who stretched out a hand to Australia and were welcomed.

“It is timely because it comes as we see a new Federal Government committed to reforming the sad treatment meted out to refugees and asylum seekers over the past decade which flies in the face of the great Australian tradition of a fair go for the downtrodden and desperate.

“Because Mr Rosenberg’s story is a long one, we also learn clearly of the experiences of some of our first refugees – those that escaped the horrors of Europe in the late forties and early fifties.  They came to an Australia very different from today, but one which was generous and welcoming to those seeking help.

“These stories must be told, because they are the stories of the Australian people and everyone’s story is part of that mosaic.

“The Community Relations Commission, through this annual award, encourages people of all backgrounds and experiences to write down their stories so that our national history is well rounded and complete”, Mr Kerkyasharian said.