Photograph of Adam Perkal sitting at sewing machine
Object numberM2022/004:005
TitlePhotograph of Adam Perkal sitting at sewing machine
Creator Brendan McCarthy
DescriptionColour photograph of Adam Perkal working at an industrial sewing machine inside the Perkal Bros Surgical & Bespoke Bootmakers at Surry Hills, October 2010. This photograph was captured by Brendan McCarthy.
Adam (Isaak) (born 20 July 1921) and Morris (Mosche) Perkal (born 15 May 1919) were born in a small town called Mszczonów near Warsaw, Poland. Brothers in a family of eight children to Azrial and Esther, their early life was one of relative peace and simplicity. Raised in an Orthodox household, their parents owned a large haberdashery store catering for weddings and funerals, offering a range of merchandise to the town.
In 1939, Adam was present at the now famous ‘The Last Hour’ speech delivered by Vladimir Yevgenievich Jabotinsky. Adam witnessed a plea to Polish Jews to leave Poland and escape to Palestine. Planning to take this advice, Adam and Morris had arranged to make their way to Palestine illegally through Romania. However, war broke out and passage was made impossible.
On 1 September 1939, German bombers attacked Mszczonów. Three people were killed and many of the local Jewish community escaped to safety in the surrounding forest. The brothers relate that they were instructed by their parents to travel to Warsaw. Despite reservations about leaving their family behind, they walked all night.
During Germany’s invasion large sections of Warsaw were bombed. Although the brothers travelled for army recruitment, this plan was abandoned as the Germans occupied Warsaw. Adam and Morris’s eldest brother, Paul (Pinchas/Pinkus), had similarly travelled from Lodz for the army drive. The three bothers decided to return to Mszczonów. A few kilometres from home, a peasant woman from the town informed them that their mother and youngest brother, Myer, had been burned alive following the bombing of a synagogue during Yom Kippur. Azrail and two of his remaining children had fled the remnants of their burnt-out home to live with the brother’s older sister, Feiga Hoffman, in Grojec. They joined their family in Grojec. Paul stayed briefly before returning to his wife and child in Lodz. The family’s life was disrupted again with the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto at the end of 1940. On hearing of forced relocations, Adam and Morris attempted to escape by crossing into Soviet territory. They were unsuccessful. The brothers split, with Morris deciding to continue the journey into Soviet territory and Adam returning to family in Poland.
Travelling by train, Morris smuggled himself across the border. Following his escape, he initially went to Bialystok in Russian occupied Poland, however with the city experiencing significant overcrowding from the thousands of refugees crossing the border, he went on to settle in Slonim, Belarus. Here, Morris was taken in by an elderly couple with Communist sympathies. In 1942 after German forces had occupied the region, he obtained a free ticket to travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan as an evacuee, where he worked as a shoemaker in a collective farm near Bukhara. Due to his physical appearance, Morris was able to pass as Russian and he worked for the Russian Government making boots for the Red Army. After the Polish Government began to form a new resistance army, he tried to enlist but was rejected due to his Jewish identity. After this, he moved to Chelyabinsk in the Urals and stayed until the end of the war. Morris recalled receiving decent wages and was able to survive the war.
Returning to his family who were now in the Warsaw ghetto, Adam acquired false identification papers belonging to a school acquaintance, Marian Zelewski. With these papers, he claimed to be an Ethnic German living in Poland. He was also able to live outside the ghetto, coordinating a food smuggling operation and visiting his family regularly. In 1941 his sister, Tova, contracted typhus and later died. While visiting her, Adam also contracted the disease and remained within the ghetto for two weeks to recover. Fortunately, he remained undiscovered. To assist his family, he obtained false papers that allowed them to move to a smaller ghetto: Piotrków Trybunalski. His oldest sister, Feiga, remained in the Warsaw ghetto. In Piotrków Trybunalski ghetto, the Perkal family lived with Paul’s wife and son (Paul was in Lodz ghetto). Adam was able to continue his smuggling operations to support his family. By the end of 1941, Adam’s father pleaded for him to leave for Germany and save his own life. Reluctantly, he left Poland. This was the last time Adam saw his father, Feiga and her family, and Menachaim, his younger brother again.
Adam travelled to Breslau, Germany in early 1942, securing work at Henschel Werke factory. During this time, he spoke only German and continued to conceal his Jewish identity. Despite his efforts, he was recognised by a girl from his hometown and was blackmailed to retain his false identity. Believing the situation too risky, he bought a train ticket to Kassel and escaped, working at another factory at Henschel Werke.
In August or September of 1944, Adam along with all the residents living at his apartment block were arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Breitenau, a German political camp. Unbeknownst to Adam, a female acquaintance living in the building was an agent for British Intelligence agency MI5. He and the other occupants were held and questioned for over 56 days. During this time, Adam was ordered to work in the camp cleaning the Gestapo office. He used this time to collect cigarettes from ashtrays and would later sell them in exchange for food. He also masqueraded as a tailor, using the machine sewing skills he learned from his sister to work in the camp’s tailoring shop. He managed to conceal his identity throughout his incarceration and was never suspected as a Jew. Unable to be convicted and with only suspicion of involvement in political subversion, Adam was sent to Buchenwald for two days, he then spent four days in a Prague jail. Finally, he ended up in the 5th block at Mauthausen for two months, where he worked as a cleaner. His contact with the brutality directed towards the Jewish prisoners was limited and he was still largely unaware of what was happening to his people.
From Mauthausen, Adam was transferred to Melk in Austria and sent to work in a factory. By April 1945, the Russians had advanced their forces to Mauthausen and the Germans shifted the prisoners to another camp in Ebensee. As a political prisoner, he wore the red triangle on his uniform; it spared him from the fate of gypsy and Jewish captives. On the day of liberation, prisoners were being directed to an underground factory. Gestapo officers on the observation tower had been replaced by young boys with rifles and they whispered to prisoners that there were plans to blow them up with dynamite; all 35,000 of them, the prisoners refused to be relocated and remained in their barracks. On 6 May 1945, American tanks rolled into the camp to find the SS had deserted, leaving the prisoners to their fate. One of the officers to emerge from the tanks had an insignia of the Ten Commandments on his uniform, he was a chaplain. To this man and for the first time since the war began, Adam recounted his story and the truth of his Jewish identity. After proving his identity, the chaplain arranged for Adam’s transfer to a Displaced Person’s camp in Moderna, Italy.
In Moderna, Adam was approached by the Palestinian Jewish Brigade, but he chose to head to Rome. Not long after his arrival he collapsed in the street; he awoke to find himself in hospital undergoing treatment for malaria. Adam requested a transfer to a camp hospital in Cinecitta after nuns treating him tried to convert him. During this two week stay he was approached to volunteer in a movie production about Italian partisans during the war. His Aryan looks and grasp of the German language were well suited to him playing the role of Germans. He worked on several Italian movies of the period including Open City, Monte Casino and A Day in the Life.
At the end of the war, Morris was repatriated from the Soviet Union to Poland. Morris recalled that upon returning to Poland by train, the Polish forces shot Jews as they exited. Due to his ‘Aryan’ appearance and knowledge of the Russian language he escaped death and was released. Morris attempted to locate his family, but he could find nobody. He was told by an acquaintance that his older brother, Paul, was working as an artist in Munich and the pair were reunited. They eventually heard Adam was alive and wrote to him through the Red Cross.
Unbeknownst to the three brothers, their extended family overseas were searching for surviving relatives. They located Adam in 1945 due to the profile of his acting career in Italy and arranged a permit for him to travel to Australia. He held onto this paperwork for two years until 1947, awaiting his fiancée, Raya Ferder’s, permit and permission from her sister for them to be married. On 1 August 1947, Adam and Raya were married at the Great Synagogue in Rome. Within weeks, they would begin a new life together in Australia, arriving in Sydney on 21 September 1947. Morris and Paul also received permits to travel to Australia. Just before immigrating, Morris met Fanny Zabyzny and they were married on 20 July 1948. The brothers flew into Sydney on 29 July 1948. Fanny arrived on 6 March 1949.
The brothers established a new life in Australia, with Morris and Adam starting a business together designing and making shoes at Haymarket in 1954. The business was called; ‘Perkal Bros Surgical & Bespoke Bootmakers’. The brothers would soon have numerous famous clients including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger, Queen Elizabeth II and Kerry Packer, who until his death in 2005, the brothers made 13 pairs of bespoke boots for each year. They also worked with people with a disability, creating custom fittings to allow them to walk or enable improved movement.
The brothers continued to work into their old age together, carpooling to their business in Surry Hills. When asked why they had not retired, Morris was known to respond “Why would I retire? So I can get the ‘old timer’s disease’”. They worked together for over 60 years until their deaths in 2013. Adam passed aged 92, Morris followed 12 days later, on Christmas Eve, aged 94.
Adam (Isaak) (born 20 July 1921) and Morris (Mosche) Perkal (born 15 May 1919) were born in a small town called Mszczonów near Warsaw, Poland. Brothers in a family of eight children to Azrial and Esther, their early life was one of relative peace and simplicity. Raised in an Orthodox household, their parents owned a large haberdashery store catering for weddings and funerals, offering a range of merchandise to the town.
In 1939, Adam was present at the now famous ‘The Last Hour’ speech delivered by Vladimir Yevgenievich Jabotinsky. Adam witnessed a plea to Polish Jews to leave Poland and escape to Palestine. Planning to take this advice, Adam and Morris had arranged to make their way to Palestine illegally through Romania. However, war broke out and passage was made impossible.
On 1 September 1939, German bombers attacked Mszczonów. Three people were killed and many of the local Jewish community escaped to safety in the surrounding forest. The brothers relate that they were instructed by their parents to travel to Warsaw. Despite reservations about leaving their family behind, they walked all night.
During Germany’s invasion large sections of Warsaw were bombed. Although the brothers travelled for army recruitment, this plan was abandoned as the Germans occupied Warsaw. Adam and Morris’s eldest brother, Paul (Pinchas/Pinkus), had similarly travelled from Lodz for the army drive. The three bothers decided to return to Mszczonów. A few kilometres from home, a peasant woman from the town informed them that their mother and youngest brother, Myer, had been burned alive following the bombing of a synagogue during Yom Kippur. Azrail and two of his remaining children had fled the remnants of their burnt-out home to live with the brother’s older sister, Feiga Hoffman, in Grojec. They joined their family in Grojec. Paul stayed briefly before returning to his wife and child in Lodz. The family’s life was disrupted again with the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto at the end of 1940. On hearing of forced relocations, Adam and Morris attempted to escape by crossing into Soviet territory. They were unsuccessful. The brothers split, with Morris deciding to continue the journey into Soviet territory and Adam returning to family in Poland.
Travelling by train, Morris smuggled himself across the border. Following his escape, he initially went to Bialystok in Russian occupied Poland, however with the city experiencing significant overcrowding from the thousands of refugees crossing the border, he went on to settle in Slonim, Belarus. Here, Morris was taken in by an elderly couple with Communist sympathies. In 1942 after German forces had occupied the region, he obtained a free ticket to travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan as an evacuee, where he worked as a shoemaker in a collective farm near Bukhara. Due to his physical appearance, Morris was able to pass as Russian and he worked for the Russian Government making boots for the Red Army. After the Polish Government began to form a new resistance army, he tried to enlist but was rejected due to his Jewish identity. After this, he moved to Chelyabinsk in the Urals and stayed until the end of the war. Morris recalled receiving decent wages and was able to survive the war.
Returning to his family who were now in the Warsaw ghetto, Adam acquired false identification papers belonging to a school acquaintance, Marian Zelewski. With these papers, he claimed to be an Ethnic German living in Poland. He was also able to live outside the ghetto, coordinating a food smuggling operation and visiting his family regularly. In 1941 his sister, Tova, contracted typhus and later died. While visiting her, Adam also contracted the disease and remained within the ghetto for two weeks to recover. Fortunately, he remained undiscovered. To assist his family, he obtained false papers that allowed them to move to a smaller ghetto: Piotrków Trybunalski. His oldest sister, Feiga, remained in the Warsaw ghetto. In Piotrków Trybunalski ghetto, the Perkal family lived with Paul’s wife and son (Paul was in Lodz ghetto). Adam was able to continue his smuggling operations to support his family. By the end of 1941, Adam’s father pleaded for him to leave for Germany and save his own life. Reluctantly, he left Poland. This was the last time Adam saw his father, Feiga and her family, and Menachaim, his younger brother again.
Adam travelled to Breslau, Germany in early 1942, securing work at Henschel Werke factory. During this time, he spoke only German and continued to conceal his Jewish identity. Despite his efforts, he was recognised by a girl from his hometown and was blackmailed to retain his false identity. Believing the situation too risky, he bought a train ticket to Kassel and escaped, working at another factory at Henschel Werke.
In August or September of 1944, Adam along with all the residents living at his apartment block were arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Breitenau, a German political camp. Unbeknownst to Adam, a female acquaintance living in the building was an agent for British Intelligence agency MI5. He and the other occupants were held and questioned for over 56 days. During this time, Adam was ordered to work in the camp cleaning the Gestapo office. He used this time to collect cigarettes from ashtrays and would later sell them in exchange for food. He also masqueraded as a tailor, using the machine sewing skills he learned from his sister to work in the camp’s tailoring shop. He managed to conceal his identity throughout his incarceration and was never suspected as a Jew. Unable to be convicted and with only suspicion of involvement in political subversion, Adam was sent to Buchenwald for two days, he then spent four days in a Prague jail. Finally, he ended up in the 5th block at Mauthausen for two months, where he worked as a cleaner. His contact with the brutality directed towards the Jewish prisoners was limited and he was still largely unaware of what was happening to his people.
From Mauthausen, Adam was transferred to Melk in Austria and sent to work in a factory. By April 1945, the Russians had advanced their forces to Mauthausen and the Germans shifted the prisoners to another camp in Ebensee. As a political prisoner, he wore the red triangle on his uniform; it spared him from the fate of gypsy and Jewish captives. On the day of liberation, prisoners were being directed to an underground factory. Gestapo officers on the observation tower had been replaced by young boys with rifles and they whispered to prisoners that there were plans to blow them up with dynamite; all 35,000 of them, the prisoners refused to be relocated and remained in their barracks. On 6 May 1945, American tanks rolled into the camp to find the SS had deserted, leaving the prisoners to their fate. One of the officers to emerge from the tanks had an insignia of the Ten Commandments on his uniform, he was a chaplain. To this man and for the first time since the war began, Adam recounted his story and the truth of his Jewish identity. After proving his identity, the chaplain arranged for Adam’s transfer to a Displaced Person’s camp in Moderna, Italy.
In Moderna, Adam was approached by the Palestinian Jewish Brigade, but he chose to head to Rome. Not long after his arrival he collapsed in the street; he awoke to find himself in hospital undergoing treatment for malaria. Adam requested a transfer to a camp hospital in Cinecitta after nuns treating him tried to convert him. During this two week stay he was approached to volunteer in a movie production about Italian partisans during the war. His Aryan looks and grasp of the German language were well suited to him playing the role of Germans. He worked on several Italian movies of the period including Open City, Monte Casino and A Day in the Life.
At the end of the war, Morris was repatriated from the Soviet Union to Poland. Morris recalled that upon returning to Poland by train, the Polish forces shot Jews as they exited. Due to his ‘Aryan’ appearance and knowledge of the Russian language he escaped death and was released. Morris attempted to locate his family, but he could find nobody. He was told by an acquaintance that his older brother, Paul, was working as an artist in Munich and the pair were reunited. They eventually heard Adam was alive and wrote to him through the Red Cross.
Unbeknownst to the three brothers, their extended family overseas were searching for surviving relatives. They located Adam in 1945 due to the profile of his acting career in Italy and arranged a permit for him to travel to Australia. He held onto this paperwork for two years until 1947, awaiting his fiancée, Raya Ferder’s, permit and permission from her sister for them to be married. On 1 August 1947, Adam and Raya were married at the Great Synagogue in Rome. Within weeks, they would begin a new life together in Australia, arriving in Sydney on 21 September 1947. Morris and Paul also received permits to travel to Australia. Just before immigrating, Morris met Fanny Zabyzny and they were married on 20 July 1948. The brothers flew into Sydney on 29 July 1948. Fanny arrived on 6 March 1949.
The brothers established a new life in Australia, with Morris and Adam starting a business together designing and making shoes at Haymarket in 1954. The business was called; ‘Perkal Bros Surgical & Bespoke Bootmakers’. The brothers would soon have numerous famous clients including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger, Queen Elizabeth II and Kerry Packer, who until his death in 2005, the brothers made 13 pairs of bespoke boots for each year. They also worked with people with a disability, creating custom fittings to allow them to walk or enable improved movement.
The brothers continued to work into their old age together, carpooling to their business in Surry Hills. When asked why they had not retired, Morris was known to respond “Why would I retire? So I can get the ‘old timer’s disease’”. They worked together for over 60 years until their deaths in 2013. Adam passed aged 92, Morris followed 12 days later, on Christmas Eve, aged 94.
Production placeSurry Hills, New South Wales, Australia
Production date
Subjectshoemakers, shops, Jews in Australia, Jews in professional occupations, escape, brothers, professionals, achievers, immigration, families, survivors, photographs
Object namephotographs
Materialdigital
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Brendan McCarthy
© Brendan McCarthy and Sydney Jewish Museum