Interview with Nicole Strasser
Object numberM2013/065
TitleInterview with Nicole Strasser
DescriptionThis is an interview was done with Nicole Strasser for the purpose of the Dressing Sydney Exhibition. The interviewer is Eva Scheinberg with Barbara Linz assisting. While it mainly focuses on her mother and her career in the clothing industry, it does contain information about her parents’ relationship, them coming to Sydney, her childhood and setting up a new life.
Both her parents, Marek and Fela, are originally from Poland and went to France in their late teens in search of better opportunities. Her father trained as a doctor and her mother as a milliner. She had a terrible time in her apprenticeship.
It was in Paris that Marek and Fela met and married in 1940 or 41. Marek was arrested and sent to Beaune-La-Rolande transit camp and from there to Auschwitz and finally liberated in Buchenwald. Fela survived the war in hiding on false documents. She was pregnant and feared for her baby’s life so she wanted to have an abortion but couldn’t, Nicole was born 14 April 1942. When her father returned he did not even know his wife was pregnant.
They came to Australia because Fela had a sister here and transport was arranged through the JOINT. It was difficult for her mother adjusting and she missed Parisian life. In the interview Nicole tells some amusing anecdotes about trying to fit in as a child. She also talks about the hard work it was for her parents to establish new lives. Her father had to go back to school and they had very little money. Her mother set up a boutique in their home selling hats that she would make and her father had a dental chair in another which he needed for studies.
Fela Kamrak is described by her daughter as beautiful, stylish and very hardworking. She talks about the late nights her mother spent making hats and how her hands were crippled from the chemicals. How she also took care of the house and it was a tense home because of the trauma suffered by Marek during the war and Nicole competing with her father for her mother’s love.
Both her parents, Marek and Fela, are originally from Poland and went to France in their late teens in search of better opportunities. Her father trained as a doctor and her mother as a milliner. She had a terrible time in her apprenticeship.
It was in Paris that Marek and Fela met and married in 1940 or 41. Marek was arrested and sent to Beaune-La-Rolande transit camp and from there to Auschwitz and finally liberated in Buchenwald. Fela survived the war in hiding on false documents. She was pregnant and feared for her baby’s life so she wanted to have an abortion but couldn’t, Nicole was born 14 April 1942. When her father returned he did not even know his wife was pregnant.
They came to Australia because Fela had a sister here and transport was arranged through the JOINT. It was difficult for her mother adjusting and she missed Parisian life. In the interview Nicole tells some amusing anecdotes about trying to fit in as a child. She also talks about the hard work it was for her parents to establish new lives. Her father had to go back to school and they had very little money. Her mother set up a boutique in their home selling hats that she would make and her father had a dental chair in another which he needed for studies.
Fela Kamrak is described by her daughter as beautiful, stylish and very hardworking. She talks about the late nights her mother spent making hats and how her hands were crippled from the chemicals. How she also took care of the house and it was a tense home because of the trauma suffered by Marek during the war and Nicole competing with her father for her mother’s love.
Production placeSydney, New South Wales, Australia
Production date 2011-07-07
Object nametestimonies
Material.WMA
Dimensions
- duration: 42.00 min
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Ms Nicole Strasser