Object numberM2016/017:002
DescriptionPhotograph (reproduction) of Paul Drexler with his mother Helen in 1948 (their first year in Australia). Taken by a street photographer.
"1948 our first year in Australia, a Saturday morning, she took me to the Great Synagogue (where I’m still a member); afterwards we went for a walk in the city. In those days there were photographers in the city and they took your picture and gave you a card and if you liked the photo you could buy it. This is one of the photos that my mother purchased."
Paul Drexler was born in 1938 to Helen and Eugen Drexler in Spacince, Slovakia. He was in hiding until 1944, deported at age 6 with his mother to Sered, and then to Theresienstadt. He immigrated to Australia with his mother in 1948.
Part of a collection of photos, a blanket, Terezin ration cards and Birth and Baptism Certificate issued in Slovakia to four-year-old Pavel (Paul) Drexler in September 1942. The certificate illustrates the desperate attempt to evade deportation through obtaining baptism papers for which Paul’s parents paid a substantial sum of money. Unfortunately, the documents were declared invalid and Paul and his mother were deported.
In 1942, 60,000 Slovakian Jews were deported to the death camps out of a population of 90,000 Jews. The Drexler family were not on those transports because Paul’s father, a wheat expert, received an exemption as he was regarded as part of an essential industry. The exemption from deportation lasted until 1944. The family hid in the attic of a farmhouse; Paul had to be silent, which was difficult for a six-year-old. His father read books to him, to keep him quiet. They were there for around two and a half months until their names were read on the local radio. It was said that anyone harbouring them would be executed. They were forced to go back to home to Spacince. Twenty-four hours later the Gestapo came and arrested them. His mother hastily tied two blankets to the small suitcase that she was allowed to take with her. They were taken to Sered, a transit camp in Slovakia. It was here on one freezing night in December 1944 that Paul saw his father for the last time.
When deported from Sered to Theresienstadt concentration camp, the blankets kept Paul warm. It had a frieze on it of a desert scene which inspired Paul to make up games with the characters on the frieze. In Theresienstadt he was in the boys’ home while his mother worked on the chicken farm. At great risk she smuggled an egg out to him, bringing him additional food when she could. Paul and his mother were liberated on 8 May 1945. After returning home to their village, his mother would travel to Bratislava to meet every transport of survivors arriving at the station, holding up a sign with her husband’s name and asking survivors if they knew Eugen Drexler. One day she returned distressed and crying uncontrollably; she had learned that her husband was dead. After years of extensive research, Paul found out what happened to his father: Eugen Drexler was murdered in Lubeck Bay, Germany. He died in what was the final great massacre of the Nazi regime. The Nazis assembled concentration camp inmates onto three large ships at Lubeck Bay. They had the British believe the ships were full of SS troops escaping to Norway, so the British Air Force bombed the area on 3 May 1945. 8,000 prisoners died on the ships, and another 2,000 were murdered by the Nazis on the beaches. One of them was his father. Helen died in 2003 never knowing the truth behind what happened to her husband.
Paul and his mother migrated to Australia in 1948 and made a new life in Sydney. Years later he married Diane Gray and had two daughters. Their elder daughter, Julie, took one of the blankets to preschool when she was three years old. It has since been donated to the Sydney Jewish Museum. “This blanket is my only warm and spiritual connection to my father and to his granddaughter, who because of the tragedy of World War II, he never met.”
"1948 our first year in Australia, a Saturday morning, she took me to the Great Synagogue (where I’m still a member); afterwards we went for a walk in the city. In those days there were photographers in the city and they took your picture and gave you a card and if you liked the photo you could buy it. This is one of the photos that my mother purchased."
Paul Drexler was born in 1938 to Helen and Eugen Drexler in Spacince, Slovakia. He was in hiding until 1944, deported at age 6 with his mother to Sered, and then to Theresienstadt. He immigrated to Australia with his mother in 1948.
Part of a collection of photos, a blanket, Terezin ration cards and Birth and Baptism Certificate issued in Slovakia to four-year-old Pavel (Paul) Drexler in September 1942. The certificate illustrates the desperate attempt to evade deportation through obtaining baptism papers for which Paul’s parents paid a substantial sum of money. Unfortunately, the documents were declared invalid and Paul and his mother were deported.
In 1942, 60,000 Slovakian Jews were deported to the death camps out of a population of 90,000 Jews. The Drexler family were not on those transports because Paul’s father, a wheat expert, received an exemption as he was regarded as part of an essential industry. The exemption from deportation lasted until 1944. The family hid in the attic of a farmhouse; Paul had to be silent, which was difficult for a six-year-old. His father read books to him, to keep him quiet. They were there for around two and a half months until their names were read on the local radio. It was said that anyone harbouring them would be executed. They were forced to go back to home to Spacince. Twenty-four hours later the Gestapo came and arrested them. His mother hastily tied two blankets to the small suitcase that she was allowed to take with her. They were taken to Sered, a transit camp in Slovakia. It was here on one freezing night in December 1944 that Paul saw his father for the last time.
When deported from Sered to Theresienstadt concentration camp, the blankets kept Paul warm. It had a frieze on it of a desert scene which inspired Paul to make up games with the characters on the frieze. In Theresienstadt he was in the boys’ home while his mother worked on the chicken farm. At great risk she smuggled an egg out to him, bringing him additional food when she could. Paul and his mother were liberated on 8 May 1945. After returning home to their village, his mother would travel to Bratislava to meet every transport of survivors arriving at the station, holding up a sign with her husband’s name and asking survivors if they knew Eugen Drexler. One day she returned distressed and crying uncontrollably; she had learned that her husband was dead. After years of extensive research, Paul found out what happened to his father: Eugen Drexler was murdered in Lubeck Bay, Germany. He died in what was the final great massacre of the Nazi regime. The Nazis assembled concentration camp inmates onto three large ships at Lubeck Bay. They had the British believe the ships were full of SS troops escaping to Norway, so the British Air Force bombed the area on 3 May 1945. 8,000 prisoners died on the ships, and another 2,000 were murdered by the Nazis on the beaches. One of them was his father. Helen died in 2003 never knowing the truth behind what happened to her husband.
Paul and his mother migrated to Australia in 1948 and made a new life in Sydney. Years later he married Diane Gray and had two daughters. Their elder daughter, Julie, took one of the blankets to preschool when she was three years old. It has since been donated to the Sydney Jewish Museum. “This blanket is my only warm and spiritual connection to my father and to his granddaughter, who because of the tragedy of World War II, he never met.”
Production date 1948 - 1948
Object namephotographs
Materialphotographic emulsion, paper, paper
Dimensions
- width: 155.00 mm
height: 120.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mr Paul Drexler