The Voyage of Their Life

by Diane Armstrong

  Barasz (Goldman), Ruth 11, 525

  Barasz (Greenfield), Topka 10–11, 39, 50, 51, 110, 125–28, 134, 188, 227, 234, 243–44, 250, 525

  Birnbaum, Herta 211, 396

  Boguslawski, Bronia 3–4, 19, 22, 36, 67, 68, 98, 110, 128, 133, 134, 141–2, 143, 160, 185–9, 219, 229, 233, 261–2, 271–3, 299, 342, 360–3, 495, 506, 522, 526

  Boguslawski (Armstrong), Danusia 3–4, 19, 22, 36, 45, 48, 67, 68, 98, 110, 128, 131, 133, 134, 143, 185–9, 200, 229, 233, 261–2, 271–3, 299, 318–19, 320, 342, 360–1, 443, 487, 495, 506, 509, 512–13, 520, 522, 526

  Boguslawski, Henek 3–4, 19, 36, 48, 67, 68, 98, 110, 115, 128, 131, 133, 159–60, 186–9, 200, 229, 233, 261–2, 271–3, 299, 320, 342, 360–3, 443, 495, 512–13, 523

  Brouen (Jedick), Gilda, Gisa 20, 22, 26, 29, 31–2, 122, 137, 225–6, 259, 371, 380–82

  Braun, Harry 60–1, 160, 195, 490, 522

  Bunzl, Addy 71

  Comino, John 81, 86, 191, 439, 443–5, 447

  Czalczynski (Zandrou), Karmela 167, 525

  Czalczynski (Engelman), Matylda 109, 167–8, 242–3, 246–8, 525

  Darin, Emanuel 95, 97, 255–6, 372, 467

  Darin, Raisa 467

  * Dick 174–5, 182–4, 232–3, 251, 324–37, 330, 334–6

  * Ella 157, 204–10, 337–39

  Engel (Engelman), Yvonne 156, 300, 494–6

  Falek, Irka 109, 110, 111, 343

  Fatseas, Betty 77, 81, 455–6

  Fatseas, Mary 77, 81, 158, 244, 455

  Fatseas, Petro 77–81, 114–15, 158–9, 172, 216, 242, 244, 451–9

  Fatseas (Comino), Vassiliki, Vi 77–81, 158–9, 172, 242, 440, 450–9

  Feigin, Danny 346–7

  Feigin, Fela 199, 346–7

  Fein, Leah 34, 343

  Ferszt, Cyla 110, 138, 160–5, 188, 341–50

  Ferszt, Max 110, 138, 160–5, 341–50

  Ferszt (De Leeuw), Slawa 138, 165, 342–6, 348–9

  Fiszman, Esther 8, 38, 100–1, 103, 154–5, 219, 299–300, 302, 305

  Fiszman (Price), Maria, Mia 8, 38, 101, 103, 219, 299, 300, 302

  Fiszman, Sam 8, 38, 51, 100–5, 142, 155, 199, 219–22, 224, 233, 237–8, 298–308, 525

  Frant (Harris), Christine 110, 133–34, 193, 522

  Frant, Henryk 10, 29, 39, 51, 56, 100, 110, 123–4, 133–4, 140, 188, 193–4, 201, 204–5, 210, 212, 219, 235, 239, 246–7, 250, 252, 254, 299, 380, 522–3, 527

  Frant, Zofia 10, 39, 110, 131–4, 193–4, 201, 219, 257, 299, 522-3, 529

  Frid, Gitel 33–4

  Frid, Jack 33–4

  Frid, Morrie 33–4, 339

  Georgiades, Germaine 239, 259

  Georgiades, Philip 239, 259

  Glassman, Bronia 30, 111–14, 165, 188–9, 499–506

  Glassman, Heniek 30, 110–11, 499–506

  Goldberg, Abie, Abe 11, 12, 118, 129, 194-5, 253, 258, 344, 467, 522, 526–8

  Grunschlag, Bob 156, 195–6, 253, 460–5, 467–70, 527

  Grunschlag, Moishe 462–3, 467–8

  Grunstein, Eugene 497–8

  Gruschajew, Peter 53

  * Guta 174–84, 232–3, 251, 324–7, 339–40, 341

  Halm, Otto 110, 210

  Hershaw, Lt-Colonel Ogden 24–6, 31–2, 51, 66, 70, 73–5, 76, 95, 99, 106–7, 108, 116, 118–20, 121–24, 139–40, 172–3, 174, 202, 203, 218–19, 222–3, 226, 230, 251–6, 263, 264, 266–7, 372, 373, 374–5, 380, 382, 473

  Herzog, Kurt 137, 236, 367–8, 372

  Hof, Elfriede 21, 70, 137, 226, 240–1, 244, 370–2, 381

  Hof (Kahn) Ilse 21, 70, 137, 226, 240, 370–1, 381

  Kalowski, Halina 14–15, 51, 109, 135, 167–8, 227, 239, 242–3, 245–8, 256, 523–5, 530–34

  Kalowski (Rosen), Jennifer 246–8, 523–5, 529–34

  Kalowski, Mietek 15, 168, 243, 246–7, 523–5, 530–1

  Kalowski, Stefan 14, 15, 227, 243, 245, 523, 529–30, 533–4

  Kapp, Alide 417–21

  Kapp, Harold 157, 416–21

  Kopel, Emil 30, 56–60, 169–70, 236, 402, 409

  Kraus, Clara 34–6, 159, 241, 351–9

  Kraus, Jim 34, 35, 351–8

  Kraus, Paul 35, 159, 241, 351–9

  Kraus, Peter 35, 159, 241, 351–9

  Kucharski, David 123, 363–5

  Kuplis, Auguste 22, 51

  Kuplis, Elmars 22, 51, 100, 236 260–61

  Lebovics (Graf), Kitty 39, 249–50, 496–8

  Liivat (Mardus), Aino 473

  Liivat, Karl 473

  Lindemanis, Jack 27, 29, 30, 72, 276, 281–4

  Lindemanis (Ozlins), Rita 27–9, 30, 76, 170–1, 200, 217, 263, 264, 275–88

  Lindemanis, Sigride 276, 287

  Lindemanis, Ted 285

  Lipschutz, Heniek 30, 39, 183, 344

  Lipschutz, Krysia 30, 39

  Mardus, Uno 66–7, 69–70, 106, 142, 194, 372, 473

  Marr, Bill 61–5, 160, 214–15, 219, 227, 235, 491–2, 522

  Matussevich, Alex 407–9, 415

  Matussevich, Anastasia 415

  Matussevich, Basil 407–9, 415

  Matussevich, Nick 192, 241, 402–15

  Matussevich, Nina 56, 169, 402, 409, 413

  Matussevich, Olga (mother) 53–6, 241, 403–13

  Matussevich, Olga (daughter) 169–70, 413–14, 415

  Matussevich, Vasily 54–6, 403–13

  Matussevich, Veronica 198-9, 415

  Maulics, Lidija 260, 266, 418

  Meder, Elisabeth 73, 417, 422–5

  Meder, Lars 49, 71, 192–3, 250, 417, 422–7

  Metschersky, Nadezhda (Nadine) Alexandrovna 41–2, 46, 53, 259, 435

  Neustatl, Joe 193, 484–7

  Nittim (Risti), Helle 26–7, 28, 30, 37, 40, 71, 72, 76, 109, 114, 142, 169, 170–1, 172, 190–1, 195, 200–1, 202–3, 236–7, 253, 263, 275, 287, 289–97, 307, 466, 473

  Nittim (Vesk), Maret 128, 263, 292, 296-7

  Nittim, Rein 49, 263, 292, 296

  Ohtra, Arnold 49–50, 114, 115, 117, 196, 199, 239, 290

  Ohtra (Holm), Lea 37, 72, 239, 253, 289–91

  Ohtra, Tiia 239, 290

  Pataky, Elsie 70, 109, 135–7, 189, 236, 366–70, 402

  Pataky, Ignac 136–7, 189, 367–70

  Pawlyszyn, Roman 367

  Pilichowski, Hanka 165–7, 343

  Pilichowski, Henryk 166

  Poczebucka (Irons), Haneczka (Anne) 71, 90, 167, 185, 201–2, 217, 339

  Poczebucka, Tania 90, 110

  Potok (Jarvin), Alina 88–9, 91–5, 171, 465–7, 469–70

  Potok, Salezy 88–9, 91, 131, 171, 465

  Puurand, Friida 309–10, 322

  Puurand, Hans 215, 263, 309–11, 315–16, 317–19, 322–3

  Puurand, Mart 309, 323

  Puurand, Verner 8–9, 73, 106–8, 157, 158, 173, 174, 190, 215, 231, 232–3, 237, 251, 255, 260, 263, 309–23

  Rae (Twigg), Anneke 120, 236, 257, 482

  Rae (Palgi), Silva 119–21, 171, 204, 236, 257, 471–83

  Rae, Tarno 120, 257, 475, 482

  Rafalsky, Archbishop Theodore 41, 53, 104–5, 199, 212, 217, 237–8, 253–4, 259, 298, 435–6

  Rakusan, George 214–15

  Reich, Kurt 170

  Reich, Magda 123, 143, 154, 155, 170, 300

  Ritter, Dorothea 12–13, 20–1, 22–5, 27, 28, 29, 38, 51, 70–1, 73–5, 76, 96, 99, 106, 115, 119, 122–4, 171, 218–19, 226, 253–4, 259, 371, 372–80, 382

  Rogozinski, Edie 199

  Rogozinski (Rogers), Zosia 199, 343

  Rossler, Henry 363, 365–6

  Rossler, Peter 193, 363, 365–6, 522

  Sapojnikoff, Boris Arkadievich 169

  Seitz, Pauline 40, 41–2, 44, 47, 53, 105, 137, 186–7, 217, 428–38

  Seitz, Vala 40–6, 47, 53, 137, 186–7, 253, 429–37

  Silberstein, Fred 22, 123, 143–55, 189–90, 203, 262, 381, 383–92, 418, 517

  Singer, Bill 497–8

  Skorupa (Shell), Morris 89–92, 507–16, 517

  S
tockholm, Pastor Friedrich 52, 142, 255

  Sznur (Lendvay), Anna, Aneczka 39, 185

  Sznur (Raza), Sala 39

  Szput (Stern), Anna 44–6, 143, 163, 237, 343,

  Szput, Ruth 45, 46

  Tohver, Bruno 73, 100, 118, 191, 517

  Travasaros, Katina 81–2, 85, 191, 257, 439, 441–2

  Travasaros, Koula 81–7, 257, 439–42, 447–9

  Travasaros (Veneris), Mattie 81–7, 191–2, 234, 257, 439–49

  Travasaros, Stan 81, 86, 191, 439, 443–5

  Wajs, Ginette 11, 125–8, 132, 188, 200–1, 217, 243, 257–8, 517–22, 528

  Wayne, André 60, 129, 135, 149, 156–7, 160, 195, 225, 488, 490–1, 493, 522

  Weile, Alfred 189–90

  Weiss, David 60–1, 160, 195, 225, 489–90, 522

  Wise, Leon 129–30, 197–8, 203, 522

  Zalcberg (Sternhell), Alice 10, 29, 193–4, 527

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Peter Coleman (ed), Australian Civilization: A Symposium, FW Cheshire, Melbourne, 1962.

  Matylda Engelman, Journey Without End and the End of the Journey, Lantana, Melbourne, 1979.

  Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust, The Jewish Tragedy, Fontana, London, 1987.

  Martin Gilbert, Second World War, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1989.

  Colin Golvan, The Distant Exodus, ABC Books, Crows Nest, NSW, 1990.

  Donald Horne, The Lucky Country (second revised edition), Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1965.

  Ann-Mari Jordens, Alien to Citizen, Settling Migrants in Australia 1945–1975, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1997.

  Jacqueline Kent, Bruce Elder and Keith Willey, Memories: Life in Australia since 1900, Child & Associates, Sydney, 1988.

  Michael King, After The War, New Zealand since 1945, Hodder & Stoughton, Auckland, 1988.

  Clara Kraus, The Colours of War, Ten Uncertain Years 1935–1945, Spectrum, Sydney, 1987.

  Paul Kraus, The Not So Fabulous Fifties, Images of a Migrant Childhood, Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1985.

  Stella Lees and June Senyard, The 1950s: How Australia Became a Modern Society and Everyone Got a House and Car, Hyland House, Melbourne, 1987.

  Ann Lehtmets and Douglas Hoile, Sentence: Siberia, A Story of Survival, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 1994.

  Peeter Lindsaar, Estonians in Australia and New Zealand, Kirjastas Luuamees, Sydney, 1961.

  Ann Mihkelson, Three Suitcases and a Three Year Old, Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1999.

  John Murphy, Imagining the Fifties, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2000.

  WD Rubinstein, The Jews in Australia, Heinemann, 1991.

  Suzanne Rutland, Edge of the Diaspora: Two Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Australia (second revised edition), Brandl & Schlesinger, Sydney, 1997.

  Anna Szput-Stern, On the Other Side of the River, Aussie Publications, Melbourne, 2000.

  Helen Townsend, Baby Boomers, Growing Up in Australia in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Simon & Schuster, Sydney, 1988.

  Winter Journey

  PLEASE TURN THE PAGE FOR A PREVIEW OF

  DIANE ARMSTRONG’S

  EXCITING NEW NOVEL

  1

  The smoke was thick and black and above it orange flames clawed at the roof. Shards of burning wood fell to the ground and fiery embers sparked all around her. She coughed so violently that it seemed her chest would rip open. Above the rising panic, she heard a woman whispering, ‘Run. Quick. While there’s still time.’ But there was no way out and she was so tightly jammed against the others that she couldn’t move, not even to brush away the scorching cinders. The fire crackled, so close that she felt its suffocating breath on her face, but when she opened her mouth to scream there was barbed wire in her throat and no sound came out. Suddenly, shrill music blared outside. At last! Someone had come to rescue her. At the thought of deliverance she almost wept, but the music only grew more strident, conjuring images of a witches’ sabbath as it mocked her hopes. The flames were leaping all around her now, her lungs were about to explode. She was going to burn to death and the rest of her life would become a heap of ashes. ‘Oh no,’ she gasped, ‘I can’t die here, please don’t let me die, not like this.’ The sickening smell of singed flesh filled her nostrils and the flames licked at her hair. ‘Oh no, please, no…’

  Halina Shore snapped awake, arms flailing, tears streaming down her face, shocked that the moaning was coming from her own mouth. She was in her bedroom, her silk nightdress drenched with perspiration. Her whole body shook as she walked unsteadily to the window and looked out into the darkness of the Paddington street. Through the iron arabesques of the balcony she saw the disappearing tail lights of a car speeding towards the city. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table. 4. 10 am.

  Something soft swished against her bare legs and she looked down into the reproachful gooseberry eyes of her cat, Puccini. Her violent movement had startled him out of his comfortable sleep on the pillow beside her. She picked him up and stroked his mottled black and pumpkin fur until her heartbeat slowed and her breathing became more even.

  Pushing the thick hair back from her face, she padded downstairs to the kitchen. Puccini ran to his bowl, sniffed it, then turned away with a disdainful look. ‘Yes, I know,’ she murmured. ‘But the vet said milk was bad for cats.’ Everything was constantly being turned upside down. Milk used to be good for humans as well as for cats, but now it seemed it was harmful for both.

  What the hell, she thought, and poured him the fat-reduced milk she always drank. While he lapped it gratefully, she poured herself a generous slug of Metaxa cognac, tapped a cigarette out of the pack of Marlboro Lights she kept in the bottom drawer for emergencies, and struck a match with trembling fingers. The first mouthful of cognac stung her throat. The second spread warmly through her veins. Closing her eyes, she drew back on the cigarette and exhaled a column of smoke towards the ceiling. One day soon she would quit, but not just yet. As the kitchen filled with the comforting aroma of nicotine, she tried to shake off the numbing effect of the nightmare.

  Scanning at the CDs she kept in alphabetical order on the shelf, Halina reached for Schubert’s Winterreise. She sank back in the deep leather armchair, closed her eyes and sipped the brandy while Dietrich Fischer-Diskau’s mellow baritone filled the room with songs about a journey of love, loss and loneliness acted out in a snowy landscape. Lyrical and tender, these songs, usually soothed her nerves but this time in the pianist’s accompaniment she heard the wayfarer’s suffering. She thought of Schubert, dead at the age of thirty-one with so much music still inside him, and tears welled in her eyes, but whether they were for the composer or for the person in her dream, she couldn’t tell.

  Puccini licked his paws, wiped his milky whiskers and jumped into her lap, but slid off when she rose and stood by the window. The music had stopped and she felt calmer now. Night was retreating and gauzy wisps of apricot and peach floated over the Sydney skyline. The silence was broken by the blare of a clarinet next door. Halina slammed the window shut, shaking with indignation. The new neighbour was a jazz musician, clearly unable to tell night from day.

  She scrawled him a note: I’m sure one day you’ll be famous and I’ll be paying big bucks to hear you play and lining up for your autograph, but until then please have some consideration and confine your practising to daytime hours. Pleased with her letter, she ran outside and slipped it under the door of the adjoining terrace.

  Back in her own bedroom, still shaken by the dream, Halina searched for some logical explanation. It was not surprising that on this unusually hot October night she had dreamed she was on fire, and that the piercing notes of the clarinet had crossed the boundary of reality and entered the realm of dreams. Everything could be explained: all we had to do was observe and unravel the clues. That was why she had chosen her profession. She enjoyed seeing the expression on people’s faces when she told them she was an odontologist. When she was in a kinder mood, she would say ‘forensic dentist’. Most people gave her a strange look when she ex
plained that she spent her days examining the teeth of the dead. In the shocked pause that usually followed while they struggled for something to say, she guessed what their response would be. She was rarely mistaken. Some nodded politely and said, ‘That’s an unusual job for a woman.’ Sometimes, as their eyes slid from her stylish haircut to the designer clothes and Italian shoes, they asked what had prompted her to choose such a gruesome profession. ‘My mother always wanted me to be a dentist so I’d get to wear a white coat and work in hygienic surroundings,’ Halina would reply demurely. That usually ended the conversation.

  Outside, a tomcat was yowling and spitting at the indifferent object of his lust. An ambulance siren shrilled as it sped towards St Vincent’s Hospital and she wondered whether the patient would arrive in time. These days patients were referred to as ‘clients’, an expression she found irritating. Her clients were never rushed to hospitals: they were smashed to smithereens, dredged up from rivers, incinerated in fires or decomposed in shallow graves.

  When the flesh was gone, only the teeth remained to identify the body. Like the remains that a dog had dug up in remote bushland in the Blue Mountains the previous week: naked, decomposed, without face or fingerprints. All they could tell so far was that it was a young female and, judging by the rate of decomposition and the condition of the surrounding soil, it seemed she had lain there for at least five years.

  Halina’s thoughts shifted to the forthcoming trial in which she would testify for the prosecution. Having examined the bite marks on little Tiffany Carson’s body, she had no doubt that the police had charged the right man with the murder, but she would need to be focused and clear-headed when she gave evidence. She knew that Clive Bussell would be watching and hoping she’d slip up. He wasn’t the only one in her department who thought she had sharp elbows, but she shrugged off their envy. It wasn’t possible to be promoted without arousing resentment. Ever since she had been elected president of the International Association of Odontologists, the smiles of many of her colleagues, including those she had considered good friends, had become cooler and their comments more guarded. The change was subtle but unmistakeable, like the sour tang lurking inside a ripe plum.

  Stepping under the shower, Halina glanced into the mirror as usual to check that no loose skin slackened the contour of her jawline or concealed the cleft in her chin. Her eyes slid from her short hair crisply cut into the nape of her neck to her long slim body. Not having children probably helped her look younger than most of her friends whose boobs had succumbed to child-bearing and gravity. Boobs. Her mother had shuddered with disgust whenever Halina uttered that word. ‘Tfui! So vulgar,’ she said in her heavy Polish accent. ‘You go to good school, don’t talk like analfabeci.’