It seems wrong that the survivors of the Holocaust are generally only bracketed in the category of victims, and all that that implies. Helplessness, weakness.

Because in truth they are anything but that.

The survivor’s of one of the world’s worst ever acts of genocide have a strength that is difficult to put into words.

And the lessons they teach, cautioning against intolerance, have eclipsed the toxic legacy of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Today their role in educating us about the environment that gave rise to the Holocaust and how governments can manipulate people against one another, is as important as ever.

Their input in teaching critical thinking is a rare boon for us here in Australia, but one with a finite window.

Now aged from their late 70s to 90s, when you meet these remarkable men and women you can’t help notice the twinkle in their eyes. The horrors they have witnessed have not suppressed their inner spirit.

To hear their accounts of survival under Hitler’s regime is much more powerful than to read it in a history book.

We all know the grim statistics. The six million Jews murdered in World War II, as well as the gypsies, Serbs and other persecuted minorities.

But for many Australians the reality of this seems very distant, an event that occurred, now, a long time ago, far away in Europe.

We would all like to think that we would not have stood by and let what was done to the Jews happen.

It’s unfathomable to us how so many could have turned a blind eye, while others were active in the persecution and many more showed little to no compassion for their countrymen.

Historians often cite British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s disastrous appeasement of Hitler, but he was not alone. Appeasers, cowed into silence, in fear of conflict or punishment, were everywhere, at all levels.

And yet, Germany and other countries under the Nazi yoke, were highly educated, cultured places.

The way in which populations were manipulated over time – through propaganda and fear-mongering – to turn on the Jews remains an important and relevant historical lesson.

If it happened then, it could happen now. We are not that different from our forebears of the 1930s.

Speaking up, speaking out, both for ourselves and others, is not always easy.

Here on the streets of Sydney would you say something if you heard abuse yelled at a woman in a head scarf or two men holding hands.

Remind yourself of the cost of silence and, too, that one voice can inspire the courage in others to also speak out.

The Jews that survived the Holocaust, men and women such as Jack Meister, Yvonne Engelman, Olga Horak and Paul Drexler, have a white-knuckle story to tell, but also a powerful lesson in humanity and how quickly it can unravel.

If you have a bucket list of things you want to do in life, add something really meaningful to it and go down to the Sydney Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst Road and speak to a survivor. I tell you, it will blow your mind.

Listen to Olga explain how an act was passed overnight in her home country, the Slovak Republic, and authorities came the next day and took her 16-year-old sister from the family home. Hearing her say “we never saw her again, they sent her to Auschwitz,” will make your blood run cold.

Her account of life under the Nazis and their collaborators should be compulsory reading for all Australian school students. From her time at Bergen-Belsen (where Anne Frank died) and a meeting with ‘Angel of Death’ Dr Josef Mengele, to witnessing the devastation of the British firebombing of Dresden, Olga’s story is a rich microcosm of some of the key events of WWII.

And, though memories of that conflict recede in time, we should not waste the opportunity to learn from these incredible Australians in our midst.

They are people who lost almost everything, but rebuilt their lives here and, to this day, continue to contribute greatly to the community.

(Originally published in The Daily Telegraph. Painting: Dachau Memorial by Ivan Goodacre.)