All of these statements about Liberation were made by survivors who eventually immigrated to Australia.

Hana Novotny
"I caught a young woman by the arm and I said 'What's going on?' and she said 'It's over, it's over, it's over!' and we just looked at each other."

Jacob Raykin, b. 1922, Vilna, Poland. Immigrated to Australia 1950.
"'That moment is absolutely impossible to describe. Some … screamed and some cried and some went mad. Some went absolutely mad, they didn't believe it."

Yvonne Engelman, b. 1927, Dovhe, Czechoslovakia. Immigrated to Australia 1948.
"They said, 'Come on girls, come on girls, you are free' and we just looked at them … nobody believed them and nobody would go out."

Olga Horak, b. 1926 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Immigrated to Australia 1949. "An army chaplain came to visit the sick … he came to my bed and he said, 'Here, my dear, I am coming to give you the last rites because you are going to die' and I looked at him and I said, 'Padre, I am Jewish. I don't need to be given the last rites and I am not going to die."

Olga Horak after the war

Helen Grosman, b. 1925, Poland. Immigrated to Australia 1949.
"Unfortunately, they meant well. They gave us military supplies of food … baked beans, sausages, powdered milk. Our stomachs were so shrunk to nothing that we couldn't eat it. We ate, but we were so sick. People were dropping like flies."