Page 13 - My Memoirs - Max Kurz

The arrival was a blur; my only memory is arriving at my Aunty Anne’s home at 6 Tyrwhitt Street, Maroubra where there was a crowd of people made up of my mother’s family. It was not apparent to me then, only within time that the hierarchy in the family was led by my Aunty Anne who was without doubt the matriarch. It is difficult to recollect the impact of our arrival in the new world other than the smells, the greenery, the sun, and the sea. It was all so different, clean, and fresh including the air. It was April 1953 a lovely time of the year.
We were living like gypsies, with no permanent home, primarily at my Aunty Anne’s home as well as other family members. The next major event in my life was starting school in Australia. I remember my first day at Maroubra Public School, Malabar Road as if it were yesterday. I was very scared, was this going to be a repeat of my experiences at schooling in Manchester? If I could have run away and hid somewhere, I would have, unfortunately that was not an option. I was dressed in a new school uniform, introduced to a teacher who took me to my classroom and then I was introduced to all the girls and boys. They all delighted in my funny accent, I appeared to be overdressed in my uniform, whereas the standard of dress was casual shorts, sloppy joes, colorful dresses and in some cases no shoes. I did not take long to fall into the stride and became just one of the kids. Noticeably nobody was interested or even knew that I was Jewish or even cared.
We finally resided at my grandmother’s home which was a small one bedroom flat in Maroubra Road, Pagewood. To this day I am at a loss to understand how we managed living in such a tiny place. All that changed in 1956 when my mother met Alex Goldstein who became her 2nd husband.
As an adult I can now reflect on my mother’s life and imagine the difficulty, stress, and loneliness that she must have suffered. She was a victim of the times, she was born and lived through depression years, with minimal education. She lived through the 2nd world war whilst raising her first child, lost her husband at age 33 with the responsibility of 2 young children, had to uproot her life and travel to the other side of the world, surrounded by a family who, they themselves were not able to deal with interpersonal issues. They were typical of the hierarchical family of that time; nobody was really interested in you personally only what was expected of you and that of the society that they lived in. My mother was easily influenced, not able to say or express her needs and therefore suffered because
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