The retelling of the Holocaust is now a two-sided coin. On one side sits the notion that there are already enough Holocaust stories; on the obverse, each individual story is a personal tragedy, has an inherent, priceless value and deserves to be told.
Tony Bernard grew up in a secular Jewish household in Narabeen, Sydney. His father, Henry Bierzynski Bernard (to sound Anglicised, his last two names were reversed) was a GP and talked little about his time in Auschwitz during World War II. He was adamantly silent about the rest of his wartime experience. Henry’s invisible wounds compelled his wife, Evelyn, to leave Henry, Tony and his two siblings when the children were still quite young. As he aged, Henry finally spoke. He talked of romance, luck and remorse.
Henry grew up in Tomaszow, Poland. His desire to study medicine took him to France, but his decision to return to Poland in 1939 proved fateful. Henry and his family were eventually uprooted and herded into the Jewish ghetto. Henry witnessed murders of Jewish citizens. He and his brother were in protected occupations but were eventually sent to the Blizyn concentration camp. Life was brutal. The general expectation was that all would die there.
Henry’s and his brother Ignacy’s survival was down to four things: they were young and healthy, intelligent, spoke German well enough, but above all, were just lucky. Yes, this narrative fits within the compass of Holocaust stories, but it has enough individuality to proudly stand alone.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tony Bernard grew up sailing, surfing and swimming on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, being raised with his younger sister and brother by his hardworking father Henry, a local family doctor. He initially studied dentistry at Sydney University before following his dad into medicine, undertaking his medical training at Nottingham and Cambridge Universities in Britain.
After returning to practice in Newcastle, regional NSW and Sydney, he spent his career working in the emergency department of Mona Vale Hospital, the same hospital in which his dad had previously worked for many years. More recently he also works in the emergency department of the new Northern Beaches Hospital.
His father Henry was his hero, and it was natural that he followed him into the medical profession. Yet it was one thing to idolise Henry and another to understand who he was and what he had gone through. Over decades and during multiple trips to Europe, Tony found himself on a path of discovery, eventually writing his father’s memoirs shortly before his death in 2016. What began as a journey to understand his father became the uncovering of an extraordinary holocaust survival story, publishing the story in The Ghost Tattoo.
Tony lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney with his wife Jennifer and daughter Sarah.
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