Shmatte and South Melbourne: The Jewish market story
Published in The Australian Jewish News
May 30, 2017
Paul Millet attributes his salvation and success to “one very little word: luck”.
The 87-year-old sits poised on an autumn afternoon, outside a Caulfield South cafe. He peers out from behind his cup of tea in hand, black with a slice of lemon, pausing to reflect upon his 53 years as a stallholder at the South Melbourne Market – and before that.
Before that, was a world of strudel and symphony. What followed was a fortuitous series of events that saw Paul and his parents, Hermann and Sabine, dodge the Nazi menace that gripped Europe.
First, they fled from their home in Vienna to Milan, where they lived and hid for seven years. Then, they endured a long shipboard journey that would deliver them to the faraway waters of Port Phillip Bay in 1946.
Paul’s story is more than one of survival. It is one of resilience and tenacity, characteristics shared by many who left the ashy remains of post-war Europe behind them.