Ursula and her mother went to Warsaw where they registered as Jewish refugees,and began the search for a country far away from Europe. Ursula’s mother knew of a family friend who had immigrated to Melbourne before WWII. She wrote to him,and he was willing to sponsor them to come to Australia. They boarded the El Sudan in Marseilles and arrived in Melbourne in 1948. They were met by the Jewish Welfare Society and housed at the Bialystoker Centre (run by Bialystok expatriates) in St Kilda. Ursula soon met my father,Felix Flicker (also from Bialystok). They were married at the Elwood synagogue in 1949.

The unconventional Ursula was not the traditional Jewish mother or grandmother. After the war,she abandoned any Jewish religious beliefs she might have had. I was sent to MLC for my schooling. Searching for spiritual meaning in life,she immersed herself in Buddhist teachings,the wisdom of Krishnamurti,and explored Jewish Kabbalistic philosophy. She had many non-Jewish friends and prepared Christmas festivities for them in her home.

Ursula’s love of Israel evolved over time. Initially,she worried that Israel was just another Jewish ghetto. The Six-Day War of 1967 was a turning point,and she came to fully embrace Israel as a home for Jews. Later in 1967,my father,who had been badly wounded in WWII,co-founded Keren Mishpachot Hagiborim,an organisation supporting Israel’s disabled war veterans. He later became the president of KMH,and Ursula the president of the women’s division.

Ursula was involved in many voluntary activities for the Melbourne Jewish community and beyond. She served as a Polish and Russian translator at the Royal Children’s Hospital,organised the library in Melbourne’s Frances Barkman House (an orphanage for Jewish children including Holocaust survivors),and monitored local Slavic languages newspapers for anti-Semitism for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

Tormented by the unknown fate of her sister,Ursula became obsessed with finding out the exact details of where,when,and how Jareczka had died. In the early 1980s,she joined the fledgling group of people who established the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Ursula organised its first exhibition and became the founding archivist. For 25 years,she collected and archived materials from Holocaust survivors who lived in Melbourne. Whenever new lists of names of those who had been exterminated came to light,she carefully scrutinised them in search of her sister’s name. Ursula never found out the exact circumstances of her sister’s death. For her years of dedicated,voluntary work for the MHM,Ursula was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM),and the MHM archives were named the Ursula Flicker Archival Collection.

Many in the Melbourne Jewish community knew or worked beside the formidable Ursula Flicker. They have numerous stories to tell of her prickly personality and high expectations yet also speak of their love and respect for her. Her loyalty and dedication will be difficult to match.

While dementia robbed us of the Ursula Flicker many remember,other dimensions of her personality emerged while she lived out her final years at Emmy Monash Aged Care. The family’s love for her was enhanced,not diminished,by her cognitive decline. To her last days,she charmed,entertained and challenged all who interacted with her.

Helen Forgasz is Ursula Flicker’s daughter.