Through the eyes of witnesses, a new tribute has opened in Canberra.
Developed by the Australian War Memorial with support from the Jewish Holocaust Centre, War Memorial director Brendan Nelson says it's a permanent tribute that Australians can be proud of.
"Six million. Six million. About a quarter of the population of Australia today. Almost the entire population of Sydney. Exterminated in the greatest genocide in history, certainly that of the 20th century. Almost all Jews, but also Roma and Gypsies, political prisoners and others that were exterminated by the Nazi regime."
The exhibit also includes stories of the thousands of survivors who made new homes in Australia after the second world war.
Dr Nelson says the display is a much-needed addition to the War Memorial's galleries.
"The small exhibition which is in the second world war galleries, which is important, has seven objects in it. While it's important, I was embarrassed by the inadequacy of that. We now have 85 objects that are displayed in this permanent gallery."
It's thought that between 20,000 and 35,000 Holocaust survivors resettled in Australia after the second world war.
It's hard to pin down the exact number, as fears remained about identifying as Jewish.
But it was a special moment for German-born Irma Hanner.
"For two years from the beginning I did not cry until the end of the war. But then, it's very hard to stop. But my children call me 'bionic woman' because I'm very strong and I think it's very important for me to talk about it now because it's more important than ever. "
The 86 year old survived Theresienstadt, a concentration camp and ghetto in what was then Czechoslovakia.
"In 1943, 11 young men escaped and they marched us all out, 40,000 of us. And they caught them, then they hanged them in front of us."
The site was infamously used in Nazi propaganda to show the Red Cross how Jews were treated well, but it's thought more than 40,000 people died there.
The exhibit also includes drawings by war artist Alan Moore, sketched at the Bergen-Belsen camp in northern Germany.
Warren Fineberg, from Melbourne's Jewish Centre, says the exhibition is also a tribute to the Allied forces who witnessed the atrocities.
"Australia's war effort was involved in that. Alan Moore is a classic example of somebody who told the story to the world about the horrors of the second world war. There were other Australian soldiers involved as well. There were other soldiers who emigrated to Australia, who were there at Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, and who came to Australia - Russian, English, and American - and they've helped to build our community."
Dr Brendon Nelson says it's also a warning, to be mindful of lessons from the past.
"We have a responsibility as Australians - in a world that is dealing with the mass movement of people, with the treatment of refugees, with the persecution of people, political, religious and ethnic minorities, debates about euthanasia and issues that confront contemporary political leadership within our own country and throughout the world, including again having to deal with resurgent totalitarianism, in this case in the form of those who have hijacked the good name of Islam to build a violent political utopia - we have a responsibility to remind all of our visitors, Australians and overseas, of that of which humankind is capable."
