Matylda Engelman

Title: The end of the journey: an autobiography
Author: Matylda Engelman
Publisher: Lantana
Place of publication: Melbourne
Year of Publication: 1978
Location of Book: Sir Louis Matheson Library, Monash University Clayton Campus
Cities/town/camps: Poland: Brost, Eisenstadt, Krkonose, Czechoslovakia: Prague, Palestine, France: Paris, Skarzysko Austria: Vienna, Columbo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Australia: Fremantle, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney
Note: those cities/towns/camps underlined are those which are most central to the narrative

This is the continuation of the story that Matylda Engelman began in her autobiography entitled, Journey Without End . As the title implies, she continues the tale of her wartime experiences which were marked by continually running from one dangerous situation to the next.

Her narrative commences in 1945 with the end of the Nazi occupation of the Austrian village Brost, where Matylda and her daughter Gila had been living for almost three years. Matylda tells of the initial relief and joy that she felt at seeing the back of the Germans. But her happiness was short-lived as she realised that her Russian liberators had a keen interest in hard drinking, plunder and looting as well as raping the local women. She had to use all the guile and cunning she had accumulated over the six years that she had managed to survive, to avoid harm to herself and her small child. She had created a hiding place in a small wine cellar to avoid being captured by the Nazis. Ironically Matylda and a few other women now had to use this refuge to escape from their ‘liberators’.

Gradually law and order were restored. Matylda then utilised the Red Cross, to try and track down her husband and other relatives. She discovered that her three sisters had survived but her joy at this news was dampened by the lack of news of her husband, Marek. The thought of joining him in Palestine had kept her alive and inspired her to save herself and her daughter. Finally she received a letter from him. Her sense of betrayal grew as learned more about the loneliness, the misunderstandings and the doubts that their separation had caused. Soon, she had an emotional reunion with her sister in Prague marred by the tragic news that her parents and many relatives had perished.

One of Matylda’s cousins was planning to join her sister living in Sydney, Australia. To Matylda, this far off land seemed forbidding, but the thought of making a break with the past and building a new life appealed to her troubled soul. Although she was distraught at leaving the family she had just rediscovered, she embarked on the journey to Australia. Filled with loneliness, she soon made friends with a group of people on board the ship, who offered her kindness and support. Andrew became a close friend throughout the long and difficult journey. They arrived in Melbourne in November 1948 and Matylda and her daughter were reunited with their cousins who had survived the war and made their way to Australia some time earlier. Matylda had been in Australia for six months when her friend, Andrew, gently suggested that they begin a new life together. But the memories of the past were still too vivid – both of them had loved another and it was hard not to allow that to come between them.

One by one, her sisters arrived in Australia. It would take a long time for each of them to learn to live with their bitter memories and experiences. The narrative finishes on an optimistic note with the realisation that, in Australia the sun would rise again for them all.