Mirka Mora was an iconic figure in Melbourne’s restaurant and bohemian arts scene from the 1950s until her recent death in 2018. Her popular restaurant Tolarno in the bayside suburb of St Kilda was a regular haunt for Spiegelworld’s Impresario Extraordinaire Ross Mollison.
Mirka was born in Paris in 1928 to Jewish parents. After being arrested in 1942,her father managed to arrange her release from a concentration camp just before she and her mother were due to be deported to Auschwitz. Evading arrest by hiding in French forests until the end of the war, Mirka and her husband migrated to Australia in 1951 and settled in Melbourne. Over the years they owned and operated several significant Melbourne cafes which became focal points for the city’s bohemian subculture.
On loan from Spiegelworld Impresario Extraordinaire’s private collection.
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