New Zealand survivor stories
New Zealand survivors: Voices and memoirs of resilience
“Whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness”
There is no substitute for hearing history directly from those who lived it. This collection features video testimonies from survivors who settled in New Zealand. Through these clips, students can move beyond statistics to understand the personal impact of the Holocaust – the loss, the survival, and the courage it took to start again in a foreign land.
Voices of resilience
Child who survived Terezin
Vera Egermayer MNZM
Born: Prague, Czechoslovakia,1940
Experience: Child survivor of the Terezín (German: Theresienstadt) Ghetto/Concentration Camp/Transit Camp
Summary
Vera was only four years old when she was transported to the Terezín Ghetto in March 1945, one of the youngest victims on the final train out of Prague. While her Jewish mother had already been interned, Vera had been left in a children's home for safety after her non-Jewish father was sent to a forced-labour camp for refusing to divorce his Jewish wife. This act of courage by her father likely saved the lives of both Vera and her mother.
The New Zealand connection: Vera’s family immigrated to Wellington in 1949, where they already had relatives. Despite being baptised as a child in an attempt to blend-in and hide from the past, Vera later reclaimed her Jewish identity and became a tireless advocate for Holocaust education. She served as New Zealand’s honorary Consul in Prague for 18 years and was a founding member of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand. Most notably, she was the driving force behind the New Zealand Children’s Holocaust Memorial, a collection of 1.5 million buttons representing the children murdered during the Holocaust. The emblem for the memorial is Vera's cousin Josef (Pepicek) Mautner, who was a child victim.
Experience of becoming a refugee
Inge Woolf QSO
Born: Vienna, Austria, 1934
Passed: Wellington, New Zealand, 2021, aged 86
Experience: Child refugee who fled Nazi-occupied Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Summary: Inge was just four years old when she watched her neighbors in Vienna hang swastika flags from their windows to welcome the German army in 1938. Overnight, her family's prosperous life vanished as their business was looted and legal theft began. Her father, sensing the coming catastrophe, immediately moved the family to Prague. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia a year later, the family escaped once again, posing as tourists on a flight to England – a journey Inge remembered as a blur of military uniforms and hidden fear.
The New Zealand connection: Inge moved to New Zealand in 1957, following relatives who had spoken of it as a good country. Alongside her husband Ronald, she built the iconic Woolf Photography studio in Wellington, becoming a prominent figure in the local business and civic community. In her later years, Inge dedicated her life to ensuring New Zealanders never forgot the lessons of the Holocaust. As the Founding Director of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, she spoke to thousands of students, teaching them that hate starts small and challenging them to be upstanders rather than bystanders. Her memoir, Resilience, was published posthumously to continue her mission of promoting tolerance and diversity in New Zealand.
Lived through the “Final Solution”
Hanka Pressburg
Born: Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1923
Passed: Wellington, New Zealand, 2011, aged 91
Experience: Survivor of the Terezín Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Christianstadt Labor Camp.
Summary: Hanka was 18 years old when she was deported to the Terezín Ghetto in 1941. In 1944, she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she survived the terrifying selection process and the brutal conditions of the camp. Later, she was moved to Christianstadt (a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen) to perform grueling forced labour. As the Allied armies approached in early 1945, Hanka was forced onto a Death March, a desperate, mile-long trek in the freezing winter to prevent prisoners from being liberated. She eventually managed to escape the march, hiding in a barn until she was finally safe.
The New Zealand connection: Hanka immigrated to New Zealand in 1951, seeking a fresh start far away from the scars of Europe. Settling in Wellington, she worked as a seamstress and a dressmaker, quietly building a new life and raising a family. For many years, like many survivors, Hanka found it difficult to speak about her experiences. However, she later realised the importance of sharing her story for future generations. Hanka and her husband George set up the foundations of Holocaust education in New Zealand, speaking to school groups since the early ‘90s. Her testimony is a core part of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand’s archives, serving as a witness to the Death Marches and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of industrialised murder.
Nazi target of cultural and artistic destruction
Klara (“Clare”) Galambos-Winter
Born: Budapest, Hungary, 1923
Passed: Wellington, New Zealand, 2014, aged 90
Experience: Survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Hessisch Lichtenau (Allendorf) camps.
Summary: Clare was a promising 20-year-old violinist when the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944. Within months, her world was shattered; her family was forced into a ghetto and then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival, Clare was separated from her parents and younger brother – none of whom survived the selection. She was later sent to Allendorf, a sub-camp of Buchenwald, where she was forced to work in a dangerous munitions factory, handling toxic chemicals to create explosives. Throughout the horror, she held onto the memory of her music as a form of spiritual survival.
The New Zealand connection: Clare arrived in New Zealand in 1949 with her husband, also a survivor. She brought her violin with her – an instrument that became her voice in her new home. She joined the NZBC Symphony Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and played with them for over 30 years. Clare was a significant benefactor to Holocaust education and the New Zealand music community, establishing prizes at Victoria University of Wellington. Before she passed away in 2014, she spoke often about the importance of tolerance, famously stating that while she could never forget, she chose not to live with hate.
Marked for death on her 8th birthday
Eva Kepes
Born: Törökszenimiklós, Hungary, 1936
Experience: Survived cattle car transportation, an agricultural labour camp in Austria, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and a ‘death train’ transport, before liberation by the American forces.
Summary: Eva lived with her parents and older sister Shosha in a town called Törökszentmiklós in Hungary. On April 5, 1944, under Nazi occupation, Hungarian authorities ordered all Jews in Hungary to wear a yellow star. April 5, 1944, was Eva's 8th birthday. Her childhood had already been shadowed by escalating persecution. In 1940, her father was permanently taken away to a forced labor camp, leaving young Eva, her mother, and her older sister to navigate an increasingly hostile environment—where even small everyday moments, like her sister ice skating, ended in antisemitic attacks by local Nazi youth. In the spring of 1944, Eva’s family was driven into a crowded local ghetto before being moved to a selection camp in Szolnok.
The New Zealand Connection: During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Eva made her own daring escape across the border. Her journey to freedom took her across the globe by ship from Hamburg, through Australia, and finally to Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1957. She married that same year and rebuilt her life into a legacy of resilience.
Survival hiding in Budapest
Mary Mowbray
Born: Budapest, Hungary, 1935
Experience: Survivor of the Budapest Ghetto and "Yellow Star" houses.
Summary: Mary Mowbray was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1935 to a Jewish family. Mary recalls the family nanny, Anna Hirchu – who would later become central to their survival – being a de facto family member. In 1942 Mary’s father was drafted into a forced Jewish labour unit, where he died within four months. By 1944 Mary and her family were required to wear a yellow star, keep curfew, and their house was designated with a Star of David. In November 1944 the Nazis deported Mary’s mother to the concentration camps. After Mary and her brother John were moved into a Red Cross home, Anna rescued them; she used false papers to pass the children off as her own. After the end of the war Mary discovered that her mother had died shortly after liberation. After Mary and her brother left for New Zealand Anna had a relapse of tuberculosis and died within 6 months. Mary later initiated proceedings which resulted in the recognition of Anna Hirchu as Righteous Among the Nations.
The New Zealand connection: After making contact with relatives in New Zealand, Mary and her brother immigrated in 1949, seeking a life far removed from the antisemitism of Europe. She became a prominent academic and researcher, specialising in social statistics and population studies. Mary was a pioneer in using data to advocate for social justice and equity in New Zealand. Throughout her life, she remained a dedicated advocate for human rights, often drawing on her childhood experiences to emphasise the importance of standing up against discrimination. Her testimony serves as a vital record of the survival of the Budapest Jews and the complexities of life in a city under siege.
Targeted by the Einsatzgruppen
Zosia (Zofia) Galler
Born: Katowice, Poland, 1929
Passed: Wellington, New Zealand, 2012, aged 83
Experience: Survivor of mass shootings, the Lubaczów Ghetto, and survival in hiding.
Summary: In 1941, Zosia and her parents were interred in the Sosnowiec ghetto. In 1942, she and her mother were forced to watch the execution of her father, who had been caught trying to arrange an escape for his wife and daughter. By the end of 1942, Zosia and her mother had been deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Her mother suffered gangrene and had her right foot cut off without anaesthetic, one day before being sent to the crematorium. Zosia survived 3 years in Auschwitz before being forced on a death march to Germany. She escaped the death march and came upon American soldiers.
The New Zealand connection: After serving in the military in Israel, Zosia met Anton Galler in 1952. Anton was a Polish Army veteran who had fought alongside New Zealand soldiers at Tobruk and Monte Cassino, later immigrating to New Zealand in 1947 to establish a business in Wellington. After returning to Israel to seek a bride, he met Zosia, and the couple emigrated to New Zealand together later that year. Zosia raised two sons who are both doctors.
Two different paths of survival: Camp system and hiding
Bob Narev MNZM and Freda Narev
Born: Bob (Eschwege, Germany, 1935); Freda (Poland, 1936)
Experience: Bob (survivor of Theresienstadt); Freda (child survivor in hiding).
Summary Bob and Freda represent two distinct experiences of the Holocaust. Bob was deported as a child with his parents to the Terezín (Theresienstadt) Ghetto; while his father perished there, Bob and his mother were among the 1,198 people who took a ride to freedom to Switzerland. Freda, born in Poland, survived the war as a "hidden child." After her father was taken by the Nazis, she and her mother lived in constant peril, saved by a courageous Polish family who hid them at great personal risk.
The New Zealand connection: The couple moved to New Zealand separately in the late 1940s and early 50s, later marrying and settling in Auckland. Bob became a highly respected lawyer and communal leader, while Freda was deeply involved in community service and education. Together, they became pillars of the New Zealand Holocaust survivor community. For decades, they have shared their dual stories of survival with schools and community groups, emphasising the importance of social justice and the upstander philosophy.
Memoirs of resilience
The following summaries are based on written testimonies and personal memoirs, documenting the firsthand experiences of survivors and witnesses who came to live in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Witness as Kiwi servicemen
John Parfitt
Born: Christchurch, New Zealand, 1915
Passed: Hokitika, New Zealand, 2001, aged 85
Experience: New Zealand soldier and witness to the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.
Summary: John Parfitt was a young New Zealander serving with the British 11th Armoured Division during World War II. In April 1945, his unit was among the first to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. John’s written testimony provides a harrowing, firsthand account of the "indescribable" conditions found at the camp – the extreme starvation, the piles of unburied bodies, and the skeletal state of the survivors. His role involved the grim but essential task of overseeing the burial of the dead and attempting to provide basic food and water to those still clinging to life.
The New Zealand connection: After the war, John returned to New Zealand, carrying the heavy psychological weight of what he had witnessed. For many decades, he remained silent about his experiences, but he eventually felt a duty to record his testimony so that future generations of New Zealanders would understand the reality of Nazi atrocities. His account serves as a crucial piece of New Zealand’s military and Holocaust history, reminding us that New Zealanders were not just distant observers, but were among the very first to see and document the evidence of the Holocaust.
Tahu Pōtiki Hopkinson
Born: Tuahiwi, New Zealand, 1925
Passed: Kaiapoi, New Zealand, 2013, aged 88
Experience: 28th Māori Battalion soldier and liberator of Risiera di San Sabba.
Summary: Private Tahu Pōtiki Hopkinson served in D Company’s 18 Platoon of the legendary 28th Māori Battalion during World War II. In May 1945, his unit was part of the Allied contingent that liberated Risiera di San Sabba, a Nazi concentration camp in Trieste, northern Italy. His heartbreaking account documents the profound trauma of what he and his fellow soldiers discovered at the camp. Deeply moved by the tragedy, Tahu noted the striking similarities between Jewish customs and Māori culture, leaving him and his comrades wishing they could have done more to comfort the grieving survivors and honour the dead.
The New Zealand connection: After returning home, Tahu married, raised a family, and became a devoted father. Like many veterans, he rarely spoke of his personal experiences of the war, carrying the heavy emotional weight of the horrors he witnessed for decades. He eventually recorded his testimony, providing an invaluable indigenous New Zealand perspective on the liberation of Europe. His story emphasises that Kiwi soldiers from all backgrounds were eyewitnesses to the Holocaust, bridging a deep cultural connection between Māori and the global history of the Second World War.
Used professional skills and business connections to flee
Frank and Alice Briess
Born: Frank (Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, 1907); Alice (Vienna, Austria, 1913)
Passed: Frank - Auckland, New Zealand 1979, aged 71; Alice - Auckland, New Zealand 1986, 73
Experience: Refugees who escaped Czechoslovakia following the Nazi invasion in 1939.
Summary: Frank and Alice were young and newly married when the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia. Frank came from a prominent family involved in the malt and grain industry, a connection that proved vital. As the situation for Jews became dire, Frank used his business expertise and a working permit for England to secure an escape for himself and Alice just months after the invasion. While they were able to find safety, the Briess family history is marked by the tragedy of those left behind; many of their relatives who could not escape were later murdered in the Holocaust.
The New Zealand connection: The couple arrived in New Zealand in 1940, settling in Auckland. Frank applied his extensive knowledge of the food industry to help develop New Zealand’s early specialty food exports, specifically in dried milk and pea processing. Alice was an active member of the community and a talented gardener. Their written testimony highlights the refugee experience, the immense relief of finding safety in New Zealand, balanced with the lifelong pain of loss and the challenge of integrating into a new culture while the world they knew in Europe was being destroyed. Their daughter Claire Bruell has honoured their legacy with decades dedicated to Holocaust education.
Sent away by his parents to a foreign country via Kindertransport
Frank Monk (born Franz Münz)
Born: Vienna, Austria, 1926
Passed: Auckland, New Zealand, 1993, aged 81
Experience: Kindertransport refugee and survivor of the London Blitz.
Summary: Frank was only 12 years old when his parents made the heartbreaking decision to send him away from Nazi-occupied Vienna. He was part of the Kindertransport, a rescue mission that brought thousands of refugee children to Great Britain. Frank arrived in London alone, knowing very little English, and spent the war years living with foster families while enduring the dangers of the London Blitz. While Frank was safe, his parents remained in Europe; his father was murdered in the Dachau concentration camp, and his mother survived the war in hiding, eventually reuniting with Frank years later.
The New Zealand connection: Frank immigrated to New Zealand in 1948, seeking a new life in a country far removed from the trauma of Europe. He settled in Wellington and built a successful career in the automotive industry. His written testimony is a poignant reflection on the hidden costs of survival – the lifelong impact of being separated from parents at a young age and the resilience required to build an identity in a new land. Frank became a dedicated supporter of Holocaust education, sharing his story to ensure that the unique experiences of the Kindertransport children were recognised by New Zealanders.
Underground life – false papers
Max Rosenfeld
Born: Antwerp, Belgium 1905
Passed: Auckland, New Zealand 1989, aged 86
Experience: Survivor of the Nazi occupation of Belgium; he lived in hiding with a false identity.
Summary: Max was a teenager when the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940. As the persecution of Jews intensified, Max’s family went into hiding to avoid deportation. For much of the war, Max lived a shadow life, using a false identity and forged documents to move through society while constantly fearing discovery. His survival was made possible by the Righteous individuals in the Belgian resistance and ordinary citizens who provided safe houses and food. Max’s written account vividly describes the psychological toll of never being able to use his real name and the narrow escapes from Nazi patrols in occupied Brussels.
The New Zealand connection: Max immigrated to New Zealand in 1952, seeking the peace and security of a country far from the battlefields of Europe. He settled in Auckland and became a successful businessman, though he carried the memories of his years in hiding throughout his life. His testimony is a vital record of the Western European experience of the Holocaust, highlighting the role of the resistance and the precarious nature of life on the outside of the camp system. Max was a proud New Zealander who contributed to his local community while ensuring the story of Belgian Jewry was not forgotten.
Entrepreneurial refugee to New Zealand
Eugene Hirst (born Eugen Hirschfeld)
Born: Podersam, Czechoslovakia 1911
Passed: Auckland, New Zealand 1989, aged 78
Experience: Refugee who escaped the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland.
Summary: Eugene was a skilled technician working in the optical industry in the Sudetenland. Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, which saw his home region ceded to Nazi Germany, Eugene realised that as a Jew, his life and career were in immediate danger. He managed to escape to Prague and eventually secured a permit to leave for New Zealand just as the window for escape was closing. While Eugene found safety, his written testimony (compiled by his daughter, Yvonne) reflects the heartbreak of leaving behind his parents, who were later murdered in the Holocaust.
The New Zealand connection: Arriving in 1939 with very little, Eugene settled in Auckland and revolutionized the local optical industry. He founded Hirst Contact Lenses, becoming a pioneer in the manufacturing of contact lenses in New Zealand and the Pacific. His story is a testament to the resilience of the 1939 refugees from Nazi oppression, individuals who were initially viewed with suspicion as an enemy alien but who went on to make massive scientific and economic contributions to New Zealand society.
Survivor of the Budapest Ghetto
Steven Sedley MNZM
Born: Budapest, Hungary 1933
Experience: Child survivor of the Budapest Ghetto and the Siege of Budapest.
Summary: Steven was only ten years old when the Nazi occupation of Hungary began in 1944. His written testimony provides a vivid child's-eye view of the rapid escalation of persecution – from the sudden requirement to wear the Yellow Star to the forced relocation into the International Ghetto. He recounts the terrifying period under the Arrow Cross (Hungarian fascists), where he witnessed the brutality of the Siege of Budapest and the constant threat of being taken to the banks of the Danube. Steven’s survival was a result of his mother’s incredible resourcefulness and the chaotic liberation of the city by the Soviet Army in early 1945.
The New Zealand connection: Steven immigrated to New Zealand in 1950, seeking a life of safety and opportunity. He became a highly respected educator and a significant figure in the New Zealand Jewish community. Steven was a passionate advocate for Holocaust remembrance and played a key role in the establishment of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, and was the Founding Chair. His testimony is particularly valued for its intellectual depth, as he often reflected on the nature of memory, the ethics of survival, and the responsibility of the witness to speak for those who did not survive.
Hidden child experience
Marie Blaschke (nee Vandewart)
Born: Berlin, Germany 1911
Passed: Auckland, New Zealand 2006, aged 95
Experience: Fled Nazi Germany in 1939 as a refugee; lost her parents in the Holocaust.
Summary: Marie was a highly gifted, conservatory-trained cellist in Berlin whose career was cut short when the Nazi regime banned Jewish musicians from mainstream orchestras. After her father's brief imprisonment in Sachsenhausen, she and her sisters secured exit visas, fleeing to England before Marie journeyed alone to New Zealand in July 1939. Tragically, she received news through the Red Cross in 1941 that her parents had been murdered in the Holocaust. Despite this immense grief, she persevered, reuniting with and marrying her partner Alfons after the war.
The New Zealand connection: Settling permanently in New Zealand, Marie became a foundational pillar of the country's classical music scene. She was a principal cellist for the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra, a member of the prominent Francis Rosner Quartet, and a foundation staff member at the Auckland University Music School, where she taught for 15 years. Her legacy lives on through the generations of New Zealand cellists she mentored and her groundbreaking early recordings of the Bach cello suites.
One of Germany’s most famous poets and scholars – hidden treasure in NZ
Karl Wolfskehl
Born: Darmstadt, Germany 1869
Passed: Auckland, New Zealand 1948, aged 79
Experience: Intellectual exile and refugee; fled Nazi Germany in 1933.
Summary: Karl Wolfskehl was a giant of German literature and a central figure in the famous George Circle of poets. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Karl, a patriotic German, who was also Jewish, realised immediately that the new regime had no place for him. He fled first to Switzerland and Italy, but as the shadow of Nazism spread across Europe, he sought the most distant refuge possible. His written testimony and letters describe the intellectual death of leaving behind his library, his language, and his culture, describing himself as a wanderer in a world that had turned against him.
The New Zealand connection: Karl arrived in Auckland in 1938 at the age of 69. Almost blind and living in relative poverty, he spent the final ten years of his life in New Zealand. Despite the isolation, he continued to write profound poetry in German, often reflecting on his Exul (exile) status. He became a close friend of New Zealand poets like Frank Sargeson and A.R.D. Fairburn, who recognised his immense stature. Today, he is buried in Waikemete Cemetery in Auckland; his presence remains a powerful reminder of the global loss of culture caused by the Holocaust and the sanctuary that New Zealand provided to those fleeing intellectual persecution.
Survivor of mixed ancestry with a dangerous role
Hans Johnson (born Hans Jottkowitz)
Born: Berlin, Germany 1923g
Passed: Auckland, New Zealand 2002, aged 83
Experience: Jewish-German survivor and forced labourer in the Organisation Todt.
Summary: Hans was the son of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. Under the Nazi Nuremberg Laws, he was classified as a Mischling of the first degree, which stripped him of many rights but initially protected him from deportation to death camps. However, as the war progressed, the persecution intensified. Hans was conscripted into the Organisation Todt, a civil and military engineering group, where he was forced into grueling manual labour under guard. His written testimony details the constant fear of his status being downgraded, which would have meant immediate transport to a concentration camp, and the psychological strain of living in a society that viewed him as an outcast.
The New Zealand connection: Hans immigrated to New Zealand in 1950. Like many who came from Germany after the war, he changed his name to Johnson to help integrate into Kiwi society and distance himself from the trauma of his youth. He settled in Auckland and worked in the building and construction trade – skills he had ironically honed under duress during the war. Hans was known for his quiet resilience and his dedication to his family. His account is a vital reminder that the Holocaust involved a complex web of persecution that targeted people in many different ways based on the Nazis' obsessive racial categorizations.
Fate of the European family
Martin, Margarete and Lane Unger
Born: Berlin, Germany (Martin: 1891, Margarete: 1902, Lane: 1942)
Passed: Auschwitz, Germany, 1944
Experience: Perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
Summary: Martin Unger was a decorated German World War I veteran and a Persian carpet importer living a comfortable, integrated life in Berlin with his wife Margarete and their young daughters. Following the rise of the Nazi regime and escalating persecution, Martin’s brother, Dr. Bruno Unger, managed to flee to New Zealand with his immediate family in 1937. Martin remained behind, and in 1943, the family was arrested and deported to the Theresienstadt transit camp. In the autumn of 1944, the family was split and sent via the ‘Autumn Transports’ to Auschwitz, where Martin, Margarete, and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Lane tragically perished. Their eldest daughter, Evelyne, was separated on arrival and survived a Russian POW camp, but was permanently lost in the post-war turmoil of Europe despite a desperate 50-year search by her Kiwi relatives.
The New Zealand connection: The surviving branch of the Unger family successfully established new lives in New Zealand in 1937. For over 70 years, the New Zealand descendants painstakingly pieced together fragmented records from the International Tracing Service and Yad Vashem to uncover the fate of the family members they left behind. Their tragic account provides a direct, localized link to the wider tragedy of the Final Solution, highlighting that the legacy of the Holocaust is carried today by Kiwi families who bear the permanent weight of lost generations.
Mapping Holocaust survivors and their legacies in New Zealand
The Legacies Project is an interactive digital archive that traces the journeys of Holocaust survivors and refugees who rebuilt their lives in New Zealand.
This powerful initiative maps personal histories, honouring those who survived and remembering those who perished.
Through detailed biographies, first-hand narratives, historical documents, photos and artefacts we illuminate the resilience and contributions of survivors to New Zealand.
