A life of dignity and pride

Holocaust survivor Yvonne Engelman has been remembered for her “incredibly positive attitude to life” following her passing at the age of 98.

Engelman was a founding member of the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) and was a much-loved volunteer guide. She made an extraordinary connection with the thousands of students she spoke to over her years, telling them her account of promising her father that she would survive.

“My father said to me, ‘I don’t know where we are going, but I’m sure it’s not a holiday. You have to promise me one thing: that you will survive.’ I said, ‘Of course I will survive.’”

Engelman was born in 1927 in Dovhe, Czechoslovakia and was an only child and only grandchild. In 1944 she and her family were taken to the Beregszasz ghetto and later to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Aged just 15, Engelman narrowly escaped death when a gas chamber she was sent to malfunctioned.

She was the only member of her family to survive.

Soon after arriving in Australia as a refugee in November 1948, she married John Engelman in Sydney in 1949.

“My husband and I were the first [Holocaust survivor] orphans to get married in Australia,” recalled Engelman. “It was a big occasion to see survivors getting married. Members of the Jewish welfare organisation came out to help us celebrate. We had nothing. People pooled together their resources to buy us presents.

“I was penniless but happy to walk the street as a free person where no one abuses you. Together we worked hard, bringing up our family without relatives, cousins or grandparents.”

Yvonne and John were married for 66 years, flourishing as a family of four generations, before John passed away in 2015.

In 2020, Engelman travelled to Poland with her family to attend the commemoration of 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

“Today, standing here, after all the years, it’s very painful but I have survived, I’m here, I was able to make the journey, I am surrounded by my children, grandchildren and the spouses of my children so I am the victor,” Engelman told The AJN at the time.

Paying tribute to Engelman, the SJM said, “She treasured her family and they treasured her; she was their centre and their heart.

“With a strong will and resolute spirit, she lived her life with dignity and pride. Yvonne leaves a unique legacy, having inspired countless people of all ages and faiths with a message of tolerance and resilience.”