‘A true giant of our community’
'His story is one of courage, curiosity, and creation,' said Rabbi Wolff.
Holocaust survivor Ervin Hugo Vidor has been remembered as “a true giant of our community” after his passing aged 92.
Born in Budapest in 1932, Vidor arrived in Australia as a teenager in 1949 and he, along with his wife Charlotte, went on to co-found Toga, one of the nation’s leading property and hotel businesses.
“Despite his enormous success, Ervin remained a modest, generous and caring man with a strong social conscience,” Toga said in a statement.
“Ervin’s legacy extends beyond the bricks and mortar of buildings created.”
Vidor survived the Holocaust with his mother Piri in the Glass House, a fragile refuge under Swiss protection. His father died on the Russian front.
After the war, his mother arranged for him to be smuggled out of Hungary with children heading for Israel. On the train journey, Vidor escaped in Vienna, where fellow Jews guided him to the Rothschild Hostel where he connected with a Hungarian family migrating to Australia.
He arrived in Fremantle aged 17, unable to speak English and without his family. The Jewish Welfare Society welcomed him and a welfare worker named Mr Brandt gave him a £10 note, telling him to “pay it back when you can”.
“Ervin never forgot those words,” said Central Synagogue Rabbi Levi Wolff at his funeral.
“He repaid that act of generosity not once, not twice, but thousands of times, through a life of service, of helping others, supporting newcomers and strengthening community.”
Within weeks of arriving in Australia, Vidor found work and started a small business making shoe tips while studying English at night. In 1958, he married Charlotte at the Great Synagogue. Together, they founded the Toga Group in 1963 with builder Antonino Stillone.
From modest beginnings in Glebe, the company delivered major projects including Harbourfront Balmain, Bondi Boheme and Jones Bay Wharf.
In the 1980s, the Vidors launched Toga Hotels, which grew into TFE Hotels. Today, the group operates more than 100 hotels across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia.
In 2024, Charlotte was inducted into the Property Council of Australia’s Hall of Fame.
“His story is one of courage, curiosity, and creation,” said Rabbi Wolff.
“His life bore witness to the darkest chapter of Jewish history, and yet his response was not anger, not despair, not fear – but strength, gratitude, and building.”
Vidor is survived by Charlotte, their children Gary, Allan and Michelle, and a large extended family.