Beloved Holocaust survivor dies aged 100
A founding member of the Sydney Jewish Museum, Harry Fransman, passed away five days shy of his 101st birthday.
On September 11, five days shy of his 101st birthday, the NSW Jewish community lost a beloved, gentle giant of Holocaust education and remembrance, when a founding member of the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM), Harry Fransman, passed away.
Born in Holland in 1922, Fransman was in his teens when injured under rubble from the invading Germans bombing Rotterdam, and when he moved with his family to The Hague upon his father’s pastry business being set on fire.
He was then deported by the Nazis to Westerbork transit camp, before surviving imprisonment and horrific conditions for three years at Blechhammer – a sub-camp of Auschwitz – and four other concentration camps.
In 1945, following a forced death march to Gross Rosen, he escaped a train trip to Buchenwald by jumping into the snow.
He then discovered that all his family members had been murdered.
Remarkably, Fransman then enlisted in the Dutch army, serving until 1948 in the Dutch East Indies, before migrating to Sydney with his wife-to-be, Johanna.
They had three children, and Fransman became successful in the clothing industry, wrote two books about his wartime experiences, and became a committed volunteer for the SJM for decades.
He later married Marilyn, and was blessed with being an adoring grandparent of nine, and great-grandparent of 17.
In a statement, the SJM, paid tribute to Fransman as being among the key Holocaust survivors who founded it in 1992. “He was tirelessly committed to sharing his experiences with visitors, and did so generously for 24 years, in the hope that the Holocaust, and his loved ones, would not be forgotten.
“Harry was a valued member of the museum’s family, and will be dearly missed by our entire community,” the museum said.
Delivering the eulogy, prepared with the Fransman family, at a service at the Sydney Chevra Kadisha on September 14, Montefiore’s Rabbi David Rogut described Fransman as a “beautiful, gentle person”.
“The horrors of the Holocaust inflicted upon every Jewish family, and others, such pain,” Rabbi Rogut said.
“Harry overcame the pain, and was a source of tremendous uplift to those suffering during that period, and to the next generation.”
In November 2016, Fransman was personally thanked for his army service for Holland by Dutch King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima, at a reception in Sydney.
He told The AJN at that time, “I felt very honoured … we spoke in Dutch, and when I said I was both a Holocaust survivor and a Dutch army veteran, the king was more or less amazed”.
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