‘Champion and hero’
"Dora was a horrific place where thousands died. Dad was one of the few survivors..."
LOVED ones are supporting and caring for George Stein (pictured), 95, Holocaust survivor and icon of Brisbane’s Jewish community.
Born in Romania in 1927, he grew up in Oradea, where his father was president of a synagogue. With the town falling to Hungary under the Nazis, the family was transported to Auschwitz in 1943. It was the last time he saw his parents and sister.
While in line, Stein was separated and sent to the Dora labour camp at Nordhausen, Germany, where V2 rockets were made. He was among those ordered to build components. “Dora was a horrific place where thousands died,” Stein’s son Michael told The AJN. “Dad was one of the few survivors.”
After Dora was destroyed by Allied forces, Stein was among survivors transferred to Bergen-Belsen, later liberated by the British.
“What kept dad going was to return home to Oradea,” said Michael. After time at a resettlement camp at Admont in the Austrian alps, Stein journeyed home, but was told by a Russian occupant his house was no longer his.
Returning to Admont, he met Gertrude Kager, and they were married for over 60 years until her passing in 2006. The Steins emigrated to Australia in 1955, joining family in Brisbane, where he established a mechanical repair business.
Stein became a foundation member of B’nai B’rith, and was president of Brisbane’s Chevra Kadisha, State Zionist Council of Queensland and South Brisbane shule. When the shule was devastated by fire in the early 1970s, he spearheaded a reconstruction appeal.
He lectured on the Shoah at schools and service clubs. In 2016, at Shadows of Shoah, an exhibition at Brisbane Synagogue, local MP Steve Minnikin met Stein. In a speech in Queensland’s Parliament, in Stein’s presence, he described him as “the living embodiment of all that is good in mankind, while staring down a dark time in history which displayed the absolute worst example of mankind”.
Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president Jason Steinberg this week said Stein is “a champion and hero in our community”. Aside from his communal involvement, “George’s commanding stature as a Holocaust survivor and his dedication to never forget will be an enduring legacy.”
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