Holocaust survivor remembered for her warmth

A private funeral was held on Monday for Eva Geller, the Holocaust survivor who died last Thursday, almost 11 months after she was shot in the Bondi Beach terror attack.

The 90-year-old was recently taken to hospital with an infection linked to her injuries, and had a stroke while receiving treatment.

Delivering her eulogy, Nefesh spiritual leader Rabbi Aron Moss described her as “a kind and gentle person” who was “naturally friendly and sociable”.

He said everyone in the family, including her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and in-laws, called her “Anyu”, Hungarian for “Mum”.

The eulogy drew on biographical information researched by Geller’s great-granddaughter Tali Meskin for her Hans Kimmel school project, for which Meskin interviewed Geller while she was in hospital.

She was born Eva Klein on May 16, 1936 in Arad, Romania, the only child of Ignatz and Margareta Klein. When she was six, her father was taken to a labour camp, and she fled with her mother and grandfather by horse and carriage, through towns and forests. Her grandfather got them past soldiers by offering them his homemade palinka, a fruit brandy.

“What is remarkable is that Eva remembered those days, despite the danger and uncertainty, as happy times,” Rabbi Moss said. “She was with her mother and grandfather, and for Eva, being surrounded by love is what mattered.”

Her mother died suddenly soon after the war. At 15, Geller left school to help support her family.

In 1956 she married Dudi Geller, a survivor of Auschwitz and Mauthausen who had lost almost his entire family. After making aliyah in 1961, the family sailed to Sydney in 1962, settling first in Maroubra and then Kingsford, before moving to North Bondi in 1973 so their children, Margaret and Robi, could grow up among Jewish friends.

Geller worked for more than 20 years managing a group of dress shops in the city. She had four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

After Dudi’s death, she cooked meals for two widowed neighbours in her street. Her cholent and rakott krumpli were family favourites, but she never handed over a recipe.

“She would just say, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll make it,'” Rabbi Moss said. “That was Eva. Rather than tell you how to make something, she would make it for you.”

She was 89 when she was shot at the Chanukah by the Sea event. Her injuries were so severe she was not expected to survive, and doctors told her family she would never walk again.

“But they didn’t know Eva Geller. Through sheer grit and determination, she did walk again,” Rabbi Moss said.

She celebrated her 90th birthday in May and returned to shule for the High Holy Days.

“I remember seeing her there. She was beaming. And she said to me that she felt she was back home,” Rabbi Moss said.

He noted that she died in the week of Parshat Chayei Sarah, about which Rashi comments that all of Sarah’s years were “equally good”. Through every chapter of her life, he said, “the goodness in her remained”, adding that Tova, meaning goodness, was Geller’s Hebrew name.

In a statement mourning her passing, the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors & Descendants (AAJHSD) said the Bondi attack had “reopened old wounds, revived traumatic memories and shaken the sense of safety” that survivors and their families had come to associate with Australia.

“There is a terrible and almost incomprehensible irony in the fact that Eva survived the Holocaust in Europe, only to be shot and fatally injured in a terrorist attack in Australia, some 80 years later,” AAJHSD president George Foster said.

Chabad of Bondi, who organised the Chanukah event that was targeted last December, said it was saddened at her passing.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese noted that “almost a year on, the devastation of that awful day continues to cause pain for families and today we recognise that more than ever”.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said, “We grieve for Eva’s family, and our thoughts are with Australia’s Jewish community, who will be devastated by this news.

“For far too long, hatred towards Jewish Australians was allowed to fester unchecked.”

Member for Berowra Julian Leeser said Geller’s death was “a reminder that the costs of the Bondi attack continue to accumulate 11 months later, and will be felt for a long time to come”.

Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender called her loss “heartbreaking”.

“My heart goes out to her family and loved ones. After everything they have endured since that terrible day, her loss must be devastating,” she said.

Waverley mayor Steven Lewis said Geller “showed extraordinary resilience in the face of unimaginable trauma”.