Lowy’s family anguish
Frank Lowy, the Westfield founder, talks frankly about how he reached closure on the traumatic death of his father at the hands of the Nazis in the TV documentary, Family Confidential, which screens on ABC1 next Monday.
A CHANCE meeting with a Holocaust survivor at an American golf resort provided the answer to a mystery that business tycoon Frank Lowy had lived with since World War II — the fate of his father Hugo.
Lowy, the Westfield founder who was named Australia’s richest person in this year’s BRW Rich 200, talks frankly about how he reached closure on the traumatic death of his father at the hands of the Nazis in the TV documentary, Family Confidential, which screens on ABC1 next Monday.
Featuring archival photos, family videos and interviews with Lowy, wife Shirley and sons David, Peter and Steven, the program offers an intriguing insight into the private life of the family.
Speaking to The AJN last Friday, Lowy said he felt the time was right to open up. “Well, I think this documentary was on the agenda for a long time, I had requests from many people, and in the end I decided that there may be a story there that is worthwhile telling,” he said.
Lowy was only 12 years old and living with his family in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, during the Nazi occupation, when his father Hugo walked to the railway station in May 1944, never to be seen again.
Hugo was transported to Auschwitz and while Lowy knew that he perished there, he yearned to know the circumstances, and repressed memories of that period of his life until a psychiatrist advised him  to talk about them with his family.
“We knew nothing about it,” revealed Shirley.
The mystery was solved in 1990 when Peter Lowy was visiting an American golf resort at Palm Springs and bumped into a Holocaust survivor, who had been arrested with Hugo at the train station.
When Hugo arrived at the unloading platform at Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944, he was classified as fit for labour and ordered to dispose of a parcel containing his tefillin and tallit. When Hugo refused to leave them behind, he was beaten to death by the SS guards.
The revelation changed Lowy’s opinion of his father, who had struggled to make a living as a travelling salesman.
A few years ago, Lowy decided to create a memorial to his father at Auschwitz in the form of a railroad car used during the era.
In April this year, a special ceremony was held at the unloading platform, where family members gathered in the rain to say kaddish to Hugo, as well as in memory of more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz between May and July 1944.
About a hundred people attended the unveiling ceremony, including the former chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Meir Lau, director of Yad Vashem Avner Shalev, members of Hugo Lowy’s immediate family, and senior directors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
At the time, the ceremony was kept out of the media, only making news when former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had to make a last-minute cancellation to remain in Israel due to a corruption allegation.
Family Confidential premieres on ABC1 on Monday,  November 15 at 8pm.
DANNY GOCS
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