Sydney honours 105-year-old survivor

Sydney’s Jewish community farewelled 105-year-old Holocaust survivor Serena Feldman – whose life became a testament to resilience and forgiveness – at a funeral service the day after Yom Kippur.

Rabbi Yossi Friedman, who officiated with the assistance of The Great Synagogue chief minister Rabbi Benjamin Elton, described the service as deeply personal: his grandmother had travelled to Australia after the war on the same ship as Feldman, the Cyrenia, and the two women became close friends.

Serena’s survival story, Rabbi Friedman said, was remarkable. Born on May 18, 1921 in Komjatice, Czechoslovakia, she was deported to Auschwitz with her mother and sister, in a windowless cattle wagon, travelling for two days without food or water.

All three were initially selected for the gas chambers, but the gas failed to work that day, Friedman said.

Serena went on to survive three further selections by the infamous Dr Mengele, clinging to her mother and sister throughout months of cruelty and hunger. Remarkably, all three survived.