Tributes flow for Judith Nagy z”l

More than 70 comments of tribute were shared within 24 hours on a Sydney Jewish Museum Facebook post last week that announced the passing of and reflected on the life and legacy of Holocaust survivor and museum volunteer, Judith Nagy (nee Elias), who died late last year.

Born an only child in 1935 in Budapest, Nagy’s father was taken away in 1942 and did not return.

In October 1944, when nine, Nagy was forced into the Budapest ghetto with her mother, grandmother and grandfather.

“I walked to the ghetto with my doll under my arm,” she later recalled. “It is something you never forget.”

She’d described nights spent lying on the hard floor of a crowded room, surrounded by women, children and the elderly, and how food was scarce.

The ghetto was liberated by the Soviet Army in January 1945.

In 1956, she married Frederick Nagy, and they immigrated to Australia in 1966.

In 2015, on the fourth anniversary of her husband’s death, Nagy – who had no children – donated her doll, that she’d named Zsuszi, to the Sydney Jewish Museum, to ensure that part of her story would never be forgotten.

The museum’s Head of Fundraising, Rita Prager, said she was struck by how Nagy had cared for her doll – its knitted outfit was a new addition to keep it warm.

“The generous bequest she made to the museum will help sustain the new building, and the exciting innovations it will offer. May Judith’s memory be a blessing and an inspiration.”

She commented on Facebook: “Judith, like all our survivor volunteers, are and were, exceptionally caring human beings, eager to share their most difficult times with a positive attitude towards the younger generations”.