Tributes for loyal SJM volunteer

Holocaust survivor and Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) volunteering stalwart Vera Faludi passed away on August 7 at the age of 96.

In a tribute to Faludi, the SJM posted, “Vera will long be remembered with gratitude and affection by all those who had the privilege of knowing and working with her, and especially fondly by the museum family.”

Faludi was born in 1929 in Sofia, Bulgaria, and learned three languages as a child, which she later revealed was a partial reason for her family’s survival.

In 1942, her brother Teddy and their father were sent to forced labour, and Faludi and her mother had to move into a ghetto.

One day, soldiers came to round up all women aged 16 to 60, but Faludi, her mother, and grandmother hid in a tiny attic for a week, after which they managed to procure papers to move into a protected house of the Swedish consulate in Hungary.

One day after the war, a dirty, skinny young man approached Faludi, and said, “Don’t you recognise me?” It was her brother.

Shortly after liberation, Faludi reunited with a friend named George, and they married in 1946, before moving to Uruguay on false papers, and eventually to Australia in 1971.

Faludi began her volunteering journey at the SJM in 1995, encouraged by her daughter and long-time museum employee Rita Prager, going on to serve for more than two decades – always with enthusiasm, reliability and kindness.

She lived her latter years at Montefiore in Randwick, and was a keen painter.

Among many tribute comments posted on SJM’s Facebook page was Rob Schneider’s description of Faludi as “a wonderful lady, elegant, graceful, dignified, and a true Eshet Chayil”, while Benny Kaplinski wrote she was “a remarkable, strong role model, and a shining light to all”.